September 29, 2022 - HOCO

Western

VOLUME 116, ISSUE 2

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

University Community Centre Rm. 263

Western University London, ON, CANADA N6A 3K7

Editorial editor@westerngazette.ca

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HOPE MAHOOD

DEPUTY EDITOR

ALEX MCCOMB

MANAGING EDITOR SARAH WALLACE

OPINIONS

Everything you need to know about the London municipal election

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR JESSICA KIM CONTRIBUTOR

London residents — including Western students — will mark their municipal election ballots Oct. 24 to elect their mayor, city councillors and school trustees for the next four years. Here’s what you need to know:

Can I vote in London even if I’m from somewhere else?

Western University students living away from home are eligible to vote in London provided they are over 18, a Canadian citizen and have proof of their address in London.

Can I vote in London if I already voted in my hometown municipal election?

Unlike provincial and federal elections, Canadians can vote for representatives at the municipal level for all areas they reside in. For example, a Western student from Toronto is eligible to vote in both Toronto and London’s mayoral elections if they have residences in both cities.

Who are the candidates?

There are 10 candidates running for mayor in the upcoming election. All London residents, regardless of which ward they live in, can vote for the mayor.

Western — and a significant amount of student

housing around the university — is located in London’s Ward 6. The ward has three candidates running for the position of city councillor. Mariam Hamou — the incumbent, elected in a byelection last year — Sam Trosow and Becky Williamson.

What options are available to vote?

There are three methods to cast a ballot on or before Oct. 24 — voting by mail, voting at an advance poll and voting on election day.

The deadline to apply to vote by mail is Sept. 30, with the last day for ballots to be mailed Oct. 17. There are five Community Ballot Drop Boxes to return ballots to, or they can be mailed through Canada Post.

Advance polls will be open from Oct. 8 to 15 with locations across the city. The on-campus polling station in the University Community Centre Community Room, will be open for advance voting Oct. 11 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m..

On election day, students can vote at their designated polling station between 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., which is determined based on address. Polling station locations can be found on the city’s website.

Do I need to register to vote? How do I know if I’m registered?

While registration through the Voters’ List — accessible on the City of London’s website — is preferred, students can register on election day with acceptable ID at their designated polling station.

Students can use the Voter’s List tool to verify

they are eligible to vote in the municipality and all personal information is accurate.

Those on the list should receive a Voter Notification Card between late September and early October.

What do I need to bring with me to vote in-person?

Identification containing both name and address is necessary to vote. Two pieces of ID may be shown — such as a driver’s license, utility bill or health card — to accomplish this. A full list of acceptable identification is available on the City of London’s website.

If they have one, students should also bring their Voter Notification Card — received by mail — whether they vote on election day or at advance polls. While it is possible to vote without a Voter Notification Card, the process will take longer.

If I have an accessibility concern, are there any accommodations available?

Accommodations o ered for voting include ballots with large print or braille, as well as an option for curbside voting. Any voter can bring a friend or relative to aid them in marking the ballot if needed.

The City of London recommends looking into the accessibility features available at your specific polling place prior to voting.

Additional accommodations can be requested through a form provided by the City of London. Requests can be made via email at elections@london. ca or phone at 519-661-4535.

COORDINATING

LUCAS

ART

CASSANDRA KACZMARSKI

YANG ESTELLA REN ADSHAYAH SATHIASEELAN

CULTURE

MEDEIROS

TANG DANIELLE PAUL

SPORTS MILES BOLTON KIERAN DROVER RYAN GOODISON

JORDAN BLOOM HANNAH ALPER

COPY ELIZABETH HART SCOTT YUN HO GRAPHICS REBECCA STREEF KAT HERINE G UO ERIN GRACE

PHOTO SOPHIE BOUQUILLON

VIDEO REBECCA BARTKIW MADELEINE MCCOLL ROMANO WATT MINA AHMAD

SOCIAL MEDIA ELIZABETH HART PE’ER KRUT

Western students protest following death of young woman in Iran

HANNAH ALPER OPINIONS EDITOR

Western students and Iranian community members in London, Ont. gathered outside the UCC Sept. 22 to protest the Islamic regime in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

On Sept. 13, Amini was arrested and detained by the “morality police,” an Iranian patrol force enforcing the country’s dress code — which includes arresting women for not wearing hijabs in accordance with their standards. Amini died in the group’s custody.

Iranian authorities claimed Amini had a heart attack while detained in a “guidance centre,” where women are told to follow Iran’s clothing rules. Many sources, including Al Jazeera, reported Amini was beaten inside a morality police van when arrested. Her family said she had no history of life-threatening illnesses.

A group of Iranian students at Western University decided to respond with a protest on campus to show solidarity with the people of Iran. Several students began organizing the event through text and social media on Sept. 21.

“[Iran’s Islamic regime] has been doing this for the past 43 years,” said one of the protest organizers, Ehsan Zareei. “What this regime is doing is beyond imagination. What they're doing is not even close to human rights, is not close to women rights… You can see today that women with hijab, without her job, they all gathered here to protest this regime.”

also blocked Instagram and WhatsApp, the last remaining social media platforms that were not censored in the country.

Most Iranian students at Western came to school feeling more isolated from their home and the limited internet access has made communication with their loved ones in Iran near impossible.

“The government is killing people and they have no internet. I cannot contact my mom, it’s my family … We need to be their voice,” said one student protestor wearing a white lab coat with fake bloody handprints painted on. The Gazette is not identifying the student as she fears for the safety of her family in Iran.

“We don’t have any rights,” she added. “Women

wear. We have to be Muslim. We have to wear a scarf. They arrested me two times when I was in Iran.”

The group is hopeful Western will release a statement and is grateful for how supportive and helpful the university and campus police were during the protest.

Zareei said his daughter told him she wishes she could move as fast as the speed of light so she could have saved Mahsa Amini, who he believes is a symbol of many others whose rights are being threatened.

“If you're a feminist, if you respect women'++s rights, if you respect human rights, support the people of Iran,” Zareei told the crowd.

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.

The protest started at the University Community Centre with what grew from dozens to hundreds of people chanting “women life freedom,” “say her name … Mahsa Amini,” among other phrases. The protestors then walked around campus and circled back to the UCC. Many expressed anger about what brought them there, but said they were encouraged by the turnout.

The Iranian government has restricted internet access in Tehran and Kurdistan, sparking outrage across the country and around the world. Iran has

don’t have any right to choose what they want to

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE

“Western University for Mahsa” protestors walking through campus, Sept. 22, 2022.

Five students lose vaxx lawsuit against Western

SARAH WALLACE MANAGING EDITOR

The five current Western students who sued the school over its vaccine policy had their case dismissed by London’s court on Sept. 24.

The presiding judge, Justice Kelly Tranquilli, ruled in the written court decision that Western University “may do such things as it considers to be for the good of the university and consistent with the public interest” as an autonomous and self-governed institution.

“I am satisfied the university has demonstrated the policy is a ‘lawfully authorized activity,’” Judge Tranqulli wrote in her decision. “That the province no longer requires Western to impose a vaccine mandate, or that Western is reportedly the only university in Ontario to impose such a mandate, is of no consequence. Western is expressly permitted to govern its a airs.”

The students sought a permanent injunction to prevent the university from requiring students to provide proof of their vaccination status as well as an order the university to dispose of all personal vaccination information, whether it was lawful at the time of collection or not.

The destruction of vaccination information would include the COVID-19 vaccination records submitted for the 2022–23 school year, as well as the vaccination records submitted for the 2021–22 school year.

Judge Tranquilli agreed with the university’s argument that the only way the university could mandate its vaccination policy is through the collection of medical information, and wrote that the university gives students a choice.

“Each choice comes with consequences, that’s the nature of choices,” she wrote.

The students — Simon Hawke, fourth-year neu-

roscience, Tiana Gleason, first-year Law, Michael Puzzo, third-year criminology, James Donalds, first-year nursing and Ashante Camara, third-year Social Science — served the lawsuit on Sept. 6 after Western announced Aug. 22 its updated COVID-19 policy, mandating a booster shot and masks in instructional spaces.

The students’ lawyer Lisa Bildy argued the late announcement of the vaccination policy forced students into a “coerced disclosure” of their vaccination status and Western’s delayed deadline for submitting proof of vaccination “undermined” the urgency and necessity of the vaccine policy. She also argued that an institution like a university is for educational purposes only, not for creating vaccine mandates, and that the university was an outlier in its policy.

The university rebutted this argument noting that post-secondary institutions do numerous things beyond education. E endi and Muir also noted that fewer than 20 people at Western have access to students’ vaccination information.

The university’s defence cited multiple post-secondary institutions in Ontario collecting some form of vaccination information this fall, including Carleton University, the Ontario College of Art and Design University and Toronto Metropolitan University. Western is the only university in the province mandating booster doses, though many others are mandating double vaccination.

Western maintained the school has full policy-making authority on campus and argued that if the court were to side with the students it would be “stepping into Western’s policy-making shoes.”

All Western students and sta must submit proof of vaccination by Jan. 9, 2023.

Why campus Wi-Fi is worse this fall

ADSHAYAH SATHIASEELAN NEWS EDITOR

This past month, Western has seen an increase in issues connecting to wireless networks across campus and in student residences.

