Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2014 CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906 VOLUME 107, ISSUE 53

thegazette

WWW.WESTERNGAZETTE.CA • @UWOGAZETTE

Severely sleep deprived since 1906

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>> pg. 4

Budget changes for the USCUSC exec push for budget structure changes

Jeremiah RodriguezNEWS EDITOR

Changes are on the horizon for the next year’s University Students’ Council budget. The USC executive is revamping the way budgets will be presented in the coming years, with an aim to making the annual docu-ment more transparent and easy to understand.

The most progressive proposal is the budget shifting from a unit-based to service-based format. Instead of current broad designa-tions for funds, the budget will have specific descriptions for where student fees are going, such as a subsidy to a club or student room booking.

“We’ve gotten better by asking specific questions about how we find efficiencies. Now, you’ll see a list of services and its associated cost. Then, a councillor can weigh what students want, how much are they willing to pay and is that good value for them,” Pat Whelan, USC president, explained. “Sometimes you may want the service but you don’t want to pay that much for it.”

The USC executive is project-ing that the switch will increase transparency of current student programs. This change is intended to guide how future student gov-ernments evaluate whether to cut, maintain or expand campus programs.

The City of London and other municipalities have recently moved towards the same budget-ing method.

The USC is also proposing a tran-sition from one year to three-year rolling budgets. The change was spurred on by the self-admittedly dismal record of the USC in reacting to long-term changes to operating budgets.

With the new changes, the executives hope, councillors will be in a stronger position to antici-pate and adjust to budget changes such as fee increases or expansion

to a department by the Western administration. The direct effect would cushion fee hikes to students by spreading them out over a long timeframe.

“It’ll give council a much bet-ter timeline for students’ fees. The idea is for [the USC] to see what fees might look like, so students can have a stronger idea how to plan for their own finances in the future,” Spencer Brown, USC vice-president finance, said.

The last frontier for the USC bud-get is its push for stronger student advocacy which includes creating a program for over 200 part-time stu-dents to understand how transfer-able their skills are in the job market. Part-time students work in facilities such as Western Connections, food

and beverage as well as Creative Services.

The advocacy push would include further development to the new Volunteer Services Department which is involved in the selection and retention of the USC’s volun-teers who receive honouraria.

“It’s about really investing in our student development part of the organization — it’s what separates us from other advocacy groups by showing the learning outcomes to their decisions for work and how to get to the next stage of their personal development goals,” Whelan said.

The budget itself is still being for-mulated and will face hurdles from several policy committees and pub-lic scrutiny before being ultimately voted on by council on March 26.

Mike Laine GAZETTE

Committee talks BPC, commercialization

Richard RaycraftNEWS EDITOR

Questions are being raised about the future of Big Purple Couch and the University Students’ Council’s commercialization policy after Thursday’s meeting of the Student Outreach and Communications Standing Committee.

Big Purple Couch, an online talk show and TV media outlet owned by the USC, received the most dis-cussion of any topic at the meeting, the general consensus being that it lacks clear direction or relevance to students.

“Our number one priority for BPC is to ensure its existence as a positive volunteer experience for students,” said Jasmine Irwin, vice-president communications at the USC, commenting that she couldn’t offer specifics on plans for changes at BPC.

She did add, however, that plans to re-brand BPC to Purple TV, which The Gazette reported in October, had been cancelled.

Among the most prominent issues discussed at the meeting was the USC’s policy on commer-cial activity and advertising. Irwin elaborated on its policy and future.

“For commercialization we want to make sure that there’s an adequate conversation at council to look at the line of the budget that’s dedicated to commercial activity,”

she explained.Issues over commercialization

came to a head this year with some of the more elaborate displays in the UCC atrium. In particular, many students felt a Victoria’s Secret PINK display in October went too far. The display generated a significant controversy at the time, eventually prompting the USC to release an apology in early November.

Irwin explained that the display was a break with more traditional marketing. “They’re both technically commercial activity but they have different ramifications for students. So I think it’s a hot-button activity this year because students are being shown different commercial activ-ity than what they’re used to, and trying to figure out what they want the standard practices to be for that kind of activity,” she said.

