Ryerson Athletics’ eligibility page 9
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2017
yersonian R
ryersonian.ca Volume 72 Number 5
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
Mental health services need more diversity MILCA KUFLU
“visible minorities/racial employees,” compared to 55 per cent of full-time students. Students have also experienced this lack of representation when accessing mental health resources. One engineering student, who has used Ryerson’s mental health services more than once, says that although his counsellors tried their best, they simply couldn’t understand his experiences. “They don’t know how to talk to a young black male who’s doing a high-stress subject because they haven’t seen one,” he said. “There’s not much understanding there, they can’t relate to me, and that’s a big problem. How can you help me if I don’t trust you?”
RYERSONIAN
College faculty on strike Around 12,000 Ontario college instructors have walked off the job. The strike affects some Ryerson students in the collaborative nursing program. See story at ryersonian.ca
AIDAN N MAC M NAB | RYERSONIAN
What’s online Check out ryersonian.ca to read about Saturday’s march against white supremacy, and a new show by Ryerson grads about a cracksmoking mayor
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Ryerson’s Health and Wellness Centre has been a vital resource for students battling mental health issues, but its lack of diversity has many students of colour feeling left behind. The hued racial composition on campus is hard to miss. Walk along Gould Street on a busy afternoon and you’ll see a true reflection of Toronto’s fast-growing ethno-cultural community, which now makes up almost half of the city’s population. But for all the diversity in its student population, Ryerson’s staff, faculty and services just haven’t kept up. According to the university’s Diversity Self-ID report, only 24 per cent of faculty self-identify as
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Toronto activists march against white supremacy ryersonian.ca Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Campus short on space Enrolment rises but space in short supply EVAN MANNING and SPENCER TURCOTTE RYERSONIAN
Ryerson is running out of space. It is an issue that everyone from students to professors to Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi is, more or less, aware of. “Everybody is asking for more space,” said Lachemi. “We are in a situation where we have a campus that is kind of landlocked. It’s very difficult to deal with the demand.” Ryerson’s skyrocketing enrolment numbers have also played their part. In 2015, during his final year as president, Sheldon Levy told the Ryersonian that he envisioned a future where the school would have an enrolment of 100,000 students within a 25-year time frame. It was a big quest, but one Levy deemed achievable. From the 2010-11 school year until 2016-17, Levy’s goal has seemed attainable. During that period, Ryerson’s overall enrolment has grown from 26,663 students to 35,166. But during that time, the whispers of Ryerson’s elephant in the room have increased, and so too has the school’s space utilization rate (SUR), which measures classroom size versus actual classroom capacity. Despite having completed and introduced Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ), the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the Image Arts
Centre and the Student Learning Centre, the school’s 2016-17 SUR rested at 92 per cent. It was only 80 per cent in 2015. Ryerson’s registrar, Charmaine Hack, said that Ryerson has dealt with unparalleled growth over the past two decades, and the school needs to consider how to accommodate future programs or initiatives in terms of spacing. But Hack also said that the current space challenges are not just because of enrolment. “The space pressures are also due to an increasing need for space for a variety of uses from events and conferences (hallmarks of top quality institutions), collaborative space, study space and non-traditional, flexible and other creative classroom configurations, to name a few,” Hack said. Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) director of operations Dan Greenwood applauded the school’s growth, but admitted that adapting to the rapid change isn’t easy. “One of the issues I can speak to, with the university as a whole, is we experience space issues as far as enough classrooms,” said Greenwood. “It’s not a secret, Ryerson has grown a lot, which is great. But there are some growing pain issues.” Ryerson School of Journalism (RSJ) administration warned assistant journalism professor Lisa Taylor that she was scheduled to teach a first-year course in a classroom that wasn’t going to be big enough.
SPENCER TURCOTTE | RYERSONIAN
The RSJ told Taylor they were working with the university to solve the problem. But by the first class, the issue had not been resolved. Taylor was stuck with 140 students occupying a Kerr Hall South classroom made for only 130. “It seemed like the campus
scheduling people seemed to think that it was totally OK to say, ‘well if people show up late then they might not have a seat.’” Taylor urged her first-year students to push for change, telling them that their classroom environment was not a reasonable use of their tuition.
