The Queen's Journal, Volume 154, Issue 7

Queen’s University

THE JOURNAL —

Vol. 154, Issue 7

Off Campus

Belleville synagogue shooting leaves Queen’s community ‘afraid to be Jewish’

Police confirm Yom Kippur shooting was a targeted, hatemotivated attack Emmet Paradis Senior News Editor University

This article may be distressing to some readers. A hate-motivated shooting outside a Belleville synagogue is heightening concerns about safety among Jewish students at Queen’s and members of Kingston’s Jewish community. The shooting took place outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue on Sept. 20 as congregants gathered to observe Yom Kippur, the

University prepares for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with new Orange Shirt design

Alum behind Orange Shirt design said there’s “always more room for collaboration” Emmet Paradis Senior News Editor

Queen’s is centering “community and relationship building” in its approach to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR), which takes place on Sept. 30. According to a statement from

Features

the Queen’s NDTR Working Group, the theme of this year’s programming emphasizes ongoing relationships based on respect, reciprocity, and collaboration. The working group said building relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people requires community members to be present when stories are shared, remain willing to “learn and unlearn,” and consistently uplift Indigenous communities. The focus changes annually. In 2024, Queen’s centred its programming on education and encouraging members of the community to further their own awareness, while the 2025 theme

Queen’s Cupid takes flight to California Page 4 queensjournal.ca

Opinions

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holiest day of the Jewish calendar. A police officer stationed outside the synagogue was shot multiple times after a 29-year-old man arrived armed with a shotgun. The officer and gunman exchanged fire before a second officer arrived and also discharged his firearm, according to Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU). At a Sept. 24 press conference, Belleville Police Chief, Murray Rodd, confirmed police are treating the incident as a targeted, hate-motivated attack against the Jewish community. Police said the gunman told Constable Jeff Smith, “you’re going to die for the Jews,” before firing at him. Smith, a 13-year veteran of the Belleville Police Service, sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his head and body. Police said he continues to recover but is expected to undergo multiple surgeries for serious head trauma. The gunman, identified by police as Sean Ward of Quinte West, was also shot during the exchange and died in hospital the following night. For Hillel Queen’s President, Uriel Pressman-Chikiar, the roughly hour-long distance between Belleville and Kingston has made the attack difficult to see as something happening elsewhere. “I’ve spoken with numerous Jewish students who have been impacted by what happened in Belleville. They’ve told me they’re frightened,” Pressman-Chikiar said in a statement to The Journal. “This feels close to home,” he said. “Hearing students say they’re afraid to be Jewish or take part in Jewish life is painful.”

focused on respectful engagement in reconciliation work and with Indigenous communities. This year’s programming includes the fifth annual Indigenous Art Exhibition at Union Gallery, an educational exhibit in Mackintosh-Corry Hall, the student-led Orange Heart Golden Project at the JDUC, and a Sacred Fire on Agnes Benidickson Field on Sept. 30. The vice-principal’s office said that decisions about which events and initiatives are included in NDTR programming are made by the working group in consultation with the Queen’s community. A new Orange Shirt design is also part of this year’s observance. The Working Group invited local Indigenous artists to submit designs earlier this year, ultimately selecting Rooted Remembrance, by Mazinbii’ige—Kaiya Mongrain, ConEd ’26, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in aquatic ecology at Laurentian University. Mongrain, who is from Bear Island, home of Temagami First

@queensjournal

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Pressman-Chikiar said students he’s spoken with have expressed concerns about their safety since the shooting, including anxiety about gathering in Jewish spaces. “No community should have to worry about their safety when they gather just because of their identity,” he said. For Kingston Jewish Council President, Debbie Fitzerman, the attack was particularly immediate. Fitzerman has attended services at the Sons of Jacob Synagogue and knows members of its congregation. On the evening of the shooting, she was watching a Kol Nidre service online when a friend inside the Belleville synagogue messaged her. “At 7:27 p.m., our shul was shot up. Twenty-three bullet holes. Cop was shot. We are locked down inside,” Fitzerman recalled the message saying in an interview with The Journal. Fitzerman asked if her friend was okay. “She said, ‘No, I feel sick. Cops are inside talking to us now and we can’t leave’,” Fitzerman said. Around two dozen worshippers were inside the synagogue during the attack, but none were physically injured. Gunfire struck the synagogue and surrounding property, according to Kristy Denette, a spokesperson for the SIU. Fitzerman said members of Kingston’s Jewish community have responded with anger, alongside concern for Smith. She said members of a local Jewish women’s group are organizing efforts to bake challah, babka, and fudge for Smith and those supporting him in hospital. “In our culture, our tradition,

Nation, said she learned about the opportunity through a call for artists posted by the Office of Indigenous Initiatives. “I decided to throw my hat in, so to speak, and offered myself and my talent up to the office, and

Arts & Culture

The AI Race Needs a Speed Limit Page 6

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Friday, September 25, 2026

Sydney Sweeney’s ad isn’t “just sports” Page 9

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Situated on the

traditional lands of

the Anishinaabe and

Haudenosaunee peoples.

Since 1873

we want to do things that are positive,” she said. The attack has also renewed conversations about the security required for Jewish religious and community events. Pressman-Chikiar said security has been an ongoing consideration for Hillel Queen’s. “It’s not normal that, on Yom Kippur, synagogues across the province had to be surrounded by police and security,” he said. “And that was before the horrific news of Belleville broke.” Fitzerman said Kingston’s Jewish community has similarly had longstanding discussions about security at public celebrations and synagogue events. “More security, more guards, that separates us from society, that puts us behind ghetto walls,” Fitzerman said. “You’re living in fear. So, you’re not really living.” Principal Patrick Deane also addressed the shooting in an email to the Queen’s community, describing himself as “deeply disturbed” by the attack and acknowledging its proximity to Kingston. “We will continue to support the safety and wellbeing of our community and work together to ensure Queen’s is a place where everyone can practice their faith and express their identity openly and safely,” Deane said. Pressman-Chikiar said he hopes concern for Jewish students continues after attention surrounding the Belleville shooting fades. “This is not a distant headline for Jewish students here,” he said. the working group decided that my art was selected,” Mongrain said in an interview with The Journal. See NDTR on page 2

Postscript

The university experience I watched from my car window Page 11 @thequeensjournal

NEWS

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NEWS NDTR

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Senate opens academic year with OSAP, climate, AI discussions

First meeting introduces Rooted Remembrance depicts a tree emerging from smudge senators to smoke rising from an abalone University’s shell. According to the office of the vice-principal, the imagery rep- highest academic resents cleansing, remembrance, growth, continuity, and the trans- governing body ...Continued from front page

mission of cultural knowledge across generations. Emmet Paradis The statement said the smoke Senior News Editor transforming into branches connects to cultural practice with Senate returned for its first meetmemory, while handprints incor- ing of the academic year, introporated into the design create ducing new members to the movement through the smoke. University’s academic governing Shirts were sold in the Queen’s body before turning to discusCentre Atrium from Sept. 22-24, sions on student financial aid, with another sale planned for climate action, AI, and academic the 29th. Shirts will also be programming. sold at Agnes Benidickson Field Senate met on Sept. 24 at 2:30 before the Sacred Fire on Sept. p.m. in Robert Sutherland Hall, 30. Proceeds will be donated to with senators also able to parthe First Nations Child & Family ticipate online. Caring Society. The meeting began with Mongrain described Sept. 30 Principal Patrick Deane welas a day for both reflection and coming senators and recognizing remembrance. the passing of Professor Emerita “Do your own research. Do Karen Dubinsky and third-year your own in-depth look at the environmental studies student histories and listen to a lot of the Samuel Lowe with a moment of Indigenous Peoples and survivors,” silence. she said. University Secretary Rebecca Asked what meaningful recon- Coupland then gave senators an ciliation from a university should overview of Senate and its place look like, Mongrain pointed to within Queen’s governance keeping a relationship with structure. Indigenous students and the Queen’s operates under a broader Indigenous community. tricameral governance system “Personally, I believe that there’s consisting of Senate, the Board of always more room for collabora- Trustees, and University Council. tion and the strengthening of Senate is the highest academic those relationships,” she said. governing body, while the Board Mongrain pointed to Queen’s oversees its business affairs. commissioning Indigenous artists University Council serves as an and connecting with the broader community as examples of relationship building, but said those relationships need to be strengthened over time. Emmet Paradis She said Queen’s has “come Senior News Editor a good way,” while adding there remains more the University could Nathan Kashira, Sci ’30, grew do to connect with the broader up in Kingston taking photos and local Indigenous community. videos. Now, the hobby he turned “Making sure that the support into a business is helping shape is very much met and main- what he hopes to study at Queen’s. tained, I think is really imporKashira is the sole 2026 tant,” Mongrain said. “Especially Loran Scholar to choose Queen’s if they want to foster a space for University. The sought-after Indigenous students to feel com- award receives roughly 5,000 fortable, especially on campus.” applicants each year, selecting only 36 students. Loran

advisory and ambassadorial role. through a shorter, condensed governing large language models Senate’s responsibilities have route. (LLMs) in teaching and learning. expanded since Queen’s was The Major Modification: Vice-Provost (Teaching and established in 1841. Executive Master of Business Learning) Gavan Watson said the Today, it determines academic Administration (EMBA), was also principles were developed folmatters affecting the University approved, effective August 2027. lowing consultations with every as a whole, including approving The program will streamline its faculty board, Queen’s University new academic programs and core courses, expand elected Library, and Student Affairs. units, academic policies, degrees, options, and reduce the number Watson described LLMs as and research plans. of required units from 60 to 52.5. systems that generate text by Senate approved the Major predicting likely patterns in large Principal’s report Modification: Bachelor of Health amounts of existing language. He Sciences (General) program, said the University chose the term D e a n e d e l i v e r e d h i s effective Jan. 1, 2027. “large language models,” rather Principal’s Report, describing The change will allow students than AI to describe the technolthe University’s financial out- in the General Bachelor of Health ogy more specifically. look as more positive following Sciences program to receive a Instead of establishing one the Ontario governments post- “with professional internship” University-wide rule determinsecondary funding announce- designation on their degree after ing when students are allowed ment in February, while raising completing a QUIP. to use tools such as ChatGPT, the concerns about the changes to Senators also approved a draft is intended to guide faculties, the Ontario Student Assistance New Graduate Diploma in Health programs, and instructors as they Program (OSAP). Ecosystem Leadership and decide how LLMs should be incorDeane said the University is Innovation through the Faculty porated into teaching. looking at additional ways to of Health Sciences, effective Jan. 1. One proposed principle support students affected by the A change to the University’s would require programs to changes and identified fundrais- Academic Accommodations for identify disciplinary skills ing for student financial aid as a Students with Disabilities Policy students should develop and priority. was also approved, creating a demonstrate, while another “It remains critically important dispute resolution process for would call for some assessments that access to the University be as students whose accommodation to be protected from LLM use to free as possible for students who requests can’t be satisfactorily provide direct evidence of stuhave the qualifications, regard- resolved through the existing dent learning. less of their financial situation,” process. The change took effect The approach wouldn’t ban Deane said. immediately. LLMs across courses. Instead, it The dispute process was devel- would distinguish between situaSenate approves program oped following a 2024 review tions where the technology could & accommodation changes of academic accommodation form part of learning and those and was identified as a priority where students need to demonSenate also approved the by the University’s Academic strate their own knowledge or Major Modification: Bachelor of Accommodation Interim Working abilities. Education (BEd) and Diploma in Group. Watson emphasized the docEducation (DEd), effective May ument remains a draft and will 1, 2027. Large language models return to Senate for eventual The changes include a pathway endorsement. allowing current education stuThe longest discussion cenThe meeting concluded at 5:27 dents to complete their program tred on a draft set of principles p.m.

