March 15, 2016

MARCH 15, 2016 | VOLUME XCVII | ISSUE XXIII COUCH LADY SINCE 1918

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NEWS

CULTURE

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Aboriginal engagement across UBC campuses

UBC has an underground rap scene

Should we allow abortion protests at UBC?

Men’s basketball earns bronze at CanWest

THE UBYSSEY

Volunteering abroad: who benefits?

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TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE

EVENTS

2

OUR CAMPUS

Geoff Pippus asks men to reimagine manhood

THURSDAY 17 ST.PATRICK’S DAY GAME 7 P.M. @ DOUG MITCHELL UBC will be hosting the CIS Men’s Basketball Final 8. Gear up with Thunderbird swag and cheer for our boys on home turf!

$5

FRIDAY 18 STRAIGHT OUTTA MIDTERMS 8 P.M. @ THE NEST

Enjoy some of UBC’s most talented hip-hop artists for FREE. All proceeds from drinks will go to building wells in Ethiopia.

FREE

MONDAY 21

PHOTO JEREMY JOHNSON-SILVERS/THE UBYSSEY

Geoff Pippus, a former varsity basketball player and sociology student, is one of the founding members of Reimagining Manhood.

WALBRAN VALLEY 7 P.M. @ 128 W HASTINGS

Learn about how to save the incredible ecosystems in old growth forests with environmental experts and FIrst Nations elders.

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ON THE COVER PHOTO/ART BY Aiken Lao

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Emily Blake Contributor

Geoff Pippus, a former varsity basketball player and sociology student, is one of the founding members of Reimagining Manhood — a campus group that encourages men to discuss issues of gender inequality such as privilege, relationships, violence, leadership and feminism.

While Pippus enjoyed playing basketball and is now involved in coaching, he recognized hyper-masculine spaces can be problematic.

Reflecting on his time playing varsity sports, Pippus said, “It’s hyper-masculine, it’s hypercompetitive, it’s not always healthy, it’s not always an equitable environment.”

“It’s hard for me to go to my former teammates and say, ‘Come talk about feminism,’” he added.

“It’s so pervasive — this idea that feminism is a women’s issue — that it’s hard to get people involved if they’re not actively searching it out.”

After quitting varsity basketball to focus on his studies, Pippus enrolled in a gender relations course on a whim. He loved the class and was vocal during discussion. But when he attended a talk during 2014’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month, he clammed up. As one of the few men at the event and with little experience in gender activism, he felt uncomfortable participating.

“I didn’t feel like it was my place.

I didn’t feel like maybe I knew enough. I didn’t feel like maybe I’d

done enough for me to be the one speaking,” he explained.

After talking with Tal Nitsan, his gender relations professor, Pippus realized other male students also felt uncomfortable about discussing gender in public. Nitsan gathered a group of them together and Reimagining Manhood was born.

“Gender is a spectrum — it’s not male and female and it’s not just women that need to fight for women’s rights. It needs to go both ways,” said Pippus. “But I think that’s not widely accepted.”

Among other events, the group hosts what they call “Alternative Guy’s Nights.” These are workshops where male-identified students come together to talk about issues including sexual violence, mental health, drinking culture and feminism. They try to apply feminist and sociological research in a way that’s applicable to men’s lives.

Pippus said one issue they addressed is how to react to offensive comments or jokes directed at women.

“We talk about how difficult it is to hear those things from people you know and trust and might be friends with, but we also talk about ways you might be able to interject a voice that gets them to reconsider what they’re saying,” Pippus explained.

According to Pippus, around 30 other students have attended their events. The group has also created a website to open up discussion online.

For UBC’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month in January, their

Alternative Guys Night was titled, “But I’m not a Rapist!” Pippus described the event as a way to involve men in discussions about gendered violence. He noted that although most men are not sexual predators, they need to be involved in discussions and speak out against sexual harassment and assault for meaningful change to take place.

Pippus is also writing an honours thesis on this subject. It explores sexual assault issues on campus from 2013 to the present and how UBC responded to them.

Pippus is looking for underlying causes of rape culture on campus and ways to address the problem other than reacting to crises. He believes mandatory education on consent could be a step in the right direction in addition to replacing the message of, “don’t walk home alone at night,” directed at young women with activism for social change.

Pippus’s work is part of a growing trend of masculinity studies in North America. At UBC, there is also a Men’s Health Research project out of the School of Nursing and the SASC has started a Healthier Masculinities group.

The Terry Project also hosted a Bar Talk on Toxic Masculinity in January. In the United States, Stony Brook University is planning on offering the first Master’s degree in Masculinity Studies.

“I do think it’s an improving conversation and I think that’s a sign of positive change,” said Pippus.

“There’s a lot of room left to go and it’s all based on the work of feminist scholars before this.” U

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

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GOVERNANCE //

The sky-high stress of running the AMS elections Moira Warburton News Editor

Justin Habashi, third-year political science major, was this year’s AMS elections administrator. Within the AMS, it’s known for being one of the most mentally debilitating positions the society has.

That narrative — “this is a phenomenal learning opportunity, but it’s also an extremely emotionally destructive job,” said Habashi — can be heard from past elections staff too.

“Often I say it was one of the best experiences because I learned so much,” said Marjan Hatai, a fifth-year political science major and referendum coordinator in 2014. She was in charge of making sure questions like selling the Whistler lodge and fee restructuring passed.

The main reason for this stress is that the stakes are high for people who work on the AMS elections. Combined with the little training — and a lot of criticism — available to people who take on the job, this means that the pressure becomes almost unbearable at times.

Habashi was able to meet with Andrew Lavers, the elections administrator in 2015. His advice?

Have a thick skin.

“He warned me of all the horrors that come from people who don’t necessarily approve of every little thing, but you can’t go into it with the mindset that you have to appease everyone because you definitely don’t,” said Habashi.

Habashi pointed out that in a town of 50,000 people, a county clerk or other permanent official would be in charge of understanding the code and procedures associated with running elections “The fact is that I came in, I was handed the code with no transition from last year’s guy or the year before. They said, ‘This is what you’ve got to do this year — you’ve got to understand all the internal structure,’” he said. “Although I was given ample time, I don’t think I was given ample material.”

This is the most tangible problem that both Habashi and Hatai pointed to as a cause for emotional stress — the lack of transition available. Because elections staff are usually so mentally exhausted after finishing their term, there is often no document the next year’s staff can turn to for advice or guidance.

Aaron Bailey, president of the AMS, pointed to this as an issue that transition reports wouldn’t solve. He said that although his position comes with transition reports, none of them said how to

AMS elections staff lacks things that would make their j­ ob easier, such as transition reports.

deal with a university president quitting, a board falling apart and an exposé on how UBC handles sexual assaults. A transition report might help future elections administrators, but it wouldn’t fix everything.

This issue is compounded by the fact that elections staff don’t report to a single person — instead, they’re accountable to AMS Council as a whole.

“The amount of support really falls on the individual who is in the presidency role, for the most part, to work with the people in elections [and] to work in as least a conflicting way as possible,” said Bailey. That would have

been him this year, but he was a candidate in the elections himself.

He described this situation as “tricky because you can’t really be involved in a pseudo-managerial or support role” due to conflicts of interest.

