Vol 41 issue 23

Arbitration pending as labs resume

MUBASHIR BAWEJA/THE MEDIUM

Unit 1 members ended their strike duties following their vote in favour of binding arbitration last Thursday.

MARIA IQBAL NEWS EDITOR The process of binding arbitration to reach an agreement between Unit 1 members of CUPE 3902 and U of T is set to begin this week following a strike that lasted four weeks.

Last Thursday, Unit 1 members voted overwhelmingly in favour of U of T’s proposal to resolve the dispute over binding arbitration, through an arbitrator selected by the provincial mediator. The vote brought an end to the strike and Unit 1 members returned to work on Friday.

In a phone interview, Unit 1 vicechair Ryan Culpepper told The Medium that the arbitrator has already been appointed and that he has been in contact with CUPE 3902. Union representatives will take part in a conference call with the arbitrator this week to set the timeline for the arbitration process.

Provincial mediator Peter Simpson could not confirm the length of time it would take to reach an agreement, but said the aim is for the dispute to be resolved “as quickly as possible”.

“I doubt it will take months. The goal is to find an arbitrator who is available,” he said.

Culpepper said that after both parties have presented their offers and arguments, the union has been told that the arbitrator would make a decision in less than 30 days.

The new agreement will last for

three years and eight months after the date when the previous agreement expired, April 30, 2014. Culpepper said this means that Unit 1 members would be bargaining again in the next two to three years.

The arbitrator is only responsible for settling “all matters that remain in dispute”, according to a statement by U of T president Meric Gertler, and will decide on a final solution that both CUPE 3902 and U of T will have to accept.

Culpepper said that there are only two items remaining to be resolved: an increase to the guaranteed minimum funding package and tuition relief for Unit 1 members. According to Culpepper, both parties have agreed on including the two items in the new agreement and have also agreed on the amounts for the funding—a minimum funding guarantee of $17,500 in place of the current $15,000 and a tuition rebate that amounts to 50% of domestic tuition.

What remains to be resolved in Unit 1’s view is an adjustment to the structure of the benefits so that they are guaranteed on a per-member basis rather than as a lump sum, because the latter would be worth less for each member if the funded cohort expands.

As previously reported by The Medium, after initially rejecting binding arbitration last Wednesday, the Unit 1 bargaining team sent an offer to U of T introducing per-member guarantees into the agreement. U of T did

not respond to The Medium’s previous request for comment on whether the university intended to respond to the offer. According to Culpepper, U of T rejected the offer the same day.

Asked about the discrepancy between the increased value of the minimum funding package and the poverty line, which was a major concern of Unit 1 members during the strike, Culpepper said that the union intends to continue to fight for funding that reaches the poverty line.

“There was also a sense among many people of trying to realistically assess what could be achieved in a single round of bargaining,” he said, adding that settling on an amount lower than the poverty line “wasn’t an easy decision […] to make”.

As determined in the back to work protocol negotiated between the two parties, Unit 1 members are currently working under the terms of their expired contract. Asked what would happen to Unit 1 members whose work was altered or eliminated due to syllabi changes during the strike, Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T’s director of news & media relations, said that “the university has encouraged all TAs to speak to their supervising instructors as soon as possible about plans for the remainder of the term”.

Culpepper was unable to confirm the number of Unit 1 members who had continued to work during the strike. The Medium was unable to reach U of T in time for comment.

Brighter cleans up

Just one more word

Tune in to tomorrow

In all its turbulence

Classic loss, still hopeful

A slate made up of non-

Maybe some things change,

It’s 2015 and everything’s

The art of keeping your

It’s Rotman vs. the Eagles

incumbent executives

maybe some things stay the

coming up Canada’s First

eyes and ears open. On the

in a familiar showdown.

secures a solid victory.

same, as Brian Fallon sings.

Radio Erindale.

overused, underloved 110.

Game, set, and match.

Medium News, page 2

Medium Opinion, page 6

Medium Arts, page 8

Medium Features, page 12

Medium Sports, page 15

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THE MEDIUM 03.30.2015

UTSU elections show sign of change Ben Coleman and his slate take all executive seats over incumbent slate

ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM

Voting took place from Tuesday to Thursday last week, and unofficial results were released on Saturday.

NICOLE DANESI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Brighter U of T has swept the executive board, a historically unusual outcome in which a slate not considered incumbent has overturned its rival.

The unofficial election results, initially to be released today, were unexpectedly released Saturday evening declaring Brighter U of T’s win over Change U of T. The slate headed up by Ben Coleman defeated Change and its presidential candidate Cameron Wathey, current VP internal & services, by 300–800 votes each, representing about 55% of ballots cast.

The winners of the board of directors were divided between Brighter and Change. The New College elected representatives are two from Change and one from Brighter; St. Michael’s College is two Brighter and one Change; an independent and a Brighter won Victoria College; and one Change and two Brighter candidates will represent Woodsworth.

Over 6,300 ballots were cast online and in person over the threeday voting period from last Tuesday to Thursday.

Two days before the voting period, both Brighter U of T and Change U of T were given demerit points by Rita Khalayi, the election’s chief returning officer, for separate violations.

Issued on March 22, each candidate on the Brighter U of T roster was given three demerit points following a complaint and investigation by the CRO of “‘bullying, harassing, damaging, and libellous’ content and comments on Facebook towards presidential candidate Cameron Wathey”.

The charges further claim that Brighter U of T took part in “using slanderous language describing Mr. Wathey as sexist and misogynistic” and “falsely representing his online presence”.

It is unknown who made these statements or their exact nature.

According to Coleman, Brighter has since appealed the CRO’s ruling and as of press time, a final decision had yet to be made.

“We tried to run a positive campaign based on experience and ideas,” said Coleman.

Mum on specifics, Coleman informed The Medium that the violations “resulted from multiple Facebook posts, from multiple individuals who were not candidates, but who fell under the ‘non arm’slength party‘ rule in the Elections Procedure Code”.

In a statement issued to The Medium shortly before the unofficial election results were released, Wathey addressed the matter.

“I hope that all of our efforts to push a message of putting students and education first was enough to counter the harassment and slander faced by the members of my

team,” said Wathey.

In another ruling issued on March 22, Change was found to have breached the Elections Procedure Code due to having claimed certain victories.

According to Coleman, Nicholas Grant filed the complaint against rival slate Change due to what Coleman describes as Grant’s “firsthand knowledge of the work done on many of these issues”, due to his current position on the UTSU board of directors.

Of the 12 victories Change U of T claimed and Grant disputed, two claims were determined to be untruthful, and due to the ruling, Slobodian was charged three demerit points.

According to the online Elections Notice Board on the UTSU website, the CRO determined that the language used on Change U of T’s website “implies that members of the Change U of T team were involved in provincial policy creation” for the change in the provincial government’s flat fee policy.

The notice board also notes that the CRO declared that were was “insufficient evidence for the Change U of T team to claim that their members were involved in reinvigorating the ‘End the Ban’ campaign” as claimed on its website.

Coleman also commented on the issue.

“I don’t really think I’m in the best position to determine what’s

fair,” said Coleman when asked if he believed it was unfair of Change to declare collective union victories as part of their campaign.

“We believed it was most helpful to demonstrate the work a candidate had done on an issue. That way, students can decide for themselves how much each of us contributed to a cause and how well we would perform if elected.”

According to Coleman, a “large presence of campaigners from other schools” were on hand campaigning for Change U of T and cited as a challenge for his slate.

Currently, the EPC does not prevent a slate from using outsiders to assist campaigning. In a statement issued to The Medium prior to the release of the unofficial election results on Saturday evening, Wathey addressed the claims.

“Both Change U of T and Brighter U of T had support from non-U of T students,” said Wathey.

“In our case, friends from Ryerson and York campaigned for us and Brighter U of T had support from students from Ryerson and the University of Manitoba on the ground.”

Wathey further alleged in his statement that Brighter also received support from political parties, a claim Coleman denies.

“Brighter U of T received no support of any fashion, financial or otherwise, from the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties, nor did we receive endorsement

from any party-affiliated clubs at U of T,” said Coleman, who also addressed Wathey’s claim alleging both slates benefited from assistance provided by non-U of T students.

“I expressly told members of our team that I did not want non-U of T students campaigning, as I believe it would be hypocritical,” said Coleman, who identified a total of three U of T graduates involved in their campaign, and dismissed the involvement of any Manitoba students.

According to Coleman, one alumnus was involved with campaigning, one assisted the slate in filing appeals and scrutineering, and a third U of T alumnus also acted as a scrutineer.

Coleman also named Geoff Logan, a volunteer on the recent victorious Ryerson student union slate, who “spent about five hours informally giving advice to various members of our team”.

An unnamed Brighter source also disclosed to The Medium that election scrutineers were unable to overlook the online ballot count.

The Varsity reported that scrutineers were able to overlook the tallying of both paper and online ballots last year.

As of press time, the CRO did not respond to confirm or deny this claim.

The unofficial results are to be ratified on Monday afternoon.

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS» 3

Students concerned in aftermath of strike UTMSU commission meeting focuses on strike’s impacts on students and their courses MENNA ELNAKA ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR WITH NOTES FROM MARIA IQBAL NEWS EDITOR Last Friday, students gathered with UTMSU executives for a commission meeting to share their experiences with the strike and discuss ways to voice their concerns to administration.

Students discussed possible rallies and collective emails to the administration regarding disrupted labs, tutorials, and classes.

Ebi Agbeyegbe, current UTMSU VP external and next year’s president, said UTMSU has been talking to students about the strike’s impact on their studies. Students were worried about graduating on time and did not know whom to approach for the right information.

According to U of T’s director of news and media relations Althea Blackburn-Evans, “five to six percent of courses across the three campuses were suspended during the strike”.

This is not including the number of courses whose labs and tutorials were cancelled.

Complaints raised by the students at the meeting included lab tests being held despite labs being cancelled during the strike. A student said that his labs for BIO153 were cancelled, yet students are being asked to write a lab test worth 15%.

CHRISTY TAM/THE MEDIUM

Students shared their concerns at the UTMSU commission meeting last Friday.

Another biology student talked about a project carried out for the duration of the full-year course but for which no instructions were given for the month-long strike, and now that Unit 1 is back, the class is expected to still complete it.

Other students talked about being left with no option but to request a late withdrawal from a course, only to find out later that the administration announced that the date to select Credit/ No-Credit had been extended.

According to the FAQ on the UTM’s Registrar’s website, if the late withdrawal request was done between March 9 and 23 for a winter term course, a student may petition to

change it to CR/NCR through the Registrar’s Office by April 6.

Students in Y courses can also submit a petition to withdraw from a course without academic penalty or to select or cancel CR/NCR for a course.

The registrar also notes that CR/ NCR courses will be accepted for program requirements. Extension dates for S courses are April 6 to drop courses from the academic record, and to select CR/NCR without counting towards a student’s two-credit maximum for CR/NCR courses, and April 12 for late withdrawal, without counting towards the maximum three credits allowed.

First-year students however will

have to reach their own department to check whether they will accept the CR/ NCR option for courses required for entry into Type 2 and 3 Subject POSts, which have specific course and grade/ GPA requirements.

Upper-year students at the meeting expressed their dissatisfaction with the options for first-year students, saying that the first-years usually need more guidance than the upper-year students.

The Medium spoke to UTM registrar Diane Crocker about the policies.

According to Crocker, the guidelines for first-year students are in place to allow them to consider carefully their decisions about their courses.

Crocker was unable to confirm whether any cases existed of courses where students would be unable to receive a final grade, saying that that information would not be available until April 12.

Asked whether students denied entry into Type 2 and 3 subject POSts due to low grades resulting from the strike would be able to retake courses without financial penalty, Crocker said she did not imagine that such a situation would obtain.

She added that there would be a meeting with departments, deans, and chairs on Monday to discuss issues related to the strike.

Crocker said she will be meeting with students in the rotunda of the Innovation Complex next week to help advise students affected by the strike.

She added that the Registrar’s Office will be open extra hours so students can get advice about their individual cases. The registrar’s office is scheduled to be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Wednesday.

One student raised the point that in the Department of Political Science, tutorials are the main means, more than lectures, to understand the course material; she had two tutorials cancelled, did not get her essay mark back, and will still have to submit a final essay and write the final exam.

Courses continued on page 4

More than a beauty pageant Sneak preview: the essay-writing service ANDREEA MIHAI ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR

FACEBOOK.COM/PAGES/ASMA-H-MISS-WORLD-CANADA-2015-DELEGATE/PHOTO

UTM student Asma Hassan is running for Miss World Canada.

MARIUM FAISAL STAFF WRITER A UTM student is competing for Miss World Canada, the preliminary competition leading to the Miss World pageant.

