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Workshops tackle the challenges of suicide intervention

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EIC
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Workshops encourage students to reach out to others at risk.

If you believe that a friend may be considering committing suicide, what should you do?

SFU Health and Counseling Services is making new efforts to help people tackle this very issue The department is offering a series of three-hour workshops to raise awareness of the issues surrounding suicide, as well as to provide participants with the skills to effectively communicate with somebody who is considering taking their own life.

Workshop activities will include teaching participants how to ask if someone is suicidal by using a direct question, determining the severity of their intent to commit suicide, and how to effectively refer a person to the appropriate resources for their situation.

At SFU, 11 per cent of students have contemplated committing suicide at some point.

“What people will get out of this workshop is the development of some confidence and being more knowledgeable about how to manage this situation,” said Martin Mroz, director of SFU Health and Counselling Services.

There is also a component on understanding the experience of being in crisis, as well as relating to the person who may be suicidal.

The workshops are open to all SFU students, staff, and faculty, and are particularly geared towards those who regularly interact with students or those who are in a leadership role.

The Support Over Suicide workshops were developed in addition to the pre-existing workshop called Supporting Students in Distress, which provides participants with the tools to respond to students who are stressed and may be experiencing mental health issues. The team also launched the Hi FIVE initiative in 2013, which aims to eliminate stigma towards those who are experiencing mental health distress or illness.

“All this work that we do within mental health is all centred around the elimination of stigma,” said Mroz. “We want to have a community that is free of stigma, connected, and informed.”

At SFU, 11 per cent of students have contemplated committing suicide at some point, according to surveys conducted by the National College Health Assessment in 2007.

“Suicide is the most preventable death,” said Erika Horwitz, the associate director of Health and Counseling. “It is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.” 

The two explained that the process of direct and early intervention could save many lives. “When you finish taking this workshop,” Horwitz noted, “you will be able to identify when someone is not coping, and is starting to consider ending their lives.”

“That is when you intervene,” she stressed. “By intervening early, we can prevent someone from potentially attempting suicide, which is traumatic [in itself], and also from completing it.”

Horwitz stressed that those who are contemplating suicide but decide not to follow through with it should not be afraid to seek professional help to deal with their stress and burdens.

“A lot of people will refuse to access counselling because of stigma, or because they do not know what counselling is about,” Horwitz said. “Going to a counselor does not mean that you are crazy or you have a mental illness. We are trained to help average human beings.”

The first Support Over Suicide workshop will take place this week on January 30 at 11:30 a.m. at the Surrey campus.

University continues assessment of residences affected by mould

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EIC
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Safety and Risk Services said that “Louis Riel will be phased out” as alternative housing options are created.

The university has begun relocating residents of the Louis Riel residence building after concerns regarding mould in residence were raised once again at the SFSS Council meeting late last year.

The living condition of Louis Riel building has been persistent problem, and remains a constant topic of discussion for the SFSS Advocacy Committee.

Safety and Risk Services (SRS) at SFU told The Peak that they have been working on improving the Louis Riel building since they first started to receive complaints from students and staff.

The department is using “dynamic assessment” to address the problem promptly.

According to Terry Waterhouse, SRS Chief Safety Officer, the dynamic assessment process involves relocation of the occupants in the damaged unit as staff undergo assessment of each suite to ensure that no one is in a compromised space.

So far, SRS has relocated 35 residents in Louis Riel to other suites that are not in damaged condition.

Some students relocated themselves by finding off-campus housing, while others have moved to different units within the same building.

However, Devon Cass, coordinating and external relations officer for the Graduate Student Society (GSS), claimed that there are more “important health concerns for those living in a residence with so much mould, even if some suites have been shut down.

“Due to the mould, there are fewer and fewer places graduate students can live on campus,” continued Cass. “This is a substantial problem for incoming students who are not familiar with Burnaby and Vancouver.”