Although Bailey is “willing to think about how to improve it,” he still believes that running AMS elections is, in its very nature, a stressful job.

In retrospect, the only solution which Habashi and Hatai came up with other than mandatory transition reports was a more realistic portrayal of what the job would entail when searching for the successful applicant. Along

FILE PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

with Bailey, they noted that it’s a certain kind of person who is able to function under the intense pressure of the job.

“There will be a me or a Justin [Habashi] who will do it because we care about the society. But with those job descriptions not being accurate, it makes it really hard for someone to stay in good mental health throughout it because you’re so frustrated that you’re working so much more,” said Hatai.

Habashi agreed. “I think if we don’t advertise this position as a night at the opera and we more advertise it as a monster truck rally — ‘It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be horrible, we’re so sorry.’” U

PROTEST //

Pro-life activists set up graphic displays on campus

Pro-choice acitivts protest the pro-life’s apperance.

Emma Partridge News Editor

About half a dozen pro-life activists set up displays outside the Frederic Lasserre Building on March 9, displaying what one sign calls the “insanity of choice” and equating abortion to the Holocaust or Cambodian genocide.

“When we make the comparison, we’re not exactly saying that genocide is completely identical.

What we’re saying is genocide comes from dehumanization.

When people are killed from abortion, they’re killed because their humanity is taken away,” said Mark Goudie, a student member of UBC Lifeline, who put on the event.

According to Goudie, they’ve put up displays such as this for several years. The first was in 2001 and has since occurred annually. UBC Campus Security was on scene, but remained observers.

“The understanding is that these demonstrations are peaceful, that they respect others.

PHOTO KIEFER JAMES/THE UBYSSEY

We’ve got two areas for [the prolife and the pro-choice groups and] we normally separate them,” said Barry Eccleton, head of campus security. “If we foresaw that there was going to be an issue, then we would step in. We talk to these groups at the outset to clarify the understanding of why they’re there but we allow any groups to come, provided they’re respectful.”

Campus security remained alert for potential issues given the polarizing nature of the topic of

abortion. Goudie acknowledged that he has faced backlash for similar displays, but remains steadfast in his mission, which, he said, is not to make all abortion illegal, but to reach a place in which women simply wouldn’t consider abortion.

Goudie expressed that this is a lofty goal, but remains certain in his characterization of abortion as murder, saying that “abortion is a horrifically violent procedure that tears children limb from limb.”

According to Planned Parenthood, however, an abortion largely involves stretching the cervix so that the uterus may be emptied.

“I don’t agree with [the protest], I don’t like it, I think it’s quite tasteless,” said Andrew Liang, a third-year international relations major and bystander at the protest. “But again, in a liberal society, we have to cross things that we don’t agree with. We have to see things that we don’t like.

That doesn’t mean that we go out and ban it ... there’s a proper middle ground to take.”

Goudie is less steadfast on whether women who have abortions should be charged with murder, given his definition of the procedure as such.

“That’s a muddier issue,” he told The Ubyssey. “A lot of women chose to have abortions because society has failed them and because they’re in really hard circumstances.”

Factually, this is debatable — in 2004 the Guttmacher Institute, an American non-profit organiz-

ation which does policy research on sexual and reproductive health, published a study which found that the most common reason given for abortions was that having a baby would drastically change the woman’s life, either by interfering with her career or education.

Campus security did not take a stance on the controversial displays or their graphic imagery.

“The university is a place where freedom of expression is permitted,” said Eccleton. “If things got heated between the two groups, for instance, and there was a risk of provocation, then we’d step in.”

A group of pro-choice activists have since gathered to protest the pro-life set up.

Following the apperance of the group, the AMS has released a statement against the anti-abortion activists. “The AMS does not endorse the messaging of [Abortion Awareness Project], nor does it provide resources financially or otherwise support this project,” said Aaron Bailey, AMS president, in the statement.

“In recognition of the triggering nature of the images, the AMS has worked closely with the VP Students office and UBC Campus Security to ensure that the displays are re-located to areas of campus where students can avoid if they so choose.”

The statement pointed students in need of support towards the AMS Sexual Assault Support Centre and UBC Counselling Services, as well as the VP Students’ office to voice any concerns. U

4 | news |

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

INDIGENOUS //

On whose land we sit: Aboriginal engagement at UBC and UBCO Moira Warburton News Editor

“It is an extraordinary thing, the way that that campus, our Aboriginal host community and our host nation are connected,” Deborah Buszard, deputy vice-chancellor and principal at UBCO, told The Ubyssey.

The biggest difference between UBCO and UBC Vancouver is that from its very inception, the former had a clear, written understanding with the local Indigenous community.

“The fact that [UBCO] came into being with that [memorandum of understanding] set an expectation of the partners,” said Buszard of the agreement. “For me, that sense of partnership on the Okanagan campus is something very special.”

The link between the Indigenous groups connected to UBCO and the university administration there has been noticed in the past as being one of particular strength and trust.

This is unlike UBC Vancouver.

Linc Kesler, director of the First Nations House of Learning and senior advisor to the president on aboriginal affairs, points to the shared history of the university and the Musqueam. While the land had been set aside by British colonialists since 1867 for a military encampment, the Musqueam were able to continue living on the land as they had done for thousands of

years due to the lack of usage — that is until the university began to be built. As the campus grew, the Musqueam were slowly pushed out.

“In that sense, the story of the rise of the university is a story of loss for the community,” said Kesler, who is from the Oglala-Lakota nation near Chicago, Illinois, on his mother’s side.

UBC Vancouver has only in the last five to eight years began a concerted effort to include Indigenous communities within the institution. That commitment to not just accommodating the presence of Indigenous communities within the university, but actively incorporating them into the institution is something UBC Okanagan takes very seriously — starting with incoming students.

“Most institutions, if they deal with Aboriginal institutions or Aboriginal communities, their focus is on students’ shortcomings.

They take students who might be underprepared and they try to provide them with resources so that the students can be successful, but mostly the requirement is on the student to change and be different,” said Ian Cull, associate vicepresident students at UBCO, from Anishinaabe Ojibway in the Lake Superior area.

He explained that this is something that UBCO does too, providing extra support and services so that they can help

underprepared students to be successful at university. However, he said they’ve also spent a decade preparing the institution to welcome these students.

“The institution has had to change too, which is something that most universities don’t endeavour to do,” he told The Ubyssey. “They expect Indigenous students would have to change in order to have a relationship with them and our expectation was ... that the university also had to change in order to welcome and educate Indigenous people and that’s somewhat unique to us.”

In 2013, the the Truth and Reconciliation Commission came to campus. When Kesler first pitched the idea of cancelling classes for the day to allow students to attend, he was pleasantly surprised by how open everyone was.

But keeping this dialogue open is crucial.

“All of that [awareness] could go away pretty quickly if people stopped thinking about it,” said Kesler. “They have to be thinking about it to be thinking about it. So keeping people’s understanding and focus is important.”

The lack of land acknowledgement at the town hall in Vancouver in January is not limited to that event — the Board of Governors meetings that take place on the Point Grey campus

don’t traditionally include a land acknowledgement either.

