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B.C. government believes “Hipster is not a real job”

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Liberals ad campaign confuses students and political opponents

By Emily Olesen

 

NANAIMO (CUP) — The B.C. government wants to be absolutely clear — “hipster” is not a real job.

A $15 million advertising campaign by the B.C. Liberals that includes running “Hipster is not a real job” ads is causing confusion among political adversaries and students alike. The ads are geared towards getting youth excited about pursuing a skilled trade and are currently running on Vancouver public transit.

Gwen O’Mahony, the NDP’s skills training critic, questions the judgment and ability of Premier Christy Clark to connect with B.C. youth.

“I’m quite confused by it. Obviously she [Premier Christy Clark] doesn’t have the groundwork . . . [to] get out there, talk to students directly, find out where they’re at, and make that a part of the investigative work of policy development,” she said. “Clearly this shows that she really hasn’t had a lot of time speaking with students.

“If she [had] even gone to one institution and asked them what they thought of the slogan — I’m sure that the students would have set her straight.”

Trades students at Vancouver Island University (VIU) were also confused by the Liberals’ new ad campaign.

“I don’t really understand the point that they’re trying to get across with the slogan. It doesn’t really make that much sense,” said Ryan Crowder, a VIU electrician student.

“To me, hipster is just a way of dressing; it’s just a style. It’s not a job or someone’s career choice. So to me, I’m not really seeing the message,” Erin said Cooper, a VIU hairdressing student.

O’Mahony and Michelle Mungall, the NDP advanced education critic, have been visiting B.C. campuses this fall to listen to the concerns of students and promote the NDP’s plan to improve access to learning opportunities.

“When I was traveling with Mungall we mainly were talking to students about their experiences and what’s on their minds, and affordability was the number one issue,” said O’Mahony.

She claimed that within five to 10 years, 80 per cent of all B.C. jobs will require a post secondary education, and that the B.C. government should be examining this statistic more seriously.

John Yap, the newly appointed Minister for Advanced Education, has stated that increasing skills training is his biggest priority.

“If I were to sum up the focus in the short-term, it is to ensure we have the facilities and programs to do trades training,” Yap told the Canadian University Press last month.

O’Mahoney, however, believes the Liberals are communicating the appeal of trades in the wrong way.

“You should never underestimate who you’re speaking to — people don’t like to be talked down to,” she said.

“I think just telling people this is how much you’ll get paid if you had a trade or education and this is what you’ll get paid if you don’t is enough.”

Canvas chosen to replace WebCT

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EIC
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Decision described as ‘bold’ by communication prof

 

By Graham Cook

 

Following a lengthy decision-making process, the IT Strategies Committee at Simon Fraser University has selected a new Learning Management System to replace WebCT. Canvas, an open source program, was approved by the Board of Governors and will be gradually introduced over the coming years, with a full transition planned for 2014.

In a message sent out to SFU students, vice-president academic, Jon Driver stated that he was “very pleased with the selection of Canvas, and emphasize[d] that community consultation has been at the core of the election process . . . the decision comprehensively reflects the input gathered from the entire SFU academic community.”

Martin Laba, a professor in communication at SFU and the leader of the consultation phase of the project, spoke to The Peak about the selection, saying that “the best way to put this is that Canvas rose above the competition.” He stated, “I don’t know of any students who have had thrilling experiences on WebCT, and it’s a system that is clearly past its prime, hence it’s disappearing . . . perhaps it was never used up to its potential.” Of Canvas, he said that “the key of this system is that it’s open source, it’s not locked down in any way . . . ultimately students are going to find this much more engaging.”

Laba went on to state that the program will be hosted entirely “in-house” at SFU. The IT department will provide the foundational support. He said that he feels those instructors who use WebCT or an alternative form of online teaching, or have never used a Learning Management System, will be inspired to use Canvas due to its simplicity and intuitiveness.

