September 19, 2022 (Volume 143, Issue 3, TIFF Special Edition)

The University of Toronto’s Student Newspaper Since 1880

Vol. CXLIII, No. 3

TIFF A hot take on Glass Onion’s puzzle box

A review of the sexiest way to connect to god

A rundown of a new spin on the classic heist formula

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Academic petitions rose in 2021–22 at UTSC UTSC working on course retake policy, new residence building Lexey Burns Deputy News Editor

The UTSC Academic Affairs Committee and Campus Affairs Committee gathered for the first time in the 2022–2023 academic year on September 12 and September 13, respectively. The committees discussed plans for the year, with presentations given on the campus budget and on upcoming and ongoing construction projects.

Rising academic appeals Shelby Verboven — registrar and assistant dean strategic enrollment management — presented the 2021–-2022 annual report of the Subcommittee on Academic Appeals (SAA) to the Academic Affairs Committee. The report revealed that, in the 2021– 2022 academic year, the total number of academic petitions filed was 2,604. This figure represents an increase of 474 petitions from 2,130 in the 2020– 2021 academic year.

While the Dean’s Advisory Committee’s (DAC) is responsible for overseeing all academic petitions that students file, the SAA is responsible for considering appeals against the DAC’s decisions.

According to the SAA, the increase in academic petitions was largely due to an increase in the number of deferred examination requests. The return to in-person exams in April, during the province’s sixth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, left many students unable to write their exams because they had COVID-19 symptoms, tested positive for the virus, or were self-isolating.

Other examples of petitions included petitions to submit final exams late due to technical difficulties, to withdraw from courses after the course drop deadline, or to submit term work late.

Only seven petitions made it to the DAC in the 2021–2022 academic year, two of which were passed on to the SAA. According to the SAA, these statistics show that, while there was an increase in the number of petitions, the DAC and SAA did not actually have to resolve all of them. The reason, as per the report, is that students are also referred to various services on campus to seek guidance on the appeals process.

Academic updates In May, the UTSC Curriculum Working Circle presented its review of the UTSC curriculum to the Campus Council. The review outlined 56 recommendations for improvement, including expanding curricula to include more Indigenous and Black perspectives.

At the Academic Affairs Committee meeting, Vice-Principal, Academic and Dean William Gough announced that UTSC had accepted all 56 recommendations from the review and is in the process of articulating them.

Gough also announced that the administration is currently working on adding the option to pursue a major in many programs that are currently exclusively offered as minors. He explained that UTSC will soon offer majors in film studies, public law, and climate change.

Additionally, Gough mentioned that the UTSC administration is currently working on a course retake policy for students. Gough explained that they are adapting the course retake policy to “align [it] with changes that had taken place” at the Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) and UTM. Currently, within the FAS, students are not allowed to retake courses in which they received at least a grade of 50 per cent, unless a minimum mark in a specific course is required for entry into a limited program or the registrar has approved their request to repeat a course for a specific reason. Gough explained that the administration is in the process of conducting discussions and consultations in order to inform its policy proposal.

Construction and budget reports At the Campus Affairs Committee meeting, UTSC Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Arifuzzaman discussed how the administration is planning on developing campus grounds. Some of the construction projects included the construction of a new student residence, a second instruction centre, and an Indigenous House.

Additionally, according to the presentation, UTSC continues to plan out the Retail and Parking Commons, originally announced in January and set for completion in 2024.

Arifuzzaman also gave a presentation of UTSC’s operating budget for the 2022–2023 academic year.

For the 2022–2023 academic year, UTSC’s operating budget indicates a revenue of $416 million, with $221 million derived from international students’ fees and $58 million derived from domestic students’ fees.

Fall return to in-person Greg Hum, director of housing and residence life, recapped orientation at UTSC and expanded on administrative challenges with regard to student housing.

Hum said that this year’s orientation was “the largest orientation that we’ve had in many years now.”

Nadia Rosemond — assistant dean, cocurricular programs and student leadership — shared that the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union was able to welcome over 600 students at its orientation and that UTSC’s Welcome Day for upper-year students saw a “record breaking participation,” with approximately 1500–2000 students in attendance.

Hum also explained that the campus has experienced a student housing shortage this year: “After nearly three years of being online, students, more than ever, want to be on campus. And that’s created a housing shortage for students. It’s combined with higher than anticipated enrolment.”

Hum confirmed that roughly 870 students currently reside in residence, yet UTSC approved too many students for residence and so have placed 18 students in off-campus accommodations. Accordingly, the campus has sought off-site housing for students who could not be accommodated on campus.

The new residence building will accommodate an additional 750 students, almost doubling the number of students able to live in residence. The project was prompted by an increase in the number of students in Ontario high schools, many of whom may attend UTSC. The Campus Affairs Committee and Academic Affairs Committee will meet next on October 17 and October 20, respectively.

Corrections: 1. In last week’s issue of The Varsity, a Business article titled “Explainer: U of T’s trade unions and what they do” omitted the UTFA-USMC union in its

overview of trade unions. We have updated the online version of the article to include the UTFA-USMC. 2. A Comment article titled “Opinion: U of T must increase awareness of sexual violence issues and resources” incorrectly stated that U of T accepted the recommendations in the recent Policy on Sexual Violence and Harassment review in October 2021. In fact, U of T accepted these recommendations in July 2022.

Programming Lessons $15/hr Python C Java JavaScript Machine Learning 416-785-5115 students@cstutoring.com

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

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Experts review U of T’s filtration system Colin Furness, Jeff Siegel discuss gaps in university’s filtration meaJessie Schwalb Associate News Editor

As students return to campus for the fall semester, The Varsity considered U of T’s ventilation and filtration mechanisms with Colin Furness — an assistant professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation — and Jeff Siegel — a professor in the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering. Both Siegel and Furness discussed the ability of effective filtration to reduce the risk of transmission of airborne pathogens and expanded on their concerns with the gaps in U of T’s current filtration systems.

The University of Toronto Students’ Union had previously criticized the delays in information regarding the university’s ventilation and filtration procedures, and had also expressed concerns with the procedures themselves. Following that criticism, the university administration assured the U of T community of the strength and effectiveness of its ventilation and filtration plan.

Ventilation and filtration basics Furness highlighted the vital role that air quality plays in efforts to combat the ongoing pandemic.

“We need vaccination, we need people to behave responsibly, [and] we need a functioning healthcare system,” he said. “But really, in terms of being able to get back to normal, we need to manage our air like we’ve managed our water — that is to say, we make sure it’s clean before we drink it.”

Two procedures underlie ensuring that air is clean: ventilation, which involves replacing inside air with fresh air from outside, and filtration, which involves cleaning recirculated air.

The importance of ventilation and filtration stems from the airborne nature of SARS-CoV-2 — the specific type of coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. “[SARS-CoV-2] is airborne, and that’s something that provincial governments haven’t actually acknowledged,” said Furness.

Although the World Health Organization recognized airborne transmission of COVID-19 in December 2021, the province of Ontario hasn’t mandated any additional measures to increase air quality.

Furness believes that this situation represents a missed opportunity. “If you have maximum ventilation… the air is a lot like outdoor air. What we know from studying viruses generally and COVID in particular [is that the] outdoors is a lot safer than indoors,” continued Furness.

Siegel pointed out that adequate ventilation and filtration pose benefits beyond just reducing CO-

VID-19 transmission. “We have a variety of other respiratory diseases that are common every year,” he said. Such illnesses not only pose a danger to peoples’ health, particularly for more vulnerable populations, but also interrupt learning. “I would argue that any of the investments we make in things like ventilation will pay off for those things as well,” said Siegel.

A 2013 study by the United States National Library of Medicine found that Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) filtration systems contributed to reduced risks of certain airborne pathogens, including rhinovirus, which is involved in common cold; influenza; and coronavirus.

State of campus buildings In April 2021, U of T’s Utility and Operations and Environmental Health and Safety jointly performed an assessment of the university’s HVAC systems.

Following this assessment, they created a list of recommendations to guide the university’s ventilation and filtration policy, all of which the university implemented.

The university’s HVAC procedures now include starting up ventilation systems two hours before a building opens and disabling controls on ventilation systems that reduce airflow.

The university also affixed filters rated Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value-13 (MERV) — filters able to capture smaller particles that can pass through the air. According to Furness, “MERV 13 is considered adequate for infection control purposes, and the gold standard is MERV 16.”

Out of the 107 buildings on the St. George campus not operated by the federated colleges, 23 do not contain central mechanical ventilation, including the University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union, the Sir Daniel Wilson Residence, and Whitney Hall.

However, many of the most frequented buildings on campus — including Hart House, Robarts library, and Sidney Smith Hall — contain HVAC systems with filters rated MERV 13 or higher. At the Mississauga and Scarborough campuses, all buildings are outfitted with filters rated MERV 13 or higher.

The university is also committed to ensuring that each classroom receives six equivalent air changes per hour (ACH) when in use, the same standard applied to health care settings. Also, the university measures the ACH in every classroom in the university.

For classrooms that do not meet the six ACH threshold, the university limited use of the room, altered existing HVAC equipment to allow the room to meet the threshold, or installed localized air filtra-

tion units to supplement the air flow rate.

Gaps When asked about potential gaps in U of T’s HVAC strategy, Siegel cited the university’s broader COVID-19 policies. Siegel explained that epidemiologists often visualize disease prevention using a swiss cheese model wherein every layer of protection has holes, but, by layering protective measures, disease-causing pathogens can be prevented from spreading. “If you think about ventilation as one layer, it’s got a bunch of holes,” said Siegel. Without a mask or vaccination mandate, he added, “we’re relying on one layer, and we’re not doing everything we can to make sure that layer is as protective as it can be.” U of T’s vaccine and mask mandates have been paused since July 1.

Furness believes that many holes exist in the university’s HVAC systems. “Any building that was built before COVID is going to be built to sort of a normal standard,” said Furness. “Legacy buildings like Hart House or Trinity College or Victoria College are on the university steam heating system. There’s a whole integrated network of steam pipes providing heat, so there is no systematic forced air.”

Despite setting stringent standards for classrooms, U of T has not set similar standards for other areas of buildings, such as offices, entryways, and common spaces. The university’s rationale is that such areas are not as likely to pose the same risk of transmission as crowded classrooms.

However, according to Furness, this oversight presents a problem. Describing buildings as “dynamic systems” with air constantly flowing between classrooms and the surroundings, he explained that students spend significant time in spaces other than classrooms. “We haven’t addressed ventilation in a lot of [non-classroom] spaces,” he said.

According to Siegel, even the ventilation measures that the university implemented in classrooms are not necessarily adequate. He explained that the air filters that are used in centralized filtration at UTSG have a very high initial filtration rate, but often degrade quickly.

Siegel added that portable air filtration systems, such as those used in classrooms, also pose a number of challenges. He noted that such filters offer localized coverage, but they don’t necessarily protect the entire space. Filter noise, Siegel continued, can also lead some people to turn the units down or off.

Pierre Poilievre pledges to protect freedom of speech at universities

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

Although the university claims to be on top of maintaining filtration units, Siegel cautions that there may simply be too many units for the administration to maintain and monitor. “I’m going to guess we’re going to be seeing [unit] removal rates that are a factor of two or three less than the calculations suggest in a lot of places,” said Siegel.

U of T response In a statement to The Varsity, a U of T spokesperson affirmed that its ventilation and filtration measures “impact all areas of buildings including hallways, meeting rooms and common spaces” and that “all systems are regularly inspected and maintained according to system specifications and best practices.”

According to the U of T spokesperson, supplemental air purifiers are being used in classrooms that do not meet the six ACH threshold. The spokesperson added that the air purifiers were most recently inspected by a third-party expert in August.

The spokesperson explained that the upgrades to a building’s ventilation system are in part determined by the condition of the particular building: “For example, in heritage buildings, renovations and system changes may not be allowed.”

There are 86 heritage buildings on U of T campuses, only six of which are not located at the UTSG campus. The university works with the City of Toronto to ensure the preservation of these buildings and must consider a variety of guidelines when implementing any changes or alterations to these buildings.

The spokesperson concluded that, while the university has paused its mask mandate, students are encouraged to wear masks in crowded spaces and respect one another’s decision to do so. ­— With files from Syeda Maheen Zulfiqar.

diversity, and inclusion initiatives at the university.

Peterson has long been a controversial figure at U of T. In a series of YouTube videos posted in 2016, Peterson spoke out against Bill C-16, an amendment to the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) that included gender expression and gender identity as protected rights under the CHRA. Peterson suggested that the inclusion of gender expression and gender identity in the CHRA obstructed free speech because it required individuals to use others’ preferred pronouns regardless of their decision to do so.

Despite Poilievre’s framing, U of T has repeatedly stressed its commitment to protecting freedom of speech.

U of T’s free speech policy is primarily outlined in two key documents: the “Statement of Institutional Purpose” and the “Statement on Freedom of Speech.” Both documents position academic freedom as one of U of T’s core mandates.

Academic freedom is further cemented in agreements between the university and the University of Toronto Faculty Association, which commit U of T to protect “the freedom [of faculty] to examine, question, teach, and learn… the right to investigate, speculate, and comment without reference to prescribed doctrine, as well as the right to criticize the University of Toronto and society at large.”

Moreover, a 2019 report, which was mandated by the government of Ontario and performed by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, found that U of T’s free speech policy complied with provincial regulations on free speech.

Proposed policy could impact universities’ federal funding elections on September 10.

The Varsity broke down Poilievre’s plans for the party’s preferred policy on education.

Pierre Poilievre.

COURTESY OF ANDRE FORGET/CC WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Jessie Schwalb Associate News Editor

Newly elected Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre has pledged to make federal grants for universities conditional on whether they uphold academic freedom and free speech on campus.

Poilievre suggested that universities have become averse to “discussion and debate,” leading to the resignations of “popular” professors like Jordan Peterson.

In February, members of the Conservative Party removed Erin O’Toole from his position as the leader of the Conservative Party. His caucus, a meeting of supporters or members, explained that they disagreed with his position on several issues including carbon tax and gun control, because his views did not comply with the principles that Conservatives initially campaigned with. Following O’Toole’s removal, Pierre Poilievre won the party’s leadership

Proposed policy This past June, Poilievre suggested that universities have become “places where gatekeepers and a loud minority silence students and faculty.”

In the press release, Poilievre explained that he believes that there have been instances in which individuals were deplatformed or student groups were pushed to cancel events “just because of their different viewpoint.”

In Poilievre’s proposed system, federal funding would depend on whether universities pledge to uphold section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects freedom of speech.

The press release announcing his policy specified that universities must also “defend [Charter freedoms] when they are attacked, including by other students and faculty.”

However, Poilievre specified that the policy would not defend hate speech, which is not protected by the Charter.

