Tuesday, September 18, 2018

SINCE 1906 TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 VOLUME 112 ISSUE 4

Western University’s Student Newspaper USC RESPONDS TO LAWSUIT PG3

PUMPKIN-SPICED MISOGYNY PG5

Phishing on campus

KYRA KARAKATSANIS GAZETTE

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 •

• 2

victor lal

Volume 112, Issue 4 WWW.WESTERNGAZETTE.CA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MICHAEL CONLEY @MIKECONLEY4 DEPUTY EDITOR LUCAS SONKE @LUCASSONKE MANAGING EDITOR MIKE DEBOER @MIKEDBOER NEWS MARTIN ALLEN LIAM AFONSO JUDY BASMAJI KATRINA MCCALLUM CULTURE CARMEN MALLIA KRISTIN LEE EMILY TAYLER COURTNEY MANN SPORTS CHARLIE MARSHALL STEPHANIE ORLANDO OPINIONS GABRIELLE DROLET WESTERN TV COORDINATOR JOSH MERIFIELD WESTERN TV ASSISTANT COORDINATOR LAUREN COLES

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SAMIT KHALSA GAZETTE

Beneath the looks of an average Western University student, Victor Lal conceals a sense of determination few others possess.

As a 21-year-old, Victor feels very lucky for the many opportunities available to him. At a similar age, Victor’s parents were escaping a Communist regime in Poland.

Thanks to the sponsorship of a church group, they were able to start a new life in Canada.

Victor is now driven to pay back the kindness shown to his family. In May 2017, he founded Canadians for Syria, an organization that brings people together to sponsor Syrian refugees and collectively address the restraints of time and money they face.

Growing up, Victor participated in endurance sports and triathlons, so he decided to do a “crazy” endurance event to raise funds to sponsor a refugee family. In June 2017, he set out on a 24-day bike ride from Toronto, Ont. to St. John’s N.L., Canada’s easternmost point — a trek of over 2,500 kilometre.

Victor describes the event as a “meditative experience” where he was welcomed into the homes of strangers. He called ahead to the communities he passed through, and organizations connected him to local families willing to take him in for the night.

“I’d have a warm meal waiting for me, a warm bed … and a family that only speaks French, but really wants to talk to me,” he says. “I had some fun experiences pulling out my high school French.”

The bike ride successfully raised $30,000, enough to sponsor a Syrian family of five who are expected to arrive in Canada next month.

The event was so successful that it inspired Victor to do something bigger and more challenging. The day after he finished the bike ride, he started training with a Western University swim coach for a 52-kilometre swim across Lake Ontario in an effort to raise $60,000 — enough for two more Syrian families.

On Aug. 25, after one year of training, Victor completed the swim in 21 hours and 5 minutes. The experience was a mentally and physically draining process.

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“The last three or four hours of the swim were probably the most pain I’ve ever been in in my life,” says Victor. “It really felt like there were knives stuck in the front of my shoulders, and with every stroke, it was just brutal pain. I remember screaming into the water and just trying to let go of that pain and that tension.”

Water temperatures drop as low as 15 degrees Celsius near Toronto, but marathon regulations forbade him from wearing a wetsuit. Victor put on 30 pounds to insulate himself against the cold waters, but he says the cold

SISSI CHEN GAZETTE

actually helped numb the pain. He also wasn’t allowed to touch a boat during the swim, so he could only tread water during his breaks. The pressure difference between the lake and his goggles stopped the blood flow to his eyelids and eyes, resulting in serious inflammation. But, Victor was determined to finish the swim.

“The main thought I had was that this was a very binary decision where I can either deal with the pain for only three or four more hours or I can quit,” he says. “Then I’m going to have to live with the pain of knowing that I didn’t fully complete what I set out to do, and that’s going to last a much longer time than just three hours.”

When Victor finally came out of the water in Toronto, he recalls being overwhelmed with pride, relief and exhaustion. For months he was told that he would not be able to complete the swim.

“The truth is that this was a very scary thing to do,” he says. “I was really happy right after I finished, but then as soon as I got home, I just started crying because ... it was such a relief to be able to do it, and all of that fear just melted away.”

Despite receiving widespread support for his endeavours, some people told him the swim was a “great effort for a terrible cause.” To his surprise, people who immigrated to Canada decades ago told him that refugees are dangerous and not worth the investment. Victor views these remarks as a source of motivation because, as he sees it, if you’re doing something that makes racist people angry, you’re doing something right.

“When someone tells you right after you do a swim for 21 hours that you did it for a wrong reason, it kind of hurts, but then you remind yourself that these people are wrong,” he says. “There needs to be a fight against people who think that immigrants and refugees are dangerous, and that fight needs to be something where you’re not quietly whispering behind closed doors, you’re shouting it and taking the brunt of whatever hate comes your way.”

For Victor, getting people to pay attention and take action in response to the refugee crisis is his largest challenge.

As the Syrian war enters its eighth year, he explains the world seems to have accepted the status quo.

“It’s no longer something that is newsworthy. It’s no longer something that people are speaking about,” he says. “There’s always people who are willing to listen, but sometimes that listening doesn’t translate into action.”

After finishing his Ivey business degree at Western, Victor plans to return for a master’s degree in refugee and public policy. His future goals are focused on social impact; specifically, facilitating refugee resettlement.

■■JUDY BASMAJI

3 •

news

• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

USC denies guilt in lawsuit against The Spoke MARTIN ALLEN NEWS EDITOR @MTRALLEN The USC responded to a civil suit that alleges The Spoke let a patron leave drunk, ending in a student’s death on campus.

Andrea Christidis was an 18-year-old, first-year Western University student when she died in October 2015. Her family is seeking part of their $7 million claim from the University Students’ Council, alleging the death caused the family emotional trauma.

The driver, Jared DeJong, was sentenced to five years in prison. He and his father are separate defendants in the suit: they are not a part of Western and the USC›s response.

The family’s filing in October 2017 was against Western and the USC. In their reply to the family’s allegations, the USC said it has sole responsibility for The Spoke’s operations. They then denied any culpability in the death and claimed that Christidis herself was negligent.

While the driver was already punished, the suit attempts to implicate the bar as partly responsible for Christidis’s death.

Representation for all parties could not be reached for comment; the USC denied to comment as the suit is still in progress.

In covering The Spoke suit, the Gazette has consulted publicly available documents filed in London to the Ontario Superior Court. Bruce Feldthusen, a University of Ottawa law professor, said these documents are a way of making assertions which are only proven or falsified

later in the process.

“These documents are not necessarily true. They’re not supposed to be, and they’re not fooling anybody. They’re only claims,” he said.

This also holds for the damages sought by the plaintiffs, the Christidis family. He said it seems unlikely they would be awarded any amount near the multi-million dollar figure. He added that upwards of 97 per cent of cases like this are settled, meaning the parties agree to smaller payment before a trial without the defendants necessarily admitting guilt.

In the original filing, the Christidis family accused The Spoke of serving DeJong up to or beyond intoxication and allowing him to leave unimpeded, which would have violated provincial laws. They claim the bar also failed to properly train its employees about the dangers of drunk patrons. In response to all of their allegations, the USC pleaded ignorance to some and denied others.

In their response, the USC also added the bar’s security company, Innovative Securities Management, as a third-party defendant. Now brought into the proceedings by an employer, ISM similarly denied or pleaded ignorance to all allegations but one: they admitted to the claim that DeJong was served alcohol at The Spoke, whereas the USC denied it.

The family did not specifically accuse ISM of serving alcohol to DeJong or operating in The Spoke.

Feldthusen said it was gratuitous

to admit to something of which the company is not accused. It is unclear exactly what role ISM has, if any, in serving alcohol to The Spoke’s patrons or knowing whether they are intoxicated.

After defending their own conduct, the defendants allege that Christidis was negligently responsible for her own death. They say she didn’t notice the vehicle, wasn’t wearing her glasses, wore dark clothing, was texting and purposefully moved into danger, among several other claims.

“She had the last best chance to avoid the incident but failed to so, although she could have done so by the exercise of reasonable care,” they claim. “She was the author of her own misfortune.”

Feldthusen speculated that the defendants could be raising so many possibilities of negligence as preparation to use even one of them if the suit reaches a trial.

Though The Spoke spends only one paragraph attempting to shift responsibility from Western to the USC, Feldthusen said the relationship between Western and The Spoke, via their relation to the USC, is one of the more legally interesting areas in the documents.

With claims and responses made by the parties, the suit could be nearing its settlement negotiation phase; though the parties could also amend their claims for years.

