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SFU infrastructure needs your help

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EIC
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By Mike Soron

 

The offices, labs, and public spaces at SFU have seriously deteriorated because they are not maintained as needed. It saddens me to see the monumental steps of Arthur Erikson’s Convocation Mall literally crumbling, marked off by orange safety pylons on rainy days. Some buildings are unsafe and others so degraded that they can only be demolished. This is not an acceptable environment for world-class teaching, learning and research and graduate students are calling on the B.C. government to restore funding for the maintenance and renewal of campus buildings.

SFU’s Capital Plan, approved by the Board of Governors last spring, indicates that more than half of SFU’s buildings are in ‘poor’ condition. The plan warns that the WAC Bennett Library building is seismically unsafe. Considering this, I’m not surprised that building maintenance and renewal is a top priority for university administrators. Considering that SFU’s report to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) indicates a backlog of over $700 million at SFU Burnaby alone, building maintenance and renewal will remain a priority for many, many years. Yet, SFU cannot even meet ordinary yearly maintenance costs, let alone address the backlog of repairs postponed because of recent funding cuts.

In Canada, the provinces are responsible for post-secondary education, and British Columbia has historically funded maintenance through an annual capital allowance (ACA) to universities and colleges. Funding for SFU ACA has been dramatically slashed, from approximately $4.6 million in 2008–2009 to just over $500,000 in 2010–2011 — a 90 per cent decrease! SFU’s is asking for $20 million a year in provincial maintenance funding starting in 2012, just to keep our buildings and infrastructure from degrading further. But, administration’s report to the NWCCU says a value twice that is needed. If appropriate funding is not soon provided, SFU warns that its operations will be affected. At our university, operations must mean teaching, learning and research. These are SFU’s core functions and — at minimum — we need safe and healthy classrooms, labs, and washrooms kept in good repair.

Everyday, next to unsealed windows and closed-off hallways, students feel the consequences of not maintaining our buildings and infrastructure. I hear stories from graduate students about leaky ceilings, unheated offices, and unrepaired fixtures. I see the damage at SFU Vancouver, too, where malfunctioning elevators and locked stairwells soured my early classwork at Harbour Centre. Feedback from concerned students in these buildings should encourage the province to restore and prioritize maintenance funding through the ACA.

Renewing buildings in Burnaby, Vancouver, and Surrey is a socially, fiscally, and environmentally responsible use of provincial resources. Repairing and rebuilding our campus employs British Columbian workers and can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to dangerous global warming. Undertaking these repairs can improve the health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff on campus. Further delaying this work will only increase risk and long-term costs, while impairing the teaching, learning and research taking place at SFU today. So, grab a camera, document the urgent need around you, and help the GSS advocate for the provincial funds needed to repair our campus.

You can help advocate for restored funding by photographing examples of the under-maintained campus and its impact on your learning, research, and teaching. Take photographs and send them to [email protected] or by visiting iheartsfu.tumblr.com. The Graduate Student Society will collect these stories and photos showing how postponing maintenance affects teaching, learning and research and use them in making a strong case for urgent action by the B.C. government.

Canada’s apartheid

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EIC
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Are we 20 years behind South Africa?

By Christopher Nichols

I’m sitting on a metal bunk in a medium-security prison in South Africa as I write this.  The blazing sunlight and gorgeous natural scenery outside seem strangely juxtaposed with the barred windows and razor wire-topped walls, but I suppose Africa has always been a land of contradictions. The cold concrete walls do something to alleviate the 35 degree temperature outside, but I can’t quite stave off a slick of sweat.

I am, by the way, referring to the long-defunct prison on Robben Island, just off the coast of Cape Town, where I am currently spending three weeks working in heritage conservation. The island itself is quite beautiful, which — speaking of contradictions — is also at odds with its unsavoury history. It has served as a leper colony, a mental asylum, a military outpost, and several forms of prison. Most famously, Robben Island was for many years the dumping ground for South Africa’s political dissidents — including Nelson Mandela, who finally broke the back of the apartheid system in 1991.

