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It’s the drink that did it

By
EIC
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Caffeine can intoxicate you as much as alcohol or drugs

By Kristina Charania
Photos by Simon le Nippon

As November fades into December, we will officially be entering the final stretch of our semester-long university derby. Sleep Deprivation is already sneaking up along the left-hand track and approaching our frontrunners: No Social Life, Get Good Grades, and crowd favourite Where The Hell Is My Beer-Battered Christmas Chicken.

For SFU insomniacs, caffeine is integral to surviving the last furlong of exam month — students chug Monster energy drinks and five-hour shots Monday through Friday as if possessed by a particularly cruel demon. So naturally, caffeine addiction is a silly fear within the world of academics, because seriously, no caffeine? How adorably naive! Caffeine intoxication sounds like a foreign concept out of a dusty textbook.

This is serious business, though. According to a recent CBC News article, 25-year-old Jyong Chul Lee threatened his residence advisor in September while eating at a school cafeteria. He was consequentially charged with mischief and criminal harassment, removed from Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, and deported back to Korea. Interestingly, Lee’s behaviour was not attributed to the depression or anxiety normally associated with university studies. His lawyer instead suggested that Lee acted out of character due to the caffeine stupor created by consuming several energy drinks. Even graver cases exist: Woody Will Smith in Kentucky murdered his own wife by strangling her with an extension cord after getting hopped up on coffee, energy drinks and caffeine pills.[pullquote]guarana is an additional source of caffeine that may add a potential 20 to 30 milligrams to an energy drink without being included on the label’s caffeine count.[/pullquote]

If you’d prefer to make it past Dec. 16 with you and your loved ones alive and well, soak up the following advice like a sponge.

The current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — psychology peeps will recognize this as the DSM-IV-TR — states that caffeine intoxication is a valid disorder with side effects including restlessness, insomnia, muscle twitching, rambling speech, and disrupted heartbeat. Individuals with a family history of heart conditions or disorders that weaken the blood vessels should refrain from caffeine consumption entirely, because the stimulants could present further bodily consequence to the user, including unexpected death.

Normally, the ingestion of a sum of caffeine equivalent to 80 to 100 cups of coffee will result in an adult’s death, and 500 milligrams of caffeine in the body will qualify you as caffeine intoxicated. While an energy drink won’t exactly kill your regular student, these beverages are technically dietary supplements that aren’t regulated by the FDA like a food product would be — they can contain much more caffeine than listed on their packaging and still be sold to the public. For example, guarana is an additional source of caffeine that may add a potential 20 to 30 milligrams to an energy drink without being included on the label’s caffeine count. Surprise!

Because of this ambiguity, it’s best for study die-hards to stick to one or two coffees or a single energy drink a day in order to stay below the 500 milligram intoxication threshold. Popping back an extra Rockstar or caffeine pill is quick and seems harmless until side-effects like long-term caffeine addiction become detrimental to your mental processes. Lee and our Kentucky killer could tell you as much.

If you are now wondering how the hell you’re supposed to stay awake through the misery of final papers, as you begin to doze off reading this last sentence, the answer is really simple: go the fuck to sleep.

Smashed and sincere

By
EIC
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0

Film about alcoholism breaks the addict film mould

By Sofia Gay, The Concordian

Montreal — From the story of doomed lovers with a penchant for heroin, (think Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish in Candy) to biopics of individuals who succumb to their addictions (Gia, Factory Girl), substance abuse is the subject that keeps on giving.

Depicted through countless filmmakers’ lenses, these films have a tendency to glamorize addiction by linking it to specific locations, or by making relationships seem more intense and passionate as a result of the use of drugs and alcohol.

This is why we’re lucky to have films like James Ponsoldt’s Smashed. The film removes the hazy lens of romanticism, and instead favours a clear, hard look at the struggle of alcoholism and sobriety.

Elementary school teacher Kate (played brilliantly by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is madly in love with her husband Charlie (portrayed by Aaron Paul, best known as Walter White’s sidekick on Breaking Bad). As much as they love each other, there is a third partner in their relationship: alcohol.

