April 9, 2015

APRIL 9, 2015 | VOLUME XCVI | ISSUE L BETTER WHEN WE SHAKE IT SINCE 1918

NEWS

SAFEWALK STATISTICS

CULTURE BC BOOK

SPORTS SITTING

6

11

PRIZE

5

2014/2015

VOLLEYBALL

GRADING THUNDERBIRDS the

the varsity report card

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 |

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS, PEOPLE + CAMPUS

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ONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE AND BUILDINGS THAT MAKE UBC

9

BIKE RAVE

8:00 P.M. @ KOERNER PLAZA

Go for a loud and adventurous ride around campus on your decked out scooter, skateboard or bicycle. Best decorated ride gets a free ticket to Block Party. Featuring glowsticks, energy drinks and spinnin’ local DJs. Free

THURSDAY

9

STARGAZING

PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

The Syrup Trap brings (sometimes not-so-) subtle satire to the Canadian masses.

6:30 P.M. @ IKB 256

Take advantage of UBC’s clear skies and both expert and amateur astronomers by joining the UBC Astronomy Club for a night of stargazing and space facts. A professional-grade telescope will be on site. Free

The Syrup Trap wants to take their satire national

FRIDAY

If you’re a UBC student, you’re already aware of the Syrup Trap.

And if you aren’t, you’ve almost definitely heard of their articles.

The talented group of satirists were the ones who convinced thousands of people that J.K. Rowling had bought the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, taught you all about Crack Ford and covered the entire Peter Mansbridge clone saga.

Interestingly enough, though, it didn’t start out as a humour magazine. Founder and former UBC student Nick Zarzycki originally intended to start a “Canadian version of IvyGate,” a gossip and news site for the United States’ Ivy League schools.

“That was fun for a while, but never really gained any steam,” said Zarzycki. “But I kept the name, and then right around spring of 2013 I was reading a blog post in The New Yorker about college humour magazines in the United States, and I saw the logo for the Dartmouth JackO-Lantern … so I was like ‘oh, wouldn’t it be cool if UBC had a humour magazine that was similar to that one, I really like that logo.’ So I made the logo, and I was like ‘okay, what would the website look like?’ And I made the website. And I was like ‘okay, why don’t I just write the first post?’ And I wrote the first post.

Then I started talking to funny friends that I knew.”

And it was all smooth sailing from there. One of the newly minted site’s earliest posts garnered a couple hundred Facebook shares.

“I was like ‘hey, why don’t we do this more?’”

So they did.

Now, the Trappers are widening their scope. They haven’t

10

BLOCK PARTY

2:30 - 9:15 P.M. @ 6190 AGRONOMY ROAD

The biggest bash of the year is almost here. Featuring Chromeo, Tokyo Police Club and Yukon Blonde (among several other acts!) as well as food carts, beverages and thousands of your peers — what’s not to love? $30; 19+

ON THE COVER

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Go sports!

- Photo Cherihan Hassun

Want to see your events listed here?

Email your events listings to ourcampus@ubyssey.ca.

U THE UBYSSEY EDITORIAL

STAFF

Coordinating Editor Will McDonald

Photo Editor Cherihan Hassun

coordinating@ubyssey.ca

photo@ubyssey.ca

Design Editor Nick Adams

Opinions + Blog Editor Austen Erhardt

printeditor@ubyssey.ca

aerhardt@ubyssey.ca

Web Developer Peter Siemens

Copy Editor Ciaran Dougherty

web@ubyssey.ca

copy@ubyssey.ca

News Editor Veronika Bondarenko

Distribution Coordinator Lily Cai

news@ubyssey.ca

lcai@ubyssey.ca

News Producer Olivia Law news@ubyssey.ca

News Administrator Kosta Prodanovic news@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Jenica Montgomery culture@ubyssey.ca

Sports + Rec Editor Jack Hauen sports@ubyssey.ca

Video Producer Tim Hoggan video@ubyssey.ca

Illustrator Julian Yu julianyu@ubyssey.ca

Jack Hauen Sports & Rec Editor

Natalie Scadden, CJ Pentland, Kosta Prodanovic, Dave Nixon, Soren Elsay, Olamide Olaniyan, Lawrence Neal Garcia, Olivia Law, Tariq Vira, Kelley Lin, Jenny Tang, Leo Soh, Mateo Ospina, Koby Michaels, Jasmine Cheng, Miguel Santa Maria, Natalie Morris, Mackenzie Walker, Sam Fruitman, Braedon Atkinson Pauze, Jacob Gershkovich, Emma Partridge, Ben Cook, Ming Wong, TammyHsieh, Chloë Lai, Mischa Milne, Aiken Lao, Danni Shanel, Kaylan Mackinnon, Elba Gomez Navas, Keagan Berlette

APRIL 9, 2015 | VOLUME XCVI | ISSUE L BUSINESS

CONTACT

Business Manager Fernie Pereira

Editorial Office: SUB 24 604.822.2301

fpereira@ubyssey.ca

Ad Sales Geoff Lister advertising@ubyssey.ca

Accounts Oliver Colbourne accounts@ubyssey.ca

Business Office: SUB 23 ADVERTISING 604.822.1654 INQUIRIES 604.822.6681 Student Union Building 6138 SUB Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Online: ubyssey.ca Twitter: @ubyssey

LEGAL The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Monday and Thursday by The Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organization, and all students are encouraged to participate.

Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. All editorial content appearing in The Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey Publications Society.

Stories, opinions, photographs and artwork contained herein

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U

CONGRATULATIONS

abandoned their west coast roots ( just Tuesday afternoon they published an account of a 41 bus that probably crashed).

But Zarzycki and his crew feel that they’ve honed their skills enough to make a go of becoming Canada’s Onion.

This entire thing is currently completely running on enthusiasm and passion.”

Nick Zarzycki Founder of the Syrup Trap

“Since we’ve left campus, we’ve started to realize that Canada is one large UBC, know what I mean?” said Zarzycki.

“There’s a central government that is very distant from most of its constituents … the only way you make a career and make friends is by joining a club of some sort … and, just like UBC two years ago, I think Canada needs a humour magazine.”

To do that, they’ve enlisted the help of Patreon, the popular crowdfunding website on which users — or patrons — can donate a small amount of money each month to fund projects they believe in. Currently, their page sits at $467.69/month, almost halfway to their first goal of $1,000, which they’ll use simply to keep themselves afloat. At $4,000, they promise to pay their contributors and double the number of articles they publish and once they hit six grand, the Syrup Trap will become a “real humour magazine,” complete with an office space.

“This entire thing is currently completely running on enthusiasm and passion,” said Zarzycki. “But [from] working on past projects, I know that <em>

TO

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NEXT

YEAR’S

projects that are sustained purely by enthusiasm never last.

“I’m really excited by the idea of building not just a blog, but a magazine.”

“Time costs money whether or not you think it costs you money, you know?” said Paul Bucci, another founding member of the Syrup Trap . “For us, money feeds creativity because it feeds us.”

The goal of the Patreon campaign is not just to survive, but to progress. The final goal promises “weekly features,” including videos and cartoons, areas in which the group has dabbled in the past (such as with former AMS joke candidate and Block Party interviewer Winnie Code), but for which they’ve never set a dedicated schedule.

“Fake news is fun, but we see ourselves more as a prank factory,” said Bucci. “We’re not exactly here to write fake news, we’re here to play a lot of pranks.”

“I really like this idea of a publication that doesn’t have one form, that does many things, that tries different things all the time and that plays tricks on people in many different ways.”