Institutionalised racism is not what you’d call a new problem. It is so old a problem, in fact, that it boggles the mind to think that it was still in place as recently as 1991. Surely, in our world of genetic science and understanding of DNA, we should be passed the concept of race itself, let alone of racism. That is, of course, wishful thinking, as the obsessive need to classify and divide is one of the defining features of humanity, and not something that we have much chance of wiping out entirely (despite it also being one of our most problematic and conflictive tendencies). Once humans do begin to spot petty differences among things, especially themselves, it’s all but inevitable that a pecking order is established — usually somewhat less-than-diplomatically. Apartheid, in some form or another, has existed since the dawn of colonialism. South Africa was simply the first country to give it its own name.

In many ways, while researching the history of the racial struggles here as close to first-hand as one can get today, I am reminded of our own racial conflicts in Canada. The colonial efforts in both countries show a very distinct strategy designed to dehumanise the indigenous populations: a policy of attempted assimilation followed by one of segregation, with the two policies overlapping to various degrees; the ‘innovation’ of ID cards; heavy stereotyping and distortion of history to portray the people as inferior and savage; and systems of enforced poverty.

With all these similarities in mind, however, there is one major difference that does need to be pointed out. South Africa managed to free itself from this archaic system 20 years ago and establish for itself a new, non-racist order. Difficulties still exist among the people, as they are prone to, but the government is, finally, officially colour-blind (one absurd exception being that employers are required to give preference to non-white job candidates — a bizarre twist of prejudice, though I refuse to use the phrase ‘reverse racism’). The question does have to be asked, therefore: why is Canada so far behind in this — pardon the expression — race?

While Canada is not an overtly or intentionally racially oppressive country, and has made great efforts to rectify past injustices (correction of history and stereotypes and repatriation of artefacts, for instance), it continues to retain some of those hallmarks of racism that South Africa shed so decisively in the ‘90s. In particular, segregation and ID carding persist, via reservations and status cards, respectively. But they have been somewhat watered down and warped, being presented as a) voluntary, and b) beneficial.

Segregation via the reserve system is still going strong. It’s not an enforced situation; anyone has the right to move out of the reservation if they want to. However, it is nevertheless a system whereby a single denomination of people can become isolated from all others —segregation by choice! Similarly, no one will be arrested for failing to produce a status card, but the card’s demeaning effect still takes hold: a document that identifies you as disparate from all other humans (not simply from white people; there are no status cards for people of black, Hispanic, or any other descent) — which is dehumanization of the self.

The key point is that instead of rectifying the situation, the government has merely offset the responsibility for it: they place the decision in the hands of the minority whether or not to shed these remnants of oppression and unite with ‘mainstream’ society. And though I do not believe the legislation regarding the problem is designed to actively oppress native people, neither does it encourage them to free themselves. By presenting things such as reservations and status cards as benefits, and moreover as entirely optional, the government is able to maintain a façade of equality while retaining those old elements of colonialism.

I realize I may sound a bit contradictory here: if I don’t believe the government is still being deliberately racist, what explanation can I offer for the retention of those colonial elements? Why would they not just get rid of them now? I present to you the rub: they have backed themselves into a corner. In their zeal to compensate  for the wrongs of the past, they have created a situation from which they cannot escape without a further indictment of racism. Were they to abolish reservations and status cards now, apparently revoking First Nations’ benefits, they would look straightforwardly racist. But by leaving things the way they are, they can be accused of backhanded racism instead.

While I think the first choice would ultimately be more humanistic and a step towards truer equality, this would sadly not be the outward impression. And as appearances are usually so much more important in politics than undercurrents, this catch-22 may persist for some time. What a beautiful example of that famous Canadian fence-sitting.

“Ordinary Canadians don’t care about the arts”

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EIC
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How arts organizations in B.C. are impacted by funding cuts, and why they aren’t giving up

By Esther Tung
Photos By Mark Burnham

It’s official — arts and culture funding in B.C. will be frozen for the next three years. The 2012 B.C. provincial budget, released last week, was projected to bring the province from its current deficit to a $154 million surplus for 2014. While other areas of the budget were also frozen, the province’s freeze on funding will put B.C. in dead last among all Canadian provinces for available arts funding. Even the one silver lining — $9 million set aside for a $500 tax credit for each child enrolled in sports or arts programs —  comes with a catch: that credit only comes into effect if over $1,000 in fees is spent to begin with, which does little to make the arts any more accessible or affordable. Yet the B.C. government managed to find wiggle room for over $80 million in tax credits of up to $42,500 for purchases of recreational properties under $850,000.

