UTSC Commons Spring 2020

CALL IT A COMEBACK: At 42, alum Victoria Nolan is returning to Paralympic competition p16

FRONT DOOR TO THE FUTURE: Our campus makes a difference in the regional economy p22

SPRING 2020

News

Insights

Research

Culture

Community

NATURE FOR ALL: UTSC opens its accessible path into the valley p26

KEYNOTE

A magazine for the alumni, friends and community of the University of Toronto Scarborough Spring 2020 Volume 10, Issue 1 Produced by Marketing & Communications 416-287-7089, utsccommons@utsc.utoronto.ca Editor Chris Garbutt Art Direction, Design & Production Hambly & Woolley Inc.

Perhaps you have enjoyed some of the stories yourselves. It has been gratifying to

see more videos about our research, our students, our staff, our alumni and our broader community amplified and made available to the campus community and to a diverse audience around the world. I myself had the pleasure of appearing in a video that features the creation of a special tea blend for the campus. It’s about more than tea, of course. It’s about bringing together our community. I look forward to sitting down to tea with a wide range of members of our community to talk and to listen as we continually evaluate the state of our campus and its future.

As our campus evolves, so will its communication vehicles, and this magazine is no exception. I am excited to share that University of Toronto Magazine, the publication sent to hundreds of thousands of alumni and friends of the university, will be changing to more fully reflect the tri-campus nature of our institution.

That means more U of T Scarborough content in our U of T magazine.

By enhancing and consolidating the tri-campus content into a single university-wide magazine, the UTSC stories we tell will reach an audience 10 times as large as before. That means that they will have a larger scale of recognition and they will touch a broader range of people.

When the magazine was introduced in 2011, the accomplishments of our campus community were not receiving the recognition they deserved. Our students, faculty, staff and alumni deserved more attention for the fascinating work that was being done on campus and beyond. UTSC Commons provided such a medium and has contributed to our growing reputation as a place of inclusivity and academic excellence.

Now, as we enrich and diversify our digital communication channels, and as we work in a more integrated way among the three campuses of the university, we have an opportunity to extend our reach and ensure that U of T Scarborough is recognized as an integral and essential part of Canada’s top-ranked university.

Our campus continues to grow and improve as we strive towards inclusive excellence in every part of what we do. That story, and the ways we tell that story, will continually evolve, but our commitment to inclusion, to academic excellence and to keeping in touch with you and all of our audiences will remain strong.

In view of the upcoming change, the issue of UTSC Commons you are holding will be the last. I hope that it will be a cherished possession.

Wisdom J. Tettey, PhD, FGA Vice-President, University of Toronto, Principal, University of Toronto Scarborough

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Editorial Advisory Group Pankaj Aggarwal Associate Professor, Department of Management Andrew Arifuzzaman Chief Administrative Officer Andrea Charise Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society Lisa Lemon Executive Director, Development & Alumni Relations William Gough Vice-Principal, Academic and Dean Joe Hermer Associate Professor, Department of Sociology David Jang Executive Director, Marketing and Communications Bernie Kraatz Vice-Principal, Research Alice Maurice Associate Professor, Department of English To contact us, email utsccommons@utsc.utoronto.ca or write us at UTSC Commons, Marketing & Communications, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4 All material is copyright © 2020 University of Toronto Scarborough and may be reprinted with written permission.

Alumni receive the magazine free of charge.

For information about how you can support University of Toronto Scarborough, please contact Development & Alumni Relations at 416-287-7115, advancement@utsc.utoronto.ca or at the postal address above.

Visit us online utsc.utoronto.ca Facebook UofTScarborough Instagram & Twitter @utsc The University of Toronto Scarborough respects your privacy. We do not rent, trade or sell our mailing lists. If you do not wish to receive the magazine, please contact us at 416-978-2139 or 1-800-463-6048 or address.update@utsc.utoronto.ca

CONTENTS

UTSC COMMONS

SPRING 2020

6 8 13 16 22 26

features

mosaic

GO WIDE, GO DEEP

WHAT IS ALLYSHIP?

by Donna Paris

CREATIVE RIGHTING

by Laurie Stephens

COMEBACK

by Alexandra Shimo

A FRONT DOOR TO THE FUTURE

How to be a better ally. p2 A NEW ANGLE ON THE CAUSES OF ALZHEIMER’S

Theranostics could be a route to diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s. p4 AN OLD CULPRIT FOR ARCTIC WARMING

Reducing ozone-depleting substances will help fight impacts of climate change. p5 TURN USED DEEP-FRYER OIL INTO RESIN

Your McDonald’s fries may also feed your 3D printer. p5

by John Lorinc

from the field

A NATURE TRAIL FOR EVERYONE

by Don Campbell

Filling the gaps in workplace discrimination research. p6

campus news Tamil community builds support. p28 New action plan for student mental health. p29

meeting place Alum develops a line of vegan handbags. p32

annotation Goodbye, UTSC Commons. p36 UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

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MOSAIC Ideas & Observations

In her first year at U of T Scarborough, a

new professor decided to incorporate Indigenous voices and perspectives in her curriculum.

She began by attending events hosted by Juanita Muise, Indigenous engagement co-ordinator in the Department of Student Life. The two have since teamed up beyond the classroom to bring a large reconciliation project to campus.

Muise says this new professor should be “a model for the rest of our community.” An ally, in Muise’s view, “is not just someone who shows support or advocates. It’s about taking action to make changes.”

Ally. The punchy four-letter word is seen on stickers, buttons and event 2

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titles — and it represents a lifelong commitment to overcoming the barriers between and around people. “‘Ally’ isn’t a label that you can really put on yourself,” says Natalie Elisha, equity, diversity and inclusion coordinator at U of T Scarborough. “It’s dependent on the group that you seek to be an ally to.”

Being an ally means empathizing with and supporting people of historically marginalized identities.

It’s a daily, across-the-board endeavour to combat discrimination and oppression at all levels, entered into by people who don’t share the same identity.

“It’s also part of an ongoing process of self-awareness and awareness

of how your actions and decisions impact groups you don’t belong to,” Elisha says.

A key part of allyship is understanding privilege, adds Tina Doyle, director of AccessAbility Services and special advisor to the dean of Student Affairs. Having privilege doesn’t mean someone’s life has been easy or perfect; it means that some aspect of their identity has let them benefit from a social system that holds others down.

“Once allies know what their privileges are, they’re in a better position to understand the impact they can have and how they can use their privilege,” Doyle says. “It’s difficult to challenge ableism and

Photo klarka0608

WHAT IS ALLYSHIP?

MOSAIC

other injustices if allies don’t have a basic understanding of how power and privilege can marginalize, and can perpetuate exclusion.”

As a close-knit campus in Toronto’s most diverse borough, U of T Scarborough is a powerful place to learn and develop goals toward allyship.

“A lot of our students are intersectional, they’re multi-dimensional,” says Nadia Rosemond, assistant dean of Student Affairs and Student Life.

“Their identities overlap over so many of these spectrums and spheres. I think that’s a beauty because it allows for allyship and brings people from those other spheres into the room.”

One of the most important things for prospective allies is to listen — and keep listening, Elisha says. Instances of allyship at U of T Scarborough have followed suit.

In 2015, the Vagina Monologues, a popular performance night, became the Monologues, to be more inclusive to those identifying along the LGBTQ spectrum. It was co-hosted by the Women’s and Trans Centre, which was originally called the Women’s Centre but changed its name in 2009 for the same reason.

Another popular event is the annual campuswide Rainbow Tie Gala, put on by the Positive Space Committee. This is a group of students, staff and faculty working to ensure that people feel safe on campus. The gala is hosted in the Meeting Place, one of the busiest areas of the school. This, says Rosemond, is strategic.

“Oftentimes people are scared to seem dumb, scared to be wrong,” she says. “So, when you have opportunities for people to learn in safe, positive, inclusive ways, it allows them to unlearn whatever they’ve been taught and to be vulnerable.”

Doyle sees instances of allyship at U of T Scarborough “every day.” She sees it in faculty members who recognize that accessibility in a learning environment impacts students. And she often sees students, staff and faculty asking questions to make sure that events, language and the campus itself are accessible. “I see it when an ally uses their voice to address an inequity.”

