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Building farms: Ryerson in Peru pages 6 - 7
Buying into the music page 11
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ryersonian.ca Volume 71 Number 15
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
Voter turnout jumps SARAH CUNNINGHAM-SCHARF RYERSONIAN
Voter turnout surged during this year’s Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) election, and some candidates credit different campaign tactics. Total turnout varied among the various executive committee positions. The total votes for the president of the RSU increased by 73.6 per cent, vice-president education by 72.4 per cent, vice-president equity by 71.7 per cent, vice-president operations by 65.35 per cent, and vice-president student life and events by 70.1 per cent. All three slates used similar outreach elements while campaigning: posters, music videos, social media pages, on-the-ground student interaction, and food. However, only one posted their slate’s pillars on the RSU’s website. Please see ELECTION, page 3
Fire on St. Clair
Firefighters work to put out a six-alarm fire at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue on Feb. 14, 2017. More photos online.
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Mature students and Ontario grants page 5
News
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Frustrations rise at RRJC town hall JACLYN TANSIL AND ALLAN PERKINS RYERSONIAN
PHOTO FARHAN RIAZ
BoG student members Cassandra Myers, Mariam Nouser and Victoria Morton.
BoG pilot covers student candidates’ campaign costs
ALLIE DOWNHAM RYERSONIAN
After historically paying outof-pocket for campaign materials, student candidates in Ryerson’s Board of Governors (BoG) election will receive financial aid this year. Administration will test how $200 in campaign funds can help student BoG candidates gather materials for an effective election campaign. Ryerson president and BoG member Mohamed Lachemi said the decision was made in response to feedback from student board members. He says the pilot is meant to “encourage students who are already running for the positions.” Student BoG members Victoria Morton, Cassandra Myers
and Mariam Nouser — who ran as FUSE slate last year — were informed about the administration’s decision on Friday. Before this pilot project, student BoG election candidates had to pay largely out-of-pocket for their campaign. Last year, Morton referred to the election as the “Wild West.” “Historically, BoG has the least amount of oversight,” Morton says, and added that it’s the campus election with the least amount of set rules. “The posters aren’t stamped by any organization, there (was) no reimbursement or cap on spending limits, there’s no rules or regulations surrounding slates.” Levels of reimbursement and caps on election campaign expenses differ between campus student unions and societies.
At the Ryerson Communication and Design Society (RCDS), executive candidates’ expenses are capped and eligible for reimbursement up to $25. At the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU), an executive candidate’s campaign expenses cannot exceed $500. If they exceed that limit, candidates risk loss of reimbursement plus fines. Morton is currently the RSU’s vice-president education.
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The Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective (RRJC) says the university should do more to keep pro-life protesters off campus. “The university does not necessarily care about what students want or need but instead what directly benefits (the administration),” said Camryn Harlick, the co-founder of the RRJC, a pro-choice student group, and vice-president equity-elect of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU). Harlick was discouraged by the response of Ryerson’s vice-provost students, Heather Lane Vetere, to the RRJC’s demands made at a town hall meeting Monday night. At the meeting, the RRJC called for the university to take action against pro-life demonstrators. The protesters’ signs and posters display graphic content of aborted fetuses — which one student compared to pornography. The RRJC’s growing concerns for the overall safety of Ryerson
students was one reason why they want the demonstrators removed from campus. “I was, as always, typically disappointed by the university, especially Heather Lane Vetere’s response tonight as I feel that there was a problem with listening to students … there usually is when working with the university,” Harlick said. Vetere, who was speaking on behalf of the university at the meeting, reaffirmed the university’s position that Ryerson is unable to prevent pro-life protesters from demonstrating on Gould Street. She said that it isn’t a question of values that factors into this decision, but a matter of law. Vetere also added she isn’t prepared to lose her job over this issue. “One thing that is really important that I wanted to say to you is that you and I, I as an individual, Heather, am not ideologically opposed on this issue. “I do not suspect that any of my university colleagues that are Please see PRO-LIFE, page 5
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From left to right: Heather Lane Vetere, Camryn Harlick and Leizl Yance at town hall.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Getting the vote out ELECTION cont’d ...