Harper once notoriously said, “Ordinary Canadians don’t care about the arts,” to explain emptying $45 million out of the federal arts funding coffers in 2008. This is despite a federally-funded report’s findings that there has been a 107 per cent increase in spending on visual arts and a 50 per cent increase in spending on live performing arts in the last decade. No one has argued that we should increase arts funding at the expense of education and healthcare, or that the two can even be compared. However, there is an important place for the arts in our society. “An attitude in the culture that is particular to North America is that the government doesn’t have a responsibility to fund arts and culture, which I agree with,” Minna Schendlinger, the managing director of PuSh, a performance art festival, said. “They have a responsibility to invest in it, however.” The arts is more like post-secondary education — it’s beyond the basic set of human rights, but when accessible, is extremely enriching and valuable to a person, and it fosters critical, analytical, and creative thinking. There aren’t quite the same sneers when it comes to people wanting to see more subsidies and funding to post-secondary institutions, however.

An attitude in the culture that is particular to North America is that the government doesn’t have a responsibility to fund arts and culture, which I agree with. They have a responsibility to invest in it, however.

– Minna Schendlinger, managing director of PuSh

Contrary to popular opinion, ‘art’ is not limited to interpretive dance, vagina monologues, and abstract paintings. “When you pick up a newspaper, somebody wrote that. When you look at a website, somebody designed that,” said Schendlinger. “Because arts is [sic] so tightly woven into the fabric of society, it’s very easy to take for granted.” Art is your school choir and ensemble; it is your film, dance, and theatre electives. Art is reading a book; it is playing tambourine in a band. Art is doodling in the margins.

Furthermore, art spaces function as a kind of public sphere where grievances, good news, ideas, questions, and critiques come together. A healthy arts community creates social cohesion through real human interaction (because a live concert is never the same as the record). A developed cultural identity can bring a certain amount of prestige to a region. For example, we immediately think of Western European countries when we imagine a place with cool venues, progressive attitudes, and a cutting-edge artistic scene — and it correlates with the arts being assigned a much higher societal value in those countries.

On top of creating cultural prestige, the government at least won’t lose money by funding the arts, and may even earn some back. Directly after the Campbell arts cuts, then-executive director of the Alliance of Arts Amir Ali Alibhai held a talk at the VAG, citing this from a study funded by the City of Vancouver: “Every dollar invested in arts and culture returns between $1.05 and $1.36 in taxes back to the provincial government.” Furthermore, B.C.’s former minister of tourism, culture, and the arts, Kevin Krueger, reported that B.C.’s heritage and arts industry generate approximately 78,000 jobs in the creative industry and $5.2 billion in economic activity annually.

The arts are important for a number of reasons, and government funding cuts do not help them flourish. However, they are not solely responsible for the struggles faced by the arts community: the direct provincial spending makes up a small fraction of what B.C. arts organizations receive. What has affected the arts in B.C. far more are the changes made to the community gaming grants. Taxes collected by the province from gambling activities, including lotto tickets and horse racing, are reorganized into gaming grants, which are given out on the basis of an organization’s community engagement. $36 million was cut from gaming grants under Gordon Campbell’s government, and the eligibilities shifted to exclude arts, environmental, and sports programs that did not cater primarily to children and youth. Christy Clark, however, reinstated previous eligibilities and added $15 million to the fund in January — but that still leaves a $20 million shortfall from its earlier numbers.

Perhaps the one upside to all these cuts is that they allowed many arts organizations to prove that their sustainability was rooted in more than just government money and demonstrate how much “ordinary people” really do care about the arts. The Vancouver International Fringe Festival, considered a large independent theatre festival with a budget of over $1 million, was lucky to lock in a three-year term with a $70,000 gaming grant before the eligibilities changed, keeping them on track with the festival’s projected 30 per cent expansion. When their term ended, Fringe was resourceful in making up for the difference. “We’ve had to shift a lot of our focus to donations and fundraising,” said Executive Director David Jordan. “This meant we had to change the way we communicated with the community, which really had a positive effect, as now more people are aware that we are a charity, not just an entertainment event.”

