March 14, 2016

vol. cXXXvi, no. 20

T he UniversiTy

of

ToronTo’s sTUdenT newspaper since 1880

14 M arch 2016

ACTIVISM

Three grievances call for an end to campus BDS work Vice president, equity chooses not to address complaints TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Three students have filed grievances against the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) vice president, equity Sania Khan relating to her work in support of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The complaints were filed after the Social Justice & Equity (SJE) Commission hosted

an event that discussed ways to build solidarity with Palestine during eXpression Against Oppression (XAO) week in 2015.

“Throughout the course of this past year, it has become growingly evident that students and faculty members on the U of T campus are no longer choosing to remain inactive toward U of T’s complicity of human rights and international law violations in Palestine,” Khan said of the reasoning for holding such events.

Khan highlighted the numerous faculty signatures endorsing the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union’s BDS ef-

forts, the popularity of the XAO event, and the unanimous vote in favour of signing a letter of support for Al Quds University students at a recent SJE commission meeting, as evidence for this support.

“As students whose tuition money is consequently being invested in Israel’s military occupation of Palestine, we have a moral responsibility to hold the university administration accountable until they fully divest from the companies sustaining the occupation,” Khan said.

According to Khan, BDS is a campaign rooted in upholding human rights and inter-

national law. “People of conscience from all religious and non-religious affiliations have chosen to support BDS because of its focus on securing Palestinian human rights, and this is something we here in Canada have a responsibility to work toward,” Khan said, adding that Independent Jewish Voices at U of T has endorsed the BDS movement.

XAO EVENT GRIEVANCES First-year law student Aidan Fishman and fourth-year Victoria College student Continued on PG 3

UTSU ELECTIONS

TWO EXECUTIVE SLATES FACE OFF IN UTSU ELECTIONS HELLO UOFT, ONE UOFT SHARE THEIR GOALS, EXPERIENCES

Two slates: Hello UofT and One UofT face off in UTSU spring elections. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

DEVIKA DESAI, EMILY JOHNPULLE, TOM YUN & RACHEL CHEN ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS

The University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) spring elections are underway.

There are two executive slates: Hello Uof T, and One Uof T, as well as a few independent candidates, vying for seven positions.

PRESIDENT University College student Madina Siddiqui is

running for president with the One UofT slate.

“There are seven executives and each of has a vital role on the UTSU,” said Siddiqui. “I look at the president as the anchor, an individual that will bring the team together and push the team to do the work that it is supposed to be doing for the students.”

Siddiqui serves as the current president of the Afghan Students’ Association. In an interview with The Varsity, Siddiqi listed tackling racism on campus, improving accessibility, and work-

ing to build closer relationships between the union and clubs among her campaign priorities.

Siddiqui praised the recently released Ontario budget, which promised free tuition based on the average cost of arts and science tuition in Ontario for students with household incomes of less than $50,000. She would like to see tuition fees eliminated entirely.

“We pay the highest fees in Ontario. To me, I think that it’s straining on students. I myself am a student who has two jobs, a full course

A man’s world

Light it up

load, and I manage an association,” she said.

“It is difficult and the thing is that education is so beautiful. Unfortunately my parents didn’t have an education because of the war back home, so my mom always says knowledge is power. To be able to give students the tools that they need to empower the society like to help the community is great and I think that free education is a must.”

Continued on PG 6

INSIDE Would you like some sexism with that?

Examining the recent guidelines for workplace dress codes Comment PG 9

A look into the absence of females in U of T’s music scene Arts PG 14

Earth Hour has the potential to do more Science PG 18

You’re hot then you’re cold

Icing vs. heating as the best postworkout plan Sports PG 21

2 NEWS

M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Issue 20 Vol. CXXXVI

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

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THE EXPLAINER

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NE W RULES FOR TH E E LE CTIONS

Rachel Chen, Devika Desai, Emily Johnpulle, and Tom Yun Associate News Editors Lead Fact Checkers Emilie Jones, Evan Maude, and Lauren Park Copy Editors Lola Borissenko, Jacob Lorinc, Natalie Marshall, Alex McKeen, Lisa Power, Bryan Roh, Kristen Sevick, Victoria Wicks, and Nadezhda Woinowsky-Krieger Designers Madhi Chowdhury, Nadine Guo, Judy Hu, Britanny Ma, and Chloe Somjee

Elections for the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU) are just around the corner. Since the last election, there have been several policy changes that affect the election. Here are some of the highlights:

1.

life is now an elected position.

2.

Michelle Monteiro Advertising Executive The Varsity is the University of Toronto's largest student newspaper, publishing since 1880. The Varsity has a circulation of 20,000, and is published by Varsity Publications Inc. It is printed by Master Web Inc. on recycled newsprint stock.

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campaigners will result in 15 demerit points.

4.

limit will no longer result in a disqualification —

voting system, rather than first-past-the-post. This

only demerit points, with one point per every

in their order of preference, in the event that there

3.

Spending up to $20 in excess of the spending

The votes will be cast using the single-transferable means that students will be able to rank candidates

business@thevarsity.ca

Cherlene Tay Business Associate

Chief Returning Officer. The use of unauthorized

has been created and the vice president, campus

BUSINESS OFFICE Parsa Jebely Business Manager

The vice president, professional faculties position

two dollars above the limit.

5.

In-person campaigning during the voting period

are three or more candidates competing in an elec-

is forbidden. Campaigning may still take place

tion.

online during this time.

All campaigners must be registered as students

6.

Current UTSU executives and associates are

at the University of Toronto and will be required

required to take unpaid leave should they wish

to present their T-Card upon request by the

to campaign.

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 3

var.st/news

Vice president, equity Khan subject of multiple grievances Mitchell Gould filed two separate grievances against Khan in November 2015. Both were filed in response to an XAO event called Solidarity with Palestine — Building the Student Movement.

Gould told The Varsity he posted on the Facebook event page requesting that UTSU release a statement acknowledging incidents of violence against Israeli civilians. He also alleged that he was blocked from posting on the Facebook page.

“As a Jewish student, I felt that I didn’t want to protest the event at all or in any way. I just thought... considering the equity of the fact that this sponsored in part by the UTSU that they say something about the fact that there were incitements of violence against Israelis and Jews in Israel at the time of this event and which are still [ongoing] in the country,” said Gould. “I wasn’t asking for the event to be cancelled or anything.”

The event included a screening of the documentary Roadmap to Apartheid and an open discussion. In his grievance, Fishman stated that he wanted the event to be cancelled or that the UTSU stop funding or sponsoring it. He also requested a letter of apology from Khan.

Fishman claimed that the film was anti-Semitic and alleged that the event violated the union’s by-laws on the grounds that it was not discussed at a meeting of the SJE commission. He further claimed that an endorsement of BDS in and of itself is a violation of the UTSU’s by-laws, as well as its mission statement, which includes a commitment to safeguarding the rights of all students, regardless of nationality.

“Whether people like BDS or not, there is not dispute that this is discrimination based on nationality,” Fishman argued. “That’s the whole point. It boycotts things coming from Israel. Israeli is a nationality.”

The UTSU’s Executive Review Committee addressed Fishman’s grievance at a meeting on November 11. The committee recommended that the SJE commission discuss and approve any and all events run by the vice president, equity. This recommendation was forwarded to the UTSU’s Board of Directors, which defeated the motion.

Khan told The Varsity that she finds the tactics that antiBDS groups deploy to be highly problematic. Anti-BDS groups often interrupt BDS events; members of the Jewish Defence League disrupted a panel in January that focused on how students could show solidarity with Palestine. Khan

believes that the disruptions are an attempt to shut down debate and discussion about the topic.

“This tactic... fails to engage BDS on its merits, and the demands the movement makes, namely calling on Israel to meet its obligations under international law,” Khan said. “While convenient for some, this tactic further highlights the strength of BDS and the empty rhetoric of its critics. BDS is evermore important as our tuition dollars continue to fund violations of international law and the human rights of Palestinians.” “‘Feelings’ of discomfort about BDS are used as a way to deliberately shift the conversation away from the facts on the ground, namely the violations of human rights and international law committed by Israel against Palestinians,” she said.

Khan stated that BDS campaigns oppose anti-Semitism, which is covered in its anti-oppression mandate. “[When] this tactic is exposed as deliberately misleading in order to dismiss Palestinian human rights claims, BDS organizers are accused of being anti-Semitic — even though the BDS movement opposes all forms of discrimination, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.”

DEMAND TO END ENGAGEMENT WITH BDS Reut Cohen, a first-year Trinity College student, filed a grievance in late December regarding a letter published

by U of T Divest and Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) supporting Palestinian popular resistance. Among the 28 signatories of the letter is the UTSU Social Justice & Equity Commission.

The letter expresses support for Palestinian resistance, which Cohen believes indicates support for violence against Israeli civilians.

“I have no problem with people expressing a [non-violent] form of resistance,” Cohen said. “When you factor in the current political climate in Israel and the express support for those actions, that’s very disturbing to me.”

Khan said that reading BDS as an endorsement of violence against Israeli people is a misrepresentation intended to discredit the movement by avoiding the demands of BDS: to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, grant equal rights to all Palestinians inside Israel, and to respect the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

“These demands are powerful because they are all guaranteed under international law. To accuse BDS as something else is a deliberate attempt to avoid the key demands on which BDS is

built,” Khan said.

Cohen’s grievance also demands that Khan discontinue engaging with BDS without the approval of the Board of Directors.

In response to the demand that Khan cease her work on promoting BDS on campus, Khan told The Varsity that the mandate of the vice president, equity “includes a commitment toward anti-oppression, anti-discrimination, and antiracism work,” and that supporting Palestinian resistance against Israeli apartheid fulfils that mandate.

Khan stated that she would not discontinue work that is required by her position.

A LACK OF RESPONSE Fishman, Gould, and Cohen have not received a response from Khan and have not had a meeting with her and the grievance officer, which is required under UTSU’s by-laws.

The resolutions suggested in the grievances include a public apology for the work Khan has done and continues to do in support of Palestinian resistance and the withdrawal of funds from collaborative efforts with student organizers committed to Palestinian resistance work.

In light of these demands, Khan said that her refusal to acknowledge the grievances was intentional. “I will not entertain any ‘proposals,’ ‘meetings,’ or ‘resolutions’ put forward by any student who suggests that I stop the work being done against Israeli apartheid. The position of vice president equity in fact requires that I continue this work,” Khan said.

All three grievances are expected to be addressed at a board meeting later this month.

Disclosure: Reut Cohen is an associate arts and culture editor for The Varsity.

With files from Iris Robin.

Over the summer, the UTSU Board of Directors voted down a motion to strike an ad-hoc BDS committee and voted against sending a BDS motion to the AGM. It also distanced itself from BDS information in the UTSU handbook . IRIS ROBIN/NEWS EDITOR

4 NEWS

M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

ACTIVISM

‘Our Struggles Unite’ UofT Divest hosts twelfth annual Israeli Apartheid Week NOURHAN HESHAM VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

This year’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) theme was Our Struggles Unite, which was chosen in order to emphasize the relationship between different liberation movements.

The University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union’s (UTGSU) Divestment Ad-Hoc Committee, also known as UofT Divest, collaborated with Reclaim Turtle Island, the Black Liberation Collective, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, and Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) as hosts.

“Israeli Apartheid Week is a set of events to highlight the settler colonial project and apartheid system of governance in Israel and Palestine that deliberately discriminates, displaces and kills Palestinians,” said Omar Sirri, an organizer with Uof T Divest.

The events, which ran between March 8 and 10, aimed to raise awareness of U of T’s investment in companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Hewlett-Packard, which profit from the apartheid.

UofT Divest and SAIA have been tabling in the weeks leading up to

the events in order to acquaint U of T students and faculty members with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), a topic that is central to IAW. BDS is a global movement against Israel that Palestinian civil society organizations initiated in 2005.

The movement calls for the end of occupation of all Arab lands, the fundamental right of return for and reclaiming of properties for Palestinian refugees, and the dismantling of the Israeli apartheid wall. The wall is estimated to span 700 kilometres in length and runs through occupied Palestinian land.

New York-based spoken word artist and writer Remi Kanazi performed on the first day of IAW and spoke at a panel called Freedom is a Constant Struggle, alongside Reclaim Turtle Island activist Amanda Lickers. Both speakers discussed the differences between settlement and occupation.

Organizers of the events discussed recent BDS victories, such as the British multinational security services company G4S announcing that it would sell its Israeli subsidiary which has become “reputationally damaging.” G4S will stop providing security for pipeline and

The theme of this year’s Israeli Apartheid Week highlighted solidarity between global movements for freedom. ADOLFO LUJAN/CC FLICKR

mining projects that exploit Indigenous lands and participate in the prison industrial complex.

