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Better than seven year-olds... probably since 1918
Uthe ubyssey JANUARY 31, 2011volume 92, number xxxviroom 24, student union buildingpublished mondays and [email protected]
This issue, we’re black, whiTe
and red all over
e-Week: Pages 5, 6, & 11
ams President Bijan ahmadian threatens council With legal action.
Page 3Women’s hockey earns tWo victories against u of lethBridge.
Page 6
2 / u b y s s e y. c a / e v e n t s / 2 011 . 01 . 31
Canada Post Sales Agreement
#0040878022
january 31, 2011volume xcii, no xxxvi
editorial
coordinating editor Justin McElroy : [email protected] editor Arshy Mann : [email protected] news editorKalyeena Makortoff : [email protected] news writer Micki Cowan : [email protected] editorsJonny Wakefield & Bryce Warnes : [email protected] culture writerGinny Monaco : [email protected] illustratorIndiana Joel : [email protected] editor Marie Vondracek : [email protected] editorTrevor Record : [email protected] editorGeoff Lister : [email protected] manager Virginie Ménard : [email protected] editor Kai Green : [email protected] editorTara Martellaro : [email protected] multimedia editorStephanie Warren : [email protected] editorDavid Marino : [email protected] Blake : [email protected]
Room 24, Student Union Building6138 Student Union BoulevardVancouver, BC V6T 1Z1tel: 604.822.2301web: www.ubyssey.cae-mail: [email protected]
business
Room 23, Student Union Buildingprint advertising: 604.822.1654 business office: 604.822.6681web advertising: 604.822.1658e-mail: [email protected]
business managerFernie Pereira : [email protected] ad salesKathy Yan Li : [email protected] ad salesPaul Bucci : [email protected] Hoopes : accounts@ubyssey,ca
contributors
Fabrizio Stendardo David ElopAmelia Rajala Tim BlonkCatherine Guan Gerald DeoMike Dickson Charles ToCrystal Ngai Josh CurranKellan Higgins
Front cover and E-Week illustrations by Indiana Joel.40 Beer Patch illustration by Virginie Menard.
legal
The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publi-cations Society. We are an autonomous, democrat-ically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate.
Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubys-sey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the Universi-ty of British Columbia. All editorial content appear-ing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society.
The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guid-ing principles.
Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verifica-tion will be done by phone. “Perspectives” are opin-ion pieces over 300 words but under 750 words and are run according to space. “Freestyles” are opinion pieces written by Ubyssey staff members. Priority will be given to letters and perspectives over free-styles unless the latter is time sensitive. Opinion pieces will not be run until the identity of the writ-er has been verified. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intend-ed publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff.
It is agreed by all persons placing display or clas-sified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.
events
Send us your events for February! This page needs filling up every [email protected]
Utheubyssey.ca
ongoing events
Ubyssey Production • Come help us create this baby! Learn about layout and editing. Expect to be fed. • Every Sunday and Wednes-day, 2pm.
resource grouPs • Are you working on a progressive project, but need funding? Do you have an idea, but can’t get it off the ground? Apply to the Resource Groups for funding! Come in, pitch your idea to us and we will consider fully or partially funding your project. • Every Monday, 11am in SUB 245 (second floor, north-east corner). For more info email resourcegroups.ams@gmail.
alPha omicron Pi recruitment event • UBC’s newest sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, is looking for more members to join its colony class! There are opportunities to take on leadership roles, volunteer and gain service hours, create lasting bonds of sisterhood and friendship, socialize within the Greek system, network with women with similiar interests all over the world and overall enrich your UBC experience. • Informal recruitment events on Feb. 5 and 27, email [email protected] for more information.
skating at roBson square • Free public skating rink, with skate and helmet rentals, skate sharpening and a concession stand on site. • Ongoing til Feb. 28, Sunday-Thursday 9am–9pm, Friday–Saturday 9am–11pm, free.
monday, jan. 31
saam closing recePtion • Come to the closing reception of Sex-ual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) at UBC. Cake and tea will be provided. • 1–2pm, Centre for Student Involvement, Brock Hall.
tuesday, feB. 1
dean of arts gage averill on Prof talk • On UBC CiTR Radio’s Prof Talk, with host Farha Khan, Dean of Arts and Haitian schol-ar Gage Averill will discuss his new role at UBC as well as his recent Grammy nomination for his project, Alan Lomax in Hai-ti: Recordings for the Library of Congress, 1936-1937. • 3pm, CiTR 101.9FM, go to citr.ca for more information.
Wine tasting and dining event: exPloring affordaBle Wines • Many do not consider wine a luxury, but rather a necessity for a full and healthy life. This Taste and Dine event will fo-cus on a few of the many in-expensive yet attractive wines currently available through lo-cal liquor stores. Joseph Collet, Green College Executive Chef, has matched the wines with fine winter fare. • 6:30–9:30pm, Gra-ham House, Green College, $46 regular, $28 students, purchase tickets at [email protected] or call (604) 822-8660.
Wednesday, feB. 2
Work your Ba: arts internshiP Program info session • The UBC Arts Internship Program pro-vides current undergraduate Arts students with the oppor-tunity to gain meaningful work experience in the private and non-profit sectors. Arts intern-ships are part-time, unpaid po-sitions and can provide you a stepping stone to your future ca-reer. • 12–1pm, Buchanan B310.
thursday, feB. 3
old red neW red • Ever wonder what the greatest Engineering prank of all time was? Some might claim the Statue Stunt of 1963 to be it! Stephen Whitelaw (AGIE
’65) and Art Stevenson (CHEM ’66) will retell the infamous sto-ry of the prank that duped the entire campus and university art community. You’re all invited to join the current Engineering stu-dent body to make this the larg-est ORNR ever. • 6:30–9:30pm, Cecil Green Park House.
gladiator • Bravely go where many UBC students have gone each year before. This is your chance to take on your tough-est competitors and compete in your favourite American Glad-iator challenges—as a team! Whether you are navigating your way through a colossal maze, racing through the inflatable ob-stacle course or duking it out on the joust, this event is filled with non-stop action. • 4pm–12am, SRC Gyms, 6–10 registrants. $80–$175, register by Jan. 27, roster due Jan. 28.
jules massenet: cendrillon (cin-derella) • The UBC Opera En-semble and the UBC Sympho-ny Orchestra will be performing Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, based on Charles Perrault’s 1698 version of the Cinderella tale. Per-formed in French with English subtitles. • 7:30–10:30pm, Chan Centre, $35 adults, $25 seniors, $20 students, call (604) 822-6725 or go to ticketmaster.ca to reserve. Tickets also avail-able at the door.
friday, feB. 4
storeWide sale • The UBC Book-store is having their February sale—up to 75 per cent off a broad selection of merchandise! • All day, UBC Bookstore.
cold War confidential • This symposium expands on John O’Brian’s focus on photogra-phy during the Cold War in Can-ada. Symposium speakers will
explore links between culture (art, photography, literature), the environment and nuclear propa-ganda and protest in the Cold War era. • 10am–3pm, Belkin Art Gal-lery, go to belkinartgallery.com for more information.
saturday, feB. 5
tailgater footBall tournament • Can’t get enough football be-tween the college bowl season and the Super Bowl? Well, be-fore you park your butt on the couch for six hours to watch the big game, come out and make some of your own history on the gridiron. Tailgater Football is the perfect way to get jacked up for the biggest weekend in football! • 11am–5pm, UBC Wright Field, 5–8 registrants, $51–$100, regis-ter by Jan 31.
tuesday, feB. 8
lunar neW year celeBration • Celebrate the Lunar New Year at UBC, which includes a food sale (Sri Lankan, Korean, Vietnamese and assorted desserts), all the tea you can drink, a live music performance and a silent auc-tion of framed artwork (cash or cheque only). • 11:30am–2pm, CK Choi Building Lounge.
