the watch FEBRUARY 2014
EQUALITY LIBERTY and FRATERNITIES IN THE KING’S COMMUNITY
NEW MUSIC | FLOODING | PETITIONS
From the Editors, So, it’s been a busy month here on the picturesque campus of King’s. Well, not so picturesque. You may have noticed the multiple cranes. King’s is, like the Watch, forever under construction and repair. There have been floods and proposed union fee hikes (still subject to appeal by the time we went to print) and frat debate. Oh yeah. We were a part of that last one. Who’d have thought we just had to print a letter by someone else to get our most comments ever. If we’d known that, we’d never have worked so hard. ...Kidding. Behind the scenes, we’ve been getting our ducks in order with our constitution and clarifying our relationship with the KSU. We hope that’ll be settled by the end of the school year. There was supposed to be some love-related content in this issue (y’know, Valentine’s Day). But we are so single and bitter here at the Watch that none of it ended up getting in (or we all had huge deadlines around Valentine’s Day and the issue got pushed back a week, you pick). So, sorry, Amelia. By the time our next issue rolls around, we will be working in tandem with the incoming exec. We will be outgoing. We will cry into beer (or Evan will cry into beer while Pippa is London calling). We hope at least a few of you will read this and say, ‘Hey, I want to be on that upcoming exec.’ That all gets started next month.
the watch VOL. 31 NO. 3 - FEBRUARY 2014 watchmagazine.ca watcheditors@gmail.com TWITTER @kingswatch INSTAGRAM @watchmagz
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Philippa Wolff Evan McIntyre
ONLINE EDITOR
Mackenzie Scrimshaw
CONTRIBUTORS Colleen Earle Madi Haslam Grace Kennedy Tyler Leblanc Sarah MacMillan Erin McDonald Sean Mott MichElle Pressé Paul Rebar Sabina Wex
PUBLISHER
Rachel Ward
TREASURER
Quinn Harrington
PUBLISHING BOARD Alex Bryant Jake Eidinger Adrian Lee Jordan Parker Kelsey Power Fred Vallance-Jones
LAYOUT
Evan McIntyre Philippa Wolff
COPY EDITOR
Grace Kennedy
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jacob Baker-Kretzmar
Until next time... Evan & Pippa P.S. We still want letters to the editors. We’ve had to hear what you think of us through the grapevine. Let’s see it in print.
2 The Watch |February 2014| @kingswatch
We welcome your feedback on each issue. Letters to the editors should be signed. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. The Watch is owned and operated by the students of the University of King’s College.
the watch IN THIS ISSUE Inside King’s 4
Access Denied 10
King’s Briefs 5
Diamonds in the Classroom 12
The Watch takes a tour of The Wayo’s rehearsal space.
They’re a little bit trimmer than boxers but more comfortable than thongs.
Building Acceptance 6
Jessica During circulates a petition to change Nova Scotia’s policies on gender identification.
Thomas McCallum 7
A King’s student releases his first EP.
King’s students begin slow return to residence after Alex Hall flood.
Eli Diamond: once a student, always a student.
Fashion Forward 13
Kayla Fells prepares to showcase her fashions for the first time.
Opinions 14
On Sobey scholarships, FYP petitions, and commuting.
Equality, Liberty & Fraternities 8 Cartoon 15 Greek and King’s communities rocked by fratenity debate.
Because wit can be visual too.
The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 3
INSIDE KING’S BY: EVAN MCINTYRE
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From Left to Right: George Kingston, Charlotte Wilson, Gray Rowan, Mike Fong. The Wayo are a four piece band that met during their Foundation Year at King’s. We got to take a tour of their rehearsal space, and they told us about their gear.
4. Vocal Pedal: I just like having control of my vocal effects rather than the sound guy having control of it,” said Wilson. “Mostly I use reverb and echo.”
1. Drum Kit: “It’s the first kit I ever bought,” said Kingston, “I’m using a 1973 Slingerland snare that I bought for $20 from Kijiji. It’s rare and I’m happy with the way it sounds.”
“I (also) call it the man pedal. I pitch my voice down to sound like a man,” she said, “it’s fun because that’s what I do when I’m rapping sometimes because I get nervouse mostly and I like to play with gender roles.”
2. Saxophone: “I started playing in grade six school bands,” said Wilson, “I always thought it was the coolest because I love soul music.”
