October 6, 2014

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

6 October, 2014

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UTSU faces criticism for “undemocratic behaviour” Several motions defeated at UTSU board meetings, will not proceed to AGM Alex Verman and Iris Robin VARSITY STAFF

Several motions were defeated at meetings of the University of Toronto Student Union’s (utsu) Board of Directors on September 29 and October 1. These motions will not be put before utsu members for a vote at the Annual General Meeting (agm).

The defeated motions included amendments to the Elections Procedure Code (epc), an alternative Board of Directors structure, a proposal to create a Student Commons Management Committee, and a motion to investigate the relationship between divisional societies and the utsu.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UTSU AND DIVISIONS

Curating the city The Varsity explores a night of interactive art at Nuit Blanche pg.14

INSIDE COMMENT

FEATURES

SCIENCE

SPORTS

The hangover games

Mental health on campus

Guide to selfdefence classes

Considering the dangers of party culture

Exploring the shifting conversation

In conversation with Stephen Scherera U of T professor talks career journey

U of T offers programs over all three campuses

The investigation motion, moved by Pierre Harfouche, utsu vice-president, university affairs, was aimed at improving the relationship between the utsu and divisional societies on the St. George campus. Harfouche identified a positive relationship between the utsu and the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (utmsu) and proposed that a report be drawn to examine the feasibility of replicating the utsu-utmsu relationship with divisions on the St. George campus.

The motion proposed that the utsu executive committee carry out the examination, and requested that a report be drafted by Harfouche and Yolen Bollo-Kamara, utsu president.

However, Bollo-Kamara spoke against Harfouche’s motion, noting that the existing armslength relationship between the utsu and the utmsu evolved under different historical circumstances. Bollo-Kamara attributed the arrangement, which includes stipulations in the utsu’s bylaws about fee collection and utmsu representation in the utsu, to logistical demands from the distance between campuses, which made access to utsu services difficult for utm students.

Ella Henry, director for the Faculty of Law, put forth an amendment to the motion that would hand over responsibility for the investigation from the executive to the Policies and Procedures committee, which she considered more suitable to conduct the investigation due to its knowledge of structural changes. “I proposed amendments because, in general, I prefer to delegate substantive decisions to committees of board members rather than the executive,” said Henry.

Bollo-Kamara supported Henry’s amendment, while representatives of student societies seeking fee diversion from the utsu to their respective student councils — Engineering Society, Trinity College, and Victoria University Student Administrative Council (vusac) — expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed changes.

“The intention of the original amendment was to make it bipartisan,” said Ryan Gomes, director for the Faculty of Engineering, adding: “To take it to a different committee with a more

CONTINUED ON PG 5

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VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

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MEDIA PHOTO.

Mental Illness Awareness Week Edition

Associate Senior Copy Editor Vacant Associate News Editor Iris Robin

THURSDAY

MINDFEST 2014 Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, all day This free all-day event includes guest speakers, exhibit booths, and interactive workshops. At 7 pm, there will be a free screening of the film Not Criminally Responsible.

GRAD MINDS ANNUAL KICKOFF MEETING IHPME Building, 155 College Street, seventh floor lounge, 7 pm–8 pm

Associate Features Editor Vacant Associate A&C Editors Daniel Konikoff Jacob Lorinc

Associate Sports Editor Reshara Alviarez

Three Voices is a raw and heart-wrenching documentary about what mental illness really looks and feels like. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion.

FRIDAY STRETCH WORKS Athletic Centre, Dance Studio, 1:10 pm–1:55 pm This activity will have an emphasis on mobility and stability. This class will include an introduction to yoga basics and terminology.

THE EXPLAINER 1. Thanksgiving is not a statutory holiday across Canada. In the three Maritime provinces, it is merely an optional holiday.

Contributors Zaigham Ali, Salvatore Basilone, Lisa Bernard, Lola Borrisenko, Alyssa Bouranova, Sasha Boutilier, Aditya Chawla, Jeffrey Chen, Will Choi, Mark Darling, Devika Desai, Ivana Dizdar, Nabi Dressler, Misara Elgammal, Claire Fox, Liz Gross, Emily Johnpulle, Emily Katz, Emma Kikulis, Sofia Luu, Tamim Mansour, Peymon Montazeri, Aneta Perehinets, Anthony Piruzza, Anatassia Pogoutse, Iris Robin, Emily Scherzinger, Ian Thompson, Erin Tobin, Alex Verman, Brittaney Warren, Victoria Wicks, Nadezha WoinowskyKrieger, Ameena Youssef

2. There is not enough tryptophan in turkey to make you fall asleep. The reason you are tired is because you just ate a heavy meal, and are probably drunk.

3. The piece of flesh hanging over a turkey’s beak is a “snood.” The fleshy part of the male’s neck is a “waddle.”

4. Usain Bolt’s maximum speed is 45 km per hour. A wild turkey’s maximum speed is slower — just 40 km per hour.

Copy Editors and Fact Checkers Christina Atkinson, Angela Baer, Karen Chu, Sahara Douglas, Lucy Genua, JiYoon Han, Mary Hong, Hannah Lee, Joanne Lee, Hunter McGuire, Mia Naylor, Kalina Nedelcheva, Lauren Park, Deniz Samadi, Suhas Sirinivasan, Jonathan Soo, Rose Tornabene, Michaela Vukas, Elliot Wright

5. Contrary to popular belief, wild turkeys do fly — and fast, at that. However, the domesticated animal you may be eating this weekend has probably never flown.

Photographers and Designers, Saveen Chadha, Illustrators

6. Breaking the wishbone is a tradition that predates Thanksgiving. It has been traced back 2,400 years to the Etruscans of ancient Italy.

Rusaba Alam, Julien Balbontin, Samantha Chen, Khaiam Dar, S. Shahin Imtiaz, Elena Iourteva, Timothy Law, Mallika Makkar, Denis Osipov, Priyanka Sharma, Jennifer Su, Mari Zhou, Shijie Zhou

7.

Business Office Business Associate Vacant Advertising Executives Anna Afshar Rachel Choi

New College, 6 pm

Thanksgiving Facts

Associate Web Developer Ishan Thukral

Business Manager Karen Zhou

THREE VOICES FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Associate Science Editor Vacant

Photo courtesy of Samantha Chen

This fair includes information on resources, support networks, and how to stay healthy, as well as how mental health is understood at utsc.

MONDAY

Meet the 2014–2015 Grad Minds committee and learn more about improving graduate mental health. There will be snacks.

Associate Comment Editor Victoria Wicks

Cover

MENTAL HEALTH UNDERSTOOD AT UTSC FAIR UTSC, Meeting Place 11:30 am–3 pm

TUESDAY

Associate Photo Editor Vacant

Kawmadie Karunanayake, Mike Wong, Mari Zhou

WEDNESDAY

8. Each year, during American Thanksgiving, the president of the United States pardons a live domestic turkey.

business@thevarsity.ca

9. If you aren’t visiting family this weekend, you should call your mom.

anna@thevarsity.ca rachel@thevarsity.ca

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Palaeontologists have established that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs. Turkeys are really just bloated velociraptors.

Autumn arrives on campus. RUSABA ALAM/THE VARSITY

Submit your photos to photo@thevarsity.ca

Correction: An article from September 29th, “Student Commons approval may soon be put to Governing Council,” incorrectly referred to provost Cheryl Regehr as provost Cheryl Misak. The Varsity regrets the error.

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VARSITY NEWS

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

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“Fighting for true democracy in Hong Kong” Students march in support of ongoing protests in Hong Kong Tamim Mansour

stuck [in Canada],” said Nicholas Yip, a second-year mechanical engineering student.

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Students armed themselves with umbrellas as rain threatened when they gathered in King’s College Circle on October 1 to support ongoing protests in Hong Kong.

The protests, known as the “Umbrella Revolution” or the “Umbrella Movement,” call for universal suffrage in Hong Kong.

Currently, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive is elected by a committee of 1,200 members in accordance with Article 45 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, a constitutional law that went into effect following the handover of Hong Kong by the uk. The same article allows for “gradual and orderly” change in the specific method for selecting the Chief Executive.

“The ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures,” the article reads.

The student march was one of several marches province-wide organised by the Ontario United Front for Hong Kong Students (oufhks). The group was quickly set up by a group of Hong Kong students at postsecondary institutions across Ontario.

Similar protests and demonstrations were held in over 70 cities worldwide, including nearly 20 cities in Canada.

“FIGHTING FOR TRUE DEMOCRACY IN HONG KONG” Sharon Chung, a second-year gis and computer science student and founding member of the oufhks, said organizers skipped classes and endured sleepless nights to organize the protests. “We are fighting for true democracy in Hong Kong,” Chung said.

“We really hope we can help people in Hong Kong to raise awareness to people in Canada

CHINESE NATIONAL DAY

Protesters at the march on October 1. JENNIFER SU/THE VARSITY

[and] internationally,” added student Lee-Ki Sin, a fourth-year cognitive science student and oufhks executive.

The protesters gathered at King’s College Circle and walked up St. George Street to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (hketo) a couple blocks north of Bloor Street West, where a petition was left on the steps of the front door. The hketo was closed in observance of the Chinese National holiday, the sixty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

An estimated 1,000 people participated in the protests, including students, union representatives, and Toronto residents.

Sin was surprised by the turnout. “We weren’t expecting that many people,” she said, adding: “Every participant was really calm and respect[ed] everyone’s views.”

Jason Ngan, a second-year student at utsc, said he joined the protest to support the democratic rights of Hong Kong citizens. “The main

objective is universal suffrage for Hong Kong people,” said Ngan.

According to a decision by the Chinese government on August 31, the 2017 Chief Executive Elections “may be implemented by the method of universal suffrage,” however, the candidates will be selected by majority by a nominating committee that has the same structure as the current Election Committee.

Hong Kong pro-democracy advocates felt betrayed by the decision, fearing that the nomination committee would be little more than a filter for the Beijing government. Scholarism, a Hong Kong student activist group formed in May 2011, organized the protests, demanding that candidates be chosen through civil nomination. Other political groups have since joined the protests, calling for civil nomination and the resignation of Chief Executive C. Y. Leung.

There is also anxiety amongst students from Hong Kong as friends and family back home join the protests. “Most of us are

The University of Toronto has approximately 6,000 students from mainland China and approximately 300 from Hong Kong.

At the same time as the protests, a group of Chinese students celebrated Chinese National Day in King’s College. The students stood around in a circle and sang national songs as people gathered to join the protests. They later dispersed peacefully just before the protest moved on. The organizer of the Chinese National Day celebration declined to be identified.

Fang*, a student from mainland China, said mainland Chinese students feel hurt at the perceived rejection of shared national identity. “They think they don’t belong with us,” said Fang.

“Hong Kong is a beautiful girl. She used to be in a relationship with Britain. However, Hong Kong was arranged to marry China and Britain gave her up. Hong Kong does not feel that China is [her] true love,” said Chengyuan Ma, a second-year political science student from mainland China.

Chung said that organizers with the oufhks were aware of opposing values. “We are focusing on Hong Kong democracy and our friends (back home).”

Ben Kong, a second-year political science student and president of the University of Toronto Chinese Politics Society (utcps), said he does not believe Hong Kong’s identity to be separate from his national Chinese identity. “Hong Kong has its own distinct culture like other [provinces] in China. Our distinct culture doesn’t separate us from our Chinese identity,” Kong said. “[T]he Chinese element in the Hong Kong identity cannot be separated,” he added. *First name omly used at student’s request.

“It’s a work in progress” New TYP home plagued by inaccessibility, plumbing leaks, lack of space Salvatore Basilone VARSITY STAFF

If you walk by 123 St. George Street, you will find the new home of the Transitional Year Program (typ).

Last February, the University of Toronto’s Governing Council voted to move the typ from its old building at 49 St. George Street to the new space, shared with Woodsworth College.

Forty-nine St. George Street will instead serve as the future site for the $88 million Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship, though the centre will span more than the original lot.

The typ is an eight-month access-to-university program intended for adults who do not have the formal qualifications required for university admission.

SPACE ISSUES typ students have complained about a number of issues with the new location. Principal among the concerns is the lack of space.

Kriya Siewrattan, president of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (apus), said that the lack of space is just one issue.

“There are currently concerns about the lack of a fully accessible entrance into 123 St. George Street, inaccessible washroom spaces, plumbing

leaks, and air quality,” Siewrattan said.

Charmaine Williams, associate dean at the Factor-Interwash Faculty of Social Work and the provost’s special advisor on accessibility, oversaw the transition from the old building to 123 St. George Street.

Williams said the university actively addresses problems that arise at the new space, and will continue to be so. “It’s a work in progress,” she said. “[I]t’s very different when everybody comes in the fall — now you have all the bodies there and suddenly you realize, ‘Wait a minute, this doesn’t actually work the way we thought it would when we looked at it on paper.’ I think the stuff they are experiencing is what you experience in a new building,” Williams added. typ associate director Thomas Mathien said the move was largely smooth, although there were some problems. “Adjusting to the space has been difficult, but the move itself was smooth,” he said, adding: “There are some problems with the finish of the building, but I think these are inevitable when moving into renovated space. They are being dealt with – maybe not as quickly as we’d like, but they are being dealt with. We like what we’ve got.”

“CHALLENGES TO ITS AUTONOMY” Though the physical movement of the offices was largely smooth, there was a great deal of contention surrounding the original decision

to move the program. Some saw the move as a potential threat to the program’s existence. apus was a vocal critic of the move.

“Through the course of its existence, the Transitional Year Program has faced challenges to its autonomy and its capacity to continue to provide access to education to marginalized communities,” said Siewrattan.

“There has been a sense that resources to typ were being cut so as to motivate a move to Woodsworth [College]. The university administration maintains that the Transitional Year Program will continue to be autonomous, but that sharing space with Woodsworth College will be a more efficient use of resources. Meanwhile, typ students felt like they were being moved out of their home at 49 St. George Street,” she added.

Williams acknowledged that the move was hard for some students. “What students told me was the tension around the program was very hard for them,” said Williams, adding: “Because they wanted to focus on this important opportunity that they had, and it was at its best a distraction, sometimes was really divisive. They felt very supported by the program, and they were very excited about where they were going next.

However, Williams took issue with the idea that university administration is threatening the program. “That argument has been disputed at so many times in so many places by so many people. This new space is very visible,

in a very central part of the campus. typ is considered a very important part of how we make U of T education accessible to underrepresented and marginalized groups,” she said.

“There are other people out there saying ‘No! This is the beginning of the end!’ But it’s nothing that you ever hear from anybody who has the decision-making power,” she added.

“GEARED TOWARDS SUPPORT” Mathien maintained that program administration would continue to offer numerous supports to students in the program.“Students come in at various levels of academic accomplishment. We’ve had students come through here successfully who had not even completed grade nine,” he said.

Mathien said that, in any given year, 60 to 80 per cent of students successfully complete the program. Those who do so are given regular admission into the Faculty of Arts & Science with two-and-a-half first year credits.

The program also provides university access to students from marginalized communities.

“We have target populations who we serve, and which are defined by a number of circumstances: race, ethnicity, economic level, family situations. We have about 40 per cent of our students this year who claim some sort of disability,” he said, adding: “Everything about this program is geared toward support.”

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VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

news@thevarsity.ca

Pressure on UTSU heats up ahead of AGM

Election grievance process concludes ahead of administrative response to Student Societies Report Iris Robin

PLATFORM PROMISES PROGRESS

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Pressure on the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) is heating up ahead of its Annual General Meeting (agm).