UofT Divest also highlighted the setbacks that come with planning such an event in light of McGill University’s BDS endorsement motion’s narrow defeat. McGill undergraduate student union’s general assembly passed the motion but failed to ratify it in an online vote.

Prime Minister Trudeau has voiced his condemnation of the BDS movement citing it as “a new form of anti-Semitism.”

“It is remarkable that despite being elected on a progressive platform to end the politics of fear and censorship, the prime minister sees it fit to condemn a movement that stands for human rights and international law,” said Sirri, adding, “BDS is

gaining more support and momentum in spite of these attacks.”

Last week, over 125 U of T faculty members signed a petition in support of UofT Divest’s call to boycott the Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Hewlett Packard for their role in international human rights violations.

ACTIVISM

U of T celebrates International Women’s Day Series of events honours achievements, raises awareness of women’s struggles NATASHA MALIK

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Last week, student groups came together in celebration of International Women’s Day, which took place on March 8. These events aimed to celebrate the historical achievements of women, whilst highlighting the struggles women still face.

The Women and Gender Studies Student Union held a lecture entitled Islands of Decolonial Love: Exploring Love on Occupied Land featuring Leanne Simpson.

Simpson is an Indigenous (Michi Saagiing Nishnaabeg) author and academic. In 2014, she was named the inaugural RBC Charles Taylor Emerging Writer

by Thomas King and was nominated for a National Magazine Award. Her first book of short stories and poetry, Islands of Decolonial Love, was nominated for a ReLit Award in 2014.

In an interview with The Varsity, Simpson refuted the suggestion that gender equality has been reached in Canada. “It’s wrong,” she said. “While Canada as a society has made advances towards gender equality, particularly for upper and middle class heterosexual [cisgender], able bodied white women, but Canada still has a tremendously long way to go.”

Islands of Decolonial Love: Exploring Love on Occupied Land centred the experiences of Indigenous, two-spirited, and LGBTQ+ people . SANDY MA/THE VARSITY

Simpson pointed to the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, as well as the fact that two-spirited and LGBTQ+people are targets of gendered violence under settler colonialism, as evidence against the claim.

“Heteropatriarchy is a force that still creates violence and inequality in wages, working conditions, and professional opportunities,” said Simpson, citing anti-blackness and a lack of support for midwifery and breastfeeding as continuing issues.

When asked if International Women’s Day was a gender-specif-

ic celebration, Simpson responded that everyone can celebrate International Women’s Day. “I think we have a collective responsibility to build societies where we take on white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, capitalism, anti-Blackness and settler colonialism. If International Women’s Day can be part of those movements, then it’s a good thing.”

Amnesty International UofT is hosting an event entitled Intersectionality, Community and Solidarity on March 16 in collaboration with Because I’m a Girl U of T and Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.

According to the description on the event’s Facebook page, it will focus on “intersectionality in which women come together from diverse backgrounds and speak of their personal experiences of women empowerment and feminism.”

Isabelle Maurice-Hammond, a master’s student at U of T’s Women and Gender Studies Institute at U of T, said that she would like to see more work done to promote a woman’s right to autonomy and self-determination.

“I’m personally very concerned about women’s rights to control

their own bodies — specifically reproduction, and the attacks on abortion rights that we are seeing across the border right now,” she said.

Maurice-Hammond added that she would like to see the topic of sexual violence taken more seriously. According to MauriceHammond, this would involve beginning education on the issue early in a child’s academic career.

“This is an inter-generational crises (that some communities bear more heavily than others) and something needs to be done about it,” she said.

Maurice-Hammond shares Simpson’s concern regarding violence towards Indigenous women, twospirited, and LGBTQ+ people. She also hopes to see concrete changes arise from the enquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women that the federal government has promised. “[We] need to address the prevalence of racist misogynistic violence in this country,” she said.

When asked if she had any advice for young women, Simpson responded that she did not, although she did have some for adults: “listen to girls,” she said. “Listen to children. They have fantastic ideas and visions for decolonial futures.”

T H E VA R S I T Y

NEWS 5

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STUDENT LIFE

UC revitalization referendum passes Next UC Lit council to make decisions about student-run café TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

A vote in a University College Literary & Athletic Society’s (UC Lit) referendum for a building revitalization levy has passed.

The referendum was held online on March 10, along with the UC Lit executive elections. There were 250 votes in favour, 88 against, and 21 abstentions.

The levy will be $12.50 for fulltime students and $5 for part-time students, bringing the total UC student fees to $30.03 and $13.15 for full-time and part-time students, respectively. The money will go towards various improvements to the University College building, including: renovations to the Junior Common Room (JCR); a new student lounge and café in room 376; improvements to the quadrangle; and an expansion of the UC Success Centre.

UC Lit president Amanda Stojcevski called the referendum a “huge achievement.”

“Many students involved in our campaign contributed a lot of time and effort into informing students about the referendum, and we are so proud to see that it paid off,” she

UC Lit president dubs referendum “huge achievement.” TINA ZHOU/THE VARSITY

said. “I am very excited to see the vibrant UC Community expand into the beautiful building we have, and I hope it makes future students even more proud to be a part of UC.” This is not the first time the referendum was introduced. In 2014, it failed to reach a two-thirds majority by a margin of six votes.

“It was quite discouraging to have the previous referendum fail

by about six votes a couple years ago during my first year at university and a lot of students felt the same,” said UC Lit vice president and president-elect for the 2016–2017 year Ramsey Andary. “But it is thanks to those students who pushed for informing the community on the importance of revitalizing their common spaces that we were able to be successful this time around.”

Some details of the revitalization projects have yet to be finalized, and the UC Lit plans to hold a JCR assessment meeting on March 17 to receive input from students. The UC Lit also plans to discuss the renovations to the quadrangle with the Landmark Committee.

The incoming UC Lit executive will need to decide whether to operate the café in UC 376 themselves or

have UC Food Services run it. The UC Lit has the right of first refusal to operate the café and currently operates Diabolos’, a student-run coffee shop located in the JCR. Diabolos’, which had previously experienced financial and operational challenges, reopened in January 2015 after remaining closed for several months.

Nevertheless, Andary supports making the café student-run.

“Although we found this year that opening Diabolos’ Coffee Bar in its new form was a great challenge, we definitely knew it was worth the hassle. We learned and made note of every little detail it takes to set up a functioning student-run café, and I do believe we can use that experience in opening a ‘second branch’ in UC 376,” Andary told The Varsity.

“To have this café run by the UC Lit means we can open up more opportunities for students in our community to get involved with this project and encourage students to check out the revitalized spaces that will be opened up in the upper floors of UC,” said Andary.

ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS

Fourth Governing Council secretary appointed Sheree Drummond hopes to promote Governing Council involvement, spread information on university operations RACHEL CHEN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Sheree Drummond stepped into the role of Governing Council secretary on March 1, 2016. Drummond has worked at the University of Toronto since 2003 and previously held the positions of assistant provost and deputy secretary.

The Governing Council is the university’s highest governing body and the secretary’s role is to oversee the many parts of U of T’s governance processes, including the Governance Council, the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Office, the Internal Audit Office, and the Office of Convocation.

“At the core of it, you are — and the word is used in the position description — a guardian,” Drummond said. “There are all of these processes and rules that need to be maintained and respected and the role of the secretary... is to make sure that all of that is happening appropriately.”

As the fourth secretary of the Governing Council, Drummond hopes to make information more accessible and to build relationships with the various university stakeholders.

“I see that as a high priority because I think it is very important in terms of building the trust with

people if they know who you are and have the chance to interact with you,” Drummond said. “Then I think the likelihood of there being open communication especially when there are difficult issues is a lot better at that point. I am expecting to spend a fair amount of my time actually meeting with people either inside or outside of our system.”

Drummond graduated from UTSC — known at the time as Scarborough College — in 1992.

She was actively involved in student life, participated in student government, worked as a residence don, and even drove the shuttle bus around the Scarborough campus.

“In many ways, I see this as the grown up adult version of what I was doing as a student here,” Drummond said.

As an undergraduate student, Drummond did not know much about the Governing Council and wishes she had known about it. As a result, she wants to use her new position to educate more people about how the university operates.

“I see it as a public service really to kind of help people understand what our system is, how it is structured and where are the places for them to actually engage and make a difference and have their voices

heard,” Drummond said. “While people can proactively do something about that, I think I can also be proactive in trying to be clear and open about that so it gives people the opportunity to know more about how we operate and actually become part of the dialogue in a positive way.”

Passionate about post-secondary education, Drummond also brings experience from her time working for the University of Alberta’s central administration.

“I just think that having the opportunity to work in a university is extremely exciting. Being constantly exposed to young people and the ways in which they are thinking, all the new ideas coming from the faculty, from the students; you’re always feeling like you’re in an evolving innovative environment,” she said. “Even if you are not personally engaged in the teaching and the research, it has a huge impact on the work that you do, even from the administration and governance side. It is a very satisfying thing.”

Governing Council is the university’s highest governing body. PHOTO COURTESY OF SHEREE DRUMMOND

6 NEWS

M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 news@thevarsity.ca

Campaign period opens for candidates in UTSU elections

Current UTSU vice president, external, Jasmine Denike is Hello UofT’s presidential candidate. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

CONTINUED FROM COVER

Running for president with the Hello UofT slate is Innis College student Jasmine Wong Denike, the current UTSU vice president, external.

“When I came to U of T in my first year, I was terrified,” Denike said. “I came from a place where I didn’t have a lot of friends, I didn’t really know who I was, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Denike credited her work at the UTSU this past year for changing her perspective on the union’s potential to spark positive change at the university. “I had the chance to do things I wanted to do and see ways that I could try to improve the experience, especially for first-year [and] second-year students so they wouldn’t have the same experience that I had when I showed up my first and second year,” she said.

“Now I am running to be the president of the UTSU which is kind of a big step for me in the sense that I did not see this coming.

I want to do it because I am not done yet,” Denike stated.

Like Siddiqui, Denike emphasized the importance of connecting with students.

Additionally, she said that she wants to see more progress made on the Student Commons project, lower or frozen caps on tuition fees, as well as efforts to help make students feel safe on campus.

Denike also indicated that she believes that the UTSU’s procedures have made the union inaccessible to some students. “I feel like this year it’s sort of been lost in the jargon of Robert’s Rules of Order in a way, and I want to bring it back down to earth, bring it back to students so they can understand what is going on, they feel like they have a sense of what the board does and after every meeting I want to make sure that students don’t have to read through a 200 page board package to find out one motion,” she said.

VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNAL & SERVICES Mathias Memmel, current co-president of the Faculty of Music’s Undergraduate Association and director for the Faculty of Music on

the UTSU’s current Board of Directors, is running with Hello UofT for vice president, internal & services.

When asked about his goals for the position, he expressed his desire to improve the undergraduate health and dental plan. Next year, the plan will cover up to $100 in psychological care for the first time, a development that Memmel suggested he would like to take further. “We should be able to raise that and cover the full cost,” he said.

Memmel went on to say that he would like to implement a more transparent budgeting process and to establish “a sharing economy of materials” between clubs and student societies, in order to maximize resources.

Carina Zhang, an international student at New College, is the One UofT vice president, internal & services candidate. Zhang credits her appeal as a candidate to her past experiences as a representative for the New College Council (NCC) and the New College Student Council (NCSC), as well as her time spent on the academic appeals board and the Arts & Science Council.

When asked about the issues she aims to tackle as a prospective member of the UTSU executive, she said that she would like to increase the number of scholarships and internships available to international students: “I’d like to ask the Centre for International Experience to co-operate with us because they are kind of the core centre for international students.”

Zhang would also like to see a greater sense of community and enhanced communication between U of T’s three campuses. She said, “The campus itself, those buildings are not the things that keep the students here. It’s more like the perspective, the culture, the respect, everything, the environment to engage people, to unite them, to become one U of T. So that’s our goal… Our team name explains it all,” Zhang said.

Williams, in 2014, “I wasn’t running a Facebook group but I was still really active and I was basically the person who was helping new students, just using that as a mechanism to help them with student loans, course selection, program enrolment, all those sorts of things,” she said.

Williams set up a group for the class of 2019 and then again for the class of 2020, which the UTSU officially endorsed at a Board of Directors meeting in October.

Williams wants to hold informal groups similar to commissions but geared towardsdifferent demographics, a move that she believes will facilitate greater student community engagement. She said, “I want to have things sort of like commissions, which are for specific groups of students. Various groups have different concerns. You might have kids in certain programs who are concerned about fees in their programs in particular — those sorts of things.”