Asma (Zohal) Hassan is an AfghanCanadian undergraduate student at UTM who is pursuing a double major in Art History and English.

“My main objective in life is to be able to assist those who lack these fundamental opportunities [peace, security, education] and are going through similar challenges in life,” she said.

Born in the midst of a civil war, Hassan grew up in a family that went through poverty, homelessness, and social insecurity before moving to Canada.

Due to its global platform, Hassan believes that Miss World Canada will “empower [her] to achieve [her] goals and establish even bigger projects in the future [...] to make a difference in people’s lives”.

Miss World Canada is closely associated with the charity Beauty with a Purpose. The pageant’s website says it allows delegates to develop leadership skills by hosting fundraisers through its partnerships. Hassan and the other 2015 delegates are working with a charity called Variety, which aims to help children with special needs.

Hassan said she feels privileged and believes others shouldn’t have to fight for basic necessities such as security, education, and shelter.

She also said she wants to put the spotlight on Afghanistan.

“When people hear about Afghanistan, all they can think about is war and poverty, but that isn’t the [essence] of Afghanistan and it has so much more to offer,” she said.

Hassan said she faces many challenges due to prejudice against her heritage. Being a Muslim Afghan woman, Hassan receives mixed comments on her Facebook page.

“There’s a group of Muslims and Afghans who are like that [extremists]

and then there’s the really supportive Muslims and Afghans, and that includes my family,” she said.

Hassan also expressed her dislike for negative views toward beauty pageants, and said that it has affected fundraisers that she runs for Variety, with people have telling her that that it is ridiculous to raise money in the name of a beauty pageant.

“People forget that Miss World pageant isn’t just a beauty pageant. We’ve raised millions of pounds for charity and so many of the delegates are beautiful, intelligent woman,” said Hassan.

Last year’s Miss World Canada was awarded to a fourth-year medical student whom Hassan believes sets an example. “Miss World is not some silly pageant; it’s an important institute for humanitarian causes. Miss World Canada 2014 would not have delayed her studies […] if the pageant was […] silly,” Hassan said.

Voting is currently underway for Miss World Canada. The winner will be crowned in May.

I glance over my shoulder. The man in front of me approaches a teller.

“I can help who’s next,” says the bank teller at the end of the counter. Our eyes meet. I noticed with relief that her station is located closest to the exit.

“Hi, how are you?” My voice trembles. Act normal, I remind myself.

“I’m good, thanks. How can I help you?”

“If I pay another party with just their account number and branch number, can I still get a receipt for the transaction?”

“Mhm,” she says, nodding.

“I’d like to pay $110 to this account.” I stretch out a sticky note with numbers.

She takes it. Her fingers fly over the keyboard. She stares at the screen.

“What’s the name of the party you want to pay to?”

Oh, no. I hadn’t expected this.

“Do you need the name?”

“Well, I have to make sure the deposit’s going to the right account.”

“Right, uh, I don’t really remember…”

I flash her a sheepish smile. I glance down at the counter and stare at the pen chained to the

counter. What should I say? “ I think it was something like... e-homework?”

Her eyebrows lift a fraction and the corners of her lips twitch up.

“Oh, okay,” she says. “I see from what you’ve told me it’s the right account.”

It was? “If I may ask, what name do they go by?”

“The name has tutoring in it,” she says.

Tutoring? So that’s how essaywriting services get around the legal stuff.

“How much did you want to deposit?” “$110 cash.” I stick out the crisp bills.

Shadows crept on the sidewalk when I stepped out of the bank.

I pulled out the business card. It was the kind found sprinkled on desks in the library, tables in the cafeteria, perched on windshields in the parking lot. “We can write your essays—and you won’t get in trouble for it!”

I’d email them back to let them know that the transaction had gone through. If I sent them the instructions that night, would they deliver the assignment by the deadline?

Read Andreea Mihai’s full investigation into essay-writing services and plagiarism at university in The Medium’s upcoming magazine.

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«NEWS

THE MEDIUM 03.30.2015

»WHAT TOPICS SHOULDTHE

MEDIUM COVER IN THE FUTURE?

Hari Somaskantha 3rd year, bio

Nancy Baltaji 4th year, CCIT

Affordability of food on campus.

Sexual harassment—it has many forms and not enough light is shed on it.

Parnika Celly 1st year, psych

Jordan D’Souza 1st year, life sci

More transparency about where our money is going and how that’s decided.

UTM’s high standards that cause them to bump up grades.

Club funds released Student groups notified of funding after long delays

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Many student groups share space in the Student Centre.

NICOLE DANESI ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

nancial paperwork by the January deadline were delayed in receiving their funding since all disbursements are required to be collectively approved by the UTMSU board of directors.

According to UTM Debating Club president Muhammad Talha Mahmood, the debating club was

dium the delay in funding caused him to pay out of his pocket to fund various club expenses, and is expecting to use the second instalment to reimburse the expenses he incurred while waiting for additional funding.

Unlike the Debating Club, Maha Khan, president of the UTM Muslim Students’ Association, told The Medium that the MSA did not face difficulties hosting club events or activities while waiting for their remaining funding.

Ray Khan, president of ICCIT Council, informed The Medium the council received 40% of their funding in early February.

According to Otello-DeLuca, ICCIT Council is issued funding differently as a UTMSU society, rather than a UTMSU club, which was why there was a discrepancy between the disbursement dates for the council over clubs.

Otello-DeLuca told The Medium that UTMSU will consider moving the audit submission deadline to early January next year to circumvent similar delays.

An international student said she paid around $3,600 for each class and that, because of the strike, she would have to submit assignments during exam period. She felt she was “not taught anything”.

Guest speaker Rhon Teruelle, a Unit 1 member who had been on strike, suggested pressuring the administration and requesting reimbursements for the affected courses.

He also said that contacting the media was a form of pressuring the administration.

Additionally, students suggested organizing a rally this week, a walkout in front of the Registrar’s Office, and “making noise” at the exam jams.

Another point that Teruelle

brought up was that the contract that will be determined by the arbitrator will end in three years. According to Teruelle, if Unit 1 members’ demands are not met through the new contract, there could be another strike once the contract expires.

Flora Ward, a sessional lecturer in Unit 3 from the Department of Visual Studies, said that many of her unit’s members wanted to reject their own agreement that was proposed, but were worried about the pay they’d lose as a result of a strike.

Teruelle said that what York did with the strike by putting classes on hold was better than the actions U of T took.

One student disagreed, arguing that not having a full disruption was better in the end.

The second instalment of UTMSU club funding has been dispersed following unexpected delays.

Late last week, UTMSU notified audit-approved clubs that a second instalment cheque had been issued to the groups.

As of last Wednesday, several clubs told The Medium that they had yet to receive the second instalment of their funding.

According to Francesco Otello-DeLuca, UTMSU VP campus life, club funding was expected to be dispersed following Reading Week, but was delayed due to several clubs failing to submit their financial paperwork by the late January deadline.

Clubs receive 70% of their funding in the first term of the academic year. Clubs are then required to submit organizational finances to be audited before receiving the remaining 30% of their promised UTMSU funding.

According to Otello-DeLuca, even clubs who submitted their fi-

Student strike protests austerity measures in Quebec

Canadians browse more than their southern neighbours

Ontario Sunshine List tops 100,000 people for the first time

Nigerian elections continue despite violence

Quebec inmate charged in plot to murder his own family

Student protestors took to the streets in Quebec as part of a student strike held last Monday. The strike was in protest of austerity measures brought forth by the Quebec premier Philippe Couillard, who hopes to eliminate the government’s deficit. Over 100,000 demonstrators took part.

Canadians spend more time online than Americans and Britons, according to a recent study. Performed by comScore Canada, a firm that analyses changes in Internet habits, the study found that Canadians spend about 36.3 hours online on average every month. Americans were found to spend 35.2 hours online, while British citizens spend 33 hours.

Taxpayers in Ontario have funded the salaries of over 100,000 people on this year’s “sunshine list”. The list, which features the names of those who earned six-figure salaries or higher, was released on March 26. This is the first time the members on the list tops 100,000. Over 3,100 are from the University of Toronto.

Elections are continuing to move ahead in Nigeria in spite of terrorist attacks and technical problems. Polling stations were reportedly attacked

by Boko Haram members, who also killed two individuals working for the elections. Technological issues also prevented voters from casting ballots on Saturday.

A prisoner in Quebec is being charged following accusations that he offered bribes to fellow inmates to murder his family. The prisoner allegedly told the inmates that he was proceeding with a divorce and would obtain $200,000 through life insurance.

The inmates reported the attempted bribe to prison officials.

Source: StudentUnion.ca

Source: eCanadaNow

Source: Toronto Star

Source: CTV News

Source: Brantford Expositor

Registrar extends hours Courses continued from page 3

As of last Wednesday, several groups told The Medium that they had yet to receive their second instalment, which accounts for 30% of their funding. notified that their financial audit had been approved on March 2.

Mahmood told The Medium the delay did not exclusively prevent the club from organizing events, but said that the club did not receive enough funding in general.

Mahmood also told The Me-

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM NEWS» 5

HR programs to close

March 19, 10:30 a.m.

Controlled Drugs & Substances Act Campus Police investigated the smell of marijuana in the Student Centre.

MAYDA ALKHALDI/THE MEDIUM

The Academic Affairs Committee voted to close two human resource programs at UTM. MENNA ELNAKA ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR The Academic Affairs Committee passed a recommendation last week to close the human resources specialist and human resources and industrial relations major at UTM. According to the management department, because the human resources specialist program, which leads to a bachelor of commerce, has not served UTM students well and the labour market has changed. For these reasons, the specialist program is to close as of August 30, 2020.

Students that are already enrolled in the program will be able to complete it.

As for the human resources and industrial relations major offered by the Department of Economics, it is to be closed as of August 30, 2017.

Amy Mullin, UTM VP academics and dean, said that the number of students in the human resources

program has been low.

The program closure is also a response to changes in the certification requirements for careers.

“The closure of the human resources specialist program will avoid redundancy in program offerings,” said professor Louis Florence, director of undergraduate programs for the Department of Management.

A newly approved human resource management and industrial relations stream of the management specialist program will be introduced instead in September. The HRMIR will lead to a bachelor of business administration.

The HRMIR is supposed to give students a better chance at meeting the professional certification of the Human Resource Professional Association.

The Human Resources specialist was “administratively suspended”— meaning it stopped accepting new students—on July 1, 2014, and the

HRIR major program was suspended on August 30, 2012.

The Department of Economics supported the closure of the HR program, and the departments of management, history, and sociology supported the closure of the HRIR program. Notices about the program closures were sent to students at all three campuses.

The closure will not affect any other programs, including those in economics, nor the other optional courses offered for this program, such as sociology and history.

The other four specialist programs offered by the management department that also lead to a bachelor of commerce—commerce, finance, accounting, and marketing—will not be affected either.

The AAC meeting was also supposed to feature a visit from President Meric Gertler on his three priorities for U of T, but Gertler cancelled.

March 19, 1:55 p.m.

Theft under $5,000 A student reported the theft of clothing from a secured locker inside the changeroom at the Recreation, Athletics, and Wellness Centre.

March 20, 7:05 p.m.

Personal Safety Concern A female student reported an unwanted encounter with a male who is not known to her. Personal safety tips and resources were provided.

March 23, 12:50 p.m.

Mischief: Graffiti Campus Police investigated graffiti found in a stairwell in the CCT.

March 20, 4:24 a.m.

Impaired Driving Campus Police investigated an impaired driver. He was arrested, charged, and held for a bail hearing.

March 24, 10:30 a.m.

Motor Vehicle Accident A minor motor vehicle collision occurred in the CCT garage. There were no injuries.

March 20, 5:36 a.m.

Mischief Campus Police investigated a report of people climbing onto a rooftop of a building. The persons were gone upon arrival.

March 25, 2:30 p.m.

Fraud Under $5,000 Campus Police investigated two reports of forged U-Passes. The students were spoken to and cautioned for the forged documents.

March 20, 8:47 a.m.

Property Damage Campus Police investigated property damage in the CCT garage.

March 25, 2:58 p.m.

Motor Vehicle Accident A minor motor vehicle collision occurred in the Inner Circle. There were no injuries.

These reports are those that have been released to The Medium and do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive list.

UTM to undergo Erasing racism one photo at a time external review SIDRA WEQAR

FACEBOOK.COM/UTMEDO/PHOTO

Students participated in a photo campaign to spread awareness about racism.

MALEEHA IQBAL STAFF WRITER March 21 marks the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a day recognized by the United Nations to commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.

