March 4, 2013

mark

1951–2013

harris

mArch 4, 2013 | volume xciv| issue xliiiNO MAN IS AN ISLAND SINCE 1918

banner weekend for t-bird athletics P6

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 2your guide To ubc evenTs + people

staffbryce Warnes, josh curran, peter Wojnar, Anthony poon, veronika bondarenko, yara van kessel, catherine guan, ginny monaco, matt meuse, hogan Wong, rory gatt ens, brandon chow, joseph ssett uba. Tyler mcrobbie, sarah bigam, stephanie xu, natalya kautz, colin chia, kim pringle

mArch 4, 2013 | volume xciv| issue xliii

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Video contentWatch our editors go toe-to-toe with the women’s hockey team in our latest video, airing now at ow.ly/iieON.

Savannah King’s careergoing swimmingly

Mallorie DaviesContributor

Savannah King, UBC student and world-class swimmer, has accomplished a lot in her career thus far.

She has competed in two Olympics, and, after the recent CIS nationals in Calgary, was named the female national Swimmer of the Year for the second year running.

In anticipation of International Women’s Day on Friday, King sat down to discuss her experi-ences as an elite female athlete.

Of the UBC team, King said, “We don’t actually think of it as a girls’ and guys’ team.” King said she appreciates the inclusive team mentality, noting, “It’s nice to be thought of as equals like that.”

Despite having a male coach her entire time at UBC, and most of her swimming career, King had only good things to report about her experiences.

King described how her coach kept her motivated during her “plateau” phase, a phe-nomenon experienced by many young swim-mers that often leads to discouragement and withdrawal from the sport.

“My coach really helped me through that time and believed in me that I could definite-ly get through it and continue on to be better afterwards,” she said.

“A lot of the top-level coaches are older men. The younger coaches coming up, there are gradually more and more females.”

However, King said, female coaches aren’t gaining footholds everywhere in the world. She shared a story from her time in London during the 2012 Olympics.

“I got on the bus and this girl is sitting there. She waves me over and she’s from Togo, and I found out she’s the only woman on her team and I think she said that she was one of the first women to ever compete for her country in the Olympics,” King recalled. “She was swimming the 50 [metre] the next day. I got the whole Canadian team to cheer for her.

“I thought that was really cool,” King said of the encounter. “That was one of the coolest parts of being there.”

Meeting that woman may have been an inspiring experience for King, but it seems that she herself is an inspiring figure for the young swimmers that attend the summer camp she works at. “There a few girls who always hang out with me,” she said with a laugh. “They fol-low me on Instagram now.”

As King rises in seniority on the UBC team, she has the opportunity to take new recruits under her wing.

“We have what’s called Baby Bird and Mama Bird,” said King, describing the practice of pairing new recruits with senior athletes. “[There are] definitely a lot of bonds that have formed and they’re such great friends.”

King remembers her own Mama Bird, Hannah Pierse, fondly, and believes that the program will continue to be a success in future years.

Looking ahead, the trials for the FINA World Championships, held in Barcelona this July, will occur during the first week of April. The Universiade Games are to be held in Russia earlier in the summer. King also aspires to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio. U

what’s on This Week, mAy We suggesT... our camPus one on one WiTh The people Who mAke ubc

MONDAY 4

estHeR sHAleV-GeRZ eXHIBItION 2 – 5 P.M. @ BELKIN ART GALLERYvisit this lithuanian-born artist’s instal-lation, which questions place, history, personal direction and much more.

TUESDAY 5

puRple & YellOW MeCHANIC WORK pARtY6–9 P.M. @ THE BIKE KITCHENbiking in vancouver is so chic. but do you know what’s more chic? Fixing your own bike! come to the bike kitchen and help maintain the campus co-op’s cycles, be-cause you never know when your new skill will come in handy.

WEDNESDAY 6

pOetRY ReADING6:30 P.M. @ FIRST

NATIONS LONGHOUSETake it easy tonight and enjoy a poetry reading by Al hunter. A part of the robson reading

series, this night will be the calm reprieve you need on hump day.

ON THE

COVER

mark harris, beloved ubc fi lm professor and vancouver fi lm critic, passed away on Feb. 26 aft er a batt le with lymphoma. in addition to his teaching work, he was a contributor to the Georgia Straight and several other well-known publications. cover photo bayne stanley, ubc public Aff airs.

josh currAn phoTo/The ubyssey

UWriteShootEdit CodeDrinkCOME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

womyn’s suPPlement Previewcheck the next issue for the supplement

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 3ediTors WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

uBC’s riding prepares for provincial election

now that the b.c. conservative party has nominated duane nickull as its candidate for vancouver–point grey, ubc’s riding is shaping up for the upcoming provincial election.

The riding, which covers all of ubc campus and stretches out to Arbutus and 16th Avenue, is currently held by b.c. liberal premier christy clark. clark, aft er being named head of the liberal party, won the seat in a close by-election against ndp candidate and former b.c. civil liberties As-sociation head david eby in 2011. in that race, clark won with 48 per cent of the vote and eby came in second with 45 per cent.

As it stands, both clark and eby plan to run in the riding again for this spring’s election.

but the liberals are currently scrambling aft er leaked documents showed the party expected “quick wins” among ethnic voters if they off ered well-timed apologies for historical wrongdoing against some marginalized groups. There’s still a chance the party may oust clark or call the election earlier than the legislated date of may 14.

if the election is called for a date earlier than may 14, it could sig-nifi cantly impact the outcome of the point grey riding. over 5,000 seasonal student residents of ubc campus leave during the summer months, and the total votes in the riding have yet to top 30,000. U

Study supports rapid transit to campus

Michaëlle Jean speaks at Arts Last Lecture

events >>

ubc and the city of vancouver are advocating for a rapid transit lane across the busy broadway corridor to ubc.collyn chAn grAphic/The ubyssey

transit >>

Laura RodgersNews Editor

UBC and the City of Vancouver are intensifying the push for rapid transit along Broadway. They’ve released a study sup-porting a rapid transit line from Commercial Drive to UBC, but the potential project is still very far in the future.

The $100,000 study from consulting firm KPMG, jointly funded by UBC and the City of Vancouver, argues that rapid transit along Broadway is needed to fuel job growth at UBC and other employment hubs along the route, such as Vancouver Coastal Health.

Mayor Gregor Robertson is using the report to push for a subway line below the Broadway area, which he said would cost $2.8 billion to build. “We need a

subway rapid transit system that will allow us to compete with tech hubs like Toronto and New York City and unleash the addi-tional economic and investment potential along the corridor,” said Robertson in a release.

And while the UBC admin-istration and its AMS student society are both in favour of rapid transit, they’re both reluctant to express a preference for subway versus above-ground rail, or for how the project would be funded.

Tanner Bokor, the AMS’s new VP External, is behind the student society’s recent change in direction for transit advocacy. As the former head of the independ-ent but AMS-incubated lobby group Get OnBoard, Bokor was careful in his push to increase transit funding across the Lower Mainland without prioritizing

transit to UBC.Now that he’s left Get On-

Board, Bokor’s still adamant the AMS shouldn’t push for Broadway to get first dibs on rapid-transit expansion — even as UBC and the City of Vancouver are loudly calling for exactly that.

“[UBC] students that are trav-elling from south of the Fraser, they will be taking whatever form of rapid transit is instituted in Surrey,” said Bokor.

The rapid-transit push from the university and the city comes at a time when B.C.’s political parties are preparing their plat-forms for the upcoming prov-incial election. The provincial government controls the levers of transit funding, and they’re currently at a stalemate with the region’s mayors, who control TransLink, over ideas to bring

more funding in.The idea has been floated to

have UBC pitch in on the cost of a transit line to the university — similar to how Vancouver Inter-national Airport pitched in for the Canada Line. But at present, UBC’s budget is ailing, and there has been little enthusiasm for this idea.

