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Schools Building Schools duped us all

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Apology

In our last issue we published an editorial about student union governance and referenda.  The piece described the process leading to an annual donation to Students Building Schools (SBS), which the editorial writer assumed was a worthy cause, albeit largely unknown to the 89% of students who did not vote. Unfortunately, the headline was not an accurate index of the content of the editorial. At a glance, to someone not reading the editorial, the headline might leave the inaccurate impression that we were critical of SBS or our editorial writer was critical of SBS.  That would not be correct. We are critical of the process and not the particular  instance or the particular charitable beneficiary of the student union’s largesse by referendum. For clarity, we are pleased to advise that the PEAK acknowledges that SBS did not “dupe” anyone, and we apologize for any embarrassment or inconvenience that our headline may have caused to SBS. Additionally, we wish to clarify that SBS’s own projections are for $47,478 per year in levy funds from students, not $100,000 as erroneously estimated in the editorial. Furthermore, SBS presently does not have a salaried staff. The Peak regrets the error.

By Clinton Hallahan

You really can’t do anything against the awesome power of African children.

And why would you want to? There’s nobody saying that Schools Building Schools isn’t a worthy charity — nine out of 10 studies will tell you that schools are good. Ten out of 10 studies will tell you that building schools in places that need them is good. I’m not even saying that an SFU student giving their money to SBS is a bad thing. But what is a bad thing is institutionalized panhandling, which SFU students resoundingly supported last week.

As with anything in our little banana republic, ‘resoundingly’ is misleading. For those of you who don’t know, a cadre of students numbering around 2,200 on a campus of 30,000 have decided to tack on a few more bucks to your SFSS fees. It’s only $1 per semester for a full-time student, which I’m betting is part of the reason why it passed so easily. Any more than the price of a terrible coffee and people might have had something to say. But that represents around $100,000 of your dollars per year, which amounts to a pretty nice salary for whoever is hired to run this charity, and a few schools in Uganda, I’m sure.

I have no problem with the mission itself, but the way Schools Building Schools cropped up at SFU and made their levy dreams a reality is less Fame and more Election (the Matthew Broderick one, not the one that is brutal and Japanese. That said, the levy will likely live forever).

First and most distressing is the precedent set that SFU students are amenable to third parties coming in, pitching them a monetary stake in a feel-good cause, and coming away with guaranteed money forever. It’s a pilot fish for other organizations, and blood in the water for whomever else would like a free cheque.

The problem with a levy over voluntary participation in the charity is that to eliminate the fee we would have to go to another referendum. Whatever ‘yes’ side to abolishment that registered would likely be labelled racists for wanting to take food and shelter from needy Ugandans.  You can see the corner we’ve painted ourselves into.

SFU has a history of these levies causing problems. There is at least one totally defunct organization still collecting a levy that the SFSS can’t touch. They’d ask permission to do something with the $300,000 or so just sitting in a comical McDuck-style money bank, but they have nobody to ask. To strike the fee would mean a referendum, and SFU political physics says that the more referenda you have on the ballot, the worse they all do. When something important needs to be passed, SFU students just can’t be trusted to care enough.

Not to mention that the Schools Building Schools referendum question was shrouded in controversy from the word go. The question included a separate measure asking that if it were to pass, should there be an opt-out clause. In theory, the measure could have passed with no recourse for students to opt-out. Ask the more alert on forum and they will tell you that they voted to have the opt out clause baked into the question itself, so the opt-out would be in there regardless of the performance of a separate measure. That’s not how it was on the ballot. Of course nobody is taking independent minutes, and the IEC depends on the official minutes taken by the forum secretary, an SFSS staff member, so what we voted on is the official story. But that doesn’t explain away the sheer confusion in the air when the questions were published. Add that to a allegations of IEC intimidation and improper campaigning and you have some questions that need answering.

This is all in addition to the fact that an election that garnered 11 per cent  turnout to the polls has set moral policy for the SFSS. It is morally presumptuous to say that all SFU students, current and incoming, will hold the charitable support of Schools Building Schools as a priority. Charities by design must prove their needfulness (and integrity) on a regular basis so the charitable can choose to support them. With this referendum, SFU students have built a cash pipeline to SBS, no questions asked. Four years from now, the first-years who supported the initiative will convocate and nobody will talk about SBS again. It will be lost in the line items of the SFSS annual report, a charitable little parasite, passed by few and affecting many. The metaphor is so on the nose it hurts.

