January 19, 2012 (12 Pages)

DON’T PUT THAT ON TWITTER SINCE 1918

U

January 19, 2012 | VOL. XCIII ISS. XXXII

LEADING THE WAY P8 UBC’s annual Student Leadership Conference pumps up the people

THE UBYSSEY

SYNC OR SWIM

UBC’s synchronized swimming team is hosting the western championships and going to nationals P3

Permanent

ART COLLECTION The AMS wants to sell three of their valuable paintings. Will you let them?

P8

AFFLICTIONS

AND

DEPARTURES

WITH MADELINE

SONIK Experimental and completely undefinable, Sonik’s memoir is a work of art

P6

2 | Page 2 | 01.19.2012

What’s on 19 THU

This week, may we suggest...

Our Campus

One on one with the people who make UBC

ELECTIONS>>

AMS elections mix and mingle: 4-8pm @ Gage Your chance to meet the candidates running for positions in the AMS. Try getting them to explain all those fluffy words they’re tossing at you. Free food and beverages.

Chilled out: AJ Koehn says, “You can tell how stressed out I am by how high on my head my bun is.”

20 FRI

22 SUN

PARTY >>

DANCE >>

Presidential profile: AJ Koehn

Sikiliza Afro-Fusion Party: 8pm @ Abdul Ladha

Will McDonald

An Afro-fusion cultural celebration marking the end of Africa Awareness Initiative Conference Week with performances and a DJ mixing African music. Dance!

Imbibe!

Alyssa Koehn is “unfortunately” from Edmonton and came to UBC out of a desire to get away from home, as well as to enjoy the ski slopes.

“I love British Columbia and that was more the driving factor than the school itself…I’m a big skier so Whistler was also a bit of a draw…It was a lot based on the location.”

Koehn is a fifth-year Arts student double-majoring in political science and geography. She hopes to study architecture after she graduates. Koehn has been involved with the AMS since her second year at UBC. Her interest in the organization was sparked in her first year, when a student campaigning for president wearing a pink cowboy hat gave her a lollipop.

When that candidate (20082009 president Michael Duncan)

21 SAT

SPORTS >>

Synchronized Swimming Western Championships: 1-4:30pm @ Aquatic Centre Grace. Power. The ability to breathe underwater? We wouldn’t be surprised if the women of UBC synchro possesed superhuman powers. Admission is free.

23 MON

Staff Writer

UBC Dance Horizons’ Free Week: Jan 22-28 Want to dance? Come to Dance Horizons’ free week! With classes ranging from breaking to ballet, this is a week you don’t want to miss! For class times and more information, please visit their website, www.ubcdancehorizons.org.

ELECTIONS >> President, VP Admin and VP Finance debate: 6-9pm @ Vanier We really don’t want morons running the AMS, handling its finances and building the new SUB, do we? Stop by Vanier and give ‘em a real grilling.

U

Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to printeditor@ubyssey.ca.

THE UBYSSEY January 19, 2012, Volume XCIII, Issue XXXIII

EDITORIAL

Coordinating Editor Justin McElroy

coordinating@ubyssey.ca

Managing Editor, Print Jonny Wakefield printeditor@ubyssey.ca

Managing Editor, Web Arshy Mann webeditor@ubyssey.ca

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Video Editor David Marino

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Senior Web Writer Andrew Bates abates@ubyssey.ca

Graphics Assistant Indiana Joel

Culture Editor Ginny Monaco

culture@ubyssey.ca

Senior Culture Writers Will Johnson wjohnson@ubyssey.ca

Sports Editor Drake Fenton

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Features Editor Brian Platt

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LEGAL

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CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY

won the election, she started to follow AMS politics.

“I started to pay attention to the AMS and that was the first time I got involved in Firstweek and kind of watched his presidency.

“I think that [the AMS] is an under-appreciated part of campus by a lot of people, and I’d love to make it relevant again…It was mostly that lollipop, though.”

Koehn has served on the UBC Senate, led this year’s Student Leadership Conference, been a residence advisor, worked for UBC Rec and led last year’s fee increase referendum. The list goes on.

“I’m sort of known for being over-involved in everything,” she said. “I kind of float in and out of things that interest me. I’ve always been on the verge of being super involved with the AMS…I’ve always been just a step away—a half-step away—from being a hack.”