The other portion of Poilievre’s plan includes appointing a former judge as free speech guardian,

who would monitor a university’s compliance with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and investigate allegations of censorship. Through this position, the guardian would be able to recommend reductions in federal grants to universities that the guardian believes are failing to protect free speech.

Professors across Canada have expressed disdain with Poilievre’s proposed policy, arguing that it harms academic freedom instead of addressing the problems that faculty face.

“The danger of trying to dictate to universities what free expression they should or should not allow is [that] we suddenly get into a situation where governments are telling institutions what they should protect, and perhaps what they shouldn’t protect,” said David Robinson, president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, in a statement to PressProgress.

U of T and freedom of speech Although he didn’t mention U of T by name, Poilievre’s announcement framed former U of T psychology professor Jordan Peterson’s resignation as a symptom of the very problem he’d like to address.

Peterson retired from his tenured position at U of T in January 2022, citing concerns with equity,

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UTM presents fall enrolment report at governance meetings UTM New Science Building and Student Services Hub construction to be completed in 2023 Lexey Burns Deputy News Editor

The UTM Academic Affairs and Campus Affairs Committees held their first meetings of the 2022–2023 academic year on September 12 and September 13, respectively.

At the meetings, UTM administration provided various presentations on the campus’ strategic priorities for the year, including updates on the construction of the New Science Building and a Student Services Hub in the Davis Building. Additionally, administration also presented UTM’s fall 2022 enrolment report and announced minor modifications to the undergraduate curriculum at UTM. Enrolment report Amrita Daniere — interim vice-principal, academic and dean — presented UTM’s fall 2022 enrolment report at the Campus Affairs Committee meeting.

According to the presentation, UTM admitted 2,697 new domestic and 785 new international students for the fall 2022 semester. The campus also saw the reenrolment of 11,566 students, with 8,064 domestic and 3,502 international students returning this month.

While the campus saw a total of 3,482 newly admitted students in fall 2022, it has experienced a drop in new enrolments since fall 2021.

In fall 2021, the campus experienced a 26.4 per cent rise in new enrolments, with the number of newly enrolled students increasing from 3,539 in fall 2020 to 4,473 in fall 2021.

Campus and administrative goals for 2022–2023 UTM Chief Administrative Officer Deborah Brown debriefed members of the Campus Affairs Committee on UTM’s ongoing capital projects and infrastructural improvements. Brown also shared the campus’ efforts to alleviate the

pressure of returning to in-person learning.

UTM’s capital projects for the 2022–2023 academic year include the completion of the New Science Building in spring 2023 and the Student Services Hub in summer 2023. Additionally, UTM will begin planning the new F2 Building and a new student residence.

During the meeting, one committee member wondered whether the New Science Building would be able to accommodate room bookings for PhD committees or would instead be largely reserved for classes.

Brown said, “It shouldn’t be either the loudest voice in the room or a happenstance for somebody to be able to book space or to get new space. And that’s why [we have] the Space Committee.” Brown explained that the Space Committee is responsible for ensuring students’ space needs are met; the committee is informed by input from the campus community and plans out space allocation for the coming semester based on this input.

Another committee member asked whether the new student residence would accommodate on-campus housing for UTM faculty as well.

UTM Principal Alexandra Gillespie responded, “Faculty housing is one of the issues I’d really like to grapple with this year.” Gillespie doesn’t believe that faculty housing could be appropriately accommodated with student life in residence, but she did confirm that UTM plans on contacting real estate agents in the area to determine the best avenues of providing faculty housing on campus.

Mark Overton — dean of student affairs and assistant principal, student services — also expanded on some of the key portfolio challenges and goals for the upcoming academic year.

According to Overton, UTM is currently preparing for the fall 2023 opening of the new Student Services Hub in the Davis Building, which has been upgraded to include a variety of services including The First Stop service. The

First Stop service will specialize in educating students on course selection and career exploration, study permit renewal advising, and personal counselling on coping with parental influence.

Balanced budget Brown also gave a presentation on how UTM’s balanced budget for the next five years will be created.

“The budget will reflect that UTM still needs to grow,” explained Brown.

“We need to continue to develop our campus infrastructure and employ new staff and faculty.

We need to advance the priorities of the UTM strategic framework, and we need to deliver for our students and communities an experience that matches U of T’s global reputation for excellence,” Brown continued.

To facilitate the creation of the budget, a Budget Planning Committee was established this year. The committee will take into account the interests and needs of various groups at UTM and will meet monthly to complete the budget proposal.

Academic supports Daniere introduced a plan to “revamp” academic advising services at UTM. In the presentation, Daniere explained that UTM will introduce a dedicated unit that specializes in advising first-year students. She suggested that mandatory advising services for first-year students might help prevent “a lot of confused students [that will] remain confused for the first year or two.”

Daniere explained that a lot of the confusion comes with the acceptances in programs of study, since “[students] arrive thinking they’re going to do one thing, and for a variety of reasons, are not able to do it.”

She said that UTM needs to provide these first-year students with “better options” because UTM admits a lot of students into popular pro-

grams, which are “oversubscribed.” Enrolment in such programs then inhibits the students from planning out their second year and being admitted to their desired program “because of the competitive nature of the program and the limited number of spaces.”

Daniere also expressed concern about the “lack of bonding and lack of closeness in the community.” To address this issue, UTM has mandated a writing course that is now available to half of the first-year undergraduates.

The writing course is expected to have smaller, more tight-knit classes of between 25 to 30 students.

Minor changes to UTM curriculum Tracey Bowen — vice-dean, teaching and learning — proposed various curriculum changes to the committee.

The Humanities Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committee report made changes to three programs and 21 courses. As part of these changes, eight new courses will be added to the Humanities program by 2023–2024.

The Sciences Divisional Undergraduate Curriculum Committee included 22 program changes and 29 course changes, including the addition of a new course and 28 minor modifications to existing courses.

In the Social Sciences program, there were 52 course changes across seven programs, 19 of which were new courses and 18 of which were course retirements.

There were 19 new course proposals exclusively from the Department of Political Science because the department has undertaken a larger curriculum renewal project. The department is retiring many full-year courses in favour of new half-credit courses.

Across the curriculums of humanities, sciences, and social sciences, the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy has proposed three new special topic courses — one at each of the 200-, 300-, and 400-levels.

Terry Fox Run returns in person at locations across Toronto Terry Fox mural on Rehabilitation Sciences Building to be completed this fall Beatriz Silva Associate News Editor

On September 18, the annual Terry Fox Run, which is a marathon to raise funds for cancer research, returned in person at a number of Toronto locations. The event is named after Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete and an advocate for cancer research. The University of Toronto Terry Fox Run was still held virtually this year, but has raised over $4,000 as of September 18.

This fall, U of T’s Rehabilitation Sciences Building will also be adorned with a mural honouring Fox, according to a statement from a U of T spokesperson.

Fox and his legacy Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete who lost his right leg to cancer at the age of 18. While undergoing treatment, he witnessed the suffering of other cancer patients and decided to do something to support them. In April 1980, Fox began his Marathon of Hope, in which he planned to run across the country on his artificial leg to raise money for cancer research and raise awareness of the disease in the process.

Fox ran about 42 kilometres per day, across the provinces of Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia. His journey raised about $10 million for cancer research.

In September 1980, the cancer spread to his lungs, and Fox was forced to stop running.

He passed away at the age of 22, on June 28, 1981 in New Westminster.

The Terry Fox Foundation, overseen by Fox’s

family, organizes an annual Terry Fox Run to raise funds for cancer research. The foundation has raised more than $800 million over the years.

For Jim Woodgett, the president and scientific director of the Terry Fox Institute and a professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at U of T, the Terry Fox Run is an inspirational event that represents “the country saying to Terry, ‘Thank you for bringing us together and showing us what we, as a country, can do when we’re united.’ ” According to Woodgett, the run also materially helps advance cancer research. The Terry Fox Institute receives donations from Terry Fox Runs, which are redirected to selected cancer research programs. The institute also conducts research through a series of cancer research centres across Canada, which are supported by the federal government and donors.

Rehabilitation Sciences Building mural The artwork is a collaboration between the university, the City of Toronto, and the Legacy Art Project, featuring a design by multidisciplinary artist Que Rock and Canadian graffiti artist Alexander Bacon. The design was selected by a committee that included Fox’s brother and niece.

The mural that will grace the side of the Rehabilitation Sciences Building is currently being finalized for its official launch this fall. It portrays Terry Fox running on his artificial leg, while waving. Further down is another image of him, standing in front of an audience that looks up at him admiringly.

In a statement on the City of Toronto’s web-

site, Bacon wrote that the art focuses on Fox’s artificial leg “as a symbol of his achievement.”

He explained that the mural was inspired by the athlete’s bravery, and that he hopes the artwork will continue Fox’s legacy.

The Rehabilitation Sciences building was chosen to host the mural because it lies along the path Terry Fox took when he crossed Nathan Phillips Square in 1980. It is also an active site for cancer research.

“We hope this artwork will both celebrate Terry Fox’s run down University Avenue as part of his Marathon of Hope in 1980 and remind us all of what a determined individual can achieve as we go about our lives,” Woodgett wrote in an email to The Varsity.

The new Terry Fox mural on U of T’s Rehabilitation Sciences Building.

VURJEET MADAN/THEVARSITY

thevarsity.ca/section/news

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

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Information Technology Services launches Hybrid Hub Hybrid Hub web page outlines tips, resources for hybrid work Selia Sanchez Associate News Editor

U of T’s Information Technology Services (ITS) recently launched the Hybrid Hub, a web page with faculty and staff oriented information on available services and supports for hybrid work. Hybrid work involves both in-person and remote components.

The purpose of the Hybrid Hub is to provide the necessary support for effective hybrid work by informing the U of T community of services that are already available to them.

The decision to return to in-person learning for the 2022 winter semester received significant backlash from the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA), students, and professors. Following the announcement, a number of students used social media to demand more hybrid learning options from the university.

For the remaining winter semester, some professors adopted a hybrid teaching model that attempted to accommodate students’ demands for a safe learning environment as well as the university’s decision to return to in-person course instruction.

However, many members of the U of T community expressed technological and pedagogical concerns with the shift to hybrid teaching.

In a previous statement to The Varsity, Terezia Zorić, president of the UTFA, had pointed out the additional workload an instructor would take on by facilitating hybrid courses. She added that a professor might lack the necessary resources to accommodate both virtual and inperson classes. The task of acquiring the skills and resources necessary to facilitate effective

hybrid learning would increase their workload.

The Hybrid Hub attempts to alleviate this problem by compiling all available resources onto one web page.

The Hybrid Hub outlines technological support for running efficient hybrid meetings as well. The web page outlines AV guidelines for meeting rooms, video conferencing solutions, and tips for facilitating a hybrid meeting.

The platform lists the Connect+Learn information sessions as a resource. Enterprise Applications and Solutions Integration (EASI) — part of ITS and responsible for managing U of T’s computer systems — offers these Connect+Learn sessions to help staff and faculty effectively organize hybrid meetings. The sessions cover methods and equipment for improving engagement and room setup. Additionally, the sessions provide training for the online platforms Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint, as well as for VPN technology.

On the web page, ITS also includes EASI’s “Return to Workplace” report, which provides the university with recommendations on how to facilitate a gradual return to campus through the implementation of hybrid work elements.

EASI released the report in December 2021, in anticipation of the university’s plans to increase in-person activities in February 2022.

The Hub also addresses the importance of information security when working in a remote or hybrid environment. The web page provides a set of information security guidelines to ensure online safety, as well as tips to maintain security and privacy for Microsoft 365.

In a statement to The Varsity, Franco Taverna, an associate professor in the Human Bi-

Hybrid resources to aid students returning in person.

DINA DONG/THEVARSITY

ology Program, outlined the benefits of online learning: “Most of us have gotten used to holding certain things online (like meetings, or advising) which work very well and are great for convenience and accessibility.” He continued, “It is always nice to meet students in person, but I have never in my career had as many meetings with so many students these past 2 years… and that is a great thing.”

Yet Taverna ultimately considers hybrid learning a challenge, explaining that “[students] online during the session don’t have as good an experience [as those in-person].”

“It is easy to simply broadcast lectures online with something like Zoom — but it is very difficult to moderate good engagement with the online students when you are in classroom,” wrote Taverna.

Sherri Helwig, chair of the UTFA’s Teaching Stream Committee, also shared her perspective on hybrid teaching in a statement to The Varsity.

Helwig noted that “resources available to faculty and librarians are not the same across the university” and “different learning environments… pedagogical approaches, and learning

outcomes can require very different resources.”

She further explained that “online resources that inform hybrid teaching can certainly be beneficial, but they are only one part of a bigger and more complex puzzle.” Helwig suggested that it would likely be quite challenging for professors to design each class in a manner that allows sufficient engagement for audiences in different types of settings. Depending on the faculty member, the appropriate technology and resources to facilitate a hybrid course may not be accessible.

According to Helwig, the UTFA believes that “faculty members should be able to make decisions about the most appropriate mode of delivery for the courses they are teaching.” However, the association does not believe that this is currently the case at U of T. When asked about the Hybrid Hub, she noted that the site seems to focus on providing resources relevant to staff, rather than faculty or librarians. She explained that more local resources such as “information from UTSC’s Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) or UTM’s Teaching and Learning Collaboration (TLC)” could be valuable additions to the web page.

U of T hosts in-person Canadian Animal Law Conference Executive director discusses animal rights, ways for students to get involved Selia Sanchez Associate News Editor

The fourth annual Canadian Animal Law Conference took place at U of T from September 16 to September 18. Animal Justice, a non-profit animal rights advocacy group in Canada, organizes the conference each year. At the event, the nonprofit seeks to facilitate various presentations and legal discussions on animal rights and advocacy between leading legal scholars in the field.

In 2020, the conference was supposed to be hosted at U of T, but Animal Justice shifted it to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As U of T and the province of Ontario eased their COVID-19 restrictions, the conference returned to its initial in-person delivery and to U of T. In an interview with The Varsity, Animal Justice Executive Director Camille Labchuk discussed the organization’s work in animal rights advocacy, the objectives of the conference, and opportunities for student involvement. Labchuk also spoke about the organization’s relationship with the U of T Faculty of Law.

Camille Labchuk with a turkey.

COURTESY OF CAMILLE LABCHUK VIA INSTAGRAM

Animal Justice As the only national animal law advocacy group in Canada, the primary goal of Animal Justice is improving legal protection for animals in Canada.

Labchuk believes that “the laws in the books for animals in Canada are extremely outdated and far behind many other developed countries.”

To address this, Animal Justice attempts to provide effective legal representation for animals and pursues a revitalization of Canada’s animal protection laws.

In addition to Animal Justice’s work in formulating new laws on animal protection and lobbying for the laws’ implementation, the group also works to ensure that these protective laws, once implemented, are being enforced in Canada. The group also provides education programs and support for animal rights-focused clubs at law schools across the country.

