November 8, 2012

It’s morning in America, and also other places too SINCE 1918 UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIXI

UTHE UBYSSEY

SETTING SAILUBC sailing team looking forward after strong weekend at nationals P6

MAXIMUM MAN CHAT

OUT ONTHE FORCE

TAs GET THEIR DEAL

Cpl. Robert Ploughman was one of the first male RCMP officers to come out. He tells his story in a new “It Gets Better” video P2

UBC’s TAs have reached a tentative agreement with the university and strikes have ended P4

UBC rockers talk midterms, girls and guitars P8

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 2YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE

STAFFBryce Warnes, Josh Curran, Peter Wojnar, Anthony Poon, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara Van Kessel, Lu Zhang, Ginny Monaco, Arno Rosenfeld, Matt Meuse, Hogan Wong, Rory Gattens, Brandon Chow, Joseph Ssettuba. Tyler McRobbie, Sarah Bigam

NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XIXI

EDITORIAL

Coordinating Editor Jonny [email protected]

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News EditorsWill McDonald + Laura [email protected]

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UTHE UBYSSEY

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Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to [email protected].

FOOD >>

HEALTH >>

CANADA >>

SHOPPING >>

WRITING >>

Thrive 2012 Student Pancake Breakfast: 9 a.m. @ the Global LoungeUBC student health organization Thrive is hosting a pancake breakfast for students. Quit worrying about term papers for a morning and take the opportunity to meet new friends, play a few board games and load up on free flapjacks.

Vancouver Flea Market An-tique Show: 8:30 a.m. @ 703 Terminal AvenueDo you collect antiques? Hunt for yesteryear’s treasures at the Vancouver Flea Market. There are 365 tables of new and used items on sale, from knickknacks to cellphones. $1 entry fee.

Salsa Dance Workshop: 5 p.m. @ Abdul Ladha Science Student CentreWant to wind down your stressful week with a little bit of dancing? UBC’s Mental Health Awareness Club is hosting a salsa class. Learn how to salsa and meet new people! Free.

Writing Help Drop-In: 3 p.m. @ Chapman Learning Com-monsIt’s the long weekend, but are you getting stuck on how to write term papers? Need help in de-veloping an outline or formatting your paper for citations? Tutorials are open until 7 p.m. Free.

Remembrance Day Ceremo-ny: 10 a.m. @ Student Union Building, Room 211Pay your respects to those who have served in times of conflict and war.

What’s on THIS WEEK, MAY WE SUGGEST...

Tue129FRIDAY

Tue1210 SATURDAY

Tue1211SUNDAY

Tue1212MONDAY

Video contentMake sure to check out our refreshed Ubyssey Weekly Show, airing now at ubyssey.ca/video/.

OUR CAMPUSONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC

Cpl. Robert Ploughman was behind the RCMP’s appearance in the last five Pride parades.

Jonny WakefieldCoordinating Editor

As one of the first openly gay RCMP officers in Canada, Cpl. Robert Ploughman takes his status as a symbol with a dose of good humour.

Since he came out in 2001 while at the RCMP academy, Ploughman has been called the first surviving out gay man on the force. He organized the B.C. RC-MP’s entrance into the Vancouver Pride parade, as well as a host of other queer community-based policing initiatives. Now, he tells his story in an “It Gets Better” video produced by the RCMP Surrey detachment.

“And I’ve been the officer in charge of Wreck Beach for 11 years,” he adds with a laugh. “This stuff writes itself, eh?”

Long before he was assigned to the university RCMP detach-ment, Ploughman considered joining the Catholic ministry. But he realized that he was attracted to men after visiting a gay bar in St. John’s.

“I said to myself, ‘My god, I’m gay, I’m done,’” he says in the video. “I realized there was some-thing in me I had to deal with that I’ve never dealt with.”

In 2002, as a recruit at the uni-versity detachment, Ploughman met with queer leaders as part of a

required community profile. “You pick a community and you learn about it and make connections, because we’re all about commun-ity policing,” said Ploughman. Around the same time he met with leaders, Ploughman was pro-filed in Xtra West, a LGBT news publication. The piece declared that early in his career, Plough-man was “already a legend.”

While the tone of the piece was almost reverential, there was an underlying fear for Ploughman. A colleague was quoted saying he feared the RCMP would “pulver-ize and spit out” the gay recruit.

Obviously that hasn’t hap-pened. So is that a reflection on Ploughman’s strength as an indi-vidual, or has the force changed?

“I think it’s the force,” he says. “There are many of us. It’s almost to the point where it’s not an issue.”

He said the RCMP force is starting to better reflect the society it polices. “Most of the members now are university-edu-cated, a lot more of them come from urban backgrounds.”

He doesn’t deny his role in this shift, but he says he’s just a small part of it. When he started at the university detachment, he knew of two gay male officers in the RCMP in the Lower Mainland. He now knows of 25. And he’s quick to point out

that there have been openly gay women on the force dating back to the 1970s.

“I’ve only got a bachelor’s of sociology.… I think you’d need a master’s of sociology [to explain] that,” he says.

When Ploughman started pushing for the RCMP to join the Pride parade, there were concerns about participating in an event with public nudity.

“We didn’t get in [in 2002],” he says. “I guess the time wasn’t right. But we’ve been in the Pride parade for the past five years. This past year, I think we had 50 people [in the parade]. A lot of the senior officers too. They heard what a good time it was.”

Ploughman said he’s been getting lots of calls from re-porters following the release of the “It Gets Better” video. If someone’s looking to talk to a gay Mountie, he’s still the go-to guy. But that’s another thing he sees changing; though Plough-man realizes the significance of the way he’s lived his life, he is now one of many RCMP officers who have come out and told their story.

“Locally, anyway, I’m one of the first males to be really open about it, and really reach out to the gay community,” he says. “But we’ve come a long way in 11 years.” U

LGBT in the RCMPKAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

UWriteShootEdit CodeDrink

COME BY THE UBYSSEY OFFICE SUB 24, FOLLOW THE SIGNS

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 3EDITORS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS

Bike-riding boy hit by TransLink bus on Wesbrook MallA young boy riding his bike was hit by a TransLink bus Wednesday evening. The boy sustained injuries, but was responsive to paramedics and has been taken to the hospital.

The accident occurred around 6 p.m. on Wesbrook Mall, just east of University Boulevard.

UBC education student Tanya Terbasket was standing beside the scene of the accident. She described the boy as roughly six years old, and said he was riding a BMX bike and accompanied by a friend.

“The bus hit this little boy on the side, and he flew, I would say, three or four feet,” she said. “The bike flew onto the curb, and he flew off of his bike.… The bus hit him.

“[Paramedics] were worried because he was not conscious at first, and then he started crying after. He’s in an ambulance right now, and hopefully he will be okay,” said Terbasket.

Another UBC student, Claudia Popa, said she was riding the #480 bus that hit the boy. “I just heard a loud noise,” said Popa, “and he hit the kid, and the kid flew off his bike and was unconscious for a while until someone got him conscious.”

TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider has confirmed that the crash occurred, but was not able to offer any further information. Campus RCMP and emergency services have not yet been able to provide any information on the boy’s prognosis. U

RCMP investigate AUS office break-and-enter

CUPE 116 ratifies tentative deal

LABOUR >>

The glass door to the Arts Undergraduate Society offices was shattered sometime over the weekend. PHOTO COURTESY HARSEV OSHAN

CRIME >>

Laura RodgersNews Editor

While students were away from the Arts Undergraduate Society (AUS) offices over the weekend, it appears that someone tried to force their way inside and shat-tered a glass door in the process.

