The Mike, Issue 1 (2017-18)

The official student newspaper of the University of St. Michael’s College since 1947.

Volume LXX, Issue 1 October 4, 2017 readthemike.net

FEATURE

NEWS

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Your Ultimate U of T Survival Guide (pages 8–9) How independent from USMC will the “reimagined” SMCSU be? (page 10)

What you need to know about the Brennan Hall renovations (page 2)

Sports at St. Mike’s and why YOU should get involved (page 14)

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NEWS

News Editor: Aaron Panciera news@readthemike.com

Volume LXX By students, for students.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Josh Scott editorinchief@readthemike.com MANAGING EDITOR Liam McConnell managingeditor@readthemike.com BUSINESS MANAGER Rhonda Rathburn business@readthemike.com MANAGING ONLINE EDITOR Prijanga Ahilan SENIOR COPY EDITOR Jamie Stalcup NEWS EDITOR Aaron Panciera news@readthemike.com FEATURES EDITOR Julia Orsini features@readthemike.com ARTS EDITOR Alexis Di Pietro arts@readthemike.com OPINIONS EDITOR Garnet Ryu opinions@readthemike.com SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Jiaxing Huang science@readthemike.com FAITH & THOUGHT EDITOR Francesco Rampino faith@readthemike.com SPORTS EDITOR Ben Denomme sports@readthemike.com PHOTO EDITOR Layla DaSilva COPY EDITORS M. Kalaczynski, Rebeca Ancer WEBSITE EDITOR Angela Feng SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Emily So OUTREACH DIRECTOR Josh Simpson DESIGN MANAGER Varisha Naeem

CONTRIBUTORS Tristan Bannerman, Nick Fleming, Bridget Hager, Laina Southgate, Maia Harris, Raphael Padolina, Emily Barber, Joshua De Jesus, Lindsey Peng DELIVERY MANAGER Manyi Luo FACULTY ADVISOR Randy Boyagoda COVER IMAGE The inimitable Kate Dockeray LOGO DESIGN Le nonpareil Chris Quental VACANCIES Copy Editors (2), Associate News Editor (1), Associate Arts Editor (1), Opinions Editor (1), Design Manager (1) The vacant positions listed above will be filled via a by-election that will begin at some point in October. If you’d like to receive an update regarding said by-election, as well as to receive a summary of what each available position would entail, please email Liam at managingeditor@readthemike.com.

The Mike has been the official student newspaper of the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) since 1947. It is published bi-weekly, 12 times a year, with a circulation of 2,000, delivered to over 40 newsstands across U of T’s St. George campus.

The Mike is printed by MasterWeb Inc. on recycled newsprint stock.

According to its Constitution, The Mike has editorial autonomy from USMC. All editorial inquiries should be directed to editorinchief@readthemike.com.

The Mike welcomes submissions. All submissions may be edited for taste, brevity, and legality.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @readthemike! You can also find us on the web at either readthemike. com or readthemike.net! (Please cut us some slack — we’re currently caught in domain limbo.)

Brennan Renovations: What You Need to Know Brennan Hall to undergo major renovations in 2018, preliminary planning to start this fall Aaron Panciera NEWS EDITOR Renovations to Brennan Hall are set to begin in the spring of 2018, Stefan Slovak, Director of Communications at St. Michael’s College told The Mike.

Brennan Hall, USMC’s main campus student centre, has often been criticized for its lack of foot traffic. Brennan is home to student lounges and many USMC clubs, among other things. Still, the building seems to be underutilized by USMC students.

“All too often, in the past two years, all we had were two empty rooms: Brennan Hall and the Coop,” USMC President David Mulroney said during the First Annual Meeting of the Collegium on September 20. The main purpose of the project, according to Mulroney, is to “relocate the Registrar’s Office to somewhere that is brighter, more accessible, and more student friendly.”

Slovak says that the goals of the project are highlighted by “enhancing Brennan Hall as a student-centered space,” enhancing study lounges and event spaces, “creat[ing] a hub for student services,” and moving offices such as Student Services, Registrarial Services, and offices for SMCSU and other clubs.

Gow Hastings, architects of the new Ryerson University Student ServiceHub, will be brought in to handle the project. According to Slovak, the project architects “undertook consultation with student, faculty, and staff representatives in early planning stages.” Further consultation with students, faculty, and staff have been promised, but the extent to which these representatives will be consulted is unknown and came

without comment.

The preliminary parts of the project will start as soon as fall 2017. This phase will include “preparation of space for Registrarial Services.” Phase Two will begin in late spring of 2018, and will include the bulk of the physical renovations. The Coop and the surrounding offices will undergo renovation at this time.

“During this time additional space will be made available to students, including overnight study space in Teefy Hall beginning September 29,” Slovak told The Mike. This could be a concern to students because, despite the lack of foot traffic, it is still valued as a space for USMC commuter students in particular. It remains unclear how else USMC plans to accomodate students in the interim.

Some other question marks also remain.

According to Slovak, “The budget for this project is [still] being determined. The final budget will depend on the extent of the renovations.” The project will be funded primarily by the President’s Fund for Excellence, which is funded by the annual USMC Golf Classic. The Golf Classic has raised over 2.4 million dollars since the event started in 2000.

“Alumni, faculty, and staff will be invited to support this project through a fundraising campaign,” Slovak said. He did not specify the nature of this campaign.

Sketches of the renovated Brennan Hall will be made available by the college in the near future.

USMC Unveils New Student Leadership Policy

Policy’s implications, how USMC plans to implement it remains unclear Tristan Bannerman CONTRIBUTOR The University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) unveiled its new Student Society Leadership Policy on its website September 25. The document codifies a set of rules and expectations USMC now has of USMC Student Society leaders. (It became effective retroactively, as of September 22.)

The Mike reached out to the Director of Student Life, Oriana Bertucci regarding the benefits USMC students will reap from the new policy. Bertucci stated that the policy “outlines guidelines for student societies at St. Mike’s” and that student leaders are expected to be good stewards of the USMC family. According to the documents: “Leaders accept their ethical obligation to act in accordance to USMC’s mission as a Catholic university that is dedicated to the academic and spiritual life of its students.” The implications of this particular statement remain unclear. Likewise for how the university plans to implement this policy.

The document defines the term “Student Societies” as “student organizations on whose behalf USMC collects compulsory non-academic incidental fees from students of USMC.” These societies include The Mike, SMCSU, St. Mike’s Residence Council (SMRC), and academic groups of USMC-sponsored programs. It also posits stipulations regarding the eligibility of student leaders to serve in any of these groups, stating that leaders must be “in good academic standing,” “agree to model good citizenship,” and reflect positively upon USMC, USMC students, and U of T at large. The next section also reminds groups and student leaders that USMC is what gives such groups status. The section declares that students must accept an obligation to follow the mission of the school and an obligation to the academic and spiritual life of its students.

USMC appears to be in a time of transition. The St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU) has been in a rebuilding state since its prorogation — a new

lay chaplain has been hired and President David Mulroney has laid out his vision for a reformed USMC and SMCSU. The most recent announcement of the new Student Society Leadership Policy represents a continuation on the same, recurring themes of Mulroney’s Presidency: Catholic identity, fiscal responsibility, and “intellectual, moral and spiritual development.”

The policy goes on to make explicit the fiscal expectations it has of its student leaders. The policy requires student leaders to “ensure their funds are properly accounted for and their societies operate in an open, transparent and democratic fashion.” Student leaders will also be required to submit annual budgets to the USMC administration. The policy also states that leaders will seek training with the Office of the Director of Student Life and the Office of the Bursar so as to become better prepared to financially manage their respective societies.

NEWS

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President Mulroney Releases Annual Report

Report outlines Mulroney’s vision for the coming year, how he views the past one, and some changes to USMC student life, academics, organizations

Nick Fleming CONTRIBUTOR Two weeks ago, on Wednesday, September 20, President David Mulroney presented his Annual Report to the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) Collegium in Elmsley Hall’s Charbonnel Lounge. A day later, Mulroney’s office released the report on the USMC website. Mulroney’s report outlines some of the changes to student life, academics, and clubs/organizations that USMC students can expect for this 2017–18 year.

The document, alongside his presentation, also provides students with some insight into the work USMC administration did in the 2016–17 academic year, which saw periods of tense conflict between USMC leadership and USMC’s largest student governance body, the St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU).

Mulroney views the past year as one of revival for the undergraduate experience at USMC. “My second year (2016/17) has been focused on reanimating and reinvesting in undergraduate student life,” he writes, a process he says began in the 2015–16 academic year with the hiring of several key personnel to the college’s administration, including Principal and Vice President Randy Boyagoda (The Mike’s own faculty adviser).

Another component Mulroney noted in his 2016 address was the introduction of a hard liquor ban in USMC residences, and the prohibition of served alcohol at student-sponsored events.

Mulroney begins his reflection of the previous academic year by listing his administration’s efforts to revitalize the USMC undergraduate experience. Points of interest include: the hiring of six new professors and two post-docs, the introduction of the Gilson Seminar as the SMC One program, planning of projects for the renewal of Brennan Hall, and the reconstruction of the governing principles of student government at USMC.

Mulroney has already entered the final term of his three-year contract to serve as the president of USMC (his term officially expires in June 2018). Efforts by a Presidential Search Committee to find his successor are currently underway. These included soliciting input from students in the form of a survey sent around in early September.

Mulroney describes the hiring of six new professors and post-docs as a demonstration of the college’s commitment to its academic programs, as well as a response to the criticism that USMC had failed to invest enough in its academic programs. The new hires should provide the college’s sponsored programs with greater stability as they would need to rely less on an ever-changing group of sessional instructors.

Mulroney then goes on to highlight the work of Boyagoda over the past academic year to revitalize the SMC One program. His efforts came to fruition this fall with the introduction of the Gilson Seminar, which Mulroney claims had the most competitive enrolment of all the College One programs.

Mulroney also talks about improving the USMC student experience by developing the student spaces of USMC. Over the course of 2017–18, the college will focus on renovating Brennan Hall and the Coop and moving the Registrar’s Office to a more “student-friendly location.”

Perhaps the most tumultuous and divisive period of Mulroney’s tenure thus far contained his handling of the various 2016–17 SMCSU scandals. This period included both scandals that occurred in late 2016 and involved the then present SMCSU administration, as well as USMC’s choice to only partially disclose the results of an investigation into the SMCSU’s gross financial mismanagement and poor governance dating

back over the previous decade.

These tensions ultimately resulted in the disbandment of SMCSU for the latter half of the 2016–17 academic year. USMC has gone without a functioning student union ever since.

Mulroney also announced that USMC has created a new Student Society Leadership Policy that has since become effective. He also mentioned that the college’s administration will continue to oversee the transfer of the SMCSU’s student levy to the SMCSU. He also noted that SMCSU will resume operations this fall, following their upcoming elections. This appears to be good news for student government at USMC. The report also touched on plans to think carefully about establishing “an interim relationship” between USMC and the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies (PIMS), which remains in limbo given that its previous adjoining contract has now expired, and USMC efforts to revamp its website to make it more student friendly, which Mulroney hopes to be ready to unveil “sometime over the next few weeks.”

Mulroney concluded his address by stating his priorities for the remainder of his term as president. He aims to ensure that the college creates an accountable and transparent environment regarding money management, continues to increase fundraising for investment in teaching and student experience, and helps ensure St. Mike’s becomes a place where students can ask “what it is to be a human fully alive, what contributes to happiness, [and] how we deal with some of the big questions that, increasingly, our society finds hard to answer, and must be discussed.”