Hopefully, we’ll get to see it. <em>

</em>

If you’re interested in contributing to the Syrup Trap, they’re always open to new ideas. The best way to get something published, according to Zarzycki, is to send a list of pitches (not a completed article) to write@syruptrap.ca, and if the editors like what they see, they’ll work with you to turn one or more into a story. But don’t send them anything about construction at UBC. You’re better than that. U <em>

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EDITORIAL

BOARD

Coordinating Editor Will McDonald

Culture Editor Olivia Law

Print News Editor Emma Partridge

Features Editor Arno Rosenfeld

Sports & Rec Editor Koby Michaels

Design Editor Aiken Lao

Opinions & Blog Editor

Web News Editor Moira Warburton

Photo Editor Kosta Prodanovic

Video Editor Tim Hoggan

Jack Hauen

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 |

EDITOR VERONIKA BONDARENKO

SAFETY >>

3

CRIME >>

Campus Secuity finds over 90 per cent RCMP looking into assault of all blue phone calls in last year ruled described in anonymous letter accidental or mischief

PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

Campus Security will be installing cameras to some of the existing blue phones.

Sarah Pribadi

Staff Writer

Campus Security’s annual safety report showed that the majority of blue phone calls were activated either by accident or as a prank.

The emergency blue phone system is intended to connect students with security in the case of emergencies, or when they need directions or assistance at all hours of the day.

The report showed that out of

110 blue phone calls received by a dispatcher in 2014, 101 were all determined to be either mischief or accidental. In these cases, a staff member was dispatched to the phone, but was not able to locate the person who placed the call. Out of the remaining nine calls, four were for wayfinding assistance, three were for safe transport and two were for medical assistance.

There are currently 19 blue phones on campus. UBC

launched the phones nearly 20 years ago, with the intention of complementing existing safety services provided by UBC and the RCMP. “The way how it works was push the button once and it will automatically connect to the security dispatcher and responded by patrol staff,” said Barry Eccleton, director of Campus Security. “It’s a common thing to use in universities in North America, since it’s the most effective way to providing individual assistance in such large community.”

According to Eccleton, emergency blue phones are an essential part of Campus Security program as they help people who are under threat or feel unsafe get help.

“We added blue phone as additional security measure and to make sure that we will be there to help,” said Eccleton.

Though Eccleton expressed his concern on the misuse of blue phones, he thought that it is normal to have such things happen at universities as large as UBC. “You know, it’s a university.

People do have fun, but I prefer that they didn’t [do the prank calls],” said Eccleton. “I know that it’s likely to be continued but we tried our best to encourage them to use the phone as it supposed to be used.”

Campus Security is currently in the process of replacing the older blue phones with newer ones with cameras in order to make it easier to assess the situation at the time of the call.

They will also be adding 18 new phones across campus. U

AMS >>

SafeWalk service use increased eightfold

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

SafeWalk staff conduct an average of 35 walks a night.

Olivia Law

News Producer Student use of SafeWalk services has increased by a factor of eight since 2012.

This year, a new table has been added to Campus Security’s annual report recording phone calls requesting transportation from SafeWalk to different on-campus locations. The numbers of individuals using safety transportation between on-campus locations has increased significantly since 2012.

In 2012, just 131 safety transports were made around campus.

The number was significantly higher in 2013 with 603, and again last year with 906. Campus Secur-

ity partners with AMS SafeWalk to maintain the continuity of this service outside of SafeWalk’s normal operating hours.

Ron Gorodetsky, student services manager for the AMS, highlights the impact surrounding the string of sexual assaults on campus that occurred in September and October 2013 as the main cause of the increased demands for SafeWalk services.

“They drew a lot of media attention at the time,” he said. “This increased tension and concern about safety on campus led to a spike in usage at the AMS SafeWalk, as well as at Campus Security.”

Until April 2014, SafeWalk was, as the name implies, a walking

service, with teams dispatched as needed to locations around campus. In the last year, SafeWalk acquired hybrid vehicles, and began using them alongside the walking teams.

According to Gorodetsky, the increased number of calls this year can be partially attributed to students’ desire for a free ride to locations around campus late at night.

“It’s been an uphill battle,” said Gorodetsky. “Last year people didn’t necessarily know whether they were going to be dispatched to the walking or driving team at any given time, but this year we translated the service into a fully driving team.”

SafeWalk’s capacity is currently at 70 walks per night, and on an average shift, the operators are working at around half capacity. This gives staff enough time to have a break between back to back journeys.

With recent events, demand has again spiked and SafeWalk was operating at around 60 walks per night, costing some workers overtime. That said, Gorodetsky is confident that the service can handle fluctuations in demand.

There are currently no plans to expand the service to include more vehicles and SafeWalk encourages calls from anybody around campus in need. U

FILE PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

UBC has reported the attack described in the letter to the RCMP.

Veronika Bondarenko

News Editor

UBC has released a statement following our publication of an anonymous letter describing a racially-motivated attack that occurred following a Pit Night earlier in the term.

The student described an incident where a group of six men surrounded him, called him racial slurs, ripped off his turban and threw it to the curbside and punched him in the stomach and chest for 20 minutes in the early hours of the morning following a Pit Night.

In the statement, the university said that they have reported the assault to the RCMP. “Racism and violence are unacceptable on campus and UBC takes incidents like the one described very seriously,” reads the statement. “The safety of all of our students, staff and faculty is of paramount importance.”

RCMP Sergeant Drew Grainger said that they were conducting an

investigation into an alleged assault reported to have occurred on Thursday, January 29. The RCMP has spoken to the witness, but was not able to find any information on the attackers.

“We are investigating the allegation that a male was assaulted in the early morning hours of January 29, at West Mall and Agronomy,” said Grainger. “We have spoken to a victim of that alleged assault.

We have unfortunately no other independent witnesses to verify his account and we have no suspect information at this time.”

Grainger also said that the investigation is ongoing as the RCMP look for witnesses to the assault.

“The investigation is still open, it’s still being investigated,” said Grainger. “We’re just looking for more witness information.”

UBC also said that the university is in the process of finalizing a new CCTV camera and blue phone system that was proposed in the Campus Safety Working Group report in August 2014 in the statement.” U

U

Want to cover the news? Send us an email. news@ubyssey.ca

4 | NEWS |

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

PETTY CRIME >>

PR >>

Man breaks UBC REC apologizes for misplaced April Fool’s joke, promises to better accomodate students for sporting events into The Moon, walks The UBC REC Centre issued an away with apology for an inconsiderate April Fool’s Day joke. cans of pop On April 1, UBC REC posted a Veronika Bondarenko News Editor

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

After a break-in, The Moon had to throw out the majority of their food.

Olivia Law News Producer

At approximately 4 a.m. on Monday, March 30, a break-in occurred in the SUB. An unidentified bald white male, wearing all black, a hat and a backpack, spent 45 minutes trying to break into The Moon, the Chinese restaurant in the basement of the old SUB. He spent another 45 minutes inside, trying to pry into cabinets in the outlet.

Shaun Wilson, head of AMS Security, said that no major damage was done to equipment and no major valuables were taken, but that the cooler doors were left open, and noodles were all over the floor.

“Upon viewing the CCTV footage that we have of security cameras in the building it was determined that someone had broken into the SUB by force in the morning by forcefully breaking over the door and then broke into The Moon and spent about an hour and a half attacking the place and left with a bunch of soft drinks,” said Wilson.

Wilson said since the coolers were left open, the restaurant decided to discard all of the food kept inside them. The total value of the food is still being calculated.

“We are working with building operations to reinforce the entry that was broken into,” said Wilson. “There was quite a bit of force used to break in. We’ll be going forward working with campus security with more patrols around the SUB after hours and we’re also double-checking if any other reinforcements can be given to the doorways of the SUB with the building being so old.”

The cash registers in The Moon were empty and all valuable equipment was either locked away or bolted down. Wilson said the restaurant also received a special cleaning after the break in.

According to Wilson, nobody was harmed and nothing of value was stolen.