No valuables went missing, and police are describing the incident as an aborted break-and-enter attempt in which the would-be thief got scared. The offices, which are inside the Meekison Arts Student Space in the Buchanan D block, contained computers, cash and personal belongings.

AUS President Harsev Oshan said that another AUS officer entered the building on Sunday afternoon, only to find that the

glass main door to their office space had been shattered.

“The door was pried open. Nothing [was] missing at the time. The RCMP were called and they took over the file from there,” said Paul Wong, head of Campus Security.

Oshan said marks around the doorframe looked as if a crow-bar was used to try to pry the door open.

The door to Oshan’s personal office inside was not breached. He said that roughly $1,500 in cash was inside that office — prof-its from a beer garden held the previous weekend.

He said that usually the money from the society’s events is deposited immediately. The beer garden in question, however, was

a joint event with the Engineering Undergraduate Society, and Osh-an was holding onto the money until he could divide it with the engineering students.

Oshan said he locked the office when he left around 6 p.m. on Saturday, and the apparent intru-sion must have happened between then and 4 p.m. on Sunday when the scene was discovered.

He speculated that whoever was trying to get inside the office intended to pry open the lock, not shatter the door, and when the door broke, they ran off. He said a lock to a second door into the offices also looked like someone had tried to tamper with it.

RCMP Cpl. Robert Ploughman said the RCMP are investigating the case. So far, he said, police

suspect that this was a failed theft attempt by someone who got “spooked.”

“We [will] use every inves-tigative technique that we can, because even if nothing’s taken, the people who are doing this are generally responsible for dozens, [if ] not hundreds, of break-and-enters,” he said. “So if we can catch one person, we can prevent many, many break-and-enters.”

Wong said that there are no security cameras in the area, and he isn’t sure whether there were any security patrols near the building over the weekend.

Oshan said the society is lucky that nothing was stolen, and he’s going to look into getting cameras or other security measures to pro-tect the offices in the future. U

Will McDonaldNews Editor

The union representing UBC ser-vice workers has ratified their tenta-tive agreement with the university.

In a vote on Monday, CUPE 116 members voted 89 per cent in favour of the agreement.

“Overall, I really believe it’s the best deal that we could have brought home for our mem-bers,” said CUPE 116 President Colleen Garbe.

UBC spokesperson Lucie McNeill said the results of the vote shows the legitimacy of the bargaining process. “That sounds like a resounding endorsement of the negotiated agreement,” said McNeill. “It’s not that easy to reach agreements.”

The deal still has to be ratified by the UBC Board of Governors, but McNeill said the agreement shouldn’t meet any resistance there. “[UBC has] signed off on this tentative agreement.… We wouldn’t have signed off on something where there was still some prob-lems,” said McNeill.

According to Garbe, the agree-ment could be approved by the Board as early as this week.

“They’ll probably have an answer for us by the end of the week.… They just have to go through dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” said Garbe.

One of the most important parts of the deal for Garbe is the uni-versity’s promise not to privatize CUPE 116 members’ jobs.

“We’re thrilled with the fact that we’ve got absolute 100 per cent commitment from the university on job security,” said Garbe.

The deal also expands pension coverage to part-time employees. “We’ve been trying to get this [pension coverage] in the collective agreement for many, many years now,” said Garbe.

Garbe said provincial mandates complicated the negotiations.

“We’re hoping next time that we’ll be able to bargain a collect-ive agreement with our employer without the interference of the government so that we can be cre-ative and come to a settlement with our having to revert to job action,” said Garbe.

McNeill said both the university and the union members are satis-fied with the deal.

“We’re delighted.… A lot of hard work has gone into reaching that tentative agreement,” said McNeill.

“To have it approved by the mem-bership is certainly commendation for that very earnest process.”

CUPE 116 members have joined the pickets of CUPE 2278, which represents TAs on campus. Garbe said CUPE 116 members would continue to support the TAs.

“We’re still there in support with our brothers and sisters from 2278 and we’ll continue supporting them until they achieve what they need in the way of a fair and respective collective agreement,” said Garbe. U

KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEYUnion members voted in favour of an agreement on Nov. 6.

NEWS BRIEF Bargaining stuck on wage increases for faculty

PROFS >>

Sarah BigamStaff Writer

Bargaining over faculty salary increases seems to have reached an impasse.

UBC and the Faculty Association met at the bargaining table on Oct. 25. The main issue of negotiation — and the most contentious — was the proposed salary increase for all faculty members.

The Faculty Association represents most levels of faculty, including professors, program directors, and some librarians and assistant deans.

With the expiration of the gov-ernment’s net-zero mandate on Dec. 31, 2011, the Faculty Association is now able to negotiate wage increas-es. During the mandate, university faculty throughout B.C. received no salary increases from 2010-2012.

According to the Faculty Asso-ciation’s website, their key issue in bargaining is an across-the-board salary increase to reconcile the gap between their salaries and those received by faculty at other universi-ties of the same level.

Faculty at the University of Toronto are receiving a nine per cent wage increase for 2010-2014, according to a table compiled by statistician Carl Schwartz at Simon Fraser University. The UBC Faculty Association has asked for an in-crease of 10 per cent from 2012-2014.

UBC offered a wage increase of 1.2 per cent across the board between 2012 and 2014, with an additional 0.3 per cent set aside for retention of some professors.

According to a UBC “bargaining bulletin,” this increase is in addition to salary adjustments for progress, merit and performance, which can total up to another 2.5 per cent wage increase.

“We felt that this was indeed a very good offer,” said UBC spokes-person Lucie McNeill. “We are a public institution that is publicly funded, [and there’s a] fairly tight economy we’re looking at.… That kind of a wage increase, we feel, is significantly out of step with other wage increases in the province.”

The association did not accept UBC’s offer, Faculty Association President Nancy Langton said, because “that would not have us [in] any way competitive with the University of Toronto salaries.”

If the two sides cannot come to an agreement, the issue will be taken to arbitration on Feb. 4, 2013.

“The fact that we are now going to arbitration indicates the fact that we are quite far apart.… This is unfortunate, but it does happen,” said McNeill.

A UBC bargaining bulletin states that arbitration is expected to be “a time-expensive and costly process.”

According to McNeill, UBC is interested in avoiding it. “The university is ready to return to the bargaining table to see if there’s some progress we can make,” she said.

Langton said the Faculty Asso-ciation would prefer to return to the bargaining table.

“You always want the two par-ties to negotiate with each other. So there is time. We would go back to the table if invited back to the table,” said Langton. U

GEOFF LISTER FILE PHOTO/THE UBYSSEYNancy Langton is the president of the UBC Faculty Association.

Main door shattered, but $1,500 in president’s office untouched

4 | neWS | THURSDAY, nOVeMBeR 8, 2012

Will McDonaldNews Editor

The TA union has reached a tenta-tive agreement with UBC, but they aren’t telling anyone what it is yet.

The short strikes that dotted the past week and a half have stopped, but the union’s members still need to vote on the deal.

