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Avril can’t make it any more obvious

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Avril Lavigne’s latest single “Hello Kitty” is guilty of a lot of things: lazily choreographed arm waves with camera jitter, unimaginative lyrics, and intense colours and costumes to distract you from all the wretched noise (sorry, Avril, but leave a cupcake skirt for Gaga to work). But contrary to what the Internet is exploding over, racism should not be what the former sk8er chick is being slammed for.

In the video, Lavigne in no way suggests that one race is better than another, or specifically belittles Japanese culture. Rather, she uses pop music as a medium to integrate herself into that culture. “Hello Kitty” is nothing but a pure example of pop music marketing, taken to an extreme, and being mistaken for looking like a parody of Japanese culture.

The explosion of anime and exaggerated Japanese cultural references by Lavigne in the video is over-the-top, but she does this to tap into fundamental facets of Japanese entertainment, specifically the quality of kawaii (cuteness, adorable, etc.), to make herself instantly recognizable to that particular audience. Much of Japan isn’t comprised of people dressed in cupcake skirts, but often, when it comes to the country’s entertainment, the bolder you can be, the more memorable your material will be.

Having been to Japan myself, the daytime is pretty mundane with people in white shirts and black pants, walking to their jobs. But once the sun goes down (and the city lights brighten) areas such as the Akihabara District come to life, with cartoon characters from the television roaming the streets.

Given the vibrant imagery in her music video, Avril seems to channel a typical stroll down Akihabara District. No, she doesn’t reach very far, nor try very hard to be creative, but what the song presents in its video is pretty representative of Japanese entertainment, which is spot on if she was intending to build hype with her Japanese fans.

In that same vein, let’s not forget the music video was filmed on location in Tokyo. Now, who are we to judge if Avril is being racist, when the very country that we are accusing her of belittling welcomed her and allowed her to execute the things she did on camera? Watching behind-the-scenes on the making of this video, you see Avril being guided by a Japanese man on how to dance and speak for the video. If “Hello Kitty” is truly racist, then this bit of evidence could be a tiny bit problematic.

Taking an extreme plunge with everything typically associated with Japanese entertainment (cartoonish outfits, very animated movements, nauseating bright colours, etc.), “Hello Kitty” impressively — possibly sadly — represents what pop music is ultimately about: experimentation.

With a heavy dubstep-esque beat paired with childish imagery and actions, Avril is far from being a racist. She’s an artist first and foremost, simply playing with her art — how good of an artist is completely subjective, however. And you know how artists are: they can’t create anything without a tiny bit of controversy.

Despite it all, say what you want, listen to as much or as little of “Hello Kitty” as you want, the song has clawed its way into most of our ears, and officially earned a spot on the Billboard’s Top 100. Currently, it’s at No. 75. But who’s honestly counting when we’ve got another horribly infectious song to (guiltily) dance to this summer?

Researchers locate brain’s anti-distraction system

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driverwaldo-LilyLiA recent study by SFU researchers John Gaspar and John McDonald has provided new insight into how the brain is able to focus on a single task while at the same time being bombarded with other intrusive and distracting signals.

Gaspar and McDonald have isolated a neural mechanism in the brain as the site which determines how a person is able to block out external stimuli and focus on a task. This is an important step in understanding disorders such as ADHD and schizophrenia.

Researchers have debated for the past 25 years as to whether visual objects grab our attention automatically or whether we are able to ignore these objects. This was difficult to determine because the neural mechanism was not entirely understood. But, thanks to Gaspar and McDonald’s 3.5-year study, we now know more about how this mechanism works.

The study involved three experiments in which 47 students of approximately 21 years of age were given a visual search task, while sensors relayed information about their neural processes related to attention and distraction.

Results provided empirical evidence to show that our ability to ignore intrusive signals is the result of a process called attentional suppression. This describes how the brain will actively suppress signals coming from visual sources that can distract from a primary focus.

Gaspar and McDonald hope this research will broaden the understanding of the most contemporary ideas of attention, which are mainly focused on understanding the neural processes involved in picking out objects in a visual field. Think of a Where’s Waldo illustration; we now understand not only how we can pick Waldo from his chaotic world, but also how we are able to tune out the irrelevant information.