Koehn has spent her entire time at UBC living on campus, starting in

Totem Park. “Probably the coolest thing that ever happened to me was moving into Totem Park,” she said.

Since then she has had a very campus-centric existence. She says it’s a shame students can’t invest more time in campus life.

“There are so many opportunities and I don’t understand the people that don’t get involved in them, and so I have a pretty hard time saying no to anything because I want every experience.”

Her super-involved status sometimes leaves her frazzled.

Oftentimes her hairstyle is a testament to her busy schedule.

“You can tell how stressed out I am by how high on my head my bun is.”

Koehn said she is more passionate than most people know.

“I have a lot of heart and I come off as sarcastic and bitter a lot, but it’s just hiding the amount of love that I have, because I don’t know if everyone can handle my passion.” U

News

01.19.2012 |

3

Editors: Kalyeena Makortoff & Micki Cowan

PARKING >>

New parking rules near campus could lead to fines and towed vehicles Maitrayee Dhaka Contributor

Have a secret parking spot in UBC’s residential area? Do not pass go, do not collect $200—and expect to have your car towed.

An interim set of parking rules, implemented by the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA), are in effect on campus as of this month. Now only passholding residents can park in the neighbourhoods.

“We have never been able to

enforce the previous parking rules.

Through many different strategies that were tried over the past seven and a half years, none of them could be enforced,” said Glendon Scott, operations manager of the UNA. “Students and non-residents had learned over time that they could park for free...that we had no power.

They ignored them,” he said. “Now the Ministry is able to invigilate and have some consequence.” Offcampus towing of vehicles begins January 23.

Patrolling commissioners, hired

by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, will issue warnings and off-campus towing for vehicles on inner roads, while roads that bound the university will be patrolled by UBC. Margaret Eckenfelder, acting director of UBC’s Transportation Planning, noted in an email that limiting parking is part of the land and transportation plan at UBC. The focus is on shifting travel to campus from single occupancy vehicles to other modes, such as transit, cycling and car sharing, citing UBC’s

support of the U-Pass BC program.

“UBC actively discourages students, faculty and staff from parking in neighbouring residential communities, whether on or off-campus, and hope our students will respect their neighbours by using the affordable transportation options available to them,” said Eckenfelder.

At least one student, third-year Arts student Danielle Norman, doesn’t think the changes will affect many students. “I think the people who are using the residential spots might park a little further

AMS ELECTIONS >>

Students choose fate of art and lodge Kalyeena Makortoff News Editor

Four referendum questions will be put forward during the AMS elections this year, and while the student union is pushing a “yes” campaign for each, some students may not be willing to follow Council’s advice.

Two referendum questions in particular have drawn opposition— one to sell the Whistler Lodge, and the other to sell three pieces of the AMS’s Permanent Art Collection.

A third referendum question asks to decrease the Student Spaces Fund fee by $3.88 while adding a $1 fee to fund the UBC Ombuds offices, leading to an overall decrease of $2.88 in AMS fees. A fourth question asks to entrench the rules of the AMS Endowment Fund as a bylaw, which will mean that any withdrawals by Council from the fund will require permission through referendum.

Whistler Lodge: money drain or student service?

The AMS has said that the Whistler Lodge is losing too much money in upkeep and renovation costs.

“The Whistler Lodge opened in the 60s, it’s nearly 50 years old now. The facility wasn’t exactly professionally built...it’s a difficult building to maintain,” said AMS President Jeremy McElroy.

“In the last five years we’ve spent $500,000 on renovations.

To make it viable and competitive we’re probably going to have to put at least $1 million if not $2 million over the next four to five years into the building in order to keep it at a moderate operating level.”

However, UBC Ski and Board Club members are not convinced that financial loss justifies selling the lodge altogether.

“This is an unique service that the AMS runs and I think that’s a really crucial selling point for why we should keep the lodge around,” said Rosy Neale, vice-president of the UBC Ski and Board Club.

“I don’t want it to be a huge financial loss to them, but I also want them to remember that there are many things that many clubs do that lose money, but they do it for their members and that’s why it’s important.”

But the AMS said that instead of money being locked up in the property, revenue from the lodge can benefit more students if it’s put into the AMS Endowment Fund.