Muise says academics tend to exist in silos, divided by departments. She says allyship is a greater goal, a common goal that unites the community. This comes from a shift in mindset that she’s working to support — to thinking of each event or action as an opportunity for collaboration, across disciplines, identities and other barriers.

“If we work together, we’re stronger, and we have more of an impact, especially on the student body,” she says. “It’s like a flower in the office. If you don’t nurture it, it’s not going to grow.”

take home

BEING A BETTER ALLY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEARNING “If you belong to a historically oppressed or marginalized group, it can be very draining and difficult to continually speak about your own marginalization,” Elisha says. She adds that a good ally makes every effort to inform themselves of where their privilege lies and how they can better support marginalized communities.

RESEARCH – AND RESEARCH WELL

Rosemond recommends searching online for reputable organizations that support communities you seek to be an ally to. Their websites provide information and often include links to other resources. Also, she says, follow up on sites or articles you’ve seen referenced at an event or training session, or visit various centres on campus for more information.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

What should you say to someone when you want to be their ally?

Doyle says, “I think the key question is, ‘How can I support you? Where do you think I can make a difference for you?’ We cannot, and should not, expect our equity-deserving members to ask to be included, this should be a given.”

BE OPEN TO RELEARNING

What Rosemond likes about post-secondary institutions is that different students come together, “but oftentimes we’re coming from the way we were raised.

“You meet all these different people that challenge what you thought and believed and assumed,” she says.

“It kind of dismantles the belief, and the unlearning process happens. People end up being more open-minded.”

ENGAGE

While going to events is a great way to learn more about a group you seek to be an ally to, Muise says allyship is more than simple attendance.

“I think allyship is really not just showing up to an event, it’s actually taking action, educating yourself and building relationships with people so you’re better informed on how you can make a difference.”

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SCIENTIST TAKES A NEW ANGLE ON THE CAUSES OF ALZHEIMER’S Alzheimer’s disease is — on top of everything else — expensive. Each year

it costs the Canadian economy an estimated $15 billion, according to a study by the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

And this figure is expected to grow more than tenfold, reaching $153 billion annually by the year 2038. That’s bigger than Canada’s mining, defense and fishing industries combined.

And the cause of this tragic and costly disease has remained elusive.

Until recently, the main theory was that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by the presence of amyloid plaques throughout the brain. These are large, hard clumps of excess protein, which coagulate between nerve cells in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, disrupting the neurons’ ability to communicate. Several drugs that target amyloid plaques are now in clinical trial, including Merck’s Verubecestat and Eli Lilly’s Solanezumab. But evidence for their efficacy has been mixed.

Other avenues are being explored.

It was in 2005 that Kagan Kerman, an analytical chemistry professor at U of T Scarborough, began to look at 4

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amyloid-beta oligomers. These are smaller molecules that occur naturally in neurons. Kerman was one of an emerging group of scientists who believed that the amyloid plaques, and other changes in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, might be caused by the oligomers.

For Kerman, who holds a Canada Research Chair in bioelectrochemistry, the research eventually became personal. In 2015, his father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease; he died earlier this year. “He didn’t recognize anybody during my visits in the last three years,” Kerman says. “He would start to cry or get angry with us for no reason. Those were difficult days.”

As more studies emerged showing oligomers as biomarkers of the disease, the question became what to do about these toxic molecules.

Theranostics, an emerging branch of medicine that combines diagnostics with treatment, may play a crucial role.

In theranostics, the theory is that a single drug or medical device can diagnose an illness and treat it simultaneously. So far, it is most commonly

used in oncology and is showing great promise in the treatment of prostate, pancreatic, neuroendocrine and breast cancers.

With neuroendocrine cancer, for example, the patient is injected with two different radionuclides. One of them, an isotope of gallium, binds to the cancer cells. The other, a lutetium isotope (the radionuclide responsible for cellular death) binds to the gallium isotope and releases radioactivity, so healthy cells are not affected.

Applying the same principle to Alzheimer’s disease, the question has become: is there is a way to measure the level of oligomers in the brain and simultaneously neutralize their toxicity? Kerman realized he needed a molecule that would bind to the oligomers, and a system that could identify when this was happening and trigger the drug release — at the correct dosage.

Given that these processes would have to happen within the brain’s tissue, everything must be extremely small. Nanomaterials have provided possibilities for these biosensors, Kerman says.

Koji Sode, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina, has collaborated with Kerman on his biosensor research.

“With theranostics,” Sode says, “the advantage is that with one medical device you can diagnose, stage and treat the disease.”

As work progresses in this dynamic field, a growing number of researchers in Canada and worldwide, in the U.K., Italy and Japan, for example, are collaborating with Kerman or using his research.

Kerman knows all too well the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on a patient’s memory and personality.

His hunt for a cure for this neurodegenerative disorder, which has devastated millions, hits close to home. “In my family, we’re still grieving the loss of my father,” he says.

“I’m going to dedicate our upcoming manuscript about Alzheimer’s disease to him in loving memory.”

Photo by Ken Jones

breakthrough thinking

MOSAIC

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH TURNS USED DEEP-FRYER OIL INTO 3D PRINTING RESIN

Photos by Don Campbell

AN OLD CULPRIT FOR ARCTIC WARMING

Ozone-depleting substances (ODS) may account for nearly half of Arctic warming over a 50-year period.

Karen Smith is a professor in U of T Scarborough’s Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences. “ODS have been an under-appreciated contributor to climate change,” she says.

Found in refrigerants, solvents and propellants throughout most of the 20th century, ODS are compounds that have eaten away at the ozone layer, creating a massive hole. They’ve largely gone unrecognized as a culprit in Arctic warming.

With colleagues at Columbia University, Smith ran two simulations to estimate the amount of warming linked to ODS from 1955 to 2005.

The first simulation measured natural and human emissions including ODS; the second was without ODS. The results showed that ODS ranked second only to carbon dioxide for their role in Arctic warming.

The Montreal Protocol officially banned the use of ODS in 1987, effectively reducing emissions. Smith says this may be a good news story for climate change.

“ODS emissions have been dramatically reduced and their atmospheric concentrations are decreasing,” she says.

“The phasing out of these chemicals will help mitigate future Arctic warming and sea ice loss.”

U of T Scarborough researchers have found a way to recycle used cooking oil — turning it into 3D printing resin that’s both valuable and biodegradable.

“Because we’re using a natural product — in this case, fats from cooking oil — nature can deal with it much better,” says Andre Simpson, director of the Environmental NMR Centre at U of T Scarborough.

He and his team have taken waste oil from a Scarborough McDonald’s and converted it using a simple one-step

chemical process. They were able to print a high-resolution butterfly, capturing details down to 100 micrometres.

Simpson says the recycling of waste cooking oil could alleviate some financial issues around its disposal by creating a high-value product. And the biodegradability is impressive. The team buried the 3D butterfly in soil. Within two weeks, it lost 20 per cent of its weight.

“It’s something that microbes actually like to eat,” Simpson says. “They do a good job at breaking it down.”

Rajshree Ghosh Biswas is a PhD student in Professor Andre Simpson’s lab where used McDonald’s cooking oil was converted into a high-resolution 3D printing resin.

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FILL ING THE WORK PLACE DIS CRIMI NATION A UTSC professor helps us better understand the causes of workplace racial harassment and discrimination

by Tina Adamopoulos

6

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RE

FROM THE FIELD

W

GAPS IN

SEARCH

hile studying the causes and effects of workplace discrimination, U of T Scarborough’s Phani Radhakrishnan

noticed a gap in the current research.

“It examines pay equity and advancement, but that is the end state. Discrimination can start with workplace harassment,” says Radhakrishnan, an associate professor in the Department of Management and expert on racial discrimination in the workplace.

Radhakrishnan integrates research in sociology and psychology in the Socialization-Stressor Model, which outlines how societies socialize their members to internalize negative stereotypes and attitudes they then carry into organizations.

When those members are decision-makers, stereotypes and negative attitudes are reflected in employee treatment, and this is how employees are harassed and excluded. This can lead to poor performance, slower career progression and lower pay.