The RSU election bylaws state that any type of outreach can be used, as long as the campaign material isn’t “racist, sexist, homophobic or offensive in any way.” Susanne Nyaga, who was voted in as the new RSU president, said her success was due to the campaign tactics used by her slate, Elevate. “I found that on-the-ground outreach was probably the most successful. A lot of the time I would be speaking with students and they wouldn’t even know what the RSU was, or that they pay a fee to the RSU. So it was great to inform students about what was happening on campus.” However, Elevate was the only electoral slate to post campaign statements on the RSU website’s list of candidate bios. Two other slates, Ohana and Spark, chose to post their slate statement and individual candidate bios only on their personal websites and pages. Nyaga said, “Our main method of outreach was making sure we were informing students about the work we wanted to do and the work we had done. And since the RSU website is the one place where you can find all the bios
at one point without switching between websites, we thought that we should have our bios on there.” Daniel Lis, a Spark slate candidate who was elected vice-president education, said it was a missed opportunity not to have his team’s candidate bios on the RSU’s website. “That’s completely our fault,” Lis said. “We didn’t hit the deadline in time for it to go up, so that was a complete oversight. Of course we wish we had gotten it in in time because extra publicity would only have helped us, but unfortunately we just missed the boat on that one.” According to the RSU’s bylaws, slates can post “a photograph of each candidate and text of no more than 100 words outlining their platform and biographical information ... on the RSU website.” All candidates’ names and respective slates are listed. Current RSU president Obaid Ullah, who ran with Spark, was elected as the union’s upcoming Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science (FEAS) director. Prior to the election’s voting period, he said it was more practical and traditional for slates to post candidates’ bios on slates’ personal websites. “There’s only so much information you can have on the RSU website,” Ullah said, adding that
for the last years, “each slate has had their own website to talk about their own information.” In addition to Lis, two other Spark slate members, vice-president student life and events-elect Lauren Emberson and vice-president operations-elect Ali Yousaf,
“You get to control how it looks. It matches with your mandate, your team, your platform ...” — Obaid Ullah were voted in. Camryn Harlick joined Nyaga on the Elevate slate and was voted in as the upcoming vice-president equity. Emberson credited her personal win to her slate’s one-on-one student outreach, much like Nyaga.
“I think the difference that I’ve seen is online strength versus on-the-ground,” Emberson said. “I felt a lot more confident talking to students one-on-one and really understanding their thoughts and what they want. And I think that’s what makes them interested in and engaged with the RSU. I think a lot of students don’t know the RSU exists or that these services are here for them.” Luckily for Ryerson students, a lot of that on-the-ground campaigning involved food.
Emberson made sure to emphasize that food wasn’t used to bribe students to vote for Spark. “It’s making sure you’re talking to students with intention because students can see through the ‘here’s a Timbit, please vote for me.’ I always try to be genuine. I thought I’d lost, there were some fantastic people running against me who I think would have done a fantastic job. I’m thinking about these same questions. How did this happen?” Ohana won no executive seats, but won a FEAS director spot and swept all seven faculty board seats for the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM). “In general, food is a good idea,” says Lis. “Because in my opinion, it gives a little bit back to the students. They get a nice meal out of it rather than just posters.”
His slate, Spark, focused on one food in particular: pancakes. “The pancakes worked well because it gives you that time to have a discussion as they’re waiting. Pizza, we did try it, it worked very well for Ohana. We had mixed results. Sometimes it would work but sometimes they would grab the pizza and go.” Lis also said Spark should have added more lawn signs around campus. “Elevate did a good job of getting their lawn signs out and making them stick, they were very noticeable. I wish we had put more out, I think it would have definitely helped us with the campaign, maybe gotten us a little bit further with some more votes. That was my biggest regret.” @s_cunningham8
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RRJC and Lachemi at odds PRO-LIFE cont’d ...
