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westerngazette.ca FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • WESTERN UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER • VOLUME 110, ISSUE 21 going undercover since 1906
NEW BUILDING MAY COME TO CONCRETE BEACH PG4
PHOTO BY MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL EARNS USPORT TOP 10 SPOT PG9
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ALEX STELMACOVICH
Volume 110, Issue 21 WWW.WESTERNGAZETTE.CA University Community Centre Rm. 263 Western University London, ON, CANADA N6A 3K7 Editorial 519.661.3580 Advertising 519.661.3579
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NEWS SABRINA FRACASSI DRISHTI KATARIA MOSES MONTERROZA RITA RAHMATI GRACE TO CULTURE SAMAH ALI ELLIS KOIFMAN AMY SKODAK ANNIE RUETER CULTURE-AT-LARGE RICHARD JOSEPH SPORTS CHARLIE O’CONNOR CLARKE MIKE DEBOER CLAIRE PALMER MULTIMEDIA MAAILAH BLACKWOOD JENNY JAY TAYLOR LASOTA NATALIE TREFFRY
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SENIOR STAFF AMAL MATAN MICHAEL CONLEY
On the way back from the rocket festival in Laos, Alex Stelmacovich stumbled upon three kids standing around an abandoned U.S. military airstrip. They were setting up their own toy rocket to be launched. For the people of Laos, the rocket festival celebrates the start of the monsoon season. Villagers and townfolk will craft homemade rockets and the one that shoots the highest is said to predict who will yield the best crops. To Alex, the rockets meant something else. As the sun set behind the Karst mountains, Alex thought the rockets alluded to Laos’ history as a highly-bombed country which contrasted sharply with the innocence of the kids in front of him. “It was this decisive moment, and it all came together,” Alex says. The photo Alex captured in the moment became the one he’s most proud of: it won a contest and was published in National Geographic.
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The success of the photo helped Alex realize his raw potential and to start seriously pursuing photography. He had only brought a second-hand camera with him to Laos, but he says it changed his whole life and the way he saw things. “I went from documenting my trip to actually creating and capturing moments that could communicate experiences better than words ever could,” he says. In the months after his trip to Laos, the fourth-year sociocultural anthropology student became more invested in photography, anthropology and travel. He
started to make a career out of it, including teaching himself how to do freelance photography and making anthropology his primary major. “For a while I felt my creative work wasn’t aligned at all with the studies I do in anthropology,” he says. “But as time goes on, I think they’re linking more. The more projects I undertake in photography, the more I’ll be able to link anthropology to those projects and see how it will help me weave together a narrative and a story.” He’s had ample opportunities to pursue these kinds of projects. Last July, Alex went to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, capturing the northern hemisphere’s midnight suns and weather where clouds, sun and rain would all mix to create “a photographer’s paradise.” Nowadays, Alex spends much of his time as a freelance photographer in London and Toronto taking on photo assignments for different publishers. He’s starting to successfully combine his three passions of anthropology, travel and photography into a career as an international photo journalist. While he says he’s mostly doing branding work right now, he’s focused on learning from the people around him and setting his sights on the horizon. “I always have different ideas and projects that I’d like to do,” he says. “I’m working on a lot of things more local right now... Nothing that I can speak about right now, but there will be some exciting stuff coming up in the next few months.” ■ ELLIS KOIFMAN
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • 3
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Students to vote in two separate elections DRISHTI KATARIA NEWS EDITOR @DRISHTATGAZETTE Students will be voting in two elections this year, first in the University Students’ Council election, then in the student Senate and Board of Governors election two weeks later. The USC’s election applications will be released on Dec. 5, two weeks earlier than in previous years. Due to this schedule change, USC elections will be held separately from the Senate and Board of Governors elections. According to University Secretary Irene Birrell, the Senate and BoG election schedule remains the same as in previous years with nominations opening Jan. 9 and polls opening on Feb. 7. Chief returning officer Erin McCauley said the schedule change for the USC elections was motivated by the desire to have some buffer room before Reading Week to allow for appeals in the elections process and to avoid holding the election during midterms. McCauley said that while the USC elections and the Senate and BoG elections were held together in previous years, the two elections were hosted separately. “So they’ve always sort of been a different jurisdiction but we as the USC just assisted in the elections for the BoG and Senate because we had the systems in place,” she said. As a result, the USC’s elections committee will have a lighter load since they’ll be managing fewer candidates. Birrell said Senate and BoG
elections will have a separate ballot and will be hosted through the secretariat’s web page but will look the same as it did in the previous years, on the same voting platform as the USC’s, with only the timing differing from theirs. “The reason for that is we weren’t informed that the USC was changing its time until about 10 days ago,” Birrell said. “Had we known in the spring when they made the decision to do this, we might have been able to come to some kind of arrangement to run them together.” Student senator Harry OrbachMiller believes that the USC should have consulted the secretariat’s office when wanting to change their election schedule. While Orbach-Miller worries about lower voter turnout, he is excited to have two weeks just to talk to students about Senate. “I think it’ll be a great opportunity for students to actually engage more with the academic policy side of Senate and really learn more about what we do and how that actually affects them,” he said. Once this year’s elections are over, the USC and secretariat’s offices hope to evaluate and potentially move the election of the undergraduate constituency of Senate and BoG in line with USC’s elections for future years. “We will be talking with them once [the] election is over to see if there is a way to run them together in the future because it is easier for everyone and it does I think probably lead to better voter turnout,” Birrell said.
London Shine the Light campaign goes national HILL DU CONTRIBUTOR @NEWSATGAZETTE #ShineTheLight is trending on Twitter this November following the launch of the London Abused Women Centre’s (LAWC) seventh annual Wear Purple Campaign — a program raising awareness of violence against women. According to the centre’s website, the colour purple exhibits “courage, survival and honour, and has come to symbolize the fight to end woman abuse.” The campaign’s growing success was acknowledged in a video message by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “I am grateful to the London Abused Women’s Centre and to agencies like it across Canada,” Trudeau said. “Woman abuse crosses all age boundaries and socio-economical boundaries and ethnic boundaries,” said Heather Wharram,
COURTESY OF SHINE THE LIGHT
program manager at LAWC. “We serve women from as young as the age of 12 and then we see women up to their 80s.” She said that young women are at greatest risk of suffering from abuse. This fact can be a pressing concern especially among student populations. Wharram added that conversations within the community about violence against women are important to deter the behaviour. “We have a great community here in London and we have that conversation regularly, but it’s to continue it and keep talking about it.” Wharram said that the community can stay involved with the LAWC by participating in any of their other listed events or applying to their volunteering program. “We have had great success in leadership in this community, and its starting to go nationally across Canada,” Wharram said.
