@RyersonProblem passing the torch
Rams could have home field by next year
page 5
Online mental health platform to be offered to students
pages 6-7
Ryersonian
page 3
The
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Volume 70, Number 22
@theryersonian / www.ryersonian.ca
Runway Highlights
Men’s group goes to court to fight RSU By Dylan Bell Ryersonian Staff
Jessica Albotra / Ryersonian Staff
With bold new designs and models trained by Canada’s Next Top Model judge and supermodel Stacey McKenzie, Ryerson’s fourthyear fashion students made an impact in the world of fashion with this year’s Mass Exodus. It was the fashion show’s first year in the Student Learning Centre, and the new venue got mixed reviews. See full coverage on page 9.
FCAD to pilot mental health programs New resources to help struggling students will expand to the rest of the school after a trial run with the Faculty of Communication and Design By Allison Ridgway Ryersonian Staff
Ryerson’s Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) will test out a series of pilot mental health programs next year created to help struggling students navigate campus resources. John Austin, the executive director of student affairs, said that after a year-long test run, these programs could be implemented throughout the school as soon as the 2017-18 school year. “We want to create a school environment where support for students’ health is everyone’s job,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that everybody does counselling, but it means that we find new ways to teach faculty, student groups and students how to better support
their students and peers.” The project, championed by FCAD dean Charles Falzon, is managed by three working groups, which each consist of three to four FCAD faculty members, staff and students. Each group is working on a different mental health program: training faculty to help struggling students, training students to help their peers and making campus resources more easily accessible. Programs that are successful will eventually spread to other faculties. “We’re just going to kind of throw things on the wall and see what sticks,” Austin said. But while these pilot programs are set to start in the new school year, they are still in the early stages of planning. Austin does not yet know exactly what the
programs will look like, how much they will cost or where the money will come from. Still, he and Falzon are hopeful that these programs will make a difference for FCAD students, who are one of the highest user groups for counselling services at Ryerson. “FCAD attracts students who are especially highly driven and ambitious,” Falzon said in an email. “The combination of pressures relating to curriculum work and co-curricular work and career development … can lead to anxiety and a feeling of being alone. Well, at FCAD, you’re not alone and we will reassure each other that things will work out just fine.” The first FCAD working group is creating a formal training program to offer faculty members resources and knowledge of what
to do when they know one of their students is struggling with mental health issues. “Right now, it’s really common that if a student shows up at a faculty member’s office visibly upset, the (faculty member) panics. It makes them scared,” Austin said. “Having a student crying in your office should not make you scared. It can make you uncomfortable, of course, but we want to teach faculty and staff and prepare them to manage that discomfort.” Part of this program will include “Mental Health 101,” a workshop created by members of the Ryerson Mental Health Committee. Other training opportunities could include panels, speakers, online resources and even book clubs, Austin said. Please see FCAD, page 4
The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) is in legal trouble again. On April 8, two of the executive members from the men’s issues group that was denied student group status in October asked a court to overturn the RSU’s decision. The application is seeking to ask a judge to declare the RSU’s decision void, and to direct the RSU to grant the group official status under the students’ union umbrella. Kevin Arriola, a fourthyear politics and governance student, and Alexandra Godlewski, a fourth-year journalism student, are the two named applicants. Arriola is the president of the Men’s Issues Awareness Society (MIAS) and Godlewski is the social media executive. The application argues that the decision violated “the principles of fundamental justice and fairness” and that the RSU made it in “bad faith” and with a “closed mind and bias.” It also argues that the decision to deny club status is outside of the RSU’s jurisdiction as it contradicts the RSU’s commitments in its policy manual to support students’ rights. The application also states that the denial is “unreasonable, discriminatory and fails to respect Ryerson University students’ fundamental freedoms of expression and association.” RSU president Andrea Bartlett, who was served with the papers on April 8, said that she stands by the decision that the RSU Board of Directors made on Jan. 25 to deny club status to MIAS. She said that the application’s arguments are “problematic” and noted that the arguments are very similar to those made in an application for judicial review by Students for Life Ryerson (SFLR) in December, after that group was denied club status by the RSU. Please see MIAS, page 4
2 • The Ryersonian
EDITORIALS
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
The
Ryersonian
Produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism
EDITORIAL
Panama Papers shows worth of newsrooms
Four hundred journalists from worked together for a year to 109 media organizations in dig through the Panama Papers’ more than 80 countries working data avalanche. They maintained together in 25 different languag- such secrecy around this inveses to crack open the biggest data tigation that not even The New leak in history. York Times knew the project was Now say again that journal- underway. ism’s a dying industry? Such co-operation between The leak of about 11.5 million competitors goes against the jourdocuments from a Panamanian nalist’s instinct to be the first to law firm specializing in anony- get the scoop. But the instinct to mous offshore companies shook combat corruption with the power the world with its big reveals of of truth runs deeper. the elite’s global network of hidAnd this is why society still den assets and tax evasion. needs a profession that dediIt also shook the world of jour- cates its workers and resources nalism, making waves for a field to asking difficult questions and many fear has gone stagnant, as holding those in power accountsmall-town papers are folding able for their actions. Buzzfeed and big city media are downsiz- lists and political memes cannot ing. replace investigative reporting. Perhaps traditional journalism Thanks to the Internet, this is dying. As profession will news goes digi- As news goes digital, be looking tal, it’s likely very different that newspa- it’s likely that newsp- in a few years’ pers may soon papers may go the time. But the go the way of way of cassette tapes digital world cassette tapes that was said to and landline and landline phones. be journalism’s phones. But the grim reaper spirit of journalism – of investi- was what made the leak of this gation and truth seeking – lives information and the global colon. laboration between journalists Orchestrated by the possible. International Consortium of Check out The Ryersonian’s Investigative Journalists – the exclusive video interview with American investigative jour- Robert Cribb, the Toronto Star’s nalism organization – report- lead investigator of the Panama ers from different companies Papers at ryersonian.ca.
Jacqueline Tucci / Ryersonian Staff
Ryersonian reporter Dylan Bell interviewing Robert Cribb.