One of the major sources of mould in the building is water accumulation, according to Waterhouse. This usually results from open windows during rain, leaks from the building perimeter, and leaky pipes.

SRS has relocated 35 residents in Louis Riel to other suites so far.

Aside from water accumulation, another potential cause of the problem is the buildup of condensation in units that are not fully ventilated.

“Having a very long shower, cooking, and boiling water in a unit that has poor ventilating quality can actually lead to mould accumulations,” said Waterhouse. The mould in Louis Riel building could have been due to a variety of causes of moisture buildup.

The parts of the building that need improvement will be determined after the formal assessment has been issued, explained Waterhouse.

“We have completed the assessments for each of the rooms, just putting together the final report on it now, and we are expecting to receive that formally in about two weeks,” he said.

With the report that is coming within two weeks, SRS will make a decision about what to do with the entire building, instead of looking at individual units.

At that point, SRS and the university administration will decide whether they should vacate the entire building or not. The completion of repair should be expected when the formal assessment is finalized.

In the end, Waterhouse said, “Louis Riel will be phased out as student residence as other facilities are developed, regardless of anything else.”

Meanwhile, SRS has been communicating directly with the students and staff who have been affected to address concerns.

“We have been responding in a very thorough way,” he assured, “but if there are outstanding concerns for students living in the Louis Riel, [. . .] they should definitely tell residence and housing.”

Ask Professor Peak: Week 3

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EIC
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Are you an SFU student or faculty member who needs some relationship, student, or SFU-related advice? In 150 words or less, send your issues anonymously by visiting the-peak.ca/professorpeak. Your entry could be published in our next issue, along with some helpful advice from Professor Peak!

_______________________________

Help! I want to avoid avoid a high school acquaintance who has moved to town and wants to hang out!

DEAR PROFESSOR PEAK: I’m a student and I moved here from another province a few years ago. After doing so, I was fairly selective with who I stayed in touch with from back home. I still talk to a lot of my friends but I slowly drifted from acquaintances. Now one of those acquaintances lives in Vancouver and she’s keen to hang out but I’m not interested. (It’s not that I actively dislike her or want to totally burn bridges between us; we’re just completely different people now.) ó LONE WOLF

DEAR LONE: Oof, that social awkwardness. Honestly, I think how you handle this depends on how nice you want to be. If you’re really keen to avoid her, you can actively blow her off until she realizes that “Sorry, too busy to hang out” actually means “I have more important/enjoyable things I can be doing.” Or, if you’re willing to put some more time and social grace into the situation, you could meet up with her in a non-committal situation (coffee, anyone?) and let the differences between you two become painfully obvious over the course of your friend-date. Either way, I think this situation will fade. She’s probably eager to meet up with you right now because it’s hard to be new in a strange city, but as she becomes more comfortable she’ll likely gravitate to her new, more kindred-spirited friends.

* * *

My boyfriend and I are struggling and I’m having trouble avoiding him in the Residence we both live in!

DEAR PROFESSOR PEAK: I’m living in a co-ed floor on Residence, and my boyfriend lives down the hall from me. Recently we’ve been in disagreement with each other and our relationship has struggled because of it. This has been super awkward for me whenever I bump into him in the hallways of our residence building. What makes me especially anxious is when we meet up with each other in our floor’s communal kitchen, where we make our meals. Sometimes I wait for him to leave, but this can take forever and it completely throws off my busy schedule. Help? ó ANXIOUS & AWKWARD

DEAR ANXIOUS: Yikes. Having lived — and dated — in residence for multiple years, I’m gonna drop some truth on you: no matter how hard you try, you’re not going to be able to avoid each other. Between the communal kitchen, the communal bathroom, and the one walkway to get to class, you’re going to run into each other, a lot. Because of Murphy’s Law, you’ll probably end up bumping into him more than anyone else. Seriously, Murphy is an asshole. My advice would be to try to make some sort of peace, however tenuous and however temporary. If you can get to a point where you’re okay with seeing each other, even if the underlying problem isn’t fixed, you’ll both be much happier for it. You may not resolve your argument, and you shouldn’t force a solution, but having an honest conversation about the very real situation of still having to share space in the meantime is incredibly necessary. I mean, who wants to feel uncomfortable and anxious in their own home? Try waving the temporary white flag, hard as that may be.

