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Playing with polymer clay

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Photo: Elvira Chan / The Peak

By: Elvira Chan, SFU Student

During the first few months of quarantine, I had made a mental list of all the things that I missed doing, such as exploring Stanley Park on a sunny day, seeing my closest friends that lived nearby, and going to the pool or ice rink after a stressful day. But with the thought of the things I missed in life came a slow but gradual realization of what condition the world is currently in. Headlines, anxiety, and restlessness came crashing down on me week after week, and I decided it was high time that I found something soothing and time-consuming to occupy myself with.

I ordered a kit of FIMO modelling clay with an assortment of colours that was left unopened, and started molding the clay without any expectations or experience. I started making basic things like miniature chocolate chip cookies, glasses of milk, and golden pretzels. I found that working with my hands was immensely therapeutic and productive. Eventually I began challenging myself to make more complex replicas, such as naked cakes with fruit and flowers, spaghetti and meatballs, and a colourful basket full of shiny, glazed lollipops. 

Photo: Elvira Chan / The Peak

Depending on the complexity, each piece could take anywhere from as little as 10 minutes to as much as a full hour. I found that the time tended to fly, especially if I had Netflix playing in the background. 

I would start out each piece by having a visual of what I’d like to create, then I would try different techniques to get the right size, shape, and texture. Then I’d finish off the item by baking them in a little toaster oven for 15 to 30 minutes, and using a glaze if the product needed to be sealed or shiny.

Before long, the entire FIMO clay kit had been finished, and I bought more tools and clay online, branching out to different brands of polymer clay, such as Sculpey. Compared to FIMO, Sculpey clay is a lot more malleable and soft, which can make it easier to shape and mold, but harder to make very small or detailed pieces as it can come apart easily due to the warmth of your hands. For beginners, I’d definitely recommend FIMO clay as it’s slightly more durable and easier to detail. A lot of the starter kits on Amazon such as Klutz or CiaraQ came with shaping tools and mini instruction booklets, though I found that everyday things such as a clean toothbrush, rolled up tinfoil, toothpicks, and butter knives cut, shaped, and texturized the clay just as well. 

As I started creating replicas more often, I began looking through video tutorials and reading instruction books on different techniques and tips so I could improve on my art. Specifically,  SugarCharmShop Gourmet, Maive Ferrando, and Mayu Sekiguchi’s tutorials on YouTube were my favourites because of their realistic replications at such a small scale. I also looked at the real version of some common desserts and tried to mimic the details accurately. 

Photo: Elvira Chan / The Peak

People always ask me why I’ve decided to focus on food that couldn’t be consumed, and my only response was that I loved trying to replicate the real versions. Food plays such a big part in every culture and revolves around sharing, tradition, and enjoyment. I found myself creating miniature clay replicas of the foods that I grew up with. I made things like the xiaolongbao and pad thai, or foods that you see at celebrations and parties, such as cakes and pastries. For me, being able to have a permanent and miniature version of the foods that I love and have great memories of something so special.

I’ve been branching out to make miniature creations for my friends and family, and when I see their eyes light up over the details or the miniature size, it truly feels worthwhile. It started out as a hobby to keep me busy during quarantine, but it also helped me realize that time was a true luxury. I could spend hours focusing on adding clay flowers to a miniature wedding cake or dreaming up ideas for the next creation because of that time on my hands, and that was something I never would have slowed down enough to enjoy if not for being stuck at home. 

For now, I’m going to continue challenging myself in creating replicas that are more realistic and complex and gifting them to family and friends. Although I love my hobby right now, I cannot wait until things are in a better place in the world and I can share some (real) food and drinks with my loved ones. 

 

Cooking up a conversation with co-founder of Dashi Eats, Nneoma Chiakwelu

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Goodies such as chicken laps and chin-chin are available to order from @dashi_eats on Instagram. IMAGE: Meera Eragoda / The Peak with photos courtesy of Dashi Eats

By: Devana Petrovic, Staff Writer

Second-year Beedie School of Business student, Nneoma Chiakwelu, along with her business partners Ashia Jaji (Capilano University) and Doyin Agbaje (Douglas College) launched Dashi Eats, a Vancouver-based Nigerian meal service at the beginning of this June. The Peak had the chance to speak to one of the Dashi Eats founders, Nneoma Chiakwelu, about their start-up story, current means of operating, and menu intentions. 

