The Cascade Vol. 23 No. 13

Vol. 23 Issue 13

April 8, 2015 to May 5, 2015

Tony’s employer since 1993

Writing Centre Alumnus Jack Brown has dropped his petition to UFV

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Blossoming artists Students install organic works of art around campus

The new faces of UFV Athletics

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Steve Tuckwood and Tom Lowndes on their new appointments

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ufvcascade.ca

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NEWS News

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Opinion

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Fraser Valley Express’ arrival runs late

Culture

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Funny philosophy

Arts in Review

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Beginner’s guide to graphics cards

Sports & Health

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A+ performances

Briefs

U-District plan revealed

New student rep on UFV Senate

ABBOTSFORD — A few weeks ago, UFV held elections for a student Senate representative. The UFV Senate is a governing body of administration, faculty, and community members that makes, discusses, and votes on university projects and initiatives. Out of eight candidates, Sarabjit Kaur was voted in through myUFV as the 2015-16 student representative. Kaur is a first-year social work student.

SUS health and dental inflation policy reverts after archival discovery ABBOTSFORD — One year ago, SUS proposed two referendum questions: one to raise the health and dental fee to expand coverage, and the other to link it to inflation. The first passed, but the second failed, with 52 per cent of voting students against it. But after looking into the archives, SUS has found that in the original health and dental referendum, from 2004, the fee was instated with this language: “SUS Council may adjust in future years by no more than 10 per cent per year.” As “SUS Council” is an outdated term, and as a more recent student vote suggests an unfavourable response to further raises to the fee, this policy may undergo review. For now, this is current, valid SUS policy.

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Academic Planning and Priorities Committee (APPC) talks Writing Centre

News

ABBOTSFORD — On Wednesday, April 8, the U-District plan will hold public presentations open to student input.

The U-District is a long-term city planning initiative that looks at development around UFV. Local businesses, essential services, housing, and student-friendly activity have all been discussed as ways to attract a university community. There will be maps, artist renderings, and interactive input exercises for students starting at 11:30 a.m. on the Abbotsford campus Green.

The Cascade will continue to cover this story in the coming weeks.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

The APPC held a meeting last Wednesday to discuss postponing the Writing Centre changes.

The much-awaited FVX bus route is here — but has poor timing doomed it as a resource for students? Katie Stobbart weighs in.

Lydia Amir, associate professor of philosophy at Israel’s College of Management Academic Studies, presented a guest lecture on the place of humour in philosophy. Kodie Cherrille reports.

Want to play games on your PC, but don’t think it’ll handle newer releases? Ashley Mussbacher tells you what you need to know about graphics cards.

Three students have been awarded the CCAA Academic All-Canadian Honours for excellence both in sports and in the classroom.

Riding into the sunset Graduation is an ending — and the beginning of something new and unknown KATIE STOBBART

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

One of the most time-consuming and important parts of publishing The Cascade each week is its cover. The cover, which usually offers an artistic representation of an article in the paper, is the first thing you see. It’s supposed to be something that draws you in, either because it’s visually striking, evocative of a particular well-known topic, representative of what you might be thinking about, or a combination of these.

I guess that means we do a lot of thinking on what you might find relevant. Because we’re also students, our starting point is usually what we find relevant.

This week, we didn’t give you much to go on — the image has no headline — so if you took the bait and opened the paper, here is the answer.

Whether or not you plan to graduate this year or some time in the future, most of us can think of a time when our sentences begin or end with “for the last time.” It’s

Volume 23 · Issue 13 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-Chief katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart

that moment, that feeling of imminent change from one phase of our lives to another, that we hope to convey.

Consider the knight on the cover: perhaps battle-weary, perhaps feeling somewhat out of place in a desert landscape with the sun setting before him, he makes his last ride. In his wake, tiny cacti flower fruitlessly — an indica-

“There’s also the possibility the sun is not setting at all, but is in the early stages of dawn.” tion, maybe, of something beautiful still to be found, long after verdant fields have been left behind.

“Graduating feels a little like dying,” Tony, our production and design editor, half-joked as he created another layer in Photoshop to blur dark violet streaks

onscreen: the clouds’ shadows.

In a sense, I have to agree with him; you tie up loose ends, and you prepare for something you haven’t experienced and can’t predict, a place you know will be somehow fundamentally different.

I tried not to think too much about the cliff apparently ending — as the piece progressed, it seemed the knight has only a little further to go before the ground gives way to that unknown. The parts of the future you do know don’t necessarily bode well — debt threatens like mounds of dark earth, meted out by the shovelful.

Yet in the distance, there is a suggestion — perhaps a little out of place in a desert landscape — of green hills: a promise of growth and life. There’s also the possibility the sun is not setting at all, but is in the early stages of dawn; the knight is maybe not so battle-worn but ready to set out on a new journey, his armour gilded as the mountains are in light. As the background took shape, it became clear there’s no

News Editors megan@ufvcascade.ca Megan Lambert

Staff Writer jeffrey@ufvcascade.ca Jeffrey Trainor

michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular

Webmaster ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher

Managing Editor valerie@ufvcascade.ca Valerie Franklin

Opinion Editor alex@ufvcascade.ca Alex Rake Culture Editor nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt

Director of Business Development joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson

Arts in Review Editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt

Production and Design Editor anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi

Sports Editor vanessa@ufvcascade.ca Vanessa Broadbent

Copy Editor kodie@ufvcascade.ca Kodie Cherrille

Video Editor mitch@ufvcascade.ca Mitch Huttema

Production Assistants shyanne@ufvcascade.ca Shyanne Schedel eugene@ufvcascade.ca Eugene Kulaga Advertising Representative jennifer@ufvcascade.ca Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts Contributors Martin Castro Cover image: Anthony Biondi

cliff after all. The ground is solid before us. We can move forward with a little less trepidation.

It’s also important to recognize that although the knight is alone, he was chosen and placed within this particular context to represent more than one individual.

In a sense, he is an everyman or everywoman — while he or she may feel alone, there is some comfort in the notion that the image represents a community. As Tony placed the finishing touches on perhaps his last cover after four years at the paper, I was having a short but pleasant exchange with a couple of classmates, commiserating good-naturedly about the unknown future and how we’re handling it. The experience, which can be isolating (what am I going to do), becomes unifying.

We cannot see the knight’s expression, but in a way we know him as we know ourselves. At some point we will all be in such a position, looking to the sun as if it can tell us what lies beyond.

But there is only one thing that can reveal what comes next: riding on.

Printed By International Web exPress The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature.

Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.

Articles and letters to the editor must be typed.

The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition.

Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.

rC en

Over the next two months, a number of university services and student organizations will move from B and C buildings on the Abbotsford campus into the Student Union Building. The spaces they leave behind will be designated for other uses, reconfigured, or in some cases renovated, which means the next time students see them in September, they may be unrecognizable. So, students of the present, gaze upon these unknowing offices, soon to be emptied, repurposed, and forgotten! And students of the future, coming across this page in some archive, library, or digital reproduction, consider the unstoppable advance of time, and what it has wrought!

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Trading spaces Ca ree

www.ufvcascade.ca

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

APPC recommends Writing Centre decision review Faculty and admin vote to ask for postponement before change to Academic Success Centre is completed

UFV faculty and administration gathered to talk about the review process for the Writing Centre. VP academic Eric Davis (far right) chaired the meeting.

MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE / PHOTO

The Academic Planning and Priorities committee debated the decision-making and jurisdiction surrounding the Writing Centre two months after its closure was announced, and this delay weighed on much of the conversation.

“I’m just not totally sure where today’s motion goes or if it’s productive,” said Gerry Palmer in the meeting’s opening minutes.

Nearly two hours later, after thorough, occasionally contentious points of argument, the APPC approved a motion that recommends the postponement of plans for the Writing Centre and a review of the full proposal.

The APPC is a sub-committee of Senate, which in the university’s structure can advise the Board of Governors, a body that holds the final decision in many education matters, including, potentially, this one.

At the heart of the meeting’s unsettled questions was interpretation: secretary and registrar Al Wiseman’s agenda notes identified three vague phrases in the University Act, which outlines the network of processes within the university: “the development of educational policy,” “educational services,” and “resource centres.” How those words are

interpreted, it became clear, both determined how the Writing Centre closure took place in February, and how it would be addressed in April.

“There are multiple points in this in which we can clearly see a link between the work at the Writing Centre, the proposed Academic Success Centre, and the jurisdiction of this committee,” said geography professor Michelle Rhodes. “All we have is the language before us, not intentions that are somewhere else. I think the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of the fact that this is our jurisdiction.”

But Diane Griffiths, associate VP for human resources, summarized a different perspective, explaining how the Writing Centre decision was made without going through Senate. “People in administration did not see, within the APPC terms, those conditions that would bring the decision of the Writing Centre to the APPC ... they would have seen this as a support service,” she said. “Faculty seem to be looking at this and saying, ‘We don’t see this as a support service, we see this as an academic or educational area.’

And I think that’s the grey area.”

Recent changes have also taken place within UFV’s educational advising services, as arts, sciences, and general advisors will be condensed into one location in the Student Union Building. As

that is a “student service,” the decision was made at the administrative level. The distinction with the Writing Centre is that it was run by faculty members, who published academic work and educated, rather than facilitated help for students.

Griffiths also described the situation as difficult to disentangle now that it has been put into motion.

“Once that decision got taken, rightly or wrongly by administration, then the implementation of the decision went into confidentiality, because then you are talking about individuals,” she said.

By this point in the meeting, a number of topics were being expounded on simultaneously: the terms, the potential domino effect a recommendation to Senate could have, what a review of the proposal would mean exactly, and whether or not slowing down or changing the process would be possible. Maureen Wideman, who is overseeing the new project, provided a brief timeline, which would have the hiring process for peer tutors begin this month, as Writing Centre faculty are shifted to different departments.

