October 24, 2013

OCTOBER 24, 2013 | VoLuME XcV| IssuE XVIII BADGER BADGER BADGER since 1918

SHROOMS Edible, poisonous, hallucinogenic — they can all be found on campus

P7

RACIST SAUDER CHANT SECURITY STEPPED UP School of Business to educate on First Nations issues Whistles handed out, patrols increased and Safewalk P3 P4 after offensive Pocahontas chant heard at FROSH hours extended after series of sexual assaults SLACKLINING ON TREES P2 VOLLEYBALL PREVIEWS: WOMEN LOOK FOR 7TH STRAIGHT CIS TITLE P7 MODERNIZED SHAKESPEARE P9 LETTERS RE: SEXUAL ASSAULT P10 MEXICAN ART AT MOA P8

Thursday, October 24, 2013 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

WHAT’S ON

this week, may we suggest...

OUR CAMPUS

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ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

THURSDAY 24 SASC ROUNDTABLE

7:30p.m.–9:30 P.M. @ IKB ROOM 261

The Sexual Assault Support Centre, the CUS and the AMS are hosting a discussion on how to create a culture of consent in light of recent events. Free

FRIDAY

25

BAUUER

9 p.m. @ THE PIT

The guy behind the Harlem Shake is playing at UBC. Along with tons of bass, there will be a costume contest to win tickets to see Steve Aoki. With guests SRGNZ and Alex Mason.

Tickets $15–25 at the Outpost and at thecalendar.ca PHOTO Stephanie Xu/THE UBYSSEY

The first man of Slackline UBC, a community of slackliners, pulls some sick, gnarly, Spider-Man-like moves.

SATURDAY

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THE GREAT TREK

10 A.m.–1 P.M. @ GREAT TREK CAIRN

Celebrate the 1922 student march that led to the building of UBC’s Point Grey campus with this 10-kilometre race. Runners’ registration has closed but you can still come for the post-race food and celebration.

Free

ON THE COVER Fun fact from mushroom expert Paul Kroeger: if you’re thinking of bringing mushrooms to the next Mycological Society meeting, make sure you place them in a breathable container, like a paper bag. Plastic bags will ruin your shrooms. Photo by Jimmy Thomson.

Want to see your events listed here?

Email your events listings to PRINTEDITOR@UBYSSEY.CA

U The Ubyssey

editorial

Coordinating Editor Geoff Lister coordinating@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Print Ming Wong printeditor@ubyssey.ca Managing Editor, Web CJ Pentland webeditor@ubyssey.ca News Editors Will McDonald + Sarah Bigam news@ubyssey.ca Senior News Writer Brandon Chow bchow@ubyssey.ca Culture Editor Rhys Edwards culture@ubyssey.ca Senior Culture Writer Aurora Tejeida atejeida@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Natalie Scadden sports@ubyssey.ca

Video Producers Lu Zhang + Nick Grossman video@ubyssey.ca Copy Editor Matt Meuse copy@ubyssey.ca

Photo Editor Carter Brundage photos@ubyssey.ca Illustrator Indiana Joel ijoel@ubyssey.ca Graphic Designer Nena Nguyen nnguyen@ubyssey.ca Webmaster Tony Li webmaster@ubyssey.ca Distribution Coordinator Lily Cai lcai@ubyssey.ca

Staff Catherine Guan, Nick Adams, Kanta Dihal, Marlee Laval, Angela Tien, Carly Sotas, Alex Meisner, Luella Sun, Jenny Tang, Adrienne Hembree, Mehryar Maalem, Jack Hauen, Kosta Prodanovic, Olivia Law

Senior Lifestyle Writer Reyhana Heatherington Write/shoot/contribute to The rheatherington@ubyssey.ca Ubyssey and attend our staff meetings and you too can see Features Editor your name in the glorious tones Arno Rosenfeld of black that only offset printing can produce. features@ubyssey.ca

October 24, 2013 | Volume XCV| Issue XVIII

BUSINESS

CONTACT

Business Manager Fernie Pereira fpereira@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.6681

Ad Sales Tiffany Tsao webadvertising @ubyssey.ca 604.822.1658

Ad Sales Mark Sha advertising@ ubyssey.ca 604.822.1654

Accounts Graham McDonald accounts@ ubyssey.ca

Editorial Office: SUB 24 604.822.2301 Business Office: SUB 23 Student Union Building 6138 SUB Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Web: ubyssey.ca Twitter: @ubyssey

LEGAL The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society. Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein cannot be reproduced without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society.

Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as

your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone.

The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff.

It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.

Slacking off with Adam Mertens Ming Wong Managing Editor, Print

You may be inclined to call Adam Mertens a hippie.

The facts seem to stack up against him: Yes he is bandana-clad, part of the band of barefoot students walking on slacklines in the trees between IKB and the SUB. Yes, the slackline community is not an official UBC “club” because they’re not interested in bureaucratic legality and committing to a set meeting time. Yes, he has eschewed earrings in favour of twigs off the ground because he kept losing them doing jetty jumps in Malaysia.

But Adam Mertens is well aware of the perception, and he doesn’t mind it.

“I think we’re trying to get rid of that image because that is the associated image [of slackling] and it is, but slowly it’s becoming more mainstream and it’s becoming an actual sport.

“Obviously there’s nothing wrong with it being a hippie thing – yeah we’re in a park in barefeet walking on tightropes. It’s pretty, it’s pretty hippie.”

Slacklining is walking across a line that is tensioned between two anchor points and elevated. The UBC community of slackliners first started back in September when Mertens and fellow slackliner Alex Toews threw their lines up. Their mean of organization is through their Facebook group Slackline UBC where people drop a line to say when they will be setting up.

Mertens first picked up the sport when he was in high school in Singapore. Growing up in a small town in Nova Scotia, Mertens jumped at the opportunity to

finish up high school in Singapore on a scholarship.

His line of sport varies as widely as his travelling plans. He’s

You know you can walk the distance ... but there’s just something about it when you’re standing and you’re looking down at 1,000 feet and it’s just a completely different experience.

Adam Mertens Co-admin of Slackline UBC

taught circus camp in Singapore, kayaking in Malaysia and whitewater rafting in Thailand. With experiences aplenty, he says he’s considering going into a field of outdoor education.

“It’s really inspiring because [kids are] so quick to pick things up like more so than people our age,” said Mertens, who plans to switch from Arts to Land and Food Systems to study global resource systems. “You can teach a kid how to ride a unicycle in an hour and it took me 2 weeks.”

Weekend plans typically involve slacklining. Mertens accompanied a couple of guys to the Stawamus Chief couple of weeks ago. There a guy free soloed, which means slacklining without a rope to catch your fall. The guy fell, but managed to grab hold of the rope.

Mertens himself was ready to highline (slackline from an elevated height) across the Chief

but the nerves got to him. He came back to campus and started to lift the line up higher to train himself more.

“You know you can walk the distance…but there’s just something about it when you’re standing and you’re looking down at 1000 feet and it’s just a completely different experience.”

It’s been two and a half years since Mertens has returned to his home Pinehearst, Nova Scotia.

“My mum’s not always thrilled about it but she knows that I’m not going to free-solo a line…it looks risky but it’s not, it’s calculated risk.”

The chill and easygoing Mertens says slacklining is open for anybody. “We’re stoked to get more people into it.” U

Don’t call it tightrope Slacklining is the act of balancing on top of a length of tubular webbing strapped between two elevated anchor points — trees, in Mertens’ case — and tensioned by some means.

There are two types, explains Mertens: ratchet and carabiner.

Tightropes is different because they are tighter and have a steel cable inside the rope.

VIDEO CONTENT Watch Adam and other UBC slackliners do their thing at ubyssey.ca/videos.

Know someone like Adam who deserves to be profiled in our newspaper? Email all candidates to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

Thursday, October 24, 2013 |

EDITORS WILL Mcdonald + Sarah Bigam

LABOUR >>

CAMPUS SECURITY >>

Campus Security has been handing out whistles in the SUB over the past few days.

photo carter brundage/THE UBYSSEY

UBC addresses campus safety

Sarah Bigam News Editor

UBC is planning a variety of measures to address security on campus in response to a string of sexual assaults.