The day is observed to bring together the world in order to end all racial discrimination.

On March 19 and 25, UTM’s Equity & Diversity Office hosted a photo campaign that gave students and faculty the chance to share their message about ending racial discrimination on a mini whiteboard.

“The actual day fell upon the weekend so we decided to stretch it out from before and after the weekend so it would stretch out our recognition of the day,” said Oli Clayton Bédard, one of the EDO Work-Study students

who organized the event.

“When we approach some people, not all of them think that racial discrimination exists in Canada. So we have a discussion with them before they decide whether they have a message to express or not,” said Dima Saad, another student organizer.

“Everyone has a say in this issue in particular because everyone is affected by it. Everyone has privilege in a certain way, and everyone is complicit in oppressing others in a certain way.

So I think everyone’s voice is valuable,” she said.

One of the messages written on the whiteboard read, “Canada was built upon and continues to thrive from the genocide of the Indigenous peoples, calling attention to our colonial history that we continue to benefit from and re-enact.”

The two-day event drew around 20

students and faculty in total.

IDERD has been held annually since 1966, in memory of the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960.

According to BBC News, about 69 black demonstrators were shot in that massacre and many were injured after hundreds of South African officers opened fire outside the municipal office of Sharpeville.

The demonstrators were protesting against the Pass laws, which required all black men and women to carry a reference book with them. Those found without this book would be arrested and detained. The protesters left their passbooks at home and presented themselves for arrest at the police station. Three hours into the event, it turned into a bloodbath, causing the protest to become one of the most violent demonstrations against apartheid in South Africa.

Early next November students will have a chance to provide feedback about UTM as part of a review conducted by the provincial government.

At least once every eight years, universities are required to appoint and schedule external reviewers to highlight concerns on campus, get updates on the university’s plans, and examine the quality of academic programs.

“As part of the U of T Quality Assurance Process, all U of T academic programs are reviewed periodically.

The recent review of the Department of English and Drama and its programs is one such example,” said Althea Blackburn-Evans, the director of news and media relations at U of T. The review scheduled for November will examine the academic portfolio of the entire UTM campus.

The external review will assess UTM’s “performance against other leading international institutions, and receive guidance on key strategic directions,” said Sioban Nelson, viceprovost of academic programs, in an email to staff and students last month.

One of the many academic goals UTM wants to achieve after this review is to “expand and renovate our buildings and facilities to provide more and better space for learning, research and the services to support our growing numbers of students and faculty,” said UTM VP academic and dean Amy Mullin.

The reviews are supervised by the provincial government through the

same body responsible for auditing.

One reviewer from the U.S. and two from Canada are typically appointed for the process. The nominees are chosen based on administrative experience and success in their fields.

Anthony Cascardi, the dean of arts and humanities from the University of California-Berkeley, Charmaine Dean, the dean of the faculty of science at Western, and Anthony Masi, the provost at McGill, have been chosen this year to provide their views on UTM’s progress and sufficiency.

Universities must hold external reviews, conducted by the province, at least once every eight years.

“The reviewers meet with a broad range of constituencies that will provide the reviewers with the opportunity to hear a wide range of views,” said Blackburn-Evans.

The reviewers will focus on seven areas, including the appropriateness of UTM’s financial and administrative organization in reaching its academic goals and UTM’s relationships with external organizations both domestic and foreign.

In their final report the reviewers will make comments and conclusions about both the positive elements and their concerns.

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MASTHEAD EDITORS Editor-in-Chief Not Luke Sawczak editor@themedium.ca News Not Maria Iqbal news@themedium.ca A&E Not Maria Cruz arts@themedium.ca Features Not Madeleine Brown features@themedium.ca Sports Not Jason Coelho sports@themedium.ca — Photo Not Mahmoud Sarouji photos@themedium.ca Design Not Mubashir Baweja design@themedium.ca Copy Not Akshaya Sharma copy@themedium.ca Online & Blog Not Michelle Bonsu Not Safia Amin blog@themedium.ca online@themedium.ca Video Not Russell Wu videos@themedium.ca ASSOCIATES News Nicole Danesi Menna Elnaka A&E Kathelene Cattell-Daniels Features Andreea Mihai Sports Eric Hewitson Sihan Zheng Photo Christy Tam Zara Rizwan Nicole Raquinio Copy Tanya Decarie GENERAL STAFF Distribution Manager Ifunanya Paulinus distribution@themedium.ca Comic Artist Not Corey Belford In-House Model Mubashir “Werkit” Baweja BOARD OF DIRECTORS Christine Capewell, Larissa Ho, Saima Khan, Denio Lourenco, Jaime Pokhoy, Obaid Said, Ajay Sharma, Luke Sawczak COPYRIGHTS All content printed in The Medium is the sole property of its creators, and cannot be used without written consent.

DISCLAIMER Opinions expressed in the pages of The Medium are exclusively of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Medium. Additionally, the opinions expressed in advertisements appearing in The Medium are those of advertisers and not of The Medium.

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To contribute, email editor@themedium.ca

What we can do in a short time After five years, I’m on my way out. Here’s what I’ve seen—and am still seeing The first Sunday I spent in the Medium office, then–features editor Amir Ahmed said he was going to a nearby Thai joint for lunch and offered me a ride. I was a little nervous, not knowing anyone there, but I joined him. If I remember right, he bought my $10 takeout, and while we waited, he sat down with me and told me about the paper. I asked vaguely if there could be such a thing as a history of random items column called “How did that get here?” To my surprise, he was game. So I started writing.

That was five years ago. I had just started second year, rosy-cheeked, not interested in much more than taking whatever courses looked interesting.

A lot has changed since then.

Both my perspective on how things go at a university and many real qualities of the place have changed. This is hardly the UTM I knew when I first came, for both reasons. The shape of it has altered dramatically. I know it well enough even to pick out the subtle infrastructure changes, paving and streetlights and signage. Soon there will be no North. Even the names have changed; my year will be one of the last to call Davis “South”. And though I don’t like to contemplate it, some of my favourite people here are hovering on the brink of retirement.

Politically some things remain the same. Some people have been in UTMSU seven years or more. Slogans never change, campaigns never change, team colours never change.

Not substantially. Last year while putting together our retrospective magazine, I saw that confirmed on a massive scale over the last 40 years. And

it seems like some things will always remain the same.

Maybe not always, though. I was astonished to hear that Brighter won the downtown union elections.

None of their executive candidates are current execs, which is unheard of. When I spoke to incoming VP internal Ryan Gomes, who was sipping a Booster Juice in the Meeting Place while his rival candidates kept stopping passersby towards the end of voting hours, I joked that he would never win an election this way. He needed to be breaking the Elections Procedure Code, going door to door, putting up posters in residences, writing on chalkboards, all of which he said Change was doing. He laughed and said no, they wanted to run a clean campaign. And they sent the incumbents packing.

This is new. I hope next year’s Medium keeps an eye out for the unusual situations that will arise from a political environment built around an exec team that normally has a different heritage and opinion about how UTSU should be run. And all the while they’ll be coping with the need to establish a new board structure to avoid what could be serious consequences for the union.

Meanwhile, my perspective on our university has deepened and shifted as well. One former editor recalls a letter from a student who chided him: “You shouldn’t question what the administration is doing.” I think the strike has changed everyone’s mind about that who still believed it. Rarely do we get such high-profile adversaries circling each other on a battlefield

covered by every major Toronto news outlet and have the opportunity to judge the goings-on here as they appear to the wider world. And some surprising things were done.

The strike unbalanced the university. Their reaction was conservative, careful. And I hope everyone sees that the eventual solution is a compromise. I know one too many undergrads, particularly first-years, who will be glad to learn that they can have as many CR/NCR courses as they like, as well as late withdrawals (without refunds for the vaporized class time, at least as far as we’ve heard). They’re excited because it’s hard to give up a treat and ask for real nutrition. Not giving out grades because of a lack of graders is a diminished education.

Yes, you don’t have to suffer for lost marks you couldn’t earn while your TAs were out blocking the entrances. But for some students, this represents lost weeks of hard work.

For some who need a GPA boost after a bad first few years and who might have been poised to recoup their average partway through the semester, it represents lost opportunities. For those applying to competitive grad programs, it represents a lack of proof of their capability. Sure, the university will send a letter with each transcript explaining the circumstances. But it will still be a void where other applicants will have a number.

Most importantly, your chance to be taught and have your personal learning evaluated has been eroded.

And though the university is doing what it can to help you cope, its basic position is still that a semester with-

out its final third is still a semester.

We learn by being taught. I owe more than I know to the many people who helped me out in my time here.

These include the aforementioned Amir, still a trusted friend; Alain Latour, who first hired me, a wide-eyed youngster; Saaliha Malik, who began the work of uprooting from the paper the longstanding elements that held it back; Michael Di Leo, the single biggest force of positive change in years, whose hand touched every facet of the company and reformed it; Stefanie Marotta, whose conception of what journalism should be is still the bedrock of our own; and Larissa Ho, who shared so much of it with me.

What amazes me when I think about it is that these are all students.

All of this drama is played out on an essentially student-owned field—yes, despite who controls the money, who controls the campaign materials, who controls whether we have tutorials.

All of this apparatus is here because we are. We can be a disorganized, lazy bunch sometimes, but we can also be an impassioned, energetic, informed force. We are here because we are in the process of being changed; and if we change what we find here too, we will have done well.

YOURS, LUKE SAWCZAK

CORRECTION NOTICE Last week’s article “Father, son to bike 600 km for the cure”said that one in 35,000 boys is affected by DMD. The figure is one in 3,500.

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM OPINION» 7

View from inside the newsroom For someone who wanted to be a part of the campus newspaper since first year, boy was I clueless. I took for granted that each issue I picked up from a stand was part of a natural chain that would continue to reproduce every week of my time on this campus. I had no idea about the intense weeks of planning, interviews, and writing that went into each issue—and that’s besides the hours put

I had no idea about the intense weeks of planning, interviews, and writing that went into each issue. in on Sundays designing the layout that determines the cover and headlines we read each week. Being a part of this year’s editorial board has taught me a lot about what I’ve taken for granted at UTM—not just the existence of this newspaper, but the people and politics on our campus, the agendas underlying every public statement, and the incredible power of the written word.

I feel really blessed to have worked with members on this year’s team who are so hard-working, support-

ive, and dedicated to such a great resource for students on our campus. I am honoured to be able to continue working as part of the team next year and I look forward to taking on new challenges together.

A very sincere thanks to everyone I’ve worked with in the office, my volunteers, and especially my two associates, Menna Elnaka and Nicole Danesi, who’ve been invaluable sources of insight, support, and friendship this year. A big thank-you to Larissa Ho for being among the first people to see potential in me, and for being such an inspiring mentor. And finally, thank you to Luke Sawczak for always pushing me to do my best and for putting so much heart into this newspaper, which I never really knew anything about until I met the faces behind it.

For all of our readers who are staying on our campus, and those who are leaving, I hope you’ve enjoyed each issue as much as we’ve loved preparing it. This year has been an exciting one and I hope you’ll continue to follow the players and politics on our campus next year—there’s no predicting what will happen, but I hope you’ll join us for the ride.

Maria Iqbal News Editor

How to pay it forward Find your kindred spirits and embrace opportunities while here Dear editor, People keep saying how much I am going to miss school once I am out. It has been difficult to envision this—missing school. Not because I loathed my time here at UTM, but because school has never felt obligatory to me, to an extent.

As I depart this stage of life, I undoubtedly will forever be learning.

Perhaps not tested on what I have learned, but in the grand scheme of things grades are not indicative of a true understanding of what is important in life.

Throughout my undergraduate journey I met incredibly inspiring people in and out of the university, and what better to do with an invaluable intelligence than to pay it forward?

Many young adults feel pressure to select a degree that will secure a successful career. It is ignorant to undermine the significance of forward thinking and planning for financial stability. However, for many who feel pressure from parents, it is crucial to absorb the fact that your parents will likely not be around longer than you —this is your life.

It is possible to find financial success paired with daily satisfaction.

The majority of our generation will

not retire before the age of 60; this means you will likely be a full-time worker for a minimum of 30 years.

This is not suggesting rebellious behaviour against your parents, but instead taking conscious control of your own life—it is your life. As the hilarious, yet incredibly intelligent Ricky Gervais put it, “The best advice I’ve ever received is, ‘No one else knows what they’re doing either’, ” And this is okay! Not to be misinterpreted as an excuse, to the contrary—it is an encouraging reminder to be realistic while being mindful of your own wellbeing and happiness; however you define these entities is subjective.