As far as transit advocacy on behalf of UBC students, Bo-kor said he’ll continue to push the provincial government to open up new mechanisms of transit funding.

“Road pricing is one we’re very strong about … [and] we still think a reallocation of corporate taxes [is] a great idea,” said Bokor. “We recognize that substantial funds have to be put up, and we have to start asking the tough questions of who will do that.” U

Brandon ChowStaff Writer

Last Friday evening, former gov-ernor general of Canada Michaëlle Jean spoke at the annual Arts Last Lecture.

Jean focused on the importance of humanitarianism, the power of the arts to change the world and the value of education during the lecture. The event, hosted by the Arts Undergraduate Society, aims to inspire students at the end of the term.

Near the beginning of the lecture, Jean put forth her own aspiration: that by the end of her presentation, people would leave the Chan Centre with a “renewed intent to do something useful and great for the common good.”

Drawing from her own personal anecdotes, Jean also talked about the importance of education, and how it brought her from being an impoverished Haitian refu-gee to the 27th governor general of Canada.

After reducing her life story into 45 minutes onstage, Jean im-parted one final takeaway for the night: the value of “[getting] in-volved in a citizen-led, nourishing initiative, because through your own engagement, you can have a meaningful and lasting impact on the world and the people around you.”

The evening then transitioned into a question-and-answer session. Jean fielded a variety of questions on topics such as her thought process behind pro-roguing parliament in 2009 and allegations of sympathizing with Quebec separatists.

Julian Law, a fourth-year UBC student, said that as a political sci-ence and economics major, Jean’s discourse on democratic theory resonated with him the most.

Fourth-year philosophy major Patrick Shmied said he thought Jean was very well-spoken and particularly appreciated her message of global solidarity and “sticking to your guns and what you believe in” when working towards personal goals.

UBC geography professor Dan Hiebert, who acted as an intro-ductory speaker, later commented that the main challenge for graduating students is finding their place in the world; therefore, he said, “The linking between personal and public work was a great message that everyone in the audience could take away.”

To conclude the night, Jean was presented with a Grammy-nomin-ated anthology of historic Haitian music that was compiled by UBC dean of Arts and Haitian scholar Gage Averill. After accepting the gift, Jean quickly offered the col-lection as a donation to the nation-al archive of Haiti, in tribute to all that was lost in the 2010 Haitian earthquake. U

hogAn Wong phoTo/The ubyssey

michaëlle jean, former governor general of canada, gave a lecture encouraging students to give back.

NEWS BRIEFS Naming of campus elementary school sparks debate

community >>

Kaavya LakshmananContributor

The new elementary school on Acadia Road has sparked a passionate debate around its potential name.

Many children living on campus bus out to the current, temporary location of Acadia Road School: a cluster of portables at Queen Eliza-beth Elementary on 16th Avenue. But the school will soon move into a new building along Acadia Road on UBC campus, at the old site of University Hill Secondary School. There’s considerable debate from community members on whether to call the new building “Acadia Road School” or name it after renowned Musqueam elder and education activist Rose Point, who passed away in July 2012.

According to Vancouver School Board trustee Mike Lombardi, this is the first time in recent memory that a sizable number of people have expressed interest in a potential name for a school in Vancouver.

According to Lombardi, a committee was established for naming the new school, which included two members from the Musqueam education committee, as well as school administrative representatives.

Lombardi said most of the people on the naming committee

are in favour of naming the school for Point, who did considerable work supporting education in the Musqueam community, served on various Vancouver School Board committees and did education-re-lated research at UBC.

Charles Menzies, associate professor of anthropology at UBC and member of the University Neighbourhoods Association’s board of directors, was also part of the naming committee. According to Menzies, the Vancouver School Board has adopted a new policy for ensuring more schools at Vancou-ver use aboriginal names.

Melanie Antweiler, whose son goes to the school, is in favour of keeping “Acadia” as the school’s name.

According to Antweiler, the school has built a strong identity around the name “Acadia.” She said parents and students identify with it and are proud of the name the school has had since it first

opened in 2011. Antweiler main-tains that the school board has not provided an adequate case as to why the name needs to be changed.

“My stance — backed up by the parents — is that this should have been treated as a re-naming process done under the policies for naming a school,” said Antweiler.

Antweiler said she feels that had the parents and students been consulted more, they would have been more receptive to the name “Rose Point.”

Menzies said he saw a coloni-alist approach in the parents’ insistence on keeping the “Aca-dia” name. The Vancouver School Board’s web page about the school’s naming process notes that the new building will be on trad-itional Musqueam territory.

Lombardi said he expects the school will be renamed “Rose Point.” The school board is ex-pected to make a final decision on the name this month. U

kAi jAcobson phoTo/The ubyssey

The site of the new elementary school, which is set to open in spring 2014.

4 | NeWs | MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013

Caroline Wong, the 104th president of the AMS, has just started her term — but she’s no newcomer to student

politics. When she served as VP Administration last

year, the other (older) AMS executives affec-tionately called the 20-year-old Wong “baby exec.” But after winning the presidential race on her 21st birthday, she hopes to bring “fresh energy” to the $15-million student society she now controls.

Wong said she plans to focus on getting the AMS ready to move into the new Student Union Building, set to be completed in September 2014. She also hopes to give the society’s notoriously complicated structure an organizational overhaul.

“The AMS can be improved,” said Wong. She said she wants to fix the society’s finan-cial health and communications policies so they’re “up to the prestige [level] of the new SUB” — a $100-million project aim-ing for LEED platinum status that should set the standard for student centres across the country.

Wong believes the AMS is currently lack-ing a “unifying vision.” She wants to create a strategic plan that will guide everything the AMS does in the next five to ten years. Wong said the society’s current mission statement, which says that the AMS aims to “be among the best student associations in the world,” is not specific enough to give direction and purpose to AMS businesses and services.

“We [can] improve daily operations as part of a long-term plan,” she said.

Another goal of Wong’s is to begin a review of all the AMS services, such as AMS Tutor-ing, Safewalk and Minischool, to assess if they are still relevant to students. She said this may not be done by the end of her term, but she wants to at least get it started.

The AMS’s newly formed Business and Ad-ministration Governance Board will take con-trol of AMS businesses this year. Wong, who will sit on the board, sees her role as a go-be-tween for the board and AMS Council. Part of her job will be ensuring Council doesn’t slide back into old habits and let business-related minutiae gum up the works. Wong pledged to make sure any business-related ideas are vetted through the board first.

Wong said the project she’s most excited about this year is the “Female Leadership Network,” a mentorship group she’s just begun to form. She hopes to connect female leaders on campus to outside profession-als and high school students, a structure she’s cribbed from UBC’s “tri-mentoring” programs. Wong said she’s spoken to other career-driven female networking groups such as Women in Engineering and Young Women in Business, and she hopes her new network will encourage female UBC students to take on more leadership roles.

“Seeing that UBC is 50-something per cent female, I really hope that more female leaders get involved, not just with AMS but with all aspects of student life,” said Wong, who is the first female AMS president since 2004.

Altogether, Wong is looking forward to making progress in her goals for the AMS. “I’m really privileged to have such a really committed and experienced team,” Wong said. “I know we’re going to go very far.” U

—Ming Wong

Matt Parson, the outgoing AMS president, thinks the AMS took on some big projects during his term

in office — but it still has a lot of work to do to sort out the details of the new SUB.

