October 9, 2015

OCTOBER 6, 2015 | VOLUME XCVII | ISSUE VIII SO INSPIRING IT’S CLICHÉ SINCE 1918

U

P / 03

P / 08

P / 09

P / 10

NEWS

CULTURE

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Presidential search will take stakeholders into account

Laydy Jams singer releasing hip-hop album

Op-ed: Land acknowledgement is lip service

Thunderbird Sport Clubs prepare for inaugural season

THE UBYSSEY

ANOTHER PONDEROSA ELEVATOR EXPERIENCES A FALL. PAGE 4

// PAGE 2

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS & PEOPLE

EVENTS

2

OUR CAMPUS

THURS 8 BARTALK #17 6 P.M. @ THE PIT

Look beyond the lawn signs and learn about the upcoming election. Organized by The UBC Terry Project and AMS.

FREE

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

SAT 10

After 10 years at Harvard, renowned physics expert Jenny Hoffman came to UBC this summer as a Canada Excellence Research Chair.

SMASH2SCHOOL 10:15 A.M. @ IKB LEARNING CENTRE

Hosted by the UBC eSports Association, join your fellow students for a smashing day of Super Smash Brothers Melee and 4.

PRICES VARY

SAT 10 BLUEPRINT 18TH 7 P.M. @ PACIFIC COLISEUM

Celebrate your thanksgiving long weekend by partying with Blueprint at the 18th year anniversary. All ages welcomed.

PL2/$97 VIP/$120

ON THE COVER PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY

Kosta Prodanovic and Aiken Lao INSPIRED BY BEING SCARED SHITLESS

Want to see your events listed here?

Email your event listings to printeditor@ubyssey.ca

U THE UBYSSEY

STAFF Opinions + Blog Editor Vassilena Sharlandjieva, Coordinating Editor Matt Langmuir, Josh Azizi, Jack Hauen Will McDonald Bill Situ, Elena Volohova, coordinating@ubyssey.ca opinions@ubyssey.ca Jeremy Johnson-Silvers, Julian Yu, Sruthi Tadepalli Features Editor Design Editor Arno Rosenfeld Aiken Lao printeditor@ubyssey.ca features@ubyssey.ca EDITORIAL

Web Developer Peter Siemens webeditor@ubyssey.ca

Copy Editor Bailey Ramsay features@ubyssey.ca

News Editors Emma Partridge & Moira Warburton news@ubyssey.ca

Web Editor Jordan Schalm web@ubyssey.ca

Culture Editor Olivia Law culture@ubyssey.ca Sports + Rec Editor Koby Michaels sports@ubyssey.ca Video Producer Tim Hoggan video@ubyssey.ca Photo Editor Kosta Prodanovic photo@ubyssey.ca

OCTOBER 6, 2015 | VOLUME XCVII| ISSUE VIII BUSINESS

CONTACT

Business Manager Fernie Pereira fpereira@ubyssey.ca

Editorial Office: SUB 2208 604.822.2301 Business Office: SUB 2209 ADVERTISING 604.822.2301 INQUIRIES 604.822.2301

Ad Sales Kenneth Chang advertising@ ubyssey.ca Accounts Abigail Pelaez accounts@ubyssey.ca

The New Student Union Building 6133 University Boulevard Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 Online: ubyssey.ca Twitter: @ubyssey

without the expressed, written permission of The Ubyssey Publications Society.

The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and adheres to CUP’s guiding principles.

Letters to the editor must be under 300 words. Please include your phone number, student number and signature (not for publication) as well as your year and faculty with all submissions. ID will be checked when submissions are dropped off at the editorial office of The Ubyssey; otherwise verification will be done by phone. The Ubyssey reserves the right to edit submissions for length and clarity. All letters must be received

by 12 noon the day before intended publication. Letters received after this point will be published in the following issue unless there is an urgent time restriction or other matter deemed relevant by the Ubyssey staff.

It is agreed by all persons placing display or classified advertising that if the Ubyssey Publications Society fails to publish an advertisement or if an error in the ad occurs the liability of the UPS will not be greater than the price paid for the ad. The UPS shall not be responsible for slight changes or typographical errors that do not lessen the value or the impact of the ad.

LEGAL The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It is published every Tuesday 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 cannot be reproduced

Harvard’s Hoffman adjusts to Point Grey Arno Rosenfeld Features Editor

“My toenail is gone,” said Jenny Hoffman nodding at her foot.

Hoffman is fresh off defending her title as America’s endurance running national champion. That meant leaving UBC on a Friday morning, arriving for the race in Cleveland that night and eating a can of processed ravioli before going to sleep. Waking up Saturday, she ran for 24 hours straight racking up a total distance of 223 km before boarding a plane home. She missed her connection into Toronto because she was too exhausted to pull her bag from the luggage carousel.

By Monday morning, Hoffman, a renowned quantum physics professor who arrived at UBC this summer after 10 years at Harvard, was back on campus lecturing hundreds of first-year physics students.

And, somewhere along the way, her toenail gave out.

But if Hoffman is treading lightly in a literal sense, the hard-charging academic has little patience for what she sees as nonsense at the periphery of her new institution.

Everyone has been really friendly, she is happy with her colleagues and the students are great. Hoffman emphasizes that she is grateful to be here. But the scientist chafes at UBC’s teaching assistants’ union, a point she raised early in the interview.

“TA-ing should be considered a course not a job. There should be no union to try and reduce their hours,” Hoffman said. She added that she saw the attitude of CUPE 2278, the TA’s union on campus, as a cultural difference. “I’m coming from a place where people love their jobs,” she said.

Graduate students at Harvard began efforts to unionize this past spring according to a report in The Harvard Crimson newspaper.

But despite the affinity Hoffman holds for Harvard where she also studied as an undergraduate, Hoffman came to UBC with an eye toward doing more collaborative research. UBC has a slightly larger

physics department than Harvard and a much larger team — around 15 researchers, according to Hoffman, focused on her sub-field of quantum materials.

Specifically, Hoffman’s work focuses on building and analyzing new materials for conducting electrons — the kind of materials that end up being used in power lines, cellphones and computers.

She said Harvard had a focus on attracting the single best professor in any given field which meant fewer total professors in any given specialty to collaborate with. “[It’s] really nice to be able to just pop next door and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a question about this,’” Hoffman said. After her move to UBC, she said quantum materials research is especially strong at the university.

She was brought on as a Canada Excellence Research Chair, a national program focused on attracting foreign academics. The federal government will give UBC $10 million over the next seven years to support Hoffman and her research.

But Hoffman, 37, sees her primary commitment as being toward students and is currently teaching an introductory physics course to first-years. While still adjusting to using Connect and iClickers, she said she enjoys working with students new to the field.

“I feel like it’s my responsibility to keep them excited and recruit them to be physicists,” she said.

While Hoffman demurred on how UBC’s student body stands

compared to Harvard’s (“That’s a hard question,” she said after a long pause), she noted that, “The top students here are every bit as good as the top students at Harvard.”

She continued that she had found students on campus here to be more focused on academics than those in Cambridge where an unhealthy obsession with extracurriculars rules. Hoffman clarified that balance is important. She added that her own extracurricular, running, helps with the pressure of her work.