Specific to the university, meet people who think along analogous wavelengths as you. This could stem from joining recreational clubs, gym classes, labs, whatever the case may be. Find your kindred spirits by embracing the countless opportunities that are provided to U of T students. In doing so, I have met particular professors and graduate students who substantially altered my perspective on life. From the sciences to the humanities departments, I found professors who taught me, implicitly but certainly purposefully, deeper meanings on what it means to be human. This

institution is incredibly selective with its staff, and one reason why they are here is to help us—so let them! These are opportunities you can either jump on or let pass by.

This ideology should actually be applied to all aspects in life. Do not passively believe you are not an agent of your own life. If you act as an unheard voice, that is exactly what you will remain. Nobody will feel sorry for you, and they should not.

Although it is uncommon for people on their deathbed to thank the prestigious education they received in young adulthood, it is common for people to regret failing to reap opportunities. Contemplate what is best for you now and in the long run, and run with it.

The singer-songwriter and education philanthropist Cat Stevens fittingly advised, “You’ve got so much to say, say what you mean, mean what you think, and think anything.” Do not let this university pass by without allowing its help in the development of the person you foresee yourself to be. Truth is, I will not miss school, but what I will miss is this school. It has been a grand pleasure.

Niveen Fulcher

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Giving UTM’s radio station new life Marketing director Corey Belford discusses how CFRE has changed these past few years MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR If you were a UTM student back in the ’60s, CFRE was all the buzz as Erindale’s first radio station. But it had some rough years after that, including many with no signal to actually broadcast. It’s really only been in the past decade that the station has generated a solid name for itself, earned nominations in the CMJ Awards, and been featured in CMJ New Music Report Magazine.

In the past few years CFRE has introduced new concert series, scored interviews with several prestigious musicians, and brought a slew of musicians to campus.

Marketing director Corey Belford, who has been paid staff of CFRE for over three years now, discussed the station’s progress as a company and how they succeeded in bringing some great bands right to campus.

“Being a part of it in the first place and getting to know the culture, I felt like there was a lot of leeway in terms of what we could do with the station and what kind of potential it has,” he said. “I think we’ve proven that in the amount we’ve been able to accomplish in the two years that I’ve been working there. We started doing Sound Summit, which is now our annual battle of the bands, which has been a steady success. We’ve put certain events to bed. We started the After School Special, which is sort of

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

CFRE has been around since the ’60s. our ongoing concert series.”

They held the second 24-hour broadcast this year. “I would say it’s interesting because it’s the only event that we have that produces the most interaction as far as our DJs are concerned. Like other events, we set them up and people show up to them and everyone has a good time, but with 24-hour broadcasts everybody’s sort of going up to the plate and participating, which sort of makes it a fun interactive form,” said Belford.

“I was awake and active in it for the entire span of it—myself and the

tech director. He got there, I think, at 12 and was there until 12. I wasn’t physically there the entire time, but I managed to stay awake. So, yeah. It was a very interesting experience.”

In terms of finding guests for the broadcast, CFRE hasn’t had trouble asking people, including professors, to be a part of it. “Most professors are happy to do it,” Belford said. The two professors that partook in this year’s broadcast were Brent Wood (English) and Mairi Cowan (history and religion).

Belford acknowledged that every-

one at CFRE had an inkling that the station wasn’t living up to its potential in previous years.

“I think there was sort of a general consensus that more could be done,” he said. “I think if you ask people in past years, I mean, a lot of being a part of CFRE was going and running your show and maybe going to a party or two. But I feel like now we’ve developed more of a cohesive culture—a sort of space where people want to go and interact with each other rather than just show up, do your show, leave, that sort of thing.

So I think just creating a greater sense of community has been a really interesting process for us.”

One of the biggest changes Belford has noticed in the years he’s worked for CFRE is a higher rate of newcomers.

One of their accomplishments this semester was bringing BadBadNotGood to the Blind Duck to perform for students. Station manager Monique Swaby got in contact with them and Belford was in charge of promotions.

“It’s really just a matter of sending their promo emails,” said Belford.

“CFRE isn’t well-known, but it’s recognizable, at least in some spheres. If you live in this area of the GTA and you’re in that sort of early 20s range, then you might have heard of us.

And we’ve been around for a while, too.”

It’s been a long journey for CFRE over the last 47 years and it’s had its ups and downs. Gone, it seems, are the days of wasted opportunities.

In terms of what CFRE will do in upcoming years, Belford hopes to see more events and resources. “I think we could definitely use some new equipment,” he added. “I’m really looking forward to seeing where they go and we’re going to have a pretty thorough staff overturn next year.

The only person who’s going to be staying there will be our manager; it’s going to be a completely new team of kids and we’ll just see where they go.”

A decade’s worth of murderous mysteries The UTM Forensic Society put on their annual murder mystery with the help of UTM’s Drama Club JOEY CLOSE The UTM Forensic Society hosted their annual Murder Mystery Charity Play this past Wednesday at Theatre Erindale. This year, with the help of UTM Drama Club, it was a mix of UTM students from different backgrounds of study and a couple of off-campus crew members and actors who brought Ken Ludwig’s award-winning play The Game’s Afoot to the stage.

The Game’s Afoot has a mixed genre of mystery and comedy and is based on an early 20th-century American actor, William Gillette, who also famously cowrote the very first Sherlock Holmes play.

Ludwig incorporates some factual aspects of Gillette’s life but the play is mostly fiction. It centres on Gillette, an actor who tries to solve a murder. However, he doesn’t do

UTM FORENSIC SOCIETY/PHOTO

The Game’s Afoot was the latest play from UTM Forensic Society. this as himself but rather as the character Sherlock Holmes, whom he happens to play on the stage.

Ioana Luchian did a phenomenal job directing this year’s Fo-

rensic Society play and brought together a cast and crew who successfully performed Ludwig’s comedic play.

Anton Serbin gave a good per-

formance as the well-established Broadway actor William Gillette. It is December 1936 and the height of Gillette’s career when he invites his cast members over for a Christmas

Eve dinner at his lavish mansion in Connecticut. However, seasoned New York gossip columnist and theatre critic Daria Chase (Bianca Carvalho) unexpectedly shows up to write her next story on Gillette.

Chase, who tends to focus on the personal lives of the actors rather than their performances, is not well-liked by the other guests.

Through her constant banter Chase tells the cast they give her “endless things to write about” and further expresses how she feels it is as though she has simply invented them all for this specific purpose.

She does, however, drop a bomb when she ends up revealing the recent news of a murder that just took place at their theatre company.

Mystery continued on page 9

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 9

Dance festival finds its beat Student mystery The U of T Dance Festival gathered a multitude of talent

draws the crowds Mystery continued from page 8

HARTHOUSE.CA/PHOTO

Troupes from multiple cities performed in a sold-out show.

MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR Cheerleaders, salsa dancing, ballerinas, booty-shaking—the U of T Festival of Dance had it all. The 20th annual festival kicked off last Friday and stretched out into Saturday, providing audiences with hours of diverse dance troupes.

This year’s theme, according to festival director Deborah Lim, was “Trip Around the World”. The inspiration for this came from the fact that Toronto would be hosting the Pan Am and Parapan American games this summer.

The first night sold out within minutes; the line to get in went past the Hart House Theatre doors.

Once seated, the energy in the audience took over the room—chanting, applause, and hollering welcomed the dancers to the stage.

The night kicked off with Hart House Classes performing “Living it up in the City”, which featured music by Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, and Ed Sheeran. Because they were a gigantic class of dancers, they were very uncoordinated and many of them got lost in the crowd of dancers on the stage.

However, given that several of them had never danced before, it was nice to see them move as well as they could with the dancers who

had performed before.

After them was SMC Troubadours performing a piece from Fiddler on the Roof, “L’Chaim”. They were the only theatrical performance of the night and they were terrific. The entire ensemble was wonderful and Shak Haq did a great job with choreography.

Following them was Celtic Dance Centre, my favourite of the evening.

Nataliya Laptyeva was first and danced to “Three Sea Captains” by Michael Fitzpatrick. She was simply enchanting; she had flawless footwork and was so graceful. She was a delight to watch.

Next was another knockout group of the evening, Dragonfly Student Troupe. They performed a belly-dancing piece and were incredible. They all flowed together very well and nailed the choreography. With eight dancers, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, but they were all wonderful.

Following them was the UTM Dance Team. At ArtsFest I was underwhelmed when they performed their routine to Ed Sheeran’s “All of the Stars”. But with a larger stage they were pretty amazing. Once given more room to breathe on stage, these ladies really came to life. They moved as one, were graceful, and had none of their earlier problems.

After them was Clara Steinhagen

from the Celtic Dance Centre. She was one of my favourite performances of the two days. Her dance “Warrior” was fierce and extremely well done. I couldn’t even understand some of her moves; the way she was bending her feet during her performance was incredible.

Following her was the Arabesque Academy, who were simply enchanting. They danced a sensual, Egyptian-themed dance filled with body-rolling and hip-shaking you’d usually only ever get from Shakira.

The UTM Dance Team returned to dance to “Nirvana” by Sam Smith. Their performance was on par with their last one.

The Celtic Dance Centre returned, this time uniting both girls for a duet. They were flawless together; they performed moves side by side but would also dance their own choreography at parts.

The U of T Medical Dance Team, a new dance team on campus, was next. A small group took to the stage for “Med Mix Dance” with an uncoordinated, relatively lacklustre routine, but it was unclear whether or not these students had ever had any training before. If they were inexperienced dancers, it would be more understandable.

Festival continued on page 11

Keegan Bulloch-Crough made the audience laugh throughout his performance as Martha, Gillette’s mother. The choice to have a male actor play a female role worked really well and added more comedic appeal to an already funny play. She essentially gets the party started by bringing out a tray full of booze. Of course, with drinks flowing in a room full of thespians, different conversations filled with drama take over the stage.

Martha, the outspoken, overbearing mother, draws out some of this drama by questioning widow Aggie Wheeler (Alma Sarai) about the tragic death of Hugo, her late millionaire husband. Wheeler reveals to the guests shortly after that she has remarried only a few weeks earlier to Simon Bright (Chris Hemming), who is also a fellow actor at the theatre.

Chase, who is convinced that she is a medium and can speak to her dead grandmother Lucretzia, convinces the guests to gather around a table for a séance, which she plans to conduct. The table jolts a few times and Lucretzia’s spirit possesses Madge Geisal’s (Rachel Lebovic) body. Under Lucretzia’s control, her finger points to Simon and Aggie as the ones who murdered the person in the theatre. Of course, both of them deny these accusations.

Then comes the sudden death of Chase, who is stabbed in the back by a mysterious person the audience is not able to see. Though Gillette was in the room when Chase was struggling, he’s too involved in solving the theatre murder as Sherlock Holmes to fully understand her cry for help.

Gillette’s good friend Felix Geisal (Saad Ilyas) enters the stage to find Gillette with the now deceased Chase. While both try to figure out what to do with the body, Inspector Goring (Hannah Gilbert) shows up at the house to question the guests on the recent murder at the theatre.

Gilbert, with a well-articulated British accent, was an interesting actress to watch. Her character admits that she too was once an aspiring actress and hilariously performs small theatre monologues for the guests throughout her investigation.

Inspector Goring’s arrival obviously gets Gillette and Geisal scurrying to try and figure out where to hide

Chase’s corpse, which was hilarious.

There were a few slight malfunctions in the production, such as the turning bookcase falling over, a glass of wine falling on the floor, and the poor crew manoeuvering that secret turning bookcase at a snail’s pace.

However, what I enjoyed about this cast was their humorous improvisational skills and their acting abilities to make every scene run smoothly into the next. The show must go on, as they say, and the cast clearly handled these malfunctions well.

“It was an exhilarating experience,” said first-year humanities student Anton Serbin. “The cast and crew had a lot of fun putting this play onstage.”

As the night came to an end, host Tiffany Lee said proceeds would be donated to the Missing Children Society of Canada.

As the night came to an end, host Tiffany Lee, president of UTM’s Forensic Society, said proceeds from the ticket sales would be donated to the Missing Children Society of Canada, a charity whose mission is to reunite missing children with their searching families.

The forensic society has put on a play for a charitable cause as their last event of the year for almost a decade. In the past, the Murder Mystery play has been accompanied by dinner at the Blind Duck Pub, but Lee explains that last year the society decided to host only a charity play at the Mist Theatre without a dinner, and “realized for the first time that having a more full-on production seemed to work a lot more”.

One of the ways the MCSC encourages participation is through social media in the World’s Most Valuable Network via a project dubbed “Milk Carton 2.0”. The project allows you to “play an active role in the first-ever online search party when a child goes missing in your community”. If you are interested in getting involved please visit valuableproject.ca for several ways you can help find a missing child today.