“One of the things we wanted to emphasize in the model is that companies are not unbiased systems,” Radhakrishnan says. “They carry the biases of their leaders.”

While racial harassment includes teasing or making comments, employees interviewed also reported not being notified about career-advancing opportunities or being excluded from important work-related conversations.

Those subtle actions are not always noticed right away, but add up over time, decreasing the victim’s ability to do their job effectively and to advance. This leads to increased stress, lowered job satisfaction and withdrawal — all resulting in companies losing their talent.

“When you work in a company, you’re often in a team environment that’s a fundamental feature. If you are excluded and information is not shared with you then that is the start of discriminatory behaviours. But that is where a solution to prevent it could be,” says Radhakrishnan.

She explains that sharing information and keeping track of who is being included with career progression plans is a vital — and responsible — step in committing to inclusion at all levels in the organization.

At UTSC, she teaches courses that equip students with the knowledge to identify workplace discrimination, but also encourages them to speak up when they see others being denied opportunities and to “feel empowered to do so.”

Introductory courses like Managing People and Groups in Organizations discuss the nature of harassment and discriminatory behaviours in work groups, and advanced courses like Compensation, teach students how to assess pay inequity in a company.

“I try to help students become more aware of what discrimination is and how to detect it, but also how to speak up when they see it happening.”

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CASTING A WIDER NET

The future of innovation means casting a wider net — bringing disciplines together to explore the big questions

by Donna Paris

E

ducation and research are evolving, and we’ve come to realize how important it is to hear not just from one voice but from many. At the forefront on campus: the Interdisciplinary Centre for Health & Society (ICHS). Health is one of many fields where looking at issues from different perspectives can help you better understand them and come up with novel and creative solutions.

This kind of thinking is the cornerstone of the ICHS. It’s about offering students something to really think about by crossing boundaries, so they are better able to understand the issues, almost like looking at them through a wide-angle lens. “The strength of the ICHS is its interdisciplinarity,” says Len Tsuji, a professor at the centre. “To make a difference in health, you need multiple perspectives.”

And to do that, you have to start by asking the right questions. “We want to have as many voices as we can around the table, not simply because it reflects well on our commitment to inclusive excellence, but because such inclusion meaningfully changes the conversation,” says Jessica Fields, a health studies and sociology professor and director of the ICHS. “That’s our practice of inclusion: we make sure that there are multiple voices, multiple perspectives and

multiple identity groups represented in the course materials that we offer and the research we pursue.”

Fields adds that by including a wide range of disciplines, the research can cover an issue from different angles. She uses disability as a case in point. “When considering disabilities, for example, ICHS thinks about it through the lens of anthropology — how do ideas of disability travel and shift across cultural contexts?” she says. “We use literary analysis to identify and think about narratives of disability, and ICHS also has people thinking about the implications of disability for motherhood: When women with disabilities become mothers, what are the consequences for them, their children and their communities?”

Fields’s own research focuses on racialized and gendered discourses of vulnerability and risk. In studies of high school and middle school classrooms and jail-based HIV education, she explores the ways in which conversations can teach us about the relationships, identities and desires that people pursue. She also leads the Beyond Bullying project, a community-based storytelling project that challenges perceptions of LGBTQ sexualities and youth as problems, and considers what is needed to open up to the uncertainty, discomfort and pleasure of learning from and about LGBTQ sexuality and lives.

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“It’s important to train the kinds of health professionals that we want in the future,” says Andrea Charise, a professor at the centre. Charise, who started Canada’s first undergraduate minor in Health Humanities at U of T Scarborough, has also had a productive career as a medical researcher. This interdisciplinary background has shaped her interest in the relationship between the humanities, health and medicine.

“We want health professionals who are able to understand the big trends,” she says, “to understand the evidence-based medicine, the public health data and how

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health data tends to manifest across populations.” But, she adds, “we also want healthcare professionals who are able to understand the particularities of individual lives and cases, and how that can vary significantly from the health knowledge gleaned by big data.”

Because of this unconventional approach to health education, Charise is prepared for uncertainty or even skepticism from students. “I understand that because I myself was trained in a very typical pre-med undergraduate training,” she says. She’s well-versed in biology, chemistry, physics and organic chemistry, and now she’s at the front of the room talking about a different approach to health and illness — through an arts and humanities lens. Key point: this doesn’t mean cultivating hostility toward science. Charise jokes with students that if you’re having a heart attack you can recite as much poetry as you like or look at as much lovely digital art as you want. You will still need a doctor. “But here we are future-proofing our students to deal with the real-life complexity of health work and giving them living proof of the value of the arts and humanities,” she adds.

CASTING A WIDER R NET

Similarly, Cassandra Hartblay, a professor of anthropology at the centre, looks at disability as a category — a sort of cross-section — in ways that don’t align specifically with diagnosis. For example, some of the people in her studies have physical mobility issues, others have cognitive disabilities. “It’s quite mixed and based on the sort of life circumstances that bring people together,” she says. These circumstances include education, non-profit social services and municipally provided social services.

Right now she’s working on a research project based in Russia, looking at the category of disability itself and how to understand it in different global settings. “When I do field work, I don’t limit it based on a diagnostic type [disease] but rather I’m interested in how people with disabilities themselves form communities,” says Hartblay.

It’s less about a particular medical issue and more about exploring how social and political conditions affect people in their daily lives.

Hartblay has written a play based on transcripts of interviews with some of her research participants (I Was Never Alone or Oporniki: An Ethnographic Play on Disability in Russia, U of T Press, 2020); it’s been performed as documentary theatre. “So the work becomes a way of sharing the research with the public,” she says.

“But it’s also an interesting way for me as a researcher to open up the research process.”

Hartblay’s angle is totally different from that of Hilary Brown, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the centre. Brown’s current research also focuses on the experiences of women with disabilities, but on a specific health issue: women with disabilities and prenatal healthcare, measured at the population level in health administrative data. Brown’s research, along with Hartblay’s, shows two different modalities that are working, and that can really speak to each other in terms of representing how people with disabilities experience discrimination in social life and in healthcare.

Having access to all of these approaches gives students a tremendous leg up. And, at the ICHS, even a single professor can bring various perspectives. For instance, Obidimma Ezezika teaches science-based courses, such as Infectious Diseases; policy-based courses, such as Food Security and Food Sovereignty; and courses that are interdisciplinary in nature, such as Global Health and Human Biology, which are more relevant than ever with the focus on global health

today. And students get the benefit of research contributions, as well. Ezezika, for example, has published a global health textbook, created the Health & Innovation Lab and even developed interactive educational board games.

On its website, the ICHS bills itself as home to Canada’s new generation of health change-makers. “We do take that seriously,” says Maureen Murney, a lecturer at the centre. Murney, who holds a PhD in social-cultural anthropology, has focused her research in particular on gendered issues related to mental health and substance use.

“Each of the faculty members is doing something quite different, and all are doing work that is very timely,” she adds. Murney likes to bring a holistic approach into the classroom. “I try and stimulate dialogue, encouraging the students to read across disciplines, to critically evaluate research, and to really challenge ethnocentric, gendered and other assumptions,” she adds.

Think about it this way: “If any single discipline or way of practising was going to solve our problems, they wouldn’t be around still,” says Suzanne Sicchia, an associate professor, teaching stream, at the centre. “I think it’s going to take a much more interdisciplinary approach to address the world’s health problems.”

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Sicchia credits the students themselves for the great work that is happening at the ICHS. “The students are really bringing it to life. They are doing majors in all sorts of things, so the wisdom they bring to the program from their other programs is wonderful. It enriches the classroom.” And the students benefit too. “Literally, students can go from one professor referencing Frida Kahlo to another speaking about biology or environmental science.

It’s really incredible, they’re learning to think deeply and critically across disciplines.”

This year, Sicchia is working with professors Leslie Chan and Bettina von Lieres at the Centre for Critical Development Studies to partner with the TAIBU Community Health Centre in the Malvern neighbourhood. “The health centre’s mandate is to improve black health, and our research project is helping them to develop indicators that reflect their Afrocentric model of care,” she says. In addition to this research, she has designed a course with TAIBU on violence and health, a D-level seminar that looks at structural conditions like racism and poverty that put people at risk and create unjust inequities in health.

