February 23, 2015

FEBRUARY 23, 2015 | VOLUME XCVI | ISSUE XLI POO SUSAN SINCE 1918

SOUPER BOWL

BOG DISAPPOINTMENT

Sprouts and the Pottery Club have their annual charity event this week.

IAmAStudent not surprised that voices and concerns of students largely unheard.

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THE TO

SEMI FINALS

After a quick jump to a 2-0 lead, the ‘Birds walked away with a 3-1 win and will face either Calgary or Alberta in the upcoming best-of-three semifinals.

Q U A N T U M M AT E R I A L S

UBC preparing proposal to receive annual multi-million dollar funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS, PEOPLE + CAMPUS

EVENTS MONDAY

OUR CAMPUS

THIS WEEK, CHECK OUT ...

2

ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE AND BUILDINGS THAT MAKE UBC

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UBC COMPOSERS’ CONCERTS

12:00 - 1:00 P.M. @ BARNETT HALL (MUSIC BUILDING)

This concert will feature music composed and performed by UBC students.

Come see some of the best that the School of Music has to offer. Free

WEDNESDAY

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ISA OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING FAIR

Gage Averill has been Dean of the Faculty of Arts since 2010.

Didn’t get into rez for next year? The International Students Association is here to tell you just about everything you need to know about living in the big city (or in Marpole). There will be free pizza! Free

Dean of Arts Gage Averill is a musician at heart

PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

4:00 - 6:30 P.M. @ TOTEM PARK BALLROOM

WEDNESDAY

Leo Soh Senior Staff Writer

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JAMNESTY 2.0

SIGN UP AT 7:30 P.M. @ BENNY’S BAGELS (2505 WEST BROADWAY)

The dynamic duo of Blank Vinyl Project and Amnesty UBC have joined forces to raise funds with this open mic night. Come enjoy $4 beers, support a good cause and listen to the performances of your fellow students. Free; all ages

ON THE COVER Three games of home playoff hockey made for lots of great shots.

- Will McDonald

Want to see your events listed here?

Email your events listings to ourcampus@ubyssey.ca.

U THE UBYSSEY EDITORIAL

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FEBRUARY 23, 2015 | VOLUME XCVI | ISSUE XLI BUSINESS

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Arts Dean Gage Averill is the embodiment of the faculty he oversees: the varied spectrum of post-secondary study, accepting culture and global vision and some of the defining characteristics of the Faculty of Arts, have all had a significant impact on Averill’s life.

Born in Connecticut, Averill spent his childhood years on a game farm in Duchess County, New York. After his parents’ divorce, Averill was enrolled in high school in the northern New York City suburb of Scarsdale.

Following his graduation, Averill found himself at a crossroads.

“I had these two interests: one was environment and ecology, and the other was arts, mostly theatre and some music,” he said.

Averill felt he had to choose one or the other, and said that the latter “scared me a little bit. The periodicity of [theatre] scared me — the cycles of productions.” So Averill chose to pursue Forestry at the University of Wisconsin.

Although Averill advanced with his career and was hired by the Wisconsin Environmental Awareness centre in 1972, he soon became disillusioned with the industry.

“I was really exposed to all that was going on at the time in feminism, gay and lesbian rights and Native American support,” Averill said. “I think I became a little frustrated with what I was doing in school, and I dropped out to become an activist, community organizer and hopefully a musician.”

Averill began playing music at rallies in a politically motivated Irish band. He firmly believed that music played a critical role in social movements, and that it had the power to change people’s lives. He also hosted a world music radio show and ran music festivals. “I was intrigued by the idea of somehow organizing my life around music,” said Averill.

This was no easy feat, however, and in the process of prioritizing music, Averill supported himself by working odd jobs — including driving tractors and school busses — until a back injury put him

out of that line of work. Luckily, the University of Washington was experiencing a shortfall of students, and Averill was able to sign up to an ethnomusicology major. “I didn’t really know what that meant, but it seemed global, relevant to music and I could imagine it being something that could pull together a lot of my interests,” Averill said.

During his time at the University of Washington, Averill became even more involved with music. He was offered the opportunity to run the Northwest Folklife Festival, “the biggest folk, traditional, ethnic festival in the US.” In addition to this, Averill played in various musical ensembles. “For a whole decade I did hardly anything that wasn’t musical.”

I think I became a little frustrated with what I was doing in school, and I dropped out to become an activist, community organizer and hopefully a musician.”

Gage Averill Ethnomusicology professor and Dean of UBC Arts

The results of these 10 years were a degree in ethnomusicology and membership in the Mellon Foundation, an organization for the promotion of arts and humanities.

“They really wanted all their fellows to spend five years teaching in universities. I never really thought of myself as a teacher, but I really loved ethnomusicology, and I really thought it was something I could do for the rest of my life.” Averill began working at various universities, first at Columbia, then on the tenure track at Wesleyan. He later moved on to NYU, where he was offered a position as chair of the ethnomusicology department.

During this time, Averill had married a Canadian woman, and promised her that they would move to Canada if the opportunity presented itself. Coincidentally, the Faculty of Music at

the University of Toronto was searching for a new dean, and felt Averill was the right man for the job.

While serving as Dean of Music at UofT, Averill got an offer for his dream job from UBC — Dean of Arts.

“I spent 10 years in Seattle, loved the Pacific Northwest, and really respected UBC from afar. And it was the time of the Olympics, so my family got really excited for that as well. So I came out here to interview for the job,” Averill said.

As dean, his responsibilities are varied. “I continue to do some ethnomusicology, for example, my last project was working on an international database of recordings from Haiti from the 1930s.” He writes small academic pieces such as articles in encyclopedias and chapters in books. Averill is involved in teaching courses, but works mostly as a guest lecturer, as his various other responsibilities concerned with the development and maintenance of the faculty restrain him from instructing a full course.

Averill reflects on the past with a tinge of humour. “It’s an odd history, but it has worked, and I’ve enjoyed it. It also helps me understand students who may not know exactly what they want to do in their third year of undergraduate education, so they don’t have to worry that their dean thinks they’re way behind, because it took me quite a long time to get there.”

“I would hope that [UBC is] a transformative experience for [students], that they would feel they are different people coming out of this and have matured.

Bigger horizons, bigger perspectives,” said Averill. “I would hope they keep alive the kind of optimism and enthusiasm that they brought to the university as they engage with the world.

I hope that they never become passive consumers of whatever’s around them: engage with it, challenge it, love it, hate it, whatever you do, just don’t sit back in a chair and watch the world go by. Keep learning and exploring.” U

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 |

EDITORS JOVANA VRANIC + VERONIKA BONDARENKO

3

RESEARCH >>

Potential federal funding for quantum materials and health data integration research

UBC is vying for major research funding from the federal government this year.

Joshua Azizi Senior Staff Writer

UBC is currently preparing its first proposal to receive annual multi-million dollar funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), a new government organization focusing on improving the research capabilities of Canadian universities.

Although allocation of the funding will not be announced

NEWS BRIEFS Candidates announced for 2015 AMS Elections The candidates for this year’s AMS elections have been confirmed.

Incumbent Tanner Bokor, Science student Senator Aaron Bailey, Feminist Club President Cheneil Antony-Hale and VSEUS Viet Vu running under the name of “V” are vying for presidency.

AUS President Jenna Omassi is running unopposed for VP Academic and University Affairs.

Incumbent Ava Nasiri, Human Resources Director for the Student Leadership Conference Alexander Remtulla and James Jing are running for VP Administration.

The race for VP External is shared by AUS student rep Marjan Hatai, Student Legal Fund Society President Janzen Lee and Associate VP External Jude Crasta.