Meetings have been taking place between Campus Security, RCMP, UBC Public Affairs, the VP Students, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) and the Graduate Students Society (GSS) regarding the recent sexual assaults on campus since Saturday morning, after the third assault was reported to the RCMP. Measures from the meetings include installing new lights on campus, improvements to Safewalk and an advertising campaign on buses to UBC. Safewalk extended its hours until 4 a.m. and added a vehicle to drive people between cam-

NEWS BRIEFS UBC Philosophy professor gives talk on rape culture As part of UBC’s Celebrate Learning Week, professor Scott Anderson gave a talk on Tuesday, Oct. 22 about how coercion and social power help explain societal and moral problems associated with sexual assault.

Anderson discussed the perceived difference between stranger assault and date rape. In both cases, the victim can suffer withdrawal, depression, shame and a loss of trust and sense of security.

This can lead to harmful activities such as substance abuse and future difficulties with romantic relationships.

He also addressed the Sauder FROSH rape cheer. “It creates an unwelcoming environment for victims of sexual assault, as well as anyone who is sensitized to their concerns ... and reflects a certain sort of ignorance about the prevalence and severity of the kind of assault it depicts,” said Anderson.

“However, given the situation and the people involved, at that specific age, they may not know what was grossly problematic with the cheer, and sure enough, I may have possibly done the same thing.”

“I think the talk was really relevant given the recent series of events,” said Kate Schwartz, a fourth-year French major who attended the talk. I think it’s a topic that everyone should really learn about.” U

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pus locations during Safewalk hours. A message was added to Safewalk’s voicemail reminding callers that if Safewalk is not available, Campus Security is able to walk people home any time of the day.

The AMS and Safewalk are developing a plan in which students could be directed to one of 25 safe hubs to wait for Safewalk to pick them up. However, this is still in the works.

“This has to be something that Safewalk agrees ... is going to help them in terms of efficiency, that most importantly we’re not going to compromise safety by trying to be efficient,” said VP Students Louise Cowin.

Campus security and the RCMP have increased patrols on campus.

On Monday, the RCMP announced that they have assigned

their Major Crimes Unit to investigate the recent sexual assaults.

“The investigation is obviously serious enough and has met the threshold of using the support services of our ... Major Crimes Unit, who have all of the skills and abilities to properly manage an investigation of this magnitude,” said Sgt. Drew Grainger of the UBC RCMP detachment.

Campus Security has also been handing out over 1,000 whistles a day at the SUB, according to Cowin.

Cowin said the AMS brought to their attention lighting issues on University Boulevard near Ponderosa.

Today, UBC Plant Operations and UBC Properties Trust confirmed that additional flood lighting will be installed within 24 hours in areas where construction has affected lighting.

The university plans to replace any lights that are out, and is looking into brighter lighting in the bus loop.

Some shrubbery has been cut back between Place Vanier and Totem Park on Lower Mall.

Cowin said that although there have been calls for it, the university is cautious about the idea of installing cameras.

“The use of cameras is one that is a balance of privacy and deterrence,” Cowin said. “We’re not going to be reactionary and just rush to install cameras. It’s a question that we have to look at very carefully.”

A working group is going to be formed within the next couple of days to investigate such issues.

“The working group will be specifically in place to look at the longer-term issues of safety and security management,” said Cowin. The working group will then make recommendations to the university executive regarding potential improvements to lighting, infrastructure, transit and education.

The advertising campaign will take place on 100 buses coming to campus. Cowin highlighted the 99 B-Line as one route they will be advertising on.

“We’re targeting those buses, specifically those that can come to UBC, with an ad campaign which will be around encouragement to not walk alone, to call AMS Safewalk, the number of campus security, et cetera,” Cowin said.

The university has also been in touch with TransLink about modifying the C20 to provide transit to the perimeter of campus later in the evening.

“I think that [all of ] this ... demonstrates that the university is taking this issue with the utmost seriousness,” Cowin said.

“The university is very open to hearing that we could and should be doing more,” she said. “Safety is really a shared community concern.” U

services >>

Safewalk hours extended to 4 a.m., vehicle added

Sarah Bigam News Editor

Safewalk has increased its hours of service in response to recent sexual assaults on campus.

The student-run service, which provides co-ed teams to walk students between locations anywhere on campus, has extended its hours until 4 a.m., starting Sunday night.

Previously the service ran from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

They have also added a “night ride” service which will drive people between campus locations during those hours. The service currently has one van that is contracted through the Alma Mater Society for longer rides across campus.

“We’ve seen … really just a demand for it,” said Matthew Duguay, Student Services Manager. “The students have been making a lot of inquiries about pushing it later, and with the nature of the recent sexual assaults, they’ve all been happening after Safewalk’s closing hours, so we came up with an agreement with UBC. Last night kind of was a trial run.”

Currently there are no plans to extend Safewalk’s services to start earlier at night. “We find that there’s a lot of students around campus between 6 and 8 p.m. and it’s still very light out so students feel comfortable walking around at that time,” said Duguay.

photo will mcdonald/THE UBYSSEY

Safewalk got 30 calls on Sunday night, as opposed to the average three nightly last year.

They will expand to more vehicles in the future if necessary.

Safewalk Coordinator Alex Oswell said that Safewalk has three teams per night. Currently they are evaluating whether or not they need to hire new staff.

“If we and UBC decide that we need to extend this to the end of the academic year, we would need additional staff to support us,” said Duguay.

“Last night we had over 30 walks in just one night. Compared to a year ago, we were averaging around three walks a night so we’ve seen an incredible increase in numbers this year,” said Safewalk Coordinator Alex Oswell. This increase began shortly after the first sexual assault and has been increasing steadily since.

“In the past we haven’t had the highest numbers of Safewalk usage,

I’m not sure if there was a stigma around using Safewalk but I think that this year… people are really realizing what an important service it is, and they’re really making an effort to be safe on campus because of the recent attacks, and I think it’s a really good thing that Safewalk is being utilized in this way,” said Oswell.

Oswell said that “don’t walk alone” is Safewalk’s major message.

“You don’t necessarily have to use Safewalk to be safe. It’s also really important to have safety in numbers, walk with a group of friends, find some other people that are going to your residence, just don’t walk alone.”

Students can call Safewalk at 604-822-5355 for a walk between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. Afterwards, Campus Security can be called at 604-8222222 for an escort home. U

COPE 378 back to bargaining table next week

file photo Geoff Lister/THE UBYSSEY

Talks are set to be held on Oct. 28 and 30.

Will McDonald News Editor

Unionized AMS administrative staff are heading back to the bargaining table after passing a strike vote.

Bargaining dates are tentatively set for Oct. 28 and 30. The 17 administrative staff, represented by a bargaining unit within COPE 378, voted in favour of a strike on Sept. 30. The strike vote came after the union rejected the proposed tentative agreement with the AMS. “Members were clearly fairly upset about the original offer that was proposed, and the main reason for that is that some of the members frankly feel like it is a bit of a slap in the face to say that we can’t afford any percentage wage increase in the first two years,” said COPE 378 spokesperson Jarrah Hodge.

“People are saying we have families to support, we work here 12 months a year, we’re part of the campus community, we’re working full time and we have to be respected,” Hodge said.

AMS VP Finance Joaquin Acevedo said the AMS hasn’t had a chance to officially meet with union members to discuss their objections to the tentative agreement, so he declined to comment on their specific concerns.

However, he did say the tentative agreement was approved by the bargaining committee at the time, and he was surprised that members didn’t ratify it.

“We’re open to listening to their concerns,” Acevedo said.

“We want to be able to reach an agreement with them since our staff is important to us. Obviously we want to have a fair and just agreement, and at the same time we want to be able to balance what is available and what is something that the AMS is able to offer.”

Hodge was also optimistic about returning to the bargaining table.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get a deal then,” said Hodge. “It might not be resolved in those days, we might have more dates, but of course we’re really focused on getting prepared for Tuesday and Wednesday.”

“At the end of the day,” said Acevedo, “our priorities are students, and so we will be working to find ways to minimize any sort of impact at all if anything happens.” U

4 | NEWS |

Thursday, October 24, 2013

First Nations >>

UBC responds to Pocahontas cheer

Racist chant at Commerce FROSH indicative of wider societal issues, university says Will McDonald News Editor

In addition to the rape cheer, a group of Sauder School of Business students also participated in a racist chant, UBC announced at a press conference on Monday.