Moreover, the group often collaborates with U of T. Labchuk remarked that U of T is “one of the leading centres for animal law” in Canada and, therefore, an important source of scholarly research into animal law.

The relationship between Animal Justice and the U of T Faculty of Law is partly facilitated by Angela Fernandez’s initiatives in animal law and involvement with Animal Justice. Fernandez is a professor at the Faculty of Law, whose research focuses on animal law.

Canadian Animal Law Conference The 2022 conference is the fourth conference that Animal Justice has conducted and the first time it has been held at U of T. Through the conference, the group aims to facilitate a weekend of collaboration and learning by inviting individuals from various disciplines and academic backgrounds to consider animal law in Canada.

Additionally, Animal Justice organizes the conference with hopes of providing students with an opportunity to learn about animal law.

Labchuk explained that “interest in animal law has just exploded in recent years” and the organization has “seen this growth of animal law clubs right across the country.”

Labchuk pointed out that “people are increasingly engaging with animals” and “[the lives of animals] cut across every aspect of [one’s daily life].” She specifically mentioned the production of clothes and the consumption of food as evidence of the integral role of animals in daily life.

Although Labchuk believes that many people support the idea of providing animals with better legal protection, a prominent problem still persists: “Our laws still don’t match up with societal expectations [of animal rights protection].”

Labchuk explained that it is up to the animal rights advocates to bridge this gap. She commented that “the animal law movement really has a big role in explaining [why animal-rights laws remain insufficient], and trying to convince politicians and even corporate actors to do better.”

U of T Faculty of Law Labchuk also discussed her connection to the U of T Faculty of Law. In 2011, U of T awarded Labchuk with a fellowship grant to join Animal Justice. Through her work at Animal Justice during her time at U of T, Labchuk was given many opportunities to conduct research in the animal law field. Labchuk also recalled working on projects to prevent animals from being exploited in experimental research.

Labchuk graduated from the U of T Faculty of Law in 2012. She explained that the reason she had chosen the school was due to the established history of animal law at U of T. “One great thing about U of T is that the university has always been really supportive of ani-

mal law,” said Labchuk. She believes that U of T has been so well integrated into the animal rights movement in Canada that “most of the people involved in animal law… have gone through U of T at some point.”

Student opportunities On the topic of increasing student engagement with the organization, Labchuk advised students interested in animal law to start “small” and “locally.” She recommended that students join existing Animal Justice clubs at any Canadian university and explained that the group provides support to these clubs through grants of up to $500 per year.

The Animal Justice club at U of T provides members with a variety of engagement opportunities in the field of animal law, including annual networking events, opportunities for case work experience, and events with guest speakers from the field.

Animal Justice also offers various opportunities for participation to students pursuing law degrees at Canadian universities. During the summer, Animal Justice has numerous paid employment positions suitable for students.

Throughout the academic year, the group organizes the “Pro Bono Students Canada” program, which aids students interested in animal law by matching them to volunteer positions within existing animal rights organizations in Canada.

Labchuk encouraged people to volunteer for any animal protection group, emphasizing that even an individual “can do quite a lot of important work.” Labchuk affirmed that participating in animal rights campaigns, raising awareness of animal rights issues, or even convincing postsecondary schools to increase plant-based food offerings on campus, are all methods that constitute important work in the pursuit of effective animal rights law in Canada.

Editorial

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

What now? U of T, COVID, and the year ahead With the return to in-person learning, U of T needs to be more transparent about its COVID-19 plan The Varsity Editorial Board

This September, for the first time since the 2019–2020 academic year, U of T’s three campuses have been alive with activity. The libraries are crowded and the food truck lines are long. It’s a wonderful sight to see.

Two weeks ago, at the University of Toronto Students’ Union’s clubs fair, we were among the dozens of clubs tabling along Devonshire Place. Some of the students passing through were wide-eyed first years in search of a community on campus; others were upper years, saying “hi” to classmates that they’d only met online. After two years of virtual orientations and Zoom clubs fairs, the opportunity to share that afternoon with over 10,000 other students was precious.

U of T students — including those of us at The Varsity — are experiencing a long-awaited return to full participation in university life. That return is certainly something to celebrate.

But this September also marks the first school year since the beginning of the pandemic in which U of T is not requiring community members to wear a mask in public spaces. The university, which still officially remains a “mask-friendly” environment, lifted its mask mandate on July 1 — not long after suspending other protective measures like UCheck and vaccination requirements. In April, our editorial board argued that “the university acknowledges the effectiveness of these policies and has the infrastructure to continue them, but is still removing them nonetheless.”

We’re not here to comment on the end of the mask mandate. We’ve already done that.

Now, we’re calling for more transparency from U of T. The head of the World Health Organization may believe that the end of the COVID-19 global pandemic is “in sight,” but according to Colin Furness of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Canada’s lack of COVID-19 data makes it difficult to assess the situation. The same is true at U of T: the absence of both broad regulations and up-to-date information has obscured the COVID situation on campus.

That matters because, as this institution takes back its pandemic safety measures, it is passing the responsibility of ensuring COVID safety to community members. All of us — students, staff and faculty alike — are now tasked with navigating a full return to in-person activities with very little information. The state of the pandemic has changed a lot in the past year, which means we’re all going to be reevaluating what feels

safe for us. But that means it’s more important than ever that U of T give us the information required to make those decisions properly for ourselves.

What’s U of T’s COVID-19 plan?

U of T hasn’t left us completely in the dark about its COVID-19 plan. In fact, to address the risk that COVID-19 still poses to the return to in-person campus life, the university has implemented and publicized a multi-part COVID-19 safety plan.

The primary line of defence that U of T is pushing in its safety plan is the adapted ventilation system. In anticipation of the return to in-person learning last year, the university installed MERV-13 filters, which remove 85 per cent of COVID-19 particles from the air, in centralized Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) units across its campuses. U of T has specifically emphasized increased ventilation in classrooms, where it says that it aims to update its ventilation systems to match the standard used in health-care settings.

According to the Facilities & Services website, U of T has installed centralized ventilation in all buildings at UTSC and UTM. At UTSG, U of T has not yet installed any centralized ventilation in 23 out of 107 buildings listed on the webpage — not including any buildings associated with the federated colleges.

Still, the details of how this system is maintained remain shrouded in mystery. On its Facilities and Services page, U of T writes that it “regularly [maintains] HVAC systems on all [its] campuses.” This vague statement lacks specific standards that people could use to hold U of T accountable.

U of T could have included specific details of HVAC operations and maintenance in its COVID-19 statements. For instance, York University’s Building Automation System sends email alerts to on-call and supervisory staff when an air handler stops functioning properly, triggering an immediate remote fix or an on-site visit.

That information is available on York’s Facilities Services website, along with information about all of its ventilation systems and how they are used.

Our university could make details like these easier to access

and read — but it hasn’t. Now that we’ve begun a school year where students are responsible for their own risk assessment, it’s more important than ever that U of T is clear about what it’s doing.

What else are we missing?

U of T’s previous track record of handling COVID-19 indicates that the university may be illequipped to deal with a full return to in-person learning. Especially now that the mask mandate has been lifted, the university is missing important parts of its pandemic management toolkit.

For one, losing the mask mandate doesn’t have to mean losing masking guidelines. Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) made a similar decision to U of T’s by suspending its mask mandate starting June 1. Crucially, however, TMU has continued to provide students and faculty with detailed and readable recommendations about when and where it’s most useful to wear a mask. In contrast, U of T has simply stated that masking is “strongly encouraged” in crowded indoor spaces, and asks students to “respect each other’s decisions, comfort levels, and health needs.”

There’s also the lack of COVID-19 tracking information. On January 3, Toronto Public Health and Peel Public Health began prioritizing case and contact management for only the highest-risk settings. As a result, U of T stopped receiving official Public Health notifications of positive COVID-19 cases on campus, so it paused reporting on its COVID-19 case tracking dashboard.

But U of T could still inform students about case counts on campus by setting up its own tracking systems. For example, the University of Guelph (U of G) requires students and employees to fill out a form to inform the university when they have symptoms of COVID-19.

In addition, since October 2020, researchers at U of G have been testing wastewater from on-campus residences for RNA fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This process gives U of G information on the spread of the virus before its community members show symptoms. According to U of T’s website, the university did at one point test wastewater

from large student residences, but phased out the practice in May 2022.

We’ve heard scattered reports within our own social circles of COVID-19 cropping up among first years since orientation. We know that there are contact tracing systems at some residences at U of T. But there’s no centralized information on whether those systems are universal; plus, there’s no way to know how much COVID is actually spreading unless the university becomes more transparent and proactive about reporting the COVID-19 case count on campus.

What it all comes down to is that we’re not necessarily asking that U of T implement any of these specific safety measures. We simply want more from our university — more communication, more transparency, more data, and more explicit commitments to keeping everyone safe.

Looking forward For the last two years, The Varsity has kept the student body up to date on the COVID-19 situation at U of T, including the mask mandate and the transition to online learning. We’d like to be able to continue doing that. As students, we’ve all got different factors to weigh when making decisions about COVID-19. Some students are still immunocompromised, living in multi-generational households, or worried about Long COVID. To make health decisions as university students in 2022, we’re going to need full transparency from the university.

Here at The Varsity, we have decided not to lift our office mask requirement. In the early days of the pandemic, we followed U of T’s lead; now, U of T may have ended many of its safety measures, but we have chosen to continue prioritizing community care.

It’s difficult for student leaders to make decisions like these — whether to keep mask mandates, whether it’s safe to hold large gatherings — in the absence of reliable, up-to-date information. But we still have to try; as we come out of a global pandemic, we don’t have the option to ignore our responsibilities to the health and safety of our community.

With that in mind, the least U of T can do for all of us is give us as much information as it can about COVID-19 on campus, so that as we return to campus, we can make informed decisions about our safety.

The Varsity’s editorial board is elected by the masthead at the beginning of each semester.

JOSEPH DONATO/THEVARSITY

Comment

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/comment comment@thevarsity.ca

The Queen’s Queen s Death is a moment of great sorrow Over her 70-year reign, the Queen had a profound impact on Canada Logan Liut Varsity Contributor

On September 8, the second Elizabethan era came to an end. The death of the remarkable woman who served as Canada’s Queen for over 70 years, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is at the same time long-expected and shocking. There’s no question that her reign left a mark on the modern history of this country, from her 22 separate Royal homecomings to her support of Canadian prime ministers and many charitable causes. Above all, she was involved in some of the greatest moments of Canadian national history, especially when she proclaimed the repatriated Canadian Constitution on Parliament Hill in 1982.

Her presence within a host of communities and on diverse

There’s no question that the reign of Queen Elizabeth II left a mark on the modern history of Canada.

COURTESY OF JULIAN CALDER/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

occasions made each more important and dignified, from simple commemorative events in small-town Canada to monumental undertakings like the opening of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Twelve prime ministers served under the Queen, but most remarkably, almost half of Canada’s modern history — beginning in the latter half of the twenty-first century — has passed during her service to our country, and most Canadians today have known no other monarch.

The Queen was no stranger to profound change, as the British Empire came to an end during her reign, and a post-colonial world rose. As British rhetoric and its views of the then-colonies evolved, so did the terms and tone that the monarchy under our late Queen used toward them. Government structures evolved and changed both here in Canada and abroad, taking a step back from their colonial beginnings, or changing entirely.

During her reign, the Queen looked to the promise of an equal Commonwealth of Nations, of which she was head, not by mandate, but by choice of the individual members. King Charles III, the new King, by consent of each of the Commonwealth nations, continues in her footsteps as Head. Citizens of 56 independent countries are today Commonwealth citizens, from countries as diverse as Malaysia, Malta, India, Australia, Tonga, and South Africa.

She reigned as a true model of a constitutional monarch: an apolitical figure, never expressing partisan preferences, but instead offering words of encouragement or unity to her public when they needed it most. This congenial nature she exhibited most famously at her annual Christmas message, which millions of Canadians and others around the world tuned into. Her encouraging nature was also evident

The competitive and restrictive POSt system has consequences The POSt system contributes to rising mental health issues and education inaccessibility Sarah Stern Varsity Contributor

When I declared my major in English at the end of my first year at U of T, my friends, family, and former teachers were not surprised. I collect Penguin Classics, love to write, and have parents who met while completing their own English literature Master of Arts at U of T. I imagine that I would have enjoyed studying any area within the humanities, but if I had been turned away from the English department, I would have been devastated.

Open enrolment programs — such as the English program — should be a standard at U of T. In my first year, I could afford to take a break from my studies for one evening. However, students whose academic goal was to pursue competitive programs, such as a Computer Science Specialist or a Psychology Major, studied knowing that despite their passion, devotion, and acceptance into U of T, they could be denied from the program they wished to study.

For students that have just completed their first year, open enrolment programs admit any applicant who has completed four full-course equivalents, while limited enrolment programs only accept students who achieve competitive grades for specific prerequisites or write a formal application.

Many limited programs should indeed require course prerequisites, since foundational course

content is necessary for students to prepare themselves for the upper-year courses in these programs. However, mandating target grades — without even guaranteeing acceptance — places incredible stress on students.

Mental health The competition that results from limited enrolment programs encourages first-year students to prioritize academic success over their physical and mental well-being. The Psychology Specialist program, for instance, asks that first-year students achieve a minimum of 80 per cent in their first-year psychology course, but even this grade does not guarantee admission into the program.

When you consider the life changes a first-year university student experiences, meeting minimum grade requirements is hard enough to attain, but the added stress of competing for a spot in a competitive program is unimaginable. Due to the worry of whether they will get into their program of choice, many first-year students study so assiduously that they often sacrifice developing relationships and having other first-year experiences that are crucial to one’s mental health.

Minimum grades restricting program admission are not unreasonable, as they motivate firstyear students to perform better. However, it is discouraging for students that meet these grade requirements and still face rejection. The fear of this rejection not only encourages the toxic productivity culture at U of T, but it also fosters poor

in her message during the COVID-19 pandemic. The very last official act of self-giving she performed during her life was for Canada; just hours before her death, the Queen sent a message of concern to Saskatchewan residents in the wake of the recent horrific stabbings at James Smith Cree Nation and across the province.

A little closer to home, the mark of such a monumental reign can still be felt. The Queen visited Toronto seven times and visited U of T four times in 1951, 1973, 2002, and 2010.

The University of Toronto is home to one of the few Royal Chapels in this country, found inside Massey College on Devonshire Place.

Granted by special permission of Her late Majesty on National Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2017, the Chapel Royal — known as Gi-ChiTwaa Gimaa Kwe Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Amik, which means “The Queen’s Anishinaabek Sacred Place” — stands as one testament to the Queen’s dedication to joining Canadians, settler and non-settler, on the journey to reconciliation. A Truth and Reconciliation call to action inspired the designation of this chapel as a Royal Chapel. The Missisauguas of the New Credit First Nation supported this designation.