Eight Clan football players invited to the CFL Combine

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EIC
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Though ineligible for the CFL Draft, Chris Tolbert can be signed as a free agent.

Eight seniors from the Clan football team were invited to the CFL combines, SFU Football announced via a tweet January 13, where they will get the chance to prove themselves worthy of becoming a draft pick in the 2015 CFL Draft or being picked up as a free agent.

The players invited were wide receiver Lemar Durant, running back/defensive back Chris Tolbert, wide receiver Bobby Pospischil, defensive back Matt Isherwood, wide receiver Kyle Kawamoto, defensive lineman Kristian Lawrence, running back Cole Tudor, and wide receiver Bibake Uppal.

Of the eight, two — Durant and Isherwood — were directly invited to the national combine, hosted in Toronto, ON between March 27–29, where they will be gunning for the attention of CFL teams scouting staffs.

The other six players will instead head to Edmonton, AB on March 23, where the regional combine will be hosted. Here, they will have to make an impression to qualify for the national combine.

Tolbert, one of the players headed to Edmonton this year, knows his work will be cut out for him. Having spoken with some Clan graduates who have gone through the process, he has an idea of what it will take to make the CFL.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said. “I’m working every day, seven days a week. You get only one opportunity and you have to make the most of it.”

However, Tolbert faces a unique challenge, being American. This makes him ineligible for the actual CFL draft; teams that are interested in him will instead have to sign him as a free agent. The fact that he was invited to the combine at all is, according to him, a “rare occurrence.”

However, for now, his focus is on preparing for the combine. Though initially recruited as a defensive back, Tolbert played the running back position for much of his college career. At the combine, he will once again try to prove himself as a defensive back.

Last year, three SFU football players were invited to the national combine, while two — Dylan Roper and Tore Corrado — were invited to regionals. Roper and Corrado managed to make an impression, and were subsequently invited to the national combine.

All five Clan players invited last year were eventually drafted by a CFL team. However, only the three who were initially invited to the national combine — Matthias Goossen, Casey Chin, and Derek Jones — made the cut for their respective teams.

Tolbert and his seven teammates — including Durant, who has also declared for the NFL draft, and if picked in the NFL would be the first SFU alumnus to make it — are all working towards their dream of a pro career. Should last year be any indication, they’ve got a good shot.

Online “free speech” is a gateway to hatred

By
EIC
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While the Charlie Hebdo team were targeted for exercising their right to freedom of speech, there remains far more inflammatory and derogatory expression on Facebook and social media that goes unchecked. What often flies under the radar is the pervasive hate speech that is more or less ubiquitous on the web, alongside cat videos and Tumblr blogs, choking Internet forums and clogging YouTube comment sections.

In a very real way, the presence of hate speech online has far more toxic and worrying ramifications, many of them below the threshold of awareness.

As a fundamental right, freedom of speech is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. The right allows and protects the independent voicing of opinion, without fear of censorship or punishment. Under this protection, the West is lauded for its diversity, culture, and fair forum for equal and respectable discussion. It is this freedom that allows for Seth Rogen’s The Interview, Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and satirical cartoon  publications such as Charlie Hebdo.

Not coincidentally, freedom of speech is also one of the most theatrically abused freedoms in the West, next to the United States’ Second Amendment. Whereas Charlie Hebdo had a legitimate claim to be protected by freedom of speech — the pieces in question being satirical cartoons — the usage of the phrase online is more often a blatant excuse than a reason.