The orientation groups at the Commerce Undergraduate Society’s (CUS) FROSH were Disney-themed this year. One group, called “Pocahontas,” partook in a chant, “white man took our land,” UBC announced.

The group consisted of 18 firstyears and three FROSH leaders.

Although the chant was limited to one FROSH group, both Sauder and the university said they are handling the chant as part of broader societal issues. According to the fact-finding report unveiled at the press conference, the entire chant said “Pocah, Pocah, Pocah, Pocahantas — white man took our land, sacrifice [family name of group leader representing John Smith in the skit]. Pocahantass, ass, ass, ass.”

“What come through in the report is a surprising lack of awareness of indigenous people,” Sauder dean Robert Helsley said.

“I believe this presents the Sauder school with an important opportunity up our game.”

Helsley said Sauder plans to update their curriculum to increase awareness of First Nations cultures and history.

He said Sauder has not yet determined what the changes will be, but they will likely focus on education for first-years, as well as training for student leaders.

Linc Kesler, senior advisor to the UBC president on aboriginal affairs, said that while the chant is troubling, it provides the university a chance to address systemic societal issues.

“This is not [a situation] that we would choose. But it is one that allows us to understand this

Photo Carter Brundage/The UByssey

VP Students Lousie Cowin, along with Sauder dean Robert Helsley, First Nations studies chair Daniel Justice and UBC’s aboriginal affairs advisor Linc Kesler spoke at a press conference.

broader circumstance that we all face, and it is an opportunity for us to build ... ways of integrating a better understanding of aboriginal culture and aboriginal history,” Kesler said.

Helsley said there will be no punishment for the students involved in the chant.

“Our view is that a restorative approach was most appropriate

in this case,” said Helsley at the press conference.

“For us, this is an extremely important issue, and it’s one that we are dedicated to ensuring is appropriately addressed in the educational experiences of students.”

That decision contrasts slightly with the one made in the rape cheer incident, where

the student leaders involved were ordered to participate in community service.

VP Students Louise Cowin said the university should take more of a role in educating student leaders, especially about gender-based violence and aboriginal culture.

She said a task force will met in November to discuss possible curriculum changes to reflect this.

Daniel Justice, chair of the UBC First Nations studies program, said the chant is indicative of a societal lack of education and sensitivity with regard to indigenous history and culture.

“These students are not monsters,” Justice said. “They made a huge error ... but they understand pretty profoundly just how troubling this was.” U

Food >>

AMS testing online ordering for some of its businesses Angela Tien Contributor

The AMS is beta testing a mobile ordering system for some of their food outlets.

The mobile website, Lunchstreet, allows students to order food and drinks from Bernoulli’s Bagels, Blue Chip Cookies, The Pit Pub Burger Bar and The Gallery; granted that they’re 19 or older for the latter. The order will be ready for pickup within the time frame shown on the website.

According to Nancy Toogood, Food and Beverage Manager for the AMS, many students have not heard about the website because it is still in beta test mode. The sponsoring company, Eigen Development Ltd., is test-running the mobile site.

“It’s different because we have so many different styles of food, there has been a lot of little glitches.

The point being that it has not been sorted out to our satisfaction. We want to provide a totally seamless guest experience,” Toogood said.

To sign up for the site, students must provide their name, email, a password for their account and a

credit card. The program does not accept UBC Cards.

Ayush Datta, a student living in residence, is concerned about this, as students living in Totem Park and Place Vanier have a mandatory meal plan.

“It’s sad that there are only four restaurants to choose from. It would be better if I could use my UBC Card,” Datta said.

Other students would like to see the food choices available on the website expanded.

Arts student Katie Sanford said, “I wish there were more restaurants the service can work with, so that I didn’t have to travel as far to get food.”

“I don’t eat at the SUB, but they should do it for Subway,” said first year Nolan Chalifoux.

“We picked those four stores cause they’re the ones that sometimes have the longest line-ups,” said Toogood.

“We really want to try and help students to have a better experience in the SUB, especially in the peak times, and that’s why we did it, in order to sort of help them bypass the line to some extent.” U

Photo Will mcdonald/The ubyssey

Online ordering is available from Bernoulli’s Bagels, Blue Chip Cookies, The Pit Pub Burger Bar and The Gallery.

Thursday, OcTOber 24, 2013 |

EdITOR NATALIE SCADDEN

T-BIRDS 5-ON-5

ALESSANDRA GENTILE

MAT GUIDI

ERIKA SELTENREICHHOGDSON

Volleyball

Volleyball

swimming

NIALL COUSENS

5

MELISSA GOODWIN

soccer

hockey

ThE ROOkIEs The thing that surprised me the most about being with T-Birds was the free shoes.

what surprised me the most about being with the T-Birds is how they seem to support each other, regardless of what sport you come from.

we travel business casual to our away games, which I had never done before. In Europe, we travelled in our tracksuits.

The amount of support that varsity athletes give to each other [by going to watch other teams play]. There’s a lot more than I thought.

The T-Bird that I look up to the most would have to be my captain Ian Perry.

I look up to Tera van Beilen because she’s always boss in practice no matter what, and that’s no easy feat.

we’ve got a lot of great players on our team currently, I couldn’t pick just one.

danielle dube. she’s a firefighter on top of being a wife, student and mother to two young children.

Spongebob Squarepants.

when I was young, my favourite TV show was Hannah Montana.

My favourite TV show as a child was either Arthur, The Land Before Time or Winnie the Pooh.

I watched The Crocodile Hunter [with steve Irwin] every day.

a solid tie between The Weekenders and The Amanda Show.

That my favourite colour is blue, I like scarves, and that I secretly love The Lord of the Rings.

Just by looking at my room, you could tell that I’m a messy person, I like to play video games and I like to eat.

Three things you can tell from looking at my dorm room: I love harry Potter, I like photography and I don’t like to make my bed ever.

They would know that I play the guitar, soccer and Ps3.

I’m an Oilers fan, I like tea and I like to be comfy.

The beautiful campus.

It obviously has to be the volleyball.

The people I’ve met I’ve made some great friends and there is always someone to talk to.

People are just generally very friendly here.

The men’s soccer team.

Being able to get a great, reputable education and play the sport I love in one of the most beautiful locations in the world.

1. What has surprised you most about being with the T-Birds?

how amazing Thunderstudy is.

2. Which T-Bird, past or present, do you look up to most?

shanice Marcelle.

3. What was your favourite TV show as a child?

4. What are three things someone could learn about you just by looking at your dorm room?

5. What’s the best thing about UBc?

ENDURANCE >>

Patrick Crawford runs without borders Lawrence Neal Garcia contributor

He may have been running half-marathon, but that doesn’t mean he was taking any half-measures.

Patrick Crawford, a third-year engineering student at UBC, was one of over 25,000 runners to hit the streets of Toronto on Sunday, Oct. 20 for the 2013 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

But unlike most, Crawford was one of 163 participants running in support of the Run to End Poverty (R2EP) Campaign of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada.

An annual event that started in 2009, the R2EP takes place yearly in cities from coast to coast, bringing together runners from across Canada with the common goal of eliminating extreme poverty in rural Africa. Runners at the marathon in Toronto raised over $24,000, bringing the current total raised by the R2EP to over $130,000.

“I think that my goal was to raise basic awareness of what EWB is trying and attempting to do in Africa,” Crawford said.

“They’re doing good work and they definitely deserve support.”

Formed in 2000, EWB Canada is an organization dedicated to achieving systemic change in Africa. With over 45,000 members in regional and university chapters all across the country — including a UBC chapter — EWB Canada strives towards building the technical sectors of developing communities.

Although not previously involved with the UBC chapter of EWB Canada himself, Crawford had always wanted to join in some capacity, but was never able to. The event gave him the perfect chance.

“It was a good opportunity to not only run and to do something for my own personal fitness, but to try to do something for the greater good — something that would help,” said Crawford. “But to be clear, I did the half-marathon, not the full marathon.”

And a half-marathon itself is no small feat. On top of nine courses and three ventures, Crawford trained by running or biking every second or third day. And although not in the best shape by his standards, Crawford finished well.

“It was the most beautiful run that I’ve ever had,” said Craw-

ford, speaking of the spectacular weather and invigorating environment. “You’ll be running with lots of people around you, and there’s thousands of people lining the streets to support you and to cheer you on.

“I didn’t feel destroyed at the end,” he said with a laugh, “which was nice.”