Thoughts on reclaiming your university

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By Joseph Leivdal

 

A few weeks back, I went to a panel called “The Neoliberal University and Globalization”. All four speakers presented compelling arguments about the state of the university today, and how a multiplicity of forces are transforming it into more of a degree factory than a centre for higher learning. Our university is being run much like a corporation, with money and marketable patents being more of a focus than learning for the sake of learning. Take the constant budget cuts to the social sciences in favour of the applied sciences here at SFU for example.

But I’m not writing this to convince you that higher education is being destroyed in favour of market demands. In fact I’m already convinced that most of us know that something is wrong, not only with the university but with society at large. Underneath the surface of daily life many of us are beginning to bubble over with this knowledge, but most of us don’t know what to do about it.

The panel was a perfect example of this. I don’t mean to devalue the learning that goes on in these settings; in fact I learned a lot. One of the speakers actually caused me to have a bit of a paradigm shift, and I also learned about basic income units, or BIUs. This is common lingo used by the administration of universities to refer to students. We are being referred to as quantitative units of currency, not as human beings.

But despite all the great ideas being tossed around I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all for nothing. At the end of the panel we would disseminate, with no real strategy to combat neoliberalization having been discussed. I decided I would speak my thoughts on this. I said that I felt that we need to ground such excellent theory in the practice of our day-to-day lives, and that we need to begin to take risks, to take action if we are to avoid the destruction of the higher qualities of advanced education. But my comments were met largely with blank stares. There were a few encouraging smiles, but the overwhelming feeling I had was that most people in the room thought that I was nothing more than an aware yet overly keen undergrad student. Well-intentioned, but naive nonetheless.

But fuck it! Here’s where I get mad. I understand that we all have busy lives. One of the genius properties of neoliberalism is that it keeps us damn busy just surviving so that we don’t have time to stop and think about how wrong things are, let alone do anything about it. But there comes a point where we must say enough is enough. There comes a point where we must decide to live the way we want to live and to stand up to the forces that are standing in the way of that realization. We will not be perfectly organized, we will make mistakes along the way, and we will be met with a lot of disappointment as well. But we need to make a decision to act.

We used to know how to act. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the political science, sociology and anthropology department here at SFU stood up to an administration that did not like the fact that within the school there existed a truly democratic and critical department. Students and faculty organized together to create the department that they wanted, and to live in an environment that fostered human development and emancipatory praxis. I know that legacy lives on; there are even some of you that lived through it working at the university.

Students and faculty at the University of Toronto have also found their breaking point. Out of frustration with their administration and with government policy they have built a parallel governing body for their school that is saying no to decisions made by administration that they do not support. They didn’t take power, they made their own. Like the PSA department did in the ‘60s, they have decided that they want to live on their own terms, terms that nurture human development, and they took the risks necessary to do that.

To the professors of Simon Fraser University, I challenge you to publicly verbalize your support for students and for democratic, emancipatory education in the face of the administration. I challenge you to live up to the legacy of PSA department, to inform, to support, and to organize. We’re all in this together, and it’s about time we begin to normalize a critical discourse of resistance, not only in panels, but also in our shared spaces and especially in our classrooms. We have spent enough time discussing neoliberalism in classrooms. Lets take back the podium, lets take back Freedom Square. It’s time that we start taking the risks needed to start living the way we know is right.

Economy not all that fragile

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By Edward Dodd

 

REGINA (CUP) — Careful! By reading this editorial, you might topple the fragile economy!

Okay, perhaps that’s a little over-the-top, but the way the Conservative government falls over itself legislating people back to work, you’ll forgive me for thinking that if Nycole Turmel sneezes violently enough, the entire country will collapse into a financial hell-storm from which no one will escape unscathed. Every time a union even makes a peep about striking, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is there with a pen and paper to scribble down a law criminalizing collective action — action that would improve workers’ benefits or salaries. In every case, be it Canada Post or Air Canada, unions are apparently endangering the feeble economic recovery the Conservative government has cobbled together.