According to a presentation by VP Finance Elin Tayyar at the January 11 Council meeting, the income from the endowment could even fund student housing projects.

from campus and then take the bus from there,” she said. “But for most people who are already paying for parking, I don’t think it’s going to affect them at all.”

Scott noted that only students who are residents can park for free in the residential areas, as long as they have the required decal.

But according to Scott, the number of people who have applied for the decals since the change are not as high as the UNA expected. “We don’t know what happens on towing day, which is January 23.” U LEADERSHIP >>

SLC brings record student crowds

CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY

Tanner Bokor Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL KINGSMILL AND UBC

The Whistler Lodge (left) and Jean-Paul Lemieux’s Jeune Fille en uniforme 1957 (right).

“If we want to promote winter sports and an appreciation for the outdoors, we can do it much better locally without putting a lot of money into this lodge,” said McElroy.

Despite what the AMS cites as minimal usage of the lodge, Neale said it’s not about numbers, but unique services.

“Of all the services that the AMS funds, this is one of the services that many students pay for and few students use,” admitted Neale, “but it’s certainly not the only one...

You could make that argument for many, many other [AMS] services.”

McElroy said if people are adamant about saving the lodge, they should be ready to do the groundwork—start staying at the lodge, and organizing more trips.

When asked if the UBC Ski and Board Club would be willing to take a greater responsibility with the lodge, Neale said that were it to come down to it, the club would likely step up, either financially or in terms of organization and advertising. But for now, they say they plan to “rally the troops.”

“If we can get 500 people to show up to one of our beer gardens,” said Neale, “I’m sure we can get 500 people to vote in this referendum.”

The AMS Permanent Art Collection: what’s on sale?

The AMS is also looking to sell three pieces of its art collection to help balance the books, but students will not be told which pieces their student union is planning to part with.

The question reads that the decision will be up to AMS Council.

However, Dylan Callow, who was on Council last year and now works as VP Academic for the Commerce Undergraduate Society, said that the AMS already has an idea of what pieces they would be interested in selling.

“If I tell you that this one piece of art is worth $500,000 and I say that we can do a lot more work with it in the bank earning us interest than in our art gallery, does it matter what the piece is? It doesn’t matter what the art works are, they’re costing us money and not benefiting anyone and that money could be much better spent,” he said.

But Callow also said it may make a difference to some students if they knew which pieces were at stake.

The AMS Permanent Art Collection includes pieces from renowned Canadian artists, including E.J. Hughes and John Paul Lemieux, as well as Group of Seven artists A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris. At auction, all of these artists have sold paintings at upwards of $1 million.

According to Executive Committee meeting minutes from November 21, 2011, the executive is interested in selling an E.J. Hughes piece, which is currently valued the most expensive of the collection.

“I don’t see them giving that type of information in order to convince students, because if students knew that these kinds of paintings were in the art gallery, maybe they would be a little more concerned about what’s going on,” Callow said.

Many of the pieces in the

collection are donations, and only the ones that have been purchased can be sold, McElroy said.

But the AMS is pushing a “yes” campaign for the referendum question, arguing that they are currently paying $9000 annually in insurance for the pieces, that they aren’t displayed very often as they require higher security, and the assets make the AMS look far more wealthy than it actually is.

If the art sale passes in referendum, the AMS intends to create an AMS Arts Endowment Fund, similar to their Sustainability Projects Fund, that would help finance arts students’ projects at UBC. Overall, though, Callow said that with the appreciating value of the art in the collection, it’s more of a timing principle. He encourages the AMS to wait.

He also said it’s unlikely that a “no” campaign about the referendum question would have enough momentum or gain enough notice.

But McElroy wants to reassure students that the AMS is launching “yes” campaigns on these two referendum questions for a reason.

“I know it’s a bit confusing to some students, and they might not necessaily understand, but trust that these are sound financial decisions and that this is good for the AMS,” said McElroy. “We’ll actually [be able to] demand a lot more responsibility from the AMS in the future because we’re now going to have this big endowment that is a big responsibility. And we’re going to have to put that money to good use.” U

On Saturday, hundreds of students gathered to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Student Leadership Conference (SLC), a day-long event of lectures and workshops aimed to help students realize their potential as leaders.

The first SLC was held in 2003 and has grown to become one of the largest student-organized conferences in North America. This year, 1280 delegates attended—over 100 more than last year’s count.