After the run, Crawford intends to get more involved in the local EWB chapter at UBC, and is considering going overseas as part of the organization and doing something tangible with his degree.

PhOTO COuREsTy OF PaTRICk CRawFORd

Patrick Crawford, a third-year uBC Engineering student, finished a half-marathon in Toronto on sunday in support of the Run to End Poverty campaign.

“Engineers Without Borders does great work and combines my passion for engineering and what I do on that side and applying that skill set to really helping a lot of people.”

But the organization itself is open to more than just engineers, a misunderstanding that owes a great deal to the organization’s name. “That’s the common misconception,” said Crawford, “that

[to be part of the organization] you have to be an engineer. And I don’t think that’s the case at all.”

Looking back on the experience, Crawford would do it again in a heartbeat.

“I think my favourite part was the ability to do something that I really enjoy doing with a whole bunch of people who feel the same way, and doing it for a greater cause than just myself.” U

6 | SPORTS + REC |

Thursday, October 24, 2013

volleyball >>

Building a women’s volleyball dynasty

Thunderbirds set eyes on record-setting seventh straight CIS national championship Joseph Ssettuba Contributor

As if six straight national titles wasn’t impressive enough, the UBC women’s volleyball team will be gunning for a record-breaking seventh this season.

This is a team that has become so dominant they are almost expected to win. A true mark of consistency, they won 37 consecutive sets at one point last season.

But despite making it look easy at times, to win at the highest level year after year, this team has stayed humble, focused and motivated. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have topnotch players every year as well.

“We’ve had players and a lot of good depth on our team and very good team culture,” said head coach Doug Reimer. He’s entering his 17th season with the

Thunderbirds, and boasts a 328-87 win-loss record.

One of the main aspects Reimer stresses is keeping his players focused on the task at hand, never letting them get too high or too low.

During this incredible streak of winning, one would think complacency would strike sooner or later, but Reimer insists it has never been an issue for his team.

“I don’t think we’re complacent at all,” said Reimer. “You always run into challenges and you have to persevere. People have new roles and there are new players. We’ve just got to make sure we try and work hard to keep the standard up.”

This year, Reimer faces the daunting task of replacing Shanice Marcelle, Danielle Richards, Brina Derksen-Bergen and Jessica von Schilling. Between them, they’ve won just about every award there is

in collegiate volleyball, from all-star recognitions to national championship MVPs to Marcelle’s CIS Female Athlete of the Year, as well as appearances on the Canadian senior national team.

However, if Reimer was feeling the pressure of replacing his stars, he certainly wasn’t showing it. This year, as much as in years past, he will continue to rely on the depth of the team to get through difficult periods in the season. His efforts are augmented by a deep, talented stable of players to call upon, whether they are in their first year getting a taste of university volleyball, or older players ready to take on the mantle of being leaders.

Anchoring the offensive attack will be fourth-year outside hitter Lisa Barclay. She is the reigning CIS championship tournament MVP and is coming off a stint with the

national team. Rosie Schlagintweit will also be called upon to mix things up. Mariah Bruinsma and Abbey Keeping will be tasked with bringing a strong middle attack, as well as consistency. Defensively, Briana Liau Kent will be the fulcrum, tasked with anchoring the passing of the team as well. Kirsty Setterlund will be the one setting up the attack, with rookie Alessandra Gentile chipping in as well.

This year’s Thunderbirds will certainly be tested, especially in the early going. Their first four opponents of the season will be Trinity-Western, Manitoba, Thompson Rivers and Winnipeg. Three of those four teams are currently ranked in the national top 10 to start the season.

The early portion of the schedule reinforces the challenges that UBC faces in reclaiming their title, but

Reimer is confident in the abilities of his players to stand up to the rigours of the season.

“You always want to do well, especially when you’re playing top teams,” he said. “We have to find that balance between good performances on the day, but still realizing it’s the start of the season and building towards post-Christmas. There will be some ups and downs, no doubt about it, [but] now we get some measuring sticks.

It helps to play other [top] teams to build competitive spirit.”

While there are big shoes that this year’s crop of players are pressed to fill, Reimer holds as much confidence in this team as any other.

Even with the loss of top players and a tough opening schedule looming, he knows that if his team can stay humble, focused and motivated, another championship is in reach. U

Women’s Volleyball

By THE NUMBERS

21-1 Overall record last year 6 Straight CIS national championships set wins at one point during the 37 Consecutive season 64 Total set wins versus 7 Total set losses 399 Kills for Lisa Barclay 235 Digs by Briana Liau-Kent

Photo carter brundage/the ubyssey

Overall record for head coach Doug

Reimer in 16 years at UBC 328-87

Outside hitter Lisa Barclay will be leading the attack for UBC women’s volleyball as they seek their seventh-straight CIS championship.

Men’s volleyball hungry for a brand new banner Bruce Chen Contributor

If there is one men’s volleyball team in the Canada West conference with something to prove, it has to be the UBC Thunderbirds.

Their 2012-13 season ended with a 3-0 loss to the number one-ranked University of Alberta Golden Bears in the bronze medal match of the Canada West tournament. Not only was the bronze medal on the line, but more importantly, it was all about the right to go to the CIS National Championships.

Losing to the top ranked team in the conference isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but head coach Richard Schick certainly isn’t about to let his team dwell on it. “You want to learn something from it, obviously, and you want those guys to be hungry,” said Schick. “We have high aspirations and we want to get going.”

The turning point in what was looking like a great season came when the ’Birds were up 17-12 in the fourth set of the Canada West semifinal against another powerhouse rival, the Trinity Western University Spartans, who were beginning to rally. The ’Birds had a match point, but eventually lost the set, and

the fifth set saw the completion of a shocking comeback by Trinity. The result was a nail-biting 15-17 loss for the ’Birds.

Fast-forward to the present, and Schick’s crew looks strong heading into the 2013 season. The boys had a 9-2 preseason record, and won their own preseason Thunderball tournament, as well as the Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack Invitational tournament.

“We have four new players and there’s a fairly solid core returning from last year which is good, but we’re still looking for more out of them,” said Schick.

For four of Schick’s key starters, it was a busy summer. Outside hitter Ben Chow took advantage of a combination of his considerable talents, along with the great weather, and had another successful summer on the beach. A Team Canada beach alumnus, Chow was chosen as British Columbia’s flag bearer at the Canada Summer Games, and he and his partner Dan Caverly were able to defeat Ontario 2-1 in the final to bring home the gold.

Chow was one of UBC’s top attackers last season, and is coming off a preseason where he hit a

healthy .310 on 58 attempts and led UBC in both preseason tournament tile matches with ten kills in each match.

Three other T-Birds kept their talents indoors, however. Setter Milan Nikic, middle Alex Russell and outside hitter Jarrid Ireland were once again named to the junior national team. All three are expected to reprise their prominent roles in the ’Birds’ starting lineups.

Nikic is expected to be a top assist-maker at the setter’s position.

A good portion of those sets will be delivered to the high-flying Ireland, while the 6-foot-10 Russell will look to keep the UBC defense intact this season by dominating the middle at the net.

“Alex and Chris Howe were two of the top middles in the country last year, so they are going to be key for us blocking,” said Schick.

Unfortunately, Ireland sustained an injury at the Thunderball tournament. Schick said he is confident his roster is deep this year, and expects somebody else to step up in the meantime.

“I think Will Dichuck, a firstyear player, will maybe see some action out there. Maybe Mac

McNicol who’s a second-year player with us as well,” Schick said.

“We don’t have a veteran guy to necessarily step in there, but guys that are chomping at the bit to get out there.”

While UBC has been to the post-season in nine of the last 10 years, they haven’t won a banner in a long time. “We competed for two conference titles in the mid-2000s, but we had to settle

for silver, and we want to get back there,” said Schick.

UBC will need to make the Canada West final in order to advance to the CIS championship tournament.

To begin the regular season, the Thunderbirds will travel to Langley to take on the Trinity Western Spartans on Oct. 25, and the following day, will come home to host the Spartans at War Memorial Gym. U

Photo carter brundage/the ubyssey

The men’s volleyball team hopes to reach the CIS national championship tournament this season after missing out for the past five years.

