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pinions thoughts on the strike at STU pg.06
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ports overtime thriller brings home gold pg.13
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rts curl up with a good book review pg.09
The Brunswickan
Volume 141 Issue 14 • Canada’s Oldest Official Student Publication • UNB Fredericton’s Student Paper • Jan. 9, 2008
Former UNB star signs with Leafs by Hunter Gavin
Former UNB hockey player Darryl Boyce has agreed to an NHL entrylevel contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs after an impressive first half of the season with the Leafs AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies. Boyce, 23, has played 34 games as a rookie this season with the Marlies, where he has recorded six goals and 16 assists for 22 points – ranking him sixth on the Marlies, and tying him for ninth among AHL rookies. The native of Summerside, Prince Edward Island spent the previous two seasons with UNB, where he collected a combined 65 points (29 goals, 36 assists) in 53 Canadian Interuniversity Sport games. In his freshman CIS season, Boyce was named the Atlantic University Sports and UNB Rookie of the Year. In 2007, he was a member of the CIS World University Games gold medal team in Turin, Italy, as well as the UNB National Championship team. Prior to joining UNB, Boyce played 262 games for the Ontario Hockey League’s Toronto St. Michael's Majors from 2001-05, recording 145 points (54 goals, 91 assists). Boyce, ecstatic about his contract said, “Unbelievable! Just a year ago I was playing for UNB and now here I am signing an NHL contract. This is a true testament to hard work paying off, and never giving up.” “It’s very exciting for our program here at UNB to have one of our former players have this special opportunity. Darryl has really dedicated himself in the past two years to going ‘the extra mile’ in his preparation and physical development with Ken Seaman (fitness and strength trainer) and it is certainly paying off for him in a big way,” commented UNB Head Coach Gardiner MacDougall. With the Maple Leafs in danger of missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season, personnel moves are anticipated for the team. While trades are an option, the team could also look to improve from within. As such, Boyce finds himself in an excellent position to see some action with the big club before the end of the season. “There are a number of players with the Marlies who are getting better as pros. The good part is, they’re doing it over time and not just for a two-week blip. We’ve already seen Staffan Kronwall and Jiri Tlusty up, we’re getting some quality ice time from players such as Alex Foster, Robbie Earl, David Ling, Derrick Walser, Darryl Boyce, Ben Ondrus, and Jaime Sifers,” commented Maple Leafs General Manager John Ferguson. “In his first year of professional hockey, Darryl has stepped right in and proven to be a versatile and important contributor to the success of the Toronto Marlies in the first half of the season,” added Ferguson.
Strike leaves students in the cold by Lauren Kennedy
On Monday night, as The Brunswickan was going to press, STU’s faculty association served the adminstration with notice that they would be on strike as of midnight, Tuesday. The faculty had been in a legal strike position as of Monday afternoon, after a strike vote held over the weekend approved a strike by approximately three-quarters. Lockouts, labour disputes, labour relations situations, whatever you want to call them, they seem to be a trend among Atlantic Canadian universities. Acadia University, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, had its faculty strike in the fall semester of this academic year and students at that university missed about three weeks of classes waiting for results of negotiation talks between the university and its faculty, as well at the University of Prince Edward Island. As recently as December 27, St. Thomas University locked out its own faculty, approximately 120 full-time staff and 70 part-time staff which, according to an article in the Globe and Mail was “the first time a Canadian academic institution has pre-emptively
Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan
On December 27 St.Thomas locked out its faculty and it was the first time that a Canadian academic institution has pre-emptively locked out its academic staff before a strike. locked out its academic staff before a strike.” Despite the arguments of each negotiating team, both for St. Thomas as a university and the faculty association of St. Thomas (FAUST), students seem to be trapped in the middle. One of the first steps in order to prevent any damage to students’ well-being was that the start date for the 2008 winter term was
pushed back from January 3 to the 10 in order to make more time for agreements to be met between both parties. In an email sent out on December 18 by STU Students’ Union President, Colin Banks, he addresses the students potentially being caught in the middle. “The students at this institution are not tools with which to bargain and we have been making it clear to all
players involved that we do not wish to be treated as such. I do not want us to have this issue perpetually hanging over our heads throughout the rest of the semester.” STU President Dr. Michael Higgins has been keeping students as best informed as he can by sending out emails and updating the STU website as each new development happens. In one of
those emails, he addresses the motion for the lockout. “We have not taken this action lightly, we were motivated by the genuine fear that our students would be caught in the middle of this dispute; a fear based on the effects of labour disputes at other universities across the country.”