Besides infantile homophobic and racist comments under YouTube videos, tasteless sexist jokes on 4chan forums, and religious-bashing flamers on Twitter, hate groups and speech on Facebook have become a serious problem, promoting and encouraging intolerable behaviour online.

The naturalization and advancement of bigotry leads to an acceptance and encouragement of base behaviour.

Though these sites promise safety, fairness, and freedom for their users, a considerable chunk of provocative hate slander and ignorant bashing goes unregulated, unfiltered, and becomes normalized through time. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen “fag,” or “slut” framed casually in a comment, alongside supportive statements or scathing replies.

It is that same casualness elicited in comments and posts that is equally potent and dangerous to the hate groups formed on Facebook. Groups such as “Jewish Ritual Murder” on Facebook promote false and bigoted information and bias, disseminated, which hurts and affects communities, and the ubiquity of racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs in online colloquial settings even further damage.

They do damage not only in their offhand manner, but in their naturalization and acceptance of prejudice. Is this really a safe society for everyone, where a hashtag like #KillAllMuslims trends online, or where rape culture chants from the comments section of pictures are the norm?

I’m not reframing the broken windows theory when it comes to what makes an unsafe society, but the naturalization and advancement of bigotry does lead to acceptance, and possibly encouragement, of this sort of behaviour. The Internet is no less subject to this ideological propagation than the natural world. The Internet gives a voice to people, but ultimately, it is the voice of the human condition in its idealism and squalor: both the best and the worst aspects of humanity are online.

Freedom of speech becomes a problem when groups and communities begin to feel physically threatened and powerless. Whether it be casual or personal, hatred and bigotry has no place in democratic societies, and especially not online. Social media needs to smarten up and learn the difference between respectful speech and bigotry or discrimination when it comes to “free speech” on their platforms.

This week in Comics

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EIC
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CMYK-Rachelle comicIchabod, the worm that wanted to fly (Rachelle Tjahyana)

 

FilbertCartoons1
Filbert Cartoons (L.A. Bonte)

 

Minds of the Moment #5 ( Kenneth Uzodinma)Minds of the moment (Kenneth Uzodinma)

PUN23 Curious George (Sarah Walker) copy
Pun 2 3 (Sarah Walker)

 

Peers Week 4 (Leslie Lu)Peers (Leslie Lu)

 

 

Séquence 8 is an incomparable circus show

By
EIC
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The artistry and skill of the eight acrobats of circus troupe Les 7 doigts de la main is breathtaking. With a variety of circus acts, humorous commentary, and brilliantly staged sequences of acrobatic choreography, this is one of the most impressive shows of any kind I’ve seen in a long time. Not only did the circus acts themselves have the audiences gasping and holding their breath, but the clever commentary in between these scenes had us all laughing hysterically.

For example, after two of the acrobats performed on the seesaw, they each spoke in French giving their interpretation of what the scene represented. One said that it represented the yin and yang of life, and the other said that it simply represented two men going up and down. As the acrobat playing the role of the commentator summarized what they had said in English, he explained that the two of them went out together to a restaurant to discuss their act with two people named Yin and Yang.

These interludes of witty commentary took the place of the comic relief clowns found in Cirque du Soleil shows, and the content often had the audience roaring with laughter. Another segment featured the commentator mocking a late-night talk show host while interviewing one of the acrobats about his new self-help book, which was also brilliantly mocked.

Each of the performers specialized in a different acrobatic feat, whether it was jumping through a hoop in unimaginable ways, hanging off a vertical pole with just one hand, or performing on the Russian bar, trapeze, and aerial hoop. There was even some breakdancing and beatboxing, along with mesmerizing, free-flowing segments of choreography that featured all the performers leaping, flipping, and tumbling across the stage.

What set this production apart from other circus acts is the attention to detail, narrative, and pure artistry, along with an incomparable sense of humour. That, along with a combination of simple staging, captivating music, and stunning performances, made this a rare show that deserves endless praise.

Séquence 8 was performed at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival from January 22 to 24. For more information, visit pushfestival.ca.