For Lindsay Gordon — chancellor, board member and chair of the presidential search committee — this is not a conscious choice, but a symptom of systemic biases.

“We all have biases,” he told The Ubyssey. “In my case, I am in my early sixties, but I am who I am and who I am is a reflection of all the experiences I’ve had over those years. But one of the things I feel very strongly about … is Aboriginal engagement — and yet we forgot it.”

Although he admits that the land acknowledgement is something that often gets pushed to the sidelines in board meetings and other public events, he said this will soon change.

Celeste Haldane is currently the only Indigenous member of the Board of Governors — her family is Musqueam.

“For me when I sit in Vancouver being a member of Musqueam, I’m already home,” she said in an interview with The Ubyssey. “So I don’t need to acknowledge my own territory. When we’re in the Okanagan for instance, and we have board meetings there once a year, I always acknowledge the territory we’re on.”

At the Board of Governors meeting in September, which took place in Kelowna, then-member John Montalbano said that he felt the land acknowledgement

made on that campus felt much more genuine than those made at the Point Grey campus. He asked Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff members present why this was.

“Really, it’s about acknowledging the experiences that Indigenous people have had … it’s an understanding that Indigenous knowledge is also knowledge and valuable and has a place in the academy,” said Cull.

This is something UBCO does in a very proactive manner, said Buszard. But for Kesler and Haldane, the trajectory of engagement is on the right path.

“The things that we’re doing now and the relationship we have with the Musqueam … is on a very different footing at this point. [It] actually it looks pretty good. [The bar was set] really low with taking the land and the things we’re doing now look better by comparison,” said Kesler, referring to the colonial roots of UBC Vancouver.

Haldane points to the new Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre being built on campus, as well as the role played by the First Nations House of Learning, as being strong components of increased education and engagement. She also said more emphasis can always be given to ensuring Indigenous perspectives are included in students’ education and faculty orientation when they arrive to Vancouver. U

Public Consultation – UBC Climate Action Plan 2020 UBC is in the process of developing an updated Climate Action Plan for the Vancouver campus. By 2020, we are aiming to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 67 per cent below 2007 levels.

Over the past 9 months we have been seeking input from the campus community on what actions UBC could take to achieve this ambitious target.

We are now presenting proposed actions and options the university could pursue in the new Climate Action Plan 2020 to reduce our GHG emissions, including: • energy supply options

• actions to reduce energy use in buildings

• actions around individual behaviours

• actions around UBC-owned vehicles

(e.g. building design, maintenance and operations)

• other ways the university could reduce GHG emissions

There are two ways to participate: 1 Online between March 14 – 27 at planning.ubc.ca 2 In person at the following open houses: Date: Tuesday, March 15, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: Martha Piper Plaza

Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, Atrium

Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: I.K. Barber Learning Centre, 2nd Floor Lobby

Date: Wednesday, March23, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability, Lobby

Date: Thursday, March 17, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: AMS Student Nest, Upper Agora

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2016 Time: 11:00am – 1:00pm Place: Fred Kaiser Building, Atrium

Questions? Please contact Gabrielle Armstrong, Senior Manager, Public Engagement at gabrielle.armstrong@ubc.ca or 604-822-9984.

This notice contains important information which may affect you. Please ask someone to translate it for you.

// CULTURE

EDITOR OLIVIA LAW

TECH //

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

5

THEATRE //

“Revolutionary” MyCademia app hits UBC

Zimmerman’s play stars Francis Winter as Shahryar.

PHOTO COURTESY EMILY COOPER

“Evocative and reflective” Arabian Nights brings folk tales to live theatre Miguel Santa Maria Senior Staff Writer PHOTO COURTESY MYCADEMIA

The app uses location detectors to find people close to studiers.

Michael Choi Contributor

MyCademia, an app meant to connect students with tutors and tutors with students, is the brainchild of UBC alumni Eren Cubukgil and Peter Moonen. The app users are both students and tutors, and both can accept and request tutoring services.

Cubukgil sees himself as a revolutionary and his app as a catalyst to major economic change. The development of this app arose from his own struggle with the inefficiencies of what he sees as a currently outdated market.

“I discovered quite a few market failures in the tutoring industry resulting from everything from the agency problem to imperfect [and] asymmetrical information,” said Cubukgil.

Currently, the majority of the tutoring market is dominated by agencies that distribute tutors to clients. These agencies typically take a large cut of the client’s fee, leaving tutors with the short end of the stick. Tutors that don’t join an agency are left to fend for themselves with physical posters and Craigslist ads.

“You can either sell you soul, in a sense, and go through the agency model or you can test your luck on Craigslist,”said Cubukgil.

“On Craigslist everyone’s a list, everyone’s a number, and that’s the best that you can do.”

Regarding posters, the duo shared a humorous anecdote of finding a poster advertising statistics-specific tutoring services partially covered by a poster made by a student looking for a statistics-specific tutor.

“They were overlapping and that’s the perfect example of the inefficiencies of the current system. It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

To remedy these inefficiencies, the team said that MyCademia streamlines the process for both tutors and students.

“The way to do it is to simply kick out the agency model,”

said Cubukgil. “The first person to set the price is the student, tutors respond to it and it’s competitive.”

When users download the app and create an account, they can make posts that are locationspecific to where they are such as the library. Other users can then filter posts by faculty and year level, and find students to tutor at a price that they agree upon.

Because users can be both students and tutors at the same time, Cubukgil sees this as a catalyst to the sharing economy.

“This is what the sharing economy is — opening up the idle capacity all around you,” he said.

He views students’ brainpower as inactive resources. This type of idle capacity is utilized by companies like Uber and Airbnb to provide services to people who need them by people who aren’t using them.

“It’s what Uber did with hitchhiking, it’s what AirBnB did with idle resources. We’re trying to apply it to knowledge sharing in general,” said Cubukgil.

Currently, no app exists for facilitating a sharing economy for knowledge. Cubukgil plans on being the first to market and doesn’t see any existing competition that is broad enough to compete with their model.

“They have maybe 100, 200 tutors. There are 60,000 students at UBC,” he said.

By making users both students and tutors, Cubukgil says that they are able to reduce fixed costs and allow supply to naturally meet demand.

“Our capital is here. It’s in you.

It’s in us. It’s the human capital we’re tapping into,” he continued.

In his eyes, this is the future where everyone is collectively providing their own special skills to contribute to the greater progress of society.

MyCademia is currently available in the app store for iOS devices and will launch in the Google Play Store in the next week. U

As the final piece in UBC Theatre’s season of femalewritten plays, they are presenting Mary Zimmerman’s theatrical production of Arabian Nights.

With that, audiences should expect a massive and diverse performance overload.

Based on the original collection of Middle-East and South Asian folk tales labeled One Thousand and One Nights, the play tells the story of King Shahryar. After his original wife engages in adultery, Shahryar marries a different woman from his kingdom every night and executes them the next morning.

With the number of women dwindling every day, Shahryar eventually marries the daughter of his vizier – Scheherezade.

However, she manages to avoid her doom through telling different compelling stories to Shahryar each night. It is an effort not just to save the remaining women in the kingdom, but to also hopefully save the king from his poisoned soul — and that is only the frame story.

