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Student groups should always make events accessible for students with physical and cognitive disabilities

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Photo by Chris Ho/The Peak

Written by: Martha D, SFU Student

There are people with disabilities and varying needs in every community. Making space that everyone can access equally is showing appreciation and respect for all of those community-members that frequently end up ignored. Too often, accessibility is either entirely brushed aside or added as an afterthought for club and campus events.

In my own experiences, I have noticed how frequently access needs are only acknowledged if someone, usually a disabled student, brings the topic up. This doesn’t support the disabled and neurodivergent student body in feeling included in general campus life.

Some ways to improve club and campus involvement in widening access can involve centering disability justice education on campus, like TSSU recently did, and including disabled students in event planning or review.

SFU Autistics United (SFU AU) is a club on campus that practices access check-ins during their meetings along with introductions. An access check-in is when you allow people to say if their needs are being met. Are the lights too bright? Is there a strong scent or loud sound that is irritating? If there is a need to be met, then the group tries to solve or reduce the barrier collectively. This is something any student group can do with little-to-no difficulty.

A page on the website for the Disability Intersectionality Summit, a conference centered on the experiences of people with disabilities, highlights 10 steps to start creating access in everyday life and event planning. Some of the steps include writing image descriptions, captioning videos, and practicing solidarity by keeping each other accountable for accessibility details on events. By factoring these steps into the planning stage, events won’t be leaving people out or hurriedly trying to create new accommodations for a pre-planned event since measures of inclusiveness are already built in.

Particularly for clubs at SFU, there is a specific Accessibility Fund offered by the SFSS for club events to cover costs to provide access. The application process is the same as applying for grants to cover any other costs in event planning, and no club should ever overlook using this resource.

Attending the SFU AU meetings has shown me how there are a lot of things I don’t think about in my daily life that affect others. Similarly, it has made me more aware and mindful of my surroundings and the people around me. Accessibility ranges from ASL interpretation to reduced scent spaces to wheelchair-appropriate spaces. In conversation with a friend recently, I realized how broad access needs can be. Learning is an active process, so try to include a bit more of these methods into your events each time.

Staying In: Terrace House

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Peak Web
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Image courtesy of Polygon

By: Kim Regala, Peak Associate

 

Forget The Bachelor or Keeping Up with the Kardashians, this Japanese series is sure to satisfy your cravings for reality TV. Co-produced by Netflix and Fuji TV, Terrace House has hit a worldwide audience by storm, and for good reason. It holds the classic premises of reality TV: six strangers live freely in a house granted all amenities. Of course, friendships form along the way, tensions rise, and romance unfolds. However, unlike most American reality TV, Terrace House actually finds a way to appear authentic and real.

Showrunners make sure that storylines appear as unscripted as possible, refraining from too much meddling with the narratives and minimizing the amount of edits they make. As a result, viewers get the full picture of every day and week that goes by. Granted, some episodes can feel a bit dull. However, these uneventful moments only work to strengthen the show’s authenticity and further emphasizes the sense of “reality.”

At the same time, Terrace House offers something unique by introducing hosts that act as commentators throughout each episode. The show breaks off a couple of times into a separate room where we see them reacting as they too watch the story unfold. While shows typically avoid such pauses to allow for a more immersive feel, these moments effectively work to create some comic relief and build up some excitement for what’s to come.

Terrace House is a four-part series, and three of its parts, “Opening New Doors,” “Boys & Girls in the City,” and “Aloha State,” are available for streaming on Netflix.

Best for: Reality show junkies, voyeurists, and anyone who’s always wanted to learn Japanese

SFSS 2019 Election Results Announced

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The 2020 SFSS Election debate was held on Wednesday March 20

For the past two weeks, candidates for the 2019 SFSS elections have been campaigning for student votes. Students voted from March 19-21, and the results are in!