Newsroom Manager Rebecca Goss
Managing Editor Print Allison Ridgway
Lineup Editors Nikolas Theodorakidis Ramisha Farooq
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Kayleigh Robinson / Ryersonian Staff
OPINION
Navigating a non-diverse industry
By Eunice Kim Ryersonian Staff
Growing up, I was always that one “whitewashed” Asian girl. In school, I was never great at math or the sciences and I was always the first one to volunteer to read aloud in English class. Other Korean kids didn’t really want to talk to me because I was “too loud” or “too assertive,” so instead, I surrounded myself with friends of diverse backgrounds and slowly began to embrace an identity that wasn’t shaped by shallow racial stereotypes. All of that changed when I started journalism school. I’d never noticed how much I stood out until I walked into my classes and noticed most of my peers were white. Having gone to an arts high school in north Toronto, it wasn’t surprising to find myself in this
position in university. But when I realized all of my first-year instructors were white, I began noticing a pattern. The majority of guest speakers were white. The veteran journalists we all idolized were white. Reading article after article I would click on the bylines and see yet another white journalist’s headshot. It quickly became clear to me that it didn’t matter how much I improved my writing or mastered my on-camera presence, because I wouldn’t be able to get a good job in journalism anyway. I was discouraged and painfully ignorant all at once, going as far as to blame myself for not adhering to the Asian stereotypes I’d been trying to avoid my entire life. But looking back now, my uncontrollable anxiety and concerns about this overwhelmingly white industry are not as trivial as I thought. I’ve spent hours on the Internet trying to find data on the diversity of Canadian newsrooms, only to find outdated information. But in the United States, the 2015 American Society of News Editors’ newsroom census reported the percentage of non-white journalists was at 12.76 per cent, in a country where nearly 40 per cent of people identify as “racial minorities.” The Poynter Institute for Media Studies took the census data and created an interactive tool where you can see how many
Reporters
Sarah Amormino Christina Botticchio Kate Bornstein Katie Coombes Brynn Farren Darsha Jethava Alexia Kapralos Kalem McSween Courtney Miceli Shane Perusse Julianne San Antonio Saheel Shah Maham Shakeel Emily Silva Emily Stachera Chris Thomson Jacqueline Tucci Ophelie Zalcmanis-Lai
men, women, or men and women of different demographics work in the newspaper industry. Curious to see how someone like me would fit in, I selected “women” and “Asian” and clicked the “find out” button. Little grey male and female stick figures all popped up at once, with a single teal female figure lit up in the top left corner. Below them, it said: “For every 100 people, there are 1.4 Asian females in the newspaper industry.” I changed “Asian” to “white” and got 31.3 white females. Then, I changed “women” to “men” and read, “For every 100 people, there are 56 white males in the newspaper industry.” These numbers alone show that for an industry that seeks to serve the public in an authentic way, journalism is seriously failing. How can a news organization tell stories that represent the interests of its community if they are told in a predominantly white male voice? I’m not saying media organizations should hire non-white journalists to fill a diversity quota. Talented journalists are talented journalists, regardless of what their ethnic and cultural backgrounds are. But when Canadians rely on journalists to foster insightful conversations about the diverse communities we live in, it only makes sense to include everyone in that conversation.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2016
NEWS
The Ryersonian • 3
Rye’s Lifeline Syria is left in lurch after government policy change and cutbacks By Jacqueline Tucci Ryersonian Staff
There are over 100 private sponsorship groups within the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge, but only 12 of them have seen the Syrian refugee families they’ve sponsored actually make it to Canada. Now, it looks as though the rest of the sponsorship groups could have to wait until the end of the year – or early next year – for their families to arrive. “The biggest issue for us is not the groups or the funds, the biggest issue has been matching to families and getting the applications processed,” said Wendy Cuckier, head of the Lifeline Syria Challenge at Ryerson and a Lifeline Syria board member. This is due to the Canadian government’s change and subsequent reversal of a policy on privately sponsored Syrian refugees. On March 30, following public outcry and backlash from private-sponsorship groups, the government reversed a policy that saw Syrian refugees prioritized above refugees from other countries in order to bring them to Canada faster and in greater numbers. But the reversal gave private sponsors just 24 hours to file their applications, or else risk not having their sponsored families brought to Canada until 2017. This left those working to bring refugees to Canada with many questions, few answers and no frame of reference for when
Ryersonian file photo
Immigration Minister John McCallum and a student talk last February about sponsoring refugees.
their families might arrive. By the end of February, the government had settled all of the 25,000 government-sponsored Syrian refugees it had promised to bring to Canada in a first wave. It then closed the processing centres that had been operating abroad to speed up the application process and drastically reduced the number of staff working internally in Winnipeg. A cap of 10,500 was also placed on how many privately sponsored Syrian refugees would be brought to Canada.
Immigration Minister John McCallum announced that any applications for Syrian refugees filed before March 31 will be processed by the end of this year, or early 2017, and will not count towards the cap number. “Given that we’re at capacity, there’s a limit to how much we can do, even though I would really like it if we could accommodate fully all the generosity coming from Canadian families,” McCallum said in an interview with The Canadian Press last week. But the announcement to
universities and businesses pay for so that students and employees can benefit. “I wanted to help as many people as possible and really change the way mental health care is being delivered to the population,” he said. According to John Austin, executive director of student affairs at Ryerson, WellTrack will be available to anyone with a Ryerson student number. Austin explained that WellTrack is a part of a stepped-care system the university is developing to address mental health. “We are constantly trying to give resources … and reminders (to students) that they need to remember it’s more than just reaching that crisis point,” he said. “It’s about whole health.” Technological solutions are important to Austin. He says that tools such as apps give students an invested relationship with their device, in which students’ needs are directly addressed by customizable algorithms. “We want to put whole solutions in (students’) pockets,” he said. “It gives them the confidence to own it.” Arasaratnam points out that another crucial aspect of moving towards technology is the immediacy and availability. If a student needs help at 10 p.m., they can get it instantly with WellTrack. “It’s very simple, but it’s powerful, because now students can track throughout the day all of
the things that they do and how they feel,” Piercey said. However, when it comes to apps, privacy and safety are a concern due to the personal nature of the data collected. Both Austin and Arasaratnam said that they are well aware of this and are working closely with Ryerson’s information and privacy officer, Heather Driscoll. Users log in anonymously and can choose whether or not to share their information with a clinician. WellTrack has been well received at other universities, including the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). Peter Cornish, associate professor and director of MUN’s counselling centre, said that WellTrack is one part of the MUN’s stepped-care system for well-being. “Universities are good places to experiment and test out systems,” he said. “A one-off campaign is not the answer. What we really need is a strategy that helps us organize what we’re doing thoughtfully and a stepped-care model.” Plus, adding in a little bit of fun through the use of an app fights stigma. “We can have fun talking about this and don’t have to cringe, be secret or be overly sensitive,” Cornish said. Arasaratnam did not list a price, but said the software is cost-effective. Access will begin during the 2016-2017 school year.