With the overall premise and format of the play, this presented a slew of challenges for the cast and crew according to the director and MFA candidate, Evan Frayne. This is especially the case in presenting Scheherezade’s different tales with their own unique production characteristics that include dance, live music and dozens of more roles to fill.

“It’s not just a room or a kitchen with actors in there throughout the play. It spans time [and] different locations … it’s a really wide spectrum of challenges in terms of performance,” he said.

However, it was mainly challenges like these that compelled him to choose the production.

“As a director and an actor, a lot of my work is in naturalistic and realistic plays and I feel quite comfortable in those worlds. So I wanted to pick something outside of that, that would challenge me and this play is very multifaceted.”

Francis Winter, the graduating theatre student who plays the role of Shahryar, also wants to do

the production and his role justice through his performance. This is particularly important since his role does not fit the typical antagonist archetype.

“It was so easy to hate Shahryar for what he does, [but I wanted] to make him, in some ways, relatable and pitied. If he was any other person … he would be extremely pitiable figure,” said Winter. “The tale is really one of redemption for him and it’s about [the] ingenuity and love that Scheherezade brings in to his life and how that cures him of the intense sickness that he feels.”

These challenges aside, both Frayne and Winter are eager to show what they have developed for the audience. According to Frayne, the production started as grounded and minimalist, but eventually evolved into one that is more “evocative and reflective” of the culture the original text is based on.

Ultimately, both hope that the production — the stories within it and the source text — manages to wow its spectators and

simultaneously teach important lessons as well.

“It gives us an enormous amount of insight and understanding [on] many of the [related] cultures and cultural practices. Obviously, it’s a very different culture now, but it still has some of its roots in these stories,” said Winter, who also mentioned the story’s moral for the audience. “I’d say understanding and gain a sense of empathy [and compassion] for people in their life whom they might be tempted to view as the antagonists of their own personal story.”

“These stories have been so influential in Eastern cultures and Western cultures. They’ve been in opera, classical music.

[There have been] comic books, animation and films made from these stories,” said Frayne. “They should expect a real extravaganza of [performances]. I mean I was moved when I read the play, so I hope that it moves the audience.” U

6 | FEATURES |

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

Vferolencune areteeryouinmagkinabg roandadfor: whom?

what dif

WORDS BAILEY RAMSAY ART AIKEN LAO

A

s the four-month summer break begins to approach, students often look to spend their time out of the classroom volunteering.

Fourth-year economics major Andrew Hill, like many others, was driven to travel abroad and “make a difference.”

After searching for work placements to help complete his required co-op terms, he found that an Arts Co-op unpaid internship position in Thailand with a for-profit social enterprise was not what it seemed.

Humanitarian Affairs, the organization in Thailand, had advertised their placement as community outreach and aid delivery in impoverished communities. Hill extensively research, reached out to former interns and quickly found that the job placement was deceptive in its advertising. “[The internship position] presented itself as an opportunity to not only travel, but to really make an impact. They really wanted to stress how these interns themselves would be the ones at the front lines, doing something really great and really helping,” said Hill. “In reality, it was just organizing a single conference which … could easily be done anywhere in the world.

It would actually entail a lot of cold-calling, sort of knocking on people’s doors and trying to boost up registration numbers.”

The prospect of volunteering abroad is alluring — it offers an opportunity to travel, experience different cultures, learn new languages and, as some posters around campus would suggest, it’s a “greatly rewarding experience” that will leave a “positive impact” in a disadvantaged community.

On the spectrum of volunteering opportunities

available to students, Hill had found one end — an experience that emphasized personal satisfaction for the volunteer at the expense of the community in which it functions. On the other end of the spectrum lies a prioritization of learning and long-term development for the community. Although it doesn’t promise adventure and personal gain, it is actually beneficial to communities and therefore to students in the long run, providing more concrete learning experiences.

Many opportunities that

term projects presented as having immediate results.

One experience advertised around campus is the “ecuaexperience” run by the Help, Learn and Discover organization. In one of their programs, volunteers build homes in a village in Ecuador for two weeks and then embark on a three week tour of the country, complete with scheduled meals, events and outdoor activities that are all included in the $3,850 admission price.

Although these volunteering organizations do not suggest

“Many of us can understand privilege in terms of having financial resources, but we don’t actually understand our

privilege

in terms of being from white or Western or wealthy countries in particular colonial legacy.”

— Catherine Douglas, economics lecturer students see advertised on campus are run by for-profit social enterprises.

Their marketing focuses on the “lifechanging,” “unforgettable adventure” of the volunteer, presenting images of sweeping tropic landscapes and smiling children.

These organizations serve a for-profit industry commonly known as “voluntourism” that offers vacations sprinkled with volunteer activities. Trips can span anywhere from two weeks to several months, with short

that all problems will be solved, they promote a simplistic — and fun — approach to “making a difference.” Complex issues of poverty, access to education and public health become amalgamated with vacationing and personal gratification.

However, this isn’t the only way to approach volunteering abroad. In sharp contrast to this unsustainable method of offering aid abroad, UBC’s International Service Learning program (ISL) offers placements available in a number of countries

related to educational, health, environmental and community development fields, to name a few. These allow students to translate their academic studies into real-world experience.

Students work with partner non-profit organizations abroad, which are often born from the grassroots of local communities and work towards long-term development projects and economic stability within the host communities.

The biggest difference between ISL and the myriad of voluntourism programs advertised to UBC students is who the main beneficiaries of each program are. Rather than focusing on providing students with adventure, the ISL program emphasizes an understanding of the core issues related to a community development project and what students could expect to contribute. “When we are designing these placements, they are catered to the individual partner [organization],” said Catherine Douglas, economics lecturer at UBC and a faculty member involved in the ISL program. “Our projects are responding to the community partner’s needs as well as designed in a way to facilitate student learning and personal growth.”

Viet Vu, a fifth-year honours economics student at UBC, volunteered in Bolivia through ISL during the 2013 summer term with a local organization called COBAGUAL. Applying his economics education, Vu focused on the concept of environmental health and urbanization within the context of the sanitization, helping to install water filtration systems. Vu also studied the demographics in the area and how the effects of urbanization made the village’s youth leave to work in cities, decimating the

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

workforce in the community.

Vu’s realistic perspective on his experience differed starkly from the sense of pride and accomplishment that for-profit voluntourism organizations aim to sell their customers from the small-scale, micro-impact of their contributions.

“A lot of the time it was disappointing and frustrating that we weren’t able to [advance the project] as quickly as we could. But I think a big part was learning to accept that, not just for the placement itself, but as well in terms of the next generation of students,” said Vu. “A lot of it actually had to do with not how to create better development, but how can we prepare the groundwork so that students coming afterwards can do a better job.”

The ISL program runs on the philosophy that the work of past students will continue to be built upon by future generations of student volunteer placements. As such, over the course of a 12-week placement, students witness little to no immediate impact upon their host community.

Before moving into their homestays, students undergo a series of intense academic workshops and pre-departure sessions, at the end of which they produce a country-specific profile study to prepare before actually arriving at their placements.