At the close of elections last March, the new executive committee faced unresolved grievances, divisions demanding fee diversion, and the possibility of their own funds being withheld by university administration.

Already, there have been changes in a bid to address these controversies, including several amendments to the Elections Procedure Code (epc) passed at board meetings last week.

One such motion effectively allows the Elections and Referenda Committee to override utsu bylaws in the interests of upholding the spirit and principle of the election.

OUTSTANDING GRIEVANCES Vipulan Vigneswaran, former campaign manager for Team Unite, filed grievances surrounding the five extra hours of voting at utm in response to the closure of the campus due to inclement weather. Vigneswaran said that the extension of voting time at utm was illegal because it was not set up under the epc or the utsu’s bylaws. “They’re saying they were compensating for voting hours lost.

Sure, but you also had online voting,” Vigneswaran said.

Vigneswaran also took issue with the inclusion of Luis Moreno’s name on the paper ballot for vice-president, external. Moreno dropped out of the election prior to voting, giving Team Unite an explicit endorsement on his way out. Votes for Moreno were counted as spoiled ballots.

Vigneswaran said that he was confident that Team Unite’s can-

TIMOTHY LAW/THE VARSITY

didates would have won their elections for vice-president, external and vice-president, internal were it not for the fourth day of voting and the inclusion of Moreno’s name on the ballot. “It’s completely changed the way everything played out,” Vigneswaran said.

Vigneswaran also said that the utsu failed to comply with the university’s Policy for Compulsory NonAcademic Incidental Fees, which governs the collection and release of funds for student societies. Vigneswaran does not think that the utsu behaved in an “open, accessible and democratic” manner — elements that are mandatory under the policy in order for the utsu to receive its funds.

Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, said that the definition of “open, accessible and democratic” is cloudy, despite being discussed at last year’s Student Societies Summit. Blackburn-Evans declined to confirm or deny that the utsu has received or would receive its funds, instead citing a clause in the policy, which states that student society fees can be withheld after a society’s own complaint procedure has been exhausted and if there is reason to believe significant constitutional or procedural irregularities exist. Blackburn-Evans said that the Administrative Response to the Student Societies Report, which deals with issues of democracy in student societies, will be forthcoming shortly from the provost

to Governing Council.

“At this point, all grievances have already gone through the utsu’s internal processes. The election results were approved by the Board of Directors and subsequent grievances were defeated near unanimously,” said Yolen Bollo-Kamara, utsu president.

“We hope this will clarify the purpose of the Code and minimize complaints stemming from perceived technical violations,” she added.

However, according to BlackburnEvans, the university has not yet concluded its investigation into the election complaint it received last year. Blackburn-Evans said that the university will be in touch with the relevant parties upon the conclusion of the investigation.

Since the completion of the grievance process, the utsu has begun work on its election promises, which include campaigns to lower tuition fees, lobby the government with regard to unpaid internships, and implement a drop credit policy. A drop credit policy would allow students to remove one or two bad marks from their transcript that may have been caused by extenuating circumstances.

According to Bollo-Kamara, Grayce Slobodian, utsu vice-president, external, is working to bring back the Drop Fees campaign and is organizing a rally to be held during second semester. “We are looking forward to engaging students in this campaign and mobilizing them to take action on issues specific to U of T such as flat fees and unfair ancillary fees, in addition to broader issues such as the dearth of provincial funding for postsecondary institutions in Ontario,” said Bollo-Kamara.

For her part, Najiba Ali Sardar, utsu vice-president, equity, has been involved in unpaid internship activism and is prepared to launch a large-scale campaign. “This issue is extremely important to me and I have been committed to it as I have been much before my involvement in student politics,” Sardar said.

Sardar and Bollo-Kamara both spoke at Parliament’s Finance Committee in Ottawa, a report of which was entitled “Youth Employment in Canada: Challenges and Potential Solutions.” Bollo-Kamara said that several of the measures she advocated are recommended in the report, including increased protection of interns under relevant legislation at federal, provincial, and territorial levels, and gathering data on unpaid internships and precarious work among youth.

Student groups join calls for national inquiry Government inaction on missing, murdered Aboriginal women prompts criticism Nabi Dressler and Will Choi VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

“Am I next?”

In September, Aboriginal women across Canada took to Twitter and held up signs asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper if they, too, will be murdered.

The campaign — organized by Holly Jarrett, the cousin of Loretta Saunders, an Aboriginal student who was murdered earlier this year — called on Harper to launch a national inquiry into the issue of murdered and missing Aboriginal women.

On Saturday, Sisters in Spirit vigils were held in communities across Canada to honour the growing number of murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls.

Earlier this year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police released a report that said that, in the last 30 years, nearly 1,200 Aboriginal women have

gone missing or been murdered in Canada. According to a report from Public Safety Canada, human traffickers systematically target Aboriginal females, who are more likely to suffer from drug abuse, poverty, and mental health issues.

Despite widespread demands for a national inquiry — with one petition on Change.org racking up nearly 325,000 signatures — Harper has refused, saying the issue is a criminal one.

Now, student groups are joining the calls.

Autumn Johnson, co-president of the Aboriginal Law Students’ Association at U of T, said that a national inquiry “can help to identify problems in the investigations, can be helpful in improving relationships, can help to give a voice to the missing and murdered women and their families, and help provide answers.” “[It] can also identify gaps or issues in programming and services, identify

systemic issues that may exist, review socio-economic factors, and make recommendations for change based on the findings … The vulnerability of Indigenous women as victims of violence and murder is a systemic problem,” Johnson added.

Both Johnson and Zachary Biech, Hoof Clan Leader of U of T’s Native Student Association, are unsurprised

by Harper’s repeated refusals to launch a public inquiry. Biech sees it as a political move.

“I feel from Harper’s perspective, it would really be embarrassing on the part of the government to actually inquire some of their failures, and it also highlights the failure of the relationship [with Aboriginals],” Biech said.

Johnson echoed Biech’s sentiment, saying Harper “does not want to commit that level of time and resources to the issue.” “[He] would not want his government to be in the spotlight for action or inaction which led to preventable

deaths of Indigenous women in Canada,” Johnson added.

Najiba Ali Sarder, vice-president, equity of the University of Toronto Students’ Union, said that the issue comes down, in part, to spending cuts for Aboriginal programs.

“Harper has cut countless Aboriginal programs. It isn’t a [coincidence] that there is such a high number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women. It is a systematic flaw,” she said.

Although New Democratic Party (ndp) leader Thomas Mulcair said that if the ndp were in power, a national inquiry would be held, Biech was skeptical.

“I would like to believe that [the ndp] would hold true on that promise. However, we all know the value of election promises, or rather the lack of value. So for that reason, I would advise caution when fully believing what any political party has to say about that,” he said.

While Aboriginal women are disprortionately targets of crime, Biech urged the public to recognize the other side of the story: Aboriginal women’s strength.

“I would be very cautious of victimizing indigenous women too much in the language of any discourse on the topic because indigenous women are a very important group of people.

Particularly indigenous communities have women recognized as key vital centers of the family and the community, and they have been exposed to disproportionately high amounts of risk,” Biech said. “[T]he resilience and the strength is something that ought to be celebrated as well when talking about this issue because that’s really the end goal … to maintain that resilience and maintain the strength despite the amount of risk and the amount of hardship and, obviously, the murders and bad things that are happening,” he added.

VARSITY NEWS

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

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DisOrientation defies mainstream Alternative orientation week creates space for social justice

Students at a DisOrientation event. DENIS OSIPOV/THE VARSITY

Brittaney Warren

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Environmental activist Trish Mills has been arrested twice for her opposition against the Enbridge Line 9 Pipeline. Part of the pipeline will pass through Toronto, and will carry chemically-laden bitumen to the east coast for export. There is a high risk of an oil spill, Mills says, an event that would disproportionately affect low-income communities.

“From the Frontline: Dispatches from the Line 9 Blockade,” where Mills was a panelist and discussed these issues, was part of DisOrientation, a week-long series of panel discussions and events. DisOrientation is hosted by the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (opirg), an environmental and social justice organization at the University of Toronto, and the University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu).

opirg seeks to foster safe spaces where concerned citizens can safely contest mainstream ideologies.

Setting the tone for these panels was the theme “Defiant Spaces,” which encouraged industry professionals and political activists to share their skills and knowledge on controversial issues like sex positivity, apartheid, and decolonization. According to Housam*, a third-year political science and equity studies student who attended DisOrientation, while confronting traditional power dynamics was a vital component of these events, opirg and their allies are not solely interested in defiance, but also in figuring out “how people who are marginalized use their voices, and in what kind of space.”

Challenging capitalist privilege was a key component of DisOrientation. This was evident in the opening acknowledgment at several panel discussions that the event was taking place

in Toronto, the unceded territory of the Mississauga and New Credit First Nations people. Corporate interests have a particularly damaging effect on Indigenous and other marginalized populations, said panellist Danielle Boissoneau.

Boissoneau spoke of her “ceremonial responsibility as an Anishinaabe woman,” and of her fight against “colonial capitalism.”

The week also included panels on building radical student democracy, the impact of austerity on disabled people, and a screening of The Internet’s Own Boy followed by a Q&A with director Brian Knappenberger.

Yogi Acharya, opirg-Toronto programming and volunteer coordinator, said, “opirg serves as the bridge between campus and community,” adding: “It is vital to provide students space to engage with these issues and ideas on campus and in our city.”

While DisOrientation is marketed to firstyear students as an alternative orientation week, professors, alumni, and community members also attended the events. Many participated in the open floor question period at the end of the talks, citing their concerns and sparking debate.

Helen Lenskyj, professor emerita and sports psychologist, was a keynote speaker at the “Game On: Building Pan Am Resistance” panel.

Lenskyj spoke of the “magic of sport,” or sport’s ability to act as a smokescreen to far-reaching violations of human rights perpetrated by multi-national sporting corporations. Lenskyj also spoke about the university’s complicity in the Pan Am and Parapan American Games, which are set to place in Toronto in 2015.

The Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, which will be home to visiting athletes competing in pentathlon, aquatics, and fencing divisions, recently commenced operation at the university’s Scarborough campus. These types of facilities require funding, and in the case of the Scarborough Sports Centre, said Lenskyj, students are paying the price.

*First name used at student’s request.

October 17 must appear on an agenda. Gomes plans to petition for another General Meeting, likely in January of February, where his motion will appear on the agenda.

Gomes’ proposal includes the creation of 19 membership classes to keep college and faculty representation on the board, as well as the creation of an Equity Committee to address representation of marginalized groups. “I think it’s very important for our membership to actually have a say on these things,” Gomes said. Gomes added that he would look at the motion again and see if there are ways he can make it better, taking into consideration the concerns of legal counsel.

Bollo-Kamara said that the utsu sought a legal opinion to ensure that the board fully understood the implication of the motion. “[I]t would be irresponsible and a violation of fiduciary duty to submit a proposal for consideration that is ‘infeasible’ and would cause ‘paralysis’ of the utsu,” she said.

CONTINUED FROM COVER partisan affiliation is unfair and inappropriate.”

Henry’s amendment was passed but the motion as a whole was defeated. “I expected the motion to pass, so I thought it was worthwhile to amend it. I may bring forward a different motion at the next meeting along similar lines,” she said.

ELECTIONS PROCEDURE CODE VIOLATIONS “A TECHNICALITY” Harfouche also proposed amendments to the Elections Procedure Code (epc), which governs utsu elections. The amendments, if passed, would have banned cross-campaigning between director and executive candidates, and restricted the right to campaign to U of T students, alumni, faculty and staff. These motions were defeated.

However, the board approved amendments to the epc recommended by the Chief Returning Officer (cro) from last year’s March elections. These will effectively allow the Elections and Referenda Committee (erc) to override utsu’s bylaws at their discretion. Additionally, any endorsements that slates receive during elections must now be approved by the cro before being made public.

Bollo-Kamara said that the erc has the sole authority to amend the epc, though changes must be approved by the board “as a formality.”

The changes were approved despite the epc forbidding any changes once the nomination period of an election had begun. The nomination period for the utsu by-election began on September 29, the same day as the first Board of Directors meeting. When this issue was raised, Ashkon Hashimi, utsu chair, dismissed it as a technicality. Bollo-Kamara said at the meeting that the epc, complete with the proposed amendments, had already been given to candidates before the amendments were approved.

Connor Anear and Tina Saban, co-heads of college at Trinity College, were concerned with the utsu’s actions. “We were very disturbed that

Before and after the Games, the centre will be the home of the Scarborough campus’s Department of Athletics and Recreation, and will be open to utsc students, faculty and staff.

In 2010, students passed a levy on whether future utsc students should pay for the centre, in addition to having an increased fee starting in September 2014 devoted to the Centre. Last September, incidental fees were increased by $95.01 per semester for full-time students. Students will pay the increased fees for the next 25 years.

Lenskyj expressed her disagreement with the fee increase, saying that students not yet born will be paying for a facility that will no longer be state of the art.

Anti-poverty activist Kelly Sue Burgess spoke of alternative uses for the money. Burgess explained that homeless centres in Toronto are overflowing, with an estimated 92,000 people on waiting lists for affordable housing. There are also fears that a process of displacement will occur in preparation for the Pan Am games, similar to the displacement caused by the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

According to Al Jazeera, 250,000 people from low-income neighbourhoods were forcibly removed from their homes to make room for the World Cup. Both the “From the Frontline” panel and the “Game On” panel represented the essence of opirg’s definition of a defiant space. According to Brad Evoy, a student activist and blogger who formerly served as external commissioner at the Graduate Students’ Union (gsu), DisOrientation served as an introduction for many students to “broader areas of community organizing and environmental justice, and how these areas intersect actively with campus.”

Evoy added that DisOrientation was an opportunity to re-orient students away from “a campus framed in ideological and social contradictions.”

the utsu was willing to act in direct violation of its bylaws,” they said in a joint statement. “The fact that the utsu handed out the the epc before it was approved by the [Board of Directors], and then used this to convince people at the meeting that the new epc needed to approved in order to maintain procedural fairness — effectively handcuffing the directors into making a certain decision — shows the troubling lengths the organization will go to in order to have its way,” they added.

“INEQUITABLE STRUCTURE OR NOTHING AT ALL” Gomes also brought an alternative Board of Directors structure to the table, under the intention that it would proceed to the agm for consideration by the membership. The proposal was defeated. At the meeting on September 29, Gomes was handed documents containing legal counsel from the utsu’s lawyers, which stated that his proposal was unfeasible. Gomes was

given just five minutes to read the documents and prepare his defense. “I crafted that motion in good faith and we did a lot of consultation on it,” said Gomes. “I honestly don’t know if everything they did was in good faith. It’s hard to say. I’m on very good personal terms with all of the executive... but the way that everything was done and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to have legal counsel, I found that to be very concerning,” he added.

Saban also expressed discontent at the board’s rejection of Gomes’ proposal. “I’m extremely disappointed, though I can’t say I’m surprised, that the utsu chose to shoot Ryan’s motion down internally rather than allowing the greater student body to make a decision. Now we are faced with an inequitable structure or nothing at all. This is just another case of undemocratic behaviour by a broken union,” she said. Gomes plans to keep pushing his proposal forward. According to Gomes, any motions received 90 days before the articles of continuance come into effect on

UTSU’S RESPONSE “FRUSTRATING” Rowan DeBues, vusac president, along with Ben Coleman, student governor, and Kaleem Hawa, chair of the Trinity College Meeting, proposed the creation of a Student Commons Management Committee, which was designed to reduce biases and conflicts of interest regarding the postponed Student Commons project.