here with me are ideologically opposed on this issue with you either. “But that does not change the fact that we cannot do what you are asking for and we cannot make them go away,” Vetere said. This town hall comes three weeks after Ryerson administration agreed at a roundtable discussion on Jan. 23 to sit down with representatives from the RRJC, RSU, and the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR). “My money is now (with) Ryerson because I trusted this institution to provide a safer space than the last university I attended,” said Claire Davis, an environment and urban sustainability student. “I should never have to fear attending class or work because of the possibility I might feel vulnerable, triggered or unsafe on campus because of these protesters.” The RRJC was also disappointed in president Mohamed Lachemi’s absence from the meeting. One person in attendance called it “shameful.” Vetere said the university is focused on providing support through its counselling centres. “(Ryerson) can’t practise censorship related to speech or activities that (don’t) contravene the law, no matter how much this speech offends us or causes us anguish,” Vetere said. “Ultimately while this may feel like a fight with the university, this fight is with a much more organized and legally protected group.” The next RRJC meeting is on Feb. 27 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The location is yet to be determined. @patientperk @jaclynmtansil
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
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MATURE STUDENTS
Ont. student grant: who’s left behind?
MADONNA DENNIS RYERSONIAN
Gayle McFadden isn’t a student anymore, yet spends three of five work days on Ontario campuses. She’s the national representative at the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario (CFS-O). She’s talking to students to figure out who’s left out of the Ontario Student Grant, which rolled out in the fall. When the grant was announced, the government said students from families earning less than $50,000 will be provided non-repayable grants expected to go beyond the cost of tuition. But students had to have graduated high school within four years of applying for the grant. Now, mature students will be eligible as well. McFadden said this is a step in the right direction, adding that she’s found mature, part-time, and international students are typically people who can’t access certain grants. “(The government has) this backwards notion that mature students, ‘Oh, they’ve probably had a full-time job and have all this money. Part-time students, they’ve been working all this time,’” said McFadden. “They’re presenting this norm that isn’t a reality.” It was a reality for John Lescano a few years ago. Lescano is a mature student at Ryerson in his second year of the computer science program. After high school he went into a business program at York University, but found it wasn’t for him. He decided to go into computer science, but didn’t have the required courses, forcing him to to go back to high school and take them. This took him a year, during which he worked several jobs to help pay off the debt he accumulated at York.
He worked at a restaurant and as a bike courier in his first year.
“It was physically taxing and everything just felt a lot more stressful because I felt like I was on a big time constraint for everything.” — John Lescano But this year he chose not to work and he said he’s had more freedom and less stress. Rayan Chbaklo, a third-year Ryerson computer science student, has a similar view. He’s been on the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) since his second semester when he switched from mechanical engineering to computer science. Because work was affecting his GPA, Chbaklo hasn’t worked for over a year and has been depending on OSAP to help him survive the semester.
COURTESY HONGEN NAR
Former RSU president Rajean Hoilett and CESAR president Rabbia Ashraf protest.
Chbaklo took adult classes when he came to Canada from Lebanon because his high school wasn’t accredited. It didn’t provide him with a program that expanded on his interest in computers. “Back home you either have to be an engineer, a doctor or a businessman. You can’t really go into different fields,” said Chbaklo. “So hopefully now, all the lower income families, the people who never had a chance to study what they wanted to study, (the grant) will give them a chance to.” Rabbia Ashraf, president of the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR) calls the grant bittersweet. When they heard the news that mature students would be included she said they thought it was great because it’s something that’s been missing for so long. However, as a union that represents part-time and continuing education students, they went over the grant with a fine-tooth comb to make
sure it actually served their needs. Ashraf says CESAR is relying on CFS to collect that data to observe how the grant is rolled out and who is actually able to access it. There’s a list of students who are eligible on the OSAP website, but there are situations that don’t fit easily into that description. “At Ryerson you can be enrolled in a full-time undergraduate degree but because of your course load you might go to school part time. Are those students able to access that or not?” said Ashraf. Ashraf said students already face this and other “hypothetical situations” with OSAP. She said she fears the new Ontario Student Grant may be the same way. McFadden said centring the voices of students and telling their stories helps combat the rhetoric of mature and part-time students not needing these grants. McFadden said it’s important to keep fighting for those left out, because they often need it the most.