SMCSU In Review

After a tumultuous year, USMC looks to “renew” its relationship to SMCSU

Josh Scott EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & Aaron Panciera NEWS EDITOR The University of St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU) will hold its annual elections beginning October 11. After a rough year that saw scandal and financial mismanagement, the SMCSU looks to reinvent its organization with a slate of new candidates for the upcoming year.

making fun of Islam. A few days after the videos were leaked, it was announced that the SMCSU would be dissolved and soon after, then-President Zachary Nixon resigned.

The bulk of the trouble for the SMCSU began in July of 2016, when USMC began an full investigation into the student union’s financial records. Then, in September, USMC President David Mulroney criticized the SMCSU for its financial mismanagement and disconnect from the student body.

Amending the Corruption

“As you probably know, if anything needs renewal, it is the relationship between [USMC] and SMCSU,” Mulroney wrote in a post on the USMC website on September 16, 2016. “I wanted to be reassured that, before we passed on to SMCSU the considerable funds generated by a levy on all St. Mike’s students, SMCSU actually had in place a system for managing these funds with due regard to probity, transparency and accountability.”

The SMCSU scandals hit their apex in December, and began with leaked Snapchat videos recorded by then Vice President Kevin Vando, featuring former Councillor Sara Gonsalves, in which Gonsalves looked to

Then and now...

In March 2017, the SMCSU financial investigation ended, finding that student funds had been severely mismanaged, over a period dating back as far as a decade. A statement posted on the USMC website by Mulroney at the time stated that, “We have found evidence of off-the-books purchases of personal items, improper and un-recorded payments from suppliers to students (“kick backs”), and theft.”

With this have come changes to USMC policy, most notably the new USMC Student Society Leadership Policy and the re-imagining committee, which outlines the modified roles of student government and student officials. The purpose of these new policies, as defined by the USMC Society Leadership Policy, is for “leaders of student societies to accept personal responsibility for their actions and exemplify behaviour that encourages an understanding of and respect for the values that inspire and inform USMC in its mission.”

Autonomy-Related Questions These policy changes have brought to the fore concerns that the autonomy of USMC student societies, including SMCSU, will be compromised, concerns that USMC officials have, in the eyes of many USMC students, thus far been unable to quell. With these questions of organizational autonomy come related questions of organizational secularity.

“We just want to make sure that [the SMCSU and other USMC student societies] are being safe and using student levy fees appropriately,” Oriana Bertucci, Director of Student Life at USMC, told The Mike. “We don’t see this policy as restricting autonomy.”

What Will the New SMCSU Look Like?

Much remains unknown as to how the new SMCSU will look and function. The nomination period for the upcoming SMCSU elections was held from September 25 to October 3. Voting will take place from October 11 to October 15, with results being announced on October 17.

Erin McTague has been appointed Chief Returning Officer and will be overseeing the SMCSU election.

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Editor-In-Chief: Josh Scott editorinchief@readthemike.com

EDITORIAL The Mike’s stance on racism, white supremacy, and Nazism “The Mike vehemently denounces racism, white supremacy, and Nazism — each in both ideology and practice.

Editorial: The State of The Mike 2016–17 was a low point for The Mike. Before we can begin to rebuild your trust in us, we must first admit that in the previous academic year, The Mike failed USMC students.

We are going to fix that.

It’s an interesting time to be a USMC student. Back in early August, The Mike reported on a news story that concerned a letter written in response to comments that USMC President David Mulroney had made in July. (You can find the full article in question, which we’ve chosen to republish here in its original form, on page 6.)

For comment on this story, I reached out to Mark G. McGowan, Professor and Deputy Chair of U of T’s Department of History, USMC Principal from 2002–11, founder of USMC’s Book and Media Studies Program, and one of the aforementioned letter’s most prominent signatories. McGowan expressed his well wishes to myself and this academic year’s iteration of The Mike, stating his belief that “students at USMC need a strong, articulate, and independent voice.”

We’re inclined to agree, and this year, we intend to be just that. The Mike’s focus for 2017–18 will be toward two interrelated goals: first, to re-establish The Mike as a voice that all USMC students can count on; second, to repair and reconnect the admittedly fractured USMC student community as best we can. That all starts with this issue, which I’m happy to say is, in terms of its overall quality, far and beyond better than any other issue I’ve been a part of.

In lieu of having a larger editorial this week, we’ve chosen to reprint the denouncement of racism, white supremacy, and Nazism that you can find to the right of this letter, as well as the exchange below it that outlines our reasons for posting the denouncement to our Facebook page in the first place.

You can expect integrity, audacity, and a good deal of might from this year’s Mike. USMC students deserve nothing less. It all starts here.

Your 2017–18 Editor-In-Chief, Josh Scott

While our hearts and minds are with the victims of the hate, violence, and terror that occurred in Charlottesville this past weekend, our eyes are to the possibility that if we do not speak out now against such evil acts and beliefs, we shall become complicit in their occurrence by permitting a space in which they can spread.

We are not about to allow such a platform. Likewise, we are not about to portray white supremacy and Nazism as normal, acceptable or in any way equal to their opposition. To do so would be not only dishonest, but a gross disservice to the University of St. Michael’s College student community at large.

We reject [and refuse to publish or in any way promote] such beliefs for the

Thanks to our diligent counterparts at UC Gargoyle for the reminder of our shared responsibility as student journalists to uncover the truth and acknowledge violence, intimidation, and hatred for what they are. They certainly have no place at The Mike.” *This denouncement was originally published in its entirety to The Mike’s Facebook page on August 17, 2017. It was written in reference to the hate, violence, and terror that took place in Charlottesville.

Given that The Mike’s elections have now concluded, I, Josh Scott, your 2017–18 Editor-In-Chief, can assure you that under my leadership, The Mike will adamantly maintain this position.

On the above denouncement *The following exchange was reprinted, edited, and condensed from a series of questions posed in late August to Josh Scott, The Mike’s then acting and now current Editor-In-Chief, by a reporter from The Varsity.

Why did The Mike decide to post [the above] denouncement?

The Mike decided to post its denouncement in order to make it abundantly clear that we refuse to condone in any way viewpoints that threaten the welfare — let alone mere existence — of other human beings on the basis of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, or disability. Without question, racism, white supremacy, and Nazism, each in both ideology and practice, have no place at The Mike.

Did The Mike plan to release a denouncement prior to the prompt from The Gargoyle?

We were considering it. Since we don’t typically publish content over the summer, that process took us a little longer than it did for most other student publications. In the best possible way, The Gargoyle’s call to action forced a decision on our front, and for that, I thank them. In certain situations, silence marks complicity. We believe that this was one.

When was the last time The Mike posted a denouncement? What made the situations surrounding these denouncements (including this one) so exceptional?

UC Gargoyle’s original denouncement, which they posted to Facebook.

same reasons that many of our ancestors did during WWII. It is our sincere hope that the incoming team (as we are in the midst of our elections) will also heed this promise.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. As far as I’m aware, we’ve never posted one via Facebook before, though I’d say it’s very likely we’ve published some in our print versions. What I can tell you is that this case stood out primarily because of the discord between its underlying circumstances and the intensely polarized discussion surrounding it. Many have equated the views and methods of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis with those of counter-protesters. Given the fact that

the former preach hate and discrimination, and the latter equality and acceptance, we found this completely disingenuous.

To remain silent on this matter would imply ambiguity where there is none. We owe it to our readers and our obligation as student journalists to the truth not to pretend otherwise. Hate and discrimination breed violence. This is what happened in Charlottesville, and could very well happen elsewhere if we do not take a strong and unequivocal stand against things like white supremacy and Nazism.

Some people have argued that newspapers should always stay “neutral” — what is your response to this? In your opinion, how does choosing a “side” lead to more truthful/just journalism?

I believe that remaining as neutral or impartial as possible in our coverage by presenting all sides of an issue or a story fairly and accurately best allows all of our readers to reach their own informed conclusions. This is why we do our best to promote rational discussion and diversity of opinion. If The Mike is any way “biased,” it is biased toward equality — the belief that all humans deserve equal status, rights, and opportunities. We refuse to tolerate racism, white supremacy, and Nazism because, quite simply, they threaten the existence and welfare of other human beings on the basis of race, national origin, and religion; that is, they run counter to this bias toward equality. There are no two sides to this fact. Likewise, there are no two sides to white supremacy or Nazism. If you ask me, these positions enable truthful, just, and logically consistent journalism.

What do you hope that The Mike’s denouncement will accomplish?

We hope that our denouncement will display our support for and best represent all of our readers. We hope it will also contribute to our efforts to reestablish The Mike as a voice that USMC students can count on. In the long run, we hope that this position will establish a strong, unequivocal precedent for future readers and iterations of The Mike to look back upon and hold true to.

NEWS

News Editor: Aaron Panciera news@readthemike.com

USMC Faculty, Staff Write Open Letter In Defense Of USMC Students

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Letter prompted by President Mulroney’s SIGNIS speech

Josh Scott EDITOR-IN-CHIEF University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) President David Mulroney’s recent comments at an international conference in Québec City have sparked controversy and prompted a number of USMC faculty members and staff to sign an open letter earlier this week accusing Mulroney of doing a disservice to USMC students, dishonoring USMC’s legacy, and rattling their confidence in him as President.

Mulroney’s June 19 remarks were part of a speech given during the opening ceremony of the 2017 World Catholic Association for Communication (SIGNIS) Congress at the Université Laval. (SIGNIS is an international non-governmental organization for Roman Catholic educators and communications professionals.)

In Mulroney’s speech, he blamed the USMC academic establishment for allowing the college to slide into mediocrity and shame about its Catholic identity. Mulroney also decried USMC students’ “negative” culture of excessive partying and drinking, as well as its objectification of women. To exemplify these points, he showed a short St. Michael’s College Student Union (SMCSU)-commissioned video entitled ‘Cowboys and Schoolgirls.’

“These were the great communicators of our narrative,” he added, referring to the SMCSU and its messaging.

Elsewhere in his speech, Mulroney praised USMC students and stated that he had “profound respect” for them.

22 professors, librarians, and administrators, including former principal Mark G. McGowan and long-time registrar Damon Chevrier, signed the July 19 letter (published in full on Scribd by the Toronto Star). The letter specifically challenges Mulroney’s “generalizations”

about USMC students, and accuses Mulroney of using the forum to “stigmatize” them.

The letter contends that Mulroney’s comments do not accurately or fairly reflect the USMC student body at large.

According to McGowan, USMC Principal from 20022011, and coordinator and founder of the Book & Media Studies Program, “the letter speaks for itself.” McGowan and the other signatories take issue with the “manner in which Mr. Mulroney chose to characterize students at USMC.”

It takes issue with, in particular, Mulroney’s use of “a few negative images” to “actively [promote] a clear impression of USMC students as party animals and Islamaphobes.” “We believe this is a distorted picture, and a disservice to the nearly 5,000 undergraduate students in the Arts & Science Division and over 200 graduate students in the Faculty of Theology,” the letter continues.

“Since [Mulroney] made the comments and showed a clip from an off campus “party” video to an international conference, whose proceedings were being filmed and disseminated by Salt & Light Media, we thought it necessary that our defense of the vast majority of hardworking, conscientious, and gifted USMC students be made in a public manner,” said McGowan, in a statement to The Mike.