Chiakwelu explained how the idea for Dashi Eats came into mind when she and her housemate were visiting a friend’s place. They all come from a Nigerian background, and in discussing their favourite meals from home, realized that Vancouver did not offer those staples. That’s when the three co-partners “decided to come together and bring the flavours of Nigerian meals to Vancouver.” Chiakwelu further noted that they “had been doing some research and planning since February to really put everything together,” but started taking pre-orders a couple of days before their official launch on June 1.

Nneoma Chiakwelu (top), Doyin Agbaje, and Ashia Jaji (bottom, left to right) created Dashi Eats to make Nigerian food more accessible. Photos courtesy of Dashi Eats.

While Dashi Eats is eventually planning on transferring their operations space to an alternative location, due to COVID-19 measures, they are currently operating from Chiakwelu’s own household kitchen. She clarified that it made the most sense “since two [out] of three partners live together.” Chiakwelu reassures, “We are all FoodSafe certified so we have been following guidelines for preparing food and also ensuring to take precautions when packaging and delivering orders.” 

When devising their menu, they intended for it “to have a feel of a proper restaurant menu.” Chiakwelu went a little bit into detail on the construction of their options: a finger foods and wraps section, a proteins menu (e.g. they offer grilled and crunchy chicken laps as well as a spicy grilled fish dish), a drinks and side menu (e.g. hibiscus infused punch and grilled plantain sticks), and a dessert menu. An entire menu is available on their Instagram page, where pictures of dishes are also posted. 

“We decided to start off with a few things in each category and then add others as we go along [ . . . ] we wanted each menu item to be satisfying in itself and then [also] be ordered with something else to make a full course meal,” said Chiakwelu on the their current menu, which they launched their business with.

They are currently taking orders through Instagram direct message, while they’re still working on creating a website for customer orders. More information and details on ordering logistics can be found on their Instagram and Twitter: @dashi_eats or for a secondary point of contact, they can be reached by email: [email protected]. 

Monday Music: Black with a capital “B”

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"Monday Music" in giant yellow block letters with a red background
Monday Music: your weekly themed playlist. Image courtesy of The Peak.

All of the Monday Music for the Summer 2020 semester is now be available on The Peak’s Spotify Playlist, Monday Music Summer 2020. Don’t forget to follow thepeaksfu on Spotify to listen more easily!

By: Manisha Sharma, Peak Associate

As most of you are aware, with protests erupting all over the world, systemic racism and discrimination against Black people occurs everywhere — even here in Canada. Now more than ever we can take the initiative and support Black lives and businesses. One way to do that is by supporting Black Canadian artists by streaming their music. Here are just a few of the many talented Black Canadian artists and their songs to check out. 

“In Women Colour” – Haviah Mighty

Courtesy of Haviah Mighty

Haviah Mighty is a rapper from Toronto, Ontario. She’s a self-proclaimed feminist and has recently spoken about the importance of police reform. Mighty is an avid supporter of social justice on issues like police brutality and consistently tweets about reform movements. This rap song is powerful with lyrics speaking to her experiences of being a Black female artist as seen in the lyrics like, “Huh, yeah I’m darker than my friends, And finally they see it and they start to get the trend, I gotta do two times more to get four times less.” Check out the rest of her songs on her most recent album, 13th Floor.

 

“Pendulum of the Perturbed Soul” – TA’MIR

Courtesy of BBOUNDLESS

This song is part of a whole album that was created during quarantine. TA’MIR is a hip-hop/rap artist from Toronto, Ontario. His lyrics are often relatable and humorous with lines such as, “So stop Whatsapping me messages, mom,” but also meaningful like, “Cause I know, this can’t be all there is. It can’t be all pain, feelin’ lost and disdain.” A common concept he addresses is self-awareness, self-growth, and trying to find happiness amidst a lot of pain.