“Unless he was able to get hold of The Moon’s secret wing recipe, there’s not a lot he would have been able to get away with,” said Wilson. U

joke letter on the UBC REC Point Blog saying that the wall used in the annual Storm the Wall intramural event will be lowered from 12 to 10.5 feet in future years. The letter also said that “a ramp will also be installed between the two walls to accommodate differently abled participants.”

After being called out on their ill use of humour by numerous Twitter commentators, UBC REC revised the letter to remove the line about the ramp and issued an apology.

Aaron Miu, Marketing & Communications Manager for Athletics and Recreations, is the one in charge of looking over content before it is published. He said that the letter was published before he had a chance to look at it and should never have gone out.

“There was commentary that was included in there that made light of accessibility and our programming, a portion around a ramp and making it accessible for paraplegic or disabled athletes,” said Miu. “That’s the part that, in particular, I believe should have never gone to print.”

FILE PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

UBC REC has apologized for an April Fool’s comment.

Miu also said that once he realized that the post had gone out, he edited the post to cut out the statement about the ramp and included an apology.

“The second version that you see is simply just the edited version,” said Miu. “As soon as I realized that that had gone out, I went in, revised it, and included an apology at the end of it.”

According to Miu, UBC REC will be working with Access &

Diversity and holding discussions with their own employees to make sure that future sporting events are more accessible to all UBC students. In the past, they’ve worked on accessibility on a case-by-case basis when athletes came up to them with concerns about specific events, but hope to implement a more structural change in future months.

“It is a piece that should have never gone to print and it was

done in error and poor taste,” said Miu. “It’s not indicative or reflective of the programming or the values.

I recognize that it’s not just about a retraction or a statement, as much as it around culture change within program training, I think both for our program staff and as well as here at the university.”

-With files from Kosta Prodanovic U <em>

2015 METRO VANCOUVER

TRANSPORTATION AND TRANSIT PLEBISCITE

Elections BC is administering the vote-by-mail plebiscite from March 16 to May 29, 2015.

You can vote if you are:

■ A Canadian citizen ■ 18 years of age or older, on or before May 29, 2015 ■ A resident of B.C. for at least six months, on or before May 29, 2015 ■ Registered to vote in B.C. ■ Living in Metro Vancouver You can ask for a voting package to be mailed to you by calling 1-800- 661-8683 or online at elections.bc.ca /ovr. You can ask for a voting package until midnight on Friday, May 15, 2015.

Elections BC must receive your completed ballot package before 8 p.m. on Friday, May 29, 2015.

Visit elections.bc.ca or call 1-800-661-8683 for more information.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

| NEWS | 5

SWIMMING >>

FEES >>

Aquatic Centre shuts down for regular maintenance and repairs until May

Board of Governors delays talk of fee increases for two weeks

FILE PHOTO GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

BoG is meeting again on April 14.

Veronika Bondarenko

News Editor

FILE PHOTO GEOFF LISTER/THE UBYSSEY

The Aquatic Centre will be working on lighting, gutter and water pumping systems in the month-long interval.

Bill Situ

Staff Writer The Aquatic Centre has been shut down for maintenance until May. With the new Aquatic Centre scheduled to open in the fall of 2016, the existing pool is supposed to remain open to the public until the new centre is built.

According to Kavie Toor, facilities and business development director of UBC Athletics and Recreation, the centre was shut down to conduct the maintenance and repairs that are necessary to keep the pool operational over the next year. Different parts of the centre, including the indoor pool and the sauna rooms, have been routinely shut down over the last year. “[Our goal is] primarily to ensure that an important facility like the Aquatic Centre can remain open for students and the community for the entire period until the new facility is open,” said Toor.

The maintenance required includes work on the lighting, gutter and pumping systems

along with minor concluding works from the last year’s engineering audit.

The Aquatic Centre launched an engineering audit last summer for a number of maintenance works after experiencing a series of frequent shutdowns due to various problems with its mechanical system. The facility completed the bulk of the maintenance entailed in this audit last fall, concurrently with its authorization for the current shutdown.

The facility is scheduled to reopen on May 4.

Toor also said that the Aquatic Centre has been in adequately operating condition since completing the work from the last engineering audit. This shutdown is part of their regular maintenance plan, with this time period chosen because it is when the facility generally receives fewer patrons.

“It’s functioned really well for us in the last nine months or so without any issues,” said Toor. “We are very pleased [with]

where it’s currently at, acknowledging that it’s an older facility.”

In terms of the current progress on the construction of the new Aquatic Centre, Toor said that the civil work for the facility is for the most part complete.

The construction team has now installed the structure of the basement and is currently in the process of framing the pools.

Toor also said that he is satisfied with the pace at which the construction crews have worked.

“We’re currently on schedule, on budget and really pleased with the work that the construction crew and all our trades are doing,” said Toor.

Toor expects the new Aquatic Centre to open as scheduled, but also said that unexpected circumstances may potentially arise in the construction process.

“There’s always the caveat that this is construction, and there [are] all these risks that may occur, but at this point in time, we’re all very confident that we’re going to be opening in fall 2016,” said Toor. U

The Board of Governors held their standing committee meeting on Wednesday, April 1.

The morning meeting started with a closed session discussion.

Once the public was allowed into the room, the Board announced that all talk of tuition and other fee increases had been postponed until Tuesday, April 14.

Student representative Chris Roach said that he was happy the discussion about fee increases was moved, as this would give the Board more time to go over the student feedback and proposals that were submitted in detail.

“There was a real concern about whether the Board is actually listening to students and the fact that we are going to take those extra two weeks to really dive into that 33 page[s] and read everything that students are saying is really important,” said Roach.

After that, the Board approved four new programs, including the High-Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership Certificate, the Graduate Certificate in Global Surgical Care, the Master of Engineering and the Master of Health Leadership and Policy.

The two Master’s programs will cost $27,000 for domestic students and $46,000 for international

students per year.

The Board also approved an expansion of Totem Park, which proposes housing 350 additional residents in the place of the current tennis courts. The budget that has been proposed for the project is $29.8 million.

“92 per cent of international students want to live in student residences, so we think there is going to be a strong demand,” said Andrew Parr, managing director of Student Housing and Hospitality Services.

The Board also gave approval to begin designing a new gallery that features art from the Pacific Northwest at the Museum of Anthropology. Dean of Arts Gage Averill said that he was thrilled about the prospect of such a project.

“This is well-known work by well-known recent Northwest artists,” said Averill. “A fabulous addition to MOA.” David Farrar, provost and VP academic, John Hepburn, VP research and international, Lisa Castle, VP human resources and David Woodson, managing director Energy and Water Services, also gave a presentation on the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project currently taking place at UBC. This year, there has been a 12 per cent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions on campus, but several system upgrades are also needed to fix equipment used for biomass syngas cleanup.

Woodson also said that they will be consulting FortisBC to see how the university can reduce the cost of renewable natural gas alternatives.

“This has been a very exciting project, but what I want to highlight is that this has been a tremendously challenging project,” said Woodson.

The next Board of Governors meeting is scheduled to take place at Walter Gage on April 14.

-With Files from Joshua Azizi U <em>

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RESEARCH >>

Microbiology team aims to transform vaccines by understanding immune system

Signals from multiple cells affect the body’s response to infections.

Sean Sinden Contributor

Though vaccines may currently be a polarizing issue, research to improve their effectiveness is underway on campus.

A recent discovery made by a group of researchers at UBC may change the way we think about how our bodies fight some infections and develop autoimmune diseases

and cancers. The team, a collaboration between the departments of microbiology & immunology, cellular & physiological sciences and mathematics, investigated the way signals from multiple sources in our cells allow the body to fine tune its response to invading microbes.

The portion of our immune system that recognizes and responds to foreign invaders (antigens) are

FILE PHOTO TIMOTHY HOGGAN/THE UBYSSEY

known as B lymphocytes, or B cells.