Emerson Tithecott, USC senator-at-large and chair of the committee, explained the committee’s role in a written statement to The Gazette.

“The Student Outreach and Communications Standing Committee enables Western’s elected representatives to bring the ideas and concerns of their con-stituents directly to the University Students’ Council as they strive to enrich the university experience by working to improve our student government’s communications strategy,” he said.

Spencer Fairweather GAZETTE

2 • thegazette • Tuesday, January 14, 2014

CROSSWORD By Eugene Sheffer

The Cryptoquip is a substitution cipher in which one letter stands for another. If you think that X equals O, it will equal O throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words and words using an apostrophe give you clues to locating vowels. Solution is by trial and error.© 2002 by Kings Features Syndicate, Inc.

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News Briefs

Western wants to connect with you

Traditionally seen as the Facebook for professionals, social media giant LinkedIn has expanded its services into the academic world with its new innovation, “LinkedIn for Higher Education.”

Western reacted quickly to this change, providing an array of rel-evant information for prospective students including academics, alumni reviews, and even indus-tries that graduates enter upon graduation.

“Typically, the largest network of any person is their post-secondary institution. This page provides an opportunity for Western students to stay in touch with one another, but also capitalize on one another’s knowledge base and successes,” Jasmine Irwin, the University Students’ Council’s vice-president

communications, said.Moving forward, Irwin believes

this page will be hugely successful.“Especially when people start to

move towards the concept of net-working for professional reasons,” Irwin commented.

Expect to see higher traffic on Western’s LinkedIn University Page as more attention is brought to this service.

—James Ma

Fanshawe backs off from Market Tower

Fanshawe College is no longer going to purchase the Market Tower building in the heart of London.

In a press release, Fanshawe said the decision followed “an extensive due diligence review” and the college would continue exploring options for its downtown expansion.

“Fanshawe College remains committed to working with the City of London as we move forward with our plans to expand our presence in downtown London,” said Peter Devlin, president of Fanshawe, in the press release.

An offer had been made on the building which was supposed to be phase two of Fanshawe’s downtown expansion, following the recent opening of the Centre for Digital and Performance Arts. It is back to the drawing board, but there are very few options to house the number of students Fanshawe will be looking to have downtown.

“We are continuing to actively explore a range of options which will ensure the most appropriate learning environment for an addi-tional 600 students in downtown London,” Devlin said.

—Iain Boekhoff


BIRD BIRD BIRD BIRD IS THE WORD. Have you heard about the bird? Everybody knows that the bird is the word. A hawk perches in the treetops on campus yesterday.

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thegazette • Tuesday, January 14, 2014 • 3

Weather chaos continues with flooding

Universities struggle with online courses

Christine Bonk GAZETTE STAFF

In a recent report analyzing qual-ity assurance practices for online courses, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET) found that many North American universities are unable to provide completion rates for any courses at all — online or not.

With the low retention rate of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), completion for online courses is an issue of concern. As cited in the report, MOOC provider Coursera found only a five per cent completion rate average.

While WCET’s Managing Online Education survey’s findings were comparatively optimistic, more surprising was that many of the institutions surveyed were unaware of the course completion numbers for both online and on-campus courses.

Specifically, 65 per cent of insti-tutions were unable to provide online course completion averages. This number was closely followed by the 55 per cent of institutions who did not report completion rates for on-campus courses.

In light of these numbers, the report warned, “If institutions wish to improve course completion, they will need to collect these statistics.”

Russell Poulin, deputy director of research and analysis at WCET, suggested that ideally institutions should use completion rates as a method of judging the success of different practices. “You don’t improve what you don’t measure,” Poulin said.

John Doerksen, Western’s vice-provost for academic programs and students, said that while Western may be included in the majority that does not specifically look at

completion of individual courses, there is instead a focus on overall program progression.

“It wouldn’t be hard for us to [track course completion],” Doerksen said. “I think for us our key goal is to ensure that our online course development is driven by academic priorities and certainly academic quality is an absolutely important criterion in all of our course evaluation.”

