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The Cascade is the University of the Fraser Valley's autonomous student newspaper, and has been since 1993.
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Embiggening the picture since 1993
February 18, 2015 to February 24, 2015Vol. 23 Issue 6
Fashion gets the scissors
ufvcascade.ca
The two-year fashion design diploma is being suspended, to be eventually replaced
Take the guesswork
out of SUS elections
Postcards against racismNew project will let students anonymously share their thoughts on racism at UFV
Writing Centre alumna weighs inA former student who worked in the Writing Centre says peer mentoring won’t be effective
p. 9-12p.15
p.7
p.3
2NEWS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
UFV administration visited an extraordinary board meeting over reading break.
The Conservative government has suggested that “middle class” means households that pull in $120,000. So where does that leave the rest of us? And what will happen as wages continue to go down and prices continue to go up? Ekaterina Marenkov weighs in.
Andy Shauf, touring for his album, the Bearer of Bad News, played to an unusually hushed crowd in Vancouver — but the silence was because the audience was spellbound, writes Mitch Huttema.
A new mental health awareness club hopes to spread understanding about mental illness at UFV. Sasha Moedt has the story.
SUS supports Academic Success Centre
Middle class woes
Bad News is good music
Stopping the stigma
News
Opinion
Arts in Review
Sports & Health
18
6
4
19
Suits take the place of togas in UFV’s latest theatre production of Julius Caesar. Katie Stobbart interviews director Bruce Kirkley about his modern take on history’s most infamous assassination.
Et tu, Brute?Culture 8
University of Toronto in-structors prepare to strike
Student Union Society (SUS) all-candidates meeting
News
Briefs
TORONTO — Sessional instructors and teaching assistants at the University of Toronto are planning to strike on February 27, the Toronto Star reports. Instructors have been lobbying for raises, as they make an average salary of $15,000 per year. The university states it cannot increase pay because of the provincial wage freeze. The low-income line in Ontario is $23,000 per year. The university has looked at restructuring classes to accommodate the strike; however, some professors are arguing that this violates academic freedom.
CHILLIWACK — SUS is running elections for new faculty reps and executives. An all-candidates meeting will be hosted by The Cascade at 11:30 a.m. in A1424 on Thursday, Februrary 19 at Chilliwack’s CEP campus. Candidates will discuss their campaigns and plans for the future of SUS. Another debate was hosted on Tuesday of this week in Abbotsford by CIVL Radio. Students can vote online through myUFV from February 23 to 26.
Copy [email protected]
Kodie Cherrille
Production and Design [email protected]
Anthony Biondi
News [email protected]
Megan Lambert
[email protected] ScoularOpinion Editor
[email protected] Rake
Arts in Review [email protected]
Sasha Moedt
Printed By International Web exPress
Cover image: Anthony Biondi
Culture [email protected]
Nadine Moedt
ContributorsCelina Beer, Martin Castro,
Jasmin Chahal, Raymond Kobes, and Ekaterina Marenkov.
Director of Business [email protected]
Joe Johnson
Managing [email protected]
Valerie Franklin
Katie Stobbart
Volume 23 · Issue 6Room C1027 33844
King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8
604.854.4529The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student
newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is
published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade
is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of
a prejudicial or oppressive nature.Submissions are preferred in electronic format
through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only.
Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any
articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libel-lous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any
given edition.Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that
of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.Webmaster
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Lack of student engagement seems to have been a theme this year at UFV, and many circular discussions among members of its community have been fuelled by the question of how to fix that.
In a previous editorial, I suggested it might be a failure to “leave the office” on the part of those students who are participating in campus organizations or people making decisions at an administrative level. However, I think there’s a bigger factor: a presumption made by those in authority, whose responsibility is to represent the UFV community, that their own interests always align with the desires and needs of the people they represent — specifically students.
A number of recent decisions by UFV administration reflect poor consultation of students or solicitation of our involvement at all. The UFV 40th campaign, for example, did not come across as a celebration of UFV’s progress as an institution or of its history. Rather, it was a marketing scheme to enhance the reputation of the university via empty slogans, expensive but poorly attended parties, and semi-staged photo
opportunities.While I agree the reputation
of an institution is important, an institution’s reputation should be built on its actual good qualities, not on pricey marketing campaigns.
But that could be forgiven, had there been some tangible benefit for students, had students been asked how they wanted to be represented as a collective, or how best to celebrate the community to which they have chosen to belong.
With the newer 2025 planning initiative, UFV’s effort to involve students is a fumbling one at best. The haste with which a course has been adapted and suddenly offered mid-semester seems suspect; the way information was disseminated was highly unconventional, with a private email sent to a number of Student Union Society (SUS) and student association representatives before the opportunity was broadcast via normal communication channels; and coercing students to participate by offering free credits does not enable inclusivity.
The handling of the Writing Centre’s ending was equally botched.
For the record, it is an ending. There will no longer be a “Writing Centre.” The people who currently work there will
no longer fill that capacity, nor the space, nor do the same work elsewhere. The services to be offered in that space will be inherently different from the ones currently offered there. I have already said my piece on administration’s decision to close the Writing Centre, but a new point has been raised that merits address.
Their plan is to have 30 to 40 upper-level student peer tutors in the Academic Success Centre. This is unrealistic to the point of laughable. You couldn’t get 30 to 40 students generally to stand in front of a free (for the audience) concert in the middle of a sunny weekday in the middle of UFV’s main campus during UFV 40th events. What makes the administration think that amount from a much narrower pool of students is going to line up to work as peer tutors?
It doesn’t matter if you offer pay or free course credit or CCR credit, for whatever that’s worth. The story I hear and experience everywhere at UFV, across the board, is that applicants for such opportunities are sparse at best. Had students been consulted on the feasibility of this plan, we might have told administration that.
Peer support has a place, and maybe it works well at other institutions, but the Writing
Centre is one of the things that makes UFV remarkable. Why would we aim to be like other institutions when what we have works, and even makes us a better choice?
This week SUS passed a motion in support of administration’s decision to close the Writing Centre, with part of it expressing their disappointment on UFV’s failure to properly consult and communicate with students. UFV has published a repentant blog post admitting its faults in that department, presumably to secure SUS’s approval.
However, by passing that motion without consulting students, SUS did the same thing they chastised UFV for. While UFV administration needs to improve its practices in regards to communicating with students, it’s also a given that their loyalty will be with the institution first. But SUS’s mandate is to be for the students; the way they so quickly passed this motion betrays that.
Until people in positions of power who speak and act on behalf of others at UFV start to invoke the vox populi, student engagement is not a reality. Why should students build a community when it’s clear the people making decisions on their behalf don’t care what they think?
KATIE STOBBARTEDITOR-IN-CHIEF
UFV, SUS should be schooled in student consultation
Video [email protected]
Mitch Huttema
Advertising [email protected] Trithardt-Tufts
Mission mayor calls for more regulation of grow-ops
MISSION — Mayor Randy Hawes noted at a council meeting this week that the number of grow-ops in Mission is high, the Mission City Record reports. The complaints are leading to suggestions of a system where homes were inspected regularly for electrical safety. The mayor says the controversial Public Safety Inspection Team (PSIT) was a problem because of how it functioned as a cost-recovery program. Hawes compared the situation to the one in Surrey, where an initiative saw dramatically improved results in four years. Police state there are 670 grow-ops in Mission — almost equal to the 687 in Abbotsford, which has a larger population.
IllustrationsWayne Chin
3NEWSWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
UFV’s fashion design diploma has been suspended and will stop accepting applicants as of Fall 2015.
Dean of the college of arts Jacqueline Nolte explains the diploma went through a program review, and its potential discontinuation comes down to a matter of low enrollment.
“[The] program review explicitly stated that the diploma had its purpose,” she says. “They basically said it’s become progressively irrelevant, as degree programs better prepare grads to enter into the labour force, and we’ve seen that with the declining enrollment of the past five years.”
Students currently enrolled in the program will be able to finish, as the courses necessary for completion will be offered until 2016 and some of the more popular lower-level classes will be available to fine arts students as electives.
As it stands, the diploma has three concentrations: textiles, technology, and marketing.
Recent graduate Kassandra Poleshuk, who took the textiles option, says the program helped her to begin her career after she graduated.
“They really did prepare us
for the real world, because this is what it’s like,” she says.
While the two-year diploma enrollment dwindles, UFV is looking at restructuring fashion design into an interdisciplinary degree — which may include a business component. Making the program interdisciplinary could increase enrollment, allowing students to incorporate a fashion design minor into their existing degree.
“Any degree being designed these days has to be as flexible as possible to accommodate students from multiple access points,” Nolte says.
She explains that the two-year structure of the program put too much pressure on students. A longer degree similar to the one at Kwantlen Polytechnic University would give them more time to hone their skills.
“We were, as a university, being very demanding of our students, and they were taking tremendous stress to produce a fully-fledged fashion design show at the end of their second year with a portfolio,” Nolte says.
“By comparison, Kwantlen students produce a fashion design show at the end of four years — far more time to refine their skills and be reflective and to build up the lower-level modules as they work.”
However, Poleshuk says while the structure of the program was intense, it prepared her for the harsh reality of the business.
“When you’re in the fashion industry, you’d have to work on your spring collection and [at] the same time [be] thinking of your fall,” she explains.
She notes that half of her class had dropped out by graduation because of the intensity of the
program. “It really does take a certain
type of student to work for that because it does put a lot of pressure [on students], but that’s what it is,” she says.
Current student Katalin Toreky-Paziuk says that after Capilano University’s fashion design program was cancelled, her only local option that offered what she was looking for was the
diploma at UFV. “The reason I didn’t go to
Kwantlen … is because I was told the closest thing to a textiles program would be here,” she says, “so I didn’t even look at Kwantlen, which is closer to me, because I live in Surrey.”
Nolte notes that a decision about the new interdisciplinary degree will surface within the next year.
Image: Megan Lambert
Toreky-Paziuk attended UFV because of its infrastructure for working creatively with textiles.
MEGAN LAMBERTTHE CASCADE
Tailoring programs to fit the marketUFV suspends its fashion design diploma and considers new interdisciplinary degree
CORRECTIONS
On February 4, 2015, The Cascade published in the Food on Campus feature: “Road Runner, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.” However, the correct hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
On January 28, 2015, The Cascade published that “both of the knives carried by Martin and Holmberg are hunting knives designed for slicing — Holmberg uses his to skin moose in the fall.” Holmberg’s knife is a folding utility knife, and Martin skins moose in the fall. Quotes by each were also misattributed to the other.
The Cascade apologizes for any confusion this may have caused. The online version of the article has been corrected.
Mystery over gravel pit lot ends #ufvprobs
Image: Megan Lambert
Each week, @ufvprobs documents the weekly grievances of UFV students on Twitter. The biggest one besides the Tim Hortons line? The gravel lot outside C building, where pot holes and sudden dips lie between students and safety. According to campus planning executive director Craig Toews, the reason it isn’t paved is because UFV has other plans for the space. “That’s the site of another capital project,” he says. While he could not confirm what project specifically, UFV’s highest priorities, pending funding, include a new building, dubbed “Digital HUB,” to be constructed in Abbotsford, and expansions to the SUB and/or C building for classroom space.
4NEWS WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
The Student Union Society (SUS) held an extraordinary board meeting on February 11 (over reading break) to hear from UFV administration about their decision to change UFV’s Writing Centre into an “Academic Success Centre.”
SUS met with VP students Jody Gordon, director of teaching and learning Maureen Wideman, and director of communications Dave Pinton to discuss the Writing Centre’s change to the Academic Success Centre.
VP external Dylan Thiessen noticed the issue has caused concern in many students.
“About a couple weeks ago, both myself and Ryan were contacted by students, faculty, and alumni expressing concern about the closing of the Writing Centre,” he said.
Although the closing of the Writing Centre was briefly discussed at the previous board meeting, Thiessen felt that the discussion raised more questions than answers — the most prominent regarding the re-assignment of faculty.
“The main concern lies with the fact that the current five or six full-time professional tutors are being replaced by peer tutors,” he
said.Gordon said the Writing Centre
is not closing, but is becoming an Academic Success Centre. While it will employ peer tutors, there will still be a faculty co-ordinator and two staff positions held by instructors with master’s degrees.
