Smashing desks with Yogi B SINCE 1918 June 11, 2012 | SUMMER VOL. XXIX ISS. 2 U THE UBYSSEY UNIVERSITY VILLAGE The curious history (and uncertain future) of the PADDLE PUSHERS UBC a breeding ground for dragon boat greatness MARKET MANNERS P9 P8 P4 Acadia Park residents evicted P6 P5 Students oppose UBC’s decision to tear down deteriorati`ng townhouses Julia Ostertag (left) looks on as residents of Acadia Courts pack their things. CARBON COMPENSATION UBC paid $2 million to offset 2011 emissions How to get the freshest deals at farmers’ markets
Transcript
Smashing desks with Yogi B SINCE 1918 June 11, 2012 | SUMMER VOL. XXIX ISS. 2
UTHE UBYSSEY
UNIVERSITY VILLAGEThe curious history (and uncertain future) of the
PADDLE PUSHERS
UBC a breeding ground for dragon
boat greatness
MARKETMANNERS
P9
P8
P4
Acadia Park residents evicted
P6
P5
Students oppose UBC’s decision to tear down deteriorati ng townhouses
Julia Ostertag (left) looks on as residents of Acadia Courts pack their things.
CARBON COMPENSATIONUBC paid $2 million to offset 2011 emissions
How to get the freshest deals at farmers’ markets
2 | Page 2 | 06.11.2012
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THE UBYSSEYJune 11, 2012, Summer Volume XXIX, Issue II
LEGALSTAFF
Bryce Warnes, Catherine Guan, David Elop, Jon Chiang, Josh Curran, Tara Martellaro, Virginie Menard, Scott MacDonald, Peter Wojnar, Tanner Bokor, Dominic Lai, Mark-Andre Gessaroli, RJ Reid, Colin Chia, Ming Wong, Collyn Chan, Anthony Poon, Vinicius Cid, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara De Jong, Evan Brow, Zafira Rajan, Lu Zhang
Catherine LaiContributor
There was a period in UBC art his-tory professor Tsao Hsingyuan’s life when an ordinary mango was a source of wonderment and burn-ing curiosity.
She was 11 years old, living with her uncle in Yangchun, China because her parents had been incarcerated by Mao Zedong’s communist regime. Mao was so beloved by an African country that they gave him a basket full of mangoes. “According to the news-paper, he could not finish them all, so he gave mangoes to the Chinese leading class, the workers,” Tsao recalls. “Yangchun received one mango for the coal miners, that’s why this mango was on particular display. It was a huge event.”
She had never seen a mango before, so her sense of curiosity compelled her to visit the mango every day on her way to school. She noticed that it permanently sat in the display case in pristine condition. “How can there be a fruit that didn’t go rotten for days, weeks?”
Tsao recalls her life in China as being filled with such logical inconsistencies. Her father was a college teacher, condemned dur-ing the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957 and imprisoned, although he never actually did anything to upset the government. “He only expressed sympathy to those who
did,” she says.“For the first seven years, I had
no idea I had a father,” she says. “My mother received notice that he was dead.” He was released from the labour camps when she was seven, but he was still considered a black sheep until she was in college. During the years in between, he would be taken away whenever there was politi-cal movement, put in jail for a few months, and released again.
Tsao attributes her sense of curiosity to her genes and the fact that there was very little she was allowed to know in China. “My family had a lot of books, and what you read from books did not rec-oncile with society, with what you saw … You wonder why there was such a big gap.”
Due to political circumstances, schooling was intermittent during the Cultural Revolution. People who were accepted to college had to depend on themselves to receive an education. Tsao recalls sneakily photographing restricted books in the library and secretly studying English from cassettes at night. At school, “some months, we would do nothing but read Mao’s writ-ings, recite them. I could recite his famous essays backwards, forwards.”
In 1989, just as she was finish-ing her year of required labour after her master’s, the student protests broke out at Tiananmen Square. “I was curious. I had to
be involved,” Tsao says. She was witness to the massacre on June 4 and played a role in support-ing the students. Her boss at the time, who was under house arrest, urged her to leave China to study abroad, and she left the country on June 9.
In the United States, Tsao continued to study art history at UC Berkeley and Stanford. When asked about her experience as a Chinese woman, she says that the first time she was referred to as a woman in an academic setting was in the United States, during her first month at Berkeley. “To my big-gest surprise, I was branded in the United States as a woman of colour, two categories I have never heard.”
She says she was never catego-rized as a woman academic in China. “I did well in school all the way and I got my first job as teach-er not because I was a woman, but because they wanted to judge me, always judged me based on my academic activity [and] conduct,” she says. “That’s China. That’s the side of China that you don’t see.”
For Tsao, university education is about teaching students how to ask questions and how to find the answers. Her approach to teach-ing and research recalls her early fascination with Mao’s mysterious mango. “Asking questions is to put forward what you want to know, what you expect to know. If you don’t get a satisfying answer from society, you push forward.” U
A lifelong thirst for knowledge
Our Campus One on one with the people who make UBC
Tsao Hsingyuan demonstrates writing using traditional Chinese calligraphy tools.CATHERINE LAI/THE UBYSSEY
Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to [email protected].
What’s on This week, may we suggest...
SCIENCE >>
TUE12 BIKES >>
POETRY >>
FRI15
HISTORY >>
OUTDOORS>>
Bogmosses and Ancient Ice Mummies: 1–2 p.m. @ Beaty Biodiversity CentreAre you interested in learning more about the unique morphology and anatomy of moss? Professor Emeritus James H. Dickson from the University of Glasgow will explore the history and science behind one of nature’s most unique organisms. Admission is free with registration.
Native Youth Program Student Film Screening: 2–3 p.m. @ Irving K. Barber, Room 182As part of Aboriginal (Un)History Month, 15- to 18-year-olds produced this film about urban aboriginal identity. A brief dis-cussion will follow the film. Free admission.
Purple and Yellow Volunteer Night: 6–9 p.m. @ Bike KitchenDo you have an affinity for bi-cycles? Or are you looking for a new skill to add to the old resume and/or Tumblr? Look no further than volunteer night with the UBC Bike Co-op!
Want to grow an urban garden? A workshop on the “espalier” method of pruning from UBC’s Botanical Gardens promises to help you grow interestingly-shaped fruit trees in a limited amount of space. Fee is $35 for UBC students. Bring gardening gloves and pruning shears.
MON11
WED13
THU14UBC Poetry Slam: 7:30–9:30 p.m. @ Simply French CaféIf you’re looking for something to do this Thursday, look no further than Slam UBC. Enjoy the inspir-ing poetry or take the plunge and compete. Signup at 7:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m. $2 cover.
Espalier: Pruning and Training Fruit Trees: 12–3 p.m. @ UBC Botanical Gardens
“IT NEVER GOT WEIRD ENOUGH FOR ME” -Hunter S. Thompson
Stop by our office in SUB 24. You’ve
been warned.
NewsEditors: Will McDonald + Laura Rodgers
06.11.2012 | 3
Will McDonaldNews Editor
UBC wants to build an affiliated college to bring in more interna-tional students.
Pathways College would be a one-year program to prepare international students for UBC. The university still has to work out many details of the program.
“I’ll say we’re at the dreaming phase, in the sense that everything is still in the air … but we’re also definitely at a phase where we’ve made the decision we are going to pilot something,” said UBC math professor Mark MacLean, who has been involved in the discussions surrounding the program.
The program would be tailored to individual students’ needs, rang-ing from English language skills to core courses that aren’t taught in their indigenous schools. After completing a year at Pathways, suc-cessful students would enter UBC as second-years.