For the schools that were able to provide course completion rates, the retention capacity of online courses is encouraging. According to the average of all the institutions surveyed, online course comple-tion was only three per cent lower than on-campus at 78 per cent.

Also positive is the finding that 85 per cent of institutions are adopting standards to ensure the high quality of online courses.

In addition, the survey pointed out some of the areas of possible improvement including having available 24/7 technical services and providing quality accessi-bility services for students with disabilities.

“I think we’re on the right track,” Doerksen said after assessing the report. “I don’t think we have as formalized a process as described through this report but we’ve had for a long time a quite struc-tured way of having our courses developed.”

Doerksen’s analysis is exactly the response Poulin had in mind for those reading this report. “I think [institutions] need to look at their practices and use it as a benchmark. If they are not pro-viding 24/7 technical support or if they are not providing services, they really haven’t addressed if they have quality standards.”


The damage is quite extensive actually. A section of the sprinkler system within the facility failed, and as a result a large volume of water was released into the ceiling and walls of the wings of the facility.

— Peter CrockettChief administrative

officer for Oxford County

Dorothy KesslerGAZETTE STAFF

Flooding across southern Ontario this past weekend caused water damage both in public facilities and residential homes.

The Ministry of Natural Resources issued a watershed conditions state-ment in light of forecasted rain and milder temperatures on the week-end. Flooding issues are expected across southern Ontario.

In London, the Masonville Library was closed on January 11 due to flooding, and will re-open at 9:00 a.m. today.

Water damage caused by flooding in the Woodingford lodge long-term care facility in Tillsonburg forced residents to be evacuated.

“The damage is quite extensive actually. A section of the sprinkler system within the facility failed, and as a result a large volume of water was released into the ceiling and walls of the wings of the facility. The issue with that, of course, is the damage within the walls and ceil-ings and the water on the floor,” said Peter Crockett, chief administrative officer for Oxford County.

The long-term care facility is bro-ken into two facilities — the West side is the Rosewood residential home area and the East side is the

Cedar Crescent residential home area, which took the bulk of the damage.

“The common areas of the facility, so things like the serveries, the din-ing room, and so on, were impacted as well, as were the building systems — electrical system, the nurse-call system, the fire alarms, the IT, the phone systems,” Crockett added.

The water also impacted the elevator systems, and the area before the tunnel-access into the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital.

“Everybody who was involved — all of our community partners, and work staff quickly responded to make sure everyone was safe,

everyone is being well looked after, and to make sure there are no inci-dents or issues with respect to the evacuation itself,” Crockett said.

The residents are temporarily housed in the Woodingford Lodge in the Woodstock and Ingersoll facili-ties while work and public staff and restoration contract staff clean the damage, and restore the facility.

Crocket expects it will take a week or two for the Rosewood half to reopen and several weeks for the Cedar Crescent area to be ready for residents to return.


Arts&Life tuesdaytweetBelieve it or not, you’re the best I could do

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Her makes software sexyJoaquin Phoenix gets attached to a computer

Richard Raycraft NEWS EDITOR

HerGGGGHDirected by: Spike JonzeStarring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson

Spike Jonze’s solo screenwriting debut, Her, is an enjoyable and original film that features some top of the line performances and an emotionally engaging narrative. Nominated for three Golden Globe awards, including best screenplay (which it won), the film is worthy of most of the praise, though it has some weaknesses.

Set in the not-so-distant future, the film tells the story of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a middle-aged, unfulfilled writer living in Los Angeles. A hopeless romantic, Theodore attempts to fill the gap left by his recent divorce by purchasing an operating system, designed to converse like a human. “Samantha,” voiced by Scarlett Johansson, surprises Theodore with its wit and warmth, along with its ability to perform handy func-tions, such as sorting his e-mails in a fraction of a second.

Theodore quickly falls in love with his new piece of software, and an unlikely but fruitful relationship blooms. Their bond is the focus of the rest of the film, which includes all the difficulties and trials of any normal relationship, but with an extra layer of awkwardness due to Samantha’s lack of a physical body. Theodore and Samantha grow together emotionally throughout

the movie, until a sudden disrup-tion throws Theodore’s last hope at meaning into turmoil.