Wednesday, feB. 9
douBle douBle foil and fum-Ble • Double Double Foil and Fumble is a joint production be-tween UBC’s Theatre and Cre-ative Writing faculties. It follows the story of five university-aged friends as they get together to weave some magic; only none of them know what they’re do-ing, half of them don’t believe in magic and some of them have ulterior motives. • Run until Feb. 12, Dorothy Somerset Studios, tickets by donation, proceeds go to Pride UBC.
2 0 1 1 . 0 1 . 3 1 / u b y s s e y . c a / n e w s / 3
news editor ARSHY MANN » [email protected] assistant editor KALYEENA MAKORTOFF » [email protected]
senior Writer MICKI COWAN » [email protected]
neWs BRIEFS
uBc’s triumf facility to make medical isotoPes
TRIUMF, a research lab at UBC, will help make Metro Vancouver self-sufficient in its supplies of medical isotopes.
TRIUMF will become an al-ternative source for the most widely used medical isotopes for cancer treatments. Technetium-99m, which is usually produced at Ontario’s Chalk River nucle-ar reactor, will now be made at two other facilities in Toronto and here at UBC, thanks to a $6-mil-lion federal government grant.
The Chalk River facility was shut down for repairs in 2009, which caused health agencies world-wide to scramble for alter-native supplies of the isotopes. While Chalk River reactors have been repaired and are back on-line, the long-term future of the reactors remains uncertain.
TRIUMF, the subatomic phys-ics lab, is owned and operated by a consortium of Canadian universities. Tim Meyer, a TRI-UMF spokesperson, said that UBC labs could be supplying the isotopes to the BC Cancer Agency by March 2012.
ryerson university radio shut doWn
CKLN, Ryerson University’s campus radio station, has had its broadcasting license revoked by the Canadian Radio-televi-sion Telecommunications Com-mission (CRTC). The CRTC said the station violated license con-ditions and regulations and was not able to provide quality con-trol for its programming. The li-censing conditions required pro-gram logs, submission of audi-ble on-air tapes and completion of annual returns. Several warn-ings had been issued to CKLN, but CKLN failed to comply with CRTC conditions.
The CRTC’s decision followed proceedings and public hearings that took place last month. In-vestigations into operations at CKLN by the CRTC began in July 2009 after complaints were made about its day-to-day oper-ations, management and ability to stay on the air, as well as an unbalanced representation on the board of directors.
CKLN has a history of conflict among its staff. The station went off-air intermittently for seven months in 2009 when the build-ing manager was forced to lock out staff, volunteers and man-agement for security reasons.
Findings from a consultation in fall 2009 revealed that there was minimal student involve-ment at the station. U
Primate experiments draw criticism from activistsfaBriZio [email protected]
STOP UBC Animal Research, an animal advocacy group, held a protest outside the Vancouver Art Gallery last Thursday to urge UBC to end research on non-hu-man primates. It was aimed at a proposed experiment that plans to study the development of Par-kinson’s disease in monkeys.
The experiment, L91, would involve injecting four rhesus monkeys with the compound Lactacystin, which eventually leads to the onset of symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
“We feel that this type of research and end product is horrendous to us,” said STOP spokesperson Anne Birthistle.
At the rally, four people were dressed as monkeys in prison uniforms behind bars “to show... concern about the imminent doom awaiting the monkeys in the Parkison’s research,” ac-cording to Birthistle. She was, however, pleased with how the event turned out. “We had a great response.”
VP Research John Hepburn re-ferred to the protest as a “pub-licity stunt” and said that he
supports the research. “Frank-ly, I’m not interested in stop-ping a line of research for Par-kinson’s disease.”
STOP hopes to obtain the monkeys to stop them from be-ing killed. Birthistle said they are willing to buy the primates. “We have public support in rais-ing funds to purchase them.” However, she said STOP would rather not pay for the mon-keys. “We feel that they really belong to the taxpayers, who fund much of the research at
UBC [and] would prefer tha t UBC donate them.”
Birthist le says STOP has asked Fauna, a non-profit ani-mal rescue organization found-ed in 1997, for help in finding the monkeys a permanent home. “We’d like to give them sanctu-ary away from the pain and suf-fering their lives have entailed up to now.
“We definitely would help to provide financially for their care for the rest of their lives.” However, she was unaware of
how much this support would cost, only saying it would be “substantial.”
However, Hepburn said that UBC will neither donate nor sell the monkeys because they are needed for research even after they die. “Part of the [proposed] experiment involves post-mor-tem examination of brain tissue, which is not done without euth-anizing the animals.” In addi-tion, he said that monkeys are expensive, so even if they don’t die, UBC will still care for them. “The monkey colony is main-tained and we want to make sure they are kept in good shape.”
The spokesperson for the ex-periment, Doris J. Doudet, who is also a professor of medicine and neurology at UBC, was un-available for comment.
Hepburn said he was unaware of the requests and that no di-rect contact has been made be-tween the university and STOP.
He explained that experiment L91 has yet to be approved for funding, as the most recent at-tempt was denied by the Canadi-an Institutes of Health Research. He also stated that there was no chance the experiment would happen before April 1, 2011. U
The Animal Care Centre at UBC. david eloP Photo/THE UBYSSEY
arshy [email protected]
AMS President Bijan Ahmadian was able to successfully evade being censured by Council after threatening the society that he leads with legal action.
The censure motion was brought forward in response to Ahmadian’s actions during AMS elections, especially his biting crit-icisms of then VP External Jeremy McElroy. The motion resulted in a 12-12 tie, one vote short of a suc-cessful censure. Six councillors ab-stained, including President-elect McElroy. Ahmadian said that he would sue the AMS if such a mo-tion passed, arguing that he was not provided with proper notifi-cation of the motion to censure.
“I hate to be put in this awk-ward position to sound like I’m threatening, but I need you to know about the potential dam-ages,” he said. He went on to cite a question asked on the bar exam, which he plans on tak-ing, that asks if the applicant has ever been censured by an organization.
Ahmadian’s lawyer, Noah Sar-na, was present throughout the majority of the meeting and told Council that they should consult a lawyer before they considered taking any actions against the president.
“You’re exposing the society to considerable legal potential liability,” said Sarna. “And the administrative component of
it is just one end of it. There are also employment law is-sues and possible defamatory issues that need to be explored and considered.
“The last thing that you want and the last thing that you need, is that sort of legal problem.”
The censure motion was brought to the floor after a near-ly hour-long in-camera session, which was closed to the media, in which council discussed “ex-ecutive dynamics.”
Dave Tompkins, speaker of Council, said that the motion was brought to the floor after the in-camera session because some councillors had been threatened with defamation lawsuits if they spoke publicly.
Tompkins, whose position is non-political and usually re-mains above contentious de-bates, was dragged into the fray on Wednesday, as Ahmadian raised the possibility of suing him as well and said he perceived Tompkins to be biased.
“Sue me, Bijan,” said Tompkins at one point after Ahmadian, who sits next to him, whispered in his ear. “I have no money.”