5. Akai MPC Sampler: It’s this sort of standard, or classic beatmaking machine,” said Kingston.
“I have a love hate relationship with it. It’s physically demanding and I get cankers all the time, but it sounds nice.” 3. Fender P-Bass: My uncle passed it on to me when I was 13 and I was getting into playing guitar and bass,” said Rowan. “He’s played some great gigs with it. He backed Chuck Berry,” Rowan said, “It was a funny experience for him because (Berry) never toured with a band. He would just play with the house band and assumed they knew his songs.” 4 The Watch |February 2014| @kingswatch
“Everything you put into it has to be done from a floppy disk.” said Kingston, “It’s got this really ‘in your face’, grimey sound.” 6. Suzuki Omnichord: “That’s another Kijiji find,” said Rowan, “It has it’s own drum machine and basslines and this digital strings sound. It can make these cool 8-bitty sounding organ chords” 7. Guitar Pedals: “I like to create atmospheric sounds and make the guitar sound like a keyboard in a sense,” said Fong, “I like getting some really non-analog sounding stuff.”
“I use a diamond tremolo pedal, and a little shim verb, which is based off a 70s spring reverb. I use a two echo pedals as well.” 8. Epiphone Royal Wildcat Guitar: I also use a Fender Telecaster because I like the jangly sounds it can make. 9. Midi Keyboard: “We use Midi keys because it’s an easy way to create and edit sounds,” said Rowan, “used an organ sample to create an eerie sound, you can hear on our Girls Love Beyonce cover.” 10. Brand New Wayo: It’s a compilation of Nigerian disco funk,” said Rowan “We listened to that and really liked it. That was around the time we were trying to think of a name for the band,” said Kingston. 11. Microkorg Synthesizer 12. J-Dilla’s Doughnuts 13. D’Angelo’s Voodoo |w
KING’S BRIEFS.
Masters Money Worries
BY: SABINA WEX
Jordan Parker loved King’s fourth-year investigative journalism class. He even left his job as a copy editor at Brunswick News to return to King’s for his masters in investigative journalism.
receive any more payments for that year after they receive the fall term’s loan.
Wong said via email, “the student has a right to appeal the decision.”
“The reason I left the working world was so I could challenge myself,” he said, “and I think I’m doing exactly that.”
“It does put the onus on the student more to have a plan for their cash flow,” Kings’ registrar Elizabeth Yeo said. On Parker’s application for a loan for the fall/winter terms, he enclosed a letter explaining that King’s only requires tuition to be paid in the summer and fall terms, but he will still be a full-time student in the winter.
As soon as Parker returned from his winter vacation, he called King’s and told them about his situation. They dealt with New Brunswick, and convinced the financial services to reassess Parker for a loan. Parker was originally expecting to receive $8000 for the winter term, but after reassessment, he only received $1200. His rent is $425 per month, plus he has to pay for his other living expenses.
Parker needed loans to complete the program. He had applied and already received the loans for the summer and fall terms, but one December morning as he lay in bed, he received a call from the New Brunswick student financial services. They told him he would not be receiving a loan for the winter term. The masters programs have different structures because they start in June, end the following April, but students only pay tuition for the fall and summer terms. Loan centres can only disperse payments twice per academic year, so they send out loans to masters students at the beginning of the summer term, and halfway through the fall term. The masters students will not
He explained that he needed money not just for tuition, but for rent, internet, transportation, and other living expenses. But by the time New Brunswick student financial services called, he said they had gotten rid of his application and letter. Employment and Social Development Canada spokesperson Pamela Wong said via email that the National Student Loan Centre takes in to account all correspondences from loan recipients. “If a student disagrees with the response regarding his or her application for loan and grant funding or repayment status,”
Parker applied for a bursary from King’s, explaining his circumstance, and received $2500 from the school within a week. With the bursary, loan and salary from his minimum-wage job, Parker can manage for the next four months. “That’s a barrier to learning to begin with, that you’re paying that much in such a short amount of time,” Parker said. “When the [loans centres] could just spread it over three semesters and stop this whole issue.”
|w
King’s graduate Ryan Hemsworth gets Juno nomination On Feb. 4 King’s BJH graduate and Pokémon enthusiast Ryan Hemsworth won a Juno nomination for best electronic album. His debut album, Guilt Trips, is up against A Tribe Called Red, Blue Hawaii, Graze, and Noah Pred. Hemsworth grew up in Halifax and graduated from King’s in 2012. While studying at King’s, he released 3 EP’s and a full length mixtape. “I wasn’t expecting that kind of recognition,” said Hemsworth. “People seem to be enjoying the album but I didn’t think it would get any awards.”
Guilt Trips is laden with video game inspired synths and is punctuated with bassy hip hop drum patterns.
BY: EVAN MCINTYRE
Hemsworth said his next project will likely be an EP, and it will have a more organic sound. “I’ve been going back more and more to stuff I was listening in high school, which is more post rock and just kind of rock music,” he said. “I’ve been playing more guitar and sampling live drums on my music.” Since attending King’s, he’s toured the US, Europe, and Australia, but still misses home. “A lot of these tours I’ve been doing for the past few years have made me be on the road for six weeks at a time,” he said, “there’s not as much time to come back and see family and friends.”|w
The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 5
BUILDING ACCEPTANCE BY: SARAH MACMILLAN
Asher Goldstein signs Jessica Durling’s petition (Photo: Evan McIntyre) King’s student Jessica Durling has started a petition to ask the Nova Scotia government to change the regulations surrounding the change of sex designation on birth certificates of transgender people.
for if you get pulled over for speeding… (new regulations will make) it easier so you’re not discriminated against by changing it. There isn’t any flaw to it.”