And what a feeble recovery it’s been, based heavily on reinvigorating the sign-making industry by putting up “Canada’s Action Plan” billboards everywhere. Meanwhile, the government plays coy about buying expensive airplanes from foreign companies. The most recent Conservative strategy to put people back to work by cutting 30,000 jobs in the civil service is, to hear them tell it, a move that will inexplicably create more jobs. This “right-sizing” of the federal civil service coincides with what is speculated to be a shockingly austere upcoming federal budget. The budget will probably introduce spending cuts to everything from health care to the arts. Such a bare-bones budget would be a testament to our economic recovery and the competency of the government.

An austere budget makes sense when you consider that, in conjunction with spending cuts, the government has lowered taxes to a ludicrously low level for corporations, ensuring that once money flows into corporate coffers, there is no way to pry it back out. The reckless slashing of the GST from seven per cent to five per cent has eliminated an estimated $12 billion in government revenue. That’s a huge chunk of change that would go a long way towards eliminating the deficit without laying off thousands of government jobs or maiming services that Canadians rely on.

The first problem with severe austerity and continually blaring on about the fragile state of the economy is that it creates a climate of fear. This makes strong economic growth nearly impossible. How is scaring people into thinking the economy is fragile going to encourage them to spend their money? Fear will make people hoard their savings rather than invest them, creating a slow downward spiral that will eventually end in another severe recession, if not a depression.

This leads into the second problem. I don’t claim to be an economist, but I do know one of the first things that they teach you in economics is that an increase in government spending provides far more economic stimulus than any lowering of taxes. While many try to discredit this idea as returning the government to constant deficits, a concurrent increase in taxes, combined with the increase in tax revenue from the economic growth stimulated by higher spending, would likely deliver a balanced budget with much less pain, suffering, and austerity than slashing funding and slashing taxes. This isn’t Greece, where there is no money left to spend — the government shouldn’t act like austerity is the only option.

If Harper’s government is really serious about stabilizing the economy, it should increase spending, not impose austerity. It should continue to provide excellent services to Canadians such as health care and old-age security rather than forcing them to wait longer in emergency rooms or work later in their lives. While unpopular, raising taxes is necessary in order to pay for an economic renewal. Rather than fear-mongering and ending collective bargaining rights, the government should clearly show it will not hamstring the economy with lower taxes and lower spending.

Smaller government is the goal of the Conservative government, but frankly, smaller government is not the direction this country should go if we want stable economic growth. The government didn’t become so large unnecessarily — it entered into the economy in response to the failure of the free-market economy during the Great Depression. Unless we want a return to the economic conditions of that depression, it’s time the government stepped up and took a leadership role in stimulating the economy.

A tale of two Scarfaces

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By Will Ross

 

The 1932 Howard Hawks and 1983 Brian DePalma versions of Scarface are only loosely linked by their plot structures, wherein a power-hungry immigrant named Tony works his way up from dispensable grunt, to hitman, to underworld kingpin. As he does so, he takes his boss’ girlfriend, kills his sister’s lover out of incestuous jealousy, and destroys the lives of himself and everyone around him in the hunt for the limitless wealth and power that he feels entitled to.

Each film is led by a grandstanding, scenery-chewing performance that foregrounds the character’s accent and violent personality: Paul Muni plays the Italian Tony Camonte in the 1932 movie (with a nice-a theeck accent), Al Pacino the Cuban Tony Montana in 1983 (who doesn’t leave a single ‘fuck’ unsaid). The lack of any hint of inner life in the remorseless gangster positions the films as distanced allegory. The political context of that allegory is very similar. Both films address concerns of criminal contingencies in immigrants while making it painstakingly clear that they don’t mean to imply that all immigrants are murderers, both films nonetheless adopt a stance of righteous outrage against organized crime, and upon initial release both lead to worries that their extreme and stylized violence would be imitated by wannabe crime lords (in each case, this somewhat came to pass).