Thursday, October 24, 2013 |

EDITOR Rhys Edwards

Fungus

mycology >>

among us

Puffballs, stinkhorns, morels and more: thousands of mushrooms make UBC their home Aurora Tejeida Senior Culture Writer

Chicken of the woods, fairy ring, rosy gomphidius, bear’s head tooth — B.C. mushroom varieties are as colourful as their names, and many of them can be found right here on campus.

On a Tuesday several weeks ago, about 80 people filled the Van Dusen Botanical Garden. They were walking around tables covered in mushrooms. Most of the mushrooms were carefully placed on paper napkins, so people could come up to the tables and pick them up to inspect them. Some even smelled them.

The Mycological Society of Vancouver meets the second Tuesday of every month. During these meetings, regulars and new-comers bring samples of mushrooms they have collected.

Most of the people attending are mushroom aficionados who try to bring in the most interesting specimens, but everyone is waiting to hear what the experts will say about the mushrooms on display.

Paul Kroeger is one of these experts. He moved to the Lower Mainland from the Okanagan when he was 16, which is when his interest in mushrooms began.

Even though he has no formal training, his knowledge is enough for him to be a freelance mycologist, offering consultations and giving lectures.

The Ubyssey met with Kroeger in the campus wilderness outside of the Museum of Anthropology. He has lectured at UBC, but he’s more comfortable in the field. Walking across the school grounds, he spoke about the wide assortment of mushrooms that can be found here, which include edible, poisonous and hallucinogenic varieties. <em>

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“On campus, we have a couple thousand species. The ones that would be desirable for food might be one dozen or two dozen, the ones that are psychoactive might be four or five species.”

Paul Kroeger Local mushroom expert

Many of the people who attend the monthly meetings are looking for an expert who can confirm that the mushrooms they picked are edible.

“The general rule for people that are out seeking edible mushrooms is to target half a dozen or a dozen really distinctive [ones] that include the chanterelles or the shaggy mane, the hedgehog mushroom, the puff balls [and] the king bolete,” said Kroeger.

But keep in mind that, according to Kroeger, there are about a dozen mushrooms on campus that could cause death or organ damage. We came across some poisonous mushrooms just outside the Museum of Anthropology.

Still, mushroom hunting can be a fun activity on campus, as long as you’re not purposely harming any property or plants and you’re not trespassing.

Also remember that the vast majority of mushrooms need to be cooked prior to being eaten, and that even the experts get it wrong sometimes, meaning that getting mild poisoning is always a possibility when eating wild mushrooms. This is why Kroeger hardly eats them anymore.

Even if you don’t plan on eating them, most of the fun is in the hunt. Just remember that you are not allowed to pick them in Pacific Spirit Regional Park, as mushroom hunting is not allowed in most city parks — or any provincial or national parks.

Also, make sure to look where you’re going.

“Mushroom pickers love the rainy weather and when it’s cloudy or foggy, so there’s always a hazard of getting lost,” said Kroeger.

But when done safely, it can be a lot of fun.

“It’s like an Easter egg hunt,” Kroeger said. “They tend to hide, so it’s fun and challenging to learn to see them and identify them.”

Basically, you never know what you’re going to find.

“Mushrooms can live underground invisibly before putting out their fruits. So if you go to an area for 30 years, you’ll still be finding things you haven’t seen before. Sometimes it might be decades between a particular type of mushroom showing up,” said Kroeger. U The Mycological Society will host their annual mushroom show on Oct. 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Van Dusen Botanical Garden. <em>

“Through the late ‘60s and early ‘80s, there was a lot of interest in [magic mushrooms], and they grew very abundantly on campus,” said Kroeger.

“On campus, we have a couple thousand species. The ones that would be desirable for food might be one dozen or two dozen, the ones that are psychoactive might be four or five species.”

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There’s a world of life beneath your feet.

Clockwise: Mycena mushrooms found on a log outside of the Museum of Anthropology; two biology students examine a Mycena specimen; shaggy mane mushrooms are a common sight at UBC; Paul Kroeger is the president of Mycological Society and consults for doctors and veterinarians about poisoning. Photos by Jimmy Thomson.

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Thursday, October 24, 2013

television >>

Portrait of the artist as a young man New web series dramatizes the history of history’s most famous dramaturge Sandy Young Contributor

It is a crisp Friday afternoon, and you are simmering over coffee on a heated patio with Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd and Richard Burbage.

You observe that Jonson has a penchant for latte art, while Burbage is partial to cinnamon pastries.

Actually, you’re with Emma Middleton, Matt Reznek and Andrew Lynch, who each play the respective Renaissance playwrights, and play-actor, in Blank Verse — a new web series produced by UBC MFA theatre alumna Amanda Konkin, which re-imagines Shakespeare’s life and art in the twentyfirst century. It’s a meta-theatrical moment.

Missing from the scene is William Shakespeare — evocatively portrayed by Xander Williams — as a brooding and ambitious college freshman, composing sonnets on his MacBook and posting them on Tumblr and Twitter. It was an intentional production decision to position Shakespeare away from the spotlight; instead, his literary contemporaries command the centre stage.

Konkin seeks to translate the archetypal artist’s story into a modern collegiate setting, to make it relatable and accessible.

“Blank Verse is filmed through the lens of how the people around Shakespeare influence his life and work,” said Konkin. “I wanted to focus on the artistic development of Shakespeare, Jonson and Marlowe, and their struggles to become great writers.

“What fascinates me is that there is so much we don’t know about Shakespeare. We think we know a lot about him, but we usually try to come up with facts,” Konkin added.

“People talk a lot about Shakespeare, but he is still very much an enigma, and we often overlook that he was surrounded by tons of other really great writers.”

Blank Verse is about the people around Shakespeare who are <em>

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“Shakespeare is not meant to be read, but to be seen and heard,” said Matt Reznek, who plays Thomas Kyd. “A whole language was invented because Shakespeare wanted to convey images and emotions through the way things sounded and felt.”

Reznek, who graduated from the BFA acting program this year, spoke of his first encounter with the playwright: “I was a shy kid, but when I was given a Shakespeare text in elementary school, the words had to come off the page. In doing that, I had to do something I could feel. I could use the words to perform. It was both performative and transformative.”

Of course, Blank Verse’s version of history has been creatively embellished. Perhaps one of the more delightful anachronisms in the world of Blank Verse so far is in “Act II Scene III,” which alludes to Thomas Wyatt hosting an Allen Ginsberg poetry reading while Marlowe and Jonson break into Elizabeth Tudor’s office to steal an unpublished manuscript (the royal monarch recrowned as head of the creative writing department in Blank Verse’s ahistorical university).

The intertextuality will delight theatre aficionados and literary connoisseurs alike. “You don’t have to be a Shakespeare nerd, but if you are you will get all the inside jokes,” said Andrew Lynch, who plays Richard Burbage. Lynch is also the casting director behind the inspired choice to cast women as Marlowe and Jonson.

And what about the story behind the project’s title itself — which dignifies Shakespeare’s subtle wit? “ Iambic Pentameter was a mouthful, and it sounded pretentious,” laughed Reznek. “No one will read your writing if it sounds pretentious.” U </em>

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PHOTO courtesy amanda konkin

From left to right: Claire Hesselgrave as Chris Marlowe, Xander Williams as William Shakespeare and Emma Middleton as Ben Jonson.

influencing him, rather than about Shakespeare exclusively,” said Laura Fukumoto, costume director for Blank Verse and a senior theatre and design undergraduate at UBC. “A writer is made from other environmental factors: what that person observes in relationships, and who are the people influencing him.

“These are entire stories based on historical events, which is a cool angle to come in from as we examine who the people in his life are historically. At the root of what we’re doing, we are presenting and providing access to history.”

Costumes play an important role in Blank Verse . “There are interesting opportunities for storytelling [through costumes] <em>

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that the audience might not necessarily pick up on the first time,” said Fukumoto, “but every single background character that shows up on screen is a character, whether it’s historical or inspired

by Shakespeare’s work.”

“Shakespeare is not meant to be read, but to be seen and heard.”

Matt Reznek 2013 theatre alum

In the prologue of Blank Verse, for instance, audiences can discern Othello offering a handkerchief to a classmate; in <em>

a later episode, attentive viewers will observe Lady Macbeth trying to rid herself of scarlet ink in the background.