This tactic appeared to work because, like magic, she said, the scheduling department happened to come up with a solution after the dean of FCAD received a complaint from one of the first-year students. Taylor’s room was swapped Please see SPACE, page 4
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R yersonian
News 3
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Most Ryerson students enrolled in degrees employers don’t want
RSU to hold referendum on new levy
MANSOOR TANWEER
IRIS ROBIN
RYERSONIAN
RYERSONIAN
A study of post-secondary institutions in more than 30 countries revealed that the majority of students are not taking majors that are in high demand by employers, and Ryerson’s students are not an exception. The study is called Education at a Glance 2017 and it was conducted by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last September. The OECD is an intergovernmental organization made up of 35 member countries, including Canada. The survey showed that the most popular courses among students are law, business and administration, which make up 29 per cent of enrolments in universities in OECD countries. The skills employers demand most are in engineering and information technology (IT), but only 16 per cent of students are taking engineering and only five per cent are taking IT. Ryerson’s enrolment numbers are very much in line with the findings of the report. According to statistics provided to the Ryersonian by the university’s planning office, Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) is the most populous faculty. It’s comprised of just over 10,000 undergrad students — making up roughly
The Ryerson Students’ Union is holding a referendum on whether to implement a new levy to increase funding for a support line for sexual assault survivors and a campus food service. If implemented, all full-time students would pay a compulsory $5 twice annually — once in the fall term and once in the winter term — to support the Sexual Assault Survivor Support Line (SASSL) and the Good Food Centre (GFC). At least 10 per cent of fulltime students must vote in the referendum, and the result must yield more “yes” votes than “no” votes for the referendum to pass. The SASSL provides free, confidential peer support for Ryerson community members who have experienced sexual violence. It has operated since 2011 and educates people on various ways that violence manifests on campus. If students want to campaign on this referendum, they need a team of three people to fill out a form to register. The forms must be submitted to a returning officer by Oct. 20. In the case of a winning yes vote, the decision to implement the levy would have to be approved by at least two-thirds of RSU’s board of directors. Voting will begin on Nov. 6 starting at 8 a.m. and will take place online. Polling stations will also be stationed around campus. The voting period will run until Nov. 9 at 4:30 p.m., coinciding with the RSU byelections. If approved, the fee increase will take effect starting September 2018.
31 per cent of Ryerson’s roughly 35,000 strong undergraduate student body. Engineering, on the other hand, only makes up 14 per cent of those enrolled at Ryerson. And only three per cent of students are part of the Ryerson’s two computer science programs. Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi says that a diverse mosaic of factors are considered when deciding on academic policy, not just student and employer demand. “It is a very complex situation. We look at the state of the
economy, that’s one aspect of it. We work with professions, we work with NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to see the trend that is happening. Of course, we also take into consideration the demand from students,” said Lachemi. According to an emailed statement from the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development (MAESD), universities have a lot of freedom to design their curriculums. “Each university is an independent entity with full authority to determine its own administrative processes, and academic and operational policies including developing and offering specific programs,” said Ingrid Anderson from the ministry’s media relations unit. The overall authority to design and enact the university’s academic policy at Ryerson falls on the school’s senate. Part of its decision-making process includes the use of advisory councils in each program. Volunteers from their respective fields advise on things like curriculum, industry trends and program review. However, according to a news release provided by the OECD
the same day the study came out, “New evidence shows that universities can fail to offer, and individuals fail to pursue, the fields of study that promise the greatest labour market opportunities.” When asked why Ryerson’s enrolment numbers favour business and administration, Lachemi said, “That is all based on the demand. At the end of the day, students are applying for programs, and you have to accommodate those demands. But we also have limits. You cannot necessarily increase the numbers of students even if you have a huge demand in engineering. You cannot compromise quality and just accept more students in engineering.” Despite the report and its findings, the OECD emphasized that a university education is still a worthwhile pursuit. “Adults with a tertiary degree benefit from substantial returns on their investment: they are 10 percentage points more likely to be employed, and will earn 56 per cent more on average than adults who only completed upper secondary education.” @mansoortanweer
@Iris_Robin
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Wednesday, October 18, 2017
R yersonian
SPACE cont’d...
Enrolment to blame for shortage of space with a bigger class in the Ted Rogers School of Management. When Lachemi was asked specifically about a lack of space in classrooms, he didn’t seem to be aware of the issue. “That is something that is kind of surprising to me…” Overcapacity isn’t the only problem stemming from Ryerson’s spacing issues. As Hack mentioned, there’s also less room for other key extracurricular university components like events, guest lecturers, collaborative spaces and even meetings. Kathleen Kellett, the associate dean for Ryerson’s Undergraduate Studies Dean of Arts Office, said there is considerable competition for space, which leads to difficulty in organizing meetings. “Recently, we had no choice but to hold a staff/faculty meeting in a small classroom in the Sally Horsfall Eaton Centre,” said Kellett. “Boardrooms have
been transformed into office space or are used for seminar space, because space for offices and classrooms is also in high demand.” Kamal Al-Solaylee, an associate professor at RSJ, had troubles with an event he scheduled for late November. Several weeks before the fall semester, Al-Solaylee got confirmation for the event from Ryerson, which was to take place in the 199-seat Eaton Lecture Hall in the Rogers Communications Centre (RCC). In September, Al-Solaylee was told he could no longer host his event there because the room was needed to hold an exam. He was told he could hold the event in The Venn, which can seat only about 90 people. “You can’t really be ambitious for the conference anymore,” he said. Fixing these spacing issues is no small task for Ryerson.