Knowledge of this attentional suppression mechanism is especially important for understanding conditions such as ADHD and schizophrenia. It may help us to understand what these disorders are and whether there are sub-disorders that are currently hidden under these blanket diagnoses.

ADHD is a commonly diagnosed disorder with over six million children diagnosed in the United States alone. It also presents very different symptoms in children and adults. Research concerning how neural mechanisms, such as the one discovered by Gaspar and McDonald, are related to ADHD will hopefully enable us to make more informed diagnoses in the future.

There is still a lot of work to be done in this field because each person’s brain has individual differences in its ability to deal with distraction and focus on tasks. Gaspar and McDonald intend to continue their research on this mechanism to uncover more about how attention works in all its complexity.

The world’s cheapest tablet is good enough!

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WEB-Datawind Tablet CEO-Flickr-Wordskills International
Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli

 

I love electronics stores. I’m the kind of guy who you’ll find sauntering around Future Shop, staring at all the items I’d already seen when I was in last week. I re-visit so many times, but why don’t I buy anything? It’s because the sight of the bright yellow price tags rips little chunks from my soul.

It’s no secret that Canada has some of the highest rates for electronics in the world. It’s also no secret that our country’s digital divide is steadily increasing. As the poor become poorer, it is becoming more difficult for those less fortunate to purchase gadgets and gain access to the Internet, something that Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli called “a fundamental human right.”

I’m happy to report that this Montreal-based web access development company has recently developed a range of cheap digital tablets with the aim to help bridge the digital divide. Their cheapest product to date, a wireless tablet called the Ubislate 7Ci, ranks as the world’s lowest cost tablet, priced online at $37.99.

“This idea is to bridge the digital divide,” Tuli told the Globe and Mail, “to overcome the affordability barrier.”

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how can a tablet this low in price be of any quality sufficient enough to satisfy customers? The answer is it doesn’t. That is, it doesn’t when you compare it to top-of-the-line Apple products. The Ubislate 7Ci can only hold four gigabytes of memory, and has a screen resolution of 800-by-480 pixels, compared to the iPad mini’s 16 gigabytes of memory and 1024-by-768 display.

To those of us who currently own iPads or high-end Android tablets, the idea of owning a device that can only carry as much data as a DVD seems abysmal. But to those who wouldn’t be able to afford anything else, the opportunity is phenomenal.

Tuli told the Globe that his team is “working on its strategy to sell cut-rate ‘good enough’ tablets.” He knows that his tablets cannot be compared with high-end products, and his aims are not to make them so. He believes there is a strong market of consumers willing to trade performance for low-price.

And Tuli must be right; while the tablet can only provide Internet through wireless connections and has a screen resolution about as good as a screen on the back seat of an airplane, he says that the company initially struggled to keep up with the high volume of orders for it.

Evidently, there is high demand for such a product, and I personally feel it’s about time a company honed in on helping certain individuals acheive their human rights. What’s even better? Datawind recently announced that it plans to create a new tablet that will cost just $20, in pursuit of “mak[ing] tablet ownership possible for anyone and everyone.”

The Internet is meant for all of us, no matter what our financial circumstances are. It is the single, largest informative database which allows people to access and share information, a major contributor in upholding a functional democracy.

Yes, in their reviews, critics have frowned upon Datawind’s products. But these critics are wealthy snobs (comparatively speaking) who have trouble realizing that this technology is not intended for people like them. If Ubislate users have reasonable expectations, then they should be more than happy with a cheap device that gets the job done, affording Internet access to those who thought it inaccessible.

 

Haida artist combines First Nations and Japanese manga forms

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If an author gave you permission to rip out the pages of his book, would you dare? Very few authors write books intending audiences to directly alter or engage in their works; however, this component is frequently seen in visual or situational art installations. For Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, a contemporary visual artist and author, this is completely acceptable. 

Red: A Haida Manga was created as a single large-scale mural (4.5 metres tall by two metres wide) and later deconstructed to form a 108-page book. So if you want to cut up two copies of the recently released paperback edition to reassemble the original image, Yahgulanaas has given his consent.

Yahgulanaas is the creator of a new style of graphic novel called “Haida Manga” which combines First Nations’ art style and tales with the Japanese graphic novel form of manga. 

