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Abolish the SFSS

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By Clinton Hallahan

These are my endorsements for the SFSS election, but I’m not sure why I’m doing them. That puts my endorsements in league with the election itself — something we do without really knowing why, or really wanting to. That loud indifference toward our struggling democracy has never been as clear as it is in 2012.

There’s usually a forest of posters on this campus, but that has been reduced to a sad bluff in 2012. New kids might look at the number of posters with shock, but back in my day you could barely see the grey of the concrete (there was also much more snow, and walking through that snow, uphill both ways). This is partially due to the shockingly low number of candidates for each category. The two most important positions (arguably) on the board, the member services officer and the internal relations officer, will be chosen by a simple acclamation vote for lack of interest, as will every department representative except science (which, admittedly, has a candidate willing to die for the position).

Even more than usual, the debates were a sham. The number of regrets and statements given instead of, you know, actual attendance by candidates was depressingly high. At this point, we expect SFU students to exhibit their Olympic-caliber not-giving-a-shit skills, but usually candidates at least buy into the pageantry. This time, as students in Surrey and Burnaby both looked on with confusion and a lack of interest, most of what they saw was Independent Electoral Commission chief Ali Godson reading tepid statements in absence of a warm body. It was embarrassing.

Worse still was the student attendance at the debates. I put less than 75 people at peak at the Burnaby debates who were not candidates or IEC officials, or just eating lunch in the Atrium cafeteria. More than half of these straggled out midway through, leaving maybe 20 around by the time referendum questions were ‘debated’. If we broke 10 civilians in Surrey my count was way off. So where do we go from here?

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you stand in a group of political science majors for long enough, the probability of someone remarking that non-participation is as good as a vote against the system provided approaches one. At this point, SFU is loudly proclaiming that the SFSS is an organization it wants no part of, which no longer needs to exist. My question is, why don’t we give students what they want?

The entirety of the SFSS (and much of total ‘student participation’ at SFU) is run by a circle of people that I estimate to be lower than 300. There’s brackish between different organizations, with many ‘ambitious’ students sitting in more than one position. But when only five per cent of the electorate comes out to vote, as they did in 2007, that circle of 300 represents a healthy chunk of the roughly 1,500  students that percentage delineates.

It takes the threat of losing the U-Pass to get a paltry 23 per cent out to the polls, as occured in 2011, and even the months long debacle of CFS defederation only brought 17 per cent to voting booths. I’ll never forget the by-election results night that erupted into rapturous cheering when it was announced when the turnout was about seven per cent for key referenda. As one of the few people who actually paid attention this year, I will predict we don’t break 10 per cent. These numbers are simply untenable for a multi-million dollar society, and for a mandate to manage that much of your money.

The University Act says we require a student society to represent our interests, but it is becoming obvious that our interests are not the ‘services’ and ‘advocacy’ that have been gradually read into the duties of such an organization. If we define our interests as ‘saving the money we would spend on a student society to get us out of this glorified degree mill a touch faster’, I don’t think a jury could convict us. The undergraduates (and the grads of the GSS, who are having similar participation problems) have spoken, and their deafening silence makes it clear we must investigate a de facto abolishment of the SFSS.

This isn’t to say there aren’t people trying to do good things, but there just isn’t enough participation to justify any major projects or initiatives anymore. A truly progressive, radical campus would have the courage to listen to the vast majority of students and not the vocal, tiny minority perpetuating it all for CV entries. Shut it down, is what they’re saying, and for the first time, I agree with them.

If there’s a silver lining in this, it’s that my endorsements and the votes of the few are just votes for who gets to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic. A silver lining for those elected? They’ll get to rule with a knowing smile, with any criticism leveled at them waved off with a line from a pop punk bard: “If we’re fucked up, you’re to blame.”

 

PRESIDENT

 

Should win: Lorenz Yeung         Will win: Lorenz Yeung

The only presidential candidate to show up to the Surrey debate, and the only one who has seen the way SFSS sausages are made. As a former MSO, maybe he can be the one to convince SFU that the SFSS is actually a thing that exists.