In other ways, the web series is both an accomplished theatrical piece and a genuine cinematic pleasure. Converging modern media with the rich intertextuality of the Renaissance, Blank Verse interweaves speeches and scenes from both Shakespeare’s life and his early plays — such as The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Titus Andronicus and Love’s Labour’s Lost — to reflect his youthful promise. The series also positions him as a contemporary of Christopher Marlowe, at the height of the latter’s Faustus fame. The result is, simply, magical. <em>

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New episodes of Blank Verse air every Sunday at http://blankverse. tv through Dec. 29, 2013.

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film >>

Whispers of Life wins at Reel Pride

Alice Fleerackers Contributor

What does it take to save a life?

In their recent short film, Whispers of Life , filmmakers Florian Halbedl and Joshua M. Ferguson propose that, surprisingly, a simple conversation is often enough.

Awarded both the top audience and jury awards at one of Canada’s oldest queer film festivals, Reel Pride Winnipeg, the film explores the roles of communication and imagination in dealing with bullying, homophobia and, ultimately, suicide. Shot at the UBC Museum of Anthropology, the story is simple: Tom, a target of homophobic bullying, retreats to a park bench where he is joined by a stranger named Charles. Charles initiates a conversation with the gay teen that will change Tom’s life forever.

The awards were announced on Spirit Day — Oct. 17 — which, since 2010, has commemorated LGBTQ victims of bullying.

Ferguson, a PhD candidate at the UBC Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, explained that Whispers is much more than a simple story. “[ Whispers ] really acts as a cultural intervention in relation to suicide,” he said, “raising additional awareness <em>

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PHOTO courtesy joshua m. ferguson

Filmed at the Museum of Anthropology, Whispers of Life was lauded for its critical engagement of homophobia.

and doing it in a way that’s also entertaining.”

By raising suicide awareness through this engaging medium, Whispers of Life bridges barriers that might prevent discussion in other situations.

Local writer and director Halbedl agrees. “People don’t talk about [suicide],” he said, “but it affects so many people in so many ways.”

Whispers of Life is an attempt to change this. “I think that’s the goal of the film,” Halbedl said. “I <em>

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want to bring communication back into it”.

Indeed, Whispers of Life has certainly got people talking. In addition to its success at Reel Pride, the film is set to premiere at film festivals across the globe, reaching audiences as far away as Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Australia.

“Film has the power to affect people,” Ferguson said. “It can reach people in a way that nothing else can.” U <em>

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| CULTURE | 9

Thursday, October 24, 2013

art >>

From the mundane to the Marvellous

Newest exhibition at Museum of Anthropology brings world-class Mexican art collection to UBC Aurora Tejeida Senior Culture Writer

How do you define The Marvellous Real ?

It’s a bit like surrealism, and a bit like magical realism — but at the same time, neither. It’s also the name of the newest temporary exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), which focuses on Mexican art from 1926 to 2011.

“It’s an intersection of extreme things, strange things,” said Nicola Levell, the exhibition’s curator.

“It’s about pushing your mind to think outside the everyday.”

The idea for the exhibition originally grew out of a desire to focus on surrealism and Mexican art from the 1920s to the 1950s, until Levell came across the writings of Alejo Carpentier, a Cuban writer and ethnomusicologist. Carpentier coined the term “Marvellous Real,” defining it as something that pervades everyday life in Latin America — a coming together of marvellous things and the mundane, according to Levell. “[Carpentier] wasn’t only talking about Mexico, although it was Mexico that catalyzed his thinking,” Levell said. “He went to Mexico in 1926 when he was 21, which is why the exhibition begins in 1926.”

Carpentier’s concept gave Levell an opportunity to build an exhibition that broke the rules of traditional museum art shows.

“It’s a very theatrical backdrop to the objects. It moves away from the idea of putting order in things up in historical periods,” said Levell, who was a curator in the U.K. before she moved to Vancouver, where she teaches museology at UBC. The exhibition has no chronological order. Instead, it is divided into five themes: archeologies, mythologies, ontologies, technologies and ecologies. While other museums might have exhibitions that focus on specific artists, periods or disciplines, Anthony Shelton, the director of MOA, explained how the exhibition breaks away from the mould. <em>

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“We’re beginning with a problem, which is, what would a Latin American view of Mexico look like?” said Shelton.

The Marvellous Real is one of three exhibitions MOA is doing on the Latin American and Iberian world. “We did Luminescence on Peruvian silver a year ago,” Shelton said. “This is the second one, and it is going to be followed by another one on Afro-Cuban art.”

To help immerse the spectator further into the realm between what is real and what is not, contemporary music by Federico Alvarez del Toro, a Mexican composer, will constantly be played through an iPad within a gramophone in the exhibition space.

All the pieces on display are owned by FEMSA, the largest beverage company in Mexico and in Latin America. As of September 2011, they are also the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the world.

“It’s a really prestigious collection and it’s travelled throughout Latin America, the U.S., Europe, but it’s never been to Canada, so it’s an incredible opportunity,” said Levell.

One piece in the show is causing particular excitement amongst Mexican art enthusiasts: Frida Kahlo’s My Dress Hangs Here. The painting happens to be FEMSA’s most asked for piece, which means it’s constantly touring.

“We know that Frida Kahlo is part of the myth of Mexico,” Levell said. “Through commodities, through films, though many different forms, she has entered our imagination, way beyond Mexico, in a global way.”

Kahlo painted the piece in 1933 while in New York with her husband Diego Rivera — also a renowned Mexican artist, who was working on a commission for the Rockefeller Institute.

“It encapsulates the way she was thinking. It’s a critique of the bourgeois values of American society, from the glamour to toilets and telephones. What was put on pedestals of importance is contrasted with industrializ<em>

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ation, pollution and garbage,” added Levell.

Some of Kahlo’s most famous works are self-portraits. The main subject of My Dress Hangs Here is her dress, but many people still refer to it as a self-portrait.

“In the absence [of a self-portrait], it really speaks to her sense of alienation and her longing to be back in Mexico,” said Levell.

But the Kahlo piece is just one out of 54 diverse works, some of them monumental — a couple of them span from the floor to the ceiling.

Shelton expanded on the importance of this diversity. “People have a certain expectation of what they’re going to see,” he said. “In a way, we’ve managed to get a collection that explores some of those stereotypes of what you would expect to see in an exhibition of Mexican art.”

The exhibition includes sculptures, film and painting, as well as pieces some might think traditionally belong in an anthropology museum, but really represent contemporary art: a Day of the Dead papier-mâché, a Tree of Life from the state of Puebla and masks from the southern state of Guerrero.

Levell’s intent was to blur the lines between disciplines and their objects by mixing history, anthropology and art.

“Museums should be mirrors of our contemporary realities, which aren’t based on these a-historical, de-politicized entities,” said Levell.

One of the more interesting facets of the exhibition, however, is what it’s missing.

“There was a Diego Rivera [painting], but I didn’t think it spoke to the theme of the Marvellous Real. What I do have is a wonderful [photograph] of him, which is him painting a mural,” said Levell.

There won’t be a lack of artists from Rivera’s generation. Some of the other artists that will be featured include Gerardo Murillo (also known as Dr. Atl), Leonora Carrington, Jean Charlot, Juan O’Gorman, David Alfaro

Alvin Tian/THE UBYSSEY

The exhibit includes historical and contemporary artwork and multiple installations.

Siqueiros, Juan Soriano, Rufino Tamayo and many more — most of whom are also contemporary artists.

“I want [audiences] to re-imagine being in the world and what it is to encounter the marvellous.

We can see it all around us — it’s not delimited to Latin American realities,” said Levell.

“It’s not just about the beautiful or the exquisite and exotic, but it’s

also about the violence, the ugly.

The marvellous also encompasses that dimension.” U The Marvellous Real: Art From Mexico, 1926-2011 will be on display at the Museum of Anthropology from Oct. 25, 2013 to March 30, 2014. <em>

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More online

Read the full exhibition preview at ubyssey.ca.

theatre >>

A river runs through it: one-woman play a powerful political parable Nikos Wright Contributor

ogy, River, River develops several themes on the topics of memory, myth-making and ecology, as well as political statements on war and colonization. <em>

In 1987, the Filipino government wages total war against communist insurgents in the countryside.

In the militarized rural village of Iraya, a river’s flavour changes each time a corpse is thrown into its depths. Fireflies flutter, soldiers march and a woman uses her thick, black, 12-metre-long hair to fish bodies out of the river.