India versus Pakistan in a Bollywood battle Student Centre plays host to Salam-e-Antakshari in a joint effort by two large clubs on campus MAYANK SHARMA STAFF WRITER India and Pakistan duked it out in a Bollywood musical battle in the Student Centre the week before last.

Salam-e-Antakshari, jointly organized on March 20 by the Hindu Student Council and the Pakistani Students Association, was the

stress-buster it was promised to be.

“Antakshari”, loosely defined, is a musical contest in which the teams have to sing particular songs according to a set of requirements in a series of rounds.

Just as in last month’s match between India and Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup, the room was divided into two parts for the two

countries, who competed in four rounds of singing and trivia.

The teams were required to show off their Bollywood knowledge, each question worth 60 points and requiring the teams to sing a related song. The team with the most points would win, and there was a prize called the “Indo-Pak Idol” for the person who answered and sang for

the most questions.

Shreya Narang of the Indian team bagged the award, answering the most questions and singing popular Bollywood songs. Despite this, though, the PSA team won by a significant margin.

After the competition there was a three-course Indian meal and an open dance floor. Desi Beatz made

the dance floor lively by playing well-known Bollywood songs. The dinner and open dance floor were perhaps the more exciting part for most attendees. Despite a few minor setbacks due to lack of organization, the event was enjoyable, and a welcome relief during the strike that had students on edge about their courses and finals.

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Rhythm’s latest fireproof show Trouble coming to be UTM dance group performs at Theatre Erindale KAITLYN FERNANDES At Theatre Erindale last Friday night, the UTM dance group Rhythm treated a packed house to their original show Fireproof. The show was a lot like a musical, only instead of breaking out into song, the cast broke out into choreographed dance routines.

Despite the fact that numerous other events were happening on campus at the same time, the show came close to selling out.

The play’s plot centred on the character Dalon (Paul Rodriguez), mistaken for a blind man by the beautiful Sophie (Anshita Khanna) due to the sunglasses and cane he uses. Instead of correcting the situation, Dalon pretends to be blind throughout the play, with Sophie’s friends cluing in as the play progresses. Eventually a Phantom of the Opera–type plot unfolds as Dalon is revealed to have been wearing glasses and holding a cane when first meeting Sophie because his eyes were disfigured in a fire that killed his entire family, leaving him with a suitcase full of emotional baggage.

Although there was a lot going on with the plot, with Sophie also dealing with her best friend dating her ex-boyfriend Ethan (Sada Kasimova and Richard Rooney respectively) and Dalon suffering from anger and possessiveness, the major themes of

MARIA CRUZ A&E EDITOR WOMAN IN GOLD Based on the true story of Holocaust survivor Maria Altmann, this flick tells the story of Altmann and her lawyer fighting the Austrian government for over a decade to get a famous painting of her aunt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, back in her possession.

Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds star, leading me to believe that this movie has just about everything going for it.

Woman in Gold opens in theatres on April 3.

LOST RIVER Directed by Ryan Gosling, Lost River tells the story of a mother (Christina Hendricks) struggling to make ends meet during an economic crisis. Her two young sons are left to fend for themselves, but problems arise when their mother gets in trouble with the local tyrant (Matt Smith).

This film is jacked with star power and the story looks pretty interesting.

It looks like a movie that would cause an existential crisis.

Lost River opens in theatres on April 10.

THE LONGEST RIDE Two love stories separated by time but merged through circumstance are told in this film starring Alan Alda,

the play still came through clear. The only part of the plot I didn’t enjoy was when Sophie decided to forgive Dalon at the end of the play and “look past his darkness”, despite the fact that he had been physically abusive to her. It was an unsettling aspect of the plot given that hope to change a troubled person is sometimes misplaced and can prolong abusive relationships in reality.

Where Rhythm excelled in this performance was the creativity and energy they brought to every single one of their dance routines. My favourite routine was choreographed to “Pump It” by the Black Eyed Peas and featured Dalon and Ethan engaging in a dance fight with lots of stunts and jumps. The rest of the dancers in that performance were staged as onlookers trying to break up the fight, which they managed to do while showcasing their own impressive dance skills at the same time.

The soundtrack had a great mix of songs that fit the plot well, with the performances set to Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” garnering excitement from the audience. By the end of the show, I was tired of sitting in my seat and just wanted to break into a spontaneous dance number myself. Rhythm was also great at bringing the audience into their performances with several

Oona Chaplin, and Scott Eastwood.

An elderly widower (Alda) meets a young student, Ruth (Chaplin), who tells of her love of Luke (Eastwood) while listening to the widow tell the story of him and his passed wife.

This film looks like it’ll be full of tear-jerker moments and is probably something you should see with a date or someone you really want to make cry.

The Longest Ride is set to hit theatres on April 10.

emotionally charged scenes, including a memorable solo performance

by Rodriguez.

The day before the show, when asked how she was feeling about the upcoming performance, dancer and first-year linguistics student Brianna Ansara said that she was feeling nervous but mostly excited to show everyone what a talented group Rhythm is. She also added that she was most looking forward to the amazing dance numbers the group had planned.

From my point of view, none of the dancers appeared nervous at all.

In fact, most of them looked right at home on the stage, a surprising fact given that several members of Rhythm have absolutely no background in dance. Rodriguez, who also serves as Rhythm’s co-president, added that Rhythm’s final performance of the year is designed to give the dancers a “taste of professionalism” by holding it in Theatre Erindale.

Fellow co-president Anshita Khanna explains that they love to “create stories through dance”, and that that’s the motivation behind the all the hours of rehearsal the group puts into each performance. Rhythm ended their performance season on a high note with a passion-filled theatrical production that kept me on the edge of my seat. MMMM

see this one.

Child 44 comes out in theatres on April 17.

MONKEY KINGDOM A new documentary from Disney comes to theatres, focusing on the story of a family of monkeys who move from their original habitat to an unfamiliar one they’ve been forced into.

Maya, her son Kip, and the alpha male Raja are the stars in this adorable film that promises to teach the importance of family. And hey, monkeys.

Monkey Kingdom is set to be released on April 17.

TRUE STORY This film stars James Franco as Christian Longo, a man who made the most wanted list after murdering his wife and three children. He was also living under the false identity of journalist Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill). After claiming that he’s following Finkel’s work for a long time, he asks him to write a story about his case, all the while getting a little too close to Finkel’s family.

I could not be more excited for this one. I have loved Hill since The Wolf of Wall Street and Franco has always been a wonderful actor in just about every movie that I’ve seen him in (Spring Breakers notwithstanding).

The story looks dark and demented, but both actors are definitely the right choices for such a bleak tale. I cannot wait to see this.

True Story opens in theatres on April 17.

CHILD 44 Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and Noomi Rapace star in the film adaptation of Child 44, the first novel of a trilogy written about the murders of the “Rostov Ripper”.

Directed by Ridley Scott, this film is bound to go places; the story is compelling, and the actors are all incredible. I will definitely be in line to

THE FORGER John Travolta stars as a father who breaks out of prison to see his son but is forced to steal a valuable painting in order to pay back the syndicate that organized his breakout.

If Travolta wasn’t so damn creepy, I might consider seeing this, but nah.

The Forger is set to be released on April 24.

Writers work to become the UTM Scribes FARAH QAISER STAFF WRITER Starting a club is no mean feat, a fact the UTM Scribes learned this year. The idea for the club, originally known as the Writers Club, came from a Facebook post last summer that called out for writers willing to form a club. Since then the Scribes have been through ups and downs trying to get their club started. Now they’re recognized on Ulife, have held their first general meeting, and have launched a writing blog.

The first president was Joseph Zhang, who reached out through social media to find like-minded writers to form a club. The members met last summer and wrote a constitution. But as the fall term started, the members say they encountered discouragement on campus both inside and outside the club. “There’s a lot of negative energy around at UTM,” says Jahjah, the current president. The members grew apart during the term, but when Zhang secured Ulife recognition, the executives got their second wind.

The members say they encountered discouragement on campus both inside and outside the club When the Scribes were just starting out, they met with two EDSS executives, president Siddharth Singh Chaudhari and treasurer Kushagra Sinha. The two contacted the hopeful first-years when they heard they were applying for recognition, advised them that they might not have a high chance of receiving UTMSU funding, and offered them all associate executive positions in EDSS while waiting to apply for recognition for their own club next year.

The Scribes found it discouraging.

Chaudhari acknowledges that they met up in August, but he of-

fered a different perspective. He said that since EDSS is a large society with workshops and a good advertising structure, that would be a good environment for the six firstyears. Since the society’s constitution only allows first-years to be associates, they would have to grow into the core executive positions in future years. At first, he said, they were excited about the opportunity, but left the Facebook group chat they had been invited to after only a few days. Chaudhari added that EDSS is a well-established group and has no interest in discouraging new writing clubs.

Now the Scribes’ executive team consists of eight people. The two technology coordinators, Sarena and Sasha Nanua, are self-published. The Nanua twins put out their first novel, The Gemstone, in 2012, when they were 15 years old.

This book was part of The Pendant Trilogy and the last book, The Poisoned Emerald, was released last year. “We’re really excited to have our trilogy published,” says Sasha Nanua. “We’re already working on a new manuscript and hopefully we’ll write a prequel for The Pendant Trilogy this summer.” The Nanua twins also designed and now run the Scribes’ blog.

The Scribes have approximately 100 members. They held their first general meeting three weeks ago and shared information about the different workshops and ideas the executives plan to bring about.

The Scribes are planning to produce a magazine consisting of the members’ writing next year. They are also holding a logo competition whose voting will take place this week.

No workshops have been held yet, but plans include a stand-up spoken word slam and a group critique of each other’s writing.

Currently, the Scribes are calling for applications for their editorial positions. They plan to keep their writing blog running throughout the summer.

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

OMBUDSPERSON Confidential advice and assistance with complaints unresolved through regular university channels is available to U of T students, faculty and administrative staff.

The services of the office are available at all three U of T campuses.

To make an appointment with our office, telephone 416-946-3485 or email ombuds.person@utoronto.ca For additional information visit www.ombudsperson.utoronto.ca

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM ARTS» 9

Swords, scarves, and veils of gold just some of the talent during the night Festival continued from page 9 Next was one of the crowdpleasers. JP Nunez and Fiona Su came out and danced to “Hiphip Chinchin” for their salsa performance. These two were knockouts. They reminded me of the kinds of dancers on So You Think You Can Dance who, before they even finish their routine, have all three judges handing them tickets to Vegas. The audience, myself included, loved them.

Leading into intermission was Culture Shock Toronto with “Roles”, a routine about going against stereotypical gender roles.

They moved with great energy and were pretty in tune with one another. I also really appreciated the message they chose to get across.

Coming back from the break, the audience saw Hart House Classes return with another mediocre performance that consisted of far too many dancers on stage.

However, I will say that this routine was better than their last one and they moved better as a group.

UTM Dance Team followed them with a performance set to four Beyoncé songs. They seemed to lose their fire a bit and I expected much more powerful moves to go with the songs they chose.

Next was U of T Urban Dance Revolution, which I was excited to see because we hadn’t gotten too many urban dancers on stage yet. As a group they were pretty in sync but they weren’t as strong as some others.

Celtic Dance Centre returned with Laptyeva giving another astonishing performance, “Firedance”. SMC Troubadours also returned with another musical number. However, I enjoyed this one a bit more, even though this one had much more acting, which was wonderful, than dancing.

Dragonfly Student Troupe also returned with another wonderful performance.

UT Unity and Fo’Real Dance came together next for “No Smoking in the Champagne Room”, and were terrific as an ensemble. They told a great story and the audience could really see the theatrics merge with their dancing. The two groups merging obviously brought a large number of dancers on stage at once, but they played on each

other’s strengths and had no trouble working with one another.

Celtic Dance Centre returned with their last performance of the night, with Steinhagen returning to dance “Queen of the Fairies”, which was just as sublime as their previous ones.

Independent came back out with two dancers and their routine “This is for You, Colville” which referred to the artist Alex Colville. Their dance was more on the interpretive side and was a bit strange to watch but as a duo they moved well.

Next was GeoMetriX Dance, who presented “Disconnected”, a story about how many of us today are plugged into our phones and missing out on live experiences.

They were fantastic as a group and their choreography wasn’t too complicated throughout, which allowed all of them to flow as one.

A solo member from UTM Dance Team, Alexandra Ieraci, returned with “Love Lockdown” and I’m glad her performance was the last one from the team because she was amazing. I didn’t want them to have ended with the Beyoncé one.

Ieraci was an exquisite dancer and a great second-last performance of the evening.

Hart House Classes wrapped things up with “Class and Sass”, which, once again, remained on par with their last ones.