 

“Skin” – The Afro-Métis Nation

Courtesy of The Afro-Métis Nation

The Afro-Métis Nation are a band from Vancouver. This band incorporates drums and beats used in traditional Métis culture throughout this song, and intertwines the dynamics of being both Indigenous and Black. “Skin” itself is an emotional, soulful telling of their experiences of not fitting in because of the colour of their skin. I highly recommend listening carefully to the lyrics while playing this song — the lyrics are insightful and eye-opening. This song also touches on the experience of being considered too dark within your own culture, and how despite being Indigenous, Arab, or various other ethnicities, skin colour is a contributing factor to whether you are accepted or not. This is an issue that happens around the world but in this song we get to experience The Afro-Métis Nation’s own telling of their experience of this.

 

 “Watch me” – Missy D

Courtesy of Missy D

This rap song with hip-hop beats is incredible with lyrics calling out discrimination and racism against Black culture and people, all the while being a banger with beats you’ll want to jam out to. Missy D is an artist from Vancouver and blends her Rwandan, Cote D’Ivoire and Zimbabwe roots into her music. This song gives me energy (as I’m sure it will give you) with empowering lyrics about decolonization, resisting assimilation, and finding the power to be yourself. I love that this can be an empowering anthem for any minority, like it is for me.

This song says it all . . . period.

For more great Black Canadian artists, check out Bandcamp. Many artists on there have  proceeds going to the Black Lives Matter movement and other organizations.

As incoming chancellor begins her term, former SFU chancellor Anne Giardini reflects on her six years at SFU

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Vrooman is SFU's 12th chancellor. Photo courtesy of Simon Fraser University

Written by: Madeleine Chan, Staff Writer

On June 13, Tamara Vrooman started as SFU’s newest chancellor, taking over from Anne Giardini, who has held the role since 2014. In an interview with The Peak, Giardini looked back on her past six years of service andsfu, outreach,  reflected on the highlights of the job. 

Of her time as chancellor, Giardini was most proud of being able to “meet SFU wherever [she] went.”

“SFU is a very connected university,” she said. “It has outreach all over the world [ . . . ] I was able to encounter SFU people, and SFU work, and SFU ideas, and SFU ways of seeing the world and help to spread it and amplify SFU. There was really nowhere that I went over the past six years that I didn’t think couldn’t use just a little more SFU.”

Giardini gave high praise to Vrooman as the incoming chancellor, describing her as a “remarkable person with an enormous amount of support for the university.” In passing the baton, the ex-chancellor hopes to see the continuation of SFU’s “engagement mantra,” and of the school remaining grounded in its community. Giardini saw her role as chancellor as the “champion of everybody,” and knows that Vrooman will maintain that legacy.

One of the most difficult parts of the job, Giardini found, was not being able to “go to everything.”

“All the talks, all the events, all the sports, everything. You just feel as if there is so much available to be experienced and to get involved in and to support, and at the end of the day you have to make decisions on the places you can go and the things you can do.”

She also stated that she “would have loved to get to know every single student personally.”

“That would have been the best possible way to spend the time, but that isn’t possible either. The challenge is just how much you want to do.”

Despite no longer acting as chancellor, though, Giardini doesn’t “plan to be a stranger” and aims to keep attending events as an SFU alumna and past chancellor. 

“It was the most fun in the world. What an honour it’s been to serve SFU in this way.”

On taking over as chancellor, Vrooman told SFU News it is an “incredible honour and privilege.”

“Education will have a significant impact on the well-being and sustainability of our communities as we move forward,” she said. “I’m excited to be advocating for SFU and the success of students and alumni as they contribute to a strong and sustainable future.” 

Vrooman was previously the CEO of Vancity Credit Union. She has also served as BC’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Secretary to the Treasury Board, and CEO of the Public Sector Employers’ Council. In 2016, SFU awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in law.

Your weekly SFU horoscopes: June 22–28

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An illustration of a girl with long flowing hair. Astrological signs and stars shine around her.
ILLUSTRATION: Marissa Ouyang / The Peak

Written by Paige Riding, News Writer

Aries: You’re like the sticker on a window warning about the installed security system inside. Sure, you’re intimidating and all, but that “more bark than bite” cliché resonates more loudly than the alarm that will start ringing despite your tough-looking façade.

Taurus: You may know where your childhood stuffies and toys went, but do you ever wonder what happened to your favourite childhood dishes? That Elmo plastic plate was there for you from the start. And what did you do? You let it slip away after hucking Cheerios everywhere. Typical Taurus.