It concludes thus: “Your remarks, in our judgment, have dishonoured [USMC’s] legacy, and shaken our confidence in you as President.”

McGowan continued: “Those of us who work daily with students in the classroom, the library, and in co-curricular activities, know full well the sacrifices students make when they come to university; the struggle many have in balancing work, school, and family; and their many successes that often go unheralded. Our letter signaled our public support for our students and alumni.”

Mulroney’s speech also highlighted USMC’s isolated community, and chastised USMC for failing to provide a strong Catholic voice on the topic of euthanasia in Canada. The open letter begs to differ, and instead acknowledges a number of instances in which USMC students have done just that, including an open forum held by Christianity and Culture students.

It appears Mulroney does not want USMC to become, like other federated colleges, such as Trinity College and Victoria College, “aggressively secular.” Mulroney mentions specifically that certain recruitment methods have attracted more non-Catholic students and in part, have contributed to USMC’s “dialling down the salient points of [its Catholic] identity.”

President Mulroney declined further comment on this story.

U of T to Ban Smoking

Actual policy and timeline remain TBD Aaron Panciera NEWS EDITOR Following McMaster University’s lead, the University of Toronto has announced plans to ban smoking on campus While the plan for how and when this ban will be implemented is yet to be determined, the new policy is intended to be an update of the University’s smoking policy, which was written in April of 1995.

“Our plans are in the early stages, and they stem from the desire to update U of T’s smoking policy to ensure our campuses are healthy places to study and work,” Althea Blackburn-Evans, Director of Media Relations at U of T, wrote in an email to The Mike. “Being a smoke-free campus is something the University is looking at, but how that might get operationalized is yet to be determined.”

The current U of T smoking policy, which was written about 20 years before the City of Toronto’s smoking bylaws were last updated, permits smoking in both university residences and pubs. Smoking in bars has been illegal in Toronto since 2004.

With this previously established, questions arise about how U of T will implement this ban.

Many of the St. George Campus buildings are right in the heart of downtown Toronto, and create significant pedestrian traffic outside of students, faculty, and staff. The plans are further complicated by the fact that many public roads and sidewalks run through the St. George campus, and these areas many not be under the jurisdiction of U of T campus policy.

It also remains to be seen how this policy will affect the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) community and campus. When asked for comment, Stefan Slovak, Director of Communications for USMC, replied only by writing, “The University of St. Michael’s College is closely monitoring developments surrounding a potential smoking ban at the University of Toronto.”

While much about this ban is still unclear, Ms. Blackburn-Evans seems confident that a ban will be implemented. However, when, how, and to what extent this ban will be implemented is still a mystery.

This comes a month after Mulroney reiterated his intent to step down as President in June 2018. (He was appointed by the Collegium in June 2015 for a threeyear term.) The search for his successor is underway.

This was also not Mulroney’s first time publicly criticizing USMC student groups: in September 2016, Mulroney declared his plan to reform USMC’s relationship to SMCSU, The Mike, and the St. Michael’s College Resident’s Council (SMRC) in an article on the university’s website entitled “Two Solitudes No More.” *This article was originally published in its entirety online on August 4, 2017.

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ARTS

Arts Editor: Alexis Di Pietro arts@readthemike.com

Craic agus Ceol at the First Annual Fall Ceili

Hosts and attendees alike hail the premier event a success Bridget Hager CONTRIBUTOR

The Celtic Studies Course Union &

The University of St. Michael's College Present

The First Annual Fall Céilí

Craic agus Ceol

7:00-10:00pm, Tuesday September 26 Traditional Irish Music, Pizza, and much more!

Coop, Brennan Hall, University of St. Michael’s College Toronto Free Admission

On Tuesday evening last week, anyone that walked into the Coop was transported to a little corner of Ireland, if only for a few hours. With a live fiddler, flutist, and caller, St. Mike’s First Annual Fall Ceili felt like an authentic one. The ceili (pronounced kay-lee) is a traditional dance gathering, popular across Ireland and Scotland. Participants don’t need to know anything about Irish dance when they walk in; like a square dance, the ceili is “called” by an expert who teaches a variety of group dances. After a few practice rounds, the music kicks in and the fun begins.

Despite the heat — Tuesday, September 26 saw a high of 28°C — students stuck around for a series of fast-paced dances. The Coop was still crowded when the event finished at 10 p.m. The caller, Colleen Mulvey-O’Leary, was pleased with the turnout. “I was surprised at the amount of people who were at the event; both Irish and non-Irish, students, and friends. And everyone had such a good time!”

Colleen, a native of Drumshanbo, Ireland, works for the Toronto branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. The organization promotes Irish music and dance around the world, and frequently runs traditional music events around the city. Encouraged by the Fall Ceili, she added that “the Irish culture is safe.”

The Coop was decorated beautifully for the fall season, with colourful leaves hanging from the ceiling and fairy lights all around. In keeping with the autumnal atmosphere, a large pumpkin-shaped beverage dispenser made the centrepiece of the refreshments table. There was plenty of pizza, fruit, and vegetables, and, to use an Irish word, water “galore” for the dancers. Funded through both the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) and the Arts & Science Student Union (ASSU), the event was free of charge.

But although it went off without a hitch, organizing the First Annual Fall Ceili wasn’t as easy as it looked.

According to Rachel McLean, secretary of the Celtic Studies Course Union (CSCU), “We had less than two weeks to plan, advertise, acquire decorations, and contact the musicians. And we are all students, so we’re also trying to balance schoolwork.” Members of the CSCU made a strong effort at spreading the word, handing out posters in front of Robarts and plastering them across campus.

Luckily, it seems that all the hard work paid off. One enthusiastic attendee remarked that she would love to see another ceili offered soon. Another fourth-year student Conchobar O’Finioan, remarked that the ceili was “literally the best experience I have ever had.”

And while that may be hyperbole, it goes to show how well USMC’s take on an Irish classic was received.

In addition to a fall pub night, the CSCU plans to hold another ceili around the Christmas season. You can stay up to date on the latest Celtic-themed cultural events by following Celtic Studies at the University of Toronto on Facebook!

Melting Clocks in Toronto!

Exclusive Salvador Dali pieces on display at Yorkville Village Alexis Di Pietro ARTS EDITOR Though the 2017 Toronto Fashion Week came to a finale, Yorkville Village was not quite ready to say goodbye to the designers and artists who inspired the runways and attendees. Just five minutes north of St. Michael’s College, the boutique shopping centre continued to cultivate the ambiance of Fashion Week. Proudly hosting the Hazelton Fine Art Galleries’ specially curated collection of paintings and life-sized sculptures by late Spanish artist Salvador Dali, the exhibit was a complete success. The first of its kind in North America to display an artistic curation of Dali’s work (for sale and for perusal), this specially selected exhibit of approximately 30 pieces was comprised of unique paintings and bronze sculptures.

One of Dali’s most symbolic pieces, “Profile of Time,” commonly identified as “the melting clock,” was a focal point of the exhibit. This bronze sculpture, hand-painted in green and gold, was first cast in 1984. For further exploration, the art statement below the piece gave a commonly accepted interpretation: “As the watch liquefies over the tree, it forms into a human profile, underlining the interminable relationship between man and time. The unexpected softness of the watch also represents the psychological aspect whereby time, whilst considered to be precise and fixed in its nature, can, in fact, vary significantly in human perception. All men must bend to the passing of time. We see Dali’s profile in the face of the clock. There is a tear falling from his eye, lamenting the path of life that all men must travel.” As it is conveyed through the artistic interpretation, Dali’s natural use of symbolism is embodied in the sculpted image of the melting clock to portray the intertwining connection between humans and time. The significance and meaning of this piece has

his life. His work has stimulated immense creativity in both artists and designers of his time and will continue to epitomize innovative and masterful surrealism.

In addition to the paintings and sculptures on display, Dali’s work is further accompanied by dresses created by fashion designers who have payed homage to the artist for his prominent influence on each of their own successes. Among the notable designers is 20th century Italian fashion designer Franco Moschino, who openly attributed a portion of his accomplishments to Dali. On display at the exhibit was Moschino’s playful T-shirt dress, which commemorates and alludes to Dali’s iconic mustache. It is no wonder Dali’s eccentric yet strikingly methodical paintings and sculptures have gathered international attention since the 19th century.

“Profile of Time” (aka, “the melting clock”) by Salvador Dali.

been debated for the past century and will undoubtedly continue.

The collection also includes sculptures such as Homage to Fashion (picture 2) and Woman Aflame, bringing Dali’s unconventional surrealism to life-size form.

Homage to Fashion, a significant piece specific to this exhibit, echoes the central idea between the combination of Dali, Yorkville Village, and Hazelton Fine Arts Galleries. The remarkable piece was first conceived in 1971 and was also cast in bronze. The sculpture is commonly interpreted as a representation of Dali’s relationship with the fashion world; a relationship that was first formed in the 1930s and lasted the duration of

Dali’s innate ability to take risks in his art is evident both at the exhibit and throughout his personal history. Regardless of the motive Dali used before creating one of his famous pieces, his symbolic intricacy is always apparent. With reference to the work itself, it is evident that Dali was never limited to an individual style or medium. As the exhibit demonstrates, Dali’s decades of art are cultivated across many different forms — from drawings, paintings, and sculptures to films and photographs. Most of Dali’s art reveals a constant growth and evolution of himself as an artist; from early impressionist paintings through his transitional surrealist works and into his classical period, his art transcends time. His notable transformations throughout the 19th century’s artistic movements are reflective of his own growth and evolution. Nonetheless, Dali’s ability to adapt to different periods is commendable and will continue to set a standard for all art work proceeding him.

ARTS

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Family History, In Pictures

The ROM displays emotional photography exhibit of families during peak Canadian migration periods Laina Southgate CONTRIBUTOR The first glimpse of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)’s new exhibit “The Family Camera” is that of a hallway covered in floor-length mirrors and enlarged family photographs. The lighting is dim, and walking past the mirrors it is easy to feel connected with the myriad of faces featured on the wall. This introduction into the exhibit puts the viewer on par with the photos being featured and encourages the viewer to consider their own story and how their story relates to the larger Canadian narrative.

The stated aim of the exhibit is to “discover the connections between family, photography, and migration and bring your idea of family into focus,” and indeed, this exhibit combines imagery from multitudes of families to create a theme of the importance of familial heritage and identity. One of the most striking aspects of the exhibit is a portion in which four different family photographs feature Niagara Falls.

ent time, but all the photographs depict families who moved to Canada. What is especially moving is the universality of the living room, the photographs, and of the human experience of being uprooted in order to start life again in a different place.

“Photograph of Hon Lu standing in Narita International Airport (Japan) during a stop-over on the way to Canada, surrounded by the family’s luggage. Luong Thai Lu, Narita, Japan. March 1979. Gift of the Lu-Thai family” (ROM).

The continuity between the photographs is moving because while they were taken at different times and the families are all from different places, they still all went to the same place: Niagara Falls, one of the iconic symbols of Canada. It is a very touching part of the exhibit because it prompts the viewer to consider their own first visit to Niagara Falls and what it represents to newcomers to Canada.