Palmer, who is also Senate vice-chair, suggested that if the APPC did not receive direction on the matter, it might not be up to them to decide anything. “If Senate decides, after a discussion,

to send the matter to the APPC, then it becomes a matter for the APPC,” he said.

This special meeting took place after discussion threatened to extend a previous meeting’s allotted time, but it also represented a larger-scale voicing of a matter that until then was discussed in offices, hallways, and online, with different members of the UFV community holding varying pieces of information. The average student may have seen a protest on the Abbotsford campus, heard about the news through friends, or read UFV’s official statement promoting the change — the theme of what this change means has yet to be settled for many.

History professor Scott Sheffield contextualized the choice before the committee as one with some urgency behind it. “Under the circumstances, my instinct would be to not pull back and leave a vacuum, but in fact to fill the vacuum,” he said. “I think to not act is to leave inertia and uncertainty on the floor.”

Christine Slavik, the committee vice-chair, expanded on Sheffield’s comment. “It’s ironic to me that we’re planning 2025, [when] we would look back at 2015 as the year we made this decision, that we chose to eliminate consultation and collegiality,” she said. “One of the things I teach in Child and Youth Care is ethical

decision making. And one of the errors a lot of novice practitioners make is they hide behind policy when sometimes the right thing to do is to take risks and to do things in a different way and to learn.”

Eric Davis, VP academic and vice-provost, is the chair of the ACCP, and was in a unique position, as the decision that started this campus-wide conversation began at the administrative level, though Davis said it ultimately originated with Jody Gordon, the VP students. After chemistry professor Noham Weinberg observed a split between faculty and administration over the Writing Centre, calling it “a very bad sign,” Davis offered a comment echoing Griffiths’ earlier explanation.

“One of the [obligations] imposed on administrators is the obligation of confidentiality,” he said. “You can’t read into the superficial appearance of who’s speaking for or against something. You really can’t read too much into it, because you don’t know what you don’t know.”

The motion was called to a vote, with 13 in favour, four opposed.

The next level of debate for the Writing Centre, Senate, will take place this Friday, April 10 at their regularly scheduled meeting.

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Writing Centre court petition discontinued Alumnus says case still valid; university says process is being followed MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

Alumnus Jack Brown has discontinued his petition regarding administration’s decision to open an Academic Success Centre in place of the current Writing Centre, in which he described the situation as “an apparent breach of process.”

Following a meeting with Adnan Habib, a litigator and managing partner from Baker Newby who represented UFV, Brown says he attempted to settle the matter without going to trial, but after a proposal to bring the matter before the APPC was rejected, and UFV indicated it would pursue legal costs, Brown says he had to abandon his attempt to bring the decision before the provincial Supreme Court.

“I sought legal advice and was advised to offer a permanent discontinuance of the petition in exchange for an agreement from UFV not to pursue me for all costs,” he alleges in an email.

“Not being a lawyer, and not hav-

Image: Megan Lambert

ing access to a managing partner at a law firm, I was not in a position to continue to pursue my petition.”

Legal counsel for UFV Maureen Murphy says the particulars of conversations between the two parties are not disclosable.

“I can’t really comment on the costs — the matter never proceeded, it never went anywhere,” she says, referring to the discontinuance of Brown’s petition. “I can comment, though, that in

any sort of proceeding, there is an option of either party to seek costs against the other, and the determining factor of whether or not costs are assessed is with the court. We never got to that part.

Could there be the potential for it? Absolutely, but that potential goes both ways, for both parties.”

VP students Jody Gordon adds that the Writing Centre was a topic on the APPC agenda almost a month before Brown filed his petition, leading to, two meetings

later, a motion to recommend the postponement of the changes to the Writing Centre.

Brown says that this type of administrative decision has precedence with the Supreme Court.

“Although I have agreed to drop the matter, I am still quite confident in my legal argument,” he says, citing a 2014 case between Capilano University and the faculty association at the institution.

The university discontinued multiple courses and programs, including studio art and computer science, without consulting its Senate. The court ruled in favour of the Faculty Association, based on interpretation of the University Act. Under the same section of the act, “libraries and resource centres” must follow the same process; interpretation of this language was a major part of the APPC meeting called specifically to address the Writing Centre decision.

Gordon says she did not anticipate this change to be controversial, but that this debate is allow-

ing for a discussion about advice and input at the university.

“This just happens to be one of the cases that helps us test those waters,” she says.

At the APPC meeting, some members asked if, due to the steps already taken, if reversing the change would be too complicated to even be possible. Gordon says, budget-wise, it is not.

“Instead of configuring the budget [in a] way that would have included an Academic Success Centre and some support for writing within the College of Arts, it would be, ‘We’re going to continue with the Writing Centre, and the budget goes this way and not that way,’” she says. “I think that’s probably something that happens at a lot of institutions: they have moments where they suddenly have to make an adjustment on the fly.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t file something with the board with advice from senate and then move it off to the government to show we had to make a mid-term adjustment to our budget.”

C-51 changes don’t go far enough, TRU professor says Law prof still not sold on proposed, now amended anti-terrorism bill ALEXIS STOCKFORD

THE OMEGA

KAMLOOPS (CUP) — A TRU law professor isn’t budging in his criticism of the federal government’s new anti-terrorism bill, despite amendments made last week.

Robert Diab, who has previously criticized Bill C-51 for what he calls a lack of oversight and an expansion of power for Canada’s intelligence agency that Diab believes is too close to the power of a secret police force, said potential changes made during the House public safety committee’s clause-by-clause review do not address flaws in the legislation.

“Given the nature of what’s been described, the amendments are not substantial … I think the real question for the future is whether the concerns raised by civil libertarians and others about the potential misuses of this bill, whether in fact they will be born out and to what extent,” Diab said.

Four amendments were accepted after the review, all previously announced by the Conservatives.

Dozens of opposition amendments, including amendments by the NDP and Green Party that would have seen more oversight

built into the bill and stricter guidelines for the gathering of confidential information, were also presented, but not accepted.

Among the accepted changes, the public safety minister’s authority over airlines was narrowed, government sharing of confidential information must be done “in accordance with the law, including any legal requirements, restrictions and prohibitions,” and a new clause clarifies that CSIS does not have “any law enforcement power,” including the ability to arrest.

A fourth amendment struck the word “lawful” from the clause protecting advocacy and protest from prosecution under the bill. Critics of C-51 have previously argued that the words “lawful protest” would exclude non-violent but technically illegal advocacy, such as the recent Burnaby mountain demonstrations, putting a chill on civic engagement.

While Diab said it was good to hear that there would be amendments to the bill, he added that he does not feel striking the word “lawful” from the exemption clause protecting protest will make much difference in practice.

“The more significant change that [the bill] makes is that it al-

lows for a much broader scope of information gathering and sharing, not on the basis of a kind of conventional threshold like the likelihood that the information is necessary or relevant into an investigation into an offense, but simply whether the information falls within the mandate of the information gathering body,” Diab said.

“There are little to no safeguards in terms of relevance, reliability, accuracy of information – no requirement for caveats or qualifications in the uses information can be put when it is shared with others or with other foreign governments and agencies.”

Measures allowing more information sharing between government organizations and the “lawful protest” clause, both of which were amended last week, were driving concerns in the recent “Day of Action” protests that took place across the country.

TRU student Nikki Ford, who helped organize Kamloops Day of Action demonstration last month, feels some of the issues critics have raised are being listened to, but added that amendments to bill may be meaningless without oversight to avoid misuse of powers.

“How are we supposed to know if they’ll implement [the amendments] and act on it?

There’s no guarantee and there’s no authority to be a watchdog of CSIS either,” she said. “That’s the one thing we were kind of asking about this bill too – who’s watching the watchdog?”

The more things change the more they stay the same Diab also raised concerns on one part of the bill that was not up for change: a clause allowing CSIS to violate Charter rights or other Canadian law, excluding physical harm or violation of a person’s sexual integrity, with a secret warrant issued by a judge.

“I mean, this is completely unusual; this is completely extraordinary is really what it is,” Diab said. “You might say, ‘Well if it’s really that troublesome, someone will just challenge its constitutionality and it’ll be struck down,’ but the trouble is how is anyone going to challenge it when this kind of warrant is always obtained in secret?”

In its submission on Bill C-51, the Canadian Bar Association formally protested the measure, stating “it is untenable that the infringement of Charter rights is open to debate, in secret proceed-

ings where only the government is represented. Parliament should not empower CSIS or judges to disregard the constitutional foundations of our legal system.”

In a previous email to The Omega, local Conservative MP Cathy McLeod defended the bill, saying “The proposed legislation will provide Canadian law enforcement and national security agencies with additional tools and flexibility to keep pace with evolving threats and better protect Canadians here at home.”

“CSIS could only take reasonable and proportional measures to disrupt threats,” she continued. “To do this, CSIS would consider the nature of the threat, the nature of the proposed measures and the reasonable availability of other means to disrupt the threat.

Intelligence services in most of Canada’s close democratic allies have had similar mandates and powers for many years.”

Both statements received from McLeod above are exact copies of statements made in earlier press releases by the federal government.

The amended bill returns to the House of Commons the week of April 6.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

SNAPSHOTS

Image: Anthony Biondi

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Image: Anthony Biondi

Image: Anthony Biondi

Two Tims, one intersection

Image: Anthony Biondi

Broaden our horizons

Not banking on change

Elementary University Megan Lambert

Joe Johnson

Anthony Biondi

It seems Abbotsford is being taken over by banks. When the old building that used to be Earl’s got bulldozed, I was hopeful that the city would get some local businesses in the new space. It would have been wonderful to have a large building with many small shops set up for the average consumer to browse.

But the new building is going to be a CIBC instead. Great. It’s no wonder the majority of people who grow up here move away. There’s nothing worth staying for.

Abbotsford needs more cultural locations that draw in income and establish roots for the community, not more banks.