COURTESY HONGEN NAR
Ryerson students demonstrated in November at the Canadian Federation of Students’ (CFS) National Day of Action.
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Enactus Ryerson MAHNOOR SHEIKH RYERSONIAN
Church bells louder than a truck horn would strike every morning at 5 a.m. and continue every half hour until 7 a.m., making it impossible to stay asleep. The sun would shine through the small hostel room, filling it with light and heat. This meant everybody woke up at the same time and raced to get to the bathroom first. This is what every morning meant for four Ryerson students living in Pisac, Peru. Pavneet Sandhu, Jordan Hanna, Anthony Garcia, and Tran Mai, with the help of Enactus Ryerson, came up with Project Sacred Valley, the idea to create a sustainable community through education and business knowledge in the not-so-stable city of Pisac. Enactus Ryerson is a non-profit student organization that integrates business knowledge and entrepreneurial action to help stimulate sustainability around the world. Sandhu and Hanna are the project managers, and Garcia and Mai are team members. The idea for Project Sacred Valley came when a local school in Peru, Kusi Kawsay Andean school, reached out to Sandra
The children have no opportunities to flourish, and these kinds of jobs put their lives at risk. — Pavneet Sandhu
COURTESY AIDAN HEINTZMAN
Enactus Ryerson is working with locals to build a second organic farm. Team members from the left, Jordan Hanna, Anthony Garcia and Pavneet Sandhu.
Hart, a family friend of Enactus Ryerson’s project developer, Aidan Heintzman. The school asked for help in the development of a curriculum. Hart contacted Enactus who then began brainstorming a project. According to the Human Development report, around 10 per cent of the population in Peru earns less than $2 a day. This makes life very difficult for young children who are often obliged to join the workforce at an early age, as their family is unable to meet household needs, let alone pay tuition fees. The work they take on is mostly mining. “The children have no opportunities to flourish, and these kinds of jobs put their lives at risk,” explains Sandhu. Kusi Kawsay Andean was built for students whose parents cannot afford to send them to an accredited school. The parents of these children are servants
to other families in Peru. They are asked to pay whatever they can afford to enrol their child. However, because of the minimum rate, the school is unable to run efficiently throughout the entire year because it doesn’t have enough funding. Enactus Ryerson has partnered with the Kusi Kawsay to implement an initiative that works to promote entrepreneurial knowledge of organic agriculture in their specific region. Working in agriculture provides a safer work environment for the children and allows them to afford their attendance at the school. As of today, Enactus has travelled to Peru twice. First in October 2015 for 10 days where they met with the teachers and assessed the community’s needs and possible opportunities. After returning home, the group created booklets filled with business modules, lesson plans and relevant
examples the school teachers could use. They handed these over to Kusi Kawsay in May 2016, when the group stayed for a month. “We take examples from what we have learned in class at Ryerson and change it so it works for younger students in kindergarten through Grade 12,” Sandhu says. She explains, “If I learned something in my marketing class, I would use that knowledge to help the students learn about marketing their own product … some Canadian business models won’t always work in a different country but we take the basics and apply them.” Phil Walsh, one of the faculty advisers to the student organization, says that “projects like this give students exposure to something other than Canada … at Ryerson we have such a diverse background but many of them are born and raised in Toronto and
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Wednesday, February 15, 2017