According to Yew-Thong Leong, an architectural science associate professor and the managing director at SSG Architecture Inc., Ryerson faces different challenges than other universities, due to its downtown location. “At Ryerson we have to not just come up with the money to build, but we also have come up with the money to buy a piece of land,” said Leong. “We’re smack in the middle of downtown and we’re fighting with all these cash-rich people like Cadillac-Fairview. It’s very difficult and we have very little money. In fact, we have no money.” And with Ryerson’s ever-booming enrolment, Leong said the process of finding space becomes even more difficult. “Students come every year. Buildings cannot be built that quickly. On average it takes one to two years to design a building
and one to two years to build it. So there’s a four-year cycle between construction and design, and that’s not counting the purchasing of the land.” Leong said that Ryerson is trying its very best, and there are a number of buildings in progress that should help solve some of these issues. The Centre for Urban Innovation and the Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex are both under construction. Both are slated to open in 2018 and will bring new research spaces, laboratories, student housing and lecture halls. These new projects will solve some of the issues but not all. There are also several renovations in progress, including in Kerr Hall, the Image Arts Centre and the RCC. According to Leong, university campuses often try to stay away from putting classrooms in multi-storey buildings
because students change classes so frequently. “With the health sciences centre, realistically we are not adding a lot of large classroom spaces because we can only use the basement and ground level where people can walk up and down.” But now, the issue is being pushed to the forefront. Lachemi says space on campus is something he and his colleagues discuss on a daily basis and ensures it is something they’re working to get more of. How and when this will happen? It’s difficult to say. For the time being, the solution may be to sit back and wait. That is, if there is a seat. @realecmanning @_Spencer_T
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News 5
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
RACIALIZED cont’d...
Racialized students want culturally specific support As the first person in his family to go to university, he says he feels a lot of pressure to “be a constant pillar of success.� Reports like the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) Mental Health Report show that the expectation students of colour have to thrive in academic settings while pocketing the added weights of racial trauma or discrimination can affect their mental health. The fight for diversification in mental health and wellness services echoes off-campus too. According to a Mental Health Commission of Canada study published in 2016, service accessibility is one of the biggest issues immigrant, refugee, ethno-cultural or
racialized communities face — with “the most pertinent being the cultural incompatibility of existing services.� Many universities, including Ryerson, have made commitments to increasing accessibility to mental health services. Indigenous elders on campus, who provide spiritual and personal support, and the new Muslim chaplaincy, who provides faith based guidance to Muslim students, do exist. But cultural-specific counselling still hasn’t been implemented. The Ryerson Mental Health report in 2017 stated that 49 per cent of students felt so depressed that it was difficult to function, while 67 per cent had
MIL MI M I CA KUFLU U | RYER RYER Y SO SO ONIAN
Casandra Fulwood, co-ordinator of the Racialised Students’ Collecাve.
overwhelming anxiety. But the university’s mental health strategy, which is included in the report, makes no mention of any racial demographics. This small fracture in the report points to the countrywide
absence of race-based data in universities. According to the CBC, Ryerson is one of more than 60 universities that don’t keep track of their racial demographics. Zandra Alexander, one of Ryerson’s media relations officers,
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says the university’s vice-president of Equity and Community Inclusion, Denise O’Neil Green, is working to “help create outreach programs that will better engage racialized students on campus.� The Diversity Self-ID is planning to extend its survey to students and will run this fall. For Camryn Harlick, vice-president of equity at the Ryerson Students’ Union, what matters most is what gets done with the data once it’s collected. “Are they going to use data to implement programs that help better racialized students’ lives on campus?� Harlick added that Ryerson should not tokenize students just so they can say they’re diverse without actually creating a safer space for marginalized students. Casandra Fulwood, who works as a Racialised Students’ Collective co-ordinator, says investing in services representing that student body is just not a top priority. She has seen numerous students who have been referred to her collective, and says that it isn’t fair to the organization. “I think it’s laziness. Why would you send students (to) come to us knowing that we don’t have the capacity to counsel students? I don’t turn anyone away, but I don’t have the experience or tools to counsel people,� she said. Fulwood says that counsellors haven’t been empathetic to her personal experiences. “You can’t go in there and talk about racism from a prof because they don’t see racism as a serious thing. “I just stopped going,� said Fulwood. She recounts being given referrals to services off-campus, such as Women’s Health in Women’s Hands, a mental health service prioritizing women of colour, which had wait times that were over a year. For Fulwood, finding resources in times of need that are free and also good are difficult. “I just try to take a day off at home and try to ground myself,� she says. @millcaakuflu
R yers Student film confronts relationship sex abuse 6
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Features
Glass Ceiling Productions is an excutive team of five young women creating a film that is starting a conversation about consent in a relationship, and encouraging women to stand up for each other.