Yahgulanaas uses his distinct style of art to give life to the tales of the peoples of Haida Gwaii. He brings the characters to life with minimal realistic detail, yet incredible visual style, using simple iconic forms to express complex meanings. The pages are filled with vibrant colours, including the traditional Haida tri-colour scheme of black, red, and blue-green. 

Red: A Haida Manga, an award-nominated title published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2009, is based on an oral Haida narrative. Red and his sister Jaada are both orphans living in a coastal community not unlike the Haida. Raiders attack their village and abduct Jaada when Red is still a boy. As Red matures into manhood, he becomes the chief of the village, but grows up feeling responsible for the capture of his sister. 

Yahgulanaas uses his distinct style of art to give life to the tales of the peoples of Haida Gwaii.

When news comes that his sister was spotted in a nearby village, Red is filled with rage and blinded by revenge. He leads his community to the brink of war and destruction in an effort to exact retribution on his sister’s captors. 

Thick black outlines — called formlines in Haida art — sweep through the pages, echoing manga comic panels. However, where most comics have breaks and white space between the images, Yagulanaas feels that everything outside those panels becomes blank and vacant. 

For him, it is a more honest depiction to fill up the dividers with a black formline, creating a continuous element in the formerly empty spaces and eroding hierarchy. He frequently incorporates the formline into the story, to create depth, indicate movement and narrative flow, or as a space for text.

The book launch for the paperback edition of Red: A Haida Manga coincided with a gallery exhibit, which opened on May 3. This is Yahgulanaas’s third solo exhibit at the Douglas Udell Gallery in Vancouver, and debuts the latest pieces in his Coppers from the Hood series. The exhibit, entitled SOLO 3, is actually his fourth unaccompanied exhibit for the Udell Gallery, if you include the Douglas Udell Gallery in Edmonton. 

The Coppers from the Hood series was inaugurated in 2007 at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC; its pieces have been internationally exhibited and collected. Yahgulanaas uses metal automobile hoods, covers them in copper leaf, and paints distinctive Haida Manga imagery. 

The latest coppers for the series continue to explore fetishes and embark on a study of the “sacred geography of multiple genders.” The exhibit also includes new works on paper including watercolour and graphite drawings from an ongoing series, as well as the Flappes series, which is similar to the Coppers from the Hood series but based on gas cap lid doors.

Yahgulanaas studied with Haida master carvers as well as a Chinese brush painter and is influenced visually by Japanese wood-block printing, contemporary manga, and ancient Haida panel pipes. He also spent three decades working with First Nations and environmental groups to preserve the Haida Gwaii lands on the former Queen Charlotte Islands, and to maintain the independence of the Haida people. His work frequently incorporates contemporary social issues into mediums that are easy to comprehend by the masses. 

The exhibit runs through May 24 and paperback copies of Red are available for sale at the gallery. Pick up a couple copies of the book, recreate the mural, and see if you can identify the three Haida animals hidden within the formlines. 

Satellite Signals

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Monday, May 5 was a cause for celebration at the place The Vancouver Sun has dubbed “the intellectual heart of Vancouver”: SFU’s Harbour Centre campus celebrated its 25th year of operations. Executive director Laurie Anderson kicked off the festivities with a lively speech before cutting up the birthday cake. The campus first opened its doors at 10 a.m. on May 5, 1989. 

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SFU Surrey unveiled its new Institute for Diaspora Research and Engagement on April 25. IDRE director James Busumtwi-Sam explained in a media release that, “The institute will combine interdisciplinary scholarly research with community-based research.” 

He continued, “Canada is often described as a ‘diaspora nation’ because of its diverse population and the important role of immigrants and immigration.” The institute’s opening event entailed a speech from President Andrew Petter, as well as a panel of experts to speak on the discipline. 

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Sunday, May 4 saw a musical performance created by an unlikely composer — a robot! SFU professor Arne Eigenfeldt has created an artificially intelligent system that, along with local Turning Point Ensemble music group, composes music on the spot. 

Using technology that allows it to translate the sounds of instruments in an orchestra into sheet music that the musicians read off iPads in real-time, HyperEnsemble delivered a performance of computer and human expertise called An Unnatural Selection.

University Briefs

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WEB-briefs-Gerry Lauzon-Flickr

Montreal police intervene during May Day marches

Over 500 protesters marched from McGill College to Square Victoria on May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day. Similar marches and protests have been held around the city since 1906; this year,  however some encountered heavy police interference.