He made it very clear that he strongly disapproved of Ahmadi-an’s threats.
“One of my rules is that all council members can speak their mind freely…which is why I get my back up when people threat-en and intimidate them,” said Tompkins.
He also said that he believed that Ahmadian knew a censure motion was coming, based on the fact that he brought a lawyer. Tompkins went on to argue that Ahmadian had never brought up these sorts of arguments for pre-vious censure attempts, and had supported the censuring of Blake
Frederick and Tim Chu for initi-ating a human rights complaint to the United Nations over the cost of tuition last year.
Ahmadian countered that al-though he knew a general cen-sure motion may appear, he did not know what the exact word-ing of the motion would be and could therefore not prepare a proper defense.
Alongside his actions dur-ing the elections, Engineering Councillor Andrew Carne cited a variety of reasons he believed Ahmadian should be censured. These included Ahmadian’s com-munications with the univer-sity regarding land use, com-ments he made to the National Post which could be considered defamatory, how the Gaza dona-tion was dealt with, failing to re-spect the values of the AMS and the fact that he was threatening the AMS with a lawsuit.
McElroy mostly stayed out of the debate, but argued that cen-suring is done by student soci-eties for a variety of reasons. He pointed out that the University of Victoria Student Society cen-sured their director of finance in November for showing up to work late.
After hours of debate, Ahmadi-an was finally able to avoid cen-sure by issuing an apology for some of council’s grievances, including the way he criticized McElroy.
“First and foremost [I apolo-gize for] the distorted portrayal of my colleague Jeremy in that video last week and the unfair comments there. We have ac-complished lots as a team and I think that video did not do a fair job of portraying that.”
Ahmadian’s term expires on February 11. U
President deflects censure with legal threats
Ahmadian and his lawyer, Noah Sarna. geoff lister Photo/THE UBYSSEY
ashley lockyer Photo/THE UBYSSEY
4 / u b y s s e y . c a / n e w s / 2 0 1 1 . 0 1 . 3 1
U of A suspends frat for five yearsThree-month investigation revealed widespread hazing at DKE chapteralexandria eldridgeThe Gateway (University of Alberta)
EDMONTON (CUP)—After a three-month investigation into hazing activity, the University of Alberta administration has suspended the Delta Kappa Ep-silon (DKE) fraternity chapter for five years.
Frank Robinson, the U of A’s dean of students, announced Thursday morning that the uni-versity made this decision af-ter their investigation revealed that hazing activity had taken place. Some of the hazing alle-gations raised in October includ-ed forcing pledges to eat their own vomit, forcing pledges into a plywood box and depriving them of sleep.
Robinson could not go into detail about the hazing or the investigation, but added that they are not pursuing charg-es against individual students and DKE has complied with this decision.
“The DKE fraternity has ac-knowledged that hazing took place over a number of years and that this behaviour was par-ticipated in by both student and alumni members from this U of A chapter,” Robinson stated.
During the five-year suspen-sion, the group will be ineligi-ble to register as a student group at the university, meaning they will lose the ability to use the
university’s name or insignia, use the university’s liquor or gaming licenses, rent univer-sity property or equipment, or participate in university gover-nance or other activities.
“I’ve taken this serious action as a result of ongoing concern for the safety and well-being of our students and for the entire university community. As a re-sult of the suspension, the DKE fraternity is no longer allowed to officially identify themselves as, or carry on activities, as if they are associated with the U of A in any manner,” Robinson said.
After a period of three years, DKE may apply to have the sus-pension lifted at Robinson’s dis-cretion, provided they can dem-onstrate good behaviour dur-ing the period of suspension and provide a plan for future activities. During the period of suspension, the Dekes will also be meeting with Robinson periodically.
“One aspect is a sanction and the other part I like to think of as more of a restorative mod-el. We have agreed to work with [the fraternity] and help them come back, as opposed to sim-ply slamming the door,” Rob-inson said.
“The actions taken in this case concerning the Dekes have been motivated to ensure that our student groups remain a positive force in student life.”
After the five-year period, the group will have to re-apply, and will only regain their stu-dent group status at Robinson’s discretion.
“After the suspension is lifted in five years, they will be like any other frat or sorority. We watch all of our fraternities, we watch so-rorities, we watch clubs, and if we have a problem, we’ll deal with it.”
The last time a fraternity was sanctioned at the U of A was in
1999, and in that case, it was also DKE.
Rory Tighe, a students’ union vice-president, was pleased with the university’s action and felt that the restorative model Rob-inson has prescribed is a good approach.
“I’m glad the university took a stronger stance than the alum-ni council. I hope this will ac-complish the goal,” Tighe said. “I do think that this required
a harsh sentence and I think that was appropriate. I’m hop-ing that this does lead to what the dean said —rebuilding the community and allowing the Greek system to get back to its height.”
Interfraternity Council Presi-dent Mike Siebert also released a statement expressing his sat-isfaction with the university’s decision.
“This group has acted in an immature and selfish manner and by doing so has undermined the positive impact that frater-nities strive for,” he wrote. “As long as they are suspended as a student group, they will con-tinue to have their membership from the IFC suspended.”
In December, DKE Interna-tional provisionally suspend-ed the U of A chapter for three years. A local alumni council will be formed to monitor the activities of the chapter and re-vise the initiation process.
DKE posted a statement on their website apologizing to the university community for their actions.
“We agree that hazing has no place at the University of Alberta or in fraternity life, and we, the Delta Phi chapter of Delta Kap-pa Epsilon, apologize to the in-ternational fraternity, the Uni-versity of Alberta, the univer-sity community and the other fraternities at the university.”
The DKE house at U of A. dan mckechnie Photo/THE GATEWAY
micki [email protected]
After three months of debate and $13,000 in legal costs, the AMS has passed the final mo-tion to allow the transfer of $700 from the Social Justice Centre (SJC) to Solidarity for Palestin-ian Human Rights (SPHR) in-tended to fund the Canada Boat to Gaza this spring.
However, debate has been spurred around AMS Resource Group structure and funding, and policies around external donations generally.
Since it was first proposed, the $700 donation has caused considerable debate amongst AMS council and the larger stu-dent body.
In December, council put the motion on hold until they were satisfied that the non-profit or-ganization was not linked to ter-rorism and did not leave the AMS liable, as some critics had suggested.
An email returned to VP Fi-nance Elin Tayyar from Fin-trac, a financial tracking orga-nization that investigates mon-ey laundering and transfers to terrorist organizations, silenced the concerns of Council.
“Fintrac does not maintain a list of organizations, chari-ties or non-profit groups that are in good standing. It will not verify or evaluate groups about which you requested in-formation,” quoted Tayyar. “Be-cause these guys aren’t on their list, they aren’t being investigat-ed and looked into [as possible terrorists],” he said.
However, due to the extensive debate and uncertainty caused by transfer and subsequent
donation, the Resource Group structure is being re-examined by AMS Council.
“The Resource Group changes we felt were important to make, given some of the things that happened this year,” said Ben Cappellacci, VP Academic and University Affairs. “[They] ad-vocate for specific political in-terests, and while we feel it’s im-portant that these have the sup-port of students, we also felt like students should be able to make decisions about whether or not they feel their support should be given to the Resource Groups.”
The Resource Groups will be part of a fee restructuring ref-erendum held in March which,
if passed, will enable students to opt-out of the current $1.50 Resource Group fees, which the SJC is part of.