JENNY JAY GAZETTE
USC auditors want more accountability for executive credit card expense receipts MOSES MONTERROZA NEWS EDITOR @MOSESMONTZ The University Students’ Council’s auditors have recommended “a more robust reporting of expenses” after former USC executive members on occasion failed to report expense receipts for corporate credit card purchases last year. “The auditor’s recommendation was to ensure that executives are complying with their receipts,” said USC secretary-treasurer Isaac Jacobi. “Because last year, some executives didn’t always submit receipts for their expenses.” To follow up with the auditors’ recommendations, Jacobi said this year he’s ensuring that the executives are filling out the expense forms, however, he doesn’t think individual expenses need to be reported as the current system is robust enough. Handing out corporate cards is at the USC president’s discretion and while in previous years cards have often been limited to the president and one or two other executive members, this year all five executive members have corporate credit cards, with limits ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. This includes the communications officer Emily Ross and student programs officer Allie Adamo, two positions who did not receive a card in prior years. The executives are given the cards after signing an acceptable use policy which outlines purchases’ guidelines. According to Jacobi, giving credit cards to the communications officer and the student programs officer was because both positions inevitably have to make purchases at some point. “So far the communications officer has attended two conferences, purchased supplies for summer council and helped with purchases for Orientation Week,” Jacobi said. “The student programs officer has attended conferences, purchased many items for use within the SPO portfolio, and purchased items for Orientation Week.” Executives also use their corporate cards while on work-related trips. Jamie Cleary, USC vice-president, uses his card for travel expenses like hotel and transportation, Jacobi said. The cards offer executives more flexibility with handling situations as they come.
Reported misuse of corporate credit cards at other institutions Offering detailed public records of individual expenses is often common practice within municipalities and other institutions. Josh Morgan, city councillor for ward 7, said that the city offers public records of expense accounts which are posted on London’s website on a quarterly basis. “The reason why we decided to post them was for transparency,” Morgan said. “So the public could see the items that we’re expensing and ask us any questions about them.” Just last year, three city councillors were caught using taxpayer dollars to buy a new set of tires on their way out of office, according to the London Free Press. Morgan said that in order to prevent that from happening in the future, expense reports were enhanced to hold councillors more accountable. “We updated a few things to the expense reports, making them more frequent with more procedures like having to submit your receipts within 45 days,” Morgan said. “Although [expense reports] has been around for a while the posting of the expenses were enhanced.” Aside from the municipal level, reports of misuse in corporate cards have been reported within other student governments. In 2014, an employee of the University of Prince Edward Island Student Union allowed her 43-yearold boyfriend to use the student union credit card to spend a total of $9,721.61, according to CBC. In March 2016, University of Manitoba Students’ Union president Jeremiah Kopp was accused of misuse of funds involving his UMSU credit card. According to the Winnipeg Sun, a review of Kopp’s expense statements from April 2015 to January 2016 showed $29,000 in expenses including nearly $14,000 in allegedly unapproved expenses. The Manitoban reported, “the total included nearly $4,000 for furniture in the president’s office, dozens of meals and meal items attributed to executive meetings, community issues and sponsorships and a $900 cash withdrawal in August.” In response, Kopp contended that it was a politically motivated attack, according to The Manitoban.
USC’s supervision system To ensure USC executives aren’t misusing their cards, they are required to fill out an expense report indicating the location of the expense, a description of what they bought and a receipt of their purchase. While executives are required to submit reports of their expenses, these reports are not made public. Yearly audited financial statements are available online which reveal USC revenue and expenses, but they don’t specify credit card purchases. “I don’t think there’s a lack of transparency,” Jacobi said. “I think we just don’t publish every purchase that we make. It’s all in the statements eventually, it’s just not broken down by credit card purchases and any other purchases.” Chair of the USC board of directors Stephen Frachetto believes credit card statements have limited value for assessing performance. “Credit card expenses are individual items,” Franchetto said in an email. “They’re presented without context and have limited value for assessing performance. Once those expenses are reviewed by the USC’s permanent staff and linked back to the appropriate budget lines the expense totals (combined with other non-credit card expenses) become useful. Budget updates are already provided to the board on a quarterly basis and are publicly available.” When asked whether the USC would ever consider making expense reports more public, Franchetto said “I’m sure it’s possible that a future executive may choose to do so at some point. I have not heard it raised this year.”
Solution to puzzle on page 11
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4 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
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USC investigating hate incident in Muslim prayer space RITA RAHMATI NEWS EDITOR @RITARAHMATI The University Students’ Council is investigating a hate incident that occurred within the Muslim prayer space in the basement of the University Community Centre. A little over a month ago, the Muslim Students’ Association and Thaqalayn Muslim Association sent out letters to their respective members about acts of vandalism that occurred within the prayer space. The MSA’s letter stated: “It has come to our attention that individuals in the prayer room have been committing acts of hate and discrimination against our Shia brothers and sisters. There were several instances in which turbahs/ mohrs were thrown out and yesterday, the box for turbahs was filled with water.” Turbahs are small pieces of clay that are used by Shia Muslims during prayer. MSA and TMA released individual statements to their members and a joint statement together on the incidents. “These things have been happening for quite a while,” said Fattimah Hamam, TMA president. “This is the first time that the MSA and TMA have come together in addressing this.” Hamam said they utilized this incident as an opportunity to engage in educational measures and tell their members that this type of behaviour is unacceptable. “We’ve actively ensured that we’ve developed a strong relationship with the TMA,” said Hassam Ansari, MSA president. “When something like this happens I think the leadership really needs to step up and take the onus.” Allie Adamo, USC students
MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE
programs officer, said she is shocked that incidents like this still occur on campus and is looking into it further. “What we’ve been doing is trying to get to the bottom [and] figuring out what actually happened,” Adamo said. “We have been trying to sit down with the MSA to figure
out what they need and how we can help.” Hamam and Ansari said they have not been contacted by USC members directly, but would like to discuss the incident with them in the future. “These acts [of hate] are not
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representative of the views of your average MSA member,” Ansari said. “We need to identify these individuals and make sure the right action is taken against them.” Adamo said she would be discussing the incidents in a meeting with Campus Police in the near
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future. Staff sergeant J.C. Aubin said acts like this would be considered a hate crime if reported. The MSA letter stated that any future acts of destruction like this would be reported to Campus Police.