Micheal Stewart, spokesperson for TA union CUPE 2278, said they won’t discuss any details of the agreement yet, but the TA bargaining committee is rec-ommending they take the deal. The TAs were asking for wage increases, tuition waivers and hiring preferences for third-year master’s and fifth-year Ph.D. students.

“Everything that we were nego-tiating was addressed in some way in the deal,” said Stewart.

The tentative agreement was reached in one day of mediation, under the direction of high-pro-file private mediator Vince Ready. Stewart said Ready played a large role in reaching the deal.

“I think the proof is in the agreement. We’ve found an agree-ment that we were unable to come

to through other means.” said Stewart.

“Being able to come to an agree-ment with Vince Ready in just one long, long day of negotiations is def-initely a testament to his ability.”

UBC spokesperson Lucie McNeill said the agreement re-quired hard work on both sides of the table.

“There was some solid work at the table to be able to reach that agreement, although the parties were somewhat far apart,” said McNeill. “We [would] only agree to a deal that we believe in.”

McNeill said the negotia-tions were limited by provincial mandates that restrict wage increases, as well as B.C.’s overall economic environment.

Stewart said the union will vote on the deal as soon as possible, but there is no date set for the vote yet. He couldn’t predict how the mem-bership would vote on the deal.

“That’s difficult to say. The membership is a diverse body, but certainly the bargaining committee and the executive will unanimously recommend this deal to the mem-bership,” said Stewart.

“Hopefully the membership will trust us enough to accept the agreement.”

Stewart said the union’s recent job action played a role in how quickly the agreement was reached.

Both parties are glad that they were able to come to a deal, he said.

“I think everyone — member-ship, executives and the employer — are happy to put this behind us,” said Stewart. U

LABOUR >>

TAs reach deal, strikes set to end

Ming WongSenior News Writer

A group of students is accusing the UBC athletics department of double-dipping on fees, and they want to give other students a way to stop it.

Every year, students pay $197 in athletics fees to UBC, and another $21 in a fee that’s handed to the uni-versity after going through the AMS student society. Four economics students have started a petition to allow students to opt out of the $21 fee; they argue they shouldn’t have to pay twice.

An assignment for economics class which urged students to “fix something that [they] think should be fixed” got the students — Will Tanner, Kuzi Mutonga, Yash Khat-wani and Andrew Jenkins — started on the petition. Within a week and a half, they amassed about half of the 1,000 signatures they need to get the question onto a referendum ballot.

“When we do take this petition and referendum to the AMS, there might be some real potential to save on this fee [and] shake up the [athletics] department,” said Jen-kins. “It’s been really encouraging so far.”

UBC Vice-President Students Louise Cowin, who runs the athlet-ics department, explained the $21 fee goes toward intramurals, rec events like Storm the Wall and the Birdcoop student gym. The other fee of $197 pays for facility expens-es, building projects and varsity sports teams.

Cowin likened athletics fees to property taxes, arguing that the

programs they fund serve the good of all students.

Jenkins argues that the second athletics fee collected by the AMS is unnecessary because the UBC athletics department ran a budget surplus this year. But critics of the petition contend that it’s ignor-ing how much long-term debt the department has from projects like the Doug Mitchell Winter Sports Centre, which was built for the 2010 Olympics.

Neal Yonson, former editor of the UBC Insiders investigative blog, said he estimates the ath-letics department is currently $8 million in the red. Yonson was involved in a 2008 campaign that lowered athletics user fees like Storm the Wall entry costs and Birdcoop memberships.

Yonson explained the extra $21 fee was added in 1996, in the wake of a tuition freeze that hit the budgets of peripheral departments like ath-letics hard. The freeze was eventu-ally lifted, but the fee stuck around.

“It looks redundant, and it doesn’t make sense to have two separate fees, but that’s not to say it’s a bad fee,” said Yonson. “Getting rid of the athletics fee doesn’t do much;

it might save a few bucks, but it doesn’t stop the university from raising it again.”

Tristan Miller, AMS vice-presi-dent finance, argued that if the opt-out referendum passes, it may be difficult for athletics to keep running so many intramural and rec programs.

“I’m generally against opt-out provisions on fees,” said Miller. “If [athletics doesn’t] have that con-sistency from year to year, it’s very difficult to deliver programming.”

Once Jenkins and his classmates have 1,000 signatures, they will be able to put a referendum question on the ballot for next year’s undergrad elections. If the referendum passes, students would have the choice of opting out of the fee.

Yonson argues the group is taking the wrong approach to reforming fees; he said he wishes they would instead work with the athletics department to examine the overall budget and fee structure.

“It’s easy to collect 1,000 signa-tures in a short deadline; it takes a lot more time and effort to work within the system, but the result would probably be better in the end,” said Yonson. U

Econ students push opt out of athletics feesSay $21 fee for recreation is unnecessary

FEES >>

UIs there a gaping void in your life now because you don’t have something to obsessively ana-lyze?

Then you’re our kind of person. Write for News.

Laura Rodgers and Will McDonald | [email protected]

KAI JACOBSON/THE UBYSSEY FILE PHOTO

CHRIS BORCHERT/THE UBYSSEY FILE PHOTOThe $21 AMS athletics fee goes toward recreational events like Day of the Longboat.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 5EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

Learning the ropes at UBCZafira RajanSenior Lifestyle Writer

For many, the UBC ropes course is a mysterious corner of campus that seems like too much of a has-sle to explore — but students may not know what they’re missing.

Instructor Dave Shepherd elaborated on the concept of the ropes course and what it has to offer: “We try and put people into a situation where they learn concepts like trust, communica-tion, acknowledgement of others and taking difficult risks,” he explained. “We put them in a situation where they can get the physical experience of those con-cepts and take that back into their everyday lives.

“The ropes course is ultimately a vehicle for experiential learn-ing. When you make a mistake, you learn very quickly not to do it again. It’s the fastest, most effect-ive way to learn,” Shepherd said.

Rather than focusing on individuals, the course is meant for large groups trying to work together and face challenges as a team. While this doesn’t sound too far off from Day of the Longboat, the course hasn’t had much luck in attracting UBC students — maybe because the minimum team requirement is a whopping 20 people. Still, Shepherd said that the course is used by many student clubs and sports teams, along with

secondary school students and corporate workers.

“We have specific learning outcomes for every activity for the team to translate back into real life. For instance, if we have a hockey team come in, we’ll have lessons for them to put back onto the ice,” he said.

A typical day at the ropes course involves a four-hour program with exercises on the ground and in the

air. “They do one and a half hours of group challenges exchanged on the ground, where they work together as a team and do different activities to encourage thinking outside the box and thinking about paradigm shifts, that sort of thing,” said Shepherd.

“They start to realize that everyone in the group has some strengths and some weakness-es, and it’s that recognition that

makes the group strong. If they want to, then they can go do a high activity or two, and the rest of the group will be supporting their safety ropes while they’re climb-ing, so there’s lots of trust and communication needed for that.”

The course boasts 13 high elements and hundreds of low activities. “You can go anywhere from one foot to 50 feet up in the air,” Shepherd said. “The

whole premise around the ropes course is challenge by choice. We want people to step outside their own comfort zone and push themselves, because it’s human nature to take the path of the least resistance.

“Whether it’s just speaking in front of a group of people or being 20 feet in the air, we encourage people to push their boundaries.… Everyone is different, and we encourage people to respect everybody’s choice to where their comfort zone is. As long as they’re pushing themselves a little bit, that’s all we want.”