But the moments that distinguish their aim as consciously politically relevant are a pair of sequences that are among the least violent or plot-important in either film. Just as Tony Camonte’s crimewave is reaching its peak, Hawks’ film shows two scenes in which anonymous characters debate how society can best respond to organized crime. First, a police officer chastises a newspaper reporter who hunts for a story on Camonte; he says that this leads to public romanticization and glorification of gangsters. Second, a newspaper magnate fields complaints of his paper’s heavy crime coverage. He claims that awareness is better than ignorance and that exposure can only be bad for the underworld. Without saying so directly, Hawks shows how confused and contradictory public responses to crime can be.

DePalma’s film takes this a step further: the social criticism comes from the mouth of the monster himself, Tony Montana. While sitting in a Jacuzzi and watching TV, he rants to his wife and his right-hand man about the banks — which have just raised their rates for money laundering — as emblematic of a system that rewards exploitation. “You know what capitalism is? Getting fucked.” His wife quickly points out that he has bought into this system himself. A news commentator appears to stress that he does not believe that legalizing cocaine will eradicate organized crime, and Montana — a coke kingpin himself — calls him and other media figures liars who court public interest instead of speaking honestly.

These scenes’ underlying accusations of social hypocrisy are more or less in tune with one another, but what distinguishes the DePalma remake from the original is its integration of Tony’s opinions. Ulterior motives always distort discourse on public peace and unity, but the ’83 film suggests that the only ones with a clear picture of the problem are the criminals themselves, because they have followed the logical course of actions and priorities that their culture and economy have prepared them for.

One man’s garbage

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The quest for zero waste at SFU

By Esther Tung
Photo By Mark Burnham

 

In step with Metro Vancouver’s plans to divert 70 per cent of its waste from landfills by 2015, SFU has launched its most comprehensive waste reduction strategy to date, with a strong focus on composting. If you’ve eaten at McKenzie Cafeteria or Tim Hortons in the past month, you’ll have noticed that four-bin sorting stations have replaced traditional trash bins, with waste sorted into organic matter, recyclables, refundables, and one more bin for anything that doesn’t fit into the first three categories. Twenty-two such stations are located across campus in high-traffic areas, with 15 more on the way.

After launching the Go Green Container Exchange Program last semester, this is the next step in reducing campus waste and increasing SFU’s visibility as a sustainable campus. “As a research institution, we should be moving further ahead in the curve than the region’s goals,” said Sarah Stoner, the acting sustainability coordinator. Up until this year, SFU was one of the only major research institutions in the region that had yet to begin composting. UBC built an in-vessel composter several years ago that processes up to five tonnes of organic waste each day, and UVic’s volunteer-operated office compost program has been in place for over a decade.

Composting is the final step in closing the crucial ecological loop that turns end products — our waste — back into raw material for other uses. Organic matter in landfills represents nutrients and minerals that are taken away from the soil and get stuck in the loop due to landfill design. Landfills are required to be lined with clay soil to prevent ground and water pollution from any toxic material in the trash. This design still allows for organic matter to break down over time, but the clay lining and the conventional method of heaping new loads of trash over the old depletes the landfill of oxygen. This means that the material is broken down by anaerobic bacteria, which survive only in the absence in oxygen. The bacteria give off methane — a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide — as they digest organic matter. Compost heaps, on the other hand, get mixed constantly to introduce oxygen to the environment. Methane levels in a healthy compost heap become negligible, and this marginally negative outcome is far outweighed by the fertile end product that remains, which some call ‘black gold’, that can then be sold to farmers and landscaping companies or individual households.

Up to 94 per cent of SFU’s waste can be diverted from landfills, with 54 per cent (650 tonnes) being compostable and the remaining 40 per cent recyclable, according to Kimberly Irwin, volunteer coordinator for the Sustainability Advisory Committee (SAC). The SAC plays a large role in coordinating the compost initiative, working closely with other campus operations and student groups in doing so. The blue bins for paper recycling that are usually paired with a trash can are often mistaken as a catch-all for plastics and refundables, and the new sorting stations are designed to minimize such confusion as much as possible. Each bin in the station is clearly labeled, often accompanied with graphics showing what common campus items can or cannot be in there. A safe rule: if you’ve taken a bite out of it, it can be composted. However, Stoner stresses the fragility of the compost heaps, which have little tolerance for contamination. “We want to maximize waste diversion, but contaminating the waste stream would just be counter-productive. Our message to students is that if you’re in a hurry or are still confused about how to separate your trash, to place it with the regular garbage instead.”