Feldthusen said defendants in suits often prolong the process as much as possible to enter a war of attrition with the plaintiffs.

KATRINA MCCALLUM GAZETTE

Possible campus clipboard scam MARTIN ALLEN & KATRINA MCCALLUM NEWS EDITORS @MTRALLEN | @KATRINAGAZETTE Campus Police are investigating suspicious clipboards being placed in classrooms promising a “management opportunity” and requesting for personal information.

The sheets purport to be from a Canadian company with 35 years of experience, but contain no other identifying information. They offer $15,000 to $20,000 for full-time summer employment. Each clipboard has grey sheets of paper with a chart and asking for first and last names, cellphone numbers, faculties and cities of residence for the summer of 2019.

Constable J. C. Aubin of Campus Police said they were given descriptions of an individual but have not identified any suspects; they also have no information regarding an intent or any other leads. Aubin said they will continue investigating.

Over 10 professors and students said they saw the clipboards, most in the Social Science Centre, but others reported seeing them in the Natural Sciences Building, including in economics, geography, sociology, health sciences, political science, computer science, mathematics and engineering classes. The earliest alleged sighting was on Sept. 6.

Western launching liberal arts internship program JUDY BASMAJI NEWS EDITOR @JUDYBASMAJI Starting summer 2019, Western University will launch an internship program that connects liberal arts students to London’s technology sector.

The liberal arts summer internship program is a four-month paid summer employment opportunity for to students enrolled in the faculties of Music, Arts and Humanities, Social Science, and Information and Media Studies. Students will receive 0.5 academic credits for completing the internship.

Diana Milanovic, liveral arts internship coordinator at Western, expects the online applications portal on Career Central to become available for registration in October with job postings available to eligible students starting late fall and into the winter term.

“The purpose is to help connect students to local opportunities as well as potentially non-conventional roles that they might not have hands-on experience with in their degree,” said Milanovic.

Milanovic is currently reaching out to local technology companies to develop summer placements for

liberal arts students.

“Students across the four faculties have very diverse skill sets and experiences, but we think that there is a commonality in students’ flexibility in their learning, as well as creative thinking, strong communication skills and problem solving, which would translate really well to the technology sector,” added Milanovic.

Four Western students from the management and organizational studies department took part in a pilot project last summer. Milanovic explained the students worked mostly in marketing roles. Two students were placed at Start.ca, an internet provider service; one student at Polar Imaging Inc., a document management and scanning service; and one student at Orca Intelligence, a transportation management service.

According to Milanovic, the pilot was a success, with one student being offered a longer-term internship at Polar Imaging. She explained students appreciate the opportunity to identify what their likes and dislikes are during their education rather than after.

“We’re hoping now that we’re opening it up to all the [other]

faculties … that we’ll have a much larger response,” said Milanovic.

With over 300 small- to medium-sized technology and digital creative companies in London, the program focuses on the sector to support its growth.

Through funding from the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities, eligible employers receive up to 25 per cent of the intern’s wages as an incentive and reimbursement for hiring student interns. According to Milanovic, approximately 55 internship placements will become available next summer.

Milanovic further explained that there is a growing demand within the technology sector for the soft skills liberal arts students gain during their education.

“This program is in the context of a larger trend in the tech sector of looking to humanities to sort of humanize technology … and bringing the skill sets that those students are learning to their companies,” said Milanovic. “One of the most unique aspects of this program is to help those students see that connection and see how valuable what they’re learning is in the real world.”

All who remembered seeing a person carrying the clipboard said it was a young man. They gave varying descriptions about his physical appearance.

The chairs of multiple social science departments said the dean of social science sent a mass-email to notify faculty.

A professor warned their economics students via an OWL announcement about an alleged incident.

“A young man discreetly entered the classroom and placed a clipboard on a desk, quietly asking students to fill it out,” the announcement reads. “The same man who entered the classroom suddenly appeared, snatched the clipboard, and took off out the back door.”

Liam Webber, fourth-year psychology student, said he saw a young man pass one of the clipboards around his geography class.

Webber said the class’ professor noticed the clipboards, and said no legitimate business would ask for information without identifying themselves, all while the young man was still in the room.

As of Sept. 13, there were two clipboards in Social Science room 2050, a large second-floor lecture hall. The clipboards were in the room throughout at least two lectures.

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news

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 •

Western teams with universities to create mental health literacy tool JUDY BASMAJI NEWS EDITOR @JUDYBASMAJI The faculties of education at several Canadian universities have collaborated to build a free online mental health literacy resource for teachers.

The curriculum resource, called Teach Mental Health, offers seven free modules that equip educators with the necessary skills to understand and support their students’ mental health. Each module includes activities, self-assessment questions and supplementary learning resources for an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. Users can opt in to receive a completion certificate at the end of the course.

Over the past five years, Susan Rodger, associate professor of counselling psychology in Western University’s Faculty of Education, has worked alongside colleagues from Dalhousie University, St. Francis Xavier University and the University of British Columbia to build the online curriculum.

“We knew through previous work we had done that teachers at faculties of education … were not receiving any instruction about mental health,” said Rodger. “We knew through a study that the Canadian Teachers’ Federation did that around 70 per cent of teachers surveyed said they wished they knew more about mental health,… so we saw a big gap here between what was available and what was wanted.”

Rodger explained the project was initially meant to provide a resource on mental health literacy for pre-service teachers at faculties of education. However, she soon started receiving requests from practicing teachers who wanted to learn more about mental health and how they could better support their students. As a result, Rodger and colleagues decided to expand the project into a free online resource that anyone could take.

“The one place that most people go is school, and teachers are in a unique position not to treat mental health [and] not to tell people how to improve their mental health, but they see these children and families every day, and they develop relationships with them.… They notice what’s happening, and they can help connect a student and their family

to the resources they need,” added Rodger.

She explained current figures indicate that one in five Canadians will experience a mental health issue during their lifetime, and not many Canadians will access the health system for mental health service due to stigma or lack of services.

Specifically, she added, only about 30 per cent of children are ever seen by a health care professional.

“Teachers really care. They are there because they care about the education and the welfare of children. How can we not provide them with the very best information at our disposal about mental health?” she said.

Rodger teaches a mandatory course on mental health literacy to all education students at Western.

She added that Western’s Faculty of

Education was the first in Canada to make mental health literacy a mandatory course for students, while other universities were quick to follow. She completed the first major pilot test of the Teach Mental Health online curriculum at Western, and she continues to use some of the same material within her course.

According to Rodger, the curriculum was launched online about two weeks ago, and approximately 1,100 people signed up within the first week.

“We hope, by providing the education, that every teacher can feel confident they can create a classroom that is safe for all their students, not just physically safe, but emotionally and mentally safe,” said Rodger.

LIAM MCINNIS GAZETTE

• 4

BRIEFS ENGINEERING GETS WELLNESS WORKSHOPS

An engineering student is working with Western on new wellness workshops for her fellow students.

Keemia Abbaszadeh is the wellness commissioner for Western’s undergraduate engineering society. To help students with mental health and stress management, she is working with the Wellness Education Centre,to direct students to mental health professionals.

She is organizing a series of stress-management workshops that will be held on Thursdays starting Sept. 20, in which Western staff and other engineering students will speak.

The speakers will have experience with engineering students’ busy schedules, either because they’re students themselves or because they’ve worked with these students in the past.

Abbaszadeh said she feels this is important for students’ upcoming classes.

“The sooner the better. I don’t think that there’s a reason to wait,” she said. “Help them help themselves, and also help each other.”

She feels that it is important to promote wellness in terms of self care.

The idea for the workshops came from the lack of student-run resources specifically tailored to engineering students.

But, while these workshops are for engineering students, Abbaszadeh believes managing wellness is important for students in every faculty.

■■JULIETTE RIVERS

Homelessness prevention project gets funding JUDY BASMAJI NEWS EDITOR @JUDYBASMAJI The federal government granted $223,000 to a homelessness-prevention program led by Western professor Cheryl Forchuk.

The program, called No Fixed Address version 2, helps homeless, hospitalized patients find housing upon discharge from London’s medical wards. This is an extension of a previous version that helped patients leaving psychiatric wards find housing. Patients in psychiatric wards receive health care for acute mental illnesses while patients in medical wards are treated for all other medical conditions.

The program brings representatives from community housing services, such as Ontario Works and Housing Stability Bank, into the hospital. For many years, Forchuk developed the first phase of No Fixed Address. Once it was at London Health Sciences Centre’s two branches in Victoria and University Hospitals, the hospitals’ medical wards started referring homeless patients to the program.