Of course, the legacy of British colonialism still looms over Canada’s history. There are many historical wrongs that need to be rectified and openly discussed, especially the relationship between Indigenous Canadians and the government, as our Governor General Mary Simon, the first Indigenous person to occupy that high office, recently discussed with the BBC. However, as the Governor General recently said, the installation of the new King allows for a “renewed beginning.”

The relationship between the Crown and

Indigenous people is complex and most definitely needs amelioration. However, when the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Canada in 2016, the former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Perry Bellegarde, affirmed that Indigenous people “hold the Crown and the monarchy in high regard” on a nation-to-nation basis. Reconciliation will continue to be the work of both the new King and the governments that we elect.

I believe that the late Queen left an indelible mark on us all. When I reflect on her 70-year reign, she remained a stabilizing force and a constant comfort for millions of Canadians and billions around the world, and, in joy or in sorrow, fulfilled her oath that she made on her 21st birthday in 1947: that she would serve her whole life in our service, whether her life be long or short. If anyone was an example of duty, constancy, and self-sacrifice, the late Queen was.

We now turn to a new age, and I believe that the King has won his spurs on a host of issues, especially environmental issues. As an example, he was mentioning climate change as an urgent issue as far back as 2007. As King, I see his duty now is to remind us that what we all agree upon are much greater than the things that divide us as a nation and as a Commonwealth of nations, a good lesson for our unsettling times. Despite the new successor to the throne, I still believe that the Canadian Crown, unlike our Queen, remains eternal.

It just now sits on the head of a new monarch: King Charles III of Canada.

mental health among students.

An academic program should have a reasonable threshold that guarantees acceptance when met, and these thresholds should be used to prepare students, not demotivate them.

U of T is recognized as one of the foremost universities in the world, but one of the most cited critiques of U of T surrounds the mental health crisis among students. In 2019, U of T students advocated for barriers on top of the Bahen Centre for Information Technology after a third student died by suicide in the building within two years. Later that year, the Computer Science Department reevaluated the admission criteria for its program due to mental health concerns for its students.

sibility of education and suggests that only the highest achievers deserve to pursue their fields of interest. It is discouraging that the program of study (POSt) system at U of T can deny dedicated students who have been admitted into U of T and who are prepared to spend thousands of dollars on a degree.

I imagine most departments would argue that rejection is normal, and that students rejected from their first choice of programs are underqualified, but these beliefs don’t belong at an academic institution. It goes without saying that every student at U of T is working hard to stay here; after all, one couldn’t be at U of T without passion, dedication, and intelligence. If an admitted student at U of T is prepared to learn, I believe U of T is doing a disservice in denying them that opportunity.

Over-restrictions on education Higher education is inaccessible to many students for financial, physical, or mental reasons.

Restricting programs contributes to the inacces-

Logan Liut is a second year ethics, society, & law and European affairs student at Victoria College. He helps lead the Monarchist League of Canada on a national level.

Sarah Stern is a third-year student majoring in English and European affairs at Victoria College.

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY

Science

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/science science@thevarsity.ca

NASA's new shining star: the James Webb Space Telescope Out-of-this-world discoveries help us visualize the universe Simran Kaur Varsity Staff

Launched in December 2021 as a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest optical telescope in space.

NASA hopes the telescope will eventually look through the atmospheres of exoplanets, detect some of the earliest galaxies in the universe, and explore objects that are too small or too faint to be detected by the previously launched Hubble Space Telescope. The difference between the JWST and Hubble is that the JWST will largely use infrared resolution to look at the universe, whereas Hubble primarily used optical and ultraviolet resolutions.

At its current location of the Second Lagrange Point, L2 — nearly one million miles away from Earth — the telescope is orbiting the Sun at an ideal location that allows it to have a wide view of the universe, while also allowing it to maintain the cool temperature that its optics and scientific instruments require.

Around six months after its launch, NASA released five images that were taken by the JWST over time. One of the most popular photos is of SMACS 0723, a galaxy cluster that shows some of the smallest astronomical objects ever seen. This image, also known as Webb’s First Deep Field, was made by the scientists at NASA by combining images taken by the JWST at different infrared wavelengths over a period of 12.5 hours. The magnificent result allows us to see how the galaxy cluster would have looked

Images from NASA’s James Webb telescope are beautifully inspiring COURTESY OF JAMES WEBB/CCFLICKR

A first year’s guide to surviving STEM courses Tips and tricks for first-year courses, from biology to mathematics Andrea Zhao Design Editor

Anxious about being a first year STEM student? Don’t know the difference between a proton and a prokaryote and worried that it’s now too late to ask? Fear no more — The Varsity’s STEM survival guide has tips or tricks to guide you through it.

General advice First, for some general advice.

Don’t fall into the trap of skipping classes. Things move quickly, and missing just a couple hours can make a difference. When in class, take notes on important topics — preferably by hand, as using this method means you’re more likely to retain information.

Make sure to also clear up any confusion as soon as possible. Future lessons will build on your understanding of earlier material, so make good use of office hours and tutorials to ask questions to your instructors and teaching assistants. When you receive feedback on previous assignments, incorporate it into your work in the future.

To organize it all, it helps to use a calendar system like Google Calendars or Notion to keep on top of deadlines and make plans for projects and exams in advance so you’re not scrambling at the last minute. Find a study method that works for you, whether that’s summary sheets or flashcards, and do a little bit every day.

Biology For first-year students in the life sciences at U of T, BIO120 — Adaptation and Biodiversity and BIO130 — Molecular and Cell Biology are a rite of passage. These courses provide foundations in ecology, evolutionary biology, and cell biology. Personally, I found that the readings for these cours-

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es provide a deeper understanding of the course material, as they demonstrate how concepts covered in class are applied to research.

There are also a fair number of terms to memorize, so get those flashcards ready. Apps like Quizlet or Anki work well, but physical flashcards are great too. My advice would be to make flashcards after each lecture and revise them periodically.

Chemistry There are two streams of first-year chemistry courses: the combination CHM135 — Chemistry: Physical Principles and CHM136 — Introductory

Organic Chemistry I for life sciences students or the year-long CHM151 — Chemistry: The Molecular Science, a theoretical course intended for those pursuing a chemistry program. With classes back in person, laboratory work is crucial for success in chemistry,

so make sure to prepare well and pay attention, particularly if you haven’t done experiments before. Personally, I found that practice questions help with the understanding of course material, as well as memorization of important ideas. You can find practice questions in the Old Exam Repository or the ASSU Past Test Library.

Physics First-year physics at U of T comes in two varieties: PHY131/132 — a more application-focused

around 4.6 billion years ago.

Along with this image, NASA also released images including data that display the atmospheric composition of WASP 96b, providing evidence of water on planets outside of our solar system, as well as the Southern Ring Nebula — an expanding gas cloud around a dying star that is located more than 2,000 light years away. Other images include those of Stephan’s Quintet, a group of galaxies found in the constellation Pegasus, and Carina’s Nebula in the southern constellation Carina.

While studying these objects, the researchers were able to use the telescope to learn more about the phases of stellar formation and the compositions of newly forming stars. Additionally, the initial detection of water in the transmission spectrum of WASP96b could lead to the study of other planetary systems and their compositions.

Recently, NASA has also released images of the Orion Nebula and the structures found inside of it, along with never-seen-before exoplanets such as HIP 65425-b, and Jupiter and its auroras, rings, and moons that have not previously been observed by Hubble.

Although these are just some of the images that have been released in the last few weeks, we can expect great discoveries in the field of astronomy thanks to the JWST. Yes, we did have Hubble in the past, and it has helped build a strong foundation to provide us with an idea of what is out there, but now with the JWST, we will be able to explore things never seen before while building on the information that we already have. stream — and PHY151/152 — a more theoretical stream meant for students intending on physics programs. In my experience, reviewing the more abstract parts of the course material by making summary notes and explaining them to other students helped me wrap my head around things, and doing lots of practice is useful for remembering how to apply formulas.

Mathematics When it comes to math, my advice is simple: practice. Several different math classes are offered in first year: the application-based MAT135/136 and the proofs-based MAT137 and MAT157. In my experience, the key to doing well in math is to understand and use concepts, so practice problems are essential. It’s one thing to think that you can understand an idea as it’s explained in a lecture or textbook, but another altogether to use it to independently solve problems.

Resources If you’re not sure how to study or have trouble managing your time, try reaching out to a learning strategist, who can help you create a custom study plan.

For collaborative learning and extra accountability, you can also join a Registered Study Group (RSG), which is a small group of up to eight people that meets regularly to work together. You’ll get a Co-Curricular Record credit for being part of an RSG, and you’ll have the chance to hopefully meet some new friends.

One final note At the end of the day, grades are just a number and university isn’t all about academics. Remember that one grade in first year won’t make or break anything, and that you can use setbacks as learning opportunities instead of indicators of abject failure. School can get busy and overwhelming, so make sure to also make time to take care of yourself.

Good luck on your journey at U of T! You got this!

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science@thevarsity.ca

SCIENCE

Could you control a computer with your mind?

How Neuralink’s implants could connect humans to technology in new ways Sahir Dhalla Associate Science Editor

Over the past several decades, neural prostheses and brain chips have shifted out of the realm of science fiction and become a legitimate possibility. In the early 2000s came the first demonstrations of real-time computer control by monkeys via neural prostheses, which rapidly developed to thought-controlled robotic arms in 2008. This control then shifted to humans within the next few years, allowing humans in trials to move robotic arms and carry out regular tasks on computers including opening and closing apps, texting, and even playing games. Until this point, however, most of the tests had been messy and filled with wires, making them impractical for wider applications.

What Neuralink has brought to the table is a lot of the same research, but entirely wireless and battery powered — something that could be implanted entirely into the brain. These chips work similarly to most methods of neuroelectrophysiological recording: they monitor certain patterns within neural pathways and correlate them to movements, which allows us to predict movements and use those pathways in studies.

The first demonstrations of these chips were done in pigs. The implants were able to accurately predict what the pigs were going to do based on the activation of their neurons. The data from these trials was then used to create experiments for monkeys. The rhesus macaque monkey, in particular, has been a staple for neurophysiological experiments. The Neuralink implant enabled these monkeys to play a virtual game of Pong, controlling where they wanted their paddles to go just by thinking of the movements.

Neuralink’s goal, though, has been to create implants that will be able to help disabled or paralyzed individuals regain control over their bodies, so how does this research help us attain that goal?

To understand this, it can be helpful to think of the nervous system as a collection of circuits, with different circuits controlling different actions, sensations, and cognitive capabilities. Paralysis and neurophysiological diseases often include damage to a component of the circuit, which prevents messages from being sent accurately to where they need to go.

The Neuralink chip would replace that damaged component.

It would understand signals coming toward a certain body part and output them as actions or movements. The trials we’ve seen so far focus on understanding that input, and creating an output that is outside the body, which is useful for brain-com-

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puter interfaces. However, when the chip is used to repair neurophysiological diseases, the output will be the action or movement the individual intended to carry out, provided nothing goes wrong.

We are at a strong tipping point for this technology, as Neuralink hopes to start human trials soon. Once such technology can help manage disabilities for those who require it, it is inevitable that there will be consumer demand for that kind of assistive technology.

One of the major concerns with Neuralink, and neural implants in general, is their upkeep and maintenance. This concern became a reality for many users of a similar prosthesis known as Argus I, made by Second Sight Medical Products.

Argus implants functioned to provide a sort of bionic vision for those who had lost it, allowing them to see and function as if they had regular vision. These implants were fully supported by the staff of Second Sight, and even received regular updates as the technology improved. However, in 2020, the company nearly went bankrupt and discontinued service for the Argus implants, leaving any implants that may get damaged in the future with no possibility of repair. For many Argus users, their implants still function, but they are worried that if those implants are damaged, there will be no way to repair their vision, short of waiting for another company to develop similar implants.

Another concern about these brain chips is an ethical one for people who question the future of this technology in for-profit companies. While Neuralink remains focused on providing care for disabled and paralyzed individuals at the moment, researchers have pointed out that such a “market is small [and] the devices are expensive.”

There would be a bigger market for more generalized brain-computer interfaces, which wouldn’t be all too bad, but its potential for data farming for targeted advertising appears to be more concerning. In recent years, large corporations such as Facebook and Google have peddled their services for free, but are silently tracking our data. If Neuralink’s chip is able to track literally every thought and action you carry out, data mining could potentially reach a whole new level of invasiveness and exploitation.

This technology also brings with it a whole host of questions from several fields. How is such a device going to combat hackers, for example?

Tesla’s self-driving cars have already seen security flaws and have resulted in deaths, so how catastrophic could a hacked implant be in an individual?

Some philosophical concerns also arise pertaining to where humanity ends and technology begins, and how many parts of a human could be replaced before they’re considered more machine than human.

Some of these questions are quite a while away from needing answers, but they are ones we might have to face sooner than we expect. This wondrous technology is still in its infancy, but it’s growing fast, as is its potential.

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Open your eyes, Hollywood Our media is riddled through with disability mysticism Catherine Dumé Varsity Contributor

Content warning: This article describes stereotyping, systemic aggression against people with disabilities, and antisemitic violence.

When was the last time you opened your eyes?

I’m not talking about the literal action; I’m talking about the metaphorical idea of having an epiphany. Perhaps it was when you were young and the facade of innocence was peeled away, revealing how ugly this world can be sometimes. Maybe it was the realization that the celebrity whom you idolized wasn’t a good person off screen. It could have even been the time when your family finally came to terms with its generational trauma, as the fictional Madrigal family did in the Disney film Encanto.

The last time my eyes opened was when I was half-heartedly scrolling through Instagram. I came across an article named “Peter Dinklage Slams Disney’s Snow White Remake.” My gut reaction was to groan with displeasure and roll my eyes excessively. Another remake? Seriously, Disney?

I could have left my reaction at that, but Dinklage’s photo reminded me that the famous Elf and Game of Thrones actor had dwarfism. I, being a disabled person, instantly understood his gripe with Disney’s decision to retell “Snow White.” My gut feeling was confirmed as I read Dinklage’s interview; he mentioned that Disney was “progressive in one way, [yet they’re] still making that… backward story about seven dwarves living in a cave together.” Dinklage also expressed that his advocacy for actors with dwarfism to portray non-stereotypical roles in Hollywood hadn’t been successful.

Dinklage’s comments may not have been a catalyst for change, but they opened my eyes

"Everyday media is laced with ableist messaging, and it consistently vilifies disabilities as being outside the norm." to the ugly truth surrounding Disney and most of the mainstream media. The truth is that everyday media is laced with ableist messaging, and it consistently vilifies disabilities as being outside the norm. The media wants us to see disabilities as something to fear, something to cure, and something to eradicate. They make this messaging clear by portraying people who have disabilities as nothing more than monsters, villains, mythical creatures, and individuals who don’t deserve a ‘happily ever after.’