Her’s major strengths are the acting and the plausibility of its set-ting, along with some subtle social commentary. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as always, and he shares good chemistry with nearly every character in the film. Scarlett Johansson has a strong presence just with her voice, and it’s enough to make the relationship with Theodore feel genuine.

The Los Angeles of the future is a giant, living paradox. The Information Era is in full flight, and Theodore appears to do every-thing, from checking his e-mail to listening to the news to talking with Samantha, through a tiny earpiece. The video games are interactive as we’ve never seen them before, and the conversation Theodore has with an annoyed character in one of the games he plays is priceless. Oddly enough, everyone is so busy

connecting through these new technologies that the film has an atmosphere of loneliness. One can’t help but feel that Jonze is really trying to say something by having Theodore’s escape from existential dread happen through yet another piece of technology. Her’s setting is different enough to be intriguing without venturing into the absurd.

While the individual scenes and dialogues are rich and enter-taining, however, the overarching narrative is pretty predictable. Only one short scene shocked me, and it felt repetitive at times. Though Her runs for just over two hours, it still felt a little long, and some parts could have been cut without taking too much away from the film.

These are rather minor com-plaints in the context of the whole experience, and the questions explored by Her are too important to miss out on. Don’t miss a chance to see this possible look into the future.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Sherlock: “His Last Vow”

After only two and a half weeks, Sherlock once again finishes with twists, turns and Tumblr exploding with theories about its latest irre-solvable mysteries.

In the season finale, Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) faces off with Charles Augustus Magnussen (Lars Mikkelsen), a newspaper tycoon who can blackmail every important figure in the Western world. Meanwhile, Watson (Martin Freeman) and Mary (Amanda Abbington) face the first hurdle in their marriage.

“His Last Vow” is an engaging episode, featuring a more expan-sive use of Sherlock’s “mind pal-ace” than any episode before it. Sherlock’s relationship with Mary’s head bridesmaid provides one of the episodes funniest moments — but it’s not all laughs for the deerstalker-wearing sleuth.

The third season has been mostly

comic with Sherlock’s return from the dead and Watson’s wedding providing the more light-hearted moment of the series — “His Last Vow” takes the world’s most highly-functioning sociopath to some of the darkest places the series has gone.

Magnussen is not as compelling a villain as last season’s Moriarty, but he does get up in everyone’s face — peeing in Sherlock’s fireplaces and licking things to claim them as his own. While he is undoubtedly a dis-gusting character, Holmes’ detesta-tion of him seems not quite justified, making the limits Magnussen

pushes him to harder to appreciate.Unfortunately, all is not well with

the episode’s ending. While Sherlock remains one of the best shows on television and further proof that the BBC is God’s greatest gift to human-kind, a few last-minute twists undo all of the events that have taken place over the past three seasons.

However, as one of the smart-est detective dramas on television, all flaws can be overlooked for the most important mystery show cre-ators Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis will have to solve: When do we get series four?

— Brent Holmes

Courtesy of BBC

Rolling out the red carpet for the Globes

Jennafer FreemanGAZETTE STAFF

Since everyone knows the Golden Globes are a less worthy version of the Oscars, we decided to focus on the array of dresses that were on display which, let’s be honest, was a major reason why most of us decided to tune in. Just like any other prestigious event in Hollywood, the Golden Globes gave many stars a chance to show off their best (or worst) look.

BESTKate Beckinsale in Zuhair Murad

Kate Beckinsale looked stunning in this silver Zuhair Murad gown at the Golden Globes. She rocked this mermaid style dress, and the sweetheart neckline was especially flattering. Although no one seemed to know why she appeared at the Golden Globes, the shimmering fabric she wore was sure to capture attention. She wore diamond ear-rings that added to the shine, and carried with her a black clutch with black nail polish that completed the look. Kate gave everyone a reason (possibly the only reason) to turn on the TV with this outfit.