“We were getting referrals from the medical wards to the psychiatric ones, but we didn’t have the capacity to also include them with our existing project,” said Forchuk, who is also the Scientist and Assistant Director of the Lawson Health Research Institute. “What we’re doing is trying to take the same intervention that has worked successfully in the psychiatric wards and see if [it] will work in the medical wards.”

The grant was awarded to the

Lawson Health Research Institute on Sept. 10 for a one-year pilot of the program. The grant money will go toward hiring a housing advocate for the LHSC, who will help patients find housing or negotiate with landlords to help patients keep their housing. The money will also fund research that will evaluate the success of the intervention.

“We want to know not just did we prevent homelessness [short-term], but did we truly prevent it,” said Forchuk. “We want to follow them for six months to see, by intervening, did that keep them out of homelessness? So even if they were not homeless at discharge, what about three and six months later?”

This research will also help identify which patients on the medical wards are most vulnerable to homelessness. Forchuk explained while it’s often said that most people could be one or two paycheques away from homelessness, hospital in-patients face particular challenges, such as job loss, relationship breakups, and loss of housing or rental agreements that make them more vulnerable. “[When] some of those same things happen when you’re out of hospital, you have an easier time accessing community resources,” explained Forchuk. “But if those things happen when you’re physically in the hospital, it’s difficult to access community resources.”

While medical staff and local shelters are aware of patient homelessness, according to Forchuk, the extent of the problem remains unclear due to lack of research.

Nearly 200 patients from psychiatric wards have accessed No Fixed

Address’s services over the past year.

Further, 17 people from the two medical wards have already signed up since the project’s launch over the summer.

“Practitioners will tell you it happens all the time, but it’s something that is largely absent from the literature,” said Forchuk. “As far as we know, we’re the only ones that actually have an intervention to prevent the problem.… [We’re] very glad to not be leaving those people behind and to make sure that they also have something available.”

MICHAEL CONLEY GAZETTE

Western Engineering Outreach receives grant KATRINA MCCALLUM NEWS EDITOR @KATRINAGAZETTE

The Libro Prosperity Fund awarded Western Engineering Outreach with a $10,000 grant to be used toward youth science programs.

Libro Credit Union supports projects in southwestern Ontario that involve economic development, youth leadership and money smarts.

After unsuccessfully applying several times, Western finally received the grant this year.

Joanne Moniz, manager of Engineering Outreach Programs, heard about the award from organizations, like the Boys and Girls Club of London, that have worked closely with Western Engineering Outreach in the past.

Western Engineering Outreach will use the grant to support work that is already being done in the London community with grades 7–12.

Specifically, the grant will support outreach to Chippewas of the Thames First Nation and Oneida Nation of the Thames.

Western Engineering Outreach will run programming at Antler River Elementary School and Standing Stone Elementary School, which are the schools associated with the First Nations groups.

“We work really closely with the teachers and principals of both those schools to offer science and engineering workshops for the students throughout the entire school year,” Moniz said.

The workshops work closely with the curriculum the schools are using to boost overall learning outcomes.

“If they are talking about math and computer science, we would bring in a coding activity that blends the two together,” Moniz said.

Western Engineering Outreach is excited to support further education in STEM and to get children excited about science and math.

“The school brings us in not only to run activities, but to talk about opportunities for the students at Western or in general in engineering,” Moniz said.

Western students can apply to volunteer with Western Engineering Outreach and learn about the work they do on their website.

5 •

opinions

• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Enough with pumpkin spiced misogyny Gift of Gab

GABRIELLE DROLET OPINIONS EDITOR @GABRIELLEDROLET It’s that time of the year again: the leaves are turning, classes are in full swing and women are being made ridiculed liking pumpkin spice.

It’s a joke that takes over social media annually. Pesky women are accused of ruining fall with their leggings, oversized sweaters and enthusiasm for pumpkin-f lavoured foods.

The idea is that these women — women who subscribe to and partake in popular culture — are “basic.” They are branded as unoriginal and vain for following trends and, in turn, don’t receive recognition for having a unique personality.

These jokes seem harmless.

Sure, it’s amusing to poke fun at cultural trends and cycles.

However, this pumpkin spice hostility is a part of an issue that runs deeper than lattes and fall-themed enthusiasm. It’s indicative of a normalized brand of misogyny that condemns women for enjoying “feminine” things, ranging from makeup to romantic comedies and, yes, pumpkin-flavoured Starbucks drinks.

The persecution of women with overtly “feminine” interests has been prevalent for years. We see it in the antagonists of every high school movie: the pretty, feminine girls are always shallow, intellectually inept and mean. While the Regina Georges of the world rise in popularity, girls who are different — those who prefer sweatpants and studying to makeup and parties — are the ones with good friends, full storylines and happy endings. Even 15 years after the release of Mean Girls, this trope persists: take #RealityHigh, Sierra Burgess is a Loser and Riverdale as recent iterations of the same tired narrative. The trope also applies to the way we discuss women in pop culture; upbeat, lipstick-clad

musicians like Taylor Swift are laughed off as being basic and fake, while female artists who go against the grain are praised for their refreshing ingenuity.

The problem isn’t that some women are praised for being different. The problem is that women are shamed when they follow trends that are associated with women.

Pumpkin spice didn’t become uncool or “basic” because it tastes bad (it doesn’t). It became uncool simply because it’s associated with femininity. The same has happened with rosé and fruity drinks, which are laughed at in comparison to “real” (read: “masculine”) drinks like Scotch or craft beer.

Even the Beatles were dismissed by male listeners in their heyday because they had a primarily female fan-base. The same goes for Harry Styles and Justin Bieber, who were only applauded as real artists once men saw past their swarms of female fans and listened to Harry Styles and Purpose, respectively.

This misogyny isn’t only perpetuated by men. It also emanates from women who insist they’re different than other girls and, therefore, better. Some women who don’t like pumpkin spice, makeup or rom-coms pat themselves on the back for rising above the ranks of their “basic” counterparts, contributing to the issue of misogyny rather than helping it.

Femininity and personality are seen as mutually exclusive.

Women have to choose between being one thing or the other; feminine or funny, pretty or smart, pu mpk in-spice-d r in k ing or unique. When women adhere to the mould of what it looks like to be a young, typical woman — one who wears leggings, listens to pop music and wields PSLs — people assume their personalities don’t extend beyond those traits.

If you dislike women for loving pumpkin spice lattes, fallscented candles and Pinterest, you might just dislike women.

Because there’s nothing wrong with enjoying things, no matter how common they are. But there is something wrong with making fun of women simply because they act like other women.

MICHAEL CONLEY GAZETTE

High schools should promote university success

BY GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARD

It’s a common university story: a student succeeds effortlessly in high school, breezes through Grade 12 exams, but suddenly finds their grades dropping in first year.

As it turns out, high-achieving high school students experience waning grades on a large scale when they start university — especially graduates from a specific set of high schools.

For decades, the University of Waterloo has been keeping a list of which Ontario high schools they believe inflate their students’ grades. They’ve found that students entering first-year are more likely to see their grades drop if they hail from certain Ontario high schools.

As of last week, the list is public.

The list includes the average percentage drop that students from 74 Ontario high schools experience in their first year of Waterloo’s rigorous engineering program. According to Waterloo’s records, the average engineering student experiences a 16 per cent average drop between high school and the end of first year. However, graduates from certain schools are more likely to struggle with their grades. For instance, graduates from Grimsby Secondary School have the list’s highest decline with an average drop of 27.5 per cent.

Waterloo’s admittance decisions are partially informed by the data they collect on these high schools. For example, if a student has a lower average than their peers but is graduating from a more challenging high school, they may have as much a chance of admittance as those peers if their peers come from schools with a higher drop rate.

The issue of average gaps goes further than university admissions. High schools are responsible for preparing their students for later life — they should adjust their standards and mark more rigorously so that students struggle less through post-secondary.

High schools should work alongside universities

like Waterloo to help students get admitted and succeed in university rather than inflating their students’ grades.

Notably, other universities have noticed specific high schools failing to prepare their students for academic rigour: though it isn’t public, Western University has a similar list.

Using this data makes sense. It’s unfair to admit students from schools with inflated grades while potentially neglecting students from high schools that mark harder. The list stands to benefit both students and universities — it can help promote equal opportunity for students from different high schools, while admitting students who appear the most prepared for university’s academic rigor.

However, there are issues with this system. The first is a lack of transparency — it took a two year legal battle with Global News for Waterloo to reveal their list. Discussing grade inflation openly would allow for collaborative solutions between high schools and universities, while giving the public an opportunity to provide feedback. Lists like this shouldn’t be kept from the public or the high schools they discuss.