 

TREASURER

 

Should win: Michael McDonell

Will win: Kevin Zhang

McDonell seems engaged, if a bit obsessed with a private education vendetta his election wouldn’t really allow him to attack much. Zhang has been fairly invisible as ERO, just like at the Surrey debates.

 

UNIVERSITY RELATIONS OFFICER

 

Should win: Jeff McCann         Will win: Jeff McCann

Continuity is a rare thing in the SFSS, and we really need all we can get, especially if that $65 million dollar building goes through. I can’t wait for Besan to shed the slate holding her back and run for president.

 

EXTERNAL RELATIONS OFFICER

 

Should win:

Stephanie Boulding

Will win:

Meaghan Wilson

Our terrible debate structure aside, Boulding was the only one to show some real poise and maturity, avoiding asking Meaghan Wilson about her sleep habits. Didn’t attend the Surrey debates, but who the hell did.

 

MEMBER-AT-LARGE

 

Should win:

Ashleigh Girodat

Will win:

Ashleigh Girodat

The only member to show up with ideas in a race where one candidate was absent for both, and where one candidate openly admitted the position was next to useless. I am fully aware I’m supposed to pick two.

Federalization, Europe, and the EU

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EIC
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By Gustavo Destro

In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte stated that “peace between European nations would have become easier [if] the United States of Europe [were] a possibility.” Many times in the past, men have considered the possibility of a united Europe that would create unity between the various nations.

Now, over 200 years later, we are seeing its effects, and national leaders are still in constant conflict with one another, just as they were at the times of Napoleon. But they have put away their warhorses, and the weapon of choice is now a whole lot of finger wagging. What the technocrats who brought about the European Union as we know it today failed to do, though, was learn from the lessons of the French emperor: for Europe to be united, it requires a strong leader. To do it through war, as history has shown, is difficult; to do it through diplomacy, as we are now seeing, has proven just as challenging. But it’s not impossible.

When the crisis in the Eurozone reached its nadir last year, some economists asked themselves why, never bringing cultural differences into the discussion. But that is exactly the reason why the EU is struggling: it is trying to pretend every country is like Germany, fiscally, and politically, when the truth is they are not.

Countries like Italy and Greece have never been fiscally sound, so when they were brought into the Eurozone, who expected them to suddenly become fiscal hawks and tackle all their problems for the sake of the union? It made no sense to expect change overnight, or change at all. To say that Italy and Greece are worse at managing their economies is not racial or supposed to ‘rank’ nations, it is a simple historical fact. For a union to have a single currency, it must also have a single monetary policy throughout.

But Brussels — the headquarters of the EU — apparently got the memo last year, and demanded tough fiscal change in both Italy and Greece. The problem was, these countries’ leaders — already facing internal pressure — had no intention of implementing such unpopular measures. What happened was unprecedented. The leaders of Italy and Greece both agreed to step down, but with one caveat: they would do so as soon as the economic measures imposed by Brussels were passed by their parliaments. Both measures passed, both leaders stepped down, and their successors were both hand-picked by Brussels.

The EU headquarters had not only succeeded in implementing the fiscal change they wanted, but they also replaced two state leaders who were hostile to their demands with two men who would have their ear more easily. It’s fascinating since the current fiscal policy and the leaders of both Italy and Greece were not elected or chosen by their people, yet no one has come out with chants of trampled democracies.

Maybe, if the implementation of Brussels-mandated economic reforms is successful, future decisions made by the EU headquarters can carry more strength and impact, and more power can, in the future, go to a central government. It sets a precedent, and shows that, for all its differences, a European federation with a single central government may not be met with as much resistance as some have previously thought.

Napoleon would be proud.

Jeff McCann leaves the presidency a winner

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EIC
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By Sam Reynolds

As orange leaves in autumn, the posters that currently adorn the walls of SFU show that the campus has moved into another election cycle. While talk of a possible student union building and other ballot measures up for referendum dominate campus political discourse these days, we should pause for a moment to remember one of the more notable student society presidents of yore — the political wunderkind Jeff McCann.