This year’s theme was “Breakthrough.” Keynote speakers, including poet Sarah Kay, reflected on what it means to be a leader and how to achieve personal breakthroughs in one’s field.

The SLC was organized by co-chairs Alyssa “AJ” Koehn and Nathan Tippe. Koehn, a fifth-year student and AMS presidential candidate, said that the SLC is an important event for all students.

“This conference highlights the importance of co-curricular involvement to your degree.

“Every time I attended the SLC I always picked up at least one valuable message that helped me grow as a person, and I hope that all 1280 of our delegates can say they did as well,” said Koehn.

The closing keynote speech was given by Neil Pasricha, author of the book series The Book of Awesome and founder of the 1000 Awesome Things blog, which has become an Internet phenomenon since it began in 2008. Pasricha started the blog as a creative outlet after marital issues and the death of a close friend.

His lecture highlighted the “three A’s of Awesome” (Attitude, Awareness and Authenticity) that he believes shapes a leader.

Fifth-year student Lizzy DuGuay was impressed with this year’s SLC. “I think that it was very refreshing.

I think there was a lot of diversity in the presenters and the content really tied together with the theme.” U

4 | News | 01.19.2012 AMS ELECTIONS >>

Elections administrator foibles: a brief history

Looking back at voter fraud, slate-like behaviour and third-party endorsements Laura Rodgers Contributor

The realm of student politics is not known for being polite.

It’s become the rule and not the exception that during every AMS electoral cycle, something goes horribly wrong. Voting systems have been hacked. Candidates have personally attacked one another in the most ruthless possible ways.

And when all-out war breaks out on the campaign trail, it’s up to the elections administrator (EA) to try to keep the peace.

In 2010, a student programmer was paid a small honorarium to design an online ballot to work with the newly-introduced Condorcet system of preferential voting. The ballot had a security flaw, however, which allowed the Internet equivalent of ballot-box stuffing.

A third-party investigation determined that 731 of 6925 online ballots submitted were fraudulent.

Subtracting fake votes from candidates’ totals did affect the results, with Alyssa Koehn only then being elected to Senate (Koehn is now running for AMS president).

The AMS decided to start using a commercially-developed voting system the next year. “We obviously learned our lesson there,” said 2010’s EA, Isabel Ferreras.

The following year, then-president Bijan Ahmadian mounted an

This year’s EA, Carolee Changfoot, hopes to prevent any big problems from arising in the AMS elections.

attack campaign against presidential candidate Jeremy McElroy.

The campaign left 2011 EA Erik MacKinnon (now running for Board of Governors) in a position where he was being urged by some people to discipline a non-candidate.

McElroy and VP External candidate Mitch Wright then started an anonymous website to rebut Ahmadian’s criticisms and promote themselves. Election rules state that candidates cannot campaign

together, however, and when the site’s creators were identified, it was up to MacKinnon to issue a punishment. McElroy had won the race for president, and MacKinnon issued fines to both McElroy and Wright.

Election rules have been altered this year to allow candidates to endorse one another in limited circumstances and to require them to make statements accepting or rejecting any endorsement or support from third parties. However, it remains to

Too much AMS? Come to a news meeting and tell us of the outside world.

Tuesdays at 2. We’re in SUB 24.

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JOSH CURRAN/THE UBYSSEY

be seen how this year’s EA, Carolee Changfoot, will respond to similarly controversial issues this year.

Changfoot believes that the current voting system from Simply Voting, which was also used in 2011, is secure. “This is a company we’re working with that solely focuses on voting and therefore their entire product is the voting system and they would have done many, many tests to make sure there are no bugs or loopholes,” she added.

Third parties could still seriously affect races, pouring in money well above the $500 campaign spending limit. “There’s nothing you can do about it,” said MacKinnon, referring to how little power EAs have over anything not done by the candidates themselves.

“The best way to deal with it would be speaking individually to them, to ask them to stop on a personal level,” said Changfoot.

“There’s nothing really that you can do...You have no control over third party people.”

And if candidate attacks break out on the campaign trail, she plans to take action against them.

“One of the things we really want to prevent is personal attacks in campaigns,” said Changfoot.

“My first reaction would be to speak to [candidates] individually and personally and be like, ‘Please take this down.’”

