Home Blog Page 451

Literal Hellfire And 6 Other Groundbreaking New Ways To Cook An Egg (NOT Clickbait)

By
Humour
-
0
Photo illustration by Hannah Davis. Stock courtesy of iStock.

Written by Hannah Davis, Peak Associate

I was sitting alone in my bedroom when I got a call from an unknown number. 

“What are you thinking about?” asked Gordon Ramsay.

“Eggs, Gordon!” I exclaimed into the phone. “I’m absolutely tormented by the thought of eggs and the fact that I can never cook them!” 

Gordon chuckled kindly, in that way that only Gordon Ramsay can, and he decided to send some hot, eggy knowledge my way. Here are the best ways to cook eggs, as per the advice of a random caller who must, because he told me so, be none other than the famous television chef himself.

ON THE LAWN. Toss a raw egg onto the lawn and wait until nightfall. Your favourite neighbour Steve will come around at night, camping stove in tow, and he will cook the egg up for you. Wake up in the morning to a beautiful breakfast.

Hannah Davis

WHILE READING PASSAGES FROM THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY OUT LOUD. Find your favourite copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and read passages of the novel out loud while you cook an egg as you usually would. The result should look almost as though a tiny, evil portrait depicting all of the egg’s sins has appeared on the counter.

WITH ICE. Putting a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice is very classy, so do the same with your egg. Crack an egg onto a bed of ice in a cold frying pan. This method makes one egg, sunny-side up. 

Hannah Davis

IN FRONT OF A GREEN SCREEN. Cook your egg as you usually would. After that’s all done, lay it on a green screen, so you can edit your egg into some cool stock photos you found online, like this one. 

Photo illustration by Hannah Davis. Stock courtesy of Alamy.

WHILE THE EGG IS FIGHTING BACK. Leave the egg in the fridge for a long time . . . leave it for too long. It will come at you with a knife. 

Hannah Davis

IN OUTER SPACE. Launch an egg into space with that old rocket launcher you have laying around your house. You won’t be able to eat the egg once it’s up there, so find comfort in the fact that the egg is having a great adventure. 

Photo illustration by Hannah Davis.

IN THE FIERY FLAMES OF HELL. Do a demon summoning ritual. A portal will open up and a demon will pop out. 

“Why did you summon me?” the demon will ask.

“I have an egg I would like to cook,” you must explain. 

“I understand,” the demon will say, before bringing you with them into the portal. 

In hell, the demon will do some black magic and turn the egg from this . . . 

Photo illustration by Hannah Davis. Stock courtesy of iStock.

To this!

Photo illustration by Hannah Davis. Stock courtesy of iStock.

Thank the demon for the really yummy fried egg, and ask to go back to your earthly realm. The demon will again prove to be very reasonable and open the portal back up for you to go home. 

Once back in your kitchen, stare at the egg the demon cooked for you. Realize you’ve never been in love until this moment. Start crying because you fell in love, and you’ll probably never see your demon again. Make a single, bland piece of toast, toast that you will neglect to even put some butter on, and nibble on it forlornly. 

But then you’ll hear a gentle knock on your back door. You’ll be surprised because you weren’t expecting anyone. You’ll open the door cautiously, trying not to get your hopes up. It’s Demon. 

“I didn’t think you would ever come back for me,” you murmur hoarsely. Demon takes your hand and looks deep into your soul. 

“Of course I was going to come back for you,” he whispers in your ear. The two of you stare at each other lovingly. You clear your throat.

“Would you like to come in?” you ask.

 “Of course,” Demon replies. You grab Demon by the hand and lead him into the kitchen, where the egg you made together is sitting. 

The two of you start to make out, just before you eat that egg — together.

Senate announces pilot project to turn empty tutorial classrooms into study rooms

By
News
-
0
Photo: Kitty Cheung / The Peak

Written by: Paige Riding, News Writer

In a new pilot project starting in April, SFU is planning on making tutorial rooms available as study areas during exams. 

The initiative was announced during the February 3 Senate meeting, after student Senator Colin Fowler asked if SFU could provide additional spaces for students. Currently, designated areas were frequently overcrowded, which influenced the initiative. 