Kingston student begins at Queen’s as 2026 Loran Scholar

Nathan Kashira.

Scholars receive $100,000 to written applications, video and fund their university education virtual interviews, and five final and activities. interviews in Toronto. He said the program appealed Kashira said he was driving to him because he hasn’t settled home with his brother when he on a single discipline. received a phone call from the “I feel like I’m one of those peo- Loran Scholars Foundation telling ple that likes to try a whole bunch him he had been selected. of new things,” Kashira said in an “My heart sank. I thought it interview with The Journal. was really bad news,” he said. The Kingston Secondary “Honestly I didn’t believe it for the School (KSS) graduate received first week or so after getting it.” the Loran Award following a Kashira said the award covselection process involving ers his tuition, residence, student fees, and living expenses throughout his undergraduate degree. For now, he is leaning toward electrical or computer engineering, where he hopes he could eventually combine the technical side of engineering with the creativity behind his photography. “Maybe engineering new drones and cameras or things like that, or something that kind of combines both together would be really cool,” he said. Kashira credits his community involvement and the photography business he started as a teenager as factors that helped him through the scholarship’s selection process. Through Impact Church in Kingston, he has volunteered with outreach initiatives providing school supplies and food to local families. He said he has led teams involved in a back-toPHOTO SUPPLIED BY NATHAN KASHIRA school program and a winter food

hamper initiative. He also volunteered with Relay for Life, helped raise money for equipment in his high school cafeteria, and played football at KSS, where he said mentoring younger players became an important part of his experience. Alongside his volunteer work, Kashira started Sky Shot Kingston, a photography business that grew out of an interest he developed as a child. “I used to do these mini vlogs when I was a kid, just on my mom’s phone or on one of those crusty old camcorders,” he said. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, Kashira decided to turn the interest into something more. He and his brother held a car wash to raise enough money to buy his first drone. He later bought a camera and began building his business. Kashira said those early projects helped him build connections that eventually led to work with organizations including the City of Kingston, Procter & Gamble, and Taggart Construction. He now photographs events for the City, including this year’s Kingston Intercultural Arts Festival. Staying in Kingston was one reason Kashira chose Queen’s, allowing him to continue operating the business while completing his degree.

NEWS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

QUEENSJOURNAL.CA • 3

A students guide to Kingston’s municipal election Eligible Queen’s students can cast a ballot in Kingston’s 2026 municipal election Rachel Wu Assistant News Editor

post-secondary education is shaped by the city you live in,” Racheal Reddy, AMS commissioner of external affairs, said in an interview with The Journal. Reddy said students should recognize that their voices matter in municipal decisions, particularly on issues that directly affect them including housing, transit, local services, and infrastructure. From checking eligibility to finding a polling location, here’s what Queen’s students need to know about voting in the municipal election.

The City of Kingston’s municipal elections are set to take place on Oct. 26, and many students are eligible to vote even if Kingston is not their permanent home. Voters will elect Kingston’s Check voting eligibility mayor, district councillors, and school board trustees. To be eligible to vote, students Post-secondary students liv- must be Canadian citizens, be at ing away from home may be eli- least 18 years old, have a valid gible to vote in two municipalities, piece of government ID, and live according to the Ontario govern- in the city. ments website. Students may also qualify if A special provision allows they, or their spouse, owns or students who consider another rents property in Kingston. municipality their permanent Students living in residence home, and intend to return there, can vote and find proof of their are permitted to vote both in their Kingston address through the hometown and Kingston. Housing and Ancillary services “Regardless of if you’re here portal. for a year or five years, your Students on internships,

exchange, or temporary leave who no longer have a Kingston address are not eligible to vote, even if they plan to return to Queen’s. Those who still have a Kingston address while away are eligible.

Register to vote

Students should first use the City’s online voter service tool to check whether they’re already on Kingston’s voter’s list. The same voting service will be used to register for the elections by filling out an online form, open until Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. Students can also register inperson at the elections office at Kingston City Hall, Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or at their voting location on election day by bringing governmentissued identification and proof of their Kingston address. Proof of Kingston address includes utility bills, post-secondary transcripts, or documents showing campus residence. In a statement to The Journal, Derek Ojech, deputy city clerk for the City of Kingston, said voter

Ontario proposes residency priority for medical graduates who studied abroad

Ford government proposal would prioritize international medical graduates with ties to Ontario Lilly Meechan Multimedia Editor

On April 17, the Ford government announced legislative changes regarding who medical residencies are prioritized for. According to the announcement, the provincial government intends to prioritize residency spots for Ontario students who attended medical school abroad to “protect Ontario’s health care workforce.” The proposed changes are intended to make it easier for Ontario students who study medicine abroad to return to Canada and build a career in the province, according to the Ford government. Under the framework, an Ontario International Medical Graduate (IMG) would include someone who either attended an Ontario secondary school for at least two years, attended an Ontario university full-time and in-person for at least two years, or lived continuously in the province for 24 continuous weeks during a prescribed period beginning the year before the

application. The announcement builds on the Ford government’s efforts to increasingly educate, train, and eventually hire medical students from within the province. In October 2024, the Ford government announced Ontario medical schools would be required to reserve at least 95 per cent of undergraduate medical school seats for Ontario residents, with the remaining five per cent reserved for students from elsewhere in Canada. The changes took effect July 1, 2025. As of its most recent class, Queen’s School of Medicine is an entirely Canadian student body. In a statement to The Journal, the University confirmed that 95 per cent of current Doctor of Medicine (MD) students are from Ontario, while the remaining five per cent were admitted from other provinces. “Queen’s University does not admit international students to the MD program,” the University wrote. According to Queen’s, the MD program received over 5,000 applications for the Class of 2030. Of those applicants, 772 were interviewed for 136 available seats, a decrease from the 142 students enrolled in 2025. A l t h o u gh i n te r n a t i o n a l students typically pay higher tuition fees than domestic students, the University maintained that “international tuition revenue does not meaningfully affect the medical school’s budget.” While the 2024 announcement focused on admissions to Ontario medical schools, the

registration remains open after a n d Vo c a t i o n a l I n s t i t u t e , Sept. 15, up until the final day of Williamsville votes can be cast voting. at the Memorial Centre for, Those who registered before and Sydenham votes can be the 15th were sent a Voter cast at the Winston Churchill Information Letter by mail, which Public School. is necessary to vote online. The letter is not required for in-perGet to know the son voting, but registration is. candidates

Voting options

Students can vote for mayor, their district councillor, and an Online voting opens Oct. 14 eligible school board trustee. at 10 a.m. and remains available In two of the districts comuntil 8 p.m. on Oct. 26. monly home to Queen’s students, Students who want to vote the councillor races have already early can also cast their ballot in- been decided by acclamation. person on Oct. 16 and 17 from 10. Don Amos was acclaimed in Advance voting locations can Portsmouth, while Vincent Cianni be found through the City’s online was acclaimed in Williamsville. voter service or in their Voter Four candidates are running in Information Letter. Sydenham and three are running Olympic Harbour is the in King’s Town. advance voting location for the “We want [the students] to vote Portsmouth District, Calvin Park based on what they prioritize and Library is the location for the what they value in terms of goverWilliamsville District, and Central nance and policy,” Reddy said. “By Library is the location for the being informed and by voting Sydenham District. in the election, they’re able to For those who want to vote have a voice and have a say in in-person on the day of the elec- who shapes that post-secondary tion, Portsmouth votes can be experience” cast at the Loyalist Collegiate

New AMS grant awards up to $5,000 for student-led projects

Rachel Wu Assistant News Editor

The AMS is giving undergraduate students a new way to fund ideas aimed at improving the Queen’s community through its Student government’s 2026 announce- Innovation Grant. ment introduced changes to postAccording to the AMS website, graduate residency admission. the grant launched on Sept. 15 It prioritizes international medi- and awards students between cal graduates with ties to Ontario. $100 and $5,000 for studentMedical residency posi- led projects that address one or t i o n s a re c u r re n t ly f i l l e d more of the listed areas, includthrough the Canadian Resident ing affordability, engagement and Matching Service (CaRMS), accountability. a two-round process that Applications are open to indim a t c h e s C a n a d i a n a n d vidual AMS members or clubs and international medical graduates will be accepted until Jan. 15. with postgraduate training proIn an interview with The grams across the country. Journal, AMS President Dreyden According to an Ontario gov- George said the grant is intended ernment brief, IMGs filled 492 of to give students more direct Ontario’s 1,464 residency posi- opportunities to build projects tions in 2025, with nearly 20 outside the AMS’s existing serper cent of first-round positions vices and commissions. dedicated to IMGs. “The purpose of the grant is to Under the proposed changes, essentially allow ideas from stugraduates of Ontario medi- dents to try to innovate around cal schools would retain their campus life and the student expefirst-round priority, while a rience, particularly through three dedicated stream would be lenses,” George said, referring to reserved for Ontario students the three priority areas. who completed their medical Under affordability, students education abroad. could propose projects addressThe proposal wouldn’t change ing issues like housing or food the existing five-year return-of- security, financial development, or service requirement for IMGs, energy consumption. Engagement which requires them to practise projects could include research in an underserved Ontario com- on student issues, community munity after completing resi- space development, harm reducdency. The province also says tion programming, or new engagmore than 270 postgraduate ing events. Accountability projects residency positions will be added could focus on civic engagement, by 2028-29. student representation, gover“Where provincial regula- nance, sustainability, or advocacy. tions affect the candidacy George said the categories are of prospective learners, for intentionally broad. example the prioritization of “It can be quite flexible,” George IMGs, the CaRMS matching ser- said. “We’re trying to be holistic in vice makes the corresponding the lens of what we’re looking at.” adjustments to the application The Student Innovation Grant and matching process,” Queen’s does not have a fixed funding pool wrote.