My stepmother is an elementary school teacher, and I take second-level liberal arts courses here at UFV. At the end of the school day, you would be surprised to know that we both complain about the same behavioural issues in the classroom. Talking back and making inappropriate and immature jokes in the middle of a lecture is to be somewhat expected from a crowd of 30 hyperactive pre-teens — after all, they’re just kids and they’re just learning how to be good humans. However, some people must have skipped that step, because in a number of my classes there has been sassy commentary, comebacks, and immature contributions to class discussions — for example, giggling at and loudly narrating a short film used as a teaching tool in class.

This kind of behaviour makes me wonder if university professors shouldn’t add an Early Childhood Education (ECE) certificate to their professional development section of their resumes.

This past week I was driving down 200 Street in Langley, and as I approached 72 Avenue I spotted it: two Tim Hortons locations on opposite sides of the intersection.

Granted, they were “On the Run” locations, but it’s still insane that there are two locations that can look through their windows at each other.

I like Tim Hortons. I’ll consume their bland food and drinks as happily as the next person. But I’m pretty sure I can’t drink a tea by the time I drive across an intersection.

Sure, there are other types of businesses that adopt this same tactic, including the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds — but Tim Hortons is king of oversaturation.

But why should I care? If the market can sustain it, then I have more options and less wait-time while I grab a bagel that I’ve lost all taste for after eating one too many.

Let’s just hope the market is sustainable.

Women’s fashion is well known for its glamourous styles and its creative yet delightful accessories. At the same time, men’s fashion has continued to stagnate in the same old shirt and jeans, or two- to three-piece suits. I mean, if the biggest shift in men’s fashion is whether or not the suit jacket has two or three buttons, then there is a big problem. We should be discussing gold trim, fashionable scarves, hats, shoes, socks, bags, and so on.

Where is the spirit of accessory with men? If a man carries a handbag, what do we call it? A handbag. If a woman carries it, it’s a purse. This sort of labelling has caused men to be self-conscious about what they carry, and what they accessorize with.

In recent years there has been a shift (here’s looking at you, murses), but I still think that we, as men, need to rethink our fashion. We need to develop male accessories, and broaden our horizons.

Ashley Mussbacher

NOW HIRING

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The Editor-in-Chief directs editorial and production staff through all stages of publishing The Cascade each week.

It is an intense job, requiring a minimum of 16 office hours per week, and is not recommended for full-time students.

If you want to gain valuable writing and editing experience and think you can handle staying on campus nearly 24 hours a day, this might be the job for you!

For a full job description, check out the employment page on ufvcascade.ca.

Term of office: May 2015 to April 2016.

To apply, email your resume, cover letter, and writing sample to valerie@ufvcascade.ca by April 11, 2015.

Pay per issue: $300

7

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Satire

UFV to become purely conceptual REPP PORTER REPORTING IN

Attentive students were baffled at the disappearance of energy dashboards at UFV’s Abbotsford campus, which were replaced with only a piece of paper reading ENERGY DASHBOARD. While initial claims that this was perhaps an art installation or part of a construction project served as tentative explanations, word has recently emerged that these replaced panels are part of a larger administrative decision.

In the face of funding cuts by the provincial government, UFV has taken a radical step towards remaining economically buoyant: it’s going conceptual.

UFV administrator Dark Nevered elaborated in a phone interview about the administration’s steps towards universally conceptualizing the university.

“We are going to replace all specific, existing things with signs that simply have the names of those things. These signs will then signify something that was once there — only, they’re one step better: they’re not there! You get all of the bang, for none of the buck.

Image: Repp Porter

This is a caption.

“We’ll start with the small things, like clocks and benches,” Nevered continued. “Then we’ll get rid of the things no one will miss: parking metres, smokers, Sodexo coffee. All replaced with pieces of paper with their names on it.”

Replacing things with signs of

things has significant financial benefits, as it costs more to have running water than having the idea of running water. Furthermore, signs can be interpreted by each student differently, allowing for students to customize their experience with such conceptualizations.

As the conceptualization process continues, more and more vital parts of the university — like the teaching material and the professors — will be replaced by pieces of paper that will sufficiently convey class materials.

Students will walk over a piece of paper labelled “door,” sit on a

piece of paper labelled “chair,” and stare intently at the piece of paper labelled “professor” for a few hours, taking detailed notes and asking the paper questions.

However, some students are worried that it comes at the price of an authentic learning experience. Since human beings only have access to their own conceptualization of things, there are questions about whether students would actually learn anything new when interacting with those pieces of paper.

There are also concerns of what might happen in the event of a windstorm.

When asked about these concerns, Nevered responded by saying “we don’t know the answer to that, since you don’t.”

It was then that I realized that I was talking with a conceptualization of administration. It was then that I realized that I was talking to a piece of paper that said “phone.” It was then that you realized you weren’t actually listening to me report this to you, but that you were reading a conceptualization of me on a piece of paper, and nothing really exists outside of your unsatisfactory cage of perception.

Fraser Valley Express as badly timed as local bus service KATIE STOBBART THE CASCADE

“It doesn’t seem that long ago we were at UFV to receive an armload of petitions asking for this bus service.

We knew there was very strong demand for it from the university, and from the community in general.” — Sharon Gaetz, Chilliwack Mayor, in the Chilliwack Progress The Fraser Valley Express (FVX) — a rapid transit route connecting Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Langley — has finally arrived.

The route has been a longed-for necessity for years, particularly for students commuting to and from UFV campuses.

However, the timing and cost of the project may mean students won’t use it, after all — a possibility that doesn’t bode well for future transit development in the Fraser Valley.

While the FVX will hopefully attract enough riders to ensure its success from the community, it follows the implementation of a cheaper option for students: the Student Union Society (SUS) shuttle. After the recent addition of a Langley shuttle and

Image: cptdb.ca

How can you have a successful service if hardly anyone knows about it? increased Chilliwack service, the fee per semester is $26.70. The fare per trip on BC Transit’s FVX is $5 per person, and it’s not currently connected to SUS’s U-Pass.

It’s unlikely students already using the SUS shuttles will switch when they’re already paying for

a transportation service (with Wi-fi, no less), nor will any chronic drivers choose FVX when they’re already not getting their money’s worth out of the shuttle.

There’s already talk of ridership being low in the Fraser Valley, and inefficient service

is a key barrier to transit’s use.

But low ridership usually means slower or less development. So if students are a main target audience for the FVX route, and they don’t use it, there’s a good chance future services we need or ask for will be even more sluggish to

appear. It exacerbates the problem; this could be just one more piece of evidence in the argument that no one takes transit, so why expand?

However, students aren’t at fault for this per se. It’s still a case of the system not meeting the need on time, and planners not doing a good enough job drawing in clientele. I challenge you to find any advertising either at UFV or even on city buses about the route or the first day of free travel (passed by time of print).

How can you have a successful service if hardly anyone knows about it?

It may not seem so long ago that UFV was begging BC Transit for an efficient way to commute among the main communities its students live in, but a lot can happen in a few years. I hope this service will be a step forward for transit in the Fraser Valley.

As it stands, it seems redundant for UFV’s transit users; in future infrastructure projects, better planning and communication among all parties might prevent the rather limp arrival of a longawaited dream.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Climbing life’s ladder not the only measure of success MEGAN LAMBERT THE CASCADE

Some people can plan out their next homework assignment, try their best in a class they don’t need to take, and work up to a noble profession like teacher, child and youth worker, or nurse — all roles which are necessary in our society. I’m glad the practical thinkers are going into those fields, and I’m happy they have chosen to climb the vertical ladder of life.

But what about the creative types, the kind who willingly skip class on a nice day to go to the beach? Those of us who do our best work when we are feeling inspired (usually late at night, when we should be sleeping) are kind of trapped on this linear ladder in a society that prizes those whose life-goals are more about stability and success within the system.

Look at our provincial government’s BC Skills for Jobs Blueprint, for example, where jobspecific training is encouraged for “our growing economy” — a.k.a. the LNG sector and trades division, which us artsy hippies protest against with a passion.

A UFV prof I admire, who has inspired me to find solace in my perception of the world around

Image: strangebeaver.com

“It seems like the quality of what you produce is based on what’s fashionable, and to me that isn’t art.” me, said, “It is the burden of the artist to hold up a mirror to society.” This sounds great — social commentary in your fiction, poetry, or paintings, all from the comfort of your living room – but unfortunately we live in this “jobspecific” kind of world, where we do things as a direct means to an end, that end being money.

Of course, we need money to live. It’s pretty much impossible

to be an artist and make enough money creating what we want to create. Instead, it’s about feeding the consumer — novels become vampire fan-fiction, photographers become wedding photographers, and painters paint what looks great in a Pinterest-style bedroom. Artists manipulate and pervert their art for the selfish population in order to survive, not because what they are creat-

The Cascade is HIRING Need an on-campus job?

Do you have skills in editing, Wordpress, design, or business?

We are currently accepting applications for the summer semester for the following positions: Managing Editor Arts in Review Editor Webmaster Business Manager Production and Design Editor Job descriptions and requirements are available at ufvcascade.ca/employment.

Please send your resume, cover letter, and a writing sample, as well as any questions you may have, to valerie@ufvcascade.ca by April 15, 2015.

ing is good art.

Our world is becoming increasingly about the practical, and those who can’t be bothered to work hard are becoming closeminded and entitled. For them, everything is “too much work,” and professors actually have to remind us that we have homework. I am not talking about these people when I speak of the creative types; I’m talking about

people who need to rest so they can contemplate, which is its own kind of work. Thinking through a project or scenario in life takes a lot of waiting, and sometimes I feel like that life-ladder is more of a life-escalator; the more I wait to jump on, the more time passes and I’m increasingly left behind.

This is where I want to give up and find a different escalator.

I’m trying to hop on the right escalator, even though other artists are running with the crowd. They are earning money, so they are winning. I am not, and so I’m losing. It seems like the quality of what you produce is based on what’s fashionable, and to me that isn’t art.

