w w w .w e sterngazette.c a • @uw ogazette
It’s all over… Our O-Week coverage wraps up with an interview with Anjulie >> pg. 4
thegazette Keeping our honoraria since 1906
Thursday, September 13, 2012
today high 27 low 14
tomorrow high 21 low 14
canada’s only Daily Student Newspaper • founded 1906
Volume 106, Issue 7
Campus culture blamed for binge drinking Cam Smith News Editor It’s all fun and games, until someone dies from alcohol poisoning. Last fall, a student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia died after over-indulging. This incident, combined with two alcoholrelated deaths at Queen’s University in 2010, prompted a study into the propensity for binge drinking among university and college students. Lisa Jacobs, researcher for the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, asserted the death of the Acadia University student was merely representative of a much more severe problem. “One of the reasons we wanted to conduct this research was because we knew this was a much larger problem than just Acadia University,” Jacobs explained. “It’s not only just those extreme cases— alcohol harm comes in many shapes and forms.” Universities and colleges are >> see report pg.3
Meghan Bhatia Gazette
Book Review
Western’s new book, The Tower, captures tradition, lacks zest Aaron Zaltzman News Editor In an effort to raise school spirit and educate students about the rich history of Western, the University Students’ Council has released the first-ever Western traditions book, entitled The Tower. Initially the proposal of the 2011-2012 USC executive board, the idea for the book came from North Carolina University, which produces a traditions book for its own students. “It was thought that creating a similar book at Western would help facilitate knowledge of Western’s rich history and experiences as well as providing students with a nice personalized keepsake from their time at Western,” Jeremy Santucci, vice president communications for the USC and composer of The Tower, explained. Aesthetically, the book is quite striking. One can easily imagine it ten years from now tastefully gracing a coffee table, with the beautiful photo of Middlesex College lighting up nostalgic conversations. It starts off very much like a high school yearbook, with messages from Western president Amit Chakma and USC president Adam
Fearnall, as well as faculty heads and affiliate principals. The statements, while by no means underwhelming, seem pretty standard and don’t give the impression of refreshing, genuine school spirit that the book seems to be trying to achieve. However, the history of Western section more than makes up for preceding pages. It manages to be both succinct and engaging at the same time, and though short, will definitely be the most entertaining section for history buffs. The rest of the book is dedicated to all the prominent events and experiences that make up Western life. On each page is a description of an event, such as Founder’s Day or Homecoming, along with a space for the student to attach a small photo of them participating in it. The idea is to fill every page with a memory, thus “completing” Western—academic achievements notwithstanding. While this aspect of the book is certainly clever, the ‘place memory here’ section of each page makes the whole thing feel like a paint-bynumbers guide to a university experience, with the final sum being somewhat bland. Maybe Western has a distinct lack of fun, zany tra-
Cameron Wilson Gazette
ditions—or maybe they were simply omitted—but either way the contents of the book are as glossy as the pages they’re printed on. For a generation raised to believe university was an all-you-can-eat buffet of national lampoonery, a book full of traditions such as Purple Finale and going to the bookstore feels a little like a whitewash.
Where is the page for stealing our rival school’s mascot? However, it seems that students will most likely have no problem discovering Western’s more racy traditions, such as floorcest, alcohol poisoning and Saugeen stripping. While these time-honoured rituals may be an integral part of Western’s culture, it seems the
university has nothing to gain by actively advertising them. Overall, The Tower is a good way to introduce frosh to some of Western’s more conventional experiences, which is ultimately the main goal of a traditions book.