While Charlie is able to drink as much as he wants and still end up sleeping in his own bed, Kate winds up finding herself in different situations, each one more depressing and dangerous than the next. She boozes in her car, steals alcohol when the store clerk won’t sell it to her, and unceremoniously throws up in front of her class one morning. But it’s after smoking crack with a homeless prostitute after leaving the bar one night that she decides to get sober.

[pullquote]The strongest vein of Smashed is Winstead’s performance, which carries the entire film. While the other actors are equally entrenched in their characters, the script doesn’t fleshed them out as fully as Kate.[/pullquote]

Enter her colleague Dave, played by Parks and Recreation’s Nick Offerman, who takes her to an AA meeting. There she meets Jenny (Octavia Spencer, who is criminally underused in this film), and seems to be on her way to recovery. Yet Kate faces a roadblock in Charlie, who despises recovery programs. Their relationship begins to disintegrate as he stubbornly keeps drinking while she sulks at home, alone and sober. The turmoil eventually reaches a peak as Kate and Charlie have a tempestuous fight, and it’s both the most memorable and hair-raising moment in the film.

The strongest vein of Smashed is Winstead’s performance, which carries the entire film. While the other actors are equally entrenched in their characters, the script doesn’t fleshed them out as fully as Kate.

Visually, it’s stunning. Shots where Kate wakes up in parks and under bridges are, despite their starkness, beautiful. Ponsoldt gives a lot of camera time to faces, especially close-ups of Winstead, as if he were trying to use the camera as an x-ray machine to show us exactly what they are thinking.

There’s a reason why Smashed has turned heads (and picked up a Special Jury Prize at Sundance this year): there is a tangible sense of reality that permeates the film. Smashed excels at honestly portraying the stigma of alcoholism, and showing how resisting the urge to drink is only the first of the complications that being sober brings.

While an excellent film, its harshness leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, not unlike that of the whiskey Kate favours. But sometimes doing something that feels difficult can be a good thing.

Personal information of nearly 300 Wilfrid Laurier students found online

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EIC
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WLU graduate finds info about 297 former students and their families

By Elizabeth Dicesare
Photos by Nick Lachance

WATERLOO (CUP) — While preparing to apply to Canada’s police forces, Bob Baumgartner, a Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) graduate, decided to do a Google search of himself, and found more than he expected.
After typing in his old e-mail address, Baumgartner found a list of 297 former WLU students that included their personal contact information, such as phone numbers, email addresses and home addresses for not only the students, but their parents as well.
“It was the only thing in the search that came up,” explained Baumgartner.
“I was a little concerned because not only did it have my information, but it had my parents’ information.”
“Both of my parents are Laurier alumni, they went there back in the day, and I told them that their contact information was being posted on the internet by Laurier and they weren’t too happy,” he added.
While Baumgartner shared this with his parents, he has yet to contact either the school or anyone else on the list that the Google search brought up.
However, he expressed his distress regarding the situation and emphasized the need for Laurier to take action.
“For me it was a bit concerning, because in today’s privacy age, to have [that information], it makes it easy to become victims of fraud,” he said.
“It’s a very serious privacy breach, so just having people’s information that easily accessible is something that concerns me, especially when our school claims to place our privacy in high regards.”
After racking his brain, Baumgartner still cannot recall any reason his name would be on that the list.
He told The Cord that he doesn’t remember joining any specific groups or taking part in any surveys conducted by Laurier that may have collected such extensive personal information.
“The school is all about privacy and our rights, so it’s just unfortunate that they made this mistake, and it impacts the 250-odd people that are on that list because it’s their information and their family’s information,” he said.
“It just points out how disappointing good old Laurier is being.”
When The Cord contacted Laurier’s Information Technology Services (ITS), Carl Langford, manager of identity management, e-mail and projects, said that he was not aware of the file being made public online.
He assured The Cord that the situation was being taken very seriously, as it is a problem not only for the school, but also for those students and their families involved.
Langford also stated that it was being looked into right away, and that the file was to be immediately removed when found.
In an e-mail to The Cord, Shereen Rowe, WLU’s privacy officer and university secretary, stated, “The university takes this incident very seriously and is working hard to understand how it happened and to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
As of press time, both the ITS department and WLU’s privacy office were looking into the situation.
These actions are how Baumgartner wanted Laurier to respond once they realized the issue at hand.
“I’m hoping they would apologize for that breach of trust and remove the information from the website right away, that would be a first step,” he said.