established through student fees. The grant is funded through revenue generated by the AMS’s partnership with CIBC. Under the agreement, the AMS receives a commission when students sign up for eligible CIBC accounts using an AMS referral code. “[It’s] not necessarily like this is coming from a student fee or student fee dollars,” George said. Because the revenue depends on commissions generated through the partnership, there isn’t a fixed amount available for the grant over the year. George said the AMS can support individual requests of up to $5,000, but the overall amount available will depend on how much revenue the partnership generates. If available funding begins to run out, the AMS will direct students toward other available grants. To ensure funding is used as approved, successful applicants must provide regular progress updates to the AMS, according to George. Before receiving funding, students must also confirm a project timeline, reporting schedule, and funding expectations through a Project Commitment Agreement. Updates may be required every two or three months so the AMS can track project progress. While the grant offers clubs another potential source of funding, not all student groups see it as a fit. In an interview with The Journal, Queen’s Kaleidoscope President Richard Feng, HealthSci ’28, said Kaleidoscope will most likely not apply for the Student Innovation Grant. Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca

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FEATURES

FEATURES

Queen’s cupid takes flight to California

Noah Yu’s journey from campus matchmaking to a San Francisco dating startup. Alexandra Gromova Features Editor By May, Noah Yu, Comm ’27, had gone from building a matchmaking project at Queen’s to working for a dating startup in San Francisco. Once there, some of the mystique surrounding the city’s startup world began to disappear. “When I first came here, I didn’t really know. I was like, oh, I wonder what a $100 million founder is like,” Yu said in an interview with The Journal. “And then you realize, bro, he’s just a kid, like all of us.” The path started months earlier. After returning from exchange, Yu began building a matchmaking project for Queen’s students, inspired by a friend’s similar idea that never fully launched. He later reached out to Henry Weng, who had launched Date Drop at Stanford. What began as a campus project would eventually take Yu into San Francisco’s dating-startup world. They realized they shared a similar vision, and Yu joined Date Drop to launch a version at Queen’s. In May, Yu moved to San Francisco to work for the Relationship Company, the company behind Date Drop. After leaving at the end of June, he joined competing dating startup Ditto. Loneliness as a catalyst

Yu arrived at Queen’s after COVID-19 had shaped much of his high school experience. He described himself as a shy kid accustomed to what he called “the COVID kind of life,” with fewer friendships and less of the social experience he associated with high school. In first year, he wanted the opposite. “I started to really seek out these kinds of social interactions and found myself becoming more extroverted,” Yu said. He also noticed how easily students can stay within the social circles of their own faculties. In programs such as Commerce and Engineering, he said, people can “stick within those programs for their friends.” “I definitely wanted to kind of expand my friend horizon and meet all different types of people,” Yu said. His interest in connection was also personal. Being alone had once felt like a safe space, but after COVID-19, too much solitude began to feel less like a refuge.

Noah Yu, Comm ’27, in front of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge

“It got to a point where, yeah, after COVID being the catalyst, kind of like I was like, oh, I don’t know if I can deal with this anymore,” Yu said. He wondered whether other students felt the same. “I think most people don’t even realize that they’re lonely.” At the same time, Yu was figuring out what kind of career he wanted. He entered Commerce interested in technology and entrepreneurship, but was drawn toward finance, investment banking, and consulting because those were the paths he saw around him. “I was definitely following the crowd and not being true to myself,” Yu said. “I did explore finance and consulting, but I just realized I couldn’t fake it.” Yu eventually returned to technology, joining the Queen’s Technology and Media Association, which he described as a tech incubator club within Commerce. For Yu, loneliness, moving away from conventional Commerce career paths, and his eventual experience in San Francisco became connected parts of figuring out what he wanted to build next. Yu doesn’t see ending up in San Francisco as evidence he has everything figured out or is different from everyone else. “If I was doing anything different, I would say it’s just being honest and true to myself.” Experiment to Date Drop

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY NOAH YU

version around January. In early March, he reached out to Weng. Yu initially wanted to learn about what he had built, but their conversations developed into a partnership. “We had this shared kind of vision and goal,” Yu said. Date Drop already had a brand and Stanford launch behind it, while Yu had a campus where he could test the idea. He joined the project and began building and marketing its Queen’s version. The product replaced swiping with a compatibility questionnaire about values and issues that could matter in a relationship, including children, religion, and politics. “We try to match them based on their similarities, but also some of their differences as well,” Yu said. The Queen’s launch came near the end of March, leaving about three weeks before the academic year ended. Yu estimated more than 300 matches were sent out, though the team didn’t track how many led to dates. Promoting the project required Yu to make himself visible in a way its users didn’t have to be. He marketed Date Drop through blind-date videos. “There’s a certain stigma to dating,” Yu said. “If people see this, then I’m going to be known as that guy, or if it fails, then I’ll be known as this guy who tried to start this dating thing at Queen’s.” Yu said the first videos spread quickly around campus without the negative feedback he had feared. But the response that stayed with him came later.

When Yu returned from exchange, many of his friends were still away. He wanted something to build. The quiet users A friend, Keshav Mehndiratta BASc ’27, had created a waitlist After the first matches went for a Queen’s matchmaking plat- out, Yu began speaking with users. form called QRush but never fully He expected many to have launched it. Yu saw its launch signed up “for the plot.” Some video and thought the concept had. But most told him they had was worth pursuing. spent years trying dating apps “I thought, oh, like, this is a cool with little success. idea. Like, let’s see what I can do “They seemed very defeated, about it,” Yu said. and I genuinely felt their concern Yu began building his own and their worry,” Yu said.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 One student told Yu they had used Hinge and Tinder for years but received only a few matches. “I definitely was like, oh damn. I didn’t know these people existed at Queen’s,” Yu said. Those students weren’t necessarily the users most visible online. “The people who actually really need the product, they’re not the ones commenting on a video or the ones reposting,” Yu said. “They’re the ones who are at home who happen to see this and sign up, but they don’t really tell anyone.” Those conversations changed how Yu saw the project. “It kind of made me realize, oh, yeah, I’m actually solving a real problem, helping these people.”

by an app, he said. “I think most people would want to tell a story of how they met against all odds, or it was meant to be”. For that reason, Yu said the most successful “dating app” may actually be a social platform such as Instagram, where people can meet without defining their first interaction as a date. That points to a broader contradiction. Yu believes technology has contributed to modern loneliness. Texting and phone calls can keep people connected, while constant phone use and social media can substitute for in-person connection. “I definitely think the root cause of the increased human loneliness is because of The San Francisco era technology.” Using technology to address a Yu moved to San Francisco problem he believes technology in May to continue working on helped create leaves him unsure Date Drop with the Relationship where that cycle ends. Company, on a team of roughly “Dang, it’s kind of mind-bogfive people. gling,” Yu said. “Can the root There, the distance he had cause of this problem also be once felt from founders and start- the solution?” ups disappeared. Yu is optimistic . “The world was built by people “I hope that’s the case,” Yu said. no smarter than you and me,” Yu “But in terms of what the actual said. outcome will be, I have no idea.” Yu doesn’t think the people he met were inherently different A good place to be lost than students at Queen’s. “I wouldn’t say they’re any Despite having more than more ambitious or anything or 30,000 followers on TikTok, Yu hardworking,” Yu said. “It’s more said he sometimes feels like “the just taking the opportunities that most lost person” and doesn’t they have, or taking that first step understand why people look to to go out there.” him for answers. At Queen’s, Yu said, students His advice to students who feel can see clearer pipelines into behind is not to wait for certainty fields such as finance, while before acting. entrepreneurship and technol“You will never feel ready,” Yu ogy can feel less obvious. said. “The longer that you ponLooking more closely, he found der on that thought, or wait to Queen’s alumni who had taken feel ready, time will just pass you paths he admired. by, and you’ll miss out on a lot of “If you start digging, turns out opportunities.” there are some good people,” Yu Yu used to envy people who said. “So then you go out and seemed to know what they reach out to them and talk to wanted from an early age. Over them.” time, he realized most people are San Francisco also challenged still figuring it out. the idea that reaching the city His father tells him much the would make Yu more certain same thing. about what he wanted, or more “He’s like, hey, I’m a 50-yearfulfilled once he got there. old man, but I still don’t know Yu left the Relationship what I want to do in life,” Yu said. Company at the end of June, say- “He’s like, yeah, but I think life is ing aspects of the team dynamic like this. You’re in pursuit of living had become difficult. He moved to your most fulfilled life.” Ditto, a competitor with a similar “You can never be absolutely mission, hoping a different work fulfilled,” Yu said. “So then you environment would offer some of keep on trying new things and what he felt was missing. discovering new things and disSome aspects improved at covering yourself.” Ditto, but his broader dissatisThis fall, while his classmates faction remained. returned to Queen’s, Yu stayed in “I don’t really feel as fulfilled as California a little longer. I thought I would feel,” Yu said. “I “I low-key miss Kingston,” Yu think that stems from just work- said. “I just miss being a student, ing for someone else’s vision and you know?” someone else’s ambitions and He plans to return to Kingston their problems that they want after Reading Week. to solve.” Yu said he no longer sees not By September, Yu was less cer- knowing what comes next as a tain that dating was the problem problem. he ultimately wanted to spend his “Don’t be worried if you don’t time solving. know what you want to do. I “I think I want to try a different would say that is very normal,” space,” Yu said. Yu said. “That is a very good place to be.” The technology paradox Working in dating startups made Yu skeptical that any dating app has fully solved the problem it promises to address. People often want falling in love to feel accidental, natural, or fated rather than calculated

5 • QUEENSJOURNAL.CA

EDITORIALS

EDITORIALS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

The Journal’s Perspective

When most people discover new music through quick clips and never bother to listen to the full song, it warps what audiences look for in a track, driving a flood of formulaic, mass-produced audio made strictly for online trends rather than meaningful listening experiences. This digital shift and its training of audiences have helped accelerate the rapid growth of artificial intelligence in the industry. TikTok has become a primary launchpad for AI tracks, making it easy for computergenerated music to go viral just like a real person’s hard work. Because the app trains people to digest sound in quick chunks, blind and uncritical listeners easily accept robot audio. Thousands of songs are generated every day, stealing profits from real artists by using bots to stream fake tracks — such as the AI bot IngaRose, whose song was used on TikTok over 300,000 times — normalising a world where synthetic audio takes off just as easily as genuine human effort. Put it all together and you get a total shift in music culture, a decline in creativity and originality. With AI on the rise in the industry as a product of this environment, focus your attention on real creative minds on the platform, not the robots. It’s interesting to see how music will continue to develop, but let’s not forget: we’ve lost our originality, and TikTok is to blame.