According to Mark Daley, Western University’s chief digital o cer, intermittent issues with the wireless network have been caused by a damaged cable, a system bug and the volume of new devices on campus.

“The beginning of term is often challenging and the volume of students and employees returning to campus this month is the largest we have seen since 2019,” Daley wrote in an email to the Gazette. “This month, we have shattered previous records for simultaneously connected devices (approximately 40,000 at peak times and data consumption related to richer content requiring more bandwidth).”

Daley said the university has made several changes to the wireless network, but with the large number of devices on campus, as well as new device types and operating systems, it has brought new challenges Western is working to address.

Some previously underused classrooms may require capacity increases, so Western Technology Services is working to assess the wireless coverage across campus and make the necessary changes as quickly as possible.

Students like first-year medical sciences student Lauren Iwedi have noticed these issues occur more often when campus is busiest.

“The wifi is a little unstable and disconnects frequently, usually around morning to midday,” said Iwedi.

On Sept. 9, a campus fibre optic cable was severed, causing a network outage that primarily impacted service to Delaware Hall, Elgin Hall, Medway-Sydenham Hall and Alumni House. The exact

cause of the damaged cable is unconfirmed, but Daley said it was most likely related to construction.

System Health Status on the WTS website shows that service was restored within 24 hours, and Daley confirmed they were able to repair the cable.

“The outage was definitely frustrating for students,” said Evan O’Hara, a first-year BMOS student who lives in Delaware Hall. “Our residence wasn’t sure if it was a normal thing considering we had only been living here for less than a week, but overall, people were reasonably concerned.”

If a student in residence is having trouble connecting to or maintaining a connection to Wi-Fi, they should contact the Connect-IT support team, but if a student is having trouble connecting to WiFi on main campus, WTS encourages them to contact their help desk.

Western currently has two wireless networks that students and employees can access, uwosecure-v2 and eduroam.

Daley said students and employees should connect to uwosecure-v2 when on campus, but can connect to eduroam — the secure Wi-Fi service for the global research and higher education community — using their university credentials when visiting other participating institutions to connect to Wi-Fi just as you would at Western.

Recently, a system bug was discovered that was causing problems with authentication when trying to access the eduroam wireless network. The bug was repaired shortly after and service was restored.

“As with every new school year, we will continue to tune the network to deliver the best possible experience,” said Daley. “While we cannot predict the frequency of outages, we have made adjustments and will continue to investigate and correct problems as we detect them.”

Bayfield units vacant as grad students seek housing

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR

Anumber of housing units in Western’s Bayfield Hall residence remain unfilled as graduate students report struggles finding housing.

Bayfield Hall is a Western University residence building that has historically accommodated upper-year and graduate students in apartment-style units. Earlier this year, it was announced that Bayfield would be converted into a partial first-year residence by September — leaving 108 students living in its south wing displaced by the change.

Lynn Logan, Western’s vice-president of operations and finance, confirmed during a Board of Governors meeting Thursday that some Bayfield units are currently vacant, although she was unsure of how many.

After a five-month long negotiation with PSAC Local 610, the union representing graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, Western announced in May they would o er $3,000 in compensation or an additional one-year lease to the formerly-ousted Bayfield residents.

Despite the support o ered to current Bayfield residents, some BoG representatives critiqued that no additional support has been o ered to other students — such as incoming graduate students — who would usually benefit from university housing.

“Some of our incoming [graduate] students are facing exceptional hardships in today’s housing market in London,” said Sam Trosow, a professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Faculty of Law. “I’m hearing stories of incoming international students and graduate students and postdocs having to travel great distances and renting at great expense.”

Rents for available two-bedroom units in London, Ont. reached an average high of $2,060 in July, a 23 per cent year-over-year increase.

Logan said there's a “multitude” of reasons why

units are unfilled. Some of the units are being held for students who haven’t arrived yet, some are held as “isolation units” and some don’t have furniture yet, which Logan says is due to supply chain issues.

She also said plans are underway for new graduate and upper-year student housing with the goal of September 2024 occupancy.

“We realize this is an issue, and that it’s exacer

bated by the local market conditions,” said Logan. Trosow isn’t convinced there’s any reason to keep any Bayfield units vacant at this time.

“We need to get students in those units,” said Trosow.

E e Sapuridis, a FIMS doctoral student and graduate student representative on the BoG, said she has been told by Western Housing sta that

there are no apartments available, and that this has been an ongoing discussion between graduate student representatives and Housing.

“This is not a new conversation,” Sapuridis said. “I think there’s a sense of frustration in the graduate community. I think graduate students already feel like the lower priority compared to undergraduate students, and situations like these — taking away the main housing units for them and converting them into first-year residences without much help on what they’re supposed to do next — increases that frustration.”

Revna Altiok, a first-year FIMS doctoral student, said she has found suitable housing di cult to find, and believes the university should make the empty Bayfield units available to graduate students.

“I’m a PhD student and I’m a TA as well, so I just want a comfortable place that’s close to the university so I can drop in to my o ce whenever I want,” said Altiok. “But right now, I am living really far away. I have to take two buses, it takes maybe two hours of my day.”

Altiok said she hopes graduate students experiencing similar housing concerns will organize with PSAC 610 to advocate e ectively for themselves.

Santasil Mallik, also a first-year doctoral student in FIMS, arrived in Canada from India right before beginning his studies. He described his arrival in Canada as a “bet” — before arriving, he knew very little about his living conditions including who his housemates would be and if his unit would be safe.

Mallik said he initially planned to apply for university housing but found that, by the time his visa was approved, there were no units available for graduate students.

Although Mallik said O -Campus Housing helped him find his current accomodations and was helpful in his search, he said he would have appreciated more support from the university or a temporary university-run place to stay once he arrived in Canada.

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE

A resident walks towards Western's Bayfield Hall, a former university-owned apartment building for upper-year and grad students, that is now partially converted into a first-year residence building, Feb. 8, 2022.

Ivey’s Academic Shelter Fund to bring 11 Ukrainian MBA students to London

SOPHIA SCHIEFLER CONTRIBUTOR

Ivey Business School’s Academic Shelter Fund is in the process of bringing 11 Ukrainian students whose studies were interrupted by the war to continue their degrees at Ivey on an exchange basis.

Eight of the students have already arrived in London, with two to three more still expected to arrive. The students come from two Ukrainian universities, the Lviv Business School of Ukrainian Catholic University and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Ulyana Kulchytska, one of the Ukrainian exchange students, is grateful for the warm welcome she received upon her arrival in Canada. “We can ask anybody questions and they will always give us support,” said Kulchytska.

Kulchytska is the Human Resources director at the Ukrainian Catholic University and was working towards obtaining her master’s degree in Human Resources Management when her education was interrupted. While she studies in London, her husband and children remain in Ukraine.

“You miss them and you worry about their safety,” Kulchytska said about her family.

The Academic Shelter Fund, a project that launched in early March 2022 aims to raise $350,000 in support of the 11 exchange students. Under the program, the students are o ered waived tuition, paid accommodation, monthly stipends as well as free learning materials and case books.

Ivey’s MBA program and the Dean’s O ce created the program with support from Western International, who have o ered extensive assistance to the incoming students with obtaining visas.

“We had made it a priority to help find Ukrainian business students that are looking for an opportunity to continue their education, despite the war,” said Adam Fremeth, an associate professor at Ivey Business School’s MBA program.

“The idea was, well, if we’re going to do this we need to be able to provide the support and means for them to be secure and stable, and to bring them over here with the requisite degree of comfort.”

Kulchytska was pleasantly surprised by the amount of support o ered by the school and students. “At the start we had a lot of support from administration,” she describes. “After that, it’s like they give us to the hands of our group mates who helped us understand a lot, what life is like in Canada.”

Although the Ukrainian students, including Kulchytska, are far from their home country, they are finding ties to Ukrainian culture within Western University’s community.

“What’s been really exciting for us here, in addition, is that we have a lot of alumni and students of Ukrainian descent, and our students have done a really good job of getting connected with them,” said Fremeth.

The Academic Shelter Fund is not all that Ivey is doing to o er support to Ukrainian citizens. In April, the business school announced they would be bringing three displaced scholars to campus in collaboration with Western University and the Scholars at Risk Network.

“I really appreciate this possibility to receive such great education,” said Kulchytska, who said she hopes to go “back to Ukraine with all the knowledge to help the country,” after the war.

Faculty union calls for strike vote

ANDY YANG NEWS EDITOR

The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association called for a strike vote on Sept. 20. The union is currently negotiating their new fouryear collective agreement with Western University. The previous contract expired on June 30.

UWOFA, which represents over 1,800 faculty members at Western University, said negotiations have been smooth in some areas, while others have stalled.

“We are still at odds [in] some of the largest areas, particularly in the area of workload, and job security and recognition and reward for our faculty,” said UWOFA president Hiran Perinpanayagam. “We’ve run up against some challenges, particularly the area of workload and job security for parttime faculty.”

Perinpanayagam said the faculty association does not want to strike, but may do so if “the intransigence on the part of the administration” forces them. A “yes” vote for strike would not mean the faculty would immediately strike, but the union hopes it will put them in a stronger bargaining position.

“If we’re not able to gain traction with these negotiations, it means that some sort of labour action needs to be taken right under the strike action,” said Perinpanayagam. “And again, that’s not something that we are looking to do, but it is something that we have to consider based on the position that [is] represented.”

