Home Blog Page 1394

Clan hold off Wildcats to solidify playoff berth

By
EIC
-
0

By Adam Ovenell-Carter

A win on Thursday night could’ve propelled the SFU women’s basketball team into the second seed in the GNAC standings. A loss could’ve sent them to sixth. That’s the way it is in the GNAC, and that’s the way it’s been all season: incredibly tight, where no team can be taken for granted.

Heading into the game, the Clan were sitting on a 9–5 record, while the Central Washington Wildcats were struggling at only 4–10 — but don’t think for a second that they’re a bad team. In this league, those don’t exist.

Nevertheless, with the playoffs inching closer and closer, one could’ve expected the Clan to come into the game with bigger things on the mind. But when one loss can drop you to the sixth and final playoff berth, there’s no bigger thing than the game at hand.

“It’s impossible not to be focused [on the game],” said guard Marie-Line Petit. “You have to be. With the conference so tight, you have to be ready to play.”

However, for large portions of the game, it seemed as though the Clan were lacking that necessary focus.

The team showed it early and played to an early lead, and looked like they might run away with the game early. A strong start forced the Wildcats to take a timeout and make a full personnel change just two minutes in. But every time the Clan looked like they were about to pull away, the Wildcats clawed their way right back into the thick of things. A back-and-forth first half ended with the Clan up 35–27, thanks in large part to the team’s inside defense. SFU outscored Central Washington 18–6 from inside the paint, but the Wildcats’ deep ball was firing on all cylinders, keeping the team in it.

In the second half however, things began to unravel a little for the Clan. The team committed just three turnovers in the entire first half, but had six in the first five minutes of the second alone. Foul trouble cost the Clan Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe’s services for longer than anyone would’ve hoped. Kristina Collins — arguably the Clan’s most accurate shot — finished just 4–11 from the floor. The team as whole shot only 14 per cent from beyond the arc, and while the team did rebound well, those missed shots often turned into points for the Wildcats.

The Clan are a talented enough team to succeed even when playing poorly, and for 57 minutes, they were doing just that. And for the final 10, it seemed like they were simply surviving. Eventually though, the team’s troubles finally caught up to them and Central Washington took a 66–64 lead with just over two minutes to play.

“We just rallied and stayed calm,” said Petit of her team’s mentality after trailing for the first time in the game. “We’re a good team, we knew how to get it back.”

And they did.

As if they had just been saving their best play for when they absolutely needed it, the Clan promptly stole the lead right back. With time ticking down, the Wildcats were forced to foul to salvage any chance at a win. Instead, the Clan finished 8-for-8 from the line in the final 90 seconds, which sealed the 70–66 Clan victory.

That the Clan didn’t put forth anything close to their best effort against a team below them in the standings is disconcerting. That they found a way to win in spite of it is critical. When the playoffs roll around in just a few weeks’ time, finding ways to win will be essential. The best teams know how to do just that, and while the win only moved the Clan into third, they’re not all that far from the top. And in a league like this, that’s no small feat.

Clan sign four local products

By
EIC
-
0

By Adam Ovenell-Carter

With three star players graduating from the men’s soccer program, the Clan naturally had some roster spots to fill. Midfielder Josh Bennett, who recently tried out with the MLS’s San Jose Earthquake, along with defenders Carson Gill and Anthony DiNicolo, leave the Clan on a high note. The team had an incredible 2011 season, and truly were the toast of the NCAA Division II. Fortunately, the team is deep enough to withstand the loss of three prominent players and has a strong enough foundation to be a force for the foreseeable future. Of course, that starts with strong recruiting, and the Clan hope their four new recruits will help continue that trend.

Simon Cohen, Colin Jacques, Gilbert Kyne, and Tristan Wallis-Mayer are all high-end talents, and all local products.

“It is very rare for us in this day and age to find four elite players like this in our own backyard,” said head coach Alan Koch.  “As is consistent with our recruiting over the years we look local first before looking at any foreign talent.” It helps when the local talent is good enough to play on the best team in the league.

Cohen, a goaltender, joins a deep pool of keepers that will no doubt have much to teach him as he develops into a potential starter. That said, Koch says he already has many characteristics that cannot be taught.

“Simon has a lot of intangibles that you cannot teach. His desire and his height are major attributes in his position,” he said. “He is fortunate that he is coming into a very healthy goalkeeping situation. He will be able to learn from our senior keepers this coming season and I am confident that he will become the number one goalkeeper for us at some stage in his career at SFU.”