“That part of the centre still [has] the level of support that people see in the Writing Centre right now,” she said. Gordon thinks peer tutoring in the Academic Success Centre will be valuable for students.
“We don’t just learn and absorb
information from faculty, we learn from each other,” she said.
SUS was presented this information by administration in hopes that they would support the decision to create the Academic Success Centre, and therefore share that information
with students. The SUS board did come to the conclusion that they tentatively support the decision, but are disappointed with the “level of communication and lack of active consultation in the decision-making process,” as stated in their motion.
SUS president Ryan Petersen explained that he felt there could have been better communication on UFV’s part.
“It’s understandable that they are in a rather delicate position dealing with contract agreements with individuals — they need to be rather tight-lipped on that,” he said. “On the other side, I think the Student Union and the membership at large would have liked to see a larger, if not consultation, then at least information about what was happening to the centre.”
Despite the lack of communication, SUS still supports the changes in the Writing Centre and released a statement that they are “currently optimistic that the Academic Success Centre will be able to serve a greater number of students than the current model and can meet the needs of students throughout their university careers.”
VANESSA BROADBENTTHE CASCADE
SUS announces support of Writing Centre changes
Image: Megan Lambert
The operation model for writing support for students is changing, which UFV defended before SUS.
As part of UFV’s 2025 initiative and committee, a new, tuition-free section of Jeff Morgan’s Philosophy of Education course has been opened up. It will begin meeting this week, though new students are still allowed to join until Friday, February 20.
The course will run as a modified version of EDUC / PHIL 362: Harry Brighouse’s On Education will still be used as the course text, but supplementary readings will be relegated to an optional recommended list in favour of the same resource materials the 2025 visioning committee will be reading as it produces UFV’s Education Plan for 2016-20.
“The difference will be primarily that in a regular course I focus on K-12 education with some talk about higher education, whereas in this course will be mostly about
higher education with very little about K-12, and really the only reason we’ll talk about K-12 is as it relates to higher education,” Morgan says.
Morgan says that while this is a course with a different aim and audience, as its final projects will compose the bulk of the course’s assignments (replacing the standard midterm, final exam, and academic paper) and directly passed to the committee, its evaluation and structure will still be based in a philosophically disciplined approach.
“I don’t consider them focus groups, because that implies that I’m asking the questions,” he says. “… The analogy would be when I take in a group of students or a few students and do independent studies.”
This focus on UFV’s education policy follows a forum hosted by provost and VP academic Eric Davis, where the idea of “2025” was used to spur criticisms of UFV’s current place in the world
of academia. The initiative’s statement of purpose compared current shifts in public views of universities to the death of the Catholic Church’s “monopoly of knowledge” in the 16th century. Davis said that rather than an alarmist tone, this should be an opportunity to improve the institution.
Among the “student engagement mechanisms” discussed in the forum, this course, organized at the administrative level by Ken Brealey, the college of arts’ dean of faculty, is one that is attempting to improve the scope of voices heard by planning groups.
“Historically, students have generally not been part of UFV’s educational planning process, except to the extent [that] obviously it is student interest that has caused departments to put certain ideas or wishlists into the five-year education plan,” Brealey says.
Davis suggested that courses like these could become more prominent at UFV, reminding forum attendees that accreditation is coming to mean
a great deal less than evidence of produced work at university or elsewhere.
“[Grades] don’t really tell you anything,” he said, adding that “we’re hearing calls to replace departments and traditional disciplines with a new set of problem-focused disciplines.”
The way of the future, according to the forum and
committee consultation goals, may have a different set of ideals and projections.
“The committee must be capable of liberating itself from unquestioning obedience to the authority of custom and the dogmas of the past,” reads another excerpt from its statement of purpose.
Brealey says the timeline of this course, beginning in mid-February, will allow it to provide student input as changes are discussed, as opposed to after the fact.
“[The course’s] schedule will be worked out with [Jeff Morgan] for the balance of the winter and possibly the first part of the early summer semester,” he says. As of last week, six students had “expressed a direct interest.” Brealey says he expects “no more than 10 or 12.”
Tuition-free course to include students in UFV 2025 planningModified, groupwork-oriented Philosophy of Education course will begin meeting this weekMICHAEL SCOULARTHE CASCADE
“The committee must be capable of liberating itself from unquestioning obedience to the authority of custom and the dogmas of the past.”
5NEWSWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
What brought you to UFV?I was doing the standard route that most people did when they do their PhD, and what happened is all of a sudden we had a downturn in the economy — you can probably identify with that these days — and the number of university research positions just plummeted. Well, I didn’t just enjoy the research, I actually did enjoy the teaching.
At that time, it was considered sort of a second-tier approach. But I thought, “You know? I like this.”
I think I’m better in a position like this than I would’ve been elsewhere, and I came here the same year that we came from Fraser Valley College to the University College, so I spent over 15 years on various committees working on the development of the place, and that was a lot of fun.
What sort of things did you do on the committee?Probably the single biggest thing I was on was chair of academic standards for the best part of a decade. And back 20 years ago, everything was very much, “We have no idea what we’re doing, let’s just work with a few basic ideas: what’s good for the students?”
Money was actually in the bank, as it were. You have a bunch of students wanting to do astronomy classes? You know, we can find some money for that! And we’d run a class for six people. Which you don’t see happening anymore. But the thing was there was student demand. We figured what they wanted, we put it there.
Were there rules in place for getting people in at that time? No. So we made them up, pretty much on the fly. Makes it sound like a Wild West — it wasn’t quite that bad. There were guidelines, so there was a technique for handling the bulk of the stuff, but the upper levels, which were brand new, we could do pretty much want we wanted, provided we could show it was good for the students. And that was actually a wonderful time.
The relationship between students and professors allowed for those kinds of decisions?Yeah! With only about a half-dozen students who are always in the same class, we got to know each other very well. You
wouldn’t even think, back in the early 1990s, of not taking your entire upper-level class out for a beer after the final exam. It was a fun time.
What did you start teaching when you first came here?I first arrived doing nothing but physics. Usually a few first-year classes, but mainly the applied upper-level classes: electronics, optics, especially. Most of my work was in experimental physics, so building stuff and making stuff work. And those are important skills for any scientific professional. It’s great to know the theory, and I’m not going to say anything bad about studying the theory. But that’s a huge different thing when you can go into your own home and say, “The lights aren’t right,” and then rewire part of the house as necessary.
That’s actually one of the things I’ve seen. It used to be two-thirds of my students would come in with hands-on experience. It was two out of 36 this term right now.
Is that because of the change in high school learning?To a large extent. Plus, more students are living in apartments — they don’t have the garage that their parents used to do work in. I started working on woodwork when I was about six, seven years old. That was true for pretty much everyone who is an old fart like me. And I used to do my own car work. Everyone did, because no one could afford to go to a mechanic, so if you’re a grad student, you knew that about one weekend a month, the
hood of your car was going to be open, you’re going to be pulling something out to repair it.
Has that changed how you teach now?I can’t assume as much hands-on experience as I used to, so I’ve gradually taken out a lot of the theory from my lectures in engineering classes and replaced it with, “How does a lathe work?” “What’s a milling machine, and why would you use it?” Things which kids would have come in knowing 20 years ago, they don’t now. So I have to adapt to that.
Would you say there have been any particular colleagues or students that have been helpful or influential in what you do?Most certainly the answer is yes. I will say right now we used to have some people in our senior admin. Barry Bompas is the name that comes to mind right away. He actually was the head of personnel at the time, but he controlled a lot of the purse strings.
Bill Cooke, the registrar. He was wild. Was the first registrar, retired a few years ago. He had the same attitude. You’d walk up to him and say, “I’ve got students who are faced with this problem.” He’d say, “Sorry, I can’t do a thing because university regulations say this.” You’d wait five seconds. “And here’s how you talk to get those regulations changed.” And we ran this institution, from before the time I arrived, I assume, up until about five, 10 years ago, until we got university status, on, “You give us a good reason for fixing a problem, we’ll
make sure it gets fixed.”There were a few students,
particularly in that first cadre, who were very competent at what they did. And if you were willing to sit down over a beer and talk with them, they would tell you what we should expect from other students coming in, and we would modify our classes accordingly. We weren’t doing things the same way as a UBC or a UVic would. We were addressing — kids were coming in from these high schools, they were strong in this, let’s take that one step further. And we’ll make sure they have all the stuff for grad school, we didn’t shortchange them, but we’d give them that extra little bit. For a lot of my senior courses, particularly in electronics, I left the last month of the term open for, “Well what do you want me to cover?” And we would do things that were at times graduate-level electronics, simply because the students had the interest.
What kind of things have you worked on in your own research?In 1999, one of the very superb instructors we had here, Normand Fortier, left to go to TRU. He was running our engineering transfer program. I was the next-most qualified person, so it ended up in my lap. And for the last, almost 15 years, that has become a raison d’être for me, because this is where I can make a difference. I have spent time at major institutions, spent time in local industry, asking, “What do you need, if you wanted to hire one of our
students over the summer?” And I’ll find out what they’re looking for or what they don’t care about, and all my first-year engineering classes are now based around these bits of feedback. They still follow the original curriculum in principle, but definitely they are very hands-on, applied, here-is-what-you-need-to-know-if-you-want-a-job-style courses.
You mentioned the possibility of becoming too insulated — what kind of relationship is there between the physics department and the sciences and other areas of the university?It’s healthy. There was an old joke at UBC: if you looked at the way the windows opened, they came up like the door on the cannons in the old pirate movies, and it was because we were always firing back and forth at each other. That is not true here. It is certainly true that I have friends in many departments, not just in the sciences. And that is very useful for keeping the boundaries down as much as possible. I will spend time in the office of the current chemistry department head, usually talking about movies and stuff like that. It builds up rapport, and all of a sudden he’ll say, “I need X” — he knows to talk to me, he knows my specialty, and we’ll work back and forth.
You mentioned there’s a lot of things students don’t have anymore, is there anything the newer generation of students has that surprises you?Their ability to interact with other students is better than it used to be. I don’t want to make this sound worse than it is, but there was a lot of intolerance between students of people that were different in any way, shape, or form. And I’m not talking about racism particularly: “You went to a different school than I did.” That was enough to exclude people from groups 20 years ago. “I was taught this, you were taught something different, I’m not going to interact with you.” That was amazingly common back then — it wouldn’t be the majority of students, but it was common enough I had to address it. That’s not an issue right now, and that’s a big improvement. The social maturity of students has improved greatly over the year.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Makes it sound like a Wild West — it wasn’t that bad”
Peter Mulhern came to the Fraser Valley as the institution transitioned from FVC to UCFV.
MICHAEL SCOULARTHE CASCADE / PHOTO
Prof Talk
Physics professor Peter Mulhern on the teaching dynamic at UFV before it was a university
6OPINION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
Why, oh why, does it have to happen at every show with more than 25 people at it? The band leaves, and then returns after the crowd screams and shouts long enough to lose their voices and their dignity. While they yell, the band does some sort of secret pow-wow backstage which is never mentioned afterwards. Do they take the time to stroke their egos as their fans beg for them? Or, do they use the screams as a confidence booster so they can return and do the same thing they were just doing? I just don’t understand why it’s necessary every time from every band. It’s probably some sort of rite of passage when a band has fans that are passionate enough to call them back out after they leave, but, however sentimental it may be for the band, it often comes across as cheap and overdramatized. Down with the encore; bands should do their best and kill it the whole show.
Wait for it ... encore!
Mitch Huttema
SNAPSHOTS Curtailed commentary on current conditions
Summer is almost upon us, which means that music festival season is almost upon us, which means that I should start saving up every last penny I make because festivals are about as expensive as anything short of a car or a house. The price for one ticket to Sasquatch Music Festival this summer is $350. This doesn’t include gas money, sleeping arrangements, food, booze, and everything you promised yourself you wouldn’t forget but still did. Having been to festivals before, I know that the end price will be closer to $500. Knowing full well that my wallet can’t take the hit, I still made my decision to buy tickets to either Sasquatch or Pemberton long ago. Why? Because I’m a sucker for music, and because these lineups are to die for, and because what’s $500 in additional credit card debt next to tuition and reg fees?