The fate of the proposed microbrewery in the new SUB is still up in the air. The AMS has spent over $50,000 on professional con-sultations on the brewery, but hasn’t decided if it will have a place in the new SUB. Parson said the AMS hit far more roadblocks than they expected this year, but is hopeful that students will continue to push for the project.

The fate of the Whistler Lodge also re-mains uncertain. A recent survey has shown that UBC students are in favour of keeping and renovating the lodge, and the AMS executive committee shared that opinion this year. Parson said he hopes the AMS will do more to promote the lodge if they end up keeping it.

The AMS businesses ran a deficit of nearly $100,000 from May to November 2012. Par-son said business revenue has been improving over the last few months, but the AMS still has work to do on its marketing, especially given the increased construction on campus.

“It’s scary to see how large of an impact the construction around the SUB has on traffic through our building,” said Parson.

AMS executives got a raise this year, but for the first time, $5,000 of their $32,500 pay cheques was withheld until they met certain goals set at the start of their terms. Parson said he had some issues with how this new pay program was assessed and implemented this year.

“I think that the program is a net positive, but just like any pilot year, you’re obviously going to identify areas that you would like to see improved on,” said Parson. The commit-tee that decides whether any of Parson’s pay will be withheld hasn’t finished making their decision yet.

During Parson’s campaign for office, he promised to talk to 1,000 students and docu-ment each encounter to better connect with the student body and make the AMS more relevant. He didn’t set this as an official goal that would affect his pay, though. He said he did wind up talking to over 1,000 students during his term, but he found documenting the chats too tedious.

“I know I can say definitely that all these conversations did have a significant impact on how exactly I went about making my deci-sions,” said Parson.

Parson defined his term as an over-all success, citing big projects the AMS took on, such as the Get OnBoard transit advocacy campaign.

“I think it was just a result of a fantastic team dynamic, coupled with a willingness to think a little larger than just the average,” said Parson.

Parson said he thought the AMS will be in good hands with incoming president Caroline Wong.

“She’s got a fantastic team around her. There’s definitely one piece that every presi-dent needs to have,... and that’s unwavering commitment to serve the students, which she’s already proven to have, and loads of it,” said Parson. U

—Will McDonald

The state of the (student) union

Outgoing AMS president matt Parson refl ects on a

turbulent year; incoming president caroline wong shares her vision

for the road ahead


MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | FeAtuRe | 5

Arno RosenfeldFeatures Editor

In 2011, the heads of UBC’s pro-Is-rael and pro-Palestinian groups sat down and had a discussion.

But when you ask Dan Barak and Omar Shaban what actually hap-pened during their meeting, the details get murky.

Barak, the former president of the Israel Awareness Club (IAC) at UBC, said he was eager to start a dialogue with his pro-Palestinian counterpart.

But Shaban, director of the UBC chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), said it was he who wanted to start the discussion.

“I sat down with Omar Shaban a year ago and said, ‘Let’s do an activity together,’” Barak said. “His answer was, ‘Nope.’”

Shaban said the issue was that the IAC would not accept a statement on Israeli and Palestinian equality as a precondition of the meeting.

If the meeting looked like an op-portunity for relations between the two groups to thaw, things quickly reverted to the standard feelings of opposition.

The Israeli-Palestinian con-flict is one of the most intracta-ble political issues on university campuses today, enduring as other movements — anti-nuclear protests, anti-abortion activism, Occupy, Idle No More, environmental protests — come and go.

Given that we are in the midst of SPHR’s Israel Apartheid Week at UBC, and next week the IAC will put on their own week of events, The Ubyssey consulted academics specializing in protest movements and group psychology to learn what makes this conflict different from other campus causes. We are not as-sessing the merits of either side’s be-liefs, nor summarizing the conflict.

What we learned paints a dark picture of a conflict as inflexible as the one playing out between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea thousands of miles away — al-beit one with far less at stake and perhaps with some light at the end of the tunnel.

AN ENDURING CONFLICT

David Meyer, a sociologist at the University of California, Irvine, spoke to what has made this partic-ular cause so entrenched.

“The thing that makes a move-ment endure, particularly on cam-puses, is some sort of institutional support,” Meyer said.

While the SPHR and IAC claim autonomy, major international or-ganizations directly and indirectly back both sides of the conflict on campuses across North America.

“Having both sides on this one means that everybody’s always got something to do, even if it’s just to give their opponents a hard time,” Meyer said.

UBC sociology professor Rima Wilkes said that given the attention

the media pays toward Israel and the Middle East, students might be more aware of the conflict than other humanitarian issues.

“I lived in the U.S. for a year and I got the impression that outside of the U.S., Israel and Afghanistan were the only coun-tries around,” Wilkes said.

The conflict’s long history also makes it more enduring, accord-ing to UBC psychology professor Andrew Baron.

“If every year the Bruins and the Canucks were playing a Game Seven of the Stanley Cup, it would be a lot harder for people to forget and move on,” Baron added.

WHY SO DIVISIVE?

Not only is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enduring, it’s also tremen-dously divisive. In UBC’s case, lead-ers of both the IAC and SPHR were quick to explain their problems with the other group.

The Israeli club on campus teaches students “how to attack Palestinian students and how to attack anyone who is pro-Pal-estinian,” Shaban said. “They pretty much teach them the art of defamation.”

Naturally, IAC members see things differently.

“I think [Shaban] twisted things completely. He flipped the two roles,” said Ido Refaeli, president of the IAC. “We feel like all we’re doing is defending ourselves.”

Baron, who specializes in inter-group relations, said this disconnect between rival groups is natural. He returned to sports anal-ogies, giving the example of fans from dueling teams interpreting the same play wildly differently, with some cheering and others wanting a penalty called.

Meyer added that without any resolution on the horizon in the Middle East, groups on campus can maintain strict ideologies without pragmatic Israeli or Palestinian leaders undercutting their pure rhetoric.

“What gives them legs? Well, no progress gives them legs,” Meyer said. “There’s no incentive for compromise.”

Baron said that once people strongly identify with a group, they begin perceiving events based on a group mentality.

“[Groups] distort the lens through which we perceive objective ac-tions,” Baron said. “We see things in a way that’s self-favouring and more depreciating to the out-group.”

DIFFERENT MISSIONS

Baron was taken aback by the fact that the IAC and SPHR won’t meet.

“They’re mirroring what actually happens over there,” Baron said.

How to get two groups so deeply entrenched in conflict to work with each other is the “gazillion-dollar question,” according to Baron.

Working toward a shared

non-political goal, such as throwing a dance together or participating in a team-building exercise, might build the necessary trust to begin a dialogue about the conflict itself, Baron said.

But to understand why that’s unlikely to happen, it’s necessary to understand the differences between the two groups.

For the IAC, advocating for Israel is part of a broader mission that includes promoting Israeli film, music and food and raising money for charity.

In contrast, SPHR is a solidarity movement focused around advoca-cy, according to Shaban. One goal of the group, Shaban said, is to isolate those who promote what he consid-ers to be an oppressive ideology, like the IAC. Engaging in an open dia-logue would work against SPHR’s goal, unless the IAC were first to give up their objectionable ideology.

“We are attacking them and how they do things,” Shaban said.

MOVING FORWARD

Once opposing sides become as divided as they are in this conflict, groups become unwilling to com-promise or be self-critical, Baron said.

This was evident in the interview with IAC members, who said they felt that the message being present-ed during Israel Apartheid Week compelled them to amp up their own activism.

Were the debate on campus not so polarized, UBC might hear more nuanced advocacy.

“The Palestinians are suffering. So Canadians, we feel empathy,” explained IAC member Daniel Raff. “At the same time, as the only de-mocracy in the Middle East, Israel is being attacked and having to sacrifice its security. As a Canadian, you can empathize with both sides.”