BESTOlivia Wilde in Gucci

Olivia Wilde showed off her baby bump in this stylish, emerald Gucci dress. The baby bump did not seem out of place at all in this ensemble, in fact it appeared to only add to the look. This embellished, form-fitting gown was far from reveal-ing, though perfectly showed off her body. Clearly Olivia did not need to consider maternity clothing for this event, as she looked fabulous in this gown. The emerald green colour of the dress complimented her skin tone, and her only accessory was a handbag, which was all that was needed to add to this dress.

WORSTTina Fey in Carolina Herrera,

Brian Atwood

What was Tina Fey thinking when she put this gown on? Maybe that it didn’t matter what she wore, since no one watches the Golden Globes — either way, this dress did not do anything for her. The strap-less top may have looked better if it contained a sweetheart neckline — but that wouldn’t even begin to fix the problems with this dress. It’s evident that the flow of the skirt did not do her body justice, and the red unidentifiable shapes that were clustered all over the dress added to the mess.

WORSTCaitlin Fitzgerald in

Emilia Wickstead

Caitlin Fitzgerald’s outfit looks to be a Cinderella-inspired ensemble gone wrong. Although the light blue colour itself is nice, that’s about the most positive comment that can be made about this dress. Well, other than the fact that this dress would have likely been very popular decades ago. The neck-line, the fabric, the skirt — they’re all wrong. The excess material that the skirt consisted of looked heavy and unnecessary. This gown did not compliment her body at all, and the shiny, orange clutch she carried con-tinued to throw off the look.

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Breakup sting lingers with online contactJacqueline Baker

CONTRIBUTOR

There was once a time when a breakup meant that you didn’t have to see your former significant other anymore. Yes, you would inevitably think about your ex once in a while throughout the recovery process, but at least you’d remain convinced that life is better without them.

Unfortunately the majority of students live in a world where social media and breakups exist as one and an ex is rarely forgotten, in spite of social networking tactics.

Social networking sites are con-structed to be invasive tools of our social lives, which is especially apparent during the uncomfort-able post-breakup stage.

“Social media creates an eco-system for users to connect across many platforms. Social integration is so pervasive that untangling our digital lives becomes a complicated

process,” says Kadie Ward, instruc-tor of MIT’s Social Media for Organizations course.

Breakup etiquette continues to be ambiguous and difficult to deci-pher on social media. Some might choose to unfriend, delete, untag, and/or block their previous rela-tionships as a method of cleaning their online image in preparation for a polished return to the online world with a single status.

So what is the best way to move forward?

“It’s difficult to say. The people involved in the relationship and subsequent breakup need to be mature enough to discuss and decide what they are both com-fortable with moving forward,” Ward says.

Other social media users might choose alternate procedures such as changing the filter settings on their Facebook newsfeed so that the online “friendship” still exists, but

excludes information about what is occurring in the other person’s life.

“Social media creates the poten-tial to have continual engagement after the formal relationship has ended,” Ward says. “If the couple decides to stay connected through digital media after they split it may make it difficult to move on.”

Ward says unfriending and blocking our previous relationships are not the same as breaking up with people offline. However, plat-forms like Twitter and Instagram offer minimal options for post-breakup decisions. Users only have the option to continue following, unfollow or block their previous relationships.

Should we consider it weird to continue “following” our exes? Or does the act of “unfollowing” seem immature in a technological age where everyone follows everyone?

The rules of breakup etiquette in social media remain unclear. Taylor Lasota GAZETTE


Opinions

thegazetteVolume 107, Issue 53www.westerngazette.ca

Contact:www.westerngazette.caUniversity Community Centre Rm. 263The University of Western OntarioLondon, ON, CANADAN6A 3K7Editorial Offices: (519) 661-3580Advertising Dept.: (519) 661-3579

Julian UzielliEditor-In-Chief

Cameron M. SmithDeputy Editor

Jason SinukoffManaging Editor

The Gazette is owned and published by the University Students’ Council.

Editorials are decided by a majority of the editorial board and are written by a member of the editorial board but are not necessarily the expressed opinion of each editorial board member. All other opinions are strictly those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USC, The Gazette, its editors or staff.

To submit a letter, go to westerngazette.ca and click on “Contact.”