Sicchia describes the partnership with TAIBU as “spectacular” and as one that makes sense because of the approach the ICHS is taking in interdisciplinary education. “Ultimately, to tackle the world’s biggest health challenges, we will need innovative future leaders — and I believe ICHS can help do that,” says Sicchia.

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CREATIVE RIGHTING English department prioritizes inclusion in all its programs

by Laurie Stephens

F

orty-five-year-old Eva Wissting came to Canada from Sweden two-and-a-half years ago to get an English

Specialist degree at U of T Scarborough with a minor in creative writing. She chose the program because it opened opportunities for her to explore different ways to express herself.

Wissting’s first course in the creative writing stream was non-fiction writing — the only one she could fit into her schedule.

“When I signed up for it, I wasn’t particularly interested in non-fiction, but I wanted to do at least one creative writing course,” she recalls. “And I loved it.

That really opened a lot of doors for me, mentally, in terms of what I could do with my writing.”

In some courses since, she has taken advantage of the option to forego the traditional final essay and do extra creative work instead.

Some profs have offered purely practical instruction on how to develop a career in writing — instruction Wissting values. “That’s been special for me,” she says.

“I would have had no idea how to do that.” She plans to pursue advanced degrees in literary studies. “I think, for me, the minor in creative writing — it’s not just about the writing, it’s also about how to have a career.”

Wissting’s experience is just one illustration of how the Department of English is advancing the goal of

“inclusive excellence,” introduced by the campus’s Principal, Wisdom Tettey.

Department Chair Katie Larson — a professor of English and a Rhodes Scholar with post-graduate degrees in 16th- and 17th-century English literature and women’s and gender studies — says inclusive excellence has been a key part of Tettey’s vision for U of T Scarborough since he began his term as principal in July 2018.

She quotes Tettey’s articulation of the term: “academic excellence in research and teaching while showcasing and prioritizing U of T Scarborough’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity.” She says it dovetails nicely with her priorities and practices as chair of English.

“In terms of the kind of departmental environment we’re trying to create for students, staff and faculty, it’s always with an eye towards ensuring equity and inclusion at the level of gender, sexual identity, racial identity, ability or disability, socio-economic background, life stage, privilege and all forms of diversity.”

From an academic perspective, this means ensuring that students and faculty experience the department as a supportive and inclusive space, accommodating different learning styles while ensuring that the curriculum reflects the diversity of U of T Scarborough.

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“We live in a very diverse world.

We have a very diverse campus community, and it’s very important that students see their experiences and their stories reflected in the materials that are being taught.”

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“We live in a very diverse world. We have a very diverse campus community, and it’s very important that students see their experiences and their stories reflected in the materials that are being taught,” says Larson, who is now in her 13th year at U of T Scarborough. “And that is transforming institutions in very powerful ways.”

Larson adds that the English department plans to launch a major in creative writing this fall. She cites the growth of creative writing courses in the program as an example of how creative approaches to assignment design and different kinds of writing support inclusivity.

She says one unique aspect of the program is how creative writing and the study and analyses of visual, written and oral texts all have a rich relationship with one another.

Whether a student is in a literature course, a creative writing course or a film course, these curriculum elements are woven through the English program and inform the department about how it thinks about inclusivity.

“These are courses that require students to think very empathetically about different points of view and about experiences very different from their own,” she says.

“Fundamentally, the kind of work we do in the department fosters a lens of inclusivity as a part of what the faculty are bringing and the academic training we’re providing to students.”

The creative writing program in the department is led

by Daniel Tysdal, associate professor of English, Teaching Stream, who joined U of T Scarborough 11 years ago.

An award-winning poet and filmmaker, Tysdal hails from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He discovered his “obsession” with writing poetry at age 15, when he woke up with a phrase in his head and wrote it down in the first of many notebooks he would fill with his poems over the years.

For Tysdal, poetry started as “a safe space, a space of imagination, a space of exploration.”

The department’s first full-time faculty member with a creative writing career, he taught the sole creative writing course when he was first hired. The popularity of his classes, and students’ desire for more, led to an expansion of creative writing in the curriculum. The current minor program has three full-time faculty. The department hopes to soon announce the outcome of a faculty search in Creative Writing, Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions, in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action.

With the department’s intention to establish a major in creative writing in the fall of 2020, Tysdal says he has three goals.

The first is to help students become better writers by teaching them how to write poetry, fiction, film scripts, non-fiction and journalism.

The second is to explore the more professional side of writing by learning how to get published, or how to find other jobs that can help sustain your writing career.

CREATIVE RIGHTING

The third goal is to teach students about the value of becoming part of a writing community. As an example of community, he points to three recent graduates: poet Adrian De Leon and fiction writers Natasha Ramoutar and Téa Mutonji. All three have experienced their own publishing success — and they embody inclusive excellence through their ongoing connections to the U of T Scarborough program and students.

“Instead of thinking, ‘How can I get more success for myself?’, they approached a publisher to do an anthology of Scarborough writing,” says Tysdal. “So, their first action in getting some success was, ‘How do I get other Scarborough writers with me?’”

In his classes, Tysdal encourages students to move out of their comfort zones when studying a piece of creative work, such as a collection of poems, and to think beyond the typical analytic essay. He wants them to ask themselves, “Where do these poems take you as a writer? What do you now bring to this as a writer?”

Just as important is the writing community created within Tysdal’s classes, where 20 writers can come together in a workshop and feel safe, sharing the most intimate, personal and meaningful parts of themselves.

The workshop format is a standard learning framework for creative writing. But Katie Larson notes that it may be a new experience for students coming out of high school, and it can be helpful in their adjustment to university.

“Many students come into university feeling quite isolated and quite overwhelmed, feeling like there is not necessarily a clear place for them in that environment,” she says. “Being in a workshop-style classroom where students are from the get-go learning from each other, in dialogue with each other, and sharing their work, is transformative. Certainly, it fosters growth as a writer, but other skills as well.”

Sarah Hilton, a fourth-year English Specialist student from Scarborough, says she and other students have found the emphasis on inclusive excellence in the department’s curriculum very helpful and welcoming.

For Hilton, who plans to graduate in June, the impact hit home in second year when she took a course on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. She had the choice of writing an essay or a piece of fan fiction as her final assignment. And she chose the fan fiction.

“I thought that was really strange, but then I actually did the assignment and it really does ask the student to engage with the text in a way that you wouldn’t really think of if you were doing an essay,” she says. “Some students aren’t necessarily good at putting things down in an essay and organizing them in that way; sometimes their strength comes through creatively.

“If professors provide a creative alternative, that just gives more option and opportunities for students to excel.”

Hilton, 21, first explored her creative side through fiction writing, but has since become passionate about poetry. Her work will soon be featured in feel ways: a Scarborough Anthology writers started by graduates De Leon, Ramoutar and Mutonji.

Hilton says the opportunity to explore different ways of academic expression in her courses has sparked her desire to pursue creative writing as a career, even knowing it won’t necessarily pay the bills. So she is looking at applying to the Masters of Information program at U of T’s iSchool, while also making time for her writing.

“If writing is a passion of mine, I want to do it along with what I’m doing in my day job,” she says. “I want to keep that mindset that even if I don’t get my work published, even if I get countless rejection letters, I’m still writing for myself because poetry is so important to me.” e.”

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by Alexandra Shimo

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COME Photography by

Athlete, teacher, parent, author, TV host Victoria Nolan is returning to the national Paralympic rowing team at 45

Photography by

BACK

ate last year, Victoria Nolan n surprised prised everyone by announcing her er return to Paralympicc rowing. The mother other of two, television n host, author, world champion and three-time Paralympian, blind, ralympian, who is blind d, is used to confounding ounding people’s expectations.

“I think it’s kind of a miracle that e’s competing against she’s 45 and she’s people half herr age and beating people lee for spots on thee team,” says husband Eamonn Nolan. n. an wasn’t always a Victoria Nolan rower — or always ways blind. She was netic condition called born with a genetic retinitis pigmentosa. entosa. But for most of her childhood she could see well, or aatt least well enough ugh that neither she nor her parents knew anything was wrong.