By that time, two of the other recruits might just be carrying the team offensively. Jacques is an explosive forward with big play capability, and can tear up opposing defenses. The dynamic striker is complimented nicely by well-rounded fellow forward Kyne, and together they could grow into a force up front.  As Koch puts it, they possess a “great combination of flair and strength to add to our potent goal-scoring game,” and given SFU’s already-lethal attack, the two should have plenty of material to learn from.

And while those two work their way into the Clan’s offense, Wallis-Mayer will be given his chance to grow into an anchor on the Clan’s backend. Wallis-Mayer, a lightning-quick fullback from West Vancouver, comes to SFU with no shortage of accolades. Having been a member of the B.C. provisional team twice, he has
big-game experience, which could prove valuable when playoffs become an option for the Clan.

Despite having three key players leaving the system, the Clan still sport few, if any, holes throughout their roster. Four freshmen might not see the field all too much, but it’s still a great time to be a Clan recruit. Right now, they have a great opportunity to learn from their peers that comprise the reigning number-one team in the NCAA Division II. That, coupled with four local talents, could mean the Clan will
stay in that spot for quite
some time.

Canucks Tickets Photo Contest

By
EIC
-
0

Man loses 500 pounds through prayer.

By
EIC
-
0

By Brad McLeod

Tagline: Morbidly obese man beats weight through prayer, lack of religion.

A local man recently lost an unprecedented amount of weight in a remarkably short amount of time, but he is attributing it to an unexpected source. Hal Gunderson, a formerly fat man from Delta, B.C. is claiming to have lost over 500 pounds thanks to prayer: not God, but the physical act of prayer.

Gunderson claims he first discovered this form of exercise when he visited his local church in search of answers to his many ailments.

“I was feeling real bad,” recalls Gunderson, “I was always being discriminated against because of my weight and I felt unable to make a connection with anyone.”

“I thought nobody loved me but then I read a brochure that talked about a guy named Jesus who did love me and I decided to give him a chance. When I was at the church, I didn’t really gain any enlightenment but when we were asked to bow our heads and kneel I felt a physical exertion I hadn’t felt in years.”

“From that point on I just kept praying  . . . I went to every mass I could and I did about 100 reps of prayer before I went to sleep at night. I guess you could say I stuck to it religiously,” he added.

Gunderson also stated that he plans to make a series of instructional DVDs on how to shed pounds with prayer. “I go from just your basic prayers to more advance techniques such as cross-training and double bible squats; this video is going to be the complete package and I think people are going to be stoked about it.”

Although the majority of the population is “stoked”, Gunderson has one major opponent: the Catholic church has released a statement condemning Gunderson for “making a mockery of the holy act of prayer.

“What this man is doing is wrong, prayer is about connecting with God, not losing weight,” said Archbishop Francis Xavier. “If people are looking to stay healthy they should look no further than Pope Benedict’s DVD: Pilates with the Pope. Two divinely easy payments of $19.99,” he intoned.

More lawsuits surround Kwantlen Student Association

By
EIC
-
1

By Matt DiMera

Impeached director of finance sues interim KSA board of directors

SURREY (CUP) — Recently impeached Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) executive Balninna “Nina” Sandhu is attempting to undo the results of the November 30 special general meeting (SGM) where she and 12 other directors were kicked out of office.

Sandhu, the KSA’s former director of finance, and student Gary Singh Dhaliwal filed a petition January 10 through the B.C. Supreme Court claiming that the SGM was invalid and seeking a court order to reinstate the impeached directors and to place 14 other curre

nt and former students and staff members back in good standing as KSA members.

As members in bad standing, the 26 are currently not allowed to run for office in the KSA or vote in KSA elections. According to the petition filed with the court, Gary Dhaliwal intends to run for office in the next KSA election.

At that November 30 meeting, more than 350 students voted unanimously to remove Sandhu, Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi, Nipun Pandey, Parminder “Bobby” Padda, Jaspinder Ghuman, Tarun Takhar, Shivinder Grewal, Money Dhaliwal, Gaven Pangly, Simmy Grewal, Kamalpreet Dha, and Jagraj Hayre from their elected KSA positions.

Sandhu and Dhaliwal have also asked the court to set aside the new bylaws that were passed at the meeting and to prevent the current KSA board from holding new elections until the court case has been resolved.

The day after the SGM, Sandhu accused the meeting’s organizers of not allowing her and the other ousted board members to speak in their own defense.

“We were barred,” she explained to The Runner December 1. “Ask the petitioners of that meeting why we were barred from the meeting. I’m a student. I’m an elected official. I was barred from the meeting.

“Someone told me I wasn’t allowed in. He said, ‘You’re not allowed to get in.’ They wouldn’t let us register,” she said. “If I was let into the goddamn meeting, I could have said my statement.”