Initial discussions and plans are in motion for a new building that may be built on Concrete Beach. The building was discussed at both Western’s Senate meeting and the University Students’ Council meeting in October. Michael McLean, director of facilities planning and design, said the new building will address the need for additional student centred teaching and innovation spaces. The building is slated to provide technologically enabled teaching and learning space, collaborative and individual student study space and a student entrepreneurial space. At October’s student council meeting, USC president Eddy Avila discussed the new building with councillors. Avila referred to the building as an integrated learning and education centre and conducted a straw poll to see whether councillors thought this type of building would be beneficial. Councillors overwhelmingly voted in favour of an ILEC building. Avila also asked councillors what spaces they would like to see
in the building, listing options such as a silent study space, an interactive study space, lounge space, classroom space and bookable space. In an interview with The Gazette, Avila said the building is in its very early stages and that he wanted to engage constituents in discussions. “There’s probably going to be more conversations that need to be had,” Avila said. “We have a lot of voices and a lot of good thoughts from our council, so we wanted to engage our constituents with thinking.” Avila will continue to engage in discussions with Western’s administration and bring forward concerns students have about the new building. As plans for the building have just begun, McLean couldn’t provide details on the estimate size, cost or finish date. McLean said design consultants will be hired by the end of this year to create a feasibility assessment and assess safety concerns. “We recognize that that location is at the heart of campus with what is probably the greatest student activity, and the development of any building on that site needs to be handled carefully,” McLean said.
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • 5
opinions
Quit the bullshit Filthy Rich RICHARD JOSEPH CULTURE EDITOR-AT-LARGE @RJATGAZETTE Language is my drug and it has a kick like nothing else. I could snort a line of Shakespeare and it’d leave my brain buzzing for days. Jam a tab of Byron underneath my tongue and I’d have some spectacular hallucinations. Nothing gets me going like a poignant bit of imagery, an elegant metaphor, a beautiful turn of phrase: “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, / Or what’s a heaven for?” Wham. Cocaine for the soul. So I find it foreboding when universities, the very institutions that are supposed to cultivate clarity, articulacy and even beauty in language, use and promote the use of meaningless corporate rhetoric. Instead of rousing passion or distilling truth, there is a growing trend in higher education of grandiose and purposely obfuscated prose, known colloquially as bullshit — due, in no small part, to corporatization. Western spent $500,000 last year on the national advertising campaign, “Be Extraordinary,” which has culminated in a bunch of comically large posters of alumni plastered ostentatiously over the stately campus buildings. Very subtle, guys. This is the purported goal of the campaign: “By strengthening The Western Experience, we can create more opportunities for our students to become global-ready leaders. We’re inspiring learning and igniting discovery that will enhance our academic and research excellence to deliver the right answers to today’s hard questions.” What is this meandering, pompous drivel? What focus group of self-fellating baboons came up with this? Did they take this out of a sixth-grade essay on “What Integrity Means to Me?” No, this is just your typical corporate blathering, inflated with extraneous nonsense, that has wormed its way into so many universities. It’s like they chose the most popular buzzwords of the day and strung them together so that they resembled some sort
of grammatical coherence: “create …opportunities,” “global-ready,” “inspiring learning and igniting discovery,” “enhance” and “excellence” are particularly cringeworthy, hackneyed offenders. What, pray, does it mean to “strengthen the Western Experience?” Perhaps that’s one of “today’s hard questions.” Students have decided it’s not worth the risk to speak their minds. Why would we try to be accurate or meaningful in our writing when we’re rewarded for regurgitating this corporate jargon? Parsing through any collection of scholarship essays, I see many instances of this inflated commercial bombast, overflowing with terms like “global perspectives” and “effective advocacy,” “enhancing” and “inspiring,” and so on. You can hardly blame them. They’re saying what they think people want to hear, like they’re CEO of a company trying to appeal to their investors. But surely that’s not what university is about. The greatest intellectuals throughout history haven’t been palatable — in fact, they’ve often been contentious, ornery and downright radical in their work. I’m not advocating being a contrarian for its own sake, either. Just be genuine, be articulate and argue well, and your words will stand on their own, even if it doesn’t gel with the status quo. I tend to sound like a bitter pessimist, but I promise you I’m not. You can survive the rising tide of bullshit, and it starts with rejecting this doublespeak when you’re writing. I know it’s such an easy, safe register to lapse into. I know it seems to lend newly-conceived ideas some substance. And I know the administration laps it up. But fight this urge. It’s empty and demeaning prose Shakespeare would call, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Write raw. Be genuine. Struggle with your words instead of resorting to ready-made banalities. Expressing yourself shouldn’t be easy — good writing is a wrestling match between what you mean and a blank page. And man, when really you get into it, when you’re writing something dangerously sincere, it’s the most rewarding goddamn thing you can do. You hold up your tattered draft, bleeding with red ink, and say “this is what I mean.” Then enjoy that euphoria for about 30 seconds before the Internet starts commenting on your work.
TAYLOR LASOTA GAZETTE
USC candidates need to offer fresh ideas BY GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARD
USC elections will soon be upon us. This year, nominations open Dec. 5 and the entire process has been moved up two weeks earlier compared to last year — we should know our next president by Groundhog Day.
the guise of “advocacy,” present tangible goals. That means eschewing typical pledges to reform the “three in 23” exam system (a Senate matter) and embracing more realistic promises that stay in the executive’s jurisdiction.