“Essentially, by allowing the students to opt out of the re-source group fee, we’re giving students the choice here to say that ‘Yes, I agree with the re-source groups and I want to sup-port them with my money,’ or ‘I won’t,’” said Cappellacci.
He admitted that the Canada Boat to Gaza donation had part-ly prompted the restructuring, but said they had also wanted to take a look at the fees in general, many of which they felt could be streamlined and made more ac-countable to all students.
Tayyar plans to bring up even further changes at a meeting in the near future.
“We’re looking at essential-ly stopping all donations from all mandatory fees that are col-lected from students. That in-cludes any kind of donations that the AMS Council or any-one can donate,” he said. “That would stop these kinds of trans-fers that are just a direct do-nation to an outside organiza-tion. We’re changing the rules to say that all mandatory fees have to be spent on things that all UBC students will have ac-cess to.”
According to Tayyar, the SJC is “in support of the changes.”
Gall Levit, a second-year Arts student, told AMS Council that she attempted to participate in SJC meetings but was unable contribute her views due to what she perceived as “hostility.” She argued that changes are needed.
“It think it should be a lot about trying to engage a wide amount of students because they [receive] $10,000. Their main purpose should be trying to in-volve as many students in their decisions as possible,” she said. “The SJC seemed like they liked…their own exclusive little group, with very radical views.”
Active SJC member Gregory Williams said that this debate has taken up hundreds of hours of their time, and has been “a complete mess.”
“While the debate on the fund transfer is over now, [things are] just heating up because the LPC [Legislative Procedures Com-mittee] is just starting that re-view,” said Williams. “We’re still going to be in committee rooms fighting this for months and months.”
While many are aware of the referendum, the possible code amendment is less well-known. Former president of SPHR Omar Chaaban said that the amend-ment hasn’t yet been discussed at length by the Resource Groups that he knows of. He hopes that the referendum does pass as he values that it gives students a choice, but that the code amend-ment fails at Council.
“It’s like a blanket boycott kind of thing. It’s all or noth-ing…it’s kind of authoritarian to me. My fear is that it will pass. They don’t want to talk about these issues. They want to talk about the easy stuff.” U
$700 Gaza donation officially approvedFate of Resource Groups and external donations uncertain
The Resource Group offices on the top floor of the SUB. geoff lister Photo/THE UBYSSEY
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sporTseditor MARIE VONDRACEK » [email protected]
Think our stories are lame? Come write ‘em.
Marie Vondracek | [email protected] Utheubyssey.ca
Bird dRoPPIngS
uBc men’s hockey sWePt By lethBridge
The Lethbridge Pronghorns and the Thunderbirds remain tied for sixth place, with the ‘Horns hav-ing one game in hand over the ‘Birds after sweeping UBC 5-2 and 5-1 in Lethbridge.
Lethbridge keeper Scott Bowles put in a stellar perfor-mance on Friday, stopping 33 shots. Jordan White was forced to make only 21 saves.
Entering the third period only one goal down, UBC fell victim to a third period Lethbridge hat trick from Andrew Courtney, which propelled the ‘Horns to a crucial 5-2 win, bringing them two points behind.
Before the ice was even dry in the third, Courtney struck for his first, then again four min-utes and twenty-three seconds later on the power play, Court-ney scored again, putting the puck over a sprawling White to make it 4-1.
Brennan Sonne brought the gap down to two with 108 sec-onds left, but upon pulling the goalie, Courtney completed his hat trick with an empty net goal.
The ‘Horns did not let up on Saturday, jumping to a three- goal lead by the halfway point. UBC’s Max Grassi responded by tapping in a cross-crease pass from Justin McCrae. However, they didn’t get any closer, as the Pronghorns added two more to pull away for a 5-1 victory, com-pleting the weekend sweep. U
Coach Reimer under the ‘scopemike dicksonContributor
Chemistry.That’s been the key ingredient
in the success of the UBC wom-en’s volleyball team in recent years. It’s also prime recruiting material when it comes to head coach Doug Reimer choosing his squad, a system that has served the Thunderbirds well during their three-year reign as nation-al champions.
“As a coach, you want to cre-ate an environment where play-ers want to be here and want to get better every day, which is something we’ve tried to grow here over the last few years,” Re-imer said.
The players have bought into Reimer’s system and continued their winning ways not only with their talent on the court, but their character off it as well.
“What’s great about Doug is that he considers you as a per-son, not just a volleyball play-er,” starting setter Brina Derk-sen-Bergen said.
“He creates a great atmo-sphere that makes you want to be here every day.”
Her sentiments were echoed by returning national team out-side hitter Kyla Richey, who be-lieves the Thunderbirds’ success stems from their willingness to support each other.
“I definitely think it’s our team relationship,” Richey said. “After every season we’ve won, people asked us why we did, and we’ve got a great team full of talent, but you can’t do anything with talent without chemistry. It’s not just the best 6 players on the court but the best 17.”
That combination of chemis-try, talent and hard work was on full display last weekend as the T-Birds swept the University of Brandon Bobcats two games to zero, not losing a single set in the process.
“The support we have for each other is great in both good and bad situations, and adds to your team confidence as well as indi-vidual confidence,” Derksen-Ber-gen said.
Reimer’s experience, which in-cludes being the head coach of the women’s national team from 1997-2000, has taught him to re-cruit not just the best volleyball players, but the best people too.
“Each of the three years has been different,” Reimer said. “But the biggest commonality between them has been good chemistry
amongst the group. We want to make sure we’ve got good people who are working hard and keep-ing the environment fun, one that people want to be a part of and let the chips fall where they will.”
Reimer has been nominated for CIS Coach of the Year, along with the ‘09-10 T-Birds squad. The squad, which closed a 25-0 season with a third consecutive CIS championship, is up for CIS Team of the Year. Graduated out-side hitter Liz Cordonier is also up for her second CIS Female Ath-lete of the Year award. U
Triple CIS banner winning head coach Doug Reimer. gerald deo Photo/THE UBYSSEY
Three straight CIS championships make coach a constant for T-Birds
6 / u b y s s e y. c a / s p o r t s / 2 0 11 . 0 1 . 31
justin [email protected]
The NCAA: To join or not to join?It’s a decision that UBC will
make in the coming months af-ter releasing a report discussing the issue. And if that sounds like deja vu, it’s because it is.
President Stephen Toope has said that UBC intends to decide whether to apply for Division II membership in the US-based Na-tional Collegiate Athletic Associa-tion (NCAA) by the end of this se-mester. They’ve released a report on the topic for discussion—18 months after an earlier report on the same topic was written.
However, the new report takes into consideration discussions that have taken place with the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) over the past two years.
“What I wanted to see was whether anything could change,” said Toope. “Because I wanted to be comparing apples to apples, I didn’t want to compare some historic view of the CIS to some prospective view of the NCAA. So what I wanted to ensure was that we had actually explored all the options with the CIS to see if indeed things could change, or would change, before mak-ing any determination about the NCAA and that’s why it’s been a year and a half.”
For much of last decade, UBC Athletics, led by Director Bob Philip, have advocated a move to the NCAA, arguing it would
provide more competition for UBC and make it easier to keep student-athletes in Canada. The issue moved to the forefront in 2008 when NCAA Division II, which is the second-tier league in the association, invited in-ternational schools to apply for membership.