Martin Castro
Shut up and take my money!
In the wake of two terrorist attacks on Canadian soil, the Conservative government has set an anti-terror bill before parliament. Bill C-51 gives the Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency (CSIS) a trove of new powers to seemingly use at whim. Many Canadians will agree that there is a threat of terrorism, but the main concern is whether this threat justifies these new measures. Are we as citizens willing to compromise our individual freedoms for the potential of disrupting terror-related ploys? CSIS would be changing from an organization strictly focused on information-gathering into an active force to disturb and interfere with possible terrorist activity. This is all very subjective for security officials, who could now detain suspects for little to no reason. At the very least we should be concerned with the police-like powers being given to CSIS. At its worst, our individual rights will be severely compromised.
Anti-terror or pro-control?
Raymond KobesEveryone knows at least one person who can never be on time. No matter what the occasion — whether it’s a shift a work or a date, they seem unable to make it within a reasonable time-frame. I’m probably not the only person bothered by this, especially if it’s a frequent occurrence.
When I arrange a time to meet with someone and they are late, it tells me that they believe their time is more valuable than mine. In other words, they do not respect me enough to be punctual.
Being on time is a commitment, and one that many people seem unable to make. Being late speaks to an inability to manage priorities. Ultimately, it is disrespectful.
Punctuality equals respect
Ashley Mussbacher
Looks like the only “middle class” household is the fictitious one made up by the Conservative government.
The Conservative government’s current budget report redefines the term “middle class” to ideally mean a family consisting of a set of parents with two kids, living in a house close to the city, and, most importantly, making together a steady yearly income of at least $120,000. Meanwhile, the reality is that most homes average somewhere between the $60,000 and $85,000 mark — clearly nowhere near the $120,000 standard.
These outrageous, unattainable digits come from a report which contains no thumbnail sketches for reference and seems to completely disregard the previous year’s report, which
stated that the average middle-class income was $100,000. My household must have missed the
20 per cent salary increase memo.They are seemingly drawing
numbers out of a hat. MP Peggy
Nash said in an interview with The Canadian Press that “the Conservatives are out of touch with the average family ... by claiming they’ve increased their incomes that dramatically over the last few years.” The increase in wages doesn’t match up to the rapidly increasing housing prices. For example, in 1997, the average price of a house in Canada was $150,000. Today the average price estimates $400,000. Housing prices have more than doubled, yet wages have only gone up an average annual rate of two-and-a-half per cent.
This isn’t about getting rich — it’s about surviving. With this hollowed-out definition of “middle class,” the gap between the rich and poor is more significant than ever.
“It’s getting harder to reach the middle. The typical 25- to 34-year-old is now making wages that are 11 per cent lower than they were
for the same-aged person in 1976 — even though their education levels are higher,” states Paul Kershaw, policy professor at the University of British Columbia. This particularly affects the young; the typical middle-aged worker today makes a salary anywhere between three to seven per cent higher than they did three decades ago when housing was half the price, which means they are steadily getting richer, whereas the generation currently entering the workforce is earning nothing but a heavy debt.
This burden means we’re working more for less, and for longer. Is there a solution to this? Unless a wage increase that involves more than decimal percentages comes along, the gap between the rich and poor will continue to grow until the middle class dissolves into one of those two groups. Spoiler alert: it’s probably going to be the latter.
EKATERINA MARENKOVCONTRIBUTOR
New definition of “middle class” doesn’t reflect reality
Image: Kat R / Flickr
Image: Eugene Kulaga Image: Eugene Kulaga Image: Wayne Chin Image: Anthony Biondi
“The typical 25- to 34-year-old is now making wages that are 11 per cent lower than they were for the same-aged person in 1976.”
7OPINIONWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
UFV has decided to cut off one of its student services, the Writing Centre (WC), and replace it with a peer-tutoring-based Academic Success Centre. Many students feel the university is cutting services; the university claims the WC is just being repurposed — that the help will remain the same. As a former student, I decided to contact The Cascade because I realized I was the closest thing to a peer tutor, having worked at the WC for most of my UFV career.
Being at the WC gave me the opportunity to see the common student’s struggles and work alongside the instructors. I saw a lot; I learned a lot. Because of this experience, I feel comfortable giving my opinion on the WC’s disappearance: professional instruction gives the Centre more than just a mature instructor. There is no way a student will be capable of producing even a fraction of the service that is currently available. UFV executives are kidding themselves if they think otherwise.
The first reason is obvious. The WC staff is composed of professors while the new centre
will be composed of peer tutors. The instructors are experienced. They already know that one professor has unreasonably high standards, so they provide extra appointments. They know nursing students have limited availability but are desperate for help with papers, so they expand their hours. They know BUS 100 students will struggle with their enormous group report, so they provide a project-specific handout as well as impeccable examples of the finished product.
The second reason instructors are integral is less obvious. At the WC, a student can pick up citation guides and pamphlets on various issues, including avoiding plagiarism and how to write an annotated bibliography. These handouts are popular with students and their PDFs on the UFV website can provide assistance when writing an APA paper (originally thought to be an MLA paper) the night before a due date.
These handouts are created, discussed, and maintained by WC instructors to reflect common issues and stay current. As English professors, the instructors can communicate with their colleagues regarding academic standards, and as WC staff they
receive resources and information about new writing trends.
A former friend at Queen’s University has even told me that she gave our UFV handouts to her students because she found them so helpful. In other words, these resources are gold and UFV has a small fortune. Without the instructors, I am uncertain that these resources will continue to be accurate and available.
Not only do WC staff have exposure to the struggles of aspiring paper-writers, they can make students aware of technical program requirements, master’s degree applications, and resumé dos and don’ts. They give class presentations and project-based workshops, advise other
professors on their own marking struggles, and facilitate the annual writing prize competition. While tutors are capable of picking up skills and noticing trends, a two- or three-year stint will not be enough time to build this knowledge or facilitate faculty needs.
Finally, I believe the instructors are an important part of the “writing service” because I tried to do their job and failed. For three years I handled appointment scheduling and facilitated a couple student questions as a front desk person. As I became more comfortable, I tried to get more involved; I tried formatting strange citation styles, sharpening introductory paragraphs, and
consoling crying students, but my naïveté overpowered my ability with each challenge. I knew no matter how many papers I had written or classes I had taken, I was still a student trying to learn the same things. The WC taught me how to be a better writer but, as a student, I was not going to master writing instruction.
VP academic Eric Davis claims that this service is not being “cut.” If all goes as planned, this is the surface truth. Even as a student I provided help. My issue is with the illusion that peer tutors can replicate what professional instructors have built and maintained.
If the UFV administration genuinely believes in keeping the WC service intact, the new centre needs a new structural plan that retains the same professional help. If we save the instructors, we save the service.
If administration goes through with their decision, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Nadeane, Dana, Shurli, Gloria, Kim, Faye, Graham, and all the past and present instructors, good luck. Thank you for giving your time and providing us with a home for so long. We all know you deserve better.
Op-ed
The Writing Centre: save the instructors, save the service
Image: Megan Lambert
CELINA BEERUFV ALUMNA
As a UFV honours alumni and returning student, I must say that I am deeply concerned about the issue of the Writing Centre (WC) closure. I was particularly appalled by Mr. Brown’s op-ed that informed us that the senior administration at UFV makes more money a year than the premier of BC This is deeply unsettling in light of the cuts we’ve seen these past years. Yes, we must hold the BC government, who has cut $50 million in funding to our schools, accountable, but at the same time it is also our duty to hold our own university government accountable for the way they respond to such cuts. Cutting essential student services and none of the administrative fat is not a way to move forward.
However, UFV continues to insist that this change has
nothing to do with budget constraints. In this case, it raises the question why we would substitute writing professionals for peer tutors. Students do not go to university to be instructed by other students; we are paying to have a professional level of instruction. Peer-tutoring should be an addition to this model, not the model itself. It’s even worse when one considers the difficulties of navigating proper style guidelines, such as MLA or APA. Writing a paper requires much more than a little clarity and panache. Each field has its own specific requirements that the writing instructors can help us navigate. Expecting an undergraduate student acting as a peer-tutor to have this level of knowledge is absurd.
Therefore, though the UFV administration is trying to make
it seem otherwise, the Academic Success Centre will in no way offer the same quality of services we are used to. Streamlining various academic services into one centre is not a bad idea in itself — it’s the service changes that have UFV students all riled up (#SaveUFV).
The palpable contempt for faculty and students shown by the administration is another issue, as is their attempt to mislead students into believing that there has been no fundamental change in services. It’s a funny thing about education … we’re not stupid. We’d thank certain administrators to remember that.
Jennifer Colbourne Student Rep. for the College of Arts Council
Letter to the editor
Re: It’s time to #SaveUFV and save the Writing Centre
CULTURE8
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
“What if Caesar were a general who managed to eradicate terror-ism from the world?”
It’s a hypothetical question at the centre of UFV’s upcom-ing production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, directed by Bruce Kirkley. The production will take a futuristic approach to the his-torical drama with suit jackets in place of togas and conference call conspiracies.
The performance will be set about 15 years from now, whereas Caesar’s assassination took place in 44 BCE: closer to us in time, yet still unreachable. The aim is to cast a new light on the events of antiquity.
If someone discovered a way to rid the world of terrorism, that person would become beloved of the people, Kirkley speculates, and the ramifications of that could play out similarly to even the very distant past.
“Those in power, like Marc Antony … see this opportunity to seize this moment and crown Caesar — this commander, this great general — as emperor of the West and this kind of real global government. Then there are those quite honourable Romans who want to preserve and maintain the republic — the democratic re-public,” Kirkley explains, project-ing the events of the past onto the imagined almost-present.
“In a way, that actually helps us today maybe make sense of
those events of over 2,000 years ago, where you have these Ro-mans conspiring to assassinate someone who has actually done all these amazingly heroic things for the state,” he says.
Kirkley adds that the West to-day holds similar political ideals as Rome did when Caesar was murdered, and that the story may be an important reminder that de-mocracy is not a given.
“We’ve all grown up with de-mocracy,” he says, “and we forget sometimes that the democratic experiment has only been around for a few hundred years — not that long in the whole course of human history.
“It’s not a foregone conclusion
that democracy will just keep go-ing now from here on. Democracy and the freedoms that we have are something we have to remain constantly vigilant about.”
Placing events even a stone’s throw into the future means the cast and crew will be using more tech than the playwright could have imagined.
In the conspiracy scene for example, which features the Ro-man conspirators plotting via conference call, most of the ac-tors are not onstage, but up on the catwalk in camera stations. Live images of them are projected onto five onstage panels as well as three screens above house left and right.
The combination of live ac-tion with technical elements not only builds the future within the theatre; the contrast exposes a commentary on the way histori-cal events are delivered to a non-theatrical audience in the time of their occurrence. Kirkley suggests the contrast between live action and remote (but still live) images echoes the way media interrupts the immediacy of warfare, for in-stance.
“The contrast happening [is] quite interesting … between those events that are very much medi-ated [via technology] and other events in the play which are just live actors interacting with one another. In addition to creating re-
mote images of warfare, we have actual fight choreography and the actors are actually engaging in hand-to-hand combat.”
Added to that, Kirkley says, is the fact that live theatre itself is form of mediation.
The performance will blend past and future, with actors speak-ing the lines as they were written in the first folio of Shakespeare’s play but acting out the scene with futuristic set, costumes, and props. Many of the images and symbols used, however, are his-torical. So the influences behind the design also weave time peri-ods together.
Kirkley says the main source of inspiration for the clean and simple future elements come from the film Gattaca. Symbols of the Roman Republic, the flag and victory wreath, are incorporated into the play, and a Stalinist or So-viet style of propaganda is used, with animations added to give it a place in the future.
“It’s that sense that in many ways the future is often a reinven-tion of things that have already been,” Kirkley says. He also says one of the most exciting parts is getting to experiment with some-thing not many theatres have tried: that unique approach to in-corporating technology with live theatre.
“I’m not saying we’re breaking new ground, but we are kind of out there on the vanguard … of a new way of working with theatre and live performance.”