Music has fallen victim to short-form content, and the perpetrator is TikTok Eve Linden Assistant Photo Editor TikTok has ruined the music industry and modern music. Through constant algorithmic promotion, a quick 15-second clip of a song or a designated “trending sound” is forcefully pushed to the masses, radically changing how music is made and consumed by millions of people every single day. Because of this constant algorithmic push and the drive for instant virality, this environment puts immense pressure on modern artists to conform, leading to a noticeable and frustrating lack of artistic depth. Songs are built around instant virality now and that’s exactly what major record labels hope for. Short 10-second snippets can boost a song straight to the charts, while platforms like

Spotify only pay out royalties if listeners stay for longer than 30 seconds. This forces creators to fit the exact mold of the apps where their music is shared, losing some of their core creativity for a potential trending sound. Because creators are forced to chase that mold and prioritize short attention spans, the traditional structure of a song is changing as a direct consequence. Artists now place the catchy hook right at the beginning to grab short attention spans, dropping fundamental elements like long instrumental introductions, bridges, and second verses in favor of loopfriendly, repetitive formats. This shift even impacts formal education: students at places like Berkley are being taught to write “mini songs” before composing full-length tracks. Instead of building a story, music is now engineered to catch our attention in a millisecond. Ultimately, this cycle of engineered, bitesized hits reshapes listeners’ expectations and paves the way for deeper digital shifts.

Punishing students won’t protect them

Controlling street parties is necessary, reprimanding those who attend them is not. From Aug. 28 to Sept. 13, the City of Kingston, Kingston Police, and Queen’s implemented the University District Safety Initiative (UDSI) to curtail “large unsanctioned gatherings.” The UDSI is designed to “encourage safer behaviour,” largely through greater enforcement of fines. Unsanctioned, unmanaged gatherings, especially large street parties, are inherently dangerous. Combine that with excessive drinking and there is a real risk posed to students; many of whom still underestimate how dangerous alcohol can be. Street parties in prior years have seen cars flipped and houses wrecked. They also take place in neighbourhoods where families live, and limiting the chaos keeps them safe too. The idea of protecting students and the community around them is not irrational, and measures like these may well prevent some serious incidents. Protection is important; however, it should not be accomplished through punishment. But punishment is exactly what the UDSI is designed to accomplish. Fining students for street parties is an overreaction at best and drastic overkill at worst. With the party culture at Queen’s, fines won’t be enough to discourage drinking. Sixty-eight students were fined during Labour Day weekend, totalling $2,600, compared to the estimated 7,000 who attended.

. The fines resemble a humiliation ritual rather than a legitimate concern for students. Granted, the days of the extremely chaotic celebrations have seemingly been left in the past at Queen’s, given the downward trend of fines in recent years, and that could be partially attributed to the UDSI. However, it certainly hasn’t been entirely successful in deterring the party culture at Queen’s. Yet deterring that culture does seem to be the goal. As done in previous years, the University has scheduled homecoming to coincide with the weekend that students are typically home for fall reading week. The sentiment among students is this has been done in an effort to curb homecoming partying, but it impacts other groups as well. Alumni have expressed their dissatisfaction, travelling back to campus only to find a student-less city, and as future alumni ourselves, we shouldn’t accept it either. Despite the fact that drinking and unsanctioned nuisance parties are often framed as the primary threat to student safety, it’s not a very compelling argument. Drug overdoses in Kingston, for example, have risen dramatically in recent years. That is

not to say that Queen’s students are the group most at-risk, but if there’s a sudden push to ensure the safety of students, it would stand to reason that should extend to stronger education towards recreational narcotics, not only drinking. . And yet, virtually no

university-run programs combatting the use of drugs and alcohol are established in conjunction with the USDI. If safety is the goal, there are potentially more impactful efforts, and more efficient solutions. The UDSI has the right idea and the wrong application. There’s no need to further degrade the social culture of Queen’s, one of the truly unique characteristics of this University, simply to levy a punitive punishment on students. — Journal Editorial Board

THE QUEEN’S JOURNAL Volume 154, Issue 7 Publishing Since 1873

Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Reilly Managing Editor Eva Sheahan News Editor Emmet Paradis Assistant News Editor Lola Hustins Kavina Sathiyanarayana Rachel Wu Production Manager Jordan Medulan Features Editor Alexandra Gromova Editorials Editor Taylor Fountain Editorials Illustrator Anna Van Raalte Sophie Campbell Opinions Editor Arts & Culture Editor Chloe Nunes Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Mayah Ricketts Samuel Shaffer Julia Ludden Postscript Editor Business, Science, & Technology Editor Murray Halpin Uroosa Imtiaz Sports Editor Noah Cyr Assistant Sports Editor Malek Benemeur Jacksen MacLean Multimedia Editor Lilly Meechan Assistant Multimedia Editor Drew Gabrielle Cuencaho Claire Bak Photo Editor Assistant Photo Editor Eve Linden Copy Editor Elizabeth Poidevin Ananya Sharma Jaimeson Terada Angelina Liu Graphics Editor QTBIPOC Advisory Board Member Merab Ali Daniel Gill-Sitoski Rohaan Malik

Business Staff Business Manager Jacob Kranjac Sales Representative Kate Wong Fundraising Representative Sophia Varga

Want to contribute?

For information visit: www.queensjournal.ca/contribute or email the Editor in Chief at eic@queensjournal.ca

Contributions from all members of the Queen’s and Kingston community are welcome. The Journal reserves the right to edit all submissions. The Queen’s Journal is an editorially autonomous newspaper published by the Alma Mater Society of Queen’s University, Kingston.

Situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The Journal’s Editorial Board acknowledges the traditional territories our newspaper is situated on have allowed us to pursue our mandate. We recognize our responsibility to understand the truth of our history.

Editorial opinions expressed in The Journal are the sole responsibility of The Queen’s Journal Editorial Board, and are not necessarily those of the University, the AMS or their officers. Queen’s Centre, 3rd Floor, Rooms A620/A616 284 Earl St, Kingston, ON, K7L 3P4 Email: eic@queensjournal.ca

Please address complaints and grievances to the Editor in Chief and/or Managing Editor. The Queen’s Journal is printed at KT Web Printing Inc. in Toronto, Ontario. Contents © 2026 by The Queen’s Journal; all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of The Queen’s Journal. @queensjournalnow @queensjournal @queensjournal @queensjournal www.queensjournal.ca thequeensjournal

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA VAN RAALTE

@Queen’s Journal

OPINIONS

6 • QUEENSJOURNAL.CA

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

OPINIONS The AI race needs a speed limit

Your Perspective

The perils of AI, once imagined for the future, are quickly becoming threats of the present

rectors Practical considerations for hypothetical candidates Niki Boytchuk-Hale Staff Writer

Abby Horlick Contributor

AI has become so commonp l a c e t h a t we a re fa i l i n g to recognize its potential as a threat to humanity. That warning would be concerning enough coming from outside the industry; however, it’s harder to dismiss when it comes from the people responsible for building the world’s most advanced AI systems. Many of the top researchers inside OpenAI and Anthropic have called for an urgent slowdown in response to realizations that AI may no longer be entirely within human control. The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, recently voiced a call to slow down the pace at which they improve their AI models, warning that an AI swarm could become capable of taking over the entire internet within the next year. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Elon Musk have publicly endorsed their support of this action. One of the clearest examples of why we need to consider the pace of AI development happened this summer. A rogue AI incident has been described as the biggest "vibe shift" in the industry since the release of ChatGPT, forcing the industry to confront how unpredictably AI systems can behave. In July, OpenAI conducted an evaluation run of over 1,000 research AIs, meant to be running independently of one another. To keep them separate, the AI systems were placed into containers: isolated digital environments that allow them to operate and prevent interactions with one another or with the outside internet. What ensued was a cross-collaboration of these AI systems, with swarms of AIs colluding in secret and covering their tracks. Quickly after escaping their containers, the AIs launched a cyberattack against the company Hugging Face, a community platform used to build and test machine learning. In response to this attack, Hugging Face quickly reported the crime to the FBI. T h i s i n c i d e n t wa s p a r ticularly perilous because the AIs were being evaluated on tasks, and in attempting to complete those tasks, they

An open word to would-be

Abby examines the race for artifical intelligence.

discovered ways around the restrictions placed on them. The collusion between AI agents revealed that informat i o n c o u l d b e s h a re d n o t only with one another but also could chain multiple vulnerabilities to expand their access. In response to the Hugging Face incident, Amodei wrote that merely discussing these incursions was not sufficient. As the technology advances, developers say the prospect of AI teaching itself autonomously appears closer than ever. Recursive self-improvement, or RSI, is the risk we are approaching, in which AI models find ways to i m p r o ve t h e m s e lve s a n d build their successor. While tech companies say it could bring the promise of scientific and medical advancements, it is equally a risk to humans. I f A I s ys te m s ex p o n e n tially contribute to the development of their next generation, they could eventually participate in a feedback loop where more sophisticated AI helps build even more sophisticated AI, subsequently building something more capable. This sort of hypothetical rapid acceleration of RSI is often termed a “takeoff scenario,” potentially leading to humans being removed from the top of the intelligence “food chain.” Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian researcher whose work helped pioneer the study of AI and who received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, now warns that advanced AI systems may eventually become too intelligent for humans to outsmart. Hinton is widely regarded as the “godfather of AI,” so in a tech sector full of fear and anxiety, this is not just another forecast. AI strategists and company directors should heed this warning and pay it the attention that it deserves. We are actively watching