She then added that if this approach is not effective, then the elections committee will consider stronger measures. The committee has the power to enact punishments such as curtailment of postering, fines against campaign reimbursement cash and even—in the most serious cases—invalidating the result of a race.

But Changfoot’s outlook is confident. “Hopefully, we can prevent big problems from arising.” U

Sports

01.19.2012 |

5

Editor: Drake Fenton

SYNCHRO>>

Contorting in the spotlight: UBC synchro Jasmine Leung Contributor

Metallic swimsuits, moves with names like “torpedo scull” and a soundtrack that runs the gamut from Bollywood to AC/DC—the Aquatic Centre is getting a serious dose of attitude this weekend.

UBC plays host to the Canadian University Synchronized Swimming League (CUSSL) western championships on January 21 at 1pm. Teams from the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Victoria and UBC will compete in solo, duet and team events.

This is the first time the event has been held at UBC and the only time students will have the chance to see all four western teams in competition. For the relatively new AMS club, this is a chance to showcase the sport to a wider community.

“Most people’s idea of synchronized swimming is what they see in Austin Powers and Mona Lisa Smile and those are movies where it’s just women in flowery caps breast stroking through the water,” said Jacqueline Tiplady, president of the UBC Synchronized Swimming Club.

“If they come to our meet, they will see that’s not what it’s like at all. It’s really hard and intense and

ALEXANDRA DOWNING/THE UBYSSEY

UBC’s synchronized swimming team practicing at the UBC Aquatic Centre. UBC is preparing for the Canadian western championships.

I think that will surprise a lot of people.”

There’s a special buzz around this year’s competition because the team is likely to compete in the CUSSL national competition for the first time since 2008. The top four teams in the east and west advance to nationals,

which means that each western university will automatically move on.

However, UBC’s program has historically had troubles with funding.

It has been petitioning to become a varsity sport in order to gain greater support from the university. This year, as the nationals are in Calgary,

the team believes it can afford the trip, which could explain coach and co-founder Stephanie Ellis’s laidback take on the competition.

“It’s fun, really. It’s more of an administrative rule that in order to compete at nationals, you have to have competed at westerns,” said

Ellis. “It’s a good show as well as a competition, particularly if you’re aware the outcome of the competition doesn’t have that much of a bearing on the season, but it’s a really impressive show of both artistry and athleticism.”

The club itself is comprised of just under 20 women with varying levels of experience and talent, although it is open to any men who are interested.

“What I think is one of the coolest things about our club is that we have a novice program,” Tiplady said. “So we do have some people who can join at our age, which is cool because most of the time people join synchro when they’re younger.” There is even a novice division in which UBC competes.

Competing in an underwater sport is not without its perils. Last year, the team battled through snowy practices and even technical malfunctions.

“Last year at westerns, we dove into the water and we couldn’t hear our music under the water. We have underwater speakers so that we can hear the music when we do stuff underwater, but we were the first team to go in our category last year so there was a problem with the music, so we had to do the whole routine with no music underwater,” said Tiplady.

“But we still managed to beat UVic.” U

Culture

01.19.2012 |

6

Editor: Ginny Monaco

THEATRE>>

Craigslist musical offers a fantastic casual encounter Catherine Guan Staff Writer

With offers ranging from casual encounters to household appliances, psychic services to broken time machines, Craigslist has become a global flea market.

With the tagline “Your personal ads set to music,” modern musical Do You Want What I Have Got: A Craigslist Cantata is set to premiere at the Arts Club as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Refracted through the lens of online communications, this collaboration between indie composer Veda Hille and CBC Radio’s Bill Richardson examines the curious desires of humanity.

Hille recalled, “I remember very clearly the coffee date we had and I said, what do you think we should do? And he suggested Craigslist, and it immediately seemed like the right thing.

“And I think I said right away, we’ll call it Do You Want What I Have Got. It’s such a rich find, you know, there is so much going on there and the language is so great.”

“Every time I mention to someone that I’m working on a musical based on Craigslist, their eyes kind of light up,” director Amiel Gladstone added. “I think there is something about the idea that really appeals to people.”

Now a veritable cultural meme, Hille feels the site serves an

COURTESY OF PUSH

Bill Richardson and Veda Hille have been working on Do You Want What I Have Got? for over three years. It premieres next week.

old-fashioned function with a “community ethos.”