Gemini: You may find yourself wanting to unfollow a high school friend from whatever social media piques your short attention span at the moment. As Marie Kondo iconically says, “if it doesn’t spark joy, throw it out.” Harsh? Maybe. But you did agree with me for a minute there.

Cancer: Be gentle with yourself as you perform your unhealthy habits this week. Reading conspiracy theories off your phone until 4 a.m.? Turn on night shift for the sake of your eyes. Procrastinating doing your school assignment? Do some deep breathing to curb that growing feeling of despair Canvas gives you whenever you look at it.

Leo: This week, unbury one of your childhood teen idol posters and hang it back on the wall. You tell yourself you took it down because you aren’t into that band anymore, but we all know you were just jealous of people looking at it instead of you when they walked into your room.

Virgo: You still can’t get over how hard the extroverts around you were hit from social distancing. In all honesty, there wasn’t much of a difference at all for you. Okay, well, you can’t complain to yourself about the ridiculous AQ foot traffic, but other than that, not much changed.

Libra: For the egalitarian of the Zodiac, you sure self-pity a lot. How does it feel blaming the world for not giving extra love to you, despite thinking that everyone should get an equal amount of love from said world?

Scorpio: There will always be people better than you and worse than you at all that you do. Well, in your case, Scorpio, it would be interesting to find someone better at suppressing their concerns around what someone said to you. It’s a talent of yours, being so mysterious.

Sagittarius: Make this a week of pondering. Do you think British people randomly start using Canadian or American accents like some North Americans use British ones? What do you think is at the bottom of the sea that’s only 5% explored? Do you think dogs dream about us? Why did you choose to go to SFU?

Capricorn: If you don’t have one already, consider getting a sturdy phone case this week. I’m just not sure your current flimsy one can handle you throwing your phone at the wall when you see updates about the horrible state of the world.

Aquarius: This week, I challenge you to start a project at an appropriate time. Consider starting that class paper prior to the night before it’s due. Maybe clean your room before your manic yet euphoric energy burst at 2:31 in the morning. Take responsibility for your actions before they hurt you or someone else.

Pisces: There’s nothing more bonding for you than finding someone who shares the same obscure, middle school-age interest that you had. Let’s be honest, you still have it. You just refrain from speaking about it until there is someone else to carry the burden of embarrassing nostalgia with you.

Student opens up about unwinding from tedious household chores through tedious Animal Crossing chores

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Written by Paige Riding, News Writer

Paul, an SFU student used to living with two roommates in a bachelor pad during the school year, found his life flipped upside down when ordered to fly home in the wake of the pandemic. Frazzled and worn, Paul’s face blinks into being on my screen as we sit down for a one-on-one Zoom call. We’re here to talk about his unfair situation.

This drastic change, Paul says, provided chilling reminders of why he had left his hometown in the first place. Already his hands seem (though I can’t know for sure) to smell of Scrubbing Bubbles and despair; his parents are apparently “ordering him around like a maid.” 

Paul’s voice raised to a wail as his father brought him in apple slices cut in the shape of stars.

“I feel like I should buy and wear one of those black and white outfits — you know, like the Halloween costumes? Maybe then they’ll see how they’re exploiting me,” Paul whispers as his mother appears in the background to pick up his laundry.

“When I’m at school under normal circumstances, I’m really busy keeping up that 4.33,” the C-minus student continues. “I sometimes don’t prioritize doing chores around the house. Who can blame me, right? I can’t let scrubbing toilets and dishes get in the way of my future.”

Now, though, Paul was home — and his parents were expecting so much from him. 

“I had to go get the mail today. Can you believe that? And I had to answer the door when the pizza guy came the other day. I’m being stretched so thin,” Paul’s voice raised to a wail as his father brought him in apple slices cut in the shape of stars.

His solution to this suffocating situation? Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Nintendo Switch game, according to the student, is an escape from the overwhelming daily chores and the painful, jabbing reminders of reality that come with them.

“There’s nothing like planting rows and rows and rows of flowers in hopes of curating some hybrid colours,” Paul continues, a smile forming from ear to ear.

“When I’m feeling frustrated that my mom wants me to mow the yard, I turn on the game and get down to landscaping. I swear, I’ve spent hours terraforming my island, shovelling one cubic-metre at a time until I get the right shaped lake,” Paul says, his once-fatigued expression evaporating.