This proposal was also defeated at the board meeting. He described the experience as “frustrating.” DeBues expressed that he does not want to see the utsu fail. Instead, he wishes to see it reformed and stronger. “I think that by blocking motions left, right, and centre, limiting discussion, by leaving things opaque, just mean[s] the more frustrated people will be, and the more likely they’ll want to dissent,” DeBues said.

The agm is scheduled for October 29.

6

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

VARSITY NEWS

news@thevarsity.ca

Fall reading week unlikely for UTM, UTSG students Individual faculty schedules render possibility of a fall break challenging Mark Darling

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

It is unlikely that a fall reading week will be implemented at the Mississauga and St. George campuses in the foreseeable future, as the university is bound to a commitment to end the academic year by April 30 and each university faculty must set its own sessional dates independently.

According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, director of media relations, the autonomy of each faculty allows for schedule flexibility.

In 2009, the Faculty of Arts & Science, the university’s largest faculty, decided to change the way in which academic breaks were scheduled in an effort to maintain an appropriate term length. That year, university administration dropped fall break from five days to two days, and added a two day break in December.

Blackburn-Evans said that the change was made to improve the student experience, although she did not elaborate on how the change directly benefited students as much as it benefited the scheduling done by faculties.

Other universities have moved towards incorporating a fall reading week in recent years, including Brock University, which implemented a fall reading week following the release of a recommendation from Brock University’s Mental Health Strategy and the Brock University Students’ Union. The recommendation stated that a longer fall break would reduce student stress levels.

University of Toronto Scarborough has a week-long break in the fall term, while utm and utsg do not.

Yolen Bollo-Kamara, University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) president, said that

implementing a fall reading week on campus is one of many ways that the university could take a proactive approach to its mental health strategy for students.

She added that having a week-long break in the fall term would enable students to evaluate their course selections, seek out additional support to fulfill academic requirements for their program, and better manage workload.

As it stands, there is no indication from university administration that the issue of a fall reading week will be subject to review, although Bollo-Kamara said that the utsu has brought up the issue with both the provost and vice-provost, who said that any changes should be done on a faculty-by-faculty basis.

Bollo-Kamara said that the utsu wishes to bring the issue of a fall reading week to the forefront for faculty officials, and is hoping to work with faculty course unions on the issue.

Abdullah Shihipar, Arts and Science Students’ Union (assu) president, said that although assu is not currently lobbying the Faculty of Arts & Science for a fall reading week, it does not oppose the possibility. “Certainly, at an [academically] demanding school like U of T, a fall reading week would give students a chance to rest and would do wonders for mental health,” he said.

Shihipar added that the two-day November break is a good start, but said that implementing a fall reading week at utsg would be more difficult. “Such a drastic change, we believe, will not happen at the faculty level unless there are discussions on the issue at higher administrative bodies at the university.

Because of this, assu is not currently working on the fall reading week with the Faculty but again, we are not opposed to it,” he said.

JULIEN BALBONTIN/THE VARSITY

University, UTSU receive mixed grades on campus freedom index Annual campus freedom index measures state of free speech at 52 Canadian universities Devika Desai

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto is the only university in Canada to receive an ‘A’ for its written policies on free speech, according to the 2014 Campus Freedom Index.

The index, compiled by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf), a non-partisan registered charity that defends the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education, scores universities and student unions on their stated policies and practices defending free speech.

“With 208 grades awarded to 52 campuses, Canada’s universities and student unions in 2014 have received only five ‘A’ grades. Conversely ‘F’ grades were earned 33 times: 14 times by universities, and 19 times by student unions. In total, there are 24 campuses that earned at least one ‘F’, assigned to the university or to its student union,” said Michael Kennedy, jccf president, and John Carpay, who manages communications and development efforts for the jccf, in the report.

Last year, 180 grades were awarded to 45 campuses. Of those 180 grades, only six ‘A’ grades were received by Canada’s universities and student unions, along with 32 ‘F’ grades — 13 by universities and 19 by student unions.

This year, U of T received an ‘A’ grade for

the third year in a row due to written policies that express the university’s support for free expression on campus, including a prohibition on disrupting the expression of opinions that one may disagree with.

One such written policy, the Purpose of the University, lays out the university’s commitment to free speech. “Within the unique University context, the most crucial of all human rights are the rights of freedom of speech, academic freedom, and freedom of research. And we affirm that these rights are meaningless unless they entail the right to raise deeply disturbing questions and provocative challenges to the cherished beliefs of society at large and of the University itself,” the commitment reads.

Governing Council also maintains an official Statement on Freedom of Speech.

U of T received an ‘F’ grade for its practices of denying equal access to campus space to its pro-life club, and for charging security fees to the University of Toronto Men’s Issues Awareness Society (utmia).

The report referenced a lecture hosted by the utmia in September 2013, called “Caring about University Men — Why We Need Campus Men’s Centres in a Time of Crisis,” featuring psychologist Miles Groth. According to the report, by charging the utmia $964 in security fees to host their lecture, U of T failed to uphold free expression by “effec-

tively pricing controversial expression out of existence.”

Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, said it is the responsibility of the event organizers to ensure a safe atmosphere for their events, but that campus police must sometimes intervene. “From time to time, events may require the presence of Campus Police officers to ensure that the values espoused in our policies are upheld in a safe manner. According to Blackburn-Evans, the university’s Policy on the Temporary Use of Space and its associated procedures give the university the right to assess additional security requirements and require that Campus Police be present at any event. The costs are usually the responsibility of the group that books the event.

The University of Toronto Students Union (utsu) also received an ‘F’ grade for, among other things, utsu-appointed Chief Returning Officer Alex Flor’s decision in last year’s utsu elections to “[prevent] Team Unite, a slate of candidates running for Executive positions, from hanging posters, launching its website, and sharing its platform, effectively blocking all forms of campaigning.”

“In a campaign that’s less than two weeks long, on a campus with 67,128 undergraduates, the two-day gag order put Team Unite at a grave disadvantage. The incumbent slate, ‘U of T Voice’, won four out of five of the top utsu execu-

tive positions in the election,” the report said.

Alastair Woods, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (cfs-o), expressed concern with the grading method used in the report. “In some cases, this report misrepresents the role students’ unions play in the lives of their members. Students’ unions are governed by democratic structures of bylaws and policies decided upon by their membership,” Woods said, adding: “Through these democratic structures, students’ unions may direct their finite resources towards or away from projects as determined by their membership. This report also outlines many incidents that did not occur in this academic year, including examples from as long as six years ago.”

Bollo-Kamara echoed Woods’s sentiment.

“The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms objects to the idea of ‘safe space’ and condemns policies that mandate that clubs must be open to all members of the students’ union, such as is stipulated in the union’s clubs policy,” Bollo-Kamara said. “[T]hroughout the report, students’ unions are condemned for speaking out against homophobia, racism and other forms of oppression on campus. The jccf claims to unequivocally support free speech on campus, but opposes students’ unions from democratically taking positions on issues or speaking out against hate speech on campus,” she added.

VARSITY NEWS

var.st/news

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

7

NEWS IN BRIEF McGill men’s football coach resigns following suspension of running back Last Tuesday, Clinton Uttley resigned from his post as coach of McGill University’s men’s football team, expressing his frustration over the university’s decision to suspend a player accused of assault.

Luis-Andres Guimont-Mota, the team’s running back, faces charges of assault and uttering threats following an incident with his 21-yearold wife. Guimont-Mota was previously sentenced for assault in a separate incident.

Uttley made his decision after reading a campus-wide message addressing Guimont-Mota’s issue. The message argued that the player should not have been allowed to play for the team in the first place.

Uttley argued that the university knew about Guimont-Mota’s past run-ins with the law. “I believe in rehabilitation. The student athlete accepted his conviction and his punishment, a fact that was not hidden from the University,” the letter read.

Steve Hanafi, Guimont-Mota’s lawyer, may seek a court injunction allowing Guimont-Mota to play in the team’s next game.

With files from The Globe and Mail — Lisa Bernard

Alberta sets course for tuition increases

$5 million for Indigenous education research

U of T named top university in Canada

This fall, Alberta’s advanced education ministry will set the course for “market modified” tuition fees, which, if approved, would further allow universities to charge higher prices on select courses.

As post-secondary institutions across Canada face higher costs and enduring deficits, universities have increasingly turned to higher student fees to balance budgets.

The University of Calgary recently submitted an application to allow variable fee increases depending on course.

The University of Alberta is preparing a similar proposal, targeting economics courses.

Under the proposal, domestic students will pay $150 more for an economics course, while international students will pay $554 more.

“Economics is the most professional program we have [in the faculty of arts] — people become economists and earn very high salaries,” said Dr. Lesley Cormack, University of Alberta Dean of Arts.

According to Comack, economic graduates in Alberta often command starting salaries of over $90,000. Higher student demands have also prompted economics professors to receive salaries of up to 40 percent more than their social science and humanities counterparts.

An anonymous donor has given $5 million to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (oise) — the largest amount of money given to a faculty of education in Canada for Indigenous education research.

The money will establish a fellowship and launch a five-year project to explore the educational requirements of Indigenous peoples, beginning with research on literacy. Later, the initiative will expand to investigate Indigenous languages, language revitalization, education governance, and literary infrastructure.

The research is expected to impact Canadian policies, as well as produce knowledge relevant to education and its study in Indigenous and non-Indigenous societies worldwide. Additionally, the project will help develop new partnerships between Indigenous peoples in Canada, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

In a new survey published by the Quacquarelli Symonds (qs) World University Rankings, U of T was ranked as the best university in Canada and 20th worldwide.

Although slipping slightly from 17th place, U of T placed within the top 25 institutions since 2011, and has held its top spot in Canada since 2013.

The qs World University Rankings bases its rankings on qualities such as teaching standards, level of graduate employment, and academic reputation.

“We are pleased to be recognized once again as the premier university in Canada, and to be named among the world’s very best. Our continued strong performance in the qs rankings is a testament to our world-class education and research, as well as the excellence of our faculty, staff and students,” said U of T president Meric Gertler.

Other Canadian universities to rank within the top 100 include McGill University, University of British Columbia, Université de Montréal and University of Alberta.

With files from U of T News — Iris Robin

With files from the Toronto Star — Emily Johnpulle

With files from The Globe and Mail — Misara Elgammal

New executives at ASSU

Write for news.

Email news@thevarsity.ca

Ariel Charney, Uttra Gautam run unopposed

OISE The first ASSU general meeting. ELENA IOURTAEVA/THE VARSITY

Claire Fox

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Two new executive members were acclaimed at the first general meeting of the Arts & Science Students’ Union (assu) on September 29. Uttra Gautam and Ariel Charney ran unopposed for two executive positions.

Uttra Gautam, a fifth-year psychiatry and criminology student, explained that she ran for an executive position because she is passionate about the university and what the assu can do for its students. “I’ve been here for a while and I’ve been involved in different groups on campus, so I feel like I know what issues people have and what they need. I also know what positives the University of Toronto has,” Gautman said.

Gautman plans to increase awareness of free resources available to students, such as Counselling and Psychological Services (caps), and Downtown Legal Services, a community clinic run by law students that provides free legal services.

Ariel Charney, a fourth-year health studies

specialist, said that she ran for an executive position out of concern for mental health on campus and a desire to promote positive change.

“This year, I would like to hear from students about how academic policies and procedures can be improved to better support them during times of distress,” Charney said.

“Seeing how hard it is to navigate the resources here, I hope to formulate a list of all the services and resources available that offer academic assistance and accommodation and to clarify the procedures involved in receiving them,” Charney added.

The meeting also summarised a number of different initiatives taken by the assu over the summer, with an emphasis on the power students can have through collective cooperation. “[T]here is power in numbers,” said assu president Abdullah Shihipar.

The assu is an academic students’ union for over 23,000 full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto. The assu is made up of over 60 course unions, seven elected executives, and three staff members.

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto

OISE OPEN HOUSE October 20-25

Learn about Graduate Degrees and Teacher Education Programs For details and to register: tinyurl.com/OISEOpenHouse

8

VARSITY NEWS

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

news@thevarsity.ca

Part-time instructors symptom of increasing student enrolment An estimated half of all undergraduates are taught by contract faculty

A corridor in Sidney Smith Hall. FILE PHOTO: VICTORIA DAWSON/THE VARSITY

Alyssa Bouranova

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Undergraduate enrolment in Ontario has skyrocketed over the last decade, with the number of full-time equivalent students in Ontario increasing by 52 per cent, according to a study by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. At the same time, the study found, the number of fulltime permanent faculty members increased by just 30 per cent.

The gap is increasingly filled by a mixture of sessional lecturers and graduate student instructors, who work on contract and are often required to reapply for their positions every four to eight months. Additionally, contract faculty are often offered no explicit health benefits or access to pension plans.

According to a cbc estimate, over half of all undergraduates in Canada today are taught by contract faculty.

“WORKING ON A CONTRACT ” At the University of Toronto, contract faculty are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (cupe) Local 3902. According to Dr. Erin Black, a sessional lecturer and acting chair at cupe Local 3902, contract faculty face a myriad of problems. “[D]espite many of them holding PhDs, they live a very precarious existence with… limited income. [M] any exist below the poverty line,” Black said.

According to Black, in the 20122013 academic year, salaries of sessional instructors at U of T ranged between $14,510 and $16,160 per full course.

Tenured appointments are governed by the university’s Policy and Procedures on Academic Appointments. According to that document, tenure “is the holding by a member of the professorial staff of the University of a continuing full-time ap-

pointment which the University has relinquished the freedom to terminate before the normal age of retirement except for cause.”

“Tenured appointments should be granted on the basis of three essential criteria: achievement in research and creative professional work, effectiveness in teaching, and clear promise of future intellectual and professional development,” the document adds.

Tenured professors annually make over $100,000.

Appointments on a sessional and part-time basis are governed by the university’s Policy and Procedures on Part-Time Appointments.

Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the University of Toronto Students Union, said that the use of contract faculty is detrimental to both students and instructors. The result both for them and for their students is that “professional instructors often have to take on teaching jobs at multiple institutions, making it more difficult for them to hold office hours and maintain regular communication with students,” she said.

“PART OF THE MECHANISM” According to Althea Blackburn-Evans, U of T director of media relations, contract faculty play a key academic role in postsecondary institutions. “[They] bring substantial expertise to enrich… students’ educational experiences and build their practical skills,” Blackburn-Evans said.

Contract faculty also fulfill specific teaching posts when tenured faculty members are on personal or research leave. Given that sessional faculty don’t have the same research and service duties as tenured faculty, they are able to focus on teaching requirements.

In reality, however, many contract faculty put in extra hours on researching, publishing, and serving on academic committees in an attempt to improve their chance at getting a tenure-stream position.

Ryan Culpepper, vice chair, unit 1 and 2 with cupe 3902, and phd student at the Centre for Comparative Literature, said that the practice of relying on contract faculty is a strategic business move that cuts costs for universities and offers an alternative to committing to tenured positions.

“Sessional lecturers and course instructors do some of the best teaching at [U of T]. Unfortunately, the University of Toronto administration does not pay these employees a wage that reflects their considerable experience,” Culpepper said.

“RISKS AND PROGRESS” Richard Wellen, president of the York University Faculty Association and former representative for York’s contract faculty at cupe Local 3903, echoed Culpepper’s sentiment.

Wellen expressed concern that, for contract faculty, the lack of job security may erode their academic freedom and offer them little opportunity to pursue their research careers Although the use of contract faculty is widespread, in recent years some institutions have moved to create fulltime, teaching-only positions to avoid over-utilization of contract faculty.