AI systems discover strategies that diverge from what their developers asked of them, operating beyond the boundaries of what they were intended to do. The question now becomes what happens when those ever-improving capabilities become significantly more advanced, and humans cannot keep up the pace. In September 2026, an AI research scientist, Jacob Coxon, re s i g n e d f ro m A n t h ro p i c , warning that Anthropic and OpenAI were gambling with our lives. On X, he warned the public not to underestimate the power of this technology. Coxon argued that AI companies were racing straight to self-improving superintelligence. Anthropic’s lead for alignment science, Evan Hubinger, quickly responded in light of Coxon’s expressions: “Jacob is correct here – we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!” he wrote. “I personally think it is >10% within the next decade.” While these are predictions and not established facts, they are assessments from the most qualified people in this industry, with many of these concerns echoed from an array of professionals in the field. If even a fraction of these concerns are justified, the consequences of discovering we’ve developed AI too quickly could be irreversible. T h e re a re a l s o e q u a l ly probable risks that do not require hypothetical superintelligence to become serious. Anthropic recently reported attempts to use its AI models for cyber operations, surveillance, fraud, and biological weapons-related research. While stress is building upon the developers of AI to hit the brakes, there is also great incentive to keep moving. The Trump administration has taken the stance

Someone will become the 40th rector of Queen’s in seven months. Before that, there are some daunting steps: deciding to run, leading a campaign, and earning the confidence of the student body. The first step is the most important. You shouldn’t waste your time, or student's time, running a campaign unless you are explicitly in it for the right reasons. There is no single motive or ideal student profile needed to be qualified for putting your name PHOTO BY CLAIRE BAK forward, as evidenced by the many that impeding the develop- unique student leaders to m e n t o f A I i n t h e U n i te d have held the role thus far. States directly correlates to My background is in fine arts the benefit of their chief adver- and education, while others sary, China, the world’s second have been from law, biology, l a r g e s t e c o n o my. D o n a l d political studies, math, sociology, Trump himself, one of the and engineering. We also all had few leaders who can make a our own unique reasons and expechange to protect our futures riences that led us to the role. in an AI slowdown, has publicly H u m b ly, I s a y t h a t t h e regarded these warnings as a unwritten necessities for anymere “hoax.” one on the rector ballot is a It is not enough for the U.S. predominant hope for our alone to regulate AI, though school, an ever-deepening capacit is extraordinarily alarming ity to listen, and an unwavering when the response to war- commitment to show up for whon i n g s f ro m A I c o m p a n i e s ever is in need. themselves is met with There are certainly tangible punishment from the U.S. skills needed — such as commugovernment. Anthropic has nication, confidence, organizaexperienced such treatment, tion, judgement, and credibility getting blacklisted by the — but hope, listening, and devoDepartment of Defense this tion must be felt. In other words, y e a r a f t e r r e f u s i n g t o it’s much less likely that the re m ove s a fe t y g u a rd ra i l s student body will be able to on its Claude AI model that discern, see concreate evidence blocked its use in fully autono- of, or feel confident in your mous weapons and domestic authenticity to serve merely from mass surveillance. a campaign, or debate. For students, the decisions While nothing will fully prebeing made now, whether by pare you for the metaphorical our neighboring country’s weight of this office, you will be government or through AI com- positioned well if you can verify panies themselves, will shape the following. the world that we are graduating into. AI serves as a consOn hope tant reminder of the change that we face in job security, the Student governments — the conduction of scientific research, AMS and SGPS — work from the and how information is utilized. outside-in and are accountable The question of pace on AI deve- to their structures. The rector’s lopment is not simply a Silicon office is baked into the university; Valley debate. It is a question the work starts from the insideabout our future. out. Both are vital. Right now, we have something What it means is rectors incredibly valuable that will have a duty to the institution. not be appreciated until it is This is not to be confused with gone: a warning period. The blind support and naiveté of H u g g i n g Fa c e i n c i d e n t i s our real faults. But being rector just one example that reveals means you must carry a fiery how the behavior of AI systems hope deep within your belly that is moving out of human control. believes the university can do betWe still have the oppor- ter, and importantly, that you want tunity to learn from those to be a part of it. warnings before the future worst-case scenarios become our reality. Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca Abby Horlick is a second-year Life Sciences and Biochemistry student.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

BUSINESS, SCIENCE, & TECHNOLOGY

<BIZ-SCI-TECH>

Campus radio crisis threatens to make CFRC’s 104th year one of its last

QUEENSJOURNAL.CA • 7

How a “Super El Niño” will impact Eastern Ontario

Ice storm due to freezing rains in March 2025.

A milder winter, more rainfall, and record temperatures on the horizon CFRC can be found in Carruthers Hall or on the airwaves at 101.9 FM.

As campus radio stations across Canada continue to go dark, Queen’s historic station fights Murray Halpin Business, Science, and Technology Editor CFRC 101.9 FM has survived two world wars, the rise of television, the internet, and a global pandemic. Last fall, it just barely survived a student referendum. Campus radio in Canada has been in crisis: the University of Ottawa’s CHUO 89.1 FM went off air permanently in March 2026 after losing the fight to keep its student fee levy while also facing an increase in rental costs for its studio, Memorial University of Newfoundland lost funding after the student union voted against it, and Fanshawe College’s station closed shortly after. All three cases happened in a matter of months earlier this year. The threat is being felt all over Canada. Optional student fees, rapidly falling radio engagement, and institutions unwilling to subsidize these stations are all contributing to increased pressure on campus radio stations. Queen’s 104-year-old campus radio station, CFRC 101.9 FM, knows exactly how nervewracking this can feel. Last fall, the stations optional AMS student fee renewal passed with just over 52 per cent of the vote. This tight win secured the station the $8.22 optional student fee through fall 2028. Dinah Jansen, CFRC’s executive director, was direct when asked about what a failed vote would have meant for the station.

“We would only have about six months in accessible cash flow,” she said in a statement provided to The Journal. “That would not be enough to get us through to a full year cycle when we would again be able to attempt to establish a new optional fee.” The fee renewal bought time; however, the core issue remains the same. Advertising and sponsorships only brought in 3.2 per cent of the station’s operational budget. Podcasting, despite being a growing network that includes Campus Beat and The Corridor on Apple and Spotify, is not much better. “At this time, we don’t receive much revenue from podcasting,” Jansen wrote. “For the bottom line, we tend to break even when revenue is earned versus actual staff time to undertake the production work.” In other words, what the station makes from podcast production is about equal to what it costs to produce, leaving no meaningful revenue. More than half of all revenue comes from project-specific grants, the largest being the federal Local Journalism initiative which funds the station’s news team. However, the flexibility for the use of grant funds are extremely low, with most grants legally required to be used solely for the specific purpose outlined in the agreement. “Grant revenue does not pay for operations including core staff, equipment, maintenance, royalties, insurance, and audit fees,” Jansen stated. What is left is the student levy. However, this fee is optional, subject to referendum every three years, and is becoming increasingly difficult to pass. “The threat of losing a student fee due to a failed referendum looms large for us,” Jansen stated. “Especially where students may

PHOTO BY CLAIRE BAK

not realize that voting yes for an optional fee at Queen’s does not obligate the student to actually opt in.” CFRC is exploring all possible routes to ensure future survival. The station upgraded its studios and is now renting them out for revenue. It has launched paid skills workshops in DJing and audio production, which are free for students and fee-based for the surrounding Kingston community. They expanded their DJ services, offering two nightclub level DJ boards, and are building social media packages to attract new clients. The station does has a unique aspect to it, which differentiates it from other campus radios that have already closed. Unlike CHUO or CHMR, CFRC operates as an entirely independent non-profit separate from Queen’s University or any student government, which gives them much more control over their spending and operational decisions. Jansen is focused on preparing for the long term, rather than surviving month to month. “Endowment funding has also arisen in our conversations,” she said, “but this is a much bigger endeavor as it would require a significant financial investment from the station, plus buy-in from donors able to make major gifts”. This method would mean creating a large pool of money that is invested permanently. The station would then spend only the return on investment, while the principal generates income forever. In the ’70s, students tuned into CFRC on portable radios to catch a late-night rock show from their houses and residences. Now, the station can be accessed from anywhere in the world yet is in more stressful times than ever.

Uroosa imtiaz Business, Science, and Technology Editor A ‘super El Niño,’ is causing this fall semester’s forecast to look different than usual. El Niño is a natural climate event where weakening easterly trade winds and higher than average ocean temperatures allow warm surface water to spread across the tropical Pacific, disrupting weather patterns worldwide. This year’s El Niño is already on track to be the largest ever. Breaking a sea surface temperature record months before its peak, it’s likely to push global temperatures to a new high in 2027. “El-Niño Southern Oscillations or ENSO [are] a natural part of the climate system,” said Christian Seiler, a climate modelling researcher at Queen’s, in an interview with The Journal. “It’s a natural feature that arises due to dynamic feedback between the ocean and the atmosphere, regardless of anthropogenic climate change,” he said. The El Niño 3.4 region is a rectangular square in the Pacific Ocean, near the coast of South America. “If the sea surface temperature in that region is half a degree warmer than the climatological mean for a longer period, then we have in El Niño event,” Seiler said. The strength of the El Niño depends on the deviation in sea surface temperature from the norm in the region. El Niño is classified as weak when the sea surface temperature anomaly reaches 0.5 C, moderate at 1 C, strong at 1.5 C, and very strong at 2 C. As of Sept 21, this El Niño broke the previous daily surface temperature record from 2015, hitting a 3.08 C above average. Normally, strong trade winds push warm surface water across the Pacific towards Australia and Indonesia, allowing colder water from below to rise near South America. During El Niño, warmer-thanusual water near South America

PHOTO BY NELSON CHEN

weakens these winds, so warm water flows back east and further increases ocean temperatures in a positive feedback loop. The warm surface water then releases its heat into the atmosphere. “The sea surface temperature cools down, and then the trade winds pick up again, and we revert to the normal situation,” Seiler said. El Niño typically occurs every two to seven years and can last up to 18 months, with an average length of nine to 12 months. “ENSO is striking because it is quite a local event, but has global impacts all around the world,” Seiler said. “If you want to understand how temperature varies from year to year, you’re interested in El Niño because that is the major driver of interannual variability.” In Canada, the effect of the El Niño will depend on location. But, expect an extended fall, followed by a milder winter with less snowfall and more rain. The probability of extreme events like ice storms and flooding in Central Canada and Ontario are likely to increase, which can cause infrastructure damage, Seiler added. A study released this week estimated that the El Niño could cause nearly half a million heat-related deaths worldwide between June 2026 and February 2027, primarily in the Global South. Another area of impact is global food security, Seiler said. According to the U.N., the El Niño raises the risks of floods and droughts, which could lead to higher prices and food shortages across the world. As climate change raises the ‘background temperature’ in the Pacific, El Niño events could become more severe and frequent, he said. “Next year, 2027, is [most likely] going to be the warmest year ever recorded because you have this combined effect of El Niño acting on top of anthropogenic climate change,” he said. August 2026 was the hottest month in recorded history. Seiler called the El Niño “a peek into the not so far future,” which will allow people to see what a few degrees warmer feels like. He hopes students use it as an opportunity to act on climate change.