This issue delves deeper than just good and bad representation in the media. The problem is about how society inherently treats the concept of disabilities with a negative connotation. This misconception is first taught to children in the form of fairy tales and is then reinforced through the modern films we watch as adults, subconsciously influencing how we treat people with disabilities in the real world.

“Dis-ability”: The etymology of the negative connotation According to the study of etymology, the word “disability” can be further broken into two parts: “dis” and “able.” These smaller words can easily translate into meaning “to do the opposite of” and “able,” respectively — as in not able to see, hear, walk, et cetera.

It’s only after splitting the original word up that one can realize that the prefix “dis” has a negative connotation. It is used in other words to demonstrate the opposite of the positive.

Other examples of words containing this prefix include “dishonest,” “disobey,” and “disagree.” Do you see the pattern?

Since the word has a negative prefix, society is bound to view the concept of disability negatively — especially in the medical field.

According to Amanda Leduc’s Disfigured: On Fairy Tales Disability, and Making Space, the point of medicine is to uphold the “gift of abled-bodiness.” This definition of medicine instantly casts disability in a negative light.

The historical treatment of people with disabilities enforces the standard. The ancient Greeks saw having a disability as a curse from the gods, and used that notion to justify infanticide. The Nazis gassed and experimented on people with disabilities during World War II; and in the 2000s, people with disabilities were sent to Canadian asylums where they experienced sexual, physical, and mental abuse. This treatment encouraged the perception that having a disability warranted abuse, discrimination, and less-than-human treatment.

Of course, in Canada and in many other Western countries, people with disabilities are treated far better than they were decades ago. Still, it is difficult to change a societal bias.

Regardless of how modern individuals treat people with disabilities, our culture’s media still demonstrates that we have not given up on portraying disability as being evil or mythological — especially when it comes to modernizing our favourite Grimms’ fairy tales.

An issue of morality I’m sure we were all told at least one fairy tale when we were children — whether it was that fairy tale’s original, a messed up version, or if it was Disney’s tamer version.

By now, we must all know the general plot of “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” by heart. Most of us also know that in each of these tales, there was a moral to be learned. Though it has always existed, the idea of teaching morality to children through fairy tales was popularized by writers such as the Grimm brothers, Wilhelm and Jacob.

Fairy Tales were told orally at the time of the Grimm brothers, which meant that the stories’ details could be forgotten when being retold. Thus, the Grimm brothers created their collection of fairy tales in their book Kinder-und Hausmärchen (KHM), with the intention of preserving them before the tales were lost forever due to the capriciousness of oral storytelling. In their versions, the Grimm brothers also added clear morals such as hard work, as seen in “Cinderella” and “Jack and the Beanstalk” respectively.

In her book Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Ann Schmiesing wrote that the Grimm brothers edited the second version of the KHM to introduce scars, blindness, and deformities

as the identifying characteristics differentiating the ‘healthy-able-bodied’ heroes and the ‘disabled’ villains. Schmiesing added that the Grimm brothers made this edition to create a stark contrast between good and evil.

all have abnormal features that would not

Disability: A vilified beast In the first edition of the KHM, the story of “Hansel and Gretel” describes the character of the witch as a little old woman with cannibalistic tendencies and “weak eyes.”

Since the witch is an old woman, the idea of her having weak eyes isn’t treated as a disability, but as an ailment of old age.

However, in the book’s second

edition, her blindness is played off as an indicator that she is a witch: “Witches have red eyes and cannot see very far, but they have a sense of smell like animals, and know when humans are approaching.” In this quote, her nearsighted blindness is entangled with her villainous character.

While the witch’s disability is iconic to her villainess, other characters who are casted as villains in the Grimm brothers’ collection

appear on a ‘healthy, able body.’ Think of the devil in Bearskin who has a cloven foot, the Evil Queen who transforms into an old hunched-back woman, and Ursula who has tentacles contrasting to the rest of the merfolk. Even today, famous villains such as Scar from The Lion King, who has a scarred eye; Captain Hook from Peter Pan, who has a hook for a hand; and Darth Vader

features@thevarsity.ca from Star Wars, who has severe facial burns all have some form of disfigurement that marks them as different. that disfigurement gives these characters a cool ‘villain’ look, these marks ostracize them from society.

No happily ever after I would like to briefly mention that not all of the villains in fairy tales have such identifying features — at least not at the beginning of their stories. While sometimes the disabled characters, such as the seven dwarves, are presented as being good throughout the entire fairy tale, other times, the villains obtain a disability through harsh punishment.

A great example is the original Grimm version of “Cinderella.” While the Disney version ends the story with a happily ever after for the abled-bodied heroine, the original story shows her evil stepmother and stepsisters being inflicted with the worst pain imaginable. You’ve probably heard that the stepsisters intentionally chopped off their toes and heel in order to fit into Cinderella’s glass slipper — but what’s less known is that the pigeons who helped Cinderella transform for the ball viciously pecked out her family members’ eyes, making them blind. Another example is “Rumpelstiltskin”: in the original tale that featured the miller’s daughter who could spin gold,

Rumplestilskin grows irritated that the princess guessed his name correctly and ends up “tearing himself in two” after stomping his feet into the earth below.

A curse not cured It is harmful to depict popular villains of fairy tales and modern media with disabling features because that leads actual individuals with disabilities to be ostracized even more. However, I would argue that stories perpetuating the idea that a disability is a curse that must be broken are far more damaging.

Schmiesing explains the origin of these “curse to cured” stories drawn from medicine: “While championing health and able-bodiedness as the ideal, tales [by the Grimm brothers] frequently suggest that this ideal is unattainable, at least without divine intervention.” In these stories, disabled, monstrous characters become protagonists who, over the course of the story, transform back into a healthy, ablebodied human with the help of magic.

In “The Girl Without Hands,” the father cuts off his daughter’s hands, as requested by the devil. She is later given silver hands as a replacement; however, at the end of the story, her hands magically regrow.

In the first edition of “the Frog Prince,” the frog constantly asks for the princess’ assistance to lift him to the table or to her bed.

This makes sense — of course, since he is a frog, he wouldn’t be able to jump very high.

However, in the second edition, the Grimm brothers treat the character’s frog nature as disabling due to a lack of mobility. To cure him of his misfortune, he is accidentally smacked against the wall when he transforms into an-

"We must expand our outlook of 'normal' bodies to include ones with disabilities."

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other dashing prince.

The last story worth pointing out is “Hans my Hedgehog.” Hans was born to human parents with the lower body of a human and the upper body of a hedgehog. Ashamed of his monstrosity, his parents hid him behind the stove for eight years, until he decided to venture out and become a famous musician. During his travels, he is betrothed to a princess.

However, the princess despises him because of his true form. So he stabs her with his quills and she runs away.

Eventually, he finds another princess — vowing not to hurt her with his quills, he requests the princess’ father, the king, to start a fire and burn his hedgehog skin the moment he takes it off to sleep. The king accepts Hans’ request and gathers men, who throw Hans’ shedded skin in a fire pit. This is probably the most disturbing scene I ever witnessed. As you may extrapolate, the idea of Hans’ parents hiding him could refer to children who are intentionally hidden from the world and neglected because of their disability.

These iconic stories may reflect a desire for safety and normalcy that both the Grimm brothers sought after. One could argue that their first goal in creating these collections was to simply canonize beloved folk tales in Germany and promote better morals for children. However, their tales’ experiences with disabilities, illness, and death offer a more captivating story, one nearly every individual in the disabled community fantasizes about: normalcy and the desire to “fit in” within society.

Even though the Grimm brothers created stories that featured disabled characters or villains who had abnormal features, this tendency was

"Everyone — including people with disabilities — has the right to see themselves represented in these stories in a better light."

probably rooted in their own experiences, frustrations, and fantasies. Nevertheless, the cure trope is harmful because it ignores the plain reality that you can’t simply “cure” most people of their disabilities. It ignores the fact that there will always be individuals who are disabled, regardless if they were born with a disability or if they developed it later in life. No disability needs to be cured; instead, we must expand our outlook of “normal” bodies to include ones with disabilities.

One could argue that the point of these fictional stories is to give a sense of escapism from a broken world and that criticizing characters with “disabling features” who may or may not exist is simply a waste of time. After all, “it’s just a story.” However, I would like to mention that everyone — including people with disabilities — has the right to see themselves represented in these stories in a better light, one in which they get a happy ending without having to compromise who they are. If we continue to portray people with disabilities as villains, as mythological creatures who deserve to be punished, or as having to resort to wishful magic to achieve normalcy, it will only ostracize them more to the point that the idea of their achieving happiness is unfathomable.

After all, Leduc phrased it best: “A princess in a wheelchair? Whoever heard of such a thing?”

Business & Labour

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/business biz@thevarsity.ca

Opinion: The “greenwashing” of university investment portfolios through divestment is ineffective Is the ESG and divestment craze nothing more than a distraction?

Nina Uzunović Varsity Contributor

In the fight against climate change, ‘responsible investing’ has become somewhat of a buzzword, with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) based-investing becoming an important criteria for determining the potential for investment in a company.

ESG-based investors typically decide whether to remain invested in a company by evaluating the company’s carbon emissions, environmental impact, commitment to diversity, social impact, and management practices. Recently, the practice of divesting from companies that fail to meet ESG criteria has become standard for those bearing the title of a responsible and sociallyconscious investor.

While this divestment previously has typically ostracized companies in sectors such as the tobacco and arms industries, the movement to divest from fossil fuel and high carbon emitter companies has taken investors by storm. Universities have also been playing a more active role in divesting from companies. The idea is that, by divesting from companies that fail to meet ESG criteria, investors will be able to drive down these companies’ share prices.

This increases their cost of capital, which is the return that a company is required to achieve on a project to continue justifying the cost that the project takes up. The higher required return limits their options for expansion. Thus, divestment would reduce these high carbon emitting companies’ scope to expand. This reduction limits their carbon dioxide production and ultimately slows down the rate of climate change.

Last October, following Harvard University’s lead, U of T President Meric Gertler made the announcement that U of T’s investment manager,

the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation (UTAM), would immediately divest from all fossil fuel investments in their $4 billion endowment fund. U of T made the decision in an effort to “accelerate the transition to a lowcarbon economy.”

At the moment, roughly 58 per cent of the combined 20 largest college and university endowment funds in the US have fully or partially divested from fossil fuel companies. Students at Canadian universities such as the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, and McGill University have made similar calls for divestment. Several of these universities have honoured and acted upon these demands.

However, Jonathan B. Berk of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Jules van Binsbergen of the Wharton School wrote a paper on why this divestment strategy is rath-

er ineffective in reaching its intended targets.

Specifically, divestment has virtually no impact on a company's cost of capital, as other investors are quick to buy the dumped shares. As a result, the assets are merely redistributed, with no net benefit attributed to the climate fight.

There would need to be an “overwhelming majority of investors” engaged in divestment for the divestment strategy to work, yet such a future seems unrealistic. For instance, at the moment, only two per cent of US stock market wealth is currently invested in ESG-based investments.

Tariq Fancy, the former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock, a financial planning and investment management company, made similar remarks last August when he acted as a Wall Street whistleblower, exposing ESG investing and divestment strategies as akin to the “greenwashing” of the economic system. Or in other words, he claimed that ESG is nothing more than “marketing hype, PR spin and disingenuous promises [sic] from the investment community.”

Fancy addressed how investment funds claim that they take into account climate GR AC EX change-related U/T HE

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risks when determining whether to invest in a company — something that the UTAM itself has boasted — even though this ultimately has no effect in fighting against climate change. Claiming that they are climate-conscious by divesting protects these investors from the problem, rather than addressing the problem itself.

In addition, contrary to Gertler’s statement which expresses hope that ESG investment “will also encourage government actors at home and abroad to intensify their efforts to tackle the challenge of climate change,” Fancy has strongly criticized this manner of holding out hope of eventual climate change improvements, labelling it as stalling. He instead believes that people should lobby for government intervention and a carbon tax.

Alternatively, Berk and van Binsbergen suggest that to truly make a difference through the market, investors should aim to play an active role, utilizing their voting power to drive change.

Just last year, with the support of Blackrock, financial service companies Vanguard and State Street, and hedge fund Engine No. 1 succeeded in using its proxy votes to replace three ExxonMobil board directors and push climate action.

This was an important moment at a company otherwise labelled in Britannica as “one of the world’s top three oil and energy concerns.”

Although recently facing divestment pressures from their professors, Western University has opted to take on the role of the active investor, citing similar arguments as Berk and van Binsbergen.

Thus, the question stands that if taking part in “greenwashing” through divestment and ESGbased investment practices is ineffective, then why are universities pushing for this practice in their efforts to tackle climate change?

A.I.rbnb: U of T study into AI, Airbnb, and race dynamics has been named a finalist for best paper The homesharing service’s new algorithm can potentially promote economic and racial equity Andrew Yang Ki Varsity Contributor

Sharing platforms like Uber and Airbnb have exploded in popularity in recent years. If you don’t feel like shelling out money for a car or a hotel, someone will lend you theirs. But you won’t find these ads in the classified section of the newspaper anymore — modern-day ‘sharers’ now rely on these sharing platforms’ artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to match them with customers.

Machines can only learn from the data they’re given, though, so pre-existing flaws in society could potentially cause factors like race to bias these algorithms’ recommendations. A deep dive into this quandary is what almost won a U of T professor a prestigious award in marketing science this past July.

In July 2021, Nitin Mehta, a professor of marketing at Rotman, alongside Shunyuan Zhang of Harvard Business School and Param Vir Singh and Kannan Srinivasan of Carnegie Mellon University, co-authored “Can an AI Algorithm Mitigate Racial Economic Inequality? An Analysis in the Context of Airbnb.”

The paper was recognized as a finalist for the 2022 John D. C. Little’s best paper award. The award is bestowed annually to the best marketing paper published in Marketing Science, Management Science, or another journal in the INFORMS

network — a professional organization dedicated to operations research. Mehta and his team were one of the five finalists for their work.

All about AI at Airbnb Mehta and his team’s study revolved around Airbnb’s free, optional “smart pricing” algorithm — a feature that dynamically adjusts pricing based on current demand in an effort to increase the volume of bookings. The study found that Black hosts’ low adoption of Airbnb’s algorithm led to an increase in racial earning disparities on the platform.

Mehta’s team used the public resource insideairbnb.com to build a list of all Airbnb properties listed in the cities of Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle in 2015 and 2017. After sampling randomly from their data, Mehta’s team then used AirDNA — another third-party resource — to obtain data on the average nightly rate, monthly occupancy rate, and other characteristics mentioned on the webpage of each property. They then used deep learning-based image recognition to identify hosts’ racial identities from their provided photos.

Using AI to close the racial gap Before Airbnb introduced the smart-pricing algorithm, Mehta’s research found that white hosts earned 12.16 USD more in daily revenue than Black hosts on average. The team studied the effects of smart pricing on the racial disparity in the Airbnb

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hosts’ daily revenue. Among those who adopted the algorithm, the average nightly rate decreased by 5.7 per cent, but higher occupancy rates helped increase the average daily revenue by 8.6 per cent.

