Man loses 500 pounds through prayer.
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 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
<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
<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
<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 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
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
New student union building plans unveiled
<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/sahira-memon”>Sahira Memon</a></strong>
Possible tuition levy and new student union also discussed at forum
One of the plans discussed at the last forum meeting on February 1 was the creation of a new student union building in the Lorne Davies Complex. The purpose of such a building is not only to quell the frequent complaints of a lack of student space, but also to create a place on Burnaby Mountain in which all student unions and clubs could have a space of their own.
“A lot of other schools of our size and our prominence have the facilities that students need to be able to be engaged, stay on campus, and have good programs,” said Jeff McCann, SFSS president, on SFU student space. He compared it to student union buildings at other universities, such as at UBC.
He also emphasized the importance of creative ideas for the use of the space and likened the collection of ideas to the dropping of marbles into an empty jar.
“This jar is empty, you can see right through it . . . but it’s not really anything until you start putting things in it,” said Jeff McCann as he dropped marbles, representing different ideas, into the jar. He compared the dropping of these marbles to six weeks of discussion and debate to fuel creativity and ideas before the project begins.
The idea sharing began at the meeting, with an activity designed to determine the most popular uses of space for the new building, gauging options such as social space, DSU space, safe space, and family-friendly space. The results seemed to favor the space being used for DSUs (departmental student unions), and social space. McCann highlighted that this does not necessarily mean that this is how the space is going to be used, but it is useful to note these opinions, which will have a profound influence on the project.
Another topic was the creation of a new student union for the software systems program. This program deals with embedded software, and activities such as programming for either Apple or Android devices. The Department of Software Systems, formerly a subgroup within the Department of Computing Science, will now have a seat and a vote in future forums.
Finally, another debate centered around the possibility of a levy being added to student fees. The levy, with $1 being charged to full-time students, and $0.50 being charged to part-time students, would be directed towards Schools Building Schools, a registered charity focused on making education more accessible to underprivileged kids. Their current focus is on building and improving a school in Uganda. As alumni and students of SFU, their strong connection with SFU leads them to center their charity work at this institution. After much debate, the forum created and endorsed the referendum question:
“Are you in favour of a new fee of $1 per full-time student per semester and $0.50 per part-time student per semester to be levied for the benefit of the charitable international initiatives of Schools Building Schools?”
This question will be put on the upcoming SFSS general election ballot.
At the end of the meeting there was talk of a Society of Arts and Social Sciences financial presentation and a debate about the need for stipend payments among forum representatives. However, these issues will be discussed at future forum meetings.
SFU joins AUFC
<strong>By <a href=”http://159.203.128.194/tag/jennifer-bednard”>Jennifer Bednard</a></strong>
SFU the first British Columbian university to be accepted into the association of thirteen francophone universities
In the future, French language education and research at SFU will receive greater support on a national level. As of January 9, Simon Fraser University became an official member of the Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne (AUFC), an association of 13 officially francophone or bilingual universities across Canada including Laurentian University, Ottawa University, and the University of Moncton. The association’s mandate is to maintain the value of French as an official language and promote the learning and teaching of French at a university level. SFU is the first university in British Columbia to become a member of the AUFC.
“There were a number of criteria to become part of the association,” explained Claire Trépanier, director of the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs, “one of them was that the university had to deliver undergraduate and graduate programs that were taught in French in a variety of disciplines. [We] have the undergraduate program that is usually taught in French called the French Cohort Program, a program in administration and community services, and in the graduate programs, we have masters and a doctorate in the Faculty of Education that are completely taught in French. Another one that was important was that SFU delivers diplomas to cohorts of students who took those programs. Thirdly, [a criteria] that was very important was that SFU had to have an administrative structure that functions in French. In this case, it’s the Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs.”
Trépanier added that both the university and the students would benefit from SFU’s membership in the AUFC. “One benefit is to provide visibility to SFU at the national level, in terms of post-secondary education in French. Another important one is to support the development of partnerships between those Canadian institutions so faculty members can get support for research that is done in French. And, a third one, which is very good for students, is to give access to bursaries for French immersion and francophone students pursuing studies in French, whether it’s here or through, for example, an exchange program in a francophone institution.”
SFU applied to become a member of the association in the fall, with the support of President Petter and Bill Krane, associate vice president, academic. “It’s key that the senior administration supports the kinds of programs that are being developed here and delivered at SFU,” said Trépanier, “ As director of OFFA, I believe that SFU is making a great contribution to fulfill the educational needs of the B.C. francophone and francophile community, and it is giving the French language the place it deserves in B.C.”