extend the deadline, made just 24 hours prior, left sponsors scrambling to complete applications that can otherwise take weeks, if not months, to complete. “The letter was read at 8 o’clock, and at that point, the staff of Ryerson University Lifeline Syria went back to their offices, and the staff of Lifeline Syria went back to their offices, and my team processed about 40 files overnight and the next day, and Lifeline Syria processed about 125,” Cuckier said. “There was a huge effort from both organizations to push any
applications we could through by the deadline.” Samar Saneinejad is a member of one of Ryerson’s Lifeline Syria Challenge sponsorship teams. Her team’s application to be matched with a family was one of those processed in the overnight efforts of Cuckier and her colleagues. “We’re lucky in a way,” Saneinejad said. “But what we’re hearing now is that for our case, the timeline (to be matched, approved and to bring the sponsored refugee to Canada) could be anywhere from three months from approval, all the way to early 2017. That’s what they’re telling us. So there’s no definitive answer.” For many who have already filed their applications, raised thousands of dollars, made arrangements for accommodation and been matched with a family in Syria, news that the families they’ve sponsored might not arrive until the end of this year is difficult. Arif Virani, parliamentary secretary to McCallum, faced a packed room in St. Stephen-inthe-Fields church in Toronto on March 30 to hear the frustrated voices of hundreds of private sponsors and explain the government’s new policy. Following a closed-door meeting with private-sponsorship groups on April 7, McCallum has announced that the government will be sending some of the relocated workers back to the Middle East to speed up the processing of applications.
Rye to offer online mental health tool to students By Ophelie Zalcmanis-Lai Ryersonian Staff
Ryerson students will soon have access to an online therapy tool to better manage their mental health. WellTrack is meant to help users through computerized cognitive behavioural therapy. The platform tracks moods through diary entries and provides personalized therapy through an activity scheduler or relaxation exercises. “You log in and use it, and it provides you with some more information and then guides you and gives you homework to do,” said Darren Piercey, founder of WellTrack. “We help students to do their homework using tools available within the software package.” After the app received recommendations from other universities, Gaya Arasaratnam, acting director of strategic projects for student health and wellness, said Ryerson decided to pursue it. “The university was interested in exploring new methods for therapy for students,” she said. Specifically, Ryerson students wanted to know about self-care options. Piercey, a psychology professor at the University of New Brunswick, had ample research demonstrating that digital tools like WellTrack can be useful, but he needed a way to make such therapy more accessible. His solution was to create WellTrack and make it a service that both
A screenshot of WellTrack.
Darren Piercey.
Courtesy WellTrack
Courtesy Darren Piercey
4 • The Ryersonian
NEWS
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
We don’t need CFS, says RSU president By Alexandra Heck Ryersonian Staff
Andrea Bartlett says that the RSU can get by just fine without the Canadian Federation of Students. “We can run completely autonomous without the support of the CFS,” Bartlett said. In their election campaign platform last year, Bartlett and her slate promised students that they would look into the RSU’s relationship with the CFS. The possibility of defederation — the act of leaving the CFS — has been tossed around by current and former students as well as executives, but never formally addressed. “I think it’s inaccessible,” Bartlett said about defederation. She said that’s because getting out of the CFS isn’t easy. One of Bartlett’s platform promises was to “assess the mutually beneficial relationship between the RSU and CFS.” With Bartlett and the current RSU executive board’s terms ending in two weeks, The Ryersonian checked in to see where the union sits on the matter now. Another RSU executive, Cormac McGee, agrees with Bartlett that the RSU can run autonomously.
“One of the things we ran on was to bring the focus back to Ryerson students,” he said. “Ryerson students are having their voices heard in these issues,” said McGee, adding that Ryerson students have more local representatives speaking on their behalf, as opposed to CFS representatives who lobby on a national scale. In the 2014-15 school year the RSU paid more than $465,000 in fees to the CFS. That comes from $16.06 taken from each student’s tuition. What students get in return is an international student card, a complimentary day planner, access to work abroad programs and health and dental insurance. The difficulty in leaving the CFS was illustrated almost a decade ago when a member student union tried to pull out. In 2008, the University of Cape Breton Students’ Union petitioned to leave the CFS. The CFS did not recognize its application, which had over 90 per cent of the student body voting in favour of the move. The federation said that the delivery of the petition did not follow the proper channels, and therefore rejected it. The CFS then sued the students’ union for $295,000, which totalled six years of overdue fees.
Ryersonian file photo
RSU execs say they have run successful campaigns this year completely independent of CFS support.
The union later filed for bankruptcy. Despite this, McGee said that it’s “not too difficult to try” to defederate. He said that other schools have successfully rescinded their membership with the CFS, such as the University of Western Ontario decades ago and, more recently, Dawson College. “(The defederation policies) are definitely used to keep schools
in,” McGee said. “If anyone is going to lead a defederation campaign, it has to be regular students,” he said, adding that the CFS policy does not accept petitions for defederation from a campaign led by student union executives. According to McGee, the RSU has collected information about CFS relations over the school year and will pass it on to Obaid Ullah, the incomin-
RSU decision to be reviewed by judge MIAS, cont’d...
In a response to SFLR’s application, the RSU disputed the “applicability and enforceability of various policies in the policy manual,” and pointed out that the allegations of bias and bad faith are factual determinations, meaning they can only be determined by a judge in a verdict. Bartlett said that she met with Arriola on Oct. 30 to explain the RSU’s concerns over the group’s constitution, and yet even after MIAS submitted a “slightly revised” version, the board still had too many unanswered questions. “At its core — the fact that we have policies around women’s issues in our manual — there are acknowledgments of certain forms of oppression that just weren’t addressed by the MIAS,”
she said. Bartlett said that the MIAS argument that the RSU’s decision to deny club status was outside of their jurisdiction is “odd.” “They’re asking for student group status, and one of the RSU’s functions is to approve or deny student groups. So is it outside of our scope? No,” she said. Marty Moore, the lawyer who is representing Arriola and Godlewski, is a staff lawyer at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) in Alberta. Carol Crosson, who is representing the SFLR case, is also a lawyer for the JCCF. Moore emphasized that the RSU is “not above the law.” “The problem is that student unions think they are above the law. They think this decision is within their jurisdiction but they must comply with their own poli-
cies,” he said. At the end of the day, Bartlett said the RSU’s decision does not stop MIAS from being a group on campus. She said it just means that the group will not receive RSU funding or recognition. “Groups cannot force the RSU to give them students’ money if the mandate of the group runs contrary to the core equity values of the association,” said Bartlett. Godlewski says the RSU’s decision is an unfair characterization of the MIAS. “We are not a men’s rights group. We focus on furthering conversation about things like the skyrocketing suicide rate amongst men, men’s mental health issues and shelters for men in Canada,” she said. “There is a need to talk about
these things, and we’re asking the RSU to help, and they’re just saying, ‘no, you can’t get it.’” Bartlett stressed that the RSU’s values and mandates are not created by the executives, but rather by students. “Because of the mandate of our equity service centres and the policies that are core functions of what the RSU is, well, to contradict your own mandate and purpose as a students’ union, that’s not worth it,” she said. “That’s the nature of the beast of being membership-driven.” Godlewski says that regardless of what the judge’s decision is on April 25, it will still be a victory for them. “We’re standing up to the RSU.” With files from Chris Thomson and Ramisha Farooq
president. Ullah explained that “unlike previous RSU executives, we don’t have the same relationship with the CFS.” He says that he would welcome improved communication with the CFS if they wished to work with them on future projects. “If the CFS wants to work with us, sure,” said Ullah.