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n in Pisac, Peru while they may have deep cultural roots, many of them don’t know what’s it’s like to survive on limited resources.” In May they helped open up an organic garden in Pisac. The locals refer to the farm project as Kusi Ñan. They partnered the garden with five local restaurants in the community to sell their produce to. The organic garden teaches the students and the instructors about partnership — how to sell a product and maintain a business relationship by keeping track of supplies, cost and demand. Those who work at the organic garden are a combination of students and graduates of the Kusi Kawsay Andean school. This has allowed the students to work in an environment that is safe, collaborative and more enjoyable, while still being able to provide for their families. It has become the main source of food for families. Individuals are able to invest in fruits and vegetables from the local garden because it provides a cheaper alternative to imported agriculture. “Watching the school children, their families, and the staff at Kusi Kawasay school embrace this project and turn it into their own is probably the most rewarding part of what we do… it’s powerful to see that they believe in this project just as much, if not more, than we do,” Hanna says. The English teacher at the Kusi Kawsay Andean school, Marina Flevotomas, has been the main contact in Peru for the team at Ryerson while they are back in Toronto. “Our students do not work with or learn with technology. They are hands on visual learners. Enactus has created manuals specifically for Kusi Kawsay and Kusi Ñan, which have helped to teach them important knowledge. It is very impactful to know that we have allies who are committed to helping us long term,” Flevotomas said. Though Enactus Ryerson is a student group affiliated with the university, the money the group has used to fund this project has come from sponsorships from businesses such as Tim Hortons, CIBC and
Green Lotus. The students have also contributed from their own pockets. “We pay for our flights, accommodation and food ourselves. I’ve spent roughly $2,500 myself (overall),” Sandhu says. At the moment, the team and Enactus Ryerson have spent a total of $8,000 on the project. The money gained from the organic garden is used to pay the workers in Peru. A percentage of the funds is sent into a savings account to maintain the garden, and a percentage is sent to help keep the school running year-round. w The exact figure of how much the garden is raising has not been determined. The team is returning to Peru this May for three weeks. The members hope to update their lesson plans and expand on their partnerships with local restaurants, as expansion will result in having the ability to employ more local students in a safe work environment. @mahnO_Orr
COURTESY AIDAN HEINTZMAN
The Sacred Valley team working with the students of Kusi Kawsay Andean school to dehydrate organic produce for the community.
COURTESY AIDAN HEINTZMAN
COURTESY PAVNEET SANDHU
Left photo, Tran Mai sorts through organic seeds to plant in the new garden. Right photo, Aidan Heintzman plays with the kindergarten class during reccess.
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Arts & Life FILM & TELEVISION
Rye Musicians: Beige Shelter ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Alumna directs ‘Below Her Mouth’ CHERILEIGH CO RYERSONIAN
Below Her Mouth is a film directed, produced and written by women. Director April Mullen’s latest film captures the raw emotion, sexual desire and lust between two women, Jasmine (played by Natalie Krill) and Dallas (played by Erika Linder). An actress, producer and director, Mullen is also a Ryerson theatre acting alumna. The female gaze and its authenticity is what motivated an all-female crew. “Something from a female’s perspective of what it’s like to fall in love and what turns us on as women. (In) every aspect, we wanted to have a female lens to it,” says Mullen. Below Her Mouth is an alternative to the heterosexual norm and conventional male gaze of romance movies. Mullen wanted to play a part in changing the under-representation of women in film.
“It gives audience members an alternative to Fifty Shades Darker. We thought if we’re going for it, let’s do the female gaze,” she says. Mullen says the female gaze offers transparency of truth that can’t be denied. “Rather than feeling like a spectator on the outside, it’s almost like you’re pulled into a vortex and you’re a fly watching on the wall. You’re seeing things you shouldn’t be, but you almost feel lucky that you’re able to witness them,” she says. When Mullen first read the script by Stephanie Fabrizi, she immediately connected with it. Mullen thought the character arc for Dallas truthfully portrayed her as a member of the LBGTQ community. The film explores how love is love and it can be life changing. The film follows Jasmine, a successful fashion editor who is engaged to be married. She unexpectedly meets Dallas, a charismatic roofer who can get any girl at the bar.
COURTESY ELEVATION PICTURES
Actresses Erika Linder (Dallas) and Natalie Krill (Jasmine) filming at Toronto Island.
COURTESY ELEVATION PICTURES
Director, actress and producer April Mullen on the set of Below Her Mouth.