For all non-profit organizations, including Fringe and many other arts festivals and organizations in B.C., surplus money is invested back into the organization — as opposed to being distributed as profit to owners and shareholders. In the Fringe’s case, that includes a mentoring program. Last year’s obvious pick was Awkward Stage Productions, which put on Smile, which alternated between a senior and junior youth cast. At Awkward Stage, older actors mentor newcomers, and all tech and design work is handled by youth as well.

Grants are vital to non-profits, precisely because grants are not loans. Without the pressure of needing to put together an event that must appeal to a wide enough audience so as to both repay the loan and earn enough money for next year, organizations are allowed that bit of leeway to step outside their comfort zone, nurture their artists, and sharpen their edges. The Fringe is one such instance. “The Fringe acts as an incubator for emerging ideas and artists,” said Jordan. The Fringe has a bit of a curious curatorial approach, in which they literally pick their shows out of a hat. “It’s very against the grain in terms of our society, which is so organized around excellence. We’re the opposite of that.” And if a weird show happens to get picked? “Then we have a weird show, and usually there will be weird people that like it,” he laughed. The only quality control in place is the artist application fee of $800, though participating artists keep everything earned at the box office after. “It’s a little mix of capitalism of socialism.” According to Jordan, the average group makes about $2,500, while top-tier shows, such as last year’s media darling Grim and Fischer, make around $5,000, which doesn’t amount to much of an hourly wage.

Of course, grants are not handed out indiscriminately. There is still pressure to create an end product that displays stability and a potential for growth if the organization wants to have a shot at applying for the grant again. Organizations still need to work hard to raise money on their own through donations and sales. “Grants are not handouts. You don’t get in line, put your hand out, and then someone drops a few thousand dollars in it.” Schendlinger said, explaining the long, arduous grant application process. She spends an average of 80 to 100 hours per grant proposal, which can include up to four separate reports. The bottom line is that arts organizations don’t just squander taxpayer money. Many festivals have contingent measures in place, whether it be following the for-profit model of having three months’ operating costs in reserve at all times, or having an endowment fund, which are both strategies adopted by the Vancouver International Writer’s Festival.

Arts in B.C. have definitely not reached their full potential, and dismal arts funding is only one factor among many. Consider the Writers’ Festival again. Their programming targeted at school-age children allowed them to remain eligible for the gaming grants, though ironically, it has been the attendance of that very demographic that has suffered in the past. “The teachers’ job action is hurting many arts organizations aimed at school-age audiences overall,” began Camilla Tibbs, operations manager of the festival. While teachers under the current B.C. Teachers’ Federation job action are still in classes, they have refused to pick up extra tasks, which include the arrangement of field trips. The year prior, cuts at the school board level affected ticket sales to school groups. Tibbs considered the Writer’s Festival fortunate in that this only afflicted half their programming, and added that many tickets were instead given away to schools that otherwise could not attend.

Despite all of these struggles, the arts community in B.C. is still trying to hold on. Going back to Harper’s sentiment on the arts, which has appeared to seep down to lower levels of government — if ordinary Canadians don’t care about the arts, then who are the people volunteering to man box offices in the cold, or working minimum wage while keeping their eye on the Pulitzer Prize? Why bother organizing free outdoor movies in the summer when no one supposedly cares? If it’s not ordinary Canadians who are behind the resurgence of book clubs in the last decade, then who is?

KSA signs deal with impeached former directors

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EIC
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By Matt DiMera


KSA agrees to pay Dhaliwal and Sandhu’s court costs, signs confidentiality agreement

SURREY (CUP) — The interim board of the Kwantlen Student Association (KSA) has reached an out-of-court settlement with impeached former director Balninna “Nina” Sandhu and student Gary Dhaliwal, and agreed to pay their court costs.

A mutual consent order was filed in B.C. Supreme Court February 16, upholding the November 30 special general meeting (SGM) and declaring the impeachments of 13 former directors as valid. In addition, the order upheld the new KSA bylaws adopted at that same meeting.

The consent order also overturned the placing in bad standing of 26 current and former students and staff members. Members in bad standing would not have been allowed to run for office in the KSA or vote in KSA elections.