“I’ve likened it to a great yard sale, or even more of a small town setting—the coffee shop after church every Sunday where everyone is just kind of hanging out, seeing what they can do for each other.”

Originally presented as a part of

PuSh’s 20 Minute Musicals, Hille and lyricist Richardson have been expanding the piece into a fulllength production over the past three years.

The most memorable posts Hille encountered during research?

Decapitated dolls. “The text is from a woman in Washington and she says, my daughter likes to pull the

head off dolls. The therapist says we should let her, so we do. We have lots of headless dolls. Free to a good home.”

Hille continued, “I had just had a baby and I think I was particularly drawn to the sad mother feeling.

And it just seemed so beautiful as a little aria. I heard it immediately in my head, so that was the first thing

I wrote.”

She has since been working on new songs for this premiere.

“There is a very new one that I’m quite fond of which is based on Steve Jobs’ obituary from his sister Mona in the New York Times; his last words were, ‘Oh well, oh well, oh well.’ So we wrote a lovely little hymn in memory of Steve.”

For Gladstone, the challenge has been finding a way to represent the online world onstage. “During the workshop process, we realized that in some ways it was about the people writing the ads and respondingto the ads and reading the ads, and less about, you know, the stuff.”

A strong cast of four performers helped to complete the production.

“That was key, finding people who can sing the hell out of these songs who will also be able to act,” said Gladstone.

The expanded show is a cantata with 35 numbers, the “Missed Connections” song being one of its highlights. Hille explained, “[The song] is a whole list of I-saw-you’s, and that’s such an evocative part of Craigslist, where people are sure they saw the love of their life and they didn’t talk to them and feel like they missed something.”

While serving up side-splitting laughter, the show, according to Gladstone, “is ultimately about loneliness and longing and things that are a bit more poignant, that are a bit more heartfelt and human.” U

WRITERS>>

UBC grad Madeline Sonik nominated for non-fiction prize Will Johnson Senior Culture Writer

Madeline Sonik didn’t want to write an ordinary memoir.

Her book Afflictions & Departures is intentionally experimental, and marries a journalistic style with fictional techniques. But once it was completed, she found people weren’t sure what do with it.

“What I heard over and over was, ‘This is great, we love it, the writing is beautiful,’” said Sonik. “But then they’d say, ‘What is it?’”

Sonik struggled to find a publisher for her manuscript, though many of the essays contained within had already been published elsewhere and had won awards. Publishers repeatedly told her that audiences weren’t interested in the essay form.

She begged to differ.

Then she hooked up with Anvil Press, and now her book has become one of the most successful non-fiction books this year.

Afflictions & Departures was recently nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize, and has now been shortlisted for the Charles Taylor Non-fiction Prize, which could win her $25,000. Sonik is competing against four other books, with topics as wide-ranging as Mount Everest, tree planting and chimpanzees.

“I was so pleased because I could tell the jury got it. They saw what I was trying to do,” said Sonik.

Afflictions & Departures marks the first time Sonik has published a book of essays, after a short story collection, a children’s book and

some poetry.

Many of the short pieces explore her experiences growing up in the 1950s and 60s. Born in Detroit, Sonik lived in Cleveland and Windsor, Ontario. Her father died of cancer when she was 14, and she moved to England.

After parting ways with her mother, Sonik lived in a variety of places before pursuing her education in Canada. Her tumultuous childhood gave her lots of material for the essays she would one day write.

“I wrote the first essay in the collection when I was an MFA student at UBC. I spoke with my creative non-fiction teacher, Andreas Schroeder, and he told me that constructing a collection of essays was like building a house.

“His saying this made me conceive of the various essays I envisioned as different rooms, with different personality and decor and style, yet at the same time, cogent in proportion and form. Over the next ten years, I built this house, room by room, always considering the larger structure.”

Sonik said writing about her experiences has been illuminating, and has dredged up realizations about her past. “I didn’t realize until I’d written these essays how very bound I’d been to my father, or how I’d inculcated society’s notions of female inferiority at a young age.