Williams expressed concern about accessibility and mental wellness in terms of the support services currently available to students, which she believes to be inadequate. She proposes working with the administration to improve policies surrounding test absences and expanding services that make recorded lectures available online.

“Students often have to juggle their own health with schoolwork and we just don’t really have good mechanisms in place to allow people to do that effectively,” she said.

One UofT’s vice president, university affairs candidate was unavailable for comment. At press time, the slate stated that they had a candidate confirmed for the position, but that they were unavailable.

Andy Edem, current associate to the vice president, campus life, is running as an independent for the office of vice president, university affairs. The Varsity did not approach Edem for comment.

VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY AFFAIRS Shawn Williams is a Victoria College student running for vice president, university affairs with Hello UofT. Williams has been involved with various Facebook groups for newly-accepted U of T students. According to

VICE PRESIDENT, EXTERNAL Andre Fast, an Innis College student, is One Uof T’s candidate for vice president external.

Echoing Siddiqui, Fast intimated his desire to see the union fight for free tuition in Ontario in the future. “In Ontario, we pay more for tuition than in any other province. I think it is impor-

tant that university be accessible to everyone.”

“I think overall [the budget] is positive because it provides more funding for low income students. There are some negative things,” said Fast. “It is not free tuition, despite how they framed it. They say it is $6,200 for people whose parents make less than $50,000. We know that is not actually the average tuition.

Statistics Canada says it is closer to $7,900,” Fast commented, referencing the recently released 2016 provincial budget.

Victoria College student Lucinda Qu is Hello’s candidate for vice president, external.

Qu wants to see the barriers to involvement that face marginalized students demolished, and focus on issues such as affordable education and access to food at all hours. Qu’s broader platform involves “lobbying external organizations and governments, a lot of talking to student groups and admin on campus.”

Qu hopes to level the playing field for students by working to make post-secondary education more affordable.

Qu said that achieving these goals would involve “a lot of talking to student groups and admin[istration] on campus. Whether it be top-down or whether it be in more of a grassroots fashion through the establishing and funding of groups that can start new initiatives here, I’m interested in exploring every option possible to tackle the issues that speak to students most.”

VICE PRESIDENT, EQUITY “University, I feel, is a time where students actually end up spending more time here on campus than they do at home. We want that to be some place where people feel comfortable, feel like they belong… like they’re part of a larger community… like they’re safe, feel like they are with their family basically,” said Malkeet Sandhu, One UofT’s candidate for the equity seat. She currently serves as copresident of the Sikh association.

Sandhu identified the prevalence of racism on campus, accessibility concerns for students with disabilities, and divestment from private firms complicit in the operation of for-profit prisons in the United States as her chief concerns.

“I want the student body to know that I care about them. I am here for them. I want

T H E VA R S I T Y

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Madina Siddiqui, president of the Afghan Students’ Association, is running for president with One UofT. NATHAN CHAN/THE VARSITY

to engage in a conversation with you and know what it is you guys need and want and I want to work towards helping you get there,” Sandhu said Farah Noori, a UTM student and Hello UofT candidate for vice president, equity, attributes her potential to her past experience with the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU), specifically with the women’s coalition, and her current position as a UTM director at the UTSU. “I’m going to try and work on every issue I can just because I want to be fair,” Noori said.

“But at the same time, I want to ensure every cause is spoken for.”

“That’s my number one platform point… by combatting, challenging the different -phobias and -isms... I want to reach out to the different colleges, professional faculties, and clubs and people from UTM, because UTM students are also represented by the UTSU,” said Noori.

Her primary goals include fostering a greater sense of community to allow for greater discussion of issues concerning students, improving campus security resources, food accessibility, the inclusion of student rights on course syllabi, and the implementation of gender neutral pronouns with registrars on campus.

Noori emphasized the importance of dialogue and education in addressing equity issues. “Individuals have different opinions on things, I want them to, in a respectful way obviously, talk about those opinions and have a discussion. So I don’t want to just shut them out cause I feel if you do that then you’re not really solving the issue itself or you’re not really getting anywhere… having those intellectual discussions, you’ll get somewhere. If you don’t get to an agreement, you’ll get to some sort of understanding,” she said.

VICE PRESIDENT, CAMPUS LIFE If elected, Shahin Imtiaz, the Hello UofT candidate, wants to address what she calls the “inaccessibility that comes in the form of decentralized information.” She proposes replacing the current paperwork-based process by which club funding is acquired with a campus life app and website that “puts all of

the campus life needs in one place.” She also mentioned focusing on higher collaboration with clubs, more inclusivity, better clubs training ,and prioritizing fixing the current systems in place, especially with clubs funding.

Lera Nwinweh, the One UofT candidate, is currently an executive on the Nigerian Students’ Association (NSA) and a member of the international students’ committee at University College.

“I want to accomplish things in three different aspects: clubs, students, and events,” he said. Nwinweh aims to increase transparency and ease in the club funding process, a goal that he believes will “triple the effect of campus life in general.” He also aims to focus on bettering UTSU events by making them more accessible, with a special priority on the UTSU concert during frosh week, essentially ensuring a positive first experience for firstyear students.

Aleissa Rodriguez, the current vice president, campus life, is running for the position again as an independent. From June 2015, she served as an associate to the vice president, campus life and was then appointed to the role by the Board of Directors in December following the impeachment of her predecessor, Akshan Bansal.

“I want to personalize my relationship with clubs and provide them with the resources they need,” Rodriguez said. “I plan to continue facilitating the integration and collaboration between clubs and other groups, as well as to break the distance between students and the UTSU.” Her other goals are to increase club funding by $10,000 across the board, facilitate collaboration between clubs and service groups through various networking opportunities, and expand and create new events with direct input from students and colleges.

Rodriguez said that she is grateful to have been appointed by the board this past year but cited direct democratic selection, rather than slate affiliation, as her reason for seeking the office again as an independent.

VICE PRESIDENT, PROFESSIONAL FACULTIES Engineering student Ryan Gomes is the vice

president, professional faculties candidate for the Hello UofT slate. Gomes is the current UTSU vice president, internal & services and is a member at large of the Engineering Society’s Board of Directors.

“I know how the UTSU works — on a very fine level, both in terms of financial level in terms of policy and in terms of various other things,” Gomes said. “Especially considering that this is the first time this position is being elected, you want someone who knows their way around the UTSU so they can take action quickly because again these are issues that the professional faculties have been facing for years.”

“One of the reasons I’m running and why I want to take up this position is because I think that, historically, the UTSU has ignored the professional faculties,” Gomes said. “I would want to develop a faculty-specific strategy for each of the specific faculties, sit down with them, ask them what their issues are, and how the UTSU can better help them and support them. I think in large part most professional faculty students don’t even know that they are a part of the UTSU, especially because many of these faculties are separated not just in terms of being a separate faculty, but also by distance.”

Gomes would also like to focus on promoting collaboration between faculties in a similar way to the collaboration that exists between different arts & science colleges. Additionally, Gomes would like to establish a commission for professional faculty students. “Commissions are key elements to the vice president’s portfolio in terms of engaging students, and I think that in creating a professional faculties commission we can better engage [those] students,” he said.

Gomes spoke enthusiastically about his interest in engaging in direct advocacy if elected to have professional faculty students’ incorporated into future changes to Ontario’s provincial education funding model. The recent promise of free tuition is based on the average tuition for an arts & science student, whereas professional faculty students have higher average tuition fees. “I think that’s an issue that the UTSU should be taking on,” Gomes said, adding that the caps on tuition fee increases

are expiring next year. “The government has never explained why there’s a higher cap for professional faculty students… and now these caps are expiring, and I’m sure U of T is going to want to increase them or let them expire and not have new caps so they can increase tuition by how much ever they want.”

Running with the One UofT slate is kinesiology & physical education student, Charlotte Mengxi Shen. Shen has held executive positions with the University of Toronto Chinese Student and Scholar Association, the UT Chinese magazine, and founded a fitness club.

Shen has proposed monthly meetings with major student associations to address their needs and wants to make exam deferrals easier for professional faculty students.

“For example, in engineering if you defer [a first-year course]... you have to take an extra year even if you have a valid doctor’s note or a death certificate of someone else,” Shen said.

“If you defer one exam, a four-year program turns into a five-year program. Also, [for professional faculties] education is very expensive, and I think this policy is a waste of money and a waste of time. I think we can do better than that.”

Shen also wants to create more study, studio, and design space for professional faculty students.

The UTSU executive debate will take place this Wednesday, March 16 at 5:30 pm in the William Doo Auditorium. Voting will take place between March 22 and 24.

Disclosure: Shahin Imtiaz is a former associate science editor for The Varsity

8 NEWS

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NEWS IN BRIEF QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY PASSES CAMPUS-WIDE SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICY Queen’s University approved a campus-wide sexual violence policy on Friday, March 4. This follows a Toronto Star investigation conducted in 2014 that looked at 102 Canadian colleges and universities lacking in sexual assault policies.

According to the investigation, only nine of the 78 Canadian universities had a sexual violence policy. Since the investigation, Queen’s is the third university, following Ryerson University and York University, to have created a policy for sexual assault; McGill University, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia have yet to produce conclusive policies.

Queen’s University’s sexual assault policy has been a work in progress for almost 15 months. It includes an explanation of options available to witnesses and survivors of sexual violence, and it outlines the university’s responsibilities regarding treatment of sexual assault. A list of definitions, a statement on the university’s commitment to survivors, and a statement on maintaining annual statistics are also featured in the policy.

The first draft of the policy was completed in June 2015 and was presented to the Queen’s Senate, alongside a report on campus sexual assault and related issues.

After unanimous approval by the Queen’s Board of Trustees, it was released in December for a two-month feedback period.

According to Mary Wilson Trider, chair of the Audit & Risk Committee, it is still possible that the policy may be subject to further changes.

With files from The Queen’s Journal

IMPACT SWEEPS RYERSON STUDENTS’ UNION ELECTIONS

The Impact slate took all five Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) executive positions in the recent election. The unofficial results were revealed on March 9, after the shortest campaign period in recent years.

Obaid Ullah, the current vice president, operations, is now the union’s presidentelect. Ullah ran on a platform dedicated to improving transit, mental health services, experiential learning, and the Ontario Student Assistance Program application process.

Ullah is joined by Victoria Morton, vice president, education-elect; Tamara Jones, vice president, equity-elect; Neal Muthreja; vice president, operations-elect; and Harman Singh, vice president, student life-elect. They have pledged to address the environment, increase funding for student groups, and build an entertainment zone for students.

At the candidates’ debate during the elections, the main concerns were mental health, rising tuition fees, and RSU layoffs. The University of Toronto Students’ Union released a statement condemning the RSU’s firing of two employees — one of whom was a new mother on parental leave — after the RSU’s restructuring in December 2015.

Impact also took the faculty directors spots for communication and design, both faculty of science seats, all the Ted Rogers School of Management positions, the international student representative position. The slate also received nearly four times the amount of votes for engineering and architecture as the other candidates.

For the faculty of arts, Impact took two spots. The opposing slate, RU Connected, took the third spot and won four out of five community services faculty director positions.

For the executive positions, Impact received nearly double the amount of votes of RU Connected.

With files from the Eyeopener

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COMMENT var.st/comment

14 M arch 2016

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Sexy and ready to serve Female employees cannot be expected to abide by discriminatory dress codes ARTICLE BY NAOMI STULEANU ILLUSTRATION BY WENDY GU

E

arly last week, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) declared sexualized and gender-specific dress codes discriminatory. Central to the commission's findings was the revelation that service industry jobs, such as those in restaurants and bars — where young people make up an overwhelming majority of the work force — are particularly at fault when it comes to inappropriate dress requirements. The OHRC will now require employers to explicitly divulge sexbased differences in dress codes when hiring.

This decision should be commended, as it sets clear standards to combat sexist dress codes that many still face when working in the service industry. It is also worth reflecting, however, on how the ruling reflects the slow progress breaking down gendered stereotypes in our society.

Women who are expected WE SHOULD CONTINUE TO EMPHASIZE to wear tight clothing, THE PROBLEMS WITH DISCRIMINATORY low-cut tops, skirts, DRESS CODES, IN ORDER TO WORK short and high heels in order TOWARDS FULLY ERADICATING SUCH to sell food DOUBLE STANDARDS and drinks are being sexualized in the workplace. This perpetuates the notion that a woman’s appearance should define her worth, and that others have the right to objectify her accordingly. Aside from the incredibly detrimental effects this can have on a woman’s mental health, sexual objectification has been linked to the perception of women as being less competent.