“There’s nothing like planting rows and rows and rows of flowers in hopes of curating some hybrid colours,” Paul continues, a smile forming from ear to ear at the mention of this cathartic, painstakingly drawn-out effort. 

Soon he returns to the subject of his parents’ cruelty. Frequently, they ask him to perform back-breaking tasks like handing over the remote from the table beside him — or worse, telling his brother that dinner is ready.

“Can you believe that they expect me to take time out of my extremely busy schedule to do something so difficult?” he asks, voice wobbling with exasperation. “They don’t even care about my villagers. Marshall lives on my island, dude. I need to spend time talking to that legend. They just don’t get it. I have turnips to organize.

It seemed like his hands smelled of sweat from holding the console for too long and not Scrubbing Bubbles after all.

“You guys are actually lucky I took time out of my super full schedule to talk to you,” Paul confides. “Nook’s Cranny closes in like 20 minutes and I have pockets full of hot items to sell. There just isn’t enough time for it all.”

At this point, Paul has actually grabbed his Switch and begun playing. He has it at a low enough angle that he thinks we won’t be able to see it. But the faint sounds of Timmy and Tommy talking have given him away. In retrospect, it seems like his hands smelled of sweat from holding the console for too long and not Scrubbing Bubbles after all.

Paul’s closing words: “My parents order me around as though I have all the free time in the world. Sure, I’m not taking any classes during the summer, and I don’t have a job, and I’m socially distancing inside, but they have to remember that I don’t have six arms or anything. All these chores are too much for one guy.”

Paul would proceed to pull pixelated weeds and chop wood for the next four hours, according to his brother, who spent that time vacuuming Paul’s room.

Just because we can’t see our professors, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hear from them

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Remote learning is a chaotic situation that demands good communication. Photo: Maxwell Gawlick/The Peak

By: Devana Petrovic, Staff Writer

If you’re currently taking courses, chances are that you’ve experienced some of the newfound struggles that accompany remote learning. In particular, I’m referring to failures in student-instructor communication. Effective communication is the only way courses are able to run smoothly at a distance, but considering the commonality of complaints I’ve heard from fellow SFU students, I think I speak for most of us in that there are inconsistencies in communication between faculty and students. 

Student success is a two-way street, and when communication breaks down at the top, students — especially in a remote environment — lose their primary support in their education. These communication breakdowns have to therefore be called out and addressed before they become entrenched as habit.  

I recall a course last semester in which little to no information was communicated to students. Updates regarding the transition to an online platform were minimal, and instructions for the final exam were received last minute. I even had an instance during the final where an essential link for the open-book exam was not working and the professor was not accessible to help me. In addition, it was frustrating to not only have the TA completely disappear from the picture, but to also have to wait for an email response for days, while being left with unclear instructions and approaching deadlines. 

These communication difficulties resulted in a dependence on peer support, where students scrambled to assist each other in clearing up poorly explained assignment instructions and confusing presentations of course content, all because the professor was not providing the minimal amount of communication required to operate in the course. Without the occasional second-hand information my peers managed to acquire from choppy email responses and office hours, I can’t even imagine how isolated and helpless I could have felt in the course. 

This class-wide confusion was completely avoidable. As a comparison, I had a TA in the same semester who went above and beyond in communicating with students. In this course the TA individually contacted students for assignment feedback and ensured that personal needs were met. Both the professor and teaching assistants were incredibly responsive in emails and Canvas messages, opened their schedules for additional office hours over various mediums, and sent out regular updates on the course status. I can confidently say that my ability to connect to the course material was significantly better as I was not preoccupied with trying to fill in the gaps in instructions or email responses. 

Although I do not expect all instructors to be personally involved in every step of my academic progress or to send hourly updates, there needs to be a standard of communication somewhere between excessive hand holding and an unacceptable lack of responsiveness. My experiences with faculty communication last semester have shown me the drastic difference that good communication can have on course performance. But in times of online learning, our dependency on good communication should not even have to be stated. 

University is stressful as is, it’s an unnecessary added stressor for students to be left in the dark by their instructors. 