Current VP Finance Mateusz Miadlikowski is squaring off against CUS VP Student Engagement William Pigott for the VP Finance spot.

Incumbent Harsev Oshan, Julie Van de Valk, Rohan Nuttall, Tanner Bokor and Veronica Knott are running for two spots on the Board of Governors.

Incumbents Aaron Bailey, Anne Kessler, Daniel Munro and Eric Zhao, Gurvir Sangha, Hannah Xiao, Ian Sapollnik, Jenna Omassi, Margareta Dovgal, Marjan Hatai, Niloufar Keshmiri and Viet Vu are running for five Senate spots.

The Student Legal Fund Society race has two slates this year. Carol Dou, Jude Crasta, Kathleen Simpson, Ron Gorodetsky, Bahareh Jokar and Tanner Bokor are running as the Students for Accountability slate. Cameron Sharpe, Janzen Lee, Julius Foo, Lama Al-Awawdeh, Michael Northfield and Nathan Ho are running as the Students For Responsible Leadership.

Voting will begin on March 9. U

until July 2015, UBC hopes to receive $150 million — or about $25 million annually — from the foundation.

“Thanks to this investment by the Government of Canada, our universities have an extraordinary opportunity to foster globally significant research on issues that have the capacity to change people’s lives and shape our future,” said UBC President Arvind Gupta in a media release.

“Excellence in research makes

FILE PHOTO KAI JACOBSEN/THE UBYSSEY

our reputation, and enables us to attract the best faculty, students and staff from around the world.”

Though the proposal is still being finalized, two fields of research that UBC hopes to receive funding for in the proposal are quantum materials and health data integration.

This proposal, due March 2, is the first of two to be submitted to the CFREF. The second proposal will be due on October 30. The first round of funding will award

Canadian universities with up to $350 million across the country, while the second round will award them up to $950 million.

Between the two rounds of proposals, UBC hopes to be able to fund even more areas of research — whether they be technical fields or the humanities — with a much larger-sized donation from the second round of funding.

According to UBC VP Research & International, John Hepburn, the Board of Governors was “enthusiastic” about vying for this funding. “There’s many areas of research excellence that we have on the campus that we will certainly be putting in the second round,” he said.

The CFREF was formed last year by the federal government as a part of Canada’s 2014 Economic Action Plan. The aim of the organization is to increase the capabilities and competitiveness of research-oriented universities throughout Canada, and to generate breakthrough discoveries in research. In total, 1.5 billion will be invested throughout Canadian universities by the organization in the next seven years.

“It’s an interesting program, and it’s something that the UBC presidents have lobbied for; really it’s about being competitive on a world scale,” said Hepburn.

“It’s all about defining what you think you’re excellent at on a global scale and ensuring those areas get support strongly so

that we can compete with the Harvards and the Stanfords of the world.”

The CFREF also requires all universities that apply for funding to create and submit a new university governance system that can drive interdisciplinary research excellence forward.

With this new system, Hepburn believes that UBC will be able to set reasonable targets for research excellence.

“This is a bit bigger than [classical research funding], and therefore requires a bit more complexity in keeping track of what an overall interdisciplinary research group is doing, and making sure they’re successful,” said Hepburn.

At this point, it is undetermined which research programs will receive funding, and how much will be awarded to each recipient.

Regardless, Hepburn believes that UBC has very strong odds of getting the funding it’s hoping for.

“UBC gets 10 per cent of the federal research funding handed out to universities and colleges in Canada,” he said. “We expect to get better than 10 per cent of the total funding available from this program, and we’ve done that in the past with other large-scale national programs.”

42 universities across Canada have sent notices of intent for the first round of funding. Most of the major institutions are expected to receive funding. U

MEDICINE >>

Standard operating procedures implemented after past clinical trial shutdowns Sean Sinden Contributor

Participation in medical research comes with inherent risks that must be disclosed to study subjects, especially when that risk is death.

This, among other issues, was the reason behind the cancellation of a UBC clinical trial back in 2002.

The study, conducted between Vancouver General Hospital, UBC and St. Paul’s hospital, was designed to test the effects of two different catheter treatments and two different fluid management protocols in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a life-threatening inflammation of the lungs. The trial was sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and, after being suspended in 2002, was shut down in 2003 by the U.S. Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).

The study was discontinued due to concerns with the protection of subjects participating in the research. A number of issues with the trial were raised in the letter from the OHRP, some more serious than others. Of the more grievous allegations, it was not disclosed to the patients that the actual purpose of the study was to see if there was a change in death rate in those in the different treatment groups. Furthermore, death was not listed as a risk of the research and it was not stated that subjects could have a higher risk of death by participating.

Following further failure to meet OHRP regulations in 2009 and early 2010, UBC changed some of its procedures to better comply with U.S. Department of Health and Human Servi-

UBC is better regulating the procedures of its clinical trials after multiple shutdowns in the past.

ces ethics policies. According to Laurel Evans, director of ethics for Research Services at UBC, the biggest of the changes regarded clarifying patient reporting procedures.

“Our policies and procedures changed very little, as a result of the [OHRP] audit. Most of the issues were around documentation of approval,” said Evans in an email interview. “We did change our SOPs (standard operating procedures) so that the reporting procedures were clearer.”

Evans also said that, through these changes, the ethical review

process has been made more robust.

“We spent millions developing and implementing the RISe on-line system specifically to ensure that we have complete records,” said Evans. “We were the first in the country to have an online system.”

The Research Ethics Board (REB) has been split into several separate entities: behavioural studies now have their own REB and institutional REBs have been formed including those for UBC-O, Children and Women’s Health Centre and the B.C. Cancer Agency.

PHOTO PHALINN OOI/FLICKR

Modifications are made to processes and guidance rules when either the U.S. or Canadian governments make changes and standard operating procedures are reviewed and updated regularly.

“They are never considered final,” said Evans. “They are in the process of being completely re-reviewed right now.”

According to Evans, UBC has not cancelled any studies for not meeting ethics standard, but suspended several while they were sorting out compliance issues since the OHRP audit. U

4 | NEWS |

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

NURSING >>

UNITED NATIONS >>

Canadian government recognizes legacy of UBC Nursing founder Ethel Johns

Retired UBC prof tracks world happiness

Karolina Kapusta

Staff Writer

Last week UBC celebrated the achievements of Ethel Johns, who founded UBC’s Nursing Program and was recently named a Person of National Historical Significance by the Canadian government.

Johns, who was born in England to Welsh parents, first came to Canada in 1888 with her father who worked as a missionary in Ontario.

She graduated from the Winnipeg General Hospital Training School in 1902 and practiced as a nurse in Winnipeg while creating the Manitoba Association of Graduate Nurses. After studying education at Columbia University and working as a superintendent of Winnipeg’s Children’s Hospital, Ethels moved to B.C. in 1919 and took on a dual role as director of Vancouver General Hospital and the new UBC School of Nursing department.

Suzanne H. Campbell, director and associate professor at the UBC School of Nursing, described Johns as a “tenacious, intelligent and capable nurse that did not give up.”

Johns worked at the UBC hospital among male physicians and administrators and demanded that they start a baccalaureate-level nursing program, Canada’s first.

According to Campbell, Johns put the school of nursing in an educational model and recognized that there was a foundational level of science, math, humanities and research that all integrated into a nurse’s education and needed to be taught at the university level.

“The question is not what she did for the UBC School of Nursing but

what she established for the province,” said Campbell.

In large part due to Johns’ advocacy, the department of nursing within the Faculty of Sciences enrolled its first class of students in 1919 and has continued to train nurses ever since.