These negative perceptions have been correlated with the feelings and actions of disrespect for the integrity of women's bodies. In fact, sexual objectification has been shown to increase victim blaming in rape cases and decrease the perceived suffering of victims.

When forced to squeeze into scanty uniforms, female employees are also made more vulnerable to sexual harassment from co-workers and customers. This contravenes an employer’s responsibility to protect their female employees and promote a safe work environment.

While some may argue that dressing in a 'sexy' way is empowering, that still does not justify mandating it for all, especially for those who feel uncomfortable. Requiring women to dress in a revealing way — even if they would do so of their own accord — reinforces the idea that others should be able to control what they look like for their own pleasure.

Some believe that women who disagree with their employer’s dress requirements should quit and look for other jobs. This is preposterous: women should not be expected to choose between sustaining themselves financially and being comfortable in their workplace. Furthermore, quitting is often not a viable option for many employees, as many rely on their positions to pay for tuition, student loans, or living expenses.

These dress codes also exclude people of certain religious and gender identities, making it difficult for some to seek out employment in the industry. The consequences of non-compliance can be dire, even if the employer merely imposes an ‘informal’ dress code on their workers. Employees who choose to protest these expectations may lose shifts or even their jobs. As a result, they may simply oblige.

A human rights tribunal is needed to get these messages across. Yet, I am skeptical of the ruling's hypothetical outcomes.

In 1981, the OHRC produced a similar ruling, which determined that gendered dress codes were discriminatory. It seems the previous judgment did little to shift to a broader culture.

The complaints procedure poses a significant obstacle for many women.

Although employees may choose to file human rights claims and seek financial compensation for discriminatory treatment from employers, this route is time-consuming and inaccessible to those who can't afford it. Instead of punishing employers after the fact, it should be emphasized that it is the dress codes that have got to go.

The OHRC’s policy position may not be enough to generate change in the service industry. Alongside financial and logistical barriers to filing a complaint, employees may still feel insecure about coming forward to claim discrimination, especially against intimidating employers.

While the OHRC’s policy declarations were positive, they will not suddenly provoke revolutionary change. This truth is frustrating but humbling. It is important that we do not become complacent in the face of these legal victories. Instead, we should continue to emphasize the problems with discriminatory dress codes, in order to work towards fully eradicating such double standards.

Naomi Stuleanu is a second-year student at Victoria College studying criminology and psychology. Her column appears every three weeks.

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Paying respect to scholarship

VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

Students must not take the U of T experience for granted

Varsity Publications Board of Directors nominations due March 14, 2016 at 5pm Voting: March 28-30 online at voting.utoronto.ca

MIRKA LOISELLE/THE VARSITY

TEODORA PASCA

ASSOCIATE COMMENT EDITOR

Sitting in the back of a lecture in Convocation Hall can often feel like an exercise in mass distraction. In a sea of a thousand laptops, screens flash cyclically between lecture notes, Facebook chats, and YouTube videos.

Students with virtually no knowledge of the course material line up to the soapbox, making comments that manage to be simultaneously boastful and complete non sequiturs.

Once, during one of my lectures, a group of students even ordered a pizza and ate it in the first row.

It is clear that the way students view the classroom — and perhaps, education itself — is changing drastically.

When the atmosphere of a university is criticized, it is often the institution itself that bears the brunt of the blame. In many cases, this is for good reason; immense class sizes, unsympathetic instructors, and overwhelming stress can certainly compromise a student's learning.

U of T has rightfully been criticized in the past for its glacial response to student distress, which results in a lack of adequate support services for students struggling with sexual violence, mental health issues, or financial problems. These are relevant and pressing issues on which the administration has been dragging its heels, and we as students are entitled to hold them to account.

It is questionable, however, whether the university itself deserves to be chastised for the alleged hardships of every single student on campus.

For example, the university is notorious for its draconian academic expectations, but professors should expect a certain quality in their students’ work. It is difficult to sympathize with students who start writing a paper two hours before it’s due or shirk off studying for an exam and then pile the blame for their academic shortcomings on the university.

This issue is aggravated by the disrespect many students show to both their instructors and their fellow students. Some perpetrators are overcome with the fierce and uncontrollable need to interject and tout their own abilities in the middle of lecture, wasting time that could be spent on the material. Others do everything they can to distract others from

learning, by noisily crunching on three-course meals, taking selfies, catching up on the latest gossip, or trading jabs at the professor.

Education is vitally important; why else would we pay thousands of dollars in tuition and activity fees and dedicate years of our lives to crank out a degree? Focus on the actual weight of the educational opportunity we have at our disposal is often put aside in favour of more trivial matters. Gripes about boring classes and looming deadlines pervade conversations, while our true aims — what we want to learn and achieve along the way — fade to the background.

The university has many intellectual resources and extra-curricular opportunities to bolster its students’ experiences, and it deserves to be lauded for that. While being mindful of its shortcomings, we should also pay respect to the institution and not take these opportunities for granted; at least as an educational hub, the university is doing its job.

We should also be mindful that, although we admittedly pay a hefty price for membership, many others do not have access to it at all. Countless students face financial and social obstacles when graduating from high school, let alone are able to study at an institution like U of T. This is a problem that programs like the World University Services of Canada, which sponsors refugee students, are attempting to alleviate. Comparing these students to those leisurely napping in the Con Hall balcony is a tall order.

With exams approaching and pressure mounting, the desire to complain and vent about our obligations is certainly understandable. At the same time, we should keep in mind that, in a sense, we are lucky to have these things on our plates at all. Approaching education from a conscious perspective means understanding the significance of what we are learning.

Teodora Pasca is a second-year student at Innis College studying ethics, society, and law and criminology. She is an associate comment editor for The Varsity. Her column appears every three weeks.

Details, including nomination forms and campaign rules, can be found at http://thevarsity.ca/board-of-directors/boardelection/ If you have any questions or concerns about the election, please email the returning officer, Zaigham Ali, at secretary@thevarsity.ca

VARSITY PUBLICATIONS

SPRING MEETING OF MEMBERS Date & Time: Thursday, March 31, 2016, 5:15pm Location: 21 Sussex Ave., room 200 Proxies: Forms are available online and due to the meeting location at 5:15pm on March 30, 2016.

All members of Varsity Publications Inc. are eligible to attend and vote at the meeting Details of the meeting, including proxy forms, can be found at http://thevarsity.ca/spring-meeting-of-members/ If you have any questions or concerns about the meeting, please email editor@thevarsity.ca

T H E VA R S I T Y

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A subtle sip of sexism Sorority policies banning alcohol consumption should be revised CHANTEL GEORGE VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Fraternities and sororities on campus, also known collectively as the Greek community, have a reputation for enabling alcohol consumption. It is almost second nature to associate 'frat parties' with 'booze.'

In the midst of stereotyping, however, we often overlook how the Greek community actually creates tiered systems of access to alcohol. Alcohol is not officially permitted in sorority houses or at the events sororities host.

One consequence of this is that Greek Week — a week full of events for both fraternities and sororities — hosts an event that explicitly excludes sorority members. The Facebook page for Greek Week 2014 notes: “Boat races is back for another year... Please note that sororities will not be earning points in this event nor are they allowed to participate... ” For boat races in 2015, the page noted that they would be observing the same rules as previous years.

This is just one example of a larger, more troubling trend in Greek culture. By restricting sorority members’ access to alcohol unfairly targets female students. Underlying this system is the denial of female competency and responsibility regarding the consumption of alcohol.

Sanctions for alcohol consumption imposed on

women in sororities also reinforce gender roles, in which women were expected to not 'let loose' but instead remain 'classy' and 'sophisticated.'

Leah McLaren draws attention to such pervasive gender stereotypes in her review of the CBC's recently released documentary Girls Night Out. The documentary claims that the apparent rise of binge drinking among teenage girls is linked to instances of sexual assault.

In addition to showing that the consumption of alcohol by women is actually decreasing, McLaren writes, “We are encouraged to judge these girls for their keggers and drinking games, and yet anyone who has ever known a 19-year-old will recognize their experimental behaviour as utterly common… In the end, all they seem to be guilty of is having a good time.”

The shaming of female alcohol consumption reflects a subtle sexism that still exists within the Greek community, which can result in various negative consequences.

The restrictionss on alcohol do not curb sorority members’ desire for it, nor should adult women be expected to abstain from alcohol.

Many sorority members will go elsewhere to drink — notably, a fraternity house. These restrictions, by indirectly shifting the location of parties and drinking to frats, create potentially unfamiliar and possibly dangerous situations for women.

WENDY GU/THE VARSITY

Alcohol consumption remains a significant part of most students' university experiences.

Women are as capable of drinking responsibly as men are, and it is time that they are treated that way.

Sororities need to allow their members to participate in more events, even those involving alcohol, and at least allow women to keep alcohol within their own rooms. The adoption of such policies would also work towards removing the stigma around women who drink.

I am not advocating for increased alcohol use. I recognize the host of problems that

come with binge-drinking; those concerns, however, are not the focus of this piece.

It is true that some sorority members drink alcohol in their rooms or at their events anyway.

The official policies, however, do not recognize female autonomy and they create double standards. Sororities should quit imposing paternalistic and patronizing policies. A sorority sister is no less responsible or respectable, if she chooses to have a drink with dinner.

Chantel George is a fourth-year student at Woodsworth College studying neuroscience and physiology.

Proposed standardized tests miss the mark Measuring the three Rs won't solve shortage of soft skills

DENISE VILLATE/THE VARSITY

SASHA BOUTILIER VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

Early in February, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) proposed instituting basic testing at the start and end of students' post-secondary studies. The

online test would be 90 minutes long and examine literacy, numeracy, and problemsolving skills.

This fall, HEQCO will be rolling out a pilot project to test incoming students and is currently seeking colleges and universities to participate in the process. U of T has declined to participate, although director of news & media relations, Althea BlackburnEvans has said that U of T “looks forward to reviewing the evidence from the pilot projects at other universities.”

While there is certainly value in this proposal, it is important to be realistic about the prospects and critical of how this approach could subvert a student's curiosity and engagement with wholesome learning.

I see several issues that limit this project’s potential effectiveness.

The test doesn’t seem to correspond to or adequately address the concerns of employers, which HEQCO says it is seeking to do. Employers have repeatedly stated that they value 'soft skills' in graduates, but they feel university graduates often lack these skills. For instance, a 2015 study showed a mere 34 per cent of employers believed university graduates are properly equipped for the workforce.

This HEQCO test seems to neglect the 'soft skills' — such as teamwork, communication,

and confidence — of which employers are primarily concerned. A 90-minute online test is not going to say anything about your ability to work cooperatively in a team to address complex issues, while managing multiple deadlines.

Of particular concern is how these test results could come to be used to help determine institutional funding. Although Queen’s Park hasn’t stated that the test results would play into institutional funding, the government's plan to begin using 'learning outcomes' when determining funding suggests that the HEQCO test would be involved in the process.

I have enjoyed my time at U of T and had what I think to be a fruitful educational experience. I didn’t come to U of T to improve my literacy and numeracy. I came for an excellent liberal arts education and to fulfill my passion by learning about sociopolitical issues. It seems possible the HEQCO test could help promote a dulling-down of curricula in favor of reviewing the three Rs, all in order to solicit support from Queen’s Park.

There are, however, some merits to the proposal. Like other students growing up in the United States, I was very familiar with standardized testing and had to take the SAT and ACT when applying to university. The proposed HEQCO test seems to roughly

parallel these tests and might provide a sense of students’ competence in the three Rs upon university entrance. Simultaneously, the proposed HEQCO test influences admissions (since they are to be administered after entrance into university) and would not be as susceptible to the stress frequently accompanied with writing the SAT and ACT. If HEQCO data was used solely to provide targeted programs that help students who might be struggling with competency in literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving, then I would definitely support it. Yet, imposing these standards upon a broad range of students is likely to be counterproductive. Furthermore, we should be cautious not to place too much importance on data from tests in determining curricula and provincial funding.

At the minimum, HEQCO’s proposed test will do nothing to improve the 'soft skills' employers want. Career-integrated learning would present a better approach to these skills that U of T should implement. A more holistic approach to education reform will ensure changes are more meaningful and effective.

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

South of Spain PHOTOS AND TEXT BY LEAH RITCEY-THORPE

20 students travelled to the south of Spain, as part of the International Course Module Program for Earth sciences. They conducted field research related to earth processes and the geological history of Andalusia.