Sandhu, the KSA’s former director of finance, and student Gary Singh Dhaliwal had filed a petition January 10 in B.C. Supreme Court claiming that the SGM was invalid and sought a court order to reinstate the impeached directors and to place 14 other current and former students and staff members back in good standing as KSA members.

According to a petition filed with the court in January, Gary Dhaliwal had intended to run for office in the next KSA election.

However, in a joint statement issued February 16 by the KSA and Sandhu and Dhaliwal, the 26 have “voluntarily agreed not to participate in the affairs of the KSA in any manner for the next three years, including seeking office as directors of the society.”

The KSA has also agreed that “the former directors, current directors, and other individuals named in the special resolutions at the SGM have agreed not to engage in further litigation regarding past events relating to the society.”

Both of those agreements are not included in the consent order filed with the court.

When asked by The Runner if there were other conditions or terms in that agreement that have not been made public, the current chairperson of the KSA executive board Christopher Girodat declined to answer.

“The student association has agreed not to discuss the settlement beyond what’s in the common statement,” said Girodat.

“The parties agreed to a desire to resolve all outstanding issues from the past,” he said, when asked if all cash advances had been repaid and if all KSA electronic equipment had been returned by the former directors.

According to the statement, “the parties and individuals involved in this matter have agreed to maintain confidentiality over the out-of-court resolution and discussions leading to the out-of-court resolution and, therefore, will not be making further statements regarding the out-of-court resolution or discussions that led up to the out-of-court resolution.”

Girodat was unable to say how much Sandhu and Dhaliwal’s legal fees will cost the KSA, but he assured students that the amount will be made public as soon as it is available.

Jonathan Tweedale, lawyer for Sandhu and Dhaliwal, also declined to comment about the settlement, citing the confidentiality agreement. Sandhu did not respond to an email request for an interview before deadline.

With the civil lawsuit ended, the KSA board is no longer prevented from bargaining with their staff’s union, from signing or changing contracts, or from calling an election.

Those restrictions had been agreed to by the KSA’s legal counsel David Borins, after Sandhu applied for a temporary injunction to stop the board from making any major decisions.

Current and former students posted their discontent with the news of the settlement on a Facebook group called Concerned Students of Kwantlen.

“People can dress it up all they want, however the bottom line is this whole saga goes to team Takhar, in the end,” wrote longtime former KSA board member Ken McIntyre in a lengthy post.

Former KSA executive member Steve Lee also expressed his disappointment on the Facebook group.

“It just means there is no justice here, no precedent set for people in the future,” wrote Lee. “It sends the message that it is okay to try this stuff cause in the end you will get away with it.”

According to Girodat, the decision to settle will allow the KSA to start the process of rebuilding, including hiring a general manager.

“Now that the dispute over the SGM has been put to rest, the Kwantlen Student Association can move on to hold elections        . . . we can resume working toward a collective agreement with our staff, which has been ongoing for 10 months now,” said Girodat in a February 17 interview.

“We can now commit the KSA’s time and resources back to student services, advocacy, and student representation, under a more accountable set of bylaws designed to put the power back in the hands of students.”

SFU researchers see security in holes

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EIC
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By Sam Reynolds

The colourful wings of the blue morpho butterfly inspire new anti-counterfeit technology

Taking inspiration from nature, a Surrey-based company led by two SFU researchers has developed a technology that has the potential to revolutionize security for documents and banknotes.

NanoTech Security’s product, called Nano-Optic Technology for Enhanced Security, or NOtES, can stamp a billion holes only atoms in width — no longer than a virus — onto an object, to reflect light with the brightness of an LED.

This would create a unique pattern for a document such as ID or a banknote that would be practically impossible to counterfeit.

“To build such small structures on large scales you need very specialized and expensive equipment which deters the counterfeiters,” explained Clint Landrock, an SFU PhD candidate who doubles as the chief technology officer of NanoTech Security. “We developed special algorithms and designs which make NOtES nearly impossible to replicate, and so far we have not been able to reverse.”

While confidentiality agreements prohibit Landrock from naming firms that are interested in NanoTech Security’s product, he did explain that a number of companies that have an interest in brand protection, such as manufacturers of jewelry or aircraft parts, are taking a look at this technology.