Art needs that slow contemplation. Art needs the room to breathe. Art needs to work on 15 projects at one time. Without that non-linear, horizontal space, the idea will die. The greatest revelations come with time and experience — but unfortunately, time and experience are commodities that are too expensive in a highspeed world. Nobody will wait for the artist, and artists feel like they need to change. However, it’s not the artist that needs changing — it’s our ideas about what makes a successful life.

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STUDY BREAK

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

CROSSWORD Shaping Up

by VALERIE FRANKLIN

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ACROSS 2.

5.

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The shape of the new moon. (8) Blood pumper. (5) Five-sided Department of Defense headquarters. (8) A girl’s best friend, or so they say. (7) “Unhip” in 1950s slang. (6)

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DOWN 9

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Ice and sugar both come in this shape. (4) Distant ball of burning gases. (4) Crunchy ice cream holder. (4) A creature might hatch out of one. (3) Ancient Egyptian structure. (7) The shape of many athletic tracks. (4) Curvy fruit. (4)

EclipseCrossword.com

SUDOKU

9 8 4 3

6

6 2

ACROSS 3. TRAMPOLINE 4. EASTER 5. EQUINOX 9. FRISBEE 10. MUD 11. SANDALS

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DOWN

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1. LAKE 2. GARAGESALES 6. ORION 7. DAFFODIL 8. GREEN

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The Weekly Horoscope

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Sudoku solution

3 4 5 7 9 1 8 6 2 9 8 1 2 3 6 4 7 5 6 7 2 4 5 8 1 9 3

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Last issue’s crossword

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2 6 9 1 7 3 5 8 4 4 3 8 5 6 9 2 1 7 5 1 7 8 4 2 6 3 9

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Star Signs from Moira Mysteriosa

Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: Not getting enough sleep? Turn your classroom into a pillow fort. Your professor will definitely not be annoyed! This is Community!

Gemini: May 21 - June 21: Remember: this too shall pass. But you won’t unless you get your homework done. Get back to work!

Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: You will find the answers you seek ... probably in your textbook.

Cancer: June 22 - July 22: Avoid boiling water, garlic butter, and lemon juice at all costs.

Aries: March 21 - April 19: You have a lovely singing voice, but your roommates are trying to sleep.

Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Assemble a lawn gnome army. Enjoy the confusion and fear on the faces of passersby.

Taurus: April 20 - May 20: Stop holding out hope for your group project and just do it yourself.

You knew this would happen.

Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept 22: Kick your coffee habit. Headaches and exhaustion build character!

Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: You left 1/8 of a cup of milk in the carton again. Prepare for battle.

Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: A fortune cookie will bring you the answers you seek. Time to order take-out!

Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: Mark Evered is your spirit animal.

Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: Stop ramming your head into things, you feisty little goat. You need those brain cells for graduation.

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FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Bamboo graffiti: Visual arts st Written by NADINE MOEDT

Images by MEGAN LAMBERT

Visual arts students have decorated their way across campus with 22 exhibits of sculptural graffiti projects. The sculpture students worked under instructor Melanie Jones to execute public exhibits using bamboo as a way of learning about planning public art.

“Students were instructed to observe the campus and select a space that they would design an artwork specifically for — this is called ‘sitespecific’ — thereby creating an artwork that is linked to the space it is in, taking into account weather, public use, and conceptual or historical details about the area or feature,” Jones explains.

While no theme was specifically directed, Jones says that the works find a common premise in ideas of nature / nurture and the use of weather to create sounds. Janver Castro explained that feeling the space before the creation of the piece and erection of the exhibit was crucial to the creative process.

“The context of your artwork and the space is important,” he said.

Sherlock Chen’s piece, for example, is titled “Words of the Wind,” and consists of four pipes.

“When the wind blows strong enough it will produce a sound ... a

song, and the song’s name is just called ‘words of the wind,’” Chen says.

“Catching the function of the environment is very important.”

Alysha Klassen explained how the logistics of getting approval for a public piece complicated the creation.

“You had to worry about if your project was going to create a problem for the building, or get in the way of traffic,” says Klassen. Students had to write up a proposal and send it to Facilities for approval. Any requested changes had to be accommodated before the project continued. The effects of the piece on the natural environment also had to be considered, as Jocelyn Smith explained.

“It’s important to think about the impact the elements are going to have on the materials you’re using,” explains Smith. “Ones that were going into the water, for instance, had to be environmentally friendly.”

With files from Kodie Cherrille.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

FEATURE

tudents plant public artwork

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Upcoming

Events

Tel i’tsel Kwe’lo I Am From Here exhibit A collective exhibition by graduating students from the Lens of Empowerment Project will be displayed in the S’eliyemetaxwtexw art gallery. The exhibit celebrates identity, land, place, and citizenship through women’s stories and lived experiences. The Lens of Empowerment program, offered by by the visual arts department, Indigenous Affairs, and Indigenous Studies at UFV, explores histories, suppressed voices, and representations of indigenous people in film, art, and media.

April 11 - 12 Library book sale It’s that time of year again! Book lovers flock to the Clearbrook Library for the bi-annual book sale.

Come out Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for gently used library books at bargain prices.

April 18 Coffee and culture Want to learn a little more about how coffee is made? Coffee roasters from Fort Langley’s infamous Republica coffee is visiting Clearbrook Library to offer samples and coffee wisdom. The free event runs from 3 to 4 p.m.

April 8 D-Fest returns!

Enjoy five days of short plays directed and performed by talented students at the 20th annual Director’s Festival. Come out for comedy, drama, and everything in between! Entrance is $5 and the performances will take place at the Chilliwack Performance Theatre. For more information and to see a detailed line-up, visit the UFV Theatre website.

www.ufvcascade.ca

A sit-down with Mission’s musical maestro, Jotham Yelle JEFFREY TRAINOR THE CASCADE

March 27 - April 9

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

Jotham Yelle is a singer-songwriter from Mission. His most recent EP, A Thousand Years or More, was released at the end of 2014. A Thousand Years or More was recorded while Jotham simultaneously finished up his audio engineering degree at the Nimbus School of the Recording Arts.

When did you first start playing music?

Well, in grade seven we had a guitar class, so I picked up a guitar then and absolutely hated it. I played it for, I think, six classes, and we played “Smoke on the Water,” and I think “Yellow” by Coldplay. And it just sucked. So I hated the guitar. I was like, “this is a stupid instrument,” and I put it down and that was it. That was the end of that.

Well, what made you pick it up again?

To be honest with you, it was because of Jack Johnson. I heard his In Between Dreams album and was like, “Man, this is just so simple, it’s just a dude and his guitar, and it’s enjoyable!” I knew I could totally do that, so I did.

So would that be around when you started writing your own songs?

Well, that was when I actually started learning the guitar. Picture it: 17 years old, Jack Johnson album on, thinking to myself, “Okay, I’m going to learn this thing.” I taught myself to play the guitar and after a year of playing it, learning a bunch of covers and stuff I was like, “Okay, I think I’m good enough now to write my own stuff.”

Obviously Jack Johnson had a big influence on your music initially; who would you say are your biggest musical influences now?

The music I make today, you definitely don’t hear any Jack Johnson in it. I’d say my first big influence was Jack Johnson and now it’s more Snow Patrol, Broken Social Scene, and Sufjan Stevens. It’s funny because after those bands I kind of just stopped listening to music and just started exclusively making music. I don’t know whether that’s good or bad but at that point I was basically just building on my own genre.

Was the sonic difference between your newest EP A Thousand Years or More and your older releases intentional? Did you feel the need to strip down your sound?

Well, the songs on A Thousand Years or More are actually old songs! I had these old songs lying around from, I think it was 2013, and I just felt like recording this stuff acoustically to fit with that time. So yeah, they were just old songs written about an old girlfriend that happened to come back to life through this project.

So moving forward, you are saying you don’t think you are going to continue this more acoustic trend?

Yeah, the acoustic stuff was more about getting ideas out and saying some things that needed to be said. That was about it.

Does that mean you have some new music coming out soon?

I do! I have a full five-song EP recorded but it just hasn’t been edited or mixed yet. I did that with my girlfriend, Alexandra Derby, at Nimbus, so it’s nearly ready to go, I just need to finish it up.

Well I look forward to hearing that! I have a more personal question here: why do you make music? Why do you feel the need to write music?

I used to be very bad at expressing my feelings, like if someone was having a conversation with me and they could see that something was wrong, I wouldn’t know how to tell them. I was just really bad at that. So that’s where writing lyrics came in, because writing was easier for me, and I could write and say something easier than speaking it. So music became the in-between. It was like, “Okay, I’m going to write you something, I’m gonna write you a letter, but I’ll say it as well.”

I’m wondering if there was perhaps a song in your childhood that you remember hearing, that was like your first “ah-ha” moment in terms of connecting with a song, or music in general.

Well actually, both my parents were musicians, so they played a lot of music. There are actually home videos of us sleeping in the next room while my mom and dad are jamming, so that probably had an influence on me.

But as for a specific song … well, “Banana Pancakes” from Jack Johnson. That song was super

chill and made me want to write songs.

Yeah, what I’m thinking is like early childhood, one of the first songs to really strike you.

Yes, there actually is a song, and I find myself stealing snippets of this song over and over and over again now that I think about it.

It’s actually hilarious, because it’s such a cheesy song. It’s a song by Donna Lewis, who’s like a Celine Dion / Shania Twain type of singer, and I think it’s called “I

Images: facebook.com / Jotham Yelle Music

Love You” or “I’ll Love You Forever” or something to that effect, but it’s the straight-up cheesiest song ever. If a song could be a chick flick, that song would be a chick flick. It’s the goofiest little romance song, just a girl-singingfor-this-guy kind of thing, but instrumentally, it has all of these cool little things in it that always seem to come back to me.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Ways of knowing history Artist Jordan Bennet on the communicative nature of art in the Reach’s exhibit tour MARTIN CASTRO

CONTRIBUTOR / PHOTOS

“I hate when you can’t touch a painting or a sculpture,” said Jordan Bennet, one of the artists behind the Decolonize Me exhibit at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford. “I started making artwork where you can actually come into the gallery and interact with it, so as a viewer, you come in and interact with the artwork.”