“I don’t think we can have a better example of police repression; there’s nothing more totalitarian that that, goddamn it, because we went to two different locations, and it hadn’t even begun, and there were already people kettled [. . .],” Maxence, a visibly angered protester, told The Daily in French. “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”

In total, 132 protesters were detained and fined, while four people were taken to hospital following injuries suffered during police interventions.

With files from The McGill Daily

 

3-D sock keeps hearts healthy

New technology from the University of Alberta is combining socks and smartphones to create a 3D heart sock that can be stretched over the heart muscle to monitor its condition. Patients would be able to use their smartphones to review their heart health using an embedded wireless chip.

“When your heart is unhealthy, there can be a lot of different signals coming from an [electrocardiogram], where the signal is really average,” said Hyun-Joong Chung, assistant professor of engineering at the U of A. “What our sock can give you is a direct, localized signal straight from the heart.

The researchers hope that the 3D heart sock could potentially be used in the future for heat ablation, drug delivery or shock therapy. 

With files from The Gateway

 

Alleged sexual assault at McMaster

Students perusing the Spotted at Mac Facebook page were in for more than they bargained for early this month when a student posted about an alleged sexual assault.

The girl posted a photo of a man who she claims forced himself on her after they’d had a few drinks at a local bar. The site has been used previously to post pictures of a supposed thief and other foul players.

Jenny McGreal, media relations officer at Hamilton Police Services, applauded this vigilantism, saying, “As difficult as it is, we do need victims to come forward and that’s part of our constant challenge of educating the public, of creating that awareness that we’re here to help.”

With files from The Silhouette

SFU author David Stouck wins big

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CMYK-BCBP-DavidStouck_crMonicaMiller

Comedian, writer, and former Peak editor Charlie Demers emceed the 30th annual BC Book Prizes Gala Saturday, May 3. The ceremony, held at the Renaissance Harbourside Hotel in downtown Vancouver with the jovial Demers at the helm, awarded eight prizes for literary excellence in the province. 

SFU professor emeritus David Stouck won two different categories for his biography, Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life: the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize and the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize.

In his thank-yous, Stouck said it was an “enormous privilege” to study Erickson, the renowned local architect who designed our own SFU Burnaby campus as well as the Museum of Anthropoogy at UBC, and Vancouver’s law courts. Stouck also acknowledged Ethel Wilson’s niece, Mary Buckerfield White, who suggested he write the book on Erickson. 

The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize was awarded to Jordan Abel for The Place of Scraps, which explores the connection between First Nations cultures and ethnography. He was inspired by Marius Barbeau’s book Totem Poles, whereby attempting to preserve Native culture and artifacts, Barbeau actually aided in breaking it apart. 

Abel is a Nisga’a poet, an SFU Continuing Studies instructor, writer, and editor. He beat out two other SFU-connected authors, Renée Sarojini Saklikar for her debut collection children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections, and Russell Thornton for Birds, Metals, Stones and Rain. 

Other winners announced Saturday night included Ashley Little, who won two different categories for two different books — the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for the novel Anatomy of a Girl Gang, and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for her YA book The New Normal; Julie Morstad won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize for How To, which she both wrote and illustrated; and CBC broadcaster Grant Lawrence, received his second Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award for The Lonely End of the Rink: Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie. 

Also honoured at the gala was children’s author Kit Pearson, who accepted the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

Vaporize this

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EIC
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When I was young, my mother, frustrated with my fidgeting, always told me: “You need something new every now and then to play with!” Nowadays, as I grow up in this tech savvy world, the innocent statement made by mother seems truer than ever.

From inventing gadgets to making tequila drumsticks, humans have done it all. This time, our new obsession seems to be e-cigarettes. So what exactly is an e-cigarette? It’s basically a cigarette-shaped tube through which people can inhale evaporated liquid nicotine as smoke to simulate smoking a regular tobacco cigarette. The draw is that there’s less nicotine and other chemicals than your average cigarette, and some e-cigarettes, or personal vaporizers (PVs), don’t use any at all, relying instead on flavoured vapor.