One of the focal points in her career is the work Johns did on promoting equality between races in nursing.

In 1925, the Rockefeller Foundation offered Johns a job in New York to help develop more nursing schools.

One of her first assignments was to help study the status of African-American women in nursing.

Johns advocated for increased educational and work opportunities for African American nurses, but the foundation did not follow up on her recommendations until the 1980s.

After submitting her report for the study, Johns was sent to Eastern Europe to aid in the development of nursing schools. When she returned in 1933, she continued regulating the nursing profession through writing as the editor for The Canadian Nurse up until 1944.

Driven by her passion for equality and knowledge, Johns continued fighting for more educational opportunities for nurses throughout her life. Campbell said that the commemoration ceremony at Cecil Green Park House was an inspiring moment for both her and many others to continue advocating for more nursing opportunities in B.C. “[Johns] fought the fight for nurses and made UBC proud,” said Campbell. U <em>

</em>

PHOTO KENNETH LU/FLICKR

Professor Emeritus John Helliwell is currently studying happiness levels of people around the world.

Emma Partridge

Staff Writer

How do you know if a nation is happy? According to economics Professor Emiritus John Helliwell, you just ask.

Helliwell, who has spent many years researching happiness and well-being levels of people around the world, is currently working on the 2015 United Nations World Happiness Report. On April 24, he will present the findings of his report to the UN. “The absolute central part of the world happiness report … is that, in fact, we are collecting and responding to people’s own judgments about the quality of their lives,” said Helliwell.

A yearly report that measured world happiness came from a 2011 UN resolution. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing the pursuit of happiness as a fundamental global goal and instructed participating countries to measure the happiness levels of its people.

Helliwell has been involved with both of the reports that have been produced since that time.

“What the world happiness report does that other reports don’t is applying this and its lessons at the global level using comparable, national data,” said Helliwell.

Helliwell and his UN colleagues measure happiness through specific questions. While key factors such as GDP are used to explain the

distribution of happiness around the world, citizens’ own life assessments form the core of the data.

The Cantril Ladder is also a means of assessing happiness by asking individuals to imagine their lives as a ladder. Respondents evaluate their lives on a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being the worst possible life and 10 being the best possible life.

“The measures that everyone pays attention to, and rightly so, are simply the average answers to the Cantril ladder,” said Helliwell.

Emotional states are included in these subjective well-being measurements, with surveys asking questions regarding individuals’ emotional experiences the day before such as ‘did you laugh a lot yesterday?’

“If you’re measuring pain, you ask someone do they feel pain and that’s the only thing that matters,” said Helliwell. “We would say the same thing about happiness, it’s inherently subjective.”

The Happiness Report relies heavily on the Gallup World Poll, which provides the sampling of respondents who answer questions on subjective well-being, with a typical sample size being 3,000 people in each country over three years.

The next step is figuring out how to apply these findings to improve people’s happiness levels.

According to Helliwell, that is the part of the process that needs to be studied more.

“You’re building up a lot of experience once you get the data, then you have to learn more about [what] they mean,” said Helliwell.

“Nonetheless, there are clearly a lot of lessons that have been learned from the science of well-being.” U

MEDICINE >>

Campus clinic encourages sexually active gay men to donate blood

PHOTO NEW JERSEY NATIONAL GUARD/FLICKR

Sexually active gay men have historically been barred from giving blood.

Mateo Ospina

Senior Staff Writer A clinic on campus is hoping to get sexually active gay men to donate their blood for research purposes.

Earlier this week, Canadian Blood Societies’ Network Centre for Applied Development (netCAD) launched a campaign to encourage blood donations from men who have sex with men, a group that is currently unable

to donate blood for transfusions under the Canadian Blood Societies’ regulations.

According to Dana Devine, current chief medical & scientific officer at Canadian Blood Services and founding member of netCAD, this provides the opportunity for groups that have otherwise been discouraged from donating blood to do so.

“It’s an opportunity for people to participate in the blood system

who are normally deferred from the blood that goes to the hospital,” said Devine. netCAD accepts donations from people who would normally be labelled under high-risk donor groups and not be allowed to donate, with the latest campaign focusing particularly on men who have had sex with men in the last five years. Included in the group of people who are not allowed to donate blood are those who have

recently travelled to countries with high rates of blood-transmittable diseases, those who were in England during the time of mad cow disease and men who have sex with men.

Canadian Blood Services first banned blood donations from men who have had sex with men in 1977, when the HIV scare first started dominating public attention. In 2013, the rules changed to allow blood donations from

men who had not had sex with men for at least five years.

Devine said that although all blood that they received is screened for diseases, Canadian Blood Services hopes to eliminate as much risk as possible by only accepting donations from groups that are deemed low-risk.

“The screening tests aren’t perfect,” said Devine.

“In order to ensure the safety of blood for transfusion purposes we use multiple layers of safety.

The first one is the screening questions.”

Blood donated at netCAD will not be used in blood transfusions, but will be used for various types of research across Canada, including research for new blood products and equipment.

“That lab was built by CBS for the specific purpose of being able to do work to get the blood system modernized,” said Devine.

Currently, netCAD is the only research facility in Canada to accept donations from high-risk donors.

According to Devine, there has been a high demand for the blood that they receive at netCad coming from other research institutes and universities. Canadian Blood Services have discussed plans to build another facility in the future, likely in the Toronto area, but these plans have yet to be finalized.

“There’s a lot of things that we could not have easily done for the Canadian blood system without having that lab there,” said Devine. U

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

STUDENTS >>

| NEWS | 5

FOSSIL FUELS >>

Board of Governors delays decision Law student Robert Mason running for MP for NDP on housing fee increases Bill Situ Staff Writer

Veronika Bondarenko News Editor

The Board of Governors met to have the final discussion on the proposed residence fee increases, but held off on passing them.

On Thursday, February 12, the Board heard presentations and provided final statements on the increases, but refrained from voting on them as they wait for Student Housing and Hospitality Services (SHHS) to finish reviewing their accounting procedures.

The motion to pass housing fee increases — a 20 per cent increase in 8-month residence rates followed by two years of three per cent increases, a 2.5 per cent increase for year-round housing followed by a 3.3 per cent increase for each of the three years, and a 2.5 per cent increase in meal plan costs on the Vancouver campus — comes two months after the Board approved a 10 per cent increase to international tuition in December.

Many students vocally opposed the increases, arguing that they would make the cost of living on campus even more unaffordable for students from poor and middle-class backgrounds, ever since they were first proposed by the university in October.

AMS VP Academic Anne Kessler and President of the Residence Hall Associate Kaitlyn Melton gave a presentation in which they argued how the parallels that the university had drawn between Vancouver market rates and housing fees at other Canadian universities were not comparable to UBC. Kessler also said that while the increased funding that the university had said would

Write Shoot Edit Code Drink COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

go towards mental health and counselling services is necessary, it should not come from raising residence fees.

“We fully agree that there’s a dire need for student mental health services on this campus, but some students should not be paying for the needs of all,” said Kessler.

VP Students Louise Cowin said that although they listened to student concerns about the fee increases, a growing demand for student housing and on-campus services means that more money needs to come from SHHS. “I would actually say that the fees that we are proposing are at cost recovery, in so much as this is the cost of providing the residence experience to students,” said Cowin. “Students living in residence, particularly in first year, are buying much more than just the bed or the bed and the bathroom.”

Greg Peet, chair of the Finance and Property Committee, said that while it was difficult to compare market rates between apartments in the city and student housing, they felt that the proposed increases were justified when they considered the increased services that they would be funding.