COU C CO OU URTE RT TE T ESY YA ALE LEX D’AD D’AD ’ADDES DE D E ESE
Glass Ceiling Producঞons is a group of five women telling a story to moঞvate women. Le[ to right: Sydney Weinstock, Holly O’Brien, Amanda Mastantuono, Trish Riswick, Sloane Lester. CHRISTIANE BEYA RYERSONIAN
Meet Glass Ceiling Productions, a group of five young women in their fourth year of Ryerson’s RTA School of Media releasing a film that is normalizing the conversation of sexual assault, abuse and consent. Their coming-of-age film, The Remnants of Eden, is about sexual consent in a relationship and speaks about a traumatic event that happens to the main character, Eden Rosen. Rosen becomes fearful of her first love. With the help from friends and family, she recovers and her spirits begin to lift. But, the remnants of her past still remain. “She goes through this really traumatic experience but she is still able to pick up the pieces and stay strong, and
keep growing, and share her story, and build up her confidence again,” said co-producer and financial lead Sydney Weinstock. Rosen is an independent only child who dreams of becoming a director and actor. In the summer right before senior year, her world shifts when she meets a friend’s nephew, Zach, who comes to town for the summer. Rosen’s confidence and innocence is lost with the introduction of Zach. Zach is an overbearing character who constantly puts Rosen in a difficult position and makes her feel very insecure. Rosen’s independence is lost as she becomes dependent on Zach, a character switch from who she initially was. As a young woman figuring out her place, Rosen’s traumatic experience forces her to start from the beginning. “It is something that I feel like a lot of people can relate
to,” said director and story editor Trish Riswick. “You are trying to figure out who you are and then all of a sudden someone changes the course of it.” The all-female executive team – Weinstock, Riswick, creative director Holly O’Brien, marketing and casting director Amanda Mastantuono and co-producer and production co-ordinator Sloane Lester – say they are seeking to empower women to speak up and share their confidence with the rest of their peers. The group’s name came out of the realization that five women are creating a movie about a young girl’s journey, and having the film tell a story centred on women. The feminist term glass ceiling came to mind. “In the industry, you do not have that many women behind the camera telling you stories for girls, and that was something that we really wanted to do,” said Riswick.
sonian In their film, Glass Ceiling Productions highlights that just because you are in a relationship does not mean that you have to say yes, and, though your partner may be ready, it does not mean that you have to be. “If you are not ready, do not feel pressured by other people around you, especially your boyfriend – he should love you for who you are and not what you will do with him,” said Lester. Through The Remnants of Eden, Glass Ceiling Productions’ goal is to start a conversation about sexual assault and abuse, not only for women but for men as well. The group members say that you should not be ashamed to not engage in certain activities because it should not be an issue or something to be embarrassed about. Sexual abuse and assault does not just affect the person to whom it is happening to, it affects everyone. Mastantuono suggests that although you may not know someone who has gone through it, you have probably read a story regarding the topic online or you have had a friend of a friend who has been through the situation. “I feel like our topic resonates with someone in some way. Whether their favourite movie deals with this or their sister has dealt with this, (consent) touches someone in some way,” said Mastantuono. According to Statistics Canada, sexual assault is more common than some may suspect, as one in four women experience a form of sexual abuse in their lifetime. Young and vulnerable women are most likely to be sexually abused. Statistics Canada also reports that sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes. This is attributed to a range of reasons such as shame, guilt, and stigma of sexual victimization. Though there has been an increase of societal awareness regarding sexual assault, it is still an issue in Canada. With this information, Glass Ceiling Productions aspires to encourage women to speak up and support one another. After three days of casting, the media school students were able to create a team of seven main characters for their film.
Features
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
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The executive team cast seven main characters in three days. Their film will be released in the first few months of the new year.
“When our actors would come in for their auditions, they were amazed that it was an entire panel of women who were casting,” said Weinstock. “It was shocking to us because we figured that they have gone to an
According to Lester, you never really know a situation unless you have been through it and to watch someone go through it is just as painful. “We want (the movie) to hit home and make (the audience) realize that this is not OK
You do not have that many women behind the camera telling you stories for girls. — Trish Riswick all-female panel of women.” With the help of friends and family, the team was able to raise its goal amount of $5,000 in nine days through crowdfunding. “The amazing thing about our families is we had distant relatives reaching out and sharing our content and we were like, ‘how is this resonating with so many people?’” said Weinstock. “It was really amazing to see so much support.” Alongside their objective to normalize a conversation about consent, at the end of their movie the filmmakers would like the audience to feel a connection to Eden Rosen and the emotions and hardships that she went through.