Mental health help on way
Nik Theodorakidis / Ryersonian Staff
A sign in the dean’s office.
FCAD, cont’d... “What we want to build here is an official, formal curriculum,” Austin said. “We can’t require people to go to it … but this is one of those things that everybody’s really interested in.” The second working group includes members from the Ryerson Communication and Design Society, as well as FCAD student unions and student leaders. It will teach students how to support their peers who are struggling with mental health concerns. “There has to be a way where we can teach all FCAD students to be ready to talk to a student when they see that they are upset or out of character. To give them confidence to say, ‘Hey, you seem a little down today, is there anything I can do?’” The third working group will create a service that can help students navigate different mental health resources on campus. “We’re recognizing the demand on those services is far outpacing our resources,” Austin said. “So we’re looking for anything that might help reduce students’ dependence on defaulting to the counselling centre.”
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 NEWS
The Ryersonian • 5
School of journalism draws @RyersonProblem heat for its lack of diversity prepares to pass torch
By Julianne San Antonio Ryersonian Staff
Ryerson University’s school of journalism (RSJ) has a diversity problem and it knows it. On April 1, the RSJ made headlines when Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick published “You’re pretty pale yourself, Ryerson.” In her column, Mallick took issue with a post on the Ryerson Review of Journalism (RRJ) website titled, “The Unbearable Whiteness of Canadian Columnists.” The feature, written in November 2015 by RRJ blog editor Davide Mastracci, focused on the dominance of white opinion writers and the lack of diversity in Canadian media. Mallick’s main criticism against the RRJ and Mastracci was that he had turned a blind eye to the lack of diversity at the publication’s own hosting program, the RSJ, which Mallick refered to as “stale, male and pale.” “Ryerson’s journalism depart-
ment, lovely people all, posts photos online of its teaching staff, including faculty, adjuncts, contract lecturers, etc. There are 49. How many appear to be white? About 44,” she wrote. “You need instructors who understand what it’s like not to fit in perfectly, to see the world differently,” Mallick said in a Twitter message to The Ryersonian. In addition to racial diversity, Mallick also stressed the need for more gender and sexual diversity. Ivor Shapiro, the current chair of the RSJ, said that this is a pressing issue for the program. “Most people would agree that we need to diversify our faculty and staff so that students see themselves represented in the range of people who teach them and work with them,” he said. As Shapiro put it, Ryerson is a “unionized shop.” In accordance with collective agreements, members of unions will get precedence in hiring when openings for positions become
Julianne San Antonio / Ryersonian Staff
available. Shapiro points to these unionized priorities as a factor in the delay for increased faculty diversity at the school. He says that while they encourage fair hiring practices, they often stifle the speed at which faculty turnaround can happen. But Mallick, herself an RSJ alumna, said that hiring diverse temporary instructors should be easier and faster. “They’re on-call, they’re paid a flat amount, they’re in Toronto. Those people are ready and many of them are people of extreme talent,” she said. Asmaa Malik, an RSJ assistant professor, said that the school’s staff is only part of the diversity equation. “We’re really fortunate to have a very diverse group of students at RSJ who ... really want to make a change in the industry. So, I think that that’s where the change is going to come from,” she said. Kat Eschner, editor of the RRJ, said in an email that the magazine’s masthead, “recognize(s) that diversity is a problem throughout our industry — even at the RSJ — and that’s why we focused on diversity in our special report.” In the meantime, Shapiro says that the recent appointment of Janice Neil as the next chair of the RSJ is a nod to the school’s commitment to diversity. She will be the first woman to lead the school in its 66 years of existence. “It’s long, long overdue,” Shapiro said.
Kayleigh Robinson / Ryersonian Staff
Calistus Alexander is the current brain behind @RyersonProblem. By Kayleigh Robinson Ryersonian Staff
The @RyersonProblem Twitter page needs someone new to run the account. Calistus Alexander, a fourthyear business student, now posts from the Twitter handle. But after running the account for two years, he is about to graduate, so he will soon have to pass the torch. The page is a space for students to voice complaints about Ryerson, anything from commuter problems, 8 a.m. classes and people getting lost in Kerr Hall, to the often bizarre security incident reports everyone receives in their email inboxes. @RyersonProblem is an aggregation of retweets that include memes, reaction GIFs and, of course, just straightup problems, all of which are reported by Ryerson students. At time of publication, the @
With files from Dylan Bell
The RRJ’s diversity issue and Heather Mallick’s column.
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RyersonProblem account has 5,847 followers. It has been active since November 2011. The account has always been run anonymously by a student. Since Alexander is graduating this year, he’s ready to pass the torch. He says he has someone in mind to monitor the Twitter page, but students will have to wait another few years to find out who his replacement is. It was passed down to Alexander by the account’s creator, Olivia Baratta. When Baratta graduated, she asked Alexander to run the account. He was actively engaged on Twitter and accepted almost immediately. “I would send a bunch of tweets to the account and I loved the idea of @RyersonProblem. The account put light onto students’ concerns and issues which normally would not have been brought forth,” Alexander said. The popular account has been helpful in drawing attention to building issues, TTC shutdowns, RAMSS outages and more. It’s not all complaining though. It also promotes campus events including flu shots, bake sales, concerts, games and even celebrity spottings. “Students look at the account not to vent their problems, but to know more about what’s going on around campus,” Alexander said. So even after Alexander is finished, he said that @ RyersonProblem will still be there for students to vent their #ryersonproblems.
Here are some #RyeProblems
The 30th Anniversary Concert of the Oakham House Choir, Ryerson University
“Like how are you in university and unable to understand the concept of whispering?” – @Andre_Nueva
Carmina Burana, part 1, and favourites from the last 30 years
“When ur prof accidentally writes on the entire white board and then realizes that he was using permanent marker ...” – @simonegabay
Saturday April 30, 7:30 p.m. Bloor Street United Church 300 Bloor Street West, Toronto
Tickets: advance $25; students $15; 12 and under -‐ free www.oakhamchoir.ca choir@ryerson.ca
“The system at the Service Hub makes me feel like I’m being called up for the hunger games.” – @natalieesque
6 • The Ryersonian
FEATURES
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
FEATURES
The Ryersonian • 7
Rams still searching for a home
When the Mattamy Athletic Centre opened four years ago, some of the varsity teams finally had a state-of-the-art facility to train and play games. But for the soccer and baseball teams, the search for a permanent place to call home continues.