It was not seven months ago when people were counting the days until they could declare McCann “was not [their] president”. The plan was impeachment; the venue was the SFSS AGM, but unfortunately for McCann’s detractors — a cabal of union operatives, professional students, and geriatric hanger-ons — this grand coup in the name of the staff who were under the SFSS’s employ, and not the people whom the society was mandated to serve, never materialized.

The ‘crime’ that earned McCann the ire of this small but vocal group was not the instillation of some cruel dictatorship, but the attempt to implement some private-sector sensibility into an incredibly bloated public sector apparatus. During her time at SFU, our current premier tried to trim the same Leviathan, but it reared its ugly head and had her impeached.

McCann and his administration suffered through continuing rallies, in which the staff, made up of administrators and white-collar workers, tried to paint their plight in a romantic caricature, likening themselves to the coal workers of America or other defining labour movements of the previous century: vulnerable workers versus corporate fat-cats.

In the end, unfortunately, the fat cats that occupied the offices of the SFSS executive — students who earn approximately $21,000 — compromised on the demands of the union and ended the lockout. While the exact terms were not ideal, they put the society in a better financial position then it was in before and was a symbolic step in ending the gravy train that was the SFSS staff employment conditions.

This play by McCann was perfectly fitting of the supposed radicalism that makes this campus unique. The plight of the student society is not unique to SFU: student governments around the country are often beholden to staff complete with the protection of a union and a long institutional memory. In many cases, the answer to the question “Who governs?” is nebulous at best.

McCann and his executive’s efforts in demanding accountability by trying to reign in a student society that spent recklessly on wages deserve a strong salute. Let us hope, however, that his successors don’t undo his work.

SFU scientists study atomic fingerprint

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EIC
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By Sam Reynolds

CERN scientists make inroads on studying trapped antimatter

In a groundbreaking experiment at Europe’s CERN laboratory, a Canadian-led team directed by an SFU researcher has trapped anti-matter particles of hydrogen for long enough to study them in hopes to finally discover the secrets of the mysterious atoms.

“This is the first time that anyone has ever interacted with an antimatter atom,” wrote Mike Hayden, an SFU physics professor and lead in the project, in the journal Nature.

The team was able to observe the “atomic fingerprint” of an antimatter particle, a major breakthrough as scientists previously struggled to explain why it existed at all with the data that they had.

“We’ve performed a measurement. We’ve tried to look for what you might call a sign of a fingerprint of this atom,” Hayden told CBC News. “You could think of it like trying to communicate with this atom, or manipulate it.”

Other Canadian researchers involved with the project are from the universities of Calgary, Victoria, York University, and TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle physics lab based at UBC.

While antimatter may be familiar to most as science fiction lore, researchers have long attempted to produce it in a laboratory and hold it steady enough for observation. First discussed in the 1880s by British physicist William Mitchinson Hicks, the term was coined in 1898 in the journal Nature. A formalized paper was published in 1928 by Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, and antimatter was first discovered in a laboratory, as anti-electrons, or positrons, four years later.

Antimatter is made up of particles that have an opposite charge from matter, with the remaining characteristics remaining the same. When matter and antimatter collide, both particles are destroyed by the energy reaction that occurs as a result.

This destruction makes antimatter particularly challenging to observe, as matter — which annihilates it on contact — makes up the majority of the Universe.  In order to prevent the contact of matter and antimatter to allow observation, Hayden and his team used a device that suspended antimatter in a magnetic trap, keeping it away from the sides of the containing unit which is made of matter.

This device was the product of a CERN based group called the ALPHA collaboration, of which SFU researchers were also involved.

To trap and observe antimatter researchers combined anti-protons with anti-electrons to form a cloud of anti-hydrogen atoms. Last year, the team managed to trap antimatter for an unprecedented 16 minutes.
According to the paper published in Nature, the team then exposed these anti-hydrogens to high frequency radio waves while changing the strength of the magnetic trap to try and force them to escape, tracking their movement and patterns as they did.

“We end up getting images of tracks left by these particles, and we can lay these tracks all out and figure out where the common origin is, where did this little explosion occur,” Hayden said in an interview with the National Post. “What we see, of course, is that sure enough it comes right from the outside edge of our trap, where we expect them to come from.”