Current Nova Scotia regulations require that a person undergo sex reassignment surgery (SRS) in order to have their sex changed on their birth certificate and other legal documents.
In 2012, the guidelines in Ontario were changed, allowing transgender people to have their sex designation changed without undergoing SRS. The guidelines proposed in the petition are based roughly on the new Ontario regulations.
Durling, a first year journalism student and co-president of the King’s P.R.I.D.E society says that such regulations are discriminatory, as not all transgender people wish to undergo surgery, or are able to due to their medical history.
Durling is working with P.R.I.D.E to spread the word and gain signatures. In November, she brought the petition to P.R.I.D.E’s annual screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and gained around 100 signatures.
“Several people seem to share the concern that the current setup for the provincial government for changing the sex designation on your birth certificate is very flawed and in some people’s cases discriminatory, and it should be changed,” says Durling.
The petition has now accumulated over 200 signatures, and Durling says that she is working on finding ways to gain more signatures and awareness, including bringing the petition to various human rights rallies.
Durling explains that the current restrictions affect transgender people in their daily lives. “It says something you aren’t right there blatantly on your ID,” says Durling. “What’s your ID used for? It’s for buying cigarettes, 6 The Watch |February 2014| @kingswatch
Durling says she hopes to send in the petition by the end of this academic year. Emma Kenny, a second year King’s student, supports Durling’s efforts, and plans to help spread the word. “I think it’s really important that all people are given the freedom to self identify,” Kenny explains. Kenny wants the process of changing one’s sex designation to be made easier in order to create a “community where trans* people are accepted and trans* people can feel comfortable.” Kenny says that it is unfair that people are required to carry identification that doesn’t match their identity. “I can’t even imagine how uncomfortable and how horrible that would feel,” says Kenny.
“It’s a King’s thing, but we’re going to see how far we can expand it,” says Durling.
While Durling started the petition, she says that it is an initiative that involves the entire P.R.I.D.E society.
Durling says that she hopes the petition will amass between 1,000 and 2,000 signatures. She plans to send the petition to the Nova Scotia Department of Justice.
“As a society we’re just working together to try to make a place for everyone to be equal,” says Durling. “It’s our job as human beings to help each other out.” |w
While the petition is a work in progress,
Profile: Thomas McCallum
BY: PAUL REBAR
(Photo: Paul Rebar) Thomas McCallum, a textbook picture of a small town Nova Scotian singer-songwriter, prescribes to a certain Woody Guthrie quote: “There are folk singers, and there are people who sing folk songs.” The 23-year-old Religious Studies/Classics major just released his first EP on January 20, partly for personal expression and partly to springboard into a freewheeling musical career. “I’ve been writing songs since I was about fifteen. Started getting better over time, playing in different places. Every now and then I’d get somebody coming up to me asking ‘do you have anything?’ in terms of recording.” “What really inspired [the EP] was, I was working at a church in St. John’s, the Trinity Anglican there, and it was basically my whole life. I realized I needed something outside the church… by that point some of the songs were getting to be so old, I thought it’s best to record them now.” This past summer McCallum contacted New Brunswick’s REM Studios to record what had been kicking around in his head for so long. He got some colleagues together to do background instrumentals too. “You need to have something recorded so that you can send out to people. So you can go play places.” Despite the six-or-so-year development process, where inspiration was gradually pulled off random things, McCallum says most of the songs were written in less than a day. “The way I’ll write a song is that I’ll start thinking about a specific person, and then I’ll just kind of add to that. Things that aren’t necessarily about that person at all, but it’s kind of a caricature of that person.”