Proteins on the outside of these B cells, known as B-cell antigen receptors, differentiate between “self” molecules — those that are native to the body — and foreign molecules and instruct the B cells to respond by producing protective antibodies.

Another type of cellular receptor, called Toll-like receptors, help B cells distinguish between harmful

and non-harmful foreign matter by sending ‘danger signals.’

Researchers at UBC have determined the molecular mechanism by which these receptors ‘talk’ to one another and increase the sensitivity of our immune system to intruders.

In a resting cell, B-cell antigen receptors are confined to an area on the outer membrane by a web of protein called a cytoskeleton.

Michael Gold, the principal investigator of the study and department head of microbiology & immunology, and his team found that antigen receptors on cells prepared by activation of Toll-like receptors moved around the cell membrane more quickly and in a wider area.

These B-cell receptors were also more sensitive to low levels of foreign microbes. The researchers showed that these changes occurred because of a breakdown of the cytoskeleton.

“The new thing in this paper is the way to regulate this activation state by the confinement of the receptors by the cytoskeleton and how much they’re moving” said Gold.

Without being confined by the cytoskeleton, the B-cell receptors are more likely to bump into one another to form clusters or encounter foreign microbes, both

of which increase the likelihood of the receptors sounding the alarm when intruders are present.

This new understanding of how our cells detect an infection might allow doctors to fine-tune their ability to fight infections through vaccine development.

“Clinical scientists would think about how to translate this into understanding how to make new vaccines or better vaccine strategies’” said Gold.

According to Gold, the study will also help scientists further comprehend how people develop autoimmune diseases and leukemias.

“That would give you maybe a way to treat these if you know the cause, that what’s driving these cells to be proliferated or activated is that their cytoskeleton is altered, maybe you can target the cytoskeleton specifically with drugs,” said Gold.

Gold and his team are currently moving to confirm these findings in human blood cells and understand how our cells respond to invading antigens and these ‘danger signals’ when they appear at the same time. This will help them to more fully understand how our immune systems respond to infections when they first appear.” U

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 |

EDITOR JENICA MONTGOMERY

6

BC BOOK PR IZE NOM I N E ES

This year, there was an abundance of UBC alumni, and profs who were shortlisted for this year’s BC Book Prize awards.

From children’s literature to fiction, alumni and profs have written some interesting novels. We’ve rounded up just a few of the nominees into this year’s book supplement.

Gabrielle Prendergast Paula Duhatschek Contributor

MFA graduate Gabrielle Prendergast has what you might call a diverse writing portfolio.

The first work she sold — outside of a short story she wrote in high school — was Hildegarde, an Australian children’s movie about a family searching for their missing pet duck.

Compare that to her most recent project: a two-book series of provocative young adult novels, Audacious and Capricious , that deal with religious prejudice, eating disorders, drinking and quite a bit of sex. </em>

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“I actually want to get on the banned books list,” said Prendergast. “And not just because it’ll make my books sell better.”

If writing honestly about adolescent sexuality doesn’t already sound like a tough literary feat to pull off, consider the fact that both Capricious and Audacious are written in varying styles of poetic verse.

“I don’t know what possessed me; I just wanted to try it,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’ll write it in verse, and I’ll just pants it.’”

According to Prendergast, there are two kinds of writers: plotters, who plan their work </em>

Aislinn Hunter

from start to finish, and pantsers, who write by the seat of their pants. She considers herself to be one of the latter.

Prendergast was inspired to write the series to fill what she saw as a lack of realistic female characters in young adult literature. The books are semi-autobiographical: Ella, the protagonist, is loosely based on herself as a teenager.

“I felt that all the female characters in young adult books, they all had a lot of girlfriends, they all had a really warm relationship with their parents, and they were all pretty functional,” said

</em>

</em>

Abby Pelaez Contributor

Many late nights at the Commodore inspired Aaron Chapman, author and UBC film alumnus, to document its history.

“It was actually surprising to me how many people snuck in underage with fake IDs or sneaking in behind older people,” said Chapman.

Aaron Chapman was nominated for the 2015 Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award for his new book Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom . Not your dreadfully dry history tome, Live at the Commodore delves into the razzle dazzle, prohibition rebellion, crowdsurfing history of this nightlife establishment in a prose </em>

akin to cinematic storytelling.

Chapman took on the roles of historian, musicologist and detective to chronicle a nine-decade history of the establishment. It highlights much of the tumultuous 20th century when it was a cabaret for the wealthy and powerful, a venue for UBC Nurses’ Dances to support student soldiers during World War I, a port for up-andcoming international bands to land in Canada and a place to get down on a Saturday night. Chapman did inside research, embedding himself into the topic of his book to “really discover the clockwork of the Commodore.”

On the same stage to which you might have hollered for Lady Gaga or seen underground bands out to make it big, Chapman gained

Hunter is nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

Prabhi Deol Contributor

Twelve years in the making and following her previous novel that elicited critical acclaim and a movie deal, Aislinn Hunter’s The World Before Us is off to an astounding start by being shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, awarded to the author of the best work of fiction.

An instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s creative writing department, the writer-in-residence at the Beaty Biodiversity museum, and a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, it’s no wonder Hunter’s deeply complex and beautifully written novel required a little over a decade to complete.

Wildly ambitious in its scope, The World Before Us seamlessly intertwines three separate storylines conveying how isolated events permeate and connect together despite differences in time and location.

When asked to describe her novel, Hunter responded with: <em>

<em>

</em>

</em>

“The dead are following you around, but it’s not a book about zombies. It’s an examination of how the past infiltrates the present and the way it affects individuals, communities and institutions on a day-to-day basis, as though it’s alive and vital. Like a living thing.”

Her novel follows the life of Jane Standen, who at 15 lost the five year old she was minding during a walk through the woods.

As an adult, Jane works as an archivist for a British Museum that will subsequently lose its funding, and rushes to complete one final project on a woman who escaped a Victorian asylum 125 years ago.

“The original title was ‘A History of the Affections’. One of the things I was trying to stitch through in the book was how affection is what matters. And not like the romantic kind of affection but seeing another human being as a human being. When I sift through what matters to me in this world personally, it’s just kindness and being seen and being regarded.” U

of her fellow nominees. When she returns, she has a number of projects to finish up before the end of the year, including The Boy Who Fell to Earth , a new young adult novel inspired in part by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Although this may seem like another sharp turn in terms of subject matter for Prendergast, there is one unifying thread that ties her body of work together: her books are interesting to read.

“I’m interested in writing things that I’ve never seen before,” said Prendergast. “I want people to read my books, and I want people to enjoy them.” U </em>

Aaron Chapman

</em>

PHOTO COURTESY GLENN HUNTER

Prendergast. “I wanted to write a character that wasn’t that girl.”

Prendergast’s portrayal of Ella has resonated with readers and critics alike: Audacious , released in 2013 by Orca Books, has won three awards and was shortlisted for a fourth. Capricious , which came out last spring, is currently in the running for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, one of the annual BC Book Prizes that are presented by the West Coast Book Prize Society.

As part of the BC Book Prize publicity, Prendergast will spend part of April touring Northern and Central B.C. along with two

COMMEMORATE

YO U R ACHIEVEMENT

some of his perspective for Live at the Commodore as an accompanying musician. “Performing there has to be the most fun. At the Commodore I’ve played about 25 times for one band or another,” he said. He has played mandolin and Irish whistle for the Town Pants, a Celtic Rock band and three or four different instruments with the Mackenzies, a punk rock band.

Chapman believes the Commodore’s greatest impact on Vancouver history is being a cross-generational place that meant so much to so many people.