Martin Laba praised the new Canvas system for its form and function saying, “there is a look and feel and function about it that is not unlike social media . . . and students will be able to customize their experience as well.”  He added that others see things the same way, “when we ran tests, students and professors alike said . . . ‘this is very appealing, very easy to use,’ and were attracted to it.  So, I think we’re going to see a range of adoption . . . ultimately, I see this as infinitely more than a piece of technology.”

“It not only meets the standards but it exceeds those standards, it moves well beyond what we have known at this institution as a Learning Management System . . . I don’t see any disadvantages at all . . . it shows only advantages to teaching and learning and to course management and development,” said Laba of how Canvas compares to its predecessor.

He added that it has “everything from basic print materials, to multimedia integration, to mobile friendliness . . . those are key issues and I’ve emphasized all along, that a LMS has to meet students at least halfway on their own cultural ground, and that cultural ground is a digital ground.”

Laba concluded by emphasizing that he felt the choice of Canvas was a very bold one. With its ability to work on mobile phones and be customized by its users, he asserted that it will revolutionize the way people feel about Learning Management Systems at the school. Canvas will be rolled out on a gradual, voluntary basis, with the ultimate goal of having it fully implemented for January 2014.

SFU Surrey introduces new screenwriting workshop

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EIC
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The Praxis Centre’s mentors have helped create over 30 feature films

By David Kloepfer

The Praxis Centre has announced that it will introduce a new workshop, Introduction to Screenwriting: Surrey, as a place to start for those who have an idea for a film, or have already started a screenplay and need assistance.

Formed in 1987, the Praxis Centre at the SFU School for Contemporary Arts has helped aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers make their mark on the cinema landscape for the last 25 years. More than 30 feature films have been made from scripts that received guidance from Praxis’s experienced mentors.

Students enrolled in the five-week Introduction to Screenwriting course can expect to develop skills in structuring story, developing character and dialogue, and properly formatting a screenplay. Students will also receive tips on getting their work produced and learn how to develop a script beyond the Hollywood model. With a class capacity limited to 15, and a focus on constructively receiving and offering criticism, students are hoped to ingrain some valuable skills into their screenwriting habit.

The course, offered on Tuesday evenings at SFU’s Surrey Campus from Oct. 23 to Nov. 27, will be lead by screenwriter Belle Mott, whose feature Pink Ludoos was produced by Brightlight Pictures for Citytv.  The film, set in an Indo-Canadian community, won the Best Canadian Feature award at the Reel World International Film Festival in Toronto.  A current Mott script, Dowry Kings, is being developed by Submission Films.

Praxis Centre Director Patricia Gruben is excited by the “distinctive cultural differences in storytelling styles” brought to the Praxis Centre by filmmakers like Belle Mott and Anjum Rajabali, a well-regarded Indian screenwriter whom Praxis featured in a series of screenings and talks last spring.

“We’ve found Belle Mott to teach a course that will be for everybody, but is sensitive to the distinctive cultural differences in storytelling styles,” said Gruben. “This is valuable even for people who aren’t particularly writing for an international audience, because it makes us look at stories from a different angle, not just slavishly following the Hollywood formula that’s been described in so many books and seminars.”

Patricia Gruben herself is an accomplished Canadian filmmaker whose work has been screened at Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival, among many other notable festivals.  She has written and directed two feature films:  Low Visibility and Deep Sleep.

In addition to her duties as the director of Praxis, Gruben directs SFU’s field school in Contemporary Art & Culture of India, and is an associate professor of film at SFU.

The Praxis Centre also runs a yearly Feature Screenplay Competition judged by eight accomplished filmmakers. The prize is entrance into a small and intensive fall writing workshop where successful competitors are paired with veteran screenwriters who will assist in the revision and development of a polished draft.

Telefilm Canada, Movie Central, and the Writer’s Guild of Canada, among other supporters, sponsor the Praxis Centre. The Centre plans to hold another event at Harbour Centre, produced in partnership with the Writer’s Guild of Canada.