Image: UFV Theatre / Facebook
Julius Caesar incorporates elements of technology with live action in a experimental new style of theatre.
UFV’s upcoming production of Julius Caesar blurs the boundaries between the past and the future
KATIE STOBBARTTHE CASCADE
Drama brings history’s most famous assassination closer to home
FEATUREWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
9
FEATURE10
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
Campus involvement• SUS budget committee• SUS food bank organizer• SUS receptionist• AfterMath floor manager• Latin American club president• Oxfam executive• Student association of internation-
al development (SAID) member
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?[SUS’s] motto is “for students, by stu-dents.” I know sometimes it doesn’t come across, or sometimes decisions are made and questions arise from students, and I feel like we could do a better job on that, but I think the intention is to help students. Their services are the shuttle bus, the health and dental, the U-Pass. We run the food bank, [AfterMath], and all the clubs and associations.
What appeals to you about the position you are running for?It seemed like it needed a few changes. I believe we need to work on our transpar-ency. Our documentation, even though it’s available to students through our website, it’s not much advertised. If the information’s out there, people are going to be able to work more with the society.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?I help in clubs. I also organize events like the food bank open mic. The Latin American club, usually we have small gatherings for people to get to know more about the culture. I think there’s this idea that this campus is a commuter campus, which is true, but we also have a lot of people who do live here [and] would want to participate given the chance.
Do you have any specific projects or by-laws that you want to implement?I really don’t want to focus on new things. We introduced a lot of things last year with the new building, the exten-sion of the shuttle bus to Langley, the IT [referendum] that just happened. There’s going to be a lot of things that need or-ganizing. We need a good foundation before we can move into anything else.
Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you haven’t been happy with?Before I started working on the food bank, it was under somebody else. I un-derstand why the person could not give more time to organizing it, but it was not managed well. Maybe in the future, if we have those problems we can solve them before they become too large.
Ricardo Coppola
Vice-president internal candidateFourth-year anthropology major, Latin-American minor
Campus involvement• Current vice-president internal• Involvement with UFV commit-
tees (e.g. learning environment de-sign, and student health and safety on campus)
• Board member, business adminis-tration student association (BASA)
What does the position that you are run-ning for do?President is responsible ultimately for overseeing everything. The key to the president, in my mind, is they really have to have a pulse and have a finger on every single thing that’s going on, but refrain from getting involved in any one project deeply because then you lose sight of the perspective.
What appeals to you about the position?I’ve come to the point where I’ve had a great experience within my very specific portfolios and as VP internal. I feel like a bigger perspective is a good fit for me.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?Over the next year of course, we have the Student Union Building opening up, that’s going to radically change the en-vironment and the feel of this campus. Weeks of Welcome has often gone well, but we’ve let that slip as time goes on be-cause we haven’t kept things going and engaged.
There’s going to be some simple things such as an executive blog or president’s blog.
There’ll be videos explaining the differ-ent services, talking about opportunities on campus.
I’m also looking to revitalize the event structure a little bit to really put focus on well-planned, professional-run events that students are going to know about
and want to be at.
Do you have any specific projects or by-laws you’re hoping to implement?On the governing side of things is taking another look at our elections policy to see how we can adjust some things to try and help facilitate more candidates, more en-gagements, [and] how we can give some flexibility to the chief electoral officer. I’m not promising any big new project, but I’m instead going to guarantee that we will provide excellence in our service ar-eas and there will be improvements in all of the services that we offer.
Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you have not been happy with?We sometimes have lacked proper infor-mation-sharing and transition, and de-tails. That’s something I want to ensure doesn’t continue to happen, that we have the documentation, the process, and the information for people to always improve instead of doing the same thing over and over.
What have you done with SUS that you’re most proud of?I’m incredibly happy with the continued improvements in our financial manage-ment, our financial controls, and our fi-nancial transparency and the budgeting process. Our clubs and associations hand-book came out this year, [and there were] improvements with the shuttle bus. I am also very happy with something which is traditionally outside what the VP internal would typically do: my involvement with [the Canadian Alliance of Student Asso-ciations]. I was elected to the secretary of the board of directors, so one of the execu-tive positions of the organization.
Vote online through myufv.ca from February 23 to 26.Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Other board positions include:
• Faculty of Access and Continuing Education Rep-resentative
• Faculty of Applied and Technical Studies Repre-sentative
• School of Graduate Studies Representative • Senate Representative as well as additional non-voting member:
• Ex-Officio
Voting ‘no’If the majority (over 50 per cent) of votes for a can-didate are ‘no’, that candidate will not be elected into the SUS board of directors. SUS may choose to hold a by-election for the option for students to choose another candidate — but they are not obligated to unless the board consists of less than three elected members.
Thomas Davies
President candidateFourth-year accounting and finance major, economics minor
By Vanessa Broadbent
Meet your SUS candidates
FEATUREWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
11
Campus engagement• Socializing in the aboriginal room
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?From what I understand, they’re there to sup-port students and be in the best interest of students and try to bring in programs the will benefit the majority of students. Like the shut-tle bus, it opens more doors so students can come to Abbotsford to take courses instead of being stuck in Chilliwack or having to pay the gas to come.
What appeals to you about this position?I’m hoping to eventually major in indigenous governance so eventually I want to be in a leadership role for the aboriginal community. This is definitely a way to get that work expe-rience and be able to represent the aboriginal people.
How do you address the lack of student en-gagement on campus?I think I definitely want to. Being the aborigi-nal rep, trying to get aboriginal people more engaged because a lot of us kind of hide back in our aboriginal room — that’s our comfort zone. I think I want to encourage them to step outside of their comfort zone and meet the other student population, and see what else is out there and what else is offered [by] pro-moting it a little more.
Do you have any specific projects or bylaws you’re hoping to implement?Maybe an aboriginal awareness day or some-thing to bring more of the aboriginal culture into the school. We’re on Stó:lō territory. It’s unceded territory and a lot of people don’t even know that, here in British Columbia. If you travel somewhere else like Europe, you experience the culture, so why not experience the culture here?
Jennifer Janik
Aboriginal rep candidateSecond-year indigenous studies major (upon program approval)
Campus involvement• VP external for the Student
Union Society • Volunteered on the SUS advo-
cacy committee
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?There are certain things like student events and student support that are right on the surface of services and are things that students see, like Weeks of Welcome, U-Pass, or AfterMath — but we have a huge political role. We meet with UFV administration on a regular basis and ensure their plan for UFV is what we believe aligns with student interest. We also advocate to provincial and federal governments through our respective advocacy organizations for a more affordable, accessible, and higher-quality post-secondary service for stu-dents.
What are you hoping to do in this posi-tion this year?The two biggest things SUS in general has coming up this year is the open-ing of the new building and the federal election. I think the opening of the new building is going to be a wonderful tool of engagement, whether that’s encour-
aging students to vote in a referendum or election or using it for events. Then the federal election — the Canadian Al-liance of Student Associations already has a Get Out the Vote campaign, which SUS is planning to participate in.
Is there anything SUS has done in the past year that you are not happy with?I can’t really think of much at all. Cer-tainly at our board meetings we’ve tried to plead our case and the board may buy it, [or] the board may ask us to rethink it.
What have you done with SUS that you’re most proud of?I hope I have introduced at least a high-er level of political engagement on cam-pus. That’s something that I definitely want to continue.
Is there anything you wish you had done differently?Event planning has never really been my thing, but I think I’ve picked it up a fair bit. It’s certainly not something I dislike, but I think I tend to focus on the political, not necessarily to the det-riment of the events aspect of the port-folio. I think [I would] find a better bal-ance in the future.
Dylan Thiessen
Vice-president external incumbentThird-year political science major, history minor
Campus involvement• Resident assistant at Baker House• Student rep, UFV board of governors• Formerly on senate standing commit-
tee for academic planning and priori-ties
• UFV 2025 visioning committee
What does the position you are running for entail?There’s an advocacy part that’s working with lobby groups. On campus, VP external is in charge of making sure students have access to services and to maintain services like the food bank, financial assistance, and advocacy. I’d say the third piece is events.
What appeals to you about this position?I looked at my experience and what I can bring to the table, and I looked at the position and what the responsibilities are and I also looked at how things are run now. We’re do-ing great on [advocacy], but I would like to see more on the events side of things. I’d like to see more of a balance on that portfolio.
How do you address the lack of student en-gagement?I’d like to strike up an open forum first off to bring different departments to the table. First off, discuss what it is that students want to
see on this campus, but then facilitating that and having students involved in the process of putting on those events.
Do you have any specific projects or bylaws you want to implement?For the events part of things, I want to see more people involved in that process. Why aren’t organizations working together? A lot of the challenges we face are common to all of us, so why not come to the table and talk about it?
What have you done with SUS that you’re most proud of?Because of my involvement on the board, my biggest piece of that has been to weigh in on what [SUS] is doing, and to respect other peo-ple’s opinions. I think what I’m most proud of is that I’ve learned to disagree, but also to see other people’s point of view, even if I dis-agree. I am one student voice.
Is there anything you wish you had done differently?I wish I had been a little more comfortable to engage in discussions right from the start. It gives other people the courage to come for-ward and say things, or a perspective that other people don’t have.
Sukhi Brar
Vice-president external candidateThird-year exercise science major, psychology minor
Campus involvement• Contributes to The Cascade
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?[SUS] is here for the students rather than the university, I would say. I think it’s to make student life better for the students in any way that they can.
What appeals to you about this posi-tion?Other than it being the only position I’m suited for, I thought it would be a good way to get my voice out there to the stu-dents and hopefully do better things.
How do you address the lack of student interest on campus?I did notice that was quite the issue be-cause I’m the only one running for this position. I think it’s an issue with all stu-
dents, definitely UFV being a commuter campus. The new Student Union Build-ing definitely had an idea of changing that — they believe with this new build-ing in place that students will stay longer on campus. We’ll have to wait and find out.
Do you have any specific projects or by-laws you hope to implement?I wish I could say yes to that at this point, but at this point, no. Other than becom-ing more engaged and having more peo-ple into arts, I guess not really.
Anything else you want to share?I like to think of being new as an advan-tage — a fresh face, fresh start, fresh per-spective. I’ll be able to implement change without being stuck on old views. I think that can be an advantage.
Ekaterina Marenkov
Arts rep candidateFirst-year English and philosophy double-major
FEATURE12
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
Campus involvement• Member of the BCSA• UFV pre-med association
volunteer • UFV Circle K club presi-
dent• SUS events committee and
SUS clubs and associations committee member
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?It’s a student-led society. Basi-cally, SUS is an organization that wants to help students get the best university experience they can.
What does the position you are running for do? I voice the thoughts of science students ... [They] come to me and they can let me know what they think and what needs to be changed. I can [also] talk to them and let them know the changes that are coming. I can help voice [their] thoughts and make a dif-ference on the board.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?We could hold seminars for stu-dents depending on what career they’re going into, basically just perfecting small skills. It wouldn’t only be open to science students; it would be open to everyone to engage with more students on campus. We did that at Baker House, actually, so that’s where I’m getting the ideas from.
Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you haven’t been happy with?It’s only my first year so far, so I’m learning as I go. [I’m a] part of the SUS committees as well, so I know why they’re doing it and how it works out. About Weeks of Welcome, if students complain that we didn’t get enough food, they don’t understand that we had a certain budget where the money was allocated to.
Sahil Chawla Faculty of sciences rep
candidate
First-year biology major,
chemistry minor
Campus involvement• President of modern elec-
tronic arts appreciation club (upon approval)
• Computing students asso-ciation (upon approval)
• Lab monitor
Why do you want to get involved with SUS?I don’t think many people from CIS run, so I thought, “Hey, why not represent a section from the school that isn’t quite as vocal as they should be?” I have a lot of friends in the other science [pro-grams], so I get to talk with them and see what they’re thinking about too.
What appeals to you about the position?I think it’d be good to have kind of a little bit more in the say of what’s going on. It’s a fairly small board, so if good issues are being brought up from the science com-munity, things could be changed around here.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?I feel that UFV is very segregat-ed. There’s very little interaction outside of your groups. I would
like to see events coming togeth-er where it’s not forced, it’s just come be who you are, talk with some people you might not nor-mally meet.