The second night, especially the first half, was not entertaining a full house and was filled with pretty disappointing performances.

Opening was UTM Dance Club with an underwhelming performance, “Stand Up”. They lacked enthusiasm and were pretty uncoordinated throughout the entirety of their performance.

But following was one of the better performances of the night from Independent called “Sisters”.

Duyga Basmaci and Zoe Reynolds were beautiful together, moving gracefully and in sync. Their attire was also wonderful—both wore kimonos but Basmaci’s had these ribbon-like sashes that came out from under her sleeves and she used them in her dance.

Independent returned with three new dancers. However, these girls weren’t as good as the others.

They were not in sync and since there were only three of them up

there, it was easy to see that one was constantly ahead of the other in their routine.

However, following them were the Arabesque Earthshakers, whom I loved. Five women took to the stage to perform a wonderful routine equipped with bodyrolling and hip-shaking. They had on outfits that were similar to belly-dancers’, so when they shook their hips, the audience could hear the jingling and it really added to their performance.

Next was the Chimera Project’s Company B with “Alien Lake”, a spin on Swan Lake. As ballerinas they were exquisite; they moved so well together for such a large group and were definitely the most coordinated of the two nights having to work with so many dancers. They were elegant and professional and it was a treat to watch them.

They proceeded to shake their butts, torsos, and then grabbed the rolls on their stomachs and shook them too.

Following them was 219 Dance and Entertainment with one of the worst performances of the evening. Three couples took to the stage for a Latin routine. They started strong with the strongest dancers being in the front. However, as the routine progressed, they switched partners and this is where everything went wrong.

At one point two of the dancers knocked into one another…

Next was the UTM Dance Club with the same routine they performed at Style and Profyle, “Dear Future Husband”. Their routine was just as uncomfortable as it was last week.

To put the night back on track, Raqs Macabre came out with probably the most impressive performance of the evening. Two women with veils of gold coins came out and danced with swords.

I seriously doubt they could see through those veils so the fact that they moved so well together made them all the more impressive. They proceeded to place the

swords on their heads and executed several complex moves without losing balance or without their props falling. They got the audience back into an excited, cheerful mood.

Ballet Espressivo was next. The second night of the festival was full of ballet, which was missing from Friday, and I couldn’t have been happier about it. They were graceful, elegant, and each one was a great dancer. As one, they were exquisite and I would have gone to a show of theirs if I heard of one.

The UTM Dance Team came out with a solo performer, Mariam Sanchez. She was marvellous and very impressive. Her moves consisted of several different styles of dance ranging from contemporary to ballet and she nailed them all.

Next was U of T Dance Club with a Bollywood routine. Two dancers took to the stage and though they were equally good dancers, the one on the left didn’t know how to use the scarf when the time called for it and almost dropped it at one point. Neither was very in sync with the other and were more built for a solo performance.

Following them was one of the best performances of the night from Skule Night, which consisted of engineering students at U of T. They gave a theatrical number originally performed by Neil Patrick Harris at the 2012 Tony Awards, “What If Life Were More Like Theatre”, but this group changed “life” to “skule”. They were hilarious and convincing and gave such a great burst of energy before intermission.

Coming back from break, the audience was greeted with another high-energy routine from the U of T Pom Team. Now when I hear “cheerleading”, I immediately think of a coordinated group of energetic ladies wowing a crowd with their moves, and these guys didn’t disappoint. They were full of life and got the crowd going (as is their job) and really proved why they were the provincial champions.

UTM Dance Team came back for another performance, “Disclosure”, which remained on par with the ones they had already performed last night.

Following them was Only Human Dance Collective, which presented two dancers, Karen Choi and Karen Xu, as a ballet duo.

The two were simply stunning.

They reminded me of those adorable ballerinas one would find in a music box. They were enchanting and it was just wonderful to watch them.

Next was one of my favourites from the entire festival. The Arabesque Earthshakers came back out and danced to “Ya Gamid”.

The entire routine was lively and got the crowd cheering and applauding before they were even done. One of my favourite parts was when the music began to pick up and they proceeded to shake their butts and torsos and then grabbed the rolls on their stomachs and shook them too. The crowd loved it and cheered them on as they proceeded to hip-bump one another as cymbals from the song played. They were such a great source of body confidence and I would have loved to see an entire festival of these flawless women.

UTM Dance Team came next with an elegant performance to “Not About Angels”, which was just as good and moving as the one from Friday, “All of the Stars”.

Independent came back with another performance on par with their last ones.

After a solo performance by Joann Wanda Rossitter, Independent returned to perform both before and after another routine by the D’amby Project. The three routines were about equal in energy and they had all clearly brought their A game before the show wrapped up.

UTM Dance Team came back with “Body Language”, a spicy little dance to Queen’s song, which got the crowd whooping and hollering when they were done.

To end the night was the U of T Pom Team who came back to perform to Nickelback’s “Burn It to the Ground”. They were dressed all in black and gave a fierce and sultry performance to end the night.

I’ve never been to the festival before, but now that I’ve been I would definitely say that it was a success and I would invite a bunch of you to check it out if you haven’t gone before.

12

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03.30.2015

A love letter to the 110 It’s as quintessentially UTM as the deer, yet we never take the time to acknowledge it KAITLYN FERNANDES The 110 might be both the most celebrated and the most hated bus route that passes through the UTM campus. Created back in 2007 for the purpose of serving UTM students, it offers a direct route from Square One to the Clarkson GO station approximately every 12 minutes during peak times. To get the full experience of the 110, I decided to ride the entire one-hour route, and along the way I engaged in some shameless peoplewatching.

My first encounter with the 110 was back in my first year of high school. It was the route I took for four years to travel from Square One to Erin Mills and Dundas. I was always intimidated by the university students, whose fancy outfits put my school uniform to shame.

On the day of my ride I took the 110N from UTM to Square One for a bit of shopping, and then decided to catch the 110S at 3:35 p.m., which I planned to ride all the way from Square One to the Clarkson GO. As luck would have it, I ended up having to run to catch the bus.

When I finally made it to the bus, panting and hoping I didn’t look too stupid running with my backpack, I

ZARA RIZWAN/THE MEDIUM

With the end of the strike, the 110’s UTM stop is right back where it belongs outside Kaneff. thanked the bus driver for waiting and took my seat. I tried not to make eye contact with a bus full of people who had all just witnessed my embarrassing entrance.

I sat down in the accordion section of the bus and quickly took out my spiral notebook. As soon as the bus jolted out of the Square One terminal I realized that this was a poor seating choice, because the accordi-

on seats are the bumpiest and do not lend themselves well to note-taking.

It wasn’t just me who felt the jolts.

The first turn out of the lot ended up ejecting the passenger on my left out of her seat. The girl who fell stopped short of completely wiping out. I helped her collect her shopping bags, which had also flown free. One minute into the ride and the excitement had already begun.

The girl and her friend laughed off the fall and dove back into the loud conversation they were having about their schoolwork. I noticed that they were the only two people on the bus talking. Everyone else was either listening to music, staring at their phones, or gazing blankly out the window.

Ten minutes into my journey I became convinced that the bus was on

the verge of falling apart. There was a constant soundtrack of creaks and groans before we’d even gotten on the highway. It both sounded and felt like one of the wooden rollercoasters at Canada’s Wonderland.

While on the highway I mostly looked out the window and tried to let the high-pitched creaks fade into the background. I noticed that when we made the turn off the highway onto the exit ramp, the girl beside me almost fell again. Her nonchalance made me think that falling out of your seat on the 110 is just something you get used to.

As we made our first stop at Erin Mills and Folkway, I noticed a student sitting in the back of the bus had fallen asleep. Having indulged in my fair share of bus-napping, I have to say that some of the best sleep I’ve ever gotten has been on the 110.

Something about the constant rocking and white noise makes sleeping on the bus almost irresistible at times. When I closed my eyes I could hear the loud whir of the heating, the low chatter of the girls beside me, and of course the incessant creaking.

It was somehow peaceful.

110 continued on page 13

Women are from the same planet Self-help industry perpetuates outdated gender roles, and sex assaults go under the radar VALERIA RYRAK STAFF WRITER In this last installment of the feminism series, I want to continue looking at what others have to say about the topic. One other notable voice on feminism is U of T’s Professor Mari Ruti, who teaches critical theory at the St. George campus. Although she is currently on sabbatical and thus unavailable for personal comment, she has achieved a most remarkable feat for an academic: in 2011 she published a mainstream book called The Case for Falling in Love, in which she debunks our culture’s mainstay and feminism’s archnemesis—the romance self-help industry. You know, books that teach women how to “win” a man, ones based on the premise that men and women are from different planets and that women have to educate themselves on how to manipulate a man into their arms.

Ruti uses her background in cultural theory, psychoanalysis, gender studies, and continental philosophy

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Ruti encourages her readers to embrace romantic inclinations. to argue, “Clichés about ‘what men want’ and ‘what women should do to seduce them’ reduce the intricacies of romance to over-simplified formulas that can’t hold up in the face of real life complexity.” She also argues that

“there is a complexity to romance that exceeds stereotypical distinctions between men and women”, but that the self-help industry reduces love’s intricacies to gender-based explanations that often imply that “women actu-

ally are doing something wrong with men” if their relationships fail. Such covert denigration dressed as helpful advice leads women to be even more insecure about romance and take the sole blame for the volatile nature of

love.

I agree with Ruti that the relationship self-help industry has long been a bastion of outdated ideas about gender roles. It seems miraculous to find a book whose message is that there is absolutely no “method” to romance, a book that defends failed love as valuable to personal growth. By going against the views of so many social anthropologists, Ruti’s book is revolutionary, and what remains incredible is that in the 21st century there is even a need for a book to explain to women why it’s perfectly okay to be their authentic, flawed selves in relationships with men.

Someone else who has added much value to the conversation on feminism is director Kirby Dick, who recently premiered The Hunting Ground, a documentary about the rape epidemic happening on American (and likely Canadian) university and college campuses.

Assault continued on page 14

03.30.2015 THE MEDIUM FEATURES» 13

Speak no evil, hear no evil It seems society is adopting a more inclusive vocabulary, but when is it too much?

SHALINI NANAYAKKARA “That’s so gay. You’re such a faggot.”

Did you mentally wince when you read that?

Many people have realized that derogatory words like homophobic or ableist slurs are irrevocably damaging.

These slurs can be traced back to layers of historical oppression. These titles were used to label their perceived inferiority—a mentality that still persists today.

The LGBTQ movement and similar social justice movements—such as the one attempting to dismantle ableism (discrimination against mentally or physically impaired individuals)— seem to be gathering steam, and it’s evident in everyday conversations.

“It depends on the social circle,” says Jared Mae Flores, a first-year criminology student. “But if you’re out in public, then yeah, you wouldn’t say [those words]. It also depends where you’re coming from. In Australia everyone calls each other a ‘c***’, but it’s not meaningful. And in some circles, ‘b****’ is something you call your friends, or to praise an empowered friend.”

People now seem to understand the power of derogatory words. Many who drop one on purpose or by mistake hush up when someone gives them a look.

The realm of triggering words has expanded to include words like “crazy”, “handicapped”, “deaf ”, “homosexual”. Members and allies of social justice movements, including UTMSU’s

AKSHAYA SHARMA/THE MEDIUM

Apparently social media has made us more empathetic—another wonder of the Internet.

Ministry of Social Justice, mediate the use of these words in public spaces.

You might have heard the encouragement of “you guys” being replaced by “you folks” around campus. That’s called political correctness.

University students seem to be at the forefront of the change. Is it a result of the atmosphere in postsecondary education or is society as a whole changing?

“I think it’s both,” says Michael Ruhs, a first-year theatre and drama studies specialist. “We’re out of that [high] school setting. I found that we said those words a lot in middle school, but that’s because we didn’t know what they meant.”

All aboard!

110 continued from page 12 Five minutes later the bus pulled into the South Common terminal and several students got off. While most of the remaining passengers were occupied with their phones, secondyear digital enterprise management student Yvona Mannavarayan told me she preferred to just look out the windows. “Ever since I was a kid, that’s what I used to do,” said Mannavarayan.

Mannavarayan had no stories to share about taking the bus, but I happen to have enough for the both of us.

When asked about her thoughts on the 110 route, Mannavarayan said, “I think the trip takes too long.” Most UTM students seem to share that opinion about the majority of the MiWay routes Although Mannavarayan had no stories to share about her time taking the bus, I happen to have enough for the both of us. I once had an older man fall asleep on my shoulder while riding in the seat beside mine. I’ve

also seen my share of passenger meltdowns, even witnessing an arrest at the Square One bus terminal on one occasion.