Faculty of Education establishes Office of Indigenous Education

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EIC
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Alumnus and Squamish Nation member Ron Johnston appointed director 

By Alison Roach

The SFU Faculty of Education has established an Office of Indigenous Education to continue its commitment to an integrated Aboriginal viewpoint in its programs. The office will work to find new ways to support Aboriginal students in the education system and establish strong relationships with the B.C.’s indigenous community. Ron Johnston has been appointed the office’s director.

A member of the Squamish Nation himself, Johnston is an SFU alumnus, graduating with a joint major in sociology and anthropology in 2000. Since then, Johnston has worked as an apprenticeship counsellor with the provincial government, the director of Aboriginal Education and Services at Vancouver Community College, and an education advisor at Aboriginal Affairs Canada. Johnston says that his previous experience will help greatly in this new position, he said, “I think everything is sort of interconnected in one way or another . . . my work at VCC and at Aboriginal Affairs was very much in alignment with this job.”

Through these previous experiences, Johnston comes back to SFU with a large network of established contacts within the Aboriginal community, and the attitude that community engagement is of the utmost importance. The first step of the office is to gather an advisory committee comprised of various faculty representatives. They will work with Johnston to develop an indigenous framework and improve Aboriginal education services. Johnston said, “We will develop a strategic action plan to help us focus on key goals and objectives and establish outcomes.” For example, faculty members may choose to focus on K-12 and post-secondary Aboriginal student retention and success, or developing strong bonds with Aboriginal communities.

The need for work like this is apparent in some of the statistics that Johnston brings up, such as the fact that in the K-12 system, only 54 per cent of Aboriginal children graduate.  “As an education and a member of Canadian society, it’s quite discouraging. I think we have a collective responsibility to work to increase those numbers.” said Johnston. He points to socio-economic considerations as one of the variables that come into play with success in education. “You’re not thinking about education when you’re worried about where you’re going to get your next meal, you go into survival mode,” said Johnston. “I’m not suggesting that all aboriginal people are in that situation, but a number . . . are marginalized in our society.” There is also a problem of difference of perspectives: while aboriginal perspectives tend to be holistic and very broad in scope, our education is more based on a European silo-type view.

Fortunately, the statistics of education completion among Aboriginal students have been improving, and Johnston has seen a trend of more Aboriginal people pursing a post-secondary education. As an alumnus, Johnston claims that he already has an understanding of the university and faculty. “I’m a firm believer of education as a change agent,” said Johnston.

New B.C. advanced education minister to focus on trades not tuition

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EIC
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John Yap aims to ensure that more trades training is available at post-secondary institutions

By Micki Cowan

VANCOUVER (CUP) – B.C. has a new captain at the helm of the ministry of advanced education.

John Yap, who is also the minister for multiculturalism, took over the advanced education portfolio in early September as part of a major cabinet shuffle by premier Christy Clark. He replaced Naomi Yamamoto, who had held the position since March 2011.

In an interview with the Canadian University Press, Yap made it clear that he is intent on ensuring that more trades training is available at post-secondary institutions.

“If I were to sum up the focus in the short-term, it is to ensure we have the facilities and programs to do trades training.”

This aligns with the Liberal government’s promise to prioritize job creation. Yap said there should be about a million job openings in B.C. in the next 10 years, with 43 per cent of them requiring some trades training. Beefing up trades training programs and facilities now will help to prepare the workforce for those jobs.

“It’s important we offer British Columbians the opportunity to fill those positions and encourage those that are in school and thinking about career options that they consider, if it’s right for them, a career that is well paying and rewarding, in the trades.”

His plans are already underway. This week he announced that $29.2 million will go towards two new trades buildings at Camosun College. One building will focus on marine and metal trades, while the other will be for mechanical trades.

The portfolio he is taking over saw $70 million in cuts over three years in the last budget and was the only major sector to see an overall funding reduction. Yamamoto, his predecessor, also came under attack earlier this year for a confidential email from a reporter that leaked from her ministry to a Liberal donor.