“It’s a place your grandparents and parents might’ve gone to, it’s a place you could go to. I’m not essentially writing something as an academic history book, I’m trying to relate something to the public.” U <em>

</em>

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

| CULTURE | 7

Kayla Czaga Miguel Santa Maria Senior Staff Writer

For creative writing MFA student Kayla Czaga, writing her first book — nominated for the Dorothy Liveset Poetry Prize — has been an interesting ride both figuratively and literally.

Composed of poetry written in the span of almost five years, Czaga describes For Your Safety, Please Hold On as a coming-ofage portrait of herself, as well as reflections of other people.

“It is basically a book that’s trying to figure what it is to be in the world compared to the people related to you,” said Czaga. “The experience you have and trying to learn how to navigate the world is the core thing that I’m trying to look at in the book.”

Navigate is indeed the key term; much of the book is inspired from using public transit and other travelling in general. The main title itself comes from a sign usually seen on the bus.

“For some reason, the sense of moving between places I find really inspiring and generates a lot of things,” said Czaga, having written on subjects such as a man loudly weeping by himself on the bus, or thoughts on her dad while on a road trip to visit her hospitalized mother.

That’s not to say that the book is mainly comprised of views on other people — Czaga herself is the main subject in plenty of them.

“The big poem at the end of the book, I wrote fully about a breakup that I had and my thoughts on spirituality,” she said. “I won’t </em>

PHOTO COURTESY NIGHTWOOD EDITIONS

For Your Safety Please Hold On is a collection of poems that can be read as a reflection of the author and other people.

read it out loud at readings because it feels too personal.”

The chronology of the works themselves can be a considered a coming of age story as Czaga found it hard to write about herself when she initially started.

“The earlier work [within the book] was less focused on me….

As I [wrote] more and more, it became easier to write specifically about my own experience, so that kind of took over.”

She also notes that the book lightens up a bit as it progresses, reflecting her learnings of incorporating humour while at UBC. “Before I wasn’t very funny, so the early work tended to be more serious,” she said. “The newer work had more funny stuff — though not always — so that was a progression.”

With the book’s nomination for a BC Book Prize, Czaga is grateful for the recognition.

More importantly, she is glad to know her expression reaches others.

“It’s not enough for me to just express and it makes no sense to anyone else,” she said. “When I was a kid books meant a lot to me because they spoke a lot to me, and I guess I’m trying to do that — to speak to other people.”

That said, it does not mean she is stopping just yet, nor should it be the reason for other writers.

“I think you’ll never be satisfied if you’re in this game for the awards and recognition,” she said. “These [awards] are great … but ultimately it has to be internally satisfying…. You’ll have to pursue your own vision.” U

Eileen Kernaghan

Keagan Perlette Staff Writer

In an endless sea of pale girls peering out from under dark bangs plastered on every book cover in the young adult section of Chapters, Eileen Kernaghan’s newest novel, Sophie, in Shadow, stands out against the masses.

It’s no secret that young adult fiction is enjoying the spotlight, but Kernaghan is an old pro at weaving intriguing tales that teens and adults can enjoy.

Kernaghan isn’t picky about her audience. “Somebody, somewhere, wrote an article that I read that said the secret to why young adult novels are really popular is because of the story, they have to have a strong story,” she said.

Sophie, in Shadow , is Kernaghan’s ninth novel. The captivating story, set in India in 1914, has earned the book a spot as a finalist for a BC Book Prize in Children’s Literature. The plot centres around Sophie, a girl orphaned by the sinking of the Titanic — inspired by Kernaghan’s ancestors missing the fateful voyage. Following a move to India, Sophie finds that she struggles with a strange power that emerges from the hallucinations she has as a result of post traumatic stress disorder after losing her family.

Kernaghan says that her main interests are history and archaeology. “All these years I’ve been indulging my fondness for doing historical research,” she said.

“Everything I’ve written has been historically as correct as I could make it but there’s a fantasy, supernatural element to it so it’s kind of hard to put an exact genre on it.” </em>

Kernaghan’s career lifted off while she was living in Burnaby, raising her young children, with the publication of The Grey Isles trilogy. Now settled in New Westminster, she continues to work on books that blend her ravenous curiosity and passion for intense research with her long standing love of fantasy.

In the case of Sophie, in Shadow , Kernaghan was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim which, like Sophie, in Shadow, sees the protagonist through the Great Game — the network of spies and terrorist plots which arose from the conflict between Britain and Russia — in India during of the 19th century.

Kernaghan is drawn to the untold stories of history, focusing on people and events that have escaped the canonical history books. Another muse was Alexandra David-Néel. “[She] was a big source of inspiration,” Kernaghan said. “[She] ... was a real person, [a] famous Himalayan traveller Buddhist expert [and an] explorer. I like using real people, too, there’s quite a few real people in the book.”

Kernaghan hopes that readers will take a deeper interest in histories that are often overlooked by popular literature and would love to see her readers go back to Kipling’s Kim if they want to read more about the excitement of the Great Game.

Kernaghan’s goal is to instil “a sense of adventure” in her reader.

“I kind of like to take a period that is not widely known or an aspect of a period and delve into it,” she said. “You know, find out what is there to be found.” U </em>

</

em>

Kernaghan’s Sophie, in Shadow is nominated for a Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.

PHOTO COURTESY EILEEN KERNAGHAN

8 | CULTURE |

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

FILM >>

ART >>

Flawless: Beyoncé inspired local art show The Devil Operation

shines light on human rights abuses

PHOTO COURTESY GUARANGO ASSOCIATION

Julio Vasquez, pictured, is a journalist covering a march against British-owned Majaz mine.

Vicky Huang Contributor

PHOTO CARL OSTBERG

BBBEYONCE, pictured above, is one of the submissions for the show. Flawless is accepting submissions until April 12.

Olivia Law News Producer

An art show centred around Beyoncé, entertainment and inclusivity is intriguing to say the least.

For the past four years, Christina Chant and some friends have been running springtime art shows based on different celebrities.

These have ranged from Snoop Dogg (Drop It Like It’s Art) to Steven Seagal (The Steven Seagallery) to the Spice Girls (The Zig-aZigallery) and began following a trip to Burning Man festival.

“My friend and I got together over one summer and found art of various qualities to put up at Burning Man,” said Chant. “When we got back with all the leftover art, we found a venue who would hold an art show for us, with no experience whatsoever.”

A far cry from the traditional art show, Chant uses a mixture of satire and theatricality to produce these shows each year. According to the Facebook event, over 900 people are planning on attending the exhibition entitled Flawless: A Beyoncé Inspired Art Show and Fundraiser.

Jocelyn Lougheed, a geography student at UBC, is participating

in the fundraiser, her interest stemming from the Snoop Doggthemed show. “It’s pretty great being able to make art that maybe isn’t the greatest quality,” she said.

“But when it gets into the show, you can tell all your friends, which is pretty fun.”

Lougheed’s contribution to Flawless is a set of playing card-themed pictures, with a Beyoncé premise worked into the names of each. Other works in the show include a mash up of Beyoncé and Sarah Kerrigan from the game StarCraft, a piece by Patrick Lemoine, a UBC philosophy student.

“I got involved around the same time as Jocelyn,” said Lemoine.

“It’s strictly no talent necessary, which is probably one of the best things about the show.”

Chant is keen to state that the show is less “no talent necessary,” than “all talents welcome.”

Alongside the varied art, Flawless is also entertaining some performances from dance-offs, to “Beard-oncé,” to monologues.

First-year Arts student Nkirote Waiganjo is performing a piece based on Beyoncé’s music in spoken form.

“It’s based on songs like ‘Single Ladies’ and all the songs that Beyoncé has released about female empowerment, gender equality and independence,” she said.

Waiganjo is passionate about the cause of the fundraiser, the Positive Women’s Network. “I think in many ways she embodies independence, and she’s a role model for many women,” Waiganjo said.