Discussions surrounding providing adequate support for faculty health and well-being, workload and the protections and entitlements for collegial governance and due process rights are also stalling negotiations, according to Perinpanayagam.

In a statement, UWOFA said Western has rejected 20 of the union’s 55 proposals, followed by 20 proposals waiting for a response, with an additional 3 proposals constrained by Bill 124 — provincial wage suppression legislation that put a one per cent cap on compensation and benefits increases for public sector workers, including university faculty.

“The Employer does not seem to be negotiating in a way which takes into consideration the substantial impacts of the last two-and-a-half years on faculty workload and wellbeing, despite the administration’s expressions of gratitude for our service in their public relations communications,” UWOFA said in a written statement.

The Gazette reached out to Western for a comment on the strike vote, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Polls for faculty members will open Monday, Sep. 26 at 1:30 p.m. and close on Friday, Sep. 30 at noon. In-person voting polling stations are located across campus buildings and can be found of UWOFA’s website.

UWOFA will continue to bargain with Western both during and after the strike vote, with the goal of achieving an agreement without strike action.

UWOFA and Western began this round of negotiations on Apr. 7 when the union gave Western o cial notice to bargain. Both sides have hired a conciliator to help with the process.

At the moment, the provisions of the old collective agreement are in place until a new collective agreement has been reached.

Four years ago, Western faculty almost went on strike when their last negotiations with the university stalled. UWOFA called for the strike to start Nov. 9, 2018, but reached a deal with the university at 2 a.m. that morning.

In 2019, Doug Ford’s government introduced and passed Bill 124, a wage suppression legislation that put a one per cent cap on compensation and benefits increases for public sector workers, including part-time and full-time faculty members, but university executives were not a ected.

A series of strikes have occurred at Canadian universities this year as rising inflation and provincial wage mandates complicate negotiations. The University of Lethbridge had a 40-day long strike in the spring. Acadia University had a one monthlong strike in February. Ontario Tech University and Concordia University of Edmonton also had 10 and 12-day strikes, respectively, earlier this year.

Everything you need to know about bivalent boosters

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR

Health Canada authorized the use of a “bivalent” COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose on Sept. 1, prompting Western to push back its booster deadline. But what is a bivalent vaccine? And should you be getting one?

What is a bivalent vaccine?

A bivalent COVID-19 vaccine targets both the original variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus — the same variant targeted by previously-approved COVID-19 vaccines — as well as a more recent variant of the virus.

Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 is the first bivalent COVID-19 vaccine authorized in Canada. In this case, the Health Canada-approved bivalent vaccine targets the BA.1 subvariant of the Omicron variant. The currently dominant subvariant is known as BA.5.

A bivalent vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 has been approved in the United States, but is not currently approved in Canada.

Are bivalent vaccines more e ective than the original vaccines?

The bivalent vaccines are believed to provide strong protection against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus strain, as well as the BA.1 subvariant of Omicron.

“The new bivalent vaccine is important for helping provide us with the best protection from the current circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants,” said Stephen Barr, an associate professor in microbiology and immunology at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry who has studied the COVID-19 virus.

According to Health Canada’s release, the bivalent vaccines also “generate a good immune response against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, and [are] expected to extend the durability of protection.”

This means even though the approved bivalent boosters don’t specifically target the dominant Omicron subvariant — BA.5 — current data suggests they provide better protection than the vaccine targeting the original virus strain.

How do bivalent vaccines work?

COVID-19 vaccines give the body’s cells instructions to make the virus’s spike protein — the part of the protein that allows entry into cells. The bivalent vaccines contain genetic instructions for making the spike proteins of both the original virus and the BA.1 subvariant.

After receiving a vaccine, the body’s immune system generates antibodies — proteins that recognize the virus and can help prevent infection.

The part of the virus where antibodies bind has mutated over time — meaning the antibodies generated by the original vaccines aren't able to bind as well to the virus’s current version. Bivalent vaccines provide antibodies to a more recent version of the virus, giving a better immune response and stronger protection.

Are bivalent vaccines safe?

The bivalent vaccine’s safeness is similar to the previously-approved Moderna booster vaccine, with the same known mild adverse e ects. These e ects include redness and swelling at the injection site, tiredness, headaches and fever.

Health Canada’s authorization comes with restrictions — Moderna is required to provide updated information on the vaccine’s safety and e ec-

tiveness, and Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada will take action if any safety concerns are identified.

Who can get the bivalent vaccine?

The bivalent vaccine is authorized for use as a booster dose for individuals 18 or older.

Individuals can receive the bivalent booster at least six months after their previous dose, regardless of how many boosters they have already received.

Who should receive a bivalent booster dose?

Barr recommends that campus community members receive a bivalent vaccine, as many sta , faculty and students at Western University have diverse medical concerns, including family members or friends with medically fragile conditions.

“Coming down with COVID-19 is a direct threat to the health and welfare of these individuals and if we as a community can do anything to help reduce those risks we should,” said Barr.

When and where will bivalent vaccines be available?

Bivalent COVID-19 booster appointments can currently be booked by members of vulnerable populations, including those who are Indigenous, immunocompromised, pregnant or health care workers. A full list of eligible groups can be found at the Ontario government's news web page.

Western’s Vaccination and Testing Centre will begin providing the bivalent vaccine as a booster for high risk groups starting Sept. 26, according to a statement from Terry McQuaid, Western’s director of wellness and well-being, to the Gazette. The originally-approved vaccines are currently available at the centre and will continue to be available.

New booster appointments for Ontario residents aged 18 and over will be paused until Sept. 26. Individuals can book appointments for after Sept. 26 and previously-booked booster appointments will be maintained.

Is Western mandating a bivalent vaccine?

No. Western is mandating three doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine — which can include the bivalent booster, but the bivalent version is not required — for students, sta and faculty.

Arts and Humanities $10 million donation the largest in history of the faculty

SOPHIA SCHIEFLER CONTRIBUTOR

Western’s Faculty of Arts and Humanities received an over $10 million donation from alumnus William Hodgins, the largest donation in the history of the faculty.

William Hodgins left over $10 million as a legacy gift to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, from whom he received his English degree in 1954.

“Our estimate for when the money comes in is that it will be about $560,000 a year,” said Michael Milde, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. “It will help literally dozens of students each year. In a few years it will be hundreds.”

Students in Arts and Humanities will be eligible to receive these scholarships, the most significant of which include the Neen Hodgins National Entrance Scholarship and the Neen Hodgins President’s International Entrance Scholarship, which entitle an eligible Canadian and an international student to $20,000 each year for four years.

William Hodgins went on from Western University to a career as a successful interior designer, starting his own firm in Boston. His designs were featured in publications like Architectural Digest, House & Garden, House Beautiful and more. He died on Sept. 24, 2019.

“Part of his magic was that he was really able to connect with the people he was working with,” said Milde. “That imaginative, creative capacity to engage with others is really a hallmark for what you get out of an Arts and Humanities education.”

The new Neen Hodgins Indigenous Continuing Education Scholarship is valued at $10,000 per year

for up to four years and will also go to an eligible student from the donation.

Other scholarships include the Neen Hodgins Award valued at $3,000. Five of these will be awarded to incoming first-year students annually. The Neen Hodgins Graduating Scholarship is valued at $2,000 and awarded annually to a student graduating from an Honours Specialization or Honours Major in English Language and Literature.

The fund also includes the Neen Hodgins Bursary which will be awarded to full-time undergraduate students within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities based on financial need. Online applications are available through the student centre and must be submitted by Oct. 31. The value currently sits at $2,000 but is set to vary as funds permit.

Flag Raising begins Western’s week-long observation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

LAUREN MEDEIROS CULTURE EDITOR

Western hosted a flag raising ceremony Sept. 26 for the ninth annual Orange Shirt Day on the University Community Centre’s Concrete Beach.

The event marked the beginning of week-long programming and observation in recognition of the second annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Sept. 30.

Christy Bressette, Western's vice-provost and associate vice-president of Indigenous Initiatives, began the event welcoming those in attendance and handed the stage to Bruce Elijah, Indigenous Elder from the Oneida of the Thames First Nation.

“It isn’t going to be the King, our political leaders, the President or Prime Minister to make the changes,” Elijah said. “It comes back to you — the people. We need to put our minds together.”

The associate vice-president for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Opiyo Oloya, read a statement on president Alan Shepard’s behalf, who was absent.

“We have a responsibility as an institution to advance truth and reconciliation,” Oloya read from Shepard’s prepared speech. “That means we must engage with truth and reconciliation through our faculties, departments and o ces, through the policies we develop as an institution and through the way we engage with our students and Indigenous communities.”

According to Shepard, the Every Child Matters flag is a symbol for Western university’s ongoing commitment to truth and reconciliation.

Shephard addressed the events in an email sent out to campus members later that afternoon, urging the community to help further the work of Western’s 2016 Indigenous Strategic Plan. The strategy committed “to advance reconciliation with Indigenous communities.”

The flag raising ceremony wrapped up with addresses from director of the Indigenous Student Centre, Amanda Myers, and co-chair of the university’s Indigenous Postsecondary Education Council, Jody Noah. Both expressed the importance of having Indigenous perspectives on campus, and for non-Indigenous people to learn and listen.