and this is something that needs to be put out there,” said Lester. Consent is important at any age as the simple act of conversation makes people feel comfortable and respected. “Whether it is regarding sex or anything else, even if it is just a kiss, it is really nice for someone to (ask), ‘can I kiss you?’ instead of them just doing it. Conversation goes a long way,” said Riswick. Their project began during their third year and will première within the first few months of 2018. @BeyaChristiane
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R yersonian Arts & Life
Rye grads produce show on crack-smoking mayor ryersonian.ca Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Former image arts student builds a career out of Lego CHRISTINE CHUA RYERSONIAN
The tiny Lego bricks that coloured most people’s childhoods are designed to make virtually anything. In the case of a former School of Image Arts student, they made his career. Dylan Woodley’s game is stop-motion animation: making seamless movement out of Lego bricks one frame at a time. The 22-year-old has made videos seen by millions of people, including the official Lego remake of Ed Sheeran’s hit song Lego House, as well as his versions of Coldplay’s Viva la Vida and Foster the People’s Houdini. But before the viral videos, and before attending Ryerson,
Woodley was just a kid with a table full of Lego and his dad’s old camera. “I was always playing with Lego, doing cool things, making robots and making big spaceships, and everything that a kid likes to do with them. And, I was also making videos with my siblings,” he said. “(I) found that there was something called stop-motion animation, and I could put these two worlds together and make my own videos. And that grew as a hobby, into a passion, into a profession.” He started making stop-motion videos at 12 years old. As both his passion and skill level grew, so did his workspace. He gradually moved from the corner of his Stratford, Ont., bedroom to his parents’ basement, and more recently to his own studio
in Toronto with his over 150,000 Lego bricks in tow. Making just one minute of stop-motion is a tireless process that involves assembling the sets, props and figures needed, and then slowly creating each movement frame by frame. From there, Woodley edits the still photos together and adds special effects that couldn’t be accomplished through Lego alone. That’s a process that can total hundreds of hours of work and roughly 60 hours of editing. In 2012, his version of Houdini by Foster the People went viral and caught the attention of Warner Bros. music. Still in Grade 12 at the time, Woodley was hired to create a shot-for-shot remake of Ed Sheeran’s Lego House music video. “They said Ed saw (Houdini)
C COU RTESY D DYL Y AN WOO O DLE OO DLEY Y
Through clever photography, Dylan Woodley makes his small-scale Lego sets look like life-sized rooms.
and he’s always wanted the song Lego House to have a Lego music video, but the studio always said, ‘No, it’d cost too much money, it’d take too much time,’ ” said Woodley. “But they found this 17-yearold kid who worked out of his parents’ basement and that was the perfect opportunity.” Woodley created the roughly four-minute video over the course of 50 days, and then watched the YouTube views skyrocket. To date, it’s been seen 7.5 million times. “It was a snow day, the day it came out,” he said. “So I just got to sit in bed and watch the online reaction come in. That immediate response was such strong fuel for a young creator, to see positive reactions immediately following the work.” Riding that wave of success, Woodley attended the Image Arts film program after seeing a Ryerson student’s thesis film at his high school. “I figured (film school) would allow me to expand my horizons, break out of the stop-motion world into some live-action and get a taste of what else is out there.” Though live-action filmmaking is still something he’d like to try, what he found at Ryerson instead was a reinforcement of the work he’d already been doing. “This kind of ethereal world of imagination that I’m always playing in is much more suited to the various animated mediums. Live-action has a place in that, but only supplementary to my
Dylan Woodley, 22, has been making stop-motion animations since he was 12 years old.
creativity.” He stayed at Ryerson for two years before leaving to focus on larger projects, including collaborations with the Lego Group itself. But with hundreds of thousands of bricks, a simple tripod and a DSLR camera, Woodley’s work is still, at its core, assembling the Lego bricks he’d play with as a kid. “It’s painful and tiring,” he said with a smile. “But with every new frame that’s made, the action starts to reveal itself, and the scene comes alive. And there’s nothing more exciting than being a part of that kind of lucid process.” @ChrisঞCrunch
R yersonian
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Fastpitch team happy with results ryersonian.ca
Sports
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Rye bolsters eligibility checks MAX CIARMELA AND LUKE BELLUS RYERSONIAN
Ryerson Athletics is reviewing its grade monitoring process among student athletes after the men’s soccer team was penalized for academic ineligibility by the Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. An unnamed player failed to meet academic requirements back in September, forcing the team to forfeit its first six games. Had the wins stood, the team would have been in fourth place overall in the country. “We are in the process of reviewing our systems and processes,” said Ivan Joseph, director of Ryerson athletics. “We are going to do a thorough, deep dive into seeing exactly where this was broken, and we are going to put some steps into place.” Rams men’s basketball head coach Filip Prostran says the team is doing what it can to avoid situations like this in the future. “I’ve assigned people on our coaching staff to be dedicated just to (eligibility checks),” said Prostran, “Along with more weekly meetings with regards to academic checks, making sure everything is aligned and on course for them to graduate and to make sure everything is in place for them to be academically successful.” Athletics will continue to tweak the system’s checks and balances to ensure nothing flies under radar. According to the chief operating officer of U Sports, David Goldstein, each university is required to confirm the eligibility of its student-athletes before and during the season.