Scientific literature suggests that after the big bang, matter and antimatter were being rapidly created at a frenzied space as the universe expanded and cooled. Thus, having an outline of the “atomic fingerprint” as well as observations of an antimatter particle would give scientists new clues to the genesis of the universe.

“One of the reasons we want to study the spectrum of the antihydrogen atom is to look for clues that might shed light on a baffling mystery,” Hayden said to The Peak. “Everything we know about physics suggests that large quantities of matter and antimatter should have been created in the aftermath of the big bang”.

“So what happened? Where did the antimatter go? Trying to get to the bottom of this mystery is enormously important in physics and astronomy.”

“If we can see any small difference (between hydrogen and anti-hydrogen), maybe we can get some idea of why there is this preference for matter in the universe,” Tim Friesen, another Canadian researcher involved with the project said to the Calgary Herald.

“This experiment opens the door to precision comparisons of matter and antimatter,” said SFU PhD candidate Mohammad Ashkezar in a press release. “Eventually measurements like this will reveal clues that may help solve one of the deepest mysteries in particle physics.”

University Briefs

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EIC
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By Ariane Maddena

UBC students launch photo dating site

Two students at the University of British Columbia launched a different kind of dating website last week, garnering both support and privacy concerns over its execution. The site, called “Peeked Interest” invites university students to take a snap shot of their love interest and post them in the hopes of breaking the ice online. “Peeked” students have the option of initiating contact or deleting the unsolicited photograph upon discovery.

UBC to consider grade 11 marks for admission

Months of teacher strikes in British Columbia has caused chaos with grade 12 report cards, so the University of British Columbia has opted to include grade 11 marks towards admission of B.C. students. The university will permit submission of the grades for initial first-year admissions but will make a second round of admission offers once final grades become available in May.

U. Windsor student charged in campus pub stabbings

A student at the University of Windsor, Ontario turned himself in to police following an altercation at the campus pub, which saw three students hospitalized with stab wounds. Police reported that a fight broke out near the entrance to The Thirsty Scholar pub around closing time, when the young man allegedly stabbed two men before running to a nearby parking lot where he stabbed a third victim. All victims are expected to recover.

Former New Jersey student convicted of “bias intimidation”

A former Rutgers University student has been convicted of “bias intimidation” ­— a form of hate crime — stemming from the anti-gay bullying he imposed on his university residence roommate by filming his roommate’s sexual behaviours and bullying him. The roommate later committed suicide. The accused will likely go to jail for between five and 10 years or could be deported to his native India for the crime.

McGill arts and Concordia commerce students defy protest strikes

Students in the Faculty of Arts at McGill University and commerce and administration students at Concordia University in Quebec have voted to continue attending classes amongst student strikes over tuition hikes. The two faculties represent approximately 14,000 Quebec students who are in the midst of controversial government talks to increase tuition over the next five years.

— Ariane Madden

LipDub hits SFU

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EIC
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By Graham Cook

Project films main shoot after two years of thought and $25,000 worth of fundraising efforts

SFU’s version of the popular LipDub video trend was filmed last Wednesday and drew the participation of up to 700 students.  The video, which features the music of Panic! at the Disco and These Kids Wear Crowns, is the product of two years of thought and planning, according to producer Arry Dhillon.

Dhillon, who spoke with The Peak on the night of the filming, said that the main reason for making the LipDub was to build a sense of community on campus.  He added that UBC’s version increased the motivation to get the project moved along.

Lorenz Yeung, another producer, also added that this video is “history in the making for SFU. I am really excited that this day is finally here.”

Among the participants were various departmental student unions, athletics teams and clubs such as SASS, LASSU, the lacrosse team, the Magic Club, and the Chamber Orchestra, among others. The theme of the video was ‘end of the world’ and saw students decorated in zombie make-up and terrorizing the Burnaby campus set to music. The LipDub proceeded throughout the school, ending in Convocation Mall at just after midnight Thursday morning where pyrotechnic explosions highlighted the finale.
Despite setbacks, including camera troubles and a student who was reportedly not a part of the video requiring an ambulance on the set, around 200 of the original volunteers were still present when filming wrapped up.  These delays led to visible frustration on the part of organizers and participants, which in some cases resulted in verbal confrontation.