According to research done by the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, counterfeiting is more than a $600-billion industry.

The scientific principal behind NOtES is known as plasmonics, and takes place when light collects in the billion holes imprinted on a NOtES stamp.  No dyes or pigments are used to create a pattern; the company explained that light “creates higher than expected optical outputs by creating an electromagnetic field, called surface plasmonic resonance.”

Simply put: a billion clear atom-sized holes create an optical illusion of a coloured pattern or design.

A phenomenon similar to plasmonics is found in the wings of the blue morpho butterfly, native to Mexico and Central America. The butterfly’s blue colour comes not from pigment in its skin, but from hundreds of millions of atom sized holes in its wings that reflect light in a particular way.

Though the exact manufacturing process is a protected trade secret, prototypes of a NOtES stamp were fabricated by using an electron microscope and an ion beam to etch the pattern on the material one atom at a time. After a master stamp was created, copies were made by growing the metal directly on top of the original.

NOtES is not the first attempt (though it is the first using nanotechnology) to mimic the effect found in the butterfly’s wings. Despite its microscopic size NOtES is far simpler than its competitors: other attempts have involved using arrays of small LEDs or complicated layers of material to bend light.

In an interview with the Financial Post, Landrock explained that in addition to being a revolutionary authentication technology NOtES will mark the first time that nanotechnology is used in a large-scale commercial project.

“Once our technology is commercialized, it will really mark one of the first true nanotechnologies to hit an industrial scale,” Landrock said.

University Briefs

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EIC
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By Ariane Madden

UVic student’s tattoo joke goes viral

 

A joke photo featuring the face of a University of Victoria student on his girlfriend’s arm resulted in hundreds of Facebook posts last week and was reposted to social news websites such as Reddit. The truth that the picture was photoshopped and the girlfriend was made up came out after news outlet OpenFile.ca investigated.

 

Arrest made in York shooting

 

Police in Toronto have arrested a suspect involved in a shooting last weekend at York University. Neighbours reportedly heard multiple gunshots coming from a university-managed apartment block. Although nobody was hurt, damage to the house was sustained.

 

Western University elections hacker faces charges

 

A former student of Western University will face criminal charges this week despite an apology he posted to online video site YouTube for changing questions on the student society elections on Valentine’s Day. Police and the student society have determined that costs stemming from the prank and rescheduled elections amounted to $10,000 and was worthy of criminal charges.

 

Arrests at Montreal CEGEP protests

 

Thirty-seven people were arrested at a Montreal CEGEP after they broke into the college and vandalized it last week. Thousands of Quebec students are protesting tuition fee increases, though prior protests have been mostly without incident.

 

Fight at UofC pub sends student to hospital

 

A fight between five students at the University of Calgary’s student pub “the Den” sent one student to hospital last week.  Campus police were called to the pub around 1:00 a.m. to attend to the student. It is believed that alcohol was a contributing factor in the fight.

 

 

SFU conference highlights sustainability

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EIC
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By Michael Brophy

Event speakers included Vancouver city councillor, poets, and comedians

The Western Canada Sustainable Campuses Conference, organized by students each year to raise awareness about issues of sustainability, took place at Simon Fraser University from February 16 to 20. The four day conference, which partnered with other similar youth oriented organizations such as Sierra Youth and Sustainable SFU, convened students from universities across western Canada to network, attend lectures by sustainability leaders, sit in on student presentations, tour forest trails, and participate in activist minded workshops.

The Saturday night keynote at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at SFU Woodward’s featured poets and community leaders. Slam poet Johnny McRae preceded with “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” and other poems.

Following, Ginger Gosnell-Myers, the event moderator, gave the floor to speaker Andrea Reimer, a councillor with City of Vancouver, who opened up about her journey from living on the Vancouver streets as a teenager to her current position. Ken Lyotier, founder of United We Can, addressed the youthful audience: “You have the knowledge and ability to raise the bar a little; not just for the people around you but for the planet. It needs to happen.” He insisted on the importance of youth activism. “There is a social issue, an environmental issue, and an economic issue. There are so many opportunities for young people to get involved.” Another keynote speaker, Heather O’Hara, executive director at Potluck Catering and Cafe in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, when asked if she would do a PhD, responded: “I’ve thought about this myself. I wouldn’t. I’d rather spend that 25,000 bucks getting my hands dirty on the ground.” She continued, “That experience, that wisdom, that knowledge. The power of experience from people who are not formally educated. I value that.”