“It brings people who we think are going to do really well at UBC but perhaps don’t have exactly the right background,” said Paul Smith, UBC vice-provost and asso-ciate vice-president of facilities and enrolment.
Smith added that the program would diversify and increase UBC’s international student population, since UBC currently lacks students from areas such as the Philippines, South America and Africa.
“We’re not intent on mining a current pool of applicants so much, although some of that may go on. We’re more interested in pushing into new areas. So that’s the real
impetus behind it,” said Smith.MacLean said the program
would only bring in the brightest international students.
“I think a lot of the colleges that we’ve looked at who are doing this are going deeper in the barrel, if you will,” he said.
“I think we want to avoid that for lots of reasons. Probably num-ber one is they just won’t survive here.”
Pathways is set to cater to inter-national Arts and Science students in its pilot stage, which could begin as early as 2013. But MacLean and Smith said similar programs could also benefit aboriginal students.
Kiran Mahal, AMS VP Academic
and University Affairs, said she can appreciate where the university is coming from, but UBC needs to consult with the AMS to determine if the Pathways students would be AMS members. “We can appreciate that it is very much in the vision stage, but we have to also consider the implications if you’re going to push it forward that fast,” said Mahal.
“And even if it’s a pilot program, 300 students are still 300 students that the AMS has to care about and that UBC has to care about at a level besides what they’re looking at right now.”
Some have criticized UBC’s goal to increase international enrolment
as a money grab. International tuition is not capped by the pro-vincial government and is a large source of funding for UBC.
Maclean met those accusations head-on.
“If it’s only about money, let’s just get out of the game,” said MacLean.
“You can reduce this to ‘The only conversation is about dollars,’ and there’s no question that the International Student Initiative has had a big impact on the univer-sity financially,” he said.
“But I think that with that comes really thinking about how we make use of those resources to make this a strong university.” U
CUPE 116 no longer striking due to new wage proposal
Now that a new wage proposal has been approved, UBC’s service union is no longer on the brink of a strike.
The province just approved UBC’s wage proposals for negotia-tions with CUPE 116, the union that represents service workers at the university.
The two sides will now head back to the bargaining table for the first time since March 8.
“[The strike notice] did really light a fire under the government, be-cause they have quickly approved...the university’s savings plan,” said Colleen Garbe, president of CUPE 116.
UBC leaves Access Copyright in favour of independent office
UBC is going to pay for copyrighted content on its own, but it remains to be seen what this means for stu-dents, staff and faculty.
UBC has rejected a deal to buy licences for copyrighted course con-tent through Access Copyright (AC), a private company based out of Toronto. By rejecting a deal reached by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), UBC sees itself as a trailblazer on the issue, and will set up an in-house copyright office to licence content.
UBC President Stephen Toope said he is confident that the new system will benefit the university.
External review of UBC athletics department complete
An external review of UBC Athletics wants the department to open up to the rest of the university.
The review, which was carried out by UBC, U of T and Western, noted that there is confusion over whether the athletics department is meeting its mandate.
While the review committee praised the program for produc-ing high-calibre athletes, it ques-tioned whether this was of benefit to “students and UBC as a whole.” The committee also noted that “the department has been left largely to its own devices, and [has] had relatively little contact with…senior administration.”
UBC students respond to tuition protests in Quebec
UBC students finally expressed their feelings on the Quebec tuition pro-tests in a solidarity rally downtown at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Hundreds turned out on May 22 at the rally in solidarity with Quebec’s striking students, led by UBC student Gregory Williams.
In a Council meeting on May 23, the UBC AMS also condemned the implementation of Bill 78, an “emer-gency law” that grants Quebec police increased powers to arrest protesters. The AMS passed a motion criticizing Bill 78’s effects on student union au-tonomy. The AMS rejected a motion to donate $500 to a legal defence fund for the protesters in Quebec. U
Laura RodgersNews Editor
The B.C. Liquor Store in the UBC Village is set to close, with a new location to open in Wesbrook Village across from Save-On-Foods.
According to Michelle Paquet, development manager with UBC Properties Trust, the new loca-tion will be 4,800 square feet, and will have a significantly larger inventory than the current Village location.
“It is expected the Wesbrook Village store will be opened late summer,” wrote Vince Cournoyer of the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch in an email. Paquet also estimated that the store could be open by August.
Although Paquet stated that Properties Trust had initially hoped the store would move to Wesbrook Village, Cournoyer wrote that the UBC Village lo-cation did not meet the Liquor Distribution Branch’s sales expectations.
“The Wesbrook Village location is in close proximity to a major grocery store, and additional retail and commercial businesses make this an ideal location for a B.C. Liquor Store,” wrote Cournoyer. He also wrote that the UBC Village store would close as soon as the new store is open.
There was a strong reaction to the change on Twitter. “Boo. [It] was so conveniently located,” wrote Sarah Anderson.
“There goes the liquor store be-ing a short walking distance away,” wrote Jasmine Dhesi.
“I just moved in above it,” wrote Julia Johnson. “I can’t have it move at this important time in my life!”
The Liquor Distribution Branch has confirmed that the hours at the new location will remain the same as those at the current one: 10 a.m.–7 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. on Friday and closed on Sunday. U
Paper U-Pass to become electronic fare card starting next summer
Pathways students would enter UBC as second-year students if they complete the one-year program.ILLUSTRATION INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY
News briefs
Veronika BondarenkoStaff Writer
Next year, expect the U-Pass to change again.
Beginning in summer 2013, the U-Pass will be a Compass elec-tronic fare card that will require students to tap the card next to a sensor whenever they wish to en-ter a bus, SkyTrain or SeaBus.
Students will no longer need to pick up a new U-Pass every month. Instead, the same card will be valid as long its owner is enrolled
at UBC and eligible for the U-Pass program.
According to TransLink’s infor-mation officer Drew Snider, this initiative stems from TransLink’s decision to replace all paper tickets with the electronic Compass Card.
“Our planners are really looking forward to Compass, as the data generated by customer movements will help them manage the transit network more effectively, with a better grasp on where resources are needed most,” said Snider.
According to Snider, the switch
is also expected to fight fare eva-sion. Like the thin plastic U-Passes that had been issued at UBC until last September, the new U-Pass will once again have the passen-ger’s name printed on the front of the card.
Also, the new sensors that will be installed in TransLink’s buses, SkyTrains and SeaBuses will ensure that only those who have paid for their fare are able to get aboard.
Still, some UBC students are concerned that requiring people to
tap their U-Pass next to a sensor will only increase the wait times for express buses such as the 99 B-Line, which already have notori-ously long lines.
“The lineups are going to be even longer and it’s going to take more time to get into a bus,” said third-year Arts student Alvin Chang.
And while both TransLink offi-cials and AMS representatives are confident that the new Compass Card will be an improvement over the current transit system, many
details still need to be worked out, including the price.
“The AMS, along with other student societies and post-sec-ondary institutions, is currently in the process of working with TransLink and the provincial gov-ernment to ensure the new U-Pass remains a great program for stu-dents,” said Warwick.
Students will be able to vote on the renewal referendum, which is required every time the AMS renews its U-Pass contract, in the fall 2012 term. U
UBC to build new college on campus UBC liquor store to move to Wesbrook Place this summer
KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS >>
U-PASS >>
LIQUOR >>
Pathways College aims to bring more international students to UBC
4 | News | 06.11.2012
able to help UBC expand its cur-rent worm-composting program and allow students to manage some of the sites.