The change was partly so there is a buffer before the February Reading Week so there is more time to adequately investigate appeals. This is a smart decision given the mess two years ago that had Sophie Helpard declared president in April after weeks of appeals.
Advocating for tuition freezes and a reduced financial burden on students also comes across as hollow when candidates fail to be introspective. The USC is an incredibly bureaucratic organization. Streamlining and looking for efficiency within the organization is important as savings can be passed onto students.
While there are concerns that the current USC administration could easily turn into lame ducks, we hope that the election and incoming slate will not deter Eddy Avila and his executive from their work. Candidates are surely organizing right now, putting together the infrastructure of their campaigns and getting ready to hit the ground running after the winter break. As they draft their message, they should keep in mind that the USC executive has a lot of room for improvement. First and foremost, they need to move beyond cliché platitudes. While style is undeniably important, substance should not be tossed aside. Instead of proposing unachievable platform points under
Slates should also look to engage more of the student body than the usual voter turnout. Often the campaigns can feel like an echo-chamber, with candidates reaching out to the same groups of people year after year. Instead, it should be a priority to think outside of the box and get more students interested in the USC. Offering something new and different is crucial for this election. Engaging in the same old tactics of campaigns past will not move the USC forward. So as the candidates get ready to declare and offer up their platforms, hopefully they’re full of new ideas that challenge the status quo.
Talking to strangers can broaden your horizons The Rueter Report ANNIE RUETER CULTURE EDITOR @ANNIERUETER1 Look around during the break of a three-hour lecture; everyone is on their phones. The personal space bubble we create while on our phones can be isolating and deter people from starting conversation. But why do we consider it a personal affront when the person next to us starts a conversation? As a journalist, I love to talk to people. But even I can be self-conscious about starting that initial casual conversation with a stranger.
Part of the reason for this hesitation is the bubble that swells out from our phone screens and envelops us; it inhibits real-time human interaction, especially when we fear a conversation could be awkward. It’s unfortunate that it’s an oddity to interact with strangers on campus – there are so many interesting people here and even small talk can be enriching. Unfortunately, I don’t have these experiences very often on campus. I often find myself in the situation where I am surrounded by hundreds of people in the UCC, yet feel oddly isolated as I notice everyone’s head is in their phones. What appears to be lost on Western’s campus is the idea that “no man is an island.” By that I mean people tend to operate on a
highly individualistic level and fail to acknowledge the impact of daily interactions with people outside their immediate social circle. Rather than avert eye contact, I welcome most conversations with strangers. I always get more out of those conversations than mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, even if it’s just small talk with a classmate following an exam. It can be comforting to realize you had a similar experience. I realize that some people – particularly introverts – need a break from interacting with others to recharge. But as someone who walks the line between being introverted and extroverted,
interactions with strangers tend to energize me and elevate my mood. As children, we are constantly told to not talk to strangers. But adult interactions with strangers are not a weird or bad thing; they are usually interesting and make up some really fond memories of mine, particularly while travelling. When I travelled to London, England this past summer, I asked a stranger on the subway for food market suggestions, which lead to a lively 10-minute conversation about tourist attractions in London during an otherwise dull commute. I also recently took a trip to Montreal; upon the death of
Leonard Cohen, strangers gathered outside his former student house Rue de Vallieres for a vigil. While the sombre nature of the event made the gathering silent, shared glances with strangers created brief but meaningful moments; on my journey home the father and daughter next to me kindly shared their Oreos. These experiences are humanizing – they connect you to people, even if only momentarily. So instead of pulling out your phone in an unfamiliar situation, I challenge you to talk to someone. Getting out of your own bubble can be surprisingly interesting – who knows who you’ll meet.
Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff. To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”
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6 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
www.westerngazette.ca
Figure 1
Undergraduate student rate
feature
Western parking rates: staff/faculty vs. students
Faculty/staff rate
$600 $507.30*
$500
$492
$460.15
$400
Note: $328*
$300
Students are offered weekly, monthly, term-long and annual permits.
$253.65
$200
*These calculations are based on extrapolating the rates offered (see methodology).
$164* $103
$100 $0
Figure 2
$10.25*
$41
Weekly
$41 Monthly
Term (4 months)
Academic year (8 months)
Annual (12 months) Methodology
The Gazette looked at thirteen different universities across Ontario to compare parking permit rates. Out of the thirteen, five research-intensive universities are represented in the graphs — the same used by Western in its “2016 Parking Modernization: Parking for the future” report. To account for different lot rates at other universities, the lowest possible rate available to faculty and students was considered for each. For universities where monthly rates were unavailable, the term rate was used to extrapolate the monthly rate. For universities where the academic year rate was unavailable, the monthly or term rate was used to extrapolate the academic year rate.
Parking rates for faculty/staff vs. students at Ontario universities A
Western
B C
A B C
A
Waterloo
B
Month Term (4 months) Academic year (8 months)
C A
McMaster
B C A
U of T
B C A
Ottawa
B C A
Queen's
B C
$0
$200
$400
$600
$800
$1,000
$1,200
Figure 3 Faculty/staff
Undergraduates
Reserved perimeter parking
$83.25/month
$127.41/month*
Reserved core parking
$121.10/month
N/A
*Reserved parking for undergraduate students only available in Medway lot.
Figure 4 Faculty/staff monthly rate
Undergraduates monthly rate
Monthly payment option
$41
$103
Term payment option
$41
$63.41*
Annual payment option
$41
$38.35*
*These calculations are based on extrapolating the rates offered (see methodology).