Yap, however, said that he has confidence in B.C.’s higher education system.

“I am myself a product of a university here in B.C. I [got] a degree in science and then a Master’s in business administration, which helped me appreciate the immense value of a post-secondary education, because it prepared me for work life.”

When asked about the province’s increasing dependency on tuition to fund post-secondary institutions, he said that now is not the time to reduce dependency considering the economy. B.C. is increasing its dependency on tuition at the fastest rate of any province in Canada.

And as for other tenets of affordability — in trades or otherwise — Yap thinks the current system is affordable enough, so long as the tuition cap of two per cent remains in place.

“We’re confident that with the caps on tuition fee increases and the supports that are provided by student aid programs, whether it’s bursaries or grants or student loans or scholarships — we’re making our system of colleges and universities accessible for British Columbians.”

Despite criticisms of the increasing cost of higher education in B.C., Yap defended the province’s schools that two of his children went through.

“Millions of dollars have been put into supporting our colleges and universities to prepare our students,” he said. “It’s a great college and university system, and I’m looking forward to working with the many people who make it work so well.”

Clan volleyball team loses to tough opponents

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EIC
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The Clan can’t buy a win, fall to 1–7

By Bryan Scott
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee

Simon Fraser’s women’s volleyball team continued to struggle this past week. They met the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders and the Western Oregon Wolves, who both proved to be too much for the Clan. Both teams defeated the Clan three sets to one.

They battled the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders first. The Clan battled hard in the first set, taking it 25–19. That was the only set they won all night. The Crusaders must have woken up after the first game loss, because they dominated the last three sets of the match, 25–12, 25–18 and 25–14. Despite the loss, Clan head coach Lisa Sulatycki had a positive outlook. “There were a lot of good rallies and we gained valuable experience in this game. They play a unique style and our players did a good job adjusting to that.” Katie Forsythe was a force for the Clan leading the team with 11 kills in the match.

Things did not get easier from there. The Western Oregon Wolves are first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Once again, the Clan came out on fire in the first set. They started the game on a 7–2 run, and managed to hang on to win the first set, 26–24. The Wolves won the next three sets, 25–21, 25–13, and 25–19.

With these losses, the Clan are 2–9 overall, and a miserable 0–5 in conference play. The Clan will have to work on their consistency if they expect to do better in the rest of the season.

Facing up to the status quo

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EIC
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Refusing to participate in social conventions today could help you save face in the future

By Devyn Lewis
Photos by Ben Buckley

So here’s the thing: I’m not on Facebook.

Call me anti-social, call me crazy, or call me eccentric, but I have to say that Facebook really creeps me out.
Okay, so I used to be on Facebook, I’ll admit it, but since then I have sobered up to my own beliefs, realizing that Facebooking just really isn’t my style. Why the big deal about Facebook, you ask?

Maybe it’s because I am a private person and I just don’t wish to disclose any part of myself to hundreds of Facebook friends (okay, so I never had that many “friends”). Or perhaps I just don’t want all my personal information to be archived in a gigantic Facebook database (that’s for the government to do). And maybe I just feel really irked by the fact that in June, Facebook acquired an Israeli company called face.com, a program that would enable face recognition technology on their website.

So if you haven’t already guessed, in addition to being labelled eccentric, I have also been labelled a conspiracy theorist. However, the sources for surveillance technology often comes from mainstream media, such as the story about face.com, which was published in June of 2012, in The New York Times. But what we really need to ask ourselves is this: what does the biggest social media company in the world want with a facial recognition surveillance technology, if not to further encrypt the already intricately organized data from their website?
Now, this is the part where my critical political science eye comes in. Surveillance tools have always been a part of totalitarian societies, and are paramount to its function and cohesiveness for control. A watched population is an obedient population (and are well-behaved, even if they only think they are being watched), and governments of totalitarian regimes have always implemented these controls in order to subdue a potential unruly population. In today’s modern western societies, surveillance measures that give the government more power are left over elements from those long dead regimes. However, with the advanced technology that we have today, surveillance has become much easier, and not only that, but with digital computerized networks, the populace now post and collect data on themselves.