 

“We want to maximize waste diversion, but contaminating the waste stream would just be counter-productive. Our message to students is that if you’re in a hurry or are still confused about how to separate your trash, to place it with the regular garbage instead.”

– Sarah Stoner, acting sustainability coordinator

 

For those who have the time to learn, look out for bright green T-shirts by the sorting stations. Zero Waste ambassadors are usually stationed around them in high-traffic zones to help people understand the new bins. The student volunteers are also involved in other awareness tactics, such as getting people to sign composting pledges and classroom facilitation.

The sorting stations, like the old trashcans, are emptied out every two to three hours, minimizing fruit flies. While some have pointed out that leaving composting bins indoors, which is done because of Burnaby Mountain’s bear and coyote population, may cause unpleasant smells, Stoner said there has yet to be any complaints. “Besides, whether organic matter is in a separate bin or not, it’ll still be indoors.”

Another feature of the waste diversion strategy is co-mingled recycling, which means no more scratching your head over the mysterious numbering system for plastics — all plastics, numbers one through seven, go into the same bin at the stations, and are sorted out for recycling at the facility. These sorting stations can be found in busier corridors and most main dining areas, though there are none in Cornerstone vendors and SFSS-owned operations such as Higher Grounds.

The compost initiative is spearheaded by the Sustainability Network, a working group recently formed between the SAC, Sustainable SFU, and a handful of smaller groups, all with the mandate of creating a more sustainable campus.

The SAC was formed in 2005 when the Sustainable Campus Coalition (now Sustainable SFU) expressed an interest in working more formally with SFU’s senior administration, partially to give recognition to the many unofficial projects that were being undertaken at the time. Many positions are held by staff members from other departments, such as facilities, IT services, and campus planning and development. Representatives from faculty and the student body sit on the committee as well. SAC is an advisory body, and no money passes through their hands directly. Rather, they liaise with the vice-president, finance and administration, currently Pat Hibbits, to advise on and create recommendations for funding on sustainability initiatives. Money goes directly into the Sustainability Fund, handled by facilities.

Hibbits said she generally takes a hands-off approach and does not micromanage funds once they have been granted, as was the case with the $200,000 one-time boost to the Sustainability Fund this fiscal year. The bonus allowed the SAC to hire support staff and undertake larger infrastructure projects, such as Irwin’s position and the composting program. Neither Stoner nor Hibbits was able to speak on whether this higher level of funding could be maintained into the next years. The Go Green Container Exchange program is also under the SAC’s coordination as well, with funding from SFU Ancillary Services.

Both these campus-wide programs are preceded by their smaller-scale counterparts on Rez. SFU picked up the container exchange program after it proved to be a success in the dining hall. And while the Sustainability Network’s composting program extends to all Chartwells locations on campus itself, there is no sorting station anywhere on residence, including the Chartwells-owned Dining Hall. “Rez is treated as a separate entity from the campus, due to having different needs,” said Erika Zell, a residence area coordinator who also supervises the Eco-committee that implemented these programs. The lone compost bin is located outdoors behind the dining hall, which sees very little use due to the bin’s low traffic. Thomas Booker, a student who lives in rez, wrote in to The Peak with a complaint highlighting this issue, correlating its use to awareness levels, which is likely worsened by its hidden location.

But if you build it, they will come. The pilot weeks of campus composting have been successful, according to Irwin, and students have been receptive to being educated on the new bins. Other than having a team of volunteer ambassadors on standby, surveys have been conducted, and there are even more plans to expand on outreach. “We still need to broaden the amount of people we are talking to, so we’ll be making announcements at the beginning of classes as well, especially the big first-year science, business, and arts courses,” said Irwin. A public waste audit is also being considered once the program has had some time to take root. “It’s pretty dirty work. It’s digging through garbage and calculating what is going into what stream, but it’s very helpful in determining how efficient your program is,” said Irwin.