Others, like U of T, have seen only marginal increases in the number of contracted sessional lecturers relative to tenure-stream faculty — an increase of about five per cent from 2004 to 2012.

Wellen added that, at the end of the day, the prevalence of contract faculty can be attributed to postsecondary education underfunding.

Ontario has the lowest level of perstudent funding in Canada.

“Clearly this is a phenomenon related to the underfunding of universities… the fact that [contract faculty] receive so little recognition for the role they play in post-secondary institutions is something that should concern the entire community inside and outside of academia,” said Wellen.

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Comment

VAR.ST/COMMENT 6 OCTOBER 2014

comment@thevarsity.ca

The hangover games How our culture of partying reinforces binge drinking and other risky behaviours Emma Kikulis

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Many of us taken the opportunity to procrastinate by taking those Facebook and Buzzfeed quizzes on our social media feeds: “What does your favourite drink say about you?”, “What kind of drunk are you?”, and, my personal favourite, “Which celebrity should you get drunk with?” But at what point does this obsession with drinking and partying cross the line from an occasional beer or two at a bar, to partying so hard that you black out on the bathroom floor?

The answer is found through an exploration of U of T’s party culture. Although more exaggerated at other Canadian universities, U of T’s St. George campus has seen its fair share of drunken undergraduates stumbling home at the end of the night, as is the norm for any school located in a major city.

Many U of T students adopt the “work hard, play hard” mantra while in university but seem to have some trouble dedicating equal focus to the work aspect. Forgoing class and letting readings pile up in favour of the far more inauspicious party option — which includes binge drinking and engaging in risky, drunken behaviour — is common practice for many U of T undergrads. Maybe it’s a fear of real life responsibilities creeping into the minds of students in the final years of their degrees — the reality of jobs, families, and mortgages — that makes irresponsible indulgence seem so attractive.

The fear of the unknown as students approach graduation becomes all too real for young adults already apprehensive to meet the upcoming responsibilities of adulthood, although many are already well into their twenties. So they party harder, stay out later, and drink more in order to compensate for the fact that when they’re out in the real world, these behaviours won’t be socially acceptable anymore.

The undergraduate experience provides many students with their first taste of real independence, as they find themselves exempt from the judgemental eyes of parents and professors when they come home at 4:00 am every night, sleep in their clothes, or arrive to class hung-over. The answer to why some students take this newfound freedom and use it as an excuse to party, while others do not, is a matter of perspective.

khaiam dar/The VarsiTy

On the one hand, there are students like myself, who see university as an opportunity to develop good skills and habits to increase the likelihood of securing some stable and gainful employment after school ends. For that group, which I believe includes the majority of U of T students, enjoying a beer with some friends between assignments and exams is completely justified.

On the other side of the equation are those who see their university years as the only opportunity they may ever have to let loose and go wild. The appeal of frequent

irresponsible partying, compounded by the relative absence of any real, immediate repercussions, is too much for some students to pass up. Some may recognize the sacrifices that go hand in hand with this lifestyle — poor sleep and habits, slipping grades, and evaporating opportunities, but the consequences are often difficult to appreciate in the short term.

The common consensus that alcohol constitutes part of a normal, balanced university experience can be problematic for students at risk of developing long-term issues with alcohol, as well as for those

who want to enjoy their undergraduate years sober without the pressure of having to drink to socialize.

A dangerous relationship with alcohol can be formed in university and fester without supervision. Many students will leave university with a few years of unhealthy drinking habits under their belts, which can lead to serious health problems down the road.

Binge drinking in particular has come under scrutiny as an increasing problem in Canadian universities over the past decade. A 2004 Canadian Campus Survey confirmed that undergraduates living on university campuses are proportionately more likely to engage in “risky drinking habits” when compared to adults over the age of 24. Unfortunately, the frightening truth is that many students would not consider four drinks a night risky behaviour — for many, it’s just an average night out.

As a third-year student who has only legally been able to drink for less than a year, I have noticed the prevalence of problematic drinking habits on campus, as well as in the academic community at U of T. Living with binge-drinking roommates has opened my eyes to the culture of booze. More often than not, drinking is used as a means to an end; the point is to get drunk. Rather than social drinking, in which the drinker is in control of how much alcohol they consume, binge drinking entails pounding back large amounts of alcohol in a short period of time in order to maximize your buzz and induce a drunken stupor.

It is essential that everyone, students especially, is able to find resources to get help, information, or support for drinking related concerns. Organizations like U of T’s Counselling and Psychological Services, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Heath, and Alcoholics Anonymous can provide students with vital information and treatment if they are concerned that they might have developed or be developing a drinking problem.

Unfortunately, until we reexamine the culture that surrounds alcohol in university, the problem is here to stay. As long as party culture is excused as a normal part of the university experience, the dangers of alcohol dependency will continue to wreak havoc among students.

Emma Kikulis is a third-year student at U of T studying English and sociology.

How much is your privacy worth?

An anecdote from the frontier of invasive technology Peymon Montazeri VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

When I went to The Exchange Café at Rotman for lunch last month, two nice PayPal representatives approached me and handed me a flyer.

The flyer was an offer for a $5 credit towards my food or beverage purchase at select campus shops if I downloaded and used the PayPal app on my smartphone.

It seemed like an intriguing offer. I mean, that’s good for a nice medium latte right? I asked about the catch and was told there wasn't one, they just wanted people to start using their mobile app. Amazing, I thought as I quickly pulled out my Android phone and searched for PayPal in the app store.

Prior to installation, I was confronted with

a long list of permissions that the PayPal app requires in order to function. These included permissions like having unrestricted access to my text messages, contacts, camera, and accounts on my phone, and there was the catch.

Furious, I asked the reps why such permissions were required.

One had no idea, while the other kept insisting on the fact that these permissions are required for the app to verify my identity. The representatives were quick to ask why it mattered to me when I had the opportunity to save $5 — I was skeptical about the loss of my privacy, which in my mind, is relatively more valuable. I refused to download the app.

The same night, I emailed the company looking for a justification for the invasion of privacy required to use the app. I was told that, “Device & app history, Identity, Contacts/

Calendar, Location, SMS, Device ID & call information are all about identity verification.

Our system is sensitive whenever it comes to account access that's why we need those information from you to ensure that you are the real account holder.”

But that did not really answer my question.

How exactly does having access to my text messages help verify my identity? So, I replied by asking for further clarification. This time, I received an even more surprising response: “we appreciate the time you've taken to write us with your comments about the PayPal app for your mobile phone, however as much as I would like to discuss the permissions, I have limited resources.”

And that was it — no justification offered and I was more or less told to stop asking questions.

Who knows why such permissions are necessary? PayPal’s employees certainly don’t.

Call me pessimistic, but do I really want Paypal, or any other service for that matter, to have access to sensitive information on my phone? The last time I checked my privacy was worth more than $5 and that is why I refused to download the app.

If it is too good to be true, then it probably isn’t. There is always a catch. The catch can simply be gathering more information about you as the user. I am not saying you shouldn’t download the PayPal app specifically. I’m merely saying we should be more vigilant about the applications we install on our mobile phones and question the intentions of those who would like to access it.

Peymon Montazeri is in his second-year of the Master of Information program at U of T’s Faculty of Information.

10 Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

VARSITY COMMENT

comment@thevarsity.ca

Are students too dependent on technology?

The Question

Laptops, tablets, and other forms of new technology have become a common sight in U of T classrooms. Mallika Makkar/THe VarsiTy

Before logging on or plugging in, consider the When it comes to new tech and social media, environmental and personal consequences the benefits outweigh the costs for students Sasha Boutlier

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Sitting in a lecture for a Law and Morality class last week, I watched with a mix of horror and bemusement as the student in front of me plugged in his earphones and began to live stream Divorce Lawyers. The rapid slapstick humour and slickly dressed lawyers clashed markedly with the somewhat drier details of Hart's legal positivism, a poignant commentary on the technological dependence that seems to permeate the U of T student body.

Internet technologies afford immensely transformative possibilities across almost every aspect of modern society. Yet the question remains: do we use technology more than is healthy, not only for ourselves, but also for society and the environment?

Internet communications technologies are fundamentally mind-altering; indeed, some argue that they are the most powerful mindaltering technologies to permeate society. As Nicholas Carr, author of The Juggler's Brain, suggests, the Internet promotes superficial learning rather than the depth of thought that is the goal of higher education. U of T is not immune to this trend. Indeed, veteran professors have told me that, since the rise of the Internet, they've had to dumb down course material and shorten essays on tests because many students began to struggle with the requisite depth of thought.

This should be especially concerning as university has long been concerned with inspiring deep thinking. It is here where we can devote our time to delving beyond the surface level approach common to lower levels of education.

Smartphones are commonly criticized for killing real conversation. I am certain we have all availed ourselves of the distraction of having our Facebook, email, Twitter, and Instagram constantly at our fingertips. It is simply wise

to be aware of how we use social media. Social media can help with loneliness and can be a way of supporting friends. However, it is the personalized communication of comments and messages so inherent to face-to-face communication, rather than explicitly quantifiable “likes” or “favorites,” that make us feel connected. Indeed, passive consumption on Facebook solely through posting and scanning through status updates through our newsfeed, twitter, and Instagram is correlated with feelings of loneliness.

Particularly as students, we should be conscious of the environmental implications of our technological dependence, both because we are most likely to have technology, such as smartphones, and because we will disproportionately bear their future environmental consequences.

Indeed, the smartphones which have become so central to our lives contribute significantly to pollution and resource scarcity. On a geopolitical front, China controls the majority of rare earth metal deposits, which are integral to the production of technology, and has cut exports by 72 per cent in recent years, raising economic and geopolitical tensions. There are also numerous human rights issues through the entire life cycle of these devices from resource extraction to assembly and finally disposal.

Science fiction luminary Isaac Asimov wrote, “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” In our present Internet era, this seems especially true on an individual level. Vast amounts of information are constantly at our fingertips, yet it seems we still lack the wisdom to healthily limit our dependence on technology — not just for our own sake, but for the health of our society and environment as well.

Sasha Boutilier is a second-year student at St. Michael's College studying political science and ethics, society, and law.

Victoria Wicks

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

As students, we use technology to help with homework, play games, shop, or watch Grey’s Anatomy. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the frequency with which we use online platforms like Facebook and Twitter to socialize.

Indeed, Canada’s Media Technology Monitor reported that 71 per cent of Internet users were also active social media users.

Many (read: baby boomers) have condemned this growing online socialization, arguing that our “technology addiction” makes us narcissistic and promotes superficial relationships.

An article by The Atlantic even went so far as to suggest that social media makes us lonely, leading to mental and physical illnesses.

Students are indeed dependent on technology — I, for one, check my email and social media before I get out of bed everyday. However, it is misguided and reductive to assume this use of technology is inherently detrimental.

Social media is just another method of communication that we will inevitably incorporate into our lives, much in the way that tools like the telephone and email have been assimilated.

I have admittedly wasted hours calculating social capital via Facebook likes or Twitter retweets. Yet, social media only reflects, rather than creates or exacerbates, the unavoidable popularity contests of our teenage years. One only has to think of Mean Girls to realize that toxic social relations between students were a pervasive problem long before the widespread use of social media.

So when incessant social competition becomes less important to us, we can use social media in more productive ways. As someone from outside Toronto, social media’s rapid and multifaceted interface allows me to easily maintain relationships with my distant family

and friends. The mass communication with college or course mates through Facebook groups is also incredibly useful for resolving various personal issues that may be out of scope for a registrar or professor. Being a commuter student, Skype and Google Hangouts also provide me with an ideal replacement for in-person meetings.

Perhaps most underrated is the role of social media in providing news and spurring debate.

On the most basic level, my peers’ engagement with political problems or international events increases my awareness of issues worth caring about. For example, frustration over the University of Toronto’s Students’ Union’s (utsu) recent Board of Directors meeting manifested itself in several informative Facebook statuses.

What’s more, following various Tumblr blogs or Twitter feeds amplifies marginalized voices and prompts dialogue in a continuous, organic way that traditional media cannot replicate.

Most notably, conversations concerning sexism, racism, or other types of oppression provide a powerful alternative to the narratives we learn through mainstream media and schools. See, for instance, #YesAllWomen, which highlights the magnitude of misogyny and harassment directed at women across the continent. #Ferguson provides ground-level reports of police brutality during the city’s media blackout.

We need to stop condemning social media as merely a facilitator of procrastination or antisocial tendencies. It actually holds enormous potential for improving our daily lives, from strengthening relationships to exposing us to alternative viewpoints. Students and youth are at the forefront of using social media for these positive gains and deserve credit, not criticism, for doing so.

Victoria Wicks is The Varsity’s associate comment editor. She is a second-year student at Trinity College studying political science and philosophy.

Editorial

VAR.ST/EDITORIAL 6 OCTOBER 2014

UTAM should abandon active management strategies

mari zhou/The VarsiTy

The findings of a report filed by the President’s Committee on Investment Policies, Structures, Strategies and Execution (pci) on the governance structure of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (utam) in December of 2009 detail a long list of recommendations which, for a time, promised to be a wise step in calibrating the university’s investment strategy. However, despite then–U of T president David Naylor’s acknowledgement and selective endorsement of these recommendations later that year, little of substance has been accomplished towards enhancing administrative oversight of utam and, to that end, ensuring the sustained financial security of the university.

In an article published in the news section of The Varsity last week, the ongoing controversy generated by utam’s continued use of active management strategies in running U of T’s endowment and pension funds was laid bare. utam has not shifted its focus from riskier actively managed investments to the chagrin of the body’s stakeholders, particularly the University of Toronto Faculty Association (utfa), whose pensions are managed by utam.

Up until roughly a decade ago, the responsibility of managing U of T’s endowment and pension funds lay with the university's Treasury Department, which was supervised by a volunteer committee. At the beginning of the 2000s, U of T’s administration opted to establish utam as a replacement in hopes of achieving the investment success of several reputable universities in the United States. Yale and Harvard, for instance, each avail themselves of professionally managed investment offices to oversee their funds.

Despite a rocky first decade, utam has manifestly enjoyed some success — U of T’s main investment portfolios outperformed benchmarks by about 10 per cent last year. utam's 2013 Annual Report states that the university looks for a four per cent rate of returns on its investments once inflation and costs have been factored in over a ten year period. “That’s what we measure ourselves against. If I can’t outperform that, after all costs, then we shouldn’t be doing active management, or we have the wrong people," utam president and ceo William Moriarty said in an interview with The Varsity last March.

While the university is progressively recovering from the losses incurred during the 2008 financial crisis, which amounted to $1.5 billion in investments, it is imperative that U of T’s administration revisits the recommendations of the 2009 pci report and establishes a stricter governance policy to manage utam in light of the recent concerns over aggressive investment strategy. Moriarty and utam insist that active management of the institution’s endowment and pension funds is appropriate so long as they continue to surpass profit targets, but they appear to have not taken the lessons of 2008 to heart.

One of utam’s largest stakeholders is the utfa, which represents faculty members and librarians across U of T’s three main campuses, as well as at other federated universities. Included in the funds managed by utam are those same faculty and librarian’s pension funds, which constitute $3.2 billion in assets.

The lion’s share of criticism leveled against utam has come from utfa and, particularly, former utfa president George Luste. Luste has voiced opposition to utam’s use of complex hedge funds, which pool capital from a number of investors and wager securities, bonds, and other sophisticated financial instruments. “Hedge funds cannot guarantee returns and are like buying a lotto ticket and hoping to win.