This is River, River, a one-hour, one-woman play scheduled to be performed by Merlinda Bobis this Friday at the Telus Studio Theatre in the Chan Centre. A theatrical adaptation of Bobis’s short story Fish-Hair Woman, River, River is a magical realist play that is part love story, part anti-war story and part ecological parable.

The story is told from the point of view of Estrella, the eponymous Fish-Hair Woman. Her village, Iraya, in Bicol province, is one of the hotspots of President Corazon Aquino’s war against the insurgents, and soon becomes ravaged by death and destruction. As Estrella remembers the 1987 war and the consequent devastation of her village and its surrounding ecol<em>

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War is one of the greatest polluters in the world.

Merlinda Bobis Author and playwright

The political conflict at the heart of the play is relatively unknown to most in the West, whose familiarity with Aquino might be limited to her succession as democratic leader of the Philippines following Ferdinand Marcos’s dictatorship. In fact, Aquino’s counterinsurgency campaign was rife with torture, summary executions, assassinations, rape and displacements.

“Outside the Philippines, people thought it was a great time, with Corazon Aquino. But it was not....

It was a violent time,” said Bobis.

“For Filipinos, this is very well known, this time in history, but the bigger public globally only thinks of Marcos as the baddie, and that

after Marcos everything was fine.

So, in a way, politically, this gives you another point of view. This actually tells you that [the violence and repression] did not stop when Marcos was deposed.”

Aesthetically, the cross-genre play weaves together different media, combining storytelling, poetry, music and dance. It also embraces a theatrical form that Bobis described as transcending the traditional Western style of performance.

“It’s Filipino, but it’s also Western. You can’t categorize it.

I would like to think as a form, it decolonizes that Western framework of performance. So in a way, its aesthetics [are] a political statement as well,” she explained.

Bobis is a Filipino-Australian academic and award-winning novelist based in the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, where she teaches creative writing. She was invited to UBC by Leonora Angeles, head of the Rethinking Responses and Responsibilities in River Regions research project of the Social Justice @UBC Network.

“My role is to bring together people on campus who are inter-

ested in research in river regions, and how we relate to this very important natural resource, that we tend to ignore or take for granted,” Angeles said.

One of the project’s main points of focus is the Fraser River and its significance to new immigrant communities, including the Filipino-Canadian community.

Angeles hopes the network can inspire people to think not only of the importance of local B.C. rivers to Canadian immigrant communities, but, according to Angeles, inspire immigrants to think about “their own experiences of river networks back in their home countries.” To this end, River, River functions as an artistic bridge in a field of academic research that tends to be more cerebral.

Although the ecological aspects were not at the forefront of her mind when she wrote the original story, Bobis later realized the significance of these themes in River, River. “All these dead bodies — when you dump the corpses into a river, you corrupt all the water.

There’s an ecological aspect. It’s never kind of a blatant statement in the novel, but it’s very much about that. The violation of a vil-

lage is not just the people, but the environment,” she said.

“Every war is about the violation of ecology. It’s not just bodies,” she added. “It’s the body of the earth. And in this case it’s the body of the river that is corrupted, through and through. War is one of the greatest polluters in the world.”

As a transnational author herself — originally hailing from the Philippines, now based in Australia and published in three different languages (Filipino, English and her native Bikol) — Bobis is confident that the play’s thematic and aesthetic elements will resonate cross-culturally.

“This is my hope: that a non-Filipino audience will feel for these bodies, for this grief and loss.

“What I’m hoping for is that [River, River] speaks to us on a very basic, human level, where grief and loss knows no country.” U River, River will be staged on Friday, October 25, at the UBC Telus Studio Theatre from 6:30-7:30 p.m. with an artist’s talk and cocktails following the performance. Admission is free. <em>

Thursday, October 24, 2013 |

student voice. Community reach.

10

Recent assaults should spur cultural dialogue on campus

PHOTO CJ Pentland/the ubyssey

OP-ED

By Caroline Wong, Mona Maleki and Anisa Mottahed

illustration indiana joel/the ubyssey

Who came up with BOOM! Pizza as the new name for Pie R Squared?

LAST WORDS Changes at Sauder Sauder has a great opportunity to improve its ethics and social justice curriculum for its undergraduate program.

The curriculum is sorely lacking a full course in business ethics — while such a class is available from the philosophy department, it is not a required course in Sauder. While the program does address some ethical issues in its “Government and Business” class, as well as mentioning ethical concerns in other courses, there is no course where ethics is the central focus of the class. “Government and Business” is also a third year class, a little late in the game.

Sauder has very few first-year classes that are required, and could conceivably change some of its required second-year classes to fit in a full dose of ethical considerations.

While it seems that politics and Sauder’s research and accounting focus means that courses like managerial accounting and economics will remain required courses, surely the program could bump back “Managing the Employment Relationship” to third year to make room for a course that focuses on social justice and ethics in business.

UBC Admin steps up on safety In Monday’s issue, we ran column calling on UBC to respond as robustly to the recent sexual assaults on campus as they did to the Sauder rape cheer earlier this year.

Last weekend, it had just started to emerge that the three — now at least four — assaults weren’t one-off incidents but some sort of pattern, and students had begun

Note to readers: new online comments policy The Ubyssey reserves the right to close comment on any story. In general, comments may be closed when: - The story deals with racialized and sexualized violence, cyber bullying, child violence and suicide.

- The story or elements of the story are subject to a publication </em>

PArting shots and snap judgments from The ubyssey editorial board

to worry. We said that when the rape cheer came to light, we saw the university’s top leaders making public statements to reassure the community, along with announcing concrete steps the school was taking to make sure nothing of the sort happened again.

Then, it was too early to gauge the university’s full response.

While that remains true, it’s been heartening to see the recent steps UBC has taken to reassure the community.

While some security measures obviously must be kept confidential, UBC President Stephen Toope spoke to CBC yesterday regarding the importance of stopping the attacks and in an interview with The Ubyssey, VP Students Louise Cowin mentioned specific steps the university is looking into to make UBC more hostile to predators of any sort.

While it goes without saying that university administrators and staff were working hard to make campus safe, much of that was going on behind closed doors. Toope’s public comments and Cowin’s explanation of what the university is doing to secure campus should provide reassurance to all students.

Improved lighting and strategic landscaping to make paths more safe are being looked into, Cowin said, while installing a system of surveillance cameras around campus appears to be off the table in the short term due in part to concerns over privacy raised by Toope.

Both of these points suggest a university that is doing more than handing out whistles, telling students not to walk alone and announcing vague changes to security patrols. They suggest an administration that is beginning to address security issues on campus that will extend will beyond the current ban or contain aspects or may refer to content that is under a publication ban where comments could breach that ban or have legal ramifications.

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spate of attacks, and ensure students need not be afraid to walk around Point Grey.

Toope’s apprehension over installing cameras is commendable, especially as privacy seems increasingly scarce in our society.

It also shows there is internal discussion by UBC leaders over what long-term steps are appropriate to secure campus.

Cowin was right to emphasize that the current priority should be catching the person or persons behind the current attacks, but such a discussion will no doubt result in a safer campus well after the recent assaults have faded from the front pages.

Bust! Pizza? AMS reconsiders naming The AMS is reconsidering naming the pizza place in the New SUB “BOOM! Pizza.”

Two years ago, after paying a design firm a hefty sum of money, the committee in charge of the new SUB thought BOOM! Pizza would be a good idea. They even spent another $5,000 towards developing a brand centred around the ridiculous name.

At Council last week, the AMS wondered whether they should just keep the current name, “Pie R Squared,” in the New SUB, which would have cost them an astounding zero dollars to come up with.

BOOM! Pizza has been a running joke around our office, and no doubt around the rest of campus as well.

It is impossible to take the name seriously, and the AMS is finally picking up on it. We hope the AMS scraps the work on BOOM! Pizza before they spend any more money making themselves look silly. U Facebook page. We remove all comments that contain personal attacks against a defined group or individual, threats or hate speech, as defined by Canadian law.

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We are frustrated.

We are frustrated because we feel like we need to check over our shoulder every few minutes when we walk across campus at night.

We are frustrated because we have started thinking that every person we don’t recognize walking through the eerie fog is a potential predator.