Further, not every student from high schools with inflated grades have large average drops in university. Some students might have genuinely worked hard in high school or be academically inclined, but risk not getting admitted to university because they come from a high school with a bad track record for inflation.

The current system — where some students achieve through high school before struggling through university — doesn’t benefit these struggling students.

While secret lists might help admissions for now, it’s a temporary solution to a problem that needs attention from both universities and high schools.

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.”

we get letters RE: Ford’s heavy-handed approach to education, Sept. 2, 2018 TO THE EDITOR: I would ask that the reader first read the original piece so that there can be no question of my misrepresenting anything. What follows is my identification of the issues which struck me immediately upon reading the piece.

The author seems to think that free speech implies making students unsafe. This is not true. If you don’t like what someone is saying, you don’t have to listen.

Someone doing nothing more

than verbally expressing themselves does not constitute a legitimate threat to a student’s physical safety. Even if there are some students whose mental health is such that even hearing certain things can trigger them, it is up to them to insulate themselves. They have every right to be sensitive, but they do not have the right to impose their sensitivities on the wider community. I wouldn’t expect Western University to muzzle the anti-abortion club on campus if their pictures triggered me; it’s much easier to just look away.

The author seems to think that

allowing more voices will lead to fewer voices. How? Because allowing those who would spew hate to do it will frighten away those at which the hate is directed.

This at least is my understanding of her argument. It’s a deeply flawed and patronizing argument.

The author thinks students, minority or otherwise, are frightened rabbits who will either be shouted down or scared out of the discussion entirely by bullies. The fact about free speech that the author forgets is that it means free speech for everyone. If someone is saying something that hurts your

feelings, you have every right to call them out on it, to argue with them and to show them to be nothing but a bully. But the author does not want students to be allowed to argue and defend themselves freely; the author would prefer that we students cower in front of the all-powerful administration for protection from anything that might upset us.

So long as there is only speech, no one has anything to fear.

Physical violence is and will continue to be illegal, and students can trust that any attack against anyone will be stopped and the

attacker prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. There is, therefore, no reason to feel unsafe on campus just because some people are speaking hatefully.

If they attack, they will be punished, and if they do nothing more than speak, they are no threat at all. Ford’s policy is intended to protect diversity of thought and expression, and the author misunderstands and misrepresents it when she claims it will make students less safe.

DEAN BARLETT THIRD-YEAR PHILOSOPHY STUDENT

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 •

• 6

Phishing for students:

Western’s battle w

SISSI CHEN GAZETTE

LIAM AFONSO NEWS EDITOR @NEWSATWESTERNGAZETTE

SISSI CHEN GAZETTE

Sierra Silva scrolls through her Western email account.

As usual, the fourth-year media, information and technoculture student’s inbox is flooded; emails telling her to apply for this internship and attend that lifechanging conference and sign up for intramurals because the deadline is fast approaching.

But one email catches her eye. It’s a poorly worded email, only two sentences in length, and written with the grammatical elegance of a fourth-grader: “I have a blessed proposal for you. I am a Sgt of the United state Army.

Immediately, two things strike Silva as odd. First, wouldn’t a member of the United States military know that there’s more than one state? And second, why was she, a Canadian student, offered this proposal?

Now if Silva was searching for a “blessed” proposal — an enticing proposition if there ever was one — she might have taken them up on their offer. But alas, it’s O-Week, and there is fun to be had and classes to prepare for. It can wait.

Most Western University students have experienced something very similar to the bizarre email Silva received. In fact, many students received that exact same email.

While the email’s purpose remains largely unknown, it’s most likely the work of a grammatically-challenged scam artist hell-bent on stealing sensitive personal information through a cybercrime known as phishing. Often called spam mail, phishing is one of the newest forms in the ancient art of scamming. Its targets are tricked into revealing information by individuals posing as legitimate institutions. And despite its cute name, it’s far less enjoyable than an afternoon catching trout on Lake Huron.

Perhaps the best way to think about phishing is as a performance. The scammers are trying to trick you into giving away sensitive information by acting out roles which don’t truly belong to them. They’ll act as system administrators, contractors, doctors — or even sergeants — just to gain your trust. These phishing attempts are carried out by a variety of nefarious groups, ranging from middle-schoolers in their basements to spies and international agents working for interfering governments. Whether it’s on the small

scale of a student’s email account or the grandiose scale of international espionage, phishing is a sinister, and profoundly simple, enterprise.

“At the heart of all phishing is the idea of developing a trust relationship for some purpose, whether it’s stealing your identity or something more nefarious,” says Jeff Gardiner, Western University’s central information security officer.

Many students are unaware of how common and dangerous phishing is, despite its prevalence in Western’s digital infrastructure. In 2016, Western began an investigation into a phishing scam that saw the release of some first-year students’ personal information from 2014–15.

Outside of the Western community, phishing incidents have been well-documented — and have occasionally wreaked international havoc. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, was phished by an email telling him someone in Ukraine was attempting to log into his Gmail account.

When he clicked the link and entered his username and password, his account was captured. His emails, along with Democratic National Committee’s emails, were later leaked online, creating chaos in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. election.

While many phishing attempts are easy to ignore, some are more sophisticated than others. To appear more authentic, many of the phishing emails found in students’ inboxes have begun to disguise themselves as official Western emails, using both Western-specific terms and @uwo.ca email addresses.

“One of the reasons they use a UWO email address is because you’re more likely to believe an email that appears to have come from Western,” says Gardiner.

UWO email addresses can be obtained by cybercriminals by spoofing the sending account or using a compromised one.

Most commonly, the sending account is spoofed.

Like a traditional letter, the sending address can be easily changed; thus, nothing is stopping the scammer from disguising their sending address as a legitimate Western account.

Less often, the emails are sent from compromised accounts, which are stolen from students once they fall victim to other phishing attempts.

These emails urge recipients to visit external links, which direct to fraudulent login pages. Once someone

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• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

with email scammers

enters their information into the account and password fields, those behind the scam have access to their unencrypted passwords. For Western students, this often means the links land them on imitation Student Centre, OWL and Microsoft Outlook pages.

The sophistication among phishing attempts varies greatly, with some standing out immediately and others more difficult to detect.

“They almost always try to appeal to urgency,” says Gardiner. “If the mail appears to come from an authority or is appealing to a sense of urgency, you should be skeptical of it.”

Another clue is if the email is not addressed to the user specifically.

“If your friend contacts you, they might say ‘Hey, Joe!’ or whatever. These [phishing emails] are often anonymous,” says Gardiner.

It’s common for emails to include a link that redirects users in an effort to secure their Western login. While not the most clever disguise, a quick glance at the URL may be enough for some students to trust it. If the URL seems legitimate, the legalese at the bottom of the page can sometimes reveal the ploy.

Many phishing emails stress urgency and are littered with grammatical errors. They attempt to lure the victim onto a fake login page by posing as a legitimate Western staff member Approximately 65 per cent of the traffic that Western’s email system receives is spam or phishing and, according to Gardiner, most are blocked outright by filters.

“It is an ever-going battle,” stresses Gardiner. “The [Western Technology Service] is currently looking at greater strategies for denying spam or phishing messages the ability to get directly into your inbox, but at the end of the day, it is an arms race.”

Recently, the administration has seen “spear phishing” attacks — a more deceptive and targeted version of phishing. Spear phishing targets a much smaller group of victims and usually disguises itself as a colleague of the said group.

Phishing emails which appear to have been sent

by Amit Chakma, president of Western, have been reported. Such messages only go to a very specific number of staff and even use his signature block to increase authenticity.

If a student believes that they have fallen victim

to phishing, it’s important that they take immediate action. Gardiner recommends immediately changing your password online. However, if a student finds themselves locked out of their account, they should turn to their department IT group or the Western Technology Services Helpdesk.

All students have access to Spam Trap, a tool provided by the university to better refine their spam filter.

Through Spam Trap, students can review messages flagged as spam, adjust filter preferences and even block mail from specific geographic regions.

“The university will never convey confidential information through email,” explains Gardiner.

“Students shouldn’t trust that anything they receive in an email is legitimate.”

Students who receive suspicious emails are encouraged to follow up with the sender either on the phone or in person to verify its authenticity.

“We definitely see the method in which they try to phish us evolving,” says Gardiner. “The more protections we put in place, the more the attackers evolve their approach. It’s a never-ending effort.”

“The consequences of falling victim to this are not just as trivial as losing your identity”, he adds. “We have seen digital harassment and all kinds of serious things that come from this.”