But with IAC members feeling defensive, this is not the message the club will be promoting during their own week, which begins next week.

“When you’re throwing so much disinformation that is all aimed at bashing the Israeli side of the pic-ture, you’re not going to see me sit-ting there with flowers, saying, ‘Oh my God, I really understand where

you’re coming from,’” said Barak, former IAC president.

The use of loaded language like “apartheid” and some of the imag-ery — a Palestinian flag dripping with blood, for example — at SPHR’s Israel Apartheid Week table in the SUB understandably put the IAC on edge. However, a Ubyssey reporter overheard SPHR president Haneen Karajah telling one interested stu-dent that the best way to learn more would be to find some books on the subject at Koerner Library — hardly an inflammatory suggestion.

Indeed, Shaban said he places a heavy emphasis on education in his group.

“I could have easily made a list of talking points and said, ‘This is what you can say to students,’” Shaban said. “Instead I said, ‘No, there’s a big, fat library in the mid-dle of campus.’”

This culture of learning belies the IAC’s belief, strongly expressed in the interview, that SPHR is dedicat-ed to, intentionally or not, spreading misinformation to students (which SPHR also accused the IAC of).

That’s not to say all of SPHR or the IAC’s promotional material is accurate; in this debate, everyone seems to think they’re right.

“Even though it’s a complex topic, it’s very uncontroversial,” SPHR member Ian MacDonald claimed. “Like, the facts are on the Palestinian side.”

Such an attitude plays into Baron’s explanation of how in-group members on both sides genu-inely perceive things through a lens that confirms their own bias.

“How can anybody say, ‘I don’t have the truth’?” asked Michael Silbert, the rabbi at UBC’s Hillel House. “Well, I have the truth and you have truth and they’re not nec-essarily the same thing.”

A CHANCE FOR PROGRESS

But despite both sides feeling at-tacked and wronged by the other, there is some cause for hope.

In interviews with both groups, an openness and sense of under-standing snuck through, especially among the newer members.

Karajah, in her first year as SPHR president, expressed understand-ing over why IAC members felt

defensive.“Obviously when it comes to is-

sues of identity, it’s very hard to look past what you’ve been told,” said Karajah, who is in her second year at UBC. “So when I am presenting you with information that contra-dicts who you see yourself as, the response is going to be emotional and angry.”

On the pro-Israel side, when asked whether he thought SPHR members genuinely believed the information they were promoting, Rafaeli, who is also in his first year as club president, gave SPHR the benefit of the doubt.

“I think so,” Rafaeli said, after pausing to consider the question.

Perhaps hardened by years of activism, both Shaban and Barak seemed much more cynical than their club’s newer leaders.

That both sides’ new leaders see the other as operating from a place of honesty, even if they’re far from agreeing on the facts, is a positive sign.

Baron said that while time spent without dialogue can help if it leads to groups finding new leaders with fresh ideas, groups shouldn’t avoid each other indefinitely.

“Time helps, but there are costs to time as well,” Baron said. “History can be shackles in many respects.”

Silbert said he hopes progress is made soon, as the standoffish-ness between the two groups, who lack any control over events in the Middle East, seems unproductive.

“I look at us waging a battle on a campus in British Columbia, thousands of miles away, and I don’t think I’ll always understand what it’s about,” Silbert said. U

If every year the Bruins and the Canucks were

playing a Game Seven of the Stanley Cup, it would be a lot harder

for people to forget and move on.

Andrew BaronUBC pyschology professor

why can’t we be friends?friends?

indiAnA joel illusTrATion/The ubyssey

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 6EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

volleyball >>

T-Birds strike gold once againFor the sixth straight year, UBC women’s volleyball is the best in CanadaC.J. PentlandSports + Rec Editor

Six straight national champion-ships. Twenty-five straight wins to end the season. Only one set dropped during the entire national tournament. Winning is the only way that the UBC women’s volley-ball team knows how to go about their business.

The Thunderbirds barely seemed to break a sweat this past weekend during CIS nationals, where they successfully defended their national title for the fifth straight year. They took down the University of Laval in straight sets in the quarterfinals, came back to easily handle Trinity Western Uni-versity in four sets in the semis, and made it look easy against the University of Alberta Pandas in Saturday’s gold medal game. No one else really had a chance.

In a rematch of last year’s CIS final, UBC pounced out to an early lead in the first set, taking it 25-13 and setting the tone for the rest of the match. Alberta hung tough in the second, but the T-Birds came up big at the end, winning it 25-23. And in the third, they dashed all hopes of an Alberta comeback. Just like they had all season, the T-Birds got out to an early lead and never looked back, taking the third set 25-18 and adding an exclama-tion point to a dominating year.

If there was any sense that UBC had gotten complacent this year, that was all erased after Satur-day’s win. The ’Birds continuously had the Pandas on their heels, and Alberta’s quality offensive

chances were few and far between. On the other side, UBC was able to find clean looks all match, as setter Brina Derksen-Bergen kept Alberta guessing all game and spread the ball evenly throughout the floor.

“I think our passing improved.... I think Brina did a good job of mixing things up and mixing speeds up to the outside, so we just had very good flow in all the skill areas,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer to CiTR.

The main beneficiaries of

Derksen-Bergen’s 30 assists were Shanice Marcelle and Lisa Barclay. In her last game as a T-Bird, the CIS MVP Marcelle had another strong performance, racking up 11 kills and totalling five digs. Barclay had one of her best games of the year, hammer-ing home 16 kills on a .538 hitting percentage, and middle Jessica von Schilling also had an effective game from the serving line, deliv-ering five aces.

Barclay was named tournament MVP for the second straight year,

and was named to the all-tourney team along with Marcelle and Derksen-Bergen. It was the fifth straight year that Marcelle was named to the tourney all-star team, and the fifth straight CIS gold medal for her, Derksen-Ber-gen and Danielle Richards.

As a team, UBC hit for a .320 percentage — helped by a spark-ling .542 percentage in the first set — while they limited Alberta to a mere .149 percentage. They also out-blocked Alberta 14 to eight, had three more aces and had three

players in double figures in points. It wasn’t just a performance that is delivered by national champion-ship teams; it was one delivered by teams who win six straight national championships.

“In the last couple of years, I can’t remember a better group in terms of consistency of training and bringing good energy,” said Reimer. “They made it a very low stress year for me, because they’ve come to play every night [and] come to train every day.”

With the sixth straight gold medal, UBC ties the CIS women’s volleyball record for most con-secutive national championships, tying the record held by Winnipeg and Alberta. The T-Birds will be losing several key players next year — Marcelle, Derksen-Bergen, von Schilling and Richards — but they’ve shown in the past that they can deal with losing players, and they look to be in prime position to make it seven in a row next year.

“Every moment with this team has been a highlight,” said Mar-celle. “It’s been the most amaz-ing group of girls that I’ve every played with, and I’m going to take so much from this experience. I’m really grateful that I got to share my five years with these girls.”

UBC’s head coach Doug Reimer said earlier this year that he wasn’t worried that his team hadn’t lost in a while, and that all the winning wouldn’t make his team compla-cent. And in the end, he had good reason to be confident. When a team only knows how to win, how are they supposed to go out and do anything other than that? U

The Thunderbirds defeated Alberta in straight sets to win their sixth straight national title. phoTo courTesy rich lAm/ubc AThleTics

hockey >>

From one win to number oneThe dream season continues, as UBC women’s hockey wins Canada West goldColin ChiaStaff Writer

In a season filled with firsts, the UBC women’s hockey team now has its first championship. The Thunderbirds lifted the Canada West title trophy on Sunday afternoon, coming back from one game down to topple the Uni-versity of Calgary Dinos in the conference final.