8 • QUEENSJOURNAL.CA

SPORTS

SPORTS

Queen’s Football to take on the University of Ottawa

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Queen’s Golf sweeps their home tournament Pair of Gaels earn top spot in both men’s and women’s individual Noah Cyr Senior Sports Editor

Gaels offence looks to sideline to setup play on Sept. 12.

Gaels get their first big test with the GeeGees coming to Richardson Noah Cyr Senior Sports Editor Preparation, preparation, preparation. This is the primary focus of Head Coach Steve Snyder as his team plans for the Gaels matchup against the University of Ottawa GeeGees. The Queen’s Football team will be hosting the GeeGees at Richardson stadium on Sept. 26 at 3 p.m. The Gaels will be hosting an Alumni, Family, and Friends game, which features a pregame and post-game event at Lang Pavillion, as well as a halftime celebration. Despite the extracurriculars before, after, and during the game, the Gaels will be focused on the task at hand: a strong, experienced GeeGees team coming to Kingston. The GeeGees come into the game 3-1 after falling to the Guelph Gryphons last week by a score of 31-28. Regardless of the loss, the GeeGees offence is one of the most potent in the OUA. Their

offence is fuelled by fourth-year quarterback Josh Janssen, who is third in passing yards per game in the OUA and second in completion percentage. Additionally, their fifth year running back, Souleymane Camara, leads the OUA in rush yards per game and total rushing yards. The Gaels are coming off a strong performance against the Carleton Ravens that saw them win by a score of 55-17. With the win, the Gaels have moved to fourth on the U Sports rankings as of Sept. 21. In a media availability on Thursday, Snyder talked about preparing for a team like the GeeGees. “They are very good team, got off to a good start as well and they have good technical football players,” Snyder said. “There’s not a lot of weaknesses, and they have a lot of chemistry, so we have a lot of mutual respect.” Looking back to last game versus Carleton, Snyder acknowledged a lot of penalties, specifically on the defensive side. However, he still stressed to his team that they need to play physical. “We have to continue to play aggressive, but eliminate the beat yourself football, the stuff that we can truly control.” During the same media availability, Alex Vreeken, Kin ’27,

Queen’s Sailing takes on busiest

PHOTO BY EVE LINDEN

talked about how the offence on the Gaels side has come together as a whole. “The offensive line is coming together really well, the receiving core is really special, making plays and then the running backs have stepped up a ton,” Vreeken said. On the defensive side, Wilson Heslop, Kin ’29, reiterated the importance of the preparation, especially with a young defensive group. “The focus is on us right now and making sure we’re understanding the game plan and going in on Saturday being confident,” Heslop said during the media availability. Heslop is cognizant of his importance on the field, being the free safety (one further in the backfield), to maintain communication and adjusting when needed. “Making sure everyone’s on the same page, playing in unison, the biggest thing is being loud and communicating,” Heslop said. He admitted the young inexperienced group, had a little bit of a slow start, but are getting better every week. “We have to be confident and consistent right off the get-go and trust in each other out there.” The Gaels will look to make it a 4-0 start for the first time since 2021.

Home course advantage takes centre stage at Queen’s Golf ’s second event of the season. The Queen’s Golf team hosted their annual Bert Kea Memorial Tournament at Cataraqui Golf and Country Club on Sept. 20. A mainstay on the Gaels calendar, the event is held every year to honour former Queens Head Coach Bert Kea. The Gaels were looking for a better result on home soil after competing at Guelph’s kick-off event and not finding the top of the podium. The women’s team finished second, while the men’s team finished in sixth. Like usual, the team was divided into two teams to allow all the athletes on the squad to play. Not all team members play from week to week, usually having a weekly play-in to qualify among other factors. Both men’s and women’s ‘A’ teams secured the victory in the team categories with scores of +17 and +21 respectively. Leading the way for the Gaels on the men’s side was David Ursu, Sci ’29, who is no stranger to competitive golf, playing for the powerhouse University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) team last year. Ursu shot a one over 71, finishing tied for the lead. The Gaels posted five players in the top 10 in the individual 43 man field. On the women’s side, Gella

schedule in program history Gaels expand into U.S. competition while two sailors prepare to represent Canada at FISU Championships Malek Benameur Assistant Sports Editor Queen’s Sailing is spending more time on the road than ever before. The Gaels are sending athletes to multiple regattas across Canada and the United States this weekend, continuing what copresident Izzy Pepper, ArtSci ’28, described as the busiest schedule in the program’s history. “We have, on average, 16 people travelling per weekend,” Pepper said in an interview with The Journal. “We’re just doing a lot of travel this year.” The expansion comes as

Queen’s has gained access to a wider range of American competition. Pepper said the team competes within the Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CISA) while also taking part in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) and its Middle SUPPLIED BY ANNA POWICK Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Queen’s Sailing team fights rough waters. Association (MAISA). As Queen’s has improved, deserve to be there.” training and specialized keelboat Pepper said the team has gained The growing schedule has also sessions. more opportunities to compete brought more responsibility for The program’s international south of the border. Pepper and co-president Andrew reach will also be on display this “We’re now a tier-one school, Kenny, ArtSci ’28. Pepper said week. Kenny and Anna Powick, so we can select from not only the pair have handled much of Sci ’29, will represent Canada at MAISA but also from all the ICSA the team’s administration since the 2026 International University events,” she said. “We now can January while Queen’s works to Sports Federation, also known compete against basically any U.S. onboard a part-time coach. as FISU, World University school, which wasn’t even a thing “We started this role as second Championship Sailing in Croatia. last season.” years, acting as both head coach “I’m honestly just so proud of Pepper said earning those and as presidents with the heavi- them and the work that they’ve opportunities initially required est schedule in history,” Pepper put into sailing and just all of convincing American programs said. their training,” Pepper said. “They that Queen’s could compete at That workload includes travel deserve it so much.” their level. planning and team selection For Pepper, their selection “It started with us basically alongside their own training and reflects the work taking place begging U.S. schools for a berth,” full course loads. Pepper said the throughout the program as Pepper said. “Then showing them team regularly holds two prac- Queen’s sailors continue comthat we train hard and that we tices a day, in addition to strength peting both domestically and

McDaniel, ArtSci ’27, led the way for the Gaels, firing a five over 79a nd finishing for a tie for the lead. To recap the weekend and talk overall expectations, The Journal spoke with long-time member of the men’s golf team Luke Macpherson, Sci ’27. Macpherson was excited to look in the rearview mirror after Guelph to focus on an event that is historically a successful one for the Gaels. “It was great for us to bounce back with a win, especially at our home event,” Macpherson said. “Getting everyone involved and seeing both teams have success is nice to build momentum into the rest of the season.” On the men’s side, the team is without some familiar faces who graduated after last season. Despite this, Macpherson isn’t worried about the new talent. “We’ve brought in some younger faces who bring a lot of promise to the group. We’re strong right now and also have something to look forward to in the years ahead,” he said. As the season draws deeper, the team is travelling to Waterloo to play in back-to-back tournaments over Sept. 26 and 27. Macpherson says the expectations haven’t changed. “We’re eager and ready to go and feel like we have a really good chance to put ourselves into a position to win,” he said. In the bigger picture, the team is looking to do some damage leading into the OUA Championship on Oct. 17. “We believe we’re one of the top teams in the province and we’ve shown that consistently over the past few years.” The Gaels will look to carry that momentum as the fall golf season builds into higher pressure tournaments. internationally. “Everyone’s doing really cool stuff and we’re very proud of the team this year because everyone is working incredibly hard,” she said. The Gaels’ ambitions remain high as the schedule continues. Queen’s is aiming to build on four consecutive Team Race national titles and improve on last year’s second-place finish in fleet racing. The program’s goals also extend beyond Canada. Pepper said Queen’s qualified for the America Trophy pathway toward the U.S. National Championships last season but could not attend because the event conflicted with exams. “The goal is to go to the U.S. National Championships, even this spring,” Pepper said. For now, Queen’s will continue working through a packed fall schedule, with upcoming Canadian and American regattas giving the team more opportunities to compete at the level it has spent the past two seasons working toward.

ARTS & CULTURE

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

ARTS & CULTURE

SubwayTakes arrives to Toronto in October.

GRAPHIC BY CLAIRE BAK

So what’s your take, Toronto? SubwayTakes goes north

Mayah Ricketts Assistant Arts and Culture Toronto commuters finally get to let their TTC thoughts free. V i ra l T i k To k t a l k- s h ow SubwayTakes is coming to Toronto in October. Hosted by Comedian Kareem Rahma, the show primarily takes place on

The “Just Sports” advertisement campaign released Sept. 9

the New York City Metro. Rahma asks celebrities, influencers, and average New Yorkers for their hot takes, then responds with an affirmation or dissent. The show has received over a million subscribers and 800 million views across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Rahma has previously travelled to

GRAPHIC BY ANGELINA LIU

Sydney Sweeney’s ad isn’t “just sports”

Controversy sells better than sex Chloe Nunes Senior Arts and Culture Editor Sex doesn't sell, but controversy does. At least for brands with humiliation kinks, nothing's more desirable than the entire internet erupting in rage over your campaigns. After gaining recognition for portraying Eden in the dystopian patriarchal world of The Handmaid's Tale, Sydney Sweeney is still "under his eye" by monetizing the male gaze in Novig's sports betting advertisement campaign, "Just Sports." Although Sweeney says there's "no politics," her naked body is portrayed like it's the sport being bet on. A week after releasing the controversial campaign on Sept.