MAX CIARMELA | RYERSONIAN
He added, “beyond that, each university has autonomy over its internal processes.” Currently, Ryerson Athletics has many checks and balances to ensure they are on top of athlete’s eligibility. All varsity athletes are told of their responsibilities as students during an academic orientation at the beginning of the school year. Each athlete must enrol in the prerequisite number of hours (six classes or 18 credit hours). Any first-year athlete or student who has a GPA below 2.67 must complete four hours a week in study hall to be able to dress and play for their team on game day. If an athlete is below a 1.67 GPA they are on probation and ineligible to play. Players must show that they are making serious efforts to get their marks above that point to
get back on the team. During Joseph’s time at Ryerson, many changes have been made to improve the monitoring of student athletes grades and help them stay organized. In 2015, all varsity athletes started using a Ryerson Athletics Mobile App.
tool for student athletes. It helps them track engagement hours, set up a physical therapy appointment, a study session or tutoring session. “I’m pretty lucky to come to Ryerson at a time where the athletics program was really starting to develop and grow and become more high performance, and recognized within Ontario and Canada,” said Haroula Giovanopoulos, a fifth-year nutrition student and setter for the Rams women’s volleyball team. Athletes also have to participate in community engagement. U Sports athletes on a Ryerson varsity team have to complete eight hours throughout the year as well as one team initiative. “There is not a lot of room for procrastination as a student athlete,” Giovanopoulos added. “You
There is not a lot of room for procrastination as a student athlete. — Haroula Giovanopoulos At the beginning of each semester all student athletes must input the syllabus for each of their courses with the grade breakdown. It is expected that once an athlete gets their marks back they input it into the app so the athletic administration can see it and provide feedback. In addition to helping athletics track marks, the app also acts as a
never know when the practice schedule will change, so you really need to stay on top of all your work to make sure you are meeting those deadlines and stay eligible.” Jean-Victor Mukama has been with the Rams basketball team since 2013. Academic troubles kept him off the roster during the 2016-2017 season. “As soon as I saw the exam results came in, I knew that if I didn’t pass all the classes I took for the next semester, I wasn’t going to be eligible to play,” said Mukama, who was named the OUA East rookie of the year in 2013. “It was a decision to say, take this year and take it serious, otherwise I’m not even going to be in school anymore.” During the season he missed, Mukama participated in select practices. His experience in high pressure games and understanding of the eligibility process allowed him to speak his wisdom to the younger teammates. “Over the years, I’ve had to learn how to really use my time management really well,” said Mukama. “It’s not possible, especially as a first year, to just wing it and leave things to the last minute. Because if you do, you are going to see things start to get worse either in basketball or academically.” This is the first time a Ryerson team had to forfeit games due to academic ineligibility since Joseph took over as director in 2008. Joseph acknowledges that mistakes were made. “Clearly it did slip through the cracks... If we had done our job right here, he wouldn’t get to play.” @lukebellus4 @MaxCiarmela
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Editorial
Read more ‘letters to my professor’ online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, October 18, 2017
EDITORIAL
Consent culture must be priority The high numbers of male and female actors, managers, and publicists who have decided to share their stories of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual assault (which has continued for more than three decades) reminds us of how pervasive rape culture is. It’s more proof that campus policies geared toward consent culture are vital to students’ safety and should continue. Rape culture can be described as a set of beliefs and practices that normalizes and excuses acts of sexual violence against women. This gender-based violence also extends to men, transgender and gender-nonconforming people. As noted by Sarah Prior and Brooke de Heer in their Inside Higher Ed article, Raising Strong Women in a Culture of Rape: “It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violence.” This culture is even more pronounced on university campuses. In North America, around 15 to 25 per cent of women who attend college and or university will experience some form of sexual assault in their academic career. Women aged 18 to 25 are more likely to face some sort of sexual violence. According to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) Sexual Assault fact sheet published in 2015, one in five women will experience sexual assault on campuses across Ontario, with many occurring within the first eight weeks of the school year. It’s important to recognize that not all abusers and rapists fit the Harvey Weinstein archetype of powerful Hollywood mogul. They
are our friends, colleagues, teachers, and those we call our romantic partners. The normalization of sexual violence occurs within our communities and most intimate relationships. According to the CFS, more than 80 per cent of rapes that occur on college and university campuses are committed by someone known to the victim, with half of these incidents occurring on dates. The messages we receive from media and the rest of society tell us that sexual assault is OK, and that it is normal when it is not. Ryerson has taken steps to combat sexual violence on campus and promote a variety of workshops and policies that educate students on the myriad of ways sexual violence takes place in the student body. In 2015, Ryerson launched the Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education, which is responsible for creating policies that relate to sexual violence on campus. Campaigns, such as #consentcomesfirst, empower young students to confidently call out sexual abuse when they see it and hold perpetrators in institutionalized settings accountable. As noted in the CFS fact sheet, educating faculty, staff and students is a part of breaking down the hard shell that prevents rape survivors from breaking free from the stigma of assault. It is about creating a community where victims feel safe. A community to reassure them that they are not blamed when they decide to come forward and report incidents of sexual assault.