By Bryan Meler
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ark Tari and the Rams were at home, but nothing made them feel that way. Despite their 10-5 victory over the McMaster Marauders, they knew that the opposing team had more fans cheering at the Bond Park baseball game. It was an October day, ideal for baseball. The sun was shining, but it wasn’t enough to bring Ryerson students out to the North York park to cheer on their team. When the Rams won, Tari and his teammates rushed towards each other to celebrate. They’d made the playoffs for the first time, with only their parents in attendance. Tari went home to Woodbridge after the game while some of his teammates took the hour-long trip back to campus to enjoy a celebratory drink. “Some of us were too far from campus to go and celebrate,” said Tari, a shortstop on the team. “That would have been an extra hour and a half of commuting.
Courtesy Alex D’Addese, Ryerson Athletics
After a couple of games and how tired you are, it’s just too much.” With a lack of space to build a home field on or near Ryerson’s downtown campus, the baseball and soccer teams are constantly on the road. Not only do they have to travel to games as both guests and hosts, but they also spend most days of the season training in a facility that isn’t theirs. Next fall, fastball will join the list of teams that fans will have to travel outside of downtown Toronto to watch compete. But that all may change soon. “Our hope is to be able to find (a home field) in the next year. That would be in an ideal and perfect world,” said Ivan Joseph, Ryerson’s director of athletics. President Mohamed Lachemi said the search for a field is a priority for Ryerson. The school is currently looking at multiple field options, but the president did not specify what these options were or how much such a venture would cost. “I’m a big soccer fan … and I’ve actu-
Courtesy Alex D’Addese, Ryerson Athletics
The Rams play against the McMaster Marauders.
ally been to some of the games where we go elsewhere, so I understand that there is a need for us to have something close,” he said. “But also there is a need to get something that can meet all needs.” He said that while he hopes to sign an agreement by next season, they first must ensure that the field can accommodate different sports (including baseball, soccer, fastpitch and potentially football) as well as both recreational and intramural needs. Finding such a space is difficult in downtown Toronto, he added. or Ryerson’s baseball team, the search for a home field cannot end soon enough. The men’s baseball team had to travel to six different fields to host its opponents during the 2015 season. None of the fields was in downtown Toronto. This was the result of losing Talbot Park last year, which is an approximate 20-minute drive from campus, after it experienced flooding problems. “It was tough, because there were certain days where you would tell your family to come and watch, then you end up having to tell them the field was switched,” Tari said. “So basically, besides my mom, I don’t know anybody else that was watching our games.” Tari labelled the baseball program the “ghost team” at the beginning of the year since many students didn’t even know it existed. Things started to change near the end of their season, when the Rams made their first-ever playoff appearance in the three-year history of the program. Jared Armstrong, a Rams outfielder, is also the leader of the Rams Pack, a group of students that makes it a goal to create a supportive fan environment for Ryerson teams. But because the baseball team’s winning game was so far away, the Rams Pack didn’t make an appearance. Armstrong says that winning is the best way to draw fans, but they’re also looking for more ways to get students involved — a difficult task at a commuter school. “We want to give the opportunity for people to come out and support us,” Armstrong said. “With the fact that our home field has been in limbo ... a fan bus is an idea we want to use to get people out to where they need to be.” The men’s and women’s soccer teams have experienced the same problems.
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Without a home field, both soccer teams practise and play their games at Downsview Park in North York. This makes it almost impossible for fans to attend. “It takes two and half to three hours just for the training session, then about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and back, each way,” said Jacob O’Connor, the 2015 Rams soccer captain. “That’s about five and a half hours a day, and we train every day of the week. It just takes up a lot of time. It’s definitely a major obstacle. It’s sort of hard to balance everything with that commute.” If the school is able to find a home field for all teams by next season as Lachemi and Joseph hope, it’ll be the end of a long search. In 2013, the Rams soccer team almost moved to Central Technical School’s field, but had to withdraw after excavation for a sports dome revealed carcinogenic heavy metal contaminants including zinc and lead. Regent Park’s soccer field, just minutes away from campus, opened in 2015, but Joseph decided not to request access to the facility.
Ryerson baseball coach Ben Rich.
ing and being able to study, and most importantly we can’t get our students that want to enjoy the game to come as fans,” Joseph said. aving a home field can make a huge difference. Both the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the York University Lions soccer teams have home fields, and both of those teams finished with 2015 Ontario University Athletic (OUA) playoff medals. The Rams did not. Ryerson’s men’s and women’s volleyball, basketball and hockey teams have benefitted from having a home at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC). The Rams Pack is at its best at the MAC, cheering on these teams as they made three Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) appearances in the 2015-16 season.
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Courtesy Alex D’Addese, Ryerson Athletics
Soraya El-houni runs with the ball against the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
Keneca Pingue-Giles, the 2016 CIS women’s basketball player of the year and team captain, says that having a group like the Rams Pack has helped build Ryerson’s sports culture since moving to the MAC. “They really help get through the tough parts and situations in games,” she said about the Rams Pack. “You can see with how wonderful our records have been, that the way they cheer us on during games is correlated with our success.” By building a field for the baseball and soccer teams, some hope the Rams Pack will be able to build as much support as they do for the teams that play at the MAC. or one of Ryerson’s newest teams, the women’s fastpitch team, the search for a field cannot end
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soon enough. Currently composed of 15 alreadyenrolled students, the team will start its first season as part of the Ontario Intercollegiate Women’s Fastpitch Association (OIWFA) in fall 2016. They’ll be joining the men’s baseball team on the road, a hardship that will become even greater when the City of Toronto closes its baseball fields in October. “I came for the academics at Ryerson,” said Carly Cosgrove, a member of the fastpitch team. “I really liked the campus and the atmosphere. That’s why I chose Ryerson. Having a fastpitch team now is just a bonus.” Cosgrove, who’s played nationally for the Quebec softball team, says that she doesn’t mind travelling to games because
of the bonding experience she’ll have with her teammates. With many other talented players on the team, she also expects them to do well in the 2016 season, raising their chances of acquiring a home field. ife on the road for the Rams, helped create its own benefits. Some teams might not have a crowd of fans for support, but all they had to remember is that they “wanted to play for each other.” “We always realize after every one of our road trips how much closer we are, even after one night in a hotel or two days on the road,” Tari said. “It wasn’t just about going to the field, and not seeing each other after. We spent time on the road and that had a lot to do with our team chemistry.”