“You can write a really good paper and it can get rejected by some anonymous referee,” Hoffman said of the stresses of research. “It’s nice for me to have two things that I can try and excel at because if one of them is not going well then maybe the other one is.”

Hoffman has been running since middle school but has, in her words, never been very talented. It wasn’t until graduate school in Berkeley that she started running long distances competitively. Hoffman graduated from running marathons to the 100 mile races during her postdoc in California and has been running “ultras” (races longer than marathons) ever since.

“In any long distance running you get to a point where it’s hard and painful,” Hoffman acknowledged, adding that it’s her competitive drive that leads her to such athletic feats.

“The longer the race gets, the more likely I am to win because the more it’s mental and the less it’s talent.”

A longer version of this article is available at ubyssey.ca U

// NEWS BOARD //

Presidental search seeks stakeholder input

EDITORS EMMA PARTRIDGE + MOIRA WARBURTON

FILE PHOTO DONALD WANG/THE UBYSSEY

Moira Warburton News Editor

In this year’s presidential search committee, stakeholder input will be of the utmost priority in finding a new president said Chancellor Lindsay Gordon.

“What will determine the success of the search is who’s on the committee,” said Gordon. “So obviously we want to attract the best possible representatives of the stakeholders.”

The committee will be made up of a variety of representatives from a wide range of parties across campus including faculty, staff, students, alumni and the Board of Governors.

The chancellor admitted that Gupta’s abrupt departure meant that increased public scrutiny would be on this year’s committee.

“The departure of [Gupta] creates an additional challenge. But my perspective would be it’s a manageable challenge and offset by the fact that this is an amazing university sought after [by] leaders,” said Gordon.

He refused to comment on what the committee would be looking for in a new president or what the specific process would be stating that these matters were for the committee as a whole to decide as soon as possible after members are announced.

When asked what measures would be put in place to make sure another sudden departure does not happen again, Gordon said that, although it’s impossible to say for certain, they will aim to be as confident as possible that the next person will be here for the long haul. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to have some questions because of what happened last time around.

But as for the detailed steps to ensure what I described as our goal is achieved, that will be the responsibility of the search committee.”

Gordon will be making regular updates at Board of Governor meetings on how the process is going throughout the next nine months. On specifics, he pointed to the best practice of any hiring process — to not discuss names of potential candidates publicly.

Meetings of the committee will not be open to the public.

“It’s important that [although] we’ve got a time constraint … we not cut any corners. We make sure that we get full stakeholder input,” said Gordon referring to Martha Piper’s leaving date of June 30, 2016. “I do believe that because of the strength of the institution that we can, and will, have a very successful search.” U

3

SURVEILLANCE //

Overdue policy on security cameras proposed Sruthi Tadepalli Staff Writer

The search for the next president is now underway.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

A newly proposed policy aims to create central guidelines for the appropriate use of all safety and security cameras at both UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan.

Security cameras have been used on both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses for many years, but currently there is no university-wide policy as to when they should be installed and how they should be used.

According to UBC’s Chief Legal Counsel Hubert Lai, most camera operators will contact the office of the university’s legal counsel to be sure that they understand the proper way to deploy their camera. However, “once you get beyond a certain point, it becomes important to have a centralized policy that is published [and] clear.”

This point was reached after the series of sexual assaults on the Vancouver campus in 2013.

After these assaults, a Campus Safety Working Group was formed to identify ways in which safety and security on campus could be improved. One of the changes they recommended was increasing the number of blue boxes on campus from the current 17 to 36 and then fitting these blue boxes with cameras.

Faced with such a huge increase in safety and security cameras on campus, the fact that there was no policy to govern their use becomes significantly more concerning.

“With all the new blue phones and the proposed installation of video cameras into those blue phones, the need for a centralized government framework has become much more important,” said Paul Hancock, legal counsel to the university on information and privacy. Policy 118, when finalized, should allow a balance between concerns for both public safety and individual privacy. Under the proposed policy, the cameras fitted to the blue boxes will not be allowed to record images on a continuous basis.

Only when someone presses the help button may the camera be turned on so as to increase the safety of those who press it. The only cameras that will consistently record images will be placed at the bus loop and will be used for forensic purposes only.

As for other cameras currently operating on campus, Campus Security Director Barry Eccleton said that, under Policy 118, they will be given a six-month grace period during which the department in charge of the cameras and will have to apply for the systems to continue.

If their application is not approved, the cameras will be dismantled.

Both the AMS and the Student Union of UBCO fully support the

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION CHERIHAUN HASSUN AND ELENA VOLOHOVA /THE UBYSSEY

Currently there is no policy on the use of security cameras.

proposed policy. Jenna Omassi, AMS VP University Affairs and Academic, is happy with the policy for two reasons.

“Firstly, it means that those blue phones will be re-furbished and will be able to be used properly for the security of the campus community more generally,” she said. “Secondly, it means that there will be more of an oversight on cameras and we can ensure that the footage on these cameras will be used solely in times when it needs to be used and not abused.”

According to Omassi, the issue of footage usage is more of a problem on UBC’s Okanagan campus because of the greater number of cameras present. If passed, Policy 118 will ensure that camera footage is used

for a more specific criminal set of incidents rather than for issues such as academic misconduct that, as it stands, cameras can technically be used for without the policy.

The final set of recommendations will come to the Board of Governors for approval in January 2016 at the earliest.

Rather than waiting, the university counsel and campus security urge the UBC community to answer the call for comments on the proposal that should be made public this week. The comments period will be open for about two months so as to provide members of the community time to provide their input. U

CONSTRUCTION //

Board approves Tall Wood rez building

PHOTO COURTESY/UBC INFRASTRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

The residence will be one of the tallest wood building in the world.

Vassi Sharlandjieva Staff Writer

With the final approval of the Board of Governors, the construction of a new residence to accommodate 404 students is set to begin in October.

Unlike other residences on campus, this building will be made almost entirely out of wood.

The main goal is to respond to the demand for more on-campus housing. But, said John Metras, managing director of Campus Infrastructure and Development at UBC, it also presents a new way for UBC researchers to learn. “This project was an opportunity to apply engineered mass timber in an innovative way in a tall building application,” said Metras.

Metras said that the idea for this residence arose from the provincial government’s “wood-first” policy which asks that government agencies and associated entities make using wood a priority in new projects.

The novelty of the residence building is that it will be 18 stories high, exceeding the current building code limit of six stories for a wooden structure. This means that the BC

Building Safety and Standards Branch had to conduct a special review on the project. “We expect that the provincial approval will come in late September [or] early October,” said Metras. In the nature of the Campus as a Living Lab project, UBC researchers are monitoring and analyzing the structure.

“We’ve taken incredible precautions in the design to ensure that the building is perfectly safe and that we can exceed all code requirements in that regard.” Metras emphasized.

To ensure fire safety, protective triple layers of drywall will encapsulate the wood structure.

Large beams, which burn very slowly, will provide cross-sectional support. In addition, two concrete elevator and stairway cores will provide the residence with structural support to exceed current building code standards for seismic performance.

The biggest challenge during construction, according to Metras, will be dealing with moisture issues with the wood. However, durability against moisture can be achieved by creating a “building envelope so that the wood material itself is not subjected to this moisture,” explained Frank Lam. Lam is an expert on wood building design and construction in the Faculty of Forestry.