In particular, Black hosts saw a significant increase in customers when using the algorithm. The revenue gap between white and Black hosts who had adopted the algorithm decreased by a massive 71.3 per cent of the gap from before the algorithm was introduced.

Hesitancy to adopt The study detailed the fact that Black hosts were 41 per cent less likely than white hosts to adopt the algorithm, limiting the effectiveness of its original intent. As such, the revenue gap actually increased after the introduction of the algorithm.

Mehta’s findings show that the host’s race does not affect algorithm’s price recommendations — but argued that the algorithm’s race blindness may lead to pricing that is suboptimal, more so for Black hosts than for white hosts.

“This is a well-meaning algorithm,” said Zhang in

an interview with Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge. “It provides flexibility. There is opportunity for a [Black] host to improve revenue, but only if you use it.”

Zhang suggested that Airbnb should encourage hosts to adopt the algorithm, rather than attempt to change it in an effort to increase adoption.

Smart pricing’s future In an interview with the Financial Times, Singh suggested methods for the home-sharing platform to solve the low algorithm uptake issue: “Airbnb could try to get [Black hosts] to use the algorithm and cover any losses for a few weeks or months, to give them confidence that the algorithm is actually valuable to them,” said Singh. “It can increase adoption and benefit both Airbnb and these hosts.”

As cutting edge artificial intelligence algorithms become further intertwined with the success of sharing platforms, a great deal of care is necessary to ensure such tools can potentially mitigate racial biases — without leading to greater social inequality.

TIFF 2022

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

Rian Johnson shoves his auteur status in your face.

COURTESY OF TIFF

TIFF 2022: Glass Onion The star-studded whodunnit suggests that director Rian Johnson is too smart for his own good Alex Mooney Varsity Contributor

Talent can be a blessing and a curse. In the seventeen years since his micro-budget neonoir Brick took home the Special Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, writer and director Rian Johnson has become a household name, an Academy Award nominee, and a multi-millionaire. This point where talent and success converge is the true measure of any mainstream filmmaker.

His fourth, and best, feature was Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), a film that cost 317 million dollars and made more than four times its budget. However, the thrill of seeing a mainstream movie that combines both reverence toward its predecessors and its revision was offset by the singularly exhausting and vitriolic discourse cycle it set into motion.

While most filmmakers would shrink away from such public scrutiny, Johnson doubled down. His steadfast refusal to compromise on personality and vision is an admirable trait in any filmmaker, but this can backfire when they’re no longer working within a franchise’s constraints –– endearing brashness can morph all too easily into hubris.

This unstable form of confidence permeates Knives Out (2019); to his haters, it’s a middlefinger, but to his fans, it’s a victory lap for a race he hasn’t officially won. Johnson’s sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery — which premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival — is as perversely satisfying

as it is perversely self-satisfied, and a classic case of a promising artist spectacularly, though hopefully not finally, collapsing under the weight of their runaway success.

Sensibility The central metaphor of its title — borrowed from The Beatles’ 1968 song of the same name — is rich and enticing, not to mention amusing, in its mismatched symbolism; “onion” connotes a panoply of inwardly successive layers, but “glass” undercuts the promise of mystery with transparency, even if — as is made clear through some cheeky lateral tracking shots — glass can distort as much as it reveals.

You don’t need me to explain it, though, because world-famous detective Benoit Blanc, played by Daniel Craig, does so extensively and repeatedly. It’s a waste of potential that’s also emblematic of Johnson’s lack of trust in –– and even condescension to –– his audience; he tediously spells out all the obvious symbols in his puzzle box, holding our hand through every rug pull and reveal.

Glass Onion has all the same self-defeating tendencies as its predecessor, but in typical Johnson fashion, they’re even more pronounced and manifold.

Formula On paper, Knives Out is an objective marvel of narrative architecture, weaving numerous crime-film traditions and literary and cinematic reference points into its constantly-shifting

framework –– one that falters, and ultimately collapses, when a limp, discourse-ready social satire is superimposed over top of it.

Glass Onion is mostly a reshuffling of the previous pieces in Knives Out. Johnson swaps a family business pulled apart by avarice and bad politics for tech billionaire Miles Bron, played by Edward Norton, who seemingly pulled his circle of friends up the economic ladder along with him.

Once again, each member of the cast works to salvage their broad, if aptly tailored, caricature — Kathryn Hahn plays a weaselly politician, Kate Hudson plays an insensitive celebrity model, and Dave Bautista plays a gun-toting Twitch streamer, to name a few. It also becomes clear, through a mid-film twist that serves the same structural purpose as the one in Knives Out, that yet another plucky, marginalized woman, this time played by Janelle Monáe, will anchor the film’s thematic arc, a move that came across as obliviously tokenizing in the film’s predecessor, but now seems curiously calculated.

Design Once Monáe enters the scene, however, things pick up for about an hour; scenes are replayed from different perspectives, Craig and Monáe generate intrigue through their repartee, and a power outage gives Johnson the chance to milk a rotating lighthouse beam for all it’s worth.

Johnson’s skills are more conceptual than formal, but he’s certainly got visual flourish

to spare, playing around with cross-cutting, rhythmic and jarring insert shots, split-screens, and his trademark pull-backs. He also has a much better sense for blocking and composition than your average filmmaker, but his stylistic tics rarely amount to more than gimmicky confection, and wear increasingly thin throughout the two-and-a-half-hour runtime.

‘Confection’ –– as much a term of endearment as it is derision –– could very well characterize this whole enterprise, and Johnson plays this up to varying effect. His aesthetics and scenarios are proudly histrionic, and his narratives so ludicrously over-designed –– with a dizzying plethora of concurrent and convergent setups and payoffs –– that a character plainly asks Blanc to explain the plot to them. During a late-film revelation, Kate Hudson’s character stammers out: “It’s so dumb, it’s genius,” to which Blanc responds: “No, it’s just dumb.”

Such moments –– as well as a winking likening of Johnson to both Craig and Norton’s characters –– ostensibly poke fun at Johnson’s authorial hand, only serve to inversely place him on the auteur pedestal.

The Last Jedi is great because it was made in earnest by a relative outsider whose idiosyncrasies could put a new spin on a wornout formula. Glass Onion, which draws upon a fresher formula with tongue planted firmly in cheek, ends up talking down to its audience precisely because Johnson has ‘made it’ in showbiz but still sees himself as the underdog.

thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

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TIFF 2022: Empire of Light An eccentric, lonely woman develops a bond with a charming man

Moulik Seth Varsity Contributor

After his staggering war epic 1917 that took home multiple Oscars, Sam Mendes graced Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2022 with a quiet, sober rumination on love and identity in 1980s Britain.

Empire of Light, supposedly drawn from Mendes’ personal experiences growing up in England, revolves around the lives of people working at an old, marquee cinema called Empire on the southern coast of the UK. The duty manager of the cinema, Hilary, played by Olivia Colman, leads a rather lonely, uneventful life that is frequented by sexual ordinances with the cinema manager, played by Colin Firth, and the mundane monotony of looking after a remote cinema.

Despite the presence of a vibrant bunch of employees that inhabit various duties around the theatre, Hilary retreats to a reclusive lifestyle that seems to be more a function of her personality than a conscious choice. She makes excuses to get out of meeting her coworkers for drinks, walks out on restaurant appointments, and lies in bed staring aimlessly at the window.

Enter Stephen, played by Micheal Ward, a young Black man who is passionate about studying architecture. While working at the cinema, he quietly transforms Hilary’s life. When Hilary initially shows Stephen around, they stumble upon an abandoned third floor, which becomes the meeting spot for the two over the course of the film.

From having sex to helping an injured bird recover to building sandcastles by the beach, they find love in each other through a variety of activities. But Hilary’s past as a diagnosed schizophrenic patient and Stephen’s racial identity in an unsettling and turbulent political time, catalyzes a fallout in the later stages of the film. Stephen begins seeing an older friend Ruby and a racist mob beats him up, while Hilary descends into further bouts of schizophrenia, culminating in admission to a social services hospital.

Empire of Light seemingly has a very rudimentary plot that is no stranger to the big screen. The writing also feels sketchy at times. For instance, while the relationship between Hilary and Stephen is paramount to the film, it feels convenient and sometimes superficial. Mendes wishes to show

the complexity of their relationship while grounding it in their personal conflicts, yet it all comes across as a tad half-baked and haphazard.

What helps the film escape mediocrity is a phenomenal, often heartbreaking, performance by Olivia Colman, powerfully supported by Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, and the rest of the cast. Colman not only embodies the helpless, powerless situations Hilary often finds herself in, but she intricately communicates the rollercoaster of feelings a person diagnosed with schizophrenia might display. She deftly moves from guilt and remorse to playfulness and raging anger. Every time you see her on screen, you discover a new dimension to Hilary’s life and the dire, painful circumstances she often finds herself in.

Another reason the film is propelled to a different league is Roger Deakins’ exquisite, meaning laden cinematography. Deakins crafts frames that correspond with complete precision to the film narrative, and they artistically reflect the rapidly changing tide of emotions to which the audience is privy.

Whether Hilary is lying alone in her bed in a rush of the yellowish red reflected from the curtains or Hilary and Stephen are celebrating New Year’s on the cinema rooftop surrounded by nothing but the colours of the firecrackers and lights, we experience the underlying power of cinematic aesthetic to its full potential. The score complements the film naturally, creating a climactic rumbling noise when Stephen’s character gets beaten up by a mob in the theater.

Toward the end of the film, Stephen leaves for university and for one last time meets Hilary — who is back from her treatment — in a park under the meandering breeze of the trees. She leaves him with a poem that he reads on the train. And as all tragic things are in their own ways, beautiful and fleeting, we are left feeling the power of those specific moments in time that inform our experiences; instead of lamenting over the loss of these moments, we should perhaps come to cherish them.

Empire of Light is a medium to shine the light on our souls in times of division, hate, and personal change. It stands tall, much like the Empire on the coast, and invites everyone to enter a state of anonymity engulfed in darkness to quietly discover themselves as they lay bare to the power of cinema and life.

Sam Mendes’ star-studded cast delivers a reflection on coming together.

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TIFF 2022: Thunder

Thunder offers a powerful take on the connection between eroticism and God Sam Rosati Martin Varsity Contributor

In Thunder, Carmen Jaquier’s engrossing debut feature, a 17-year-old novitiate Elisabeth learns of her sister Innocente’s mysterious death and leaves the nunnery where she lives to return to her hometown, nestled in the golden meadows and shining peaks of the Swiss summer in the year 1900.

When Elisabeth, who has been away for five years, arrives to labour on her family’s farm, she is greeted by silence. Her deceased sister, Innocente, whose very name has become taboo, has been condemned to wander the afterlife. In the surreal summer months, Elisabeth gradually comes to learn of more of Innocente’s life and death, which fundamentally alters Elisabeth’s own relationship with faith and sensuality.

In the beginning of the film, the camera soars and twists rapidly over the Swiss mountaintops, blurring the division between land and sky. This disorientation is intentional; Thunder treats the natural world as one entity, twisting through the rivers and valleys while focusing on the smallest leaves, flowers, and bugs.

Elisabeth, played by Lilith Grasmug, can be seen as a small speck among the rivers and the meadows as she heads back to her family’s home. She prods further into the conditions of Innocente’s death, but the message in her hamlet is that her once devout sister has been reunited with the devil.

Elisabeth comes across Innocente’s ink-blotted diary, which reveals that she had undergone a radical transformation in her faith and had

traced a connection between God and sensuality. God, according to Innocente, is a vibration.

She had found a different type of God, a God that visits you in a cloud. A kind of God that is found in the eyes of a lover. Jaquier introduces this God to the audience through Innocente’s voice as Elisabeth reads her diary aloud. Innocente writes, “I won’t apologize for having become a woman of blood and lust.”

Elisabeth’s sister’s faith was carnal, full of beauty and possibility. Innocente wrote polemically and with a clarity that reaches across the boundary between life and death; she is never absent from the film. Instead, the God that Innocente found in lust is woven into the fabric of the film and its cinematography — rays of sunlight are polychromatic, bodies are entwined together among the roots of a tree and become one.

The silence of the film is punctuated by the sound of breath. Jaquier’s film attends to the minutiae of the body; soon after Elisabeth arrives home, she attends mass, where she exchanges quick glances and fleeting eye contact with three boys from her village. The camera moves with its own life, catching silhouettes flitting in and out of Elisabeth’s vision.

The movie’s perspective returns to close-ups of hands entwined, hands struggling with knots and brambles, and rough fingers with dirt under their fingernails. These closeups are contrasted, sometimes brutally, with scenes of the breathtaking Swiss landscape. The cinematography of Marine Atlan incites emotion on every scale and gives Thunder a mystical effect.

The hand of religion can be felt under the surface of every interaction, especially through the

disciplining of the lives and bodies of women.

Throughout the movie, you can feel the possibility of violence bubbling under the surface — and violence erupts suddenly and extremely.

Nicolas Rabaeus’ score plays into this consistent, underlying tension through religious choral music that rises and lowers in volume rapidly, and can be genuinely terrifying when paired with the mystical images in the film. At the same time, the rising and falling of the music lends itself to the ecstatic, revelatory moments of Elisabeth’s journey — she is often found wandering alone atop a lush mountain and reflecting on faith and life.

The motif of the natural world highlights how faith is separated from religion. Camera shots can be psychedelic and surreal; they are colorfully inflected with the emotion of the scene.

Paired with the score, Elisabeth's ability to talk to God by climbing a tree or God coming to visit Elisabeth in a cloud is not a great stretch for the audience to believe. Her relationship with God exists outside of the church’s strict rules.

In fact, God feels so close to nature and to life that you could reach out and touch Them.

The film is imbued with romanticism and magic, while managing to address moments of a harsh reality and violence against women. While Thunder holds you in rapture, it still sincerely considers the spiritual and sensual possibilities of the body and of the world.

The sexiest way to connect to God and nature at TIFF. COURTESY OF TIFF

TIFF 2022: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Pierre Földes’ feature film puts you to sleep — in a good way Madeline Szabo Associate Arts & Culture Editor

When you enter your dreams, you may see strange characters with surreal expressions, clouds move with new purpose, and maybe, if you’re anything like director Pierre Földes, you might hear a playful violin. Földes’ first feature film, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman creates this dreamy illusion seamlessly, making for a movie focused on reflection.

Földes was inspired by a number of stories

by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, who is known for blurring the boundaries of reality. The stories follow three characters in the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami: Komura, who struggles to know himself after his wife Kyoko leaves; Kyoko, herself, also wrestles with who she is, only having lived her life on her prescribed path; and anxious accountant Mr. Katagiri, who looks for purpose with the help of his own imagination — which includes a giant frog.