All articles, letters, photographs, graphics, illustrations and cartoons published in The Gazette, both in the newspaper and online versions, are the property of The Gazette. By submitting any such material to The Gazette for publication, you grant to The Gazette a non-exclusive, world-wide, royalty-free, irrevocable license to publish such material in perpetuity in any media, including but not limited to, The Gazette‘s hard copy and online archives.

Gazette Composing & Gazette Advertising

Ian Greaves, ManagerRobert Armstrong

Diana Watson

• Please recycle this newspaper •

Gazette Staff 2013-2014

News Richard Raycraft Megan Devlin Iain Boekhoff Jeremiah Rodriguez

Arts & Life Brent Holmes Mary Ann Ciosk Bradley Metlin

Sports Daniel Weryha Nusaiba Al-Azem Caitlin Martin Newnham

Opinions Kevin Hurren

Associate Kaitlyn McGrath Aaron Zaltzman

Photography Bill Wang Kelly Samuel Taylor Lasota

Graphics Naira Ahmed

Illustrations Christopher Miszczak John Prata

Online Jesica Hurst

Graphics/Video Mike Laine

Christine Bonk, Jonathan Dunn, Spencer Fairweather, Sam Frankel, Stephanie Grella, Dorothy Kessler, Kevin Heslop, Jenny Jay, Nathan Kanter, Taylor Lasota, Katie Lear, Emory Liu, Cheryl Madliger, Sara Mai Chitty, Soheil Milani, Vidhant Pal, Lily Robinson, Alex Seger, Tiffany Shepherd, Hamza Tariq, Josh Teixera, Anne Wozney

“The very first law in advertising is to avoid the con-crete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague.”— Stuart Chase

Dear Life

Your anonymous letters to life

Dear Life,What happened to all the cute guys on campus from last semester? The current batch is making me sad...

Dear Life,The only thing I remember from 2013 is the surprise release of BEYONCE.

Dear Life,When I wake up the morning after going clubbing and find a twenty in my pocket, I’m happy — but at the same time I’m worried about what I did to get that twenty, you know?

wgaz.ca/dearlife

Recently at York University, a professor dismissed a student’s request for religious accommodation. His request? He asked to be exempt from a group project that required him to meet in person with (gasp!) women. The dean of the faculty determined the professor was out of line and a whole backlash has been created, cementing York’s apparent love of controversy.

This archaic decision certainly must make a lot of people wonder what the dean could be thinking. The professor was undoubtedly justified in his decision to tell the student he had to work with women. Moreover, once this decision was made the student complied and ended up doing the project with his female comrades.

So it must be a source of bemusement why the dean decided to step in. Does anyone really know? His defence was that he had an obligation to do so based on university policy. This, however, ignores every semblance of morality. Women deserve respect and there is no question about that — unless of course you’re the dean of arts at York.

This decision raises questions about how far society is willing to bend in the name of religious accommodation. While respect for religious freedom is important, there are also some basic, Canadian rights that must be respected as well. One of these is that women are equal to men.

Perhaps questions may arise that there is some degree of sexism in the media coverage of this incident. If a woman was making a similar request in the name of religious accommodation, would it be more palatable? After all, requests have been granted for women in the past to allow presentations to be done in private instead of having to speak in front of men. While true, this ignores a simple unfortunate fact: Society is still, to some degree, less forgiving for women.

Adding to this bizarre situation, the professor may now face discipline for disrespecting the authority of the dean. Come again? Yes, there are power structures in a workplace but sticking to your morals is undeniably admirable. The professor should be lauded for taking a principled stance against sexism — not punished.

Sexism is never okay, so this whole situation is ridiculously baffling. Virtually everyone agrees that the dean was wrong and the professor is in the right. There’s a saying, “Your right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” Blood has definitely been drawn with the dean’s decision.

—The Gazette Editorial Board

York dean’s decision sexist

Kevin HurrenOPINIONS EDITOR

When thinking about actress and singer Taylor Momsen, there are a few phases that come to mind.

Some may think of the innocent, bright-eyed little girl featured in the remake of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Others will conjure the image of a platinum blonde rocker strutting off episodes of Gossip Girl and into the lead vocalist role for The Pretty Reckless.