“While we understand that students would prefer no increases, given the choice of actually having money, we’re pleased of having it go to these purposes,” said Peet.

Peet also recommended that SHHS revise their accounting procedures and look for additional ways to fund mental health services on campus for future years.

The Board is expected to vote on the increases in April. U

U

AN EVENING OF INTRIGUE AND ILLUSION

UBC student Robert Mason will be running for MP this October.

“Harper and Trudeau have both voted against proportional representation,” said Mason.

“Tom Mulcair is the only one of the major leaders who has stood up in favour of [it].”

According to Mason, his studies in law will be a powerful asset to him, since the primary responsibility of an MP is to take part in the making and amending of legislations.

“We’ve seen even in government, [where] they’ve passed bills into law that had errors in them and I think

at

PHOTO COURTESY ROBERT MASON

legal minds are better able to spot those errors,” said Mason.

Still, balancing law school and a growing political career is no easy task. Mason said that while he normally has little to no leisure time, he sees his candidacy as a positive balance between his career and academic aspirations.

“With law school, I have my nose in books,” said Mason. “With the campaign, I’m actually out talking to people, so it’s very different kind of work and I think they complement each other quite a bit.” U

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COPILOT DESIGN

FILE PHOTO GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

The Board of Governors will likely be voting on the housing increases in April.

First-year Law student Robert Mason hopes to make the ballot as an NDP electoral candidate in the upcoming federal elections.

With the elections scheduled for October 2015, Mason is seeking selection as one of the federal candidates for the Vancouver Granville riding.

If he wins, Mason will be on the ballot as one of the candidates to become a Member of Parliament.

In preparation, Mason started helping residents in his voting district sign up for NDP membership.

NDP members with a minimum of a month of party membership will be eligible to vote during the candidate nomination process.

“I’m doing some canvasing, knocking on doors, calling existing members and other people I know in the riding,” said Mason.

Mason has been an official member of the NDP for less than a year and considers himself a supporter of the political party since voting for them during the previous Canadian federal election in 2011.

According to Mason, the NDP is currently the only political party in Canada whose platform endorses reforms to Canada’s electoral system. This includes opting for proportional representation rather than first-past-the-post voting, which favours the candidate with the most votes as the winner without requiring a majority.

This policy in particular prompted Mason’s decision to join the party.

He said that proportional representation will create a parliament that would more accurately represent the votes of citizens, which he views as essential to an effective democracy.

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 |

EDITOR JENICA MONTGOMERY

6

THEATRE >>

UBC’s oldest club to perform one of the oldest forms of theatre

Players’ Club will present their Festival Dionysia from February 25-March 1 Olivia Law

Senior Staff Writer UBC’s oldest club is taking one of the oldest styles of theatre and bringing it to the Dorothy Somerset Studios.

The tradition of the Dionysian theatre dates back to the ancient Greeks, where amphitheatres would fill with people ready to watch numerous backto-back plays.

With over 60 participants in acting, directing, design and management coming from all faculties, the fourth annual Festival Dionysia gives individuals opportunities to try new areas in the theatrical world. Members of the UBC Players Club contributed some of the short plays alongside more established works.

English honours student Carolyn Nakagawa is taking the role of the President of UBC Players for the second year. She is largely in charge of representing the club as producers of the festival. Previously a playwright in residence, she is currently working with the four original plays, which will be making their theatrical debut in the festival.

“There are always unexpected challenges, and always some things that turn out better than you thought, so we’re riding the waves, mostly,” said Nakagawa on the responsibilities of producing such an elaborate and large-scale work.

CULTURE VULTURE

BFA acting student Tai Grauman is making her directorial debut in Barefoot in Nightgown by Candlelight, a play by Don Nigro.

Her cast is an array of both drama students and theatre newbies, but they all have one thing in common: their passion for the production.

“It definitely solidifies what I do,” said Grauman on the mixed cast. “We have a lot of fun; we all have a reason to be here which isn’t credits, and I think that’s beautiful, we’re all just here because we want to be.”

The festival represents a way for students who might be involved in other areas of study, or of the theatre to get involved in new aspects.

“The club provides opportunities for you, if you want to try doing design, or acting, or mentoring others, we are totally open to that,” said Arielle Spence, production manager for the festival.

The technical and design elements of this year’s festival are bigger and better than ever before. Shadow screens, elaborate costumes and a thousand scorpions are just some of the technical wonders that audience members can expect.

“We have biochemists and astrophysicists,” said Grauman.

“It’s a huge representation of people from all different areas coming together as a unity to make art.” U <em>

</em>

PHOTO COURTESY UBC PLAYERS CLUB

UBC Players’ Club is one of the oldest clubs on campus.

February 27 at the Bell Performing Arts Centre, the UBC and SFU Sikh Student Associations will host their annual Nihaal Variety Show. The show will feature dramatic and comedic performances, inspirational speakers, and will raise money for Ashraya Initiative for Children. For more information visit Facebook and search “Nihaal 2015”.

The Chan Centre presents another entry in the Beyond Words series on February 26. This event will explore famous illusionist Harry Houdini with novelist, and UBC prof, Steven Galloway and illusionist David Gifford. For more information visit chancentre.com

The AMS Art Gallery is presenting Is-ness: Selected Works by Lionel and Patricia Thomas from February 23-March 20. This month long exhibit will celebrate the Thomases, who were important figures in the fine arts community at UBC and the British Columbian arts world as a whole.

CHOIR >>

VanMan Choral Summit comes to the Chan Centre Gabriel Germaix

Senior Staff Writer The Chan Centre, one of Western Canada’s most advanced music venues, is shaped almost as a circle. This feature is often not critical when staging an opera nor any performance that only involves a few dozen artists who can remain on the central stage. It does, however, come in handy when 370 singers amass for an exceptional day of male singing.

The VanMan Choral Summit, a full-day event organized by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, will take place in the Chan Centre on March 7.

Erick Lichte, artistic director of Chor Leoni, hopes that this event will make choir singers aware of the other ensembles that strive in the Lower Mainland.

“Choirs are an amazing thing.

It is an extraordinarily social activity,” said Lichte. “But you spend so much time together with your own choir that sometimes it is less easy for people to spend time with other choirs.”

Lichte invited four men’s, youth’s and boys’ choirs from the Lower Mainland and Seattle, to which he will add Chor Leoni’s own choir, as well as their three choirs of young men from the choir’s free educational program MYVoice.

The different age groups singing alternatively in front of

the other choirs represents the whole spectrum of the male voice.

Lichte believes in what he calls the “transformative power of male choral singing.”

“When men sing together, there is something very special that happens. The singers tend to be very open with their emotions [and can be] very aggressive and boisterous but also tender and lulling,” Lichte said. “When men can get together and express themselves in the full range of their feelings, that sort of thing carries over to the rest of the world.”

After the free rehearsals, MYVoice’s concert, and the individual choir shows, a massive finale involving all the artists will take place.

“There are four pieces of music that every single choir that is participating [in] had to learn ... then at the concert all the choirs can stand in a surround kind of situation in the Chan, because of that circular shape and sing over and around the entire audience,” said Frances Roberts, the masters of music student who is co-conducting UBC men’s choir.

Lichte will conduct the 370 amateur and professional singers himself. “[Lichte] has given myself and the other directors information with regards to how fast things are going, pronunciation, and he has given us some of the musical

Chor Leoni is just one of the men’s choirs to perform in the VanMan Choral summit.

artistic elements to rehearse in advance, but then in the end he will have to sort of bring it all together in the mass rehearsal in the afternoon at the Chan,” said Roberts.