The SFSS’s 2019/2020 Board of Directors is as follows:

President: Giovanni HoSang

VP Student Services: Christina Loutsik

VP University Relations: Shina Kaur

VP Finance: Tawanda Nigel Chitapi

VP External Relations: Jasdeep Gill

VP Student Life: Jessica Nguyen

At Large Representatives: Maneet Aujla and Rayhaan Khan

Applied Sciences Representative: Nick Chubb

Arts and Social Sciences Representative: Jennifer Chou

Business Representative: Andrew Wong

Communication, Arts, and Technology Representative: Fiona Li

Education Representative: Emerly Liu

Environment Representative: Julian Loutsik

Health Sciences Representative: Osob Mohamed

Sciences Representative: Simran Uppal

Editors Note: Expect more coverage on the new and exiting board members soon.

Roma is Alfonso Cuaron’s best film yet

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Peak Web
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Image courtesy of NME

Written by: Marco Ovies

Alfonso Cuarón delivers his most personal movie to date with Roma. The story revolves around Cleo (played by Yalitza Aparicio), a young domestic worker, who helps Antonio and Sofía take care of their four children in Roma, Mexico City. But problems arise when Antonio abandons his family for his mistress. Shortly after, Sofia decides to take the kids on vacation. Cleo, upon realising she’s pregnant from her boyfriend, is invited to the vacation to help clear her head.

Cuarón drew much inspiration from his own childhood to create this real and emotional portrayal of domestic strife and social hierarchy during the political turmoil of the 1970s. The film is not only a love letter to Cuarón’s nanny but also a personal story about growing up in Mexico City.

After directing 2013 blockbuster film Gravity starring Sandra Bullock, Roma is a very different story for Cuarón to take. Going from such a bright and CGI-heavy movie to a film shot entirely in black and white with no soundtrack is a large leap. But at no point does the film feel like it is lacking anything  — Cuarón has managed to make the film feel alive all by itself. This amazing feat of the director however, could not have been achieved without the work of actress Yalitza Aparicio, who delivered a breathtaking performance. In her few lines, Aparicio shows so much. In the simplest actions, like a touch on the back or letting herself be a human cushion for two tired children, she exhibits such a genuine love for these children. She embodies this calming and slow-moving energy that any audience can connect with, reminding us of someone we loved in our childhood.

Throughout the movie, the natural slow-moving world is focused on prominently. Within the first shot, we see water flowing along the stones, while in the reflection of the water, we see the sky with a single airplane flying across. This may not be too striking of an image, but in reality, this first shot is rife with storytelling. Water, stone, and air: all reflect a natural flow of life, while also showing us a glimpse of the small in contrast with the large. This concept of the small in contrast with the large is a recurrent theme throughout the film. Most notably, the small personal story of a middle class family serves as the forefront for the much larger story being told about Roma as a whole.  

Artistically,  Cuarón has made a beautiful film with interesting cinematography. He never gives us a close up of these characters, but rather, leaves us space, letting the background speak for itself. As while the film is indeed about Cleo and this one small middle-class family, the background paints a picture revealing this one family reflects a larger story in the world around them. Overall, Roma is one of the best films of this year and arguably one of Cuarón’s best films to date.

Roma is available on Netflix and will play for free March 22 at SFU Burnaby Campus at 6 p.m. in the Images Theatre.

Student Daycare: A place for all your needs

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Photo curtesy of wikimedia commons

Written by: Mishaa Khan, Peak Associate

School getting you all down? Do you wish you could somehow release all the frustration that your classes gave you without crying in front of 200 students at school? Well, you can!
SFU has created a student daycare to improve your wellbeing!

SFU’s Adult Daycare presents many activities:

Dress-up: Are you scared of financial instability? Do you wish you had your life figured out? Instead of worrying, you can dress up like the adults you want to be in the future. You can pretend to have a job you love, financial security, your own home, and no loans to pay off.
Price: $10 a day.

Sleeping Room: Tired of falling asleep sitting up in your lectures or trying to find places to nap on campus? Well, now you can sleep lying down in our extremely comfortable waterbed made from the tears of SFU students. We also have recordings of lecturers reading off of the lecture slides playing in the background to help you sleep better.
Price: $6/hr or an all-day pass of $30.