9, Novig hit $1 billion in trading volume, generating profits by selling sports predictions at the expense of objectifying women. "Sydney was driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging," said Novig co-founder and CEO Jacob Fortinsky at an event with Front Office Sports. As a Novig equity holder and strategic partner, Sydney Sweeney holds authority over their branding. Aware of her own image being male-centered and conservative-leaning, Sweeney strategically used herself to appeal to young men, who are at high-risk for problem gambling. "I also have such a creative authority that is really amazing to be able to sit at a table and be a part of every discussion,"

Chicago, London and Berlin for the show, and now he’s taking it Toronto on TTC line one, the city’s longest subway line. A new city means more than just a change of scenery. Toronto is known for its diverse cultures, scenery, and people. Despite its frequent shutdowns and delays, the TTC is an integral part of what

Sweeney explained in an interview with Complex about her collaboration with Novig. "Whether it's from casting, marketing, budgeting, who we're going to sell this to, what market." What's more concerning than the ad itself is Sweeney's involvement in the campaign's creation. Her strategy exploits the male gaze for corporate gain, supporting the patriarchy with just those two footballs she's holding up. Marketing executive Andrea Javor theorizes in the Los Angeles Times that Novig's campaign does target women, just not as consumers. When developing their controversy, they targeted women who would be infuriated by the ad's messaging because "conversation [is] the ultimate currency." "As a marketer, I give credit to the strategy. But as a woman who spent two decades fighting to move the industry past a sexist era, it's depressing to watch the door we worked so hard to open get kicked shut by the very gender it was meant to liberate," Javor wrote. Controversies risk losing potential customers, but so long as that controversy says socially relevant, these heated debates emerging online become free promotions for the brand's actual audience, turning their calculated high-risk marketing strategy into a high reward. But no one is shocked at this point. Controversy as a marketing strategy to maximize profits is expected by Sydney Sweeney. In 2025, despite public outcry, "Sydney has great jeans" became a successful marketing campaign that generated $400

QUEENSJOURNAL.CA • 9 makes the city unique. The new location has many Torontonians excited for what it has to offer. Lois Aguda, ArtSci ’27, a Queen’s student born and raised in Toronto, believes that unique personalities make Toronto what it is, which means that Subway Takes has the potential to be incredibly funny. “There are people with very different life experiences,” Aguda told The Journal. “I think it will be interesting to see everyone’s varying perspectives. I think we’ll hear a lot of bad takes.” Toronto has always been the backdrop for TV shows and films pretending to be New York City, but for once it’s coming to the forefront. Even those who have never seen the show on social media are still interested in what a show like this could mean for the city. “I’ve never heard of it ,” Maxwell Lynch, ArtSci ’27, said in an interview with The Journal. “But I’m excited to see how Toronto will be represented.” In commemoration of the show coming to Toronto, The Journal asked Queen’s students about their opinions on the show, and most importantly, their hot takes. Although blasting music in the halls is a quintessential Toronto high school experience, Aguda’s hot take is that singing out loud in public should be normalized, but only if the songs are good. “A lot of the people here at Queen’s don’t have good taste in music, per my standards,” Aguda said. “So, I don’t want to hear what they listen to.” Other hot takes related to the

campus experience. Celine Mpora, ArtSci ’27, believes that having a campus celebrity ensures a memorable university experience. “It’s entertaining to tell your friends who you saw and laugh about it later,” Mpora said. “It’s part of the bonding experience.” As for special guests, students are looking forward to hearing from Toronto’s politicians. Mayor Olivia Chow would be a good fit, considering how frequently she engages with social media. Rahma also interviewed New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani twice. “I’m really looking for the entertainment and the drama,” Mpora told The Journal. “I don’t care what the take is, I just want to hear what they say so I can talk about it.” Others are hoping for celebrities like Drake and LeBron James to make an appearance. “I feel like LeBron is a very insightful person,” Lynch said. “No matter what he’s asked he’ll always respond with a flawless answer.” It is clear that Torontonians have no shortage of opinions. SubwayTakes is finally giving them a platform and many are ready to use it. With potential guests like restaurateur and actor Matty Matheson and Olympian Tessa Virtue, the Subway Takes will certainly take Canadian viewers on a memorable TTC trip. Want to contribute to Arts and Culture? Email ac@queensjournal.ca

million dollars in market value for American Eagle at the expense of her "great genes" seemingly promoting white supremacy. During these heated online debates, reports uncovered her Republican voter registration. "Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there," President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in celebration of the American Eagle ad. No matter how much backlash these brands receive, there are no consequences for their exploitative marketing campaigns. Brands keep selling, customers keep buying, and the internet keeps talking, making their controversies a success — but at what cost?

Kingston Live Drag yourself to these performances

OCT. 03 - 04 Broom Factory 7:30 p.m.

Tracy & Martina “Savin’ money, savin’ time, for gettin’ loaded.” Canadian sketch comedy duo

OCT. 08 Broom Factory 7:30 p.m.

Sami Landri “As-tu des cigarettes?” First Acadian drag queen on Canada’s Drag Race

OCT. 20 - 23 The Screening Room 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Cast Out of the Shadows “Don’t dream it, be it.” A drag shadowcast extravagenza

OCT. 23 Royal Canadian Legion Branch 560 7:00 p.m.

Fallout Cabaret Show Escape the vault to watch BeeWitched, Blowpony, Yuni Verse, and more.

ARTS & CULTURE

10 • QUEENSJOURNAL.CA

Douglas Library’s W.D. Jordan Rare Books & Special Collections.

PHOTO BY CLAIRE BAK

Rare books are in danger The Journal explores physical books as important historical artifacts

Eva Sheahan Managing Editor As we near closer to the world of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, it’s important to remember the value of physical books. Since 2024, AI company Anthropic has been systematically scanning and destroying rare books to help “train” its large language model Claude with high-quality literature written before the “corrupting influence of generative AI on contemporary text.” This process is called “destructive scanning,” where AI companies are buying millions of books to digitally scan, only to destroy and discard the originals. In light of this unsettling news, The Journal spoke with Professor Leslie Ritchie from the Department of English Literature and Creative Writing about the importance of books as physical, cultural, and historical

artifacts with value that exists outside of solely the contents inside. Ritchie teaches the upperyear English seminar, ENGL 436: A Material History of Book and Print Culture. She has spent her research career working with a “number of rare books, newspapers and prints from the eighteenth century in various archives and libraries in North America, the United Kingston, and Ireland,” she told The Journal in an email statement. “Each [physical] book is a small archive in itself,” Ritchie stated. She explained that by studying the history of a physical book as a material artifact, you can ask different kinds of questions than when you’re solely considering a book’s contents. Last year, in London, Ritchie viewed copies of newspapers from 1789. Though she acknowledges she could have read the content online in a

digital archive, it was important to study the annotations in the margins. Through her research, she found the annotations and scratchings of someone sympathetic to the abolitionist cause, which was clear from how their notes responded and interacted with the news. “From this contemporary reader’s perspective, each newspaper issue was a battleground where one could trace advancing and retreating frontiers of opinion. The reader’s notes show how closely the London Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade monitored public opinion during Parliamentary debates on the slave trade—and I needed to see this copy of this newspaper to understand this,” Ritchie stated. She isn’t alone in studying margins and annotations of physical books to learn more about the cultural climate of the time. Historian Miriam Borden studied children’s primers from Canadian Yiddish schools to figure out how the new generation was engaging with Yiddish and Jewish identity post-Holocaust as first-generation immigrants from Eastern Europe. In her research, Borden analyzes children’s doodles and jokes, written in both Yiddish and English, to try to understand the Canadian youth’s attitudes towards their Jewish identities and study of Yiddish language at the time. In her research, she quotes folklorist David Allen Ensminger who proposed a theory of the ‘intimate graffiti of doodles,’ writing “within the margins of the page, a brief suspension of boundaries and borders, authority and power, occurs. The reader hides in anonymity, free to reroute the meaning of the book.” Continued online at www.queensjournal.ca

Pillow Talk: Why it’s hard to start a sex column

Researching sex columns at The Journal from top to bottom Chloe Nunes Senior Arts and Culture Editor No one wants to be Carrie Bradshaw anymore. During the '90s sex-positive movement, sex columns broke the boundaries of journalism by pushing what stays in the bedroom onto the front page. Sex columnists destigmatized sex by promoting open conversations about taboo topics, but in the decades since, those dialogues have disappeared. The Journal's had several sex columns that have come and gone. In collaboration with the Sexual Health Resource Centre (SHRC), "QJ Sex" emerged as an anonymous advice column with contributors using the pseudonym, "The Expert Sexpert." From 2012-2015, one of SHRC's sexperts anonymously answered questions submitted by Queen's students about sex, health, and relationships. In an effort to break boundaries in student journalism, these

articles combatted misinformation on everything from birth control, to kinks, to anal sex. However, even impersonal question-and-answer sessions had to be hidden behind a pseudonym. Only a few select articles went to print. In 2018, " The Tricolour Sex Diary" appeared as a sex column with an anecdotal focus featuring sensationalized anonymous entries about Clone-a-Willy's gone wrong, dating app hookups, and sleeping with two roommates in one weekend. While these articles were no longer centered on sex education, at least they were printed in colour on full pages. Here, anonymity protects professionalism, reputations, and comfort. However, without names, it's easy to fabricate diary entries, harming integrity for the sake of a funny read. Briefly in 2020 to 2021, sex ed was back in session with "The Tricolour Sex Column." Published under the pseudonyms, "The Kinky Scholar" and

"The Assistant Kinky Scholar," these articles broadly discussed a variety of topics with some misinformed opinions slipping in. Then, history repeated itself and this column disappeared too. These sex columns all take inspiration from The Daily Californian's “Sex on Tuesday," the oldest continued sex column at a university newspaper, but The Journal's columns have always been anonymous. Since 1996, the Daily Cali has published countless stories with headshots and names attached, reflecting on their personal experiences while educating students. “Although I’ve always been a very open person when it comes to discussing sex, I find myself being much more open writing about it, and have published some things I don’t think I’d ever said out loud to someone else before, which in a sense, is very liberating," student sex columnist Khristina Holterman