But overall, Henderson believes that the incentive provided by
the GHGRA has pushed
UBC in a
more sustainable direction. “Has the carbon tax and the Pacific Carbon Trust offsets that we pay around [greenhouse gas] emis-sions affected [UBC]? I would say absolutely, definitely yes,” said Henderson. “It says the real cost…is actually a lot higher than the market price, so we’ll tax it. And the principles of supply and de-mand say that if we increase the cost, then we will demand less.” U
Grayson ReimContributor
Last year, UBC paid approximately $1.7 million to Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT) to offset its carbon emissions.
This is mandated by the prov-ince’s 2008 Green House Gas Reduction Act (GHGRA), which forces all public institutions to pay a tax on their greenhouse gas emissions at an established rate of $25 per ton. But some critics question the effectiveness of this program, and wonder if other solu-tions might help UBC better reach its sustainability goals.
The GHGRA was designed to grow B.C.’s green economy by of-fering an economic incentive for increased carbon efficiency.
UBC sustainability director Orion Henderson was hesitant to say exactly what effects the GHGRA has had on the university. He thinks that campus sustain-ability projects such as the steam-to-hot-water heating conversion were viewed as more favourable in light of the law. However, he believes UBC still has room for improvement. Henderson also mentioned the work by Hadi Dowlatabadi and Kim Lau, UBC climate researchers, who wrote a critique of B.C.’s carbon offset system in March 2011.
Currently, UBC is required to pay for all emissions the province calls “Scope 1 and “Scope 2,” which include those from power plants and UBC-operated vehicles. But emis-sions considered “Scope 3,” which include those caused by commuting to and from cam-pus, aren’t accounted for by the GHGRA. Dowlatabadi and Lau have suggested altering the GHGRA to allow UBC to offset some of its Scope 1 and 2 emissions with reductions in Scope 3 emissions.
For example, under Dowlatabadi and Lau’s pro-posed scheme, UBC would be able to offset the new emissions caused by increas-ing student housing with the decrease in the commuting emissions due to more stu-dents living on campus.
UBC’s initiative to add 8,000 more beds for students would result in an estimated overall decrease in B.C. emis-sions by 7,700 tons per year, according to Dowlatabadi and Lau. But under the cur-rent law, UBC would actually have to pay for the resulting increase in on-campus carbon emissions at a cost of approxi-mately $145,000 each year. Some wonder if a different ar-rangement might allow UBC to better achieve its sustain-ability goals. Justin Ritchie, AMS sustainability coordi-nator, would prefer that the $1.7 million be spent on more educational programs similar to the ones the AMS runs now, rather than being paid to PCT. “Imagine if we were able to take that over a million dol-lars and use that for students,” said Ritchie.
“Toward education that helps [and] allows people to think critically about the way they interact with the
environment, that allows people to think sustainably and systemi-cally about the way our natural resources flow in and out of our society, and then produce this group of people who are coming through UBC who really get sutainability means,” said Ritchie.
Ritchie suggested the extra funds might be
Laura RodgersNews Editor
After an injustice that occurred 70 years ago, the Japanese-Canadian UBC students of 1942 finally re-ceived their honorary degrees in a ceremony on May 30.
Of the 76 who were honoured, only 22 were still alive and only 10 were able to attend the ceremony. Many of the degrees were accept-ed by children or grandchildren.
The room erupted into thunder-ous applause and cheers each time one of the bright gold-and-scarlet sashes was draped across one of the 10 who were present to receive the degree. The honourees, each in their 80s or 90s, grinned broadly as they were recognized.
“When I go to get my degree, I think I’m going to go berserk,” reflected honorary degree recipi-ent Roy Oshiro on the morning of the ceremony. “I don’t think I’ll be able to contain myself.”
But Oshiro was calmly joyful as he crossed the stage, rais-ing his hands in acknowledg-ment and smiling warmly at all in attendance.
Oshiro, who went on to be-come a missionary after he was interned, was moved by UBC’s long-overdue gesture. “For UBC to say, ‘Here’s the rightful degree you should’ve had…We kicked you out, I’m sorry, come and get your de-gree’—what greater thing is there? I can’t think of one,” said Oshiro.
Honorary degree recipient Geri Shiozaki initially wasn’t sure how to feel when she first heard that she would finally be receiving a UBC degree. “It’s a mixture of excitement and nostalgia, I sup-pose,” said Shiozaki. “It’s a little overwhelming.”
Shiozaki recalled the astonish-ment she felt when she was forced to leave UBC in 1942. “Those days were so full of uncertainty and rumours. We never expected what did happen,” she said. “I was dev-astated. I didn’t think my country, which is a democracy, could do this to me and others. It was very unsettling.”
UBC President Stephen Toope wasn’t shy in acknowledging that UBC should have done more to protest the forcible removal of its Japanese-Canadian students. “They were really committed students who were working very hard and had done nothing to justify this action,” said Toope in a video produced to introduce the ceremony. “The sad thing for this university is that no one stood up in their defence.”
Toope acknowledged the work of Mary Kitagawa of the Greater Vancouver Japanese-Canadian Citizens’ Association, which initially began the push for the degrees in 2008 and was rebuffed until last November.
As UBC Chancellor Sarah Morgan-Silvester made her fi-nal speech after conferring the degrees, her voice wavered with emotion. “It has been my great pleasure, privilege and honour to meet and congratulate each mem-ber of today’s graduating class,” said Silvester. “Above all, please know that UBC is, and will forever be, your university.
“Welcome home.” U
Honorary degrees granted
JAPANESE-CANADIANS >>
The cost of carbonUBC pays almost $2 million to offset greenhouse gas emissions
INDIANA JOEL ILLUSTRATION/THE UBYSSEY
SUSTAINABILITY >>
Imagine if we were able to take over a million dollars and use that for...education that helps people think critically about the way they interact with the environment.Justin Ritchie AMS Sustainability Coordinator
06.11.2012 | News | 5
As market housing looms, student families feel sidelined
Laura RodgersNews Editor
Close to 500 residents of the Acadia Courts townhouses in east campus are packing
their bags. In Febuary, UBC told the students and their families living there that the 40-year-old build-ings will be demolished, and that residents will be relocated into other UBC housing. Despite a peti-tion signed by over 200 frustrated residents, UBC says it will push for-ward with its plans to build market housing on the land.
The Courts are part of the Acadia Park residence, which houses roughly 1,000 people. Students in the area pay modest rent, enjoy a community atmosphere where their children play together, and are somehow able to juggle the demands of academia with raising their families.
Built in the 1960s, the Courts are brick-and-stucco buildings along cozy, tree-lined lanes. They are as-bestos-laden, many have problems with mold and rodents, and tarps dot their failing, leaky roofs. Rather than renovate the residences to fix these problems, UBC has decided to write them off, tear them down, evict the students living there and relocate them to higher-density housing within the Acadia Park neighbourhood.
But even those other residence buildings within Acadia Park aren’t going to be there forever. UBC has designated a significant portion of the Acadia neighbourhood as a future site for “neighbourhood” de-velopment, or market housing. UBC claims that they had no choice but to transfer market housing to this area because of the intense pres-sure from students and the public to keep market housing away from the UBC Farm.
UBC stated that the decision to tear down the ramshackle Courts and push market housing density to the east side of Acadia are separate matters with separate concerns. But student families living in the area see both decisions as emblematic of what they claim is UBC’s disregard for students and affordable housing.
“They’re tearing down the Courts, which are cheap places to live, relatively. It’s $1090 a month, and then the places we’ll move into are $1250 or something. So each time we move, everything is more expensive,” said Acadia resident Julia Ostertag. A UBC PhD student in education, Ostertag lives in the Acadia Courts with her two-year-old son.