“By raising [the flag], Western is raising a beacon for everyone to follow,” Bressette said. “Western is acknowledging the past lives but also recognizing the future can be di erent than the past.”

The O ce of the Registrar hopes everyone will wear orange on Sept. 30. Orange lights will illuminate the University College Tower and Alumni Hall that evening.

Western will remain open on Sept. 30 — the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation — with academic and work schedules running as per usual. Other institutions like McMaster University and Queen’s University have cancelled some classes on Sept. 30 as an opportunity for the community to reflect.

Ward 6 candidates debate in tense meeting

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR

London’s Ward 6 candidates met Sept. 21 to discuss a ordability, inclusion, housing and other challenges facing the community.

The night’s all-candidates meeting featured heightened tension between two candidates — Mariam Hamou and Sam Trosow — during a discussion on topics including a ordability, transit and climate.

The Ward 6 meeting was organized by the Urban League of London, who is hosting similar events for each ward. Ward 6 is the municipal ward in which Western University is located.

All three candidates running for Ward 6 city councillor were in attendance — Hamou, Trosow and Becky Williamson.

Hamou, the incumbent, began the night highlighting her London, Ont. heritage and discussed her previous work in national and international politics. She described her ideal London as “equitable, clean and safe.”

Trosow, a Western professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Faculty of Law, said his campaign priorities are a ordability and inclusivity, highlighting his experience advocating in both areas.

Williamson, who worked in information technology at Western before receiving a degree in criminology and psychology, began by saying she feels her experience in IT will be an “asset” to city council because “technology is crucial to the ecient operations of a city.”

Hamou advocated heavily for more ethnic diversity and representation of women on London’s city council. When asked about a rise in hate-related crimes, she referenced her status as one of only four women on city council and one of two people of colour.

All candidates agreed that a ordable housing was a serious issue facing London residents. Trosow described London’s current council as a “disappointment” with respect to housing, citing a recent example of council voting against putting in the maximum number of a ordable housing units.

Hamou and Trosow disagreed in particular over policing. After Hamou said she was “all about hiring police” and supported a London police request to hire 52 new o cers, Trosow directly opposed her — and Williamson, who also supported an increase in police capacity — in his rebuttal.

“So there we go, we’re not going to raise taxes and we’re going to hire a whole bunch of new police,” Trosow said. “You can’t do both.” Hamou replied to Trosow that it is possible to do both.

At one point, Hamou left the auditorium when questioned on her voting record by a member of the audience. She did not return until after the end of the debate. The audience member was later revealed to be her uncle and a former London mayoral candidate. Hamou told the London Free Press she left because she felt unsafe in the auditorium.

During Hamou’s absence, candidates were asked to address the issue of homelessness, specially on Richmond Row. Williamson told the audience some people “want to be homeless.”

“Some people just don’t want to go o the street,” said Williamson.

Trosow disagreed, saying people don’t “want” to be homeless or sick. He said he believes homelessness is connected to other societal issues like mental health problems and addictions and hopes to address these issues as root causes of homelessness.

London’s municipal election is scheduled for Oct. 24, with a polling station available in the University Community Centre. Voter registration is open now.

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE Truth and Reconciliation flag on concrete beach, September, 26th, 2022.

YIFEI ZHANG GAZETTE Western community marks National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Sept. 30, 2021.

LIAM MCINNIS GAZETTE View of Arts and Humanities Building, Sept. 12, 2018.

Parties, snowplows and Spider-Man:

HOCO 2022’s big return to Broughdale

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR ADSHAYAH SATHIASEELAN NEWS EDITOR SARAH WALLACE MANAGING EDITOR ALEX MCCOMB DEPUTY EDITOR

Broughdale returned to pre-pandemic party levels for Homecoming 2022, with police clearing out revellers during the day, only for large crowds to return at night.

Police closed Broughdale Avenue to vehicle traffic at around 11 a.m. Saturday and the street began to fill with partiers within the hour. Police estimated the crowd reached its peak of 15,000 to 20,000 by 1 p.m..

This is the second year Western University’s HOCO has returned to its traditional date on the last weekend of September, with the largest crowds seen on Broughdale since its 25,000 peak in 2019.

“This is the first year in a while it’s not been a worry about COVID-19 — so it’s been really great,” said Maxine Graham, a fourth-year media, information and technoculture student, who took to Broughdale with her friends Saturday.

London-Middlesex EMS responded to 76 calls for paramedic services related to HOCO incidents. Forty-eight patients were assessed and released on scene, and 28 patients were hospitalized — six of which were classified as being in “serious” condition. Thirty-two people were hospitalized last year and 31 in 2019.

Alongside the larger crowds, HOCO 2022 saw the widespread return of bed sheet banners on Broughdale and neighbouring streets, including ones reading “Buckingham said Queen’s is dead” and “Queen’s has diarrhea a lot. Way more than a normal school should.”

Western O -Campus Housing scanned the streets in the morning to ask several houses to take down banners, including a banner that said “Drink until the DILFS look 20 again.” Glenn Matthews, the housing mediation o cer who made the doorto-door requests, declined to comment on the initiative.

Periodic rain and cold weather throughout the afternoon and night did not deter partiers, who set o coloured flares, started mosh pits and crowd surfed in kiddie pools.

Diya Trikha, a third-year York University student, travelled from Toronto to join the street party.

“I know quite a bit of people who came down for the weekend,” Trikha said. “I think it lives up to the hype. We’re going to go crazy.”

Crowds of police o cers were in attendance, with London police assisted by o cers from York Region and Hamilton. Members of the York Region Emergency Response Unit — the region’s SWAT team — were also present. Drones were also used to keep an eye on partiers, in addition to on-street cameras which were also used for HOCO in 2019 and 2021.

Police did not release the number of arrests, tickets and warnings issued in time for publication, though partiers were seen detained and handcu ed by police, including one who climbed and jumped from a telephone pole.

Police began ticketing some partiers for open drinking and asking the partiers to dump their drinks around 1 p.m.. Despite the police presence, partiers said they felt enforcement was less strict this fall.

“I remember last year, two of my friends opened cans on the street and got detained. It’s definitely

more lenient than that,” said Anthony Fava, a masters of media in journalism and communications student.

Throughout the day, police made various barricades in the Broughdale area. New this HOCO was the use of metal fence barricades in the middle of the road by the Aubrey St. intersection. The barricades blocked o the centre of Broughdale, leaving students to sidewalks and edges of the road.

“It’s definitely been more chill with the cops. But with the barriers in the middle of the street, it’s a bit di erent than it was in the first two years of my undergrad — but it’s the best it’s been since then,” said Fava.

Western’s “Broughdale Grandma’s” house was taped o by police in partnership with the family, with one student and a recent graduate sitting in her driveway. The young women said they were there as friends of her grandson to watch over the property. Part of her roof caved in and her garden destroyed in 2019 as a result of partiers at FOCO.

Broughdale Grandma’s house is one of the only non-student residences remaining on the street.

Cam Smith, a fourth-year criminology student, lives in the only other house on the street that was barricaded o . Smith has been renting on Broughdale for three years and said his landlord hired a private security guard to prevent students from partying on the lawn.

“She owns the place so she can do whatever she wants but I personally think it’s useless,” Smith said. “There’s no other caution tape or security guards at any of the other houses.”

Police vans and City of London snow plows were also used to block o intersections and Richmond Street from Windermere Road to Cheapside Street. from around 3 p.m.

Police began to clear partiers o Broughdale around 4:30 p.m.. By 6 p.m., the street was clear and all the partiers had been forced onto Richmond Street, as Aubrey Street and Huron Street were both closed to foot tra c and students could not enter the streets without proof of address.

Police later cordoned o Richmond starting at Huron and walked north towards University Main Gates — forcing partiers onto the sidewalk. By 7 p.m., Richmond was again open to vehicle tra c, with students pushing through large crowds on sidewalks and attempting to walk on the edge of the road.

At around 9:30 p.m., the City of London snowplows blocking o Broughdale Avenue and Huron St. were cleared and many out-of-region police departed, leaving partygoers to swarm Old North again. Metal barricades placed earlier in the morning were also removed, allowing partiers to walk down Broughdale freely.

Three dozen bylaw o cers and London police o cers continued to monitor Broughdale by 10 p.m., still pushing students to stay on the sidewalks so vehicles could access the roads. Street cleaners were also seen picking up trash, empty cans and pizza boxes.

Since most bylaw o cers and police patrolled Broughdale, students briefly moved to Huron and formed mosh pits, blocking vehicle tra c and forcing cars to make U-turns. Students in mosh pits could be heard chanting pop hits like “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus and “Rockstar” by Post Malone featuring 21 Savage while crowd surfing.

Out-of-town students like Bryce Sanders, from the University of Guelph Ridgetown campus, travelled for over an hour to take part in the nighttime celebrations. Sanders said it was his first HOCO

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE

Police handcu and detain a young woman on Homecoming, Sept. 24, 2022.

MINA AHMAD GAZETTE Coloured smoke flares set o in the crowd on Broughdale Avenue, Sept. 24, 2022.

and he came to join the crowd on Richmond St. a little after midnight.

When asked about why he came to Richmond on Saturday, he replied “beer.”

Malcolm Borges, a second-year engineering student, said he enjoyed the daytime parties, but also commented that “there’s not really much to do” at night walking down Huron.