“Any organization before going abroad should have training session for its volunteers or for its staff in terms of recognizing the role that we play as coming from privileged societies,” said Douglas. “Many of us can understand privilege in terms of having financial resources, but we don’t actually understand our privilege in terms of being from white or Western or wealthy countries in particular colonial legacy.” “[ISL] prepared us well so that we were very conscious of the white-saviour complex,” said Vu, referring to the mentality that Western models and ideas are always the right answers for developing nations. “We didn’t go into the community with solutions — we went into the community with the skillsets that we have and then we asked the community how best we can use our skillsets.”

Vu assisted Bolivian locals in using Excel to organize and analyze demographic data of their community. In addition, he helped prepare a new customizable version of the

demographic survey for the community to use again in the future.

Revisiting the other end of the spectrum, organizations like uVolunteer offer placements in Ghana, Thailand and Costa Rica. uVolunteer tells potential recruits: “Remember that you

a discrepancy between the wealthy international students for whom the Humanitarian Affairs conference was intended for and how the students’ presence would translate back to the community.

“All this work and effort would be going into promoting

Communication is crucial in figuring out which projects the host communities believe would best benefit them and then having volunteers offer their expertise in helping them achieve that goal, Douglas explained.

“It is not just about building a school. You have to be able

don’t need to have training or qualifications for any of our work placements. As long as you are enthusiastic, passionate and committed, you’ll have an amazing and likely life-changing experience.”

ISL, being a small program with an application process rather than simple registration and payment, is not an option for everyone looking to volunteer abroad. Due to budget cuts, the ISL program has shrunk considerably.

When students are faced with scores of opportunities advertised on campus, it takes careful consideration and research to find an ethical and sustainable option.

“The most important thing that people have to learn when they’re going is to listen first,” said Douglas. An unethical relationship is one where students go in thinking they’re bringing solutions, she explained.

Hill noted the ambivalence of where priorities in volunteering opportunities lie. He noticed

this idea of education ... but it would not necessarily trickle down to helping a lot of people in the communities,” said Hill “Humanitarian Affairs looked like it meant ... to make an impact in the society, but this conference ... was to promote education within the upper echelons of society. I thought there was a disconnect.”

When best sustainable practice is not followed, the consequences affecting the host community can cause them to suffer economically in the longterm.

“People who are poor need resources, so they may be directing their time and energy to these projects that are not promoting a longterm sustainable livelihood,” explained Douglas. “It happens in development all the time where there is a project that comes in with maybe a threeyear time frame. When this project is done, then that’s it. The development funds go away.”

to pay for the teachers, books and school supplies. One of the biggest problems with development is outsiders coming in and not engaging with the community beforehand to see if this is a project that is going to have roots,” said Douglas, noting again how long-term sustainable solutions need to be in place for the community to viably continue after volunteers leave.

For further guidelines on how to determine whether a volunteering placement adheres to sustainable practices, Douglas recommends that students read the Istanbul CSO Development Effectiveness Principles, which outlines ideas of ethical international partnerships and social justice.

“There are many organizations across the world and experiences to be had. I don’t think it is wise to jump at the first international opportunity,” advised Hill. “I would just re-emphasize the value of researching the individual companies and organization.” U

| FEATURES | 7

8 | culture |

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

LIVE//

Exploring the vibrant underbelly of campus: Rappers Without Borders

MUSIC //

Opera ball celebrates big band leader Dal Richards

Adam Siddiqui Contributor

It’s no secret that UBC has an extensive campus that is comparable to a town or a small city. Like every city, UBC has many secrets. Not in the sense of purposeful obfuscation of privileged information, but a vibrant underbelly.

They remain unseen, but equally as dumbfounding as some of the more known wonders. Like study spots where nobody goes or seeing a lifechanging movie via the Norm, the UBC Rappers Without Borders (RWB) club is like the hidden smile in the Mona Lisa that is our university.

Listening to Soundcloud previews of artists before the showcase was underwhelming.

However, anyone who has any knowledge of live performance versus recorded sessions will attest to the fact that artists — especially hip hop artists — are very different live than they are recorded.

The show started off with a freestyle session between several performers. The rhymes that came from these students were not only catchy, but on beat and clever.

The two opening acts, Supersapien, who took the stage alone, and Eric $hawry, were joined by the talented rapper Just K and were simply amazing.

At one point during $hawry and Just K’s set, there was so much energy in the room you could almost see the haze in front of you. When they spat bars, the crowd had an almost automatic reaction to get up and move.

Their lyrics reflected the lives of those they were performing for.

From putting in tremendous hours studying to being inexplicably poor, the lyrics

FILE PHOTO DUNCAN CAIRNS-BRENNER/THE UBYSSEY

UBC Opera relies on fundraisers like this to produce their full-scale productions

Malcolm Wilkins Staff Writer

PHOTO COURTESY RAPPERS WITHOUT BORDERS

The night was a huge success – from showcase to freestyle sets.

were true to the lives of the people spitting them, a fact which is also true of all of the rappers that went on the stage that night.

Traffik, a rapper from Vancouver who started rapping at age 11, came on stage next and dazzled the crowd with fantastic lyricism and rhythm. Traffik never missed a beat. Neither did his club peer, Swabski. Swabski, who is from another walk of life — moving around between America and China, but being of Korean descent — is an ambitious young man. Loud and confident, both Swabski and Traffik have a presence on the stage that demands the attention of the audience.

Halfway through the showcase, RWB invited a guest speaker from Doctors Without Borders — to which a percentage of the proceeds from the night went — to talk about the good work that they are able to achieve with the

continued support of clubs like RWB and independent donors.

After this, there was another freestyle session with accompanying dance by local dance troupe, Zaboomafoolz. The second session of rapping was even better than the first. One rapper, Rajan Mandher who was representing SFU, grabbed the microphone during the freestyles and completely blew his verses away.

The last performer, Ekke, was a stunning finisher. Usually when a lot of different artists come on for a long time, people are tired towards the end. Ekke defied that trend as he went on stage and the crowd gathered around.

During his set, he had people throwing their arms in the air and when he left the stage, there was a thunderous uproar from the audience asking for an encore.

Ekke didn’t even get to leave the stage before he was asked to do another song. U

The 2015-2016 session at UBC is a rather special one as the university is turning 100. It is only fitting to mention that on such a momentous occasion, the university’s School of Music has chosen to celebrate in a big way this year.

On March 17 at 7 p.m., the annual Opera Ball will take place at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts and it promises to be a special one for many reasons. The Opera Ball is one of the most widely anticipated annual events at UBC, not just because of its entertainment value, but also because of what it promises.

“It’s a fun night for sure,” said Nancy Hermiston, director of the UBC Opera Ensemble. “It’s such a fun night, such a light night. You get to dress up, bring a date and dance, or someone else asks you to dance — even I may ask you if no one else does. Everyone gets to have fun, but the evening is also so much more than that. It’s a chance to showcase the talent of our students and the commitment we have to music.

It’s a chance to see our students do their thing on an intimate scope on a warm, fun-filled night.”

The annual ball also raises funds that help the School of Music maintain its high standard. “It helps us maintain what we have,” said Hermiston. “It’s an event we take seriously and it helps us get better. It helps with the various productions we have in store, including our production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in June.”