Every time you open up your inbox, be vigilant.

There are swarms of malicious cybercriminals drooling to gain access to your student account and they will stop at nothing to get what they want. Next time you read an email claiming that you’ve exceeded your storage limit and need to login to confirm your storage upgrade, think twice about it.

The old adage rings true: don’t believe everything you see on the internet — especially in your inbox.

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• 8

On the Lions and heartbreak MIKE DEBOER MANAGING EDITOR @MIKEDBOER “Hi, I’m Mike DeBoer, and I’m a Lions fan.”

That’s what I said to all my imaginary friends at my imaginary Detroit Lions Fans Anonymous meeting.

I’d just witnessed the debacle that was the Lions 48–17 loss to the New York freakin’ Jets — if nothing else, a single-game encapsulation of the Lions entire history as a franchise — and I needed some way to cope. The six-pack of Busch didn’t numb the pain, nor did the dozen two-bite brownies that sat in the pit of my stomach like a bowling ball for the rest of the night.

So I scrolled through Twitter, getting angrier and angrier at the two Matts — Stafford and Patricia — who get paid way too much money to perform like they did on Monday night. All spring and summer, I’d held my breath for the fall, eager for the leaves to drop and the colours to change and maybe, just maybe, for my Lions to do something special.

But after one game? Nice try.

Season’s over. Glorious autumn weather is overrated, anyway.

It made me ponder why I do this; there’s nothing logical about it. My dad never imparted the curse of Lions fandom on me.

And sure, I grew up in the shadow of the Detroit skyline but, hey, I’m Canadian, and those Packers jerseys sure are nice. The thing about Lions fans is that we don’t hold it against you when you give up, because like an addict getting clean, we all know it’s the healthy choice. Nobody is forcing me to do this and yet, here I am, doing this.

Bad teams are like bad romantic partners. They take your money, break your heart and steal your time, but no matter how unbearable it gets, it’s often just easier to stick around.

But wouldn’t it be better to simply abandon my old, fruitless loyalties and become a fan of the Patriots or the Eagles — you know, for the sake of my mental health?

I’m not so sure. There’s some honour in committing oneself to an ill-fated team. It “builds character,” and as someone who also supported the dynastic Detroit Red Wings, the Lions fandom probably brought me back to earth a little bit. Indeed, devotedly watching

the Lions compete — especially the last seven years, when they were close enough to competency that there was some semblance of success — can be a near-physical activity: your whole body tenses up, you let out moans and groans and shrill sounds of sheer fear, along with the occasional childlike cries of joy. At the end of a game, you emerge battered and bruised, humbled and hearty. There’s good old-fashioned suffering, yes, but also loyalty, dedication, spirit; maybe even, at times, jubilation.

It’s fun being a Lions fan, especially if you have a sense of humour about it, which you must.

On the flip side, being a Lions fan often makes us consider the absurd thought that it’s our fault.

We hope year after year that we become something more than a laughingstock, and then feel disappointed when it doesn’t happen. We actually thought our big lead against the Cowboys in the 2015 NFC Wild-Card Game would hold, only to be heartbroken in the end by a furious Dallas comeback.

We actually thought that 6–2 start in 2007 was something other than a flukey aberration — only to live through a 1–25 record over the next season and a half. Maybe if we just didn’t watch them, they’d never lose. Maybe it is our fault, after all.

But even the Lions win sometimes, and when they do, it’s the greatest feeling in the world. 2016 was a miraculous, monumental season, with an NFL-record eight fourth-quarter comebacks and an MVP-calibre season from Stafford.

When our fearless quarterback said, “Finding ways to win is what we do,” we — the fanbase of a team that had, for most of its history, found new and innovative ways to lose — had our cathartic moment.

And so, for all the heartbreak and disappointment, there’s always a glimmer of hope. Nothing goes on forever, so this team can’t always be this hapless... can it?

On Monday, as I stared sadly at the television screen, different images flickered in my head: images of a million fans, dressed in Honolulu blue and white, lined up and down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue for a championship parade. Maybe it’ll happen in eight seasons, or maybe in eighty.

But if — no, when — it does, all the suffering will be worth it.

‘Stangs squeak out win MIKE DEBOER MANAGING EDITOR @MIKEDBOER The Western Mustangs men’s soccer team improved to 3–2–2 on the season with their 2–1 win over the Laurier Golden Hawks on Sunday afternoon.

First-year midfielder Anthony Chysanthou scored his first goal of the season to help lead the Mustangs past the now 0–7–1 Golden Hawks.

With the win, the Mustangs move into fifth place in the Ontario University Athletics West division, while Laurier sits in eighth place.

Kairav Juta joined Chysanthou on the scoresheet, finding the net for the second time this season.

According to Chysanthou, the Mustangs were looking to rebound

after their 3–0 loss on Saturday.

“We got a wake up call yesterday with the loss against Waterloo, so we weren’t complacent coming into today,” said Chysanthou. “We knew what it’d take to come out with three points, and we pulled it out.”

The game started out at a frantic pace as both teams looked to establish themselves early. Shortly after Chysanthou opened the scoring, Laurier quickly responded with a goal of their own from Leo Leone to tie the game at 1–1.

The game remained at a stalemate until midway through the second half, when Juta found himself on an open breakaway and put the ball in the back of the net to give the Mustangs a 2–1 lead that they would not give up.

LUCY VILLENEUVE GAZETTE Running back Alex Taylor, 5, sprints away from York’s defenders, Sept. 15, 2018.

Mustangs rout York 76–3 CHARLIE MARSHALL SPORTS EDITOR @CWMARSHALL98 The Western Mustangs rolled over the York Lions 76–3 on Saturday afternoon to improve to 3–0 on the season.

The Mustangs game plan was changed before the first whistle blew on Saturday afternoon, as York’s star wide receiver Colton Hunchak appeared inactive on the team sheet.

The defensive game plan altered even earlier in the second quarter when York’s starting quarterback, Brett Hunchak, was forced to leave with an injury. Western’s head coach Greg Marshall spoke with York’s coaching staff and noted that the opposing quarterback is likely fine.

While the Mustangs already led by a score of 17–3 upon Hunchak’s exit, the game exploded late in the first half.

In the final eight minutes of the second quarter, the Mustangs scored four touchdowns, two of which were converted from over 50 yards away.

The first of the Mustangs bigplay touchdowns was scored by Cedric Joseph. The running back burst through a gaping hole in the line and was untouched en-route to a 57-yard score. The fourth-year player celebrated his fourth touchdown of the year by gifting a young fan his game-used arm-bands in the back of the end zone.

Joseph’s backfield partner, Alex Taylor, also jumped in on the big-score excitement. However, instead of scoring on the ground, quarterback Chris Merchant found the fourth-year running back for a 55-yard touchdown reception.

Integral to both of these plays was the dominant performance of the Western offensive line. After a rough game against the Carleton Ravens three weeks ago, the unit had their best game of the season Saturday afternoon. The line consistently opened rushing holes, and Merchant was only sacked twice on the afternoon.

The Mustangs were equally as impressive on the defensive side of the ball. In total, the Mustangs defence racked up four interceptions Head coach Martin Painter was happy with his team’s resiliency against Laurier.

“We had a tough game [on Saturday], so it was really a question of confidence coming into today’s match,” said Painter. “Laurier was fresh coming into this afternoon, and we were down a couple men, so we couldn’t come out and be passive. We had to battle through portions of the game, but in the end, we did enough to get the win.”

and three sacks.

Two of the four interceptions were hauled in by fourth-year defensive back Mackenzie Ferguson.

Interestingly, both interceptions would eventually lead to touchdown-scoring drives.

Bleska Kambamba also picked up an interception of his own and returned the ball for a defensive score. The pick was a relief for the third-year defensive back as a number of interceptions had already slipped through his arms.

“I watch a lot of film, so I know on first downs, second downs, they love that deep out,” explained Kambamba of his pick-six. “I was looking for it all game and kinda had some missed opportunities in the first half. Luckily, I was able to make a play on the ball and score some points.”

Second-year defensive lineman Austin Fordham-Miller injected some life into the fourth quarter when he nearly returned an interception for a touchdown.

With a 46–3 lead through two quarters of play, the Mustangs seized the opportunity to rest some of their starters on a hot, muggy day.

On offence, backup quarterback Kevin John and second-string running back Trey Humes were impressive. Both players ripped off sizable chunks of yardage on the ground and combined for two touchdowns.

After the game, Marshall noted the importance of getting reserve players into the game once the score was out of reach.