Roughly 20 people gathered on Saturday to hear curator Heather Igloliorte and artist Jordan Bennett speak about the interactive intention behind the Decolonize Me exhibit, as well as the artistic process.

Bennet spoke to the crowd while presenting a series of photographs of his artwork, one of which was named “Turning Tables.”

“It’s a fully-functional turntable set made entirely out of wood,” explained Bennett. “The records are actually side-cuts of a tree, so as a viewer, you can come in and take the stylus and place it onto the record. As the record spins, you hear the bumps and scratches on the wood.”

Another aspect of the same exhibit includes a recording of Bennett learning words in Mi’kmaq.

Bennett spoke on his own selfidentity and the fact that, having grown up in Newfoundland, he had to deal with the implications

Bennet uses contemporary materials to depict traditional artifacts, and vice versa, in an expression of cross-cultural communication. of the Indian Act as well as the repercussions of residential schools throughout his community.

Bennett says he played around with contemporary materials to mimic traditional artifacts.

He showed a set of skateboards he had carved out into a pair of snowshoes, then a set of skateboard trucks made out of moose antler, which involved “the opposite — I used traditional material, to make a contemporary object.”

“I think art [allows] people that

don’t speak the same language to communicate with each other and understand one another’s culture,” said Bennett. “I know so much about my Mi’kmaq heritage because of artworks that were made hundreds of years ago; I just try to translate it for a contemporary audience.”

He added that through his artwork, he has made more connections with his community.

“I think that’s a big part of learning more about yourself and

your own community, is seeing other communities and how art has informed their ways of knowing.”

Bennet also addressed the interactive aspect of his artwork, noting that we live in a time when people are looking for a kind of interaction with spaces.

“I wanted that experience to happen with art itself. To go into an art gallery and feel like you have a connection … If I tack that on to indigenous history, and in-

digenous ways of knowing, gallery-goers will take that knowledge with them.”

Bennett also had a message for young people: “Keep on making,” he said.

“Don’t be afraid to make and experiment. Make artwork to know that it won’t be perfect, there’s always room to learn about … yourself. Take every opportunity that comes your way.”

Decolonize Me will be on display until April 19.

UFV garden club blooms once more NADINE MOEDT

THE CASCADE

The garden club convened Thursday to sow some seeds, which they will maintain to fruition. Among other projects, the gardening club plans to map edibles on campus, from the pears in front of the library to the grapevine by UHouse. Planting in June will include squash, zucchini, and eggplant. If you’re interested in getting involved or learning more, contact club president Samuel Harder.

Like carrots, romaine, spinach, French sorrel, yu choy sum, and potatoes? Keep an eye on the planters outside U-House for these and various other edibles.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

UFV conference opens international dialogue on positive change in communities NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE

Two years ago, UFV’s social work faculty envisioned hosting an international conference to facilitate a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary conversation on community. And from April 28 to May 1, that vision will become a reality in the form of the Reaching Out Together: Connections Through Social Work conference.

“The idea was to have people coming from all around the world to share ideas, come together and talk about social justice, social work and alternative practice — anything that had to do with making positive change in the lives of individuals and communities,” says Sara Thiessen, who is part of the conference’s planning committee.

Since calls for submissions were made in October, some 110 faculty and heads of NGOs around the world added their voice to the conference. According to Thiessen, presenters hail from as far away as Scotland, Belgium, Jamaica, and India, though local representation will also make a significant appearance, includ-

Image: ufvroc.com

The Reaching Out Together conference will feature over 80 presentors, with both local and international representation. ing practice-based organizations and local indigenous practices. In all, 80 presenters will share their experiences with working in communities over the four-day conference. Registrants from across Canada will also add to the dialogue.

Other highlights will include a book signing with Tom Swanky,

author of The True Story of Canada’s ‘War’ of Extermination on the Pacific, which explores the spread of smallpox in early 19th-century Canada through firsthand accounts of descendents of smallpox survivors; keynote speakers will include UFV’s chancellor Gwen Point, as well as youth advocate and recipient of the 2013

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal Keli Anderson.

The content of the conference will cast a wide net of appeal.

Workshops and lectures range from topics like alternative counselling methods, indigenization, feminization, and art therapy, to things like sustainability in community development and the politics of policy change. According to Thiessen, some days of the conference will see five different sessions running at once.

“We’ve intentionally made it so that people with different interests could attend sessions specifically geared towards what they want,” Thiessen said.

According to Thiessen, another draw for many of the attendees is the field trip component.

“Right now we have eight different community organizations, and on the fourth day of the conference participants can sign up to go on a field trip into the community and do a more of a practicebased day trip,” she said.

Attendees will go into the community to learn in-depth about the methods of different organizations. One of the participating organizations is Vipers, a local

youth organization which focuses on the two-way dialogue between youth workers and youth.

As Thiessen describes it, preparation for the conference has been a collaborative experience: “It’s a unique conference in the sense that it’s entirely at this point the committee is almost entirely made up of students from different disciplines.”

Students from the computer sciences designed the website, for example, while sustainability coordinator Alyssa Bougie has added input from an environmental perspective.

Thiessen says they are trying to have all the food at the conference locally sourced and organic, if possible.

“We’re [also] looking at ways to be creative around composting and different environmental concerns.”

The registration fee, which is $75 for students, includes meals.

The conference will close with a conversation-based session on grassroots community development.

Full conference details are available at ufvroc.com.

“The fact that you exist is comical”

Guest lecturer Lydia Amir speaks on the links between humour and philosophy KODIE CHERRILLE THE CASCADE

Philosophy has a reputation of self-seriousness. While mapping out the conditions for living a good life, or the reasons for the existence of God, the stone-faced philosopher must derive truth from the most serious and rigorous of contemplations. There is no place for humour in the face of such a daunting endeavour.

It’s this reputation that Lydia Amir, associate professor of philosophy at the College of Management Academic Studies in Israel, contended with while lecturing on philosophy and humour in A233 on the Abbotsford campus, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 2.

“I’ve been quite lonely in writing about humour and philosophy,” Amir confessed. It’s a topic that has not gotten much traction in philosophy — so when she published Humor and the Good Life in Modern Philosophy last year, she didn’t expect the first printing to sell out in eight months.

Amir’s lecture offered an introduction to the findings in her book. There was in Greek philosophy a “comic tradition,” which included Socrates (the “comical philosopher”) and Democritus (the “laughing philosopher”).

Image: amazon.com

Even those philosophers (like Plato and Aristotle) who were not themselves comical — or at least weren’t given “comical” nicknames — found a place for laughter in their philosophies.

Though laughter has been the subject of much scrutiny, humour as a part of life has been largely ignored in modern philosophy.

Humour, Amir argues, has hardly been given a place in the good life (the life that one would like to have) by post-Renaissance philosophers, with the exception of Shaftesbury, who argues that humour is what allows human beings to test ideas and claims, and Kierkegaard, who says that hu-

Image: events.ufv.ca

Amir suggests that humor is a tool for truth-finding and a means to reaching “the good life.” mour can be a barometer for finding one’s own ethical perspective.

Amir suggests that humour can be used as a tool to reach the good life, when used with the in-

tentions of wisdom, freedom, and happiness. A pop-culture example of such usage can be found in stand-up comedians, who will often inject a healthy dose of reason-

ing with their joke, uniting truthfinding with cathartic laughter.

The most illuminating piece of Amir’s lecture came when she addressed how humour allows human beings to cope with contradiction. In reasoning, contradictions typically don’t make for a convincing argument, and are therefore avoided. And yet, human beings are contradictory. We want to be in love, but we also want to be free, Amir notes.

“The fact that you exist is comical,” states Amir at one point.

Humour allows us to see our paradoxical nature in all its quirky glory. While human beings may be rational animals, things get weird when we try to rationalize ourselves — and it can get pretty funny. And when we laugh, we understand ourselves in a way reasoning might not have been able to provide.

Given that her first book sold out so quickly, Amir might be spearheading a new intellectual movement within the field of philosophy.

Amir’s initial notes on humour and philosophy total up to over 2,000 pages, only some of which were used in the 400-page Humour and the Good Life. She intends to publish more books on the subject, which include writings on Deleuze and Nietzsche.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Holy Moly Matrimony!

Pre-marital counselling should be a priority SASHA MOEDT

THE CASCADE

Amid the wedding smorgasbord of chair-covers, florist quotes, entertainment options, colours and itineraries, the main goal of the wedding — to be married — is often forgotten. But this is a stage in your relationship that can’t be neglected. If you’re double-checking to make sure the catering is going to be just so at your wedding, why not take the time — and some of your wedding budget — to get pre-marital counselling?

It’s often not easy for an engaged couple to go to counselling; the act implies their relationship isn’t perfect, and they probably feel very strongly that it is. But the one in four couples that eventually divorce probably thought the same. Your marriage is like a plant; you have to put in effort to take care of it. It can either slowly wither, choked of sustenance, and die — or it can blossom. Two people who promise to be together forever is a beautiful thing, but the process takes work.

Look at pre-marital counselling as a way of setting down a strong foundation in your relationship.

Image: staticflickr.com

From kids, death and dealbreakers, pre-marital counselling opens a discussion of the potential conflicts of marriage.

Whether you feel invincible or have quiet doubts, pre-marital counselling will be helpful.

Marriage brings up questions that you might not have thought about. There’s the big (and obvious) three: money, sex, and kids.

But what about illness? What about death? What are the deal-

breakers? From spirituality to household chores, pre-marital counselling will delve into these issues, and mediate a healthy conversation. You’ll learn important tools such as conflict resolution that will help your relationship in the future.

Pre-marital counselling isn’t

cheap. UFV counselors do not offer it. If you attend a church, your church leader will provide premarital counselling services for free. But otherwise, you generally have to go about six sessions, and each session is around $100. Often counselors will offer a package deal — six sessions for $500.