When the bus had almost reached the end of the route, I began feeling a little queasy from being on the bus so long. When I finally saw Clarkson, it looked like a game of Tetris with buses instead of variously shaped blocks.

Each bus inched along to try to pull into the cramped lot.

As everyone got off the bus I was surprised to see that no one thanked the bus driver. It seems to me that thanking your driver is one of those unspoken rules of bus etiquette.

Other rules include not opening the windows when it’s cold or rainy outside and not sitting right beside someone you don’t know when the bus is empty.

For all the complaints it receives, I love the 110. It’s my kitchen table when I need to eat a quick meal on the go. It’s my desk when I’m doing some last-minute cramming for a test. It’s my bed when I need a nap.

Most of all, it’s by far more entertaining than your smartphone when some character decides to stir up mischief. To fully appreciate all that the route has to offer, why not try unplugging for your next ride and watch what happens?

Political correctness made waves in the 1980s and 1990s when, as Neil McDonald wrote in his CBC article, “Bellicose progressives tried to excise from language what they saw as sexism, racism, otherness, homophobia, or wording that recognized the existence of gender.” But is it an educational zeitgeist or is it here to stay?

If anything will keep the trend going, it could surprisingly be the Internet. While much as the Internet is known as a hotbed of the worst human manners and insults behind the screen of anonymity, Meghan Garber of The Atlantic Times argues that social media has increased our sense of empathy. We are immersed in the

lives of others: what motivates them, delights them, terrifies them, and hurts them. The voices of the unheard, particularly those oppressed by traditional media, are allowed to represent themselves.

This has led traditional media to open up and acknowledge other lifestyles and situations, too. With the growing awareness and interest in equitable representation we see more shows like Glee, with its popular representation of gay lifestyles and relationships, and others that study the complexity of otherness like Legend of Korra with its terrifying one-armed villain and a series finale (spoiler alert!) that suggested that the protago-

nist was bisexual. Surrounded by this culture, some might argue that derogatory terms no longer hold much gravitas.

Is there a point at which deference becomes censorship? In 2012 the New York City Department of Education wanted to ban 50 words from standardized tests. The list included “Hallowe’en” because of its supposedly pagan undertones, “birthday” because of its exclusion of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and “dinosaur” for its implication that certain beliefs about the origin of the world are false.

One more reasonable act of “censorship” was proposed by a UTM student. Arynn Marchant is a third-year biology and biological anthropology major. In the fall term she put up posters on consenting people’s doors with the dictionary definitions of words like “faggot”, “dyke”, and “gay” and a link to thinkb4youspeak.com.

“I wanted to create a safe and open space for everyone on our floor,” says Marchant. “Almost everyone consented to having a poster on their door, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Some of these posters have trigger words, and people raised the concern of seeing or having those words repeated every day. But the purpose of the posters is to start a conversation against discrimination.”

Where do we draw the line on censorship? It should be drawn by the people who are actively oppressed by the mentalities propagated by the slurs. We should put inclusion and empathy first.

Why are you here?

We’ve accepted that it’s enough to just get by MADELEINE BROWN FEATURES EDITOR We joke about it all the time: how we students start and finish assignments the night before the due date, disregard weekly readings, and skip lectures and tutorials.

Yet at the same time we continue to protest tuition hikes and the increasing cost of attending university. Makes sense, I suppose—we’re paying far too much for the amount of effort we’re actually putting into our education.

I don’t mean to be bitter. As I approach the end of my degree, I’ve recently realized what a wonderful experience I’ve had these past four years. But this year in particular I’ve also been struck by the careless attitude we undergrads have towards our education.

I came to UTM the neurotic high school student who did every math question assigned for homework and never skipped class. (I did attempt to once, but my chemistry teacher heard my loud voice in the hallway and I got dragged back in.)

And while university has surprisingly taught me how to relax, I still

have not lost my work ethic. I’ve never missed an assigned homework question for French, a reading for English, or even a lecture itself for no reason whatsoever. I’ve never even pulled an all-nighter.

(I know I’d just break down come 2 a.m.)

I’m not proud to admit to my work ethic, though. Sure, I’m doing it here in this article, but I’d never seriously voice these achievements.

Instead, I make fun of them. My friends lovingly poke fun at it too.

They’ve never known me without homework. I haven’t either! A Snapchat circulated three weeks ago featuring yours truly on her living room floor justifying to herself why it was okay that she didn’t start the essay due April 1 that night. The day that I don’t pack my bag—no matter where I’m going— with a textbook will be a shock. My point here is this “actually doing all the-required work in advance of when it’s supposed to be done” mentality is abnormal. I am not a normal university student.

I think I well and truly realized that in a senior seminar I’m in this term. We’ve finally moved

on from being lectured at. Now, in this 300-level course, we’re welcome to participate in the discussion and share our thoughts on the weekly readings. I turned up at the first class in January with my filled binder and pen in hand and slowly realized that note-taking was completely unnecessary. With no test or exam, there was no specific information to study. I was free to simply jot down what I thought was truly interesting or nothing at all. No judgement. I was relieved.

Finally I could just enjoy class.

I hit this realization maybe a week or two into the course. However, everyone else in the room continued to bring their laptops.

Everyone. One class I naïvely thought to myself, “What possibly are people writing down?” And then I figured it out—Facebook messages, Google searches, and Tweets. You look up at your classmates and instead of seeing faces, you see tops of heads with eyes locked on their screens.

Work continued on page 14

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«FEATURES

THE MEDIUM 03.30.2015

Assault policy created It’s time to write up our weekly met-

of third year. Even in just the last few

aphorical blackboard one last time.

months, I’ve encountered such gems

And I thought given (a) the recent

as the simplest, quickest chocolate

end to the strike and (b) the usual

peanut cake ever, which I threw to-

chaos that is the last two weeks of

gether Sunday nights in the fall in

school, like the final week of last

anticipation of the stressful week

term, I’d let our faculty and staff off

ahead.

the hook and provide my own recipe.

Ultimately, though, the meal I was

Besides, I was feeling a bit selfish.

most proud of was the roast chicken

I wanted the final instalment of the

I prepared for myself the summer

column all to myself.

before second year. I was living en-

As I approach my graduation this

tirely on my own in Stratford, Ontario

June, I want to share a recipe that

for a summer internship. My parents

encapsulates my four years at UTM.

moved me into a rental property at

It was a tough choice. I’ve cooked a

the end of April with a fridgeful and

lot of meals since I started my un-

freezerful of ingredients, including a

dergrad.

whole chicken. Up till then I’d been

From first year, there’s the salm-

living in OPH with only a microwave

on sandwich recipe that, much to

to cook with. Nonetheless, one rainy

my first roommate’s disapproval, I

Sunday my second week in Stratford

made every week in our shared bath-

following my dad’s recipe below, I

room, or the hummus recipe that

cooked the bird. It was so simple, yet

sent me to the emergency room at

it made me feel like such an adult. I

Credit Valley for stitches. There’s the

proudly ate a portion that night on

oatmeal I made almost every day of

the little wicker table in my kitchen

my time here in Mississauga. Or the

listening to “Somebody that I Used

spicy hot chocolate that I enjoyed

to Know”. I turned the leftovers into

while I packed my lunch every night

a batch of soup.

Second-Year Whole Roast Chicken ABOUT ONE SERVING PER POUND OF CHICKEN INGREDIENTS • 1 whole chicken

4.Cut up two lemons and place in cavity with garlic.

• 2 lemons

5.Rub chicken all over with oil.

• 6–8 cloves of garlic, crushed

6.Put chicken in oven. Immediately

• olive, canola, or other oil

reduce heat to 350 F. 7.Roast chicken for approximately 12

METHOD

minutes per pound. Chicken is done

1.Preheat oven to 475 F.

when juices run clear when pierced

2.Remove any gibbets from the cavity

at the point where the leg meets the

of the chicken if present.

3.Rinse cavity and outside with cold water and dry with paper towel.

body.

8.Let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

Assault continued from page 12 It was while making another documentary (The Invisible War, about the prevalence of sexual assault in the U.S. military) that Dick discovered the premise of The Hunting Ground.

The problems presented in the documentary are myriad, from frat houses with an “old boys’ club” mentality to university administrators who do their utmost to have sexual assault reports go no further than their office. The film argues that university administrators— even of such top-tier universities as Harvard and Stanford—perpetuate the occurrence and frequency of sexual assault in the schools by failing to take adequate measures, such as conducting an investigation, involving police, and expelling offenders.

The film cites statistics from multiple sources to back this up.

For instance, 16–20% of women are sexually assaulted in American universities, or nearly one in five.

On smaller campuses it’s very possible that everyone knows at least one person who has been a victim of sexual assault. Despite this statistic, 45% of universities reported zero sexual assault incidents in 2012. One year, Stanford had 259 sexual assault complaints and only one expulsion. If nothing changes, 100,000 women will be victimized at American universities this year alone.

The Hunting Ground scrutinizes what we all suspect: that money

means more to those in charge than the well-being of women. Because American universities rely on reputation and donor money for so much of their budget and their competition for the best students, they fear that bad publicity will turn away donors and in turn lower salaries for everyone.

“Less than 8% of male students commit 90% of college rapes,” the film says. By being unwilling to remove them from campus, university administrators are enablers for multiple offenders, who become predators through such lax punishment initiatives as $25 fines and community service hours at an abused women’s shelter. The universities’ Jekyll and Hyde relationship with their notorious fraternities is also to blame. Fraternities like Sigma Alpha Epsilon have been acronymized by interviewed students as “Sexual Assault Expected”, but because fraternities hold enormous appeal for current and prospective students, colleges are unwilling (and in many cases are not legally able) to bring them to heel. It is not surprising that the second-most common insurance claim against fraternities is for sexual assault.

Closer to home, Premier Kathleen Wynne has added consent for the first time to the proposed new sex ed curriculum. She has also launched a campaign to combat the “culture of misogyny”—all too evident in some reactions to the Dalhousie Dental School, Bill Cosby, and Jian Ghomeshi scandals—by implementing a multimedia “aware-

ness campaign”. The province will eventually offer more training to those working with sexual assault or harassment complaints, increasing funding for sexual assault crisis centres, and more.

In November, The Toronto Star launched an investigation into how Ontario colleges and universities handle sexual assault cases. After surveying 24 public colleges, the Star discovered that not one had a policy outlining the administration’s responsibilities towards the student filing a sexual assault complaint. In fact, only nine of 78 Canadian universities had such a policy. Since then Ontario universities announced that they have created a “multi-pronged sexual violence plan” to serve as a roadmap to the eventual creation of a sexual assault policy, which each university will draft independently. Ontario colleges, on the other hand, have already created a uniform sexual assault policy that outlines the responsibilities of the colleges toward their students in the area of sexual assault complaints and that provides a clear path for students filing these complaints.

So there is much being done and much still to be done. Let us not forget that, in the words of Caitlin Moran, “When feminism has won, it will have just disappeared and people will just go ‘But why did you need feminism? Everybody is equal.’ ” We are far from this goal, but I sincerely hope this series of article will stimulate the conversation we all need to have.

Call for a renewal of undergrad education Work continued from page 13 The professor must realize, right? If anybody were to look at this situation from outside it, they’d wonder what was going on.

When did it become totally acceptable to attend class, sign the attendance sheet, and never once check in? And of course no one does the readings unless it’s their week to facilitate the discussion.

Some are better than others at still sharing their opinion—even if it’s not grounded in anything from the texts we’re studying. We don’t even all know one another’s names except those of us who met before that particular course.

Despite all that, don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it. The readings would definitely make my top five of

favourite assigned readings list (yes, I have one of those) and they’ve allowed for engaging conversation.

I’ve always participated in classes, but I’ve never had the opportunity to do so to the degree that I currently do. But at the end of the day, it’s me, the professor, and a handful of others doing the talking, in a class of almost 30. And let me reiterate, that’s normal. It’s not just this one class—I’m certain of it. It might be more apparent in this class, but that’s partly due to its physical arrangement.

I don’t understand why we even go to university if this is the approach we take. Have university students never actually done the readings?

Did they even do them 40, 30, 20, or 10 years ago? Did my own professors complete all their essays the night

before too? Have we ever cared? Are we all just here so we can move on to bigger and better careers? Or to make a few friends? I think maybe I’ve completely misunderstood why we go to university.

I don’t understand why we even go to university if this is the approach we take. Have university students never actually done the readings?

All these questions then make me wonder if it’s entirely our fault.

Maybe this careless attitude towards education is implicitly encouraged.

Perhaps it’s a result of the current

format of university, including our relationships with professors, teaching styles, and mark breakdowns.

Personally, I’ve never felt inhibited by any of these factors, but that’s not to say that they shouldn’t be considered.