“There are solutions to everything — it is a matter of using the right solution,” said Lam. To avoid the interference of heavy rains with the construction schedule, the wood structure will be built in the summer months of 2016. It is expected that the wooden residence will be completed faster than the typical constructions of

concrete and steel that UBC has built thus far.

The total project budget is $51.5 million, with funding coming from the Canada Wood Council and various other sources including Natural Resources Canada, Forest Innovation Investment, Binational Softwood Lumber Council and the provincial government.

“One hundred per cent of the tall wood premium is covered by other external funding sources,” said Andrew Parr, managing director of Student Housing & Hospitality Services. He confirmed that students can expect to pay the same rent in the Tall Wood Building as for similar types of accommodation on campus.

The plan is to open the new residence in August 2017. U

THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL Based on the novel by Anne Brontë

October 1—17, 2015 Frederic Wood Theatre Tickets: theatrefilm.ubc.ca

4 | News |

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

RESIDENCE //

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

The elevator in Ponderosa Maple house has been acting up, much like the elevator in Arbutus house last January.

Elevator in Ponderosa Maple house experiences a fall Emma Partridge News Editor

Elevator malfunctions have now befallen both Ponderosa houses in the residential complex on campus.

Over the last academic year, the host of problems plaguing Ponderosa Commons, which opened in 2013, has become a running gag among the general student community. For residents, though, that joke was their home.

Ponderosa has seen over 40 noteworthy maintenance issues according to a spreadsheet from Student Housing and Hospitality Services obtained by The Ubyssey

through a freedom of information act request. Some of these were commonplace such as a fire alarm going off when there was no fire, but they extend to “room entry possible by other cards” and “no hot water in building.”

Then there were the students stuck in elevators.

One resident described getting stuck in an Arbutus elevator, which free-fell one floor, in a public Facebook post. “The elevator reached the 16th floor and it was about to open and instead it fell an entire floor,” the student wrote last January.

Emilee Northwood, a resident of Maple House, had a similar

experience recently on September 13.

“I live on the eighth floor and then I pressed the elevator like I was going down ... basically, it kind of free fell a floor,” Northwood told The Ubyssey. She said the elevator’s strange behaviour didn’t end there. “Then it sent me back up the eighth floor again [and then] took me down to the end floor.”

Northwood said these incidences are “concerning” in terms of residence safety. However, a representative from Kone, the company which manufactured the Ponderosa elevators, said “free fall” may be the wrong way to term these incidences.

Public Open House

Library Garden - October 1 and October 8 UBC is undertaking a process to redesign the public green space between Memorial Road and Agricultural Road, in front of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. This central location will bring together students, faculty, staff, residents, and visitors and will house the new Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

2

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2015 Time: 11:00am – 2:00pm Place: Main Lobby, Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, 6163 University Blvd UBC Life

Aquatic Centre

N

Date: Thursday, October 1, 2015 Time: 11:00am – 2:00pm Place: 2nd Floor Foyer, The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall

Walter Gage Road

1

AMS Nest Brock Hall

East Mall

Please join us at the public open houses to learn more and to tell us what is important to you about the space and what opportunities you see for its future.

Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Buchanan

Library Garden

Chemistry

West Mall

University Boulevard

Agricultural Rd

Memorial Rd

Crescent Rd

Main Mall Koerner Library

The introduction of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre to Library Garden provides a unique opportunity to re-envision one of the largest outdoor public spaces on campus.

Can’t attend in person? Online consultation will run from September 28 - October 12. Visit planning.ubc.ca to learn more.

For additional information, contact: Gabrielle Armstrong, Senior Manager, Consultation, 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.

According to Kone spokesman Patrick O’Connell, guides along the elevator shaft tell the elevator when a floor is being approached.

If for some reason the elevator can’t find the appropriate guide, it will skip to the closest one. “[It] is very rare and almost never happens, but it’s going to calibrate back down to that [last floor] and that’s where you might actually feel the sensation of coming down — but you’re never falling,” said O’Connell, noting that student safety has never actually been in jeopardy.

Managing Director of Student Housing and Hospitality Andrew Parr acknowledged, “It’s not a pleasant situation for somebody who rides and we’re completely empathetic to that and equally frustrated with the students about the challenges of this elevator.”

That frustration is partially because Ponderosa elevators are notorious for more than giving their occupants a scare — the elevators were out of service before the January’s fall and then were closed again in March.

“There’s been times when the elevator’s been broken for three months. And then also they’d have random days … where the elevator’s been out of service,” noted Northwood.

According to Parr, residence elevators get more use than most elevators, which “requires greater preventative maintenance programs that typical residential or office building type elevators would require.”

When asked whether the elevators in Ponderosa are out of service more frequently than others due to maintenance inspections, Parr said, “We all recognize the elevators at the Ponderosa phase 1 are a greater problem than our other elevators for sure. There’s no doubt about that and we’re monitoring those more closely.”

Parr also noted that this is uncommon situation and that they “are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on Kone to do a deeper diagnosis on this to determine why this continues to repeat itself.”

That diagnosis has yet to yield any answers. As for Arbutus, once a proper inspection was underway Parr said that “literally thousands

of trips” were ran and no fault was found. The elevator was put back into service only after the tests were complete and the elevators were approved.

According to O’Connell the most common explanations for malfunctions is an error in installation of the floor guides.

However, O’Connell also said that this is something they would discover very quickly after installation.

Jake Mullan was president of the Ponderosa Commons Residence Association when the elevators first experienced problems last January.

According to Mullan, the elevator wasn’t taken out of service for an appropriate amount of time after it fell, which he called “deplorable.”

“Magically in the morning, my vice president and I awoke and the elevator was back working again and then they said, ‘Oh shoot, it shouldn’t be,’ and then they turned it off again,” said Mullan, adding that it was opened without inspection by government safety inspectors which violated protocol.

Parr confirmed that protocol dictates that a malfunctioning elevator is to be taken out of service and poor communication led to the elevator being reopened prematurely.

“What I can I say? It was an error made at that time,” Parr said, noting that proper protocol was followed in the September incident.

As for Ponderosa phase 2, Parr said they will not be using the same Kone elevators that were used in Maple and Arbutus due to a change in contractors.

“Phase 1 and phase 2 were treated as two separate projects from a tendering perspective. We actually have a different general contractor on the two projects,” said Parr.

UBC Properties Trust manages the tendering process, but were unavailable for comment at this time as the man involved with the Ponderosa project is on vacation.

According to O’Connell, it would be possible to replace the elevators but he couldn’t give an estimate as to what this would cost as it varies from building to building.

In the meantime, we have yet to hear any rumors that residents want a slide built in Maple. U

// CULTURE

EDITOR OLIVIA LAW

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

PETITION //

Short film comes under attack as “LGBT lobby propaganda”

5

Eat, Pray, Cram

Jessica Yang Contributor

The production of the short film Limina, has recently come under attack by a transphobic right-wing petition originating in Europe.

The film, about a gender-fluid child, aims to start a conversation about the natural, but often oppressed, gender fluidity of children. Filmmakers Joshua M. Ferguson and Florian Halbedl had intended to film Limina in the magical and diverse villages of Switzerland. Having decided to film in Vancouver instead due to financial and logistical reasons, Limina is attracting top talent across Canada.