“The Courts are disgusting, and they’re full of asbestos and mold, mice and who knows what; they do have to come down. I have no problem with that. I have two lay-ers of tarp on my roof, and they’re done. But they’re going to tear down and put in basically apartment-style housing for families, which is a re-ally different living arrangement.
“They give us $200 for the reloca-tion but it cost me, you know, $400,” said Ostertag. According to Andrew Parr, managing director of UBC Housing and Hospitality Services, the $200 moving allowance given to Courts residents was issued with the expectation that students would move themselves. But Ostertag didn’t think that was a realistic plan for a time-strapped grad student raising a young child.
Ostertag started a petition to ad-dress what she sees as UBC’s lack of concern for Acadia’s residents. The petition calls on UBC to give any students evicted from the Courts new housing at the same price, archive the history of current Acadia residents, ensure that any replacement housing has the same community atmosphere and “re-examine” its plans to move market housing into the Acadia area. At
press time, the petition has over 200 signatures.
“There’s a sense that there’s no real oversight on rent increases, or making it affordable for students. Our [grad student] bursaries stay the same,” added Ostertag. “We came to UBC paying a certain rent and it goes up every year.”
Parr said that UBC needs to con-tinue building more market housing in order to fund any increase in student housing in the future. “We have this opportunity, potentially, to grow to [enough housing for] 50 per cent of the student population ... That takes a huge capital commit-ment,” said Parr. “Hundreds of mil-lions of dollars. And the proceeds from that land use and the market housing that’s developed there is going into an endowment that al-lows us, SHHS, to borrow from, to be able to do this building.”
According to Campus and Community Planning’s communi-cations director, Kera McArthur, when UBC undertook consulta-tions for land use in 2010 and 2011, there was strong student support for transferring the housing density away from the UBC Farm and into the east side of Acadia Park. But McArthur admitted that in its con-sultations, UBC only asked about supporting the density transfer in questions that also gauged support for saving the UBC Farm.
“I mean, I was part of the UBC Farm land use planning process, and we had a lot of criticism around density transfer...and now it gets pitted against the student families,” said Ostertag, who also supported the push to save the UBC Farm back in 2010. As she wasn’t living in Acadia Park at the time, Ostertag said that she didn’t fully realize the compromise students were making in saving the Farm from market housing development.
According to UBC, their plans to fully redevelop the Acadia neigh-bourhood might take up to 15 years. They plan to eventually build new, higher-density student housing on the western part of the area, along with the market housing slated for the eastern portion. McArthur said that two different planning com-mittees composed of stakeholders will decide the fate of the respective locations. She said that the compo-sition of the committees, which will start to work on a plan for the area in November, hasn’t been set yet.
“We’re open. If you don’t like the processes, tell us what ideas you have,” said Lisa Colby, Campus and Community Planning’s direc-tor of policy planning, to a group of Acadia residents at an informa-tion meeting about the relocation. Campus and Community Planning had previously come under fire when a committee on land use in Gage South closed its meetings to the media partway through deliberations.
“Because they haven’t released any more detailed comments as to what their plans for this neighbour-hood are, we don’t know exactly when they’re going to relocate people [into the higher-density student housing planned in the future], or how they’re going to do it,” said Acadia Park resident Ashley Zarbatany.
Overall, Ostertag said that the situation at Acadia isn’t the only thing she hopes UBC will change. “On a big-picture level, I would like governance issues at UBC campus addressed, because I think it’s a flawed process,” said Ostertag. “We don’t have a municipal govern-ment, we don’t have that kind of framework, or elected representa-tives who make decisions. On our board of governors, we have student [reps] who are elected, but it’s not the same as a structure in place to actually represent the people and be transparent.” U
“They’re tearing down the Courts, which are cheap places to live, relatively. It’s $1,090 a month, and then the places we’ll move in to are $1,250 or something. So each time we move, everything is more expensive.”
Julia OstertagAcadia Courts resident
ON THE COVER >>
PHOTOS KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY
Clockwise from top: Julia Ostertag and her family move their household from the Acadia Courts; Tarps dot the Courts’ failing roofs; Mold, asbestos and other issues led UBC to decommission the Courts; Rodent problems are rampant throughout the buildings.
UBC to relocate hundreds of Acadia residents
6 | Feature | 06.11.2012
Katie CoopersmithContributor
WITHIN TWENTY YEARS, THE UNIVERSITY VILLAGE TRANSFORMED from a handful of independent stores to a six-floor complex housing corporate businesses. But new commerce areas like Wesbrook Village have shaken the Village’s role as the campus business centre.
A TALE OF TWO VILLAGESUniversity Wesbrook
Clockwise from top left: Development of Wesbrook Village began in 2007. In May, the BC Liquor Store announced it would be moving to Wesbrook. Bordering Pacific Spirit Park, Wesbrook is located at the south end of campus. Major development of the University Village began in 1999. The University Marketplace provides central housing in the Village. The University Pharmacy first opened at its Village location in 1951. The 2011 completion of the Marketplace introduced corporate businesses to the Village.
06.11.2012 | Feature | 7
McDonald’s, Blenz Coffee, Copiesmart, Suga Sushi. All found in the University
Village, these businesses are com-monplace for UBC students. But just two decades ago, they were nowhere to be seen.
Development to the University Village has transformed the area over the past 20 years, and these dramatic changes have elicited mixed reactions from store own-ers. And with Wesbrook Village emerging as a new business hub on campus, concerns over competition are on the rise again.
The 80,000-square-foot city block at the south entrance to cam-pus, dubbed the University Village, is unlike any other business area at UBC. As the only commercially zoned land within the University Endowment Lands (UEL), the Village provides an alternative to university-owned businesses on campus. With a mix of housing, food, retail and professional servic-es, the Village is now a central busi-ness hub for the 13,000 residents of the UEL and UBC.
But the Village wasn’t always as bustling as it is now.
As the owner of the University Pharmacy since 1987, Chris Linaksita has seen 25 years’ worth of changes to the Village. He re-called the days when more modest establishments were common.
“There used to be a Chevron gas station, which no longer is there. Behind us, there used to be just a two-storey old building with a couple of restaurants and offices.”
The University Pharmacy first opened in 1951, but Linaksita ex-plained it was one of the few stores in the area until the mid-1990s. Even then, development was slow, with mainly independent busi-nesses opening. Establishments that seem indispensable today, like Copiesmart and Discount Textbooks, did not open until 1996 and 1997, respectively.
However, the approach of the 21st
century brought major changes to the area.
In October 1999, The Ubyssey ran an article entitled “Development for the Village.” It reported that proposals had begun for what UBC Campus and Community Planning called “a comprehensive and long-term plan to build a ‘vibrant com-munity ... a pedestrian-oriented commercial centre’” in the Village.
The proposal eventually became the University Marketplace, com-pleted in September 2001. With 108 housing units, the structure was the first major housing project in the Village, while its lower levels became home to businesses like Starbucks, Staples and Rogers.
But in 1999, Village store own-ers felt less than optimistic about the new development. The 1999 Ubyssey article described “mixed reactions from Village merchants and store owners, many of whom are unsure how their businesses will survive.” Sue Wheeler of UBC Unique Hair Design feared that “although the development would bring more business to the area, franchise operations would
mean the demise of many privately owned stores in the Village.”
Eleven years later, Linaksita felt these fears did not play out.
“It’s great,” he said of the University Marketplace. “Brings business, brings people to the area, and of course provides services to the community.” The owners of nearby establishments University Village Restaurant and Copiesmart agreed.