There were plenty of pen-alties in this bruising series, which followed the script of last weekend’s semi-final in Regina. UBC lost game one 4-1 on Friday night; despite dominating the play through the second and third periods, the T-Birds could not overcome a slow start to the game.

Going into game two with their backs to the wall, UBC got off to a quick start. Goals by Nicole Saxvik and Cailey Hay came just six seconds apart and gave the T-Birds a 2-0 lead six minutes into the game. Calgary clawed back to within two, but UBC’s Tatiana Rafter scored with 9:42 left in the second per-iod to make it 3-1 and restore the two-goal lead.

But the T-Birds couldn’t hold off the country’s second-ranked team, and Calgary tied it up at 3-3 with 15:10 left in the third period. Kaylee Chanakos scored

her first goal of the playoffs to make it 4-3 with 3:16 to go, but the Dinos wouldn’t back down easily. With the goalie pulled for the extra attacker, Calgary’s Melissa Zubick scored to send the game to overtime.

Facing elimination in overtime for the second time in two weeks, the T-Birds pulled off a repeat of their death-defying perform-ance. Stephanie Schaupmeyer played hero this time, scoring

the overtime winner 19 seconds into double overtime to force a game three on Sunday. Goal-tender Danielle Dube once again came up big, as the T-Birds were outshot 39 to 16, but her 35 saves earned her the hard-fought vic-tory and the honour of the game’s first star.

In the deciding third game, the result seemed to never be in doubt. The T-Birds opened the scoring on the power play,

as Kaitin Imai deflected Emily Grainger’s point shot past Dinos goalie Amanda Tapp to give UBC the early lead. Calgary quickly tied it up, but Rafter answered to make it 2-1 for the ’Birds after one period. Nikola Brown-John made it 3-1 with a shot from the blue line with 6:45 remaining in the second period, and Rebecca Unrau bumped the score up to 4-1, which prompted a Calgary goaltending change.

Calgary’s Erica Mitschke scored with 9:02 left in the game to make it 4-2 and set up a tense finish. The Dinos piled on the pressure and the T-Birds spent most of the remaining time scrambling in their own zone and having to kill off a late penalty to boot. But with the Calgary net empty, Kaitlin Imai picked up a loose puck and fought off the de-fender, picking up the empty-net goal with 1:18 left to seal the deal.

T-Birds goaltender Dube was again a wall in net and was named the game’s first star, shutting down former Team Canada teammate Hayley Wick-enheiser and the high-powered Dino offence.

No one could have predicted this incredible and historic achievement after last year’s dire one-win season. It’s been stated many times before, but even more credit has to be given to head coach Graham Thomas for masterminding a complete trans-formation of the team during his first season in charge.

With a trip to Toronto for the CIS national championships coming up next weekend, the question now is just how far can the Thunderbirds go? They’ve already defied all the odds; who knows what they will do for their next trick. U

For the first time in team history, the ubc women’s hockey team is the champ of the canada West.

phoTo courTesy dAvid moll/universiTy oF cAlgAry

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | spORts + ReC | 7

basketball >>

Defence wins championshipsUBC men’s basketball takes home Canada West title, advances to nationals

C.J. PentlandSports + Rec Editor

With 19 seconds remaining and their team hanging onto a three-point lead, UBC players O’Brian Wallace and Brylle Kamen looked towards the crowd and motioned for the spectators to get out of their seats.

It wasn’t really necessary — the crowd of nearly 3,000 had been deafening all game — but the T-Birds wanted more help. UVic was on the verge of tying the game, but the two were confident and wanted the fans to enjoy what would happen next.

And right on cue, Wallace deliv-ered. While following his check, his back facing the ball, the fifth-year lifted his arms up at the last second and batted down the pass that would have taken the Vike player to the rim. He then managed to snatch up the ball to secure it.

Wallace went on to hit two clutch free throws, making it a five-point lead for UBC, seemingly putting the game out of reach. But after Victoria answered with a three-pointer with nine seconds left, it still wasn’t over. Wallace was fouled again and forced to shoot two more huge free throws. Making both would all but seal the victory. Making one would give UVic a chance to tie. Missing both — well, that just wouldn’t be good.

“The team needs these buckets right now for us to seal the win,” said Wallace on what was going through his head during the last four free throws he took. “So I just tried to relax and hit them.”

He hit one of two, making it a three-point lead, and Victoria stormed back down the court to find an open Brandon Dunlop. He was the last guy that the ’Birds wanted to see with the ball; he led

the Canada West with a .519 three-point percentage during the regular season.

“As soon as he got it, I thought, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to do overtime,’ that’s for sure,” said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson. “During the timeout, the last thing we said was, ‘Don’t leave three-point shooters open,’ … and we left one of their best shooters open.”

But the last-second shot bounced off the rim. Despite their lapse

on defence, the T-Birds survived, giving UBC a 72-69 victory and a Canada West championship.

“A lot of people just don’t under-stand that sometimes luck plays a big factor in this game, and we got a little bit of luck at the end,” said Hanson.

Luck notwithstanding, the real reason for the victory — and, in fact, the success of the whole season — was the T-Birds’ de-fence. So it is true: defence does win championships.

In their last 11 wins, UBC held their opponents to under 70 points, grabbed the most rebounds and held their opponents to an average field goal percentage of 36.5. But in their last three losses, they’ve given up 74, 81 and 91 points and allowed their

opponents to shoot 46.7 per cent. It’s therefore not much of a surprise that when UBC out-rebounded UVic and limited them to 69 points and 38.5 per cent shooting, the T-Birds came out victorious.

“I was happy with how our guys executed on both ends of the floor.

We’ve done a pretty good job de-fensively over the last 11 games, and that’s something that’s [important] going into nationals,” said Hanson. “It’s going to be an unbelievably tough tournament to go back there because there [are] eight great de-fensive teams.”

In the second quarter, the T-Birds played the defence that makes them so successful. They held the Vikes to only one field goal and eight points in the frame, allowing them to build

up a 10-point lead at the half. While applying the pressure

on defence, the ’Birds were also responding on offence. Led by Doug Plumb and an efficient fast break, UBC was able to get to the rim and finish, outscoring UVic 22-8 in the second quarter. Plumb finished with

22 points on the night, missing only one shot from the field, and also led the team in rebounds and assists. In a tight game with pressure mounting, the veteran stepped up and delivered.

“Every year I say that your fourth- and fifth-year guys have to be good for you down the stretch, and we don’t have a lot of those guys. Doug played great,” said Hanson.

In addition to scoring their first Canada West title since 2011, the T-Birds will have a better ranking at nationals and enjoy an easier draw. But the close victory also does wonders for the team’s motivation. The T-Birds had some tough games over the past couple weeks, but they always rebounded, and this game showed that this young team can win close games under pressure.

“We’ve done a really good job, with the guys and the coaching staff, of just focusing on the next game and playing our style,” said Hanson. “The last six games, we’ve just been focused ... on what we do, and we were able to refocus from the losses to Victoria three weeks ago.

“I’ve got so much respect for the way our guys played and the inten-sity they brought and the desire to win. I give them full credit for the way they behaved on the floor, and what they did and the way they competed in practice to make each other better.”

Since UBC is such a balanced scoring team, they’re going to have to be the best defensive team once again to prevail at nationals. They haven’t won a national champion-ship since 1972, and if they end that drought, defence will be the reason why.