Ferguson and Haldedl are preparing for production to start in October.

On September 8, an anonymous petition in German surfaced on the online platform “CitizenGO.” It attacked the film for its binarybreaking message, labeling gender fluidity as a sickness and the film as propaganda for the “LGBT lobby.” The petition now has 12,000 signatures from around the world.

Certain supporters have spoken up publicly against the film such as professor and publicist Roberto de Mattei who stated that Limina is “an attack on childhood with disastrous psychological and social consequences.”

The petition appealed to several governmental representatives in Switzerland asking them to not

ILLUSTRATION SOPHIA SLOAN/THE UBYSSEY

How to survive midterms.

Elysse Bell Food columnist

The attack on Limina has sparked interest internationally.

provide funding for the film in hopes to end the production process before it had begun. In reaction to this attack, the filmmakers said, “Religious dogma should never have the power to influence cultural production,” marking the petition as a clear attempt at censorship.

The representatives, specifically Head of the Education and Culture Department Franz Enderli, stated that the petition will not affect the film’s application for governmental funding and that decisions will be made solely on the quality of the application.

“We had very positive and supportive meetings with many people in Switzerland about

Limina while we were there this past summer,” said Ferguson.

“The Transgender Network of Switzerland is in full support of Limina and denounces this petition.”

Though there are many in support of the LGBTQ+ community, transphobic attacks like this petition can still have a detrimental effect on individuals. The petition uses a study

by Cecilia Dehjne as support for their transphobic position.

However, Dehjne rejects this use of her work. “This petition incorrectly uses our research to attempt to prove that gender confirmation surgery increases the suicide rate for transpeople,” she said. “I denounce this petition’s

PHOTO COURTESY LIMINA

dangerous and misguided use of our research ... This misuse is what actually could harm trans people and by that increase the risk of suicide.”

Gillian Creese, acting director at UBC’s Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice condemns the intolerance of the petitioners.

“The attack on the film and its producers is a clear example of transphobia,” she said. “We should all condemn this kind of hateful intolerance and bigotry.”

The filmmakers urge supporters to consider contributing to their film and help Limina to create a cinematic space for gender-fluid children. U

SOCIETIES //

UBC Debate Society silences nothing

UBC Debate Society began in 1906, before UBC itself.

Bailey Ramsay Copy Editor

If your idea of Debate Society is a room full of aggressive argumentative people shouting at each other, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The Debate Society instructs and mentors students on how to be better speakers as well as cultivating their quick-thinking logic skills.

It’s actually very rare for people to become passionately heated about a topic and throw logic to the wind.

“It just makes you a more understanding and logical person.

You’re forced to engage with things that you don’t agree on in debate,” said Pia Lim, VP Marketing of the

UBC Debate Society. “I honestly think debate has made me a better person. Without it, I would have just stayed argumentative and closed minded. You can’t afford to be closed minded in debate.”

The Debate Society began in 1906 — predating UBC itself.

Back then, men and women were segregated into separate societies. The women’s suffrage movement and women’s right to vote were still hotly contested topics. Even to this day, no topic is safe from debate no matter how controversial.

“You want to debate topics that are controversial, but you

PHOTO OLAMIDE OLANIYAN/THE UBYSSEY

don’t want to go into a debate where someone is triggered and can’t talk because they are uncomfortable,” said Lim. “We want to talk about these topics that are happening in news now, we don’t want to shy away from it.”

Students are challenged by engaging with a topic or stance that they might not necessarily agree with.

“You don’t really know what your beliefs are until you can argue against them,” said Masao Dahlgren, a first-year arts student.

A big focus for the community is to teach and cultivate the

individual skill of debating and public speaking. Novice members are matched with “Pros,” experienced members, to develop a mentorship. Members also do a lot of outreach by volunteering in various Vancouver high schools.

“A lot of the coaches in the Vancouver high school circuit are UBC debaters who are volunteering their time … The school who have coaches are private schools that can afford it,” said Lim. While cultural stereotypes and film characters might suggest debaters to be overtly competitive individuals, this is not the case. Tournaments are a huge networking opportunity.

“There is a big social aspect to debate — debaters have a lot of friends all across the province and all across the country and down in the states as well,” said Lim. It is free to attend meetings, training sessions and to participate in open debates.

“The only reason people pay is because we subsidize people to on trips around the world …

For $10, you have further access to more training days that are more intensive, socials, and tournaments located all around the world,” said Lim If you’re considering whether or not the Debate Society is for you, Dahlgren encourages you to give it a try.

“If you’re on the fence about joining, you’re already having a debate with yourself! So you might as well come to the society and do it with other people.” U

As midterms begin to rear their ugly heads and the thought of how you are going to feed yourself through the frenzy starts to weigh on you — fear not! Late night takeout for a week straight, or worse — ignoring the demands of your physical form entirely, are not your only options. Provided that you plan ahead a little, you can eat well in the midst of this horrid paper tornado we call October.

I admit that I often find it hard to balance both my budget and diet when school gets busy. Despite my intentions to eat well, stay on target with my spending and maintain good grades, I often find that studying takes precedence — as a student, it kind of has to. However, I worry when reaching for the takeout menu becomes automatic because, while it’s a quick and easy option, it’s not the only way to meet both of those criteria. It’s certainly not the cheapest or healthiest way either.

First off, plan things out. It might seem like this is taking precious time away from studying, but it doesn’t have to be comprehensive.

Next step: grocery shopping.

After checking your fridge and pantry for what you already have, arm yourself with your ingredients list from meal planning and do a big grocery run.

Now that you’ve stocked your fridge and pantry, do some advance prep-work. Packing lunch (and/or dinner and breakfast) the night before will keep you well-fed for long hours in the library and you won’t have to scramble in the morning to get everything together. Here are some things that you can mix and match for easy grab-andgo meals and are also great for throwing together dinner in a pinch: Rice and potatoes are easily reheated — make a big batch for the week to keep in the fridge.

Cooked proteins, like meat and tofu, will keep for several days.

Hard-boiling eggs are even easier and cheaper.

Roasting vegetables is surprisingly hands-off once the chopping is done.

Make a batch of homemade hummus to last you the week for a source of protein in a pinch.

Cut fruits and veggies into snack-size portions.

If you’re feeling ambitious (or, like me, you relieve your stress by baking), make a banana loaf or a batch of muffins to take as snacks.

The more forethought you put into your food, the more stress you will save in the end. If you find yourself floundering amidst piles of pizza boxes, it’s never too late to sit down and get organized if you want to. Now, if only we could say the same for midterms… U

6 | feature |

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

DAY OF the LONGBOAT

Notice of Development Permit Application - DP 15001

Public Open House

Wesbrook Place Lots 27 & 29 Faculty & Staff Rental Housing You are invited to attend an Open House on Thursday, October 8 to view and comment on the proposed faculty & staff rental residential development in consolidated Lots 27 & 29 in Wesbrook Place.

Date: Thursday, October 8, 2015 Time: 4:30 - 6:00PM Place: Wesbrook Village Welcome Centre, 3378 Wesbrook Mall Representatives from the project team and Campus + Community Planning will be available to provide information and respond to inquiries about this project. The public is also invited to attend the upcoming Development Permit Board Meeting for this project.