With the Marketplace and the increase in market housing at UBC, Linaksita felt the changing cus-tomer demographics had increased business over his 25 years.
“Whereas we used to deal with probably 75 per cent students and 25 per cent local residents, now we probably see that the local residents component has gone up to about 50 per cent,” he said.
“In the summertime … it used to be absolutely quiet, but now it seems that there is [an] all-year-round kind of business.”
• • •
While concerns over the University Marketplace are long over, the Village may have a new competitor to contend with.
In May, the B.C. Liquor Store an-nounced they would be leaving the Village after nine years. By August 2012, the business will move to Wesbrook Village, citing specific concerns with the Village’s sales potential.
“The UBC Village location has not met our sales expectations,” Tarina Palmer of B.C. Liquor Communications explained in an email.
“The Liquor Distribution Branch looks for potential store locations that are in close proximity to other compatible businesses.”
Development of Wesbrook Village began in 2007. The opening of Save-On-Foods in 2009 estab-lished it as an important business hub on campus — one now deemed more compatible with the Liquor Store.
Increased rent prices in the Village have also impacted its businesses.
“Over the past decade, there have been three steps or increases in the [Liquor Distribution Branch]’s lease at this retail location,” Palmer explained.
Linaksita was quick to sec-ond this. “Yes, it has gone up tremendously.”
Palmer felt the new Wesbrook Village location would offer cus-tomers an improved shopping experience, citing free parking and proximity to other retailers such as Save-On-Foods as advantages not found in the Village.
Linaksita agreed that the draw of Wesbrook Village’s amenities posed a threat.
“Competition-wise, yeah, we used to be just the only [pharmacy] for the longest time. Now there are three pharmacies on campus. There’s Shoppers and Save-On-Foods, which also has a pharmacy inside. So yes, they’re competition,” Linaksita admitted.
However, proponents of the Village argue that it has many
advantages of its own.University Endowment Lands
Manager Marie Engelbert said the very location of the Village pro-motes business.
“Over time it will be for individ-ual businesses to decide where to locate, based on demand,” she said. “Having the University on the UEL Village’s doorstep is a significant factor in shaping the decisions of in-dividual businesses to locate there.”
Linaksita agreed, as he felt Wesbrook Village “is a bit far to walk … for people that are just on a short lunch break and things like that. I don’t know whether that’s going to be enough time for them to visit Wesbrook Village.”
But even more than location, Linaksita argued that quality of ser-vice was the crucial factor for en-suring business. “It all depends on how well we serve the people that do come and want to deal with us.
“We’re surviving because we provide certain extras, like person-al kinds of service … We tend to try to remember our clients by names and things like that.”
But others felt the answer to competition might be found in even more development.
Joe Stott, director of Campus and Community Planning, predicted the Village would eventually receive a renovation to mirror the develop-ment of Wesbrook Village.
“At some point, the north half of the University Village will be ripe for redevelopment, and I would expect it to combine residential with ground-level commercial premises, similar to [the University Marketplace].”
Stott explained the UEL Official Community Plan left the opportu-nity to redevelop 40 per cent of the Village land. According to the plan, the UEL community has expressed desire for a gas station and a gro-cery store in the Village.
Linaksita also saw the potential for further development. “I’m sure there’s going to be maximizing of whatever the commercial zon-ing, whatever the residents allow. There’s still a couple of older build-ings that may potentially get rede-veloped, but I guess it all depends on how the finances work.
“This particular parcel of land, from University Pharmacy to CIBC, that might eventually get redevel-oped and therefore provide more services.”
Despite the B.C. Liquor Store not meeting sales expectations, Linaksita felt other businesses could contend with competition as these two business hubs continue to grow.
“The size of the community has grown to such an extent that of course it will be able to support more than one retailer … Even if there’s two other drugstores on campus, I think we can still survive.”
Stott agreed. “I think they need to coexist, all of these things, and there will be other smaller retail [and] food and convenience out-lets distributed throughout the campus.”
“There’s enough to go around for everyone.” U
University Wesbrook
Clockwise from top left: Development of Wesbrook Village began in 2007. In May, the BC Liquor Store announced it would be moving to Wesbrook. Bordering Pacific Spirit Park, Wesbrook is located at the south end of campus. Major development of the University Village began in 1999. The University Marketplace provides central housing in the Village. The University Pharmacy first opened at its Village location in 1951. The 2011 completion of the Marketplace introduced corporate businesses to the Village.
Editor: CJ Pentland
06.11.2012 | 8Sports+Rec
Zafira RajanStaff Writer
Vancouver’s popular 24th annual Dragon Boat Festival will be held from June 15–17 in False Creek, and it’s safe to say that this event wouldn’t have happened without the influence of UBC. Dragon boat-ing’s roots in Canada were planted by our very own UBC faculty and alumni in the mid-1900s.
Dragon boating is a cultural activity that originated around the same time as the Olympiad in Ancient Greece. However, it has only emerged as an international sport in the past few decades.
Typically, the boat is a slim water vessel crafted from wood, with a dragon head at the front and tail at the back. Twenty paddlers (and one drummer) race the boat, but not for victory or competition; historically, dragon boating brought prosper-ity to the community and united strangers to work towards a com-mon goal. A race is usually held to celebrate the summer solstice and pay homage to the water dragon, believed to be the giver of rain.
Here in Vancouver, it was UBC’s founding dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, Dr. Wah Leung, who brought the dragons to life in Canada.
“It all started because Dr. Wah Leung and others were looking to share traditional Chinese culture at large, so that the community could get beyond the Chinese stereotypes — that they only work hard, study hard and don’t play,” said Adrian Lee, an MBA graduate and UBC 1982 alumnus who is passionate
about the sport. “They wanted to draw the younger generations back into Chinatown.”
With the assistance of alum-nus, Thunderbirds and UBC kayaking and rowing Olympians, they launched the boats during Vancouver’s 100th birthday celebra-tion, a transportation-themed World Expo in 1986. Since then, the number of dragon boats being raced in the city has increased from 30 boats to 150.
One year after the Expo, Lee had a hand in creating one of UBC’s most popular extracurricular activities: Day of the Longboat. Approached by UBC’s intramural sports director in 1987, the two brainstormed ideas to bring new and current UBC students together to have fun — and thus Day of the Longboat was born.
“We would bring our boats down and meet with different student groups to teach them,” said Lee. “I thought it was a wonderful way to share Canadian culture.”
Lee himself got involved in drag-on boating in his late twenties, as he was intrigued by the legend behind the activity.
“During China’s Warring States period, an advisor to the Chinese emperor was maligned and ban-ished due to jealousy amongst the politicians,” Lee explained. “He went into exile and lamented how society would be better if there were honest people. He committed ritualistic suicide by drowning in protest.”
Legend has it that fishermen in their dragon boats unsuccess-fully tried to rescue him. Thus, to
commemorate this folk hero, the fishermen would build these dragon boats and race them every year.
“To me, I couldn’t understand these stories; they were too weird,” Lee said. But he realized how proud the Chinese were of their culture and the interest other UBC faculty had in the sport. Lee helped pioneer dragon boating in Vancouver by organizing the first dragon boating national championships in 1996. After 1996, the sport soon spread across North America and Canada. Currently, teams compete here to go to the “Wimbledon of dragon boating” in Hong Kong.