In president Meric Gertler’s visit to UTM earlier this month, he expressed a desire to improve undergraduate education in order to increase opportunities for student success. “That’s why I believe that we should not be rejecting the traditional liberal arts model, but in fact rejuvenating it and renewing it, and thinking about how we can make it work for our students more effectively,” he said. I wish I could share what I think might rejuvenate and renew postsecondary education.

That’s a tall order to fill, though.

Even for a university president like Gertler.

All I can suggest is that current and future students engage with their academics more. And I don’t mean freak out about marks. Please, no.

There’s nothing I hate more. What I’m referring to is learning for the sake of learning. Why not enjoy our academics? We all agree that extracurricular engagement is important and educational in its own right. But I think we jump too quickly to that agreement because we’re happy for another excuse to ignore the reasons we’re at university in the first place.

Why not do the readings? Why not go to your professor’s office hours?

Why not participate in lecture?

If there’s one thing university didn’t teach me, it was the answers to those questions.

03.30.2015

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15

Eagles lose to Rotman in Div. 1 finals In a rematch of last year’s final, Rotman beat UTM 82-66 to capture their second straight Div. 1 title ADAM PENKUL STAFF WRITER On Wednesday night, students flocked to the RAWC gym to watch an epic showdown in the Division 1 men’s basketball finals. UTM came into the game having lost only once all season, to Rotman no less, but the Eagles were still the clear favourites to win. However, Rotman entered with a lot of confidence as well, having won their regular season matchup against UTM 86-81 while also beating UTM in the finals last year. The crowd was clearly excited before the game, and the players seemed to feed on this energy, making for a thrilling atmosphere as the game began.

In the opening minutes of the game, it was clear that Rotman had come to play. There was a lot of energy coming from both sides, but Rotman was keeping possession very well, and was opening up many shots.

UTM looked out of sorts, struggling to keep up with the fast pace set by their opponents. The Eagles were still scoring with some good shooting, but Rotman kept up the attack and was clearly in control, leading 20-10 after 10 minutes.

UTM DEPT. OF ATHLETICS/PHOTO

Rotman was the only team to beat UTM in the regular season.

UTM seemed to find a small spark after this, picking up the pace of their play and looking more organized with their defence. Despite this, Rotman was not letting up, and a few minutes later not much had changed, Rotman leading 24-16. Finally UTM started to find the level of play that had won them so many games earlier in the season. As the first half wound down, the Eagles kept better

possession of the ball, forcing several Rotman turnovers and creating more quality openings. Momentum was clearly with the Eagles, and they managed to close the deficit considerably, ending the first half with Rotman leading only 36-32.

As the second half began, the action was much faster and competitive from both teams. UTM maintained their momentum from the first half,

but Rotman was not as complacent and was matching almost every basket by the Eagles. Despite this, UTM benefited from the emotion in the crowd and slowly closed the gap, forcing Rotman into calling a nervous timeout with UTM trailing just 45-44.

After this, both teams continued pushing, and eventually the Eagles’ hard work paid off with a tied score

at 50. They dd not let up, and a minute later an acrobatic play gave them their first lead of the game at 55-53.

The following minutes of play were extremely tight, both teams matching basket for basket, neither able to gain a clear advantage.

The crowd was still fully behind the home team, but Rotman had come to play and did not give any free points.

With only a few minutes remaining, Rotman managed to retake the lead with a three-pointer, and this seemed to completely shift the momentum.

Rotman had found a groove and had organized their attack, and it seemed as though nothing was going well for the Eagles anymore. With only two minutes remaining, UTM was trailing 77-66, and were forced to call a timeout. After this, the Eagles began pushing for fast breaks and other fast points, but they were luckless and Rotman continued to take advantage of bad bounces and unfortunate mistakes. Eventually the buzzer sounded to end the game with Rotman taking an 82-66 victory.

Eagles continued on page 16

Injuries and An unplanned journey Second-year student rises through ranks in weightlifting world athlete anxiety ERIC HEWITSON ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR Typically, it’s assumed that athletes playing high-intensity contact sports have fearless personas. They are willing to exhaust themselves mentally and physically for a desirable result. This is the category that Chris Borland fit into as the former rookie linebacker of the San Francisco 49ers who was forced to walk away from the game for good due to the risk of playing with head trauma.

Leaving a sport could be caused by getting cut, reaching retirement age, or succumbing to an injury that holds you back from being the athlete you once were. Rarely is it the case that an athlete retires because they feel the requirements of the game are too much to handle, that the risks far outweigh the reward.

When Barry Sanders, one of the greatest running backs of all time, retired from football in 1999 after a 10-year career, it was a shock to many. Sanders was only 1,457 yards away from breaking the alltime rushing record, something he could have achieved playing in only one more season. His abrupt depar-

ture from the Detroit Lions caused speculation that he had been hurt, but now there’s insight that suggests he could have left because the game got too much for him; he desired a healthier and less anxious lifestyle.

In Borland’s athletic career, he suffered two diagnosed concussions and claims to have suffered more that went undiagnosed while playing for the University of Wisconsin football program and the San Francisco 49ers. Just because nobody saw Borland lying unconscious on a playing field doesn’t mean there are no residual effects from the minor injuries.

Borland left San Francisco and his football playing days at the age of 24, playing 14 games and receiving $617,436 in guaranteed money, negating a $2,927,436 total value contract. “I just honestly want to do what’s best for my health,” he said in his retirement speech. “From what I’ve researched and what I’ve experienced, I don’t think it’s worth the risk. I’m concerned that if you wait till you have symptoms, it’s too late.”

Anxiety continued on page 16

MAHMOUD SAROUJI/THE MEDIUM

Chris Di Pietrantonio has a chance to qualify for this summer’s Pan Am Games.

JASON COELHO SPORTS EDITOR Two years ago, Chris Di Pietrantonio took the road less travelled and went from recreational weightlifter to Ontario junior weightlifting champion.

It was a quick progression, one that involved training 17 hours a week in the RAWC’s high performance centre with trainers Steve Sandor, Darren Turner, and former Canadian weightlifting champion George Kobaladze.

Before his transition into Olympic weightlifting, Di Pietrantonio was

training as a power lifter, a popular lifting style involving lifts like the squat, bench press, and dead lift.

“It all started when Darren approached me about starting because he saw my potential from powerlifting,” says the second-year biology and chemistry major. Turner convinced Di Pietrantonio to try out Olympic weightlifting in his first year at UTM. “It was frustrating at first, but I had a drive to finish what I started and it became my new passion,” he says.

The transition from powerlifting to Olympic weightlifting is not al-

ways a smooth one. Often, according to Di Pietrantonio, those accustomed to powerlifting will be too stiff and less flexible. Luckily for him, there were no issues with his mobility and since making the transition he has been competing in Olympicstyle weightlifting for the past year.

Turner and Kobaladze greatly helped Di Pietrantonio increase his confidence to get started in Olympic weightlifting, but he attributes his rapid rise in the sport to Sandor.

Chris continued on page 16

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THE MEDIUM 03.30.2015

The weight of dreams Chris continued from page 15 Sandor was UTM’s former weightlifting coach for 20 years before leaving last August. He runs the Sabaria School of Weightlifting in Mississauga, which has become the hub for Di Pietrantonio’s training, along with the RAWC. For someone as determined as Di Pietrantonio, training has become such a big part of his life that school can no longer offer him a chance to shift his focus. He is constantly striving to outdo himself, to achieve that next goal, that school can sometimes hinder his progress.

“School is a huge stress for my recovery,” he says. “It affects my training a lot. I can’t sleep as much as I want to, eat at optimal times—it drains my energy.” But he realizes that this struggle is only temporary and is grateful for the opportunity to train in the RAWC. One of the many things Di Pietrantonio loves about Olympic weightlifting is its dynamism. The two main lifting techniques in Olympic style are the snatch and the clean and jerk lifts, and they involve tremendous skill and a penchant for timing. The lifts are coordinated in explosive, sudden movements and held for only a few seconds before the lifter gets the down signal

from judges.

But for those few seconds while the bar is suspended in the air, a thousand little things are running through the lifters’ minds to ensure that their technique and stance is correct. Did you dip your knees? Is your torso as straight as possible? Did you split your legs after diving under the bar so that they landed equidistant from each other?

These things are what Di Pietrantonio is ruminating on while he completes a lift like the split jerk, a type of clean and jerk lift. His goal is to catch and suspend the bar above his head in a matter of seconds while keeping a perfectly straight torso. There is a high margin for error and always a possibility of completing an invalid lift—a failed lift that occurs when your arms are not locked while catching the weight above your head, also known as a press-out.

The journey has not been easy for Di Pietrantonio, but if there is one thing that this experience has taught him, it is that achieving goals is not an impossible feat. “The great thing about weightlifting or powerlifting is that you can quantify your goals,” he says. “I can set a number that I would like to hit in snatch and clean and jerk by a certain date, which makes it a lot

easier than setting a goal for a sport like basketball.”

He believes that weightlifting has changed his goal-setting mentality and given him a new outlook on life.

His ultimate goal is to compete in the 2020 Olympics, but before he can do that, one of his short-term goals is to total 320kg by December and eventually work towards 340.

His biggest hope at the moment is to go to the world junior championships in Poland this June. He will also have the chance to qualify for a spot on the Canadian weightlifting team for the Pan Am Games in Toronto this July, based on how he performs at the Canadian Senior Weightlifting Championship, which will be held at UTM in May. Di Pietrantonio’s unplanned journey has allowed him to leave a mark in a sport he was not initially inclined to pursue. In the short amount of time he’s been competing, his life has changed drastically. It’s given him reason to better himself and to achieve goals that two years ago were impossible.

And the journey continues. Wherever Di Pietrantonio ends up it’ll be worth it, because he took the road less travelled and it seems to be the right choice.

UTM ends up the runners up again Eagles continued from page 15 Despite the loss in the final, coach Juan Nunez was happy with his team’s success this season. “I am extremely proud of our guys. We had another great season and we finished that game battling and trying to get the win until the last second.

As a coach that the best thing I can ask for—effort all game until the last whistle,” he said.

Nunez, who is graduating this June, has been a dedicated coach for three years and has grown with his team over this period. “Since I started coaching the UTM men’s team in the 2012/13 season, I have truly enjoyed watching our guys grow both as players and as individuals,” he said. “For me especially, this situation was extremely enjoyable, being able to be around the guys for extended periods of time and get to know each one personally.”

Nana Acquah, a third-year student at UTM, agrees with Nunez about the togetherness of the team.

“The cohesiveness of the team play was largely what contributed to our

10-1 regular season record,” he said.

“Trusting our teammates to be at the right place and right time, not only on the offensive end but on the defensive as well, was part of the team play that equated to our success.”

Acquah has only been on the team for a year, but he was a major contributor. “My favourite part of being on the team this season was developing a special and unique relationship with each member on the roster— this allowed for fluidity and trust on the court,” he said.

Nunez also wanted to show his appreciation towards the students who have helped give the team an edge in home games. “To our fans, I would like to thank them for coming out and supporting the team,” he said.

“I hope everyone enjoyed the games and I encourage them to come out every home game next season to support our team and all other UTM teams.”

Although the season is over for the men’s Division 1 basketball team, they have been proud of their success so far, and look to accomplishing more in years to come.

Athletes better safe than sorry Anxiety continued from page 15 Maurice Clarett, former running back for the Ohio State Buckeyes and current educational speaker, entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist, supported Borland’s decisions in an enlightening Tweet.

“Lots of guys don’t have a backup plan. They get shuffled through the college ranks and only see football as an option to succeed,” he said.

Many young men and woman grow up with the primary goal of becoming a professional athlete, allowing nothing to get in the way of their dreams. Most don’t apply themselves to their education, leaving them jobless after their career is complete.

Aaron Jervis, a third-year UTM student and CIS all-star defensive tackle for the Varsity Blues football team, sustained a concussion in late September. Following the head injury, Jervis separated himself from football for the remainder of the

regular season. “I was not stable and did not possess the ability to retain information, nor process it,” he said. “Enduring a concussion hasn’t made me contemplate leaving the game. However, it seems that I am more conscious of my injury and slightly less aggressive in play. I am nervous that I may sustain another concussion.”

Jervis has followed the story of Chris Borland and his early retirement carefully. “Borland understands life after football and what must be done to ensure its quality,” he says.

Chris Borland doesn’t fear playing football; he fears the possibility that he won’t have the opportunity to develop a life outside the game.

Football is just a game played for a short period of one’s life, but many people mistakenly define the essence of their being by it. Not to do so makes Borland, and anyone else who opts for their health, as courageous as any on the field.