Date/Time: October 28, 5:00 - 6:30PM Location: Classroom, Tapestry Building 3338 Wesbrook Mall

Can’t attend in person? Online feedback will be accepted from Sept. 23 to Oct. 18. To learn more or to comment on this project, please visit: planning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations

This event is wheelchair accessible.

For further information, contact: Karen Russell, Manager, Development Services karen.russell@ubc.ca 604-822-1586

Ben Gardiner Contributor

The 2015 edition of UBC Recreation’s Day of the Longboat event saw an all-time attendance record buoyed by the commendable efforts of its passionate organizing team.

Despite the somewhat diminished participation over the past two years largely due to adverse weather conditions, figures over the October 3-4 weekend surpassed all previous records for individual participation and team registration. Longboat has steadily grown to become UBC Recreation’s largest event since its inception 37 years ago where participating teams built their own longboats to navigate at sea. This past weekend, the world’s largest voyageur event hosted 347 student teams and over 3,500 total participants.

Notably, organizers indicated that the “Just For Fun” classification had a significant boost in registration over previous years. This reflects UBC Recreation’s recent strategy shift to encourage active living on campus in addition to promoting purely competitive events. A shorter route for racers as well as a relaxed competitive atmosphere provided an ideal setting for casual teams hoping to partake in the signature UBC event.

Featured in Longboat 2015 was a corporate heat in addition to the student, faculty and alumni races. Georgia Sakurai, Sponsorship Assistant Director, explained that “Day of the Longboat offers a team-building for local companies. It’s a chance for external organizations to see the events that students are involved with and engage with the UBC community.”

Organizers plan to build upon the corporate heat in future events which was considered a benchmark success for this year.

To accommodate hundreds of participant teams, tremendous planning and organizing was required by UBC Recreation. The largest Longboat organizing team to date was comprised of over 100 volunteers led by two directors and nine assistant directors.

Directors Stefanie Suderman and Lauren La Prairie planned for months prior to Longboat weekend including undertaking a 40-hour week workload since September. Suderman explained that her group wanted to take every different aspect of the event to the next level with many organizing team members staying at Jericho from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

The event this year had a distinct aspect of school spirit tied in. This was possibly related to the buzz around UBC’s Centennial celebrations.

Day of the Longboat continues to be a defining memory of the UBC experience for thousands of students each year. Key developments initiated by this year’s organizing team created a record-breaking event for all UBC students to be proud of — especially as centennial celebrations continues on campus. U

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

photos by BRANDON LAI, KOBY MICHAELS AND JEREMY JOHNSON-SILVERS

Jackson Runkle Contributor

It’s a crisp fall morning, the sun is shimmering on the water at Jericho Beach and you can hear the pump-up music blasting from UBC Recreation’s sound system. This is my fourth year at UBC, but my first Day of the Longboat.

I’m with a team of people from all different faculties and friend groups.

We’ve organized ourselves to wear the Thunderbird blue and gold and painted each other’s faces. It’s fitting with our team’s main goals as we signed up in the “Just for Fun” category, after all. Or so we thought.

After chatting with an opposing team, they seemed to think that if we’re racing this early that we must be in the competitive category. I could tell they were in the competitive category between the war chants and bulging muscles. I was wondering why they were here and not rowing for the Canadian national team.

So at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning, standing in line to run and jump into our longboat, our team realized we were competing against UBC’s die-hard athletes.

When we pushed off, nautical mayhem exploded between the boats.

Luckily, our team managed to grind ahead of another longboat we collided with and set off ahead of the pack. Our team captain kept us rowing in time with a war-like “STROKE!” chant. Since it was so early, we glided across the glassy ocean without threat of capsizing.

As we set off for the final marker on our race, we gave a valiant effort to pass the overly-enthused athletes ahead of us. Even with power-strokes and cheers of encouragement, we couldn’t quite gain on them before the finish.

As we approached the far beach to grab our baton, we almost got soaked. Our runner leapt out of the moving vessel as soon as he could reach land which sent the left side leaning dangerously close to sea level.

Luckily, our squad managed to stabilize ourselves before we lost any more balance.

We did place second though. As our gong rang out along the shore, we felt a collective sense of accomplishment. We had a lot of fun and although some of us didn’t know one another very well, we were closer because of it.

I guess the whole point of an event like Day of the Longboat is to promote bonding between students through an activity that wouldn’t be easily accessible to people outside of the school. I have to say, it was a really cool event and one I wouldn’t have actively sought out on my own. The team component encouraged you to reach out and get to know people you may not have met otherwise and it guarantees an exciting, if unexpected, experience. U

Université d’Ottawa

|

University of Ottawa

Study Law in the National Capital Obtain a uOttawa JD degree in either English or French: • Rigorous and stimulating training • Diverse internship and practicum opportunities • Concentrations and specializations available

Take advantage of our many combined programs, including, • Opportunities to earn both common Law and civil law degrees; • A dual JD program with US Universities, allowing you to obtain Canadian and American law degrees; • Opportunities to combine your JD studies with programs in the uOttawa Faculty of Social Sciences, the Telfer School of Management or Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.

We also offer LLM and PhD programs.

Application deadline: November 1, 2015 For more information: www.commonlaw.uOttawa.ca

| feature | 7

8 | culture |

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

MUSIC //

VIDEO //

Missy D releases hip-hop/soul album Hip-flipping with Nardwuar

PHOTO JOSHUA MEDICOFF/THE UBYSSEY

Diane Mutabaruka has been performing all over Vancouver both with her band and solo.

Elena Volohova Staff Writer

“Give me a microphone and I’m in my happy zone,” is no ordinary phrase to hear. It only proves that Missy D is no ordinary girl. Hiphop and rap artist, femcee, singer, songwriter, slam poet, member of UBC’s Laydy Jams and combined major in sciences – this is Missy D. Diane Mutabaruka, also known as Missy D, is a vibrant mix of cultures, languages and interests. Growing up in Zimbabwe, she is of Rwandan and Cote d’Ivoire origin. Bilingual in English and French, she draws her inspiration from classics like Jean de La Fontaine and Nina Simone as well as from contemporaries like Missy Elliot and J. Cole. She has performed on various stages like UBC Totem’s Got Talent, Imagine Day Pep Rallies, UBC Alumni Achievement Awards and the Chancellor’s lunch reception. She has also worked on multiple occasions with the Black Vinyl Project, AMS, The Calendar and 200 BPM.

“Name a place downtown and we’ve performed there,” said Mutabaruka about her work with the Laydy Jams.

Mutabaruka’s relationship with music began early in life.

Coming from a musical household, she always loved music. As she started to write poetry, she fell in love with hip-hop. When the first performance came along the same year, she also realized her love for performing.

“That was exactly what I wanted to do … there was no stage fright, I felt the microphone was my friend,” she said.

Along the way, music has shaped Mutabaruka’s life. Hip-hop helped her overcome the insecurities of transitioning between languages and changing schools as well as finding herself in university. On coming to UBC and leaving home for the first time, she said, “Either I was going to be somebody or I was going to be somebody in the crowd.” Graduating in May 2015, Mutabaruka was starting a new chapter in her life.

“I felt so much pain … and since music has always been my therapy, I started writing.”

As a result, she ended up recording her debut single entitled Too Many Feelings.