Do you have any specific proj-ects or bylaws you’re hoping to implement?The coffee room on the second floor of D building. It’s been shut down for two-and-a-half years now. This coffee room will be easier for our students to go get refreshments, but also promote a little more student community. As far as a computer sciences centre for people to drop in when they’re having issues, I’d like to see more resources for those types of stu-dents.
Is there anything that SUS has done in the past year that you haven’t been happy with?To be perfectly honest, the way events are done. They can be good, but the way I hear about them is after they’ve happened or during. Maybe if I knew, I’d like to have shown up. The other thing is bylaws [and] how those are introduced. A lot of people think they don’t need to pay at-tention so they just gloss over it.
Joshua Wilke Faculty of sciences rep candidate
Third-year computer information systems major, languages minor
Campus involvement• Student Life CCR program
assistant• Campus engagement
work-study• Board of directors for The
Cascade
How would you describe what SUS is? What do they do?The Student Union is your voice on campus. They are your advo-cates, they’re your first-line de-fense if you need to go up against the university for anything, and they’re also here to try to make your life as comfortable as pos-sible while you’re here.
What appeals to you about this position?I really want to get to know more of the ins and outs of SUS and maybe try to make things a little better for all students, not just professional studies students.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?As the campus engagement work-study co-ordinator, right now we’re trying to do different types of events. I’m doing class-room presentations — I’m go-ing from classroom to classroom talking about campus engage-ment, why students should get involved, and that they can earn CCR on top of that.
The only way to really change things is to have a massive cul-ture change. My theory is that it’s a four-year plan: you start with a brand new crop of students at new student orientation, and then with every subsequent new student orientation over the next four years you make more chang-es so we can change the culture around here.
Do you have any specific proj-ects or bylaws you want to im-plement?I have to research more about what they actually have control over before I can decide what I want to go for.
Derek Ward-Hall Professional studies
rep candidate
Third-year HR major, communications minor
Campus involvement• Former president, vice-
president, and treasurer of nursing student asso-ciation — currently rep at large
• Former co-chair of the CRNBC student rep pro-gram
How would you describe the role of SUS? What do they do?They’re involved in CASA, so they advocate for us on a fed-eral level. They also try to get students engaged through asso-ciations and clubs, so they try to create a fun atmosphere on cam-pus to give them the opportunity to get together and make groups and focus on their interests.
What appeals to you about the position?I thought it would be a really good thing to have faculty of health sciences students on the board and be able to create a bit more of a connection between [CEP and Abbotsford]. I think it’s been a bit disjointed because SUS is mainly in Abbotsford.
How do you address the lack of student engagement on campus?I’ve just been trying to connect with class reps and students from the different health care students and just let them know about my position.
Do you have any specific proj-ects or bylaws you’re hoping to implement?I would like to have a bit of an event where there will be a few different associations connecting on an event. I feel as the health sciences rep, I may be able to help connect people.
Ria GelukFaculty of health
sciences rep incumbent
Third-year nursing program
CULTUREWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
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English majors flexed their vocabularies at the English Student Association (ESA)’s February 6 word game bonanza in U-House, which included competive Scrabble, Balderdash, and Once Upon A Time, served with Scrabble tile cookies and coffee.
Taking a Spanish class and need some help? Interested in learn-ing more about Spanish culture? The Spanish Student Association is offering a weekly social for all UFV students. Come out Tues-days to A233 from 1 p.m. to 2:20 for a variety of games, contests, a study group, and interesting conversation!
The long-anticipated annual bachelor of fine arts silent auc-tion has arrived! If you are look-ing for unique, local, and rela-tively inexpensive artwork for your walls, the BFA silent auc-tion is the place to go. The auc-tion, which takes place in the S’eliyemetaxwtexw Art Gallery in B136, is a fundraiser for the BFA grad show. Come out to sup-port our BFA grads and bid on artwork, T-shirts, gift certificates and much more! Winners will be contacted by March 2.
Have you ever wondered how dating sites match up prospec-tive lovers? Thomas Levi, a senior data scientist at dating website PlentyofFish.com, is visiting UFV to explain the math behind the magic. Come out to B101 Thurs-day at 2:30 to find out what math has to do with finding your one true love.
Mesa Latina!
2015 BFA silent auction
PlentyofFish visits UFV
February 21
February 24
February 19
Upcoming
Events
Images: Martin Castro
UBC instructor, author, and re-cipient of Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for History Writing Ruth Derksen is giving a talk on her new publication Daughters in the City at the Clearbrook library on Saturday at 2 p.m. The book chronicles the experiences of Mennonite women who were forced to flee Stalin’s Russia, find-ing refuge working as maids in Vancouver. The afternoon, which is free to the public, will include a reading, lecture, and traditional Mennonite treats.
Ruth Derksen
Competitive Scrabble reigns at ESA’s word game day
February 23-26
UFV’s first Pecha Kucha night, themed “doing what we love,” found an auditorium filled with enthusiastic students and com-munity members.
Pecha Kucha is a fast-paced presentation style where speak-ers show 20 slides with 20 sec-onds per slide; the MC describes it as being similar to a TED talk, with a focus on “what inspires us as humans, [and] what inspires us to create.”
The night started with a recep-tion in the S’eliyemetaxwtexw art gallery, and featured a mix of branding projects focused on creating a sense of community, as well as typography portraits by UFV’s graphic and digital design students. Attendees were able to bid on the portraits for the dura-tion of the event.
The presentation featured 16 speakers, whose backgrounds varied widely; entrepreneurs, filmmakers, artists, and museum curators all spoke on how to find your dream job to the backdrop of PowerPoint presentations.
UFV grad Alisha Reddens spoke on her art, which focuses on a childhood afflicted with epi-lepsy. Inspired by the artist and sculptor Louis Bourgeois, the founder of confessional art, Red-dens works in an autobiographi-cal medium, centring on a fear of losing control of one’s body and a fear of the unknown. She hopes
with her work to raise awareness about epilepsy.
Other presenters included Cherlandra Estrada, who talked about her initial “erroneous ca-reer path” and how she “stroked and spattered [her] way through self-doubt” through a transition from a job in sales to a full-time artist. Estrada now works for the Reach gallery as a curator, among other passions.
The MC entertained through-out with interjections of overly-enthused introductions: “What up, hometown hero!”
Several presenters used their time on stage to instruct students on how to go about finding and pursuing their passion. Mike Bo-ronwski, who works at the Dis-trict of Mission in civic engage-ment and corporate initiatives, inverted the claims of many of
the speakers by arguing that we should not do what we love as a career, but rather “bring what [you] love into what [you] do.” If we do what we love as a day job, we will “grind what we love into dirt” and be unable to use it as a hobby or means of pleasure.
Despite the MC’s claim that the night had “brought the cre-ative community of Abbotsford” together, many of the presenters had a background of marketing, slick entrepreneurship and digi-tal storytelling. Quotable quotes were quoted — “The most im-portant brand I’ve ever built is myself” — and success stories were told with an air of self-con-gratulation. One presenter began by saying that when she was growing up her “dreams were bigger than most,” and left the audience to watch unattributed
“inspirational” quotes — the type of stuff written in gel pen on a 10-year-old’s schoolbooks. “I must be a mermaid — I have no fear of depths and great fear of the shallows,” said one. “She believed she could so she did,” another went.
Some presentations were more entertaining and amus-ing than instructive, which kept the night from being overly self-congratulatory. Krista Hesketh, otherwise known as “the Blonde Jedi,” spoke to her various Star Wars crushes and her love of connecting with other Star Wars fans online through her popular YouTube channel. Her slides dis-played a mixture of screenshot selfies and pictures of Star Wars fandom.
The more homegrown pre-sentations escaped the slickness of the marketing; Simran Bains talked about blueberries and her work at Westberry Farms, which has been in her family for genera-tions.
The night was a success on many counts: crackers with bour-sin were served, buzzwords were dropped, and networking oc-curred. Abbotsford mayor Henry Braun even showed up — or, as the MC put it, “HB [was] in the house.” However, for the creative person who hopes to one day do what they love, the night proved to be a little too careerist and slick to fully address the individual’s search for life purpose and pas-sion.
“I must be a mermaid”: Pecha Kucha night celebrates doing what you love NADINE MOEDTTHE CASCADE
Image: flcikr / Imroze Deol
UFV’s latest Pecha Kucha showcased successful creatives.
CULTURE14
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.caSTUDY BREAK
CROSSWORD Globetrotting
2. Cheap hotel alternative, if you’re okay with sharing your room with strangers. (6)4. Two-dimensional image you’ll need to find your way around a strange city. (3)6. Two-wheeled alternative to walking. (4)7. Catching a ride with a stranger. (11)8. You might come home with one if you travel to a sunny locale like Mexico. (3)9. Mountain guide for hire, especially in the Himalayas. (6)10. Water-traffic corridor you can go boating on, especially in Venice. (5)
1. Leave the camera and Hawaiian shirt at home or you might be mistaken for one of these.3. Expedition to see animals in their natural habitats. (6)4. Paris is approximately 5,000 _____ away from the Fraser Valley. (5)5. Little black booklet necessary for travelling over international borders. (8)6. Two-strap shoulder bag worn by students and travellers alike. (8)
ACROSS
DOWN
Last issue’s crossword Sudoku solutionACROSS
1. DUST6. SMOKE7. CHARCOAL9. STEEL11. CLOUD
DOWN
2. SILVER3. DOVE4. MERCURY5. IRON6. SLATE8. ASH10. LEAD
by VALERIE FRANKLIN
3 7 9 5 4 2 6 8 1
6 1 4 8 7 3 9 2 5
8 2 5 9 6 1 4 3 7
7 1 4 2 5 8 9 3 6
2 8 6 3 9 7 5 4 1
5 9 3 1 4 6 7 8 2
8 2 5 4 9 3 1 6 7
7 6 9 1 5 2 4 3 8
3 1 4 6 7 8 2 5 9
1 4 5 2
8 9 4 1
9 1 7 6
3 7 5 6
2 6 4 9
5 6 2 3
7 4 3 2
3 8 1 2
2 6 7 4
SUDOKU
The Weekly Horoscope Star Signs from Moira Mysteriosa
Aquarius: Jan 20 - Feb 18: You’re getting burned out. Watch kitten videos on YouTube until your faith in humanity is restored. Astrolo-ger’s orders.
Pisces: Feb 19 - March 20: Invest in the most expensive work-out clothing you can find. That’ll make you go to the gym for sure! Right? ... Right?
Aries: March 21 - April 19: Be kind to others — allow your next-door neighbours to use your new sink.
Taurus: April 20 - May 20: Prepositions are unlucky for you this week. Don’t use them in, under, be-side, above, or around your essays!
Gemini: May 21 - June 21: It’s spring at last. Frolic like the glori-ous forest nymph you are!
Cancer: June 22 - July 22: Keep watching the skies for answers. Trust no one.
Leo: July 23 - Aug 22: Life advice: never read aloud from the Necronomicon in a dark room when creepy violins are playing.
Virgo: Aug 23 -Sept 22:Your budgie will squawk sweet noth-ings in your ear — but it is up to you whether there is wisdom in them.
Libra: Sept 23 - Oct 22: Sweatpants are your spirit animal.
Scorpio: Oct 23 - Nov 21: Remember, your inner strength is not measured by the amount of hot sauce you can eat.
Sagittarius: Nov 22 - Dec 21: Pizza is lucky for you this week. Treat yo’self!
Capricorn: Dec 22 - Jan 19: You will find answers carved into your desk. But do not use them on your exam, for that is cheating.
CULTUREWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
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“Silence about race is a deterrent to people coming forward [with their stories],” says Satwinder Bains, director of UFV’s Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies.
In an effort to challenge this silence surrounding race, UFV’s Race Anti-Racism Network (RAN) is launching an on-campus project that will draw on student, faculty and staff stories to paint a picture of what racism on campus really looks like.