Now, I’m not saying that Zuckerberg, or any of the other shareholders to Facebook, are an icon of big brother or anything. In fact, if there is a big brother, he has become faceless and drowned in the infinite bits of data that ceaselessly flow through the internet stream. The reality is, that as opposed to the old totalitarian regimes, the amount of data that is available today is physically impossible for any single person to watch over, or even a single government bureaucracy to handle. But the information is continuously being massively digitally organized, and is still there if anybody wants to use it.

So call it paranoia, or whatever you want, I still think it’s the most rational thing that I have ever done. In the meantime, I will continue to be as faceless as possible.

SFU unable to keep hockey title

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EIC
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UBC knocks off  SFU,take grudge matches

By Bryan Scott
Photos by Vaikunthe Banerjee


The Simon Fraser Men’s hockey team failed to repeat as the winners of the University Hockey Challenge last weekend. The challenge consisted of two games between rivals UBC and SFU. Each team had one home game.
The first game was indicative of last years bought which saw SFU winning in a tie-breaking shootout in the second game. Unfortunately, SFU lost 4–3 with 2:24 remaining in the overtime period at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre.
SFU competes in a different league than UBC, which became apparent in the next game at Bill Copeland Arena. UBC destroyed SFU 8–0 to sweep the series and the 2012 title.

Letters to the Editor, Oct. 1st

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Engage this

Dear editor,

I am writing to you because I feel that the majority of undergraduate students are not aware of the ramifications of Build SFU and its affiliated projects. Earlier this year, the SFSS called a referendum, and 1,193 students voted in favour of (and 1,003 against) a proposal to build a $65 million addition to Simon Fraser’s main campus. The winning margin was slim, and the question was confusing. It included the approval of an additional student fee that would go towards building new student space on campus, including a Student Union Building and a new football stadium.

What is wrong with this picture? Well, ideally, SFU would be responsible for the construction of new sports facilities, not students. Let’s consider funding models of other Canadian stadiums.

The Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba is currently under construction thanks to a combination of private funds and $40 million dollar contributions from both provincial and federal governments. To be fair, this field is scheduled to be a venue during 2015 women’s FIFA world cup. Ottawa University’s athletics department is covering the estimated $8 million necessary to construct a modest new football field for their team, the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Individual students already give Simon Fraser University several thousand dollars worth of tuition and ancillary fees per year — it should not be our responsibility to pay for additional facilities. Furthermore, students who voted in favour of supporting a new stadium will likely be long gone by the time the facility is built. Considering this, it is only fair that future generations of students will have the option to opt out of any recently implemented funds related to the project — an option that exists for other SFSS related clubs and services. Not only is the existence of this fee highly ethically questionable, but its continued existence should be optional for current and future students.

On another note, Jeff McCann’s SFSS was the same SFSS that approved the construction of a men’s centre at SFU. Without taking a position for or against this men’s centre, I will point out that there was a widespread concern over the lack of apparent consultation with students or existing groups in regards to the centre. This sentiment was felt around campus this spring and expressed in a story that Macleans.ca ran on May 1st. I am also curious to know the extent to which the SFSS has consulted with the university’s gender and women’s studies department, as well as existing social justice groups on campus.

I am not ideologically opposed to a new field, a men’s centre, or other projects proposed since I transferred to SFU last year. What I am ideologically opposed to is a lack of transparency and an apparent fast-tracking of community-oriented agendas with community input as an apparent afterthought. I once worked with someone whose motto was “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” For me, the level to which the SFSS is adopting this attitude is disturbing and frustrating.