Upon arriving at the conference, attendees were handed living lab manuals for the conference weekend, repurposing covers of old library text books. “The books outlined and set the tone for the weekend. They’re professional and creative and you were able to choose a booklet with a personal touch,” said James McNish, former board member of Sustainable SFU. He added, “I was really excited about the calibre of the people coming to speak. These are people who are doing really innovative and really imaginative projects.”

Richard Loat, an SFU communications student, former Facebook employee, and CEO of Five Hole For Food, encouraged participants at his organizational development workshop to take after the words of the late Mahatma Ghandi: “Be the change you want to see” when approaching the role of community leadership. Loat has taken these words and put them into action personally by founding a charitable organization that has raised funds and over 65,000 pounds of food donations for food banks across Canada by arranging street hockey games.

“The communication paradigm has shifted,” said Loat, relating modern techniques to engage people in traditional relationships to a cause. “We all know the feeling of going hungry. We can identify.”

During the Olympics in Vancouver, Loat put on a hockey game in the middle of Granville Street, which Gregor Robertson participated in. “It was the most childlike sense of happiness I’d ever seen,” recalled Loat of Robertson’s expression while playing street hockey for the charity event. What started as a one-man operation is now a 50-person team, the majority of which came on board through Twitter.

In a class on creative activism, Sean Devlin of Truthfool Communications, a comedian and climate organizer, gave a presentation revealing the history of techniques in creative activism. Participants were later encouraged to engage in brainstorming activities to help their own organizations gain strides in meeting their goals.

“Creative tactics can create millions in earned media,” said Devlin of the value of protests as essentially free public service announcements.

The presentation addressed the power of creating a simplified message for the masses: self immolation in Tunisia, the Filipino texting revolution, sex strikes that ended wars, and Dan Glass’s stunt of attempting to super-glue himself during a press photo handshake to Gordon Brown, the U.K. prime minister at the time, forcing him to address activists opposition to airport expansions.

“As an activist, you are a performer,” said Devlin, “[and] there is one common thread between all these stories: we succeed.”

Petter unveils new vision for SFU

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By David Dyck

EnVision process seeks to “engage“ with the community and bring undergraduate teaching and research together

Last Monday, SFU officially launched a new strategic vision for the university, a result of year-long consultations with students, staff, and faculty, in which it will seek to be “the leading engaged research university defined by its dynamic integration of innovative education, cutting-edge research, and far-reaching community engagement.” The launch also facilitated the unveiling of SFU’s new tagline, “engaging the world”, which has now replaced the previous “thinking of the world”.

The Peak spoke with President Petter before the launch to discuss the impetus for the new vision, and how it will change the university moving forward. Petter said that the purpose of the new vision is to create a sense of common purpose within SFU, and to “improve the way we educate students, the way we do research, and the way we engage communities.”

The vision is essentially about the long-term direction of the university, and the challenge for the administration will now be to realize the vision’s objectives, such as creating a more supportive campus environment and connecting educational and research goals.

“I think it would be a mistake to think that we could turn this campus into an ivy-coloured liberal arts college of the New England mold, because it isn’t. It’s going to be a commuter campus, principally for students. I think what we need to do then is say, ‘Okay, how can we make it the best campus of its kind?’” said Petter, who admitted that the sense of community was lacking on the Burnaby campus. To do this, Petter hinted at upcoming changes to residence and housing to increase capacity and improve quality.

Another campus community-related issue that came up as a result of the consultation process was the issue of food. Petter said that he was “influenced by the fact that we’d received a lot of feedback from the envision process about food as part of the campus environment. We probably would have done a consultation, but not of the depth or kind that we did end up doing.” He stated that with the Chartwells contract coming up for either renewal or termination provides the university with the opportunity to examine the quality of the food available on campus.

Petter mentioned an attempt to increase campus community academically as well with the upcoming, and according to Petter, the “somewhat corny title”, the  “Presidents’ Dream Colloquium”. This will be an initiative to bring in speakers for an interdisciplinary program that students can enroll in for credits.