Inspired by her warm and caring Grade 2 teacher, Catherine Gillespie, who “handed out cool stickers,” Nolan decided to become a teacher.

Her first vision loss occurred at age 10, at a school play, when she noticed it was difficult to see in the dark. At 18, she received the retinitis pigmentosa diagnosis, but was determined not to let it hold her back.

Nolan attended U of T Scarborough — her first choice because of its reputation in cognitive science.

Students explore linguistics, human biology, philosophy, computer science and psychology in this multidisciplinary program to learn how the human mind represents and processes information. Nolan went on to earn her master’s degree in education at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Child Study.

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“The cognitive science program was considered an advantage in becoming a primary school teacher,” she says. “It was a really well-rounded program.”

With each passing year, Nolan’s vision slowly deteriorated. By the time she graduated, it was hard to take public transit or navigate in a crowded place. But that didn’t stop Nolan from starting a teaching career; she taught Grade 2 and special education.

It wasn’t easy, but she developed coping skills. For example, when teaching her students to write, she would ask them to read the punctuation aloud too. When reading aloud to the class, she used a video magnifier to enlarge the text. When teaching gym, she focused on individual drills, which were easier to monitor than group activities.

VICTORIA

L

COMEBACK

Photography courtesy of Rowing Canada

NOLAN

Retinitis pigmentosa actually refers to a group of rare genetic disorders that cause degeneration of the lightsensitive tissue lining the retina at the back of the eye. Like many genetic disorders, these can be impacted by pregnancy. Nolan had always wanted kids, so she and her husband discussed it and decided to go ahead.

“I knew I would be a great mom, and I knew Eamonn would be a great dad,” she says. “If my vision worsened, then it was what was meant to happen. Eventually I was going to lose my sight completely anyway.”

With her first child, Tarabh, Nolan’s vision deteriorated to less than five per cent of normal sight.

Two years later, with her daughter Ceili’s birth in 2005, it worsened still more. Legal blindness is officially determined when a person has only 10 per cent of 20/20 vision, and Nolan was down to less than three per cent.

Only vague shapes in her direct sight line were visible, and they were extremely blurry.

The additional vision loss made it harder to get around. It took her a long time to read a single sentence.

Teaching was proving impossible without further accommodations and Nolan advocated for several supports.

But her school wouldn’t agree to her terms, she says, and it proved

exhausting. “I kind of expected people in the field of education to be really open-minded and supportive. So it was a real punch in the stomach.”

Unable to work, she became a full-time caregiver to her baby and three-year-old. Hardly able to see at all, she would panic if they moved out of her narrow line of sight. She suffered frequent cuts and bruises, falling down stairs and banging into furniture. Afraid to go shopping or to the park, she didn’t want to leave the house. She became isolated and lonely. “I had these plans of being an amazing educator who would achieve all these great things, and there wasn’t that to look forward to anymore. I felt like a failure, that it was hopeless. I fell into a depression.”

“It was a really bleak time,” says her husband. “She hit a kind of emotional rock bottom.”

In theory, the blind are protected by several laws. The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on any form of disability, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees those with disabilities equal benefits and protection under the law. In 1970, Ontario was the first province to pass a law guaranteeing blind persons the legal right to be accompanied by a guide dog in all public places.

(It also prohibits any fees for the dog’s presence.)

A common perception is that workplaces, businesses and services can’t possibly comply with the laws because it would be too expensive. The facts don’t bear this out, Nolan says. In the U.S., the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities has concluded that 15 per cent of accommodations for disabled workers cost nothing, and more than half (51 per cent) of the rest cost less than $500 ($650 CAD).

Many accommodations are simple and easy to implement. For example, a stairwell can be made safer for the legally blind and partially sighted by adding coloured tape to the tread’s edges to prevent tripping. But most places in Ontario and the rest of Canada have yet to do this.

“Blindness is less about the physical realities and more about the emotional isolation and alienation that come from being disconnected from the world around you,” Eamonn Nolan explains.

The difference between what is legal and how life for a blind person is lived is stark, says Diane Bergeron, vice president of engagement and international affairs with the CNIB Foundation (formerly the Canadian National Institute for the Blind). She says most people aren’t aware of the laws that prohibit discrimination against the blind and often can’t put themselves in a blind person’s shoes.

“People often don’t understand the

actual function of a guide dog. They believe it’s only a pet, and as blind people, that we’re trying to get our pets into a place they’re not allowed.”

Rowing is one place — and one of the few sports — where blindness might just have its advantages. To row well, one must tune in to the body’s other senses. The right rhythm is found by listening to the blades as they pierce the water; feeling the flow of water underneath the boat’s hull; and sensing the momentum of one’s teammates. Sight can be a distraction, drawing your attention to the wrong things, such as your competitors or the finish line. During practice, many competitive teams use blindfolding to sharpen the trust in one’s body and non-visual senses. This popular exercise is called the eyes-closed rowing drill.

“We train really hard,” says Meghan Montgomery, a former teammate of Nolan’s. In 2010, they were together on the team that won

“Blindness is less a physical realities about the emotion and alienation tha from being discon the world around y

COMEBACK

gold at the World Championships in New Zealand. Montgomery, who now works as a teacher in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia, says rowing requires extreme cardiovascular fitness and also incredible strength.

“People often liken it to crosscountry skiing or cycling, but it’s more intense than that because it uses the whole body. With Vicky, she’s strong in the weight room. She works hard on her cardiovascular; she’s always pushing herself. And those are the things you need to do to be successful in rowing.”

Nolan has always been athletic.

Before becoming completely blind, she ran long distance. She also tried volleyball and salsa dancing, but her vision loss made these more difficult; she would misjudge distance or trip.

She was always strong and disciplined. When she started to train and compete as a rower at age 31, scouts at Team Canada took notice of her race times and natural ability.

about the s and more nal isolation at comes nnected from you.”

“Once I got onto the water,” she says, “the feeling of being able to move fast without worrying about tripping or bumping into anything was like freedom.”

Rowing has given Nolan purpose, but discrimination remains a big part of her life. Her guide dog, Alan, allows her to get around safely. But, accompanied by Alan, she has been refused service countless times by taxi and Uber drivers, hotels, hospitals and medical clinics. In 2008, she sued four hotels in Miami for refusing lodging to her and the dog during a training trip with the Canadian national team. When she won, she donated the money to the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation.

If you google Victoria Nolan, you’ll find countless articles about her speaking out against incidents of discrimination. Once she and her guide dog were refused entry to a radio station. She was there to be interviewed for a story about what it’s like to be refused service because of a guide dog. “We need more education and awareness,” Nolan says. “And for people to realize we’re just normal people. You don’t need to be afraid, right? Like, it doesn’t have to be a big scary thing.”

Diane Bergeron has known Nolan for seven years and has watched her become highly skilled at using her platform effectively. “She works with the media to try and get the word out about the importance of guide dogs and the abilities of people who have had sight loss,” Bergeron says. “Her experiences and the fact that she’s a Paralympic rower demonstrate that a blind person can do sometimes a little bit more than what a lot of sighted people can do.”

Nolan’s platform and advocacy have grown with her World Championship and Paralympic wins. She was part of the first Canadian Paralympic rowing team. She competed at the Beijing, London and Rio Paralympic Games, where she won a bronze medal. At World Championship level, she has won two bronzes, a silver and a gold

medal. In 2010, she was part of the team that broke a world record.

Her experiences as a top athlete are recorded in her memoir, Beyond Vision: The Story of a Blind Rower, published in 2014.

Today, at the CNIB Foundation, Nolan works to help people navigate the legal process when they face any form of discrimination. She gives keynotes on these issues to government organizations, schools, banks and other companies. On her weekly television show, AMI This Week, on Accessible Media, she talks about how to live a successful life as a blind person and move beyond what others think of you.

Although Nolan officially retired from rowing in 2016, she has decided to return to help the team qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. She believes her experiences of competing and winning at an international level will give depth and strength to the team and help develop the next generation of Canadian rowers.