But recently Momsen is being viewed in a very different light — as a parkour champion.

Parkour is a style of movement where practitioners use their bodies and sur-roundings to get from one point to another in the most efficient way pos-sible, using a series of sprints, climbs, leaps and jumps to do so.

A recent viral video — which has over 2.7 million views — sees Momsen being swarmed by a group of paparazzi as she leaves a gym, only to then escape them by relying on a number of parkour-like moves.

Before anyone gets too excited, think-ing that Momsen has reached her next stage in a sporadic public image, the video ended up being a commercial for Nike with Momsen wearing the compa-ny’s new shoe series, Zoom Sister One+.

For the more media-savvy, the viral video was pretty transparent — a clear promotional tool for Nike.

The masses online, however, shouldn’t be blamed for thinking the video was real — the actual shoes are only shown for a second, and Momsen never utters the words “Nike,” “shoes,” or “buy.”

After all, we’re used to commercials

speaking to us directly. Do you want to feel this way? Look this way? Typical ads ask these questions and position their products as the answer.

Though this technique has worked for decades, there’s been a recent trend in marketing to incorporate more reality. Many recent ads use “real people,” inter-viewing unbiased pedestrians or showing up at random homes with cleaning sup-plies or appliances in tow.

These kinds of ads still present ques-tions, like “Do you want your living room to be pine fresh?” — but by using real people it lets the audience come to the conclusion. The company isn’t telling us to buy their product, other people are — people like us. We can trust us, right?

While Momsen’s Nike ad follows with this trend of realism, the commercial’s reluctance to acknowledge itself as an ad puts it into a class of its own.

So if it doesn’t look like an ad, and doesn’t sound like an ad, what is it?

This is a difficult question to answer. Many would say that the commercial is an example of a new type of marketing. Agencies can create cheap videos and use online communication tools to spread their message. As people pass such ads back and forth online, a multidirectional dialogue is formed — between the con-sumers, the subjects of the ad, and the company.

But as exciting as this artistic move-ment is, I can’t help but worry. Yes, these ads are pushing boundaries and arguably becoming more intelligent, but at the end of the day they are still projecting a com-mercial message onto us. As ads become more “real,” it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between our world and the world corporations are creating for us.

I realize this sounds a bit dystopic, but the potential is very much there. We should begin taking a more critical look at what advertisements are trying to accomplish because, unlike Taylor Momsen, this is one problem we can’t just run away from.

It’s an ad, ad worldSeven Minutes in Kevin

To the Editor: Although it’s a new year, we still have problems from the previous semester. Normally, I can handle whatever comes my way — but on the off chance I need someone else’s assistance I pray it need not be the dean of science’s office and its academic counsellors.

Only open four hours out of the day, and closed on Friday, the dean of sci-ence’s office makes it clear that it can help you, but only when it is convenient to them.

I visited the office multiple times last week, and even made the trek to campus

on the day school was cancelled only to be met with, “Sorry, we are full up,” even when I told them this decision was the difference between me graduating or not.

No shit you’re full, especially when you’re only open four hours of the day. I have class those four hours, and when I do have a break to come by you’re all on on lunch! Why should academic coun-selling take a long weekend? Academic distress doesn’t take Friday off, so neither should you — especially during the first week of classes, when anxiety is at a high.

I have been given the shaft again and again by Western and its departments. When do I get to go to the wonderful school that supports its students, the one I was promised during fall preview day?

— Demetri PananosApplied Math IV

Counselling not cutting it

Letters to the Editor

@BresciaGirlBREAKING: @patrickdwhelan and @MattHelfand were buying drink tickets together. Will they go home together? @uwogazette

@jen_lynn_carter@uwogazette thanks for the awesome article today AND for coverage of the grand opening of the King’s Student Life Center! Come visit soon!

@kevin_wiener@uwogazette Now that non-members of USC can run for PVP, Queen’s University will be running a slate. #BePrepared #IUsedToGoToUWOSoItsOkay

@daraniurgessaWhy is the @uwogazette so angry all the time? Pease and love man.