GRAPHICS BY JORDAN MCGAVIN, AMY O’KRUK AND DANIEL BODDEN GAZETTE
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • 7
Student parking at Western: An unusual struggle The Gazette investigated differences between faculty and student parking at universities across the province. The practice of charging students significantly more is unique to Western. HAMZA TARIQ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF SABRINA FRACASSI NEWS EDITOR @NEWSATGAZETTE Part one Nic Gowing drove to campus 15 minutes earlier than usual for his morning class. He headed to Springett West, a small lot reserved for students with parking permits. The fifthyear engineering student drove around for over half an hour trying to find parking and missed his class because of it. “They charged $460 this year, I think, for a parking permit, and there’s days I can’t even park on campus,” Gowing said. “It just kind of makes you wonder if there’s anyone really concerned with this issue in the parking community at Western.” Gowing’s concerns aren’t unwarranted. Students driving to campus face many challenges at Western ranging from paying higher permit fees than staff and faculty to only having access to a limited number of lots that are farther away from campus. Many students drive to Western because they live far away from campus or commute from other towns, but expensive permits and daily parking rates have raised concern. “I feel that the majority of students who drive to school are students who don’t need to be there necessarily everyday, so even if you are to get a parking pass it’s not even worth it,” said Emma,* a local Western student who lives on the outskirts of the city and has preferred driving to campus in the past. It takes Emma an hour and a half to bus to campus.
The parking permit struggle at Western A Gazette investigation has revealed that Western has one of the largest disparities between staff/faculty and undergraduate student permit rates across Ontario — students are offered permits which are often 50 per cent to 300 per cent more expensive than faculty permits. An analysis of the student rates refutes a report put out by Western titled “2016 Parking Modernization: Parking for the future.” The report portrays Western’s parking rates as being one of the lowest among Canada’s U-15 universities and Ontario’s research-intensive universities. The data in the report is misleading. The report only uses Western’s faculty and staff rates to represent the University’s permit fees. Accounting for the student rates would considerably raise Western’s permit price average (See figure 4). Considering the student fees is important because other universities used in the report, including University of Toronto, McMaster University and Queen’s University, give the same rates to undergraduate students as their faculty and staff. The differences in parking rates between students and faculty and staff at Western stand out among the thirteen provincial universities surveyed for this story. Universities surveyed: University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, McMaster University, University of Waterloo, York University, University of Windsor, Brock University, University of Guelph, Laurentian University, Trent University, Wilfrid Laurier University and Carleton University. Fanshawe College was also surveyed to provide a local comparator on parking at
post-secondary campuses. Every university surveyed provides faculty, staff and students the same or similar parking rates (See figure 2). Some of the must stark differences appear in the weekly and monthly rates offered to undergraduate students at Western. A monthly parking pass costs faculty and staff $41. For students, it’s $103.20. To buy a term-long permit, students pay $253.65. Faculty and staff can pay $164 for the same fourmonth period. This difference rises even further if Western students want to purchase parking permits for the eight-month academic year. Their two options are to either pay monthto-month or pay for term parking twice a year. While the faculty and staff will only pay $328 for the eight-month period, students will pay either $825.60 if they choose to pay on a monthly basis or $507.30 if they pay for two term-long permits. The most viable option remaining for students then is to buy the year-long permit for $460.15. This is the only permit where students pay less than faculty and staff, who pay $492 for the same 12-month period (See figure 1). But many students like Gowing, who lives in Wingham, a town an hour and a half north of London, the parking permit is of little use in the summer when he’s not at Western. To provide students with a fair rate for the academic year, many universities, like the U of T, U of Ottawa and York, provide students with an eight-month academic permit with similar rates as faculty and staff. Other universities such as McMaster, Queen’s and Waterloo provide students with reasonable monthly or term-long rates which total up to the same amount as
faculty and staff. Western currently offers no eight-month, academic-year permits to students. Daily parking rates The recent increase in daily parking rates from a $6 flat rate to a $12 maximum has also raised some concerns among students. “It’s really inconvenient for them to increase the amount for parking and make me feel even worse about myself that I’m spending $12 a day to park where I could last year be paying $7,” Emma said. Keith Marnoch, director of community and media relations at Western, said that the change was to improve daily parking issues at Western. The new increase allows visitors to pay $1.50 per half hour up to a $12 maximum instead of $6 each time they parked. “The maximum was adjusted up to $12 to standardize with the rest of the campus lots,” Marnoch said. “The University sees that as an improvement. This may also lead to greater space turnover during the day, opening up spaces that might otherwise be occupied all day.” The University has also introduced a 20-minute grace period where people can exit the lot for free if they leave within that time. According to Marnoch, despite the adjustment, campus rates are lower than in other parts of the city for both daily maximums and hourly rates. “And most importantly, there are less expensive options available on campus than paying on an hourly basis. If you are regularly driving to campus and parking for the entire day, the better option is definitely a parking permit,” Marnoch said. Where can students park? In addition to paying more for their parking access, students have
limited access to parking lots on campus. Undergraduate students can only buy parking permits for the “green-zone” student lots which are the farthest from the campus core. The other two lots are core “orangezone” and perimeter “grey-zone.” The core and perimeter lots are closer to campus, have reserved spots, more parking space overall and can only be accessed by faculty and staff via permits (See figure 3). When Gowing was unable to find parking and ended up missing class, he had no other choices beyond the student lots. Faculty and staff, on the other hand, can access and park in the student lots as they wish. “The location isn’t a huge issue, but when you park at the student lots you walk through the reserved lots to get to class,” Gowing said. “You see that they are maybe at most at 75 per cent capacity while students are struggling to find parking just to get to class.” The lack of parking spaces, higher daily flat rates and fair-priced permits has left many students disappointed. “It’s crazy how students who can barely afford to eat, let alone who have to park and drive to school, have literally paid almost double the amount just to park at school,” Emma said. “The whole system is flawed.” Western’s parking services and other campus leaders have been reached for comment and will feature in the next part of this series. Part two of “Student parking at Western: an unusual struggle” investigates the reasons behind the disparities between parking rates and spaces for faculty, staff and students, and what, if anything, is being done to alleviate concerns. *Name has been changed on condition of anonymity.