The Centennial Ball will celebrate the legacy of the legendary big band leader Dal Richards, who passed away on New Years Eve, 2015. Richards had a special relationship with the university, not only because he was three years younger than it, but also because of his contributions to the institution.

“His passing was a very great loss to us all,” said Hermiston. “He was so very important in helping me make the opera what it is today and he trusted me even though he hardly knew me back then. That’s how much he loved to see students and their talent excel.”

While Richards was not an alumnus of the university, he had grown up alongside the institution, playing numerous musical gigs here before being given an honourary degree in 2010.

Although Richards isn’t around, his legacy of musical brilliance will be kept alive when the Dal Richards Orchestra — which for so long has had a love affair with the UBC Opera Ensemble — joins UBC at the ball once again this year, promising one hell of a night.

“It’s been a wonderful relationship, an important one,” said Hermiston on the Dal Richards Orchestra. “They’ve given us great music over the years and it’s going to be a lot of fun this time.”

The ball begins with a threecourse dinner and then goes on to introduce serenades for younger singers, after which the Dal Richards Orchestra takes over for you to dance the night away. U

Elysse’s Pieces

ILLUSTRATION JERRY YIN/THE UBYSSEY

Think outside the lunch box

Elysse Bell Food Columnist

Packing a lunch is great — it saves money, can be healthier than eating out every day and provides

a plethora of lunch options… until you run out of ideas, that is. I’ve compiled a list of lunch ideas from my own habits and internet research to prevent you from getting stuck in a rut. Here’s how

to revamp your lunchbox and get excited about brown-bagging it.

PLANT NACHOS A.k.a., a salad. Build from the following ideas: Leafy green – e.g. kale, spinach, baby chard, arugula, shredded romaine, Brussels sprouts (shredded or individual leaves peeled off ), leafy green lettuce, cabbage. Shred or cut to manageable bites.

Grain/carb/starch – e.g. rice, bulgur, barley, farro, quinoa, rice vermicelli, orzo or other small pasta shapes; anything that tastes good cold. Depending on how you like your salad, the amount could vary from half a container-full to a small sprinkling of grain to give your salad a bit of texture and substance.

Crunchy vegetables – e.g. carrots, snap peas, cucumber, radishes, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, florets of broccoli or cauliflower, celery, green or red onion. Pick your favourites and cut them small.

Protein – e.g. legumes such as beans or lentils, chopped

roasted nuts or seeds (keep these separate and add in at the last minute so they retain their crunch), leftover meat, tofu, canned tuna, shredded or cubed hard cheese, hard boiled eggs, small chunks of goat cheese or feta. Combos are nice — for example, legumes go great with sunflower, pumpkin seeds and/ or feta cheese.

Savoury or sweet addition – depending on what else you’ve chosen, this could be something like bacon bits or fresh/dried fruit. I really like dried currants in salad — they’re inexpensive and not too cloying — and use them the way some people use dried cranberries.

SOUPER EASY If you have access to a microwave, make a big batch of soup and pack it in a tightly sealing container — you don’t want to be that soupybackpacked kid frantically mopping up butternut squash on the bus. Soup is also a great vehicle for leftover pasta or

dip-worthy bread. Here are some quick, easy recipe ideas: (full recipes linked on Ubyssey.ca.)

Black bean soup Butternut squash soup Roasted tomato soup DO IT IN YOUR SLEEP I’m talking about overnight oats, of course.

WRAP MASTER Tortilla wraps are great, but they’re just as easy to get bored of as sandwiches. Try making salad rolls with rice paper wraps instead and fill with the usual rice vermicelli or try one of the grains from the salad list (quinoa works well). Crunchy vegetables cut into strips, a protein and a dipping sauce are all you need.

CLASSIC WITH A TWIST If, for some reason, you have access to a panini maker or frying pan at lunch hour (lucky you), make a PB&J – but grill it.

Trust me. It’s amazing. U The full version of this article with linked recipes can be found online.

// OPINIONS

EDITOR JACK HAUEN

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

9

Protesting abortion at UBC Members of pro-life group UBC Lifeline set up graphic displays last week comparing abortion to genocide.

PHOTO WILL MCDONALD/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO JACK HAUEN/THE UBYSSEY

We must protect Not all opinions are created equal — everyone’s freedoms UBC Lifeline goes too far Maziar Sharifikhah UBC student

It is important not to limit free speech on campus, whether it be hardcore right-wing antiabortion activists or communistic guaranteed basic annual income activists. One of the major reasons to come to such a large, diverse institution is to challenge your current beliefs, not to make a safe bubble where you are sheltered from all thought except left-wing thought.

Logically, the abortion argument the protesters are making makes sense. Though I believe abortion is a net benefit, the protesters believe that life begins at conception. So, rationally, they can compare abortion to murder. Most people have a line they have drawn and each seems as arbitrary as the last — some people say when the child is born is the only time, others say when there is a heartbeat it’s too late and others yet say when there is a 50 per cent chance of survival outside of the host mother, that is when abortion becomes unacceptable. It is not hard to stretch this reasoning and pull it back to conception, the first place where potential for child

arises. To the protesters, this is no different than passing a law telling people that killing anyone below age two is acceptable by simply declaring it a ninthtrimester abortion.

But all this points back to a major issue on campuses all around North America. That although there is a semblance of openness and inclusiveness on campus, that it doesn’t extend to people on the right side of the political spectrum, socially or fiscally. Talks on campus deemed misogynistic, racist or any other -ism or -ist are quashed before they can get off the ground. Conservatives do not feel welcome in academia, especially on the north side of campus. When we talk about free speech, we are not talking about speech we already like. Justin Trudeau coming on campus doesn’t need protecting, feminist speakers don’t need protecting — their speech is popular. Though I disagree vehemently with racists, sexists and anti-abortion protesters, it is very important to have them be free to voice their terrible opinions at a place like UBC if we want to pretend to be a free open democratic society in any way. U

Hana Golightly, Mahtab Laghaei and Rosemary Hu UBC students

It seems like somewhere along the way, freedom of speech has been conflated with freedom from consequence. It has been confused with the right to infringe on the rights of others.

Yes, it is within their freedom of speech for pro-lifers to compare abortion to murder if they so please, but it is not okay to push it on other students of this campus with propogandic and horrific imagery. This not only crosses the line of what “free speech” defends, but unfortunately surpasses it by leaps and bounds. And yes, we must protect the rights of those with whom we disagree, but discussion surrounding yesterday’s protests moves beyond individual opinions about whether one is a pro-life or pro-choice. Because yesterday, students’ right to the safety of their mental health was violated.

Everyone deserves freedom of speech, but we must know how to exercise that right respectfully. It can not be at the cost of a young Jewish woman on her way to her next class, having to walk past signs comparing women who have had or will have abortions to Nazis, with photos of concentration camps, swastikas and

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The notion that free speech is somehow okay, even if it compromises the safety of others, is a delusion. We pretend that violence must be physical. It doesn’t. Words and images are powerful and affect people’s psyches — to deny that is ignorant.

At what point do we stop pretending that all opinions are created equally and deserve equal treatment?