RAN, whose primary mandate is to raise awareness about rac-ism and race-related issues at UFV, has been hosting on-campus events and dialogues since 2006. Their latest project comes as an attempt to engage the UFV com-munity in issues of discrimination and racism. After reading break, postcards will be dispersed across campus upon which students, fac-ulty and staff will be able to leave an anonymous message about their own stories or thoughts on
racism. The postcards will be made available at key campus lo-cations, including the library and cafeteria, and can be dropped off at the Abbotsford Library, Chilli-wack Library and Mission Oreg area. You can also submit an opin-ion or story outline at: www.ufv.ca/ran.
Once collected, the RAN team will analyze the stories brought forth and develop a report based on the recurring themes. Intend-
ing to search for themes of safety, discomfort, and human rights violations, the team will use the data as a launching point for fur-ther research into solutions for the issues at hand.
The postcards themselves will be set up for display on March 19 as part of a visual presentation at the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimina-tion.
While racist vandalism at UFV
may come as a shock to a univer-sity community that generally takes pride in its diversity, the silence surrounding such issues has been a difficult obstacle to overcome, and incidents have oc-curred at UFV, according to Bains.
“There have been racial slurs written on U-House [in the past],” she said.
Prior to the launch of this proj-ect, racism or discrimination-re-lated issues on campus have been
tackled through private inquiries. Bains, an organizer for RAN since its inception, recognized the diffi-culty in finding a “voice” for ex-periences of discrimination with-out open community dialogue.
She also recognized the impor-tance of this project for victims of discrimination who may feel unsafe or uncomfortable voicing their stories publicly. The ano-nymity of the project will ideally open the doors for dialogue that would otherwise be difficult.
Stressing the importance of each and every story, Bains en-courages the UFV community to “deeply reflect on issues of race on campus.” Each story adds a critical piece to the puzzle of com-munity unification.
For more information relating to the project or Race Anti-Rac-ism Network, contact Satwinder Bains at [email protected] or Sharan Sandhra at [email protected] or call 604-851-6325.
Road trip movies are a dime a dozen — but it’s not often you see one told from an ab-original point of view.
A dozen students and faculty gathered at the Global Lounge on February 4 for a screening of the 1998 independent film Smoke Signals, hosted by the sociology an-thropology undergrad society (SAUS) and the aboriginal students club. Based on Sher-man Alexie’s short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, the film is a dramatic comedy rooted in realism and the kind of gentle, self-deprecating humour that makes you smile rather than laugh out loud.
The story follows two young men from the Coeur d’Alene reservation in Idaho: Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams), a geeky young storyteller who wears unstyl-ish suits and neat pigtails, and Victor Jo-seph (Adam Beach), an angry rebel whose violent, alcoholic father left his family when Victor was a boy. When news comes that his estranged father has died, it’s up to Victor to travel to his father’s trailer in Arizona to settle his affairs — and Thomas
insists on tagging along.“Think of this as an aboriginal road [trip]
movie,” says Michelle La Flamme. “It’s a standard American trope, yet these charac-ters are from a reserve and they learn a dif-ferent set of things along the way.”
Neither of the main characters has ever left the rez before, and as they venture into the outside world for the first time, the ca-sual racism they encounter provides a star-tling counterpoint to the film’s humour: “What kind of Injun are you?” asks a police officer in disgust on finding out that Victor doesn’t drink alcohol.
But the heart of the story is the aching, ca-thartic journey Victor must go on to forgive his father for abandoning him as a child in order to come to terms with his grief.
“It’s a unique male bonding story with a father-son relationship that needs to be worked through,” says La Flamme. “It’s beautifully done, realistically portrayed. The longing, the need for a father figure, is moving, powerful.”
Smoke Signals is notable for not just hav-ing almost all aboriginal actors but also an aboriginal screenwriter, director, producer, and technicians. Perhaps in part because of this, it’s developed a minor cult following; La Flamme notes that people have even
dressed up as Thomas and Victor for Hal-loween.
Before the screening of Smoke Signals, an-other film was shown: Savage, a five-min-ute short depicting a young aboriginal girl being separated from her mother and taken to a residential school. Told through haunt-ing music and dance, the short film made a powerful statement about the breaking of families and the longing for reunion. While Smoke Signals is vastly different from Savage in tone, Victor’s simultaneous hatred and grief for his father reflects the same themes of involuntary estrangement and longing: “Did he ever talk about me?” he asks his father’s neighbour in a rare moment of vul-nerability.
Gradually, with the help of Thomas’ insight, Victor overcomes his anger and grows to understand that his father left because his flaws were making his family suffer, not because he didn’t love his son.
“Victor finally realizes that his dad has always had him as a core part of his iden-tity, and that’s the beginning of his grief process,” says LaFlamme.
Following the film, La Flamme led a roundtable discussion, asking each viewer about their impressions of the film. Re-sponses ranged from questions about the
symbolism of hair-cutting, an important motif throughout the film, to comments on the funny yet touching dynamic between Victor and the puppyish but wise Thomas, whose penchant for innocently asking tact-less questions lands him in trouble more than once.
For most attendees it was their first time seeing the film, but Morris Prosser, presi-dent of the aboriginal students club and aboriginal representative at the Student Union Society, has seen it several times. He notes that its realistic portrayal of painful issues like alcoholism and poverty has a unifying power on its viewers, especially if they have aboriginal roots.
“We say we’re all connected to each other,” he says. “Any native person who watches [Smoke Signals] will get a sense of understanding.”
And while the film’s main story is an ab-original narrative, La Flamme points out that its poignant theme of reconciling the flaws in our parents with our love for them is one that transcends race.
“The story of a fractured relationship with a parent, especially a man’s relation-ship with his father, has universal reso-nance,” she says.
VALERIE FRANKLINTHE CASCADE
Image: RAN
JASMIN CHAHALCONTRIBUTOR
Postcard project opens dialogue on racism and race at UFV
Road tripping to reconciliationAboriginal cult comedy Smoke Signals weaves humour into a story of broken families and forgiveness
CAMPUS FILM SCREENING LISTINGSFriday, February 20, 12:00 p.m.Akeelah and the Bee (112 min.)Presented by UFV International in B223American spelling bee/inspirational teacher drama from 2006 features Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett in supporting roles. Roger Ebert described it in his four-star review as a movie where the actors transcend the conventions of the story, a competition story that speaks back to a winning-obsessed culture.
Upcoming: Brazil in Black and White (2007) on February 26; Norteado (2009) on March 3
ARTS IN REVIEW16
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
Run the Jewels“All Due Respect”The song title implies that this song celebrates respect, and the garnering of it. However, in actual-ity, the song’s chorus discusses the fact that the top tag team for two summers get no respect! Turning the tables on the game, Blink 182 / Aquabats / Transplants drummer Travis Barker guests on this late-album standout. South Park“Blame Canada”Really, my desire to include this number is derived from my mem-ory of the early Cartman quote, “Respect my authori-tie!”, as he so aggressively repeats to his friends and neighbours in the beloved pro-gram’s inaugural season of broad-cast on Comedy Central. Cartman was three-wheelin’ around just like a boss. Aretha Franklin“Respect”This is a song originally written and recorded by Otis Redding (Dock of the Bay) in 1965. Franklin, though, turned the R&B world on its head with her 1967 version, which included the famed chorus where we learn to spell and find out the meaning of respect. Madonna“Express Yourself”You have to express yourself so you can make him express how he feels, so baby then you know your love is real (paraphrased), so you can respect yourself. This is one of Madonna’s biggest hits, not to be confused with “Human Nature.” Its lyrics: “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself.”
Beastie Boys“Sure Shot” MCA on Ill Communication’s “Sure Shot”: “I wanna say a little some-thing that’s long overdue / The disrespect to women has got to be through / To all the mothers and the sisters and the wives and friends / I want to offer my love and respect to the end.”
CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy needs the rest of Canada to show UFV some respect. Truth bomb.
CHARTS ShuffleAARON LEVYCIVL MANAGER / HUMAN HAIRDO
B.A JohnsonShit Sucks1
9
5
3
7
2
10
14
12
16
11
15
13
17
18
6
4
8VariousMint Records Presents: Hot Heroes
MeltedZiptripper
Queen Bee & The Buzz-killsStalk To Me
Oh No! YokoPinhead’s Paradise
Cheap HighIdle
QuarterbacksQuarterbacks
Panda BearPanda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
The B-LinesOpening Band
Viet CongViet Cong
Anna and ElizabethAnna & Elizabeth
Father John MistyI Love You, Honeybear
BahamasBahamas Is Afie
Ariel Pinkpom pom
TV On The RadioSeeds
Sinoia CavesBeyond the Black Rainbow
Death From Above 1979The Physical World
SiskiyouNervous
Lupe Fiasco’s Tetsuo & Youth is, in terms of lyrics and length, a very dense record. But for all its content, T&Y holds the lis-tener’s attention with an eclec-tic selection of tracks.
The aptly-named “Mural” is one of the most impres-sive songs on the record. Over crashing cymbals and piano trills (starkly different pro-duction from what most hip-hop producers put out), Lupe throws a barrage of highly visual lyricism at the listener, seamlessly jumping from one image to another. Fun fact: at 1337 words, “Mural” is prob-ably longer than most high-school essays.
Lacking a chorus, “Mural” is one jaw-dropping nine-min-ute-long verse, during which free-association and wordplay are used to paint stunningly clear and entertaining images: “Overweight taster of kings’ food that kills crews / oblivi-ous feather-weight baker who autographed cakes whenever his quill moves over your meal / you simple as a Buddhist monk in a temple standing in some heel groove with the ab-bot, practicing stillness / real still ‘til he realizes his realness / defeats Samsara, achieves nirvana and brilliance.”
“Blur My Hands” is a per-fect synthesis of rap and soul, an amalgamation evident throughout the record. Fea-turing a sung chorus which is more R&B than rap, the track also includes wordplay and al-literation in abundance: “Can’t match wit with warriors ... / Similarly can’t mix match-sticks with forests … I match matchsticks with wicks.” The R&B aesthetic is carried over to “Dots & Lines,” which starts with a hilariously surprising banjo solo.
Yup, A banjo solo. “Dots & Lines” announces its presence via bitchin’ banjo solo. The tune is laid-back and features a sublime chorus, as well as immeasurably appealing vio-lin. As much an R&B track as its predecessor, “Dots & Lines” also delivers some poignant and impressive lyricism: “To make gold from garbage, is not the alchemical point of this math / but truth be told, it’s the pursuit of gold that turns the goals of men into trash.”
“Prisoner 1 & 2” follows (of which only part 1 is notewor-thy). Lupe spits rhymes in as warm and soulful a way as I’ve ever heard: “Love is looking over various errors, and hate is habitually accelerating terror everywhere.” A cello and violin form the backbone, culminat-ing in the bridge between parts 1 and 2, incorporating a violin
riff, stomping of feet, and the rattling of a cell door being closed. The track’s almost as soulful as a gospel song.
“Little Death” is pure R&B. Each verse represents a differ-ent religious paradigm and the way it clashes with politics, separated by a beautifully sung chorus courtesy of Nikki Jean. “No Scratches” follows “Little Death,” and both work togeth-er as the album’s peak.
“Chopper,” arguably the most commercial hip-hop track on the album, has seven dif-ferent rappers each deliver-ing a full verse, layered over an oscillating bass humming throughout with a synthesizer reminiscent of a siren. Even with all the different rappers, the nine-minute track works flawlessly.
“Deliver” sees Lupe in top form, speaking on how the “pizza man don’t come here no more” (read: peace of man don’t come here no more). Both “Madonna” and “Adoration of the Magi” work off of each other’s strengths, and are two of the most memorable and entertaining tracks on Tetsuo & Youth. These are two of the most soulful choruses on the record, featuring immaculate verses peppered with poignan-cy. Lupe has pulled out all the stops.
Last month Fall Out Boy re-leased their sixth studio album, American Beauty / American Psycho. Since their return from hiatus two years ago, Fall Out Boy have been releasing music that’s out of touch with their grungy, emo-kid roots. They have instead gone for more of a jock-jam genre, which makes it great for an empowering work out at the gym, but leaves you nostalgic for what they used to be.
One of the great things about American Beauty / American Psy-cho is that the songs are simi-lar in theme and composition, apart from the title track. This
album is significantly more vulnerable than the rest be-cause the band is taking a risk and evolving their genre, try-ing to find their footing again in the musical world after such a long break. That risk sets this album apart from the previous five — in both a negative and positive way.