Arts and Crafts: We have a huge range of creative activities you can take part in. Some examples include colouring (or scribbling) on pre-printed colouring pages of failed midterms or SFU’s Twitter page, decorating your ideal 145 bus with glitter glue, or constructing a collage version of Canvas out of popsicle sticks, giving yourself the marks you truly deserve!

Board Game Room: We have a room dedicated to your favorite board and card games, but they come with a twist. They are all based on your experience at university. Snakes and Ladders? More like Assignments and Coffee. Other board games include SFU Against Students, Studentpictionary, Let’s Go Fishing Assignments, and more!  You can use your student ID to check out one board game at a time for up to 4 hours.

You can get all these services for an unlimited duration for only $200 a month!

Groundbreaking progress for the new SFU stadium

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Peak Web
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It was a big day for SFU, SFU coaches and athletes, and SFU students. (Chris Ho / The Peak)

After years of waiting, the new SFU stadium is finally set to begin construction.  

There was a buzz on Terry Fox Field as a crowd gathered on a beautiful Tuesday morning to break ground on the project. Among the crowd were SFU president Andrew Petter, SFU Athletics and Recreation senior director Theresa Hanson, SFSS vice-president student services Samer Rihani, stakeholders, media, student-athletes, and coaches. Everybody there was excited by what this new project means for SFU Athletics and SFU students for the future.

The Perkins and Will-designed stadium project will include seating for 1,800-plus people, with roughly two thirds of these seats covered by a roof. It is jointly funded by both SFU and the SFSS, and has been previously estimated to cost $15 million.

“This stadium represents a major commitment on the part of the Simon Fraser Student Society, and a significant contribution to the quality of student life here at SFU,” said Petter when speaking to the crowd. “Not only will it be used to provide seating for athletic events, but it will also serve as a facility for hosting campus community events, student orientation, concerts, tournaments and recreational activities.”

In this, SFU hopes that the stadium will benefit all students at SFU, not just those who watch or play varsity sports. At the same time, however, this new stadium should encourage more students to pay attention to Canada’s only NCAA school.

“People will now find a reason to learn about their athletes,” said Rihani when interviewed by The Peak, “To have a stadium and to have this actually in place is going to be a staple to show students, ‘Hey, we’ve got a stadium here, it’s clear that we take our athletics seriously.’”

This is an especially exciting time for the SFU players and coaches who will now play in front of a covered stadium.

“There have been times here at SFU where we played in front of one person for a varsity game. It’s just the reality of the way the place was built originally,” said men’s soccer’s head coach Clint Schneider, who recently coached his team to a third straight GNAC title, to The Peak. “Being covered is going to be a really positive step in the right direction […] I wouldn’t go to a game if I was going to get soaking wet, either.”

SFU football head coach Thomas Ford echoed this sentiment, telling The Peak, “I think you’re going to see our attendance raise dramatically just because of the space. An actual area to sit. Protection against the elements.”

This new stadium was part of the reason that Ford came to SFU to coach last year, and should help in recruiting players as well according to the coach. “In our [recruitment] class of 2019 the stadium was a huge reason why some kids chose SFU. Knowing that it’s actually happening, knowing that it’s gonna be starting before they come was a huge deal.”

SFU men’s soccer players Eric de Graaf and Marcello Polisi also shared their excitement about the new project with The Peak.

“In the fall for soccer when the weather is not too nice and it’s coming down hard having the roof over the stands will definitely encourage people to come out and support the team. So I think it’ll be great,” said de Graaf.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more people out to the games,” said Polisi.

While this day has been a long time coming, it’s finally here. That being said, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done in order to meet the August 2020 deadline.

For more information on the SFU stadium project, read our previous coverage here.

What do Students Think of the Differences Between Canadian and Foreign Education?