“There isn’t really a point to stick around unless you’re just going to go into a house,” said Borges. “Like you’re just standing outside in some mud with a bunch of random dudes.”

Police realized nighttime crowds were increasing and snowplows were brought back to block vehicle tra c to Huron and Broughdale at around 11:30 p.m.. Police also shut down Richmond between Windermere and Huron again near midnight.

While enforcement o cers primarily stayed on Broughdale, some migrated to Huron to break up the mosh pit and monitor for open alcohol.

A young man dressed as Spider-Man was filmed jumping o a roof into a crowd of partiers on University Crescent according to videos posted on "Western Savages" Instagram. Later posts show police leading him away in handcu s.

Spider-Man also showed up earlier in the day, running onto Haylor-Semotiuk Memorial Field, disrupting the Homecoming football game.

Later into the night near 1 a.m., Broughdale was cleared out with only a few cops patrolling the street and the party again moved to Richmond. Crowd size had steadily declined and students stuck to their social circles.

Police fully reopened Richmond to vehicles for the second time around 2 a.m.

Western’s president, Alan Shepard, said he felt Homecoming went “extremely well” and that he was “really proud of Western students.”

“What I heard over and over again is how polite and respectful students were,” he said. “We had a major reduction in risk and harm, and I’m really thrilled by that. That’s a collaborative process where we have things in place to try and promote that, but ultimately it’s the behaviour of the individuals. I thought people were just great.”

— with files from Andy Yang, Miles Bolton, Madeleine McColl and Hope Mahood

On-campus HOCO events a smash-hit, despite lines

CAT TANG CULTURE EDITOR SOPHIA SCHIEFLER CONTRIBUTOR

On-campus programming, including a pancake breakfast and the first-ever Student Fan Festival, during this year’s Homecoming celebrations drew students away from unsanctioned street parties on Broughdale Avenue during the daytime.

Dominique Frechet, an event sta supervisor and second-year education student at Western University, estimated around 2,000 to 3,000 students were at Western Alumni Stadium for the Student Fan Festival at 12:40 p.m. — with an additional estimated 1,000 students waiting in line to get into the event.

“I think it’s a pretty good turnout,” said Frechet. “This is about what we were anticipating.”

A mass email from the university to Western students stated the student fan festival would have more than 20 food trucks, entry to the homecoming football game, hot air balloon rides and inflatables — all for free.

The free pancake breakfast on Concrete Beach run by the University Students’ Council in the morning also featured live music, a photo booth and free Western merchandise such as bandanas, fanny packs and sunglasses.

The pancakes ran out by around 11 a.m. — with event sta saying they hadn’t anticipated such high numbers — and students were left to help themselves to co ee and tea.

“I’m personally really pleased with the turnout,” said Lauren Jarman, USC vice president of university a airs, at the pancake breakfast.

The 14 food trucks at the student fan festival — featuring some campus favourites like Tikka Tomato and The Grilled Cheezery — all o ered free options and were the most attractive feature of the event, despite long lines.

The highly anticipated hot air balloon rides were cancelled due to high winds.

Sophie Peevers, a first-year gender studies student, preferred the student fan festival over going to Broughdale.

“It’s safer because it’s on campus,” said Peevers. “Broughdale’s scary.”

HOPE MAHOOD GAZETTE Bylaw o cers question partiers in front of a HOCO bedsheet banner, Sept. 24, 2022.

ADSHAYAH SATHIASEELAN GAZETTE Partiers swarm back onto Richmond Street after midnight on Homecoming, Sept. 24, 2022.

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE A snowplow blocks vehicle access to Broughdale Avenue, Sept. 24, 2022.

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE Police barricade Richmond Street, Sept. 24, 2022.

Purple Fest belongs on Homecoming weekend

while city o cials are better equipped to prevent students from jumping o roofs, displaying bedsheet banners with o ensive messages and even damaging "Broughdale Grandma’s" lawn.

Western should cap enrollment

The culprit of your long wait to get a Spoke bagel has been found — and it’s the 3,548 more students enrolled at Western in the past four years.

JORDAN BLOOM OPINIONS EDITOR

On Sept. 24, students made their annual pilgrimage to Broughdale Avenue to celebrate Homecoming. Some of the best and worst parts of the student experience were on display.

For a few years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, the University Students’ Council has hosted Purple Fest, a concert that’s previously featured names including Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD and Tyga, in conjunction with the unsanctioned street parties on the last weekend of September.

This year, Purple Fest will take place later first semester, on an undisclosed date. There will be no music to match the Homecoming madness.

The beauty of Purple Fest isn’t only that it brings famous musical artists to Western University to improve the student experience, but that it incentivizes students to willingly leave Broughdale and enjoy Homecoming in a safer environment.

But Purple Fest can’t draw people away from their usual Homecoming festivities if it isn’t on the same day.

Students and city o cials get the best of both worlds by taking the celebration to the more controlled environment Purple Fest provides. They still get to have all the fun that Homecoming offers (and the activities that come with it)

The cherry on top is that the decision to leave Broughdale for Purple Fest is entirely voluntary on behalf of students.

Yes, the USC hosting Purple Fest on Homecoming ties student council to the drinking and partying culture that comes with it and can even give the impression of a subtle endorsement of these activities.

Admittedly, it is ironic that the solution to a big Homecoming student party is a di erent big Homecoming student party. But regardless of whether or not Purple Fest exists, students will party on Homecoming weekend. Why not give them a safer place to do it?

Next year, give students and city officials a concert that meets both their interests. Bring Purple Fest back to its rightful place on Homecoming weekend.

Yes, this increase is a move that nets Western University significantly increased tuition revenue. But more importantly, it hurts the student experience the school is known for. Western should place a cap on new enrolment, and decrease it going forward.

While Western has increased the number of students admitted to the university, the university has seemingly not proportionately increased the number of academic counsellors, health and wellness sta or even on-campus dining options.

Even though this strain might not be felt as acutely by students in smaller faculties or a liates — which pride themselves on small classes and a community feel — the burden on larger faculties like Social Science or Science, where academic counsellors have to deal with thousands of students, is considerable.

Regardless of whether students are in a small faculty losing its community feel or a large faculty that just keeps growing larger, increasing Western’s headcount leads to a poorer overall student experience. Most students don’t want to be “just a number,” but with increasing class and program sizes, more students — even those from traditionally smaller environments like an a liate college — are going to feel like one.

Along with a lower quality of support for students’ academic success and well-being, many programs face the risk of being over-saturated with students, leading to increased competition.

For example, in programs like medical science, more students than ever are competing for a limited number of honours specialization thesis spots. Without a way to provide all students with a spot in their desired modules, professors in first and second-year courses have no choice but to “weed” students out. While this has been an issue in the past, increasing enrollment is only exac-

erbating the underlying problem.

Finally, due to increasing first-year enrolment while maintaining a guaranteed residence spot to each incoming student, Western has converted four of their former upper-year buildings — London Hall, Lambton Hall, Alumni House and Bayfield Hall — into residences. .

At the same time, many upper-year and graduate students report finding it extremely di cult to find a ordable housing that is also su ciently close to campus. The number of housing units has not grown proportionally to student enrollment increasing, and the cost of rent in London, Ont. has gone up significantly.

Western sells their student experience as being the best in Canada, but by converting upper-year residences into first-year ones, they’re sacrificing the upper-year experience for the sake of first-year students.

Of course, it’s a privilege to go to university — and in many cases a key tool for upwards social mobility. It is certainly a good thing if university is more widely accessible to people from all walks of life. If Western stops admitting more students, the school will be denying hopeful grade 12 students the same potentially life-changing Western student experience that every current student has.

However, ultimately, the issue of access to university is a broader systemic issue that Western is not able to adequately address by simply admitting more students. Along with this, there is a point at which the student experience begins to seriously su er. For some programs, Western has certainly hit that point.

Above all, student experience — including both academics and wellbeing — should be Western’s priority. By consistently increasing incoming enrollment, the school is showing its students that it cares less about their experience than it does about the school’s overall growth. And for a school that prides itself on its student experience, this is damning.

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 Gazette, its editors or sta . To submit a letter to the editor, send an email to opinions@westerngazette.ca.

No ranked ballots a big loss for London’s fall election

the same system in their presidential election.

SONIA PERSAUD NEWS EDITOR

Since being elected in 2018, Doug Ford’s Conservative government has had its fair share of impassioned public outcry over its decisions, but his mandate that all municipalities must drop ranked ballots got little more than a whisper.

In October 2018, London became the first city in Canada to use a ranked ballot voting system in its municipal election. In November 2020, the Ford government passed Bill 218, restricting municipal elections to a first-past-the-post system — the voting system that most are familiar with.

FPTP is used federally, provincially and municipally across most of the country. Under FPTP, voters cast a ballot for one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins.

There are multiple variations of ranked balloting, but London’s 2018 election used a system called the instant runo voting method. Western University’s University Students’ Council uses

London’s IRV system in 2018 asked voters to rank their top three candidates. At first, only voters' top preference were taken into consideration.

If no candidate received a majority of votes, the candidate with the lowest number of votes was eliminated and the votes they received were redistributed to each voter’s second choice. This process repeated until a winning candidate was determined.

Ranked ballots help to address common criticisms of the first-past-the-post system. Under the FPTP system, voters sometimes are forced to choose the “lesser of two evils” instead of voting for the candidate who they feel most strongly aligns with their values.