“I’ve learned to face my disability and refuse to let it dictate how I’m going to live my life. Every time you overcome something that you’re afraid of, it makes you a little bit stronger.

And that gives me strength.”

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A FRONT DOOR TO THE FUTURE How a university campus can boost the economy of the eastern GTA

Photography by

by John Lorinc illustration by Dalbert Vilarino

n February, U of T Scarborough issued a request for proposals on what university officials say will be one of Canada’s most ambitious environmental building projects. A student residence with 747 units will be designed according to “passive house” principles — a German design standard that features thick, insulated walls, triple-glazed windows and various energy-recovery systems. To be completed in about three years, it is expected to use about 90 per cent less energy than a comparable structure.

The residence is just one of 14 building projects in a master plan that will physically transform U of T Scarborough over the next decade, especially north of Ellesmere Road.

With a combined capital investment of $979 million, the plan is projected to generate an estimated 2,000 new jobs at U of T Scarborough and in the vicinity, as well as millions in tax revenues. It also aims to position the campus as the focal point of an economic development cluster in the eastern GTA, to be dubbed EaRTH District and modelled on the MaRS Discovery District downtown.

The goal, says U of T Scarborough Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Arifuzzaman, is to position a partnership between the campus and Centennial College as a “catalyst for a cross-sector collaboration” that will attract students, entrepreneurs and innovation-driven firms in sectors such as cleantech, advanced manufacturing and next-gen agriculture. The stakes are huge, extending well beyond the campus. “What role can a major institution play in revitalizing an economy?” he asks.

“That’s the big mega-question.”

I

According to a 2019 assessment of the potential social and economic impact of the EaRTH District, a focused strategy could generate a cumulative $6.6 billion in output from post-secondary institutions, research and industrial activity between 2025 and 2040, as well as 3,400 direct jobs (by 2040) and over 2,000 students enrolled in cleantechrelated disciplines between U of T Scarborough and Centennial.

The opportunity, university officials say, is linked directly to prevailing commercial and industrial conditions in eastern Scarborough and Durham Region. Over the past several years, manufacturing has abandoned this corner of the GTA; the shuttering of General Motors’ Oshawa assembly plant is the latest and most visible example. Education levels in the area are high, but Scarborough is estimated to have 75 per cent fewer businesses than the rest of the city on a per capita basis. Today, only two per cent of the city’s manufacturing firms are located here.

This leaves the area with an abundance of serviced but fallow industrial land, as well as port, rail, regional transit and highway access, and also with inexpensive housing — at least in comparison to the rest of the city. “It has great potential for stimulating green tech and innovation,” says Jennifer McKelvie, city councillor for Scarborough-Rouge Park, and a U of T Scarborough environmental studies graduate.

Another economic development study, conducted in 2018 by N. Barry Lyon Consultants (NBLC) and commissioned by U of T Scarborough, pointed out that the campus master UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

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Inter-institutional collaborations, in turn, will produce new synergies.

A partnership between Centennial College and U of T Scarborough, initially proposed about two years ago, represents a concerted effort to create a flow of graduates with a wide range of technical and research skills in fields such as agriculture, clean building technology, robotics and environmental science. “Now you have the pipeline,” observes Andrew Petrou, Centennial’s director of strategic initiatives and external relations.

Research and innovation spaces on campus — the 2015 Environmental Science and Chemistry Building, as well as a pair of proposed new buildings for cleantech training, research and innovation — will provide state-of-the-art venues for students, academics and startups gravitating to these fields.

The next phase, now in the planning stage, is the development of an advanced agriculture hub, which will focus on the design and construction of what’s known as a “vertical farm.”

Petrou notes that when the request for proposals for this project was made

public earlier this year, the documents were almost immediately downloaded by dozens of prospective partners.

The project dovetails with culinary arts programs at both U of T Scarborough and Centennial, but that’s just the start. Arifuzzaman says the vertical farm will attract investors and entrepreneurs who are looking to test new growing technologies with smaller physical and carbon footprints — increasingly important in future decades for sustainable food production. “The idea is to create and refine agricultural technologies that can be used around the world.” He predicts that the vertical farm will become a “living lab” as it takes shape over the next five to six years.

Another element of the EaRTH District economic development strategy is for U of T Scarborough and Centennial to partner with builders and construction-materials firms to attract companies interested in manufacturing modular building components. With the GTA housing and condo market showing no signs of slowing, Arifuzzaman says interest is growing in the use of less expensive

Photography by

plan can accommodate retail and commercial uses, as well as a conference centre and hotel. NBLC President Mark Conway says the plan to add facilities for startups coupled with a stream of graduates from disciplines such as environmental sciences will position U of T Scarborough as a magnet for new investment in this extended area. “Every university worth its salt has some kind of innovation campus attached to it.”

The planned development of the campus is a necessary piece of the EaRTH District economic development cluster. But on its own it isn’t sufficient. Conway and others point out that improved rapid transit access to the campus is critical. It will allow U of T Scarborough and adjacent facilities for startups to be better integrated to the rest of the region.

“Public investment at this scale would make the argument for private investment more compelling, assuring the development of a vibrant community hub in Scarborough,” NBLC’s report notes. Such infrastructure would also alter land economics, Conway adds.

“That’s the most important element.”

Photography by

A FRONT DOOR TO THE FUTURE

prefabricated components, such as wall assemblies. (These can reduce construction times, improve energy efficiency and create cleaner building sites.)

While long-term growth projections from the economic development studies are impressive, the EaRTH District plan clearly turns on the ability of local and regional governments to attract investors to locate in the area. “It’s not just for academics,” says Andrew Petrou. “It’s for the community.” Indeed, municipal economic development officials in Scarborough and Durham are gearing up to work with the two post-secondary institutions. The goal: to bring cleantech, agriculture and advanced manufacturing businesses to the region, creating a cluster of businesses with ties to both post-secondary institutions.

The 2019 report, which was commissioned jointly by U of T Scarborough and Centennial, says the EaRTH District “will help to address the skills gap that exists by providing an education and training platform aligned with industry demand. The goal is to foster economic development opportunities in new and emerging industries that are expected to materialize as a result of this initiative.”

Within the large geographic area that makes up the eastern GTA, U of T Scarborough and Centennial officials have identified a swath of industrial land near the campus, north of Highway 401, as a potential destination for the types of firms identified in the EaRTH District plan.

Even more significant is a large tract of city-owned land immediately north of the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, a former landfill site that buffers the campus from the highway.

The City of Toronto’s land company has considered various ideas for this site, including a maintenance facility for transit vehicles. But university and city officials have been quietly discussing the possibility of transforming it into an innovation campus for the EaRTH District cluster plan.

In fact, the prospect of a deal surfaced during a January session of city council’s economic development committee, as senior U of T officials briefed politicians and staff about future growth plans for both the St. George campus and U of T Scarborough. Committee Chair Michael Thompson, a veteran councillor for Scarborough Centre, asked if the university had designs on the property. “Yes,” replied U of T Vice-President and Provost Scott Mabury, “we’re interested.”

The property’s strategic location — close to both the 401 and the campus — will make it an attractive venue for investors and startups, Arifuzzaman says, although he notes that the property would require extensive remediation.

Ambitious though they are, such plans can fall victim to field-of-dreams thinking. Build it and they will come, as the saying goes. But the two economic development studies and university officials point out that cleantech will become a growth sector in coming decades as governments confront the accelerating climate crisis.

What’s more, there’s plenty of evidence that economic cluster strategies focused on post-secondary institutions and collaborative relationships with government and the private sector can produce impressive results. North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park is one example. Another, much closer to home, is the artificial intelligence hub that’s grown rapidly around university researchers and the Vector Institute, in downtown Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District.

As it takes shape and begins to generate dividends, the EaRTH District strategy will create what Arifuzzaman envisions as a “spectacular” economic and institutional centre in a corner of the GTA that many Torontonians drive through but don’t really know.

In his words, “it should be looked at more like a front door to a new future than a back door to an old past.”

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A NATURE TRAIL FOR EVERYONE New accessible trail a big statement for inclusive excellence on campus

by Don Campbell

T

he Highland Creek Valley is a natural gem at U of T Scarborough, but hasn’t

always been easily accessible. The Valley Land Trail has changed that.