Lichte is nevertheless confident that the singers will rise up to the challenge with the mass rehearsal. Keeping harmony in a group of singers whose ends are 50 yards apart will probably be an uneasy feat to accomplish, but the individual preparation that

the singers went through should allow for a solid level of singing.

From boys to men, from music majors and singing experts to people who have only just started reading sheet music, every face and facet of male choral singing should come together in what Roberts called a “celebratory event.”

Not only is the event a way for choir singers to gather around their passion and meet like-minded people, it also is a way for the

PHOTO COURTESY CHOR LEONI

audience to discover the choirs of the Vancouver area.

“I hope that the audience realizes that they have witnessed something that is really good going on in that community, that they may not have known about, and that is just happening in little pockets all over the Lower Mainland,” said Lichte.

The VanMan Choral Summit is on March 7 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chan Centre. Tickets are available at the Chan Centre Box Office. U

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

DANCE >>

LOVE >>

Coast First Nations Dance Festival comes to the MOA Rachel Levy-McLaughlin

Contributor

The Museum of Anthropology is famous for its close work with First Nations groups all over the area, so it comes as no surprise that the annual Coastal First Nations Dance Festival will be hosted at the museum.

On March 3-8, the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival is back at MOA, celebrating Nations from British Columbia, Washington State, the Yukon and Alaska.

The festival makes an effort to incorporate international groups, and this year they have brought groups from New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Peru and Arizona.

The highlight events for the public take place on the Friday and Saturday. Seated and ticketed performances begin at 7:30 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday evening, with the Great Hall area transformed into a stage for the performances. Doors open at 7 p.m.

During the afternoon of the Saturday and Sunday, there are more casual afternoon events and performances, free with MOA admission.

The festival as it’s known today began in 2008, headed by Margaret Grenier, the executive and artistic director for the Dancers of Damelahamid.

“The predecessor of the festival was one that happened in Prince Rupert for about 30 years, under the leadership of my parents,” said Grenier.

The festival in Prince Rupert (titled Haw yah hawni nah) marked a critical point in the celebration of First Nations arts and culture. “It was instrumental to the revitalization of aboriginal dance,” said Grenier.

Nigel Grenier, Grenier’s son, is a fourth-year UBC student and a dancer with the Dancers of Damelahamid.

PHOTO COURTESY LAURA MURRAY PR

“In my grandparents’ generation, there was a lot of work that they did to make sure that our traditions, our dancing, our art and our culture were able to be passed forward,” he said.

The festival is doing more than putting on performances for the public, however. During the week, there are workshops for elementary and high schools in Vancouver. “One of the things we try to do a lot is work with education,” said N. Grenier.

“We just give them a bit of exposure to the arts and cultures that there are to present.”

“Another aspect of the festival that we’re beginning to grow is the professional development for Indigenous artists,” said Grenier.

There is a workshop on Saturday, March 7 for budding artists to learn about what resources are available to them in this field of art.

On Tuesday, March 3, there is an artist talk on Song Revitalization with Terri-Lynn

William-Davidson, a renowned Haida musician. This event is free with MOA admission.

This festival is quite unique in terms of bringing First Nations cultural celebration to urban centres. “It’s the only festival of this nature that’s presented in the Greater Vancouver Area,” said Grenier.

“It presents an opportunity to open up to broader audiences and to share coastal dance traditions without going into the communities,” said Grenier.

“It’s a really amazing opportunity to witness some things that a lot of people probably haven’t seen before in terms of cultural sharing from all sorts of different First Nations cultures,” said N. Grenier. “And that’s something that’s a really amazing and beautiful thing to watch.”

Tickets for Friday and Saturday evenings are $20 for UBC Students, seniors and MOA members, $25 general admission. U

The second annual Souper Bowl is dishing up hearty meals

The proceeds of the Souper Bowl will go to Quest Food Exchange.

Contributor

This week, Sprouts and Community Eats, in conjunction with the UBC Pottery Club, are putting on the second annual Souper Bowl. The event, which premiered last March, will be selling bowls made by members of the Pottery Club which will be filled with Sprouts’ soup. The proceeds go to a local food-oriented charity.

Sarah Wilson, a fourth-year anthropology and archaeology student, is the heart and soul

Philosophy prof wants to know what love really is

First Nations groups from across the world will be performing at this event.

FOOD >>

Keagan Perlette

| CULTURE | 7

ILLUSTRATION MING WONG/THE UBYSSEY

behind the Souper Bowl. Wilson is the Community Eats director and vice president of the UBC Pottery Club, so a collaboration between the two groups was an obvious avenue for her. She was inspired by an event hosted by a cafe in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska.

“There’s a place called Beans Cafe and they make soups and stuff for homeless people. And they have this project called The Empty Bowl Project. So they have a bunch of potters make nice bowls and then people come and buy soup and all the funds

go back to Beans Cafe ... I was in Pottery Club and I was in Community Eats and I was like ‘why don’t we do that?’” said Wilson.

This year, the Souper Bowl will be donating all proceeds from the event to Quest Food Exchange. Quest runs four not-for profit grocery stores in Vancouver that sell food at discounted prices which would otherwise go to waste elsewhere in the food industry. Their goal is to help low-income families get the nutrition they deserve.

This ethos mirrors the intentions of the Community Eats Program which supplies a by-donation lunch every Friday.

For around $2, students can eat a vegetarian lunch with options like soup, potatoes, salad, fruit from Van Whole Produce and day-old bread from Terra Breads.

The soup served at the Souper Bowl event will be a vegetable soup as well, made extra special by the beautiful handmade bowl donated by the pottery club.

The Souper Bowl is an opportunity for students to give back to the Vancouver community while supporting two UBC organizations. Of course, owning a lovely piece of pottery and having a free lunch sweeten the deal.

The Souper Bowl is happening on Friday, February 27 at 11 a.m..

Bowls will be sold for $5-$20 and come with a serving of soup from the Sprouts kitchen. U

FILE ILLUSTRATION TARIQ VIRA/THE UBYSSEY

Philosophy and social media collide in in Carie Ichikawa Jenkins’ new study on love.

Chloë Lai

Contributor Valentine’s day may have been an emotional minefield for many people, but for philosopher Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, it was the perfect opportunity to engage the public in her research.

That’s because Jenkins, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy at UBC, is exploring a question that has baffled our species for centuries: What is love?

Her project, the Metaphysics of Love, aims to find out. In the days leading up to the most advertised romantic holiday of the year, they used Twitter to launch the hashtag #romanticloveis.

The hashtag is intended as a way for the digital community to add their personal experiences and theories to those of the sociologists, anthropologists, economists and philosophers whose work Jenkins is currently combing through.

In true philosopher tradition, Jenkins is not expecting to find a definitive answer to the central question that drives her research.

“Romantic love is not one-sizefits-all,” she said, explaining that her hope is to create a conceptual space in which the question can be resurrected so that people can begin to recognize the limitations of their understanding of the term, and how that might be affecting them.

“It’s about empowering people to ask the question, ask it better, ask it more.”

After all, many of the important life decisions we make tend to be influenced by our understanding of whether or not we are in love. A dream job offer to work overseas, for example, may be rejected if it means leaving a loved one behind.

“But then you ask what love is, and people go ‘uhhh …’” said Jenkins. “So the next question has to be, what are you basing your life decisions on, exactly?”

All About Love, a book by bell hooks, warns that the widespread uncertainty regarding the true nature of love may leave people vulnerable to domestic abuse, and Jenkins agrees. The commonly-held ideal of unconditional love — where romantic love between two people is considered independent of their individual qualities and how they might change over time — feeds into this problem by demanding irrational persistence regardless of the state of the relationship.