“This song was what I needed to hear at the time and it helped me a lot,” said Mutabaruka. “I thought my music could help someone else and I knew that I needed to put the album out.”

Describing her style as “uplifting rap and soul,” Mutabaruka puts her heart and feelings into her songs.

Her debut album will be entitled When Music Hits You, You Feel No Pain, reflecting on Mutabaruka’s relationship with music.

“That’s how I feel when I listen to music. That’s how I feel when I make music. That’s how I feel when I am performing … I’m in my happy place,” she said.

Keeping her mind open, Mutabaruka is just at the very beginning of this stage in her life. U

IT’S OUR FAVOURITE TIME OF FEAR.

FRIGHT NIGHTS WESTERN CANADA’S SCARIEST HAUNT

POSSESSES

OCT 9-NOV 1

(OPEN SELECT NIGHTS)

Admission includes unlimited access to

upgrade to a RAPID PASS to get into the Houses and 5 Rides

FASTER!

7 HAUNTED HOUSES RIDES, INCLUDING THE BEAST THE MONSTERS OF SCHLOCK GRUESOME COMEDY ACT RADIANT HEAT FIRE PERFORMANCE

15

SAVE ON FRIGHTPASSES AT:

STALK US ON PNE _ PLAYLAND PNECLIPS

Monsters of Schlock will not be performing Oct 9-11

OPENS THIS WEEKEND!

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

Nardwuar’s Video Vault showed some of his most popular interview moments.

Alex Lenz Contributor

Vancouver’s legendary music reporter, Nardwuar the Human Serviette, graced UBC students with his presence at CiTR on Friday, October 2. “Nardwuar’s Video Vault” was an event showcasing video clips from Nardwuar’s prolific career in interviewing musicians and politicians. The event was free, open to all and offered a bevy of weirdness that was uncharacteristic of the usual dayto-day happenings at UBC. For those of you unfamiliar with the quirky workings of Nardwuar, imagine a short, middle-aged man with long, scraggly dark hair and attire straight out of a Wes Anderson film. His voice is unusually highpitched. He sports large-framed glasses, a signature tartan hat and tartan pants as well. Embedded within this art project of a man is an Energizer Bunny who seems to never run out of energy – ever.

As a prominent music journalist based out of Vancouver, Nardwuar conducts interviews with just about everyone he can get to speak into his microphone. His interview style is characterized by his extensive research, his peculiar gifts that he gives to interviewees and his hyperbolic personality.

As a MuchMusic host, Nardwuar reigned in the heydays of the 90s music scene and maintains a consistently firm grip on Vancouver’s pop culture scene.

The event took place outside just outside of CiTR’s office in the new SUB and lasted about an hour and a half. There were always about 50 people present as viewers were able to come and go as they pleased. Nardwuar began the event by telling a humorous narrative about his run-ins with Courtney Love, the lead singer of Hole and Kurt Cobain’s wife at the time.

“Nardwuar’s Video Vault” was somewhat of an ode to Nardwuar’s humble beginnings at CiTR and UBC. CiTR is UBC’s on-campus radio station which offers alternative programming to the Greater Vancouver Area.

Nardwuar began his career in music journalism at the station and still hosts a show at CiTR every Friday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Throughout the event, he consistently encouraged people to become involved with CiTR and Discorder Magazine (CiTR’s affiliated music magazine).

At one point, Nardwuar stated that CiTR saved his life. When he was 31 years old, he suffered a brain hemorrhage which had him hospitalized in critical care. He thanked CiTR for their support during this difficult time. It was at this point in the event that it became evidently clear that Nardwuar is infinitely passionate about what he does and stops at nothing to bring forth new and exciting programming to viewers.

In one clip, Damon Albarn of Blur asks Nardwuar why he calls himself a Human Serviette.

Nardwuar casually responds by saying, “Because I help serve the youth.”

Beyond Nardwuar’s unique humour lies a man who has been criticized and undermined by mass media for his comedic and light-hearted approach to interviews. In one portion of the event dubbed “Nard Danger,” the audience was exposed to moments of Nardwuar confronting the nasty side of the media. In one clip, we see him being bullied

by David from Blur. David takes Nardwuar’s hat and glasses and torments him. In another clip, we see Nardwuar being dragged away

by Stephen Harper’s security team after asking Harper to do the “Hip Flip.” It should be noted that every other prominent politician agreed to the “Hip Flip” including Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair.

One of the central dogmas of Nardwuar’s interviews is the reception that interviewees have to Nardwuar himself. Nardwuar conducts his interviews as such that the gut reactions to his antics become central to the interview.

Because really, who isn’t struck by someone who refers to themselves as a Human Serviette?

Doot Doola Doot Doo. Doot Doo. U

// OPINIONS

EDITOR JACK HAUEN

FIRST NATIONS //

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

9

OH LOOK, IT’S THE FUCKING ELEVATOR THING AGAIN //

Land acknowledgement Last Words: Goddamned elevator bullshit Free fallin’ nothing but lip service

FILE PHOTO COLIN CHIA/THE UBYSSEY

Moira warburton Op-ed

The Board of Governors meeting at UBCO on Tuesday, September 29 included a presentation from Dr. Jeanette Armstrong, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in Kelowna. She told the board members about the Indigenous Studies program they have cultivated at the Okanagan campus and spoke about how important community-based programming is. It’s hard but worth it because there are many people, in that area particularly, living with the aftereffects of the carnage incurred on generations of Canadians by the residential schools system. They need to be engaged in programs like this.

John Montalbano had the distinction of being the only person in the room who asked Dr. Armstrong a question in the discussion period following her presentation. He said that he had been to a lot of land acknowledgement ceremonies and that they all felt hollow somehow. However, the resigning of the agreement between the Okanagan First Nations and UBC on the tenth anniversary of this campus, he said, felt meaningful. This one felt genuine.

Montalbano asked her, “How can we learn from that? In your opinion, is there anything we can take away from yesterday and apply it to other places?”

I know what he meant.

Reasons are rarely given as to why we do the land acknowledgement (the Board doesn’t do one at all). If we never explain why we say that acknowledgement, when will anyone learn? It has become a lip service — you and I have heard the word unceded so many times that anything we may have learned from it has long since been washed away in the repetitions.

Armstrong told him that there is community engagement here. First Nations leaders are able to communicate why their communities should care about this university and what it does for them. It’s about real engagement from the institution to try and understand.

She looked around at the rest of the Board – the cell phone glows, the open laptops, the empty seats with their occupants pouring coffee and picking out

pieces of banana bread. “I want to get to know each and every one of you,” she said.

We learn French. We know the face of the Queen. We can recite the names of Jaques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and Captain Vancouver – do you remember the name of a single Musqueam chief? I don’t. This is a university. Coming to terms with the fact that our country

“

You and I have heard the word unceded so many times that anything we may have learned from it has long since been washed away.”

is built on the broken backs of others is a challenge like no other because it forces you to not only see others differently, but to see yourself differently.

UBC is not like other universities. It squats on the land of others with powerful limbs and moneyed robes. Because of this, it is in a unique position to challenge and teach its community in a way that most other universities don’t. It can give tangible examples of why empathy, respect and meaningful understanding of other perspectives are valuable skills to have — not just acknowledging them, but really understanding them and being able to relate them to your own experiences.

The land acknowledgement is a good start, but there is so much more than just repeating words that could be done.