The ROM states on its explanatory notes that the exhibit “considers the social, political, and technological influences that impact how we conceptualize and represent family,” and the exhibit does succeed in presenting to the viewer a wider sense of what it means to be a family, and how that is documented: “Family photographs record. They also shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.”

“The Family Camera” exhibit is at the Royal Ontario Museum until October 29, 2017. Be sure to check this wonderful experience out!

Another interesting portion of the exhibit includes the various cameras featured in the center of the room.

Ranging from early cameras to modern iPhones, this part prompts the viewer to consider the role technology has played in preserving public memory. A video plays across the room as well, with various newcomers interviewed on the importance of taking photographs.

“Felicity cutting her cake with her mother Kitty and friends on her 8th birthday. Derry Martin, England. Gelatin silver print. April 1948. Courtesy of the Somerset Family” (ROM).

A fascinating part of the exhibit is a recreated family living room with a television in front of it, featuring yet more photographs. Each photograph is from a differ-

“Barbara with her kids Naina and Arjun, and grandma (daddy) Indira, who is visiting from India. Nail Dewan, Niagara Falls. Dye coupler print, August 1980. Courtesy of Deepali Dewan” (ROM).

Rethinking An Underappreciated Classic Book Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams Maia Harris CONTRIBUTOR

This year commemorates the 45th anniversary since the publication of the late Richard Adams’ masterpiece Watership Down. You may recognize the title and feel a sense of outrage toward my use of ‘masterpiece’ as a descriptive term. This is a common reaction. I ask of those that had the unfortunate experience of watching the gory 1978 film recreation of the tale in question (probably at a young age) to push aside any presumptive notion they may hold over this piece. Watership Down is undoubtedly a must-read. Though originally marketed as a children’s book, we must instead appreciate Adams’ work for its true merit. It is an incredibly told story.

Watership Down tells the narrative of a rabbit named Hazel and his adventurous accounts. The tale begins as Hazel’s clairvoyant brother, Fiver, has a vision of the destruction of their warren (rabbit burrow) due to human intervention. A band of rabbits ranging from throughout the warren’s hierarchal system then set out in search of a new home. Along the way they encoun-

ter danger, friends, invention, humans, death, and a sense of spirituality.

It is an utter disservice to the novel itself, though especially to the reader, that Watership Down is not considered a ‘classic’ and so is not explored to its fullest worth. Despite the young intended audience, the piece contains an intricately built world. The Watership Down universe contains a detailed language structure and system of societal customs (including religious ideals featuring a prominent Christ figure) built with a sense of thoughtfulness that rivals J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. Adams also toys with the readers’ expectations.

The whimsical, almost ridiculous, concept for a novel (that being a world of bunny rabbits) is told to such a fascinatingly mature degree that Adams creates an intense suspension of disbelief.

Adams’ chief achievement lies in his command over the English language. The struggles described are true to a problem an animal may encounter, while the

stakes feel high to the reader. It is no small task to create a bridge of empathy between the reader and a bunny rabbit. Similarly, the obstacles faced are symbols for dilemmas found within humanity. Through the facet of rabbits, Watership Down speaks to the human condition. The novel proceeds to touch on naturalist ideals as well as speak to the injustice concerning human intervention in the natural environment. Adams’ use of parallels and allusions are appropriate for a well-weathered reader, acting in parts as re-tellings of Homer’s The Odyssey and the Bible among an array of other classic texts.

It is the perfect time to pick up a copy of Richard Adams’ Watership Down. The novel celebrating its 45th anniversary can be found throughout U of T’s campus libraries, including our very own Kelly Library. Do not be fooled, this is not a book for children. This is a novel standing among the best, a novel worthy of any self-respecting reader’s time.

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FEATURE

Editor-In-Chief: Josh Scott editorinchief@readthemike.com

Your Ultimate U of T Survival Guide 20 things we wish we knew (or had someone tell us by way of an article like this) in first year “I’m a fifth-year commuter who studies English, Philosophy, and Writing & Rhetoric, wears a lot of hats (though not all at once), and is known to LARP with friends on occasion.”

Josh Scott EDITOR-IN-CHIEF “I’m a fourth-year commuter who studies Political Science, Psychology, and Ethics, Society and Law, watches a lot of sports (sometimes all at once), and is known to study from time to time.

Raphael Padolina USMC COMMUTER DON

1) Orientation doesn’t last forever

of stimulating your sleep-deprived, overly caffeinated brain cells. RateMyProfessors.

As much as it sucks to hear, Orientation is only com is a great resource for discovering which one week out of an eight-month school year. profs are engaging and invested in their Yeah, the cheers (can I get a Hoikity Choik course material, and which ones are not. on C?!?) and painting are the most fun you’ve – Raph probably had in a while, but that’s the thing — that’ll be the most fun you’ll have for a while.

4) In lecture, sit close to the front School is not all cheers and paint unless you’re at Ryerson, so you need to recognize I like to get to all of my lectures 15–20 minutes right away that the rest of the year will be early and sit in the front row for three reasons: quite different from Orientation. – Raph 1) I have terrible eyesight; 2) I tend to fall asleep easily, so I find that the more exposed I am to 2) Locate your classrooms in advance the potential of extreme shame and guilt, the less likely I am to do this; and 3) the fewer Keep in mind that I’m saying this as an Arts people there are in front of me, the lower my student. My classes are, frustratingly, spread chances of getting distracted by students across all corners of our massive downtown who choose to browse cakes on Pinterest or campus. You may be lucky enough to find read Buzzfeed listicles (come to think of it, not yourself in a program that has all classes in unlike this one) during class. – Josh one area: earth sciences, for example. If not, you’ll probably be sprinting between Alumni 5) Budget your time (especially in terms Hall and Sid Smith within the 10-minute of coursework) between-classes break. It’s a good idea to know exactly where you’re sprinting to.

The change in schedule between high school – Josh and university is huge, especially for Arts students. You’ll have huge pockets of free time, and a zillion things you want to do with it. Here’s the thing: those books won’t read themselves. The oodles of time you think you have to chillax should be earmarked for schoolwork and other productive activities, like clubs on campus. There’s nothing wrong with catching up on your favourite TV shows from time to time, but you don’t want them to take over your life. – Raph This could be you, if you read this list, get involved outside the classroom, and/or befriend at least one person in each of your courses.

These stock bros did, and look where they are now: in front of this slick chrome backdrop.

6) Befriend at least one person in each course you take

Exchange contact info as early as possible!

Why? For a super straightforward reason, of course: in case you ever need notes, you 3) RateMyProfessors.com is your BFF dingus. This can be a real lifesaver because chances are, you’ll end up having to miss a More often than not, it’s not the content class at some point, and knowing your luck, that makes your course: it’s the prof. The it’ll be a super important one. There are most interesting content in the world can even some instructors (old, tenured profs sound long-winded if a bad prof is in charge in particular) that adamantly refuse to post

anything to Portal/Blackboard. Plus, there’s always the chance that one of the people you approach will end up becoming one of your good friends. – Josh 7) Sign up for events with free food You’ll figure this out really quickly, but free food is the key to university success.

Free food is a similar species to food, but with a catch — you don’t have to pay for it!

Commuters benefit from free food especially because it means we don’t have to lug those bulky Tupperwares or squishy sandwiches around in our bags for the entire day. – Raph

Get ready to eat a lot of this. (Bread, not free/ incredibly strange stock photos. Unless that’s what you’re into. This is a no-personal-judgment zone.)

8) Self-care must always come first There are times each year, generally around midterms or exams, when it’s easy to feel like you’re Chewbacca: un-showered, incoherent, and stuck inside that trash compactor in Episode IV — and that’s totally normal. The rest of your life doesn’t just stop for school, as much as it may seem that way sometimes.

It’s important to remember that school can always wait, and that, moreover, you don’t have to be here. If you or someone you love is suffering, that must take precedent.

Just do your best to communicate honestly with your profs and TAs (who are, in my experience, super understanding) as well as with Accessibility Services (whom, I have it on

9

FEATURE good knowledge, can be a godsend in terms 12) Humanities students: do your breadth of accommodating your personal needs) req.’s early, and consider or any of the other wide array of services CR/NCR-ing them available to you as a U of T and USMC student. (And I mean wide: see page 15 of this When I was in first year, I asked a fourth-year issue for a pretty comprehensive list.) – Josh I happened to sit next to in lecture what the deal was with breadth requirements. He told me that they weren’t anything I should worry about until fourth year, and for some reason, that advice has stuck with me ever since. It ended up forcing me to contend with PHY100: The Magic of Physics and AST101: The Sun and Its Neighbours alongside a full course load that consisted mostly of fourthyear seminars. The moral of the story? Try to get your breadth courses out of the way during second or third year, and better yet, when you do, consider using the credit/nocredit option for them — it keeps the marks you get from counting against your GPA or showing up on your transcript. – Josh Look at this stock lady: she’s clearly overwhelmed by these hamburgers. Don’t be like her. Read the list.

Unless you’re hungry. Then maybe be like her.

9) Need some shuteye?

Fall asleep in the library

13) If you’re a commuter, befriend someone who lives in res so you can use guest passes in the Canada Room

This is a St. Mike’s-specific example of free There’s a reason you’re in the library in the food. The Canada Room is an all-you-canfirst place: you’re a hard-working student eat affair — if you’ve got a meal plan, that is. dedicated to your education (frequent Netflix Lucky for you, residents have guest passes breaks notwithstanding). Doing schoolwork they can give to people without meal plans, can make anybody sleepy, and with comfy so get out there and meet some residents! chairs at libraries like Kelly, falling asleep – Raph while studying is inevitable. Embrace spontaneous slumber! And, hey, as long as 14) Participating in medical trials is a you’re not a snorer, you won’t bother anyone great way to turn a quick buck with a quick power nap! When you wake up, you’re in the perfect position to resume I kid, I kid. This is satire folks! Free speech! studying. Just remember: when in doubt, rack Free speech! (Please don’t sue me.) – Josh out. (Disclaimer: The Mike doesn’t actually endorse sleeping away your problems.)

15) Use your dental plan – Raph Dental work is expensive, but needed. You’ll 10) Course selection, Portal, need regular visits to cope with increased UTOR webmail (and now, seemingly, teeth gnashing and coffee staining of those U of T wifi) suck pearly whites. Thankfully, the UTSU has you covered with your very own student dental Everyone knows they’re unreliable, and this plan, so make sure to utilize it before you find fact is more than a little ironic given how strong yourself in an unnecessary financial hole!

U of T’s Computer Science Program is and – Raph the sheer amount of money U of T spends on administration. Plan accordingly around their 16) Get involved outside the classroom semi-regular planned outages, turn off your wifi and then turn it back on if it isn’t working, Eh? Ehhh? Get involved with, say, a campus and don’t be afraid to ask someone if you’re newspaper. Like your favourite, the one having trouble finding something on Portal/ and only: The Mike! Not the worst idea, Blackboard. Also, if you like having internet, right? Definitely tops that wacky medical don’t pirate your favourite shows. I know a experiments one. Now, imagine Jeff Goldblum few people who found that out the hard way. said the above. Even better, no?! No?!?!