Let us stop pretending that words don’t carry weight and that the voices that get amplified don’t largely originate in existing hegemony. While you argue for freedom of speech on the grounds of its inherent legality and importance to democracy, we would ask who does this kind of free speech protect in the end? Let us stop scapegoating this concept as reason enough to perpetuate bigotry and hate, and let us stop pretending that the university is responsible for protecting opinions that set out to deny the choices and mental health of students on this campus. Maybe “freedom of speech” as defined in the dictionary is inclusive of hate speech, but maybe it shouldn’t be in our society. We would argue that making bigotry unwelcome at UBC is not a bad thing. At what point do we stop pretending that all opinions are

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created equally and deserve equal treatment?

The pro-life demonstrations occurring on campus this week are not defensible because they are based in violence and propaganda, and are disrespectful not only to those who have had abortions, but to the victims of genocide whose images have been appropriated for shock value. This perspective is not academic and this malice is not welcome at an institution of higher learning — or anywhere else, for that matter.

Protecting pro-life protesters in the name of freedom of speech and the right to differing opinions is inherently ironic as the aim of the pro-life movement is to end the right to difference of choice.

Pro-choice advocates are not anti-life — they understand the nature of individual freedom.

Using the terms “pro-life” and “pro-choice” positions them as opposing viewpoints worthy of equal protection and exemplifies how powerful words are in this argument.

Pro-choicers are not pro-abortion, but pro-lifers are anti-choice. The university has no responsibility to protect free speech at the cost of the safety of students on campus.

Demonstrations that compromise student health — mental or physical — have no place at UBC. U

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// SPORTS+REC

EDITOR KOBY MICHAELS

THUNDERBIRDS //

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

ALEX MASCOTT

BARBARA NETO-BRADLEY

HEATHER MURRAY

Rugby

Golf

Rowing

Soccer

1. What food on campus is the best for helping you cope with the horrors of midterms?

The Pit, Perch (RIP), Mahoney’s, and Koerner’s are all great for making it through exams. I haven’t looked at their menus, but I’m sure the food’s great.

Uppercase’s oat fudge bars. I challenge them to make a killer dairy-free version.

The best food to cope with midterms is nachos. I live near the Local so that’s my favourite place for off campus nacho emergencies.

Got to go with a dangerous 5 Taste [of China] three choice noodle box.

All that grease makes your sadness slip away. I hear they have good bear claws too.

2. If you had to rank UBC’s libraries, which would come out on top?

100 per cent Woodward = Número Uno. Known for leggings, kin girls and varsity athletes.

Koerner, I like to be able to hear myself think.

Looking at you, IKB.

I depends on my needs that day. Woodward ... is good to catch up on varsity gossip, but law library has the best view around.

Each library has a different specialty. I spend the most time in is Wood because if you are there late you can just go into the main area.

I tried studying on campus once, but a guy was cleaning and assembling his vape kit. Dude, we get it, you vape.

3. Is there a difference in routine between a pre-exercise stretch and a post-exercise stretch?

Is there a difference between foreplay and cuddling? (Is that response too aggressive?)

Physio. Seriously, I fall asleep every time without fail.

Pre-exercise stretching is about activating the muscles to get ready, post-exercise stretching is done to prevent muscle sorenese.

The pre-game stretch is light and relaxed.

Post-game you are trying to concentrate on not snapping your hamstrings. The pain never felt so good.

I’m a rower, not trying to be the best at stretching.

St. Patrick’s Day is a great time to catch some cheeky pints or a glass of wine here and there.

Kiss me, I’m Irish.

Green everything. Green clothes, green beer – I even made green KD last year.

Unfortunately, St. Patty’s Day falls on our most competitive time of the season, so I normally spend it very sober.

Easy answer — Venus, the goddess of love.

Minerva for her willingness to share wisdom, experience and knowledge.

Hmm good question... I don’t have any memories of a stand out St. Patty’s day. So maybe green beer was involved. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But that’s between you and I. I remember learning that a God of Wine existed.

God of Wine seems like a legitimate job with great perks, so I’d go with that one.

Bacchus. If you know anything about him or me you’d see the connection.

I mean, I’m not one to boast about my capabilities, but if you asked my girlfriend, she would be quick to answer with “Cupid.”

T-BIRDS 5-ON-5 MARCH MADNESS

JACOB QUAIL

10

RAY BELL Rowing

by Isabelle Commerford

4. What is your favourite way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

5. March is the month of Mars, the Roman god of war. Which Roman god do you most closely identify with?

I once binged Qoola while cramming for exams. I don’t do well with dairy and ended up hating myself for the next 24 hours. Big mistake.

RELATIONSHIPS //

Love ’Birds: The Ubyssey plays matchmaker

T-Bird rower Ray Bell and former Thunderbird Elizabeth Gleadle met because of a 5-on-5.

Isabelle Commerford Staff Writer

In an edition of The Ubyssey’s 5-on-5 column published for Valentine’s Day 2015, one of the athletes participating on behalf of the men’s rowing team mentioned his crush on Olympic athlete and Thunderbird Elizabeth Gleadle.

As of March 2016, the couple have been together for 11 months.

“I had over two of my teammates from the men’s team and then a girl from the women’s team. [We] had a beer and pizza [and] we basically wrote this

thing up,” said UBC rower Ray Bell of the 5-on-5 process. When he got to the last question asking him to spell out the name of a fellow UBC athlete he was secretly crushing on, Bell recalled his first time seeing his nowgirlfriend. “I saw Liz back in the varsity gym. I saw her warming up and I asked one of my teammates, ‘Who’s that girl?’”

Gleadle, alternatively, did not know about Bell until the 5-on-5 had been published and posted all over her Facebook wall.

“I work out at UBC and I knew some of the guys [in the article],

PHOTO JEREMY JOHNSON-SILVERS/THE UBYSSEY

Ray not being one of them,” said Gleadle. After reading through all the questions and having a good time with it, Gleadle said her reaction to the last question was that “either this guy is a total jerk or he’s hilarious.”

Eventually, one of Bell’s teammates messaged Gleadle on Facebook to invite her to the UBC rowers’ Erg-a-Thon — an event hosted every year to raise money for the BC Cancer Foundation — a month after the article had been published. Despite having to fly out to Phoenix the next day for training, Gleadle made it to the

event and even managed to take a photo with her now-boyfriend.

After the picture was taken, Gleadle remembered Bell wanted to add her on Facebook in order to get the picture to use as his cover photo.

“He captioned it, ‘Dreams really do come true,’” said Gleadle. Bell said he thought nothing would come of it. “It was just a joke, being facetious.”

The couple continued to message on Facebook after the event, even while Gleadle continued with her training down south. She eventually came back to Vancouver for a week after some problems arose while training, seeking physiotherapy.

During the week back home, she took some time to get to know her soon-to-be boyfriend.

“The whole joke was that he was going to come for an ice bath with me in the ocean, but the day that happened there was an oil spill,” said Gleadle. “So a casual jump into the ocean turned into walking on the beach, turned into drinks, turned into dinner, turned into playing Ping-Pong and singing as loud as we could in my basement.”

Gleadle had to return to training in Arizona the next day. Bell recalled he was left wowed, but did not want to think too much of it other than what he could not help — lots of wishful thinking.