The characters themselves feel genuine, but it is Földes’ diligent attention to detail and his hunger for innovation in script-writing, animation, and score that makes Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman so human.

The script Each character’s humanity is conveyed through their dialogue, which makes up the majority of the movie. In an interview with The Varsity, Földes specifically said that he did “not want to do what all the script writing textbooks [told him] to do,” where you create emotion using standard formulas, and we see the effect of his decision on the characters in big, predictable moments and acts, like screaming. He wanted to show that “film can evolve,” in the same way Murakami’s work has transformed writing through emphasizing the power of quiet, and sometimes unseen, feelings.

As a result, sadness, longing, relief, and all our favorite movie moment emotions come and

go throughout the course of the film, yet they’re told more through subtle expressions in moments of reflection than anything else. Földes asked friends who understood Japanese, the original language of Murakami’s short stories, for assistance with translation to ensure that minimal detail was lost.

The animation Similar to the script, Földes approached the art

style of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman with the goal of creating “something unique.” To capture the important expressions of each character, charts were made showing animators what any given expression on an actor’s face should look like on the animated character. For example, animators would show a raise of the eyebrow on Frog’s actor on Frog’s face, with the animated character’s eyebrow moving up significantly, making even the subtlest emotion standout more.

The lonely and directionless characters of Pierre Földes’ world show us that there is always hope.

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However, while our main characters become real, those around them seem only to exist to provide the main characters with what they need. For example, a boy with hearing loss has no greater purpose than to show Komura that it’s okay his wife has left. The works of Murakami that Földes takes on have rich side characters that Földes did not have the time or money to make as vital as our stars.

Still, it is difficult to watch people who could’ve become so real fade away with the trees and flowers, as though their only destiny was a cryptic word of wisdom to the leads. In a movie so focused on people’s emotions, their absence takes away the authenticity when we see that complex feelings are only granted to a handful of characters.

The score However, in such universes, Földes’ atmosphere takes well deserved priority. For although the characters struggle to shake themselves out of their seemingly dead-end lives, they discover little friends and joys, such as a cat or a promotion. At its heart, the movie is one bursting with the humour of life, and the light score, composed by Földes himself, brings that out. After all, he “was not going to give all the fun [of composing] to someone else.”

Ultimately, it’s difficult to wake from Földes’ world, a world he built “from scratch,” a world in which, despite the malaise of ordinary life, one can reflect upon old habits and shake them away. As students, the bite of routine always lingers, and we wonder if the path we have chosen is the right one. However, we can always take new inspiration as we reflect.

Földes suggests that students hungry for change should start by “watching [his] film,” and creating something that matters to them — a step that will help them see the humour and hope among the gray drizzle of everyday life.

Personally, when in need of inspiration, I read The Varsity!

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

thevarsity.ca/section/arts-and-culture

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TIFF 2022: The Taste of Apples is Red Ehab Tarabieh’s documentary filmmaking background shines through in his fictional debut Spencer Lu Varsity Contributor

Ehab Tarabieh and Sol Goodman build an immersive and jarring reality in The Taste of Apples is Red, a narrative realistic fiction film. Set in Syria during the country’s civil war, the writers draw inspiration from their homeland to create a personal and powerful story around the realities for people living in the war-torn Syria. Tarabieh’s history as a documentary filmmaker is apparent in the style of this film, yet those elements are smoothly incorporated into this debut fictional film for Tarabeih.

The Taste of Apples is Red tells the story of a sheikh leader living in the Israeli-

occupied Golan Heights. The main character, Sheikh Kamel, is a well-respected and devout member of the local Druze community, as well as a Syrian patriot. However, his faith and patriotism are challenged when his long-exiled brother, Mustafa, suddenly arrives on his doorstep one night, injured and alone as an enemy of the Assad army.

Kamel and his daughter Salma reluctantly care for Mustafa, but word of his refuge in Kamel’s home spreads fast and the sheikh soon loses the respect of his community due to his hypocritical sentiments and behaviour toward a traitor. He is given the choice to either give up his brother or lose his social status for potentially attracting the Assad army’s unwanted attention.

The sheikh deals with inner conflict and faces the choice between his community and his

family with high stakes from military pressure.

This impossible decision between community and something potentially more significant is similarly captured in Sophie Jarvis’ Until Branches Bend, also premiering at TIFF — another great movie to check out!

Tarabeih uses many elements of fictional narratives to produce a meaningful film, but he simultaneously integrates his documentary style to add a level of realism. The strong emphasis on the violence of a civil war is one such example of how the film focuses on realism.

Although much of the film is not graphic, many of the characters paint vivid images of the cruel horrors of the battlefield through visceral personal anecdotes. Despite the clear mystical element brought in through religion, war is first and foremost an undeniable part of the villagers’ everyday experience.

Animals also play an important role in this movie as symbolic doctrinal actors enforcing the laws of the

Druze’s mysterious tenets. Great importance is placed on the strict laws of the Druze faith, but besides the animal symbolism and the moral principle of exiling traitors, not much about the mysterious religion is revealed.

The film’s purpose is not to expose the inner workings of the Druze faith but to portray the small community in which this story takes place.

It’s a community in which there is a crucial need to follow the laws of the faith. Ultimately, The Taste of Apples is Red is about the tension between faith and blood, which we watch play out to a bittersweet ending.

The protagonist struggles between sticking to their faith or sticking up for those they love.

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TIFF 2022: Stellar Darlene Naponse’s experimental film celebrates Indigenous Peoples and Land Hannah Katherine Varsity Contributor

How would you react to the destruction of the physical environment around you? Some might find this concept unimaginable, but Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island have witnessed the devastation of their lands and livelihoods for centuries at the hands of colonial powers and, eventually, the Canadian government.

Stellar — an experimental film by Anishinaabe director, writer, and producer Darlene Naponse — explores the generational trauma caused by this destruction while simultaneously celebrating Indig-

enous culture. In the film, a meteorite crashes into Northern Ontario, triggering a chain of catastrophic events and natural disasters. While most people panic, She and He, played by ElleMáijá Tailfeathers and Braeden Clarke, respectively, calmly take shelter in a dive bar amid the winds, floods, and fires raging from outside the front window.

Their cosmic and slow-burning romance premiered Sunday, September 11 at the Scotiabank Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). According to TIFF, the film is based on the director’s short story, which shares the same name, and is Naponse’s fourth feature film. In a short speech prior to the screening, Darlene Naponse described the film as a “celebration of the land and the people.”

Naponse brings the generational trauma, abuse, and oppression that Indigenous people have endured to center stage through how She and He’s past informs their present.

Their ongoing personal

and ancestral histories are reflected in the emotions and words of the characters in the moment.

One of the ways Naponse achieves this effect is through giving neither main character a proper name. They are only referred to as “She” and “He.” Their experience of racism, colonization, and generational trauma reflect the reality for many Indigenous peoples throughout the last few centuries. In contrast, the views of the assortment of visitors who pass through the bar align with the views of unwelcomed saviours, unwarranted advisors, and abusive figures that are also frequently present in Indigenous history.

However, I also watched She and He learn to connect through touch and their own language despite various external and internal barriers, fulfilling an intimate romance between two Indigenous people.

Their love story allows them to share their most cherished memories and painful stories, which becomes a vehicle to celebrate Indigenous peoples and their history.

Historically, colonizers stripped forms of communication and connection — such as language, physical touch, and love — from Indigenous peoples. But Stellar’s characters speak in both Ojibwe and English, which inteNaponse shows the inspiring resilience of Indigenous communities.

COURTESY OF TIFF grates lost elements of their cul-

ture into the healing journey of She and He. The discourse helps the lead characters become closer. Over the course of the film, they shift from two strangers in a bar to people who share and relate to each other’s past experiences.

But the movie ultimately focuses on She and He’s connection to the land. Toward the end of the film, She and He share their common longing to return home. Their deep connection to the land is unquestionable and the camera perfectly portrays it as it cuts from scenes in the dive bar to memories of the natural environment — including clear rivers, blue skies, and full forests — prior to its man-made destruction.

The cuts offer time for reflection in between the short scenes of dialogue between the characters. But they’re also intercut with the active destruction of the same landscapes — imagery of the Canadian government’s mining project highlights the careless use of land, which Naponse discussed after the screening.

In Stellar, Naponse critiques the gap between privileged and marginalized communities. For She and He, the story’s central problem, ironically, isn’t earth shattering because, for these characters, the world was already crumbling.

They have always been survivors of racial oppression and witnesses to the deterioration of their homelands. Instead, the movie emphasizes that only the privileged can react when natural disasters directly affect them.

Stellar is an acknowledgement of the hardships Indigenous communities face through generational trauma, the loss of land, and genocide. However, it is also a testament to their resilience.

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Ke Xu Varsity Contributor

Ke Xu Varsity Contributor

Content warning: Mentions of police brutality, systemic racism, and violence.

Award-winning actress Sanaa Lathan has adapted author Angie Thomas’ bestselling novel On the Come Up, which focuses on African American identity through aspiring teen rapper Brianna “Bri” Jackson, played by Jamila Gray. Lathan gives it her all in this ambitious directorial debut of the same name, in which she also plays a major on-screen role.

As the film opens, viewers are thrust into the turbulent world of Bri, an aspiring teen rapper desperate to follow in the footsteps of her late father, who is a rap legend in her local, low-income community

of Garden Heights.

Bri, who struggles with personal troubles at home and at school, finds her voice in ‘The Ring,’ a boxing gym that is repurposed into a rap battle arena at night.

Living with her older brother and mother, a recovering addict who struggles to pay the bills, Bri constantly juggles how to best support her family in light of her budding rap career.

When the success of her aunt’s talent management dwindles, Bri is hesitantly swayed into accepting a world of wealth and luxury that she has been promised as long as she pretends to be someone she isn’t, and doesn’t really want to be.

Throughout the film, Lathan weaves together an abundance of heavy themes, including financial insecurity, absentee parenting, and the loss of a loved one, as the protagonist becomes increasingly weighed down by the consequences of her actions in light of her traumatic family history.

Race also plays a large part in Bri’s experiences as a young Black girl in what appears to be modern-day America. At school, she is the target of frequent microaggressions and acts of discrimination by the administration as well as by law enforcement officials.

In fact, one of the earliest conflicts in the film is initiated when Bri is violently handcuffed by two armed police officers in the halls of the school and is subsequently suspended. The officers receive no discipline at all. Similarly, when students incite a riot at the same school later on in the film, the school administration pins most of the blame on

TIFF 2022: On the Come Up

A powerful and poignant adaptation of Angie Thomas’ bestselling novel Bri, while the primarily white students who initiated the riot do not face any penalties.

Lathan, Thomas, and the all-Black main cast of the film reached into their own experiences as racial minorities in the making of these scenes.

The constant circling back to the theme of race is what Lathan does best in her direction. However, many other pieces of the thematic puzzle are often pushed to the side for the necessary advancement of the plot. The main ideas of the film would have been more effectively portrayed if the story focused on several large thematic events rather than seeking to delve deeply into every aspect of Bri’s complicated life.

Despite the film’s intense subject matter, it isn’t just one big trauma-fest. One of the best aspects of the viewing experience is the portrayal of Bri’s relationship with her friends Sonny, played by Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Malik, played by Michael Cooper Jr. The playful and teasing dynamic between these memorable characters brings lighthearted breaks to a content-dense main storyline and allows for romantic subplots to bloom. With multiple moments of laugh-out-loud line delivery, the film finds humour between the darkness, allowing the audience to connect with the characters on a personal level as well.

Although the film isn’t perfect, with Lathan’s direction lacking some thematic

cohesivity, On the Come Up is a thought-provoking film that is easily digestible for young-adult audiences that can relate to Bri as they see her gradual coming of age. At its heart of hearts, it is a film about family, friendship, and finding yourself, about learning to make decisions that are authentic to you when circumstances and people you trust seem to pull you astray.

On the Come Up deals with themes of aspiration and the constant reach for something more in a society that suppresses your most valiant efforts to lift yourself up.

And it deals with the idea that when the world seems too much to bear, you have it in you to find the beat, get on your feet, and achieve what you’ve always known you wanted.

The film tackles coming of age for African Americans.

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TIFF 2022: How to Blow Up a Pipeline The exciting ethical balancing act of extreme environmental activism Will Gotlib Varsity Contributor

How to Blow Up a Pipeline delivers on the promise of its name. It’s surprisingly close to an actual guide, worthy of praise and respect for how intelligently it handles the radical subject matter of extreme environmental activism.

The film is based on a non-fiction book of the same name, which argues that sabotage is a legitimate form of environmental activism. But the movie is far from a documentary; director Daniel Goldhaber and collaborators Ariela Barar, Jordan Sjol, and Daniel Garber — all four of whom interestingly share the primary “a film by” credit — embed a complex discussion about the ethics of eco-terrorism into a tight, focused, and relentless thriller.

The crew of the film’s ‘heist’ puts the book’s ideas into action, aiming to blow up sections of a Texas pipeline in order to spike oil prices around the world, thus forcing tangible action against fossil fuels.

The ensemble of characters draws from a variety of contexts, from working-class middle America to college academia and an Indigenous reservation. Each character represents a different facet of the climate conversation, and the environmental crisis negatively impacts each of them in a unique way.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s greatest strength and point of originality is how propulsive and exciting it is. It wastes no time — within minutes, the characters are on their way to a shack in Texas to construct huge explosives away from the rest of society. The film plays out exactly like a heist: different team members have different specialties so they divide up into groups and pull off several risky tasks, all while avoiding detection.

Things go right and wrong, plans change on the fly, and the characters make mistakes and experience close shaves. Not every character is super compelling, but there are several standout performances, including Forrest Goodluck’s reserved, layered performance, as well as those of Kristine Froseth and Lukas Gage, who give an unreserved and funny portrayal of an angsty couple.

The filmmakers and most of the cast are quite young, and the film edges into what is occasion-

ally unconvincing, unrestrained young adult territory — but it generally feels pretty authentic, which is a major compliment.

Despite the film’s thrilling depiction of a dour topic, it cannot be accused of exploitation: How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s genre trappings create a framework that is arguably more accessible and just as informative as a purely informational documentary might have been.

Fusing the book’s essence into an original idea fit for a different medium is an accomplishment in creative adaptation. It’s got an incredible, pounding synthesizer score; it’s shot on 16mm film in a style reminiscent of 70s thrillers like Sorcerer; and is edited with a sharp rhythm that gracefully ties the nonlinear narrative together. It took a while before the carefully built-up tension really started hitting me, but once it did, the moments of release were breathtaking and immensely satisfying.

The film also manages a delicate balance — it’s not propaganda, urging the audience to wage guerrilla warfare against fossil fuel infrastructure, but it’s also not painting the characters negatively for disrupting the order of society. In a similar movie, Kelly Reichardt’s 2013 film Night Moves, the lead characters blow up a dam halfway through the movie and spend the rest languishing with guilt and regret. Pushing feelings of guilt seems natural in a narrativization of such a controversial act, but How To Blow Up a Pipeline refreshingly, and radically, avoids making such an implicit judgement.