According to the court petition filed by Sandhu and Dhaliwal, none of the impeached board members attempted to sign in.

However, the impeached director of operations, Nipun Pandey, told The Runner on December 1 that he was able to register for the meeting, but claimed that he had been refused entry.

Sandhu, Pandey and former director of external affairs Bobby Padda all said at the time that their supporters had been too intimidated to attend the meeting.

The court petition also specifically mentions that all of the impeached board members and all of the students placed in bad standing are South Asian.

None of the allegations made by Dhaliwal and Sandhu have been proven in court.

The court dismissed an application January 13 to expedite the case.

In a second application, heard January 17, Sandhu and Dhaliwal asked for a court order to prevent the new KSA board from bargaining with their staff’s union, from signing or changing any contracts, and from calling any elections until the case had been resolved by the court.

That application was withdrawn when the KSA’s legal counsel then agreed that the new board would not take any “extraordinary actions — out of the ordinary course of business until the application or interim relief is heard on a preemptory basis.”

Sandhu did not respond to an email request for an interview before deadline.

The new KSA board has not yet filed their statement of defense.

SFU to retain entrance scholarships

By
EIC
-
0

<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/Erika-Zell”>Erika Zell</a></strong>

Despite UBC’s decision to cut its equivalent program, SFU has no plans to eliminate academics-based entrance awards

Prospective SFU students may be relieved to learn that UBC’s decision to axe their President’s Entrance Scholarship (PES) program will not be replicated at SFU in the near future, but some experts are praising the decision as a better allocation of university funds.

The PES was a series of minor entrance scholarships granted automatically based on academic merit to incoming students, with a maximum value of $4,000 awarded for a grade 12 average of greater than 95 per cent. The program was discontinued as of January 1, 2012, after an internal study concluded that the scholarship was not a factor in most students’ decision to attend UBC.

Tim Rahilly, associate vice-president, students and international, confirmed that there is no plan to modify SFU’s entrance scholarship program at present. SFU currently runs several similar entrance scholarships to UBC’s former PES: the Academic Excellence scholarship is a $5,000 award automatically received by incoming high school students with grade 12 averages greater then 95 per cent, while the Summit and Kenneth Strand scholarships are $3,500 prizes awarded to incoming students with at least a 90 per cent average.

“I think a scholarship can be motivating or reaffirming of a student’s decision,” said Rahilly. “I think many schools want to know if offering the scholarship changes a student’s decision to attend the institution (i.e., they would not have attended if they had not received the award), but I suspect the perspective of the student applying is slightly different, [because] usually students evaluate a number of factors [such as] program choice, location, cost, and financial support [when picking a school].”

SFU’s entrance scholarship program is currently worth $1.7 million per year, on top of over several more million allocated for major multi-year awards. While the administration does not plan to change SFU’s scholarship policy at present, Rahilly said that the program would likely be revaluated within the next two years to ensure that it continues to work towards the goals set out in the university’s three-year academic plan.

CAPS comes to SFU

By
EIC
-
0

<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/michael-brophy”>Michael Brophy</a></strong>


 Annual planning conference blends lectures with tours of the GVRD for students across Canada

Minds converged at The Canadian Association of Planning Students (CAPS) Conference in Vancouver over the first weekend of February to discuss the living laboratory of “the most livable city” in North America. Conferences to promote sustainable, economical, and socially inclusive lifestyles are held yearly by CAPS in different Canadian cities with a diverse array of speakers. After much deliberation, Simon Fraser University was selected to host the conference this year, bringing urban planning students from across the country to Vancouver for three days to learn, network, and socialize.

The three-day-long event gave planning students an opportunity to give presentations to like-minded scholars offering a variety of viewpoints from different regions. Workshops were held on themes of professional development for planners and the challenges city officials face in meeting demands from the “occupy” movement to structurally reducing inequality. Tours were put on by organizations such as the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition through which students took part in outings on foot, by bike, and via public transit of Vancouver’s neighbourhoods. The SFU Community Trust offered students a tour of UniverCity’s highly regarded model of sustainable community living. Rides along the Broadway corridor presented students with Vancouver’s transit congestion problems in high use areas.

Walks through “Canada’s poorest postal code”, the Downtown Eastside, were broken into smaller groups to avoid disrespectful observation of the community as the sidewalks are considered the living rooms of many residents of the DTES. Mixed use social housing complexes such as the Woodward’s complex in the Gastown area were presented during walking tours as a way designers could aspire to preserve historic architecture while breaking down the polarization between the rich and poor simultaneously; a concept important to residents of the Downtown Eastside. Walking tours through the impoverished area allowed aspiring city planners time to reflect on ideas of community and land-use discussed at the conference with a practical perspective.