 

 

 

The virtual convocation was a disappointing end to four years of hard work

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Four years, $45,000, and all I got was this crappy video. Screenshot via YouTube courtesy of Nicole Magas

By: Nicole Magas, Opinions Editor

For the past four years, convocation time has been an absolute nightmare as a student still slogging through classes. For reasons I have never been able to understand, the celebration is held in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the school. This makes getting from one end of campus to the other within a 10 minute break (while also trying not to photobomb a happy grad photo with my sleep-deprived zombie shuffle) next to impossible. 

And then there’s the bagpipes. You know how listening to someone snore while you’re still awake is like listening to them brag about how well they’re sleeping? Yeah, those bagpipes are the smug honks of students who are cheerfully skipping out of university while you’re desperately trying to hear what your professor is saying about standard deviations.

The only thing that has made this stressful, anxiety inducing, twice-annual inconvenience bearable has been the knowledge that one day, one day, it would be me dressing up and standing in the middle of the hallway taking selfie after selfie and blissfully ignoring the second year trying to squeeze through without making eye contact.

So you can imagine that finishing my last semester under pandemic lockdown was a bit . . . anticlimactic, to say the least.

But OK, you know what? Fair is fair. No one planned for a novel coronavirus to be the viral (ha!) trend of 2020. Everyone had to make adjustments and, as disappointing as it was, it’s better to not have a convocation than to risk the infection of hundreds of people. And besides, there would be a virtual convocation. That’s better than nothing.

Except, maybe it would have been? Maybe it’s just me being bitter about four years of hard work culminating in a mass conferring of degrees without a single graduand name other than the honour speakers even appearing on the screen. I think a somber acknowledgement that now is not the time to celebrate would have been preferable to what felt like a half-assed, cobbled together, “Thanks for all your money, you’ll be hearing from the alumni association very soon,” kick-in-the-ass out the door.

I sent my parents that link. My parents, who have reacted to my attending university with skepticism at best and outright mockery at worst. I wanted them to see my name somewhere, and to be proud that their eldest daughter had done something that no one else in the family has done. I can’t even imagine what they thought after seeing that live stream. I finished watching the video and was disappointed. They probably watched the video and had all their suspicions confirmed. Four years and $45,000, huh? You could have banked that and bought a house. You don’t even have a job. What a stupid decision. 

Meanwhile the university directed people to a separate web page to read the new graduates’ self-made messages and watch their 10-second video clips — as if we couldn’t have done this on our own without any involvement from the institution. They had months to plan this, and the whole thing felt as though it was taped together in a panic like a student realizing at 10 p.m. that their presentation is due tomorrow morning and not next week.

And I know this whole thing sounds incredibly selfish with the world burning in so many unbelievable, unbearable ways. But I was really looking forward to this convocation as a single, brief moment to feel good about myself, my achievements, and the achievements of my friends — one that was sorely needed during a time that has frankly created one giant black hole where my mental health once was. But instead of feeling like I’d actually achieved something monumental and worthwhile, I closed the link feeling hopeless and defeated. 

The university could have done so much more with minimal effort. A reading of names. A graphic of graduands by department. A goddamn slideshow of all the photos submitted. It didn’t feel like the students were being celebrated. It felt like the university was celebrating itself. Which, on thinking about it, could very well be the overarching point of the whole thing.

I just wish someone had told me that four years ago when I first began fantasizing about crossing the reflection pool, cap on head and hopes in hand.

 

Students don’t have time for extra assigned readings

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If professors don’t assign priority for readings, students will. Photo: Maxwell Gawlick/The Peak

By: Michelle Young, Staff Writer

While weekly readings are a valuable resource that provide context, perspectives, and research material to students, they are also very time-consuming. Professors sometimes neglect to acknowledge that students take multiple classes in a semester — all of which require the same amount of reading, depending on the discipline. 

Now that we’re learning remotely, I’ve found that many of my professors have added additional mandatory material, demanding more readings, videos, and extra activities to be completed. While it’s great that professors are trying to compensate for the lack of in-person classes, they also need to recognize that completing all of these “mandatory” assignments is impossible for some students. 

One 20-page reading can take between 20 minutes to an hour to complete, depending on the speed of the reader. Cumulatively, it can take between an hour and six hours to complete over 100 pages of reading material. It’s also important to consider that many academic readings are difficult to digest and require much longer, more critically engaged reading than the average novel or news article. 