see Lockout page 2
‘Go Green Challenge’ Sick of Tiffany’s? Why not try by Mitchell Bernard
Do you have a creative idea as to how we can make changes to improve our environment? If so, you can win big bucks for your idea. Toronto Dominion (TD) Bank Friends of the Environment Foundation recently announced a competition open to all undergrad and graduate students from Canadian universities. The TD Friends of the Environment Foundation proudly supports the efforts of Canadians who are dedicated to the well-being of our environment. Since 1990, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation has contributed over $42M in support of more than 16,000 environmental projects in communities across Canada. The competition is called the $100,000 Go Green Challenge. TD is actively soliciting creative, workable plans from Canadian college and university students to promote greener communities and make life more sustainable for our future. They are putting money on the line for students who can come up with original ideas to improve our environment. “The environment is a top priority for Canadians; as a result our future leaders will play a dramatic role in influencing the environmental agenda for Canada’s communities. That’s why we’re asking students to start thinking about the types of green communities they’d like to see today,” said Mike Pedersen,
Group Head Corporate Operations, TD Bank Financial Group, and TD’s environment champion. “This challenge provides a forum for new and fresh thinking on the environment from young people with diverse backgrounds. We’re hoping to foster teamwork and creativity and come up with a few smart ideas along the way.” TD Friends of the Environment Foundation have been active in all Canadian provinces, including New Brunswick. Some of its projects within New Brunswick include Science East, which increases knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm of teachers educating youth in New Brunswick. The TD Friends of the Environment Foundation supported ‘Beach Sweep 2004’. This project helped clean up beaches in St. John and Charlotte counties to help protect the marine environment. As well, they supported a summer youth nature camp program. The program was designed to give young people a chance to explore the world around them. It provided education on New Brunswick’s flora and fauna. Students stayed at a camp to encourage conservation and broad-base sustainable resource use. This in turn allowed the students to appreciate the environment on a wide range of topics. The contest rules are as follows: Each team may consist of three of more students, along with a faculty sponsor. The team must submit an essay, maximum 4,000 words plus supporting documentation, of their ideas. The proposals put forth should address changes we can make to the Canadian community to improve environmental impact. The judges are looking for original ideas from the teams. Your submission should include the following:
see Challenge page 3
your old CPU on for size? A locally-designed jewelry exhibition reuses computer parts for ecologicallyfriendly designs
by Ashley Bursey
It originally started with what Cynthia Ryder calls “a trash pile.” “We’re willing to spend a lot more on a computer now than on a piece of jewelry,” she says. “We use it daily, and value it, and then what happens when it becomes obsolete? It becomes a trash pile that was once worth a couple of thousand bucks.” So Ryder, in conjunction with partner David Ryder, took the idea of trashturned-treasure literally. As a divergence from the usual (the two make exquisite and award-wining jewelry from precious stones and metals), they began to piece together a jewelry collection with a lot of glitz – and a lot of recycling. Their exhibit, ‘Connectivity’, is showing at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre until January 15. “So many of the pieces, such as CPU parts and a lot of the things like edges in the plug-in cards were gold-plated anyway, and we were looking at that side of precious metals,” she explains. “And the value we placed on [computers] when they were new. There’s so much great hardware that comes out of them.” She laughs. “Nuts and bolts and washers.
Andrew Meade / The Brunswickan
Cynthia and David Ryder’s exhibit, “Connectivity”, uses old CPU parts and runs at the Charlotte St. Arts Centre until Jan 15. Oodles of fun hardware.” The two have been creating their handicrafts since 1992, but only delved into baubles in the last five years. This latest exhibition was a challenge, and something Cynthia Ryder had always been interested in exploring. Polymercoated wires give the jewelry color – and a unique look, when sterling steel is everywhere – and the glittery components are taken directly from old PCs. Ranging from pendants, to brooches, to rings and cufflinks, it’s a collection of about 31 pieces – some of which have already been purchased, even though the Ryders didn’t create the line for sale. “We wanted to make people aware
and question the value that we place on our electronics in this day and age, and look at how we now use them as a way to communicate, as something we value,” she says. “Things like the word ‘interface’ entered the language with the computer era. We don’t call somebody up and talk to them anymore. We email them, we instant message them.” She laughs, because when I called her to arrange the interview, I had left only an email address, instead of a phone number. “Just like that,” she agrees. And with recent questions being raised about the ethical concerns sur-
see Jewelry page 9