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“It takes two and half to three hours just for the training session, then about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and back, each way.” – Jacob O’Connor “We’re always looking for someplace close,” Joseph said in a November 2015 Ryersonian article. “But they already had a partner — there’s only so many ways to slice a pie.” The challenges that come with commuting is something Joseph has experience with after coaching the Rams men’s soccer team for six seasons. The hours spent travelling to games and practice can also take away from players’ study time, hurting their academic performance. “It takes away from students want-
Courtesy Alex D’Addese, Ryerson Athletics
The Rams’ ace Kevin McDonald pitches against the McMaster Marauders.
Courtesy Alex D’Addese, Ryerson Athletics
Jackson Tooke takes a corner kick against the Nipissing Lakers.
8 • The Ryersonian
ARTS & LIFE
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Rye story site heads to Warped Tour
By Deven Knill Ryersonian Staff
A Ryerson social media outlet is heading to Warped Tour this summer. Capping off its first year, The Storyteller has become an official not-for-profit organization and the team will be heading to Darien Center, N.Y., in July as a charity vendor with Warped Tour to help spread awareness about its website. “It’s nice to be able to branch out somewhere else to talk to people that maybe we wouldn’t have come across,” said Trisha Rolfe, a fourth-year child and youth care student at Ryerson and founder of The Storyteller. The Storyteller is a social media outlet designed to share anecdotal experiences and provide a source of education and understanding. The website receives submissions, either signed or anonymous, and posts them if the team believes it won’t be offensive to its readers. Its main goal is compassion, by allowing others to see the struggles people have and the progress they make in their daily lives. “I learned a lot from hearing other people’s stories and I wanted to have a platform where other people can learn from others,” Rolfe said. The process of becoming a not-for-profit organization came as a requirement for their Warped Tour application, but the $220 price tag contributes to the biggest challenge the group faces
— lack of funding. “For a while we were trying to decide if we wanted to be affiliated with the (Ryerson Students’ Union),” said Kiri Witmer, a third-year child and youth care student at Ryerson and a member of The Storyteller. “In the end we decided not to, but one of the downsides to that was that we wouldn’t get funding.” Ultimately, the reasoning behind the decision was to put the growth of The Storyteller above the costs. “We wanted to be able to do things outside our Ryerson career,” Rolfe said. “We didn’t want The Storyteller to start and end with Ryerson.” Rolfe and Witmer run The Storyteller with fellow Ryerson student Deanna Aguiar, a fourthyear child and youth care student at Ryerson, as well as Jamie Lupia, a third-year student at Brock University, and Averi Loeb, a first-year student at Dalhousie University. “I just really liked what Trisha was doing and it seemed like a really cool opportunity … and I wanted to see where it would go,” Aguiar said. The site receives 500-700 monthly viewers, but will see spikes in views, such as during Bell Let’s Talk this year, where it saw its monthly average in one day. The most discussed topics are depression, anxiety and sexual assault. Submissions vary depending on discussions taking place on other platforms. One example
Left to right: Kiri Witmer, Trisha Rolfe, Deanna Aguiar, Jamie Lupia.
Illustration of The Storyteller team by Jamie Lupia.
is during Black History Month, which some of the members said has produced their favourite stories. “I really liked the Black History month (story) by my friend Kevin,” Rolfe said. “It’s cool because he talked to me
about it afterwards and he told me that (he) didn’t think that (he) thought so deeply about being black.” Most of the submissions they receive are directly through the website, but stories also come through Tumblr and by reaching
Deven Knill
/ Ryersonian Staff
Courtesy Trisha Rolfe
out to friends. The group wants to stress that people don’t have to be writers in order to submit a story and posts can be made anonymously. “If you have something to get off your chest, just send it our way,” Aguiar said.
Soup and Substance Global events, local impact: Ryerson's campus climate Faculty, staff and students are invited to participate in this discussion about Ryerson’s culture.
Building an inclusive classroom, climate and community Wednesday, April 27, 2016 Noon to 1 p.m. Podium (POD) Room 250 Check out our website for more details, future topics and past webcasts: ryerson.ca/soupandsubstance @RyersonEDI
#RyersonEDI
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
ARTS & LIFE
The Ryersonian • 9
Mass Exodus turns SLC into runway Ryerson fashion show features collections by fourth-year students By Emily Stachera Ryersonian Staff
Sunday’s production of Mass Exodus raised the bar for future shows, according to attendees. This was a year of firsts for Mass Exodus, Ryerson’s fashion show that celebrates fourthyear fashion students’ work. Most importantly, it was the first time the event took place in the Student Learning Centre (SLC), a much smaller venue than the show’s previous home at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC). There were some doubts about whether the SLC’s sixth floor, known as the “Beach,” would make a suitable runway. The MAC could seat approximately 2,500 people, while the Beach has capacity for an exclusive 540, even fewer with the runway in place. But Dylan Kwacz, a third-year fashion communication student
and producer of Mass Exodus, said he received a lot of great feedback about the new venue during the show. “Having people from previous Mass Exoduses say (we) raised the bar is amazing,” he said. “(The SLC) is the epitome of innovation in architecture and our brand is synonymous with innovation.” Stacey McKenzie, a model and founder of Walk This Way Workshops who is best known for being a coach and judge on Canada’s Next Top Model, said the new venue might have made this the best Mass Exodus yet. “No offence to Canada, but I didn’t feel like I was in Canada,” she said. “It felt like Europe or New York.” McKenzie has coached the Mass Exodus models since 2013. Mass Exodus was her first modelling gig when she was starting out.
The Beach was decked out for the event. The runway ran in a zigzag pattern, lined with one row of chairs for viewers. The models emerged from a doorway in a screen that projected images like misty forests, crashing waves and blue skies. A sound system on the lower floor blasted house music as the models walked the runway. Bianca Bellantoni, a fourthyear fashion design student in Mass Exodus, was happy with the venue. “The long runway gave people more time to see the garments,” she said, joking that after it was all over, “I can finally sleep again.” However, Kristian Neilsen, another design student in Mass Exodus, said that there were some problems using the SLC as a venue. “Because of the smaller numbers (for seating), it was a hassle
to get tickets,” he said. “Many designers couldn’t even get tickets for themselves or family.” He was also concerned about getting models from the Podium building into the SLC, but after completing rehearsals, he said that it looked amazing. “This was not a conventional runway,” he said. “But it still made for a beautiful show.” Kwacz said that although the show was more intimate, they did not mean for it to be exclusive. This was the first year they live streamed the event with the help of Ryerson’s RTA school of media students. It was also the first year the Mass Exodus exhibit has been open to the public. For three days, it was situated on the third floor of the SLC. Instead of one two-hour show, Mass Exodus was split into three half-hour shows. “This made it a little more practical for the space and the people watching
it,” Kwacz said, adding that in the fashion industry, a two-hour show is “unheard of.” Todd Lynn, an internationally known designer and Ryerson grad, is the first Ryerson alumnus to curate Mass Exodus. According to Robert Ott, chair of the Ryerson school of fashion, Lynn debuted his collection at Mass Exodus 23 years ago. McKenzie said that Mass Exodus is bigger than many fashion shows in the working world, and “that Ryerson can put this on is amazing.” Kwacz agrees. “Mass Ex is an experience like no other in the academic system,” he said, and his goal for this year was simple. “We want people to leave feeling like they’ve seen the future of fashion.” According to McKenzie, the SLC is the future for the show. “I love it. It’s new. It’s the future of Mass Ex,” she said.