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SportsRundown >> The Mustangs men’s basketball team won their second straight game of 2014 on Saturday > The team beat the Laurier Golden Hawks 81–69 > They now hold a season record of 4–8.

factattackDuring the span of nine postseason games, Steve Smith, wide receiver of the Carolina Panthers, has eight touchdown receptions.

Mustangs downed by lowly Golden HawksBuzzer beater hands Western first loss of the new year

Colin GallantCONTRIBUTOR

The Western Mustangs men’s hockey team lost their first game of 2014 in dramatic fashion on Friday night, in one of the most bizarre endings of the Ontario University Athletics season thus far.

A game that seemed destined for extra time was spoiled by a buzzer-beating goal by Laurier’s Peter Macintosh, silencing the 433 spectators at Thompson Arena and giving the lowly Golden Hawks a 3–2 victory.

The marker came only three and a half minutes after Kyle DeCoste tied the game at two with a one-timer from the left point.

It was the second deficit of the game the Mustangs had rallied from, after scoring early in the third period to tie the game at one.

It was only the Golden Hawks’ sixth win in 17 games this season — good for last place in the Western conference.

“You can’t take anyone for granted here,” Brendan Riggin, Mustangs’ assistant coach, said. “We were expecting the two points here against Laurier.”

It was an uneventful first period for the most part, with Laurier goal-tender Vinny Merante highlighting the frame with a spectacular glove save on Matt Clarke.

Western was able to kill off a five-on-three infraction during the period, keeping the Golden Hawks to the outside and even generating a few scoring chances of their own. Merante made 17 saves in the first period.

The second period saw the first goal of the contest, scored by Laurier’s Tyler Stothers.

On a partial odd man rush, Stothers let a heavy wrist shot go from the right circle, beating Mustangs’ goaltender Greg Dodds to the opposite post for his fifth tally of the season.

Though trailing by a goal head-ing into the third period, the Mustangs were intent on tying the score.

Second-year student Alex Micalef did just that less than two

minutes into the frame.After taking a pass from Zach

Harnden, he walked in from the left point and beat Merante with a low wrister to the opposite side.

Though Western had sustained pressure for the first 10 minutes of the period, they were unable to capitalize on a tripping penalty to Spencer MacCormack at the eight-minute mark.

It came back to bite the Mustangs, as Laurier regained the lead just a minute after the penalty to MacCormack had expired.

After making a pad save on Greg Cerelli, Dodds gave up a juicy rebound, watching helplessly as Derek Schoenmakers tapped in the go-ahead-goal from the oppo-site circle.

The Mustangs seemed deter-mined after the goal, unloading a flurry of scoring chances on Merante, finally beating him on a late power play goal.

Kyle De Coste, who was parked at the left point for most of Western’s power play Friday night, finally cap-italized on a one-timer after a nice feed from forward Daniel Erlich.

“I think it was a good thing that our guys were able to bounce back after being down early on,” Riggin said after the game.

An energized Western Mustangs crowd seemed prepared for over-time, especially after a huge break-away save by Dodds with just under a minute left.

It just wasn’t meant to be on Friday for the Mustangs, as Laurier’s Brendan Woods slipped a great cross ice pass to Macintosh, who let go with a rising wrister that beat Dodds on the glove side with a sec-ond remaining on the clock.

The goal stunned players and fans alike, who could only watch in astonishment as the Golden Hawks piled off the bench and mobbed Macintosh in the corner.

The Mustangs have less than 24 hours to regroup from the heart-breaking loss, as they take on the top ranked Lakehead Thunderbirds Saturday night at Thompson Arena who also lost a thriller on Friday night, dropping a 4–3 decision to the Brock Badgers in overtime.

Jonathan Dunn GAZETTE

JUST MISSED THE PUCK. Mustangs’ centre Matt Clarke fires one just high in Friday’s tilt against the Laurier Golden Hawks. The Mustangs fell just short against Laurier, losing 2–3 after a Golden Hawks’ goal in the dying seconds of the third period.

Mike Laine GAZETTE


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Tuesday, January 14, 2014