“I feel like many times we know the lyrics to a song but we don’t really listen to them or pay attention because of the beat — when they’re spoken we hear things that we sometimes might miss.”

The Positive Women’s Network is Canada’s longest-running HIV organization for women, providing support, education and resources for women living with HIV in British Columbia. All proceeds from Flawless will go directly to the organization.

They are accepting submissions until April 12 for all forms of paintings, short stories, drag, mixed media, video, sculpture and anything else — the only catch is that it must express Beyoncé in some way.

The show is April 18, at Studio East from 7 p.m. U </em>

“As a Canadian, when you go overseas, you’re used to everybody hugging you and welcoming you with open arms,” said Stephanie Boyd, director of The Devil Operation, a documentary film about the struggle of the Peruvian human rights defenders against Canadian mining companies.

“In Peru, Canada’s image has been tarnished … there’s this whole idea of the ‘ugly Canadian,’ so I felt a responsibility, as a Canadian, to make some films that show the communities’ point of view, and the idea was to bring them back and show them in North America … where these [mining] companies are based.”

A collaborative effort by the UBC Social Justice Centre and Stop the Institute, The Devil Operation was the last in the series of events at the UBC Social Justice Centre Conference 2015. The two organizations were strong opponents of the $25 million federal project called the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute (CIRDI), which supports mining companies — some of which commit human right abuses overseas. “[CIRDI] is headquartered at UBC … 75 per cent of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada…. In fact, Canadian mining companies actually have the world’s worst records on

human rights of any country…. So that’s how the mining issue has become a big issue at the Social Justice Centre,” said this year’s Social Justice Centre Conference co-chair, Eviatar Bach, a thirdyear physics and computer science student. “[We] want to bring those voices here, where a lot of people aren’t aware … about all the human rights violations that these companies are committing.”

Boyd hopes that students can be more informed and aware of the social tension inflicted by the Canadian industry overseas, and to take active roles in promoting grass-root equity right here in Vancouver. “[I would like students to] think about the difficulties of having corporate sponsorship of the university and what that is doing to academic freedom…. I [also] hope people will get involved with the local struggles in Vancouver.”

Regarding The Devil Operation, Bach said “this is just one story of thousands of this industry. It’s a very human story — you can see what this community went through … [and to get] some idea of the violence that is caused by [the Canadian mining] companies, and hopefully, for the people who weren’t as informed about these issues to come to this event, to become informed about and maybe get involved with the solidarity efforts that are happening at the university and other places in the city and on the national level.” U

MUSIC >>

Canadian favourite Tokyo Police Club returns to Block Party

PHOTO COURTESY TOKYO POLICE CLUB

Tokyo Police Club got their name from an internet band name generator.

Olivia Law News Producer

Newmarket, Ontario isn’t a town known for a lot of things. Aside

from being recognized as one of the smallest towns in Canada, it is the hometown of actor Jim Carrey and comedian John Candy.

Now, however, it is also the birthplace of Block Party headliners in the shape of Tokyo Police Club.

The band’s conception came about when the four members were in high school. “We started a band in high school playing piano-pop stuff, kind of inspired by Wilko, The Beatles and the Beach Boys,” said Greg Alsop, drummer for the band.

“That ran its course over a couple years, and at university we really started focusing on Tokyo Police Club, getting together on weekends and playing music together.”

Tokyo Police Club, the unique name from an internet band name generator, has played Block Party in previous years, but got its beginnings following a series of small Toronto-based shows in 2005.

Signed to Paper Bag Records after performing at the POP Montreal Festival the band is known widely for its festival, appearances.

At Block Party, students can expect a set containing both old and new music. “We’ll play a good range

of material,” said Alsop. “It’ll be a really fun show, we’re really excited to be part of this line up.”

Tokyo Police Club’s newest album Forcefield came out in March 2014 and reached number 17 in the Canadian album charts.

As the band’s third album, Alsop stated the importance of strong collaborations between band members. “Ideas just came from sitting in our rehearsal space for about two and a half years together every day for up to 10 hours,” he said. “It was a really long writing process that we really needed to go through.”

The hard work paid off in a number of successful concerts around Canada and Europe, and Alsop cites the collaborative effort of the whole band for this success. “I think we didn’t quite know what we wanted to do next, what we wanted our sound to be,” he said. “Holing up together like that just gave us an opportunity to explore every avenue

that we possibly could for the record.”

This is the concept for Forcefield, tracks from which can be expected on Friday’s Block Party — “trying everything and putting out what works.”

Alsop began playing the drums in the seventh grade as part of his school band. The selection process for the band involved a written essay on the drums and was the beginning of his career in the music industry.

This has allowed Alsop to travel around the world with Tokyo Police Club, and he reminisces fondly about his experiences performing in the mud at Reading and Glastonbury Festivals.

For a band beginning in their parent’s basements, Tokyo Police Club is taking everything as it comes in their stride.

“It’ll be a really fun show,” said Alsop.

“UBC has always treated us really well and we’re psyched to be asked back for this event.” U

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 |

STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

9

A Place of Min(e)d: The Contradictions of UBC’s Sustainability Discourse

GEOG 395 STUDENTS Letter

In a place of mind, Where the fire of knowledge burns So bright that it can blind Humanity on earth.

Waves of cyanide drown The land of eternal spring And as it sinks we stand Complicit in this sin.

A place of mind, A place, A mine.

“Sustainability at UBC isn’t just a word to define — it’s a term that defines us and how we interact with the world.” UBC Sustainability The hypocrisy of this statement became apparent to us when learning about the mining companies that have funded (and continue to fund) various UBC programs and buildings, including the recently completed Earth Sciences Building featuring the ‘Goldcorp Teaching and Learning Wing’.

UBC is packed with such hypocrisies. On one hand, it is considered amongst the leading institutions in sustainability studies, conveniently located in the self-proclaimed “world’s greenest city.” On the other, the very institutions and programs advocating for sustainability and social justice are tainted with ‘dirty’ funding originating from mining companies undertaking social and environmental exploitation in (mostly) Latin American countries with lax environmental and social regulations. To add yet another layer, we must remember that our campus is constructed on unceded Musqueam territories. It seems like the endless construction projects on campus are increasingly attempting to bury aboriginal geographical histories — much like Goldcorp is attempting to hide its human rights abuses by donating undisclosed millions to UBC. We remember our first campus tour when we stopped to admire a small pile of rocks placed on Main Mall. These rocks commemorate

former UBC students’ march — from the downtown campus to Point Grey — demanding the accelerated construction of the new campus. There was little mention of how the Musqueam peoples were being expropriated from the land we now call ‘our’ campus.

Parallels can be drawn between the histories and land rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada and Latin America — both suffered environmental degradation of their ancestral lands, human rights abuses and social exclusion. The companies involved in some of the more contemporary abuses spend a minuscule percentage of their marginal profit to “gold-wash,” or spin a positive public image in the ‘global north,’ while committing atrocious human rights abuses in the ‘global south’, effectively conditioning us to believe that the goods and services we enjoy have no negative consequences anywhere along the chain of production. Yet, locals near the physical mines of these companies bear witness to the deterioration of their environments and communities.

Our project aims to bring this issue to campus, reacquainting us with the realities and histories of the land. Vergangenheitsbewältigung means coming to terms with the past. At UBC, we must be continuously involved in a process of reflection about our past, present and future, questioning the origins of funds which might carry the exploitation of indigenous communities not only within Canada, but globally. The introductory poem refers to the land of eternal spring, Guatemala, which has suffered from Canadian policies for decades.

Let us hold mining companies, UBC and ourselves accountable for the human rights abuses and environmental destruction occurring here and abroad. We aspire to promote a heightened sense of NorthSouth solidarity by pointing out that “here” and “there” are more interconnected than we think.