Besides, as Jenkins points out, this approach oddly resembles favouritism.

“Why don’t you love everybody, if it doesn’t matter what they’re like?” she asked.

Some people may be concerned that too much interrogation may undermine the intangible magic of love, but Jenkins needs more.

“Overthinking is what I do for a living,” she said.

Her previous work, investigating the metaphysics of arithmetic, may make Jenkins seem an unusual advocate for inquiry into romantic love, but it was the natural outcome of a an increasing amount of off-duty time spent thinking about the subject.

Though she still considers numbers her “intellectual home,” Jenkins recognized the relevance of her conceptual tools and resources for this new topic, and seized the opportunity to engage with her community more directly.

“I can be in a taxi, coming home from the airport, and ask for input on my research,” she said.

The creative approach that allowed her to combine arithmetic, love, academia and Twitter is being put to the test in the Metaphysics of Love project, where she hopes to develop the “Holy Grail,” a theory of love that accommodates both the biological and the social concepts of the word. She also looks forward to collaborating with poets for future presentations. U

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 |

STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

CENSORSHIP >>

Rec is being ridiculous when it comes to intramural team names

8

MUSIC >>

Opera is simply not about singing trees

ILLUSTRATION JACK HAUEN/THE UBYSSEY

JACK HAUEN Op-ed

EnviroMENTALS. Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy. Show Me Ya TDs. Girls Gone Wild. Beaches Be Cray. Gold Diggers. Homewreckers. High Speed Drillers.

Got SEMENT? Suckin’ D’s and Strokin’ P’s. Whiskey Disc. Floppy Disc. Peter North Stars. #AirCanadaSucks.

The intramural team names in one of these paragraphs were censored by UBC Rec, and the others were deemed okay. Assuming you haven’t read our Last Words on the subject, could you figure out which one is which?

The first paragraph has names that make light of mental illness, prostitution, violence against women, misogynistic stereotypes and sexual acts. The second one includes four penis/vagina puns, a porn star and a shot at a Canadian airline company (or perhaps a subtle Maple Leafs jab).

None of the names are as objectionable as, say, the Washington

Redskins, but if I had to decide, I’d say the ones in the first set are probably the more likely set to be renamed.

Of course, I’m trying to make a point here, so that’s not the case.

Rec deemed all the names in the second paragraph too abhorrent for student eyes and ears, and told the captains to change them, or they’d do it for them. Or, in the case of #AirCanadaSucks, they just changed it right away.

The members of the offending flag football team didn’t even get a chance to come up with a new moniker for themselves before Rec decided that #ACSucks would be much less repugnant to UBC students’ delicate sensibilities.

The reason for the name change? “Just in case Air Canada suddenly sponsored the football league,” said #ACSucks member Liam Watson. To add insult to injury, one of their players had the initials AC and “took the change personally.”

“We’re still waiting on those free flights for compensation,” said Watson.

I’m not claiming that this situation is a conspiracy, that Rec has an agenda or that this is the beginning of Big Brother on campus, tyrannically ruling all fun at UBC — all I’m saying is that it’s stupid. Rec needs to get their shit together and decide which way they’re going to take this: either they can review every name that comes in and reject it based on some semblance of consistent criteria, or they can let students name their recreational indoor soccer league team whatever dumb name they want, and step in only for extreme cases.

Personally, I’m of the belief that students are mature enough to handle the mention of a porn star’s name, a thinly-veiled reference to a floppy penis, or the word ‘semen.’ That said, if you found yourself feeling faint, nauseated, enraged, aghast or terrified while reading this letter, please send a resume and cover letter to operations@rec. ubc.ca with the subject heading ‘I just stepped off the Mayflower and I need a job.’ U

IAMASTUDENT >>

Discussion with BoG over fee hikes was a disappointment IAMASTUDENT

Letter

IAmAStudent is extremely disappointed with the results of the Board of Governors meeting February 12, where student representatives voiced their concerns over the proposed 20 per cent increase to eight-month contracts in an “information session.” The proposition will be voted on as part of the university budget in April, which essentially means it is guaranteed to pass. We are not surprised that the voices and concerns of students were largely unheard in the meeting this morning. They believe they “adequately consulted” the students. Let us tell you why we disagree.

Over the past few months, the university administration has demonstrated time and again that it is not willing to listen to a diversity of student voices. Rather, the university administration has been condescending and resistant to engage meaningfully with the students. President Gupta was reluctant to face the student protestors outside of his office when on January 29 they hosted a “sit-in” to take up symbolic space for the students who will not be able to attend UBC because of these illogical and oppressive fee increases. This has been a trend

we have been experiencing for a while — since the beginning of this whole thing, in fact. In October, the university used their town halls to claim that they had taken the adequate steps to “consult” the student body. However, this socalled “consultation process” was a farce. The time and locations of the town halls were changed without notifying the student body. Only after the first town hall happened did the administration bother to inform students via email. The university showed up with incomplete information, using the space to try and convince students of a decision already made behind closed doors.

None of the concerns students had with these proposals were properly addressed or taken into account.

Students have consistently raised their voices against any sort of fee increase, whether they be housing or tuition, since time immemorial. Last year, the student body voted 91 per cent in favour of reducing tuition for national and international students. At the first AMS AGM to meet quorum in 40 years, students voted unanimously against increasing international tuition and housing fees. Regarding the housing fee increases specifically, all the student bodies that the university “consulted” opposed. Our AMS and the RHA spoke against the increases during the BoG meeting. Students deeply

care about these issues, but the BoG has completely ignored them.

For IAmAStudent, the meeting this morning only highlights the necessity to democratize the governing structures of our universities. The Board of Governors has responsibility for the management, administration and control of the property, revenue, business and affairs of the university, and claims to act in the “best interests of the university.” Only eight of 21 positions are elected. How can one possibly act in the “best interests” of the university without considering, consulting, including and conversing with the students?

We have to seriously consider if bankers, lawyers and financiers are truly those best placed to make decisions on the operations of a university. A university is not, in fact, a corporation but a place of challenging ideas, critical thought and above all a place to question dominant ideologies and discourses. It is a community of teachers and students who together seek to critically examine what our society takes to be true. Only this community knows best how to govern itself in a way that fosters the conversations we need to be creating.

They tell us “tuum est”: it is yours.

It is up to you. If only it were….

IAmAStudent is a UBC student movement opposed to housing and tuition fee increases. U

PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

GABRIEL GERMAIX Op-ed

Reading the editors’ opinion column about opera, I felt like there was an understandable yet quite sad misunderstanding about the art form. I am certainly not a big opera fan, neither am I trying to convince anyone that opera rocks and that everyone should love it or die.

Yet it seems that most students have a poor conception of opera, and even its advocates are often edgy (the “you don’t understand, it’s art” kind of people).

It should be told: opera is not, definitely not, about singing trees. In its vast majority, opera focuses on people. It has characters that you can relate to and who love, hate, kill or play stupid pranks, just like in any movie.

The demise of opera would be that characters sing useless, interminable arias. They certainly do not, because what they sing are dialogues, and dialogues shape the plots. Said plot can be fast-paced or slow-paced, but it is certainly more elaborate than many movies of today (Avatar

and its three-line screenplay comes to mind). Fortunately, the dialogues are translated and shown on a subtitle screen. Solos are not too numerous, but are meaningful and often have some of the best music.

It is true that opera is often long, and if you cannot watch a two-hour movie in the theatre without checking Facebook, chances are you are going to have a bad time; but even if you cannot hold in place for the whole length of the opera, no one prevents you from just leaving — if you are not curious about the end of the story, that is. Some very accessible operas include Carmen, The Barber of Seville or Tosca, for example.