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8 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
sports
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Men’s cross country earns national bronze MIKE DEBOER SPORTS EDITOR @MIKEGAZETTE The Western Mustangs men’s cross country team had a strong finish to their 2016 season, taking home the bronze medal at the CIS Championships on Saturday in Quebec City, the first medal for the program since 2010. The six Mustangs earned an overall team score of 96, trailing only Trinity Western, who had 88 and gold medallists Laval who won the event with a score of 43. Jack Sheffar led the Mustangs, finishing with a time of 31:18.6, good for ninth of 162 in the meet. Chris Balestrini finished 11th and Ben Carson finished 12th overall. Rounding out the Mustangs top five were Muhumed Sirage, who was 28th overall with a time of 31:44.6 and Matt Sheeler who finished 46th overall with a time of 32:15.2. “I think everyone ran really, really well,” said Sheffar on the team’s performance. “Obviously
we were able to grab a medal which is the first time since 2010 that the men have medaled. So based on that, despite how hard the course was, everyone ran really close to their potential and everyone is fairly happy with how they ran.” Sheffar, Balestrini and Carson were all named second team AllCanadians due to finishing in positions seven to 14 in the national championship meet. The Mustangs were happy with the bronze medal but after finishing less than 10 seconds off Trinity Western’s overall score there was a sense of disappointment in not being able to capture the silver. “We weren’t surprised,” said Sheffar on exceeding expectations en route to the bronze medal. “We had high expectations for ourselves going into the race. We wanted to race and see if we had the chance at winning. We were a little disappointed that we couldn’t grab the silver but all the guys are pleased with the race.”
Head coach Guy Schultz, who was named the Ontario University Athletics coach of the year, was pleased with the team’s performance on the gruelling Quebec City course. “The course condition was windy, cold, muddy and rocky,” said Schultz. “It was the hardest course we ran on this fall but every other team went through that too. It definitely challenged the best so it’s a good course to see who are the best cross country runners.” Overall the team is pleased with the performance and the season as a whole. The program exceeded expectations heading into the season as they were ranked outside of the national top ten. “I think all the guys are thrilled with how everything went and how we raced,” said Sheffar. “Everyone had personal bests and had their best finished at OUA and the [CIS] meets. Especially considering we were ranked 11th at the beginning of the season now we were able to finish third.”
COURTESY OF MATHIEU BELANGER Mustang cross country athlete Jack Sheffar (right) placed ninth in the CIS Championships with a time of 31:18.6.
Greg Marshall is not to blame for Mustangs’ loss Magic Mike
@MIKE DEBOER SPORTS EDITOR @MIKEATGAZETTE In the aftermath of the Mustangs’ epic 40–43 loss to Laurier that saw the Mustangs blow a 40-19 lead with eight minutes left in the game, questions surround the state of the football program. Yes, the loss was difficult. And yes, it was avoidable. The Mustangs were too conservative down the stretch and blown plays on defence allowed Laurier quarterback Michael Knevel to make plays to fuel the Golden Hawks’ comeback. But the criticisms of Greg Marshall as the long-term option for this program are, to be perfectly blunt, comical. If anyone needs reminding, here’s Marshall’s resumé as Mustangs head coach: Marshall took over a Western program that had not won a Yates Cup in eight years. His record since taking over the program in 2007 is 82-25. He’s led the Mustangs to four Yates Cup titles and has eight appearances in the provincial championship game. He’s been named the Ontario University Athletics Coach of the Year four times, twice as Mustangs head coach and twice as head coach of the McMaster Marauders. The OUA has increased in competitiveness over the last three seasons. McMaster and Guelph have joined Western as powerhouse programs who consistently field competitive teams. In the nation’s capital, Steve Sumarah has built the Carleton program into an offensive juggernaught while Ottawa remains a contender in the OUA. And now that Laurier has captured their first Yates Cup title since 2005, the OUA is as difficult to win as it’s ever been. The loss on Saturday wasn’t Marshall’s fault. He admitted that their conservative offensive
approach in the final eight minutes of the game was their downfall. But football coaches are notoriously willing to run out the clock late in games. To blame Marshall for the conservative play is completely unreasonable. Western’s loss could also be attributed to two key missed plays. Mackenzie Ferguson dropped an interception that he would have caught nine out of 10 times. In the fourth quarter with the Mustangs still up, he missed. The game would have been over if he intercepted it. And Fraser Sopik missed a surefire sack of Knevel on a play that ended in a Laurier touchdown. If Sopik brought the Laurier quarterback down, the Golden Hawks would have been done. Defensively the Mustangs were porous in the fourth quarter as the Western secondary failed on coverage as Laurier’s receivers pulled down Knevel’s throws. That lack of execution isn’t on Marshall’s shoulders. The game of college football is an unpredictable affair. College football players make mistakes. Only one team is satisfied at the end of the season. The fans calling for a coaching change need to be more realistic. How would you replace him? Save for UBC’s Blake Nill and Laval’s Glen Constantin there isn’t a better football mind in the world of Canadian college football. And neither Nill nor Constantin would leave the situations they’re in now. Anyone else would be a downgrade. After the devastating loss to Laurier, Marshall wore his emotions on his sleeve. His love for his players is evident. He defended his players in post-game interviews, stressing that the program “wins as a team and loses as a team.” That’s the kind of man you want to lead your program. Marshall is a football genius. But more importantly, his class and integrity in the midst of difficult situations is moving. The Mustangs don’t need to change who leads the program. Western football is in capable hands. The team needs to move forward from Saturday and continue their tradition of excellence with Marshall at the helm.
• www.westerngazette.ca
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • 9
sports
Women’s volleyball earns spot in USport top 10 CLAIRE PALMER SPORTS EDITOR @CLAIREATGAZETTE The Mustangs women’s volleyball team has gotten off to a strong start, going 5-0 to start their season. Their hot start was enough to see the Mustangs crack the USport top 10 this week, sneaking into the 10th spot and beating out Laval by one point. “We kind of looked at each other and we said, ‘Oh my god guys, we did it,’ ” said third-year player Katie McKenna. “Everyone was so Happy. We almost couldn’t believe it at first, but we’re all really excited and it’s giving us a lot of motivation.” Despite a strong third place finish in the last two seasons and an Ontario championship banner in 2010-11, the team has not been ranked in the national top 10 in over six years. The team has been consistently ranked in the 11th seed, getting snubbed for a coveted spot on the top 10 list for most of last season and the first few weeks of this season. “We joked around all last year that we were members of the ‘CIS Top 11’ and then this year we held steady at 11th for a week or two,” said Mustangs head coach Melissa Bartlett in an email. “To finally be recognized as a top 10 team means a lot to our players and coaching staff.” The team’s recent success is the result of the hard work that the team has been putting in over the last few years. The team only lost two players this year and so have the same core group of girls that have been steadily improving over the last three years.