“Now we have to focus on what’s next,” said Wallace. “[Now] we have to try and get that national championship.” U


in front of large crowds at War memorial gym, the Thunderbirds defeated victoria 72-69 on saturday night to win the canada West title and beat Fraser valley on Friday to advance to nationals in ottawa.kAi jAcobson phoTo/The ubyssey

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 8EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

UBC remembers Mark HarrisStudents, colleagues and friends mourn sudden passing of beloved film prof

Rhys EdwardsSenior Culture Writer

Last Tuesday, UBC lost one of its most outstanding voices.

Mark Harris, an asso-ciate professor in the department of film studies, passed away at the age of 62 due to a pulmonary embolism resulting from lymph-oma. Only a few weeks previously, he had been teaching two under-graduate courses: FIST 100 (Intro-duction to Film) and FIST 430 (Studies in Auterism). The course description for FIST 430 reads:

“As this course is specifically devoted to auteurism, no metteurs-en-scenes will be included in the non-Gallic line-up. In FIST 430A, only filmmakers with personal vi-sions will be granted screen time.”

This statement encapsulates both Harris’s career and his larger-than-life personality. He was an outspoken advocate for innovative filmmaking and uncompromising in his desire to help students recognize diverse filmic talent.

Harris studied as an under-grad at Concordia University in Montreal. In 1968, he dropped out and moved to Vancouver, where he was soon hired by the Georgia Straight as a movie reviewer due to his encyclopedic knowledge of film. Over the next four decades, Harris went on to review thou-sands of films for the Straight, and was eventually promoted to senior film critic, a position he retained until his death. In his reviews,

Harris usually focused on foreign or unknown films, helping to bring them to the eyes of a wider public.

In 1992, Harris completed a MA in film studies at UBC, and subsequently began his Ph.D. in comparative literature, for which he won a Governor General’s Gold Medal. He also began to teach courses. Until his illness, Harris did not miss a single day of work. The department encour-aged Harris to instruct first-year courses due to his ability to engage students with the subject of film; many students credit Harris with their decision to major in film studies. Harris was known for his freeform, eccentric and often risqué approach to lecturing. In 2004, Harris created an innov-ative course called The Art of Subtitling, which the department credits as having drawn attention to the often inadequate state of movie translation.

On campus, his reputation preceded him; he could be recognized, with his trademark ponytail, frequenting Mahony’s or Wreck Beach. Beyond campus, Harris also attended numerous film festivals, delivered public lectures and wrote for dozens of magazines and journals.

Harris’s prognosis had been optimistic, and his passing was unexpected. According to a blog post on the Georgia Straight, Harris was recorded by a nearby film crew as emergency officials tried unsuccessfully to revive him. He leaves behind his wife, Carola Ackery. U

obituary >>

kim pringle illusTrATion/The ubyssey

“Many industry people enrolled in his night classes just to experience ‘The Mark Harris’

in action. He was a legend. Sometimes he would show up to class with his shirt inside

out and his specs, which he often wore on top of his head, tangled in his hair.... But it didn’t

matter. We all loved him.”—Andrea Brooks, graduate student in film studies

“He would tell off-colour jokes in class; he would perhaps go into areas of sexual politics that other people would not go into in a uni-versity environment, but 99 per cent of the

students were usually with him, because they could see that it was done with great humour and sincerity, and a desire for them to learn

and to think for themselves.”—Dr. Brian McIlroy, film studies professor and Harris’s graduate degree

supervisor

“In a memorable lesson on thinking differ-ently about the past, Mark enthusiastically explained our misunderstanding of Greek architecture with his signature approach.

‘Greek temples were not the austere, white, minimalist structures that we see them as today,’ he remarked. ‘In reality, the Greeks

painted their temples like Surrey bikers paint their fuckwagons.’ One might be surprised to learn that this completely solidified the ideas

of that week’s lecture on Chinese cinema.”—Lucas Hrubizna, undergraduate in film studies

“In the mere seven weeks in which I had Dr. Harris as a professor, I learned more than I ever imagined about not only cinema, but

also history, culture and philosophy. His class has made me want to pursue either a major or minor in film studies and changed how I approach my academic pursuits. I’ll miss his

lectures.”—William Strausser, FIST 100 student

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | CultuRe | 9

Catherine Guan Staff Writer

The conversation was baseball, politics and women. The smell was of tobacco smoke

and hair pomade. The barbershop, that well-loved main street standby, was where men could fraternize and chew the fat while getting a haircut and shave.

University Barbershop has just opened for business on Wesbrook Mall last month, hanging up the iconic red-, white- and blue-striped pole outside its doors. Proprietor and manager Brennan Cuff wants to reintroduce university men to the charm of a no-frills chop at the hands of an expert barber.

Walking into Cuff’s shop is like visiting a bygone era. Vintage up-holstered barber chairs face rows of tonics, Marvicide jars and wickedly sharp razors. Cuff’s vision for Uni-versity Barbershop? “Kind of like

the boys’ club, a place where you can either come in and come out in 20 minutes, or you can come stay and relax, have a visit, read the paper, see the people come and go.”

University Barbershop is part of a major revival in this artisan trade. While these places can seem contrived, selling false nostalgia to customers too young to remember the real thing, Cuff is convinced that barbering is retaking its rightful place in popular culture. “Barber-

shops have kind of stood the test of time.… They’ve stuck around for a reason, even if they are not the headline for these last couple of decades.”

Cuff said this renaissance is partly due to men favouring a neater crop. “If it is trendy for men to have long, flowing hair, that is not a cut that a barber generally does, so that would flourish in a salon environment. A fade, where it goes from skin to half an inch of hair in a gradual motion, that is a barber’s bread and butter.”

There is a fundamental difference between the craft of a barber and a hairstylist, Cuff explained. “A bar-ber cuts hair; it’s as simple as that. You don’t have hair colouring or a treatment to straighten your curls. [Barbers] rely on tools like electronic trimmers and clippers, whereas a stylist uses scissors and combs.”

Barbers don’t only tend to men’s

locks; hot shaves are also on the menu. “It is kind of a lost art that some people have a knack for. [It] takes an incredibly steady hand and a willing client.”

Cuff said receiving a hot shave is “unbelievably, fundamentally differ-ent” from shaving at home.

“What we use at home are safety razors, which are designed so that you can’t cut yourself, whereas here you have an exposed blade and that is a possibility,” he said.

“Applying the right pressure and the hot lather — which needs to be a certain consistency — the pros, they have that down to a fine art.... For anyone who hasn’t had a hot shave, it is a great experience, because you do have to have trust in your barber. But what you get at the end of it is as much of a result [of] having no facial hair or styled facial hair as it is the feeling of a hot towel [and] having classic rock on the radio.” U

Making the cut New university barbershop brings back a timeless tradition

Rebekah HoContributor

The postcard has travelled a long way from its humble beginnings.

With the rise of PostSecret and other forms of mobile art, postcards have gone from being a tourist novelty to a mini canvas.

And on March 1, some of Van-couver’s up-and-coming artists showed off what they could create on a four-by-six-inch piece of paper.

The one-night pop-up art ex-hibition was titled “The Postcard: A mobile medium for a society in flux” and took place at Foot of Main Gallery, one of Main Street’s hidden gems.

“We wanted to create something where us, students, could actual-ly afford art, because we usually can’t spend, you know, $4,000 on a piece,” said Paulina de la Paz, a UBC art history student and one of two organizers for the show.

“This is an exhibition of oppor-tunity about expanding your net-work [and] expanding your mind about different representations of art with a different medium,” said Nichole Kappalungan, co-or-ganizer and UBC student. “It’s a

great opportunity to meet a lot of people,… to see a lot of good work and to get work of really good value in terms of artistic merit.”

The event included a live silent auction under each artist’s post-card set so that participants could bid on their favourite pieces. There was a DJ, drinks, artists, art-lovers and very little elbow room.