While SFU immediately sig-nalled their intentions to apply, and entered the league last year, UBC created a NCAA Division II Review Committee to investi-gate the issue. In March 2009, they issued a 588-page report, which did not make a recom-mendation either way, but re-vealed that of the 537 people who filled out a survey on the issue, 52 per cent were against mov-ing to the NCAA.
However, in an interview last month, Toope seemed to take issues with the value of those responses.
“Most people didn’t have a clue about what they were talking about. I’m being very serious,” he said.
“If you actually broke down the views—there were a whole bunch of things which predicat-ed views, which I think actually were not well thought through,” said Toope citing confusion over whether UBC would be joining Division I or II as one example.
“My only hope in the NCAA discussion is we actually talk about real things, we don’t talk about visions that people have about what CIS is or what NCAA
is. I want to be as clear as possi-ble as to what we’re actually de-bating and then we’re going to have a real discussion around it.”
Last year, the CIS had a com-mittee examine the merits of a flexible scholarship model, which would allow universities to offer full-ride scholarships to a limit-ed number of student-athletes, while limiting the total amount of money available per sport. Cur-rently, scholarships are limited to tuition and mandatory fees, and athletes must have an 80 per cent average out of high school and maintain a 65 per cent aver-age throughout university.
“The principle is to keep the best student athletes in Cana-da,” said UVic Director of Ath-letics Clint Hamilton in 2009. “Currently, the scholarship sit-uation is such that it’s limiting our ability to do that.”
At last June’s Annual General Meeting, the CIS decided not to vote on any proposal. In a report prepared for delegates, it was claimed that “although the Flexi-ble Model that was proposed ‘re-ceived some support,’ it did not garner significant support in its current format.”
Toope said he hoped the ideas from the CIS would allow clari-ty to people’s opinions at UBC.
“My only hope is people actu-ally look at the report, look at the information we’ve tried to pro-vide and then have a conversa-tion about real things, not false things.” U
‘Birds bring out the brooms
marie [email protected]
When the weekend began with a technical malfunction of the national anthem, UBC wom-en’s hockey took up the slack and belted out the final chorus themselves, making it audible to even the farthest fans. This act of ‘holding the rope’ has been the trademark of this hockey club time and time again.
Just as with the sound system breakdown, the Thunderbirds did not begin lighting up the board until the final frame. En-tering the third period one goal down, Amanda Asay opened the scoring by beating a rushing goalie to the loose puck at the top of the circles and calmly sliding it into the empty goal. Four min-utes later, Laura Jordan, a rook-ie who has been given very few opportunities prior to this week-end, put the puck in net and fel-low rookie Tatiana Rafter fired a low hard shot past the keeper.
“Jordan was given the oppor-tunity, she stepped up and she did a great job,” said UBC head coach Nancy Wilson of Jordan’s play.
With only and all three lines rolling, Asay and Rafter both potted their second of the night to help the ‘Birds earn a hard-fought 4-1 victory.
“The team showed lots of character tonight; the [in-jured] kids are begging the doctor to let them play. Those who are playing are inspired by the kids who are sitting off. They’re playing hard for them. Our bench is not down. They’re showing a lot of character and
I’m very proud of them,” said Wilson.
The Thunderbirds earned a night’s rest before facing off again on Saturday, when they came out flying. After pausing to honour fellow teammates Lisa Bonang, Melinda Choy and Kirtsen Mihalcheon with a gold-en helmet for their 100th CIS career game, Tamara Pickford opened the scoring six and a half minutes in, upon reception of a pass from Kaylee Chana-kos through three pairs of legs.
Chanakos offered Pickford an early birthday present by thread-ing another pass through to Pickford for her second of the night.
“I don’t think anyone had a bad game tonight, but especial-ly Pickford with two goals. And it’s her birthday on Monday, so it’s an early birthday present for her,” said Wilson. “Pickford is an older player in the dress-ing room and she comes pre-pared. She works hard on and off the ice.”
Once again Asay and Rafter each added a goal to the board, the latter reeling in a stretch pass from third-year defense-man Jocelyn Marren from her own end. While Melinda Choy made 17 saves in her 106th CIS game and earned her seventh career shutout, Rafter and Asay combined for six goals this weekend to help the Thun-derbirds (7-12-1) earn a sweep over the Pronghorns (4-15-3).
“The past two or three se-ries, Asay has really stepped
up her game…[and] Rafter has great hands with a quick re-lease. She had a beautiful goal tonight and she’s had a couple this year already,” comment-ed Wilson.
Even though UBC is out of the playoff race, they’re arguably playing their best hockey of the season and having fun.
“You’re always having fun when you’re finding time to move the puck. They’re work-ing hard and they’re getting the results.” U
Third-year Kelsey Halvorson stepped into a forward’s role due to injuries. tim Blonk Photo/THE UBYSSEY
NCAA decision expected this year
UBC against the NCAA’s Minnesota. geoff lister Photo/THE UBYSSEY
After years of reports and discussions, UBC hopes a final decision will be made this spring
Thunderbirds sweep Lethbridge with only fifteen healthy skatersfriday
saturday
‘Birds4
1‘horns
50
‘Birds
‘horns
2 0 11 . 0 1 . 31 / u b y s s e y. c a / s p o r t s / 7
Do you know what’s key in a sports setting?If you answered yes, come write with us.
marie vondracek | [email protected] Utheubyssey.ca
UBC men’s alpine ski team prepped and ready to go. josh curran Photo/THE UBYSSEY
athlete of the WeekThundERBIRd AThlETE CounCIl
The men’s Alpine ski team has earned a spot as athletes of the week for their performance at the peak of Vancou-ver on January 22 and 23. UBC played host to an array of American schools on Grouse Mountain for the first league
race of 2011 and the first United States Ski Collegiate Ski and Snowboard As-sociation (USCSA) Northwest Confer-ence race to be held in Canada in 16 years. Despite warm and overall unfa-vourable conditions, the team was on
fire, finishing first in the team standings both days. On Saturday, the Men tore up the slopes,dominating the top ten in a field of over 70 athletes:rookie Aus-tin Taylor took gold, followed closely by Mike Bisnaire in third, veteran Ben
Middleton in fourth and Alex Binks in fifth. Mike Cadman and Taylor Drury fin-ished in eighth and ninth, respectively. The women also finished first on Sat-urday and then second on Sunday. U
—Amelia Rajala
men’s alPine ski team
8/ u bys se y.c a /c u lt u r e /2 011. 01. 31
culTure editors BRYCE WARNES & JONNY WAKEFIELD » [email protected] Writer GINNY MONACO » [email protected]
illustrator INDIANA JOEL » [email protected]
crystal ngaiContributor
They happen every year: engi-neering pranks, events, com-petit ions and celebrat ions. But what about the outrageous things you hear about but don’t get to witness firsthand? These are the myths that get passed down from year to year. Are they more than myths, though?
Enter the 40 beer challenge. It’s not exactly a myth, but nei-ther is it something you hear being promoted openly. To clar-ify, it is an “engineering thing,” isolated from the EUS, that
occurs every term. Those who attempt the feat are giv-en a time limit of 12 hours to down 40 cold ones. Victors are awarded brag-ging rights and a special “40 beer badge” for their red jacket . For lightweights, there is the one-fifth un-der 200 pounds chal-lenge. This replaces 40 beers with a num-ber of brews equivalent to one fifth of the participant’s body weight.