“Crocus Song,” for, example was written in Grade 12 after McCallum’s girlfriend broke up with him. “Anybody who had their Grade 12 girlfriend probably thought they were going to be with them forever. Marry them and have a bunch of children and live a perfect life. I have a bunch of people telling me ‘That’s such a happy song’, but not really.” McCallum says if there’s one song absolutely dead-on with nothing exaggerated, it’s “Goodnight,” written while McCallum worked at a church summer camp in the summer of 2012. It was composed late at night in an empty cabin, and he wanted to capture the feeling of loneliness being surrounded by others who don’t understand you. In his case it was a bunch of kids. Being a King’s student, another major influence behind “Goodnight” is the theme of solitude in Pseudo-Dionysus. “It’s really just a John Prine song revamped.” While artists like Prine, Old Man Luedecke and Leonard Cohen are major influences, McCallum says he doesn’t like to subscribe to a specific label beyond singer-songwriter. Despite a huge appreciation for folk, that is. “I guess a goal of mine is to write a true folk song.” McCallum plans on doing just that, taking the next 18 to 24 months after graduation this spring to “really go at music… to write more songs and work with other musicians.” One local artist McCallum admires and ultimately aspires to be like is fellow FYP alumni Nick Everett. “What I’d like is the time and resources to collaborate with other people… I’d just like to have a good solid little group that I can rely on.” |w The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 7
EQUALITY LIBERTY and
FRATERNITIES
IN THE KING’S COMMUNITY BY: GRACE KENNEDY
An hour in council. Sixty-three comments on watchmagazine.ca. Snide remarks. Direct threats. One letter. After a group of women lead by Bethany Hindmarsh submitted a letter to KSU council about King’s-based fraternity Kappa Alpha Jan. 26, people on both sides found themselves under a sometimes uncomfortable spotlight. Conversation was all Hindmarsh had in mind for her letter when she first wrote it. However, many are feeling the heat. Hindmarsh said the women who signed the letter were accused of being “a kind of secret feminist cabal.” The women were unwilling to speak on the record about threats a number of them have also received. “Our guys haven’t been attacked, but it’s definitely been just sort of all around us, this discussion,” Kappa Alpha member Matt Buckman said. “But I think that’s incredibly valuable, and to a certain extent people on campus have a right to be curious, and we’ll be accommodating in answering questions they have, but same time, we are a private organization, we’re also entitled to our privacy.” As well, King’s students in sororities – particularly Omega Pi according to Dalhousie’s Greek Council president Evan Hallward – felt targeted by Hindmarsh’s letter. 8 The Watch |February 2014| @kingswatch
The letter didn’t come as a surprise to the KA, though. “Honestly, I’ve been expecting something like this for a while,” said Buckman. “We’ve had a lot of discussion with people that were uncomfortable with this on campus. A lot of long discussions pertaining to the same things that came out of that letter. I think it’s actually incredibly valuable that it’s out in the open now, and that we can have public discussions with people.”
But in recent months as a junior don in Alex Hall, Hindmarsh has heard and experienced women on campus being threatened, not feeling safe at fraternity parties, being spoken to in a demeaning manner and being excluded, she said.
The Kappa Alpha Society, established in the
The Risk Management Policy for the Kappa Alpha society states it “does not tolerate or condone any form of sexist or sexually abusive behavior on the part of its members, whether physical, mental or emotional” and includes any demeaning actions to either men or women in this definition.
“I think there just needs to be a disassociation between the typical understanding of franternities and what fraternities can actually be.”
“I truly think the fact that women are excluded from that group on its own, that it’s a secret group from which women are excluded, that’s tied to a history of a kind of culture, and history of fraternity life in North America that’s kind of problematic, that in itself is a reason to be concerned,” Hindmarsh said.
- Matt Buckman United States in 1825, was the first college fraternity following structure of initiation, symbolism and chapters. The chapter established at King’s and Dalhousie in 2009 currently has 15 members, composed of mostly King’s students, and meets in an apartment for poetry readings, dinner and drinking.
“Not least because it provides the basis for all of the other, more concrete violations, large and small, mental and otherwise.” However, she said these violations were not indicative of every member in the society, and each person should regarded as an individual – something that members of the Kappa Alpha also seem to agree on. “I’d honestly just ask that everybody sort of judge KA based on the individuals that are in KA. I mean, it’s pretty well known, I think, who’s in it,” Buckman said.