“I think that you never know when you’re gonna need those guys in the game,” said Marshall. “You look back to our Carleton game, we had some young guys playing in their first game and made some mistakes. So, better to make mistakes in a game we’re gonna win than a game when we’re gonna need them to make plays.”

Somewhat lost in the juggernaut offensive performance was third-year kicker Marc Liegghio, who extended his perfect field goal conversion rate. Liegghio is now 14-for-14 on the season.

Following the game, the Mustangs learned that — with Laurier’s loss to Waterloo — they were the only undefeated team in Ontario University Athletics. Instead of celebrating the small success, Marshall maintained his focus on the game ahead.

“Waterloo had a big win at Laurier,” explained Marshall.

“They’re gonna be fired up. We need to go into their barn and knock ‘em off.”

The Western Mustangs play the Waterloo Warriors next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. on Warrior Field in Waterloo.

LUCY VILLENEUVE GAZETTE Running back Cedric Joseph celebrates a touchdown, Sept. 15, 2018.

According to Chysanthou, the Mustangs knew they needed to capitalize against a Laurier team that is still searching for its first win of the season.

“Being tied at halftime kind of lit a fire under us because we knew we were the better team in the first half,” said Chysanthou. “We knew they wouldn’t be able to last with us the entire 90 minutes, so we just had to trust our ability. Once we scored the second goal, we knew they were

going to be aggressive, but we countered and we were able to hold on.”

The Mustangs will be back in action this Friday, Sept. 21, when they travel to Hamilton, Ont. for a game against the McMaster Marauders in what will be their second meeting of the season.

Their last game, on Aug. 31, saw the Mustangs grab a 2–1 win. They will look for more of the same success this week.

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• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

Martin Painter helms two programs STEPHANIE ORLANDO SPORTS EDITOR @UWOGAZETTE Martin Painter laces up his shoes, ready to hit Mustangs Field — twice in one day — and lead the men’s and women’s soccer teams to success.

Painter has dedicated himself to the women’s soccer team for the last six seasons. This year, he’s at the helm of both the men’s and women’s programs. Although Painter has been coaching at the school for over half a decade, Western University soccer has been part of his life for much longer than that.

Painter was a varsity soccer player during the program’s heyday in the late '90s. He went through the scorching late-summer training camps, early morning game departures and the amazing feeling of going undefeated season en route to a national championship.

“During my years playing at Western, I was part of an undefeated team in 1999 that won a national championship,” says Painter, recalling one of his Western career highlights. “That was a great team and going an entire season undefeated was really special.”

Painter has taken over as head coach of the men’s program from Rock Basacco, his old coach from his time in the purple and white.

Soccer has been part of Martin’s life for most of his life, first as a player and then as a coach.

“I went through an interesting developmental path through the game,” said Painter. “When I was a teenager, I had a rough time as a

player; I broke my leg when I was 18 and at that point, I kind of knew the professional game wasn’t a path I was going to take.”

While the broken leg stifled any dreams of playing at the highest levels of the game, Painter didn’t let the injury get in the way of his passion for soccer. Painter stumbled upon coaching by accident, starting with his sister’s youth soccer team, then teaching an under-nine boys’ team and then acting as a player-coach for a men’s league team. From the age of 20, Martin knew that coaching was the next step for his soccer career, and he hasn’t looked back since. After leading the Fanshawe College women’s soccer program from 2007-11, Painter returned to Western.

During his coaching tenure at Western, Painter has maintained a high level of success, leading the women’s team to consecutive Ontario University Athletics silver medals in 2013 and 2014. Aside from his team success, he also accumulated personal accolades in winning both the OUA West Division Coach of the Year and the U Sports Coach of the Year awards in 2013.

Yet while the Mustangs have been one of the perennially successful programs in Ontario, Painter recognizes that the challenges of the job only increase as the years go on.

“I’ve got two chips in the pile now, so I would say things are a lot more competitive now,” said Painter. “More competitive programs, a very difficult path to win an OUA championship — there

JENNY JAY GAZETTE Martin Painter paces the sideline as the Mustangs women’s soccer play, Sept. 4, 2016.

are 19 teams on the women’s side and 18 on the men’s — and some very strong programs with lots of success.”

While most of Western’s teamsport programs, like basketball, hockey or volleyball, have separate coaches for the men’s and women’s teams, the school’s athletic department decided that Painter was capable of leading both soccer programs through their rigorous seasons. While the challenge would appear enormous to some, Painter sees it as business as usual.

“The life of a coach is something I’ve gotten used to, but the key is having good people around to work with, and we’ve brought some good

people in on both teams,” said Painter. “I think Parker Seymour, as a recent men’s graduate, has been fantastic. And then on the women’s side, we’ve brought back two former coaches and two former players as well to help out, and they’ve been fantastic.”

Despite his years of experience with the women’s team and his familiarity with many of the individuals within and around the program, Painter approaches both teams in the same way. The goals of both programs are to achieve success at the highest levels.

“There are certain situations I’d approach slightly differently, but the general approach is the same,” said

Painter. “We want to push players to get better, and we want a competitive environment that brings the best out of players and put a team on the field that can beat anyone.

We’re ambitious, we’re driven and we’re supportive of players but demanding at the same time.”

Soccer is and always will be a huge part of Painter’s life. Through a life in the game, Painter knows what it takes to win. That’s why Western entrusted him to lead both soccer programs to glory.

Nash Cup set to begin STEPHANIE ORLANDO SPORTS EDITOR @UWOGAZETTE

LIAM MCINNIS GAZETTE The Mustangs and Guelph Gryphons clash in women’s rugby action at Alumni Field, Sept. 14, 2018.

Mustangs fall to Gryphons MIKE DEBOER MANAGING EDITOR @MIKEDBOER Home-field advantage wasn’t kind to the Western Mustangs women’s rugby team as they fell 73–0 to the powerhouse Guelph Gryphons at Alumni Field on Friday night.

With the loss, the Mustangs drop to 0–3 on the season, while the Gryphons improve to 2–0.

The Gryphons came out strong from the get-go, playing like one of the best teams in the nation.

Gryphons fourth-year centre Alexandra Everett spearheaded the Guelph attack early, running through the Western line to take an early 5–0 lead.

Everett continued to dominate throughout much of the first half alongside her teammate Emmanuela Jada, who also found her way into the Western try zone multiple times in the game’s opening frame. Guelph’s overpowering speed and strength proved too much for the Mustangs to handle

early, as Western found themselves in a 39–0 hole heading into halftime.

“It’s tough not to walk into a game with some pre-game jitters when you know you’re going up against such a competitive team, but I think it quickly turns into excitement more than anything else,” said fourth-year Mustang Lexi Smith. “I think we made some good adjustments at halftime, and although it obviously didn’t translate to the scoreboard, we always look to take something away from games like this.”

Despite those adjustments, the second half saw much of the same, as the Gryphons continued to penetrate the Mustangs defence, led by their ball movement and the dominance of Everett and Jada.

With a handful of missed tries, the Mustangs left Alumni Field with their biggest loss of the season thus far.

“Guelph is one of the more dominant teams in the province — one of the more dominant teams in the

country — but we’re just focused on improving our game one day at a time,” said Western head coach John Weller. “Today wasn’t the result we were looking for, but with a young team, you have to take each game as a chance to grow. We made some positive changes down the stretch.

Now we just have to keep working on our execution on defence.”

Still winless on the season, the Mustangs look to rebound next week against the McMaster Marauders, who currently sit at 1–1 on the season. Despite their early-season struggles, the Mustangs still expect to compete for the rest of the season.

“Our competition has been incredibly competitive to start the season, but I have faith we can bounce back and become a competitive team ourselves,” said Weller.

“We’re going to be looking at a lot this week and hoping to tighten up some areas in our game.”

In their next game, the Mustangs meet the Marauders in Hamilton on Sept. 22.

Squash will take over London this week as the 11th annual Nash Cup takes place.

The tournament aims to raise money to support squash organizations across Ontario.

Originally created to raise funds for Western’s squash program, the event has since expanded to support a number of other organizations and programs across the province.

“One of our sponsors offered a sponsorship back in 2008 for a club event, and we had been running exhibition matches up until then but then decided we should try something different and see what would happen if we put up a $5,000 purse on the pro level,” said tournament founder Jay Nash.

“Their response to that was far better than we ever hoped.”

The event runs for one week and includes a combined purse of $30,000 between the men’s and women’s categories. The women’s division was added to the tournament in 2013 and has remained part of the event ever since. Since 2008, the event has shown great growth, including 12 of the top 100 male players in the world and 14 of the top 100 female players.