But someone loses money always, and, really, how many winners do we have? In such investments, the only people that make money are the managers," Luste said in an interview with The Varsity last week.

Indeed, utam pays out over $14 million annually to fund managers. Moriarty is the fourth-highest paid public employee in the province, earning $772,547 last year — more than the president of U of T. This issue does not end, however, as a disagreement between pensioners and the university’s corporate administration. U of T students should take note as well, as much of the funding for student organizations, including newspapers, clubs, student governance bodies, and more, is distributed through the endowment. U of T’s Boundless campaign, a fundraising initiative launched in 2011, lists among its top priorities “[enhancing] this vibrant environment and strengthen[ing] one of the most rewarding student experiences in Canada.” Maintaining and improving the quality of the student experience are inextricably linked to the security of the endowment.

The administration and U of T community cannot idly accept the delay in implementing strong governance reform of utam. The corporation is in good hands and health for now, but it is crucial that stopgaps be enforced to compensate for the inherent volatility of the market and the relative risk associated with the university’s current investment strategies.

Betting on the pensions of U of T staff and the institution’s endowment exposes every stakeholder in the community to unnecessary risk. U of T cannot thrive in the long-term when the individual financial security of its constituents, especially our instructors and staff, remains tied to unpredictable and complex investment strategies.

The Varsity's editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester. For more information about The Varsity's editorial policy, email comment@thevarsity.ca.

comment@thevarsity.ca

LETTERS TO

THE EDITOR

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6 | October 6, 2014 Re: UTSU board shoots down proposed structural changes I'm pretty sure they followed all those recommendations, except none of them were about implementing online voting so the membership attended agms to force them to implement online voting.

The board has always followed "legal counsel." There's just one problem, the communication between legal counsel and the utsu is very controlled.

— Pierre Harfouche (from web) Re: Students, student groups adapt to back campus changes With all due respect, this is possibly one of the single worst articles on Back Campus printed in this paper. Aside from talking to me, you spoke with literally no one that was involved in these matters at the time. The quotes from other students are off-hand or barely tethered to reality (one cannot speak to the excellence of a field that has barely if at all even been used yet).

Positing claims that 'student groups' have any perspective at all, without actually talking to one on record? This is troubling. With the number of 'former's appended to my name, I think I cease counting on that front. ;) Abbreviating the considerable controversy of the piece to this length doesn't do it justice, for either side of the issue. Also, Back Campus is a title -- proper noun, people -- and should be capitalized. Now I just sound grumpy and persnickety (as a graduate student should)...

— Brad Evoy (from web) Re: Do you benefit from U of T’s course breadth requirement?

They're kind of... the same perspective? Would have been a more interesting read if one of the POVs focused on the incredibly negative aspects of breadth requirements, like the fact that many students don't have roughly $2000 - $3000 extra to spend on classes that they aren't putting toward their degrees and future careers. Or that throwing a student into a field that they have (often deliberately) chosen not to major in could seriously affect their gpa for the semester. Or that U of T's sad excuse for taking an extra couple grand out of your pocket is that they are providing you with a "well rounded education." Isn't that what we received in high school? Aren't we spending thousands of dollars to receive specific instruction, in specific areas in order to secure a career when we graduate? Pretty sure my future employer isn't going to look at my undergrad credentials and say, "WOW! She took B level statistics once? She's must really be able to contribute to society in more than just her field of study!" I see the benefit of exploring courses outside your field if you feel that is something you would like to do, but forcing extra courses on students and feeding them lines about how it's in their

best interest is just ludicrous. It's a cash grab, plain and simple.

— Katherine (from web) Re: U of T’s culture of silence breeds a culture of complicity "Consider the fact that 60 per cent of men in university said they would commit sexual assault if they were certain they wouldn’t get caught." Are we sure that's a fact? It’s from a 1992 book. I think we need to be slightly more critical of presented information.

— novakrash (from web) So, let's hypothetically assume that we had no breadth requirements.

You would still need 20 credits to fulfill the minimum requirements of getting a degree, in addition to your subject POSt requirements - which is well short of 20.

Since most POSt requirements add up to about 12~14 credits, you have 6 - 8 credits that don't go towards your degree.

I'm fail ing to see how this is a cash grab. You could maybe make an argument that taking more courses than you need to fulfill your subject POSt is a cash grab, but breadth requirements aren't.

— steptik Re: The on-campus connoisseur The exchange has all day breakfast? SOLD. — Student (from web) Re: Rising costs of textbooks among barriers to higher education It's interesting. I actually had the chance while working on a project this past summer to work with an employee of Oxford Press, and he had some interesting things to say.

It really shouldn't be a surprise that that the printing industry, in general, is getting it's ass kicked by the internet, kindle, etc. For the first half of the summer this guy was very concerned about losing his job, following a necessary merger with the American division of Oxford. That being said, it's also true that academic texts have always been the meat and potatoes of companies like Oxford.

So when general sales go down and the pressure to stay afloat gets higher, there's really not much choice on the company's part than to increase the pricing on items that they know they can sell.

Now, whether print is an antiquated system that should be phased out (at least in an academic setting) is an entirely different question. It would be a bit cheaper, yes, but not enough to really assail the issue being addressed here. I also have always found it very difficult to focus on electronic texts, and can't really get through readings unless they're in my hand.

It's a difficult issue, and I believe its part of a more endemic trend. So, no solutions here just some thoughts.

— Tony (from web)

Letters to the editor should be directed to comment@thevarsity.ca. Please keep letters to 250 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Taking it further Students and staff at U of T seek to shift a culture of stigma and centralization surrounding mental health Article by Alex Verman

H

ealth & Wellness at U of T is bringing mental health to the foreground of student issues, having deemed October “Mental Health Awareness Month” on campus.

The campaign highlights the fleet of initiatives targeting what many students have characterized as a lonely and difficult university experience by creating support systems and partnerships to improve student life. Efforts are underway like never before to improve the state of student mental health at U of T through clubs, conversations, and connections.

The “How Does U of T Make You Feel?” project gained a good deal of attention at the end of the spring term of last year. The homemade boards and their sharpie admissions seemed to show up outside every central building at UTSG, and everywhere they appeared, so did a group of students — some reading the comments, some writing their own, and some standing back to talk about it with others.

The boards, and the sentiments that students expressed on them, were both unignorable and widespread.

Through both the physical boards and the Facebook page, the project made more prominent the extent to which students were struggling. “I think one of the reasons why it was an interesting page to so many people was because people go to see that ‘oh yeah, other people feel the way I feel,’” said David Fishbayn, one of the creators of the project.

Fishbayn noticed a climate of disconnection between students on campus where students are generally uncomfortable communicating with each other. “There were a lot of patterns in the responses; there were a lot of people who were lonely, who were socially isolated, and just frustrated with their university experience,” he said.

Initiatives that prompt conversation can make big differences in bridging what might otherwise feel like impossibly wide gulfs.

The sense of alienation that some students experience, and which contributes to an unhealthy as well as isolating time in university, is a combination of the general atmosphere of universities as institutions, as well as issues specific to the University of Toronto.

A FRACTURED COMMUNITY Kaleem Hawa, the only undergraduate student representative on the ViceProvost’s Mental Health Committee, expressed a similar concern. The vice-provost’s committee determined that the structure of the university is

“If we’re going to sort of as a collective group improve the sense of alienation at U of T, we need to go farther than ‘oh U of T is super big, that’s why so many people feel alienated,’” said Fishbayn.

The main structural concern is what has been described as a “siloed” system at play. Janine Robb, director of Health & Wellness, pointed out the stark contrast between the high level of decentralization of the university in terms of social and organizational structure, and the highly centralized nature of mental health services.

On the vice-provost’s committee, she emphasized the importance of developing a more decentralized mental health system that featured

“Increasing communication is essential to decreasing the stigma.” a contributing factor in its overall poor performance in looking after students’ mental health. This critical exploration of the causes of an unhealthy campus environment is welcome. For the most part, the tendency to attribute all of U of T’s problems to its immense size has become a hindrance to more constructive investigations into improving student experiences.

services embedded in the different “silos” of U of T life. Robb argued that embedded services reduce the stigma associated with seeking out and walking into a central forum, such as Counseling and Psychological Services (caps).

The same loneliness that Fishbayn identified at U of T has been enhanced and exacerbated by this

layout, both institutionally, in terms of college and faculty divisions, and physically, in terms of the lack of social space.

“I don’t think we have a cohesive social community,” said Hawa, describing the image of silos. “You have the colleges, each one of those is a silo; people hang around with their various student clubs, those are silos.

Those sorts of silos are both good and bad, but I think that when it comes to mental health they are largely bad, because it makes it harder and more stigmatizing to access [resources] if we use a centralized service.”

This stigma surrounding conversation about and access to mental health resources is what those concerned with improving overall social

and psychological well being identify as a chief obstacle.

BREAKING DOWN STIGMA MindFest, a full-day event of mental health workshops, talks, and activities hosted by the Department of Psychiatry and held at Hart House, is directed at the improvement of student health through reduction of stigma. Lindsay Curtis, one of the organizers of MindFest and a faculty member at the department, commented that much of the impetus behind the event is to improve conversation about mental health among students.

The exhibitions at MindFest range from more formal speakers from established organizations, like the Jack Project, to more personalized experi-

ences — yoga workshops, poetry prescriptions, craft-making, and guided meditations — that connect individuals to each other and to the resources present at U of T. The event kicks off Mental Illness Awareness Week on campus and will be running from 9:00 am to 8:45 pm on Monday, October 6.

Ronna Bloom, poet in residence at Mount Sinai Hospital, will be representing the Rx for Poetry program at MindFest. Through the program, Bloom delivers poems to individuals at random. The idea was born from what Bloom describes as, “seeing what poetry can do for people even in brief, unplanned encounters.”

She described the experience of offering poems to others as an opportunity to connect and offer sympathy, “I

have certainly felt that when in despair or grief, if I can land on the right poem it may make me cry as it releases the experience I’ve been holding in, but it also releases it. And I am less alone because I know the person who wrote this felt this too.” For Bloom, prescribing poems to others — which she delivers on a prescription pad — is a way to combat feelings of isolation through an extension of care. Programs like Bloom’s, through expressions of solidarity, go a long way towards breaking down the stigma associated with mental health.

As Curtis explained, “Stigma is the biggest issue facing many people experiencing mental illness,” she added that stigma also reduces the effectiveness of services. Even in a city as big as Toronto, and a university as big as U of T, people often are unaware of the services available to them.

Curtis remarked that there were a lot of students involved in the planning of MindFest, particularly those affiliated with the department of psychiatry. She praised student initiatives on campus as increasing the access that students have to more comfortable conversations about mental health. “They’re doing amazing things,” she said. “Increasing communication is essential to decreasing the stigma.”

Active Minds, a club dedicated to eradicating stigma associated with mental illness, is dedicated to doing just that. Jordana Schiralli, vice-president of Active Minds, found the club instrumental in developing the kind of support network that she believes students dealing with mental illnesses need. On Thursday, October 16 from 6:00–9:00 pm, Active Minds will be hosting a “Speak Out! Students Talk Mental Health” event in BA1170 in an effort to provide comfortable and casual access points for people to engage with others facing similar issues.

Schiralli agreed with Curtis’ assessment: “It is crucial to note that caps is doing the best they can with the resources they have. The issue is that many students are unaware of other services on campus that they also have access to.”

IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY Schiralli referred to Counseline, a free service provided by caps where graduate students in the faculty of social work counsel undergraduate students — in place of formally trained psychiatrists who are in high demand and short supply. Services like this, where students are engaging more directly with each other, are noteworthy in their accessibility. “They provide online counseling, which allows commuters the option to receive care without travelling,” she commented, “and those experiencing symptoms of social anxiety or depression to receive care from the comfort of their own home.”

The issue of commuter access is particularly important. For the majority of commuters at U of T, campus can be a lonely environment; there are few student spaces that encourage interac-

tion and conversation, and even fewer explicitly dedicated to commuters.

Fishbayn is hoping that student projects can help propel conversation. A new group, Unite U of T, an extension of the How Does U of T Make You Feel? project, is focused on teaming up with other mental health organizations on campus and developing a dedicated “social week” to consciously foster community at U of T. He believes that it’s fallen largely to the student body to correct the issue of alienation on campus: “It’s a lot more structural; that’s why it sort of has to come upon the in-

Made up of representatives from a variety of divisional societies on campus, the mhat is interested in voicing a plurality of viewpoints, as no two individuals experience mental illness the same way. Bollo-Kamara has identified this as a key equity issue, and stresses that catering and targeting services to groups in particular need is a priority of this organization. “Addressing student mental health is an important part of the utsu’s mandate to defend student rights and eradicate barriers to inclusion and success in all aspects of university life,” said Bollo-Kamara.

“The issue is that many students are unaware of other services on campus that they also have access to.”

dividual student here to find some way of resolving their social problems.”

Aside from the number of clubs concerned directly with facilitating discussion and community around issues of mental health, dedicated advocacy work is being done by students to bridge the gap between what people are experiencing and what the administration is working on. An advocacy organization made up solely of students from various student societies, the Mental Health Action Team (mhat), was founded by Hawa and Yolen Bollo-Kamara, University of Toronto Students’ Union (utsu) president, in order to represent the views of a diversity of students on issues of mental health and stigmatization on campus. Bollo-Kamara emphasized that, “counseling staff and the services they provide should be representative of the diversity of our community and be able to speak to [a variety] of issues.”

She highlighted issues including tuition fees, class sizes, racism, sexism, and homophobia, among others.

mhat’s first project has been to commission a survey on mental health at U of T, involving meetings with psychiatrists, Robb, and the assistant vice-president of student life Lucy Fromowitz. “It will get emailed out to students to fill out their perceptions and experiences with mental health, to inform our advocacy,” said Hawa.

“After that the goal is to draft a report, a report that will go to the provost and the Provost Committee, and that should help them inform their formation of strategies.”

The provostial committee will be producing a mental health framework, containing some core principles on which to base policies for U of T within the next two months. From there, the focus will shift to developing strategies of action that translate into concrete policies.

According to Hawa, these policies can be wide-ranging as well as more immediately achievable. The need to shift towards more embedded services might require larger direction of funds.

“The implementation plan might be to spend more money on having counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists in the respective communities rather than having them all in caps,” he commented. “Have one in the dean’s office at [Victoria College], some in the dean’s office at [University College], some in the First Nations house.”

On the other hand, simple measures to decrease stress and increase awareness of services can result in significant improvements in overall student wellbeing. One example both Hawa and Schiralli identified was a simple change to syllabi. “Something I have noticed more recently at U of T is the amount of professors now including resources like caps in this section of the syllabus,” said Schiralli. “Adding this small piece of information next to physical illness is huge; it helps to legitimize the concerns of individual students, and it legitimizes the mental health movement as a whole.”

The reduction of stigma is at the forefront of everyone’s minds heading into Mental Health Awareness Month.

Other organizations on campus, even those not specifically oriented towards mental health and overcoming psychological and social ills on campus, have stepped forward to participate, including the Multi-Faith Centre with yoga and tai chi classes, various faculties with meditation sessions, and Hart House craft workshops.

Although increased attention is important, some involved students worry that we should be conscious of the issues at hand. Hawa argued that widespread attention is good in that it decreases stigma, but it can also create support for ineffective solutions and gloss over the things that people may more seriously need to properly treat mental illness.