“We’re a pretty small, tiny community – King’s is – we all know each other, we all talk to each other, we’re all friends.” Hindmarsh said her letter primarily focused on the structure and influence of fraternity culture rather than on particular examples from the KA. “The criticism that there weren’t enough concrete examples was surprising, because it was for the sake of the members of the frat that I didn’t offer them,” she said. “A lot of those examples are anecdotal, they’re circumstantial and they’re sensitive.” Hindmarsh said the structure of the fraternity gave certain members “license and reinforcement to engage in the type of behaviours that are ultimately really not helpful to women on this campus.” “The nature of what I see to be the fraternity structure is to reinforce already existing social hierarchies and a lot of ways people flaunt privileges that they already have received in virtue of being cisgendered, heterosexual, largely white males.” Hindmarsh’s views on the structure and perception of fraternities were the focus of much of the discussion surrounding the letter. “I felt they very much, more than anything generalized the Greek system and Greek organizations,” Hallward said. His Greek Council is comprised of members of all fraternities and sororities at King’s and Dalhousie, although notably not Kappa Alpha. “That is, every fraternity, every sorority is like this, like that, which is very much not the case. Even though we work together and collaborate, and have a lot of things in common organizationally, we’re very different, we’re very individual organizations, every individual has its kind of own culture, personality, they have their own set of values, functionality.” Buckman agreed, the letter “accus(ed) the culture, but us(ed) us as an example.” “I don’t think we’re a very good example of the fraternity culture that they’re discussing.” Tara Antle, Omega Pi sorority vice-president, agreed the KA is an unusual fraternity. “My concern about Kappa Alpha is how
everything can be so secret,” Antle said. “I think with groups you really need to be public and semi-transparent about what you’re doing, let people know what they’re getting into. You can’t be exclusive like that.” “We’re as secret as any fraternity aims to be,” Buckman said in response to that statement. “I think most of that understanding comes from the fact that we’re not members of the Greek Council and don’t necessarily associate with other fraternities or sororities as such.” Buckman calls the KA “a bunch of guys that read and drink together.” Their website reflects this description: the KA describes itself as based in “the spirited interaction of intellectual debate.” However, this only attempts to move the target of the conversation, according to Hindmarsh. “When they say, ‘Oh, we’re just a literary society, we’re not a fratty group,’ then it’s actually even more sensitive to suggest that women can’t read literature with you,” she said. “So, when the conversation moves the target in that way, it doesn’t shift out of a misogynistic tone.” The idea of opening up the fraternity to women has been discussed within the KA, according to Buckman, and some of the conversations have “become very heated at times.” “I’d be open to it,” Buckman said, “but it’s not something that can happen with the snap of a finger. It’s going to take a couple years to get the right people on board.” “There’s always going to be resistance to a big amount of change, especially in a society that is all about tradition.” Although Hindmarsh is happy to see the fraternity discussing ways to make it “more just from the inside,” she said this was not her goal. “Ultimately what I want to see is members of the frat leaving it. … I have no interest in shutting them down; that seems like way too much energy for me. And what people do in their free time is their business.” “What I’m interested in is the conversations with our colleagues, where we say ‘You’re involvement in this is probably not a good thing for campus,’ and they listen, and they think about it, and they leave.” |w The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 9
ACCESS DENIED BY: TYLER LEBLANC
Claire O’Neill Sanger packs up her room in a hasty move to the Lord Nelson hotel. (Photo: Jacob Baker-Kretzmar) Arms filled with boxes of holiday goods, journalism student Chengcheng Shen shuffled her way in the front doors of Alex Hall on the evening of Jan. 5 to find her name, among of long list of others, scrawled across a white sheet near the front desk. Referred to her don, Shen was told her room had been flooded and that she should promptly gather her possessions and plod down to the Lord Nelson Hotel, her home for the foreseeable future. Facilities director Alex Doyle said the flood was caused by a burst pipe within the sprinkler system of the fourth floor of the west wing of the building. Water accumulated and seeped through the floors, causing major damage below. “On the fourth floor we’ve started the restorative stage, replacing the drywall, the flooring, that’s going on as we speak,” said Doyle. However, the third floor bore the brunt of the damage, requiring over a week of work just to removed damaged items. “In some areas the water reached six inches, 10 The Watch | February 2014 | @kingswatch
in others a foot and half.” In an email addressed to all displaced students Jan. 13, dean of residence Nicholas Hatt assured students that King’s is trying to remediate the issue as quickly as possible. However, due to the extent of the damages, particularly on the third floor, some students will not be able to move back until mid-February. Wanting to make the best of the situation, Shen cannot help but be a little frustrated. “It’s really not a pleasant thing to come back to on the first day of the semester, they shouldn’t let this happen, it’s not their first winter here.” FYP student Maxime Gordon, who lived on the third floor, is disappointed the repairs are going to take so long and feels a little disconnected because of the 20-minute walk from the hotel to campus. “It could prove to be isolating from the community, that’s the only thing I’m worried about.” Making the trek back and forth to cam-
pus for regular classes, meetings, and both lunch and dinner at Prince Hall has Shen and Gordon wondering when things will get back to normal. “I just really want to get back to residence as soon as possible” said Shen. The day after Alexandra Hall flooded a pipe burst in the Chapel’s vestry, which soaked hand woven linens and antique books. The chapel currently holds its services in the Senior Common Room and the Chaplain’s office. Doyle said he wants to get students back to their rooms, but wants to ensure each floor is 100 per cent dry, so there will be no chance of mold or reduced air quality in the future. Built in 1962, some areas of the building contain small amounts of asbestos, which requires special care be given not only in the removal stage but also during repairs. When questioned about the overall cost of the repairs, Doyle couldn’t give a figure. The total won’t be known until the last student has moved back to her former room.