The postcards were created by a wide range of visual artists with differing styles, from local painters such as Andrew Young to Emily Carr students to international artists from Mexico.

“There [are] photographs. There [are] textile artists.… We have some illustration artists and we also have oil paint — all kinds of techniques,” said de la Paz. “We wanted to cre-ate a very broad forum for all kinds of art practices to come together.”

Although the art was the main attraction, one of the exhibition’s goals was to create an open space for Vancouver’s artistic community.

“It’s a great forum for young people, for students [and] for artists to just co-mingle and just really be within each other’s orbits without feeling like they have

to be something else, other than people who really want to chill and appreciate the art that they do,” said Kappalungan.

De la Paz and Kappalungen hope to continue this project and ex-pand to a level that involves more international artists.

“One of [the] things we really

want [is for] people to come in and not feel isolated or alienated from the work and from the artists,” said Kappalungen. “We want them to be embraced by the work of the artist. That’s why we picked such a mobile medium, because it’s something that you can really take with you.” U

Brenna FynesContributor

It’s rare that the result of several years of academic work has a chance to shine onstage. But on March 7, one UBC grad’s play will do just that.

Described as George F. Walker meets Sam Shepard, Glendale is a gritty, realistic drama that plays out in a secluded cabin over just one night. The play, written by recent UBC MFA graduate Wade Kinley, is the result of Kinley’s involvement in UBC’s creative writing and theatre departments over the course of his degree.

“Throughout my two or three years, I’ve taken courses in both [departments],” said Kinley. “So at the end of my program, instead of just putting [my thesis] in a book and putting it on a shelf, I wanted to make sure that it got produced.”

The production is also brimming with other UBC talent; it’s directed by award-winning MFA directing student Chelsea Haberlin ( Rhin-oceros, January 2013) and stage managed by theatre production undergrad Jayda Novak.

“I met Chelsea in the program and really clicked with her and her style,” said Kinley. “We grabbed a lot of her crew from Rhinoceros, and that was great, because they are amazing.”

Kinley decided to forgo UBC’s much-used Frederic Wood Theatre and stage Glendale in Little Moun-tain Gallery on Main Street.

He explained that he chose Little Mountain Gallery in part for its in-timate design: “I didn’t want it to be in a big theatre because I think the closer we are to the action, the more visceral it becomes.”

Novak agreed that the gallery is the perfect space for the show. “It’s a really intimate space because it wasn’t originally built as a theatre,” she said.

Nonetheless, it’s not for the claus-trophobic.

“You’re going to feel like you’re trapped in this cabin with the actors,” said director Chelsea Haberlin.

The play is a character-driven piece about real, universal themes of love, fate, sacrifice and happiness. For Haberlin, it was rewarding to see the characters being fleshed out onstage. “Watching those people come to life and be inhabited for the first time, knowing the play has never been done before, is pretty cool,” she said.

The characters will be brought to life by some of Vancouver’s most exciting young performers: Colby Wilson, Katie Takefman, Tara Pratt and Jason Diablo.

Kinley said that the collaboration between UBC students and Vancou-ver talent is essential to keep theatre in the city alive.

“I want people to come and see it and enjoy themselves, and get a kick out of it and talk about it on the way home,... but also to show-case the talent that is coming out of the school — and not only that, but the emerging talent in the city. So the more folks from UBC that come out and support that kind of thing, then the more that can happen.” U

UBC theatre alum stages thesis play

local and international artists contributed to the pop-up art exhibition.

Two students run postcard-themed art show

geoFF lisTer phoTo/The ubyssey

sTephAnie xu phoTo/The ubyssey

The new addition to Wesbrook mall is all about charm, chatter and classic cuts. Asher isbrucker phoTo/The ubyssey

It is the feeling of a hot towel, having classic rock on the radio.

Brennan Cuff University Barbershop

proprietor and manager

two bits >>

fine art >>

drama >>

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 10sTudenT voice. communiTy reAch.

How Grindr is turning the hookup on its head

Since its launch in February 2013, Facebook app Bang With Friends has garnered an impressive 700,000 followers (that’s more than the population of Vancou-ver) and generated about 130,000 hookups. Although it is branded as a sex app that helps users find Facebook friends looking to get “down for the night,” its creators told the Daily Beast last week they hope Bang With Friends will “help people strengthen their relationships in the offline world through more honest inter-actions.”

But evidence from similar “hookup apps” seems to con-tradict this goal. For instance, four-year-old hookup app Grindr, which caters to gay and bisexual men, has had the opposite effect. Many have criticized it for being impersonal, and while hookups are common on Grindr, long-term relationships are rare. Ubyssey sex columnist Elizabeth Hames sat down with Toronto’s Jaime Woo, author of Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, to discuss how Grindr has affected users’ online and offline relationships.

U: Why did you decide to write a book about Grindr?

JW: Grindr is this really ubi-quitous phenomenon with my friends and over four years it’s just picked up steam so quickly. It’s something that no one can remain neutral on. Everyone has an opinion about Grindr, whether they love it, they hate it — every-one reacts to it.

U: You say users average 90 minutes a day on Grindr. What do users like about it?

JW: It gives you two superhuman powers. It gives you X-ray vision, because you can see all of the men around you, through the buildings, through the glass and sometimes through their clothes. You can see all the men around you who are queer and open to connect. And you also have telep-athy because you can immedi-ately contact them and no one around you will ever know. And that kind of capability is really what attracts men to Grindr.

U: Do you find that it has changed the way you interact with people?

JW: I think so. I think what’s great about Grindr is it just opens access to so many more people than you can ever imagine. I’ll turn on my Grindr; within 400 feet of me, there’ll be 100 different men. Even if I was in a bar, there’s no way that I would be able to see everyone who’s in the bar or communicate with everyone in the bar. So the ability to access people is really a big thing, and the ability to also talk to them. There’s definitely some people who are great at just walking up to someone and start-ing a conversation, but not all of us are like that.

U: What was Grindr like in the beginning?

JW: Grindr started March 25,

2009 and I was on it by June. Toronto has a very healthy queer population, so there were definitely men on there. I think what was different was in the beginning everyone was trying to figure out what the tone of app was. If you found out a friend was on it, you might be prone to block them so they couldn’t see that you were on it as well. You want to keep that secrecy that you were potentially cruising at that moment. I think what has changed is that it has become a lot more relaxed.

U: Are hookups becoming more common than they used to be because of apps like Grindr?

JW: Potentially. But it’s really difficult to say, because what makes Grindr possible is tied into so many other things. We’ve got the fact that we’re becoming increasingly progressive, espe-cially in America. So we’re going to see a lot more people coming out, a lot more people becoming comfortable with their sexual-ity. So that could be one of the reasons why people are hooking up more. But it’s very difficult to exclusively pin something down to Grindr.

U: Are apps like Grindr or Bang With Friends changing the way we experience roman-tic or sexual relationships?

JW: I’m not one of those people who thinks [that] just because there are some more hookups now, that means romance is dead. I think that’s automatically as-suming that sex can’t be consen-sual and respectful and mean-ingful. I definitely think hookups can have that. But I think it means that everyone has to have a little more emotional honesty. If you want something a little more meaningful, more long-term, then you have to vocalize that as well.

U: Are hookup apps changing our expectations of what a date should look like?

You’d go for a first date, a second date because you didn’t have Face-book or Twitter to learn every-thing about that person all at once. That’s what changed. Whereas [for] you and I, maybe it would take us two or three dates to figure out what favourite movies we had in common. Nowadays, I could actually just go online. That kind of rids [us] of some of that mystery there. But at the same time, new isn’t necessarily worse.

U: Any last thoughts on how apps like Grindr are affecting our on and offline relationships?