The national summit brought students with undergraduate backgrounds from management to geography and planning programs like the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning together with lecturers and mayors of cities on the vanguard of sustainability to analyze local, national, and international issues, offering solutions for the growing international urban demographic.

Keynote speakers included Gordon Price, director of the City Program at SFU, Larry Beasley, the retired director of planning for the City of Vancouver, and Julian Agyeman, a professor at Tufts University.

Other solutions were offered that were less related to structural planning of cities as well. “Countries which look after social justice have more women in parliament” mentioned Agyeman, author of Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World, referring to countries such as Sweden and Finland with approximately 40 per cent of government cabinet positions held by women. “Inequality heightens consumption which further increases the carbon footprint,” said Agyeman.

CAPS‐ACÉAU also teamed with SPACING, a Canadian blog and magazine, for their Vancouver launch party of their second national issue release. The event took place at Canvas Lounge in Gastown on February 3.

GSS launches contest

By
EIC
-
0

<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/benedict-reiners”>Benedict Reiners</a></strong>

 

Site encourages staff and students to upload evidence of SFU’s deterioration

The SFU Graduate Student Society (GSS) recently started a contest, which encourages students to show the signs of the deterioration of SFU’s buildings. This contest, which students and staff can enter by submitting pictures of damages and deteriorations of any of the SFU campuses to the campaign’s tumblr, “I [heart] SFU”, aims to bring attention to the state of the campus buildings in order to pressure increased funding towards repair and renovation projects, as well as other building projects, such as seismic upgrades for buildings like the Bennett Library.

When questioned about the current status of SFU’s buildings, GSS advocate Christina Batstone stated that “at this point in time, SFU has assessed 53 per cent of their buildings as being in poor condition, with another 27 per cent in fair condition.” She added further that such figures excluded both roadways and other utilities. These categorizations are determined under the Facility Condition Index, a system that rates buildings on the proportion of the components that have reached the ends of their useful lives, as measured by cost. Under this categorization, something is categorized as “poor” after 50 per cent of its components have reached the ends of their useful lives. In addition to this, “fair” covers anything that has anywhere from 20 per cent to 50 per cent of its components past their useful lives.

The contest started accepting pictures on January 1, and will continue to accept submissions up until February 29, with the main prizes being drawn on March 14. Submissions are to be submitted to the “I [heart] SFU” tumblr.

“The buildings are in a constant state of repair and maintenance, but there has not been a time when so many buildings needed urgent care all at once,” said Batstone, citing the fact that as most of the buildings are roughly the same age, they are requiring maintenance at the same rate, which is overwhelming the limited resources available.

This constant costs required to maintain the buildings has lead to their neglect, with not only limited funds from the university, but also the federal and provincial governments. However, the GSS warns of the risks of doing so, pointing out the fact that the costs will need to be incurred eventually, and can only be put of for a finite amount of time. This is supported by SFU’s capital plan regarding the matter, published in April of 2015. This document states that if the issue were to be ignored for excessive amounts of time, university operations would become “impaired.” However, the extent of possible impairments is not yet known.

Though despite the fact that the full extent of possible damages and their respective impacts on students cannot be known in advance, the GSS insists that students can expect to bear some of the financial burden, so long as the provincial and federal governments don’t step in to help. “Students may see their fees increasing or additional levies,” stated Batstone, who also indicated that such increases in costs would likely be passed on to students apart from tuition, due to fixed increases which restrict it.

However, currently, the university is working with the provincial government towards finding a plan to address the deteriorating state of the campus. “The university is working closely with the Ministry of Advanced Education on the need to plan for the renewal of our older buildings,” said Larry Waddell, director of facilities development at SFU’s Burnaby campus, stating that it was these efforts that brought about the renovations to the Shrum Science Chemistry building, completed last year.

Despite the completion of such a project, GSS also encouraged students to get further involved in the matter, citing the significant amounts of work still to be done. They suggested efforts focused on the public awareness towards the issue, with the GSS providing recommendations for writing letters to local members of parliament and MLAs, or opinion pieces for regional newspapers. In addition to this, they once again encourage students to participate in their campaign, which “is open to all members of the SFU community and is a really easy way to support our efforts to address this issue.”

 

Faculty of Science eliminates student liaison position

By
EIC
-
0

By David Dyck

Two positions within the faculty eliminated, raising concerns of student–faculty engagement

On Thursday, January 26, the positions of coordinator, recruitment and retention, and the director of finance in the Faculty of Science were terminated. The termination of these positions came as a surprise to faculty members, students, and the employees themselves.