“In the case of Jasmine, she rediscovers herself, changes a part of her identity, and I just found all of that so amazing,” she says. Mullen and her team agreed that if they weren’t able to find the perfect cast, they wouldn’t make the film. For six months, they looked all over Canada, the U.S. and Europe for the perfect pair. Mullen stumbled upon Erika Linder on the Internet and saw she was a Swedish supermodel who was the first to start modelling for men’s campaigns. Canadian actress Natalie Krill, who plays Jasmine, can tap into deep emotions and has the same sense of wonder as Jasmine, according to Mullen. “When the two of them read together for the first time, there was this instant chemistry between the two of them that we
hadn’t found anywhere else. They were the perfect match,” Mullen says. The all-female crew was comforting for Linder and Krill when they performed their most intimate sex scenes. “In terms of the intimacy and depth, they were able to find each other when you’re isolated in a bubble,” says Mullen. But her real challenge was to depict the intensifying chemistry, spark and rush of emotions between the characters in 90 minutes. “It’s just a simple slice of life and that was really interesting to me because I’ve never done a drama before, or something that pushed my boundaries in terms of just having two people be on the screen at the same time,” she says. The film takes place in Toronto with cameos of the Toronto
Islands, the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood and a TTC streetcar. “The film location was always going to be Toronto because the city has so much acceptance and the characters were able to be free,” she says. They filmed on Dundas Street E. at Filmores, the gentlemen’s club. “Even like Filmores is sort of romanticized in a way,” she says, and laughed because of how close they were to the Ryerson campus. Regardless of gender or sexuality, Mullen hopes Below Her Mouth will trigger an overwhelming sense of love, openness and acceptance for audience members. “I feel like it’s a very uplifting film for today.”
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Fitness Instagrammers at Ryerson
Sports
ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Finding a winning formula JORDAN ARSENEAULT RYERSONIAN
For 26 years, every male athlete of the year at Ryerson has played soccer, basketball or volleyball. Stuart Duncan, a squash player, was the last to win the award outside of the three sports back in 1990. Ryerson currently has six sports to choose from when it comes to picking a winner, with nominees selected by each team’s head coach. Criteria for selecting a
winner is based on individual performance and team success. “Some sports are more visible than others based on the length of their seasons,” Nick Asquini, Ryerson’s varsity operations co-ordinator, said. “In basketball, players have 20 plus games to showcase themselves, whereas in badminton you might only have one provincial tournament.” Since 1990, most awards have been given to the most outstanding player on a winning team. Exceptions, however, have been
made. Such as in the case of Boris Backovic who won the award in back-to-back years, despite playing on middle-of-the-pack basketball teams. Backovic was able to make his case based on stellar individual numbers, after leading the Ontario University Athletic (OUA) conference in points both years, as well as becoming Ryerson’s all-time leading scorer. “It’s not a point to select from only the sports of basketball, volleyball and soccer,” Andre Elliott, Ryerson sports information
specialist, said. “It’s that those are the teams that have had the most success in the recent past at Ryerson, so generally speaking one of those athletes is going to have the best resumé to win.” Of the six teams eligible to nominate athletes for the award, four are U Sports recognized, with the other two being OUA teams. Hockey is the only U Sports team to not have a player win the award over the 25-year span, much of which can be attributed to poor seasons. The difference between
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the two leagues is that U Sports teams are funded for an entire season, in which they compete for a national championship, while OUA teams are just supported for one provincial tournament.
@jordanarseneault
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Soup and Substance Diversifying STEM: Creating pathways for equity-seeking groups February 21, 2017 Noon - 1 p.m. | POD 250
Faculty, staff and students are invited to come and enjoy soup and engage in an open conversation on a range of diversity related topics. We are committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. Please contact 416-979-5000, ext. 3243 or equity@ryerson.ca if you require accommodation.