The couple’s relationship continued to progress through Skyping or calling each other daily. Despite many trips made

between Vancouver, Phoenix and now Lethbridge, the two athletes managed to make their relationship official.

“I’m up at 4:30 a.m. three mornings of the week, so I don’t exactly have the ability to go out … on a weekday night or even weekends,” said Bell, citing both their athletic schedules as the reason why their relationship works.

“We probably train roughly the same amount of hours,” agreed Gleadle. “It’s been awesome being together because I’ve started getting to bed earlier, which was really hard for me — I have to be up at 5:30 a.m.”

Bell and Gleadle encourage each other when it comes to new projects and Olympic dreams.

“Track and rowing are the things that needs to come first right now and we both understand that … we only have X amount of years or time before important events happen,” said Gleadle.

“It’s very symbiotic,” Bell added. “We both help each other with recovery, nutrition … we need to get back into meditation,” the couple joked. Bell also laughed about being a middle child now — his girlfriend has been accepted by his family as the new favourite.

These days, Liz is training for Rio while Ray is training with the ’Birds for the Brown Cup on March 26 as well as finishing up his studies. You can follow their progress on Twitter at @Javelizz and @Ray_Bell5. U

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

REC //

Storm the Wall is back and better than ever

| SPORTS+REC | 11

VARSITY //

FILE PHOTO KOBY MICHAELS/THE UBYSSEY

The volleyball team finished fourth at the CIS Tournament this past weekend.

Bird Droppings: volleyball fourth, basketball earn bronze Koby Michaels Sports and rec editor

The playoffs are winding down for the ’Birds, but two T-Bird teams are still left standing. Women’s volleyball finished fourth at the CIS tournament and ended their season. Men’s basketball is prepared to host the CIS Final 8 tournament by claiming bronze in Canada West and the women’s hockey team is heading

to CIS tournament and will take on McGill University over the weekend.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL FINISHES FOURTH IN CANADA After an impressive 17-7 season, the women’s volleyball team’s season came to an end after they fell 3-1 against Trinity Western University in the CIS Semi Finals and 3-0 to sister school UBCO in the bronze medal game.

PHOTO CHERIHAN HASSUN/THE UBYSSEY

This year has an event that allows you to skip all the running, swimming and biking.

Matt Langmuir Senior Staff Writer

It’s March again and UBC’s most iconic event is quickly approaching.

What started as an intramural event developed by Nestor Korchinsky in the 1970s has become a UBC tradition. The competition will be taking place for the 38th time this year from March 20-23. Amy Gibson, the marketing coordinator of UBC Recreation, gave some input as to why the event has been so unique to the school’s culture for so many years.

“Getting to end the academic term with something to bring friends and everyone together as a community — I think that’s really what resonates with the community,” said Gibson. “It’s so unique in that you have to work together to storm a wall.”

As with previous years, students will be swimming, biking and sprinting across campus before storming the wall at the finish line. Although the event’s format has remained more or less the same over the years, event organizers have incorporated a brand new challenge to the competition.

“We have the wall challenge category this year,” said Gibson.

“Any team registered can sign up to do the challenge and that’s purely timed. Teams try to get all five of them over the wall as fast as they can.”

With an exciting new category added to a competition with over 700 teams signed up, this year’s Storm the Wall is poised to be a memorable one and possibly even the biggest yet. U

The ’Birds opened up the weekend hopeful by beating the Université de Montréal Carabins 3-1 in the national championship quarterfinals. The ’Birds stumbled in their first set, losing 25-20 before finding their wings and finishing of the Carabins 2520, 28-26 and 25-20.

On Saturday, the ’Birds took the first sets against Thompson Rivers University, but couldn’t keep up their momentum, losing the following three. This streak continued into Sunday when the ’Birds lost to sister school and rivals UBCO in three straight games.

Left-side hitter Danielle Brisebois stunned all weekend, racking up 50 kills in three nights, which earned her a spot on the Championship All-Star roster along with six other women from across Canada.

MEN’S BASKETBALL FINISHES THIRD IN CANADA WEST BEFORE HOSTING CIS FINAL 8 FILE PHOTO TENDAYI MOYO/THE UBYSSEY

The basketball will play the number one seed in the first round of the tournament.

With the CIS Final 8 just around the corner for the men’s

basketball team, the stakes were high this weekend to prove that they deserved a spot in the tournament. While the team did miss the top spot in Canada West, don’t count them out for the national title just yet.

The ’Birds fell to Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack 72-69 in Calgary on Friday night. The game was close all night with Jordan Jensen-Whyte and David Wagner putting up a combined 34 points. With five seconds left, Conor Morgan put up a three to take the lead, but it bounced out.

Saturday night was a whole different story. The ’Birds put up an impressive 101 points to the University of Manitoba’s 72. The ’Birds netted 16 of 29 three-pointer for a whopping 48 per cent of their points. Conor Morgan scored 28 points, hitting seven of eight from outside the arc.

The Thunderbirds will face the number one ranked Ryerson University Rams at 8 p.m. on Thursday night in the Doug Mitchell Sports Centre on the new court. U

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12 | GAMES AND COMICs |

TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016

COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM

CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1- Reticulate; 11- Low-___ diet; 15- Involving concepts and abstractions; 16- Toward shelter; 17- It’s a snap;

18- Stitched; 19- Worked (up); 20- Beatty of “Superman”; 21- Nonmetallic element; 23- ... ___ saw Elba; 25- “Treasure Island” monogram; 27- Cave; 28- Showed again; 30- High school memento;

33- Seal; 35- Reflected sound; 36- Funnel-shaped; 38- Letter cross-line; 41- Jack of “Rio Lobo”; 43- Eagle’s nest; 45- Electrifying; 49- Lunar valley; 51- Radioactivity unit;

COURTESY KRAZYDAD.COM

52- Tic ___ Dough; 54- Immature herring; 55- Made of baked clay; 58- Fa follower; 60- Scale notes; 61- Affirm; 62- Causing irritation; 65- Manuscript enc.; 66- Consisting of three letters; 67- Ballpark figs.; 68- Quite a bit; DOWN 1- Coded message; 2- Sticks; 3- Modern; 4- Siamese, calico, or tabby; 5- Collar type; 6- Hybrid beast; 7- Arrogant; 8- Santa ___, California; 9- Knocks lightly; 10- K-12, in the ed biz; 11- Gambling house; 12- One of the Furies; 13- Revise; 14- Sesamum indicum;

22- Worker; 24- Shakespearean villain; 26- Call, in poker; 29- Ancient capital of Assyria; 31- Cooling units, for short; 32- She played Carla on “Cheers”; 34- Reader’s Digest co-founder Wallace; 37- Able to; 39- Coloured part of the eye; 40- Filamentous; 42- Cambridge sch.; 44- “Cow Cow Boogie” singer Morse; 45- Tropical fruits; 46- Collar; 47- Petrol units; 48- Fortified feudal residence; 50- Ford flops; 51- Quit; 53- General Powell; 56- Within (prefix); 57- Soft ball brand; 59- Riga resident; 63- ___ for tat; 64- Cinque follower;

COMIC JULIAN YU/THE UBYSSEY

COMIC PATRICK MURRY AND MIKE PAROLINI/THE UBYSSEY

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