That same year, Dr. Don McKenzie, one of the founders of the Allan McGavin Sports Medicine Centre, also found dragon boat-ing to be a significant part of his life. His studies on how beneficial dragon boating was for creating up-per body strength in breast cancer survivors prompted him to put together a team called Abreast in a Boat. The idea has gained immense international popularity since then, with what started off as a study of 24 women multiplying into teams across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
“Twelve years later, after many
years of increasing recognition, dragon boating became individu-ally recognized as its own sport when Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008,” Lee said. “It was also featured in Vancouver’s promo-tional videos for the Winter 2010 Olympics.”
What was once a small commu-nity tradition has gained interna-tional recognition and popularity. Without the efforts of UBC alumni and eager Vancouverites, dragon boating may have remained con-fined to Asia and unknown to the rest of the world. U
How Thunderbirds begot dragonsDragon boat racing has UBC to thank for where it is today
Summer does not mean offseason for varsity athletes
Henry LebardContributor
There’s no question that UBC athletes work hard during their seasons. But come the summertime, what happens when they aren’t at-tending practices and being scruti-nized by their coaches?
Some athletes may get lazy, while others train year-round out of sheer determination. Heather MacLean, who will compete as a member of Team Canada at the Summer Olympics in London, is part of the
latter group. It’s not easy to get where she’s at, though. It’s taken her a life-time of training.
“I have been swimming competi-tively since the age of eight at the Etobicoke Swim Club in Toronto,” MacLean said. “My parents took me for swimming lessons before I could even walk.”
MacLean swims year-round, which doesn’t allow for much time off.
“We train 9 to 10 times a week, therefore as soon as we stop exercis-ing for even a few days, we feel out of shape. And there is nothing worse
than feeling out of shape,” she said. She generally takes two weeks off from swimming each year, and dur-ing those two weeks, she is still keep-ing fit by running or lifting weights. This year, however, she’ll take some extra time off, as the Olympics and other events have made for an extra-crowded schedule.
Training isn’t the only thing that an athlete needs to keep in check. Diet is one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, as any nutritionist will tell you. “With the amount we train, we need to take in enough calories to fuel our bodies,” MacLean said.
Multi gold-medalist Olympian Michael Phelps is well-known for his diet of 12,000 calories per day, but MacLean reckons she doesn’t eat quite that much. “We have a nutritionist that helps us with what and when we should eat. As much as we do eat, though, the majority of it is very healthy: lots of fruits, veggies, carbs and protein.”
But even MacLean occasionally has sweet-tooth cravings. “It’s really hard, but I have healthy alterna-tives, like an apple with some peanut butter, or yogurt with some granola, instead of having a chocolate bar.”
It is clear that this dedication is what it takes to be one of the best athletes in the country. U
Summer T-Bird training
Brody HawkinsBaseball
Plays four games a week in a sum-mer league for college baseball play-ers, and lifts weights on off days.
Robert GageMen’s rowing
Rows for a UBC club team with rowers from around the area. “The intensity sometimes increases since you don’t have to worry about classes,” he said.
Rachel RamsdenWomen’s soccerPlays two games and has one practice a week with the UBC team, along with strength and condition-ing training.
Alex KamMen’s rugby
Most of the summer is spent in the weight room trying to gain back the weight that is lost during the regular season. Kam will also be playing for Team Canada this summer.
Heather MacLean proves that offseason training pays off
UBC students carry on the tradition of dragon boat racing with the annual Day of the Longboat. CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY
JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY
TRAINING >>
DRAGON BOATING >>
Bird DroppingsT-Bird hockey player wins gold
Max Grassi scored four goals in the final of the IIHF InLine Hockey Championship, leading Team Canada to the gold medal. He finished as the tournament’s second-leading scorer with 17 points in six games.
Two ’Birds taken in MLB draft
Pitcher David Otterman was tak-en in the 7th round, 245th overall by the Milwaukee Brewers, while infielder Keaton Briscoe was taken in the 24th round by the Boston Red Sox. Otterman has since signed with Milwaukee for a signing bonus of US $125,000.
Women’s ultimate team fin-ishes 11th at nationals
The UBC women’s ultimate frisbee team capped off a strong year, finishing 11th at the USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships. For more on the team, check out the video about them online at ubyssey.ca. U
CultureEditor: Anna Zoria
06.11.2012 | 9
Ting KellyContributor
Maitrayee DhakaContributor
With a glittering English Bay and the North Shore mountains in the background, there were no mere players in Vanier Park on the open-ing night of the Bard on the Beach Festival.
The cast of The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Bard veteran Meg Roe, opened the Shakespeare festival on June 7 to raucous laughter and a standing ovation at the packed Mainstage. The festival has expanded immensely since its debut in 1990, and cast and crew members return year after year. Christopher Gaze, the charming founder and artistic direc-tor of the festival, noted that senior ac-tors often play large and small roles in Bard shows. However, he said, it is the actors’ skill that truly sets them apart, no matter the size of the role.
Abound in disguise, plots and schemes, The Taming of the Shrew was led by spirited interpretations from the cast, particularly Lois Anderson’s Kate, John Murphy’s Petruchio and Kayvon Kelly’s Grumio, Petruchio’s bumbling servant.
The play traces Kate and Petruchio’s relationship through their physical and verbal sparring, while exploring several subplots.
The story of two witty, caustic mis-fits who unexpectedly find a perfect fit with each other drew gasps and giggles from the audience. During Kate’s controversial but impassioned monologue at the end of the play, the audience sat in rapt silence.
Lois Anderson, an experienced actor, writer and director, is a mother of two and a UBC alum with three degrees from the university (BA, BFA, MFA). She insisted that the controver-sial monologue doesn’t weaken Kate’s character.
“People sometimes feel that she has given over to him and is diminished as a result. The shrew has been ‘tamed.’ I
feel quite the opposite. I feel that she has freed herself with his help from a cloying label and that their love is ex-pansive. They are equal and they are a team. And she loves him and wants him to win. And he loves her and wants her to win. I love the challenge of that last speech,” Anderson said.
When asked about her time at UBC, Anderson reminisced about “the Old Auditorium, which has now been torn down” and “the dusty old theatre stu-dios, full of light, always too cold and too hot at the same time.
“The teachers we had then are no longer with the program — some have passed away, others have moved on — but they were masters. And in that cramped little room, we flailed, flew, fell, struggled and laughed [and] learned our craft. One of our teachers, Arne Zaslove, had studied with physi-cal theatre maestro Jacques LeCoq in Paris, and we were extremely for-tunate to apprentice with the LeCoq method, which involves physical timing, focus, mask and clown. John Murphy, who plays Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew to my Kate, also
studied at UBC. We share a language of comic timing and physical lazzi.”
Murphy, whose comic timing and interpretation of Petruchio was ex-cellent, strongly believes in the Bard Festival’s place within Vancouver’s cultural identity.
“You look at the amount of people that come out to this festival every year, tens of thousands, and it proves that this is a city that loves theatre and culture. There is some talk that Vancouver is a cultural wasteland, and I think this [festival] proves it wrong. And it does so, and survives with hardly any government spend-ing,” Murphy said, referring to Gaze’s efforts to secure sponsors and bring in audiences.
“Since I graduated from UBC, I have seen the birth of a strong independent theatre scene in this town, and with that, original work which tours nationally and inter-nationally,” said Anderson. “I see a thriving theatre culture, but I also know that it is very, very difficult for our artists to continue to find funding for their work and afford to live in
this city and raise their families. We multitask, double and triple up work, because those of us that are still here and haven’t left for another province are passionately committed to the theatre in this town,” she said.
It was an opening night that truly belonged to the cast and crew behind Bard. The feeling of camaraderie and celebration was strong, and every member of the festival had nothing but praise for their colleagues.