With that being said, both Hawa and Fishbayn made a point of calling on other student groups to add to the discussion. “I think in terms of the culture actually changing, of individual students seeing that other people really do feel the same way as they do, that has to be accomplished more by …initiatives [and] clubs on campus, because those are the groups that can more actively interact with individual students,” Fishbayn commented. “It is important for students to understand that they’re not alone in their frustration with their university experience.”

From left to right: The Multi-Faith Centre’s Quiet Room. jENNIFER SU/THE VARSITy Students respond to the “How Does U of T Make You Feel” project.

FILE PHOTO:SHIjIE zHOU/THE VARSITy U of T’s CAPS office. FILE PHOTO: mIcHAEL cHAHLEy/THE VARSITy Online counseling is one of many resources available to students. jENNIFER SU/THE VARSITy

ONLINE: Check out coverage of MindFest later this week at var.st/mindfest

Arts&Culture VAR.ST/ARTS | 6 OCTOBER 2014 | arts@thevarsity.ca

Dark is the art

The Varsity explores Toronto's all-night outdoor art festival, Nuit Blanche

If there’s ever a night to indulge your artistic curiosity, it’s Nuit Blanche. It’s an evening that never seems to go quite as planned, but sometimes that can be for the best — you see parts of the city you wouldn't normally enter, stumble across exhibits you didn’t intend to see, and engage with your curiosity in a way you wouldn’t usually do. With all this in mind, here is a record of our evening, featuring the art that we did (and did not) plan on seeing.

Split Chorale for Viljo Revell, 2014

Sex Worker, Truth & Archetype

Visiting this project felt more like an experience than a viewing of performance art. Inside City Hall, the artists created a type of inverted theatre. A projection of video montages was reflected on the central stalk in the building, showing a male chorus singing in a continuous drone. At the same time, a legion of “real” choral singers wearing tuxedos were watching the audience from the wrap-around balcony over the first floor. The projections would occasionally silence, and the present choral singers would begin to sing. Confusing yet enticing, it was fun to walk around the stalk and see the different projections in which some of the chorus members deviated strangely from their singing (like the one guy who took his pants off, and another who peeled and ate a banana). The exhibit was pretty much exactly what it had said it would be and was one of the best-organized exhibits I saw at Nuit Blanche.

— Aneta Perehinets

I made my way down to Queen and McCaul to see Sex Workers Truth and Archetype, created

by Esther Buckareff, Barbara Greczny, and Michelle Breslin. Meant to challenge “the public to redefine who or what is a sex worker,” the exhibit was made up of stylized photographs of nine different sex workers expressing how they view themselves. Each photograph was accompanied by interviews with the participants on a range of topics, including feminism, sexuality, law, family, and work. They were wonderful — my favourite was "Outlaw" and depicted “Fiona,” face covered, holding a gun, and kneeling next to a dog in the woods. Documentary videos accompanied the portraits, and in my mind they were the best part of the entire exhibit. Each story is candid, allowing the viewer unprecedented access into the lives and thoughts of the participants. I could have listened to the interviews for hours and would definitely visit again: the exhibition runs at the Beaver Hall Gallery until October 23.

— Erin Tobin

Texting Syria Around midnight, the crowds around Queen Street started to worsen, and it was pretty much impossible to see any art, so I headed past the hordes to Queen Street & Strachan Avenue, near Trinity Bellwoods Park. Just inside the park was Texting Syria, an exhibit by Liam Maloney. Inside a shipping container, photographs are displayed of Syrian refugees texting their missing families. Before entering the exhibit, you are asked to text a phone number, and then

while looking at the portraits, text messages between the refugees and their families appear on your phone. It’s eerie reading messages like “It’s ok. We’re under siege but they are able to bring in bread” from your own phone. The photographs themselves were compelling, but the entire collection along with the messages can be seen online. I left a little disappointed, because while it was an interesting premise, it wasn’t worth the 40-minute trek.

— E. T.

Clockwise: By Means of A Sigh. Mallika Makkar/the VarsitY | Global Rainbow. saMantha Chen/the VarsitY Texting Syria. rusaba alaM/the VarsitY | Screaming Booth. Mallika Makkar/the VarsitY

var.st/arts The Insomnia Project The Insomnia Project consisted of spectators sitting in the hotel lounge of Hotel Le Germain Toronto, watching a projected display of images while a fedora-wearing interviewer held a conversation with someone above the lounge.

The conversation was apparently digitally screened to insomniacs

Between Doors Between Doors dealt with the age-old question: do we have the freedom of choice? I was presented with a set of doorways — then another, then another, and so forth — and encouraged to walk through the installation based on automatic decisions. However, I found the artists undermined the complexity of their subject

Global Rainbow Yvette Mattern’s impressive light installation, Global Rainbow, blazed across Toronto’s night sky, visible to anyone visiting the southwest of the city. At first glance, however, the rainbow seemed but another light among many in a large city like Toronto. Indeed, all the seven colours merged into one while the crowded streets and myriads of city lights distracted the viewer from the piece. Yet, when I managed to place myself in a darker corner of Chinatown, the rainbow took on a completely different appearance. Each of the seven colourful strips of light appeared to be an individual artistic display — beautiful, unique, and personal. After sharing this inti-

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

15

across the world and, while it was calming to listen to the interviewer’s voice and there was a certain novelty to peeking into the interviewee’s life, the performance was boring overall. The chairs were too comfy to stay awake in during Toronto’s largest and most universal insomniac night.

— Emily Scherzinger by moving into cliche territory: the doors within a given set had contrasting terms or phrases written on them — "in love" / "never in love" and "I can't change" / "nothing changes" are a few examples. The installation became a teen magazine quiz instead of a meditation on freedom and will.

— Ivana Dizdar

mate moment with the artwork, I no longer lost the rainbow in the colourful collision of lights. It is striking how an art piece of such scale can have a greater impact in a more intimate setting.

— Lola Borrisenko

Wanwu: Metamorphosis, 2014 This was one of the projects I was most looking forward to seeing. Taking place on the green-lit rooftop of City Hall, a “canvas” was laid out, and what smelled like Chinese ink was spilled all over it. In an hourly performance titled Metamorphosis, a flute player came out with a dancing performer wearing an unsettling mask. The performer then used

interpretive dance to create a painting through his movement in the ink. The idea was that as this was happening, water would rain down and simultaneously destroy the art as it was being created.

Unfortunately, while the mixing of different mediums was interesting, the people who sprinkled water onto the canvas looked like volunteers and failed to create the illusion of “water falling onto the paper in a steady stream like rain” (as described on Nuit Blanche's website). Even though all I heard around me during the performance was “This is so weird” or “I don’t get it,” everyone made a point of clapping enthusiastically at the end.

— A.P.

Supporting the Arts, Another Project By Tough Guy Mountain I found my way to the Whippersnapper Gallery, where we stood outside of a tiny glass box in which the performers were encased. In the box, painters created art on canvasses and each other, while corporate executives looked on from an elevated platform, spewing manifestos about art contracts. The only hitch was the crackling microphones through which the corporate executives spoke, making it nearly impossible to hear them.

— E.S.

Gap Ecology (Still Lives with Cherry Pickers and Palms) Gap Ecology, though a massive installation, took a second to notice (or at least to recognize as art). Several boom lifts were parked off of Queen Street — they fit in with the road-closure signs that were up all over the place, and let's be honest: in Toronto, crane-like mechanisms are no less common than lampposts. But upon looking up, it became obvious that the tops were filled with palm trees.

The image of uprooted trees is always unsettling, and even more so amid the concrete hub we call our city.

— I.D.

Clockwise: The Insomnia Project. Mallika Makkar/the VarsitY Gap Ecology, Holoscene. PriYanka sharMa/the VarsitY Between Doors. shahin iMtiaz/the VarsitY

16

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

arts@thevarsity.ca

“That’s not politics, it’s just BS” ArtsVote, moderated by Fucked Up singer, asks mayoral candidates about the arts

Fucked Up lead singer Damien Abraham who moderated the debate. redheadwalking/flickr by cc

Emily Katz

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

This past Monday, spectators packed into the TIFF Bell Lightbox for the ArtsVote Mayoral Debate.

Moderated by Toronto native and Fucked Up lead singer Damian Abraham. Hosting the event at the high profile Lightbox Theatre gave the event an air of sophistication. I couldn’t help but stare at everyone that surrounded me in line. They were all well-dressed, well-groomed, and smiling; the quintessential Toronto mix of equal parts professional and hip.

ArtsVote is an initiative founded in 1993, which aims to bring awareness and recognition to the arts in Toronto. They have released their “Report Card” through four municipal elections, a system of tracking the candidates’ goals and aspirations, as well as their previous track record on arts issues. Cochair Jacoba Knaapen introduced their four key issues for the upcoming election, or what they believe

the Toronto arts need. These issues were “Arts and Culture Champions at City Hall;” “Affordable Spaces to Live, Work, and Play;” “Sustainable Funding and Growth in Investment;” and “A Committed Partner in Every Neighborhood.”

After her introduction, Knaapen introduced Abraham, with a pause both before and after saying “Fucked Up” aloud, cuing the first round of laughter from the crowd. Abraham walked onstage in an ArtsVote t-shirt, jeans, and bright yellow sneakers, absolutely beaming at the crowd through a healthy amount of facial hair. He explained his expectations for the debate — that he had come up with the first set of questions himself, that candidates would generally have one minute to answer, and that he would not tolerate bigotry from anyone, because “that’s not politics, that’s just BS.” With that, the audience cheered, and the debate began. The first round of questions explored what candidates feel the role of the arts is in the city, and how candidates

Cheap arts

would help Toronto grow as a cultural capital if elected. Certain candidates emerged with a strong focus — Olivia Chow highlighted her long history of involvement with the arts, often mentioning her time spent on the board of the Art Gallery of Ontario. One of her strongest points was the proposal of a public arts fund, in response to a question about maintaining funding and increasing investment.

Candidates Ari Goldkind and Morgan Baskin both stood out for their impassioned views. Goldkind was vocally the boldest candidate, and gained woops and cheers from the audience with statements like “the arts are not only about the bottom line,” and that we should “bring ‘pride’ back to Toronto,” which was both a statement of support for the arts, and a jab at candidate Doug Ford. Baskin, the 19-year-old candidate, strongly upheld her commitment to youth empowerment and involvement in arts and culture. Her policy was sometimes unclear, but her stron-

Under $10, pay what you can, and free arts events happening around the city this week

Tender Offer, part 1

Toronto Lifestyle Market

Vintage Crawl Toronto

A site-specific performance by video and performance artist Bridget Moser

A pop-up shop housed in the Gladstone hotel

Over 40 vintage retailers open pop-up locations across the city for the night

Tuesday, October 7 — Saturday, October 11, 8-11 pm 233 Spadina Avenue Free

gest points included finding and supporting already existing festivals and arts initiatives in the city (rather than bringing in new ones), and working with city planners to create new cultural spaces.

In Baskin’s opening statement, she rattled off a list of arts initiatives and events that Ford had previously voted against. Despite this, which merely encouraged the participation of the livelier audience members, Ford didn’t waver throughout in his support of the arts. However, his support was manifested in a few clear points, which seemed arbitrary given the amount of attention he paid them.

In almost every answer he advocated bringing a musical festival to Toronto, similar to sxsw, Austin City Limits, or Lollapalooza. The audience groaned at the repetition, and, in one rebuttal, Goldkind shouted, “Austin should be copying us.”

Candidate John Tory advocated for the arts as a practical means for supporting Toronto both as a livable city and a tourist destination.

Wednesday, October 8 — Sunday, October 12, 11:00 am-6:00 pm The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West Free

Thursday, October 9, 7:00 pm-12:00 am Spread out across Dundas Street and Queen West Free

His ideas included advocating for policies like multi-year funding to smooth out inconsistencies, making it easier to obtain permits to increase production, taking advantage of existing festivals (such as TIFF), and even planning housing to help budding artists.

It became clear through the candidates’ answers that there was tension between prioritizing monetary gain and investment in Toronto arts, and grassroots efforts like education, youth involvement, and supporting existing artists struggling in the city today. One of the most fascinating ideas that came up was the notion of implementing a Creative Director position for the city, an idea that has already seen success in cities like Boston, Mexico City, New York, and Manchester. Abraham applauded the good behavior of the candidates throughout, and lightened the mood when he could — midway through the debate, he noted that if it were up to him, “there would be more swearing and shirts off, but we have to stay on track.”

By Sofia Luu

Rakta with Farang, Gaucho and Triage

Cottaging with Moon Hag, Winter ‘94, and Spore

The Brazillian punk band plays a show at the SHIBGS

An all-ages indie showcase featuring Moon Hag, Winter 94’ and Spore

Friday, October 10, 9 pm S.H.I.B.G.B's, 225 Geary, Middle door $10

Sunday, October 12, 9 pm Smiling Buddha, 961 College St. $5.

VARSITY ARTS & CULTURE

var.st/arts

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

17

Demystifying Polaris Polaris Prize jurors discuss the final verdict at a Soho House salon Jeffrey Chen

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

In a surprising decision, this year’s Polaris Music Prize was awarded to Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer whose politically charged album, Animism, made for a controversial win. On September 25, four Polaris jurors gathered at the Soho House to discuss the verdict for the Polaris Prize Salon. Moderated by James Keast of Exclaim! magazine, the panel members consisted of Liisa Ladouceur, author of Encyclopedia Gothica; Julia LeConte of NOW; Mark Teo of AUX; and Melody Lau of Much.

The jury process behind the prize is often overlooked. Ladouceur, a veteran jury member that had served as “jury headmistress” for Polaris from 2006 to 2011, described the process as “arduous.” Each juror is sent the long list of “best” Canadian albums, which then has to be whittled down to a 10-album shortlist. LeConte spoke of how she would listen to the albums “at work, on runs, on walks,” go over the music with the lyric booklets, and force herself to “spend time with albums [she] wasn’t interested in.” The other jurors agreed that the decision process was a heavy commitment, with each juror bringing “pages and pages of notes” on each album.

Surprisingly, none of the panel chose Animism as their favourite album. Ladouceur, who backed Basia Bulat’s Tall Tall Shadow, explained that “everyone brings their own definition of ‘best’ to the [jury] process.”

Ladouceur, for instance, revealed that she prefers albums that are original, whereas Teo admitted that he judges albums on a purely musical level. Despite these differences in opinion, however, all the jurors agreed on one point: the winning album is never chosen due to political considerations.

Tagaq’s win was not based on the jury’s wish to promote Inuk music or to make a politi-

2014 Polaris Prize winner Tanya Tagay performs. Barka Fapianova/Flickr By cc

cal statement, but on the album’s musical merits, of which there are plenty.

In an industry marked by overproduced, over-processed sound, Animism is a welcome relief. Not only are songs such as "Tulugak" dazzling in their rhythmic complexity, but Tagaq’s grunting vocals, rising above a bed of syncopated drums and discordant synth violin, have an unearthly beauty.

Tagaq is a virtuoso performer. The sheer range of sound in her songs, from low snarling notes to high moans (sometimes produced in the same breath) is astonshing. The conventional chord progressions, standard beats, and synth atmosphere of the shortlist’s more popular albums — such as Drake’s Nothing Was the Same or Arcade Fire’s Reflektor — sound dull in comparison with the

sheer force of Tagaq’s throat singing.

Animism holds a kind of transient beauty, akin to that of a powerful photograph, which captures a moment in time that can never be repeated. It pays dutiful homage to Tagaq’s Inuit heritage and then transcends it to create an album of spellbinding originality. Regardless of the jurors' opinion, for me, it is a well-deserved win.