If your wedding budget is $10,000, why not reserve $600 for the health of your relationship?

Sessions will usually be once per week, so try going to counselling several months prior to your wedding. Finding a therapist isn’t difficult. Do a bit of research — you can find registered counselors on Theravive (theravive.com) and scroll through a list of profiles and specialties. Counselors provide a free 10-minute consultation. Consider it an interview. Do they make you feel safe? Do they share your values? What approach will they take with you and your partner?

If you’re really invested, you can research counselling methods, and find a counselor that uses that discipline. Don’t settle with a counselor that you don’t like — it’s a waste of time and money in an invaluable opportunity.

Pre-marital counselling is often overlooked, but it should be a priority for couples planning on spending their lives together.

There’s a reason that prospect is so overwhelming. Pre-marital counselling will help will help make the beginning of your marriage strong and resilient.

Writer-in-residence’s term draws to an end Emily Pohl-Weary encourages students to reflect the Fraser Valley’s landscape in their writing MICHAEL SCOULAR

THE CASCADE

Emily Pohl-Weary’s first novel, A Girl Like Sugar, was published in 2004, though an excerpt made its way into an anthology as early as 2001. In young adult fiction years, that’s enough separation for a reading today to conjure up not quite nostalgia, but a sense of how every era’s pop-culture-fixated fiction, believing itself to be modern, becomes a marker of the past almost immediately. The protagonist, Sugar, works at Record Teen, then Alt Video; she plays and replays Josie and the Pussycats, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Cure before growing into an ambition of making DV camcorder documentaries and Dogme 95-influenced fiction, beginning with a screening of Lukas Moodysson’s Fucking Åmål. This pursuit takes the novel, in its final pages, to Vancouver, but it’s a city glanced at cursorially: the location of police brutality at the 1997 APEC protests, then a series of tourist sights (“Granville Market, Stanley Park, and some radical bookstore on East Hastings Street called Spartacus Books”)

Image: emilypohlweary.tumblr.com

mostly ignored by Sugar because she’s more interested in writing a screenplay. For Pohl-Weary, Vancouver would have appeared as a destination: her entire career to date has been based in Toronto.

“Toronto is where I grew up and have lived my entire life,” she says. “I currently live maybe fif-

teen blocks from the house where I grew up. So this is a huge change for me. I wanted to see what B.C. was like.”

Pohl-Weary is finishing her semester as UFV’s writer-inresidence, a fellowship that has brought writers, including Richard Van Camp and Elizabeth Bachinsky in past years, to the Fraser Valley each January. During her stay, Pohl-Weary visited local poetry groups, organized public readings and workshops, released her second poetry collection, wrote the foreword to UFV’s annual student creative writing magazine, and, in a new role for the writer-in-residence, taught an undergraduate English course.

“We covered drama, fiction, and poetry in one class, so it was a big overview of the three forms, and the students all got to try writing in each of the genres,” Pohl-Weary says. “I think the most exciting thing for me [is] when I get to bring in stuff that makes a young person think, ‘Oh, this is what poetry can be!’ ‘Oh, this is what a play or a screenplay can be — it can be about my experiences and my life and it can reflect things

that I know.’ It doesn’t have to be ... what we’re exposed to in high school.”

While the teaching split her week in two, Pohl-Weary says she was able to get some writing done during her stay, both for her new novel and her PhD, which she says is on “creative writing programs as community development: the importance of bringing in new voices, diverse voices, into the Canadian literary canon.”

Being new to the area, the Fraser Valley’s natural, almost secluded environment, often defined in relation to Vancouver, was particularly striking to Pohl-Weary.

“The Literatures of the Fraser Valley conference really opened my eyes to the range of voices in the area,” she says. “I think it’s really exciting, and it’s such a beautiful, natural backdrop.”

And she says she hopes students see how important geography can be to the worlds one puts down in writing.

“There’s no views like the view of those mountains in Toronto — you know, the skyscrapers block out the sun, so I just really hope you guys really understand and

appreciate the beauty and the uniqueness of the region,” she says. “I hope to see those things reflected in writing. One of the things I heard at the conference was that people don’t often write about the region. They live here, but they’ll write about other places.

“And that’s such a shame, because how are we to widen what we think of as a Canadian literary canon if we don’t put in places that aren’t Toronto and Vancouver in literature?”

Pohl-Weary is finishing up the semester’s teaching, then has two residencies lined up (in Yukon, then Ontario). This is, she says, the first year she’s tried applying for residencies.

“I was at a place in my life where I thought I would like to see different parts of the country and just get to know something outside my twenty-square box in Toronto,” she says. In the Fraser Valley, PohlWeary says she found a region that’s “at a really exciting place,” based on what she’s seen meeting students and the community.

“It’s a great thing to see. I hope that passion doesn’t go away, you know?”

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

TV

The Flash speeds into greatness ANTHONY BIONDI THE CASCADE

CHARTS 1

Lightning Bolt Fantasy Empire

2 Various Mint Records Presents: Hot 3

Heroes Sleater-Kinney No Cities To Love

4

Purity Ring Another Eternity

Cong 5 Viet Viet Cong Heat Waves 6 Freak Bonnie’s State of Mind Gonzalez 7 Jose Vestiges & Claws Bee & The Buzz8 Queen kills

9

Stalk To Me Oh No! Yoko Pinhead’s Paradise

10 ExRipsHex 11

B.A Johnston Shit Sucks

Grips 12 Death Fashion Week Une Plage 13 Sur Legerdemain

14

Siskiyou Nervous

15 MALK Prehistoric 16 Dodgers Bombshells The Kid 17 Billy Horseshoes and Handgre-

18

Shuffle

JOE JOHNSON

CIVLIAN / JINGLEHEIMER-SCHMIDT Host of Everything Indie on CIVL Radio, and The Cascade’s business dude, Joe Johnson had an eclectic mix this past week. Here are five tracks from the show that are either lyrically heavy or emotionally packed.

Hawksley Workman “Merry Christmas (I Love You)” I don’t care if it’s April. Merry Christmas, I love you all, and this is a beautiful song. Workman has always had a penchant for being eclectic and experimental, ranging from the high tempo to this reflective, lyrically driven track. It’s hard to find more truth than “but who the hell reads history? / Apparently not men.”

Neko Case “Where Did I Leave That Fire” Case’s 2013 release, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You, bore the deep markings of depression. Over a full minute of this track is reserved to haunting instrumental sounds, followed by Case expressing a desire to be anybody but herself, questioning what happened to any internal drive.

Alvvays “Party Police” This incredibly smooth track comes from one of the fresher bands to come out last year. Tearing it up with lo-fi surf pop, this song’s lyrics and vocals by Molly Rankin are soothing to the ear as she sings about the uncertainty of direction with a new love.

The Gaslight Anthem “Angry Johnny and the Radio” There’s no denying that the Gaslight Anthem have always been about both emotionally and lyrically driven songs. This one is no different. It begins in typical slower fashion, building to Brian Fallon’s driving mix of punk and heartland rock as he powers through reminiscence of adventures that aren’t fully explained.

Live-action superhero movies have been quite popular since the Marvel push and the recent Batman movies, and this trend has recently bled over onto television. Their popularity tends to be somewhat hit-and-miss. Most recently the television series Arrow, now in its third season, has seen an increase in popularity, perhaps because it boasts a relatively good production value and half-decent writing.

The Flash had a run at TV in the early ’90s, but flopped after a season. A decade and a half later, the Scarlet Speedster has been given another chance by the same people doing Arrow.

Existing in the same universe as Arrow, and occasionally crossing over, The Flash has boasted a strong start and continues to grow as the series continues. I’ve watched every episode so far, and find myself waiting eagerly for the next installment every Tuesday.

Most television series have first-season growing pains. They struggle to fully explore their sets of characters and scenarios.

However, with The Flash, this has not been the case. Since Grant Gustin was already playing the character of Barry Allen (a.k.a. the Flash) on Arrow, the character of Allen comes into series welldeveloped and fully functional.

He takes the reins of the show and brings a lot of weight to each story arc.

The show’s only drawback is that there seems to be a continuing tradition of somewhat cheesy comic book villains. I know — it’s a show based on a comic book. But what recent live-action comic movies and shows have been doing well — especially those from DC Comics — is developing these ideas into realistic

Image: brobible.com

settings with real people. Yet The Flash seems to keep its villains campy. For the most part, the villains don’t get a lot of development or screen time, and instead function as personal barriers in Barry Allen’s growth as Flash.

This formula is great for building a show that allows its characters to grow and develop emotionally and spiritually. However, the writers of the show seem to often forget that villains are characters too, with complete lives and histories. They deserve better than the campy one-liners of comic books from the ’70s.

That being said, the show does very well with its developed characters. As Flash grows into his full range of abilities, viewers feel the tension of his struggles, both on the battlefield and in his relationships.

As well, the show does an excellent job in developing the central story arc of the season.

Throughout each episode it car-

ries an air of mystery that remains as an eerie overtone to the events of the show, and sees numerous twists and turns that keep viewers guessing, even when all seems clear. The central villain of the series, the Reverse Flash, comes out as the best developed villain of the series, and rewardingly holds up as just as interesting a character as Barry Allen, in some ways.

As a fun Easter egg, there are also cast members of the original Flash series cast in similar roles in the new series — for instance, Mark Hamill recently reprised his role as the Trickster in last week’s episode.

Overall, the series has been a great ride, despite still having several weeks left in its run.

There have been moments of weak and campy villains, but the characterization of the lead characters remains strong and carries the series to greatness.

nades Johnny de Courcy Alien Lake

Image: screenrant.com

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ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Arcade

A beginner’s guide to graphics cards for PC gamers ASHLEY MUSSBACHER THE CASCADE

If you’ve always thought about playing games on the PC, but don’t know if your computer will handle some of the newer releases, you might be in the market for a graphics card. For many, the thought of opening the case of their desktop computer and doing anything to it sounds terrifying, but trust me, it’s simpler than you think. Just make sure you’ve unplugged everything and the power supply is switched off so you don’t become the next media headline.