The course gives groups a chance to do more than just hang out or bond with each other.

“A lot of people say that some-thing like go-karting is team building, but that’s actually just team bonding,” Shepherd said. “It’s very different from team building, and there’s nothing wrong with it, but there are no learning components. It’s just having a good time with a bunch of co-workers.”

Shepherd remarked that the course is surprisingly popular in the fall and winter months. “Even though the majority of our clientele comes in the summer months,... we’ve got bookings up to November at this stage, and we have even done it in the snow before. It’s a lot of fun.” U

The UBC ropes course offers a wide range of aerial challenges that encourage team-building.STEPHANIE XU PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

OUTDOORS >>

Ropes course in the north of campus offers team building twenty feet in the air

SARA McMANUS

Sara McManus from women’s field hockey is the UBC Thunderbirds Athletic Council athlete of the week for the week ending Nov. 4. Mc-Manus, a second year kinesiol-ogy student from Delta, B.C., scored all three T-Bird goals in the CIS championship game to lead them to a 3-0 win and cap off UBC’s undefeated season with a gold medal.

McManus, a defender, led the Thunderbirds with five goals during the championship tournament, and also came up big on defence by making an incredible diving check to stop an opponent on a break-away. McManus’s impressive tournament earned her a spot on the CIS championship tournament all-star team, and her achievements this season have also earned her a spot on the Canada women’s field hockey team. The TAC wishes her best of luck in her upcoming tournament.

Pinning the competitionUBC wrestling has strong showing at SFU C.J. PentlandSports + Rec Editor

Last weekend, the UBC wrestling team took on some of the top wrestling teams in Canada and the U.S. The team participated in the SFU and Hargobind Inter-national Tournament at Simon Fraser University.

Despite being the only club team in the tournament, they managed to bring home a gold and silver medal on Friday.

Four students from UBC com-peted under head coach David Wilson. Elliott To took home a gold medal in the 65-kilogram weight class, and Lucas Steidber-ger won silver in the 72-kilogram division. Avi Yan and Mat-thew Law were the two other UBC competitors.

“It was a successful tourna-ment,” said Yan, who previously wrestled at McGill. “It was our first of the year.”

UBC’s status as a club team means that they can’t compete in CIS regionals or nationals, but the team makes the best of the situation by competing close to home. Later this month, they will travel to Washington to take on teams from south of the border.

The team trains for competi-tions three times a week; they hold mat practices in the tennis courts on campus and work out in the varsity weight room. They weren’t able to train on campus last year, so the change of scen-ery is pleasant for the athletes.

“Last year, we were practi-cing at Vancouver Technical High School, so it was difficult for some athletes to make it out there in the evening. It’s more

convenient having it on campus,” said Yan.

About 15 to 20 people come out to each practice, with a select few competing at tournaments. The team hopes to receive varsity status in the future to attract more quality wrestlers to UBC.

“At the moment, I wouldn’t say that UBC is drawing athletes be-cause of their wrestling program,” said Yan. “People want to go to UBC because they have a strong academic record, so if we can have a strong wrestling program, then I think it’ll be very attractive.

“UBC will get student-athletes as opposed to SFU or American schools.”

For now, the wrestling club’s mat practices are open to all UBC students, and athletes that are not UBC students may attend with permission from the coaches.

“We could compete with the [teams at SFU],” Yan said. “But if we had varsity status we would be able to compete in the CIS nationals and regionals.

“That would be very good for our team.” U

UBC took home a gold and silver medal on Friday at the SFU invitational tournament.CHRIS BORCHERT FILE PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

WRESTLING >>

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 6EDITOR C.J. PENTLAND

SAILING >>

Daniel Millerd & Alex DoddContributors

The UBC collegiate sailing team is having a busy month after sending teams to compete in Eugene, Oregon for the annual OUTLAW regatta and Montreal for the Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CICSA) Fleet Racing National Championships.

Sailors Jeanne Currie, Landon Gardner, Kristi VanGunst and Daniel Millerd represented UBC in Montreal for two days of 420-class sailing at the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club. UBC placed fourth over-all, narrowly missing the podium by a one-point margin. Skipper Landon Gardner and crew Jeanne Currie finished first overall in the A fleet.

Saturday’s conditions were light and variable in Montreal. UBC

came slow off the line and rounded low in the fleet. However, the team powered back to a fourth place finish in that race, using the left side of the course after figuring out that it offered an expressway for the first competitor to get there.

The A fleet, Gardner and Currie, finished the day in positions of 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 2. VanGunst and Millerd, who were attending their first nationals, got off to an impressive start consid-ering their limited experience; in B fleet they finished in positions of 6, 6, 4, 7, 4, 4.

Sunday’s races were held under similar conditions. The team was up for boat three, well-known as an under-performer, and did not fare as well, posting 5 and 7 in A fleet and 7 and 5 in B fleet. The final race had the group rotating to a different boat,

where the results were 1 and 2 by A and B, respectively.

Seven other universities from across the country sent members of their sailing teams to compete in the event. An off-water highlight for all of the teams was networking with like-minded sailors from across the country and the world. “It was a great experience for us to sail in Montreal and meet people from across Canada,” said Ben Lesage, a French international student study-ing at HEC Montreal.

This was the first year UBC has sent a cohort to Montreal for nationals, and the experience was an overwhelmingly positive one. By placing one point shy of a bronze medal finish, UBC proved that it is a team that belongs on the national stage, and they are now ranked fourth nationally by the collegiate sailing governing body in Canada.

The Montreal regatta’s success is due to the hard work of the people at CICSA who organized the Montreal event for the second straight year. CICSA is an organization dedicated to the advancement of collegiate sailing in Canada; it has been oper-

ating for three seasons and works with 14 universities across Canada.

UBC’s Landon Gardner is chair of the CICSA Board of Directors and believes the organization to be of paramount importance to com-petitive university-level sailing in Canada. “It is not just important for the development of collegiate sailing to have a governing body, but it is important for the sport of sailing in Canada to develop collegiate sailing in Canada,” he said.

In Eugene, the team also compet-ed at OUTLAW, an intercollegiate sailing event hosted by the Uni-versity of Oregon and the Eugene Yacht Club.

Also in attendance were the Uni-versity of Victoria and other teams from the U.S. A total of 14 races were run on Saturday in variable condi-tions ranging from 5-15 knots. UBC sailors Neil Roberts and Muieen Cader represented the team by sail-ing in Gold Fleet’s A division, while Alex Dodd and Clara Reid sailed in the B division.

The team set out the weekend with the goal of consistently starting each race in a good position relative

to other boats and with a clean lane to accelerate. Each duo achieved this goal.

Racing was postponed and later cancelled Sunday due to thick fog and lack of wind.

Despite finishing near the top of the fleet in some races and commanding a strong presence in the middle of the fleet, UBC finished the regatta ranked 11th out of 12 teams as a result of a registration-related scoring penalty.

The UBC team will also be sending members to compete in FROSH SOPH, hosted by the Uni-versity of Western Washington next weekend.

Anyone interested in con-tacting the UBC collegiate sailing team can do so through their Fa-cebook page; the team is currently pursuing new members. The team practices out of the UBC Sailing Club, which is based out of the Jericho Sailing Centre. U

Daniel Millerd and Alex Dodd are members of the UBC collegiate sailing team.