The one negative aspect about this album is that it’s not the old Fall Out Boy everyone remembers from middle school. Gone are the days of sentence-long titles and sick guitar riffs. When it comes time for the chorus, the guitar melody gets lost in the midst of all the other noise. It’s also important to note that, for many of the songs, the drums are switched
out for electronic sounding beats which somehow make the music feel less authentic.
I probably should have seen all these little changes coming because the evolution of Fall Out Boy from punk to pop has been evident since as early as their third album, Infinity on High (2007), which released tracks much brighter in theme than their earlier albums.
Some things don’t change though. Patrick Stump’s vocals shine through just like they did in 2001, marking Fall Out Boy’s unique style that makes the album worth listening to. Overall, I would have to say the band did a noteworthy job with this fresh album.
Lupe Fiasco’s Tetsuo & Youth delivers fresh rap with whimsical, tight verses
Albums
MARTIN CASTROCONTRIBUTOR
EKATERINA MARENKOVCONTRIBUTOR
American Beauty / American Psycho is no blast from Fall Out Boy’s past
ARTS IN REVIEWWEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
17
Dine and Dash
Book
There are some books that you treasure forever — you wish them no harm and treat the pages as if they were made of solid gold. Then there are some books where you can drip na-sal effluence onto them without caring.
The Deep by pseudonym Nick Cutter is fundamentally flawed from its meagre beginnings. The story follows a veterinar-ian who is off to find his es-tranged, scientifically minded brother as he struggles to find the cure to a debilitating plague known as the Gets. The novel quickly takes us from South America to the Pacific Ocean over the Mariana Trench, and down to the bottom of the sea shortly after that. The bulk of the novel takes place in an un-derwater environment (not un-like Michael Crichton’s Sphere). There the main characters en-counter otherworldly horrors dredged up from other novels in the same genre. Worse, the chiefest of blunders committed by this novel is not this copy-paste strategy from other nov-
els: it’s the story’s poor pacing and inability to hold a narrative thread.
So often the plot is derailed from critical events and pushed into long, drawn-out flashbacks that only serve to superficially add bulk and weight to the story. Apparently, according to
some reviewers on Goodreads, the flashback structure of this novel borrows a lot from Ste-phen King’s It.
The flashbacks tell of the brothers’ disturbing family history, all the while trying to splice in moments of horror that can be related to the events in
the underwater sea base. These flashbacks are spliced into any situation, whether it be mid-conversation or during rivet-ing horrific events. This often causes the reader to lose the thread, or at least become some-what discombobulated.
That being said, most of the novel’s events are propelled forward by use of chapter cliff-hangers. Most chapters are no longer than three pages long, and often the action is split over several chapter blocks. This be-comes quite frustrating to read. In a lot of ways, it’s a cheap trick to keep the reader inter-ested from beginning to end.
Characterization struggles throughout this novel — a surprise considering how few characters there are. In the un-dersea base where the bulk of the action takes place, only a handful of characters are pre-sented: the main character, his brother, a submarine pilot, one other scientist, and a dog. This paltry cast would work fine under most circumstances, but through the bulk of the novel, each one (save the main charac-ter) serves only to fulfill a role of advancing the eeriness of the
story.The secondary scientist is
stereotypically mad from the get-go, foaming at the mouth and spouting vague nonsense through a locked hatch. The brother, as well, seems to be the stock brooding misunderstood genius type that has no friends and is all-around socially inept. Almost all of the characters, de-spite their well-drawn histories, seem to be two-dimensional. The only character I found my-self caring about was the pilot, a typical badass military woman, simply because she’s the only one that isn’t being a total pain in the ass for the entire book.
From an author that seems to have such critical acclaim for his “first” novel Troop, his lat-est book seems to miss the mark entirely. It draws from too many sources without putting any sort of creative spin on them. Instead, it just borrows and fumbles. If you are looking for a daring undersea psychological horror, read Michael Crichton’s Sphere, of which The Deep seems to borrow a lot from. It’s a much better read, and far more re-warding.
Abbotsford is full of authen-tic and colourful restaurants. Sushi, pho, Thai, Italian, busy little bistros, cute coffee shops, dimly lit pubs, character diners — we’ve got it all, and we’ve got it good.
One cuisine Abbotsford does very well is Indian. And Gian’s Indian Cuisine is definitely the cream of the crop.
I went with a couple of friends recently, having heard good things about the buffet. Unfor-tunately we went for dinner, and the buffet is only for lunch (11:30 – 2:00). I was looking for-ward to the buffet because I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to Indian cuisine, and I like the idea of grazing and trying new dishes.
As an alternative, I shared a dinner for two. We ordered mild, because I’m not a heat person (and yes, I know I’m missing out). The issue with ordering the dinner for two is
that they can only bring out the order in one heat level — my friend would have preferred medium. My third friend , who’s a heat-freak, ordered a butter chicken entrée as spicy as he could go. Interestingly, the heat wasn’t enough for him. If you’re a hardcore spicy-heat person, maybe Gian’s isn’t for
you.My dinner included papa-
dums, veggie samosas, butter chicken, aloo ghobi, basmati rice, naan and dessert. It was $27 for two, and it was defi-nitely enough for two hungry students.
The papadums were nothing special, kind of like the Indian
version of breadsticks. It’s a dry, thin bread that tastes like it’s made with sesame, and maybe spiced with cumin. There were two mysterious but delicious sauces — one was green, very spicy, and was definitely made with cilantro. The other was red, milder, and very sweet. We munched on the papdoms for a while, and our food came out promptly.
Veggie samosas always feel to me like a more exciting Cor-nish pasty. The samosas we ate were a little bland with the mild heat order; I dipped it into the sauces meant for the papadoms.
The butter chicken and aloo ghobi were delicious. The but-ter chicken had barely any heat; the sauce was so creamy and rich. The chicken pieces them-selves were a little dry, but it was still the best butter chicken I’ve had in an Abbotsford res-taurant. The menu describes the butter chicken as made in “heavenly spices” — I agree. Yum! The aloo ghobi (cauli-flower and potatoes cooked in
a curry sauce) was cooked just right, so that the cauliflower was firm but soft.
The naan is definitely some-thing to rave about. They came out so hot and soft, with just the right amount of butter. You don’t even need to order the garlic naan; the regular naan is fantastic on its own.
Our meal finished with a des-sert, just fruit served in sweet, light cream. It was a very good way to end a spiced Indian meal — smooth, creamy, and sweet.
Gian’s impressed me. The service was good, my water was always full, and the server was always available. The place has clean, classy interiors with roomy booths. While the prices aren’t so good that you could go every week (It was about $18 per meal for us), it’s worth it for good food and good service. You’ve got to treat yo’self once in a while, and I highly recom-mend Gian’s to be the place you go.
The Deep is about as deep as a wading pool ANTHONY BIONDITHE CASCADE
SASHA MOEDTTHE CASCADE
Image: thebooksmugglers.com
Image: Facebook
The Deep borrows its flashback structure from Stephen King’s It.
Gian’s Indian cuisine is the cream of the crop.
Gian’s is the best Indian cuisine in town
ARTS IN REVIEW18
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.ca
“Satisfactory” is not a rating I’d ever like to give anything. It’s neither good nor bad — just locked in a purgatory of medi-ocrity. However, satisfactory is how I’d best describe the Wa-chowskis’ recent film Jupiter As-cending. It’s not that it’s in any way badly conceived — it just suffers from poor execution.
The film is ambitious. It aims to build an entire galactic cul-ture and society centred on a substance that can grant the hu-man body a form of immortal-ity. Their society functions on a marketable fountain of youth, essentially, manufactured by harvesting human bodies from “seeded” planets such as Earth. The substance is manufactured by a single family, whose Queen recently passed away, leaving the enterprise in the hands of her two sons and one daugh-ter.
The plot of the movie focuses on the inheritance of the sons, as they squabble to take control of their mother’s resources. This is where Jupiter (Mila Kunis) comes in: she is the reincarna-tion of the Queen, and therefore the sole inheritor of her estate. Of course, problems arise as the two brothers try to take that in-
heritance back.The Wachowskis portray the
galactic society and its ruling family quite well. Throughout the movie, it feels very elaborate and expansive, even though we are limited to the view of the one aristocratic family. The vi-sual design of the universe is well-articulated and stunning. It feels fresh and futuristic. To top it off, I felt that the charac-ters that inhabited both Earth and the universe beyond were well-developed and great to follow.
The villains especially came across very strongly, even more so than some of the main char-acters, maybe due in part to the large amount of screen time awarded to them. They felt distinguished and equally en-joyable — with the exception, perhaps, of the sister of the two main villains, who remained sadly forgettable.
However, this film falls short because it’s too ambitious. Jupi-ter Ascending would have been better off as two films. There is simply far too much crammed into a mere two hours and eight minutes. Even though the char-acters were strong, they were never given the screen time they needed to really develop.
The same could really be said for the plot. The film jumped too quickly from moment to mo-
ment. Characters’ stories and development became rushed and confusing. There was never enough build-up to justify cer-tain characters’ choices. The film tried to cram in several story arcs into one film, which left each one only a limited time to quickly build up and resolve.
The result was weirdly epi-sodic. In a way, each member of the noble family was given their own story to be told within the movie. It would begin with a capture, a meeting of the vil-lain, and some climactic action
involving Caine (Channing Tatum) flying in to the rescue. It became both repetitive and frustrating.
Due to the limited time, so many characters remained forgotten. Despite the strong leads, the supporting cast seemed strangely anonymous and forced-in. By the middle of the film, Jupiter seemingly acquired a whole ship with a crew, which belonged to Sean Bean’s character. None of the crew was introduced; only the ship was named. Throughout
the rest of the film the ship and crew are given epic Mass Effect-style suicide missions, and we are expected to care about them. But we don’t. There just wasn’t enough to care about. Even by the end of the film I barely knew who any of them were.
To top it off, because of the rush, certain arcs were not giv-en the world-shattering impact they should have had, which maybe they would have had if the movie were split into two. For instance, there was no real visual or immediate danger to the planet Earth. The story was building up to a harvest of Earth for the youth juice, but that moment sadly never came. The harvester never advanced, the Earth was never close to de-struction, and it was only ever talked about. Sure, there were choices made by the main char-acter that affected how Earth would be treated, but none of them felt immediately threaten-ing.
All in all, Jupiter Ascending showed great promise. As a two-parter it could have been amazing, but as it stands, it’s only satisfactory. It had beauti-ful visuals, a really great prem-ise, and well-developed villains and main cast, but ultimately its two-hour length limits it from becoming what it should have been.
Andy Shauf blessed Vancouver with his presence on Thursday February 5 while on tour in support of his new album The Bearer of Bad News, which was released February 3.
Shauf achieved a feat with his performance that is nigh myth in the city of Vancouver: famous for never shutting up during performances, the Van-couver crowd was silenced on Thursday night as Shauf coaxed out honeyed melodies from his freshly stocked repertoire of tracks.
Seconds after arriving on-stage, Shauf kicked into song with “Wendell Walker” from his new album, and the venue fell under his spell. The silence was so perfect that a ripple went through the crowd three-quarters of the way through the song when the gentle clinking of bottles sounded clearly from the bar.
The atmosphere of the show matched the silence. The venue allowed fans to be mere feet from the performers with no barricade. Onlookers sat cross-legged on the speakers at the front of the stage with many others leaning in over the edges of the stage.
As ever, Shauf gathered up the heartstrings and captured the sympathy of his listeners with the debut of two unre-leased melancholic melodies, “Lick Your Wounds” and “Ear-ly 2 the Party.” Each of these songs offered his usual smooth sounds but were punctuated with heartbeats of silence here and there, creating a powerful effect.
Between songs, Shauf at-tempted to converse with his audience, offering a perfectly timid, shy, yet cheerful dia-logue. In an attempt to make conversation while he tuned his guitar, Shauf asked if the audi-ence had any questions. One fan yelled, “How do you eat your Oreos?” at which Shauf chuck-
led but didn’t answer, due to it being a long, not really interest-ing, and barely funny story.