The need to integrate a sophisticated waste diversion strategy to campus life stems partially from Metro Vancouver’s pressing issue of dwindling landfill space. Metro Vancouver has a particularly aggressive composting program in place to meet its goal, with nine municipalities now offering curbside pick-up for food scraps, in addition to yard trimmings, with North Vancouver set to join in as the 10th this May. 2015 may seem like a tight schedule to keep to, but it’s for good reason, since the Cache Creek landfill recently reached capacity and is currently undergoing renovations that will double its current size to the approximate area of 85 hectares, or the same number of rugby playing fields. Meanwhile, some of our waste is being transported long distances to U.S. landfills instead.

Metro Vancouver has been pushing to build more waste-to-energy facilities in the Lower Mainland as part of its campaign. A methane capture plant is now underway at the Cache Creek landfill, which will burn methane gas given off by the garbage and convert it into electricity. Waste-to-energy plants could also look more similar to the existing Burnaby incinerator, which burns garbage to make steam. While the regions frame waste-to-energy plants as an efficient means of reducing garbage by turning it into a resource, they are by no means clean enough for your backyard. The CBC reported that the Burnaby plant is one of the worst offenders in the region for sulphur dioxide emissions.

With 40 per cent of Metro Vancouver’s waste being compostable — that’s an estimated 190,000 tonnes from residential areas alone — there is much incentive to turn to composting first to reduce the pressure on landfills. A waste-to-energy plant will cough up more pollution over time as its facilities deteriorate. Composting, on the other hand, has no foreseeable negative externalities that could outweigh its benefits, be it restoring fertility to the land, or just better tasting blueberries.

Living in diaspora

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By Ljudmila Petrovic

“Welcome home.””

The woman at YVR customs hands me back my Canadian passport and smiles warmly.

Home? Where is home? I wonder, glaring at her for starting this internal conflict again. Is it Vancouver, the city I have grown up in, where most of my past and most of my future seems to be? Or is it Belgrade, the city in which I was born, where generations before me have lived and died and where I become overwhelmed by my grandmother’s fleshy embraces and steaming platters of food when I visit?

I was born in Belgrade, but my family escaped the growing political unrest when I was two years old and immigrated to Canada.  My parents predominantly did this for me, the child that supposedly napped through the entire process. They left a life rich with friends, family, and memories, and came here to nothing — no credentials, no family, and a few friends that were no better off than us. Perhaps, had they not had a child, they would never have left — something which becomes apparent when they meet with others who left Serbia at around the same time, who they nostalgically reminisce about their lives “back home” with over traditional dishes and wine. It is also because of this that they never let our language and traditions die the way that many immigrants unfortunately do. Because Serbian was my first language and many of the traditions and cultural habits are things I grew up with, I have always felt a familial connection to the country, something that has further contributed to the dilemma of where I belong.

Nothing makes me feel the cultural dissonance as much as when I visit Belgrade and realize that, just as I have habits that I credit to being Serbian, I also have Canadian habits that make me feel like a fish out of water when I visit Serbia. The most obvious example to me is the habit of apologizing when I accidently step on someone’s toe, bump into someone, or, let’s be honest, when somebody steps on my toe or bumps into me. The concept of apology is not as light in Serbia as it is in Canada; just as Canadians are known for their excessive politeness, Serbs (and most eastern Europeans) are notoriously proud and an admittance of fault comes only after one stubbornly argues for a while. So for me to apologize to a stranger on the bus in Belgrade is met with confusion and reminds me that I don’t fully belong there.

Likewise, growing up in Vancouver, I have always felt that, despite fitting in, I never felt 100 per cent right. As a young child, I loved the fact that my family and I had a ‘secret language’ where we could say anything we wanted in public without anybody else knowing the content of our conversation. To this day, my parents beam as they tell me of the incident where I, ever the leader, led the entire preschool into a chant of “‘ajf, ‘ajf, ‘ajf!”. My parents still laugh at the anecdote as they describe the confusion on my teachers’ faces, and the relief when my parents explained that rajf in Serbian meant hairband, and that I was referring to the bright pink hairband I had so proudly put on that morning. In my teenage years, already an age where adolescents are embarrassed by their families, my mortification was intensified: going out to a restaurant here with my loud Serbian family always elicited more than a few glances, our table ordering more and more dishes, yelling regardless of the emotion we are conveying, and flailing our hands to get our point across. As I grew older, and became more comfortable with myself and my roots, I also realized that the things that had embarrassed me about my family and culture as a teenager, were the exact things I now loved and found endearing: the excessive eating was a love for food and life, the dynamic communication was passion and excitement, and — as much as I had tried to distance myself from all of that as an adolescent — there was no denying that these were all traits and behaviours that I had grown to possess, whether I liked it or not.