A relatively quiet week for job action at SFU

By
EIC
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0

No complete withdrawal of services occurred at any of the three campuses 

By Graham Cook
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee

It was a relatively quiet week for job action at all three of SFU’s campuses this week. No locations experienced a complete withdrawal of services since Wednesday, Nov. 7, when all three locations were picketed by both TSSU and CUPE.

However, various locations in the Academic Quadrangle at the Burnaby campus were picketed by TSSU members on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 13. The South side from room 5003 to 5017 was picketed from 8:00 a.m. until 9:20 a.m., the North side from 5017 to 5037 at 9:20 a.m. to 10:20 a.m., and the West side from 5039 to 5053 was picketed from 10:20 am to 11:20 a.m.

In addition, on Thursday, Nov. 15, TSSU members and supporters held a rally at the Burnaby campus to tell their employer, “We are the teachers, we are SFU, and we want a fair contract now,” according to a release from the organization. The event saw a number of attendees, some wielding megaphones and drums.

SFU vice president, academic Jon Driver, attended the rally to converse with the protesters and was met with responses of, “Engage with us, SFU. Engage with us.” One protestor said, “let’s get back to the table with actual intent to resolve a fair contract now,” to which Driver replied, “we cannot do this until we are at the table, we are willing to come back . . . the only way we do this is at the table.”

Another protestor responded to this remark, “the only way we do this is if you pay attention to what we are saying,” while one of their colleagues added, “and that takes pressure, exactly what we’re doing right now.”

A promise was then made by a TSSU member that he is “going to be here over and over again, getting more and more people here every single time until you guys sit down and listen to us and bargain in seriousness. It is just going to get bigger.” Further exclamations of, “you’re entirely ignoring everything we are saying,” and “why do you guys act surprised after two-and-a-half years that it has come to this?” were made by protestors. The impromptu meeting was broken up when one of the attendees alerted the others that the samosas were ready.

CUPE Local 3338 did not engage in any action this week, a sharp contrast to past weeks. This decision comes while student opinions on CUPE and TSSU’s job action seem to be split. SFU’s official Facebook page has been bombarded by posts arguing for both sides in the labour dispute. The administration has a standing policy of not discussing details of bargaining away from the bargaining table.

The bargaining processes at other universities in BC have proven more fruitful than those at SFU. UBC settled with CUPE 2950, representing over 1,500 full-time, part-time, sessional, and temporary employees, on Oct. 10. Two other UBC locals, CUPE 116, which represents many support staff, and CUPE 2278, which includes teaching assistants, markers, tutors, and instructors settled on Oct. 22 and Nov. 7, respectively. Elsewhere, Thompson Rivers University settled with CUPE 4879 on Oct. 23, UNBC reached an agreement with CUPE 3799 on Oct. 24, Royal Roads University settled with CUPE 3886 on Oct. 29, and UVic came to an agreement with CUPE 4163 on Nov. 2.

American marijuana legalization raises questions for BC

By
EIC
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Washington’s decriminalization has strengthened the cry to do the same here

By Alison Roach
Photos by Torben Bjørn Hansen

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, both the states of Colorado and Washington passed ballots legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, raising interest from advocates about the possible impact of the decision here in British Columbia. Some 55 per cent of voters in Washington approved Initiative 502, legalizing the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana by anyone over the age of 21. The question of legalization of marijuana has been a longstanding dispute in our own province, and this change in policy down south has strengthened the cry for similar action here in Canada.