As you venture out into the wide world of computer parts, there is one thing you should keep in mind: graphics cards are like cats. There are so many of them and their qualities will make you want to take all of them home, but there will be a special one that fits all your needs and captures your heart. So make sure you do some thorough researching first into what those particular qualities are that you need.

One very important thing to consider is what kind of power supply you have. I’m not talking about the cable, but rather what the power cable plugs into in your tower. Many default PC power

Image: Ashley Mussbacher

Before buying a graphics card, keep in mind what qualities you need, and research thoroughly. supplies are under 1,000 volts, but if you want a graphics card to play many of the newer games, they will require you to upgrade to a 1,000-volt power supply or more. In order to check which one you have, you’ll probably have to open the tower case and look at the barcode on the side of it.

The second important thing to consider is whether you need HDMI output, or any other specific output. Many graphics cards

still offer DVI output. If you have multiple monitors, or want to upgrade to a multi-monitor setup, you’re going to have to ensure the graphics card provides the amount and type of outputs you need. This information can be found in specifications when you’re shopping online, or on the box.

Now for the fun part! How much memory your card has will affect how fast games load

and how long you can play before the game starts lagging a bit.

Many games will have settings to improve their performance, but if you want a card that can play the newer games on max graphic settings, you’re going to want something with one gigabyte of memory or higher. With two monitors active at the same time, I would suggest three gigabytes of memory.

A good card for price, age, and

performance is the Radeon R9 280x. This card is a beast, with three gigabytes of memory and a 1,150 megahertz-core graphics processing unit. It can handle up to three monitors. And with newer games like Witchers 3 coming out soon, this card will be able to run them seamlessly. It’s priced on Amazon for around $240 to $500, depending on the make.

If you don’t want to spend that much, the Nvidia GT 750 hovers around $130. It’s certainly not the greatest card in the world, but if you have only one monitor and want to play games like Elder Scrolls or Borderlands, those will run just fine on ultra settings.

The price of the cards will vary dramatically depending on where you’re shopping. Many good cards will need to be ordered either online, or from a computer retailer. Don’t go to Best Buy, Future Shop, or the Source for computer parts, as they tend to have a ridiculous markup. Order it either from Amazon or NCIX. NCIX offers awesome sales from time to time, or coupon buy-backs, as well as warranties. If you don’t want to install it yourself, they will do it for you for a small fee.

Once you’ve got your card, enjoy all the gaming — just in time for the end of semester!

Album

Adam Fainman’s debut EP is full of funk and charisma MARTIN CASTRO CONTRIBUTOR

“Sometimes I feel like a scarecrow,” announces Adam Fainman (a.k.a. Beatox) in the song “Oz,” which follows a guitar sample as the first track on Late Nights. “I let my hair blow in the air, I don’t care, yo.” Fainman raps over a track full of funky slapped bass and a squishy, bouncy guitar riff, dropping Wizard of Oz references left and right. There’s funk all over this track, from the sloppy overflowing drum beat to the tight guitar and staccato bass.

In a style slightly reminiscent of Atmosphere, Beatox’s Late Nights flows from track to track effortlessly. Boasting jazz and R&B influences, the song “Dreams are Reality” adds some more energy to the project. Although calm and relaxed, there’s funkiness to Fainman’s rhymes; they line up beautifully with the instrumen-

tal, following the bass, riding the drum-beat in a way that speaks to Fainman’s ease on the mic.

Although Late Nights is a pretty short EP at only three tracks, it feels complete in the sense that it doesn’t drag on, and it gives the listener a full picture of Fainman’s aesthetic: full of jazz, soul, and blues, yet upbeat. Contemplative and introspective, yet optimistic.

Lyrically, the seven-minute “Late Night” stands above its two predecessors. Fainman’s delivery, staccato and precise, gives the listener a window into his emotional state, which I can only imagine was comprised of equal parts hesitant introspection and ecstatic, energetic happiness.

Charisma, check. Funky fresh rhymes, check. A sense of happiness at creating music, check. If these three tracks are an accurate representation of what Fainman has to offer, I eagerly look forward to his next project.

Late Nights is short but fresh.

18

ARTS IN REVIEW

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Albums

After 10 years, Kintsugi is Death Cab’s reawakening JOE JOHNSON THE CASCADE

Death Cab for Cutie pioneered the sounds of early 21st-century indie rock. Their 2003 release, Transatlanticism, as well as 2005’s Plans, set the tone for the past decade and a half. The albums propelled Death Cab to godlike heights in the genre. With those back-toback immaculate albums, full of spot-on narrative lyrics, melancholy, and depressive guitar-driven sounds, Death Cab earned the recognition they received.

It’s been 10 years since the release of Plans, and unfortunately, their other albums since then since haven’t seen Death Cab deliver at the same level. In fact, it would be easy to argue that there’s been a steady decline in depth. But Kintsugi is the latest from Death Cab, and its 11 tracks thankfully make inroads to correcting the band’s direction.

Still, the days of connecting on an emotional level with Death Cab are now gone. Ben Gibbard, the lead singer and songwriter, seems to have moved past the ability to find the same sources of inspiration.

However, to make it clear, what we’re given with Kintsugi isn’t all that much of a lesser album. It’s polished, with the richness of instruments that are still there as much as they ever were.

And as much as I lament for Death Cab at their peak, each subsequent album they release should be given respect and exploration based on its merit.

The album title, Kintsugi, is de-

rived from the practice of appreciating and accepting new characteristics and histories that are imbued when fixing something that’s broken. In some ways, that provides a very fascinating understanding of this album. This is the first Death Cab album to be produced externally to the party; it was previously performed by lead guitarist and founding member Chris Walla, who fully departed the band following Kintsugi’s release.

Gibbard has always had a strong understanding of music, composition, and song-writing.

It’s no surprise that one of the highpoints of this album would be intellectual lyricism. On “Binary Sea”, Gibbard sings about Greek mythology and the Titan Atlas to construe a structure in which we view our current technological world, “Oh come my love and swim with me / Out in this vast binary sea / Zeros and ones, patterns appear / They’ll prove to all that we were here … / Oh Atlas could not stay engaged / Was more distracted every day.” Or for a tremendous insight to youthful aging, “Ingenue” is a beautiful exposition.

Then there are tracks on the album that are moderately popheavy. In expected musical craftsmanship, the introduction of this sound is done hand-in-hand with the lyrics to deliver a complete piece, as “Little Wanderer” exemplifies.

It would also be a mistake to not mention “Hold No Guns,” which is a perfectly raw solo acoustic performance by Gibbard. “Everything’s a Ceiling” and “Good

Image: pitchfork.com

While the days of connecting on an emotional level with Death Cab are gone, Kintsugi is a change of direction.

Help (Is So Hard to Find)” have incorporated synth elements, and “You’ve Haunted Me All Your Life” is a showcase of purposeful repetition intended to instil the beauty found in the human con-

dition of wanting.

Kintsugi isn’t the Death Cab of old. But perhaps it’s the sign of the band reawakening. They didn’t sit back and continue to be derivative. This album is a

journey in exploration of new elements, a turn of direction in focus, and is genuinely interesting.

Bob Dylan’s Shadows in the Night pairs well with alcohol and loneliness ALEX RAKE THE CASCADE

Some music only works when the sky is black, the moon is high, and you’re three glasses deep into that scotch you thought you were saving for something. Bob Dylan’s new Shadows in the Night is one such example of music that requires a bummed-out, quiet mood. This can be disconcerting since Dylan’s music is usually good in any context, because it usually creates and manipulates the context; I mean, when you put Blonde on Blonde on for a spin, it becomes a Blonde on Blonde kind of day. Shadows in the Night fails to influence the present mood, and so if you don’t treat it as a reflective midnight affair you’ll only set yourself up for boredom and dis-

appointment.

Assuming that you are listening when the mood is right, Shadows in the Night is a wonderful little collection of songs. All of the songs are covers of sad Sinatraera pop tunes, and they manage not to fall apart under Dylan’s old-man voice. The old-man voice may in fact be the main thing the album has going for it; it allows Dylan to emote in an honest and corn-less way. It also gives the lyrics a little tension between naiveté and wisdom that you would never get from “good” singers like Michael Bublé.

Unfortunately, the tracks tend to run into one another if your attention wanders, since the arrangements don’t differ all that drastically. Nonetheless, there are definite stand-out tracks. The best of the bunch is “Why Try

to Change Me Now,” in which Dylan sings, “I’m sentimental, so I walk in the rain / I’ve got some habits that I can’t explain / Could start for the corner, turn up in Spain / Why try to change me now?” Considering Dylan’s poetics of not giving a fuck about whether he’s doing anything different from what he’s done before, these lyrics paradoxically justify the choice to do an album of old pop covers. All is changing, and you can’t change that.

It helps to understand that all is change. Shadows in the Night consists entirely of songs about being left alone, meeting up again, and time’s constant, indifferent movement. If you find yourself inexplicably alone on some enchanted evening, pour some Dylan in your scotch glass. The meditation’ll be good for ya.

Image: bobdylan.com

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Steve Tuckwood realizes aspiration as UFV’s new athletics director

Upcoming

Events

VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

April 10 - 12 Active Lifestyle Show The Active Lifestyle Show kicks off this Friday at the Tradex Centre in Abbotsford.

Check out various vendors and speakers, including fitness coach Tommy Europe.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at the event.

April 13 Mental Silence Meditation Kick off exam week by destressing at the Sardis Library in Chilliwack. Drop in from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and learn how to reduce stress through

meditation

with

Sergiy Fadyeyev. The class is free and takes place every Monday until April 27.

Images: Jarrett Campbell/ flickr

Steve Tuckwood is joining the UFV Athletics Department as Director of Athletics and Campus Recreation.

After graduating from Wilfred Laurier University, Tuckwood worked as a sports editor for the Guelph Tribune, and as director of development and alumni relations with the UBC athletics department.