“When you put a lived experience down on the page as objectively as you possibly can and then read it back, it’s amazing what’s suddenly shown to you,” she said. U

Opinion

01.19.2012 |

7

Editor: Brian Platt

The more election madness, the better Editor’s Notebook Brian Platt

DAVID MARINO/ THE UBYSSEY

The Last Word Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues If you want to sell artwork, you have to sell the referendum Next week the AMS will have four referendum questions on the ballot, including one that asks students for permission to sell three pieces of art from the permanent collection.

There is a reasonable case to be made why some of the artwork should be sold. A few of the pieces, such as the ones by Group of Seven artists, are very valuable, but the AMS can’t afford to store them properly or provide the level of security needed to display them. These concerns are wellfounded, given that the Museum of Anthropology had 15 works of art stolen in 2008.

What the AMS is planning to do makes sense: instead of having the artwork sit unseen in a poorly-built storage area, it could be sold to a collector who will give it proper treatment. The proceeds would go toward an endowment fund that will fund services for students and help keep the AMS out of structural deficits.

Yet the AMS is shooting itself in the foot. It won’t say what paintings will be sold, which is something that students have the right to know before they vote yes. In fact, there has been almost no groundwork laid at all for a “yes” campaign—and the vote is next week. Is the AMS really expecting students to vote in favour of selling artwork worth over $100,000 based only on seeing a yes/ no question on the ballot?

Selling some artwork seems to be a sound financial decision for the AMS, but by failing to communicate this to students, the AMS is in danger of having the whole thing spoiled.

Two weeks is not enough time to run proper elections For this year’s AMS elections, as with the previous two, there is only one week of campaigning before the voting starts. Why does anyone

think this is a good idea? The first official debate is Thursday—only one school day before the ballot boxes open!

The AMS really should go back to having two weeks of pre-vote campaigning. They did this in 2009, and lo and behold, the turnout was up.

Compounding the problem of this year’s crammed elections schedule is that almost all the candidates were very slow out of the gate. Poster boards are still sparsely adorned, many candidates still don’t have websites, and Facebook events—which take literally ten minutes to make—only started to appear mid-week.

If turnout is low for this election, the candidates can bear some of the blame, but the primary culprit will be the rushed nature of it all. Next year, give us a three-week elections period.

Will the nerdy film store clerks please stand up?

Last year, Videomatica, the cult video store in Kitsilano, was forced to close. This bad news inspired a campaign to save the film collection, valued around $1.7 million.

On Monday, UBC announced that it would acquire a significant part of Videomatica’s collection of 35,000+ DVD, Blu-ray and VHS titles. The remaining titles, around 5000 documentaries, will be housed at SFU. This is a significant investment for the university and good news for students. UBC contributed $200,000 to the purchase and Videomatica donated over $1.45 million worth of materials. The collection will be available for borrowing in 2013. Non-community members can access the films with a borrowing card.

Yet it will require more investment from the university and students in order to take advantage of this new resource. It’s great that the collection was able to stay more or less together, but the loss of

Videomatica’s dedicated staff will make that collection less accessible.

The store served niche markets and many titles are largely unknown to audiences.

Here’s hoping that the UBC Film Society, or perhaps professors from the film department, will take up the torch of encouraging a less knowledgeable audience to watch the hidden gems in the collection.

Otherwise, UBC’s new bounty of film will sit unseen in a basement somewhere, collecting cobwebs— you know, kind of like the AMS’s art collection.

UNA parking problem comes from poor planning The issue of parking in residential areas on campus is interesting— and not just for the combination of Byzantine regulations with a lack of authority that turns any UNA decision into a comic farce more commonly seen in Florida retirement complexes.

What’s come out of this debate within the UNA is that there’s too much demand and not nearly enough supply.

Over the past 20 years, the biggest changes in the landscape of this campus have been the addition of thousands of units of market housing and the removal of parking lots and parkades. In other words, thousands more permanent residents but thousands of fewer places to park their cars.

This is fine if you’re a student who can’t afford a car and has a cheap U-Pass. But if you’ve paid millions of dollars to live here, you probably want the ability to have some friends over without forcing them to park 20 minutes away.

We don’t want more cars on campus, but we can understand why the UNA feels this way. We also can’t help but notice that this is another situation that wouldn’t arise if local residents had longterm control over planning decisions. U

Whenever a student union election is underway, the question arises of how seriously we should treat it.