This letter was written by Michelle Pérez, Manuela Duque, Noor Attar, Mike Wilgosh, Martín Reyes, students in GEOG 395. U

ILLUSTRATION JULIAN YU/THE UBYSSEY

LAST WORDS

PARTING SHOTS AND SNAP JUDGEMENTS FROM THE UBYSSEY EDITORIAL BOARD

BLUE PHONE “MISCHIEF” The 19 blue phones were put on campus with the intention of complementing the safety services provided by UBC and the RCMP. Which brings us to a recently published statistic in Campus Security’s annual report which shows that, of the of 110 blue phone calls made last year, 101 were determined to be either mischief or accidental. In some of these cases, dispatchers were sent to the scene but couldn’t locate the person who had placed the call.

Which begs the question: is it presumptuous to say that these were all prank calls? It seems irresponsible to assume that a case was the result of mischief just because the caller didn’t remain at the scene of the call. And if the calls were all genuinely pranks or accidents, perhaps there is something to be said about how we are using this public safety service.

Sure, stationary call boxes aren’t the most convenient means of contacting emergency services.

But that doesn’t mean we should be abusing a system that is set up for our own benefit.

OVER THE MOON While there’s something strangely comical about a man spending 45 minutes trying to break into The Moon, another 45 minutes inside and then walking out with some cans of pop, the consequences of that act are no laughing matter: because the suspect opened all the refrigerator doors, the restaurant had to get rid of all the food and conduct special cleaning.

A man broke into the restaurant, didn’t actually steal or break anything, but still managed (most likely without even realizing it) to cause thousands of dollars worth in damages to the restaurant without ever being identified. We guess this is what a not-so-fast getaway looks like.

BLOCK PARTY BLUES You’ll notice a lack of Block Party

coverage in this issue. Traditionally, we try to cover it as much as possible — interviews with the performers, coverage of the plans for the event, etc. However, this year there was a distinct lack in communication between us, the AMS and the public relations representatives from the artists performing.

The artists decided to make it difficult for us to set up interviews.

Chromeo told us that they’re “not doing press right now” but agreed to speak with the Syrup Trap — which will be hilarious, sure, but wouldn’t they also want to speak with other campus media?

The lack of communication surrounding Block Party from both the AMS and the PR representatives was (and still is) frustrating. We, essentially, provide free promotion for these artists, and while our readership doesn’t quite match Rolling Stone or The New York Times, students still care and want to read about the artists who will be performing on campus — it would be nice if PR reps recognized this. U

Better Price, Greater Value On Shipping

Ask Natalie: On getting involved You might try looking into clubs that are active over the summer.

The Varsity Outdoor Club and the Sailing Club both run events and accept new members for the summer. The Ubyssey continues to publish articles online over the summer, in case you were wondering. If you’re staying in the Lower Mainland over the summer these clubs can be a great way to start getting involved on campus and meeting new people.

But if you’re not staying in the area, look into what clubs you would want to get into come September. Club days can be pretty intimidating if you don’t know what you want. Generally clubs post their membership fees beforehand so you can be prepared for club days.

Getting involved on campus is always possible, it just gets a little harder the longer the year goes on.

But no worries, clubs are always happy for new members. It may a take a while to find the club that suits you, but once you find your place on campus, it is well worth the time and effort it to get there.

You can do it and best of luck!

Need advice? Write to Natalie at asknatalie@ubyssey.ca and have your questions answered. U <em>

NATALIE MORRIS

Advice Columnist

“Dear Natalie, Is it too late to get involved on campus?”

With less than one month left in the term, it is a bit late, seeing as many clubs tend to wind down over April, but it is not too late. There are many events running in the upcoming weeks that would need volunteers, like the Bike Rave that’s running this week.

</em>

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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015 |

EDITOR JACK HAUEN

10

WRITTEN BY

“fi ft h -lin e centre”

CJ PENTLAND

&

INTRO

NATALIE SCADDEN “th e hustler”

Who excelled? Who didn’t live up to the expectations? We review the second half of the athletics season by grading the UBC Thunderbird teams.

+ A

A

SWIMMING

W O M EN 'S BASKETBALL

After another dominant performance at Canada West in which the T-Birds missed the podium in just one of 38 events, the women’s squad battled injuries, illnesses and disqualifications to come through with their fourth-straight CIS championship. They narrowly beat out the Montreal Carabins despite swimming with three fewer racers on their roster, while the men’s side showed their improved depth to bring home their first national title since 2012.

UBC won 17 straight games this season en route to a Canada West championship and a CIS bronze medal. Their comeback in the Canada West final was one for the ages, and then they came heartbreakingly close to facing off with Windsor — who won their fifth-straight CIS title — in the national final, losing the CIS semifinal against McGill 59-57 in overtime.

A

MEN'S

+ B B

C+

They need to finish strong and close out games, especially when they’re ahead.

Cole Wilson | Eric Williams

That berth at nationals remains elusive.

While they beat the likes of Alberta and Calgary during the regular season, come the playoffs it’s clear that a great divide remains between those squads.

BASKETBALL

Panic nearly ensued when ‘Birds struggled out of the gates and dropped five of their first six games. However, things quickly turned around following a weekend sweep.

UBC won 13 of their final 14 regular season games to earn themselves home court advantage in the Canada West quarterfinal.

They dispatched of the UNBC Timberwolves to reach the final four, but suffered a heartbreaking semifinal loss to the Huskies — with the winner of that game heading to nationals.

MEN'S

Brock Staller | Bryan Tyrer | Sam Jeffries

HOCKEY

Under first-year head coach Tyler Kuntz, the T-Birds used a mix of old and new to put together one of their better seasons in recent memory. With strong play throughout the entire regular season, UBC hosted their first playoff game since 1971 and took down Manitoba in a tough quarterfinal series. In semis they were once again overmatched by the eventual national champs, Alberta, but with the team’s varsity status still in limbo this was a strong season for the ‘Birds and an important one for their future.

MEN'S

An already short-handed women’s squad is losing four more graduating swimmers, so recruiting well and having new faces step up will be key.

RUGBY

After regaining their powerhouse status by going 20-3 last year, UBC has carried on most of that success this year, albeit in less dominant fashion. The T-Birds won the Wightman’s Boot again, and they also kept the World Cup again by giving themselves enough of a cushion in the first game (19-6) to mean that a last minute 23-21 home loss to California only cost them their pride.

However, Victoria got the best of UBC in the National University 7’s tournament, so there’s some room for improvement there.

MEN'S

Coleman Allen | Yuri Kisil | Keegan Zanatta | Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson | Jacomie Strydom

Tommy Nixon

They’ll lose Nixon and other key seniors Tonner Jackson, Brylle Kamen and Andrew McGuinness. UBC will have lots of work to do, especially defensively, if they want to contend with the likes of the Carleton Ravens.

VO LLEYBALL

It was a story we’d seen before: the ‘Birds have a strong regular season, holding down a spot in the CIS top 10 for most of the regular season, then make the playoffs in a tough Canada West conference.

They then took down Manitoba in the quarterfinals, setting up a matchup with #1 Alberta with the winner advancing to nationals. But after taking the first set of that semifinal, UBC lost the next three — making it another season of ‘close but no cigar’.

Mac McNicol | Ian Perryt

This is three straight seasons where UBC has been on the brink of making nationals but came up short. Quite simply, they need to step up at crunch time.

+ B

Kris Young

Young will be nearly impossible to replace, and with two other key starters departing (Harleen Sidhu and Diana Lee) UBC will need returning players to continue stepping up.

BASEBALL A year after winning the NAIA West Championship but falling just short of the NAIA World Series, the ‘Birds have again come out of the gate strong. They’ve won games with both their bats and their defence, with UBC scoring 40 runs in a four-game sweep over Oregon Tech, but in their sweep of Simpson they allowed just six over the four games.