Opera is not the easiest, but it not as edgy as we think it is and there is certainly no valid reason for having an audience average age of 60. One could picture it as theatre with good music. If you can find cheap tickets, it is also an unusual way to get out and dress classy. <em>

<em>

</em>

Gabriel Germaix is a fourth-year economics student and a senior staff writer for The Ubyssey. U

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 |

EDITOR JACK HAUEN

9

HOCKEY >>

BISONS BEAT PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

Jack Hauen Sports and Rec Editor No one in the crowd was sure which Thunderbird team would show up tonight — would it be the one that crushed Manitoba 5-1 on opening night, or the one that looked shaky all game and blew three separate leads, finally losing in OT on Friday? Luckily for UBC and the crowd, it was the former.

The ‘Birds jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back. Their top line of Anthony Bardaro, Cole Wilson and Manraj Hayer produced all three goals in the 3-1 victory, something not out of the ordinary since they were put together just before the winter break. The secret to their success, according to Wilson, lies in their speed.

“I play with two of the fastest guys in the league,” he said. “They can push the play and I just go to the net.”

To open the scoring, that’s just what he did, finishing off a Bardaro play to get his team on the board first — something the ‘Birds have done each game this series.

“We’ve had a goal to get the first goal of the game, and they’ve bought into it,” said head coach Tyler Kuntz. “Now it’s just protecting the leads.”

He’s right. A constant area of concern for the Thunderbirds has been their ability to stay in front. A prime example being last night, when UBC was ahead 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2, and lost by a score of 4-3. It’s a trend they can’t continue if they’re going to get past their next opponent, who will be either the University of Calgary Dinos or the University of Alberta Golden Bears.

Alberta, the defending CIS champions, have given UBC headaches this year, beating them in three of their four regular season matchups (though the ‘Birds won a preseason game as well), outscoring them 15-8 (17-12 if you include the exhibition match). They also knocked UBC out of the playoffs last year, adding some extra drama to what could be a very interesting series.

Calgary has been a bit easier to handle of late. The ‘Birds have a record of 2-2 against them, and the goal situation is 11-10 in favour of UBC (14-14 if you count the 4-3 exhibition loss). They also finished with a regular season record of 208-0, compared to Alberta’s slightly scarier 24-3-1.

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

Kuntz doesn’t care. “Doesn’t matter to us. We’ll play anybody. If you’re going to win nationals you’ve got to go through Alberta anyway, right? They’re the best in Canada, so I’d love to play there and test them out. Why not?”

Both the Golden Bears and the Dinos are notoriously physical teams, which the Thunderbirds are fine with, but the potential opponents will have had a couple weeks of rest before UBC comes knocking on their door, something the ‘Birds are definitely lacking.

Things almost got way out of hand halfway through the second, as Thunderbird Joe Antilla got in front of a Manitoba player and dragged him down, resulting in an immediate holding call. After the whistle, he was viciously charged from behind by Bison Shaquille Merasty, who somehow escaped with only a minor and a 10 minute misconduct, of which two more were handed out in the ensuing scrum, as UBC’s Nate Fleming and Manitoba’s Darren Bestland were taken off. The post-whistle activities only increased in intensity after that, and both teams were noticeably worse for wear by the end of the period.

“I don’t think anybody’s 100 per cent,” said Kuntz. “[The medical staff] was the star of the show tonight. [They had] a few freezings.”

Another player perhaps not at full capacity after this series is goaltender Eric Williams. He started all three games, and kept his team in it for every one of them.

He’ll definitely be relied upon to give the ‘Birds a chance in their next series. And he has just as much confidence in the team in front of him as they do in him.

“They did a great job,” he said.

“It was definitely a change in the third when they started shooting everything, so our guys did a great job blocking shots…. I was seeing a lot of pucks. “[The Bisons] were going to the net really hard and trying to get us off our game, so it just came down to staying focused on playing our game for 60 minutes…. Our guys did a good job sticking with it.”

If Saskatchewan wins their series against Mount Royal, UBC will play Calgary this weekend. If Mount Royal takes it, the ‘Birds will face Alberta. Either way, the first game of the best-of-three series will be on Friday, February 27.

The time is TBA. U <em>

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

10 | SPORTS |

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Places to Be:

Norvan Falls Koby Michaels Staff Writer “I could never do that.”

I hate when people tell me that on Monday mornings, after I’ve returned from a weekend of adventuring. I hate when people say that because they could do it. They can. Yes, some outdoors and extreme sports require thousands of dollars worth of gear and years of experience but everyone starts at the same place. They started knowing nothing. They started with a pair of sneakers, a cheap backpack and a crappy rain jacket. It’s how I started.

It’s even how every death-defying, Red Bull athlete started.

Norvan Falls, on the North Shore of Vancouver, is a great starting point.

It’s public transit accessible, not too steep and provides a seclusion that the Grouse Grind cannot.

Our morning started off early. I, as usual, was running late and just managed to hop on the bus before it left, joining other VOCers who’d given up their Saturday morning of sleeping in to come on this hiking and picnicking adventure on the outskirts of Vancouver. The sky threatened to let loose a torrential downpour but the rain held off during the bus ride. We met up with the second half of our group downtown, jumped onto the second bus and crossed the bridge out of the city.

As soon as we stepped off the bus and into the suburban neighbourhood at the base of our hike, the rain began.

I foolishly thought I’d make it through the day dry, but was glad for my rain jacket and rain pants.

While waiting for the last few stragglers, our group ducked into a coffee shop to get caffeinated for the long day ahead. A few minutes and a hot drink later, everyone was ready to go. We set off, I led the way.

After a detour, which I assure you was completely intentional and had nothing to do with my abysmal orienteering skills, we found ourselves on the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge.

I, figuring out which direction to hold

the map, set off in the right direction and a few kilometres later we were at a split in the trail.

Though it had been little longer than an hour, everyone was wet. Rain jackets had been soaked through, as had hiking boots, socks, rain pants and long underwear. Everyone was wet everywhere. It hadn’t taken long. Resigning myself to the damp, I took my hood off and let the rain pour over my face.

Here, the group split into two. I would lead half of the VOCers on the Upper Lynn Loop Trail and we would meet the other group, who would be hiking the Lower Trail, at the falls for our picnic. The hike went as any hike in the pouring rain goes; there was a lot of mud, a lot of stream jumping and a lot of terrible “well, you look dry” jokes. Admittedly, most of those where mine.

When we reached the falls, the other group had just began to set up a tarp to take cover from the rain. I pulled out my knife and cut some rope into pieces, tying them up trees to hang the tarp from. Though it did little to keep us dry, it added to the effect of our picnic.

People pulled cheese, bread, beer, fruit, cakes and cookies from their bags. And we feasted. It was delicious.

Unfortunately, the wet sank into everyone’s skin and the cold caught up. We packed up and headed back, the whole group taking the gentler Lower Trail.

Norvan Falls, the Lynn Loop and Lynn Canyon Park are great places to escape the city for a day and fall in love with the outdoors. It’s quiet enough to feel wild, but not far enough removed to be challenging or dangerous. With buses going straight to the trailhead, the excuse of not having a car fails completely.