SIMONA CATALANO | RYERSONIAN
OPINION
Letter to my ex-prof JOSIE MILLS RYERSONIAN
In my last semester of third year, I took a class that had one major project, a midterm and an exam. The class seemed fairly easy, but the major project was an assignment to be done in pairs. Each pair had to get a topic approved and write an in-depth report. The project was assigned during the second week of the semester and was due before the final exam. It counted for 40 per cent of my grade. Up until then, I had no complaints about the professor. He seemed knowledgeable, fair and even funny at times. He approved our topic and some of the sources we were planning to use.
My partner and I worked hard on the assignment all semester, with intentions to hand it in early to free up more time for studying. We completed the assignment and were fairly proud of the work we had done. We submitted it early and the professor assured the class that most people do extremely well on it. I relaxed and began studying, until I received a call from my classmate about our project. It had been marked. We received a zero. I told her that it must be a mistake. Maybe he hadn’t actually marked it and there was a system error. We emailed the professor asking about the failing grade. He quickly responded, informing us that there was no mistake, and that the topic of our assignment wasn’t relevant. I teared up because I was already stressed about school and a zero on this assignment meant that unless I got a very high mark on my exam, I would fail the course. My partner didn’t take that as an answer and begged the
professor to re-read our report. He finally agreed to give it another look. I spent the next few days studying as hard as possible, trying to salvage my grade. I received another email from the professor saying that he had read the paper again and had decided to give us an 80. There was no explanation for the grade change. More unbelievable though, was that there was no apology for the unwarranted failing grade. Although it was a lot of stress, I learned how important it is to stand up for the work I do and ask questions when I think that I deserve more. Don’t be afraid to ask why and learn about how to appeal a grade. I imagine that it is easy for professors to mark students and not think about the time and effort put in, especially in large classes. I often wonder if he had even read the paper at all, and how many other people he gave zeros. @josie_mills
R yersonian Voices
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Read more Voices online ryersonian.ca Wednesday, October 18, 2017
False awakenings: my nightmares ‘I realize I’m dreaming, and I have been awake in a realistic dreamscape for several hours.’
EVAN MANNING RYERSONIAN
In October of 2016, I wrote an article detailing sleep paralysis, the terrifying phenomenon where one “wakes up” within a dream, unaware that they are still dreaming, with the inability to move. In that article, I briefly mentioned a separate phenomenon of dreaming called false awakenings. For those of you who have never experienced it, here is a look into what false awakenings consist of, and my experiences dealing with them. *** I’m awake. I have been for what feels like a couple of hours. Before that I had been sleeping peacefully in my bed, with my girlfriend beside me. I’m not entirely sure the exact timing of my recent events since waking up. Life at this instant, for some odd reason, is extremely blurry. Moments ago, I was in a car watching a movie and before that, I was in a classroom getting advice from an instructor on an article I have in progress. Now I am sitting on my couch, watching football on a brisk fall Sunday. I don’t know how I transitioned from the classroom to the car to here so fluidly, but I feel comfortable nonetheless. My girlfriend is sitting with me. We are not saying much to each other. My focus is mostly on the football game on my TV. I also have my laptop in hand, to check on other NFL scores. Without mention of where she’s going, my girlfriend suddenly stands up and walks out through my back door. As she
EVAN MANN EVA N ING NG G | RYE RYERSO RY SONIAN S NIA AN
exits, I notice the door’s blinds are fully rolled up, so I can peek out at her if I so please. I look down at my watch and notice it’s nearly dinner time, which doesn’t make sense. Just a couple hours ago I had been sleeping, awaiting the morning. How can it be this late? I begin to panic. With my head now on a swivel, I shift to check on what my girlfriend is still doing out in my backyard. The blinds are somehow closed now, and my house feels freezing. I have the unsettling feeling that she is completely gone. In this instant, I realize I’m dreaming, and I have been awake in a realistic dreamscape for several hours. Immense fear settles in my stomach. I become dizzy and vomit. My body melts, and I collapse. I need to wake up. I start yelling out for help to anyone who can hear me. Through muffled shouting, my girlfriend shakes me conscious, and I realize I’m still in bed. Now,