The Nash Cup has a particularly strong relationship with Western’s squash team and legendary coach Jack Ferris.

“They had won 24 consecutive years, and we knew at some point there was going to be a change in leadership,” said Nash, “When we saw the pro tour, we knew we could have four local spots and expose the new Western players

and top Western players to competition that is so far above what they are used to seeing during the season. We thought that would be a good way to help Jack and the coaches show the players they have more to learn.”

A large percentage of the tournament’s proceeds go towards the Jesters University Squash League, which supports university squash programs in Ontario.

“We also do fundraising throughout the week for the men’s and women’s programs at Western,” said Nash. “So beyond the exposure on the court and the opportunity for Western to play and practice against some the world’s best players, we are now trying to help fund the teams as well.”

This will be the first official Professional Squash Association tournament for Western’s very own David Mill. Mill just finished competing for Canada at the World University Championships in England last week.

Mill will have the opportunity to compete alongside a number of the world’s top squash players, including World Junior champion Mostafa Asal.

“We have the top junior player in the world coming; his name is Mostafa Asal,” said Nash. “He’s from Egypt, and he won the championship back in June. He’s going to be something to watch. We also have three women who are under 19 and are very strong.”

The tournament will be available to stream, free of charge, on any computer or mobile device through nashcup.polyscore.ca.

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‘Design Canada’: National identity KRISTIN LEE CULTURE EDITOR @KRIIISLEE When it came to designing the Canadian flag, it wasn’t simply putting pen to paper. In the 1960s, everyone had their take on what they wanted it to look like and more than 2,600 designs flooded into Parliament. But one stood out: the maple leaf.

Prior to the creation of the flag, this leaf was printed on Canadian uniforms, war planes and badges.

It had actually been somewhere and done something. Eventually, after a great deal of work, searching far and wide for meaningful symbolism, the Canadian flag we know today was born, symbolizing a unified nation and a victory for good design.

Having worked on projects for Canada Post, Scotiabank and the Royal Canadian Mint, Andrew Lewis, acclaimed art director-designer and graphic design teacher at Western University, recognizes how “incredibly unique and simple our flag actually is in relation to all other international flags.”

But like the iconic maple leaf bordered in red, behind every design is a story untold.

Our national identity is symbolized in the national flag, the anthem and of course, the hardworking beavers. But how do these elements shape who we are?

Screened at Museum London

last Thursday, Design Canada, a 2018 Canadian documentary directed by Greg Durrell, answers that and more: Did Canadians design these nationwide symbols or did these symbols design Canada?

This documentary is told through a group of Canadian creators using designs focusing on patriotism and solidarity to unify the nation; Design Canada frameworks Canadian history through the development of logos and brands from some of the nation’s largest companies, such as Canadian Northern Railway, No Name and Roots Canada.

Lewis explains that in the design process, it’s the initial few seconds of seeing a design, followed by the emotional response and the lasting experience, that gains the viewer’s devotion to that brand or object.

Whether it’s a website or a coin, brands rely on first impressions.

According to the film, creating identity through design requires the communication of emotions, feelings and ideas for people to receive on a level where they become proud of the symbol itself and the meaning associated with that design. So whether it’s a simple red-and-white colour scheme or a collection of geometric shapes, each design, thoughtfully crafted, has intention.

“The image of the country instantly evokes an emotional response. From the Canadian flag

KRISTIN LEE GAZETTE Design Canada documentary poster, Sept. 14, 2018.

to, let’s say, that big blue and yellow IKEA sign you see off the highway, both instantly trigger your own set of emotions, memories and reactions,” says Lewis.

The film also displays a timeline of exemplary designs like the Expo 67 logo, which proved communication could be as simple as one little picture.

The 1967 Montreal World’s Fair logo, designed by Julien Hébert, a Canadian industrial designer, showcased the nation’s harmony and unification. Despite its simplicity, it became one of the most memorable

Outside the classroom: 5 must-take Lynda courses With the recent explosion of high-quality online content, there’s also been an exponential increase in readily-available online skills based tutorials.

Lynda.com, an online learning hub with thousands of courses on hundreds of topics, is now available for free to all current students, staff and faculty members at Western University.

With easy-to-follow video tutorials on topics ranging from project management to programming, students can learn from

sophisticated national identity.

For Canada, representation really mattered to those who wanted to see the True North strong and free.

“Many logos represent Canadians quite well, being calm, simply presented — not flashy — but still interesting,” Lewis expresses. “I see the Air Canada logo on an airplane parked at Heathrow and instantly feel pride for my country.”

Discover the identity of our home and native land in the digital version of the documentary, which will be released this fall.

crafting a personalized approach to time management.

programs, according to Valerie Sutton, course instructor and director of career services at Harvard Graduate School of Education.

PERSONAL BRANDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA Duration: 1 hour, 8 minutes “If you don’t define your personal brand, someone else will define it for you,” says Karen Leland, course instructor, brand strategist and best-selling author.

While your resume and cover letter will give employers an understanding of the work you’ve done in the past, your social media brand will give them insight into the characteristics that define you.

If your Instagram is covered in belligerent selfies at Frogs, there’s a good chance your file will go into your potential employer’s trash bin.

This course will introduce you to elements that make online profiles stand out, increasing your chances of success at your next job interview. It will also discuss changes in marketing and branding that you should be aware of.

LUCY VILLENEUVE GAZETTE

CARMEN MALLIA CULTURE EDITOR @CARMMALLIA

designs in national history. Each figure — a vertical line with arms outstretched — represents individuals in close proximity, symbolizing friendship. The figures are repeated in a circle: unity around the world.

Even the Canadian Wordmark, the global identifier of the Government of Canada, feels familiar to those who’ve never seen it before. In essence, the consistency in the nation’s early designs, which mostly emphasized unity, created social cohesion at a time when it seemed like there was no competing with America’s powerful and

industry experts on their own time. Once students complete an online course, they’ll receive a certificate, an easy portfolio-booster to polish your LinkedIn. Here are some of the soft and hard skills-based courses you can take on Lynda.com to advance your career: FINDING YOUR TIME MANAGEMENT STYLE Duration: 1 hour, 14 minutes It’s no secret that some students are early risers who want to flesh out their workload before noon, while others enjoy spending the wee hours of night tucked

away at the D.B. Weldon Library, grinding until the early hours of the morning.

Whatever your forte is when it comes to getting things done, it’s important to know that one size doesn’t fit all, and you should manage your time around the schedule that best suits you.

This course will teach you how to hone in on your daily productivity, regardless of whether you’re an early riser or a night owl.

Course inst r uctor Dave Crenshaw, an American author, public speaker and small business expert, will help students boost their own productivity by

TURNING AN INTERNSHIP INTO A JOB Duration: 54 minutes While good grades and extracurriculars might look good on your resumé, they’re arguably no longer enough for recent graduates to find their dream job.

This course will help students gain meaningful job referrals before graduating by discussing the rewards of internship programs and evaluating paid and unpaid internships.

It will also look at how you can create your own opportunities so that you’re not left with a blank resumé after university.

Companies are looking for students with relevant work experience who have a thorough understanding of the work they are doing in their new positions, and many of them vet new employees through their internship

AVOIDING BURNOUT Duration: 33 minutes We’ve all been there.

Juggling a heavy course load, a job and extracurricular activities can lead to serious burnout for students trying to jump-start a successful career. However, knowing the signs of burnout and avoiding prolonged work periods can help students avoid mental and physical exhaustion, according to course instructor and motivational speaker Todd Dewett.

In his class, students will learn the common causes of burnout from work and home life in order to prevent stress buildup and lead a busy — but manageable — university lifestyle.

PUBLIC SPEAKING FOUNDATIONS Duration: 1 hour, 3 minutes While some university courses might not prioritize public speaking due to large class sizes, it’s an important skill and is absolutely vital in any industry: at some point or another, you’ll have to present a project or deliver a creative pitch to your colleagues.

According to writer, public speaker and course instructor Laura Bergells, this class teaches students how to develop confidence in front of a crowd and reviews powerful public speaking techniques.

Topics of study include identifying your audience, developing credibility and effective body language, and managing pre-performance anxiety.

Oh, and if you’re having trouble navigating your way around Lynda.com, there’s a Lynda. com tutorial on how to use their website.

11 •

culture

• TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

MIT prof:

tech can’t fix climate change KRISTIN LEE CULTURE EDITOR @KRIIISLEE There’s no place like home: planet Earth. It’s where we live and breathe, yet because of the planet’s gradual deterioration, many of us, including leading NASA scientists, are convinced the solution is to abandon the place that has nurtured us for millennia.