Smooth sailing for UBC studentsUBC sailors finish fourth overall at national championships in Montreal

PHOTOS COURTESY DANIELL MILLERD

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 7EDITOR ANNA ZORIA

Anna Zoria Culture Editor

Canadian singer-songwriter John K. Samson is the humblest rock star you could ever meet.

And the prospect of meeting him isn’t that far-fetched, now that the Weakerthans frontman is UBC’s writer-in-residence for 2012-2013.

Dressed in a plaid vest and blue toque, Samson resembled a mis-placed Wes Anderson character as he casually tuned his ukulele in the hallway of Buchanan E. He seemed just as pleasantly surprised by his new gig as the students who will now have a chance to workshop with him.

“I’m not sure how it hap-pened,” he admitted, almost sheepishly.

Though Samson may be bashful, there’s no real question why he landed the position. Following his late-’90s split from one of Can-ada’s most legitimate punk bands, Propagandhi, Samson went on to start Arbeiter Ring Publishing, a publishing collective that focuses on radical and anarchist literature. Shortly thereafter, he founded the Weakerthans, one of the most well-recognized indie rock bands in Canada.

Four Weakerthans albums and one solo album later, Samson’s introspective songwriting has defined him as one of this nation’s predominant living poets. His lyrics often create visual narratives that stick with his listeners long af-ter the last chord; whether it’s “the stain in the carpet” or “the pain in your chest,” he rarely misses a detail.

Still, Samson’s more eager to learn from others than he is to dole out advice.

“I’ll probably get more out of it than the students will,” he joked.

This kind of statement is typical of Samson’s down-to-earth nature and nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic. The songwriter is known for carefully crafting each lyric and going above and beyond in doing research for his songs.

“Research is a big part of my work,” he said. “That’s something I’m really interested in too,... in university life, in that sense. I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a thwarted academic.

“It really excites me — getting into the archives and the libraries and discovering things you didn’t know before.”

His last record and first solo effort, Provincial, features a song that he says is “is the most univer-sity-based song for sure.” “When I Write My Master’s Thesis” is all about the anxiety of staring at a blank page and not knowing how to start — an anxiety that students are all too familiar with.

While it’s been over a decade since Samson himself last sat in a lecture hall, he said creative writing courses were some of his favourites.

“I like creative writing programs. I think they’re valuable. People sometimes have mixed feelings about them, but I think the idea of workshopping something is a really powerful thing.”

Together with his wife and writing partner Christine Fellows, Samson will meet with students at

UBC to write and workshop over the course of the next six months.

Samson emphasized that all students, regardless of faculty or program, are free to meet with him and get feedback.

“There’s this whole infra-structure and network for it here, and I think that’s fantastic. The students should take advantage of that.”

Samson is already integrating himself in UBC’s campus culture.

On Nov. 8, he’ll be hosting an interactive reading with students from the creative writing program, and on Nov. 9, he will perform a solo concert at the Chan Centre.

Though no concrete plans are set for either a Weakerthans album or solo album, Samson said that being at UBC will fuel his creative juices.

“I like the idea of writing in a surrounding where people are doing things, where there’s labour and work being done. And this feels like such a place:… kind of catacombs of people labouring away on so many different things. It’s exciting to me.”

As for that creative writing advice to students that he was so reluctant to give?

“Treat it like labour, like real work, ’cause that’s what it is. I some-times forget that.... Sometimes you get a gift, you get a moment, an in-spiration from somewhere, and you don’t know where it comes from. But for the most part, it’s just really hard work. And it’s worth it.

“It’s worth trying to express yourself and trying to connect to the tapestry of expression that goes on in the world.” U

New Kits restaurant mixes rustic charm with chic eats

UNDER REVIEW >>

John K. Samson will be workshopping pieces with creative writing students at UBC.KAI JACOBSON PHOTOS/THE UBYSSEY

WRITING >>

Brangelina. Chavril. And now, Fable.

The term “farm-to-table” has been combined in one of Vancou-ver’s newest restaurants, Fable.

Pegged as “fun and non-preten-tious,” this Kitsilano hot spot was started by Top Chef Canada finalist Trevor Bird earlier this summer.

Entrées average $20 per plate, so the prices lie slightly out of a student budget. But keep this restaurant in mind for when your parents come to visit or when you want to impress a date.

Like its name, the eatery’s culinary philosophy is succinct and to the point; here, gimmicks and frills have been relinquished in favour of solid food and sincere service. At Fable, you wouldn’t look out of place in jeans and a T-shirt.

But don’t let the unassuming ambiance fool you; all that ex-posed brick and reclaimed wood belie the dedication with which the menu is crafted. Chef Bird and manager Ron MacGillivray’s vision leaves no detail missed, including the denim-clad kitchen staff.

With such a food-forward mentality, there is little room for error in the execution of each dish. I started by sampling three appetizers: beet salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and chickpea fritters.

The beet salad stood out solely for its innovative use of raw quinoa; it added great texture and was a clever repurposing of a trendy ingredient.

The spaghetti and meatballs, inspired by Chef Bird’s turn on the second season of Top Chef Canada, featured a perfectly cooked duck meatball over tagliatelle. The savoury parmesan foam con-trasted nicely with the sweet duck.

Lastly, the chickpea fritters were fried to perfection and doused in a curry mayo.

Entrées included a flatiron steak with black pepper jam and broccolini, and arctic char with celeriac purée and sunchokes.

The steak was cooked nicely, but the real star of the dish was the perfectly balanced and peppery jam.

The winning entrée, how-ever, was the arctic char. Cooked immaculately and paired with the smoothest celeriac purée, the dish was finished by the salty snap of fried sunchokes. Just keep your eyes peeled for pork fat, if that’s not your thing.

The service throughout the meal was knowledgeable and friendly. At least four different people bid us farewell during the 20-odd steps towards the exit.

Fable should look forward to a bright future. The portion sizes were surprisingly fair, as were the prices, considering the quality of the food. The drinks menu was innovative, and the wine list had a good mix of both B.C. and import wines. And the close proximity to UBC is ideal for students.

Though the prices might be tough on the average student’s wallet, Fable’s casual ambiance and excellent food definitely make it worth a visit for that special night out. U

WHAT AM I EATING?by Tyler McRobbie

It’s worth trying to express yourself and trying to connect to the tapestry of expression that goes on in the world.

People sometimes have mixed feelings about [creative writing progams], but I think the idea of workshopping something is a really powerful thing.

Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson looks forward to hitting the books as UBC’s new writer-in-residence

“A thwarted academic”

8 | CULTURe | THURSDAY, nOVeMBeR 8, 2012

Zafira RajanSenior Lifestyle Writer

“We like drinking, girls and money.”

While that may sound like the opening lines of a rap song, it’s actually the raison d’être of a UBC student band called Man Chat. While none of their lyrics reference those three topics (yet), singer and keyboardist Keillor McLeod said that the name Man Chat stems from “when guys talk about stuff and they’re just talking about girls and money and drink-ing.… It’s not really gossip, it’s just the idea of it. It’s very much who we are.”

Man Chat, whose five mem-bers have known each other since high school, recently got picked up by UBC recording company Blank Vinyl. They’ve been actively performing and writing songs for the past year, all the while juggling essays, midterms and jobs.