The giant mines near the Rio Tinto river are carved out of Huelva’s landscape, which expose rich coloured rocks of red, yellow, and grey. The mining area has an ancient history spanning back 4,500 years; its first significant extraction was performed by the Romans, who left waste rubble that remains visible to this day.

Tbilisi, Georgia PHOTOS AND TEXT BY ALEX HEMPEL, JONA MALILE, COURTNEY HALLINK, AND JEFFERY CHEN

Nine students travelled to Tbilisi, Georgia as part of the International Course Module Program for POL359: Enlarging Europe: The European Union and Its Applicants. They conducted fieldwork related to EU-Georgia cooperation.

After a short walk through the charming streets of Tbilisi, we met with Carlo Natale, deputy head of delegation, who spoke to us about EU-Georgia cooperation.

The experience served to provide a foundation of understanding about Georgia. Although we each had our own research focus, the group meetings gave us a broader perspective on topics we would not have otherwise developed.

Like many parts of the world, Georgian cultural identity is strongly tied to its food, and we picked up the local etiquette quickly. Khachapuri is a staple of Georgian cuisine that can be served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Khinkali is a Georgian type of dumpling meant to be eaten with bare hands only; the top of the dumpling, where the pleats of dough are gathered is called the kudi (meaning ‘hat’), was to be left uneaten.

Wine is a deeply-ingrained part of Georgian culture; the world’s first vineyards to they still remain active. At Sighnaghi, an ancient monastery town in the foothills sampled six different types of grapes. The food is also grown locally, and the pr flavours.

PROJECT OBSERVATION A photo essay of three international undergraduate experiences detailing the power of bearing witness THE VARSITY CONTRIBUTORS

THE TOIL OF AN UNDERGRADUA by long hours researching one involves more Boolean terms th academic engagement.

Sometimes, though, academia graduate students take up this p anthropological data within the

One of our last stops took place across the border, in an isolated British territory known as Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar is an impressive limestone shelf reaching a maximum elevation of 426 metres. Due to the makeup of the rock and the presence of calcite, the limestone cliffs dissolve in rainwater, which forms numerous caves that attract tourists.

One of the largest attractions is the population of barbary macaques located on the upper rock.

The monkeys are quite crafty, often interacting with the tourists and climbing on the cars. As our group can attest, those who value their personal belongings should not open their windows in close proximity to a barbary macaque. They are, however, quite photogenic.

Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, Vietnam PHOTOS BY TIMOTHY TSE AND TEXT BY SARAH TAN

Nine students travelled to Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, Vietnam as part of the International Course Module Program for contemporary Asian studies. They conducted fieldwork related to Asian urbanisms.

Built during the ninth century and subsequently renovated a few centuries later, Alhambra palace stands as one of Spain’s most magnificent structures. The palace is of Moorish architecture, and its interior reflects the geometric artwork of the Islamic culture. Intricate patterning and mocárabe ornamental designs dominate the walls.

ook root in Georgian soil, where of the Caucasus mountains, we roduce is always rich in natural

ATE arts and science student is often defined paper or another. It is a task that usually han legwork and more citation than genuine

a becomes a catalyst for discovery. Underperspective in a variety of ways: they gather e vibrant neighbourhoods of Toronto; they

The rush of motorbikes — which set the pulse of the city — and a noticeable lack of cars created a completely different kind of urban experience than we were used to in Toronto, which was the exact purpose of our research excursion.

In Ho Chi Minh City, we quickly discovered the difference between learning about and actually bearing witness to real life phenomena. For example, we all knew about the history of French colonialism in Vietnam, but knowledge became reality while we were standing inside of the Frenchbuilt central post office. French architecture that can be found throughout the city artistically combines with the portrait of Ho Chi Minh hanging in the city’s central post office.

A major part of our research centred around interviewing individuals in the city, some of whom had been displaced and resettled. By doing so, we learned how to improvise interview questions, and we began to relate to people with whom we often did not share a common language.

propose and execute scientific experiments; or they gather in forums to collaborate and develop fresh perspectives on important issues.

Academia also involves being in a certain place at a certain time to observe and interpret one’s surroundings. The following is a photo essay that demonstrates the heart of observation from the perspectives of three student groups, who visited new places over reading week in February.

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ARTS&CULTURE

arts@thevarsity.ca

14 M arch 2016

g n i k e n Se o i t a t n e s e repr k c o r in

Three female musicians from U of T talk about the lack of diversity in their respective musical communities ARTICLE BY HANNAH LANK AND ELENA MATAS From left to right: Morgan Zych (drums), Laura Yiu (vocals), Siobhan Scott (guitar) . MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

T

All three musicians play in bands on UTSG campus.

MALLIKA MAKKAR/THE VARSITY

his year's Battle of the Bands tournament was marked by an unsettling realization about the music scene on our campus. To the surprise of many, the four bands chosen to participate in Winterfest’s annual event were all male. This led to inevitable questions: where are all the female musicians, and why haven’t they been represented in one of our school’s high-profile musical events? We talked to three female musicians to get their take on diversity in the field.

Siobhan Scott and Morgan Zych are the founders of a recently formed punk band named Queen Blues. Scott is in her third year studying commerce, economics, and music history and culture, while Zych is studying immunology and genetics. They draw inspiration from bands such as Sonic Youth, Best Coast, Bikini Kill, and Cherry Glazerr.

According to them, there were no groups with female members at the Battle of the Bands, and there were no groups with female members that even auditioned in the first place. Scott mentioned that although this struck her as peculiar, it is reflective of "rock music in general, that rock bands are [typically] straight white guys.”

The comment is accurate; popular bands like Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Radiohead, The Killers, and Red Hot Chili Peppers are all male and often dominate the headlines

of music festivals. Scott's observation seems to describe the industry on a larger scale. According to fusion.net, 74 per cent of all bands performing in nine of 2015’s summer music festivals consisted entirely of male musicians.

Last year, only seven per cent of Coachella’s line-up was composed of bands that had at least one female member.

Laura Yiu, one of the two front-women of U of T band These Lights took part in last year’s Battle of the Bands, where they won first place in the competition. She returned this year as a judge, and, like Zych and Scott, was struck by the fact that the bands consisted only of white men.

Yiu is in her fourth year of university studying music performance for jazz vocals. She was inspired by her father, the chairman of Toronto’s Chinese Orchestra, to pursue musical studies. She notes that “diversity has always been an issue in any artistic scene,” but that it seems almost anachronistic to be discussing the lack of female representation in music. Female artists like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé dominate Billboard’s Top 40 singles, yet this level of success rarely seems to extend beyond pop music.

Even in the university’s Faculty of Music, Yiu sees the lack of women in her class’ instrumental sections as problematic. She questions why one sees a disproportionate number of women studying voice instead of playing instruments and points out that when women

are in bands, they rarely play instruments, such as the drums or the guitar.

Zych, a drummer, notes that her choice of instrument often surprises others. She says she feels pressure to prove that she’s genuinely passionate about music and drumming, and that it’s not just a “party trick.”

The three artists mention feeling “belittled” by their male counterparts. They say that at most performances they are hit on by men and are not recognized for their artistic abilities. Zych and Scott point out that they don’t see the same lack of representation at more casual performances like coffee houses and suggest this is because female artists don’t feel the same kind of pressures as they would in a more typical rock venue.

The interviews with the three musicians suggest that the lack of female representation in the music scene is, in part, due to a lack of confidence. This is perhaps caused by the feeling that they won’t be successful among their male counterparts. So what needs to change?

Zych, Yiu, and Scott agree that exposure is critical. Perhaps there’s a need for more female focused events that promote female musicians and their art. They also believe that there’s definitely a need for women to support other women that want to explore careers in music.

Scott says, "Women need to know that they’re welcome; that being a woman and being a rock musician go hand in hand.”

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Five reasons to get your comic on at this year’s Comicon Deadpool cosplayers, the cast of Sailor Moon, and Draco Malfoy's dad, among others COREY VAN DEN HOOGENBAND

tendees. No one is really at fault here but trying to arrange meetups or adhere to a self-set schedule can be a nightmare when it takes 30 minutes to push through a crowd. Fortunately, a smaller convention means more manageable numbers, and that means that you can meet guest celebrities and still have time to spare.

ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Although the relatively young Toronto Comicon may lack the wider scope of more popular conventions like Fan Expo Canada or Comic-Con International: San Diego, there are plenty of reasons to check out this smaller celebration of all things pop culture.

The festival runs from March 18 to March 20, and, among others, the actor who played Draco Malfoy’s dad will be in attendance.

How could you miss that?

DEADPOOL, DEADPOOL, AND MORE DEADPOOL The world has been hot with Deadpool fever ever since the devilishly handsome Ryan Reynolds brought the character to the big screen last month. This anti-hero has been a fan-favourite for cosplayers for years, and you can bet that the mercenary-witha-mouth’s recent film will inspire a whole new legion of fans to don the red and black spandex. The opportunity to see a group of Deadpools should under no circumstances go ignored. The series’ creator Rob Liefeld is confirmed to be attending the show. Someone who can write a character as absurd as Wade Wilson must be pretty hilarious in real life, too.

MEET CANADIAN ARTISTS A lot of the pop culture that Canadians consume comes from our American neighbours, but that’s no reason to turn a blind eye to

THE CAST OF SAILOR MOON WILL BE THERE While the precise details of their visit are not yet available — perhaps a question-andanswer panel, or maybe a live script reading — the voice actors that played Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Tuxedo Mask, and more will be there to tug at your oh-so-nostalgic heartstrings.

LEGO Star Wars was a feature of last year's Comicon festival. PHOTO COURTESY OF FAN EXPO HQ

the incredible work of our local creators.

Comicon offers some incredibly talented artists the chance to have their work showcased — and, for you, the opportunity to meet them. Kalman Andrasofszky is the current writer and illustrator for the newly revitalized Captain Canuck series, popular web comic artist Meaghan Carter, and Piti-

ful Human Lizard creator Jason Loo are a few who will be in attendance.

SMOOTHER NAVIGATION ACROSS THE SHOW FLOOR Festivals can be fun but there is absolutely nothing worse than having to swim through an ocean of crowded and sweaty comicon at-

IT'S A GREAT SCHOOL DE-STRESSOR If you thought that binge-watching Marvel’s Jessica Jones soothed your soul after a brutal day of studying, try exploring a convention occupied by folks dressed as every member of the Avengers. Tired of your only human interaction being when you ask a classmate for lecture notes? Imagine high-fiving the dude who played Elaine’s boss in Seinfeld. Pop culture often offers an escape from many of the undesirable aspects of our lives, and shows like these are the rare occasions where fans can explore elements of their favourite franchises in a dynamic and unique way.

Victoria College student opens pop-up shop for formal wear Lucinda Qu is the brain behind Common Thread Pop-up Shop ENXHI KONDI

Qu got the idea for a formal wear pop-up shop after struggling to find a dress for Highball in 2014. RUESHEN AKSOY/THE VARSITY

VARSITY STAFF

Shopping on a budget is a difficult task, especially when you need to find the perfect formal wear outfit. After her own struggle in finding a formal gown for Victoria College’s Highball in 2014, an idea began forming in Lucinda Qu’s mind — an idea that would be realized in 2016 as the Common Thread Pop-Up Shop.

“Many people have formalwear. Many people want formalwear,” Qu explains. “And the fancier (read: expensive) the formalwear, the fewer times you’ll typically wear it — a pattern that’s inaccessible, unsustainable, and that largely exists because we don’t make the most of what our community already has.”

Just in time for Vic’s annual Highball formal, Qu collected dresses from donors, which others

could then rent out for formal events with the rental fee being paid to the donor, making the work of the pop-up shop pro-bono.

Qu’s goal was “the creation of a peer-to-peer platform where you can make money off of clothes you own, pay next to nothing for what you don't, and think a little more equitably along the way. With that in mind, the name ‘Common Thread’ seemed like the perfect fit.”

It seems that others would agree. The Common Thread Facebook page, using students as models for the dresses in promotional photos, garnered over 200 likes in less than two weeks. Over 20 dresses were rented, mostly for Highball.

According to Qu, “[The response has been] overwhelmingly positive, and even more so than

we expected: you have no idea how many times the other execs and I were told how expensive someone’s dormant prom dress was, or ‘I already bought something, but I’m totally returning it now!’ or surprised reactions about how affordable and simple and new this idea was.”

While apparently successful, the venture wasn’t all smooth sailing. As a new enterprise, Qu explains that “[g]rowing pains” were an inherent part of the process. “[A]s students who’d never done anything like this before, we were coming up with new questions constantly. So if anything, what was hardest was trying to keep all the execs in the loop about the answers we improvised, and what’ll be the most difficult in the coming months will be deciding what we focus on next.”