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Peak Web
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Album Reviews

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Written by: Louise Ho and Tiffany Chang

 

Sucker Punch by Sigrid

Sigrid’s long-awaited debut album is nothing short of a true sucker punch. Filled with endlessly catchy hooks and powerful lyrics, Sucker Punch includes 12 relatable tracks. Based in Norway, the 22-year-old artist is  honest and raw with the songs that she writes, and Sucker Punch is no exception to her previous EP’s, Raw (2018) and Don’t Kill My Vibe (2017). Each song here tells a story, masterfully writing about life, love, friendships, and careers. Sucker Punch evokes a sense of solace and peace, and features intense and controlled vocals. Her vocals evoke a sense of inescapable emotions, ones that just needed to be felt to push through. Tracks like “Don’t Feel Like Crying” offers listeners comfort after breakups, while “In Vain” showcases Sigrid’s intensity and vocal range, telling her viewers that even if heartbreak happens but you can’t let it get to you. Two of my favourites that have not been previously released in the studio would be “Business Dinners” and “In Vain.” – LH

 

1UP by T-Pain

As someone who is relatively new to T-Pain’s work and artistry, I was curious after finding out about the release of his latest album 1UP. I felt pleasantly surprised while listening. “A Million Times,” the latest single, is a stand-out tune I enjoyed from beginning to end. While I predicted up-beat songs like “It’s My Dog Birthday,” what I didn’t expect were emotional numbers on serious relationships like “Keep This From Me.” “Getcha Roll On,” however, possesses a boring, one-dimensional melody that would have made the song consistently mediocre throughout if not for the smart collaboration with Tory Lanez, whose vocals in my opinion, saved the song. I think the robotic quality of the autotune T-Pain favours is wasted on a gifted singer. 1UP overall signifies a sense of rebirth and pays homage to the artist’s gaming interest. While this is an overall a decent album, 1UP is not enough to be considered a major comeback. – TC

 

It wasn’t a phase, mom: Emo Nite LA brings teen angst back to Vancouver

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Peak Web
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Image courtesy of @bb.coconutbuns

Written by: Winona Young, Arts Editor

Let’s face it, anyone who was a nerd in 2009 was emo. That group, of course, includes myself and just about all of the 300 or so Vancouverites who were with me dancing their hearts out at Fortune Sound Club last Thursday night. Why? Because Emo Nite was in town.

So what’s Emo Nite?

Emo Nite LA., the original creators of the phenomenon, are essentially a party tour that goes through North America playing the emo classics of your tweenhood. Consisting of three friends and a killer Spotify playlist, Emo Nite LA came to Vancouver for a night of rocking out, balloons and merch included.

The All-Canadian Rejects (AKA, the crowd)

Before the night even began at 9 p.m, the line outside the club at 8:55 p.m. spanned around two blocks. A sea of dark lipstick and darker clothing, the crowd is absolutely lovely. While my friend and I are huddled in our coats, the group in front of us offers us a free ticket — this small act of sweetness sets the tone for the crowd for the rest of the night.

Walking in, it’s a sea of straight hair dangerously parted to the side, band t-shirts galore, Vans on just about everyone, and a universal confusion for why J. Cole was blasting through the speakers. Clad in a black ensemble plus tie à la Avril Lavigne, I sway in confusion along with my friend before being approached by a friendly face, who we found out who also goes to SFU. We talk about each other’s band merch before the party finally starts.  

Misery and Partying Business (AKA, the clubbing itself)

The first song they blast at the club is Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar We’re Going Down Swinging.” Then it’s Paramore’s “Misery Business.” Then “I Write Sins, Not Tragedies” by Panic! At the Disco. Then it’s “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance. It is banger after absolute banger at Fortune Sound Club — everyone is head thrashing like no tomorrow and it is a goddamn blast.

It gets to a point that when my neck starts to get strained from the head banging, my friend keeps saying “We’ll leave after this song!”, only for us to be met with another emo classic from All American Rejects or Sum 41, and we end up dancing for another hour and a half or so. Thankfully, the bar was stocked with free water pitchers. It took a while to get the attention from bartenders, but they moved quickly from customer to customer.

When we leave for a break to check out the merch table, they have little balloons by the booth, with messages like, “Thank you for moshing with us,” and “This balloon was at Emo Nite and so was I.” by the hosts running the table and my friend opted for the enamel pin with a cartoon gravestone reading “Emo Nite.”