“For many, including those with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, such as myself, this often means a difficult choice between struggling to find a place to study on campus, or staying home and getting little to nothing done.”

Assistant Registrar Kris Nordgren then announced that schedules for the availability of study spaces will be posted on SFU’s website prior to April’s exam period. Opened buildings will include: the Academic Quadrangle, Blusson Hall, the Education Building, and West Mall Centre. This initiative involves, amongst others, the Meeting, Event and Conference Services, Campus Public Safety. Further details related to booking procedure will be forthcoming.

“What we have is a tentative plan for the upcoming spring exam period. We will pilot that, see if it works, and see what we can do to make it a consistent offering,” Nordgren said.

In an emailed statement to The Peak, Colin Fowler explained that the W.A.C. Bennett Library only has a 1,500 seat capacity, and that these upcoming tutorial rooms could accommodate many more students on the Burnaby campus. In the future, other underused rooms may also become available for students during exam times.

“I was increasingly frustrated by the inability of both myself and other students to find study spots. I’ve actually attempted to study on the floor of an emergency staircase and one of my friends studied in a bathroom stall simply because there wasn’t anywhere better,” Fowler wrote, explaining why he raised the idea in front of the Senate.

“Something had to change, and I felt that the best way to increase study space was to repurpose rooms SFU already has, that aren’t used for teaching during exam periods.  There would be no construction needed and implementation could be immediate,” Fowler said. Students studying in these rooms would have access to outlets to charge their electronics, as well as whiteboards and/or chalkboards to write notes.

Nordgren explained that SFU Security would be informed that new study spaces would be open once the exam schedule was finalized in the fourth of fifth week of the semester. Nordgren also noted that many other spaces across campus are not being used effectively for study spaces, and that the university is looking at other options as well.

 

SFU students organize silent protest of RCMP at event in Saywell Hall

By
News
-
0
SFU students Miri Abel and Iulia Zgreaban protested an RCMP display in Saywell Hall

Written by: Harvin Bhathal, News Writer

Two SFU students, Miri Abel and Iulia Zgreaban, held a silent protest in front of an RCMP display at SFU Burnaby Campus on Thursday, February 6. 

The event, titled “Behind the Badge,” was hosted by SFU’s Criminology Student Association. As stated by a post on SFU Criminology’s Facebook page, the event occurred in Saywell Hall for students to be able to “have a conversation with current members of the #RCMP.” 

According to Abel, they decided to organize the silent protest due to RCMP incursions on traditional Wet’suwet’en territory. The RCMP has  come under criticism for enforcing a court injunction allowing Coastal Gaslink to continue working on a natural gas pipeline that would go through Wet’suwet’en territory. While neither Abel or Zreaban are Indigenous, they expressed sympathy for the Wet’suwet’en and anger about the violation of their rights.

Seeing the RCMP promote themselves after these events angered Abel and Zgreaban, causing the former to organize an impromptu protest. During the protest, they were approached by an RCMP officer, who discussed some of his responsibilities and experiences on the job. 

Zgreaban stated, “We weren’t expecting anyone to talk to us because we were silent protesting. We didn’t want to cause a lot of havoc.” 

Both Abel and Zgreaban noted that the officer stayed neutral on the issue of the Wet’suwet’en territory. However, Abel reported telling the officer, “When you are being neutral in times of oppression, you are indirectly supporting the oppressor.”

One of the officers responded to Abel  that “Someone had to arrest [the Wet’suwet’en people who were protesting]. It was someone’s job to do it.” 

According to Abel, by just doing their job, “these officers were, if only just unknowingly, perpetuating and normalising police violence,” said Abel. “Legality is not a guide for morality.

“If you look at the history of the RCMP and that it was purposely created to remove Indigenous people[s] from their land, If you look at the systemic oppression of Indigenous people, if you look at the injustice and disadvantage Indigenous people face in society, the RCMP and its officers are violating Canadian law.”

In regards to the response from students, Abel and Zgreaban stated that they were met with appreciation in the form of nods and statements in agreeance with them, as well as a student who joined their protest.

“If safety, Indigenous rights, and an entire nation itself is threatened by police violence, then I cannot accept this and excuse it by saying that people were ‘just doing their job,’” said Abel.