“Our whole 20-person roster is the reason why we’re a top 10 team, we are probably one of the deepest teams in the OUA,” said McKenna. “Our maturity is key as well, we’re more composed in crucial moments, we execute better when we need to.” The team is hoping to maintain their current success throughout the entirety of the season. They’re hoping to extend their winning streak past this weekend, with a double header against Lakehead looming. “We continue to push in practice knowing that our competition gets stronger and stronger the further down the season,” said Bartlett. “We continue to use multiple lineups so that we have a depth of players who have match experience and confidence on the court. “ The team won’t be letting their new ranking go to their heads – they’ll continue preparing and practicing by focusing on one team at a time. “Our motto this year is enter every match with confidence while at the same time giving each team respect,” said Bartlett. “I think if anything, being a ranked team means our team will step onto the court each time with the pride that they are representing Western volleyball.” With back-to-back OUA bronze medals, the team is striving for excellence this season. The team will not be satisfied with anything other than a top two finish in the OUA and an appearance at the USport championship in Toronto. With three teams from the OUA gaining a berth at the championships, the
KYLE PORTER GAZETTE The women’s volleyball team celebrates their OUA final four win for the bronze medal against McMaster last season.
Mustangs have to medal again this year at the OUA championships. “We have the confidence knowing that we return all but one starter from last year’s team,” said Bartlett. “While at the same time having the drive and determination to improve upon our previous finish.” This may be the year it all comes together for the Mustangs. The team hasn’t won the provincial title in six years and they haven’t won a national banner since 1976. For
the team, it’s not just about winning titles, but about establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the OUA. “We kind of want to set a standard for Western Volleyball, we want to raise the bar of where Western is in the OUA,” said McKenna. “Some of the teams have a lot of prestige and credentials that Western volleyball hasn’t had in the last few years, so we would just love to be trailblazers for the program.”
McMaster and Toronto, the defending national champions, will be some of the toughest competition that the Mustangs will face off against this season. The Mustangs will have to face off twice against McMaster before the winter break, with the first test coming next weekend on Nov. 26 at Alumni Hall. They’ll face the defending national champions in February, in the third-last game of the season.
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10 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
culture
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McIntosh Gallery brings urban culture to light AMY SKODAK CULTURE EDITOR @AMYSKODAK Two new exhibitions at McIntosh Gallery are aiming to challenge and break down social and economic structures in an original response to urban culture. T he Vancouver C art s : Photographs by Kelly Wood and Below the Belt: Film/Video from the Great Lakes Region curated by Christine Negus opened on Nov. 3 and will be available to explore until Dec. 10. While each exhibit uses different mediums, they both speak to industrialization in a surprisingly optimistic and realistic light. The Vancouver Carts is a photo series taken by Kelly Wood to explore an active economic structure, hidden from the more upper-class urban landscape. The exhibition consists of exactly what it says — shopping carts. But these carts are featured outside of their grocery store environment, instead inhabiting downtown streets, sidewalks and storefronts. “I began photographing Vancouver’s ‘cart culture’ in 2004 and 2005,” Wood explains. “Documenting the urban phenomena of repurposed shopping carts by the homeless and enterprising binners.” She defines ‘cart culture’ as the multifaceted uses for shopping carts amongst those living on the streets — carts become a livelihood and a means for transportation of goods. Wood uses the term “binners”
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to describe street workers who collect recyclables using shopping carts. As her photography series grew, Wood found and shot over 100 carts to “produce a photography series emblematic of the conjoined realities of homelessness and ongoing gentrification in [her] home city Vancouver, a Canadian city with one of the highest housing costs in the world.” The photos now hanging in the McIntosh Gallery hold images that scream for recognition and acknowledgement of issues of poverty and ownership, the divisions of wealth and material culture.
The symbol of the shopping cart, as Wood explains, communicates a revival of otherwise deteriorated urban communities. Walking amongst the largescale images is an eye opening, raw experience of an ordinarily ignored aspect of urban culture. Negus’s neighbouring exhibit Below the Belt is a curated collection of short films by nine contemporary artists who have lived in or are currently living in the Great Lakes region, known as The New Rust Belt due to the area’s link to declining industry and aging factories in southern Ontario.