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Editorial
Read more Opinions and Editorials online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 15, 2017
EDITORIAL
Time for relaxation Reading, working, travelling, snoring. However you choose to spend your study week, try to take a break from the daily grind long enough to practise some self-care. Next week is Ryerson’s second study week of the 2016-2017 year for most students, a luxury that not all universities across Ontario enjoy. Though most do have breaks in their winter semesters, schools like University of Toronto and Guelph University still don’t have a week-long fall break. These breaks allow students to do whatever it is they need to do to get through the semester, whether that be catching up on their load of readings, picking up some shifts for money or just escaping some responsibilities for a little while. It’s the same reason that full-time employers are legally required to grant employees two weeks of vacation a year. The chance to recharge does wonders for mental well-being and productivity in the long run. The pressure for universities to take responsibility for their students’ mental health has increased over the years. Ryerson’s own wait times for mental health support has been criticized, and as a result the Centre for Student Development and Counselling (CSDC) is trying to provide same-day consultations for its students. The CSDC received an increase in funding from the 2016-2017
budget, which allowed it to cut down wait times and offer group therapy sessions. Guelph University is feeling the same pressure, especially since four of its students have died by suicide since September 2016. The most recent was Riley Lynch, a Guelph physics student who reportedly loved the outdoors and enjoyed drawing. The university is now working with the Canadian Mental Health Association to address student mental health solutions. Students aren’t the only ones who benefit from the break; faculty can use the time to do whatever they need to, whether that be grading, researching or spending time with family. Reading weeks aren’t necessarily the answer, since most have felt inundated with assignments and mid-terms before and after reading week. Who’s able to fully relax or feel caught up when there’s deadlines looming over one’s head? University students are stigmatized for being a bunch of tired, broke, hungry and partying misfits. They’re expected to work harder than everyone else, in some cases for free, and that’s OK because they’re young so they can handle it. But that’s not the case, they’re humans who need food, sleep and support just like everyone else. So whatever your plans may be for next week, do yourself a favour and schedule some downtime.
EBONY-RENEE BAKER | RYERSONIAN
Study break expectations vs. reality.
OPINION
You can’t do it alone MADONNA DENNIS RYERSONIAN
I’m a team player. I’ve been on elementary school sports teams, in choirs and in the cast of musicals. I’ve been part of and even head of student groups, course unions and prom committees. That’s a lot of people to work with. But it’s also a lot of fun to pull something off together. So when journalism requires me to do more and more simultaneously, I immediately start looking at ways to get a whole team
involved. Who’s the best person to help me? I certainly can’t pull off my entire vision all by myself. In recent years, the journalism industry has drastically changed. There used to be money to pay several people to work on one project, now one person is expected to do everything. But if you want to produce a high quality piece that takes time and is meaningful, you most likely won’t be paid for it. In Ryerson’s journalism program, we’re being asked to be a multi-platform journalist in print, online and broadcast. That’s a lot of work for one person. Most people entered this program with a specific stream in mind. And while it’s obviously to our advantage to learn other streams, journalists are now expected to do it all, and do it well. Instead of having an expert videographer, an expert editor and an expert graphics person, there’s just one person under the
pressure of all of those jobs combined. This vision of a journalists being an expert at different platforms is in schools across the country. But it seems to have stamped out a desire to collaborate with students in programs which can enhance the storytelling journalism is known for. As journalists, we know that talking to an expert is better than just asking for a layperson’s opinion, even if they are interested in the subject matter. But student journalists should consider bringing experts from other programs in to help produce the story as well. Being an expert in something takes time, commitment, and focus. So imagine each person on a team being focused on a specialized task. That would allow an in-depth look at each part of the whole, thereby making the final product even better.