“What can I say?” asked Andrew Parr, managing director of Student Housing and Hospitality Services, after acknowledging that workers failed to follow safety protocol after an elevator in the brand new Ponderosa Commons free fell.

A lot more than that!

With construction projects dotting campus like fleas on a mangy stray and university funds sapping student morale straight out of our wallets, it is disconcerting to say the least that the safety of new structures may be lacking.

Student Housing and elevator company officials seemed rather unfazed by the students injured by falling elevators. In the words of the Kone elevator spokesman Patrick O’Connell, he insists the students were not “free falling,” but just “feel[ing] the sensation of coming down” or “calibrat[ing].”

This is the same person who insisted that the effect was “very rare and almost never happens.”

The simple reality is that with Student Housing charging students exorbitant rates to live on campus and passing other residence construction costs onto the rest of the university, there is no excuse for something as crucial as an elevator behaving in such an unsafe manner. Even if living costs were anywhere near reasonable, one would expect basic safety measures to be in place.

That UBC has such a cavalier attitude toward nightmarish scenarios described in this week’s cover story is somewhere between discouraging and downright frightening.

FILE PHOTO JULIAN YU/THE UBYSSEY

Come one, come all

FREE BZZR

Med schools around the world are moving away from only accepting students who have suffered through organic chemistry and physiology while they move towards accepting students of all backgrounds. No longer are medical students expected to learn the entirety of medical knowledge in their first two years, and then start clinical training.

What top schools like the University of Michigan and the University of California are doing is teaching communication, teamwork and problem-solving, rather than rote memorization. UBC is considering doing the same, and we’re on board.

Science prerequisites should be done away with to allow students from more diverse backgrounds, schools and interests to become doctors. Organic chemistry professors may get a bit lonely without med school hopefuls to torture, but they’ll survive.

Free beer has been mysteriously showing up around campus surrounding football games, and it’s doing a hell of a job getting people stoked on the Thunderbirds.

Homecoming saw a recordbreaking attendance of almost 7,000 follwed by last weekend’s attedance of 2,500 fans who showed up to the Thunderbird’s loss to Saskatchewan. Those are bigger numbers than UBC football has seen in a while and the free beer is certainly playing a part in drawing a crowd. But it’s sort of strange, isn’t it?

Some rich person buying college kids free beer so that they go to football games made a few of us initially uneasy. But honestly, who cares? If they’re buying, let’s be honest, we’re drinking.

“Last Words” is The Ubyssey’s weekly, informal editorial column centred on current events at UBC. U

have a great idea to

build community during UBC’s Centennial?

$1000 Community Grants available to be won.

Apply for a UTown@UBC Community Grant, and you could be awarded up to $1000 to create a fun and inspiring community-building project on campus!

This year we are pleased to celebrate 100 years of UBC with a special Centennial Grant category.

Information available at utown.ubc.ca/grants.

Moira Warburton is a fifth-year political science major and Web News Editor at The Ubyssey. U

YOU HAVE OPINIONS Let’s hear ‘em. opinion@ubyssey.ca

Application deadline is October 21, 2015.

// SPORTS+REC

EDITOR KOBY MICHAELS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

10

SOFTBALL //

What’s next for Alana Westerhof: life after the Thunderbirds Henry Allan Contributor

PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

Alana Westerhof hopes to help coach the Thunderbirds with her fellow teammate, Carlyn Shimizu, this January.

Shanna (Shan) Larsen was only 24 when she lost her life to breast cancer

Facts ◆

over 1,100 young women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in Canada

◆

breast cancer in young women is often aggressive

◆

most breast lumps are not cancer

◆

breast cancer does not always start with a breast lump

◆

early detection saves lives

teamshan.ca facebook.com/team.shan.ca @TeamShan

August 27, 2015 — it’s 8 p.m. in Enschede, Holland. Alana Westerhof walks through the rain across the Tex-Town Tigers’ home field. She walks up to the soaked pitcher’s mound which has the consistency of soup. She stands in the middle of it trying to wipe down the ball with her jersey. Once the ball is dry, or as dry as it’s going to be, she shifts her focus towards home plate.

Westerhof holds the ball straight out in front of her. Then she winds the ball back in a quick windmill and launches it at home plate. As she lunges forward, the mud on the mound splashes up her white knee-high socks staining and soaking them through. The rain covers the fact that Westerhof is on the verge of tears — this is her last game and not at all how she’d envisioned it.

Westerhof became the first Thunderbird softball player to go pro when she suited up for the Tigers this summer. Starting where she left off with UBC, she quickly became one of the Dutch league’s leaders in home-runs, recorded 72 strikeouts and a no-hitter, was selected to the all-star game and even garnered attention from the Dutch national team. But she left Holland midway through the season. So why did she leave? What’s next for Westerhof?

Westerhof is now enrolled in UBC’s Bachelor’s of Education program. “I grew up always wanting to be a teacher,” said Westerhof. She applied to the program in January right after receiving her BA in geography and psychology. “I told [TexTown], ‘I really want to play for you, but I applied for the teaching program and if I do get accepted, I’m going to leave early.’”

Otherwise Westerhof would still be there, helping the Tigers battle their way through the playoffs.

During the 2016 season, Westerhof won’t play for the Thunderbirds either. She has exhausted her eligibility, but

U

Love sports? You should write for us.

10% OFF!

Your used soccer and rugby boots can help athletes in need and save on your next purchase.

Scan for info.

2862 West 4th Ave @ MacDonald Vancouver BC V6K 1R2 604.732.1564 www.Sportopolis.ca

still hopes she can help out. The current Thunderbirds pitching coach will be on maternity-leave come the season’s start in January.

Westerhof hopes she might be able to step in and help out alongside former teammate, Carlyn Shimizu, who will also return to mentor the Thunderbirds. Coaching is nothing new for Westerhof.

“I’ve coached all growing up, and I really enjoy it,” she said.

In the past, she has coached her former club teams in Delta and, more recently, the junior Tex-Town Tigers. “I’m now in a teaching program hoping to help kids learn … so I definitely see myself coaching ... But I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it I don’t think.”

The end goal and dream job for Westerhof is still to be an elementary school teacher.

Even as she makes headway with her eventual career, the door is still wide open for Westerhof to play again. The Tigers’ coaching staff has made it very clear she is welcome back.

“I’m still in contact with every single one of them, and they are all encouraging me to come back and play with them again,” said Westerhof. The Tigers even told her to watch out for other Thunderbirds who might be interested in playing pro.

After she thrived in the Dutch pro-league, the national team suggested Westerhof look into getting her Dutch citizenship (Westerhof’s grandparents were born in Holland) so she could represent the team at next year’s world championships — a tournament to be played in Surrey, B.C. In the meantime, Westerhof plays in a local women’s rec league for the North Delta Sunfire keeping her limber should she decide to take Tex-Town or the Netherlands up on their offers.

“As long as I’m healthy, I think it’s always an option,” said Westerhof. “If I have a summer free … I’m always open to the opportunity of going back to Holland and playing for them again.” U

Athletes include players in developing or war-torn countries and homeless or vulnerable populations.

SPORTS@UBYSSEY.CA

Your local destination for sports!