Abel concluded by saying that, “I am glad people took the time to read our signs because otherwise, the RCMP had a free platform to portray only one side of their story.”

SFSS Board does not carry motion to conduct a forensic audit on Fall Kickoff 2019

By
News
-
0
Photo: Chris Ho / The Peak

Written by: Michelle Gomez, Assistant News Editor

The Board of Directors voted against a motion to authorize Executive Director Sylvia Ceacero to explore options for a forensic audit, an external audit, or a review by an external contractor of Fall Kickoff 2019. 

VP Student Life Jessica Nguyen addressed the Board, stating, “I want to make it clear [ . . . ] I know that my team and myself and everyone who was involved in this project followed due process from start to end [ . . . ] We did not break any bylaws or have any nefarious illegal activities happening, so bring it on.” 

Shina Kaur, VP University Relations, brought up the difference between conducting a forensic audit to determine if there was any negligence in the planning of Fall Kickoff or having a consultant look at what happened and make recommendations on how to improve future events. 

Health Sciences Representative Osob Mohamed noted that “I don’t think anybody thinks that criminal activity actually happened in this case, but the fact is that something that hasn’t happened before with Fall Kickoff must have happened this year to have a deficit that was so unordinary.”

Mohamed concluded that “If we can invest the money now into making sure that this never happens again, this can prevent us from spending $100,000 next year [ . . . ] I think we’ve lost a lot of credibility in this process.”

Ceacero stated: “I am in favour of whatever audit the Board wants for us to take on. I know with 100% certainty that myself and my team [ . . . ] have dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s in this process.”

When Ceacero initially came back to the Board with a brief summary following the event, nobody on the SFSS Board requested further information.

“That was not brought up until two months later when Corbett [Gildersleve] brought the presentation to the Board.” 

During the meeting, Ceacero also reiterated her opinion that the SFSS should not throw a Fall Kickoff. She also mentioned that the Board members would be done by mid-April, and by the time an audit is conducted, the Board will not be present to be held accountable. 

Nguyen elaborated on how Fall Kickoff 2019 was a large improvement from previous years with regard to student safety. She noted that while the 2017 Kickoff Concert was financially successful, “It really largely damaged the relationship between the SFSS and SFU, because SFU claims that one [had] 83 casualties.” 

Casualties, as explained by Nguyen, referred to “Unresponsive, unconscious students just on grass around campus.” She emphasized that the most recent concert had zero casualties. 

According to Nguyen, many costs of the 2019 concert went toward student safety, including paying for more security personnel, registered nurses, an ambulance on standby, and a bus to transport students to campus safely. 

“We held a very safe, good event [ . . . ] we built the relationship with SFU. When we had our last wrap-up meeting they were very excited to start planning for the next one, and that was not the case in 2017,” Nguyen concluded. 

VP External Relations Jasdeep Gill said that “At the end of the day, the investments that we made were necessary in order to make sure that this event went off with protecting our students — and you can’t put a price on that.” 

She added “I’m not comfortable with approving this and basically accusing our staff [ . . . ] of doing any wrongdoing because none of that took place.” 

The motion was not carried. 

In the Council meeting the following Wednesday, there was a motion for the Council to submit a request for the Board to conduct an independent forensic audit on the event. 

HoSang stated that Ceacero had met with an independent auditor, and that the Board decided to give Council the opportunity to learn from the auditor about the different options available to them. 

He explained that although the Board did not carry the motion to conduct an audit, they would like to have the auditor come in to discuss the options “With students that have been calling for a forensic audit as well as the Council and the Board so that the request for an audit, regardless of what it is, can be done [ . . . ] with all of your deliberations accounted for.” 

Council decided to postpone the motion until the next meeting. 

Board Shorts: February 5, 2020

By
News
-
0
Image: Irene Lo

Written by: Michelle Gomez, Assistant News Editor

Motion carried to resume the practice of listing Board members votes 

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Board passed a motion to rescind a prior motion that discontinued the practice of listing voting records. 

The motion states that it will “resume the practice of listing the positions of directors who have voted against the result of motion and who have abstained from such motion.” 