These are my qualms with the current SFSS as well as the Rebuild SFU project. As a communications major and an editor for an online publication, I am appalled by the decision to include Jeff McCann’s letter to the editor in last week’s edition of The Peak. This media space is supposed to be an area for “complaints, compliments, or comments” or “less formal opinions pieces, particularly geared towards responses to content in The Peak.” Nowhere else in this particular issue is student space or the Rebuild SFU represented, and Jeff McCann’s article reads like what it effectively is — an SFSS sponsored ad.

Students, I urge you to look further into the decisions made by the current SFSS while demanding clarity from an organization that is supposed to represent you. By allocating funds and approving projects first, and then begging for student input later, the SFSS are essentially operated contrary to their mandate of “meaningful undergraduate student participation in all aspects of University Government.”

The SFU community does need to engage, we do need to be involved, but let’s remind ourselves, the current SFSS, as well as SFU’s administration that we are students, not oblivious investors.

As a letter to the editor, the opinions expressed in this letter my own, and do not represent the views of an organization.

Sincerely,

Amanda McCulley
SFU Student
 

First world problems

Dear editor,

Regarding Lana Friesen’s article about feminism in the last issue of The Peak, I have to say it caused me to raise enough of an eyebrow to warrant a rebuttal of sorts.

Aside from the girl who has confused the movie Carrie for a documentary and the other lady who has taken “fetishize” to mean “ignore completely,” for an article that intends to inform I find it disappointing that it has chosen to enumerate a convoluted list of first world problems instead of directing readers to the fact that while in the west women deal with sexism and other forms of nuisance, elsewhere in the world they are being subject to a laundry list of very real atrocities — honor killings, mutilation, slavery, etc.

While bigger issues do not automatically negate smaller ones, given the tone of Lana’s article I feel compelled to point out that these are the people who truly need our awareness and rescue.

As a letter to the editor, the opinions expressed in this letter my own, and do not represent the views of an organization.

Sincerely,

Mike Tyson
SFU Student

The aesthetics of copyright

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EIC
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Copyright law is changing the way that design aesthetics develop

 

By Jennifer Bednard
Photos by Mark Burnham

By now, most people have heard of the landmark decision favouring Apple in a lawsuit against Samsung. Apple claimed that the Korean company had violated copyright in its designs for a whole host of smartphones. Design aspects such as the screen size, the rounded corners of the phone and the ability to zoom in or out by bringing the fingers together or apart were major considerations in the suit.

In another recent lawsuit, shoe designer Christian Louboutin was awarded the ability to trademark a certain aspect of his shoe design — red soles on high-heeled shoes. The decision requires any other shoe company to only use red soles on their shoes if the rest of the sole is red.

These decisions are signs of a worrying trend in patent and copyright laws: the extension of copyright to not only specific attributes of a brand, such as a logo, but also to more generalized aspects of a design. Awarding these companies the sole right to use certain design elements puts artistic design fully within the realm of copyright law. This is problematic, as design is art, and so much of art is a direct response to other pieces of art. Most recognizable art movements start from a few innovators, followed by a larger group that are inspired by the aesthetic. Imagine if the Group of Seven had been able to sue Emily Carr for painting impressionist Canadian landscapes.

To be sure, an art movement is different than a consumer product, but many of the principles remain the same. Many “masters” within an art movement were not the founders of movements, but were artists who enjoyed an aesthetic and realized how to fully realize the form. In the same way, product designers should be able to create variations on a design so that customers can choose the most pleasing and functional design. As long as the products are not virtually identical — something that the competitor would not logically encourage anyways, as they would be unable to differentiate the brands — there should be no problem with products with similar designs. A lawsuit of this type demonstrates that a company doesn’t believe their product actually is the best in its class.

Lawsuits based on design aesthetics are a slippery slope. If a designer can claim exclusive rights to the colour of the sole of a shoe, why couldn’t Ikea copyright the dimensions of its Billy bookcases? They could claim that the bookcase is famous enough that competitors’ bookcases with very similar dimensions are profiting off of Ikea’s unique idea. Will one company or another eventually claim every shape, colour, font and interface? At what point does copyright promote innovation and when does it begin to inhibit it?

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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