This is called “strategic voting” — voting for a less-preferred candidate over a more-preferred one, because the voter believes that the less-preferred candidate is more likely to win against a third candidate who aligns even less with the voter’s personal values.

Ranked ballots don’t force voters to make this choice.

It’s easy to look at the benefits of keeping the ranked ballot system in purely economic terms. London will spend an estimated $51,000 simply to return to first-past-the-post for the upcoming

election — an entirely preventable expense.

There is also something to be said about the societal implications of the Ford government’s decision.

Cities, by virtue of their smaller size, should be hotbeds for good ideas at a local level. Other Ontario cities, like Kingston, Toronto and Cambridge already wanted to imitate London and implement ranked ballots in an upcoming election — now they can’t.

A city can be a microcosm of its province and country, and a testing ground for good ideas that can scale up to change the world. The Ford government’s passing of Bill 218 doesn’t give cities this chance, and in doing so, does a disservice to not only London, but Ontario and Canada as a whole.

The Ford government has o ered little explanation for their move to axe municipal choice to use alternative voting methods. One explanation from government sources is that the ranked ballot system is too expensive for municipalities — even though no municipality has been forced into the system, and instead is able to choose the system that works best for them, and that many of the higher costs associated with London’s 2018 were one-time costs used to make the switch.

Ford also called the ranked ballot sys-

tem “confusing” — despite the fact that he was elected to be the leader of the Progressive Conservative party using precisely such a method — and said that FPTP is the method that has been used since Confederation in 1867 — an argument that provides absolutely no evidence for the benefit of a FPTP system.

However, just weeks after the Ford government made the decision to remove municipalities’ ability to use ranked ballots, a report from Western’s Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance indicated that London’s move was a “success” — with high public interest and an e cient organizational system.

At the same time, candidates from groups historically underrepresented on city council — like Arielle Kayabaga, the city’s first Black female councillor — reported feeling empowered to run in the election due to the ranked ballot system. For a city council with only four women on a council of 15, and only two people of colour in a city where nearly 20 per cent of residents identify as a visible minority — this points to yet another advantage of the ranked ballot system.

It’s clear that local choice is beneficial and can lead to positive outcomes. But it appears the government has no plans to reverse course and allow municipalities to exercise their freedom to elect their

representatives in the way that works best for them.

The Ford government should reverse course and allow municipal governments to run elections as they choose — and we as students should absolutely pressure them to do this. We need to advocate for local choice, whether that’s through protests, contacting our Members of Provincial Parliament or supporting local and provincial politicians or organizations — like Fair Vote Canada —pushing for ranked ballots in cities and across the province.

Every other major political party in Ontario — the Liberal Party of Ontario, the New Democratic Party of Ontario and the Green Party of Ontario — has publicly stated that they will repeal Bill 218 if elected to form a government.

In 2026, when it comes time for the next provincial election, if the government hasn’t reversed course, it’s time for us to consider this issue very seriously when we vote. Our democracy is at stake.

SAMIT

Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, oh my!

CAT TANG CULTURE EDITOR

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single young woman in university must be in want of a boyfriend, right?

I have never been on dating apps in my four years at Western University, but as a 21-year old woman who read too much One Direction fanfiction in her formative years, I decided that it was time to stop waiting for Harry Styles to sweep me o my feet and give the local dating pool a try.

I was given a crash course by my friends on the three most popular apps: Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. Apparently, Tinder is more for hookups and occasionally dates, Hinge is more for looking for relationships and Bumble is somewhere in between.

After carefully crafting my profile to seem chill but not too chill, I spent the next few days scrolling through profiles of men holding fish and beer. Could one of these men someday hold me as tenderly as he did his prized fish?

The messages I received were a mixed bag. While some evolved into lighthearted conversations, others asked if I could be their “first Asian.” One guy even messaged me asking if one of my friends — featured in my carefully curated “pictures with friends” section of my profile — was single. Unfortunately, she was not.

As my suitors began to send me messages, I needed to form my council: a group chat of five friends who would pick apart the messages I received and help me craft responses back.

To “Hey :)”, we said “Hi :)”. To “Wyddd?,” we said “hahaha not much hbu.” We unmatched “first Asian” hookup guy.

While I’m excited at the prospect of meeting my future no-name brand Harry Styles in a candy-crush-like fashion, I can’t help but feel it's my friends that are getting the most fun out of this adventure. Many of them are in relationships, so I think they’re trying to live indirectly through my singleness. They all have their favourite contenders — some of whom I’m keeping around just for them.

“I can look at the menu, I just can’t order,” said one of my taken friends while we swiped through a carousel of men flexing their muscles. What can I say? I do this for content.

Global Cafe kicks o on UC Hill

DANIELLE PAUL CULTURE EDITOR

The Global Cafe on UC Hill brings students from across the world together for an afternoon full of board games, snacks and co ee.

The event is organized by Western International and runs weekly, every Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. throughout the school year.

The Global Cafe’s mission is to o er a place where international and domestic students can connect in an informal setting about their various cultures and backgrounds. The cafe acts as a safe space for students looking to hang out with other students and make new friends.

ing pains international students may be feeling — di erent weather conditions or living away from home — during their transition to Western.

Raina Xu is a second-year international student from China who experienced some struggles when first coming to Western. Xu said the event helped her relate to people in similar situations.

“It's really hard to actually connect [to others],” said Xu. ”Coming [to the Global Cafe] helped me meet more people.”

Chirag Singhal, a second-year computer science student who is a peer leader for the Global Cafe ,explains that “when they [students] come into the Global Cafe, domestic and international, from all over the world, they are looking to make friends, which facilitates the process of socializing.”

As an English major and student journalist, I write a lot. But I have never had to wrack my brain to find the right words as much as I did in the first 24 hours on these apps. I’m used to cranking out 2,500 word essays on topics like the narrative structure of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but what do I say to “Hey :)?” A breaking news article needs to be out as soon as possible, but how long should I wait to respond to “Wyddd?”

As

The cafe has a di erent theme every week to help spark conversations within the attendees. Earlier this month, the theme was “culture shock” — which is the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly in an unfamiliar culture.

“It’s really fun getting to know where people come from, their di erent experiences and how they’re adjusting to Western [University] and Canada,” said Razan Naveed, an international student from Qatar in her third year of biology. “Surprisingly, even though we all come from di erent environments, we have very similar experiences.”

The Global Cafe aims to help reduce the grow-

As well as being an excellent place for international and exchange students to meet and connect, the cafe provides a great setting for domestic students who also wish to meet new friends.

Singhal is technically a domestic student, but came to Canada two years ago and can relate a lot to international students in terms of the similar struggles they share.

The cafe will continue weekly for the remainder of the school year, hosted in the UC Hill tent until the end of the month when it will transfer into the International and Graduate A airs Building in October.

Math prof by day, drag queen by night

LAUREN MEDEIROS CULTURE EDITOR

Tyler Pattenden is anything but the dull, old professor every student knows.

Pattenden is an assistant professor in the School of Management, Economics and Mathematics at King’s University College. They recently booked their first serious drag gig at Lavish nightclub in downtown London, with stage name Miss Polly Pocket.

Although it was one of their first appearances in drag, doing a lip sync and dance performance in front of a crowd was not something out of their comfort zone.

“I’m used to ‘performing’ multiple times a week in front of large numbers of people,” says Pattenden, referencing their lectures. “[Drag shows are] not any di erent to me.”

Pattenden teaches three math and data sciences courses each semester, to about 100 students. They completed their PhD at Western University in 2020 with the mathematical biology department. Pattenden went on to work for a year as an online sessional instructor during COVID-19 before landing a teaching contract at King’s.

“I like to prove to people that they are math people,” they say. “I love teaching. Everyone is a math person, they’ve just had bad teachers.”

Pattenden has always wanted to be a teacher and truly enjoys the day-to-day of their job, cracking jokes and connecting with students.

“It’s math. Everyone comes in and they’re already like, ‘I don’t want to be here,’” they say. “I try to be funny and I think that gets them involved.”

It is this charisma and zest for life that bleeds over to Pattenden’s drag persona, which they describe as “a cutesy vibe.”

But switching from the professor hat to the drag queen wig is not a huge transition for Pattenden.

Miss Polly Pocket, who otherwise calls herself “London’s Candy Pop Princess,” attributes her name to exactly what it sounds like — Polly Pocket dolls. Pattenden recalls wandering the aisles of Toys “R” Us as a child, admiring them despite not being allowed to buy them.

“My dad is very conservative,” they explain. “We had a lot of issues growing up, so I did the whole ‘be the straight boy and play sports,’ but I always wanted dolls.”

Pattenden didn’t even know what drag was before watching the popular drag competition show Rupaul’s Drag Race. When they first watched the show four years ago, they were immediately amazed by how pretty the queens on the show were and set out to reach their degree of confidence.

They started getting into the London scene at Lavish earlier this year, where they were intro-

duced to their mentor or “drag mom,” Vanity Affair. It was Vanity who pushed Miss Polly Pocket to do drag and join the club’s open stage night, where anyone from the community could try drag regardless of experience level.

Vanity put them into full drag makeup, a wig and an outfit in July and Pattenden fell in love.