Prime minister Stephen Harper’s reaction to the news was discouraging for proponents of legalization; when asked for a comment by reporters in Bangalore on the recent move towards decriminalization in Washington and Colorado, Harper replied, “I won’t speculate about what it means south of the border. But the Government of Canada has no intention of opening the issue here.” BC premier Christy Clark has also stated that she does not support legalization, and believes it to be a federal matter.

One of the leaders of the decriminalization movement here in British Columbia is Sensible BC, a campaign that calls for decriminalization through the Sensible Policing Act, which would redirect all BC police forces from using time, money, and resources in simple cannabis possession cases. Sensible BC’s slogan states “Decriminalize Cannabis; For a Safer Province.” Sensible BC leader Dana Larsen commends Washington state’s decision, and was quoted by CBC News as saying, “We need to follow the example put forward by Washington state to end prohibition, to legalize it.”

The Peak spoke with the director of the SFU School of Criminology, Dr. Robert Gordon, about his opinions on the referendums. He commented, “It’s a fairly significant step in many ways for North America, and . . . it’s kind of ironic that we’ve always said the reason that we don’t have liberal marijuana laws is because of the US, the fear of the repercussions. Seems that we got that one wrong.” Gordon was also quick to assert that the change in Washington isn’t legalization or decriminalization per se, but a new regime of regulation and taxation.

Gordon also said he believes the referendum has put more pressure for the same action here in BC, but it will be somewhat contingent on what happens in Washington over the coming months. Gordon said, “People will realize that the sky doesn’t fall, we’re not going to be stumbling across the bodies of thousands of addicted marijuana users.”

As for a possible immediate effect on BC, Gordon said he thinks that we won’t feel an economic effect, since marijuana is not a recognized export, but there will be changes to the way illegal product moves. He pointed to the possibilities of local growers picking up the holes left in the Washington market and possibly moving to the state, setting off a reverse-smuggling trend, as well as disruption to the north-flowing products comprised mainly of cocaine and firearms that are part of the trade.

Overall, Gordon said a similar action wouldn’t be an enormous change for our province. He affirmed that there wouldn’t be much difference to our population’s habits of marijuana use, concluding, “If you’re doing it you’re going to do it, and you’re going to continue to do it; it just won’t be as exciting.” To pass their referendum, Sensible BC will have to gather signatures from at least 10 per cent of registered voters in every one of BC’s 85 ridings by September 2014. Sensible BC plans to start collecting signatures in the fall of 2013.

Gordon noted, “The current polling would suggest that there’s support for a taxation and regulatory system, and as long as there can be guarantees about keeping it out of the hands of kids, and as long as there’s some concrete indication that this is a good revenue source for government, and you don’t need as many police officers chasing phantoms around the bush . . . then people will be inclined to vote for it. I mean really, it is pretty ridiculous. It is. I mean, I use caffeine and alcohol, but I look at this and think: this is daft.”

Catfield: Tuesdays

By
EIC
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By Gary Lim

UniverCity plans first “living neighbourhood”

By
EIC
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The Living Building Childcare Centre has led to an even loftier sustainability initiative