– Josh (Personal biases aside though, I couldn’t recommend this one more. It’s an incredible 11) Commuter Dons are a thing opportunity, and a great way to make friends (I know, right?) and establish a strong sense of community — especially if you’re a commuter.) – Josh The Commuter Dons are here to make your world better! Seriously, we plan various events 17) Triple-check your exam schedule throughout the year for commuter students to feel at home at St. Mike’s. We have weekly The U of T exam schedule is pretty large (not office hours in Brennan Hall, room 168, where to mention, intimidating) and therefore, a little you can tell us about your highs, lows, trials, difficult to navigate. At least, that’s what I tell tribulations, or inability to find that perfect myself since I missed my exam for ENG150: The coffee spot on campus. Please come visit us Literary Tradition by a few hours. As it turned whenever you’re at St. Mike’s. Our door is out, “Hi Professor, I accidentally misread the (almost) always open! – Raph exam schedule,” was not a sufficient excuse

— and so, I was left with a big, screaming 0% on 35% of the course. Luckily, between the essays, assignments, and tutorials, I did well enough to end up passing with 50% overall, though not before suffering through a few weeks of hair-pulling while I waited for the final marks to get uploaded. Do as I say, not as I did... – Josh 18) Don’t be afraid to talk to your profs and TAs At the end of the day, the scary profs and TAs that hold your GPA in their hands are normal people with lives (I think) — just like you. Office Hours visits do not have to revolve religiously around course material — you can ask your profs about how they got started in their respective fields, tips for surviving university in general, or, if you can actually detect a soul in there, debate how good the Leafs will be this year. In short, don’t be intimidated by your profs and TAs, and don’t let course content act as your only excuse to speak to them!

– Raph 19) It’s totally normal to get mediocre marks in first year Without a doubt, first year is tough. Between adjusting to a new school, schedule, housing arrangement, commute, city, (or country, even!), it’s unrealistic to expect to immediately excel in university. Some do, sure, but for most of us, including the vast majority of the people I know — as well as myself — you’ve just got to tough it out. As long as you set realistic goals, try your best, remain open to new things, and take proper care of yourself, it doesn’t matter how well you do in first year.

– Josh

See this stock doctor? He’ll be keeping a close eye on you, so you’d better use that dental plan.

Also, read this list. There will be a test, administered by him. Notice his gold watch?

This man means business.

20) Read this article Hey, look at you — you’re already on your way! Tell your friends, and then read it again.

And again. And again. And again, until you’ve memorized it. Abandon all other texts. This is... – Josh

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OPINIONS

Opinions Editor: Garnet Ryu opinions@readthemike.com

Urgent Questions Regarding the New SMCSU How independent from USMC will the “reimagined” SMCSU be?

The Mike Editorial Board To call it an interesting time to be a University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) student would be a gross understatement.

Much of the current and preceding tension at USMC surrounds the following question: What is and should be the role of Catholicism at USMC? For President Mulroney, it is large and defining. His tenure has been defined by his desire to return USMC to its Catholic roots.

For others, it is less so.

Where you fall on this question will likely determine how you view the various changes Mulroney’s instituted, as well as his handling of the SMCSU scandals.

That being said, there remain a great deal of question marks that should matter to all USMC students.

In this space, we hope to pose some of them. In particular we intend to highlight those concerning the nature and implications of the new SMCSU, the new Student Society Leadership Policy you can read about on page 2, and what this all might mean for USMC students.

The following is now enshrined in the policy and, as outlined, affects the SMCSU: “Leaders [of student societies] accept their ethical obligation to act in accordance to USMC’s mission as a Catholic university that is dedicated to the academic and spiritual life of its students.”

Let that sink in. And sink it does.

The “to act in accordance to” part remains unclear — presumably, the policy grants USMC administration interpretive discretion here. This raises a number of questions and possibilities. Under this policy, is the new SMCSU going to be a Catholic student union?

What might that mean? Are the new SMCSU’s student leaders going to have to be Catholic? (If true, in turn, these two possibilities raise a series of disconcerting questions regarding the new SMCSU’s inclusivity.)

What this interpretive discretion might mean for the autonomy of the SMCSU is also unclear. What is clear however is that this policy in its present form could very well have disturbing implications — and that this might depend upon how USMC chooses to wield it.

It suits us here to remember that a policy whose strength derives significantly from the quality or aims of the government behind it is not a good policy.

Oriana Bertucci, Director of Student Life at USMC, provided The Mike with a more optimistic interpretation of the policy: “We just want to make sure that [the SMCSU and other USMC student societies] are being safe and using student levy fees appropriately. We don’t see this policy as restricting autonomy.”

Given the SMCSU’s shameful past, this seems perfectly understandable, not to mention, well-warranted. In theory.

In practice, how might USMC officials choose to define words like “appropriately”?

Then, of course, on top of everything else, lies the question of what all this might mean for USMC students who aren’t Catholic. A very large amount of USMC students are not Catholic. Will these students be marginalized by the new SMCSU? Or even worse, have they already been through the formation of groups like the almost entirely Catholic “Re-Imagining [Student Government] Committee”? The answer to this question is of vital importance to not only USMC students who aren’t Catholic, but also to all USMC students who are Catholic and hope to lay any legitimate claim to caring about USMC’s undeniably large non-Catholic student population.

So how independent from USMC will the new SMCSU be? Will the SMCSU function as an arm of USMC? Or will the SMCSU function in a way that more closely resembles Mulroney’s “own vision for the role of the don” as “an extension of [his] own office” (as he outlined during the USMC Annual General Meeting (AGM) and First Meeting of the Collegium)? And moreover, is that what USMC students want from their student union?

These are all valid questions, and ones that all USMC students should be asking themselves right now. Here at The Mike, in the best interest of all USMC students, we already have and will continue to do so.

The Value of O-Week Looking back at my my first week of university Josh Simpson OUTREACH DIRECTOR

In all honesty, I think every first-year student feels some level of anxiety as they embark on their first week of university. For myself, this was especially the case.

With that said, there’s nothing a couple of St. Michael’s College chants can’t fix. Yes, if you’re tired of those chants too, then you, too, probably went to orientation week. Jokes aside, it was a very eventful week, and one I particularly appreciated as it made my transition to university just a little bit easier. I’d like to tell you why.

To begin with, one of the reasons I had such high anxiety coming into university was due to my fear that it would be difficult to meet new people. I imagined myself engaged in awkward conversations and feeling lost on campus.

However, as soon as I was put into my orientation group, (the G4’s — go green go!) I began having a really good experience. I came to appreciate the system of all the students being split up into groups.

Although we were all St. Mike’s students, the groups allowed us to compete against one another in various small and fun competitions — which, with my luck, the G4’s always lost. Nonetheless, being put into a group right away allowed us to feel a sense of belonging and gave us a common cause to bond over. That feeling was a promising foreshadow of what was to come.

The week continued with a variety of activities that got me used to the campus and others around me.

In particular, I found the scavenger hunts around campus to be extremely helpful. My group leaders pointed out various locations that would be of use to me throughout my next four years of university. For example, I learnt where I could access writing centres, where most of my exams would be taken, and got some advice on where nice places to study are. This activity is possibly one of the most underrated parts of orientation week. Even if you’ve seen the campus before, an upper-year student will always be able to share more information with you that may become of critical use later on.

Perhaps one of the most memorable days, however, was the U of T Tri-Campus Parade. The parade consisted of all three U of T campuses as we took over the streets of downtown Toronto. It was incredible to see the sheer number of students that attend U of T and especially to see us as one group, united.

Personally, through past years in education, I have never felt a real sense of pride about the schools I attended. Until now. Here at the University of Toronto, I can surely say I am a proud Varsity Blue. This feeling is primarily brought about by, first and foremost, my love for the city of Toronto, and secondly, having such intelligent individuals to surround me: people I can gladly call my peers.

Overall, I believe that orientation week is a crucial week for any first-year student. It is the introduction to the next four years of your academic career, and how you manage that first week can set the tone for how your time at university may go. For myself, I’m glad such a week can be put on, and if I were able to give any advice to next year’s frosh, it would be to use the week to its fullest potential

OPINIONS

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The “Accessibility” in Accessibility Services

It may not be easy to reach, but AS can still be worth the effort Sara Lewin CONTRIBUTOR University of Toronto, and the St. George Campus in particular, is indisputably and sometimes overbearingly large and populous. The buildings themselves being spattered across large distances, which are the means of keeping many of the students in shape, the university enrolls 10s of thousands of students of various different backgrounds every year. According to the university’s website, 60,595 graduate and undergraduate students were enrolled for the 2016–17 school year.

Photo by Sara Lewin

Accordingly, various services and groups work to accommodate different students, supposedly to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance at the education they pay for. University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) provides a health and dental plan that is wide-ranging on its coverage, from travel to prescriptions, which students can choose to use for cheaper benefits that may help them in their academic performance or choose to opt out of.

The university itself provides a Health & Wellness Centre for general health issues, as well as Accessibility Services, which serves to make school more accessible to students with physical or mental disabilities.

However, the services provided by the University of Toronto, I would argue, are often inhibited by the enormity of the population they were meant to support.

According to a poster in the Accessibility Services Of-

fice, not even Convocation Hall (with all three stories of its table-less chairs) could accommodate seats for all of the students with disabilities on campus. And yet the university tries to accommodate these students with something like a dozen disability advisors.

When I first applied for accommodations with accessibility services myself, I remember the difficulty of meeting up with my counsellor because of the limited number of appointment times she had available. Even during the summer, it seemed impossible to meet with her. At the start of the school year, not only did I find out that my counsellor had retired, but that it would take something like two weeks of emails and unanswered calls to finally be assigned a new counsellor, and then another week to finally meet with her. According to the front desk, some major internal changes were in progress at the time, and I could thank this change for my inability to access Accessibility Services for this first month of school.

I (and, I’m sure, many students like me, who have fallen behind because they couldn’t reach the accommodations promised to them to make their classes more accessible) was not impressed with the fact that they were undergoing changes that would presumably help students during the school year, instead of actually helping the students.

That being said, there’s a reason why I reapplied for accessibility services this year. Before I discovered Accessibility Services and actually made time to apply to it, I had various problems with school which I thought I would not be able to overcome. There were times when I only left the house for classes because anything other than school would make me feel useless and incompetent for being unable to keep up, and times when I wouldn’t touch schoolwork for weeks on end because I felt like I would suffocate under the weight of it all if I did. Connecting with the services not only lightened the pressures that debilitated me for so long, but it actually allowed me to get more out of both classes and campus life. Also, once reached, the disability counsellors prove to be greatly helpful. With

each of the problems I confronted her about in regard to my disability, I found that she would provide a solution that I never knew existed. For example, a student with a disability who has too much difficulty with a full course load can opt to pay by course, which would potentially allow reducing the course load and taking additional courses in a fifth year without the additional financial burden that is often implicated by a fifth year of university.

http://www.viceprovoststudents.utoronto.ca/Page 2256.aspx

In other words, I believe that Accessibility Services isn’t great, but a lot of that non-greatness can be attributed to its inaccessibility to a large number of disabled students, rather than the services themselves.

Despite the trouble it’s caused me, I am also glad to hear that Accessibility Services is going through major changes, and I hope that the new structure of the services will be able to better accommodate a larger number of students who need them. Until then, I would urge anyone who needs accommodations not to be deterred by the sparse appointment times or other inconveniences because, in the end, the services can indeed be very helpful and liberating, and I would say it’s worth the struggle.