When I first heard about this invention, I was thrilled — after all, I have more than a few friends whom I’ve been pushing to quit smoking. However, as I later realized, there’s more to this story than meets the eye. In 2013, the World Health Organization released a statement saying that e-cigarettes should not be used as an alternative to quit smoking until they have been proved to be safe and beneficial in the process.

The Canadian Cancer Society reaffirms this opinion, as their research done on 13 e-cigarette products dictates that nine of these had “abnormalities” which could be potentially harmful to users. On top of that, of all the e-cigarette brands surveyed which claimed to be “nicotine-free,” two thirds were proven to contain traces of nicotine and other harmful chemicals.

There’s also the question of the toxicity of e-cigarettes. Though not much has been proven in regards to the danger of smoking these tubes, liquid nitrogen can be very dangerous when ingested or absorbed through the skin. The number of calls to poison control centres with complaints of e-cigarette poisoning — usually of young children — has risen steadily every month between September 2010 and February 2014.

To be fair, many people claim to have quit smoking as a result of this alternative, which is much cheaper than regular cigarettes and doesn’t contain tobacco, tar, carbon monoxide, or any of the other dangerous chemicals that we’re used to hearing about in PSAs. For example, an article in the Ottawa Sun talks about a 25 year pack-a-day smoker who switched from smoking to “vaping” with e-cigarettes and, seeing his wallet fuller and his health improved, “never looked back.”
The real question, then, is this: do the pros outweigh the cons?

The normalization of e-cigarettes could easily become a stepping stone to the real thing.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of US high school students who’ve tried vaping doubled from 2011 to 2012. Angela Webb, a senior public policy advisor for the Canadian Cancer Society in Alberta, spoke to The Calgary Herald about the dangers of vapour, saying, “Even if they are approved as a cessation device, e-cigarettes still normalize smoking. The big concern is they undermine smoking bans.” One might consider that the normalization of e-cigarettes could easily become a stepping stone to the real thing.

Given that there’s little to no regulation on the production and taxation of e-cigarettes, we still don’t really know what the dangers are, which is pretty scary. The e-cigarette industry, still in its infancy, also benefits from a lack of rules and regulations regarding the use of e-cigarettes in public places. Canada’s ban on smoking in public places applies only to cigarettes containing tobacco, and so far, electronic cigarettes do not fall under that category.

Lack of research regarding this matter leaves us with no choice but to rely on public opinion, which is split: one side argues that smoking an electronic cigarette in a restaurant, for example, is perfectly harmless as it does not contain tobacco, whereas the other side argues that e-cigarette users inhale vapours which sometimes contains nicotine — not exactly a part of a healthy atmosphere.

The world is a scary place. An electronic cigarette — which, according to manufacturers, is completely harmless — could easily be hijacked by the tobacco industry, putting the young adults of tomorrow in a difficult situation. If there are no laws in place regulating the use of electronic cigarettes, it’s hard to imagine what will happen if these products start being circulated with tobacco.

Of course, I may be biased. A part of me becomes immensely sad every single time one of my best friends pulls out a cigarette, and to their credit, I think electronic cigarettes are a significant invention when it comes to those who are desperately trying to quit smoking. However, the lack of adequate research conducted, plus the fact that this product is readily available in the market to all age groups, is more than a little unnerving.

When I was a child, I once tried to copy an actor I saw in a Bollywood movie — I mimicked his actions by pretending to blow smoke in the air with a pencil. I got a glare from my mother, which made sure that I never even touched a pencil with that intention again, let alone a cigarette.

This is the point I’m trying to make. If we’re saying that vaping is okay, is it unreasonable to suggest that young people might decide to try an actual cigarette? For a country that has cancer as its leading cause of death, we ought to be a lot more careful about what we’re introducing our children to, and what regulations are being placed on such products.

Words can move us in many ways

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CMYK-Kaitlin Williams, Mother Tongue 1449 cred Tim Matheson (7x8)

Described as “poetic movement performed by actors, dancers and musicians,” Wild Excursions Performance’s new show transforms poetry into physical theatre. “It’s kind of like adapting one marginalized, ignored, misunderstood art form to another,” laughed artistic director Conrad Alexandrowicz. 