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

Gen Z humour done right with Prime’s ‘Sterling Point’ Angelina Liu & Eva Sheahan Journal Staff For Heated Rivalry fans who are missing the “cottage,” Prime Video welcomes Gen Z back with a new young adult romance show set in the Muskoka region. Released on Aug. 5, Sterling Point finally captures what teenage shows have been trying to capture for years … Gen-Z humour. While romance shows are taking over the internet, with The Summer I Turned Pretty and Off Campus, Prime has dominated in terms of understanding what makes the internet click. What seems like a classic love triangle show packs a deep familial punch with a sweet reflection on sisterhood. The story follows New York City darling 17-yearold Annie, whose life turns upside down after her estranged grandpa dies, leaving her on an island in Muskoka Region called Sterling Point. Fans on the internet have praised Sterling Point for its dialogue, stating that it feels true to a real teenager’s speech — unpolished, awkward, and genuine, with slang use that doesn’t feel forced when using colloquial words like “tweaking” and “dip.” This is reflective of Megan Park, the director of the show, and of the actors themselves, as a lot of lines were improvised, and actors were given free license to add their own spin to the script. As Park states in an interview with Rolling Stone, “The moment you try to start making it [cool], it already feels dated and weird…you pass [things] over to the actor who is young and they can kind of infuse that life into it in a way that never was on the page.” The relatability of Sterling Point isn’t just its use of slang, but the way it depicts debriefs wrote in a statement to The Daily Californian. “But also I’ve learned the difficulty in writing about something so personal in talking about experiences very specific to myself, and trying to relate those or find a broader message that reaches everyone who reads it.” As demonstrated by “Sex on Tuesday,” when faces and names are shown, sex columns can be one of the most honest forms of reporting. If concerns for privacy are rooted in fear, it pushes the agenda that these stories must be hidden. This risks the perpetuation of censorship towards sexual content, which disproportionately affects queerness. "Pillow Talk" is unprecedented at The Journal. There are many stories waiting to be told, but there are few Queen’s students who are willing to participate in a sex column publicly. Turned off by its lack of privacy, “Pillow Talk” is struggling to discuss sex openly since sex is still a topic we are meant to feel ashamed about, despite the fact that these conversations are relevant to the student body. My digital footprint is

between female friends about sex, family, love, and everything in between. As women watching the show, there’s something so identifiable about the quickness of speech, the overuse of the word ‘like,’ the rapid hand motions, the emotional intelligence, and the transparent self-reflectivity. As well, there’s a club scene that is infused with relatability, as the two women, Annie and a family friend, sing, dance, complain about insecurities, talk for hours in the bathroom, and promise to make plans with utter sincerity that are forgotten when the next day rolls around. It’s easy to laugh, knowing many of us have done some — or let’s be honest —all these things at a night out to Stages or Dollar Beers. The age of the “teenagers” is slightly confusing, as most of the show’s 15 to 17 year-olds are chain smoking cigarettes and don’t have a parent figure in sight. It’s easy to watch these young characters figure life out while imagining you’re seeing university age experiences reflected. While the picturesque setting celebrates Ontario’s beauty, that location adds a bonus — the lack of phone use is apparent and explained plainly with lack of service. Muskoka creates the perfect setting for phones to be out of view and still be realistic, opening doors to a story that feels unbelievably real and a script that kicks inauthenticity to the curb. Where many shows have been critiqued for cringe-worthy dialogue that attempts to capture the vernacular of young people and falls short, like Riverdale and Ginny and Georgia, Sterling Point succeeds, making it easy to forget you’re even watching a show and rendering the love triangle the least interesting part. marked. When future employers search my name, I'm sure they'll come across, "You're right, being gay is my whole personality." However, any professional risks I took on when publicly sharing my story were rendered void when readers expressed to me how much they related to my experiences. Sure, I wrote the article, but it is not just "my" story. I reported on a collective experience through anecdotes and facts for readers to resonate with while also learning what classrooms will not teach us. Although The Journal reports on sex occasionally, it's concerning that dedicated columns to regularly discuss sexual topics are gone, but that's exactly why we need to bring one back. In an era where trust in the press is fading, honest reporting on human experiences can rebuild that relationship between publications and their readers — let's begin facilitating those open exchanges in a public, published dialogue about sex, love, and relationships.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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QUEENSJOURNAL.CA • 11

The university experience I watched from my car window Evangelia reflects on how being a commuter student negatively impacted her university experience.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNA VAN RAALTE

126 kilometres of highway between me mine. You know, those kinds of where every single class had to lifelong “college friendships” you be measured against the drive, and the undergraduate experience see on television, or the ones your and how many hours I could Evangelia Babes Contributor

With September rolling around again, Kingston is coming alive; a city, and experience, I’m just outside of. Houses fill with students, campus becomes crowded, and the familiar excitement of a fresh new school year settles over the city. Orientation, football games, house parties, new roommates, new friendships — the kind of atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re finally, truly a part of something. For me, however, September brings a different feeling. An overwhelming, gut-wrenching feeling of dread. I live 126 km outside of Kingston in a small town called Colborne. Journeying downtown is a drive of over an hour each way. A commute I’ve endured more times than I can count, through the demanding conditions of winter storms and construction zones. From five in the morning to after eleven at night. Living in Kingston for my undergraduate degree was never really a question my family and I got the privilege to have. It was a matter of what we could afford, and the answer was always, “Not now, Eva.” So, every single day, my university experience has started and ended in a car, on a highway, watching the sun come up over an empty road instead of a dorm window. Before starting my first year at Queens, I came to accept I wouldn’t get the opportunity to live in residence. I told myself

reason after reason as to why living at home was actually a bonus. More privacy, homecooked meals, and no drama with roommates. However, all I truly did was guilt-trip myself into believing I was okay with it, even grateful for it. The truth was harder to face, as I knew even then that I was saying goodbye to an experience before I’d even get the chance to have it. I can still remember commuting to campus during O-week of my first-year, not knowing what to expect when arriving on campus for the very first time. I sat in my car with my heart pounding, watching as everyone already had their own “groups.” I’d see clusters of students walking together to events, laughing about something that happened the night before in their new dorms, already building the kind of connection that naturally arises from living down the hall from someone. I had never felt so out of place. And the worst part? This feeling of disconnect remained, and worse, deepened throughout my first and following year at Queen’s. I’d meet people in my classes, people who I genuinely liked and wanted to get to know better, but every friendship seemed to be paired with a fine print: if it fits around my commute. Simply grabbing Starbucks between classes could never be a spontaneous thing, but rather something I had to negotiate with my schedule. I wanted to be someone’s person, and to have someone be

parents tell you about. Instead, it felt like I was watching those friendships form around me in real time, being built out of the proximity I didn’t have, and out of moments I could never be there for. It was never a matter of people not liking me, but the fact inclusion required presence, and presence was the one thing I could never consistently give. I believe this taught me to want less, to need people less, because needing them just meant getting hurt when the commute got in the way again. To be truthful, I don’t think this is something you’re supposed to learn at 18. I think at this age you’re supposed to lean on people, to be reckless with your time and your trust, to make mistakes with friendships and to repair them. I never really got that version or those lessons. This feeling of disconnect didn’t stop at friendships; it bled into every opportunity that required showing up outside of my class hours. Clubs, intramurals, study groups, career panels. All the things people say you’re “supposed” to do in university to build a resume, find community, or just figure out who you are as a person. I feel as though I’ve missed out on becoming a more wellrounded version of myself due to the distance. Course selection was, and still is, its own kind of horror. Everyone else stressed over enrollment times, whether class seats would fill up, and over building the “perfect” schedule with maximum days off. For me, course selection was a different kind of headache. One

reasonably spend sitting in the library waiting for a gap between classes to end. Those in-between hours were their own kind of exhaustion. A simple two-hour gap between classes is not merely enough time to drive home and back, so I’d resort to finding a seat in Stauffer Library, occupying time that everyone else got to spend actually living their university life. Heading back to dorms for naps, ordering food, or making plans over something as small as a shared common room. Such ordinary things, and yet, I still can’t help but feel cheated out of them. I would sit in lecture halls and listen to other students groan about their 8:30 a.m. classes, complaining about how unrealistically early it is. I never said anything, but in all honesty, I wanted to laugh. Not because their tiredness wasn’t real or valid, but because my 8:30 a.m. started at 6:00 a.m., alone, in the dark, scraping ice off my windshield before having the chance to eat breakfast. Their version of “early” meant rolling out of bed fifteen minutes before class and walking across campus in pajama pants. Mine meant driving down a dark twolane highway, fighting my closing eyes, so I didn’t accidentally swerve into oncoming traffic. Even parking, something you’d assume is a given for a commuter, was no joke. There is a years-long waitlist just to get a proper campus parking pass, and even once you’re on it, it costs about $160 a month; an expense most people do not think twice about until they’re

the ones paying it. On top of gas, insurance, and everything else that comes with driving over two hours a day to just attend class, it adds up. Even with street parking being “available,” it was still an ongoing battle to find an open spot. Most of the time I was left parking wherever I could and hoping for the best, which mostly meant racking up ticket after ticket, an unofficial tax on simply trying to get an education. All in all, I thought I would get this “picture perfect” university experience. The one you see in movies, the one everyone talks about before they even start their first year. Late night talks with roommates. Getting ready together before a night out, borrowing someone’s hair straightener, arguing over outfits, music playing while everyone crowds a single mirror. I thought I deserved that. I’d worked equally as hard as many others to get into Queen’s. I don’t know why I assumed the experience itself would come as easily as the acceptance letter did. I wish I could say this experience made me stronger, or that I’d do it all again without hesitation. The truth of the matter is more complicated than that. I don’t think hardship automatically builds character the way people like to say it does. I don’t know if this made me a better person, or just a more exhausted one. But what I do know is that it taught me how to show up for myself when no one else could, even with a lack of motivation. I learned to sit with my own company more than most people my age probably must, and to advocate for what I needed because there was no one down the hall to lean on when things got difficult. It didn’t make the ache of missing out disappear. But somewhere in all those hours alone — in the car, library, or on the highway at 6:00 a.m. — I became someone who noticed. Someone who sees the friend that saves you a seat, or the classmate who texts you asking if you’re coming to class today. The small, deliberate choices to include someone that most people don’t think twice about. If there’s one lesson to take away from this, it’s to not assume distance means disinterest. The people who always seem to be leaving aren’t necessarily choosing to be absent. The people who made an effort with me weren’t doing anything extraordinary. Simply, a little persistence goes a long way, as we rarely consider what it might cost someone to keep showing up at all. If you’re a commuter reading this, nodding along, I want you to know the disconnect is real, and you’re not alone feeling it. But what’s most important is understanding it is not a personal failing, and it’s not something you should have to guilt yourself into being grateful for, the way I did. Queen’s gives us an education, but there’s a version of this university that a lot of us will never get to have, simply because of where we live and what we can afford. And that’s worth saying out loud.

12 • QUEENSJOURNAL.CA

POSTSCRIPT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2026

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