EUS VP Communications and administration repre-
sentative William Ga l lego sa id,
“You can find engineers around cam-p u s w i t h the 40 beer patch, so it’s
obvious that it still goes on,
and people do ac-tually finish it.”
If you see an en-gineer bearing this re-
markable symbol on their red jacket, ask them about their
experience. They will proba-bly be happy to tell you.
Then there is the buzz re-garding the Engineering Cairn (the giant E on Main Mall). It is rumoured that there are sever-al propane tanks hidden inside or below the Cairn to dissuade those who might want to de-stroy or remove the landmark.
“I’ve heard that story myself, but there is no way in telling unless you destroy the Cairn,” said Gallego.
It cannot be entirely validated as a fact, only a real possibility. But it would not be advised not to try and find out yourself. U
mike dicksonContributor
Pranks. They are the result of en-gineers—mathematically gifted minds with a legendary reputa-tion for consuming drink and a bent for problem-solving—get-ting together around E-week and unleashing their skills in cre-ative ways.
But the art of the prank has been declining for some years within the Engineering facul-ty, both in number and execu-tion. Past stunts have ranged from suspending fu-ture Prime Minis-ter Kim Campbell in a tree with a ha m mock i n 1964 to stealing the Speaker’s Chair out of the Victoria Legis-lature in 1978 and holding it for $1000 ran-som to be paid to Children’s Hospital.
However, the infa-mous failure to suspend a Volk-swagen Beetle from Ironwork-er’s Bridge in 2009 got five UBC engineering students arrested
and, explained Engineering VP Events Nigel Myers, was a poor demonstration of their profes-sional skills.
“It reflects on how you have to go about your job as an engi-neer,” Myers said. “You have to prepare for all the variables and plan ahead carefully, which in retrospect they didn’t do.”
Careful planning has been in-
v o l v e d i n subjecting the various incar-nations of Omar, the Forestry Undergraduate Society car, to engineering originality. These
include filling Omar III with con-crete (1980) and welding Omar IV around a tree (1981). Engineers also dismantled Omar 2008 into a Christmas card for the FUS, which read, “Save a tree: Bull-doze a Hippie.”
If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing
well—but in recent years, many just haven’t been worth doing.
“In the last few years ideas have been lacking originality,” Myers said. “It looks to continue
being that way for some time to come.”
A common t hread from past engineers to present has been their focus on charity. 2008 saw the creation of a gi-gantic red engineering jacket filled with clothes for the needy draped around the English Bay inukshuk, while in 2009 engi-neering students handed out red scarves to the homeless.
“Pranks have never been en-dorsed by the Engineering Un-
dergraduate Society,” said EUS VP Communications Will
Gallego. “The EUS does not condone pranks of
any kind.”It is teamwork
that pulls off the spectacular, as the 1969 prank-sters who stole Stanley Park’s 1800-pound Nine O’Clock Cannon can
attest. Its ransom generated over $1200 for the
Children’s Hospital. UEngineers are encouraged to come out to E-week, which hosts a career fair on Wednesday and Thursday from 10am—3pm.
The E. The Cairn. An impotent phallus. Whatever you choose to call it, the big old rock with an “E” on it on Main Mall is the source of many a campus legend. Luckily, the engineers are not ones to forget their sto-ried history. They have record-ed the story of the E on Heu-story, the Engineering Under-graduate society’s wiki. The Ubyssey presents an abridged history of the E.
The first Cairn, literally a pile of rocks, was erected in 1966. It was destroyed several days later by the groundskeepers.
Another E was built in 1968. This time a hole was dug in the middle of Main Mall, filled with scrap, cemented over and em-bossed with a red E. The Board of Governors had it destroyed several days later.
Another E, allegedly mod-eled on a tank trap, was built on Main Mall in 1969. At five feet tall, the administration was convinced only a charge of dy-namite could destroy it.
In 1970, the administra -t ion reportedly contracted Plant Ops to clear the site for $10,000. The EUS bid $1000 on the project, and was given a go-ahead. The monument was moved by crane to its cur-rent location.
The Cairn was defaced con-sistently for the next ten years. In 1980, Arts students tried and failed to flip the E with a forklift.
In 1981, the Cairn was re-newed and made two feet larg-er. In 1988, Forestry students with a backhoe and drills re-duced the E to rubble. Over the next year, the Cairn was rebuilt (allegedly with a pro-pane tank in the centre to de-stroy any vandals).
In 1989, the E as we now know it was completed, and it has stood ever since.
Source: Heustory, the EUS wiki.
The administration was convinced only a charge of dynamite could destroy it.
WeekPrank you very much
Forty brews and booby traps tooThe fact and the fiction behind the Engineering faculty at UBC
“Erected in humble appreciation of the diversified
and continuing contribution to
campus life by the Engineers.”
—Plaque on the Cairn, circa 1966
E-hISToRy: the cairn
2 011. 01. 31/ u bys se y.c a /c u lt u r e /9
ginny [email protected]
When Dr Gage Averill, Dean of Arts, gave his opening speech at Thursday night’s Arts Ca-reer Expo (ACE), he seemed to touch a nerve.
“Anybody here whose par-ents ever asked ‘How are you going to make any money?’” Nervous laughter and several dozen raised hands followed.
“I know that line,” he said.Averill, in many ways, embod-
ies the changing attitudes of ac-ademia. His approach to the fac-ulty follows the movement from “chalk talk” to a more discus-sion- and dialogue-based style of learning.
It may be due, in part, to his un-likely past. Before he was thrust into the university, Averill made a living as a school bus driver, a tractor driver, handyman, espres-so server, musician and “failed Time-Life book seller.”
“Be open to accident,” he said.According to Carol Naylor, As-
sociate director of Career Devel-opment, it’s a message that is particularly important for Arts students. “An Arts degree is, by definition, flexible,” she said.
Naylor works for Career Ser-vices as part of the Center for Arts Student Services (CASS). She emphasized that, upon grad-uation, it is no harder for an Arts student to find a job than a student from any other faculty. “The challenges differ,” she ad-mitted, “but there’s this myth
that an Arts degree is somehow less employable.”
This “ less-than” mentali-ty echoes the comments with which Averill opened ACE, and a long-held belief that a BA is not a valuable degree. UBC is part of the BC Post-Baccalau-reate Survey, a research initia-tive that tracks post-secondary graduates two and five years out of university.
“The stats show that in Arts, it’s no different,” said Naylor of the 2007 survey. “There are some differences—maybe a lit-tle less average salary two years out—but by five years out that gap isn’t as big.
“One of the questions they ask is ‘To what level is what you’re doing now related?’ For Arts it shows that it is less related, but to me that doesn’t mean less satisfied or less rewarding. Arts students are out-scoring in terms of jobs satisfaction.”
A Maclean’s article dated No-vember 18, 2010 noted a rise in budget cuts to the humani-ties in both the Canada and the US, partly as a way of diverting money to college curriculum and trade schools. Averill called these cutbacks “shortsighted and retrograde” and stressed that the pattern will not follow to UBC. “The increasing focus of this campus is on an Arts ed-ucation that is more real-world, to use a tired phrase.”
In an ACE panel entit led “Why I hire BAs,” the word “ex-perience” was thrown around a number of times. Carol Nay-lor echoed this importance. “I think of that old research term ‘necessary but not suffi-cient.’ The degree is not less than your experience, but with-out that experience, it’s not enough.”