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Voices
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Read more Voices online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Why I pay for my music ‘People need to appreciate the art they listen to and give artists the money that they deserve’ ANDRÉ VARTY RYERSONIAN
I can remember the days my dad would take me to the nearest HMV to sift through the latest pop hits. There was this feeling of wholesomeness that washed over me when I’d stare at these shelves full of albums I could pay for and own for the rest of my life. This was back in early 2000 when all I wanted to listen to was Britney Spears and ’N Sync. I still have those CDs in my room. Since then, I’ve gone from listening to my music with a Sony Walkman to several iterations of the Apple iPod. But the one thing I kept doing was purchasing my music. Why? Because it is one of the most important things you can do to support an artist and not enough people are doing it. And to clear the misconception: streaming services do not count as purchasing music. We live in a streaming era where services like Spotify and Apple Music are taking away album sales and becoming the main sources for people to listen to music. Heck, if you didn’t already hear, HMV Canada announced that it is officially closing its doors for good. In July 2016, Billboard published an article stating that album sales had gone down 16.9 per cent. The compact disc fell 11.6 per cent, while digital album sales fell to 43.8 million compared to the first half of 2015 when it was moving 53.7 million. The decline of the compact
SUMI SIDDIQA
disc was inevitable ever since the introduction of the iPod, but the decline of digital album sales comes from Apple’s decision to discontinue the production of iPod Classics and help usher in the new era of streaming. The iPod is slowly becoming a rare artifact. When Apple announced it was discontinuing them, I jumped on the store’s website and bought one. It’s now one of my most prized possessions and has my entire iTunes library on it. There’s about 12,500 songs on it and I can proudly say that the majority were purchased. There’s a difference between buying music and subscribing to a streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music. When you stream, you can listen to whatever you want. Whereas when you purchase music, it is yours and a major percentage of proceeds
actually goes to the artist. In an infographic published by informationisbeautiful.net, it’s revealed that if an artist is unsigned and selling an album on iTunes for $9.99, they’ll receive about $5.99 in revenue. If an artist is signed, they’ll receive $2.99 in revenue. For an unsigned artist to receive the most money through digital album sales, the best option is to sell it through services like Bandcamp, which generates $8.50 in revenue for a $10 album. When it comes to streaming services, not many realize how little money artists receive. In an article published by The Verge in 2015, it was reported that, depending the artist’s contract the with their label, they’ll earn between $0.006 to $0.0084 per stream for one song. Some artists earn even less. This is another reason why
purchasing music is important and it breaks my heart to see HMV go. But, this is not entirely the consumer’s fault. A lot of has to do with the way tech companies continue imposing their views of the “future,” the same way Apple discontinued the iPod Classic and is now manufacturing the latest model with no headphone jacks (for wireless headphones). They keep picking away the options and leave you with what’s left. When it comes to storage options for the latest iPhone 7, the consumer can choose either a 32 GB, 128 GB and now 256 GB. Since the 256 GB iPhone is bloody expensive, many people can only afford a 32 GB one, which leaves you with barely enough space for any music. It’s then that streaming music becomes more convenient for listeners.
Streaming is a service catered towards us being a lazy generation. Instead of purchasing an album, spending time with it and appreciating the art, you have the freedom to mindlessly listen to whatever album is available. There’s just no connection anymore between the listener and the artist. People don’t have to go through the process of deciding whether to spend money on an album or not. They listen to something, get tired of it and then move on to the next thing that’s available to them. In a recent interview with The FADER, Peter Sagar of Canadian indie band Homeshake said that streaming devalues the art, having all the music under one umbrella. “Suddenly you have access to every song in the world? Maybe it seems like those songs don’t matter as much anymore. But that could just be a problem music has in the digital age. It’s similar to all the news that’s out there, this overwhelming abundance of information. That’s why we’ll turn into androids or whatever eventually, right?” I’ll always remember the day I purchased Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs and listened to it nonstop on the way to school. Purchasing music is more than just supporting an artist, it can also work as a bookmark in your life. I’ll always be able to connect a certain album with a time in my life. People need to appreciate the art they listen to and give artists the money they deserve. They work bloody hard for it and you should too.
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Tidbits & Teasers
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Campus Connection Events
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Feb. 15 Voices of Experience: People of Colour 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Ryerson Career Centre POD 60
I get a little delusional sometimes when I’m on those three days of the three hours (of sleep).
Last Call: On Sexual Harassment 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. Ram in the Rye
Christina Esposito Found in: News
Europe on the Brink: Populism, Nationalism and Brexit 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. ENG 103, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre
It tastes like panther piss.
Allan Perkins
Feb. 16
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Sounds of the Times 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Imperial Pub, Main Floor When undocumented mothers are deported and are unable to see their children, that is an issue of reproductive freedom.
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Profs read Reviews We’re all guilty of misusing RateMyProfessors.com. Ryersonian TV asked Ryerson professors to read and respond to their RateMyProf reviews. Head to ryersonian.ca to see how it went down.
Film Screening: The Thinking Garden 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. ENG 103, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre
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GCM Colloquium 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
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