The reason that question arises is because there are always a few stern-faced observers wagging their fingers at everyone else, saying things like, “The candidates are behaving shamefully!” and “Why can’t we focus on policy?” and “This is why turnout is so low!”

The high-minded scolders say these things because student union elections are always filled with joke candidates, pranks, personal attacks and anonymous slander (this year we already have an anonymous blog devoted to mocking Sean Cregten’s Kiwi heritage through poorly-doctored photos.) In turn, the student media eggs this on by paying so much attention to it.

Thus, the scolders say, student politics is a joke to most students and that’s why turnout and engagement is so low.

But that whole narrative is wrong, and also annoying. For one thing, a huge number of UBC students just want to attend classes and hang out with friends. They don’t notice when candidates do silly things, because they aren’t paying attention anyway. Nothing you do is going to make them give a rat’s ass about the student union. Sorry.

But I, for one, love the ridiculous stunts and plotlines that pop up during elections. And it’s not like they’re unique to student politics— just look at the Republican race!

To be a good politician means you have to be able to handle the crazy things that happen during a campaign better than your opponents. This is part of the test. If you

can’t handle it, you probably won’t be very good in office either, where you’ll be faced with all kinds of crazy things and asked to deal with them reasonably.

But what sets a student union election apart is also what makes it more enjoyable: most of this is done with a sense of humour. We have joke candidates who run on platforms of glitter and beer. We have blogs that Photoshop the hell out of everything and bring in internet memes. We have election events that are basically just excuses to drink cheap alcohol and dance.

Not all of the elections madness is going to be friendly, but that’s okay.

If you can’t take a punch, politics isn’t right for you anyway.

When the shenanigans turn really mean-spirited, as they did last year, it doesn’t single out student politics; it just makes them the exact same as every other kind of politics in the world. Nobody wants that to happen, or at least shouldn’t.

Here’s the thing: the zaniness isn’t just inevitable, it’s necessary! It’s what gives student politics some flavour. Without it, it’s just a bunch of folks running for relatively mundane positions where most of their work will take place behind the scenes.

None of this is to say that student politics doesn’t matter. The AMS is a huge organization responsible for millions of dollars and hundreds of employees. We want qualified and intelligent people to win—but again, part of being a good politician is getting above the fray, or at least managing it in a decent way.

So bring it on, I say. Attack each other, draw up posters and pamphlets, tease the joke candidates and mock the serious candidates who deserve it. But do it all with a smile, and keep things in perspective. You only get to be a student politician for so long, and then you move on from campus and the world becomes a lot less fun. U

Keep Whistler Lodge Letters In this year’s elections, the referendum question regarding the sale of the AMS Whistler Lodge has already created a wedge between AMS executives and the student body.

Yes, the AMS Whistler Lodge has contributed substantially to the AMS debt in the last five years due to much-needed renovation for the 42 bed hostel and the high rate of vacancy throughout the year.

But what comes as shocking to the student body and the UBC Ski and Board Club (UBC SNB) is the rash decision by the AMS Council to sell the historic lodge now, without first disclosing to the student body the thin thread by which the fate of the lodge was hanging on.

The UBC SNB Club, which promotes the use of the lodge to our members every year as the main accommodation option for students in Whistler, is skeptical of the notion of the AMS finding the same sort of accommodation for UBC students if the sale of the lodge goes through.

For decades, the AMS Whistler Lodge has provided students and travelers alike with safe, affordable accommodation in a

commercially-exploited Whistler.

The lodge has also provided students unable to head home for the school breaks—international students in particular—with a place to spend the holidays with friends and fellow students in a lodge equipped with dining and lounge areas plus a hot tub and sauna.

For years the AMS has prided themselves in having a property in Whistler for the disposal of the ski and snowboard-loving students at UBC, and have not previously mentioned any considerations of selling the lodge to the students who use and benefit from its existence. The lodge is one of the oldest and most valued services offered by the AMS, and a referendum question deciding its fate should not be taken lightly.

More innovative initiatives to increase the lodge’s usage and vitality need to be taken by the AMS and clubs like us before deciding to sell the Whistler Lodge. The lodge is a tangible asset and a great example of our student fees at use. It is our club’s hope that the UBC student community, both snow-interested and not, will vote a resounding no to sell the AMS Whistler Lodge.

–Charlott Sandor Johansen President of the UBC Ski and Board Club