Stephen Price, who had held the position of coordinator, recruitment and retention, for five years, was “visibly upset”, according to Tabrez Hussein, the Simon Fraser Student Society representative from the science faculty. Price was an intrinsic part of the Geek Week and Science Frosh events at SFU in past years. “He’s the contact guy, and has been ever since Geek Week has been functioning at the school. He’s the administrator behind it. The funding for it came out of his budget,” Hussein told The Peak. Hussein explained that typically it’s difficult for students to talk directly to the faculty, and Price assisted in bridging that gap during his time in the position.

In addition, Hussein noted that Price’s position was terminated during Geek Week January 23 to 27. “He actually had a group picture scheduled with us at 2:30 [on January 26], and at 11:00 a.m. we hear [his position] was terminated . . . It was surprising to everybody.”

“This was a shock to us,” said Michael Chua, the budget and fundraising director for the Science Community Initiative. “We were in the middle of conducting Geek Week, and then Stephen approached us directors [of the Science Community Initiative] and that’s when we found out.”

The decision to eliminate the positions was made by the dean of science, Dr. Claire Cupples, who has held the position since August 1, 2010. Although Cupples declined The Peak’s request for an interview, she issued the following statement via email: “This organizational restructuring will not affect our student-focused or student-run programs. My associate dean and I met with the faculty of science representative of the Simon Fraser Student Society, and one of his colleagues, this past Tuesday morning so that they could reassure their fellow students on that point.”

Both Hussein and Chua were at the meeting on January 31, but neither felt confident that the duties performed in the position of student recruitment and retention coordinator would be taken up to the extent that it had been by Price. “I don’t understand why the dean wasn’t able to rewrite his job description, or even approach him about changing his job description; [it made] absolutely no sense. Also, there’s no clear vision as to what’s going on with the position that existed already,” said Hussein.

“We wanted to ask her who we can coordinate with for our events, since most of them are Faculty of Science related,” said Chua. “The dean assured us that we would get funded for Geek Week, but for future projects we have to propose first what we want to do, and if it’s aligned with the vision of the faculty of science then we would be funded or supported in any way that seems fit.” According to Chua, the dean assured them that although someone would be in contact with them, connecting students with the faculty would be less of a priority in the new position.

The Peak obtained a copy of the job description for Price’s former position. Although much of it revolves around active recruitment for the SFU Faculty of Science, an equal portion is given to promotion within the faculty, including “[liaising] with Student Services to ensure faculty recruitment and retention initiatives are consistent with university goals and objectives and to encourage joint development of initiatives.”

Jonathan Driver, VP-academic, told The Peak that positions are eliminated either for budgetary reasons, or because of restructuring within the faculty. According to Hussein, the reason given by Cupples for the termination of these positions was the latter.

“Whenever a position is eliminated it will always be sudden because there would not be any public dissemination of information about that, until the position has been eliminated,” said Driver, “so it would always work in this way.” He maintained that to the best of his knowledge, the process was done in accordance with university policy.

Both Price and the former director of finance, Siamak Saidi, declined to comment.

University Briefs

By
EIC
-
0

Yale students discover plastic-eating organism

 

A group of students on an annual rainforest exhibition with Yale University, were able to cultivate a fungus capable of digesting polyurethane in low oxygen environments. The findings, published late last year in the Journal of Microbiology, could have significant impacts on plastic landfill waste which scientists believe degrades over hundreds of years in such a low oxygen environment.

 

Alberta student arrested for pointing gun in residence

 

A student at Medicine Hat College has been arrested by police and permanently banned from the campus after pointing a gun at other students last Saturday. Witnesses say that the 25-year-old male pointed the gun at other residents after an argument escalated at the student residence buildings.  He is now facing weapons and other related charges.

 

UWindsor targeted by anti-Israeli graffiti

 

A number of globes at the University of Windsor campus library were removed after students complained of anti-Israeli graffiti on them. The primarily-Jewish nation of Israel had been scratched out of globes for at least three years, despite student complaints.

 

UBC clubs targeted by theft over winter break

 

Hundreds of dollars and a small laptop were stolen from three student clubs over winter break at the University of British Columbia’s Student Union Building. Changes to security measures in the area have been implemented since the incident which did not damage any door locks or windows.

 

UBC announces new gender studies institute

 

In celebrating its 20th anniversary, the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies announced the creation of the new institute for gender, race, sexuality and social justice in conjunction with its undergraduate women’s and gender studies program. The merger of the two programs will be complete in April and will aim to study gender issues in differing professions such as health care.

 

 

— Ariane Madden


1...1,3931,3941,395...1,407Page 1,394 of 1,407

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