Addendum On Feb. 1, fourth floor residents moved back into Alex Hall. The floor’s walls were repaired and repainted. Flooring was replaced and electrical work was done. On the same day students living on the first floor were moved to the Lord Nelson because of newfound damages. The second floor received more water damage than was originally indicated. All ceilings and plaster walls will be removed and replaced. Third floor students should be back in Alex Hall by the end of Februrary, once furniture, curtains, and refrigerators are replaced. The Chapel’s vestryfloor’s walls and ceilings have been replaced and refinished. Once painting in the main area is finished, furniture, the altar, and seating will be reinstalled. On Jan. 24, repairs to the Pit’s ceiling began. Insulation between the chapel’s floor and the Pit’s ceiling was soaked during the flood. |w
Left: damages to Alex Hall’s 3rd floor. Right: Vidhya Elango looks at the damages to her room. (Photos: Jacob Baker-Kretzmar)
The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 11
Diamonds in the classroom BY: GRACE KENNEDY
If you happened to enter the KTS Red Room late one Monday evening in the fall, sliding through the heavy doors to seat yourself in a chair partially hidden by curtains, you would find yourself enveloped in Heidegger’s thought. Daniel Brandes, delivering an explanation of Heidegger’s view of art, would be seated at the front of the room with a mug and books on the table before him. You might find yourself next to an attentive student fingering a pen while they listen, or perhaps next to Susan Dodd as she flips through her book on Heidegger. If you were a little braver, you would tiptoe your way to the back of the tiered classroom, sitting down in a chair behind classics professor Eli Diamond, dressed in a grey sweater and holding a drink from Second Cup. “I was immediately delighted,” Brandes said about having Diamond sit in on the fall semester course. “I think very highly of Eli, I think he’s one of the top minds at King’s or Dalhousie, so I’m very gratified to have him in the class, and flattered that he’s interested in the class. So I was overjoyed at the prospect of our doing this together.” Although other professors, such as Dodd and Warren Heiti, have dropped in on classes from time to time, Diamond was the only on to attend nearly the entire course during his parental leave last semester. “It’s been nice to have the class because as much as I love playing tag and hide and go seek all day, it’s also nice to once a week be reconnected to that kind of intellectual work and intellectual discussion,” Diamond said in October.
(Photo: Jacob Baker-Kretzmar) teaching duties often prevent professors from attending lectures and interacting with other areas of expertise, something that both Diamond and Brandes wish to see more of.
occupy us in our own research and in our own work.”
“It will create a shared stock of knowledge and enrich our conversations with one another,” Brandes said about Diamond’s involvement in his course. “We have happy hour in the Foundation Year Program every Friday afternoon, and we talk about the Auditing courses isn’t unheard of in the ac- week gone by, but we rarely have an opporademic community, but administrative and tunity to talk at length about the ideas that
“Outside of this class we can be combative with one another and more playful, but in this class, they’ve been as deferential, as respectful as the students, and questions are posed at the end of the class, the conversation is had after I have finished my lecture. So, I think the students in the class have seen them as other students of Heidegger’s
Although this wasn’t the only academic pursuit Diamond took during the semester – he continued teaching with the Halifax Humanities program, and supplied FYP lectures on The Bacchae and presocratics – it was certainly the most unusual.
12 The Watch | February 2014 | @kingswatch
“The faculty members have been incredibly deferential, even though they’re friends of mine,” he added.
texts.” That is one of the things Diamond enjoyed most about the course. Although part came from the opportunity to engage with contemporary philosophy - as a former contemporary studies student turned classics professor, he said it was “nice to be able to move forward in time” – a large portion was simply the chance to be a student again. “One of the depressing things when you get to start teaching as opposed to being a student is that you never get to take classes anymore,” Diamond said. “I really miss that since I’ve stopped being a student and I’ve started becoming a professional student. In a certain sense you always remain a student, you’re always learning, so just to have this one term opportunity to sit in a class and soak it in – it’s been wonderful.” He said that he tried to do what he asks students to do – learn what the work is saying before criticizing it. Although “fairly suspicious and skeptical of Heidegger”, particularly noting Heidegger’s unorthodox reading of ancient philosophers, he let Brandes lead the class through the process of understanding his philosophy.