The knowledge that I had a part of me that others did not varies from innocent anecdotes like this, to the devastating confusion and helplessness provoked by Serbia’s continuous political instabilities. The most memorable to me is the 1999 NATO air raids of 1999, where the Serbian community in diaspora bonded over the common grief and powerlessness of watching televised images of Belgrade burning, and wondering whether family members were still alive and well, making us feel like I should be there and not here. There is a passion and warmth amongst people that resonates with me; generations and generations exhausted by wars and politics that hold people together, something that I have never experienced here. And yet there are also things that frighten me and make me feel so lucky that I was raised here, such as Serbia’s unemployment rates and poor quality of life, the continuing political instability, and the bigotry and judgment that are prevalent there. When I watch Vancouver’s pride parade, a joyous celebration of people’s differences, I get so overwhelmed at how far human rights have come, and I am so glad that an event like that is so massive and filled with support. On the other hand, Belgrade’s most recent pride parade had to be cancelled for the protection of the organizers, based on violent precedents set in past years.

I don’t think that I will ever truly be able to identify with one cultural identity over the other. While I can successfully integrate myself into both, I always find myself feeling that some of the pieces just don’t fit. Living in Canada, I always identify Serbia as my nationality; however, when I am abroad in Serbia I feel it’s necessary to say that I’m visiting from Canada. As much as this seems like a restless life, one of confusion and uncertainty, I feel as if both sides have contributed to who I am, and what I’ve experienced. I am lucky to have opportunities here that many Serbians of my generation living back home can only dream of — but I am also lucky to have a different history and perspective that comes from being raised Serbian.

“Thank you. Good to be back,” I respond, smiling as I take my Canadian passport. After all, how else can I respond to this stranger? I walk out, scanning for my family. I spot them instantly, speaking loudly in Serbian and waving their hands, waiting to take me home.

SFU BPK major works towards health in space

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By Alison Roach

SFU student will create workout plans for pre-fight, post-flight, and in-flight astronauts

The federal government has recently announced its intention to renew its commitment to the International Space Agency (ISS), and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is scheduled to launch in December to live and work at the ISS for six months, for half of which he’ll work as the station’s first Canadian commander. Karen Tulloch is a biomedical physiology and kinesiology (BPK) major at SFU working with the Canadian Space Agency as a co-op student. Tulloch is working to create exercise programs and review nutritional values of Canadian foods that are going to be used in space. Tulloch is one of 42 students from across Canada working with the CSA for the term. Tulloch, psychology student Stephanie Fowler, and computing science student Matthew Torgerson are all SFU students completing co-op work terms at the agency.

Tulloch is working on developing exercise protocols for Canadian astronauts at all stages of flight: prior, during, and after. She also reviews nutritional content of food being sent into flight, and places orders for the upcoming mission. “There is no ‘typical’ work day for me . . . One day I will be reviewing various exercise journal articles and textbooks on methods to improve cardiovascular fitness, and the next day I’ll be at the CSA gym testing out protocols used [or] recommended in that literature.”

Natalie Hirsch, a SFU kinesiology graduate, works with Tulloch as her supervisor in her current position, to develop training protocols for Canadian astronauts’ upcoming missions. Since Chris Hadfield’s mission is coming up, his training program is one of the main focuses. Due to the fact that the astronauts do most of their preparation training in the U.S. or Russia, Tulloch doesn’t have the opportunity to work with the astronauts hands on. “Fortunately we are able to monitor their training and exercise data using various software, and Natalie travels to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston to deliver exercise support in person,” said Tulloch of this obstacle.

Of this work as a co-op term, Tulloch describes it as a phenomenal and humbling experience. She first saw the term at the CSA specifically as an opportunity to use her kinesiology knowledge in a unique setting. Says Tulloch, “I was drawn to this position because I knew it would force me to apply concepts . . . and enhance my understanding of physiology and exercise principles.” There is a sense of responsibility and pressure in working for such an important purpose, but Tulloch has found the individuals she works with are exceptional, and very supportive of students.