Student theatre in review The Garden Party

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

First Victoria College Drama Society production impresses

Trinity College Drama Society doesn't do the Shakespeare show justice

Liz Gross

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Drawing upon an eclectic mix of proverbial gestures, ideological nonsense, and political humour, the Victoria College Drama Society’s (VCDS) slick and clever production of The Garden Party provides its audience with a wry look into the inane world of communist bureaucracy.

Written in 1963, Václav Havel’s The Garden Party follows the misadventures of Hugo Pludek, a young Czechoslovakian chess player who is pressured by his well-meaning parents to seek employment with the government. At a garden party hosted by the Liquidation Office, Hugo is initially taken aback by the absurd characteristics of officialdom and nonsensical behaviours of the people he meets. However, after adapting to the careerist jargon, he begins to climb the ranks of the intertwined offices. He seems to outplay everyone else on the board yet, by the play’s end, it’s clear that he is both the winner and the loser — just like he was in his own chess game.

Director David Kitai and his actors did an exceptional job conveying tricky themes of shifting identity and confusion resulting from deliberately convoluted conversations. In so doing, the vcds brings to light the dangers of an all-too-familiar system of shameless bureaucracy through

subtle satire. Every performer seemed to tackle the fast-paced verbal banter and instances of physical comedy with ease.

As Hugo, Bennett Steinburg provided the production with a rock-solid foundation. He was appropriately enigmatic and transitioned believably from near-childlike sincerity to a state of bureaucratic authoritativeness that can only be derived from a gradual mastery of technical terminology and twisted double-talk.

Mr. Pludek (Jacob Levitt) and Mrs. Pludek (Cassandra Gosselin) bookended the performance with genuine warmth. The administrative team of the clerk (Allie Sinclair) and secretary (Fateema Miller) provided the production with a near-constant supply of comic relief.

While, at times, the outdoor environment made the rapid-fire dialogue challenging to hear, simple and intimate staging showcased the performances themselves. Carried out by cast members, the set changes were clean and well-orchestrated — a credit to stage manager Veronika Gribanova.

The vcds delivered a rendition of The Garden Party that was both engrossing and amusing from start to finish. All things considered, this play is not to be missed; it’s one of those distinctive shows that marks an era but takes on a life of its own. As one eccentric character so frequently insisted: “The garden party is for everyone!”

Jeffrey Chen

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

If you’ve ever wondered why Shakespeare didn’t include more shadow puppetry or games of Stella Ella Ola in his work, then this is the play for you. The Trinity College Dramatic Society’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream lives up to the play’s title: just as in a dream, the audience is presented with a series of fantastic, incoherent scenes that blur into one another.

The play takes a "choose your own adventure" format, where it is up to the audience to choose which plot thread to follow. The action takes place all over the Trinity College campus, with at least two scenes playing at any given moment. The result is something of a logistical nightmare. Traffic jams are better directed than some scenes of this play.

Despite this flaw, the quality of the acting alone makes the play well worth your time. The play’s iconic characters — Titania, Puck, Bottom, and assorted fairies — are brought to life

by hilarious, brilliantly acted performances.

At its best — as in one scene when the audience is invited to sing along to Mendelssohn’s famous "Wedding March" — the production is highly engaging. It’s silly, cute, and fun. The audience is allowed to participate in a wellknown, well-loved piece of art. At its worst, it’s confusing and incomprehensible to those unfamiliar with the play.

A great deal of work clearly went into this production, which, despite its difficult setup, comes across with remarkable artistic finish. The cast, however, succeeds only in breathing life into a lifeless concept.

The novelty of the premise never evolves beyond that: a novelty — a quirky trifle of a setup that, while interesting, never fully captures the depth inherent in even this, the most frivolous of Shakespeare’s comedies. “What fools these mortals be,” Puck famously comments. This production focuses more on the mortals’ foolery than the actual meaning of Puck’s statement, the insight into human nature for which Shakespeare is renowned.

Get your writing down to an art. arts@thevarsity.ca

Science

VAR.ST/SCIENCE 6 OCTOBER 2014

science@thevarsity.ca

In conversation with Stephen Scherer Stephen Scherer has been touted as a potential Nobel Prize winner for his work on copy number variation Highlights in the Odyssey of Forensic Science: The First Ten Thousand Years A special lecture presented by the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology featuring Douglas Lucas, the retired director of the Centre of Forensic Sciences Monday, October 6 4:00 pm–5:00 pm George Ignatieff Theatre Free; no registration necessary

Implicit Bias in Medicine A seminar presented by Dr. Mathieu Doucet, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo; part of the Joint Centre for Bioethics seminar series Wednesday, October 8 4:00 pm–5:30 pm Health Sciences Building, room 108 Free; no registration necessary

Engineering optogenetic probes for watching and controlling cellular activity Dr. Stephen Scherer, director of the Centre for Applied Genomics at SickKids. courtesy of stephen scherer

Aditya Chawla

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Only a few extraordinary individuals are named Nobel-class citation laureates by Thomson Reuters. Dr. Stephen Scherer, a leading researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Applied Genomics, is one of those special few predicted to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year. His work, regardless of today’s results, has already fundamentally changed the way we view genetic variation and its applications to various diseases such as autism.

In this interview with The Varsity, Scherer discusses how he became one of the top leaders in his field.

The Varsity: What made you want to get into science as a career?

Stephen Scherer: I’ve always liked science. When I was a kid... I was interested in many different things.

I was involved in many sports and athletics, and I liked all my courses. But I took a course in grade 11 where I read the book by James Watson called The Double Helix, and that really caught my attention. So I continued in grade 13 to focus on science and decided I would pursue my undergraduate degree in science.

I realized I wanted to go into genetics at the University of Waterloo in my co-op program. It was at that time that they started to discuss in the scientific literature about the Human Genome Project. When I applied to graduate school, I looked for internationally acclaimed human

genetics departments. I interviewed across Canada, and the University of Toronto was the place to be clearly.

TV: What was your undergraduate experience like?

SS: In retrospect, I loved my co-op work terms, but I didn’t like my courses until fourth year, when I got to focus in on genetics. If I could do it again, I would try to take more of a generalized approach and take more statistics for sure because I use it all the time now. Generally speaking, I didn’t do well in my first couple of years because it wasn’t interesting to me, but when I was in my third and fourth year, I was at the top of my class.

TV: What is it about your field of research that makes you so passionate about it?

SS: Well, genetics is information science that has been shaped by evolution over millions of years. So, as I said earlier, I love the technology, I love genetics, and I love history. Actually, the genomic studies that I do kind of captures all three of those. It is a very competitive field, and I’m a very competitive person… so it’s great to be able to compete with my brain as opposed to my muscles… I couldn’t imagine being in a better field right now.

TV: What is copy number variation, and how is it applicable to treating autism?

SS: It’s actually really simple — you develop from a sperm cell and an egg cell, and you’ve got one set of chromosomes from each of them.

Your genome has about 30,000 protein coding genes. Up until our papers in 2004, it was thought that every gene was present in two copies — one from mom and one from dad. So then we found out, using a new technology at the time called micro arrays, that in fact this is not the case. In fact, there’s a whole new form of genetic variation called copy number variation that showed that some genes were present in zero, one, or three copies. So there was a lot more gene-based variation in the genome of all of us — everyone.

We had seen this case in specific cases, but we didn’t know it was in every genome. So, that was the seminal discovery that changed the way we looked at genetic variation. We found out later that there were gene copy variants of very specific genes in neurons, [which] can lead to autism. And that’s what we showed — about seven per cent of children who have autism have deletions of specific genes that are involved in making proteins in the brain.

TV: What was your reaction to your nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine?

SS: I got an email about three weeks ago, and I read my emails pretty quickly now because I get about 300 a day. I almost deleted it, but when I read it closer I emailed them back. I found out I was in the “Hall of Laureates.”

About 25 per cent [of those in the Hall of Laureates] have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, so it’s a

big thing. I almost dropped off my chair when I read that.

TV: Where do you envision your field [and] research in the next decade?

SS: We just [returned] from a meeting with clinician scientists, and they’re all using the copy number variation data right now. Essentially, thousands of children every year get a diagnosis of autism, and they run these gene chip arrays, and we can find out what type of autism they have. Then, if we can find specific genetic changes, we can adjust their clinical management. Also, more recently we’ve been testing diagnosis of autism in children before age four, which is still difficult. Then, we can track the family history and use it for an early diagnosis and management.

It’s very early on, but it’s already a standard diagnostic tool for autism, and we expect new medicine to be developed 10 or so years from now.

TV: What advice can you give to young, aspiring researchers?

SS: A scientific career is a tough career. If you’re interested [and] it’s your passion — you should make it work. The life of a scientist is spectacular once you get established because you get to think all day and pursue your interests. But it’s not an easy career because it takes a long time to get there. So, if you want to do it, things will work out. And keep your marks high.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

A neuroscience and mental health seminar featuring Dr. Robert Campbell of the University of Alberta Wednesday, October 15 10:00 am–11:00 am Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, The Gallery, 2nd floor Free; no registration necessary

A 40-Year Antenna Development Odyssey A seminar covering space-based, air-borne, ship-borne and terrestrial-based antenna systems and their design and development Thursday, October 16 4:00 pm–5:00 pm Sandford Fleming, room 1105 Free; register on Eventbrite

Role of High and Low Density Neutrophils in Inflammation A seminar by Dr. Michael Glogauer of the Matrix Dynamics Group at U of T’s Faculty of Dentistry Monday, October 20 11:30 am–12:30 pm FitzGerald Building, room 237 Free; no registration necessary

var.st/science

VARSITY SCIENCE

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

19

We see thee rise Bill Nye celebrates Canadian space exploration at Convocation Hall Nadezha Woinowsky-Krieger VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last Wednesday over 1,700 space enthusiasts gathered at Convocation Hall to watch a special episode of The Planetary Society’s weekly radio show, Planetary Radio. Aptly named “We See Thee Rise: The Canadian Space Today and Tomorrow,” the event was a two-hour long celebration of Canada’s achievements in space.

Public enthusiasm for the show was evident almost an hour before the doors even opened, with a lineup stretching all the way across King’s College Circle to University College. Fans at the very front of the line announced that they had been waiting for over an hour and a half to get front row seats to the sold-out event. “It’s Bill Nye!” was the overwhelming response the event-goers had when asked what drew them out on a Wednesday evening, as if no other explanation was called for.

“This is much bigger than I thought it was, I just found out Bill Nye was coming,” said one secondyear mechanical engineering student. Yet the crowd did not consist only of science students and engineers. Humanities students, graduate students, alumni, and parents could all be spotted proudly clutching event tickets.

As the crowd filed into Con Hall, they were greeted with live music in the form of upbeat rock jams performed live by an Ottawa-based band, Dream World. When every seat was filled, Bill Nye arrived on stage to a thundering standing ovation that lasted for a few minutes. If seeing The

Bill Nye takes Convocation Hall by storm. shijie zhou/The VArsiTy

Science Guy himself, fully outfitted in his characteristic blazer and bowtie combo wasn’t already exhilarating enough, the many science t-shirts worn by fans, waving of posters, and synchronized shouts of “Bill! Bill!

Bill!”, helped made the atmosphere in the lecture hall reach excitement levels far more equivalent to that of a rock concert than a science lecture.

After taking a quick selfie with the crowd, Bill wasted no time, jumping right into delivering a one-man presentation on space exploration. The hour-long talk was filled simultaneously with fascinating and highly educational explanations of both the challenges we’ve faced and the achievements we’ve accomplished in exploring our solar system.

Included were descriptions of various ways to divert an approaching meteor (the methods involving increasing levels of silliness), vivid descriptions of solar system phenomena such as giant geysers on Jupiter’s moons, and plenty of exclamations on The Science Guy’s part of the word “cool!” In short, the University of Toronto was treated to

a talk that contained all the same elements of the truly entertaining science education that inspired an entire generation to see the “PB & J” (Passion, Beauty, and Joy) of science from the wheeled-in television sets of our middle-school classrooms.

Following the speech, the audience was present for a recording of the Planetary Society’s weekly podcast series. The episode included a panel of scientists and science experts who have all personally contributed in some way to helping us explore space. Present was Gordon Osinski, the associate director of the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration, Elizabeth Howell, a science writer, and, finally, Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian astronaut who was born and raised in London, Ontario.

For the second hour, the audience continued to listen with unwavering enthusiasm as all the speakers had an opportunity to talk about their work in space exploration. The theme that dominated the conversation, however, was how Canadacentric space exploration truly is.

Without many Canadians realizing, Canada has had a hand in almost every single space exploration mission.

Even though it has been over 15 years since “Bill Nye The Science Guy” was on air, Bill’s message is still strong with U of T and students all across Canada. Besides hearing about all of Canada’s amazing achievements in discovering the solar system, possibly the most uplifting message learned at Con Hall last week was that “the wonder of space exploration” is still very much alive and well in Toronto.

Global computer network powers research The World Community Grid makes cancer research faster and more efficient Anastassia Pogoutse VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Your next contribution to cancer research might be in your pocket right now — and it’s not in your wallet.

A group of scientists, headed by Dr. Igor Jurisica at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre are using the processing power of millions of personal computers and devices to identify new markers for various cancers.

Cancer markers, such as mutations in the genes brca1 and brca2, are chemical signatures associated with the risk of developing cancer and cancer progression. Researchers working on the Mapping Cancer Markers project are using data obtained from tissue samples to discover novel markers that could be used to identify patients at risk for developing a particular cancer, and to predict how cancer patients will respond to certain treatments. Such an analysis involves thousands of signatures containing varying numbers of genes and requires enormous amounts of computational resources.

This is where the World Community Grid comes in. Developed by ibm Corporate Citizenship, this network allows volunteers to contribute computing power to massive computational projects. Users

can download portions of currently running projects onto their computers, smartphones, or tablets.

The software is compatible with Windows, Mac, or Linux systems and will run in the background or as a screensaver using spare processing capacity. Once the mini-project is completed, the data is uploaded onto World Community Grid servers and then sent back to the researchers. “[The availability of the grid] completely changed the way we were thinking about the problem,” said Jurisica, explaining that it enabled the group to decide on the most rational way of performing analyses without having to take technical limitations into account.

To put the power of the World Community Grid into perspective, Jurisica estimates that another project the group put on the grid some years back that would have taken roughly 180 years to complete with the next-best technology available to them at the time, took five and a half years on the grid.

So far, the Mapping Cancer Markers project has focused on lung cancer and will move to looking for ovarian cancer markers next. The project has several other aims, including developing more efficient algorithms that will eliminate the need for a supercomputer. Jurisica also hopes to gain insight into biological mechanisms and

juLieN bALboNTiN/The VArsiTy

improve researchers’ understanding of why particular genetic and chemical combinations lead to cancer so that new drugs and treatments can be developed.

“You can segregate patients based on high and low risk [which is] great,” Jurisica said, adding, “But if I am a patient and somebody tells me, ‘your prognosis is very poor’...now what?”

Currently, with the help of 670,000 volunteers and just under three million computing devices, the World Community Grid is supporting three computational projects with diverse focuses such as health research and the development of sustainable energy sources.

Over the years, it has backed 22 projects and accumulated a com-

munity of enthusiastic volunteers in the process.

“It’s a computational grid, but it’s almost like a social network,” said Jurisica. “...So there is a forum where people ask questions, get answers, discuss issues...I had several people asking what computers should they buy so they would be able to support more computation for our project,” he added.