Western Reads The Masked Truth
by Kelley Armstrong, BA’91 Join us – and meet the author! A Western alumna, Kelley has published 21 fantasy novels, including those in the Otherworld, Cainsville, Darkest Powers, and Age of Legends series. Wednesday, November 23 at 7 p.m. The Green Leaf Café, Somerville House #purplereads alumni.westernu.ca/western-reads
“In the face of decay, works in this screening re-contextualize industrialization,” says Negus. “In terms of approaching this curatorial project, I wanted to look at industrialization not simply as a ‘before and after’ scenario but to view it through the eyes of people making work in the region.” The video curation presents an eccentric variety of film that challenges the viewer to take a moment and reflect on loss and destruction, the broken and the abandoned. Negus admits that while the piece stems from a devastating topic, the works range from satirical critiques to intimate
perspectives of “the cyclical nature of the process of growth and death.” The compilation of the film is both subtle and unsettling, thought provoking and demonstrative of the variety of work being produced “below the (rust) belt” despite its industrious decline. The pairing of both Vancouver Carts and Below the Belt is a unique look at suburban life presented through unexpected subject matter. The exhibitions will be displayed at the McIntosh Gallery until Dec. 3, open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• www.westerngazette.ca
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 • 11
culture
W5: The startup to help startups AMY SKODAK CULTURE EDITOR @AMYSKODAK
As a student entrepreneur, Braden Ream-Neal remembers how difficult it was to begin and to develop his now successful app, Flare. He wishes there had been more support to help lift his idea off the ground. This need became the spark behind why W5 was founded two months ago. “I came up with this idea on a park bench,” says the second-year BMOS student specializing in consumer behaviour. “I was talking with my buddy and I was like, ‘Man there’s just no support for ideabased startups.’” Ream-Neal explains that his initial idea was to create a fivemonth mentorship program that pairs five student entrepreneurs with five established local companies to help them build their startup. Since that park-bench conversation, Ream-Neal has partnered with fourth-year engineering student Kirill Kokorin and third-year social sciences student Zach Friedman. They’ve increased their number of entrepreneur spots from five to 15 to better promote cross collaboration and the program runs during a fourmonth semester. W5 is a non-profit and is raising sponsorship funds to help their startups grow. There will also be an internal pitch competition at the end of the program with cash prizes up for grabs. Interested students must apply online to be a part of W5’s 15-member program. “When you get enough smart people and enough ambitious
people in a room, something amazing is going to happen,” Ream-Neal says. “That was a big inspiration behind W5.” The three managing partners are passionate about the power of ideas when given the chance to grow, saying that too often business ventures fizzle out or become forgotten. Ream-Neal admits he had little familiarity with software when he started with W5, but working with the start-up has been a valuable experience. “Especially for students, entrepreneurship can be scary,” says Kokorin. “You’re taking a risk. Having mentors that have been through the process and help you take that first step is exactly why we call ourselves an ‘ideation accelerator’ because we go from ideation to ‘here, go get started.’ ” To maintain this momentum, W5 will be helping entrepreneurs set attainable goals and hold them accountable for their deadlines each month. Kokorin adds that W5 has generated significant traction on campus, presumably because the program offers a service otherwise missing from currently available entrepreneurial resources like Propel. “[Propel] is an amazing resource and working space you can go to to get help,” Ream-Neal says. “W5, on the other hand, is a fast-paced program designed to take 15 of Western’s brightest aspiring entrepreneurs and help them build the team, network and skill set they need to build their company and bring something to market in four months.” W5 also speaks to the flexibility
MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE Form left to right: Kirill Kokorin, Braden Ream-Neal, Zach Friedman.
they provide. Kokorin says the fact that W5 is also still a startup works to its advantage. He explains that joining something like Propel requires you to fill out a client intake form and already have a logo design and branding direction. This can be troublesome because being in the idea stage means you still need the space to change and evolve your startup. W5 has thrived off of flexibility because they still have room to grow. Kokorin hopes their program will provide this wiggle room for other student entrepreneurs as well.
Twelve Angry Men, one groundbreaking show ARI MATCHEN CONTRIBUTOR @GAZETTECULTURE Director: Jack Phoenix and Danny Avila Starring: Alexandrea Gaistman, Jack Copland, Zerina Francis Rating: GGGGF A dimly lit room, an hour and a halflong scene and a palpable feeling of anxiety: these are all elements of Theatre Western’s production of Twelve Angry Men. The show thrives on its uniqueness and is able to provide an interactive experience that disregards the classic limitations of theatre. The show is based on the 1957 film of the same name by Sidney Lumet, and follows 12 jurors (cast gender-neutrally in Theatre Western’s version) who are tasked with determining the guilt or innocence of a man on trial for murder. Their decision will mean the difference between life and death for the accused, and their choice must be unanimous. What follows is one continuous scene without breaks for the actors or the audience as the jurors work through their conflicting views. The stage is set up in the middle of the theatre with the audience’s seats surrounding it. The central set pieces are a table and 12 chairs, and no consequential changes are made throughout the show. This setting is especially effective in bringing the audience into the action; the tempers are felt up close, and the smell of the cigarette smoke reaches all corners of the space. Naturally, the high stakes and claustrophobic setting draw out the deepest values and insecurities of
the jurors. Their transformations are drawn out subtly and realistically, making profound use of the unique stage. The one true disappointment of the show is that depending on the seat, the viewer may become well-acquainted with the back of an actor’s head. One of the standout performances is given by Copland as Juror number three, a role that speaks to the privilege and burden of the paternal figure. He wrestles with his own beliefs throughout the show and he does so with the intensity of a cage match. Francis dives into her role as Juror number four, and provides a convincingly steady, yet powerful voice. Performances such as these make the acting believable and is a testament to the co-directing of Jack Phoenix and Danny Avila. What’s most surprising about this show is despite the original film being released more than 50 years ago, the content still feels vitally relevant. The accused murderer’s race is repeatedly discussed as a means of proving his guilt, indicating the level of influence race still has on societal perceptions of others. Similar to today’s world, the jurors must work through these issues, and when they’ve reached a decision, attempt to heal their wounds and reach common ground. Twelve Angry Men is a unique show with strong performances and boundary-pushing direction. Being in the same confined space as the actors provides a transcendent experience that is well worth the price of admission. It’s not traditional, but it is definitely timely. Nov.16-19, 8p.m., Mustang Lounge
He adds that they’ve also acquired a diversified group of mentors across a variety of areas including sales, manufacturing, IPP protection and more to offer help tailored to clients. Among the mix of mentors in and outside of campus are CEOs of public companies, a Silicone Valley VC, Greg Isenberg and the Western developers of Bottle Flip 2k16. Through mentorship, W5 aims to jumpstart entrepreneurs’ ideas by sharing experiences of success and failure. As the program grows, Ream-Neal, Kokorin and Friedman
hope that W5 will add legitimacy to the startups under their direction, helping students to persevere through the initial adversity of starting a business. “We hope that in the future, students in high school make the decision to go to Western because of W5, because they’re entrepreneurs and they think their idea could become something,” Kokorin says. It is their hope that W5 will change the landscape of innovation at Western. W5 Applications are open to student entrepreneurs until Nov. 21. To apply, visit the W5 Facebook page.
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PUT YOUR SUDOKU SAVVY TO THE TEST! To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes.
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12 • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
games
PHOTO OF THE DAY
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CROSSWORD BY EUGENE SHEFFER
MAAILAH BLACKWOOD GAZETTE ART ATTACK! The Visual Arts Supporters Association host their annual event dedicated to selling and promoting the artwork of students on campus.
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