“It started as a three-piece band at the beginning of 2010,” vocalist and guitarist Mikhail Din said. “It was folky style, no bass, no drums, just acoustic, real sound.… But we soon decided that we really want-ed a full band sound.”

That’s when the rest of the band members came in. “We’ve been a

full band since last September, and that’s when we played our first show together,” guitarist Torben Robertson said.

The individual music tastes of the musicians are strikingly diverse, ranging from hardcore rap to dubstep to indie. “Our music tastes outside of the band do not translate at all to our music,” drummer Brendan Conner said.

“Me and Mikhail kind of get in trouble for liking indie music, be-cause these other guys are really hardcore; they don’t like to admit

to their soft side,” McLeod joked. “But it all comes together, which is where our music comes from.”

Even though they’ve only been playing for a year, every Man Chat song is different, making it difficult to classify the band under a particular “sound.”

“It’s sort of like every new piece of the band makes it f low into the next step. It’s not us ever sitting down and saying, ‘Oh, we want this sound,’ or, ‘Oh, we want to come out like this in front of our audience.’ It

just changes into the next step,” Din said.

So far, the band has been lucky in terms of opportunities for gigs; instead of seeking out shows, they’ve often been invited to play by fan request. So far, they’ve played at the opening of UBC’s Buchanan courtyard, the Ignite! Festival and the Rio Theatre, just to name a few.

“We’ve played for free, we played for battle of the bands. We actually came first in one and second in another,” McLeod said.

“We like those, but it becomes tough after a while, because you don’t get paid to play and you’re being judged to play. It’s not as fun as just playing for the love of it.”

Din explained that they’ve been taking some time off from per-forming to work on new material. “We’ve had this year and a half of playing the same set,… but we have a couple of new songs in the works that are our finest, so we want to continue working on new stuff. Before we play a new show, we want to have a solid amount of new songs for the crowd.”

“New music is 100 per cent of our focus right now,” bassist Matiya Shunamon agreed.

It’s not easy to juggle a music career with a degree, but the band members were quick to point out that music is more of a refuge than work.

“Music, for any of us, is never a chore,” Conner said. “It’s where we go to relax. It’s never hard to find time to do music. It’s tough to find time to do everything else.”

“As far as motivation goes, it’s hard to kind of get there, but it’s like … flossing out your teeth,” Mc-Leod said. “Getting out your floss is a pain in the butt, but actually doing it is not that bad. The motiv-ation comes from nowhere; we just get there automatically.”

The band is confident that their new material will be well-received, and they’re hoping to play at more festivals later in the year. But so far, they’ve been riding the wave: their audience is growing and they feel good. As McLeod quipped, “We’ve had no beer bottles thrown at us yet, so clearly, they love us.” U

Introducing campus rockers Man Chat

Guys just wanna have fun: Man Chat doesn’t sing about girls and money and drinking, but they certainly like to talk about it.KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY

NEW MUSIC >>

We’ve had no beer bottles thrown at us yet, so clearly, they love us.

Keillor McLeodMan Chat singer and

keyboardist

THURSDAY, nOVeMBeR 8, 2012 | nATIOnAL | 9

Q & A with Steven Point, B.C.’s former lieutenant-governor PROVINCIAL >>

Joe JohnsonThe Cascade (UFV)

ABBOTSFORD (CUP) — The Honourable Steven Point, as of Nov. 1, has completed his five-year term as lieutenant-governor of B.C. This tops off a remarkable career that began at the age of 23 as a Skowkale First Nation chief, and then saw him become grand chief of the Sto:lo Tribal Council. He’s also worked in law on First Nations issues and served as a provincial court judge, as well as worked as a professor at the University of the Fraser Valley for a short time. Two days before the end of his term, Point gave an exit interview on his career.

How did your time as a [Skowkale] chief, if at all, shape what you brought to the lieutenant-governor’s position?

Every lieutenant-governor is different; they bring different skills and different backgrounds to the office. Of course, I’m First Nations. I’ve been able to make a canoe, for example, to give to the province of British Columbia. I was able to build a canoe and give it to the navy, as I was a navy captain. We helped build a totem pole with Chief Tony Hunt, the Hosaqami pole, and we put that up here. And I carved the storyboard for the Government House on the salmon story, how the salmon got in the Fraser [River]. My time has been certainly informed here by my history and relationship as a First Nations person.

Your term ends in two days. What are some stories that you’ll take away?

Well, I helped to establish a literacy campaign that brings books to iso-lated communities in the northern parts, coastal parts, of B.C.

And we’re now bringing libraries out to many of these communities with the help of a company called Britco — a member of the Rotary clubs — who are assisting in bring-ing books out to isolated commun-

ities. It’s one of the great stories of my tenure here, is the literacy campaign. I’ve received thousands of stories from elementary schools, from hundreds of schools in B.C., in my Right to Read program.

And then there’s the whole cadet, the sponsoring of the aboriginal cadet core, in Duncan, and I wrote a song called “British Columbia” which I’m giving to B.C. in a couple of days. Oh, there’s a lot of great stories. The canoe stories, the canoe journeys — it’s been a great time for us here. Five years has gone by very quickly.

Is it typically five years for each lieutenant-governor or do some lieutenant-governors have longer terms?

The constitutionality limit, the minimum limit, is five years. So you get appointed for a period of five years. Then it’s in the hands of government to find another person. Sometimes they take a few years longer. I know some lieutenant-gov-ernors have been here for six, seven

years rather than just the five. But the normal period is five years.

How did you go from practicing law to lieutenant-governor?

I was a judge, actually, in the prov-incial court, sitting in Abbotsford. I was approached by the federal [and] provincial government back in 2005 to become the chief commissioner of the treaty process as appointed by the federal and provincial government and all the chiefs in B.C.

I don’t know what the process is, actually, for selecting the lieuten-ant-governor. It was just something that somebody might have submit-ted my name, I don’t know, but all I know is I got a call from the prime minister’s office asking if I would do it.

 It’s such an overlooked and, I think, maybe not a very well-known position. What was the day-to-day life like?

As the head of government here in British Columbia, the lieuten-ant-governor will meet [with], for

example, foreign dignitaries that come in to take up office here in Vancouver. Many of the ambassa-dors have their offices in Ottawa and they have members that reside in different major cities, in Canada.

Before that, as a courtesy to British Columbia, they present themselves to the lieutenant-gov-ernor, and the lieutenant-governor will meet with them and they will exchange gifts, have a photograph taken. It’s kind of an international protocol process and if the am-bassador comes in from Ottawa, the ambassador will also come to Government House and meet the lieutenant-governor.

In fact, on the first day the new lieutenant-governor takes office, I think they’re meeting with representatives from Ugan-da. So that’s part of the official role; to be the person who greets international representatives.

Of course, you’re signing docu-ments from the cabinet,... most of the legislation, for example, boards for the universities, all of the commissioners, the police boards,

they’re all appointed through the lieutenant-governor’s office. All of the judges are appointed through the lieutenant-governor’s office.

You’re doing an awful lot of work with the government. And then of course the lieutenant-governor is a patron of over 120 different or-ganizations in British Columbia, so the lieutenant-governor’s expected to attend most of their functions throughout the year.

So any given day you could be signing documents for government, you could be meeting foreign digni-taries [or] you could be attending different patronage functions.