Closing out his show with another new song, “Martha,” Shauf and his companions left the stage without warning. As per tradition, the audience screamed, yelled, and shouted for him to return. However,
Shauf held out and left the au-dience screaming and hollering for an encore for what seemed like too long. Some nearly start-ed to give up hope when he emerged once again, this time alone. He took up his guitar and requested from the audience what they would like to hear.
After he had crooned out one
final tune with his instrument, he bowed and left the stage. As the satisfied crowd started to thin, Shauf appeared within it talking with fans and offered a much appreciated personal con-nection one by one with an ea-ger line up of fans.
Also performing with Shauf was Vancouver band Holy Hum. Comprised of Andrew Lee and four other sound-mak-ers, their music combined the ethereal sounds of Sigur Rós with the build and progressive style of Deadmau5 to churn out pleasantly drawn out master-pieces of sound.
Three of them crouched over a table topped with a jumble of cables, mixers, laptops, and keyboards as they prepared for the crowd a feast of sounds combined with the looped gui-tar riffs from Andrew Lee and pounding beats of the drum-mer. A welcome surprise, the band played a 45-minute set that seemed like one long, mu-sical meal.
Image: facebook
Image: Mitch Huttema
Jupiter Ascending stars Mila Kunis as Jupiter, the reincarnation of a Queen.
Andy Shauf was shy yet charming during audience interactions.
ANTHONY BIONDITHE CASCADE
MITCH HUTTEMATHE CASCADE
Overambitious storytelling brings Jupiter Ascending down to Earth
Andy Shauf with Holy Mum captivates Fox Cabaret audience
Film
Concert
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.caSPORTS & HEALTH
19
SASHA MOEDTTHE CASCADE
Mental heath awareness club comes to UFVUpcoming
games
Image: righttojoy.com
Men’s Basketball Women’s BasketballGame Score Game Score
UFV vs. UNBC W 77-71 UFV vs. UNBC W 88-75UFV vs UNBC L 69-57 UFV vs UNBC W 85-51UFV vs TRU W 83-62 UFV vs TRU W 70-57UFV vs TRU L 76-69 UFV vs TRU L 58-54
Men’s Volleyball Women’s VolleyballGame Score Game Score
UFV vs COTR L 3-1 UFV vs COTR L 3-0UFV vs COTR L 3-0 UFV vs COTR L 3-0UFV vs CAP W 3-1 UFV vs CAP L 3-0UFV vs CAP L 3-1 UFV vs CAP W 3-0
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 20 per cent of university students are affected by mental illness — yet the dialogue around it is choked up with stigma, shaming, and misinformation. Safe Space is an open discussion about mental illness and health on cam-pus. Questions or stories? Email [email protected].
Mental health has never been on the long list of student groups and associations at UFV. On a campus that’s all about open discourse, safe zones, and healthy student life, its absence came as a surprise for Harsh Sidhu.
“One in five Canadians are affected by mental illness, roughly, and teens to adults is where the peak is, and yet it’s not openly talked about,” Sidhu said.
Sidhu is taking initiative to fill that void at UFV with the mental health awareness club (MHAC). As president, with his fellow students Gagan Rai, Gur-preet Bhangoo, and Ajay Shar-ma as vice-presidents, MHAC’s goal is to break through the stigma around mental health is-sues, and open up the dialogue on mental health and wellness on campus.
The first MHAC meeting, which took place the Tuesday before reading break, drew about a dozen students. The small group discussed the stigma around mental illness, specifically in the media, and its causes — including lack of understanding.
“People tell you to change your mind frame — that kind of thing. Get over it, heal your-self. You don’t see someone ly-ing in bed with a broken arm, and someone coming up and saying, ‘Heal yourself,’” Sidhu said.
The lack of understanding leads to a lack of proper sup-port for those affected by men-tal illness.
“It’s just another illness ... and yet people think it’s some-thing outrageous when some-one says they have mental health issues.”
The floor was opened up to attendees’ feedback and ideas about how to reach the student body. Students pitched the idea of workshops with counsel-lors, posters, and social events. They also brought up how to become more inclusive — such
as branching out to the Chilli-wack campus, and reaching out to UFV’s 800 international stu-dents.
Like many advocates for mental health, Sidhu’s motiva-tion for starting MHAC is per-sonal.
“For two years I’ve had depres-sion and anxiety and I’m still dealing with it today,” he says. “It’s pretty hard to talk to peo-ple about it. Especially hav-ing guy friends, trying to talk about it, they’re all like, ‘You’re supposed to be tough!’ That’s what society tells you — be tough. It’s hard to talk about it.”
Sidhu explains that his per-sonal experiences dealing with his mental illness made him passionate about the issue. His personal goal is to provide a space for students to come out and share their own experi-ences.
“We’re not here to counsel you,” he says. “We’re just here to hear you out if you have no-where else to speak you mind in a [judgement]-free space.”
MHAC will have regular meeting times, which are yet to be decided. For more in-formation on to get involved with MHAC, email [email protected].
All you need is a campus
card and hand-eye co-ordi-
nation. 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in
E105.
Drop-in intramural
basketball, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Both teams face CBC on the
home court. Women play at
6 p.m., men play at 8 p.m. at
the Envision Athletic Centre.
February 21
February 23
February 21
Bring your campus card, a
toonie and some friends for
some dodging fun! 1 p.m. to
4 p.m. in E105.
Register for the tourna-
ment at http://www.ufvcas-
cades.ca/rec/intramurals.
February 23
Drop-in intramural soccer,
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
February 25
February 25
Drop-in intramural pickle-
ball, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Safe Space
UFV Cascades volleyball
Dodgeball tournament
Volleyball
For drop-in intramurals, all
you need is your campus
card. Registration isn’t re-
quired. All games are held in
the North Gym, E105.
Intramurals
Basketball
Pickleball
Soccer
The Cascade is seeking a Sports Editor!If you love writing as much as you love sports, this is the job for you.
We’re looking for a creative, organized self-starter with excellent communication skills. Must be currently enrolled in UFV classes to apply.
Send your resumé, cover letter, and writing sample to [email protected] by March 1.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2015
www.ufvcascade.caSPORTS & HEALTH
20
Valentine’s Day weekend marked the final home league game for four veterans of the Cascades basketball scene. The Cascades celebrated with Senior’s Night, honouring Jasper Moedt, Sarah Wierks, Kadeem Willis, and Celeste Dyck’s contributions to their teams.
The beginning of February means buckling down for the winter se-mester for many UFV students. For the UFV rowing team, it means that they are less than a month away from their home regatta on March 7 and the beginning of the spring season. Varsity rower Riley Dueck shares his thoughts on the rowing program to shed some light on UFV’s mysterious water sport.
What got you into rowing? I was playing competitive vol-leyball through high school and I thought that that was what I really wanted to do. [But] through grades 11 and 12, volleyball really changed — it just didn’t happen [to give me] what I wanted out of it, and I re-alized it definitely wasn’t a part of my future.
I thought about rowing as an option and it became a reality.
I knew UFV was the school I wanted to go to, I had what I wanted to study ... it also just so happened to have this cool rowing program. I thought, “Oh, I might as well join.”
It was something that you don’t get to do every day. It’s an experience that is almost exclusive — not every school in the world has a rowing pro-gram, and not everyone has the chance to try the sport.
Why is rowing not as well-known as other varsity sports?I think a huge reason people don’t know we have a rowing team is because we can’t row in the Abbotsford gym at UFV. Our location is in Fort Langley.
Another reason people don’t know who we are [is that] we have two races a semester. Both we had last semester were far away; one was in Calgary and the other [was in] Seattle. Sometimes there will be a race at Burnaby Lake or something. So I’d say that those are prob-ably the two biggest reasons.
[It’s not that] we aren’t popu-lar but [that we’re] not known. There is the occasional person who does know about our nov-ice program. We want to make sure that everybody knows that they can try it. It is called “Learn to Row.” We are taught by the varsity athletes and get to know other athletes and people. That is how I started,
through the novice program, and you get integrated into be-ing a varsity athlete.
Basketball, volleyball, and soccer are like your classic go-to university teams. [But] I think what appeals to me about the sport [is] it is such a cool experience and you don’t get to try it every day.
What would you want stu-dents to know about rowing at UFV?The learning curve is high but it is hard work. It is really a sport where the effort that gets put in is really the reward that comes out. It is more than a great workout. It’s temporary, excruciating pain for long-term gain and reward.
That is another reason I like it so much — not necessarily for the push, but for the team aspect. The effort and hard work that goes into it is huge. You go through so much with your team. I am thinking back
to our winter training session. Week after week you’re going through hard workouts; you’re pushing yourself to the limit al-most every time you go on the rowing machine. [So] you go through a lot with these people and it brings you together.
Is there anything else you would want people to know about rowing?Anybody that has the smallest lick of time and thinks a new sport would be kind of cool, they should absolutely look into our rowing program. It is not necessarily the biggest thing in the world, when you look at UBC’s novice program where they have hundreds of people and end up cutting a tonne. Our [team] is smaller, the coaching is one-on-one, and we really get to build good ath-letes out of specific people.
NATHAN HUTTONTHE CASCADE
NATHAN HUTTONTHE CASCADE
Senior’s Night bids farewell to basketball graduates
UFV’s rowing program is hard work with a high payoff
“It is really a sport where the effort that gets put in is really the reward that comes out. It is more than a great workout. It’s tempo-rary, excruciating pain for long-term gain and reward.”
Jasper MoedtMajor: Criminology Position: Forward Memorable achievement: Moedt
secured the Canada West title for re-bounding at 10.7 boards a game.
Quotable: “Athletics gives you a platform to do more with your life if you use it properly, and I hope that’s a lesson that a lot of guys learn.”
Jasper, an Abbotsford native, played at Yale Secondary and was coached by UFV head coach Adam Friesen’s fa-ther. At the end of last season Jasper finished his degree but remained with one year of eligibility left. He decided to come back and finish his fifth sea-son off strong. After the ceremony, Moedt commented, “I don’t think it will set in for me that I am really done at UFV until our playoff run is done. There is a lot of basketball to be played this year for us.”
Kadeem WillisMajor: BusinessPosition: Power forwardMemorable achievement: Willis was
second in scoring among players who started five or less games. He scored 12 points per game in only three starts. Wil-lis was first in rebounding among players who started five or less games. He pulled in 121 boards.
Quotable: “We just try to keep each other level-headed, humble, and we try to make each other better every day. If it’s in the classroom or on the court, we’re push-ing hard to become successful.”
Kadeem Willis is the only graduating player who didn’t spend his entire career at UFV. Kadeem joined the Cascades last season after playing at Lakeland College in Alberta. This year, with a stronger Cas-cades team, he didn’t complain about a new role often coming off the bench, but instead flourished on and off the floor.
“I love playing in this gym, I love play-ing in this atmosphere — I’m going to miss it a lot,” Kadeem said the night be-fore his final game.
Celeste DyckMajor: BusinessPosition: Point guard Memorable achievement: Dyck
played the facilitator role of the point guard to perfection and finished top 10 in the CIS in assists among all play-ers — a remarkable when you consider just last season she was averaging only 12.4 minutes per game.
Quotable: “I’d rather have assists than points. For me, I like to set up my team-mates more than score buckets. I’ve always been [one to] pass first, score second.”
Prior to her fifth year Dyck had spent the majority of her career com-ing off the bench in the back-up point guard role; she started only one game last season. This season, put in the starting point guard role, Dyck re-sponded enthusiastically. Her assist record stands to show her strong sense of team play.
Sarah WierksMajor: KinesiologyPosition: Forward Memorable achievement: Wierks
easily established herself as the stron-gest rebounder in Canada West history, with 307 rebounds in a season. She set herself apart with 81 more rebounds than the closest contender for the posi-tion of top rebounder.
Sarah Wierks, the younger sister of former Cascade Nicole Wierks, was al-ways known to be a dominant player in the frontcourt with her sister. She is key on the starting line. Her impact on the team was something that coach Al Tuchscherer praised over the course of the season, noting that her fifth and fi-nal year was particularly strong.
“Sarah has just led us all season,” he said. “She has had a real breakout sea-son this year ... Through the middle of the season there she was really carry-ing us for a while.”
Image: Northfield Mount Hermon / Flickr
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