The characters’ backstories build a pretty fleshed-out examination of the various perspectives on whether their mission is morally justifiable or not. Their conversations — including a drunken one early on in the movie about whether they’ll be considered “terrorists” and whether the term is inherently negative — directly shed light on many of the most sensitive questions of climate action but never feel manipulative. The film leaves it in the audience’s hands to decide whether or not the crimes are actually justified.

Amidst an increasingly bleak climate crisis, eco-terrorism is a complicated issue, which has no easy answers. The film embraces this ambiguity, and its lack of explicit perspective on morality feels far more radical and impactful than a piece clearly bent on persuading the audience.

This alternative take on a heist movie explores extreme environmental activism.

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Sports

September 19, 2022 thevarsity.ca/section/sports sports@thevarsity.ca

The greatest sports films of all time From boxing to baseball, here’s a ranking of Hollywood’s best sports films to a title fight. Rocky finds a reliable coach and, one very iconic training sequence later, overcomes the odds to take Creed on for the full 15 rounds.

The film can be seen as a metaphor for Stallone’s life; struggling with homelessness as an unknown actor in his early years, he persevered until finally realizing his dream of being a star through the making of this movie. Perhaps that’s why Rocky turned out to be a surprisingly human film. In the end, it doesn’t matter that Rocky ultimately loses. What matters is that he goes the distance.

Rubin Beshi Varsity Contributor

Perhaps the only thing that can stir up an audience’s emotions like sports do is film. Much like watching a sports game, films have the ability to fill us with joy or make us shed a tear. As a result, it should come as no surprise that the two are often combined to create a truly remarkable viewing experience. In honour of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) coming to an end, here are my top five best sports films of all time.

5. Coach Carter (2005) What better way to start off this list than with everyone’s favourite basketball coach! Samuel L. Jackson stars in this touching movie about a disobedient high school basketball team, which eventually learns discipline, teamwork, and what it means to be student athletes. Coach Carter may follow a predictable formula; however, the harsh realism of the film, along with the heart Jackson adds with his performance, makes it one to remember. For once, the film you’re forced to watch in gym class actually delivers.

4. Million Dollar Baby (2004) When an old, stuck-in-his-ways boxing coach meets a strong-willed waitress determined to transcend her circumstances, movie magic happens. Clint Eastwood directs and co-stars in what is perhaps the finest film of his career, which revolves around the story of an amateur, down-on-her-luck boxer bent on making it pro.

The film focuses on Hilary Swank’s character, Maggie Fitzgerald, and her efforts to prove to everyone — including herself — that she can become the welterweight champion. Million Dollar Baby delivers an inspiring, yet ultimately

Sports have been at the forefront of the film industry for years.

JESSICA LAM/THEVARSITY; COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

devastating, story. Eastwood also offers a refreshingly feminist twist to the age-old genre by presenting viewers with a relentlessly optimistic yet stubborn female protagonist who refuses to take no as an answer.

3. Moneyball (2011) This modern classic takes the sports genre in a direction that was unexplored at the time of its inception: the intersection between sports and maths. Based on the true story of Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, Moneyball deals with how an underperforming and poorly financed team recruits unknown yet effective players using sabermetrics — the use of statistical analysis in evaluat-

ing baseball players. This radical strategy implemented by young economics whiz Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill, eventually pays off and the Athletics achieve a 20-game winning streak in the second half of the season, revolutionizing the sport forever. This film’s slow-paced yet heartfelt dive into unique subject material, combined with powerful performances, earns it a well deserved spot on this list.

2. Rocky (1976) No sports-film list would ever be complete without this dramatic rags-to-riches story. Rocky Balboa, played by the charismatic Sylvester Stallone, is a small-time fighter who is selected by heavyweight world champion Apollo Creed

All hail tennis’s new king: Carlos Alcaraz The 19-year-old wins the US Open as a new era in men’s tennis begins Carlos Alcaraz warms up on day one of Wimbeldon.

COURTESY OF NEIL TILBROOK/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Vikram Nijhawan Varsity Contributor

The young Spanish tennis talent Carlos Alcaraz Garfia won the US Open tennis tournament final in New York on September 11, 2022, defeating his opponent Casper Ruud in four sets by 6–4, 2–6, 7–6 (1), 6–3. In doing so, he became the youngest champion to earn a

debut Grand Slam title since the all-time great Rafael Nadal, as well as the youngest men’s world number one in history.

This was the second US Open final in the past two years to not feature one of the ‘Big Three’ players who dominated men’s tennis for more than two decades: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic. This year’s tournament was projected to be Nadal’s return to form as he chased his third Grand Slam title of

the year — and 23rd overall — but he fell in the fourth round.

Nadal’s exit paved the way for a final match between two up-and-coming players who could each, in their own way, be considered Nadal’s successor. Alcaraz and Ruud competed for the title and spot of world’s number one.

Norway’s Ruud, the finalist at this year’s French Open tournament — where he fell to Nadal, who won all three sets — once again found himself facing the tenacious Spaniard on the opposite side of the net. Alcaraz went into the final as the comfortable favourite. He burst onto the scene earlier this year when he defeated both Nadal and Djokovic on road to winning the Madrid Open. In total, Alcaraz has won four Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour titles in 2022, including a win against Ruud in the Miami Open. Still, after clinching three back-to-back five-set marathon victories on his road to the US Open final, fatigue was expected to be a factor for the tenacious Spaniard.

Ruud, at 23 years old, came into the final more well-rested, and with nine ATP titles under his belt as well as a few more years of experience against his wunderkind opponent.

He emulated the approach of his idol Nadal: playing a baseline attrition game, keeping Alcaraz at the back of the court with high and heavy topspins, and providing plenty of space for himself to return the Spaniard’s powerful serves.

These tactics helped Ruud for some time.

After losing a close first set, he ran away with the second. But after Alcaraz dominated the third-set tiebreaker, the young Spaniard’s

1. Raging Bull (1980) The top spot goes to Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus. Working with long-time collaborator Robert De Niro on their fourth film together, Scorsese’s black-and-white masterpiece explores sport in an unusually brutal way. De Niro plays 1940s boxer Jake LaMotta, whose anger, jealousy, and paranoia are as useful to him in the ring as they are destructive to him outside of it. Fighting not only his boxing opponents but anyone in his life — whether it is his brother, wife, and colleagues — LaMotta finds himself winning title fights while simultaneously ruining relationships with those he loves.

The film’s greatness ironically lies in Scorsese’s general dislike for the sport. Labelling boxing as “boring,” Scorsese’s disregard for sport has led to a thoroughly unromanticized portrayal of LaMotta’s career. This allows for a more blunt and realistic account of the athlete’s life, while avoiding the cliche aspects seen in other sports films. This, combined with an Oscar-winning performance by De Niro — who gained 60 pounds to portray a retired LaMotta later in the film — gives Raging Bull the edge. As LaMotta’s manager Joey says, “If you win, you win. If you lose, you still win!” momentum couldn’t be stopped. His cannon shot of a forehand, calm-under-firing serving, zipping movement across the court, and deft net play all helped him close the match. Despite his less electric playing style, Ruud hung in there, hitting some impressive overhead smash winners and drop-shot volleys — but his serving wasn’t consistent enough to carry him in this contest.

The political turbulence of 2022 impacted the year’s tennis rankings. Back in January, then world’s number one, Djokovic, was unable to defend his Australian Open title due to his unvaccinated status, which also barred him from participating in the US Open. Djokovic’s absence allowed Nadal to secure a remarkable victory in the final against the world’s best by default, Daniil Medvedev.

Later, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Wimbledon would ban Russian players, including Medvedev, from participating in their tournament. As a consequence of this controversial decision, the ATP chose to nullify ranking points at the prestigious midsummer Grand Slam. Djokovic won his seventh title at the All-England Club, but Medvedev remained at the top.

The end result is the current ATP hierarchy placing Nadal and Djokovic — arguably the best and most deserving recent players — far lower than their successes merited. Just a few days after Alcaraz’s victory, Roger Federer formally announced his plans to retire from tennis after the Laver Cup, scheduled for later this month in London, England.

With Federer’s departure, Nadal’s ongoing struggles with injuries, and Djokovic’s ability to participate in future tournaments being uncertain, the era of dominance for the ‘Big Three’ has ended. Alcaraz’s victory not only signals a promising start for a young champion’s career, but perhaps also a new era of greatness in men’s tennis.

thevarsity.ca/section/sports

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 19

University food cheat codes

Quick and easy meals to keep you on the university grind Vegetables are a key part of a balanced diet.

COURTESY OF JONATHON BORBA/CC UNSPLASH

Dalainey Gervais Varsity Contributor

As the fall semester continues, students are looking for quick and easy ways to meet their daily calorie requirement, whether it’s through a meal plan or a home-cooked meal. Meal prepping can be hard when you have a full course load and extracurriculars to think about. Here are some quick and easy meals to keep you on track this academic year.

You know what they say: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. According to a study on breakfast consumption in adolescents and young adults, skipping breakfast can lead to dietary inadequacies, which can rarely be caught up on through other meals. Reflecting on my undergraduate life, skipping breakfast was common practice!

Rolling out of bed and running to the bus seemed like a higher priority than taking the time to make myself a nutritious breakfast.

For someone interested in some light meal prepping in the morning, overnight oats are a great and simple way for a grab-and-go lifestyle. With a base of oats and milk, overnight oats are easy to personalize to any taste preferences. They can be eaten cold from the fridge or zapped in the microwave. If you’re not a big fan of oats, egg sandwiches are a low cost, low effort alternative for a student who has a few extra minutes to spare.

Toast, a fried egg, and some cheese is all you need for a satisfying, protein-filled breakfast.

Lunch is a challenge for students, especially those without a meal plan who spend all day on campus. Thinking about what will remain intact in your bag is enough for a student to decide to skip

lunch all together. Wraps make simple lunches that are easy to eat discreetly in the back of a lecture hall or while walking to the library for an intense study session. Also a low-cost option, wraps are a great way for students to fit in fresh vegetables that are often neglected in the university-lifestyle diet.

For students in need of a heartier lunch, Buddha bowls can be stuffed full of veggies, protein, and grains. While they tend to look aesthetic online, I simply throw leftover roasted vegetables and rice into a bowl and call it a day. If you are feeling fancy, add some salted nuts and dried fruits to step up your bowl.

After coming home from a long day of classes or work, nobody wants to take an hour to prepare their dinner. Easy meal tips and tricks are constantly trending on TikTok, but instant ramen hacks have been the star of the show. Upgrading the fan-favourite instant ramen with a soft-boiled egg, mushroom, and green onions is an affordable way to step up your late-night dinner.

For students with more energy, sheet-pan meals are a great way to have a satisfying meal after a long day. The simplest way to cook sheet-pan meals starts with choosing your favourite veggies and protein, drizzling with oil, seasoning to taste, and roasting in the oven until the protein is cooked through and the vegetables are soft. Another positive aspect of this meal: it makes great leftovers!

While we have all been in a grab-and-go situation, this year is the time for change. Whether you are a meal prepper or an on-the-go soul, there are options out there for you to have fulfilling and nutrient-filled meals that are low effort and low cost.

Check out the quick and easy meal suggestions above to level up your foodie lifestyle.

Boom, bust, sleeper What is fantasy football, and why the hype?

Andrew J Stephen Varsity Contributor

The 2022 season of the NFL is in full swing.

Accompanying this new football season is, of course, every fan’s favourite pastime: fantasy football. Although fantasy football memes seem to devour the social media feeds of football fans every year, many fans are still unfamiliar with the activity and miss out on this essential component of football culture.

So what is fantasy football and how does it work? Many fantasy football apps are available in Canada, some of the most popular being NFL Fantasy, ESPN Fantasy Sports, and

Yahoo! Fantasy Football.

The sizes of leagues vary, but they tend to consist of around 10 teams who all partake in the same 17-game competition. Each league starts with a draft, the objective being to assemble a team that typically consists of eight skill position players from various NFL teams — one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, and one kicker — as well as the defense of an entire team, for example, the Buffalo Bills’ defense.

There are typically two types of drafts: straight drafts, with an identical selection order for each team every round of the draft, or a snake draft, which is a more impartial option.

In a snake draft, the order of player selection varies every round to prevent teams at lower positions in the draft from missing out on key players. This is a good thing, considering there is nothing more insufferable than having to settle for Sam Darnold as your team’s quarterback.

The hope by the end of the draft is that you have successfully assembled a team that will be able to garner enough points to dominate each of your weeks’ games. The points systems of leagues vary; however, all systems of earning points rely on statistics from the live NFL games. From these games, in-game statistics of individual offensive players in differ-

JESSICA LAM/THE VARSITY

ent skill positions and the entire defense of one team are used to calculate points for the fantasy football team. These in-game statistics include things like touchdowns made, yards ran, and field goals scored by the players in the game.

Team owners then face off against each other in a round-robin, where each owner plays a different team every week. The finale of every fantasy league is the fantasy playoffs during the final few weeks of the NFL regular season, with the fantasy champion crowned at the end of the regular season.

For many, fantasy football is no joke, with an entire market of fantasy experts and analysts capitalizing on the craze. Team owners tend to use in-app and external advice on platforms to find the best players to draft and strategies that both self-proclaimed expert fans and professional sports analysts stand by.

But why is fantasy football taken so seriously? The answer is simple: many users choose to join leagues with rewards from the platform like ESPN’s sweepstakes, as well as unofficial wagers between players. Despite some legal grey areas in Canada regarding whether fantasy football is considered gambling, fantasy football and sports betting seem to go hand in hand with companies like DraftKings, where fans have the option to bet and compete in fantasy at the same time.

Nevertheless, fantasy football is a game of skill, requiring time and emotional investment.

This investment is well worth it for most, as the added stake in real NFL games makes fantasy football more enjoyable and exciting. Coming from a New York Giants fan, this is especially the case when the NFL team you support has produced lacklustre football in recent years.

So gather your football-watching friends or venture alone, because whether you’re a die-hard football fan who won’t settle for just watching, or a casual viewer pursuing some additional skin in the game, fantasy football is undoubtedly one of the best ways to get more immersed in this year’s NFL season.

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THE VARSITY

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

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Like to dance, keep fit and meet new people?

Why not join the

Scottish Dancing Young Adult Group

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Beginner class Thursdays at 7:30 near U of T at St Thomas's Anglican Church, 383 Huron Street.

No partner nor Scottish heritage needed.

Contact: erica.degannes@gmail.com Class details: dancescottish.ca/ youngadults.html

TIFF RED CARPET

ALEXA DIFRANCESCO, MAYA MORRISWALA, MEKHI QUARSHIE