The new 500-metre-long trail descends 19 metres down the valley slope with a gentle five per cent grade, creating a seamless, accessible connection between campus and nature.

“This trail is all about inclusion.

It allows everyone, regardless of physical ability, to feel a part of our community,” says Tina Doyle, director of AccessAbility Services at U of T Scarborough.

With a wide path, charging station for motorized accessibility devices and more than 300 LED lights built into the continuous handrails, Doyle says it’s designed to meet the highest levels of accessibility standards.

“As beautiful as nature is, it’s not always accessible. Now everyone can enjoy the beauty and nature our campus has to offer,” she says.

The trail includes multiple raised lookout points with accessible seating and outdoor amphitheatre seating built into the hillside next to the Andrews Building, and it is open all four seasons.

Special care was given to protecting nature – the path winds around old-growth trees that were preserved during construction, while hundreds of native, edible plants like raspberries and strawberries are also planted along the trail.

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Photos by Don Campbell

A NATURE TRAIL FOR EVERYONE

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CAMPUS NEWS

TAMIL COMMUNITY BUILDS SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH CHAIR

Every year, Aathini Parthiban dedicates her birthday to supporting communities.

Her father started the idea, and Aathini has clearly run with it. For her 10th birthday, she raised funds for U of T Scarborough’s Tamil Chair. “I wanted to help the Tamil community and future generations.”

She donated $1,000 between her birthday money and funds that she raised on social media by campaigning in English, Tamil and French.

“I’m really proud of her,” says her mother, Tamilarasi Parthiban. “It’s my dream for her to socially and culturally create a nurturing environment around her.”

In 2018, two non-profit organizations, the Canadian Tamil Congress and Tamil Chair Inc., pledged $3 million to establish a full-time Tamil Studies Chair at U of T Scarborough.

The funds will support academic programming and research in Tamil language and history.

Since then, many successful events have been held to support the initiative. In January, U of T Scarborough held its first Tamil Heritage Month celebration and fundraiser, with Scarborough community members and city councillors.

“Language is an integral part of Tamil identity,” says Sivan Ilangko,

Sinmaye Sivakumar

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director of Tamil Chair Inc. “It is a longstanding dream of the community to establish a Tamil Chair at a university and we are committed to making this dream a reality.”

U of T Scarborough currently offers two introductory Tamil language courses and a more advanced course for students wanting to develop their skills. And, over the next three years, the campus library will work with scholars and community members on a related digital archiving project.

Kumaran Nadesan (BA, 2004), chief convener of the University of Toronto Tamil Alumni Network (UTTAN), says this kind of work is vital in preserving the Tamil language in Canada.

“To have a firm academic foundation where identity and language live on is very important,” Nadesan says.

UTTAN was established in 2018, mainly to bring alumni from the Tamil community together. In October 2019, it hosted its first fundraising gala, Sangam Redux, and donated approximately $95,000 to the Tamil Chair initiative.

Another donor, Sinmaye Sivakumar, is supporting the Tamil chair worldwide to help ensure that future generations in Canada will be able to learn the Tamil language. She’s older than Aathini Parthiban, but not by all that much.

The 16-year-old was a finalist on Super Singer, an Indian reality TV show similar to Canadian Idol. She encourages audiences to support the Tamil Chair during her shows — recently in Norway, the U.S. and U.K. — and posts videos about the initiative on social media.

“I’m always told how amazing it is that we have a program like this in Canada,” she says, “because sometimes Tamil communities don’t have academic support in their countries.”

CAMPUS NEWS

NEW ACTION PLAN FOR STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH The Presidential and Provostial Task Force on Student Mental Health has

released its final report for a studentcentric plan to improve mental health services and accessibility on U of T’s three campuses.

Established last spring, the task force is led by Trevor Young, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the St. George campus and former dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

The final report and action plan

highlights 21 recommendations grounded in the key areas of mental health services and delivery; co-ordination of services across the three campuses; and the expansion of community partnerships and of spaces offering mental health services.

Among the recommendations are harmonization of services across all three campuses and partnerships with community hospitals and organizations with CAMH (Centre for

Addiction and Mental Health) singled out as the ideal partner to strengthen consistent care for students and provide counselling at each of campuses.

“I’d like people to say, ‘Not only is U of T a top global university, it’s among the best in the world when it comes to student mental health as well,’” says Young.

Participants joined in an Indigenous song and learned to use traditional drums.

(top) Photo by Don Cambell

INDIGENOUS WRITERS JOIN ENGLISH FACULTY

U of T Scarborough is welcoming two renowned Indigenous writers as new faculty members.

As part of the University’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, the Department of English conducted a search for new professors in creative writing, Indigenous literatures and oral traditions.

In July, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Randy Lundy will join the faculty as assistant professors, Teaching Stream.

Akiwenzie-Damm is a celebrated creator and educator whose work spans poetry, fiction, non-fiction, radio plays, television and film, librettos, graphic novels and spoken word. She is a member of the Chippewas of Nawash

Unceded First Nation, Saugeen Ojibway Nation on the Saugeen Peninsula in Ontario.

Lundy is a distinguished poet who also writes fiction and non-fiction.

His work has appeared in several significant collections of Indigenous writings in Canada and abroad. He is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation in Manitoba.

Both writers have extensive experience teaching creative writing and Indigenous literatures. AkiwenzieDamm has taught at the University of Manitoba, the Banff Centre and in partnership with the University of Victoria. Lundy has taught across various program levels at First Nations University of Canada and at Campion College at the University of Regina.

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CAMPUS NEWS

A FAIR EXCHANGE

A partnership between U of T

Scarborough and the National University of Singapore (NUS) is providing new exchange opportunities for students.

In December, University officials travelled to Singapore to meet with Andrew Rose, dean of the NUS business program — and a U of T Scarborough alumnus — to discuss collaboration around the exchange program.

“NUS and U of T Scarborough’s Department of Management have a common vision of business and entrepreneurial education,” says Bill McConkey, academic director of The

BRIDGE, the multipurpose academic space operated jointly by the Department of Management and the campus library.

The exchange program includes a seven-month paid internship in a startup, which fulfills a Co-op placement credit. Students will be supported in finding their internships. Two students from the Department of Management are currently in Singapore.

“We’re seeing that this global marketplace means that our BBA students are increasingly looking for careers outside of Canada,” says McConkey. “Singapore is a great place for students to explore opportunities.”

CHEERS, UTSC!

Pictured, from left, are Principal Wisdom Tettey, Dean of the NUS business program Andrew Rose, Assistant Professor Bill McConkey and UTSC Management’s Managing Director Christine Arsenault.

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(left) Photo by Linda Lee; (right) courtesy of UTSC Cheer

After its first time ever competing,

U of T Scarborough’s cheerleading team brought home first place and a perfect score.

“Since they announce first place at the end, we were all on the edge of our seats,” recalls Krystal Luu, fourthyear student and president of UTSC Cheer. “When we didn’t hear our name, we knew we had gotten first.”

In January, UTSC Cheer travelled to St. Catharine’s, Ont., to perform at the Cheer Evolution Winterfest competition. Hosted by the national event company Canadian Cheer, the annual, day-long meet draws competitors from around the province. The UTSC team competed among 130 teams over different categories.

Founded in 2013, the co-ed student club brought 30 students to the competition.

“It was just a really emotional experience, especially for the members who have been on the team several years,” Luu says.

The team’s two-and-a-half-minute routine earned them a win in the intentional open non-tumbling, level two all-star section. The routine also hit zero, meaning UTSC Cheer had no points deducted and received a perfect score. The win is a first in campus history.

CAMPUS NEWS

U OF T LAUNCHES IRANIAN STUDENT MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND TO HONOUR PLANE CRASH VICTIMS

Photos by Dylan Toombes and Cory Lawrence

The University has created a fund to honour the memory of those who died in the

tragic crash of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752. Eight U of T community members, six of whom were students, were among the passengers on the plane’s manifesto.

The Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship Fund is a needs-based scholarship opportunity for international students from Iran, and students of any background pursing Iranian studies at U of T. “The University of Toronto continues to mourn the heartbreaking loss of so many members of our community, and to offer our sympathy and support to their families, friends, classmates and professors,” says President Meric Gertler.

The idea for the scholarship came from U of T’s David Palmer, vice-president, advancement, Rahim Rezaie, alumni and researcher in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, and Mehrdad Hariri, CEO and president of the Canadian Science Policy Centre.

Rezaie says he was inspired by his own journey as he worked through his grief following the crash.

“I was overcome with sadness as well as a desire to find a way, however small, to create something positive out of this horrific tragedy,” Rezaie says. “I felt that the broader community, particularly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, could use some way to channel our grief into a more hopeful outlet.”

U of T is matching all donations to the fund. The school is donating dollar-for-dollar but is matching the first $250,000 at an effective rate of 3:1. Palmer says this unusually high

donation rate is in response to the enormity of the loss, and an effort to memorialize the eight U of T community members.

“These students and scholars were among the very brightest of their generation. We hope that this scholarship will allow their memory to serve as an inspiration for generations to come,” Palmer says.

The scholarships are available to undergraduate and graduate students.

They will be disbursed by U of T’s

Enrolment Services Office and awarded in the spring of 2020.

Hariri says U of T was the first in a series of Canadian universities that established scholarship funds in response to the crash.

“The students and academics who lost their lives were all working toward producing something positive through their research and studies — this scholarship fund pays tribute to that, and will support future students from Iran in achieving the same,” Hariri says.

UTSC Commons | Fall 2019

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MEETING Anthony Morra CEO, Bladetech Hockey

Anthony Morra (BBA, 2008) has always had two passions – sports and entre-

preneurship, especially small business.

As CEO of Bladetech Hockey, he’s perfectly blending the two.

“My dad ran two companies and I saw what you could do with a great small business,” Morra says.

In 2015, he joined Bladetech Hockey as co-owner after hearing Bladetech President Jeffrey Azzolin speak at a University of Toronto sports industry conference. Azzolin, a former mechanical engineer, was discussing his unique flexible skate blade.

“Other than using newer materials to make boots, skates hadn’t really 32

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evolved in almost 20 years,” says Morra. But Bladetech’s “Flex-Force” technology is scientifically proven to increase a player’s speed by up to 20 per cent, with the help of a spring-like push in the front third of the blade.

Bladetech sold its first blades a few months after Morra joined them.

The team even approached the NHL (National Hockey League). More than 60 NHL players are now skating on Bladetech’s Flex-Force blades.

“Start something that makes sense and where you can learn quickly,” Morra says to small business owners.

“That’s how entrepreneurship works.”

PLACE Steve Lau

Partner, Whitecap Venture Partners As a venture capitalist, Steve Lau (BBA, 2005) is passionate about making a

positive impact on startup companies.

That’s why he left a career in investment banking almost immediately.

“I remember getting my first bonus and thinking, ‘They could add a zero to this cheque and it still would not be worth it,’” he says.

Lau recently joined Whitecap Venture Partners, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage technology companies, as a partner. He also teaches an entrepreneurial-focused course at U of T Scarborough; and is a managing partner at Highland Creek Partners, a joint-investment firm that he co-founded in 2013 with Rameez Ansari, another U of T Scarborough alumnus. “The entrepreneurial community has provided us with a lot of support,” Lau says.

“We aspire to do the same for emerging entrepreneurs.”

ALUMNI PROFILES

by Tina Adamopoulos

In 2019, Lau was named as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. In 2018, he received an EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.

“Be authentic to who you are,” he says to aspiring entrepreneurs. “Only good things will come of it.”

“BE AUTHENTIC TO WHO YOU ARE. ONLY GOOD THINGS WILL COME OF IT.”

UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

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Chloe Ho Co-founder, Pixie Mood

A decade ago, Chloe Ho switched careers to pursue an interest in design and fashion, starting her own vegan handbag company

As a new graduate, Chloe Ho (BSc, 2006)

didn’t have entrepreneurship in her sights.

While working at a wholesale company that designed handbags, she developed a strong interest in the fashion industry. But she moved on.

It wasn’t until later, after a couple of years in a sales operations role at IBM, that Ho made her big move.

“The corporate world wasn’t for me,” she says. “I wanted to start my own company and realized that I really liked designing and everything about working in fashion.”

Ho had seen family and friends struggle to find budget-friendly — and trendy — vegan handbags. She saw a 34

UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

gap in the market. And that’s where Pixie Mood comes in.

Ho co-founded Pixie Mood with her husband, Kelvin Ho, in 2010. The vegan handbag company is dedicated to providing affordable, environmentally responsible and ethically manufactured products available in stores across Canada and online.

Manufactured in China, the handbags are made of eco-friendly, durable materials like recycled bottles, cork fabric and polyurethane faux leather.

And Ho notes that Pixie Mood donates unsold bags to charities.

Sustainable fashion usually means high-cost — not necessarily financially accessible. But with more responsible

brands popping up in Canada, Ho believes that direct-to-consumer sales will help.

“It can often seem impossible for responsible fashion to be affordable,” she says. “But going directly to the consumer will help keep costs low by cutting out the middleman in traditional selling channels.”

Pixie Mood, which sells through both direct sales and selected stores, has been featured in Forbes magazine and on Oprah Winfrey’s 2019 list of favourite things. The company currently has 20 employees. Looking ahead, Ho wants to implement a sustainability team dedicated to finding ways to reduce Pixie Mood’s carbon footprint.

Back on campus, Pixie Mood is supporting entrepreneurs through The Hub Trust, which funds students and recent graduates who are starting new businesses through the U of T Scarborough entrepreneurial incubator.

Her advice to entrepreneurs, whether they’re thinking about a career shift or just starting out, is to realize that the road will sometimes be bumpy.

“No matter how careful you try to be, mistakes are inevitable,” Ho says.

“As long as you react to it swiftly and with a sincere and positive attitude, you will always get through it. And a lot of the time, you’ll be able to turn a mistake into an opportunity.”

ALUMNI PROFILES

Arvin Singh Co-founder, hoolah

Arvin Singh (BBA, 2008) worked at a startup while he was pursuing his MBA

in Singapore. His interest in entrepreneurship flourished, and he now has a successful business of his own.

“Getting involved in the startup ecosystem was when it became clear that I wanted to take on this challenge,” says Singh, co-founder and COO of hoolah.

Established in 2018, hoolah is a Singapore-based company that strengthens the relationship between customers and merchants through the concept of “responsible affordability.” Shoppers buy products from hoolah’s merchant partners and pay for them with three

interest-free installments. For merchants, the benefits can include improved conversion rates and higher sales.

Singh explains that shoppers are notified when they’re spending too much. “It’s proactive. We encourage them to pay off other purchases before making new ones, which is part of the responsible spending we’ve built into the business.”

The team recently expanded to Malaysia and are now determining where their third market should be.

Singh’s advice for entrepreneurs?

“Immerse yourself in a domain, spend time working in it and identify something flawed to address.”

“IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A DOMAIN, SPEND TIME WORKING IN IT AND IDENTIFY SOMETHING FLAWED TO ADDRESS.” UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

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ANNOTATION

As Principal Tettey mentioned in his keynote, this is our last issue before

we merge to create a tri-campus University of Toronto Magazine. For almost a decade, UTSC Commons has been your source for the stories of the amazing people in our campus community. Look forward to a lot more digital content on our website and social channels, and a larger circulation magazine to share the incredible work happening on campus. Say hello anytime! On a personal note, I would like to thank all the people who contributed to the success of this magazine over the years. There are far too many to mention, but this has been a community effort, and I look forward to your many contributions to our new publication and our digital channels in the future.

Chris Garbutt, Editor 36

UTSC Commons | Spring 2020

N UTSC ALUMNI REUNIO

2020

A celebration for UTSC es graduates of the nineti (1990 - 1999) Friday, May 29 Saturday, May 30

Our week

end inclu

des:

Dinner a nd a bon fire Academi c Talks BBQ Lun ch Campus Tours Athletic Activitie s MEGA Pu b Stay on c ampus re sidence!

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