Rugby Soccer Volleyball Yoga Training More

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2015

| sports | 11

CLUBS //

UBC competitive sports clubs begin inaugural season Jenny Tang Contributor

After the sports reviews two years ago resulted in teams being stripped of their varsity level status, UBC Athletics and Recreation have collaborated with nine clubs to form an alternative competitive stream for AMS-recognized sports clubs. The stream will allow the clubs to compete under the UBC Thunderbird name in competitive non-varsity leagues. The new student-run teams will be able to compete for UBC in sports that are not available as varsity sports at the university.

“It was shown that there was a need for the competitive club stream,” said UBC Athletics and Recreation Competitive Clubs Coordinator Erin Connelly-Reed.

“It came from a need for further representation from the university.”

Reed’s position as the liaison between the sports teams and UBC Athletics and Recreation has only been in place since July. However, the idea has been in the works since May 2012. The club stream was then suggested in 2013 and was officially implemented in September 2015.

After the initial review in 2013 to secure varsity status for the current sports teams, the AMS conducted a survey which identified support services needed and preferred for their competitive club strand. The following February, there was an open invitation for clubs to apply for competitive club status.

Many factors came into consideration when choosing teams for the new stream such as competitive success, progression in the team, support for competitions and training, community support, traditions, partnerships with UBC Athletics and Recreation and representation of the university mission.

In 2014, the successful clubs were named.

Unlike varsity level athletics, UBC Thunderbirds Sports Clubs are student-led and compete in non-CIS and non-NAIA competitions. Each team has to comprise of a club leader, a financial officer, a marketing and communications officer and a travel and safety officer. UBC Athletics and Recreation also requires that they be financially responsible to be in a competitive league.

Varsity level athletics will not be affected. UBC Athletics and Recreation are more interested in being able to provide more support for non-varsity level teams.

“At the end of the year, we’re looking for competitive clubs to be successful on the pitch, or in the pool, or on the ski hill and have represented UBC to the best of their abilities,” said Reed.

FILE PHOTO KOSTA PRODANOVIC/THE UBYSSEY

FILE PHOTO KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO JEREMY JOHNSON-SILVERS/THE UBYSSEY

PHOTO JEREMY JOHNSON-SILVERS/THE UBYSSEY

Currently there are nine competative sports clubs: men’s lacross, fencing, sailing, synchronized swimming, tennis, triathalon, men’s and women’s ultimate and wrestling.

The clubs that have been selected are alpine skiing, fencing, field lacrosse, nordic skiing, sailing, synchronized swimming, tennis, ultimate frisbee and wrestling.

Previous considerations were given to the women’s softball team who had since appealed to the sports review and were restored to varsity status at the beginning of the summer.

“The hardest part is that all the clubs have different schedules throughout the season and I’m the one competitive club coordinator. So it’s probably just [about] getting all the clubs together in this inaugural year.”

The aforementioned clubs were selected in March 2014 by a committee of AMS and Athletics and Recreation Department representatives. They were already competing in a variety of community or inter-collegiate competitions.

Others such as coaches, UBC administrators, Thunderbird Alumni and student leaders contributed as well in the implementation.

With this new status, the teams will now receive support from UBC Athletics and Recreation and services such as coach honoraria, improved access to training facilities and opportunities for student leadership training. These are all key goals that UBC aims for with this new stream. However, they cannot compete in CIS or NAIA

conferences or championships.

There are still over 30 AMS sport clubs for students to enjoy. However, UBC Athletics and Recreation are looking to expand their competitive club repertoire and have more teams representing UBC in competitive intercollegiate leagues. There is a recruiting period during October and an application period in November for potential clubs to apply for competitive level status.

The potential sports clubs in question would have to be backed by the AMS. They must also show that they are in a competitive structure which can be shown by being in

a league or the opportunity to attend provincial or national level competition.

“Every year we’ll have the open application period for those AMS clubs and hopefully we’ll double or triple our numbers,” said Reed. “We’re looking to have more options available because this program is for any UBC student.”

As the various sports seasons start, the stream is already proving to be effective. The UBC men’s lacrosse won their first game 7-0 two weeks ago.

With this stream, UBC Athletics and Recreation aims for three main

goals – to raise UBC’s reputation as a leader in competitive sport, to grow the UBC Thunderbird legacy by continuing to attract top-student athletes and to encourage campus-wide participation in sports.

“As a competitive club, these athletes are now recognized as UBC athletes under this umbrella.

We’re looking to bring all UBC students under that umbrella.”

For general inquiries into team tryouts, visit the UBC Athletics and Recreation website at or contact sport. clubs@ubc.ca. U

Are you looking for close convenient storage?

We have two locations available minutes from the UBC campus and offer student discounts year-round.

■ 1850 York Avenue 604.731.0435 york@kitsministorage.com ■ 2034 West 11th Avenue 604.736.2729 w11th@kitsministorage.com We also have limited space available for on campus storage, please contact w11th@kitsministorage.com for details.

12 | Comic + games |

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2015

COURTESY BESTCROSSWORDS.COM

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ACROSS 1- Short letter; 5- Island in the East China Sea; 10- On ___ with (equal to); 14- Vocal; 15- Ventures; 16- Microscopic arachnid; 17- Inter ___; 18- Pan-fry; 19- Requirement; 20- Thwart; 22- Having 90-degree angles; 24- Gastropod mollusk; 25- Official count of population; 26- Gumbo ingredient; 28- Wild dog of Australia; 32- Library ID; 35- Actor Byrnes;

37- ‘It’s true!’; 38- Up to, briefly; 39- Grenoble’s river; 41- Future flounder; 42- Cricket team; 45- The French word for “no”; 46-E.g., e.g.; 47- It merged with Exxon; 48- Deer sir; 50- Composer Debussy; 54- Dweebish; 58- Ready for editing; 61- Excrement used as fertilizer; 62- Floor model; 63- Vinegary prefix; 65- Buenos ___; 66- Cracked; 67- Garr and Hatcher; 68- Chip in; 69- Numerous; 70- At attention;

71- Flat sound; DOWN 1- ___ Ark; 2- Acrylic fiber; 3- Coniferous evergreen forest; 4- High spirits; 5- Gds.; 6- Penlight battery; 7- Armistice; 8- Attack; 9- Consumers; 10- Loss of memory; 11- Yacht spot; 12- To ___ (exactly); 13- Comic Foxx; 21- Class; 23- Au naturel; 25- Heels; 27- Harness part; 29- Workers’ rights org.; 30- Dollop; 31- ___ and terminer;

32- Gossip bit; 33- Farm structure; 34- Air bubble; 36- Bear lair; 37- 1996 Tony-winning musical; 40- Red flower; 43- Triumph; 44- Singer Fitzgerald; 46- To-do lists; 49- Santa ___; 51- Become less intense, die off; 52- Stomach woe; 53- Caterpillar rival; 55- Debris; 56- Mild oaths; 57- Approvals; 58- Mild cheese; 59- ___ vu; 60- ___ old cowhand...; 61- The majority of; 64- ___-tac-toe; COURTESY KRAZYDAD.COM

COMIC JULIAN YU/THE UBYSSEY

SEPTEMBER 29 ANSWERS

U

Check out our spiffy new digs.

COMIC PATRICK MURRY AND MIKE PAROLINI/THE UBYSSEY

WWW.UBYSSEY.CA