The experience of participating in the co-op program has been a character-defining one for Tulloch. She says, “One of the most valuable lessons that I’ve garnered from my co-op experience is to be open-minded. Be open to new experiences and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves to you. You never truly know whether or not you like something until you try it, and regardless of whether or not it works out the way you expected, you always end up learning something valuable about yourself in the end.” In this case, taking on a challenge can even lead to working towards space exploration.

After this co-op term, Tulloch is set to return to an ongoing role in BPK professor Diane Finegood’s lab as a childhood obesity researcher. She plans to graduate in spring 2014 and pursue a career in exercise physiology working with youth and those dealing with chronic disease, thanks in part to her co-op experiences. Says Tulloch, “[The co-op program] has reaffirmed my passion for exercise science and physiology. The human body is a fascinating area of study and this experience at CSA has reminded me of how interesting it is to work in this field.”

University Briefs

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By Ariane Madden

VCC bans bottled water sales

Vancouver Community College voted last week to ban the sale of bottled water on campus starting spring 2013. The college will be the first post-secondary institution in greater Vancouver to ban bottled water sales, citing sustainability as a primary reason for the move.

B.C. government pledges for new ECUAD campus

Despite recent cutbacks to university funding, the government of British Columbia has pledged $1.7 million to assist in the building and moving of the Emily Carr University of Art and Design campus. The university, which currently caters to approximately 2,000 students at its Granville Island campus, hopes to build a new facility on Great Northern Way in Vancouver, near UBC’s department of art history and theory facility.

UBC cleared of animal cruelty allegations

An investigation in March found no evidence of animal cruelty at a University of British Columbia research facility. The allegations claimed that macaque monkeys were improperly treated and unnecessarily killed during the course of a Parkinson’s study last year.

London college suspends students over riots

Fanshawe College recently suspended eight students believed to be involved in the St. Patrick’s Day riots, which occurred near the college campus last week. The riots appear to have begun as a result of severe intoxication and caused approximately $100,000 damage to the small Ontario city.

Severed coyote head found at MUN residences

The frozen, severed head of a coyote was found in a plastic bag last week near the student residences of Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Police determined that the remains appeared to have originated from a university study and that the placing of the remains in the residences was likely a student prank.

-Ariane Madden

Rez sends out false acceptance messages

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By Graham Cook

Emails insinuated that the people had been accepted into SFU, and suggested on-campus housing

A number of prospective SFU students were accidentally sent emails that led them to believe that they had been accepted into the university when it was not necessarily the case.
SFU residence staff apparently sent out the emails early last Tuesday. The message began with the text, “Dear [student’s name], we hear that you have been accepted to Simon Fraser University. Congratulations!” From there, it informed the student, “Now the fun begins from thinking about courses you want to take to figuring out where you want to live,” before presenting the option of living on campus. The message ended with an alert that there was no residence application on file for the recipient, warning them not to delay or miss out followed by a link to apply online.
SFU used their official Facebook account to respond to the issue, updating its status to read, “Earlier [Tuesday] some people received an email from SFU Residence indicating they’ve been accepted to Simon Fraser University. Please be advised the email may have been sent in error. SFU Residence staff is looking into this and will have more information to report tomorrow. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience.” No report was ever published on the official SFU website and no further information on the issue was posted on the Facebook page.
However, not all people accepted the official response. One Facebook commenter remarked, “It’s not a computer mistake, it’s merely a smart advertising move by your Department of Business, at least telling by all the social media posts about this! That’s a nicer way to play it off!”
Though The Peak could not reach university administration at the time of publishing, SFU registrar Kate Ross told The Vancouver Sun, “[The email] actually was encouraging them to apply for residence, and had indicated, by being congratulatory . . . that they had been admitted, and unfortunately it went to some people that it should not have gone to.” She added that she did not know how many emails had been sent out but that the mistake involved the use of email listservs.
Those who received the unintended email were sent a follow-up message shortly after which explained the mix-up. At the time of printing there was no sign from the university as far as who was to blame or if the accident caused any serious problems for those involved.

Ski Ninjas: Punk Porn

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By Kyle Lees at Ski Ninjas