While the merch was adorable, by far what stuck out most was the genuine kindness from the cashier manning the table. I passed him my money with a mindlessly cheery thank you, and how he replied surprised me. The host slowly accepted my money, took the time to look at me, really look at me in my mangy-haired glory, and said, “Thank you,” in such a genuine and warm tone that I blushed and promptly went back to moshing.

Was it worth going? (AKA, You had to be there)

The playlist itself was a great mix of (emo) bangers, bops, and jams, so that by midnight, when the most quintessential emo songs came on, the crowd was ready. The DJ began with “Sk8er Boi” by Canadian music’s emo queen, Avril Lavigne, but then was promptly cut with, you guessed it, “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance.

Now even though the night was ending, let me tell you, there is no kind of camaraderie and wholesome energy better than being in a whole club singing about how their father took them to the city. Emo Nite LA was cathartic and an absolute rush. Communities like this remind us that even though you may be just a kid and life is a nightmare, there are people who will mosh with you, sing with you until their lungs give out, and, like Gerard Way sang, help you carry on.

SFSS candidates you might have missed

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Photo curtesy of Whateverskateboard

Written by: Hannah Davis, Staff Writer

It is election season once again, and The Peak is so excited to be covering the wonderful and promising platforms of some of this year’s candidates.

Name: (I don’t want people to vote for my name . . . just my soul)
Year: 10
Major: Undeclared
Campaign slogan: Who needs a degree, when you can learn for free?
Campaign promise: I will protect students from the job market by never letting them graduate.
Why you should vote for me: I’m fun, I’m free, I don’t wear underwear under my billowy balloon pants #letitbreathe #freethecrotch. I have audited over 500 different lectures and so I know everything there is to know about how SFU works. This is how I came up with my plan to make it mandatory for every undergrad to audit at least seven classes from outside their major, so they’ll stay at the school forever!
Fun fact: I once brewed my own kombucha that eventually turned rancid, but I drank it anyways and now I can see into the past, present and future.

 

Name: Jared
Year: Middle School, Grade 8
Major: I like Woodshop, Home Economics, and I think English class is stupid. I might not even actually go to university.
Campaign Slogan: YEET
Campaign promise: My plan is to supply every student with a hall pass, so they are allowed to go to the bathroom and walk around in the halls whenever they want and not get in trouble. If elected as SFSS president, I will make it so professors can’t give detention. Also, everyone is going to get a vape pen because my mom took mine away.
Why you should vote for me: I will give you freedom and the ability to do whatever you want, whenever you want.
Fun fact: Once I skipped a whole week of school ‘cause I did a sick kick flip and landed on my ass and broke my ass-bone. Mom says I actually just bruised my tailbone, but it hurt so bad I think she was lying.

 

Name: Barry
Year: 1
Major: Biology
Campaign Slogan: Be more like bears (couldn’t use that Dwight Schrute quote due to copyright, stop telling me about it)
Campaign promise: I will reduce student stress by 100%. As an (undeclared) biology major, I have noticed that bears have less documented cases of stress than all students ever. I plan to completely get rid of structured lectures, tutorials and homework, and just let everyone roam freely around the campus like bears in the forest. All this university crap is too much stress, we all just need to return to the BEAR NECESSITIES.
Why you should vote for me: No more stress, no more classes, no more learning whatsoever.
Fun fact: I got an 87% on my biology course midterm, so I know I could run a government.

 

Name: Bradley
Year: 5
Major: Philosophy
Campaign Slogan: Susan, I’m sorry, I want you back!
Campaign promise: THIS IS FOR SUSAN GILFORD ONLY.
Please don’t vote for me, I don’t want to be president.
Baby, I know I fucked up. I just miss you so much. You taught me about life, like how to do laundry and wash the dishes. (God, your simple beauty astounded me) I know how much you love big romantic gestures, so if this is the only way I get you to notice me than so be it. I’ll run the best campaign for you, baby, just please notice me. Call. Reply to my texts. Please.
Why you should vote for me: DON’T vote for me… I don’t even know what the SFSS is, I just want my girlfriend back.
Fun fact: I. Do. Not. Want. To. Win.

 

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society