She pointed out that the Fac-ulty offers several ways of facili-tating this experience. Both the Arts Internship and Tri-Men-toring programs exist to pro-vide practical knowledge and guidance within a selected field. While it’s best for students to in-volve themselves in co-curric-ular activities as early as pos-sible, it’s never too late.
“My sense is that students walk around with the feeling that there is a single mistake they can make that will doom their entire future,” Naylor said. “Every small decision you make has the potential to be a career decision.” U
catherine guanContributor
Beer is the sustenance of the masses, or at least, the college masses. But no other faculty can challenge the engineers for their long-standing devotion to and lib-eral consumption of the beverage.
During E-Week, interdepart-mental rivalry heats up in the kitchen. Armed with their favou-rite brew, the engineers show off their culinary chops at “Cook-ing with Beer.” The rules are sim-ple. “You can make anything you want as long as it has a substan-tial amount of beer in it,” said Omid Javadi, the winner of the 2009 cook-off.
“I knew I was a good cook,” said Javadi. “We just wanted to blow ev-erybody away.” His winning en-try was a Guinness Rye Pot Roast.
“Lager would be good for some-thing like beer-battered chicken,” but his advice for novices is that “you can’t go wrong with Guin-ness Rye.” What could be better than beer with a little whiskey?
Javadi’s first attempt at cooking with beer was a perfect disaster. “We used one of those kettles … filled half of it with water and half of it with beer to cook some eggs, and called that our entry.” He ad-mitted, with a rueful laugh, that “the smell of boiling beer stunk up the Cheeze.”
At “Cooking with Beer” at the Cheeze this Friday from 12:00 to 1:30 pm, students can taste some strange and wonderful concoc-tions. Or, you can experiment in your own kitchen. But be sure dou-ble up on the amount of beer. Af-ter all, good chefs always sample their ingredients first. U
At its core, E-Week is an annual cel-ebration of Engineering. But it is also a competition between each department in the faculty for brag-ging rights. Engineers compete in a number of challenges to earn points for their team. We’ve tak-en a slice of some of the most epic competitions and social events E-Week has to offer.
monday
Four Legged Race—Cheeze @ 6pm: Teams of three engineers are bound at the ankles and forced to collect clues from across campus. Glory ensues.
tuesday
Godiva Band March @ 10am: High school band kids get to re-live the good old days and show off their faculty pride with this annual march through campus. This event used to feature a na-ked woman on a horse as an hom-age to an 11th century English noblewoman who rode naked to protest taxation. The practice was called off in 1986 after the mur-der of 14 women at Dawson Col-lege in Montreal.
Chariot Race—Main Mall @ 2pm: Each engineering department de-signs and races a human-powered chariot.
Wednesday
E-Ball Soccer Tournament—Main Mall @ 1pm—Full-contact soccer with a six-foot-tall ball.
thursday
True Engineer—The Cheeze @ 4pm—Teams are given some ba-sic supplies and one hour to en-gineer a device to perform a mys-tery task.
Adding substance to your liquid lunchCulinary tips from the “Cooking With Beer” champ
Arts Career Expo pacifies post-grad anxiety
Arts ≠ Dishwashing. geoff lister Photo illustration/THE UBYSSEY
e-Week EvEnTS
guinness gravy
Directions
1. Place one cup liquid from slow cooker in pot. Add remaining Guinness, bring to a simmer.
2. Saute mushrooms in oil.
3. Mix three tbsp cornstarch with small amount of water.
4. Enjoy the non-Newtonion concoction.
5. Add more water to cornstarch, and then add it to the pot.
6. Mix liquid as mixture thickens.
guinness smashed Potatoes and vegetaBles
• 5 red potatoes• 3 cups liquid from slow cooker• 0.5 kg baby carrots• 1 can cut green beans• ¼ can Guinness• 2 tbsp butter• Salt, pepper, garlic and milk to taste
Directions
1. Remove liquid from slow cook-er, place in pot alone and bring to simmer.
2. Wash and cut potatoes into eighths.
3. Add carrots, green beans and potatoes to liquid.
4. Cook vegetables thoroughly, remove potatoes, and place in a bowl.
5. Add Guinness, milk, salt, pep-per, butter and garlic to potatoes.
6. Mash the shit out of the potatoes.
7. Return carrots/beans/liquid to slow cooker to warm. Serve separately.
sloW cooker guinness toP sirloin roast
•1.5 can beef broth•1 can French Onion soup•½ can Guinness•1 Guinness Rub Sirloin Roast (see below)•1.5 oz Canadian Club rye
Directions
1. Place all liquid in slow cooker.
2. Place roast in center of liquid.
3. Cook on medium for six hours in slow cooker.
guinness ruB sirloin roast
•2 tbsp paprika•1 tsp cayenne pepper•2 tsp thyme•2 tsp rosemary leaves•1 tbsp salt•1 tbsp garlic•2 tsp pepper•1 tsp Guinness•1 tsp rye•1 tbsp olive oil
Directions
1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Mix in wet ingredients.
3. Rub on entire surface of roast.
“The challenges differ, but there’s this myth that an Arts degree is somehow less employable.”carol naylorCAREER SERvICES
10 / u b y s s e y. c a /g a m e s / 2 011 . 01 . 31
PuZZles Provided By bestcrosswords.com. used With Permission.
across 1. Group character6. “Diana” singer10. Iowa city14. Cool!15. Agitate16. Commotion17. Pub perch18. Up and ___!19. First king of Israel20. Uncertainty23. Halogen element27. Bridge positions28. Ladies of Sp.29. Slanted34. Capital city of Yemen36. Difficult question37. Baseball club40. Reticent43. Hot time in Paris44. Vessel45. Carried46. Speaks48. Dweeb49. Pays to play53. Stylish55. Commodities60. Hurler Hershiser61. Observed62. Demote67. Eye layer68. Part of Q.E.D.69. Discourage70. Breather71. Big do72. Long
doWn 1. Nav. officer2. Hanoi holiday3. Monetary unit of Vietnam
4. Siouan speaker5. Gannet6. Bedouin7. Words of denial8. Capital of the Ukraine9. ___ mater10. Baffled11. Haunted house sounds12. Something drawn out13. Mends a shoe21. Cry River22. Ogle23. Point in question24. Praying figure25. Move rhythmically26. Golfer Aoki30. Sudden burst31. Rope used to guide a horse32. Bendable twig, usually of a willow tree33. Delt neighbor35. Surprise attack37. Seizes with teeth38. Declares39. Woman’s one-piece under-garment41. Floor covering42. Accent47. Radical ‘60s org.49. Love affair50. Audacity51. Forest makeup52. Acclaim54. Not hesitant56. Between ports57. Soft ball brand58. Expensive59. A big fan of63. Fuzzy buzzer64. Loss leader?65. Sun talk66. Directional ending
games & ComICS
solution
Submit your comics to our website at ubyssey.ca/volunteer/submit-a-comic.
Utheubyssey.ca
virginie menard |
crossWordPhilosoPhrenic, By rachael freedman
suscomic.com, By michael Bround
saZaemon, By meiki shu
comicmaster, By maria cirstea
Blundergrads, By Phil flickinger (blUndergrads.com)
last ditch effort, By john kroes (lde-online.com)
2011.01.31/ubyssey.ca/opinions/11
opinions do you care? WRITE US A LETTER » [email protected]
The 80s: When Engineers would ransack our office without fear of repercussion. Photo archive/THE UBYSSEY
oPinions
editorialconcerning the engineers
Engineering students are hairy-palmed troglo-dytes with less social intuition than graphing calculators. They make the Computer Science department look like charm school. Engineers wear bright red jackets so that other students can see them coming from a distance and take flight before the smell hits. It’s similar to the way lepers in the Old Testament days were forced to shout “unclean!” whenever in the company of the uninfected. And much like leprosy, the scent of an Engineer at close proximity can cause one’s nose to fall off.