My classes generally assign two readings per week. This amounts to about 40 pages for just one course — add another class and it can quickly become 80 pages to read that week. That’s just on the low end of assigned readings. Some classes may demand three to five readings in a week, and full-time studies require three to five classes a semester. That is now easily hundreds of pages to be read in a week in an average, pre-COVID-19 semester — which doesn’t account for the current additional readings. 

All this time required to read, reread, and understand new material also doesn’t consider physical restraints, such as the eye strain and back pain that limit how much reading can be done at a single time. It may seem that students are sitting on a load of free time to do “six” hours of reading. However, when factoring in time spent working, time needed to really understand material, and time required to take care of the bodies’ physical needs, it’s clear the average weekly readings are a huge burden on students. 

Studies have found that cramming material all at once isn’t an effective way to learn in the long-term either, and the best way to retain information is by taking breaks. However, if excessive readings are constantly being thrown at students, they are more likely to quickly push through their readings in large blocks of time, instead of absorbing the most important ones in a more spaced out session. I know that the university expects students to invest two to three hours of home study per unit taken, but this needs to be balanced against the physical and mental barriers to productive study over prolonged periods.

It’s great that professors are providing students with lots of resources, however, labelling all of these materials as required is giving students work that is often beyond their capacity. With limited time, it’s essential for students to prioritize what they need to know for a class, differentiate it from supplementary material — and for professors to let them know what is most important. Labelling certain weekly readings, videos, or activities as optional, instead of automatically listing every resource as required, will allow students to use their time productively.

Remote learning hasn’t given most students more free time. At best, it has given them the breathing room to catch up on excessive class readings that they didn’t have before.

 

Tonye Aganaba’s resilience as a Black queer-identifying musician is apparent on Something Comfortable

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Aganaba is a multidisciplinary artist who defies genres in their music and expectations in their life. Photo courtesy of Liz Roza Photography.

By: Kim Regala, Peak Associate

It was in early 2015 when Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist and musician Tonye Aganaba first noticed symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). That same year, they were diagnosed with MS, a chronic condition that targets your central nervous system, often leaving you in a lot of pain, fatigue, and can even give you vision problems. Aganaba’s progress in the music industry came to a sudden halt, especially after an unfortunate car accident two years later, which left them bedridden for months. This occurred right at the time of the release of their debut single “Villain,” a long-awaited track that the Vancouver Courier considers as “one of the best R&B recordings ever to come out of Vancouver.” However, Aganaba’s experience with MS only fuelled their devotion to their craft even more.

In 2019, Aganaba returned to the Vancouver music scene with Something Comfortable. This powerful genre-defying album is inspired by their battle with MS and is a testament to their strength and resilience, especially as a Black and queer-identifying person in the industry. Infused with soul and hip-hop influences, Aganaba sings each note with no restraints, making each track feel empowering and freeing. At the same time, you will most likely find yourself swaying along to these tunes. 

The opening track “Got to Know” embodies everything there is to love about soulful jazz, from that cool drum pattern to the delightful saxophone playing in the background. “We Ain’t Friends,” on the other hand, has a more hip-hop feel to it. The whole song is super upbeat and is — for lack of a better term — a fucking blast. Aganaba even showcases some rapping skills to go along with their already impressive vocal tones. And if you’re hoping to slow things down, listen to “Borrowed Time,” my personal favourite. Here, Aganaba sings about love that is taken for granted. They cry out, “Borrow the stars out from your eyes / Oh for one more night, would that be alright,” painting a blue and dreamy soundscape of what it means to long for someone.

As a multidisciplinary artist, Aganaba’s expression also extends further than just music alone. Something Comfortable serves as the musical score for their work AfroScience, a project they describe as “an ongoing exploration of the shared experience and expression of Afro and Indigenous peoples.” Each track on Something Comfortable resonates with a painting from AfroScience and offers us a new perspective to look at life through the eyes of an individual who has struggled with a disability. These intentions are clear in Aganaba’s work, and it is through these various forms of artistic expressions that they are able to connect with their audience on such a sincere and personal level.

Something Comfortable is available for listening on Aganaba’s website and for purchase on Bandcamp.

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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