Health Sciences Representative Osob Mohamed explained in an email to The Peak that while the initial motion involved including the names associated with each vote, the governance committee recommended to the board to instead “list the number of votes as a ratio, without any associated names.” 

“There will be no names / positions that vote in favour / against / abstain, but instead it will be listed as a numerical ratio of how many Board members voted which way,” Mohamed said.  

 

Space allocation motion 

A motion was passed to mandate that the Executive Director and VP Finance discuss the viable space allocation proposal with Rotunda groups, including CJSF, Embark, Students of Caribbean and African Ancestry (SOCA), and Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG). The discussion around this topic will be summarized in a separate news story by The Peak. 

 

Fall Kickoff 2019 forensic audit

A motion was brought forward to the Board of Directors to authorize the Executive Director to explore options for a forensic audit on the planning of the Fall Kickoff 2019. The motion was not carried. More information on this topic will be provided in a separate news story by The Peak. 

 

Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First Nation

A motion was proposed for the SFSS Board of Directors to call on the Governments of British Columbia and Canada to suspend permits authorizing construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, to end attempts of forced removal of Wet’suwet’en First Nations from their territories, and support the advocacy for Indigenous sovereignty on campus. 

“I think it also encompasses a lot of our organizational values, especially regarding supporting Indigenous students and making sure their sovereignty is respected [ . . . ] I am very much in support of this,” said Mohamed. 

The motion was carried, and the society’s statement of solidarity can be found on their website. It reads: “The SFSS call on the BC Government and the Government of Canada to withdraw the RCMP and commence good-faith consultation with the Wet’suwet’en First Nations and cooperate with the Indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions including the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en.” 

 

CONFESSIONALS: I LOVE group projects

By
Humour
-
0
Illustration of a closed envelope, with the text, “Confessionals”
ILLUSTRATION: Marissa Ouyang /The Peak

Written by Meera Eragoda, Staff Writer

I’m scrolling through the syllabi of various course offerings and I’m looking for one thing in particular. Finally, I find it in a gender studies course. Those magical words: group project. It’s kismet and I’m sold.

It feels rarer and rarer these days to see group projects being incorporated into courses, and I just don’t understand why. It’s literally such an easy way to get your grade up in a class. Unpopular opinion, I know, but I for one LOVE group projects.

I love that I get to just sit there and look hot. And everyone else in my group gets to just be there to bask in my glow. It’s like combining both schoolwork and charity. I mean, I don’t want to say it’s benevolent of me, but . . . yeah, it is benevolent of me.

Group projects are also great when you have an overwhelmingly busy schedule like I do. Normal projects mean you have to actually schedule time, on your own, to do work. How can I be expected to stick to every work session I commit to when I’m busy deciding whether to filter my latest Instagram fits with Valencia or Sierra? Nobody thinks about how much time goes into influencing my 62 followers. And there’s no one doing it for me. 

People in group projects, though, are so supportive and understanding. They check in so often to ask if I’m OK or if there’s “something going on.” And they check in, like, all the time to see if I’m going to be able to finish my part. It makes me feel really cared about.

Sure, if I’m being honest, sometimes it’s a little too much — a tad too smothering. Like, get off my back, mom. So I guess that’s a slight downside to group projects. But I mean, if I’m feeling overwhelmed with life, I can just say that. I can literally type out a response that says, “Im just rlly overwhelmed w/ life,” and they’ll all swoop into the Google Doc to make sure that the work gets done. 

I think this is a really fair way of doing things. It’s not like anyone else ever has anything going on anyway. And if they do, I mean, what if they just didn’t, and then they could focus on me, instead? 

Plus, I make excellent suggestions about what type of font and what pre-set type of PowerPoint slides to use. A lot of people in group projects don’t seem to get that font and colour make a massive difference. They’re all, “Let’s use Arial or Times New Roman!” and I have to be like, “Let’s focus on something that doesn’t suck! Like Bangers or Syncopate or, you guessed it, Comic Sans MS. :)” They don’t know what font is good for them — or for our grade!

My fave group project memory happened on WhatsApp. I got added to a new group chat, full of people from my class, called “genius idea to create a new chat without the dead weight.” I was confused at first, so I replied “lol what?” I guess no one else had any idea either, because they all replied “wrong chat!” and “I think you meant to post this somewhere else???” 