The other thing that’s happened is that I was made an honorary captain for the navy because the queen is the head of the military in Canada. So the navy, the air force, the army and all of the cadet programs, they all invite you to all of their events. They have annual dinners, annual reviews, and so I act as reviewing officer for most of the military events that happen in B.C.

I could go on and on and on. I attend probably up to 350 events a year on behalf of the queen.

Where do you go from here?

Well, I go back to Chilliwack — I live in Chilliwack — and hopefully go back to work as a judge. We’ll see what happens, but that’s what I’m hoping to do.

Are you going to miss the position of lieutenant-governor?

Well, it’s been a wonderful time. Of course, it’s so busy, you know? On the one hand, you’re living in a great house and you have great staff and whatnot. But on the other hand, it’s nice to go home. There’s no place like home, your own bed and your own kind of world. Here in this office you belong to the office and your entire life is wrapped up in what you’re doing here. For five years, you’re pretty much in harness. So I’m going to be glad to go home.

Where is the Quebec student movement now?

PHOTO COURTESY FLICKR/BC GOV PHOTOSBefore he was lieutenant-governor, Point studied law at UBC and served as a provincial court judge.

Erin HudsonCUP Quebec Bureau ChiefMONTREAL (CUP) — This time last year, buzz around the first full-fledged day of action planned by the Quebec student movement was reaching a fever pitch.

The 30,000-strong protest on Nov. 10, 2011 was the first step in what would become North America’s largest student protest in decades. The resulting seven-month-long student strike buckled the Quebec government’s resolve and put a stop to a proposed tuition increase.

Though they emerged from the strike victorious, Quebec students, once united in their struggle against the government, now stand divided and no longer hold the same sway they did in the spring.

“We dictated the political agen-da for the last seven months prior to the [Quebec provincial] elec-tion,” said Jérémie Bédard-Wien, an executive of Quebec student group CLASSE, during an event held at McGill in late September. “The election was the first time that we, students, lost control.”

After the Quebec provincial election this summer, the in-coming Parti Québécois (PQ) government froze tuition for the 2012-2013 year, rolling back the

Liberals’ tuition hike while main-taining their $39 million increase to student aid.

During the strike, a coalition called CLASSE formed between the more radical student asso-ciation ASSÉ and the moderate groups FEUQ and FECQ. FEUQ represents Quebec university students, and FECQ represents students at lower-level Quebec colleges known as cégeps.

After the PQ came to power, CLASSE disbanded. Members of ASSÉ now work independently, while FEUQ and FECQ continue to work together.

“The unity [between all of us] was to achieve the fight to have a tuition fee freeze and, since we won, now we’re going back to fighting for our ideas,” said Mar-tine Desjardins, FEUQ president.

ASSÉ advocates for free edu-cation and the removal of tuition fees, while FEUQ and FECQ push for accessible education and don’t think tuition should be abolished entirely.

FEUQ and FECQ try to main-tain a close and collaborative relationship with the government to make progress on issues. Desjar-dins is often in communication with Pierre Duchesne, the prov-ince’s newly appointed minister in

charge of post-secondary.But directives from Duchesne’s

ministry have been slow and con-crete details on initiatives are hard to come by.

Two of Quebec’s biggest schools, McGill University and Concordia University, received directives offi-cially cancelling the Liberals’ tuition hike on Nov. 2, nearly two months after the PQ announced their gov-ernment would cancel the increases.

While FEUQ and FECQ try to work with the government, ASSÉ is calling for its members to continue protests and grassroots efforts.

ASSÉ has organized recent demonstrations such as a Nov. 1 solidarity march for former CLASSE spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Du-bois after he was found guilty of contempt of court, and a Montreal demonstration for a global day of action against the corporatization of education.

The day of action demonstration on Oct 18 resulted in three arrests and the injury of one demonstrator.

ASSÉ is planning a week of action starting Nov. 14, to coincide with demonstrations planned by more radically minded student groups around the globe. Department asso-ciations at five Quebec universities so far have adopted strike mandates for the week.

ACTIVISM >>

UBC grad and former Skowkale chief reflects on his time as the ceremonial head of the province

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 10STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.

Unhappy liberals at heart of UBC’s U.S. recruitment strategy

As we all know, UBC Presi-dent Stephen Toope has a formidable intellect. Not only does he run a uni-

versity, he also manages to keep an eye to international politics. And as we know from our last success-ful hack of the [email protected] email account, he’s a man who likes to have contingency plans in place.

Through computer magic, The Ubyssey has obtained two memos intended for the upper echelon of the UBC admin. One was prepared in the event of a Romney win; the other was sent out following the Obama victory. Both concern UBC’s efforts to recruit inter-national students from south of the border. Read on:

Re: Four more tough years for UBC

As you all know, I have mixed feelings about the Obama White House. On the one hand, I appre-ciate what his story means to the United States and the world at large.

But on the other hand, the Obama administration is killing UBC’s bottom line. For decades, we’ve relied on a steady stream of tuition from the recruitment of indignant, liberal American 18-year-olds. Now with two states with legal pot, and gay marriage gaining more and more traction, I’m beginning to worry about UBC’s — even Canada’s — competitive advantage.

Canada holds a special place in the hearts of the American liber-als. Sure, we’ve had a onservative government in place for the past seven years and our economy is still largely based on savaging the earth. But the American liberal doesn’t know that. They see that we have health care and we don’t want to talk too much about abortion and that’s enough for them. Indeed, most of their favourite public radio contribu-tors are Canadian. For the past few decades, our brand has been up there with Tom’s of Maine and the North Face in the minds of left-leaning Americans.

But now two of our biggest recruiting centres, Washington

and Colorado, have legal pot. I mean, seriously, would you pay extra to study in B.C. to have to buy dime bags from some dude on second Haida? Plus they get you way too high. Now some old NDPers are pushing for a similar referendum in B.C., and given the province’s record with controlled substances ... I mean, can you im-agine them not screwing that up?

I think back, enviously, to 2004. Martha Piper had it so easy back then. All you had to do was mention “Canada” at a recruit-ing session in an American high school and the kids would flock — kids with their parents’ Sub-arus, the stereos forever set to NPR. They rocked against Bush right into our pockets, the mod-ern-day equivalent of all those old hippie draft dodgers over on Vancouver Island. For them, taking an expensive arts degree in Canada was tantamount to revolution. Buck Fush indeed, but he did great things for UBC’s bottom line.

We need to either rebuild B.C. in the minds of American liberals or rework our strategy entirely. Can we give the Fraser Institute a call? The University of Budding Conservatives has a nice ring to it.

***

Re: It’s morning in America, again

I know you’ve all been working very hard these past few days. There’s been a great deal of American interest in UBC ever since Romney took control of the White House. I just want to remind everyone in the admis-sions and recruiting departments that it’s okay to play to the fears of liberal students and their par-ents. If they say they’re worried about the direction the country’s headed, simply agree with them. Say that yes, Romney is indeed turning the United States into a neoliberal hellhole, one with no unions and where everyone wears top hats and tries their hardest to tilt the playing field.

Come to Canada. We have a public broadcaster. U

ATHLETICS NEEDS TO WORK ON WEAK TIES TO STUDENTS



The initiative that’s trying to add an opt-out provision to student athletics fees (page 4) is certainly a fun idea.