There are other academic angles to the new vision that capitalize on SFU’s strengths in research and undergraduate teaching. “What the vision says is: ‘Let’s do a better job of connecting those two.’ If we are going to say to undergraduate students that we’re going to give you a different and better learning experience than you would get elsewhere, the one thing we can do to really improve the learning experience that can’t be done by teaching universities is to expose them to the research side of the equation.

“We’re already taking our lead from parts of the vision and seeing if there are ways we can draw in new funding to actually better connect our research to the community, that will create opportunities for graduate students and for undergraduate coops and for interns, working in the community in collaborative research”

Petter also mentioned that Jon Driver, VP-academic, will be updating his academic plans to engage with the community.

Petter emphasized that although the vision has now been unveiled, it’s up to the university community — not just the administration — to realize its goals.

“It will be incremental, and what I hope is that students will say, ‘Okay, that’s great, we’ve got the vision, the administration isn’t doing enough to implement it.’ To the extent that students think that it’s got good things in it, I hope they’ll come forward and take the lead and prod and push and make the difference so that together we can all be trying to achieve the potential that this vision holds.” He added that the ideas that they’ve gathered have come from outside of the administration, primarily from students.

Burnaby mountain weather causes bus incident

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By Graham Cook

 

Following heavy snowfall at SFU’s Burnaby campus, a TransLink bus ended up jackknifed by the West Mall bus loop. It apparently occurred because the bus could not get sufficient traction. The accident was fairly minor and was cleared out of the way in around 30 minutes. There are no reports of students being harmed in the incident. TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider told The Peak that the road crews were able to keep the road plowed and sanded. He added that he hopes the crews are able to achieve similiar results in any future bad weather situations.

This week in The Peak: 1983

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By Ariane Madden

These events were recorded in The Peak during this week in 1983.

Sociologist debunks cure for homosexuality at UBC talk

Martin Weinberg, a research sociologist for Indiana University studying human sexuality and sexual behavior told an audience of students at UBC that the idea that homosexuality can be cured is “baffling.” The researcher talked about his studies for the root causes of homosexuality including what was then known as the “wastebasket theory” of lesbianism which stated that individuals, especially women, seek homosexual relationships because they are unattractive to members of the opposite sex. Weinberg asserted that such theories are “myths” and that homosexual feelings in children often predate later homosexual behaviors. The researcher has since published dozens of studies on sexuality and sexual behavior, some of which have won awards.

Fights break out for entry to SFU movie nights

Free weekly movie nights held at Images theatre were nearly ruined after some patrons turned to violence after being refused entry. Similar arguments would erupt as students entered the theatre to limited seating as the shows were nearly always sold out. The movie nights were ran by the SFSS and saw the society achieve $6,000 profits after having invested $26,000 only five months earlier.

Speculation about B.C. government funding cuts to universities

Fear abounded that the then-current Social Credit government of British Columbia would cut grants to universities, changing student funding from a mix of provincially-granted to having students rely on federal loans almost completely. The institution of rules for student loans based on academic standing also seemed to be a contentious issue for students. A North American recession also ensured that low employment coupled with eliminated student jobs programs would result in higher aid applications by students.
UofT engineering fights to institute anti-sexism code

The predominantly male engineering faculty at the University of Toronto called upon university administration to institute a code of conduct against sexual harassment and discrimination within the faculty. The faculty hoped that an independent third party would be able to be called upon for victims to turn to in instances of sexual harassment within the school. The call for policy creation was not spurred by specific incidents at the school but by the “possibility of there being a problem.”

Atomic bug created

Scientists at McGill University discovered compounds capable of removing radioactive material from water and nuclear waste. The scientists speculated that the compounds would be able to monitor for potential leakage from nuclear power facilities by testing lake and river water for contaminants.

Bomb scare evacuates abortion debate

A debate staged at the University of Manitoba saw 600 students evacuated for a bomb scare during the final moments of speech from controversial abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler. Students lined up to purchase pop and chips while waiting for the debate to resume 45 minutes later after the police made an electronic sweep of the auditorium. The threat was deemed a hoax and the rather explosive debate continued without further problems.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024