Look at them all imitating me, I thought triumphantly. Honestly, I’ve never set a better trend than “no idea what’s going on.”

They did keep making digs about some egotistic, disrespectful asshole not pulling their weight. But I never figured out who it was they were even talking about.

Anyway, easy A. I guarantee it.

Your weekly SFU horoscopes: February 17–23

By
Humour
-
0
An illustration of a girl with long flowing hair. Astrological signs and stars shine around her.
ILLUSTRATION: Marissa Ouyang / The Peak

Written by Zach Siddiqui, Humour Editor

Aries — March 21–April 19

Read a book this week. You never know when you’ll earn a bonus 1% in class for being able to recite the first 500 words of the Necronomicon.

Taurus — April 20–May 20

Spend your break studying hard. Not hard like the colloquial adverb, but like the abstract concept of “hard.” Maybe if you really understand the cruelty of unyielding steel and the unfriendliness of a concrete floor, you’ll stop being such a cold, hard-hearted snitch. 

Gemini — May 21–June 20

Relax, OK? It’s not about you right now. 

Cancer — June 21–July 22

You just want permission to be weak this week. And you have it. Collapse into bed and dream of a world where Chikorita got the power and attention it deserved as the cutest Johto starter Pokemon.

Leo — July 23–August 22

Your career worries will drown you this week. Swim towards your future by selling your waterlogged lungs on the Australian black market, but not before taking a year to “find yourself” there while working on some derelict farm in the Outback. 

Virgo — August 23–September 22

Your excuses are as fragile as your platonic social contracts this week. Clean your damn house, before your house cleans you.

Libra — September 23–October 22

Aim high this week, in all your projects. You know what they say: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land in the extraorbital vacuum, where you and your exploded florid red innards will become the next astronomy hoax.”

Scorpio — October 23–November 21

Spend this week hiding somewhere in the darkness. Not sure where to find the darkness? Try season 2 onward of any show run by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa — I mean, seriously, what on earth have they been telling their lighting team?

Sagittarius — November 22–December 21

Practice saying things like “I’m sorry” and “I was wrong” this week. Subconsciously, you have started to notice that lies are the only way to mediate conflicts among your friends. Well, lies and strange parties in Maple Ridge (and there are always strange parties in Maple Ridge).

Capricorn — December 22–January 19

Buy a bunch of worthless luxuries this week. The church will forgive your excesses. After all, the eighth Catholic virtue is corporate brainwashing.

Aquarius — January 20–February 18

You need more attention this week. Build all kinds of amazing new social media accounts; let a fresh Instagram offer you a new identity myth. Then, once reading week ends, abandon them all until you forget the passwords forever.

Pisces — February 19–March 20

Destruction will approach you this week. Flare your nostrils as a scare tactic. Nobody, not even the Grim Reaper, is coming near that.

Nerd Nite Vancouver is way more fun than your average Wednesday night lecture

By
Arts
-
0
Illustration: Armin Mortazavi / Nerd Nite Vancouver
Illustration: Armin Mortazavi / Nerd Nite Vancouver

by Meera Eragoda, Staff Writer

On Main & 7th Street lies the Fox Cabaret. Once a porn theatre called Fox Cinema, it rebranded in 2014 to become a live-show venue. In a move away from the R-rated content it once held, the Fox now rents out to PG events such as Nerd Nite Vancouver — PG, however,  doesn’t mean boring, and Nerd Nite always has surprising content.

Nerd Nite is an event that takes place in cities all around the world, though most of them are concentrated in North America. The Vancouver chapter was started by Kaylee Byers, a PhD candidate at UBC with “an interest in host-parasite relationships” specifically through the lens of rats, and Michael Unger, Programs Coordinator at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. They are also the hosts of the show, and while they’re both very smart people with amazingly nerdy tastes (Buffy, Georges Méliès, and the like), it’s Byers’ presence that really makes it entertaining. She’s witty, charismatic, has great energy, and can go with the flow.

According to their website, the “formula for each Nerd Nite is pretty standard — 20-minute presentations from three presenters each night, in a laid-back environment with lots to learn, and lots to drink!” This means that it is a 19+ event — my apologies to all the underage nerds out there, but fear not, your time will come! 