Pack a bag, grab a map (and know which way is up), throw on a rain jacket, tell a friend when you’ll be back and go explore! For added fun, bring along a blanket, wine and some bread and cheese (and maybe a good-looking person-of-interest?) and fall in love with super, natural British Columbia. U

FILE PHOTOS MACKENZIE WALKER/THE UBYSSEY

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

VARSITY >>

| SPORTS | 11

FOOTBALL >>

T-Bird reading break recap Former Penn State

How all the other UBC teams fared over the past week QB Michael O’Connor Men’s swimming Women’s swimming joins UBC 1st place

CIS swimming championships No surprises here. The dominant Thunderbird swim team went to the 2015 Speedo CIS championships with the expectation of winning it all, and they did just that. The women captured their fourthstraight and CIS record 20th-overall banner with 581 points, beating out second place Montreal (544). The men joined them on top of the

1st place

CIS swimming championships podium for the first time since the 2011-12 season with 737 points, beating second place Toronto (584) to earn their 14th banner.

Yuri Kisil took home Rookie of the year honors as well as the Sprinter’s Cup, awarded to the single winner of both the 50 and 100 free. Head coach Steve Price again won Coach of the Year honors.

FILE PHOTO GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

Baseball

Softball

6 wins, 2 losses

4 wins, 12 losses

California road trip

California/Oregon road trip

After finishing the Treasure valley Collegiate Baseball Icebreaker with a disappointing 1-3 record, the Thundebirds rallied back to take California by storm, going 6-2 and finishing the road trip by winning six straight over Chapman, Redlands, The Master’s, Westmont, Menlo and Oregon Tech, outscoring their opponents 42-17 on the streak.

The softball squad didn’t fare quite as well as their counterparts, going 4-12 on their trip across the western United States. They finished the Simpson University Softball Tournament with a record of 3-3, but only managed one win in their next 10 games. Luckily, it was their last game against the College of Idaho, so maybe things are looking up.

FILE PHOTO KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY

FILE PHOTO RICH LAM/UBC ATHLETICS

Men’s volleyball

Women’s volleyball

QF win, Final Four loss

QF win, Final Four Win

The men’s team swept the University of Manitoba in the Canada West quarterfinals 3-2 and 3-1, but ran into trouble in the semis. They dropped their opening game to the University of Alberta Golden Bears and couldn’t recover against Brandon University in the bronze medal game, losing 3-0 to finish in fourth place in the playoffs.

The women’s squad actually followed a similar route to their male counterparts, winning 3-2 and 3-1 over their quarterfinal opponents, the University of Calgary Dinos, then dropping their opening game of the semis to Alberta. They recovered against Brandon, however, prevailing by a score of 3-1, and are headed to the CIS championship.

Canada West playoffs

Canada West playoffs

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

Men’s golf

Men’s rugby

4th place, 1 loss

1 loss

Fullerton Folino Inv., Western Washington U T-Bird Nate Ollis finished fourth in the individual rankings at the Fullerton Invitational at +2, three shots behind a three-way tie for first.

He ended the tournament with three birdies, six bogeys and one double bogey in his final time on the course. The ‘Birds then dropped a dual match against the Western Washington Vikings 278-282, again with Ollis leading the way.

vs. James Bay AA The men’s rugby squad suffered just their third loss in 13 games this season, this one coming against James Bay Athletic Association by a score of 27-14. They’re also responsible for one of the other T-Bird losses this season (22-14), the only other one coming against Capilano RFC (24-7).

UBC’s next game comes on Saturday against the UBC Old Boys Ravens, a team the Thunderbirds have beaten twice this season, 34-19 and 37-18. U

COURTESY TURBOTODDI/FLICKR

FILE PHOTO KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO KOSTA PRODOVANIC/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO KOSTA PRODOVANIC/THE UBYSSEY

Bill Situ Staff Writer While the performance of UBC Thunderbirds Football might not have been impressive last season, Blake Nill, the team’s new head coach, hopes to improve next season with the arrival of former Penn State quarterback Michael O’Connor.

Standing at 6’5 and weighing at 230 lbs., O’Connor, age 19, is an Ottawa native who spent his high school years playing football in the United States. He initially played for Baylor School in Tennessee during his junior season, and later attended IMG Academy in Florida. His most impressive season was in 2013, where he threw 1804 yards and 18 touchdowns in 10 games to lead IMG to an 8-2 record.

O’Connor made the decision to play as quarterback for Penn State last year after having received multiple early scholarships to various NCAA institutions. However, he was a redshirt freshman last season and, therefore, did not play. This means that O’Connor will have a full five-year eligibility with the Thunderbirds.

If O’Connor’s performance during the training sessions meets the team’s expectations, said Nill, he’ll be the starting quarterback for the Thunderbirds next season.

“He is a competitor and he’s good enough to play the game at this level. We’re just looking for him to play our quarterback position better for this team, whether it’s him playing the game or [him forcing] others to play better,” said Nill.

Last season, UBC finished with a record of 2-6, placing sixth in the Canada West conference and missing the playoffs for the sixth time since 2007.

Nill became the head coach for Thunderbirds football back in December, following the dismissal of previous head coach Shawn Olson.

Nill has been a head coach in CIS football since 1998 and has seven Vanier Cup games under his belt.

With the football season beginning in September, Nill is looking to enhance the team’s overall performance by all means possible.

“Each and every position on this team has to improve,” said Nill.

“My goal in the offseason here is to try to motivate the young men to move more and more into a level of [competitiveness].”

Last season, T-Bird quarterbacks managed a combined total of 1,765 passing yards, in comparison to the 2,462 yards by their opponents. This same pattern also applied to other areas of the Thunderbirds’ offensive play, including both rushing and receiving yardage.

Carson Williams, starting quarterback for the Thunderbirds last season, will not be returning to the team due to the completion of his five-year eligibility. Therefore, O’Connor should slot in as first-string QB this coming season alongside teammates Greg Bowcott and Trevor Casey. U

12 | GAMES |

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015

Photo of the Day

PHOTO NAJLA SEKARIYANTI/THE UBYSSEY

FEB 10 ANSWERS

COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM

ACROSS 1- Massacre 8- Chalk or marble 15- Hyundai model 16- Singlehanded 17- Stimulus 18- Method of raising money 19- ___ Cruces 20- And others, briefly 22- Crews 23- Distribute 25- For fear that 26- Moisten while cooking 29- ___ your life!

31- AOL, e.g.

34- Richards of “Jurassic Park”

36- Casino area 37- Top-notch 38- Capital of Estonia 40- Endless 42- Scouting outing 43- Guy’s counterpart 45- Recorded 46- Golfer Ernie 47- Sleep images 49- Edible red seaweed 50- Pottery material 52- Executive of a municipality 54- Femme fatale 56- Mayberry moppet 57- Mayberry ___ 60- Removed faults 62- Frog baby 65- Feign

FEB 10 ANSWERS

66- Awakening 67- Ladies of Spain 68- Quarantine

DOWN 1- Slather plaster on the upper surface of a room 2- ___ mater 3- Emulates Eminem 4- Compass dir.

5- Court fig.

6- Porridge 7- Singer Sheena 8- Select 9- Year abroad 10- Tin plate

COURTESY KRAZYDAD.COM

11- Quotes 12- Involving concepts and abstractions 13- Division of a school year 14- Breyers rival 21- Looking down from 23- Start of a Dickens title 24- Director Riefenstahl 25- Numbers game 26- Wash 27- Thin as ___ 28- Printmaking technique 30- Bind 32- Ginger cookies 33- Martinique volcano 35- Wrathful 37- Pianist Rubinstein 39- Scot’s refusal

41- Opposite of ecto44- Light source 47- Temper 48- Rum cocktail 51- Slow, to Salieri 53- A long time 54- Dupes 55- Hungary’s Nagy 56- Bookie’s concern 57- Parks on a bus 58- Planar 59- Strike out 61- Bambi’s aunt 63- Scooby- ___ 64- Monetary unit of Afghanistan