Welcome to St. Mike’s

A little incentive for you to get involved with your college Rory McCreight CONTRIBUTOR I wish I could take it back to first year. It wasn’t my best year academically or my most fun year socially, but I wish I knew then what I have learned since. In first year, I was overwhelmed, alone and passive. As the years passed, I realized that’s not how I wanted my university career to go, so I started making my university experience how I always thought it would be. I started reaching out, instead of waiting for the world to come to me. I got myself excited about each class I took, or at least one part of each class. And I started getting involved with The Mike. By fourth year, (I graduated last spring, can I even write here anymore?) I was living with some of my best friends, doing well in school, and writing for The Mike.

There’re a lot of obvious benefits with writing for a student newspaper. First and foremost for a student at U of T, especially a humanities student, is your writing will improve. A writer at The Mike is writing for pleasure, but also to be published and read at large.

The process starts with creating a piece of writing that you think someone will want to read - not just something that you think will be well received by a

grader. You’ll also have to work with a team. Working with an editor is an invaluable learning process, you’ll learn how to write entertaining pieces, how to write lean, and how to take constructive advice. You’ll be able to get right to the point and learn how to cut your own words, sentences, and paragraphs, without feeling like a failure. It’s a great place to practice and get creative with the writing process.

Another obvious benefit is the people you’ll meet.

You’ll interact with editors as possible mentors, staff writers as future colleagues, and the entire populace of St. Michael’s College as soon-to-be friends. The people you can meet through any extra curricular, even it isn’t working for this lovely paper, will benefit your university experience in ways you can’t even imagine yet and that I can barely explain.

Being involved with the school will brighten the corners of this cavernous school, bringing you to places you may otherwise have missed. Last year, I covered the OUA women’s volleyball finals for the sports section. I knew very little about the sport or

our team’s calibre therein, but I had heard it was an exciting team and I was not disappointed. I reached out and got media passes for the mezzanine, and took in a fantastic sport with a colleague from The Varsity.

The team was fantastic and my light dive into the sport of volleyball was a treat. There’s a lot tucked away in the nooks and crannies of this school, even if those nooks and crannies are in fact packed grandstands in the Goldring Centre.

Beyond all of these sorta obvious and general benefits (it also looks pretty good on a resume), it’s also just good to stay busy. In my fourth year, I was working with the paper, taking six classes to graduate on time, and getting myself sorted for my first school-less year in almost two decades. I still found time to relax and enjoy myself, and, in retrospect of earlier years, I found that when all of your time is time taken off you don’t appreciate having time off. What I’m trying to say is, try writing for The Mike — or try any extracurricular, really — and keeping yourself a little more busy will make your times between busy-ness all the better.

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Faith & Thought Editor: Francesco Rampino faith@readthemike.com

FAITH & THOUGHT

Faith: Why Does It Matter to Me?

A first-year’s take on the role of faith in university life Emily Barber CONTRIBUTOR In the chapel at Hart House there are three windows, all seemingly random designs, that stand out from the rest. Though beautiful, the contrasting colours, shapes, and designs make the overall effect initially quite puzzling and out of place. That is, until you learn that these particular mosaics are crafted from shards of shattered stained glass windows originally found in French and Belgian churches, all decimated during World War I. Student soldiers from this university collected different pieces from different churches along their campaigns and brought them back where they have been memorialized in the chapel windows at Hart House.

http://torontothenandnow.blogspot.com/2012/11/34toronto-remembers-then-and-now.html

The reason I bring up this story is that there are some things worth saving, some traditions that ought not to be forgotten, and some contributions that should not be ignored, despite the inevitability of time and the constant march of progress. That being said, this story is also about making something special from things that ordinarily would never have come together. Here at the University of Toronto, we are living in the shadow of a prestigious and often intimidating history, one that shapes much of what we do. Yet we are also challenged to come together in ways hitherto unimagined

to create new ideas and to forge ahead into uncharted territory; in short, to make our own unique mark on the world. In order to do that we are saddled with the demanding task of balancing the old and the new, deciding what to preserve and what to prune for the next generation of students. And I feel that in particular, St. Mike’s feels this pressure as a historically Catholic college within a secular university. As St. Mike’s students head further into 21st century life, what will faith at the college mean? And what role will faith play in the daily lives of students?

Weighing in on this matter are a number of first-year students. “Within the St. Mike’s community, I believe that we are all under the general umbrella of faith,” said Emily So. “However, opinions about those ideas do have a lot of diversity within the community itself, given the different backgrounds of people.” So, a life science student from Toronto, cited her decision to be a part of St. Mike’s as “a college that my family has been part of in the past and one with a relation to my religion.” She also plans on being involved in The Mike as Social Media Manager to “keep the idea of faith prevalent in our community.”

Diversity of faith and opinion seem to be common trains of thought, as life science student Nicholas Pagano sees St. Mike’s as “definitely a whole variety of people, whereas back in the day I would’ve said there were a lot more Catholic people from similar cultures.”

Pagano considers the college currently as a place where “ultimately the only thing we share is a desire to learn.” He noted a shift from the college’s “[original] idea of ‘faithful’ students and [now] instead preaches sharing faith.” He maintained that, “Faith is not so much how I act today than how I live overall. When it comes to a day-to-day routine there isn’t really a set formula of what faith is supposed to be, but it sets a guideline

of how I treat people, how I treat myself.”

Hans Xu, a computer science student, also places a real value on the importance of faith in one’s daily life, saying it “keeps you humble even when things are going really well for you, and once it gets too bad you know there is still hope. Faith keeps my life steady.”

Xu also noted that “a lot of people come from Catholic high schools, have a Catholic background, but are still trying to figure out what their faith means to them,” and that St. Mike’s can be a great place to do just that.

He plans on staying involved in the faith community by “being an active part of the parish, volunteering opportunities, checking out the campus ministry, and taking part in potential March for Life events.”

Aloysius Wong, a student planning on studying peace, conflict and justice, is a student at Victoria College.

However, he has been able to experience St. Mike’s by virtue of the Gilson Seminar of Faith and Ideas, St. Mike’s exclusive new One program, which for him is “a modern take on faith, [and] being a part of the Gilson Seminar will continue to help me learn how to face some of the doubts I have and wrestle with secular values and the faith.” Wong views the college as having to “rediscover what it means to be a Catholic college within a secular university with Catholic, religious, and non-religious students in its college, and reconciling that, and making sure everyone’s welcome, but also holding onto that traditional identity moving forward.”

He also emphasizes how key the faith can be to students, saying, “I think going into first year what a lot of students face is, ‘Where am I going after this?’ and ‘Who and what am I called to be?’, and these are both religious and secular questions. I think what faith helps with is, even if you don’t know what you should be doing or who you should be, you know how you should be doing things. And I think that’s really beneficial in discovering who you’re meant to be.”

The Radical Call to Serve What does service look like for USMC? Joshua De Jesus CONTRIBUTOR In the spring of 2016, 10 students and four teachers departed from Pearson Airport to Guatemala with a mission to help the poor. Over 10 days, they built a house for a single mother and her family, painted school rooms for impoverished children, and brought food to the inhabitants of a local dump. I was one of these students, and in those 10 days both my life and worldview were changed radically.

Now, as a new member of the St. Mike’s family, I am expecting some division. Be it with regards to politics, culture, religion, or what have you, I am expecting students to divide themselves. Yet, as I witnessed in Guatemala, among our own divisions, we students were bound together by a strong willingness to help those in need. Our mission to come to their aid was what kept us focused on what needed to be accomplished.

And through that experience, I learned that when one is suffering and crying out for help, a desire is felt to do anything to ease their pain and restore their dignity. After my Guatemala experience, my reaction to any related circumstance is more instinctual than anything.

Gender, age, culture, or creed don’t matter in such a moment; it is purely an innate expression of the kindness which each one of us inhabits.

I will here use the word “service”. Service was the main factor behind our unity during the Guatemala mission; it was the most profound expression of our care and concern for the community we were trying to build up. Service itself is the laying down of oneself

to help another in need, and in our world which has seen endless suffering, this desire to serve ought to claw at our soul. Should we then not feel compelled to help our brothers and sisters in need? Should we not drop everything right now, including this article, and venture around downtown Toronto distributing food to the poor? Well, not necessarily.

Service is an action that varies in practice and size. It may be as small as holding the door open for a stranger or as big as starting a global movement. It may keep us busy in our local communities or take us away to countries like Guatemala. Service is a dynamic, everchanging action that humanity is constantly rediscovering through each generation. Moreover, it is an action that requires nothing more than love for it to be meaningful. St. Teresa of Calcutta (whose image can be found in Brennan Hall) said, “We must love until it hurts,” as she recognized that a true act of service is devotional, and at times painful. Yet, if motivated by love, its results are both timeless and purposeful.

Through a Catholic context, the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) strives to coinhabit service with faith, as service is a useful tenant of the Catholic faith. This institution presents the opportunity to claim a radical meaning of life. Contrary to social norms, yet committed to Catholic teachings, St. Mike’s calls upon each person to lay down in service, and to be risen up in faith. As a first-year student, I have already seen this service take many forms. I’ve had upper-year students

guide me in times of personal doubt, faculty who’ve helped make my transition from high school to university seamless, and clergy who’ve directed my spiritual path in unsettling moments. Each of these are testimonies to St. Mike’s commitment to service and faith.

As we embark on this new school year, I challenge you readers to take part in the spirit of service at USMC. I challenge you to rediscover yourself in a new and exhilarating way by laying yourself down for your neighbour. Get involved in the many student clubs and social initiatives on campus. Each of these simple acts will transform you, your community, your campus, and the world around you into a brighter and loving place.

All it takes is for you to be prepared to serve and to do so lovingly.

Photo provided by Joshua De Jesus.

SCIENCE & TECH

Science & Technology Editor: Jiaxing Huang science@readthemike.com

Thinking Big and Bold

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Reframing the relationship between science, technology, and the world’s biggest problems Lindsey Peng CONTRIBUTOR Today’s rate of change, due to technology and its affect on social structures, has left us in a state of constant uncertainty. We are witnessing the development of myriad new technologies from genome editing and point-of-care diagnostics to artificial intelligence and virtual reality and more.

Our universities excel at teaching us improved statistical, computational, and visualization methods. However, the problem we forget is that new math alone will not give us more useful applications. The reason for this is simple: students in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are typically not the most familiar with the world’s largest problems.

STEM students are bombarded with courses and learning techniques to find cheaper data analytics and faster computational models. However, their schedules often leave very little room for them to examine the realities outside the algorithms.

It is a shame that, for this reason, the main application of data analysis thus far has been toward maximizing the profits of large corporations from Target to Amazon to Alibaba. This knowledge is implemented where the fastest and highest turnaround of money occurs; at present, it is mostly serving the richest 10% of the world. This is true even for the companies that we suppose should create real societal value, such as those in biotechnology and pharmaceutics. Their solutions are aimed at the same 10% and their health problems instead of at the other 90% that need it most, let alone

toward where future generations could use it.

Solving the problems of the so-called poor need not entail compromise. In fact, many of our current investments reside in activities that have no positive productivity, and to borrow so much from the future is bound to eventually result in an economic crash. Our greed in this zero-sum game is in fact toppling us into economic recession — or the steep curve of de-leveraging in the economic cycles that have repeated since the invention of the modern monetary system.

On the other hand, investing in what looks like a money sink now might be our way to unlocking infinite potential in both market and intelligence and thus productivity. It is a counterintuitive idea, just like the idea that we can solve the problem of overpopulation by ensuring better life expectancy in developing countries. The globe is interconnected, and to solve our own problems of the future, we need to solve the problems of the world, which means we must gain a better understanding of where the issues are elsewhere in our world.