By Alison Roach

The SFU Community Trust has announced plans for the world’s first “living neighbourhood,” to be located on Burnaby Mountain as a part of UniverCity. The plan builds on the success of UniverCity’s Living Building Childcare Centre, which recently won the “most sustainable” award in the Urban Development Institute 2012 Awards for Excellence. The building’s highest goal however is to qualify for Living Building Challenge certification, the loftiest sustainability standard in the world.
The challenge was developed by the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), a non-governmental organization whose website states they have “helped to redefine the green building movement, substantially raising the bar for true sustainability.” The Living Building Challenge focuses on seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. The Childcare Centre has just now gone into the process of certification, and will be monitored for a year to see if it can live up to these standards.
One unexpected achievement of the building was its cost effectiveness. While most sustainable buildings end up costing between 30–40 per cent more than their cheaper, more impactful counterparts, this was not the case with the Childcare Centre. SFU Community Trust Director of Development Dale Mikkelsen explained, “Through planning this at the start and picking really simple, elegant materials and hiring an architect that understood how to do a really clean, simple building design, we were able to make the building itself so efficient that we need a very small mechanical system to run the building.”
Because of the simplicity of its design, the building costs the same as — or even a bit less than — the average childcare facility in the Lower Mainland. This cost-effectiveness caught the eye of the ILFI, who have done quite a bit of press on the building. A third party, the Summit Foundation, had been looking for a community that could possible expand the idea of a living building to a neighbourhood scale, and after a recommendation from the ILFI, they elected to give $50,000 to go towards the building of a “living neighbourhood” at SFU.
Along with $30,000 that the SFU Community Trust had already budgeted, the money will go towards design work for the neighbourhood. With this money, in 6–8 months the Community Trust should have a conceptual design and amassing model of how the neighbourhood would look. Once the conceptual work is done, the project will be taken to public open houses for community feedback. Said Mikkelson, “Hopefully everybody gets behind the idea, and then we can put our next budget of actual design money into it.” A community consultation process would also go ahead, with open houses within the UniverCity community as well as with SFU students. This consultation process will take about a year. From there, the project would go to rezoning, and then building.
The project has been termed “phase five” of the Community Trust’s development plan. The SFU Official Community Plan allows for a total of 4,365 units to be built on Burnaby Mountain, and after the four prior phases have been completed, there will be 1,500 units still available to build. The Community Trust intends to put all of these units into the living neighbourhood. With current zoning restrictions, the units will most likely be lower density, standing at 3–5 stories tall. There is currently huge demand from current and prospective residents with expanding families for larger units, so the neighbourhood will most likely be a mixture of more spacious townhouses and condos.
It’s uncertain exactly where the living neighbourhood would be situated on campus, but the Trust is looking at the land below South Campus Rd., across from the TASC buildings, as the most viable candidate. The project also includes a partnership with the ILFI itself, whose design group will be working along with the Community Trust on the design concept. Since community building at SFU has largely been done by the same committee in the past, Mikkelson said he relishes the chance to work with these fresh sets of eyes.

Job action update

By
EIC
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0

CUPE and TSSU withdraw services from all three campuses
By Graham Cook

 

Job action at Simon Fraser University has continued this week, as the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3338 and the Teaching Support Staff Union attempt to reach a collective bargaining agreement with the University.

The biggest example of this was the complete withdrawal of services from all three SFU campuses by both the CUPE Local and the TSSU on Wednesday, Nov. 7. The move was one of the most major from the TSSU since their positive strike vote last summer, and led to hundreds of classes being cancelled.

Remarks made on SFU’s official Facebook page regarding last Wednesday’s picket lines were generally conflicting. Laura Anderson commented, “Please come to an agreement soon. Having principles is hurting me academically despite your general policy.” Others were not as interested in pleading, such as David Shen, who identified himself as a “Reaserch [sic] Associate” at Alectos Therapeutic and an SFU Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics graduate, posted on the page (edited for numerous typos), “I don’t even work at SFU, it is just nonsense to block the people who work at Discovery Park. If CUPE does it again, I will do it A Team Style . . . the bottom line is they can set themselves on fire or just play guitar on the grass, but no one should block the public road and parking lot that belongs to the students and the people who work . . . up there or people who live up there. It just makes the public angry.”

CUPE Local 3338’s business agent John Bannister also commented on the action to The Peak, stating, “We thought it went very well. Us and TSSU were out there in force, and a lot of people either stayed away or respected our picket lines.” On the issue of whether or not students are supporting their actions, Bannister said, “I think some are, some obviously are not. I think maybe some of it is they don’t understand the issues and I’m sure final exams are something that is more pressing on their mind.”

One incident that came to light was a video uploaded to YouTube on Thursday ,Nov. 8 under the account “SFUScabFinder,” showing SFU Senior Lecturer Anthony Leyland allegedly attempting to park his car in a parking lot being picketed. In the video, an altercation ensues as Leyland requests to pass through and not to be filmed; both requests were denied. Comments on the original video, which has since been removed, alleged that TSSU spokesperson Derek Sahota was the one who uploaded the video.