Corporate giants like Google,

Facebook and Amazon are propelling a narrative in which we see our planet and its resources as disposable and replaceable instead of renewable. This unknowingly pulls people — many of whom are conditioned, rampant consumers — into a world with an array of options from the latest iPhone to the newest Nike shoes. As a result, we contribute to pollution, waste and climate change. Because of this,

many people think we won’t have long before the earth crumbles into an empty wasteland.

A solution that’s been proposed countless times has been moving to another world where technology and automation rule. Project Mars One continues efforts to seek opportunities for life on the red planet, which means an extraordinary future could be nearing.

Now, with the inventions of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, that space exploration has reached major breakthroughs. A future on another planet certainly sounds enticing, but the idea of leaving Earth for unknown terrain is daunting to some.

You might wonder how feasible it is. You might also wonder why we have to look to leaving our home altogether.

Warren Steele, a Western University media, information and technoculture professor, suggests another solution: a transformation in thinking.

Before the idea of potentially colonizing other planets was even established, we had to accept the fact that we live here on Earth and that this is where we belong. To Steele, colonizing Mars may even seem more like the beginning of a very painful decline.

“It’s not any kind of life that I would want,” says Steele. “You can’t even go outside. You spend all your

time in these tin cans, like a hamster.

I just don’t see that as being a viable future.”

Somehow, these enormous conglomerates have convinced us that technology can solve all of our problems. If we have smartphones, apparently we won’t have to do much task organization. If we have space rockets, we won’t have to worry about destroying the Earth because we’re leaving it anyway.

“We can never be free of it in the way that we were before,” Steele says about technology. “It’s really easy to distract yourself. The major difference is that those moments in which you waited for something to happen have now been colonized by these distractions.”

Steele says that so much of our understanding and discourse about technology is about progress; a relentless move into a future where all of our material and emotional needs — or even wants — are met.

But that’s not the direction that technology has been taking us in. More and more, we find ourselves living a life in which we’re impoverished not just materially, but in other ways too: we’re losing sight of important values like respecting Mother Earth, and strangely, we don’t really know why. Steele says the way we’re developing the world has everything to do with this sense of loss.

“Even if we accept this narrative that technology is inherently related to progress, my big bugbear is, well, progress towards what?” asks Steele.

“There’s always this sort of lifeboat

that we’re looking to but have not found yet and may never find. Even if we did, no one knows how we’re going to get there.”

Presented as a utopia or a dystopia, either way, there’s always talk about an escape from Earth.

But Steele wants that conversation pushed off the table, because we should just accept the fact that we live here.

This kind of shift in thinking doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to close ourselves off from the universe. We can still have things like space exploration. We and still look to the stars. But at the same time, we can build a society that recognizes that our home is here and that we need to protect it and work together.

So what’s the end game?

Certainly for whatever future we have, the pathway, Steele says, is not Silicon Valley. For him, it’s standing in solidarity with Indigenous movements, because standing with them and the things they are fighting for will go a long way toward stopping the climate crisis.

“Land can be reclaimed,” says Steele. “It can be transformed back into something beautiful and worthwhile again.”

Steele’s version of a perfect utopia would be the decommodification of things like food, housing, transport and health care.

“Those things that people worry about with respect to their day-today existence. I would just like that to be pushed away,” says Steele. “We have the means: why can’t we?”

MenstrualCYCLE aimed to break stigma COURTNEY MANN NEWS EDITOR @UWOGAZETTE Western University sororities are encouraging students to break the stigma around women’s health by breaking a sweat at their first ever MenstrualCYCLE event this Friday.

The charity cycling event, held at Rev3K fitness studios and in collaboration with Here for Her, consisted of three one-hour cycling classes.

Julia Bubelis, organizer of the event, is a second-year political science and First Nations studies student with a passion for kickstarting change through her community via philanthropic efforts.

As the chair of philanthropy for Western’s Panhellenic Council, she wants to initiate a conversation around normalizing women’s health on campus and in the London community, beginning with menstruation.

“Nobody in the Greek scene has combatted the stigma around periods and menstrual cycles yet,” says Bubelis. “We’re hoping this event starts a conversation about sharing your health issues with someone if you need support. You shouldn’t be scared to talk about the awkward, hard things.”

Wit h t he wa ke of t he

fem i n i st movement, t he Menstrual Movement and #MeToo in recent years, the importance of spreading awareness and education is at an all time high. That’s why Bubelis reached out to Rachel Ettinger, a first-year masters of business administration student and the creator of Here for Her — a social enterprise aimed at reducing the stigma around women’s health through educational initiatives in the London community.

Here for Her recognizes that though spreading awareness and education are great ways to support women in the local community, being actively engaged and giving back makes a bigger difference for those in need of support. That’s why Bubelis encourages all participants of the MenstrualCYCLE event to give back by donating menstrual products. Ettinger’s team plans to distribute the products to women’s shelters and schools in the London area.

Ettinger believes that menstrual products should be available in all schools and businesses.

She explains that tampons and pads are still not readily available in all buildings on Western’s campus and that if students are interested, this could be the next

initiative Here for Her takes on.

“Menstrual products are still seen as ‘luxury items,’ whereas toilet paper and paper towels are ‘necessities,’ and until we start having these conversations and change the dialogue about women’s health, progress cannot be made,” she explains.

In addition to donating menstrual products, students also donated $10 to participate in the cycling class. All proceeds will went toward supporting Here for Her and Anova. Bubelis says that students recognized the importance of supporting this cause, as the earliest class, sold out days before the event.

Participating in Friday’s event was one way Western students to get involved with women’s health initiatives in the London area, but their involvement doesn’t need to stop there. Here for Her is a valuable local resource for any student looking to create positive and tangible change by learning, volunteering or donating.

Ettinger empathizes with the business of student life, but she argues that making a positive impact doesn’t have to be hard.

“Being a student is really busy (we’ve all been there), so it’s easy just to stay involved in what’s happening on campus

and in the community through Instagram,” says Ettinger in an email. “Follow Here for Her and other local women’s initiatives on social media and take part in any events you can!”

After all, in an age where women’s rights and voices are often at the forefront of media, it’s time for women’s health to be recognized, normalized and widely supported.

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community

12 • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018

photo of the day

gazette crossword

LUCY VILLENEUVE GAZETTE Check, mate. Students test out their chess skills during clubs week, Sept. 17, 2018.

word search

1950s SLANG WORD SEARCH APPLE BABY BALLAD BASH BIT BLAST BREAD BURN BUTTER CAT

LAURA HARPER GAZETTE

CHARIOT CLANKED CLYDE COOKIN COOTIES CRANKED CUBE DEUCE EYEBALL FAR OUT FLICK GERM

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GIG GRODY HANG

HEP HORN JACKETED

JETS KEEPER KICK

KOOKIE LID MOST

NEST PUNK

CLUES ACROSS

CLUES DOWN

1. Superhigh frequency 4. Sinatra’s ex-wife 7. Unity 12. Not useful 15. One who mocks 16. Teachers 18. “Pollock” actor Harris 19. Fifth note of a major scale 20. A type of coalition 21. Aircraft transmitters 24. Where golfers begin 27. We all have them 30. Monetary unit 31. Calendar month 33. Pouch-like structure 34. Winter sport tool 35. Minneapolis suburb 37. __ student, learns healing 39. Keyboard key 41. Brief proposal 42. Gasteyer and Ivanovic are two 44. Lunatic 47. Cool!

48. Japanese musician 49. Successor to League of Nations 50. Actor Diesel 52. The Constitution State 53. Go back over 56. One long or stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable 61. All of it 63. Seriousness 64. Adds color 65. __kosh, near Lake Winnebago

1. Turfs 2. Handle 3. Floating ice 4. Railways 5. Breathe in 6. Neutralizes alkalis 7. Coenzyme A 8. Make a mistake 9. Tin 10. Parts of a machine 11. Midway between northeast and east 12. Prizes for victory 13. Great amount 14. Goodwill (archaic) 17. Suspicion of having committed a crime 22. Signed one’s name 23. Quake 24. Exercise system __-bo 25. Round Dutch cheese 26. Ready to go 28. Khoikhoi peoples 29. Opera scene 32. Husband of Sita (Hindu) 36. A sign of assent 38. Cut a rug 40. An army unit mounted on horseback 43. Satisfies 44. Austrian river 45. In a more positive way 46. Religious creed 51. Brazilian NBA star 54. One and only 55. Street 56. Explosive 57. Gambling town 58. Public crier calls 59. Hard money 60. Time units (abbr.)

62. Exists

For crossword solution, see page 3

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