“I try not to be too disruptive of things,” Diamond said during his time in the course, “I like to sit back and wait for a pause in the conversation, to make sure I’m not taking the floor from a student, they’re the ones who are actually in the class, so they have the first priority.” However, he still considered himself on the same level as his other students. “I would have expected much more just sheer confusion, but people are pretty experienced in contemporary philosophy, and it’s not their first time thinking through these questions,” Diamond said. “It’s operating at an astonishingly high level, and I don’t feel I’m any further advanced in the conversation than they are.” Now, back to his customary role of professor behind a desk strewn with books and papers, the same feeling remains. “I loved being a student again,” Diamond said. “I mean, I really liked reading something along with someone who’s a real expert. Who’s able to guide you through all the scholarly detail that’s generally in it, so you don’t necessarily have to do all that
work and yet you’re exposed to it.” Though the course primarily revived the contemporary in Diamond’s philosophical diet, it also had an application to his career. He gained techniques that he plans to incorporate into his Plato seminar this term – a seminar that five or six of his fellow classmates from Brandes’ course are also taking. To some, adding work to a semester off seems uninviting. For Diamond, it’s simply what hebargained for. “The idea of it (philosophy) being something that you do when you go to work and then when you don’t have to be a work you’re not doing it, it’s just not the way philosophy works. You’re always thinking about these questions anyway,” he said. “So I think to be thinking about them in a group of very intelligent students with a masterful teacher leading the charge, it’s not work in any way.” |w
Fashion Forward : MICHELLE PRESSÉ BY
For the most part, Kayla Fells’ dorm room on the top floor of Cochran Bay at the University of King’s College looks like your average female student bedroom. Piles of clothes, headbands and bins claim territory on her floor. It’s what’s in those bins and what’s on her bed that makes her, and her room, different. Her bed is draped with Chinese silks and bold coloured pieces of tulle, a lightweight but stiff fabric that consists of netting, most commonly used for veils and ballet tutus. Nineteen hats hang from the ceiling and on the wall, something that she says can add a little something to each outfit. Or hide a bad hair day. Fells is in her third year as a theatre and costume design student at King’s, which has al-
lowed her to pursue her love of fashion and the art of design, something that really sparked her interest when she was 15. In high school, the Yarmouth native competed in beauty pageants, where donning beautiful dresses that sparkled across bold patterns and colours was something she did weekly. She didn’t realize that just a few years later, her love of fashion would grow so much that she would turn into a career.
fashion. The details of the collection are being kept a secret until revealed at the fashion show, but hinted that it consists of formal wear. All of her drawings are hidden in one of her many faded yellow sketchbooks, and the actual designs are being held at the Dal-
housie Costume Studies Studio, which is only open to students in the theatre and costume design program. While prom dresses and evening gowns are her speciality, her ultimate goal is to design wedding gowns. |w
Read the rest at watchmagazine.ca
At 23, Fells is showcasing her eight piece collection, Fantasies in Milan, at the Vaudeville Fashion Show in Halifax on March 15. Approximately six other designers will debut their own collections. The name Fantasies in Milan was inspired by Fells’ appreciation for the Italian fashion capital, although she says that her actual pieces don’t reflect Italian
(Photo: MichElle Pressé) The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 13
Opinions
On the $obey Scholarships BY: SEAN MOTT
King’s, the defiantly liberal 224-year-old university, has come into money. Sobeys has generously donated $2 million to our beloved institution. I think it’s safe to say this qualifies us as rich. And this money isn’t going to build a gold-plated pool in the quad (now there’s a thought…). No, this money is going to help the students. Power to the people! This is wonderful, amazing, spectacular, and every other adjective they’ve used to describe this donation. It is not, however, perfect. The accessibility of the scholarships is my first major concern. On the surface, it seems like a fair deal; a monetary reward for academic and extracurricular excellence with a strong focus on wooing students from the Atlantic provinces. That last part is especially appealing due to the high-level of out-migration in this part of Canada. While the scholarship may appear as a positive outreach to students who cannot attend university, to me it heavily favours the typical upper-middle-class branch of students.
The demand for academic excellence is an understandable and acceptable requirement; as a university, we should want the best and brightest. Even if low-income students seem disproportionately more likely to score lower academically than upper-class students, this is not a requirement that I believe we would want to change. The lack of opportunity for low-income students is a disgusting occurrence but not one that universities need to tackle, at least not on their own. The requirement for extracurricular activities is where this scholarship favours upper-class students. A study by the Center for Advanced Studies in Madrid reveled that upper-class parents spend nine-times as much money on sports, music and extracurricular activities for their children than low-income parents. This means that upper-income students have far more opportunities to meet the extracurricular requirements than low-income students. There are certainly exceptions, undoubtedly, but by and large, this scholarship, well-intention I’m sure, favours wealthy students. My other issue with this scholarship is the open courtship of private business into our university. All over King’s, you can see posters for the Education is a Right campaign. Our KSU has