The concept for this show came about a few years ago when Alexandrowicz had the idea to work with poetry to create movement theatre. “I’m a fan of Lorna Crozier’s poetry. I contacted her and she said there’s a deadline for a SSHRC grant,” said Alexandrowicz. The two began working to secure the grant funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and were successful; along the way more collaborators became involved in the project including another poet, Erin Mouré. “There’s a tremendous amount of untapped material in poetry,” said Alexandrowicz.

Six actors and two dancers make up the cast and the two disciplines work well together: “The dancers are talented improvisers who made up a lot of the movement material,” while “the actors are good at moving text around and editing things,” explained Alexandrowicz. Being open to collaborating with the performers is also an important part of the creative process. “I’m open to all kinds of ideas. If I weren’t I’d be a fool,” he said. 

The show’s music features violin, percussion and a recording of electronic music. Alexandrowicz explained that he has to have the basis of show in place before he can bring in the musical element: “I have to get something sketched out first then bring them in. You have to find room for the music and be careful about the volume.” 

“There’s a tremendous amount of untapped material in poetry.” – Conrad Alexandrowicz, artistic director

Being an interdisciplinary show and working with poetic text, there are some differences for the actors: the language can be very different than what they’re used to and “there is no stable character-actor relationship,” said Alexandrowicz. Their roles are changing within the text so quickly and sketched in the moment. “Sometimes I wish they could take the text in pill form,” he said, explaining that it’s hard to do movement work when holding a script.

The poets were also involved in the creative process and provided their feedback and suggestions to Alexandrowicz who took them into consideration when working on the show. Mouré acted as a sort of dramaturge to make sure that her poem dealing with ethnic conflict between Ukrainians and Poles was interpreted in a suitable way. 

Alexandrowicz said there are so many performance possibilities with poetry and the way it can be interpreted into a dramatic utterance of the text. “You have to open yourself up to a whole new use of language and movement,” he said. There are many universal themes such as love and the importance of family that people can relate to, and the words have plenty of emotional impact. “There’s language in there that I just adore,” said Alexandrowicz. Full of dance, theatre, poetry, and music Mother Tongue will appeal to fans of all artistic disciplines.  

Mother Tongue will be presented by Wild Excursions Performance at the Scotiabank Dance Centre from May 14 to 18. For more information, visit wildexcursions.ca.

The 4 Types of Professors You’ll Meet at University

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Written by Dr. Thomas McKinley, SFU Professor

 

There are a few things you can count on when it comes to your university experience. You’re going to take classes, you’re going to make friends, and of course you’re going to meet some professors. Now, I hate to promote stereotypes but unfortunately when it comes to profs at SFU you can pretty much boil them down to four categories. Of course, generally they aren’t going to be just one type but a combination. Some might even fall into all four categories. Anyway, here are the four types of professors you’ll probably meet during your college years, especially if you take my class (Business Administration 201!!!).

 

1. The “Chill” Professor

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Oh man, this guy is great. He’s the kind of prof who’ll just be really cool and chill all the time. You know, the type who will crack a few jokes about, I don’t know, buisness administration, and everyone will think it’s real funny and want to hang out with him. It’s always a great time with this professor and you’ll just love him.

2. The “Super-Cool” Professor

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Believe it or not, the “super-cool” professor really exists. He’s the dude you’ll take a class with and just think the whole time “Wow, I can’t believe Dr. McKinley (or whatever his name is) could really be a professor, he’s so hip and into all the same music as me.” Definitely, do not miss an opportunity to take a class with this type of prof, or get a beer with him after class at the pub at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.

3. The “Sexy” Professor

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Ah, the “sexy” prof, always a campus favourite. Whether you’re a guy or a girl, gay or straight, you’ll want to take his class just to get a look at him in some of his cool tweed pants. Not only is this type of prof fashionable and extremely attractive, he’s also pretty funny too and can make jokes about anything, even business administration, and actually be funny!

4. The “Too Interesting, Informative and Also Gorgeous” Professor

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Hey, did you really think they would all be positive? Well, sorry, at university you’re going to meet a few profs who are just so downright good at their jobs that it’s annoying. Seriously, give yourself a week in this guy’s class and you’ll want to be his friend so bad you’ll just want to die. If you want to fall madly in love with a prof to the point where you spend all lecture writing “Mrs. Thomas McKinley” inside hearts, be my guest, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

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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