What brought you to UFV? The opportunity. My aspiration was always to be an athletic director and this opportunity presented itself, so I applied and thankfully was chosen. I’m here because I really think this program on the varsity side has so many good things going on and needs kind of a push to make it even better. There’s a real opportunity to grow the recreation side here from basically nothing up to something that can be great for all the students. It’s an open slate.

From my position, it’s a dream to walk into something like this.

What role do you see the athletics department having in UFV? Well I think the athletics department can be a few things. If you look at the everyday life of the student, the athletics department should play a role in health and wellness. Especially today, students really don’t take a lot of time to look after themselves, and if we can play a role in ensuring there are activities they want to do that are fun and affordable, and that they feel it’s time well spent when they do make that effort, I think that’s a great role for the department to play. I think on the varsity side, if you can show excellence, it really is a rallying point. If you have teams that are successful and athletes that are successful on the provincial, national, and international stage, it’s only better for the institution to have that notoriety.

What kind of work did you do at UBC? My last role was director of development and alumni relations for athletics and recreation. I dealt with all of varsity and recreation alumni as far as engagement, with them coming back to campus wanting to be involved with the current program, and out of that, we dealt with all the fundraising for capital projects. We built about $140 million worth of capital projects while I was there and fundraised part of those costs. We worked with donors.

The other big piece was working with donors on student financial

Images: Dan Kinvig

aid, which is scholarships for student athletes, student rec leaders, that sort of thing. That was my main role.

How are you planning to change the fundraising aspect of the athletics department?

Fundraising is really about relationships, and it’s relationships with people who are close to the program. But it’s also community leaders and people who see the value of the institution in the Fraser Valley. When it comes to relationships, the number-one word in fundraising is trust, and you need to be able to have the donor trust what the institution is doing with his or her donation and that it’s being used well. I think it comes down to building trust between the donor and the institution, and that’s people interacting and ensuring that the donor knows and gets a good report on how their donation impacted the program — specifically, how it impacted the student athlete or the rec leader and what that person is aspiring to do.

UBC has more campus engagement in their athletics. Do you see that as an issue?

I don’t see it as an issue. UBC may have had some more fans, but it also had three times the student population and it didn’t have three times the fans. Outside of a couple sports, mostly football and some basketball, it really struggled, like most other Canadian universities do, for a fan base. It’s always great to play in front of fans and that’s the ultimate goal. We want to build the fan base and get more people out to games, but that takes time. We just need to have a good marketing approach and we need to show great value. I think Canadian university sports, in many places, is extremely undervalued.

If you look at the quality of the basketball that goes on here, the quality of the soccer that goes on, most of the community doesn’t even realize until they stumble upon it — but once they come out, they soon realize the calibre of play.

What’s your long-term vision for the athletics department here?

I would love to have a really robust recreation program. I think there is a huge potential here to build recreation and have people

participate recreationally and bring the community to our campuses. To me, if you build a really strong recreation program that people want to participate in, then it also lends itself to building the fan base for varsity and other things. Long-term with varsity, I just want our teams to be competitive and I want our athletes to have the best opportunity they can to do well academically, do well athletically, and when they leave UFV, have all the tools to go into the world and either pursue athletics if that’s what they choose to do, or pursue another endeavour.

Anything else you want to add?

The next six months are going to be really interesting, just getting grounded and beginning to grow the program on the recreation side, and really solidify the varsity side as well and provide the leadership that the coaches and the team needs. My goal is to know as many students as possible as I walk around on campus.

My university career was fantastic and I want that for as many of the students who have chosen to come to UFV as possible.

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SPORTS & HEALTH

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca

Lowndes steps in as head soccer coach after Errington VANESSA BROADBENT

very competitive team. He’s also a very big personality. There’s that added bit of pressure: am I as funny as him? Am I as big a personality? But I think that will come with time. I’m just excited, I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I wish it was almost now, because I’m itching to start playing games. It’s going to be a long summer, but there’s plenty to do and get ready for the season.

THE CASCADE

Tom Lowndes is stepping in as interim head coach for the Cascades’ men’s soccer team, after two and a half years of assisting retiring coach Alan Errington. Lowndes has an impressive career, which includes playing with the Bristol Rovers and various teams in Canada and the United States.

What are you hoping to achieve over the year?

I honestly think we should be contending for the title in Canada West. That might seem like a bold statement, but looking at the squad we’ve got, the players we’ve got returning, the new recruits coming in, and also looking at the other teams in the conference and what they’ve lost, what they’ve gained, I honestly don’t think there’s going to be much difference. I believe this squad is more than capable to go to nationals. This squad’s got just as good a chance as anyone.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that nationals is in the back of my head and that’s something that I want to achieve, but we’ll take it one game at a time.

How did you get into coaching?

I played back in England growing up. The passion for the game has always been there, and coaching was the next progression after playing. Every kid dreams of being a professional soccer player, but reality kicks in. Every coach will tell you it’s not the same as stepping on the field, because you kick every ball and you head every ball and you can’t actually go and affect it, but it’s the closest thing you’ll get to playing. So I think I’ve always kind of had that passion for coaching.

What was it like working alongside Alan Errington?

It was amazing in all different aspects. I mean, he’s a great leader, he’s a motivator, and he’s a player’s coach. It was great for me to learn from someone of that calibre. He’s been around the block.

He’s coached at every level you can think of — from the national team to the club level — so for me, it was kind of a well-rounded education I was getting from him.

There’s not many people with his resume, so that was an honour. In that two and a half years I probably got about 10 years’ worth of knowledge and experience in little bits and pieces. It was a big part of my coaching development. It was a really good time.

So you learned a lot from him?

Yeah, I learned a lot. He was really good at helping me through

Images: ufvcascades.ca

some things because going from playing to coaching is a big change. A lot of players play at high levels and then they go into coaching and they fall flat on their faces; it’s a completely different thing. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve grown up with a lot of good coaches. I was lucky when I was younger; my dad was a professional player so I had him as a coach. That was a big thing.

My coaches in university were all good coaches, but I definitely learned a lot from Alan.

What’s it like stepping into his position?

It’s exciting; I’m looking forward to it. Ever since I’ve played at the university level, I could see myself coaching and I could see myself being a head coach. It’s kind of a proud moment for me to be able to step into his shoes. It’s also a bit daunting because he’s done so much. He’s built the program from the ground up. Even though the last couple of years I like to think that I was a part of that, he put all the major groundwork into making the men’s soccer a

Is there anything you want to change?

It’s cliché, but if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. There are one or two things we’re going to tweak; preseason is going to be a bit more intense. We’re going to go from one session a day to most days doing two. That’s what I had in university and I feel like it put me in good standing for the season. If you look at how we’ve done, we’ve beaten UBC twice in the past two years — I think the only team to do so. We won Canada West bronze in our first year making the playoffs. Last year we were very, very unlucky not to make the semi-finals. We lost to a last-minute goal to UVIC.

We’ll embrace that underdog and we’ll put our heads down and go to work.

Have you enjoyed working with this team so far?

Yeah, it’s a great group. I think the biggest thing is they get along well. If you get along with your teammates and you genuinely enjoy being around each other, that’s a huge difference. The biggest thing in our group is there’s no egos, there’s no attitudes. Everybody just wants to put their head down and work as hard as they can and do the best for the team. Saying that, we’re not just a bunch of workhorses — we’ve got a lot of quality players. The overall level of the squad is very, very high. Having 25 players return including the new players, picking a new team is going to be hell for me, but it’s a nice decision.

The competition is only going to push people on and it’s going to make us stronger over the year.

It’s a really good group and I’m really looking forward to carrying on working with them.

Are there any particular moments that stand out during your time here?

Obviously beating UBC two times is huge. I believe the one game was 1-0 when Connor MacMillan scored in the 84th minute. So you know, getting into that last 10 minutes of the game — and we had a few chances, they had a few chances, and seeing him put that ball in the net, I jumped 10 feet off of the bench. It was a big, big moment that kickstarted that season. Last season, even though it wasn’t a massive result, we went to Trinity Western and we needed a win to make the playoffs, and we won 1-0 and it was squeaky time. It’s always nice to beat one of your rivals — just the importance of that win to solidify a playoff place was a big, big result.

UFV athletes awarded CCAA All-Canadian honours VANESSA BROADBENT

THE CASCADE

Every student understands the pressure that comes with fulltime studies. Throw a part-time job in the mix and things get crazy. Throw athletics on top of all that, and you may have a recipe for a nervous breakdown.

But some students do well under such pressure. Aaron Pauls (men’s golf), Joel Kleingeltink (men’s volleyball), and Michelle Zygmunt (women’s volleyball)

have been awarded the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Academic AllCanadian honours.

This award not only requires recipients to be all-stars in their conference, but maintain a GPA above 3.5.

The award recognizes students for their hard work through the season, and Zygmunt appreciates the acknowledgement.

“My grades are really important to me,” she said. “The fact that I’ve been able to keep them

up while pursuing a really high level of athletics, it’s really rewarding and it’s nice to be acknowledged for that.”

Zygmunt, who not only studies kinesiology and philosophy at UFV but architecture and building engineering BCIT as well, explained her secret to balancing such a hectic schedule.

“When you know you only have a couple hours a day, you tend to put your all into it and make the most of that time because you don’t have a lot and

you don’t want to waste it.”

Kleingeltink has a similar strategy. “You just find a way to make it work, you find a way to do it,” he said. “We’re all students — we have those late nights, those long stressful weeks — but you just have to find time to get things done.”

It’s hard to stay motivated as a student, and Zygmunt thinks the award might help.

“Sometimes it’s hard to go 100 per cent all the time, and getting awards like this is a reminder

that it’s worth it and it will be beneficial in the long run,” she said.

Kleingeltink can also see the award being an inspiration to other students who struggle to maintain both high academic and athletic achievement.

“I know there’s so much more I can do, it sets a nice bar for myself ... to achieve things like that, and hopefully motivate others to do the same thing,” he said.