In the future, Qu aspires to take her project beyond Victoria College. The project aims to “keep doors open — to look into menswear, and expand into other colleges, maybe even other universities. The team behind Common Thread believes that this could be the ‘airbnb of formalwear’, and we’re excited to see if that becomes a reality.”

When asked what advice she would give to others pursuing innovative ideas, Qu says, “Actively choose what you do and don’t devote your time to, because so much of what’s worth learning in university is not what you’re mandated to learn, and so many opportunities won’t exist until you make sure they do.”

16 ARTS & CULTURE

M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 arts@thevarsity.ca

Living arts: learning how to edit Wikipedia The Varsity attends AGO's Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

The AGO hosted the Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on Saturday, March 5. RUESHEN AKSOY/THE VARSITY

INDIA GRACE MCALISTER VARSITY STAFF

I was overwhelmed; I was late; I was sweating; and I was uncertain of where to go. I had just stepped into the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), where I was about to attend my first ever Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. The edit-a-thon was hosted by the AGO as part of the Art + Feminism initiative.

After some searching — namely, wandering aimlessly for about 10 minutes — I found the staircase to the Education Commons where the event was supposed to take place. Upon turning the corner I was trampled by a flock of screaming children. As I quickly discovered, the Education Commons is right beside the Hands on Learning Centre, where parents drop off their kids after they start manhandling Group of Seven paintings with their sticky fingers. Once my head stopped spinning and my ears ceased ringing, I looked over to a row of tables where people were diligently typing away on their laptops. The serenity of their focus immediately set me at ease. I walked to the information table and was greeted by a friendly volunteer who kindly forgave me for being late and created my first Wikipedia account.

With my first task completed and my anxious stomach settled, I made a beeline for the refreshments. Cookie crumbs raining down my chin, I followed a volunteer’s pointed finger towards a tutorial where I would learn the basics of Wikipedia editing.

The tutorial was full of women being instructed by Amy Furness, known on Wikipedia as 'Artchivist1.' Furness, the primary organizer of the Toronto event, has a quiet intensity and a clear passion for Wikipedia.

She informed us that these events were happening all over the world. As she pointed out, according to the Wikimedia Foundation, only 10 per cent of Wikipedia contributors identify as female.

Art + Feminism believes this leads to a gender imbalance in content. The initiative's overall goal for an edit-a-thon event

is to focus on using Wikipedia to highlight women who have made significant contributions to art and are underrepresented on the online encyclopedia.

Thanks to Furness, I began to feel fully equipped with the basics of Wikipedia etiquette and coding. In the main hall where we were to commence our "quilting bee,” as one volunteer described the event, people with yellow stickers that said 'WIKI' started showing up. The WIKIs were available to answer any questions that newbies like us might have.

I spoke with one woman, Anne, who is a Wikipedia administrator. She helped me out when I encountered trouble with my edits.

Anne is a lively retiree with a Wi-Fi stick that she takes with her everywhere. The stick allows her to edit on the GO train or in the car.

She told me that she has edited over 60,000 Wikipedia articles. She joked that editing Wikipedia articles was much better than doing crosswords in order to pass the time.

I have to agree.

I felt an enormous sense of accomplishment upon editing my first article. The first edit I made was to add an 'a' to a sentence in an article about a Canadian painter and sketch artist named Caroline Armington.

The AGO library was co-hosting the event, so their staff were available to help the editors using the library resources. I was given a file on Armington, full of newspaper clippings and other fact sheets. By the end of the event I had only had enough time to start fixing minor errors on Armington’s article.

Even though I made little headway, I was immediately hooked. I felt as though I was contributing to history and to posterity, my focus interrupted only by the screams of the playing children. “This is for you!” I yelled, as I shook my fist at them jokingly.

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STUDENT THEATRE REVIEW:

Rent If you missed VCDS's production of Rent, it was at the expense of some exceptional performances ALEX MCKEEN FEATURES EDITOR

In its final production of the year, the Victoria College Drama Society took on a staple of the Broadway canon. Jonathan Larson’s Rent is a rock musical that has found its place in history as the quintessential depiction of bohemian life in late-1980’s Manhattan.

The action focuses on roommates Mark (Katie Pereira) and Roger (Michael Henley), and their neighbour Mimi (Mirabella Sundar Singh), who takes a liking to Roger. The guys are in conflict with their ex-roommate and now-landlord Benny (Winston Sullivan), who found wealth through marriage and abandoned his bohemian lifestyle. Benny demands that his former friends help him to suppress a rally planned by Mark’s recent exgirlfriend, Maureen (Nithya Garg), against the clearing of a lot occupied by homeless New Yorkers in exchange for forgiveness of their rent.

With the help of her current girlfriend Joanne (Hannah Lazare), and recent couple Collins (Roddy Rodriguez) and Angel (Aaron Hale), Maureen’s rally continues, causing Mark and Roger to be locked out of their building. A series of conflicts ensue, as the group struggles with poverty, HIV diagnoses, drug addiction, and encroaching injustices brought on by consumerism and intolerance of their gender and sexual identities.

The production unfolded on an unassuming yet appropriate set. Adorned with graffiti and distinctly unkempt, the stage evoked a sense of New York City non-conformity. The popart computer projections behind the stage were hard to miss, as they often obscured the actors' faces.

Director and choreographer Shak Haq succeeded in lending a politically charged,

slightly anxious energy to the production.

Media clippings from the time that the musical was first staged added authenticity and political weight to the plot.

The greatest strengths of Haq’s direction and choreography revealed themselves in large group numbers. The intimate physicality by the company in “Contact” pulled on all the viewers’ senses. “La Vie Boheme” and “Rent” also profited from a passionate sense of solidarity and a fearlessness of the slightly obscene.

The show lost energy at moments of transition where it relied too heavily on blackouts, and cast members frequently exited and entered the stage with no apparent motivation.

The show could have used many more technical runs to iron out glitches; Henley’s microphone was dysfunctional for the first act, and lighting queues often lagged, compromising the pace of what should be an energetic show.

Garg delivered a standout performance as Maureen. She portrayed the rash, selfabsorbed siren convincingly, while never failing to delight listeners with her polished, energetic singing. The questionable blocking of “Take Me or Leave Me,” which involved an office chair and a stripper’s pole, was saved by the superior singing of both Garg and Lazare.

Sundar Singh’s Mimi found her stride in the second act, where her coy charm and vocal talent captivated the audience as well as Henley’s character. Hale stole the show with his dance performance in “Today 4 U,” while he and Rodriguez brought chemistry to the stage early on in “I’ll cover you.” Despite microphone problems, Henley delivered a consistent performance as Roger. Pereira’s acting as Mark shone, and they tied the production together nicely with thoughtful, well-executed monologues.

VCDS's Rent ran from March 10 to 12. PHOTO COURTESY OF VCDS/THE VARSITY

The limits of the Bechdel test Examining the problem of inaccurate female representation in Hollywood

CHANTEL TENG/THE VARSITY

REUT COHEN

ASSOCIATE ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Conversations about diversity in Hollywood have recently been reignited. From the #OscarsSoWhite controversy surrounding this year’s Academy Awards, to February's New York Times article, “What It’s Really Like to Work in Hollywood* (*If you’re not a straight white man)” it seems that the film industry is currently experiencing some turbulence as it struggles to placate those that are still underrepresented.

THE PROBLEM WITH DEPICTIONS OF FEMALE CHARACTERS, AS TOLD

BY TWITTER Recently I discovered a Twitter account, @femscriptintros, which was created by American film producer, Ross Putman in early February. On it, Putman posts introductions for female characters in film scripts that come across his desk. After renaming every character Jane, the excerpts are tweeted verbatim.

In nearly every script’s introduction of a female character, the screenwriter passes judgment on her physical appearance. A personal favourite of mine reads, “JANE (late 20s) sits hunched over a microscope. She’s attractive, but too much of a professional to care about her appearance.”

It’s clear how it can become easy to reduce female characters to stereotypes, when being professional and caring about your appearance is presented as two seemingly conflicting desires. In many of these scripts, a woman’s characterization seems to be intrinsically linked to how she looks. In contrast, here’s how Indiana Jones was first introduced in 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark: “At the head of the party is an American, INDIANA JONES.” THE BECHDEL TEST It’s worth revisiting a process that was designed over thirty years ago to examine the representation of women in film: the Bechdel test. Popularized in 1985, the test was discussed in Dykes to Watch Out For, a comic strip

by Alison Bechdel.

The test has three components: to pass the test, a film must have two named female characters, who have a conversation together, the

subject of which is anything other than a man.

With little ambiguity to any of the components, Bechdel generally succeeds in dividing films into categories of pass or fail.

The numbers don’t lie, either: the statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight found that in a sample of 1,794 movies that were released from 1970 to 2013, only half of them had “at least one scene in which women talked to each other about something other than a man.”

Unfortunately, these results aren’t exactly surprising. For years, Hollywood has operated under the assumption that female-driven movies don’t do well at the box office. While the FiveThirtyEight study proves that movies that pass the Bechdel test actually have a better return on investment than those that don’t, those perceptions have led to a longterm shortage of movies featuring female characters in dominant roles.

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY Of course, the Bechdel test isn’t intended to evaluate whether or not the female characters presented in media are ‘good’ depictions of women. It’s certainly possible to create films with multifaceted and complex female characters that don’t pass the test.

Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim is an excellent example of a film that subverts traditional expectations of women in film through other means — namely, the lack of any clichéd romance between its male and female leads. (It is true that Pacific Rim is a movie about giant sea monsters and the giant robots that fight them, but I’ve often been surprised by completely random, romantic subplots in action films — Black Widow or Hulk, anyone?).

Likewise, a movie could pass the test with one hackneyed conversation between two female characters, even if those same female characters represented the worst stereotypes of women otherwise.

True representation is about more than just statistical parity between the sexes — it’s about giving female characters the same agency and nuance that’s granted to their male counterparts. So here’s to a future with more women as heroes, villains, and everything in between. Until it comes to pass, I’ll just keep re-watching Legally Blonde — I’m still trying to nail that ‘bend and snap.’

SCIENCE

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14 M arch 2016

An hour of darkness

science@thevarsity.ca

N OW S

ARO

A dark view of Earth Hour

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D UN T

FRONTIERS IN ALZHEIMERS: INNOVATIONS FOR TACKLING THE NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASE Hosted by the Students’ Alzheimer’s Alliance U of T (SAAUT), this year’s conference features leading experts Dr. Carol Greenwood and Dr. Tarek Rajji as keynote speakers.

Monday, March 14 5:00–8:30pm Medical Sciences Building 1 King’s College Circle Admission: Free with registration

LIFESTYLE CHOICES AND TRANSPLANTATION The Multi-organ Transplant Insight, Outreach & Networking Society (MOTIONS) at U of T is opening up the debate on whether alcoholism and smoking habits should affect individuals being considered for organ transplant.

Thursday, March 17 6:00–7:30pm Toronto General Hospital 200 Elizabeth Street Admission: Free with registration

THE AEROSPACE SHOWCASE 2016

DENISE VILLATE/THE VARSITY

TOM YUN

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Earth Hour, celebrated on March 19, is an annual event that was first started nine years ago in Sydney, Australia by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It has since spread to cities all over the world and takes place every year in late March.

Its purpose is to encourage people to turn off their lights for one hour, between 8:30pm and 9:30pm, in an effort to raise awareness about climate change. The lights have also been turned off on famous monuments all over the world, such as Times Square in New York, the Great Pyramids of Giza, and the CN Tower.

Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the campaign. Bjørn Lomborg, a Danish environmentalist who is also the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, has been one of Earth Hour’s fiercest critics. In an op-ed that Lomborg wrote for Slate, he called the campaign out for being “a colossal waste of time.”

Lomborg argues that Earth Hour disregards how reliant our society has become on electricity and points to how electricity has improved people’s lives when it comes to food preservation,

heating homes, and agriculture — things that many of the world’s poor cannot enjoy.

The organizers, however, say that Earth Hour actually “embraces technology.”

“Technology is key to a sustainable future that is aspirational,” reads a part of Earth Hour’s FAQ. “From LED lights, to hybrid vehicles, to developing replacements for unsustainable use of resources — Earth Hour has thrived off the back of the development in digital technology.”

The event has been criticized by those who argue that the campaign is nothing more than a feel-good slacktivist campaign that has little to no impact on protecting the environment.

The organizers of Earth Hour acknowledge that the campaign is symbolic, and they encourage a “commitment to change beyond the hour.”