Another motivation to design for the poor is that design criteria prioritize cheap, effective, reusable, and easyto-use solutions. By directly designing for the other 90%, we are not only addressing the problem of social unsustainability due to huge wealth discrepancies (as we can see with the anti-globalization movement in many parts of the world), but also the unsustainability of our own overconsumption.

There is no shortage of exponential technologies: biotechnology and bioinformatics, computational systems, networks and sensors, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing, medicine, and nanotechnology.

But to fully utilize the potential of these technologies to solve grand challenges, we are first required to know the realities outside of technicalities.

Luckily, you don’t have to look far to find the institutions and organizations that are actively working on this. For example, Engineers Without Borders and other sustainability groups are diffused around college campuses in Canada. They hold many conferences and activities each year that focus specifically on solving these problems. There are also plenty of other government- and privately funded challenges to empower students to build critical problem-solving projects themselves instead of waiting for researchers to discover the answer.

It is important to remember that we are where we are due to the efficiencies brought on by division of labour, and institutions generating ultra-specialized research have helped us achieve exactly that. However, overspecialization has also resulted in academic institutions that are ill-equipped to address the world’s biggest challenges. We need our institutions to produce more integrative and macroscopic thinkers to talk about the biggest and boldest ideas to reinvent the industries of energy, healthcare, and education in order to better realize human freedom.

Building a Greener World

Some of the City of Toronto’s efforts to reduce emissions Jiaxing Huang SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Between 1750 and early 2017, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere increased 40%, from 280 ppm to 406 ppm. It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate, Earth’s surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047. If this happens, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of people worldwide will experience a multitude of harmful effects.

greenhouse emissions.

Recent estimates suggest that if the current emissions trajectory continues, the Earth’s average temperature could increase 2°C by 2036. This value has been designated by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as the upper limit to avoid “dangerous” global warming.

Enwave and the Green Roof Bylaw are two of those policies. Enwave is the name of a company: Enwave Energy Corporation. This corporation is currently owned by Brookfield Asset Management and was formerly jointly owned by the City of Toronto municipal government and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System under the name the Toronto District Heating Corporation. One of its great innovations has been the Deep Lake Water Cooling System that uses cold water from Lake Ontario to cool buildings in downtown Toronto, such as the Toronto-Dominion Centre, the Royal Bank Plaza, the RBC Centre, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and the Air Canada Centre. The system has enough power to cool 3 million m² of building space (equivalent to 100 buildings), and it is the largest renewable lake source cooling system of its kind in North America.

According to the EDGAR database, created by the European Commission and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and released in 2015, Canada ranked 9th in the world in terms of carbon emissions, with China and the U.S. in 1st and 2nd place, respectively. From this, can we say that Canada has done a good job of reducing its greenhouse emissions?

Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding no. Although in terms of total greenhouse emissions, Canada seems to be quite low when compared to other countries, if we compare greenhouse emissions per capita, then the result is shocking. According to the list of countries by greenhouse emissions per capita published by the World Resources Institute in 2014, Canada ranked 11th, ahead of other developed countries such as the U.S. (ranked 14th), Germany (ranked 33rd), and Japan (ranked 35th). What that means is that Canada still has a long way to go toward reducing its

As the largest city in Canada, Toronto has the power to assume an important role in reducing the country’s greenhouse emissions. Luckily, the municipal government fully understands this and has formulated a number of policies designed specifically to help Toronto reduce its carbon footprint.

Enwave draws ice-cold 4°C water from a depth of 83 meters below the surface of Lake Ontario. Then, the cold water goes through Toronto’s John Street Pumping Station before it circulates around the buildings, taking away their heat and cooling them down. However, the heated water from downtown is not returned directly to the lake — thus, the lake does not become polluted with a plume of waste heat.

The cooling system is a clean, renewable, and reliable energy source. Compared to traditional air-conditioning, Deep Lake Water Cooling reduces electricity use by 75% and will eliminate 40,000 tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of taking 8,000 cars off the streets.

In addition to the Deep Lake Water Cooling system, the City Council also passed the Green Roof Bylaw in May 2009, which required green roofs on new commercial, institutional, and residential developments with a minimum gross floor area of 2,000 m2 by January 31, 2010. Then, from April 30, 2012 onward, all new industrial developments had to be in compliance with this bylaw.

A “green roof” is one where vegetation like grasses, bushes, and even trees can grow. It has many advantages when compared to normal buildings, the most prominent one being its ability to take in carbon dioxide and thus reduce the city’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, according to a 2005 study by Brad Bass of the University of Toronto, Green Roof can also reduce a building’s heat loss and energy consumption during the winter, as well as prevent the building from absorbing too much heat in the summer, allowing it to save on electricity that would otherwise have had to be used for cooling.

While the City of Toronto has undertaken a number of other measures designed to reduce greenhouse emissions, efforts on the part of our government alone are not enough. Ordinary people like you and me also have to take up a similar responsibility if we want future generations to live in a cleaner and greener world.

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SPORTS

Sports Editor: Ben Denomme sports@readthemike.com

Intramurals and You

Sports at St. Mike’s and why YOU should get involved Ben Denomme SPORTS EDITOR The University of Toronto is a big place, and at times, the sheer amount of people on campus can be daunting. With over 86,000 students at the school reported in 2015, and class sizes sometimes entering the thousands, beginning and maintaining new relationships can be difficult.

Fortunately, there are ways to split the massive entity that is U of T and to form groups where common interests are shared and friendships are made. One of these ways is through the world of intramural sports.

The University of St. Michael’s College is one of seven colleges that competes in intramural sports, along with professional faculties like Dentistry and Rotman Commerce. While some sports are split up into two seasons, others are played year round.

Sports like basketball, soccer, and hockey are all available to be played. The full list of available sports and St. Mike’s affiliated teams is on the website imleagues.com. This website informs you of the dates and times of games, allows you to contact captains, and join teams. Sports are split up into leagues of men, women, and even co-ed.

Having played rugby for St. Mike’s for my first two years at U of T, I can attest to the benefits of being involved in intramural sports. They are a valuable and worthwhile exercise for many reasons. On one hand, they are a

great way to meet people outside of your program and year. Intramural sports are open to everyone who wants to play, meaning that you will meet people who you may not have had the opportunity to meet just by going to classes. The relationships garnered through sports are some of the strongest, mainly because you’re working as a team to achieve a goal.

Also, there are usually opportunities outside of games and practices to go out with the team, furthering the social opportunity that comes with being involved in intramural sports.

On the other hand, the physical aspect of intramural sports is not to be overlooked. All the intramural sports require effort and physical exertion, running being a large component of most sports. Rugby was a combination of running as quickly as possible while also being able to efficiently tackle (or avoid being tackled). Coming into university I was in bad shape, so rugby became a way to force me into running at least twice a week and focus on getting stronger. I am proud to say that I lost a lot of weight in my first year of rugby, and got stronger at the same time.

extremely stressful. If there is no outlet for the stress, mental health issues can arise and have negative effects. Intramural sports will be there to relieve this stress and allow you to work through the difficulty of school healthily.

The benefits of intramural sports are several, and the only way to take advantage of these benefits is to go out and get involved. Intramurals are among the best ways to get involved at U of T, as well as to meet people you would not otherwise have met. It is a good way to make life-long friends and to have fun at the same time. All skill levels are welcome, and there are no disadvantages to playing, so why not join?

Finally, sports and physical activities are an excellent way to reduce stress and gain focus. Regardless of the specific skills gained through playing the sport itself like hand-eye coordination, speed, or strength, there is the general benefit of letting off steam in a positive and healthy way. School will get difficult and at some points

The Nature of Protest in Sports

Real problems are being pushed aside by NFL’s good intentions Ben Denomme SPORTS EDITOR Week three of the 2017–18 NFL season was an eventful one, and not just for the shocking losses and brilliant comebacks. In fact, the real shock for fans came before the games began, when several players knelt for the national anthem of the United States in protest of recent divisive comments made by President Donald Trump.

deaths were usually unreported or not given the attention Kaepernick felt they deserved, and so he took matters into his own hands. The protest extended to include awareness for the underrepresentation of all non-white citizens and the poverty and debilitating conditions that many of them have to deal with because of their race.

His protest resulted in national outrage and controversy as well as, some would argue, his release from the San Francisco 49ers during the 2016–17 season. To date, Kaepernick is still a free agent, much to the displeasure of some other NFL athletes and commentators.

The protest, as shocking as it was at the time, was pushed aside for several months while the nation dealt with other seemingly more pressing issues, such as the American national election.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNw0C7Mged-/.

Kneeling as a form of protest began with Colin Kaepernick during the 2016–17 NFL preseason when many fans noticed him kneeling for the United States’ national anthem rather than standing, standing being deemed the patriotic and respectful gesture. In fact, WNBA players were kneeling for the anthem before Kaepernick, but this did not get nearly the same attention that was paid to male athletes.

Kaepernick’s protest was a way of calling to attention the many unjustified deaths that unarmed AfricanAmerican men suffered at the hands of police. These

It was only at the beginning of the current NFL season that the protest recurred. Football players from many teams slowly started to join in Kaepernick’s protest, but, after a series of tweets from Trump on September 23, 2017, the NFL, its various teams, and Commissioner Roger Goodell generally agreed that kneeling in protest was their right as players.

Soon, athletes from different professional and nonprofessional leagues began to exercise their right to protest as well. Notably, LeBron James of the NBA was vocal on Twitter about his displeasure with Trump, tweeting, “Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!”

Of course, the question now becomes: Is the subject

of this recent protest what Kaepernick had in mind when he began kneeling last year? Is the original issue being washed out? And if so, is what has taken its place as valuable?

The answer to these questions lies in Goodell’s statement on the comments made by Trump. He wrote, “The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture.”

Unity is the key word in his statement, and the display of unity from NFL players before their games was certainly identifiable. However, this display of unity may distract fans and observers from the issue Kaepernick set out to make known. It is valuable to support unity, but if the support is not widely accepted and established, the people it was intended to benefit will fall through the cracks.

Furthermore, the mere fact that the catalyst for protest was the president’s direct comments on the patriotism (or lack thereof) of athletes is cause for concern.

Trump, and the athletes who knelt only after Trump’s tweets, have taken attention away from the issue of the underrepresentation and unjustified murders of non-white citizens and focused it on the issue of how to properly respect the national anthem.

Kaepernick began his protests with a specific goal in mind — to raise awareness for issues which the public would otherwise ignore. If significant progress is to be made toward achieving his laudable goal, less emphasis should be placed on who is protesting, and more should be placed on what is being protested.

AROUND CAMPUS

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Some Stuff You Should Know About Services and programs available to USMC students *Reprinted, edited, and condensed from the University of St. Michael’s College (USMC) website.

Academic Advising -USMC Registrar’s Office: St. Mike’s students are invited to visit the Registrar’s office when seeking academic advice. There they will find highly professional advisors with a wealth of experience in all areas of academic life at USMC and at the University of Toronto (U of T). Assistance with registration, course selection, program selection, and scheduling is available. In addition, advisors can provide students with guidance regarding workloads relative to other aspects of their time on campus.

Academic Assistance -Kelly Library Learning Commons: St. Mike’s offers students one-on-one consultations to enrich their writing, research, and learning. These are all available at the Kelly Library Learning Commons on the ground floor of the John M. Kelly Library.