There was a time when printing the kind of libel you just read above in the Editorial section of The Ubyssey would push Engineers—or “Redshirts,”—to acts of revenge. Allan Fotheringham, an editor in the ‘50s who would go on to dominate the back page of Maclean’s, was abducted by members of the faculty for calling Engineers “uncouth louts.” He was chained to a clock in downtown Vancou-ver and had to be rescued by firemen. In the ‘60s, Michael Valpy—a senior writer for the Globe and Mail—was punished for similar crimes by being attached to a pillar in the Engineering building and forced to wear dunce cap. In the ‘70s, current Vancouver Sun writer Mike Sasges was thrown in a pool for criticizing the Engineers.
It’s a time-honoured tradition: we mock the En-gineers for being sexist, greasy-haired, slide-rule-clutching sub-humans. They exact some sort of physical revenge, like abducting head members of our staff or collecting all the issues on cam-pus and burning them. The fact that The Ubys-sey’s Coordinating Editor has yet to be abducted by Engineers this decade—this century, in fact—shows how far their faculty has fallen from its former glory.
Not that we would ever encourage the Engineers to kidnap Justin McElroy (who can be found in The Ubyssey office most days of the week, wears a red NBC jacket, can be habitually seen clutch-ing a bottle of Coke and usually catches the 99 B-Line home from the bus loop). But even if we did expressly suggest that the Engineers do such a thing, we would not fear the repercussions. After all, two years ago, the Engineers couldn’t even manage to suspend a VW bug from the Steel Worker’s Memorial Bridge. Last year, cowed, per-haps, by their previous failure, they didn’t even attempt such an escapade.
You heard us right. They were so scared of failure, they didn’t even show up. Which begs the question: if they cannot manage such a pal-try prank as the public planting of the Forestry beetle, then what do we, the all-powerful media, have to fear from them?
In fact, it is questionable whether most Engi-neers are even capable of reading this editorial. Taking seven classes per term in maths and sci-ences, your average Redshirt does not get much exposure to English literature—or to the compa-ny of human beings capable of using words for the expression of complex thoughts or emotions. The scraps of the English language that UBC En-gineers do manage to pick up during their un-dergrad years primarily come in the form of cat-based internet memes and rejections from mem-bers of the opposite sex.
Engineers should spend this week reflecting on what a sad shade of its former self their facul-ty has become and plan an act of havoc that will regain them a fraction of their departed glory. More likely, though, they’ll just hide in the Cheez (Hey, you’re getting a new social space! And only a decade after Arts and Science students did!) with their cheap beer and tiny population of fe-male students—who are all dating guys in Arts.
Enjoy E-Week, you sissies. U
trevor [email protected]
This last week, anti-government pro-tests have rocked Egypt, leading to the government cutting off Egyptian internet and cell phone use on Thurs-day. As coverage of the events in Egypt continues, literally thousands of ar-ticles have zeroed in on this issue specifically.
From China to Iran to Myanmar, government suppression of commu-nication services has been met with dismay from those of us in Western countries. Quashing freedom of ex-pression seems to strike a direct nerve to most in Canada, but our underly-ing assumption is that usage of the in-ternet here is safe and unrestricted. What is it we value about openness of communication, and are those values going unchallenged?
There are a number of ways, both subtle and direct, in which use of the internet is becoming less open. But here, it isn’t the government that is the direct cause. Proponents of net neutrality, for instance, complain of internet service providers (ISPs) sup-plying preferential access to websites, like Comcast does in the US by not counting access of NBC sites (which it partially owns) towards your data allowance.
The concern is that as trends con-tinue, ISPs may eventually begin to tighten bandwidth control to an extent that sites and applications approved by the company are the only ones ef-fectively worth accessing. At the ex-treme end of the spectrum, certain
sites are locked off altogether: this has already occurred in the past, when Telus blocked subscriber access to a Telecommunications Workers Union website.
More pressingly in the battle for net neutrality than outright censor-ship, however, is that our ability to use the internet may be further sty-mied by the introduction of metering, or usage-based billing (UBB), by ISPs. Essentially, in addition to your basic subscription to broadband it would re-quire you pay extra for every byte you download or upload. Bell Canada, Rog-ers and Shaw are having their plans to switch to this model approved by the CRTC as we speak. Er, write.
Beyond the claims made by some that this is just a money-grabbing scheme, what is the problem with this system? It would hamper our abili-ty to communicate via the internet, of course. Think about the funding-strapped media outlets—The Ubyssey included—whose ability to increase their production of video- and flash-based web content would be hampered by this model.
How many would opt to not both-er at all, leaving Canada in the dust when it comes to the internet? It also affects your ability to access that con-tent. This isn’t just going to affect peo-ple using P2P networks to download films. Think about the kid growing up who wants to watch NOVA or the Discovery Channel online, but whose parents can’t afford that extra bit of bandwidth.
The way we use the internet is gradu-ally shaping our ability to communicate
with it, as well. In a polarizing fea-ture last summer, Wired predicted the death of the “web,” referring specifi-cally to web browsers, as the method through which we use the internet. Al-though web browser usage has contin-ued to rise, as a total portion of web traffic it has been going down steadily since the early 2000s. Now the trend is moving to applications, like the ones on your iPhone.
This isn’t a condemnation of iPhone applications. We at The Ubyssey have a fondness for quite a few. But now, rather than directly choosing the way we communicate with the internet, we are increasingly leaving it up to the people who control our apps to determine where we go. In effect, we are trading away range and ability for ease of use and convenience.
Even our access to those apps is being directed. Normally, iPhone us-ers are only able to install applica-tions which appear on their iTunes web page. And Apple has attempted to resist the legalization of “jailbreak-ing” their iOS as an example of this. Jailbreaking, a process which allows users to switch their phone to other non-approved networks and install applications of their choosing, was recently upheld as a right in the US—much to Apple’s chagrin (in Canada, there still are no laws for or against jailbreaking).
The Egyptian government’s decision to directly suppress access to modes of communication is condemable. How-ever, in light of the uproar over their actions, we should keep in mind what really matters about those rights. U
Letters. We like them. Even when they’re not about the AMS. Especially when they’re not about the AMS. Make ‘em under 300 words and it’s even better. Send them to [email protected]. And Engineers, if you can manage to string together five or six coherent sentences in a row complaining about us,
we promise we’ll print that too. justin mcelroy | [email protected] U theubyssey.ca
Our series of tubes is under attack!
12/ubyssey.ca/our campus/2011.01.31
our campus
josh curran Photo/THE UBYSSEY
justin [email protected]
UBC not only hosted the 2011 Canada West swimming cham-pionships this weekend, they came away victorious.
Both the men’s and women’s swim teams defeated their archrivals from Calgary in the three-day competition. UBC’s Sa-vannah King, who was named Canada West Female Rookie of the Year, finished in first in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4:11:51. The CIS national cham-pionships will take place Febru-ary 24-26 in Calgary. U