However, Sahota spoke to The Peak and, while he confirmed that he was the one filming the altercation, he was not the one who uploaded it onto the Internet. He claimed that he had left his camera behind, and someone else took it upon himself or herself to put it onto YouTube.  Sahota added that “We think that overall the day went . . . well, in terms of not having any serious injuries or anything.” He also stated that he could, “confirm that there was one police report filed with someone who was hit early in the morning at B Lot, and there was a second police report filed on an incident later, and there was one paramedic called as well.”

An open letter signed by SFU faculty members also circulated around the SFU community. The document stated their solidarity with the TSSU and CUPE in “their struggle for better working conditions.” Over 60 professors and lecturers from a variety of departments at the university signed it.

Laying blame for CUPE’s job action

By
EIC
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6


Reasons for job action more convoluted and relevant to students than one might think

By Eric Onderwater
Photos by Mark Burnham

On Thursday, Nov. 1, the Burnaby SFU campus awoke to the unpleasant reality of another CUPE job action. Members of the CUPE Local 3338 were out in force, picketing in front of the library and handing out literature to people passing by.

To most students and professors, this job action is extremely annoying. Students are hard at work as they head into the final stretch of the semester in November. Most students have the bulk of their schoolwork due this month after which the specter of final exam season looms.
Who’s at fault for this?

The administration deserves blame right off the top. CUPE workers have been without a collective agreement since March 2010. The administration greatly benefits by not signing another agreement. With no agreement, the two parties operate under the parameters of the former agreement. The administration is then not obligated to raise wages or increase benefits, which would undoubtedly rise under a new agreement, even if only to account for inflation. The CUPE workers are hardly overpaid, and haven’t had a raise since 2009. The administration has been playing a nefarious game by refusing to seriously negotiate.

Things get deeper and more convoluted, and the union deserves blame as well. The main negotiating difficulty is the pension plan. The administration has known for some time that the university pension plan is deeply broken, and in need of serious remedial action.

How broken is the SFU employee pension? The numbers indicate very broken. In 2010, the unfunded liability was estimated at $64 million dollars. That is the gap between what the university and the pension assets can pay, and what the pension system will owe to retirees. In 1991 the university paid $3 million dollars a year to sustain the pension plan. Twenty years later it paid $15 million; such substantial increases still aren’t enough.

The university wants the union to move towards a defined contribution plan, from its current defined benefit plan. Faculty are already on a defined contribution plan. The defined benefit plan is 100 per cent employer funded, while both the employer and the employee fund defined contribution. The employer guarantees the contributions, and the employee has input on where the money is invested. The defined benefit plan guarantees a benefit to the employee, while requiring no input or contribution from the employee. The union ardently wants to maintain the defined benefit plan.

Should the university pony up the money to keep the pension plan going? Should the university spend $64 million dollars to ensure that the CUPE employees retire in comfort and security? Or should the CUPE employees make some sacrifices to help fund their pension?

I am highly critical of the union on this issue. We live in an age when few of us students will ever enjoy a pension. Most of us will work our entire lives in the private sector without ever dreaming of a pension. Worse, most of us will pay higher tuition fees than ever, just to get an opportunity to earn a half-decent living in today’s job market.
That $64 million will come out the tuition of students. It will mean fewer services for you and me. But worst of all, it will mean yet another drain of wealth from our generation to pay for the entitlements of previous generations.

To the CUPE Local 3338: I understand your frustration over the university’s refusal to seriously push for a collective agreement. But don’t ever tell me that you deserve your fancy, cushy pension plan. Get back to the negotiating table, take the defined contribution plan, please go back to work and let my generation try finish school. We need every advantage we can get.

Leyland Watch: November 13, 2012

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EIC
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0

Tony Leyland explains the biomechanics of him putting his foot up your ass. 

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society