JW: I always say, you don’t have to be on Grindr. You’re going to have a very meaningful life without Grindr, [and] you’ll have a very meaningful life with Grindr. I compare it to a sugary cereal. It is the Cookie Crisp of the way that you meet. And they always say on the commercials, “Part of a com-plete breakfast.”

If men try to use Grindr or Bang With Friends as their only way to meet people, they’re going to be pretty frustrated because they don’t have that complete breakfast. U

by elizabeth hames

THE INEVITABLE CONTROVERSY OVER NAMING UBC’S NEW ELEMENTARY SCHOOLThere’s a new elementary school being built on UBC campus. Currently, a bunch of kids living on campus have to bus out to portables next to Queen Eliza-beth Elementary, which is less than ideal.

Now there’s a tempest-in-a-teapot controversy brewing over what the school should be named: should they keep it as “Acadia Road School,” given that it will be built on Acadia Road? Or should they name it after Musqueam elder Rose Point instead?

Let’s just give this thing some perspective. The school — and we’re talking about a “school” in terms of its students and teachers, like when you use “church” to talk about a congregation — has only existed since 2011. And it has never existed on Acadia Road yet. Calling it “Acadia Road School” is an exercise in wishful thinking. And if the school winds up changing its name before it actually moves to Acadia Road? Well, that’s what you get for naming your school before it’s built. Parents who say they and their kids are already attached to the Acadia Road name need to get over themselves.

Rose Point, a Musqueam elder known for her work promoting education, is a perfectly good choice to name the school after. No debate there.

(We hate to say it, but the school will probably have to put in a little work to ensure its students are aware the name refers to Rose Point the person, and not, say, roses growing on Point Grey.)

But the problem here started when the school board decided to name a nascent, sort-of school after a place where it wasn’t even located.

SNAP ELECTION COULD GIVE STUDENT RESIDENTS A SAY IN POINT GREY

In the past week, the book on this year’s provincial election wasn’t exactly rewritten, but it may have been abridged by a few chapters. The Liberals have entered a tailspin since it was revealed that top-ranking party officials had developed a plan to score “quick wins” in ethnic communities by

apologizing for historical injus-tices like the Chinese head tax and the Komagata Maru incident.

As of The Ubyssey’s press time, Christy Clark’s premiership seemed to be hanging by a thread. Many Liberal Party members were openly calling for the premier to resign, and there was talk of a party ouster. It’s unclear whether the Liberals will let this drag out until May, replace Clark or even call a snap election to get things over with.

The chaos could have interest-ing ramifications for UBC. Typ-ically, elections are held in May, when far fewer students actually live on campus.

That means students who live in residence during terms one and two aren’t usually able to vote, despite having lived in the riding for the past eight months.

Had that otherwise transient population been living on campus during, say, the 2011 provincial by-election that got Clark into of-fice in the first place, the province might look very different right now. That run-off between Clark and the NDP’s David Eby came down to less than 600 votes. If the election were called tomorrow, candidates would have a very dif-ferent demographic to pander to.

� � �

In other news, the race in Point Grey is shaping up to be quite the battle of the bands. On Friday, software engineer Duane Nickull threw his hat into the ring for the B.C. Conservatives, thus cementing the elections lineup in Vancouver Point Grey. At this point, Christy Clark is the only major party candidate who’s not in a band (that we know of). Former B.C. Civil Liberties head and NDP candidate David Eby plays guitar and sings in Ladner, a hipper-than-thou indie rock band that could easily pass for an opener at the Commodore. Nickull, on the other hand, fronts The 22nd Century, a far more dudely hard rock outfit (which weirdly features a former mem-ber of D.O.A., whose bandmate Joey “Shithead” Keithley was seeking an NDP nomination in Coquitlam).

Whether this will have any bearing on the election itself is doubtful, but one thing’s for sure: if the AMS needs a cheap band to play an afternoon slot at Block Party, they know where to look.

CAN THE AMS PLEASE STOP PULLING ITS PUNCHES ON BROADWAY TRANSIT?

We concede, despite earlier skep-ticism, that the AMS’s indirect approach to transit lobbying achieved its goals. Transit issues had faded to the periphery, and the multiple-stakeholder approach succeeded at bringing the discussion front-and-centre across the Lower Mainland. The AMS-backed campaign gained traction in part because it wasn’t just another case of UBC students demanding high-speed transit for me, me, me.

Now the Broadway corridor specifically, not just TransLink in general, is taking centre stage. Nothing about that is more clear than last week’s report from KPMG on SkyTrain service to the Broadway corridor, sponsored by UBC and the City of Vancou-ver. The report is in favour of a line along the corridor. This is a mainstream issue now, and it’s got support.

There was a time to be subtle about this topic, but this time is past. The mayor of Vancouver thinks the subway line should go to campus. Surrey Mayor Diane Watts has publicly complained that UBC should open campuses south of the Fraser instead. De-spite the AMS’s across-the-board, let’s-all-be-friends approach, the battle lines are basically drawn at this point.

But new AMS VP External Tanner Bokor, who headed Get OnBoard in its first year, remains reluctant to change his neutral stance on where new TransLink funding should go. This is unnecessary. The AMS repre-sents students directly instead of staying neutral, like its quasi-in-dependent lobbying group. They can and should start getting the student voice behind this project.

It won’t get done on its own. The AMS already has been somewhat left behind as a voice on the issue by not co-sponsoring the report. But the real danger is that over the course of negotia-tions, the new line will get scaled down to only reach Arbutus. (Or, you know, it won’t happen at all. That’s also possible.)

Students need someone at the table to make sure that doesn’t happen. Nobody can really be that someone but the AMS. U

LAST WORDS

DeMeANING tHINGs pROVINCIAl CANDIDAtes HAVe tO DO tO CAMpAIGN At uBC

SEX ED

b.c. politicians campaign to students, and fi nd out that it ain’t glamorous.

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2013 | 11picTures + Words on your universiTy experience

puZZles courTesy krAZydAd. used WiTh permission,

Volunteer for The Ubyssey,

enjoy perks like these.

puZZle courTesy besTcrossWords.com. used WiTh permission.

ACROSS

1- vamp Theda5- stop up a hole9- Auto pioneer13- son of Zeus in greek mythology14- governed16- oscar winner patricia17- ceremonial act18- Foolish19- mozart’s “___ kleine nacht-musik”20- pie nut22- swore24- pioneer27- bog28- in truth29- potential to get around33- Author jong34- river in central switzerland35- german mrs36- Fleur-de-___37- sign up38- vessel built by noah39- head of France41- nabokov novel42- 1980 dom deluise fi lm44- building46- Throughout this document47- greasy

48- caucus state49- yellowish brown pigment52- prince valiant’s son53- Actor lugosi57- prefi x with plasm58- From head ___60- romantic couple61- salon off ering62- merits63- ___ girl!64- deuce topper65- swift 66- capone’s nemesis

DOWN

1- ingot2- shipping magnate onassis3- emeritus: Abbr.4- sterile5- expensive6- pertaining to the moon7- ___ bator, mongolia8- ___-x9- ego10- hula hoops?11- hamlet, for one12- hill toy15- Acoustic power unit

21- First name in jazz23- Altdorf’s canton24- slender25- more strange26- sad27- stupid person29- sausalito’s county30- steamed31- Foot bones32- klondike territory34- harass37- shave40- Thrift y management42- not many43- high-spirited horse45- metal, oft en used as a container46- not disposed to cheat48- removes wrinkles49- equinox mo.50- champagne bucket51- French 101 verb52- gillett e brand54- novel ending55- permits56- latin 101 word59- bumbler

suDOKu

March 4, 2013

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