Anderson summed it up best: “The Bard actors are energetically commit-ted to cracking the human story in these pieces and making sense of the language. The stories, when we can hear them clearly, point our thoughts towards the complexities and com-edies of the human condition. This festival is situated in a gorgeous park. As the sun sets and the geese honk, a clown enters the stage and, with a few bags and a few metaphors, tells you a tale. Or two lovers throw furniture at each other as night starts to creep in and the theatre lights bleed onto the stage.
“Magic happens at that festival.” U
Bard on the Beach brings magic to the stageTHEATRE >>
PHOTO COURTESY OF BARD ON THE BEACH
FOOD >>
Sitting across from Morpheus in a dark room, a table with a cup of coffee is all that separates you. Your reflection in his shaded glasses is curious, timid. In one outstretched hand, he holds a Tim Hortons doughnut; in the other, one from Cartems Donuterie. Which will you choose? Take the Tim Hortons, and you’ll wake up back in a world you already know: the world of me-diocre, mass-produced doughnuts. Take the Cartems doughnut, howev-er, and realize that everything else up until that moment when you took your first bite has been a lie.
Canadians are very familiar with doughnuts. They are a classic part of a somewhat indistinct culinary history, and have been synonymous with retailer Tim Hortons for de-cades. Never one to concede to the status quo, however, Jordan Cash and his team at Cartems Donuterie have challenged this confectionary monopoly by calling into question the quality of their products. No, not through ad campaigns, smear tactics, or anything remotely insidi-ous. It’s simply the superiority of their product that has people in Vancouver talking.
“My dad and I used to eat Tim Hortons doughnuts back when they were made fresh on site, and I loved them,” he explains, emphasizing the past tense “loved.” But it wasn’t fond childhood memories that had Cash thinking about opening a doughnut shop as an adult. Rather, owning a donuterie called Cartems was was a dream he had while teach-ing English in South Korea. And so, after receiving his MBA from UBC, Cartems was born from that dream.
Currently situated in Gastown, Cartems may not be the most con-venient location for UBC students, but Cash and his team are working on changing that. They recently suspended their delivery service due to overwhelming demand, but they have big ideas on the horizon. And in the meantime, they’re well worth the commute.
“I want this to be scalable. I’ve got a business degree and I want to put it to good use,” Cash said. But an MBA can only go so far; the taste of the product itself is the ultimate factor at the end of the day. To that end, Cash stated emphatically, “We will always make our doughnuts in-house.”
The freshness is truly eye-open-ing; many of the ingredients are sourced locally from the Lower Mainland. And with unique flavours like bourbon bacon, Mexican mole and their iconic earl grey doughnut — classic but humble, like the store itself — there’s no shortage of inno-vation or potential at Cartems.
With the cupcake bubble close to bursting, it’s about time something new hit the market. And why not something deliciously Canadian? So next time you find yourself in Gastown, make like Neo and have a Cartems doughnut. But remem-ber, all they’re offering is the truth, nothing more. U
Cartems Donuterie fills the hole in your life
Food with Tyler
McRobbie
Bard on the Beach entered its 23rd season with The Taming of the Shrew.
Ten tips for shopping at farmers’ markets
JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY
To learn more on when your favourite veggies and fruits are in season, check out eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/calendar/. Better yet, print out a handy calen-dar for fridge decor: eatseasonably.co.uk/pdfs/Calendar_A4.pdf.
1 Get there early to get the best available produce. This also applies to meat and fish; the freshest loads arrive in the morning.
Always ask the vendor what’s in season right now. There is a moment during the growing season when each product is at its best and most bountiful.
2
3
Most vendors will only accept cash. Occasionally some larger vendors will have Interac, but it’s best to be prepared.
4 Compare prices between different stands for a simi-lar product, and see which looks better and offers the best price.
5 Find a balance between grop-ing someone’s produce and feeling for perfect ripeness.
6 Don’t be too stingy or expect cheap prices. The purpose of farmers’ markets is to support local farmers, who work hard to provide their community with fresh (and hopefully organic) produce. This comes with extra costs, which are small compared to the ben-efits of supporting farmers’ markets.
7 Don’t be afraid to ask for a taste test of something before deciding to buy it! Vendors like it when you show interest and want to learn more about their products.
8 Make an effort to educate yourself on where your food is coming from by asking lots of questions and reading up on the farms.
9
10
Put your money where it counts for you, whether it’s that special cheese, variety of wine or luscious chocolate. The extra cost is always worth it.
Bring your own reusable bags. Stay green while shopping!
Know your seasons
Check out our Vancouver farmers’ market directory online at www.ubyssey.ca.
More online
OpinionEditor: Jonny Wakefield
06.11.2012 | 10
AMS “too busy” for Quebec-style protest
Slutwalk debates the S-word
At a crime prevention forum in February of last year, an offhand re-mark from Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti set off a move-ment. “I’ve been told I’m not sup-posed to say this,” Sanguinetti told a group of York University students. “However, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”
Perhaps he should have kept his mouth shut. His words of “wisdom” spawned the Slutwalk movement, founded by Toronto feminists tired of women being blamed for being sexu-ally assaulted. The movement quickly spread to other cities. Vancouver activists organized a walk for April 2011. The Slutwalk movement has one goal: to break the cycle of victim blaming.
But the movement has not escaped criticism. One objection remains un-resolved since the first rally, and that’s the use of the word “slut.” Critics have pointed out that attaching the move-ment to the controversial term singles out marginalized groups. The term “slut” is not necessarily empowering.
According to their website, the organizers of Slutwalk NYC made the decision to withdraw from the move-ment because of the implications of the name. Just last month, Slutwalk Vancouver held a gathering at Wise Hall to openly discuss these concerns. Organizers (myself included) wel-comed both critics and supporters for their input on the re-labeling.
Four names were suggested: “Slutwalk,” “End the Shame,” “Yes Means Yes,” and “Shame Stop.” An open poll was put up after the meet-ing on Slutwalk Vancouver’s Facebook page, and a week later, voters decided to keep the original name. Still, half of the attendees at Wise Hall spoke out against reusing the old name.
So, now what?The term should never be used
lightly, but does it warrant boycot-ting a movement that is about fight-ing gendered and sexual violence? The word has done enough harm, and if it succeeds in dividing femi-nists, it would clinch itself another victory. Nothing should distract us from standing in solidarity against the real antagonists of the story: rap-ists and victim-blamers.
It is the provocative nature of the term that has helped issues of gendered violence jump from the pages of Ms. Magazine into the main-stream media. Barbara Peterson, vice president of the Minnesota National Organization for Women, put it bluntly. “If they called it a women’s empowerment march, would the me-dia have paid any attention?”
Sitting on the sidelines is not a wise move in addressing the trivialization of sexual violence. So while the future of Slutwalk’s identity continues to be examined, exposing the problems of rape culture on the streets and in city centres must continue.
The Slutwalk Vancouver 2012 March is scheduled to take place on June 30. Wong is a volunteer organizer.
When I looked at the new AMS preliminary budget, I was quite im-pressed by the breadth and scope of the services that our student union provides. From tutoring and counsel-ling, to bars, restaurants and dental insurance — the AMS is enormous, and it provides invaluable support to every UBC student.
I was prepared to write a column lauding these services. However, a recent article by Brian Platt of the Canadian Press (also a former Ubyssey editor) has given me pause.
Since students took to the streets of Montréal more than 100 days ago, there has been debate over what makes the Quebec student movement more vibrant than its counterparts in the rest of Canada. In Quebec, stu-dent unions are, by and large, politi-cal groups. They don’t run businesses or services. But in the rest of Canada, student unions are hampered by the burden of managing large businesses and providing an array of student services.