Jessica Albotra / Ryersonian Staff
Models walk down the runway wearing fourth-year fashion students’ designs.
RTA doc focuses on developmental disabilities By Michael Sist Ryersonian Staff
What was supposed to be a film that displayed the work of L’Arche, an international organization based in Toronto that works with people living with developmental disabilities, turned out to be a touching documentary about a boy. Jason Clinker, a 23-year-old who lives with a developmental disability, has become the shining star of the RTA school of media documentary, Unwritten. Angela Alimi, a fourth-year media production student, is the executive producer and director of the film. She came up with the
story idea after her mentor suggested that she make a documentary for her final year practicum that would inspire her. “He suggested the idea of doing something with an organization he is connected to called L’Arche,” she said. Once she arrived at the organization, Alimi said she realized that it was a special and unique place. “We saw people of all abilities coming together and forming meaningful relationships. It was something that seemed so simple yet so absent in our busy lives,” Alimi said. But she soon found that a documentary’s storyline isn’t always
set, because at times something or someone may come along to inspire something that is beyond what was originally in mind. For Alimi, that person was Clinker. “While planning out the film with our adviser, we decided that the film would have a bigger impact if we focused in on one person and shared their story, and that person became Jason,” Alimi said. The film focuses on underfunding for the developmental service sector, which has left numerous individuals with an uncertain future in terms of housing. Wait-lists for housing options are decades long with no timeline as to when a
spot will become available. The film showcases the work of the Clinker family members as they care for Jason, who is currently on the wait-list for housing, Bridge Docs Productions is the production company that was created to make this film. It consists of nine members, eight of whom are in their final year at Ryerson. Working on a budget of around $2,500 was a challenge while creating the documentary. “We had a relatively small budget to work with while making this film,” Alimi said. “Each of us contributed out our pockets to make up the budget. We also received the ORT Micki
Moore scholarship from the RTA department.” Through the documentary, viewers are able to gain insight into a community that is detached from mainstream society and that is overlooked by the people who categorize as ablebodied in society. Alimi agrees that there is a learning experience by understanding the lives of people who differ from the social norms. “It is such a shame because it is these individuals who have so much to teach us in their friendships. We can learn the most simple yet meaningful values from people of differing abilities,” she said.
10 • The Ryersonian
ADVERTISEMENT
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Forward together
What a whirlwind year it has been: ranging from attending the fabulous Aboriginal drumming ceremony at orientation, to celebrating so many of your successes in academic and entrepreneurial pursuits, to cheering on our varsity teams in their historic playoff runs. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve as president, and I look forward to working with you in taking Ryerson to even greater heights. If you are graduating this year, I look forward to seeing you at convocation and to having your continued involvement with Ryerson. To those returning in the fall, I wish you all the best in your assignments and exams. Have a safe and enjoyable summer.
Mohamed Lachemi President and Vice-Chancellor
Please join me to celebrate a great year with some breakfast snacks on April 15 in the Student Learning Centre Amphitheatre from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
SPORTS
The Ryersonian • 11
Pairing figure skating and fashion
By Deven Knill Ryersonian Staff
The first time Christopher Berneck had a skating lesson at the age of six, he left the ice crying. Not because he didn’t enjoy it, but because he couldn’t get enough. “My coach didn’t know what to do so my mom had to come out with her high heels and drag me off the ice,” Berneck said. Now 23, Berneck has represented his home country of Germany at the national level and this season represented Ryerson in the men’s free skate program on the figure skating team. In a few weeks, he will complete his first year in Ryerson’s fashion communication program. Berneck says that skating has contributed to his interest in fashion. He has been designing his skating costumes since he was 12 years old and his mom would sew them as a way to save money. “I’ve always had a different style and taste than most skaters, so my costumes definitely stood out from the rest of the crowd,” Berneck said. It was not just a way for Berneck to have a say in what he wore, but also turned into a bonding experience between him and his mother. “I think now, after having been in school and having learned how to sew … (I can) appreciate the work that my mom has done for me so much
more,” Berneck said. Berneck has worn these costumes in competitions around the world from the United States to Australia, but it all started in Germany. His parents were trying to keep their three children out of trouble and had taken them to the local rink, where half of the ice was for free skate and the other half was for an organized lesson. Berneck tried to imitate the skaters taking their lessons on the other side of the rink and one of the coaches took notice. The coach suggested that his parents sign Berneck up. They did, and within the first three months the teacher told them that he had surpassed the level of skaters who had been skating for over a year. “(My coach) said that I had a very natural ability to move on the ice and I had really great balance and that she would only be able to teach to a certain level because she wasn’t skilled enough to take me any further,” Berneck said. After several moves to better Berneck’s career, he now practices at the Mariposa International Training Centre in Barrie, Ont. — a place he was seemingly destined to train. While Berneck and his family were in Munich, Germany, there was a Canadian vendor selling fruits and vegetables under the apartment where they were living. The vendor had known that Berneck was a figure skater and
Courtesy Christopher Berneck
Christopher Berneck practises a routine.
told his parents that there was a famous skating school in Canada and that they should send their kid. “It’s funny enough that nine years later, after this guy had told my parents that I really needed to go here, that this is where I ended up,” Berneck said. But his journey hasn’t always been predicted for him. Berneck injured his ankle, tearing six ligaments and a tendon, just four weeks before the German qualifier to compete at the 2014 Winter Olympics. “This is something that every athlete works towards,” Berneck
said. “It was always my dream making it to the Olympics and having this happen just four weeks before was just heartbreaking.” Berneck’s short and long skating programs had to be simplified, and he and his coaches took out everything that required him to jump off his right foot. “Even though the programs were easier than my competitors’ programs, I was so proud of myself for being able to persevere,” Berneck said. “When Chris skates, you can just see how much he enjoys every moment, every element,” said Tiffany Elliot, head coach of
Dicaire will study biology. “Both the team and the people at the school were all really welcoming,” said Hoffman in a press release. “The school is beautiful, and being in downtown Toronto is where I want to be. I look forward to playing with the girls for the next four years and making lots of lifetime friendships.” On the men’s side of the field, the Rams received a commitment from their first recruit of the 2016 class, Andrew Dias.