In addition, they say that the focus of the event is not about saving energy during the hour since the amount of energy saved is not recorded.

The energy saved during Earth Hour in Ontario is minimal at best. In 2012, 56.4 per cent of Ontario’s electricity came from nuclear power, which considered a low-carbon form of power generation. Another 22.3 per cent came from hydroelectricity, and natural gas provided 14.6 per cent of the province’s energy output. Since Ontario phased out the use of coal in 2014, natu-

ral gas is the only fossil fuel that the province uses as a source of energy.

The attention, however, still seems to be fixated on the actual hour. Toronto Hydro sets a target of 10 per cent reduction in electricity usage during Earth Hour. The media often focuses on the images of monuments across the world which are shrouded in darkness over the hour. They highlight Toronto Hydro’s report on how much energy was saved during the course of the event.

Participation in Earth Hour seems to be declining. According to Toronto Hydro, Earth Hour 2009 saw a 15 per cent reduction in electricity usage. In 2015, there was only a 3.5 per cent drop. In addition, British Columbia only saw a reduction of 0.2 per cent, while Nova Scotia saw a reduction of 0.3 per cent.

Earth Hour has the potential to be used as a stepping stone for real progress when it comes to climate change but simply raising awareness can only go so far. Interest in Earth Hour is waning and the organizers also need to go “beyond the hour,” in order to reinvigorate the campaign.

The University of Toronto Aerospace Team (UTAT) is unveiling their latest aircraft and spacecraft models. This is a great opportunity for students to network with UTAT and their organizers and possibly join the design team in the future.

Friday, March 18 11:45am–2:30pm Bahen Center for Information technology 40 St. George Street Admission: Free with registration

HEALTHX CONCEPTS IN CONTEXT: REFUGEE HEALTH SYMPOSIUM + EVENING SOCIAL The Health Studies Students’ Union (HSSU) is hosting its 2016 symposium featuring keynote speakers Dr. Phillip Berger, associate professor at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, and Dr. Andrea A. Cortinois, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, who is familiar with migration and health.

Friday, March 18 1:00–5:00pm University College 15 King’s College Circle Admission: Free with registration

T H E VA R S I T Y

SCIENCE 19

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Science (finally) made public U of T researcher uploads lab notes in real-time NYIMA GYALMO VARSITY STAFF

Rachel Harding, a postdoctoral fellow at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), is a pioneer of open source science; she makes her lab notes available online as she writes them. Harding uses a wide variety of online platforms in real time to speed up the findings of research in a potentially revolutionary method of scientific communication.

“The more a community communicates, critiques and collaborates on research, the faster and more effective[ly] you should be able to answer scientific questions,” Harding points out in an interview with The Varsity.

Harding’s research focuses on the development of therapeutic agents for Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease that is currently incurable. She believes the initiative will lead to “better dialogue,” and “improve real-time peer review,” while “develop[ing] therapeutics more rapidly.”

Open source science involves sharing real time lab notes in their raw form online. Its emergence followed the success of the collaborative developments in open source software (OSS).

A primary concern raised by open source initiatives is the inability to patent published works, which can lead to possible research theft and a lack of investment.

“Researchers are under pressure to publish in high impact peer-reviewed journals in order to get the next stage of funding/fellowships, however, I am not sure this is how to do the best science,” Harding admits.

The SGC is a globally renowned research institution, known for its open access policy and initiatives. In order for Harding to release her notes, she needs the approval of the SGC and the source of her research funding.

Harding posted her first installment of methods and data in real time on Zenodo, a platform hosted at CERN, which allows researchers to share their work online. On the same day, she posted her first set of lab notes on Lab Scribbles and Twitter.

“This is the next step [to practicing open source science].

We don’t know if this process will work. We are planning to study my open notebook to see if it really does all the things we hope [such as] community engagement, collaboration, faster research output and so forth,” Harding explained.

TIFFANY GO/THE VARSITY

Raymond Hui, a principal investigator with the SGC and Jim Woodgett, the director of research at Mount Sinai Hospital are other pioneers of open source research initiatives. Both have been interested in open source science for a long time.

This past July, Hacklabs hosted Hui and Woodgett in order to discuss the benefits of open source science.

During the talk Woodgett made several references to scientific methods and integrity. He warned against the

many instances where scientific methods or results have not been reproducible.

Harding believes that open source science initiative encourages the true objective of scientific investigation. He states that science should be “more focused on answering the scientific questions relevant to our field rather than individual gain.”

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M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 science@thevarsity.ca

Are french fries healthy after all?

Rejoice, U of T scientists have published a study in defense of the potato

Carbs are not to fear but only when eaten with protein, CLARA MACKINNON-CABRAL/THE VARSITY

NADEZHDA WOINOWSKY-KRIEGER SCIENCE EDITOR

A recent study published in the online journal Nutrition & Diabetes authored by U of T’s Department of Nutritional Science has found that potatoes and potato-by-products may have garnered an undeserved bad reputation among the health-conscious community.

Dr. G. Harvey Anderson, executive director of the Centre for Child Nutrition and director of the study, would like to make it very clear that his findings do not give you

the scientific green light to start inhaling as many french fries as you can get your hands on, however.

In fact, the key to results lies precisely in the fact that eating french fries will help you moderate your carbohydrate intake more effectively than alternative sources of starch.

“I grew up on a farm, [so] I’m a meat and potatoes person,” Anderson explained in an interview with The Varsity, “and you know I’m not young anymore, and I have no health problems. So I got thinking... if we eat meals, with [some] of those carbohydrates

as a side — the french fries, deep fried or mashed potatoes, or rice, or pasta — which ones would stop you eating quickest?”

To answer this question, Anderson and his team brought in 20 children, between the ages of 10 and 13, for a randomized crossover study to compare the participant’s caloric intake, blood glucose level and insulin production for three potato-based and two non potato-based types of carbohydrate.

The trick however, was that all the participants had to consume 100 grams of lean meat, in the form of meatballs, before they were allowed to start stuffing their faces with french fries.

According to Anderson, the ‘satisfaction factor’ of eating until you’re full had been frequently overlooked in previous studies on calorie intake, which is why the consumption of protein prior to the consumption of starch was such a key point of the study.

If you have protein with your meal, protein is also satisfying,” Anderson explained. “ ...[T]his is often the problem with Italian pasta meals and so on, is that it tends to be all carbohydrate and not much protein, and so people get fat.”

Ultimately, the human body requires carbohydrates to function. Yet not all carbs are created equal. What was most unexpected about the results, is that even french fries cooked in oil came out higher in the carbohydrate health hierarchy than pasta and rice. Mashed potatoes were the real winner, with children consuming 30-40 per cent fewer calories at meals.

The fried french fries (as opposed to baked french fries) lead to the lowest meal and post-

meal glucose and insulin levels out of all the starches tested.

“The blood sugar for these kids went up quickly when they ate mashed potatoes,” said Anderson, “and [although] it went to the same level as the rice and the pasta, but because it went up quickly [for the potato starches], they stopped eating quicker. Somewhere on there there was a trigger.” Anderson also pointed out that in addition to feeling satiated faster, starches consumed from potatoes rather than grains will fill your body with far more nutrients per calorie than those consumed from grains.

“Potatoes have a better source of vitamin C than orange juice or bananas, and yet doctors recommend bananas... for potassium,” Anderson explains. “Potatoes are a very healthy vegetable — they’re a vegetable. Rice is not a vegetable, it’s a grain, and so is pasta.”

Anderson emphasizes that young people shouldn’t be afraid of carbs — especially not potatoes. As all nutrition advice goes: all meals should be balanced, and all foods should be consumed in moderation. “All I’m saying is that the advice is... don’t just eat pasta by itself or french fries by itself,” says Anderson, “ make sure you have a protein. It could be tofu, it could be a vegetarian source, or it could be fish — it doesn’t have to be meatballs.”

“Take the time to eat a meal, eat a combination, and then all your carbohydrates are healthy.”

Breakthrough technology grows human tissue at U of T AngioChip can grow realistic human tissue, could be used for drug testing and discovery and eventual organ repair or replacement SOPHIA SAVVA VARSITY STAFF

University of Toronto Engineering researchers have developed a new “organ-on-a-chip” technology, a scaffold called AngioChip that can grow realistic human tissue outside of the body and be used to test and discover new drugs.

AngioChip, the product of years of research by Professor Milicia Radisic, graduate student Boyang Zhang, and their team of collaborators, is hoped to fix or replace damaged organs in the future.

AngioChip operates just like a vasculature in a human body and contains a lattice around it where other cells attach and grow.

AngioChip is especially ground-breaking because it creates cells and tissues closer in resemblance to those found in the human body than those produced in a flat petri dish, thanks to its three dimensional structure and artificial blood vessels.

POMaC, a biodegrable and biocompatible polymer, was used by Zhang to make the scaffold that the individual cells grow on. “This polymer is easy to synthesize and it is cross-linkable with UV light which is what made our fabrication method (3-D stamping) feasible,” said Zhang.

The scaffold is composed of stacked layers that form a three dimensional structure of artificial blood vessels. UV light is used to cross-link the polymer and connect it to the layer below it. These layers have channels, with diameters close to that of a human hair, that function as artificial blood vessels. The design was so seamless that, when AngioChips were implanted in rats, their blood moved naturally through the synthetic vessels without any concerns, such as clotting, to speak of.

Upon the completion of the structure, the researchers filled the chip with living cells that stuck to the channels and started to grow, just as they would in a human body.

The platform was used to create functioning artificial heart and liver tissue. The liver could actually generate urea and metabolize drugs, and when the scaffold was filled with heart cells, it contracted like real heart tissue, complete with a steady rhythm. The blood vessels of the two synthetic organs can be connected and used to show the interactions between them. For instance, white blood cells were injected into the vessel, where they moved through gaps in the vessel wall toward the tissue on the opposite side, just as would be expected in a human body.

“It is a new platform that shows a lot of potential,” Zhang said of AngioChip. “I think

the more immediate impact will be in drug discovery. But it is also a very competitive field with a variety of platform[s] out there.”

AngioChip could be used to test the harmful side effects of drugs before they hit the market, thus reducing their risk to humans.

Additionally, AngioChip could test out current drugs on the market for effectiveness or discover new drugs by screening collections of chemical compounds.

The AngioChip-grown human tissues could also be used to test drugs or products in place of using controversial and expensive animal testing or controlled clinical trials.

Although cultures of human cells from twodimensional petri dishes have been used for testing in the past, AngioChip cells would be especially useful since they exhibit more of the functions of real human cells.

AngioChip’s most ambitious application is probably using its artificial tissues to repair disease-damaged organs in the human body. The cells used to create the tissues could come from the patient himself, thus lessening the threat of organ rejection. This idea isn’t too far away: it has been proven that the artificial blood vessels of the AngioChip can connect to the circulatory system of a living animal. Plus, the scaffolding biodegrades after a few months thanks to its polymer composition.

The next step for the researchers is to find a more efficient way to manufacture the AngioChip, since they can currently only be made by hand.

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14 M arch 2016

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CIS vs. NCAA basketball Where is Canada’s March Madness?

HENRY YANG

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

March has arrived, and for many sports fans it’s the greatest time of the year. March Madness — one of the most prominent sporting events in North America — will kick off this week and promises match-ups between some of the best intercollegiate athletes in the world.

The tournament is comprised of Division I NCAA men’s basketball teams, who compete for the national championship. Due to the size of the men’s basketball court in the US, only certain teams are selected to participate in the competition; these teams were chosen yesterday on Selection Sunday.

Akin to CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sports) conferences like the OUA, NCAA conferences — like the Big East and Big Sky — compete and are eventually whittled down, until only the top two teams remain.

The entire tournament is televised on major sports networks like TSN and Sports Centre, similar to the NBA championship — an incredible feat considering that there are no professional athletes involved. March Madness is an important time for Division I players, as some college players are recruited to play for the NBA. While March Madness enthralls many collegiate basketball fans, there are also plenty of talented university basketball players competing in Canada.

There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that CIS teams are garnering the skills necessary to compete with NCAA teams. Without a doubt, the NCAA features more up-and-coming superstars and polished athletes (due in part to fierce recruiting and full-ride scholarships).

Nevertheless, the CIS is closer to the NCAA than most people think.

Canadian teams — as they were played in the pre-season — it is still important to consider how Canadian teams have fared.