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Vol. CXXXV, No. 6

ads@thevarsity.ca

STUDENTS' ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO O/A UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO STUDENTS' UNION STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS AND CHANGES IN NET ASSETS FOR THE YEAR ENDED APRIL 30, 2014 (With comparative figures for the year ended April 30, 2013) 2014 REVENUES Member's health and dental plan fees (note 11) Restricted student fees recognized (note 10) General student fees TTC Metropass sales and sponsorship Advertising and other income Ticket sales Interest income

t

EXPENSES Health and dental plan disbursements (note 11) Restricted student fee disbursements (note 10) Salaries, wages and benefits TTC Metropass purchases Clubs and other subsidies Office and general Orientation Ticket purchases Elections and referenda Campaigns Services handbook Meetings Equipment expenses Bank, financing, and interest charges TTC program Book exchange Amortization

$ 11,160,332 1,765,384 1,389,926 455,950 308,341 151,925 25,776 15,257,634

Dr af

20

NET ASSETS, END OF THE YEAR

$

$

9,661,890 1,794,043 1,363,770 576,659 236,444 182,786 7,923 13,823,515

11,160,332 1,765,384 671,574 446,438 295,991 212,821 215,499 144,468 120,618 76,310 70,354 34,370 29,136 14,933 4,180 56 22,940 15,285,404

9,661,890 1,794,043 670,203 565,912 211,814 220,598 212,852 181,902 97,685 80,886 66,810 48,867 26,270 8,565 3,469 3,730 20,423 13,875,919

(27,770)

(52,404)

2,168,990

2,221,394

DEFICIT FOR THE YEAR NET ASSETS, BEGINNING OF THE YEAR

2013

2,141,220

See accompanying notes To be read in conjunction with our Auditors' Report dated [Date approved]

$

2,168,990

Page 4

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MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

21

THE ANNUAL

GENERAL MEETING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014 | OISE AUDITORIUM 6PM-9PM | REGISTRATION STARTS AT 4:30 PM ORDER OF BUSINESS: 1. Call to Order

Audited Financial Statements

2. Welcoming Remarks & Guest Speaker

6. Appointment of Auditors for 2013-2014

3. President's Address & Question Period

7. Approval of Bylaw Amendments

4. Approval of Minutes

8. Consideration of Motions Duly Served 9. Adjournement

5. Receipt of the 2012-2013

FOR THE FULL TEXT OF ALL THE RESOLUTIONS TO BE CONSIDERED AT THIS MEETING, PLEASE CONSULT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO STUDENTS’ UNION WEBSITE AT WWW.UTSU.CA/ANNUAL-GENERAL-MEETING.

Every member at the University of Toronto Students’ Union (full-time undergraduate students at the St.George and Mississauga campuses) can participate in this meeting.

Wheelchair accessible. If you have any accessibility requests, require ASL interpretation, childcare or any other inquiries, please contact:

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By October 22, 2014

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Proxy forms will be available at the UTSU office from October 9-16 for members who will be representing other members who cannot attend.

A pre-registration will be available for individual members between October 21-25 for those who wish to avoid a registration line up.

Sports

VAR.ST/COMMENT

6 OCTOBER 2014

sports@thevarsity.ca

U of T student appointed in-arena host for Toronto Maple Leafs Lauren Howe talks about her love for sports, computer science, and pageantry Zaigham Ali

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Lauren Howe, an industrial engineering student, was recently appointed as the in-arena host for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“Some people see being the ‘jack of all trades’ as being a bad thing. I personally think that it is extremely important to be this when you are young,” said Howe. “If you haven’t already found your passion in life to become to master [sic] at that one skill, then saying ‘yes’ to opportunities will help you grow and learn what it is you like and don’t like,” she added.

Howe attributes her attitude partially to her competitive spririt and willingness to pursue challenges. “For the most part, my inspiration is drawn from the many people I’ve met in life and listening to their stories, opinions, and wisdom. Some of the things you hear or experience will just resonate and spark an idea. The tough part is committing to executing that idea. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it,” said Howe.

“Growing up, I was very much of a tomboy. I loved sports, only ever wore dresses when my mother told me to, tried to take ballet but was kicked out,” Howe said. “I have to say, my involvement in sports has definitely shaped me the most,” she added.

Howe grew up in Etobicoke and attended Appleby College in Oakville where she came to be more heavily involved with sports.

She captained her high school field hockey team before going on to play for Team Ontario, the Toronto Titans, and McGill University.

Regarding her appointment as the in-arena host for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Howe said, “It is a dream job for a Leafs fan.”

A hockey game lasts around three hours, but there are only sixty minutes of actual game time. The Toronto Maple Leaf game crew fills the non-playing time with entertainment. Howe will be presenting contests and activities while also getting the fans excited in the arena. She will also cover Leafs events off the ice, such as community events, press conferences, and Leafs TV segments.

“A good friend of mine had sent me the link to the application, which asked for a resume, references, and a demoreel if you had one,” Howe said about her experience getting the job. “I didn’t have a reel so I hired a good friend to help me put one together. It wasn’t until sending over clips of work I have done that I realized I could actually be qualified for this position! I thought it was a complete long shot!” said Howe.

“After being called in to audition in the empty Air Canada Centre (very strange feeling to see it without twenty thousand fans filling it), I received a phone call for an interview, and a few days after that I received the call saying I got the job. I remember being at work trying to sound as

professional as possible on the phone while looking at my co-workers, jumping up and down like a little girl. I have no shame in admitting that,” she added.

Howe also described her experience as the executive vice president for the U of T Sports and Business Association.

“My favorite part about this team is that we are all a family and everyone is there because of their passion for sports and sports business — it isn’t just a club you add to your resume to make it sound good.” As part of the Sports and Business Association, Howe worked with an initiative led

by TSN’s Michael Landsberg called “Sick Not Weak,” which works with those who suffer from depression.

“This affects an incredibly large number of people and the scariest part is that people are able to hide it incredibly well. It’s important to help people feel comfortable talking about it by eliminating certain stigmas that surround this word,” said Howe.

“Our team felt strongly about this cause and we organized a charity raffle, which I helped spearhead. We ended up raising over $5,000 at the conference,” she said.

Howe has also taken computer science courses at U of T. “There is a very steep learning curve with programming and it can be very frustrating at times — for example, debugging. But it is important that you see through it, and eventually you can find some fun in writing the programs,” she said.

When asked about her career aspirations, Howe admitted she remains uncertain. Her original plan was to take Biomedical Engineering and follow through to medical school, towards becoming a surgeon.

“Well, I’m glad I found out I had naturally shaky hands which wouldn’t go well with neurosurgery — saved myself a lot of time and money there!” she explained.

She then decided to pursue an industrial engineering degree because it could lead to a carreer in business. “The nicest part is, it is very applicable in many fields, from health care and financial services to non-profit organizations and sports analytics.”

“I really enjoy the idea of entrepreneurship and might pursue an mba down the road,” added Howe.

Amongst her extensive, diverse experiences, one of Howe’s most unique credentials is no doubt her participation in pagaentry. Howe was previously named Miss Teen Canada, and, this year, she was named second runner up at this year’s Miss Universe Canada competition.

“Pageants have received some negative publicity because of how they are portrayed [in] the news. In reality, they celebrate all the qualities that a modern, strong woman should possess — intelligence, grace, altruism, a healthy lifestyle, community involvement, independence, ambition, and selflessness,” she said.

The nhl regular season is starting this week with the Leafs’ home and season opener against the Montreal Canadiens. Having already gained an impressive following, Lauren will be at the games throughout the season to support the team and interact with the crowd.

COURTESY OF lAUREN HOWE

“For the most part, my inspiration is drawn from the many people I’ve met in life and listening to their stories, opinions, and wisdom. Some of the things you hear or experience will just resonate and spark an idea. The tough part is committing to executing that idea. It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it.”

A guide to self-defense classes U of T offers several self defence classes Ameena Youssef

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The University of Toronto is a large school expanding over three campuses with an even larger student body. With all the students, faculty members, and staff on and around campus, it can become a little daunting and nerve-wracking coming into contact with so many different people, on campus, in the surrounding neighborhood, or at social events.

U of T offers many programs and classes for faculty and students alike that better prepare them in the event that the need for self-defense arises. These classes are meant for anyone who feels that they would be more comfortable if they had the training to defend themselves in an emergency situation.

The Community Safety Office (cso) is a tri-campus service

available to the members of the university community. The organization “provides assistance to members of the University of Toronto community who are dealing with personal and/or workplace difficulties that impact their personal safety.”

The cso offers workshops and training on a variety of topics including conflict resolution, sexual, assault, and physical abuse.

The cso also offers a program called Wen-Do, a self-defense program designed to teach women avoidance techniques, as well as how to take action against assault. It also raises awareness about assault. The class is basic self-defense taught by women, for women in an inclusive environment.

The cso offers the program called U of T Men Against Violence that is open to all male university members. This group is designed for males who would like to increase awareness of violence against women.

The athletics departments of U of T also offer instructional regis-

tration based classes for self-defense. At Hart House and the Athletic Centre located at the St. George campus, university members can register for Judo, T’ai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Capoeira, Kung Fu, Karate, and Kendo. At the Mississauga campus Athletic Center, Aikido, Judo, and Karate are offered. At the Scarborough campus’s new Athletic Centre, kickboxing, mma, Capoeira, Karate, Krav Maga, Kung Fu, Muay Tai, and Tae Kwon Do are all available classes.

These classes help individuals with their self-confidence while simultaneously increasing awareness of violence and striving to end violence in our community. They are not only great ways to stay healthy and fit, but they also help create safer environments and give members of the community confidence.

Whether you are a new student at U of T, simply feel unsafe walking outside when dark, or simply want a fun work-out or to make some new friends, U of T has much to offer when it comes to self-defense.

VARSITY SPORTS

var.st/sports

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

23

Men’s rugby unable to capture lead against the Warriors Blues fall to 0-5 this season after disappointing loss to Waterloo Ian Thompson

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

In the early stages of the men’s rugby game between the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo, the Varsity Blues seemed evenly matched with their opponents. Nine minutes into the first half, the Blues stole a scrum at the Waterloo 22 line.

A penalty call gave U of T a chance to kick for points, and Blues’ rookie Tudor Chirila converted for an early 3-0 lead. This unfortunately was not to last.

Despite the chants of “Water-losers” coming from members of the Lady Godiva Memorial Band, the Waterloo Warriors responded with four consecutive tries and conversions in the first half, and went to the locker room with a 28-3 lead.

The Blues had some trouble with open field tackling in the last 25 minutes of the first half, and Waterloo was able to take advantage with a number of long runs deep into U of T’s end.

The second half didn’t start much better. The Warriors were more aggressive, particularly in the scrum, and the Varsity Blues allowed another three consecutive tries, bringing the score to 49-3.

Toronto then scored a late try, the final scoring of the game, bringing the final score to 49-8 for the University of Waterloo Warriors.

U of T players did a good job of gaining possession and working the ball down into the Waterloo half.

Unfortunately, they were frequently undone by penalties and miscues.

Waterloo’s scrum was dominanting most of the night, and the Warriors took advantage of poor tackling and U of T mistakes to score seven consecutive tries.

With the loss, the men’s rugby team now drops to 0-5, with games still to come against Queen’s University, Wilfred Laurier University, and Brock University. The team plays next at Varsity Centre, October 10 at 7:00 pm, when they’ll look to snap a five-game losing streak and beat the Golden Gaels.

The men’s rugby team is now 0-5. jENNIFER SU/THE VARSITy

Blues baseball battles for playoff spot Team hopes to improve record to play in the post-season Anthony Piruzza

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

The 2014 Varsity Blues men’s baseball team is in its final run for a playoff spot with a few games remaining this season. The team currently has a record of 5-7, seventh place in the Ontario University Athletics (oua), and has two games left in the race for the final playoff spot with six games remaining in the regular season. This puts the team on track to match last year’s 10-14 record, a season that broke the team’s four-year streak of making the

oua semifinals. The Varsity Blues capped off that four-year streak by winning the OUA championship in both 2011 and 2012.

The season started well for the Blues, as they recorded a 3-3 record in their first six oua games. This early success was short-lived, however, as the team dropped its next four games.

Although the team is currently out of a playoff position, their strong offense may give them a chance to clinch a spot. By scoring a total of 16 runs in a double header last weekend, the team was able to

Work with us.

sweep the McMaster Marauders and keep pace with the fourth place Waterloo Warriors.

The team’s playoff chances could be improved if their offense continues at its current pace. Before last weekend, the Blues’ bats were much quieter. The Blues rank sixth in the oua in batting average and seventh in homeruns.

The lack of power at the plate has been buoyed by the Blues’ base stealing success with 43 stolen bases, putting the team second in oua rankings. Lead by Steven Hersch’s eight stolen bases, the

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80% off Amazing string quartets and pianists Student tickets only $10 each!

Thursday October 9th St. Petersburg Quartet Thursday October 23rd Belcea Quartet Tuesday October 28th Janina Fialkowska at Jane Mallett Theatre

St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts Box office: www.stlc.com, and 416-366-7723 /MusicToronto

@Music_Toronto

Varsity Blues have relied on their ability on the base paths to make up for low slugging percentage.

The Blues offense is driven by second-year catcher Tanner-Young Shultz, who leads the team in RBIs (11), and outfielder Jonathon Sartor, who has batted in 10 runs. The offense is also supported by the consistency of first-year Adam Odd, whose .414 batting average is sixth highest in the oua.

The Blues pitching staff has been average this season, holding opposing teams to 4.28 runs per game. Second-year Colin Edwards’s 2.51 era

leads the team, and Daniel Connolly leads the team in strikeouts with nine in 13.1 innings pitched.

This year’s team is coached by Jim Sheppard, who is returning for his fourth season as head coach. Sheppard has had a successful tenure with the team, coaching both the 2011 and 2012 oua champion teams.

With the team’s playoff hopes at risk, the Varsity Blues finish off their season with home field advantage, playing double headers against Ryerson University, Waterloo University, and Western University at Dan Lang field in the final weeks of the season.

DIVERSIONS

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Check out the solutions next Monday at var.st/crosswords

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ACROSS 1. Goes out 5. Severe blow 9. Hardly a beauty 12. Crush, in competition 13. Within 14. Certain gametes 15. Hand over, in a way 17. Sweeping 18. Biblical mount 19. Climates 21. Ponderosa apparel 24. Like The Who’s Tommy 26. Common possessive 27. Beastly character 29. Running things in a bar 33. Tick off 34. Culinary Julia 36. Pond fish 37. Buttinsky, e.g.

39. Alternative option 40. Atomic particle 41. Miss Muffet fare 43. Ground force group 45. Solder, for example 48. Autograph hound’s offering 49. “___ Vadis” 50. Adages 56. Half of dos 57. Detective, at times 58. Stake driver 59. Club’s yearly meeting 60. Proof goof 61. Drain indicator

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DOWN 1. Before, of yore 2. Kind of seat 3. Except 4. It’s a cinch?

5. Travels restlessly 6. Bon ___ 7. Eng. subject 8. Diuretic target 9. Bindle toter 10. Dyed-in-the-wool 11. Comedian’s stock 16. Pt. of NASCAR 20. Many times, in verse 21. Approach shot, perhaps 22. Put on the payroll 23. Acts on one’s curiosity 24. How some jokes are delivered 25. Snaky swimmers 28. Indian cooking ingredient 30. Comparable (to) 31. It’s bound to sell 32. Deadly septet 35. Prevent 38. Company quorum?

42. Hotel chain 44. “Astro Boy” genre 45. Caribbean shade 46. Air bag?

47. Appear ominously 48. Sport with mallets 51. Foot the bill 52. Cheer leader?

53. Elegiac 54. Kind of pie 55. Like some grins