Many of the presenters are people currently in grad school. While this may sound academic, the goal is for them to enlighten the public about something they are passionate about in an accessible way. Plus, presentations are not just restricted to academics. Past events have included performative Indigenous storytelling, queer storytelling from a local drag performer, and a lesson on how fun poetry is. The last Nerd Nite event also opened with the first presenter performing a song about his topic: predator-prey relations.

Nerd Nite is a mixed bag, and I’m not going to lie and tell you every presentation is great. Sometimes people have too much exposition about their lives and it detracts from the info, sometimes the topics aren’t put into tems that are easy to understand, and sometimes the presentations just aren’t all that interesting. That being said, most of the time presenters are amazing. It’s interesting and I’ve learned so much after faithfully attending every month. When there’s a topic I’ve never thought about before, or when a topic is presented in an engaging way, it’s eye-opening and is 100% worth the affordable $7 cost of entry.

Some of my favourites have been “The Struggles of Being a Socially Awkward Adolescent Rat” by Travis Hodges, “Trans-Reproductive Health” by A.J. Lowik (whose important work is helping make the Vancouver medical industry more trans-friendly), and “The Potential Perils of Brain Eating Fungi!” by Linda Horianopulos. 

After every presenter, the audience is also given a chance to tweet about something generally related to the presentation in order to win prizes. One of my favourite prompts was tweeting a haiku about a favourite animal for which I won a stuffed rat: “bill the weiner dog / jaws of death unrelenting / loves his tennis ball.” I’ve also won a book of poetry and a pair of bigfoot socks which remains my favourite prize to date. 

Aside from the fun aspect of it, Nerd Nite is a good chance for anyone who has a topic they’re passionate about to bring it to the general public, or if they did a presentation for a class and they hope to take that information out of the classroom. Currently, the presenters run very UBC heavy, so let’s get the SFU representation up! 

Catch the next Nerd Nite on February 26, for their six year anniversary and 50 show, where the upcoming topics are Space Poop, Movie Making, and Our Drinking Water. The tickets are available on the Nerd Nite website and are tiered with three price points: a $7 Early Nerd (which is now sold out), a $10 Level-up Nerd, and a $15 Mecha Nerd. And maybe you might just be inspired to hop on stage in the future. I mean, truly, what’s nerdier than that?

SFU Reading Circle invites community to read and discuss Indigenous literature

By
Arts
-
0
Photo: Chris Ho / The Peak
Photo: Chris Ho / The Peak

by Amneet Mann, Peak Associate

After five years of being a student on Burnaby campus, I stepped into the SFU Gallery for the first time to attend SFU’s Indigenous Literature Reading Circle. 

Walking into the SFU Gallery from the Academic Quadrangle (AQ)’s busy halls, you feel as if you’ve entered another world. The gleaming hardwood floor, track lights, white walls, and display shelves make the room look unlike what I’ve grown to expect from the university. For the spring term, the Gallery is featuring Lyse Lemieux’s exhibition No Fixed Abode, and the large black and white drawings on the wall make the room feel even larger than it is.

The location has a quieting and centring effect, removing you from the between-class madness of the AQ just outside. This makes it the perfect space to hold the weekly Reading Circle hosted by SFU’s current Writer-in-Residence Carleigh Baker. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from a reading circle, but when I walked in and saw six straight-backed, dark wooden chairs arranged in a circle, it occured to me that the name was more literal than I had assumed. I took a seat and joined the conversation that was going on as we waited for more participants to join us.

While not officially part of the main event, I found that sitting in a circle with Baker, Gallery staff, and other participants and talking about our opinions of CliFi (fiction that deals with climate change, often in a dystopia) and the different punk genres to be a highlight of the experience. Baker was engaging and inviting, sharing anecdotes from her creative writing class, and responding to jokes with a clear laughter that echoed off the Gallery walls. 

After about 10 minutes of chatting, we decided to leave the door open for participants to trickle in and began by reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, a novel that follows an Anishinaabe family in a post-apocalyptic timeline. The book was passed around the circle and read aloud, with each participant reading one page at a time. We read two chapters of the book and ended at 2:20 p.m., leaving time for participants to grab some coffee on their way out. The session reminded me of English class in high school, and asked for the kind of attention that makes you forget about the exams and assignments that you were worrying about.