I’m actually awake. That was a dream I had just a few days ago. *** A false awakening is the off-putting experience of waking up within a dream and going about your day, without the realization that you are still actually asleep. There are two types of false awakenings, the first being more common: You wake up in a place familiar to you, but certain small details are altered. Your abilities to speak, walk, or perceive simple things like time and language might be dramatically hindered. As you go about your daily activities, a feeling grows within telling you something is wrong. Usually one dramatic instance (such as me noticing the time not matching up in my dream, and the blinds being miraculously closed when they had been open) makes you aware
of the fact that you’re within a dream. This feeling is an unwelcome one, which usually results in a nightmarish wake-up. The second type of false awakenings is even worse. From the get-go, everything is dark upon waking up. You feel completely awake, but you have no control over anything. In one instance I had of a type two false awakening, I woke up in a haunted version of my grandmother’s old house. I walked through the house, which was covered in dust and an oil-like liquid, to find corpses of my father and sister. It was one of the most terrifying moments in my life that I can recall. Sometimes, these false awakenings can occur on a loop. In a case like this, I will repeatedly wake up unsure at first of whether or not I’m actually awake. A few times, this loop has continued for close to a dozen consecutive wake-ups. It can be psychologically damaging, and makes
it a challenge for me to fall back asleep once I’ve finally “woken up.” Worst of all, it makes me question reality constantly the days after. It’s virtually impossible for me to pinpoint what the cause of these nightmares can be. While conducting research on Google, the most common possibilities for false awakenings suggested anxiety, or irregular sleeping patterns. But when I usually get it, I’m not anxious, and the large majority of reading I did on false awakenings showed inconclusive results. The only similarity I have when I get a false awakening is that I’m usually sleeping on my back (which is also always when I have sleep paralysis). According to a recent article from Business Insider, scientists have been trying to figure out for decades what occurs in the brain when we are dreaming, and how our dreams are affected by our conscious and unconscious selves. We are still a while off from getting answers. For the time being, the only resolution I’ve come to is that it might be time to consult a sleep therapist. The combination of sleep paralysis and false awakenings, both of which I get multiple times a year, weaken my ability to sleep comfortably. They make me feel like something is distinctly off in my head, even when I feel relatively healthy. When dreams and reality distort and blend into one, I feel shaken and lost. All I can do after a false awakening is hope that it doesn’t happen again for a decent amount of time. @realecmanning
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Full story available at ryersonian.ca
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Campus Connection
Campus Comment What can Ryerson professors do better? “Professors need to be better prepared and direct with students. They need to be clear what is testable and realize we have a lot of readings for other classes.”
–Destiny Obisirike
Managing Editor Print Donya Ziaee
Deputy Editors Evan Manning Kayla McLaughlin
Managing Editor Video Jessica Cheung
Managing Editors Digital
Managing Editor Audio
Melissa Galevski Olivia Zollino
Michael D’Alimonte
Social Producer Managing Editors Engagement
Sade Lewis
Sophie Armstrong Simona Catalano Iris Robin
Features Editors Christiane Beya Devika Desai
4 - 6 p.m. Student Learning Centre
Oct. 19: Centre for Free Expression Film Series: Tony Manero 7 - 10 p.m. School of Image Arts - Room 307
4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Sandbox by DMZ
– Bea Langs
According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, one in five people are living with mental health issues or illness. Students spend a significant amount of me in the classroom, a space that can either address these issues or significantly contribute to them. We asked students what they wish their professors knew about mental health and how it affects students’ performance in the classroom.
Joti Grewal
Wellness Wednesdays: The Science of Stress
Giving Voice to Values: The “How” of Business Ethics
MELISSA A GALE ALEVSK VSKII | RYERS VS VSK RY YERS ERSONI ONIAN ONI AN
Newsroom Manager
Oct. 18:
Oct. 20:
“Professors can motivate their students more by being interactive and having activites in class to get up and move around.”
I wish my Professor Knew...
Events
Arts & Life Editors Shantia Cross Aidan Macnab
Oct. 23: “I would say, professors can improve by having a quicker response time to emails to get back to students right away.”
–Christine Casarsa
Photo & Graphic Editors Nadia Khamsi Julie Faye Germansky
Sports Editors Steven Ellis Kayla McLaughlin
Brooke Taylor
Copy Editors Christine Chua
Op-Ed Editors Milca Kuflu Evan Manning
News Editors Jacob Cappe Salman Farooqui Josie Mills
Joti Grewal Dan Marino
Instructors Peter Bakogeorge Sonya Fatah
Publisher Janice Neil
Video Producer
Ad Sales Support
Mansoor Tanweer
Julia Dodge
Audio Producers
Indigenous Art, Culture and Resistance: An Evening with Christi Belcourt 6:30 - 9 p.m. Ted Rogers School of Management
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