Satellite Signals

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EIC
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Surrey

SFU welcomed 42 computing science students from across the nation to its 2015 Undergraduate Capstone Open Source Projects (UCOSP) code sprint on January 15–18. Five students from SFU participated, working with mentors on open-source software projects in teams of two to four.

Harbour Centre

Adel Iskandar, SFU assistant professor of global communication, gave a talk last Thursday titled “From Immolation to Preservation: The Self & Identity Politics since the Arab Uprisings.”

The talk centered around the question of faltering regime change in Arab countries and the part that identity politics — Islamist, secularist, nationalist, etc. — have played in the uprisings’ aftermath.

University Briefs

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EIC
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Athletic program brings inner-city kids to UBC

Through the program “I’m Going To UBC,” currently in its seventh year, elementary students from East Vancouver got to drop by UBC’s basketball courts for a taste of university life.

“It opens their eyes up to what is possible, where they could be in less than 10 years,” said Andrea Wilks, a participating teacher from Admiral Seymour Elementary.

Participants had the opportunity to speak with UBC athletes and learn about the potential of a university education, as well as how they balance academics and sports.

With files from UBC News

 

U of T Professor to plead guilty to child exploitation charges

University of Toronto professor Benjamin Levin’s lawyer has confirmed that Levin will plead guilty to a number of the child pornography charges he faces.

His offences include accessing, possessing, writing, and distributing child pornography, counseling someone to commit sexual assault, and arranging with a police officer to commit sexual assault.

Levin was arrested at his Toronto home in July 2013, and has been granted bail with strict conditions of release. He is not to access the Internet, and is required to live with his brother in the meantime. “There will not be a trial,” his lawyer also stated.

With files from Toronto Star

 

Ex-McGill hospital director to be extradited back to Canada

It has been confirmed that Arthur Porter, McGill’s former hospital director, is to be extradited to Canada from Panama, according to CBC News.

If successfully extradited, Arthur Porter will face fraud-related charges connected to a $1.3 billion super-hospital contract at McGill. His wife, Pamela Porter, has already pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering.

The date of Porter’s arrival in Canada has not yet been set.

With files from CBC

The Odd Couple is a classic tale of friendship

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EIC
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Can a slob and a neat freak live together in harmony? Will true friendship prevail, or will living together put an end to their relationship? The iconic duo of mismatched roommates Felix Ungar (Robert Maloney) and Oscar Madison (Mike Wasko) returns to the stage in the Arts Club’s production of  The Odd Couple.

Oscar’s lonely eight-room apartment serves as the weekly poker hangout for him and his friends, but one night Felix doesn’t show up and the gang gets worried. Felix hasn’t missed a game in years, and he’s not the type to change his routine. Through perfectly timed friendly banter, they discuss what they should do.

When Felix eventually shows up, the news that his wife has left him prompts Oscar to ask him to move in. Oscar is used to sitting on a laundry-covered couch while eating TV dinners, but Felix won’t stand for even the slightest bit of dirt or untidiness, and when he moves in, the TV dinners move out. Felix cooks, cleans, and even saves them money in the process, but Oscar becomes increasingly annoyed by his obsessive tendencies.

Oscar decides that they need some female company, and they invite their neighbours, British twins Gwendolyn and Cecily Pigeon (Sasa Brown and Kate Dion-Richard) over for dinner. Brown and Dion-Richard give hilarious performances, with their high-pitched fits of giggles and falsetto accents. Maloney also impresses, as Felix bumbles around the stage weak-kneed. The audience can’t help but fall for him, as do the Pigeon sisters.

Not unlike that of a studio sitcom, this production has spot-on comedic timing and features outstanding performances from the entire cast. By the end, you feel you’re a part of Oscar and Felix’s world.

Arts Club Theatre Company is touring The Odd Couple around the lower mainland from January 23 to February 23. For more information, visit artsclub.com.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024