However, participants Amanda Smith and Ruth Clemens told The Peak that they felt that, while the project could have been organized better, it was an overall positive experience. Clemens added that what set SFU’s take on the LipDub apart from others is the fact that it contains a storyline.

“The final project is going to be the determinant, but I think whereas all the other LipDubs are happy . . . ours is like zombies. It’s a little bit more morbid and more exciting and it has a theme to it.”

The production did not come free of charge however.  Arry Dhillon estimated that it cost approximately $25,000 for the filming.  $6,000 of this came from the profits of pub nights while the other $19,000 came from departments within the university. While corporate sponsors did contribute donations, the LipDub crew did not accept monetary support from external sources in order to maintain creative control.

The video is also acting as a fundraising effort for the food bank, with the group running a can drive.  In addition, they have set-up a ‘click sponsorship’ deal where every view the video receives will result in a penny donation.

Ode to a Bennett Library Cubicle

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EIC
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By Denise Wong

Oh Cubicle,

Thy murky yellow walls enclose me in a
monotonous fortress
of euphoric productivity.
Surrounded by nothingness and books written in French:
alas I am free of distractions.
Your solitary confinement that bores me to tears:
no one to talk to,
no where to go —
except the washroom.
No food allowed —
I guess I can’t binge eat now.
Nothing to do
but actually read.

Oh Cubicle,

I rejoice when we are reunited amidst this
academic craze.
But now that you’ve helped me complete this essay
I must resign from your company
and return to civilization.
Though fear not,
for I shall return when midterms strike
and indeed, strike they shall

theWAREHOUSE: Social Media

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EIC
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By Carl Huber at theWAREHOUSE Comic

Fashions of the world wars’ intermission

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EIC
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0

By Daryn Wright

‘Golden age thinking’: the belief that a time before our own was better, more progressive, and in this case — more chic

Serving as a reminder of a time before our own, mannequins stand sentinel in the Museum of Vancouver, donned in garments from the early ‘20s to late ‘30s, an era of shifting trends and irrefutable allure, as part of the “Art Deco Chic” exhibit, which stays on display until September. Almost all of the 66 pieces are picked from the collections of Ivan Sayers and Claus Jahnke. Sayers started collecting vintage and antique pieces when he was 15 years old, in part so that the pieces wouldn’t go to waste. Parts of his collection date back to the 1700s.

The exhibit is organized chronologically, and so the first few pieces you’ll encounter are date back to the early ‘20s, and reflects a rising fixation on Egypt and the ethnic east, fueled by the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Aluminum sunbursts are embroidered on a shift the colour of desert sand, and a sheer lilac dress has pyramids and palm trees extensively embroidered along the top and bottom hem. Dresses have a drapey shape and are almost childlike in their form, with the emphasis on surface design, all characteristic of then-emergent flapper style. “The ‘20s were a time for women’s liberation, not only of mind, but also shape; they were fighting for the right to vote, and to be considered more for their intellect than their figures,” said Amanda McCuaig, an organizer of the exhibit.

The straight shapes and geometric prints of the time’s apparel indicate the heavy influence of art deco, an artistic movement that, like its name implies, was very decorative and ornate and embraced modernism, while maintaining a certain elegance as well. Think the Chrysler building in New York City, or the German expressionist film Metropolis.

In the ‘30s section, you’ll find a jewel case of accessories displaying leather oxfords, hats with tiny brims, a clutch shaped like a Volkswagen Beetle, and a small, headless velvet teddy bear, which reveals itself to be a perfume bottle. Many people tend to associate this decade’s fashions with the Great Depression, said McCuaig, and are often surprised that their preconceived notions of ‘20s and ‘30s garments are usually quite off the mark.