Last summer, the Baylor Bears, a Big 12 Conference team, played Canada’s top college basketball team, the Carleton Ravens. Carleton held their ground as they went 1-1 against the NCAA powerhouse, winning their second

ELHAM NUMAN/THE VARSITY

For the past few seasons, some of the top Canadian university teams have faced off against the NCAA in pre-season exhibition games. Despite the difficulty of assessing if these matchups measure the competitiveness of

game by six after marginally losing their first game by two points. In the summer of 2014, the Ottawa Gee-Gees also beat the Indiana Hoosiers, while Carleton beat Vermont. These CIS wins suggest that Canadian teams can

play at a competitive level and hold their own against top American teams.

A few games played in the pre-season are not enough to compare the CIS with the NCAA. In the NBA, the Toronto Raptors have grown tremendously in the past 21 seasons.

They have made their way up the Eastern Conference and are serious contenders for a championship, despite being the only Canadian team in the league.

Why hold March Madness just for American basketball teams? Clearly, CIS teams have enjoyed some success against NCAA teams.

This integration would be an enormous step forward for Canadian basketball.

In the past year, many Canadian talents such as Simi Shittu and Christian David transferred from Canadian high schools to American preparatory schools in order to increase their professional exposure. Canada Basketball must find a way to retain and nurture their own talents. One way to achieve this could be through connecting the CIS and NCAA in a tournament like March Madness featuring teams from both associations.

Basketball has been improving tremendously in Canada both in terms of popularity and talent, and we also have the fans and the support to cultivate more teams and players.

It is time to put these tools to use and truly compete with the US at the collegiate level and above.

To ice or to heat, that is the question ment also reduces and prevents more serious tissue injuries such as muscle strains and spasms. Heat, on the other hand, has adverse effects. When temperatures above 87 degrees Celsius are applied to inflamed and swollen areas — especially when applied incorrectly — it increases blood flow and the release of inflammatory responses, which could make the injury worse.

This settles the debate, right? Not quite.

Although ice treatment has long been the favoured method for post-workout recovery, Some experts advocate using heat instead of cold to treat overworked muscles.

When you’re sore post-workout, a combination of both might be the best option. NYIMA GYALMO/THE VARSITY

What’s really the best recovery temperature?

JENNIFER FAKAS

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

When it comes to sports and fitness, how you recover from a hard workout is as important as the workout itself. If proper care isn’t taken, you can actually do more harm than good to your body.

Traditionally, ice packs or ice baths have been considered the go-to method for post-workout recovery; temperatures below 15 degrees Celsius can reduce inflammation and swelling. Recently, however, the icing approach has been called into question. It is now being debated

whether heating, instead of icing, makes for optimal recovery.

NUMBING THE PAIN Cryotherapy, or cold therapy, has always been the favoured and recommended method for kick-starting the muscles’ process of recovery — and for good reason.

Icing has proven to numb local pain neurons so the sense of relief from aching muscles is instantaneous. Cold therapy also causes the temperature of the local muscle tissue to drop, reducing inflammation and swelling.

Inflammation is your body’s natural and automatic response to overworked and micro-injured areas, so reducing the amount of inflammation around these areas is an important part of post-workout recovery. Ice treat-

BRINGING THE HEAT After exercise, muscles contract; during the healing process, they slowly relax and return back to their pre-workout state. Due to cold therapy’s numbing effects, using ice will disrupt and delay the muscle’s relaxation, postponing the healing process. Heat promotes this process and aids the muscle back to a relaxed state, thereby contributing to the relief of sore and overworked muscles. Because heat therapy increases blood flow, it also helps to remove by-products from the muscles created during exercise.

THE FINAL SHOWDOWN Considering the confusion surrounding the topic, there are surprisingly few studies on which method is best.

Cold therapy reduces the inflammation and swelling of sore and injured muscles directly after exercise, but applying ice for prolonged periods of time can actually do more harm

than good to your muscles. Heat therapy, on the other hand, could potentially increase inflammation at sites of injury, but it also aids the muscle back to a relaxed state.

With that in mind, icing is the most beneficial when used immediately after a workout to reduce the amount of inflammation and swelling of overworked muscles. Former CIS champion and Varsity Blues track and field athlete Maggie Hanlon agrees and cites a dip in the ice-bath as her go-to recovery method post-workout; former Blues fastpitch player Elizabeth Benn agrees.

Steve Hays, a marathoner and track and cross-country coach for Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, suggests a compromise. “Two cycles of 10 minutes of ice, alternated with two cycles of 10 minutes of heat.”

The ice and heat work together to reduce inflammation and to rid the muscles of byproducts created during exercise. Often referred to as contrasting, icing then heating is a method Blues hockey captain Kristi Riseley uses. “I find a combo is best,” she says. “Like switching from hot to cold, back to hot, then cold and follow a pattern. This method gets the blood flowing as the muscles are contracting and relaxing, so it’s great for recovery and removing lactic acid.”

Based on the information we do have, using a combination of icing and heating at the right times is likely the best choice for optimal post-workout recovery.

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M O N DAY 14 M A R C H 2 016 sports@thevarsity.ca

“Everything has a soul, and hockey is no different” Soul on Ice explores racism in minor and major league hockey

Soul on Ice tackels issues of racism and discrimination in hockey. NYIMA GYALMO/THE VARSITY

EMMA KIKULIS SPORTS EDITOR

It’s not often that an entire culture can be summed up in one word — especially in Canada, which boasts one of the most diverse populations in the world. But when you mention hockey, Canadians are often on the same page; it’s not a sport but a way of life.

Why, then, in a country that is a tossed salad of heritages, ethnicities, and cultures has our national past-time only been reserved for a select few? This is but one topic explored in the Canadian documentary Soul on Ice: Past, Present & Future.

A tri-campus collaborative effort between Hart House, the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and the athletics and recreation departments at UTM and UTSC, Soul on Ice was screened Thursday night at Goldring to a sizeable crowd.

“We thought it would be kind of neat to put it in an actual sports space, which is why we’re hosting it at the Goldring Centre,” said Michelle Brownrigg, director of co-curricular education and the chief program officer at Hart House. “It just kind of creates a different experience than perhaps seeing it in a theatre in terms of the connection to sport.”

In the documentary, filmmaker Kwame Mason traces the history of racism in hockey, specifically in Canada, from Willie O’Ree, the first black NHL player in the league’s history, to up-and-comer Brampton native, NHL draft pick Jaden Lindo.

Mason describes the lack of Canadian cultural discourse about the Coloured Hockey League as inspiration to sell his condo and pursue the making of the documentary three years ago.

“I grew up here, so how come nobody in school told me about this?” asked Mason, regarding the moment he learned of the league’s existence.

“How come Hockey Night in Canada never talked about this? How come nobody spoke about this?”

Established in Nova Scotia in 1895, the Coloured Hockey League was comprised of black hockey players from leagues across the Maritimes. It is widely considered as the first league to allow goalies to drop to their knees to stop a puck — a rule later adopted by the NHL — and may have been the first league to see a player execute a slap shot.

Despite the emergence of the league, racism continues to pepper hockey, exemplified by the lack of diversity among rosters. “As Canadians… we say ‘we’re a multicultural country,’ we always say that hockey is our national sport, so when you combine the two you would think that the sport would reflect what our country looks like, and it doesn’t” said Mason. “It’s 2016 and there’s 10 per cent minorities in hockey so you have to wonder why [that is].”

The movie screening finished with a panel discussion featuring Mason, the Blues men’s hockey coach Darren Lowe, and Jaden Lindo’s mother, Heather Lindo. Lowe, who along with being the first black head coach in university hockey, was a member of the NHL playing, like Jaden Lindo, for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Lowe, who played in the 1983-84 NHL season, explained race is not the identifying factor that should separate players in the game: “The weirdest thing for me is when I played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the story in the paper was ‘first black player for the Pittsburgh Penguins’ and I was so excited to be in the NHL I didn’t know why that was so important,” said Lowe. “For me, hockey is a huge part of my life. I’ve coached here for many years and enjoyed the experience, and I never really think of myself as a black coach or black hockey player, just a hockey person.”

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Post-season recap: sudden death sinks Varsity Blues OUA hockey season ends in bitter disappointment for both Blues hockey teams JACK FRASER

VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR

MEN’S TEAM The men’s hockey team continued their inconsistent play, going 4–6 in 2016 to finish 11–15–2 for the season. While the team was frequently blown out down the stretch, they did show signs of improvement, by shutting down quality teams and winning a number of tight games.

An upset 4–1 victory over first-seed York capped off the regular season and set the tone for what would be a surprising playoff run. Despite their record, the Blues slipped into the final playoff spot and prepared to face that same York team in a best-of-three series.

At first the men looked like they were out of their league, dropping an embarrassing 5–0 result in York. In front of a raucous crowd at Varsity Arena though, the Blues earned a come-from-behind 3–2 victory to stave off elimination.

The Blues’ goalie Andrew Hunt, who began the season as the third-string option, continued to frustrate the Lions in game three, by making 32 saves and shutting down the

league’s best offence. For the second year in a row, the Varsity Blues pulled off a shocking upset and moved on to the second round to face the second-ranked Western Mustangs.

This time, the men got off to a great start, silencing the London crowd and leaving with a 3–1 victory. Hunt turned in a legendary performance, making an incredible 53 saves.

The Blues’ porous defense let them down in game two at Varsity Arena. The Mustangs punished the Blues’ undisciplined play, which evened the series with a 7–3 victory.

Back in London for game three, an electric crowd was treated to a close game as the Blues came-from-behind and forced overtime. Unfortunately the Cinderella run ended there; the Mustangs scored an early goal, winning both the game and the series.

The men can be proud of their hard-fought playoff run and stunning first-round upset. While their reliance on remarkable goaltending may be unsustainable next season, the run demonstrated the team’s potential. The Blues still have a lot to work on defensively and will have to translate their hot streaks into consistent successes if they want to take the next step and become an OUA contender.

WOMEN’S TEAM The women’s season was a streaky one to say the least. They began the first half with a six-game winning streak followed by a four-game losing streak. The second half of their season saw the opposite; a four-game losing streak followed by an incredible eight-game undefeated stretch.

Throughout the season, the team had a 0.500 record in overtime, capped off by a tough streak-snapping shootout loss in the regular season finale. Thanks to their 18–10 record, the second-seed Blues were heavily favoured entering their first-round series against the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks. This matchup, however, would prove to be remarkably even.

Game one at Varsity Arena was a tight, defensive affair.

Laurier played smart, well-coached hockey, and the Blues had trouble hitting their stride offensively. Fifth-year Jacqueline Scheffel scored two goals in the first forty minutes and came inches away from a hat-trick late, but the Hawks held strong and kept the Blues from taking the lead.

In the dying moments of overtime, veteran Taylor Day finally broke the deadlock and gave the Blues the series lead.

Game two in Waterloo, an even stingier game than the first, also went into overtime after 60 scoreless minutes. It was the Golden Hawks who would strike, however, forcing a decisive game three at Varsity Arena.

If the first two games seemed even, game three blew them out of the water. Lauren Straatman broke a scoreless tie early in the third period, but Laurier swiftly tied the game and once again the Blues found themselves in a sudden death situation, this time with the season on the line. The Blues dominated the shot count, almost doubling their opponent, and rookie goalie Valencia Yordanov held down the fort through fifty scoreless minutes. Early in the third overtime, however, Golden Hawks forward Dollee Meigs finally broke the tie, completing the upset and ending the Blues’ season.

After such a successful regular season and on the heels of a dominating winning streak, the Blues can’t help but be disappointed with this finish. The fact that they dropped two consecutive overtime games despite dominating offensively will be even more difficult to accept. Next season will be a crucial one for the women, as their offense will have to cope with the loss of veterans like Scheffel. With an excellent coaching staff and Yordanov in net, the team should expect another winning season.

Considering it was a rebuilding year for both teams, the Blues men’s and women’s hockey squads should be proud of their performances this season. COURTESY OF MARTIN BAZYL

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T H E VA R S I T Y

DIVERSIONS 24

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The Varsity will post the answers to this puzzle in the next week’s issue.

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Supplied funds for 5. Leg 7. Contented 8. Arriving at 9. Poked fun at 12. Subsided 15. Harbour town 19. Invent 21. Swinging couches 22. Cosmetics gel, aloe ...

23. Require 24. Libra or Scorpio (4,4)

1. Punch-ups 2. Assistants 3. Preserved (meat) 4. Possible 5. Pakistani city 6. Secretly recorded 10. Greenish-blue 11. Industry or trade exhibition 12. Large rodent 13. Sear 14. Facts 15. Drain off 1 . Curled artificially 17. Responds to stimulus 18. Reacquire 19. Republic, ... Rica 20. Singer/actor, ... Presley

Answers from Issue 19