When I first dipped my toes in the waters of student government, I was utterly dumbfounded. Here were a bunch of passionate, engaged twenty-somethings talking until midnight about non-discretionary allocations, capital projects, business revenue, referendums, and — the height of te-dium — Robert’s Rules of Order.
It enrages me. Why are they not making an earnest effort to engage the average UBC student? Why are they not aggressively advocating for lower tuition? Why are they not doing
more to mobilize students around university issues like governance and land use, or important civic issues? Why are they just sitting here when so much is so wrong?
The answer is simple: they are too busy. They have to manage an unmanageable organization, and the majority of councillors and execu-tives have only have a year to do it.
I would not for a moment discount AMS services, particularly the food bank, the Sexual Assault Support Centre and peer counseling. These services are crucial for students in times of need. However, we need to take an earnest look at the extent of our commitments, and whether it is advisable to ask UBC to assume some of them.
I imagine there could be a way to maintain these services while improving our capacity to politically mobilize, but this would require a drastic overhaul. But surely there are subtle changes that could alleviate the burden on student representa-tives. Maybe we can move more re-sponsibilities from student executives to permanent staff. Perhaps we could scale down certain commitments, and re-allocate funds to expand lob-bying, engagement and mobilization efforts.
In charting this new course, we should look to the Montréal protests for inspiration. In response to a crippling tuition hike and a hei-nous emergency law, students have sparked the largest act of civil dis-obedience in Canadian history and created an important dialogue about the price of higher education.
It is high time we re-evaluate just what our priorities are as a student union. Have we traded away our
Students deserve the full story on liquor store relocation
Let’s put it plainly. Moving the liquor store to Wesbrook Place is going to be absolutely terrible.
We don’t say this because we’re lushes who work late. (We’re lushes who work late.) A campus service is moving down to Wesbrook Village, which, unlike University Marketplace, is owned and operated by UBC, putting another piece of that shiny planned community together before people actually start moving into it. For the people that can afford to live in that market housing, it will be great. But as usual, the people who get left behind are students who live and study on campus.
Students like liquor! That’s a fact. Whether you’re in residence and re-tiring for the evening, going out after a late class or otherwise planning to have fun on campus, a liquor store is vital, especially with the paucity of bars on campus. Move the liquor store and keep closing time at the ri-diculous 7 p.m., and suddenly anyone looking to fit a beer run in between classes, studying, club events and work will face up to an hour round trip.
The move has a barrel of justifica-tions, ranging for good to suspect. The liquor distribution branch says that they haven’t met sales expecta-tions. But it’s difficult to believe that if they couldn’t sell liquor to students in the heart of campus, they can sell it in an area that’s half construction site and a 30-minute walk from Place Vanier. That makes us wonder if the move is spurred by sales realities, or because they have somehow been convinced that density (a.k.a. expen-sive market housing) is the only way to sustain businesses, which is the mantra of Campus and Community Planning.
Indeed, it’s a win for planners, and it’s a win for whoever moves into Wesbrook Place. But the benefit for the rest of campus seems, well, distant.
New Pathways College risks ghettoizing international students UBC really, really, really loves in-ternational students. They make
the campus more diverse. A higher percentage of international students affects our standings in the all-im-portant university rankings. Oh, and they pay lots and lots of money to come here.
The latest push to get more inter-national students into UBC by any means possible includes building a whole separate college so that international applicants who don’t quite meet admission requirements can come to campus anyway.
Plenty of international UBC applicants are bright, motivated students with demonstrated tal-ent in, say, math, but their English skills aren’t quite good enough to make it through a full year of UBC study. And plenty of students in developing countries have tons of potential, but might not have all the exact prerequisite courses required by UBC because they aren’t attend-ing a pricey North American-style “international school.”
But creating a school-within-a-school exclusively for international also-rans has its problems. For one, by categorically stating that Pathways attendees “won’t be UBC students,” the university is creating a sort of academic ghetto that will likely stigmatize these students and expose them to all manner of scorn from those who “made the cut” into a full first-year program.
Also, it isn’t as if high-poten-tial students who don’t quite meet UBC’s admissions criteria only exist outside of Canada. As the university’s recent move to broad-based admissions soundly demonstrates, high school grades show only part of what a student is capable of. And especially now that standardized provincial exams are a thing of the past in B.C., grades can vary from school to school and they can often be affected by the economic situation of the applicant. UBC is rolling out the Pathways carpet for international students who show strong potential in one area but weaknesses in another, but domes-tic students in the same situation aren’t being afforded similar special treatment.
If UBC is going to pour money and resources into a program that ef-fectively replicates what’s offered by plenty of the community colleges and
lower-ranked universities that dot Metro Vancouver, they should have some very sound reasons to do so. But as long as Pathways is only open to international students, it’s hard to believe that UBC wants to hook them for their academic potential and not just for their money.
Acadia evictions wouldn’t fly under an accountable, elected governmentIf you live in the City of Vancouver and your landlord tries to evict, say, everyone in your building, you have options. While planning staff are generally non-political appointments, elected officials ultimately influence the planning process. If 500 people in a city councillor’s ward were subject to a hasty eviction, inaction could cost them their job.
But as the situation in Acadia Park demonstrates, students who rent from the university are utterly out of luck if they’re told to pack their bags.
Students in the Acadia Court townhouses received notice in February that they were being relo-cated. High density market housing will eventually be built in the area.
Residents are angry. Close to 200 residents signed a petition ask-ing the university to renovate the townhouses, which are falling apart. Ultimately, they want to keep their community together. They don’t want to be moved into high density housing, which will certainly come with higher rents. They want to be consulted about the changes, and they want a bigger moving allowance — which is currently a paltry $200.
Despite this opposition, UBC forged ahead with its plan to bulldoze the residences. They’ve promised — as always — that they will do exten-sive consultations.
It’s our endless editorial refrain: UBC is a city run by people who were never elected. At the end of the day, the only currency that Campus and Community Planning has is that it will consult in good faith — that they’ll listen to concerns and act on them. And we’ve called this into question on numerous occasions. If the residents of Acadia Park were able to vote on how UBC is being run, chances are a few administrators would be looking for new jobs. U
Last WordsParting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues
Perspectives>> Kayi Wong
ColumnistGordon Katic
ILLUSTRATION INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY
06.11.2012 | 11ScenePictures and words on your university experience
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Planning your trek to the relocated liquor store
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Come September, the last-minute beer run to the Village B.C. Liquor Store will be a thing of the past. Last month, the B.C. Liquor Control Board an-
nounced it will move the liquor store deep into South Campus. Students, by and large, are outraged. As one hero put it on Twitter:
@Ubyssey Dear Ubyssey, please change this. I just moved in above it. I can’t have it move at this important time in my life!
Alas, our powers are limited. While we can’t change the province’s mind (well, on this matter, at least), we can give you the tools to cope.
The Ubyssey conducted a highly unscientific study of how the relocation will affect students. Three teams of editors timed how long it takes to walk or bus from vari-ous campus hubs to the new store location at the corner of Wesbrook and Berton Avenue. While the store will be much further from the centre of campus, not everyone is out of luck. The Fraternity Village, for example, is a whole 200 metres closer to the new location. And we still don’t know whether the store will have better selection, so there may be a silver lining. But for the rest of campus, it’s quite a trek. U
Or take the bus from Vanier (22 minutes), Totem (23 minutes), the SUB/bus loop (26 minutes), Gage (9 minutes) or Marine Drive (30 minutes with one transfer).