A petition and referendum campaign is a lot of work, so the jury’s out on whether that will ever come to fruition. (It’s also a project for an econom-ics class, so we’ll see how far the student actually feels like pushing it after the class ends.) But it’s a good reminder to the university, as it continues its “re-imagining” of the athletics department, of just how weak the ties are between the student body and athletics.

It’s well-known that games are poorly attended, and one of the recommendations in an external review was that the department do more to connect to the students that pay $218 a year for athletics.

From the minutes of the expert panel assigned to this “re-imagining,” it seems like the focus is on more high-mind-ed goals, like becoming the healthiest campus in the world. They’re really just spitballing at this stage: they met with Campus and Community Planning to come up with zany and whimsical installations to encourage physical movement, like a giant ping-pong table (which some people ought to remind them is typically called a tennis court).

But there are serious prob-lems with the current system that need to be fixed. The initiative doesn’t target UBC’s $197 per year fee, but the $21 AMS fee, instituted in the 1990s, when tuition was frozen. But as athletics is currently looking at offloading responsib-ility for the “second tier” of ath-letics-related clubs to the AMS, that fee could still be necessary.

Students trying to wade into the athletics decision-making process will find that things are not entirely stable there right now. But the project serves as a reminder to the department: students pay a lot of money, and they’re not sure

what they’re getting out of it. Plan accordingly.

LACK OF STRIKE POWER LEAVES FACULTY ASSOCIATION HOPING FOR THE BEST



As the pile-up of labour nego-tiations begins to sort itself out, one of the last groups still looking for a deal doesn’t like what it’s being offered (page 3). It won’t, however, be able to strike to get what it wants.

The Faculty Association is a weird beast. It’s kind of a union, and it bargains like a union, but it’s not a union and doesn’t have the same pull. As the “bargaining agent” for UBC’s professors, it agreed not to strike when it finalized its first deal in 1974.

Consequently, it’s been moderate ever since. It is not a member of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators, the B.C. umbrella organization for faculty unions, and as such, isn’t included in their advocacy.

The association is being offered a wage increase, but they don’t like the fact that it measures up poorly against what people are being paid at the University of Toronto. However, there’s little they can do about it.

They’ll probably end up going to binding arbitration, where an agreement will be imposed on faculty. They will try to get what they can. But if they feel like it falls short, they may find themselves looking at CUPE’s strike-forged deals and wondering what they could have gotten.

CONGRATS, AUS — YOU GOT REALLY LUCKY



The Arts Undergraduate Soci-ety (AUS) offices were broken into over the weekend (page 3).

Nothing was stolen, but they had $1,500 in their office at the time, which is just part of a string of bad decisions.

AUS President Harsev Oshan said they usually don’t keep money in the office, but this was a special situation. They hosted a joint beer garden with the Engineering Undergraduate

Society and were holding onto the money until they could figure out how to divide it.

But the beer garden was on Oct. 26. Two weeks is more than enough time to complete the tough task of calling up the EUS and saying, “Hey, we’ve got a lot of money. Come and take some of it.” But they didn’t, and they nearly lost everything.

Apparently there aren’t sec-urity cameras or alarms in the AUS offices. The break-in wasn’t discovered until AUS officers returned from the weekend.

The AUS doesn’t exactly have a good history of dealing with money. In September 2010, the AMS froze their accounts be-cause they hadn’t made a budget for the year.

They got lucky on this one. Given their security and finan-cial policies, this could have turned out a lot worse.

ANESTHESIOLOGISTS WITHOUT JOBS, COMMUNITIES WITHOUT ANESTHESIOLOGISTS



B.C.’s medical system is facing a number of challenges. There are shortages of specialists like anes-thesiologists, and there are very few doctors who want to serve rural and northern communities.

This is a problem. We need to make sure specialist pay is com-petitive enough in B.C. that we won’t have tons of professionals leaving for other provinces once they finish their degrees.

We need to have actual incen-tives that encourage medical pro-fessionals to practice in remote areas, rather than just getting them to do part of their degree in a small town and hoping for the best.

How about a tuition break for med students who agree to a stint practicing in an under-served town after they gradu-ate? It could work.

Our province’s situation with doctors shows how intimately post-secondary education is tied to our econ-omy and the services that British Columbians need. If you neglect one, you also hurt the other — and that’s true in other fields too. U

LAST WORDS

INDIANA JOEL COMIC/THE UBYSSEY

ULetters! They’re like old-timey web comments! Love what you see? Hate what you see? We want to hear from you. Send your letters to the editor to [email protected].

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HUMOUR >>

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012 | 11PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE

MATT MEUSE PHOTOS/THE UBYSSEY

Students gathered at the Gallery Lounge Tuesday night to watch the U.S. presidential election unfold. Obama’s win was a cause for celebration for the decidedly liberal crowd.

PICS OF THE WEEK

@Kingbry7 Do Canadians tweet this much when they elect their mooseking?

@white_stellar Didn’t wanna vote in the Canadian election, where I could, instead I wanna vote in the one that I can’t. #canadianproblems #Obama2012

@NeilOphonic No matter the results of the election tonight, I think the true winners are us. Tuesday Nights were a bad TV night anyway.@iamelectro BC has an election in May. I bet you Americans are on the edges of your seats for that one!@hummingbird604 Given that I follow mostly Canadian folks, I predict Obama will win in Canada.

@yearningformore I’m nervous about the American election, I can’t imagine how Americans feel

Tweets of

the Night

12 | GAMeS | THURSDAY, nOVeMBeR 8, 2012

ACROSS

1- Flying start? 5- Orchestra string 10- Riga resident 14- Gator’s cousin 15- Long Island town 16- Gumbo ingredient 17- Apple product 18- One who sells religious books 20- Block 22- Fleur-de-___ 23- City on the Ruhr 24- Self-respect 26- ___-Magnon man

27- Illicit drug 30- Casual shoes 34- Citrus fruit 35- Hammer head 36- Used car locale 37- Aromatic herb 38- Brand name for a copying machine 40- A shivering fit, often a precursor to malaria 41- Bon ___ 42- Farm structure 43- Treat salt 45- Irregularity 47- Conducted 48- Consumed

49- Pending 50- Old Finnish money 53- May ___ excused? 54- Paddled 58- Seaplane 61- Must’ve been something ___ 62- Believe 63- Buy alternative 64- Double 65- Cheerio! 66- Aquatic mammal 67- Born Free lion

DOWN

1- Not base 2- Humorist Bombeck 3- Wander 4- Resident 5- Singer Damone 6- Tristan’s love 7- Stan’s pal 8- Kissers 9- Mil. address 10- Many 11- Just manages, with “out” 12- Faithful 13- Mountain lake 19- Aired again 21- Bluenose 25- Banished 26- Get along peacefully 27- Punctuation mark 28- Rigel’s constellation 29- Division of a long poem 30- Composer Delibes 31- “Pomp and Circumstance” composer 32- Path 33- War horse 35- Debate side 39- TV Tarzan Ron 40- Capital of South Australia 42- Glossy fabric 44- Presidential battleground state 46- Capital of the Philippines 47- Discomfort

49- German submarine 50- Fizzling sound 51- Zeno’s home 52- Russian no 53- Yeah, right! 55- Actor Julia 56- Greek letters 57- Boxer Oscar ___ Hoya 59- Day-___ 60- Thrice, in prescriptions

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November 8, 2012

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