B

WOMEN'S It was another up-and-down season for the ‘Birds, and unfortunately for them it ended with a down. UBC won 10 of their 12 games in the second half of the season, giving them a first-round playoff bye and a home playoff berth in the semis, but after winning game one of the semis against Manitoba, they lost the next two to end what looked to be another promising season. For the second straight year, a strong regular season couldn’t translate into postseason success.

B

Bruce Yari | Curtis Taylor

With so many games being played over such a short timespan, the pitching staff needs to stay healthy and hope Conor Lillis-White and Jeremy Newton can build off their success so far.

HOCKEY Tatiana Rafter | Sarah Casorso

Get it done in the playoffs. UBC has suffered two-straight defeats in the Canada West semis.

W O M E N ' S VO L L E Y BA L L After coming oh-so-close to a record-setting seventh-straight national title last year, this year was a bit of a fall from grace for a once-dominant team. While coming sixth at nationals would be a dream come true for other T-Bird teams, this group has set the bar much higher for themselves.

In a year that saw the T-Birds fall at the hands of teams they’ve never lost to before, the “sleeping giants” were unable to come through at the big stage.

C-

Danielle Brisbois | Lisa Barclay

With senior leaders Abbey Keeping, Rosie Schlagintweit and Barclay graduating, this team looks to rebuild next season and will need more players to step up if they are to find their consistency and reach the top level again.

S O F T BA L L It’s a bittersweet season for the ‘Birds in what might be their last as a varsity team, and they have struggled to find success on the field. They dropped 12 of their first 15 games to start the season — though many by a close score — but up-and-down play over the remainder of the season leaves them out of contention.

Lindsey Ogilvie

In what still remains an unstable future, the team just needs keep fighting for the chance to have a team next year.

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

| SPORTS | 11

THUNDERBIRDS >>

T-BIRDS 5-ON-5

STEPHANIE WONG

NATE OLLIS

JACK WILLIAMS

Golf

Golf

Track and Field

CONOR LILLIS-WHITE

QUINN DHALIWAL

Baseball

Softball

SPRING STARS 1. What are your individual and team goals for this season?

Individual goals: come top three and win an individual title. Team goals: win NAIAs, win Canadians.

If there was one outcome goal for the remainder of the season, it would be to win the team NAIA National Championship in May.

Get invited into a pre-race prayer ritual by them southern folk down there in good ol’ Alabama, which should help me run a personal best.

An anteater, because of its long and skillful tongue.

To start each weekend with W’s and end each weekend at The Roxy.

Our team goal is to make it to regionals in Lawrenceville, Georgia in May.

A T-Rex, because it has short arms.

Wine. Wine is definitely my spirit animal.

2. What’s your spirit animal?

A wolf. I am territorial and loyalty is very important to me.

Not knowing exactly what a “spirit animal” is, I would say an eagle because birds of prey are my favourite animals.

3. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?

I would probably spend most of my time travelling and meeting new people and learning about the different cultures around the world.

I would probably spend as much time as possible exploring the world and seeing as much as I could.

I would make more chilli in the crock pot for Reid.

I would try to red-shirt a few more times.

If I only had 40 years to live, I think I would just stop worrying about the little things.

4. If you had to look at one city skyline for the rest of your life, which would it be?

I would look at Vancouver. I love downtown Vancouver.

I’ve never actually been there, but I’d be hard pressed not to pick Melbourne, Australia.

Bruges, ‘cause it’s Bruges.

Grand Forks, B.C. Lots of good memories there.

The Vancouver skyline view from Spanish Banks. Vancouver will always be my heart and home.

5. What do you think Victoria’s ‘secret’ is?

I think Victoria’s secret is her secret love for pizza.

The city or the lingerie?

I hear the people in both are quite nice …

I Googled this one.

Not telling.

If a girl’s bra and underwear are matching it wasn’t by chance that you got lucky. It was a predetermined decision.

VOLLEYBALL >>

Canadian national sitting volleyball team hosts ‘Birds in exhibition

The national team and the T-Birds hug it out after a match.

Olamide Olaniyan Staff Writer Last Friday, amidst the Easter celebrations, the UBC Thunderbirds squared off against the Canadian men’s national sitting volleyball team for a sitting volleyball exhibition match at the Richmond Olympic Oval. Sadly, the west coast has been largely unexposed to the sport, and most people are completely unaware that it even exists.

While similar on a lot of fronts, sitting volleyball feels like a different sport from traditional volleyball.

It retains most of the key features that make it volleyball such as having six players on each team and the goal of making the ball land in the opponent’s side. But unlike traditional volleyball, each player is not allowed to leave a sitting position.

For this reason, the net is shorter and the court is smaller.

During the game, players have to stay alert and need to be able to act quickly. It can also be more tactical

PHOTO COURTESY DEREK STEVENS

and precise than the traditional game, given the smaller court and the shorter net. It’s difficult to hit the ball without jumping, keep it in play without slamming it, harder to dig when you cannot dive after the ball and harder to set when you are glued to the floor. This makes each set fast, nasty and brutish.

“Just like any game that you need technique, I have a lot of respect for this game. It is still a very technical game and I think that the best in the world play at a very high level,” said T-Birds head coach Richard Schick.

The game last week was a form of practice for Team Canada as they prepared for the Toronto 2015 Parapan Am games this August, which is a qualifier for the 2016 Paralympic games in Rio de Janeiro.

The aim for Team Canada is to qualify both the men’s and women’s teams this year. The game also served to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Volleyball BC as well expose sitting volleyball to the Lower Mainland and the community.

“As a Paralympic sport, sitting volleyball is apparently quite popular due to the fast-paced game play and it’s an exciting sport to watch, but it is not well-known among the general public and currently there are not a lot of opportunities available at the grassroots level,” said Donna Lee, the 50th anniversary initiatives coordinator for Volleyball BC. “Hopefully these events spark some interest in the sport and inspire some community programs.”

Both the men’s and women’s sitting volleyball teams have fared well — in fact, excelled — in the Parapan games since they started competing in the games. Due to expenses, the teams do not compete in many international competitions, especially as a lot of them take place in Europe.

But for the ones close to home, both teams have been impressive.

“In zonal competitions, our men’s national team is two-time Parapan Am bronze medalists in 2007 and 2011, as well as the 2013 Pan Am Championship bronze medalists.

Our women’s national team won bronze in the 2011 Pan Am Championships,” said Ian Halliday, the high performance director for Team Canada.

Schick added that the exhibition match was also partly a product of a relationship between Team Canada and the Thunderbirds. That line of contact was Austin Hinchey.

Now the current captain of Team Canada, Hinchey played for the Thunderbirds as their setter for two of his years of eligibility, before heading back to Edmonton where he graduated this year. And in that time, he got close to many of the players and introduced them to the sport.

He also lived with fifth-year libero Ian Perry during his time at UBC. “We had a couple people that all lived in the same house togeth-

er and it was nice to be able to live with those people and just develop more of a personal relationship, rather than just a teammate relationship,“ said Perry.

Team Canada plays at the international level in a sport that anyone would find difficult, so unsurprisingly thay had the upper hand, pretty much putting the ‘Birds to the wall for the entire game. However, UBC fought back at several near-impossible moments

and proved that they were not a team that could be bullied. In the end, Team Canada won the game in five sets, but with a close final set score of 15-13.

“Anytime you get these guys together against any university team, any high level competing team, and you get them playing anything, there is going to be a compete level. Whether [it’s] Go Fish, or if it’s memory or whatever, they all want to win,” said Schick. U

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12 | GAMES |

P

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

H

O

OF THE

DAY

Only a few more weeks in the dungeon.

O

PHOTO NICK ADAMS/THE UBYSSEY

MAR 30 ANSWERS

COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM

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COURTESY KRAZYDAD.COM

MAR 30 ANSWERS

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