The left back defender has played with Toronto Football Club Academy, was named to the Canadian Under-17 national team and competed at the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football Under-17 Championship in 2015, where Canada placed fifth. “Andrew is the exact type of person and student athlete we look for to join our program,” said head coach Filip Prostran in a press release. “From his
the Ryerson figure skating team. “I think it’s that passion, that love of figure skating that has truly made him into the amazing skater he is today.” Berneck is considering putting this love into training for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, which would take him out of school for two years without the guarantee of a place on the German team. “It’s something that I’ve seriously been thinking about and I’m excited to see what I end up doing,” Berneck said. “But regardless, I’m sure I’ll make the right decision for myself.”
Soccer teams announce first wave of recruits By Michael Grace-Dacosta Ryersonian Staff
The Ryerson Rams women’s soccer team announced its first wave of 2016 recruits on April 8 and three members of the recruiting class already share a unique bond. Erin Dicaire, Madison Foote and Lindsey Hoffman all won a national club championship together with Darlington Fusion SC in 2014. Dicaire and Hoffman will join
the Ram’s defensive line. Foote will join the midfield. “(Foote) has great vision on the field and will add size to our midfield, which is an important asset to compete in the OUA (Ontario University Athletics),” said Tina Cook, assistant coach for the Rams. “She has the ability to make the critical passes that penetrate defensive lines.” Hoffman and Foote are entering Ryerson’s biomedical science program this fall, while
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attitude and coachability to his academics, I think Andrew has a chance of really making an impact in his first year.” Dias will study hospitality and tourism at Ryerson in the fall. “(Ryerson has) a great support system that ensures their players excel in both athletics and academics,” Dias said. “I have not even started attending the school, yet I feel like I am already part of the family.”
12 • The Ryersonian
Popping the homesickness bubble I’ll never forget my first day alone in the city. My parents and sisters had dropped me off at residence the day before and as soon as they left I had a bizarre feeling in my stomach, something I had never experienced before. Homesickness. The next day I woke up in my residence room in the International Living Learning Centre (ILLC) and decided to go for a walk to clear my head. I knew the Eaton Centre was just
a sweet old man handing out flyers. Just before I passed him we made eye contact, he put his face too close to mine and yelled, “BELIEVE!” I jumped back in pure shock and a group of girls snickered behind me. Nothing like that had ever happened to me in Waterloo before. It was safe to say Dorothy was no longer in Kansas. Over the course of my first year I never got over that feeling of homesickness. Residence
Ramisha Farooq / Ryersonian Staff
around the corner so I thought a small adventure would help me adjust to my surroundings. It was a clear, sunny day and as soon as I stepped outside I took in a huge breath of air, hoping to smell the clear crisp air of back home in Waterloo, Ont. … instead my nose was greeted with a mixture of sewage and cigarette smoke. I continued down Gould Street and ended up on the west side of Yonge Street. Now if you know Toronto well, you know a certain someone who stands on the northwest corner of YongeDundas Square. I spotted him before he spotted me and assumed he was just
never became my home. I moved back to Waterloo for the summer of 2013. For the longest time I felt lonely living in Toronto. I couldn’t believe that, in a city with a population of over six million, I was alone. No one from my family understood why I was feeling so depressed. My parents and sisters always said, “Waterloo is just an hour away, why are you so homesick?” To make things worse, they also had this expectation that since I was young I would love the city and would become a “city girl” before I knew it. But it seemed like that was never going to happen.
VOICES
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Going from suburban to urban living and all the struggles in-between
Looking back now, they were right. My homesickness was irrational. Nevertheless, it was consuming me. Moving back to Toronto after living at home for the summer was extremely difficult. I contemplated dropping out several times just so that I could stay home. But little did I know everything was about to change. In order to afford my living expenses — which are astronomical in the city — I took a parttime job in the Eaton Centre, working at Fido. At first I was introverted and very shy. But after a couple months I began to make friends with my co-workers. Some of them were like me, relocated from a smaller town to the big city because of school, but others had lived in Toronto their whole lives. They invited me out and showed me a side of Toronto I’d never known existed. A friendly side. All of a sudden I was going out to unique places and experiencing things I never had before. I was having fun again, something I didn’t have much of in my first year. Toronto had so much to offer and all of a sudden I began to be my happy and outgoing self again. Did you know in Little Italy there are restaurants that serve sangrias as big as your head? Or on the corner of Queen and Dufferin streets there’s an indoor playground just for adults? Or that the bar called The Ballroom has a bowling alley that becomes semi-outdoors in the summer? There is nothing like that in Waterloo. Slowly, I realized opening myself up to new experiences helped me to enjoy the present, rather than constantly reminisc-
By Katie Coombes ing about my past. I finally of these four years I’ve learned grasped the fact that my home- and I’ve grown so much, as sickness was mainly rooted in cheesy and cliché as that sounds. the fact that I wasn’t living in I’ve developed a stronger backthe moment. Rather, I was try- bone and have gained a new ing to repeat or find familiar- sense of confidence. I’ve also ity in my memories from back met so many new and diverse home. people who have taught me Once I allowed myself to stop things I couldn’t have learned thinking of back home, Toronto on my own. I’m a huge Blue Jays slowly became my home. fan and I love grabbing a patio I moved to Toronto when I beer in the summer. I interned at was 18 years MTV, something old. At the my 18-year-old time I would self would have have considnever thought It was safe to say ered myself a I’m that Dorothy was no possible. young woman more indepenlonger in Kansas. who was very dent than I could sure of herhave ever imagself. I thought ined. I knew everyMoving out thing there was to know. is just another life hurdle that However, I didn’t know I was everyone has to go through. For living in a sheltered bubble that I some it’s easy to move away didn’t have the courage to pop. I from home, but for others it’s a didn’t want to accept the fact that huge adjustment. I was growing up and that my Now I breathe in the disworld was expanding to be more tinct smell of Toronto air and than just one block wide. smile every time I see someLooking back, I’m so glad I one jump back when they hear moved away for school, because “BELIEVE!” yelled into their if I didn’t I would still be living ear. in my bubble and I wouldn’t be It’s all just a part of my new who I am today. Over the course home.
Katie Coombes / Ryersonian Staff