When I talked to Baker on the phone after, she echoed my thoughts about the effect of the Reading Circle. She recalled that, after the first Reading Circle she did as a master’s student at UBC with her classmates, “it was like just going to an exercise class [ . . . ] where we finished and thought, ‘oh, this feels great. I feel kind of relaxed and focused.’ And we decided we would keep doing it.” 

Baker continued the practice weekly at UBC, and then included it as part of her pitch when she applied for the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellowship to come to SFU. 

“I really like the role I play in academic institutions to be sort of a community-builder, someone who can make space for people to just be together and sort of relax, and the Reading Circle just proved itself to be that in spades,” said Baker.

Baker noted that the atmosphere of the circle tends to depend on the type of work that is being read, with poetry leaving participants feeling invigorated, and non-fiction work always spurring conversation post-read. When choosing non-fiction, Baker tries to find work that is relevant to current cultural concerns, such as cultural appropriation.

According to Baker, the response from the SFU community towards the Reading Circle has been steadily growing since its start in January. She recalled being concerned that she didn’t have enough of a reputation at SFU to begin a community program where individuals would feel comfortable attending, and that they might ask themselves “Why should I feel safe coming and sharing this space with her?”

But her concerns have proven to be unfounded as the program grows steadily each week. “Folks have come from all different departments,” she said, noting that the biggest attendance so far had been eight or nine people. 

Baker emphasized that participants of the Reading Circle are not obligated to read. 

“I’m never going to push people into something they’re uncomfortable with. It’s the comfort level that I want most of all,” she explained. “So I’m really thrilled that people are just coming and hanging out, and feel like they can take part.”

The Reading Circle is slated to run every Thursday in the SFU Gallery from 1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. until April 9, which marks the end of Baker’s fellowship at SFU.

SFU’s inefficient sinks don’t promote healthy hand-washing

By
Opinions
-
0
Sink’s broken, guess I’ll die. Photo: Nicole Magas/The Peak

By: Paige Riding, News Writer

This cold and flu season, SFU took it upon themselves to stick up a bunch of signs explaining when and how to wash your hands. Like a Hello Kitty Band-Aid put on by a blind nurse, the signs were put up with the best intentions, but miss a big problem. It feels like half the sinks on campus don’t work, and the other half provide water cold enough to take your breath away — and not in a “Scar saying ‘long live the king’ to Mufasa before sending his brother to live in the clouds” kind of way. SFU needs to fix their sinks before they start pontificating about how people should be more hygienic.

Like many of the students sitting in AQ, the sinks in the washrooms of that building do one thing really well: they sit there, showing promise of working to those who pass by, only for nothing about them to work at all. 

These broken and ice-cold water-dispensing sinks pose a serious health risk. Some people may give up on the attempt to find a functional sink, thus spreading whatever germs colonized on their hands to the next surface they touch. Others may grimace at the icy-cold water, deciding to cut their hand-washing routine short. For the sake of all students, staff, and faculty on campus, working sinks are a necessity that should be treated as just that. They are tools that make campus cleaner and safer for everyone, and should not be neglected by SFU Maintenance & Operations.

And while the debate continues about whether or not hot water is the better option, what virtually 100% of folks who are not lizard people agree on is that the freezing bursts of water that some sinks spit out on campus is not ideal. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website says that scrubbing one’s hands for a minimum of 20 seconds is sufficient to kill a bulk of harmful bacteria. The short bursts from many button-activated sinks on campus do not reach a time near this. At the best of times, SFU patrons will repeatedly press the button so that enough water can flow for the recommended hand-washing time. At the worst, the brisk five-second initial supply of water will be deemed enough, resulting in an ineffective attempt to protect themselves and others from the spread of disease.

SFU needs to practice what they preach on these informative signs. While informing the SFU community on how to defend against diseases is great and all, with such useless sinks to execute these instructions, no one benefits. There is nothing to lose but everything to gain by fortifying the tools available to stop the spread of germs.

 

1...450451452...1,414Page 451 of 1,414

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