-USMC Writing Centre: Writing is much more challenging at university than in high school, and so here students can find writing instructors to help them write more clearly, analyze thoughtfully, construct reasoned arguments, and ace their assignments.

-USMC Learning Strategist: The Learning Strategist at St. Mike’s supports students in all areas of academic performance, from developing a learning style to managing stress and overcoming procrastination.

-Personal Librarian at SMC: Personal librarians offer first-year St. Mike’s students friendly assistance with assignments and research.

-Kelly Library Research Help: Students are encouraged to meet with librarians to gain confidence in pursuing their research and mastering citation.

Peer Mentorship -USMC Connect: Students can participate in the USMC College Peer Mentor Program, where participating students receive mentoring from a USMC student ambassador.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/usmcconnect/ to learn more!

-PAIR Mentorship Program: Students enrolled in the Faculty of Arts and Science can participate in the PAIR mentorship program designed to match students with upper years based on program of study and interest. Visit http://www.studentlife.utoronto.ca/ mpp/peer-mentor-opportunities and select ‘PAIR Program’ to learn more!

Health and Wellness

healthandwellness/

Campus Ministry Campus Ministry at USMC helps students integrate their intellectual lives with their faith development and facilitates faith formation for undergraduate students, with an emphasis on engaging students, increasing student participation in campus life and developing student leadership.

Other On-Location Services -First in the Family Program: First in the Family is a mentorship program for students who are the first in their family to attend post-secondary school.

-International Students: U of T offers many resources for International Students including transitioning advising.

-Career Support: Students can book appointments or attend workshops with the USMC Career Educator to explore different career paths and receive assistance with job searches.

Awards, Bursaries, and Financial Aid USMC offers awards and bursaries to undergraduate and graduate students tailored to students’ unique qualifications, interests and needs.

-USMC offers students a variety of bursaries (grants) and awards based on financial need and academic success.

-U of T also offers more than 3,000 awards and bursaries for students.

-Financial Aid programs such as OSAP are offered to students who qualify.

-USMC Registrar’s Office also offers financial advising services.

USMC Student Leadership Opportunities -Residence Don: Senior students who live on campus and offer programming and community building activities for students living in residence.

-St. Mike’s Residence Council: Student-elected leadership for residence halls and campus-wide residences.

-Commuter Dons: Senior students who support and engage the commuter student population through programs, resources and community building activities such as Health & Wellness Days, Holiday Dinners, Movie & Games Nights, etc.

-Commuter Ambassadors: Student ambassadors to support commuter student programming.

-The St. Michael’s College Student Union -USMC Health and Wellness Counsellor: (SMCSU): Student-elected representatives Students can book an appointment with who host events for all St. Mike’s students the USMC Health and Wellness counsellor such as free BBQs and open-mic nights for counselling support. Information can be called “Kelly’s Korner.” found at https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/students/

Clubs & Student Societies St. Mike’s student clubs include…

-The Mike newspaper -Friends of the Kelly Library -Book and Media Studies Students Association (BMSSA) -Celtic Studies Course Union (CSCU) -Christianity and Culture Student Groups -Medieval Studies Undergraduate Society (MSUS) -Student Philanthropy Council -SMC Troubadours Theatre Group -University of Toronto Italian-Canadian Association (UTICA) -Pair-A-Dice Board Game Club -Croatian Students Association -American Culture Club -Students for Change -U of T Chinese Catholic Community (UTCCC) -Trek for Teens -U of T Students for Life (UTSFL) -Mike’s Health & Wellness -St. Mike’s United

Sports & Recreation No matter your level of interest, U of T offers a variety of sports and recreational programs – everything from European Handball to Fencing and Cycle Fit to Skating!

-Intramurals: Students are welcome to join a team and participate in Intramural sports ranging from soccer to inner tube water polo, a great way to meet new friends and stay active! Visit http://www.uoftintramurals. ca/ to learn more!

-Recreational Programs: Recreational programs offered to students include dropin fitness classes and drop-in recreational sports. Information on facilities, schedules, and programs is available at either https:// kpe.utoronto.ca/sports-and-rec, or http://harthouse.ca/fitness/drop-in-fitness/ -Varsity Sports: U of T offers varsity-level athletics in sports such as football, tennis, swimming, hockey, basketball, rowing, and more. St. Mike’s students are involved in athletic teams in over 20 sports.

For Families -USMC Alumni Association: The USMC Alumni Association can be reached for questions and support regarding St. Mike’s and what the college has to offer.

-University of Toronto Groups: U of T offers resources for parents and family of students attending the university including an e-newsletter.

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FEATURES

Features Editor: Julia Orsini features@readthemike.com

Your New Favourite Literary Journal Getting to know Augur Mag and its trailblazing EIC, Kerrie Seljak-Byrne Josh Scott EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

What inspired you to form Augur in the first place?

What, in your mind, differentiates Augur from other literary/speculative journals?

Kerrie: Running a literary magazine has been a plan of mine for the better part of a decade. In fact, I launched my first Zine much further back than that — as a 7th grader I rallied my friends, put together a whole two issues, and sold them to my classmates for $2 a pop.

Somehow, they bought it and it’s been a high that I haven’t been able to shake. After that, I was yearbook editor at my high school, ran an academic journal out of Victoria University at U of T, and started The Spectatorial before graduating. So it was really only a matter of time before I started in on a new project.

There hasn’t been a stage in my life where I wasn’t doing this work. How Augur came together in the end, though, was never planned. I knew I wanted it to be speculative fiction (The Spectatorial, I think, shows my love for genre). But I’ve always loved pieces that show up between or just outside genres, too — so we threw in “dreamy realism” as well. We knew we wanted to focus on Canadian creators, that was never a question — there are only a handful of speculative fiction specific magazines in the CanLit scene, but we have a rich landscape of writers and creators here.

And, finally, our focus on intersectionality — which is now a core part of who we are as a publication—came around almost accidentally. We’re a fairly intersectional team, and we just naturally want to read work that supports and fosters intersectional reading. It’s a no brainer that that’s what we want in Augur. It’s all of these things, together, that I think makes us stand out — and made us successful when we kickstarted.

Canadians want more Canadian speculative fiction.

Many readers who are active on social media are demanding better representation in literature. And the speculative fiction and Canadian literature communities were just so supportive of a new voice in their midst. What we’re trying to do is hit a lot of targets at once, while still appealing to the broadest number of people possible. Learning to do that will be a challenge — but it’s one we’re looking forward to tackling.

els that were built for success in another environment might not be built for success in the current environment. So much of magazine work in Canada is based on volunteer passion, donations, sponsorship, and government funding. If any of those go awry, it’s hard to keep going. Augur is new. I’m not quite so full of hubris to come out and say that I know we’ll be 100% successful. I have no idea. We’re learning. But we are being built in and for a digital environment — print is an ideal end goal for us, but it’s a “nice to have.” Our structure is going to be built into the current literary landscape, and we’re paying attention to the magazines around us that we respect. We’re lucky to have our kickstarter backers on our side, and two years to experiment and see how we can become as sustainable as possible. Plus, by day I’m a marketer, so hopefully that will count for something in the long run!

Of Augur’s EIC, Kerrie Seljak-Byrne.

Photo by Dan Seljak-Byrne.

How do you intend to bring literary and genre fiction closer together? And could you define “slipstream” work?

Kerrie: We’ll be looking for tone, more than anything.

There’s a certain style of voice that we love — I don’t think we’ve seen enough of it to fully describe it yet, but you can see what I mean in our Preview Issue.

Genre doesn’t matter to us as much as what a story is doing and how it’s being told. What kind of care was taken, and what we’re left with — or left wondering — at the end. That means we’ll probably end up working with a lot of magical realism, ecofiction, and slipstream. “Slipstream” is a kind of undefinable term for a kind of undefinable genre — pieces that ride the boundaries of fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, or any of their forms. I think a really good example of this from our Preview Issue would be Lawrence Stewen’s (who’s a student at U of T currently!) “The Man Who Killed Coen” — there’s elements of folklore, fantasy, dystopia, science fiction, and literary fiction, and it’s all mixed beautifully together. But slipstream can take a lot of forms. So I’m sorry, but this half-answer is probably about as good as it gets! That said, we’re also interested in a lot of other things as well — literary high fantasy or science fiction, realism that just has hints of the surreal or eerie. So tone. Definitely tone more than anything else.

Augur’s Preview Issue cover. Illustration by Lorna Antoniazzi, and design by Kerrie Seljak-Byrne.

What would you like to see more of in contemporary literary/speculative journals?

What do you think will make Augur succeed in a field where so many have failed?

Kerrie: This one’s easy — of course, I’d love to see more genre mixing. And, for the spaces that aren’t doing so yet (bless the spaces that are!), I’d love to see more explicit care and calls for intersectional creators.

Kerrie: I think that literary magazines are hitting the bump that we thought books would hit five years ago.

As we figure out what’s happening with print and digital there’s going to be some restructuring. Some mod-

Could you define what you mean by “uncommon perspectives”?

Kerrie: This could apply to the genres of the pieces we’re looking for, straddling siloed categories, or the fact that we’re most interested in publishing work from otherwise marginalized or intersectional creators. Quite literally the uncommon!

When you launched your Kickstarter campaign, did you ever imagine it becoming such a success?

Kerrie: I did imagine! But I didn’t quite hope. We definitely had high hopes for it — we spent a year preparing the magazine’s launch, and it would have been Far Too Sad for it to all go awry. I couldn’t have imagined, though, the support that we’ve received from the communities that surround us. We’re very lucky to have so many people who care about this project.

How many of you are former U of T students/ Spectatorial alumni?

Kerrie: We’re all U of T graduates! And, yes, we’re mainly The Spectatorial alumni. Myself, Alexander De Pompa (Managing Editor), and Anna Bendiy (Managing Blog Editor) are all Vic grads and former Editors-In-Chief of The Spec. Amy Wang was also a Vic grad, and is the former Graphic Fiction Editor for The Spec — she’s now Graphic Fiction Editor for Augur.

Mado Christie, our Senior Editor, is actually a graduate of the Faculty of Music. While Dan [Seljak-Byrne, Augur’s Outreach Coordinator] is our only USMC graduate [and might I add, a former EIC of The Mike], I did spend quite a bit of time on the campus myself, though, taking Celtic Studies courses whenever I had an elective to spare.

I see that you plan to pay your writers. Do you also plan to not charge submission fees?

Kerrie: We will pay our authors and our creators for as long as we’re a magazine — and we will never charge submission fees. Augur believes that money should always be funnelled towards the creators. It means there’s a lot more volunteer or nominal payment work on the editorial/organizational side, but there wouldn’t be a magazine without the incredible work and passion of our creators. And that’s why we’re here in the first place — we love the work being created.

From Augur’s Preview Issue Launch on August 30 at No One Writes to the Colonel. Photo by Dan Seljak-Byrne.

How can people get involved with Augur?

Kerrie: You can reach out to me at augurmag@gmail. com if you’re interested in getting involved! We’re also currently looking for First Readers, and we’d love to hear from anyone who loves reading and creating compassionate spaces: http://www.augurmag.com/first-reader-application/ Augur successfully raised CA $7,696 on Kickstarter of its $6,000 dollar goal in 30 days, thus funding itself for the next two years.