supported countless protests to support keeping business out of education. But when push comes to shove, who do we turn to? Sobeys, who I am sure are nice people, but they are a corporation. Our KSU, who likes to talk about education separated from business, were all too happy to promote the reveal of the scholarship on Facebook and pose with Donald R. Sobey for a photo-op. Now, I’m not a starry-eyed idealist. I know that our philosophy of “education for all” and “business-free” has to encounter reality eventually. One hand washes the other and all that. I just wish our KSU could be that open with us. I know people will disagree with me on this. I’ve been told that this scholarship will benefit all of us. If King’s boosts its enrolment, its prestige shines all the brighter, which improves the perception of our degrees. I’d be more inclined to agree with this logic if King’s didn’t have one of the best journalism programs is Atlantic Canada and a country-wide respected philosophy program. How much more prestigious can King’s be? I’m not ungrateful for the money. I just think we shouldn’t be blinded by its sheen. |w
On Pondering PetitionsMADI HASLAM BY:
A recent student-initiated petition about the stressful nature of FYP’s schedule has sparked a contentious debate on the King’s campus. Following the winter break, FYP students were required to submit an essay just four days after their return to school. Immediately, they were assigned another, due 10 days later. Many students found the timing to be unreasonable. Lectures relating to certain essay topics were to be given three days prior to the paper’s due date. 112 people signed a petition, asking for a four-day extension. Their appeal was declined. The student protesters love and value their education. They enjoy and appreciate the program, but feel FYP’s stringent deadlines hinder their ability to thrive, while imposing unnecessary emotional stress. They want to challenge themselves and succeed in a curriculum that’s unusually demanding. In their view, more flexible deadlines would not impact the program’s curriculum or compromise their goals of academic success. The commitment to do good work is laudable. Still, in considering the request for an exten-
14 The Watch | February 2014 | @kingswatch
sion, it’s crucial to reflect upon our time at King’s during the last 5 months. The program has been considerably more lenient to us than students in years past. We have had the chance to resubmit our first essay, a practice unheard of in upper years. To alleviate the stress we were collectively feeling about our approaching oral exam, we were granted a week’s extension on our research paper. We had a month over the holidays to write one of our other papers. Guidance and mentorship are readily available to us. Should we choose to submit after the deadline, we are only penalized one third of a grade. There’s also the simple option of exploring essay topics lectured on earlier in the section. Gifted in the art of procrastination, I would love extra time for my essay pursuits as much as the next person. (There’s a certain satisfaction in knowing my cactus will always be perfectly hydrated when the alternative activity is developing a thesis). However, our academic schedule at King’s has already been more forgiving than we could
have anticipated. We should be grateful for the compassion that the administration has shown us throughout the tribulations of Foundation Year Programme, rather than stipulate another exception. The program remains rigorous, yes, but also abundantly rewarding. By meeting what we once believed to be impossible deadlines, we have awakened new capabilities. The program’s relentless stretching of our personal limits has revealed our potential. Is that not the goal of education? This year demands much, but promises a greater return. If this view is obscured for you, as it sometimes is for me in the daze of latenight essay endeavours, I believe it will clear retrospectively. The absurdity of some of FYP’s deadlines are fundamental to its experience, fuelling the jokes made by professors about the program’s special place in Inferno. That said, a serious question remains: If half a class rallies to change the structure of our academic program, when do we acknowledge that its collective stress and anxiety might not be a joking matter? |w
On Commuting
BY: COLLEEN EARLE
We’ve been told over and over that there is no divide in our community between day students and residence students. It’s not true. How can I tell? Residence students who have regrettably been moved to the Lord Nelson due to flooding are complaining they’re disconnected from their community because of a 20-minute walk. Many day students have to commute for an hour or more in one direction, on buses that don’t always run after 7 p.m. or on the weekends or only come every hour after the end of rush hour. This can make it extremely difficult to get anywhere, let alone to campus in a hurry to participate in one of our many impromptu events. Bussing all the way from Dartmouth is a pain. The ride on the 10 or the 54 and the 1 is an hour and a half commute. Minimum. This is, of course, if connections meet up, which they often don’t. My commutes have been as long as three and a half hours. I’m not alone. Second-year Luke Van Horne says it takes him 50 minutes each day to get in from Fall River, and that night events get difficult with the buses ending at 11 p.m.
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First-year Madeline Higgins feels “very isolated from the campus.” She gets up at 6:30 every morning to get to school from Tantallon for 8:30 a.m., and her last bus home leaves at 7:40 p.m. For Laura Jones, in third year, the journey to school requires at least two buses and an hour, and she struggles with mandatory night classes, which often start after buses stop running regularly to Bedford. And that’s when there are buses. Third-year Alex Walker said he was lucky when the buses went on his strike in his first year. His class schedule coincided pretty well with his mum’s work schedule. But if they went on strike now?
friends with were those from my FYP tutorial, and even then only because I worked really hard to get us to meet outside of tutorial times. The fact is, I have friends now who didn’t know I existed in our first year. I feel horrible for students who have been moved into the Nelson. It’s not a very good welcome back present. But if they feel cut off from their community because of a 20-minute walk, I shudder to think of how our local students have felt since day one. |w
“I don’t know what I would do. … That wouldn’t work now. “ Commuting is a part of life for many of our students. It takes hours out of our days that could be spent studying or socializing. It makes it harder for us to integrate ourselves into the “all-inclusive” King’s community; so much so that many of us have far more local friends than we do friends who lived on residence. I am no stranger to our campus. I spend more than eight hours there every day. But the only residence students I really managed to make
BY: ERIN McDONALD
Kappa Alpha, or the Literary Society. February 2014 Reading list: Charles Bukowski’s Women, Norman Mailer’s The Naked Dead, and Philip Roth’s The Breast The Watch | February 2014| @kingswatch 15
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