“As soon as you get into drag, you find this new confidence,” they say. “It’s almost like you feel like a di erent person, although you’re still yourself. You put the lashes on and then you’re like ‘sweet, I’m a drag queen.’”

Miss Polly Pocket lip synced to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” at her first booked show on Sept. 9. Judging from the crowd’s overwhelmingly positive response, Pattenden now considers it a go-to performance song.

Pattenden is still on a high from the performance and is enthusiastic to do more gigs in the community. Although they are interested in further pursuing drag, they’re not willing to sacrifice their fulltime teaching position at this point.

“[Drag] is something I just want to do for fun,” they say. “It lets you break free from reality for a night. It’s like ‘this is great, I get to go be a goof-

COURTESY OF KING'S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Professor Tyler Pattenden's faculty headshot.

GAZETTE

KATHERINE GUO GAZETTE

The literary ascent of Western’s Matthew Dawkins

LUCAS ARENDER COORDINATING EDITOR

In his first year at Western, starting a double major 2,789 kilometres from his hometown of Portmore, Jamaica, Matthew Dawkins spent his nights writing. One winter night sitting in the D.B. Weldon Library, Matthew got the call that those pages he’d written, the novel he’d spent all those long nights crafting, was going to be published.

“I lost it, I could not believe it because it’s such a dream,” Matthew says. “You never think it’s actually going to happen.”

Fighting back tears of joy, Matthew called his family back home to tell them that, at 19, he was about to become a published author.

Matthew’s debut novel Until We Break came out Sept. 20, and is already sold out at Western University’s campus bookstore. The book follows Naomi, a young Jamaican-American competitive ballet dancer who, after an injury, is forced to challenge her sense of identity and self expression outside of dance — dealing directly with themes of race and perception.

The book is the manifestation of a personal and literary journey that Matthew, now 22, knew would come to fruition.

In Portmore, Matthew grew up obsessing over every book he could get his hands on. Before he could even read himself, Matthew would beg his parents to read Woody the Woodpecker over and over again before bed.

Matthew sarcastically attributes all of his literary success to Woody the Woodpecker’s inspiration.

As far as rebellions go, reading too many books was pretty manageable for Matthew’s parents, who he says never deterred him from pursuing his passion for literature.

“They saw the [passion] and they allowed me to explore that on my own terms,” Matthew says. “[They] were very much pivotal in that way.”

Matthew describes his upbringing in Jamaica as

Cafe hopping:

relatively sheltered from the dangerous realities of the island. He speaks about the privilege of not having to take the bus to school, a privilege that many of his classmates at Jamaica College didn’t have.

Matthew vividly remembers the day that a 13-year-old boy at his school was killed on the bus for his watch — a memory and lesson in perspective that Matthew still reflects on today.

“We are an aggregate of our circumstances. The people around us influence and change and transform how we navigate the world,” Matthew says.

“Those aspects of our lives make up who we are as people.”

It was around this time that Matthew started

Black Walnut Bakery Cafe

LAUREN MEDEIROS CULTURE EDITOR

The Black Walnut Bakery Cafe has a homey atmosphere. Its wooden tables tell a story on their own, standing well-worn in with co ee cup shaped rings and pen scratches, from years of visitors.

I am immediately hit by the smell of caramelised butter and rich espresso, and a warm smile from behind the corner asks what I would like to order.

I start with a dark-roast black co ee and an iced almond milk latte — the order comes to just over 10 dollars.

After taking a sip of the black co ee, I notice it doesn’t have the burnt undertones I’ve become accustomed to with the Spoke’s co ee — it’s bold and balanced. The iced latte is nothing I haven’t had before, but it relieves my morning headache.

The cafe was opened back in 2011 by Mandy Etheridge in Wortley Village, a small neighbourhood in south London, Ont.. She opened the Richmond location four years later, keeping in mind the close proximity to Western University.

Etheridge recommended two items the bakery is most known for: their scones and what they call “cru ns” — a buttery, croissant-like pastry in the form of a mu n.

The head baker of both locations, Sam Labow, says the bakery’s cru ns are the most popular among students. Each morning, the baking team creates and pipes new flavours of cream and custard into the middle of the flakey pastry.

The decision whether to choose the almond cream or the strawberry coconut custard cru n is di cult, but I chose the almond. With one bite of the cream, I'm taken back to my grandmother’s

kitchen where I grew up helping her make marzipan cookies.

I paired the cru n with a sunny-side-up scone — a buttermilk round with an egg yolk baked into the centre. It’s crispy, crumbly and rich all at the same time. The two pastries are worth every penny of the eight dollars spent.

Despite the Richmond location being closer to a student demographic, Etheridge said the cafe wanted to keep their originality.

“We didn’t want to stray too far from our philosophies — the things we thought made Wortley successful,” Etheridge said of opening the second location. “One of those things is having no wifi.”

Other than the computer at the cashier and one man on the phone in the corner of the cafe, there are no electronic devices in sight.

Although the cafe doesn’t appeal to the “working student,” Etheridge admitted Black Walnut intentionally o ers something di erent and more meaningful: a place to unplug.

“It’s students’ time to take a break from school, talk with each other and relax,” she said. “We really wanted to create an environment where you meet people, converse and enjoy.”

Black Walnut has carved their own niche in London’s cafe scene. People come to enjoy one another’s company without distraction, all while treating themselves to some ca eine and a sweet or savoury treat.

Black Walnut may not be the place to cram a last-minute essay — but it is the place to go meet up with a friend you haven’t seen for a while, or to enjoy a warm drink alone and watch strangers do the same.

writing seriously, learning what it would take to make a career out of his passion. He distinctly remembers sitting in math class, blissfully ignoring the lesson as he read book after book. One of those books, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is the book that he says thematically inspired Until We Break

Pouring over every word, Matthew knew in that moment that he was going to be a storyteller.

“I was thinking, the way that I feel right now is exactly what I want other people to feel, and that’s what got me writing,” he explains.

While he got the idea and began writing Until We Break in Jamaica, he wrote the majority of the chapter at the beginning of his first year at West-

ern, uploading them weekly to the popular literary platform Wattpad. After his chapters began to gain popularity, Wattpad began working with Matthew to polish the remaining chapters of what would eventually become Until We Break

Matthew may be well on his way to literary stardom, but unlike many writers, he says he does not write for an audience. He says that while he sees value in writing for an audience from a publishing standpoint, he believes that it has the “real potential of trapping the art.”

These lessons that he’s learned along the way, getting his book published as well as working with young writers at Western, will serve him well in his new role this year as the student writer-in-residence. The role has typically been used as a resource for students in the writing faculty for advice, and while Matthew is excited for that aspect of the job, he has his sights set on diversifying the voices in the London writing community.

“We need to be diversifying voices and challenging what we consider to be correct art,” Matthew explains. “I feel like BIPOC voices, especially within art, are not what we think of as traditional art … because traditional art has been predominantly white.”

“What makes art art for me, its ability to a ect people. If you read something, or you look at something, or you touch something, and you feel it, it resonates with you. It’s art.”

A lot of people in this world can write. A lot of them can put words on a page and make them sound impressive. But what makes a writer great, what makes them stand out from the rest, is having something to say.

Matthew Dawkins may only be 22 years old, but he’s shown in a few short years that he has a lot to say, and he knows how to make people listen.

LAUREN MEDEIROS GAZETTE Inside the Black Walnut Bakery Cafe, Richmond Row location, Sept. 21, 2022.

LAUREN MEDEIROS GAZETTE

Black Walnut Bakery Cafe's cru n and sunny-side-up scone, Sept. 21, 2022.

LAUREN MEDEIROS GAZETTE

The iced almond milk latte at Black Walnut Bakery Cafe, Sept. 21, 2022.

SOPHIE BOUQUILLON GAZETTE Matthew Dawkins holding his debut novel Until We Break, Sept. 22, 2022.

Mustangs stomp Warriors at Homecoming

RYAN GOODISON SPORTS EDITOR

The Mustangs overwhelmed the Warriors 66–3 at this year’s Homecoming football game to continue their full command of the OUA with a 4–0 record.

Western University got the sold-out crowd cheering early, as the Mustangs put 23 points on the board in the first quarter. The score was 43–0 for Western as the game reached half.

“I thought we got o to a good start. We needed to be better [this season] in our first drive and our first quarter,” said Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall. “We did a good job of being productive, taking the ball down and scoring on our first possession — something we haven't done in our last three games.”

Running backs Keon Edwards, Edouard Wanadi and Troy Thompson all ran for over 100 yards. Edwards notched two touchdowns as Wanadi and fellow running back Keanu Yazbeck both had one of their own.

Western], we create monsters. Any guy can go out there and play their best.”

Western’s running game has been dominant so far this season. Edwards continues to lead the Ontario University Athletics with 121.8 rushing yards per game.

The Mustangs often used a sixth o ensive lineman — bringing in o ensive guard Alex Berwick — in the matchup to play tight end in their heavy formations to bully the Waterloo defence on the ground.

“It’s hard on a weekly basis [maintaining a good running game]. Especially knowing teams are coming in and saying, ‘if we have any chance of winning this game, we have to stop the run.’ For us, to be that productive is a real credit to our o ensive line,” said Marshall.

Quarterback Evan Hillock threw for 243 yards, with 144 coming in the first quarter alone. He had a 77.8 completion percentage and recorded two passing touchdowns.