We don’t like the fact that we are being made to feel that our choice of clothing has a role in someone’s decision to commit an act of violence against us, or the fact that our male friends feel like they have to jokingly let us know that they were not on campus when the recent sexual assaults took place.

Yes, we are in a crisis situation — but that doesn’t mean that students can only choose to live in a culture of fear and frustration.

This is a chance for our community to understand more about the normalization of sexualized violence on campus and in the context of society.

This specific series of events is connected to the culture of sexualized violence that is all around us.

According to Statistics Canada, 82 per cent of all sexual assaults are actually perpetuated by someone known to the survivor. Less than 10 per cent of all sexual assaults are reported to police, which highlights the culture that stigmatizes the experience of reporting incidents.

By focusing on what the survivor could have done, society approaches this situation through a victim-blaming lens.

But it’s up to us to hold those who commit sexual assault accountable.

This is a chance for individuals to reflect on their own thoughts and actions to identify the ways in which we reproduce notions that manifest in the form of sexualized violence. By engaging in dialogue

letter

Re: “Is UBC admin as serious about assaults as CUS FROSH?” 10/21/13

Dear Editor, Your characterization and comparison of UBC’s responses to the CUS FROSH chants and the recent sexual assaults are puzzling.

To be so cynical as to suggest UBC’s chant response was simply a “fun intellectual exercise” is objectionable. To say there has been no action to respond to violent attacks is simply not true.

Following each recent attack, a large team of UBC staff have worked countless extra hours to issue mass alerts, enhance safety

and furthering our understanding of sexualized violence, we can work our way to destigmatization and provide a safer environment for members of our community to feel empowered.

Students are already stepping up to the challenge. They are proactively contacting Safewalk to volunteer with the service.

This free, student-run service has extended their hours to 4 a.m. until Nov. 3, and has begun driving students home on campus as well. The panel at the community roundtable on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in IKB 261 — hosted by the Commerce Undergraduate Society (CUS), Sexual Assault Support Centre (SASC) and the AMS — will engage students in a dialogue on sexualized violence as it relates to the recent sexual assaults and the chant at CUS FROSH. Students are continually informing themselves by engaging in conversations online and face-to-face with their peers, and looking to become active bystanders by taking part in the SASC anti-violence ally training and education series.

The responsibility to create a safer campus lies with everyone in our community. We cannot alienate specific groups of individuals or identities. We all need to look out for each other. It’s time to take our campus back.

Wong is AMS president, Maleki is a student senator and Mottahed is manager of SASC. To inform yourself and make an impact on the safety of our community, check out these services: Safewalk: add (604) 822-5355 to your phone. Extended hours 8 p.m.–4 a.m. nightly until Nov. 3.

SASC: appointments, walk-ins and volunteering welcome, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Monday–Friday.

UBC Access and Diversity: Really? campaign, Be More Than a Bystander campaign and the Respectful Environment Pledge. patrols and organize emergency awareness sessions with student residents. The RCMP have significantly escalated their resources as well. We are also grateful for efforts by the AMS to extend its Safewalk program hours each night until 4 a.m.

The university is also reviewing what other actions can be taken on matters like lighting.

Let’s be clear: The Ubyssey does not have a monopoly on concern for women’s safety. UBC administration aside, this is a matter of deep concern to our students, faculty and staff. Ultimately, a safe community depends on everyone taking action. <em>

Sincerely, Louise Cowin VP Students

</em>

UBC VANCOUVER

Thursday, OcTOber 24, 2013 |

PICTuREs + wORds ON yOuR uNIVERsITy EXPERIENCE

ENROLMENT STATS 2012-13

49,241

CAMPUS MAKEUP

TOTAL ENROLMENT

(New to UBC survey) 56% White

+2% INCREASE FROM 2011

35,504

22% Chinese

TOTAL

,

13,737 PART-TIME

26,439

uBCs annual Report on Enrolment provides hard numbers about the makeup of the student body on uBC’s Vancouver campus. although it’s a little early to talk about the composition of 2013’s first-years, the 2012 numbers have been out for a while now.

Only 42 per cent of incoming new students responded to the ethno-racial survey.

•

surprise! science has the highest entrance average at 92.3 per cent. Land and Food systems is smack in the middle. Forestry has the lowest at 83.1 per cent. The collective average of this year’s class is 89.7 per cent — just .3 per cent shy of getting a+.

•

In planning for the next three years, there will be fewer domestic students admitted due to the lack of government funding. There will be more international students, however — about a 10 per cent increase per year for the next three years.

•

The lack of government funding is a reality. In 2012, uBC Vancouver’s number of domestic students was 9 per cent over government funded levels.

•

•

100 per cent of international kinesiology students stayed at uBC after first year. The lowest retention rate is international Forestry students at 72 per cent. uBC’s international students are from 154 different countries. The top three regions? 24 per cent of international students are from China, 16 per cent from the united states and a tie for third place between Europe and East asia, both at 14 per cent.

4% Other 3% Southeast Asian 3% Filipino

GRADUATE DOMESTIC

Things to note from the report: •

5% South Asian

UNDERGRADUATE DOMESTIC 4,417 INTERNATIONAL

7,039

2% 2% 2% 1% 1% 1%

2,977 INTERNATIONAL

West Asian Latin American Korean Black Arab Aboriginal

100%

ADMISSION AVERAGE — first year direct entry undegraduate

=

11

89.7%

83.1

87.5

88.2

88.9

91

91.7

92.3

Arts

Kinesiology

Land & Food Systems

Applied Science

Sauder

Science

"For the first time, all direct-entry applicants to the Vancouver campus were required to submit a personal profile at point of application."

of those applicants would 12% not have been admi ed had broad based admissions not been used.

0%

Forestry

RETENTION RATES “Retention is defined as the percentage

of first-time, first-year, full-time, degree-seeking students who register in the following year. Students are considered to have been retained even if they switch degree programs.”

First person to enter the Ubyssey office and get Carter Brundage off Reddit gets 100 copies of the paper! Great as a placemat for hot lunches!

COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE : SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

92% 75%

97% 87%

100%

96%

94%

94% 83%

83%

86%

100%

95% 85%

72%

domestic

intl

Source: UBC Annual Report on Enrolment, 2012-13, Vancouver campus

0%

12 | GAmES |

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013

50- Musical dramas 52- any unnamed object 57- ascended, flower 58- Legal rights org.

60- horse opera 61- small children 62- depilatory brand 63- Rate 64- Immensely 65- Paris’s Pont ___ arts 66- album unit

doWn

PuZZLE COuRTEsy BEsTCROsswORds.COM. usEd wITh PERMIssION.

aCross 1- word that can precede bodied and seaman 5- Lay down the lawn 8- Bett y of cartoons 12- Japanese poem 14- Timber wolf 15- Ballerina Pavlova 16- Red as ___ 17- Org. 18- winder for holding flexible material 19- Large handkerchief 21- add fizz 23- garden tool

24- RR stop 25- Rocky hilltop 26- drink of the gods 30- Free of frost 32- Once more 33- unit of frequency 37- Cause of ruin 38- habituate 39- Prom wheels 40- grabbing 42- Family car 43- alley Oop’s girlfriend 44- Tranquil 45- horned viper 48- ___-de-sac 49- Tic ___ dough

1- Pequod captain 2- ali _____ and the 40 thieves 3- Legal claim 4- Barely managed, with “out” 5- slammin’ sammy 6- delivery room docs 7- Contribution 8- Roseanne, once 9- ___ a time 10- ___ a customer 11- More wan 13- Jazz fan?

14- alley 20- and not 22- apiece 24- Baseball commissioner Bud 26- apprehends 27- Richard of A Summer Place 28- Injectable diazepam, in military lingo 29- Connect with 30- Roman goddess of the moon 31- Conger catcher 33- shrimplike crustaceans 34- Travel on 35- Counterfeiter catcher 36- area 38- kilo 41- Caesar’s partner 42- Zone 44- Express 45- artery that feeds the trunk 46- Bobbin 47- Basil-based sauce 49- hardware fastener

PuZZLE COuRTEsy kRaZydad. usEd wITh PERMIssION.

51- Take it easy 52- some are pale 53- Lukas of Witness 54- sock ___ me!

55- dresden denial 56- alcoholic drink 59- Bee follower

MORE ONLINE We have web exclusives online, including a story on the theatre department’s Halloween costume sale, now on ubyssey.ca.

Oct. 21 answers