In this era, an emphasis on shape becomes fashionable again, with the waist coming back up and in quite literally. The focus turns to cut outs in the actual form itself, rather than surface design. Many dresses have intricately detailed and open backs, so they are the focus when dancing with a partner.

The drastic change in design from the ‘20s can be explained by the fact that fashion is an industry: by changing what is fashionable, designers are able to continue to sell new pieces during the grim economic state, which in itself also contributed to the drastic change: modesty grew in value, and liberation movements were put on hold.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the exhibit is the sense of nostalgia one gets from the garments. Much of the art deco details are making their way back into designs today. Some of the exhibit’s pieces, such as a short cream flapper dress, could easily be worn to a cocktail party today, while others are transferable from the ‘30s to the context of the ‘80s: the angular shoulders, kitschy pins, and black and white leather gloves.

“If you take it out of the ‘80s context and into the ‘30s context, then it becomes glamorous. Maybe men with big hair and tight pants will come back too,” McCuaig laughed.

Old styles have shifted forward to the present, reflecting the changing ideals of the people in the clothes. Nostalgia for the decades past now rules the fashion world. “People just don’t dress like this anymore. Any chance I get to recreate it, I take it,” said one elderly woman at the opening night exhibit, glamorously dressed in clothing of the exhibit’s era.

B.C. budget calls for cuts to post-secondary institutions

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EIC
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By Arshy Mann

Provincial government asks universities and colleges to find $70 million in administrative savings

VANCOUVER (CUP) — In the pursuit of a balanced budget, B.C. is asking universities and colleges to tighten their belts.

The provincial government, in its budget tabled February 21, is calling for post-secondary institutions to cut $70 million from their collective budgets over the next three years.

According to finance minister Kevin Falcon, the government expects this money to come from administrative savings.

“The province will work with universities, colleges, and other institutions to help ensure that front-line programs are not affected,” he said in his budget announcement. “And we believe a one per cent cost reduction is very achievable.”

Funding will stay stable for the next year, with the cuts coming between 2013 and 2015.

The budget document asserts that savings can be found by combined purchases of equipment by institutions, cutting travel costs and through a reduction in support services.

A statement from the Ministry of Advanced Education emphasized that the budget also included a $9-million increase for “additional medical, health and other priority seats”, and that $462 million had been set aside for capital projects over the next few years.

UBC declined to comment about how the university would deal with budget cuts.

Michelle Mungall, the NDP critic for advanced education, said that despite the government’s promises, the cuts are likely to affect students.

“We’re seeing colleges report projected deficits, and that would be before the budget was released. And now with this budget, we’re going to see program cuts.”

She argued that institutions have been cutting back on administration for years and that there remains little left to cut.

“They’ve become very lean machines,” she said. “And they have no choice but to go back to students. No surprise here, when you look at the budget book, the only thing increasing in post-secondary education is revenue from tuition.”

Mungall said that colleges will be hit harder by the budget cuts than universities.

“They don’t have the ability to seek out research grants to top up in the same way that universities do.”

Mungall also pointed to the special challenges of northern and rural institutions. She argued that schools that have multiple campuses spread over large regions, such as Okanagan College and Northwest Community College, must pay more for travel and often replicate classes at various campuses.

She went on to say that the budget also falls short on financial aid for students, and that an NDP government would reinstate a needs-based grant program that was axed in 2005.

Rober Clift, the executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C., said that post-secondary institutions face greater inflationary pressures than other sectors of the economy.

“Prices for things like journals, scientific equipment, laboratory supplies . . . the inflation rates for those types of goods and services increases at a faster rate than the general price index,” he said.

Clift found the government’s claim that funding cuts won’t affect students to be suspect.

“They said that the cuts can’t come at the expense of services to students, which is laudable, but impossible,” he said. “Students are going to feel this one way or another.”

Clift went on to say that while lay-offs are unlikely at universities, one way that savings may be found is by departments not rehiring for vacancies.

“So it’s not that a faculty member gets laid off, but a department that was maybe looking to hire somebody won’t do that hiring now. When we can’t reduce services to students, we can’t cut the number of sections, so what we do [is] we try to hire sessional instructors to do that job.”

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