Hillock continues to lead the OUA with 11 passing touchdowns through his four games. He also improved to 209.3 yards per game.

After his incredible first half e ort, the coaching sta decided to let Hillock rest the second half and give backup quarterbacks Jackson White and Jerome Rancourt some reps under center.

“[Hillock] was sharp today. You got to have your head around quickly when he’s throwing the ball — get yourself looking because the ball is coming fast,” said Marshall. “For e ciency rating, Hillock has got to be the best in the country.”

Western’s defence was next level too, as they shut out the Warriors in the first half and kept them to only 139 total yards.

“I was in the right spot at the right time and it came right to me. [Valente] and I have been talking about it. It’s been a competition between us all year,” said Panabaker.

stacking it up and building the blocks,” said Panabaker.

“It’s a goal [Wanadi] and I made back in May, to have 100 yards each,” said Edwards. “Here [at

Veteran free safety Daniel Valente Jr. and defensive hal ack Robert Panabaker both got interceptions against Waterloo quarterback Nolan Kaban in the first half. Quarterback Nick Orr replaced Kaban in the second half.

The Mustang defence — thought to be Western’s weak spot during the o season — has gotten better each week. Throughout their first four games, the Mustangs have only given up an average of 11 points per game.

“As we grow and learn more, our younger players get up to speed. Our defence has been getting better and better. We’re playing faster, harder and not making as many mistakes. We just have to keep

The only one on the field who could get past the staunch Mustangs defence was Spider-Man — or, at least, a fan dressed as the Marvel superhero at the Homecoming game and student fan festival.

Western will travel to McMaster University to take on the Marauders Oct. 1 for the first time this season.

“McMaster is a good team and better than their record shows,” said Marshall. “They had a bye week this week, so they’ve had a whole week to prepare for us — that’s certainly an advantage.”

Meet Western’s ‘Touchdown Mustangs’ and their riders

MILES BOLTON SPORTS EDITOR

When the Mustangs football team is within 30 yards of the end zone, Tori and Bruce Lamb are ready to ride.

The father and daughter pair circle the track surrounding Haylor-Semotiuk Memorial Field at Western Alumni Stadium on their “Touchdown Mustangs,” Joey and Gamble. Joey is a 22-year-old mutt originally trained as a polo-pony, and Gamble is a 16-year-old o -the-track thoroughbred racehorse.

The duo makes their lap following every Mustangs touchdown — a unique Western University tradition beginning in the 1970s when Allen “Albert” Philbrick ran around the field after each score until 2000, when he was 86-years-old.

Tori and Bruce are both Ivey Business School and Western alumni — Tori graduated in 2014 and Bruce in 1985 — and avid horse riders.

Growing up in London, Ont., Bruce started riding when he was seven-years-old. He stopped to focus on his career and family after graduating from Western.

But when his daughter took up riding over 20 years ago, Bruce saddled up again.

“Having a grandmother who was into horses, [I was] very fortunate to have access to [the horses] at a young age,” says Tori. “We identified that the horse gene is something you're born with, so I’m definitely drawn to them.”

The pair started riding at football games in 2017 — when Western won their first Vanier Cup since 1994 — when Bruce saw a Facebook post looking for a parade-ready horse to replace the previous, aging generation of touchdown horses. They tried out, and they’ve been riding at the games ever since.

For the Lambs, riding at games isn’t just a unique experience for them, but also for the

Western community.

“We're very fortunate to have horses in our lives and we like to share that with people as much as possible. Being able to [meet the] tailgaters and kids before the game means a lot. [We] kind of give back to the community in that way,” says Tori.

Bruce has found over the years that many attending games haven’t spent much time around horses. But he said it hasn’t stopped fans from approaching them at halftime to pet and feed carrots to Joey and Gamble.

“They get to see a part of Western lore they wouldn't otherwise get a chance to,” says Bruce.

Though the Lambs love their role on gameday, their involvement within the university community goes beyond being touchdown riders and alumni.

Bruce is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Ivey and helps advise students in the New Venture Project — a team-based entrepreneurial project where students pitch new business ideas to a review panel. Both he and Tori will help judge the HBAs’ and MBAs’ venture presentations in November and December.

With the 2022 Western football season already o to an undefeated 4–0 start, the Lambs are happy

to be back riding at games and engaging with fans. Following the halt of university sports due to COVID-19 in 2020 and a 2021 season when the new track was laid, Tori was worried Joey and Gamble would forget their form after two years away from the stadium.

But when the season opener came around on Aug. 27, Tori says the horses were ready to run.

“[Joey and Gamble’s skills] are not typical things a horse can do. It's a very busy and loud environment [with] a lot going on, so it takes a very special horse to be able to do that,” says Tori. “But my horse heard the words ‘Touchdown Mustangs’ and he knew that was his cue. They definitely didn't lose any momentum.”

Because the Lambs have had the benefit of participating in a primarily-outdoor sport, they were able to continue riding through the pandemic. Aside from a lack of competitions and showings, Bruce says the pandemic wasn’t much of a problem for horseback riders, since they’re already physically distanced.

Both Tori and Bruce — and their trusty steeds — hope to see more fans at Mustangs football games now that the Western community can attend games without restrictions.

“It's a lot of fun. We have a great time,” said Bruce. “Western has got a phenomenal football program, [and] there's the horses, cheerleaders and band. We've got a great following of folks who come out, do the tailgating before the game and cheer on the Mustangs.”

The horses were likely not prepared to run as much as they did in the first half of Saturday’s homecoming game as Western took a commanding 43–0 lead over the University of Waterloo Warriors en route to a 66–3 victory.

RYAN GOODISON GAZETTE Tori Lamb rides one of the touchdown horses, Aug. 27, 2022.

RYAN GOODISON GAZETTE

Keanu Yazbeck makes his way past Waterloo defenders at Homecoming, Sept. 24, 2022.

RYAN GOODISON GAZETTE Savaughn Magnaye-Jones catches a touchdown at Homecoming, Sept. 24, 2022.

‘Food Truck Alley’ returns to campus for a second year

LAUREN MEDEIROS CULTURE EDITOR

If you’re ever in a time crunch and need a quick bite to eat, Western’s “Food Truck Alley” o ers a variety of local food vendors to check out.

A mix of food trucks from the community will be serving customers on Kent Walk in front of McIntosh Gallery every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Food truck operations were first introduced to the university last fall to o er more options for those on campus and alleviate the University Community Centre lunch rush.

Sean Hickey, owner and operator of food truck Big Daddy Bacon, jumped on the opportunity to return for another season, given his positive experience last year.

Hickey describes it as “a perfect storm opportunity” — Western University needed more vendors and he needed more bookings,

due to the cancellation of other in-personevents from the pandemic.

He anticipates this year will be an even bigger success with more students back on campus.

“All the feedback I’ve gotten from students has been positive,” Hickey says. “They’re happy we’re here.”

For other trucks, this is their first time being at the university. Iman Saydeh, an assistant at Leen’s Shop food truck, believes students are the perfect crowd for the business.

“Western is a big university that has di erent kinds of people that like di erent foods,” says Saydeh. “We have those di erent foods.”

Leen’s Shop provides a variety of savoury options such as deli meat sandwiches, grilled cheese and hot dogs, as well as traditional Middle Eastern dishes such as labneh and sahlab. The food truck also o ers a long list of sweet treats including crepes, ice cream, cot-

ton candy, popcorn, mu ns and cookies.

Another food truck — Brannigan’s fish and chip truck — has found pub-style comfort food has been a major success among students after only two visits to campus.

Owners Tracey and Liam Brannigan’s first visit to campus was at the International Student Orientation on Sept. 2, where they did close to 300 orders of poutine.

Brannigan is confident their handmade food will satisfy the needs of students, all while building a sense of community in this upcoming season.

“We’re really keen about welcoming people back together and breaking the curse of COVID-19 through food,” says Brannigan.

Students can expect the food truck presence to continue until at least Thanksgiving weekend and potentially to the fall reading week, permitting weather and the availability.

Chatime to open in Weldon

CAT TANG CULTURE EDITOR

AChatime is set to open in Weldon Library early November, replacing the previously closed Argo Tea.

“We are thrilled to be opening a Chatime café inside Weldon library later this fall, with an anticipated opening in early November,” confirmed Chris Alleyene, associate vice-president of housing and ancillary services in an email to the Gazette

Chatime is a global Tawainese bubble tea chain with over 81 locations in Canada — 40 of them are in Ontario. It is currently the largest teahouse franchise in the world.

Hospitality Services decided to open a Chatime after conducting a survey in summer 2020, receiving over 4,000 responses across campus.

“Through the survey, students indicated that bubble tea is a menu item and concept that they wish to see on campus — it was the top-rated concept identified in the survey,” wrote Alleyene.

The Chatime will be on the left side of the Weldon entrance, the same location as the former Argo Tea Cafe, which opened in 2016 and closed last year.

There is one other Chatime location in London, near the Wonderland Road and Oxford Street West intersection.

“We are excited to be able to o er this dining option within the newly renovated Weldon Library,” wrote Alleyene.

Weldon underwent a $15-million revitalization last year and was temporarily closed in February 2021, reopening that November.

LAUREN MEDEIROS GAZETTE

Food trucks serve students on Concrete Beach during lunchtime rush, Sept. 13, 2022.