march 13, 2013

THE

Volume 53, Issue 25 Wednesday, March 13, 2013 thecord.ca

T he tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier University since 1926

BOD attendance hits low point

Region economy booming, report says

Online learning takes on global approach

DOWN AND DERBYDOWN AND DERBY

Jon Pryce, the chair and chief gover-nance offi cer for the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union board, has a message for his directors: at-tend the board meetings.

This year, the WLUSU board of directors has a total of about 63 re-grets as opposed to roughly 37 last year. A regret is essentially an ab-sence with enough notice from the director under the discretion of the chair.

“Obviously, I’m concerned. We have to make sure we are present at board meetings and representing the students’ needs. However, con-fl icts do come up,” Pryce explained.

Last Friday, Pryce had to cancel a scheduled board meeting because there weren’t enough directors to reach quorum, which the minimum amount of directors required to make decisions - ten of the 15 elect-ed directors in the WLUSU board’s case. Only nine said they could have attended. A make-up meeting was held on Tuesday night.

“I’m disappointed but everyone

has their reason for not being able to make it to a meeting. I’ve made it very clear to which ones were con-sidered regrets and which ones were considered absents,” he added.

Of the regrets, midterms, ex-ams, work, volunteering and co-op have all been used as reasons to miss a meeting. There have been 18

Imagine being in a classroom with students from the U.A.E., China, Mexico and various other countries around the globe learning about the same subject in an interactive fash-ion from the comfort of your home.

And it’s free. Kevin Leyton-Brown, a professor

at the University of British Colum-bia, has taught such a class with the

introduction of massively open on-line courses (MOOCs) at UBC. UBC, in conjunction with Coursera, an online course provider based in the United States, has opened up a few MOOCs, including Leyton-Brown’s course on game theory.

Leyton-Brown’s course, however, is also taught with Matthew O. Jack-son and Yoav Shoham from Stanford University. MOOCs have also been introduced at the University of To-ronto (U of T) and McGill this past

year. “I’ve been kind of amazed about

the breadth of reach that the courses have had,” said Leyton-Brown. “I have more students in Iceland, Kyr-gyzstan, and the Palestinian territo-ries than I teach here at UBC.”

“They’re [MOOCs] reaching out to just far corners of the world, it’s really just amazing to me,” he added.

The course that Leyton-Brown teaches employs the use of vid-eos, discussion boards, interactive

projects and quizzes to assess and educate the students.

If a student fi nishes the course from beginning to end, they will re-ceive a signed certifi cate from the university.

Credits, however, are not given for the completion of MOOCs.

“Ultimately what you get out of it is that you get to learn from it. For most people taking the course, that’s what it seems they really want,” Leyton-Brown continued, adding

that about 130,000 people enrolled in his class when it fi rst opened last fall.

“One thing that I’ve really learned for this is that different people are trying to get different things out of it.”

The University of Toronto was the fi rst university in Canada to set up an agreement with Coursera to

JUSTIN SMIRLIESNEWS DIRECTOR

With two meetings remaining, directors already at 63 regrets on the year

On Monday night, locals got a chance to tour CBC K-W’s newly opened studio and news room. NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

“When push comes to

shove, being at the board

meeting is imperative.”

—Jon Pryce, WLUSU chair and CGO

Inside

Saying goodbye

Slow and steady wins the race

Why the classic “let’s just be friends” line may not be the best way to end a relationship

Study fi nds that only 45 per cent of university students earn their degree in four years

Life, page 13

National, page 9

National, page 9

Campus, page 6

In a new approach to online education, professors around the globe start free teaching initiative

CBC comes to K-W

Local branch of CBC Radio o� cially launches

News, page 3

Staging a comeback

Staff Writer Robin Daprato discusses the recent resurgence of the large-scale music festival

Arts, page 14

Starting strong

Laurier football team brings over 25 new recruits into the fold

Sports, page 18


Features, page 10

Local, page 7

DOWN AND DERBYDOWN AND DERBYDOWN AND DERBY

Editor-in-ChiefJustin Fauteux [email protected]

2 • THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

News ………………………3Campus ……………… 4Local ……………………7National ……………… 9

Features ……………… 10Life ……………………… 13Arts ……………………… 14Editorial ……………… 16Opinion ……………… 17Sports ………………… 18

Editor’s choiceChildhood hobby turned thriving businessLocal, page 8

How would you feel about taking more than four years to fi n-ish university?

Vocal Cord

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MARCH 13, 2013Volume 53, Issue 25Next issue: March, 20, 2013

AdvertisingAll advertising inquiries should be directed to Angela Endicott at 519-884-0710 [email protected]

In 2011 the Canadian Community Newspaper Association awarded The Cord second place in the campus community newspaper category.

Editorial BoardEditor-in-Chief. ............................. Justin Fauteux

[email protected] Director .............................. Justin Smirlies [email protected] Director ....................... Wade Thompson [email protected] News Editor ............ Elizabeth DiCesare [email protected] and National Editor ....... Lindsay Purchase

[email protected] Depth Editor. .............................................Vacant

[email protected] Editor ........................ Colleen Connolly

[email protected] Editor ..............................................Carly Basch

[email protected] Arts Editor ...............................Cristina Almudevar

[email protected] Editor ...................................Devon Butler

[email protected] Editor .................................Shelby Blackley

[email protected] Editor ........................Stephanie Truong

[email protected] Manager .................Nick Lachance

[email protected] Manager ........................ Kate Turner

[email protected] Editor .....................................................Vacant

[email protected]

Senior Sta� Lead Reporter ............................... Katelyn CullumLead Reporter ..................................Marissa EvansLead Reporter .................................... Alanna FaireyLead Videographer ........................... Jeremy EnnsLead Photographer ................. Cristina RucchettaCopy Editing Manager .....................Gillian Lopes

Contributors

WLUSP administrationPresident and Publisher.................................................. Emily Frost

Executive Director ....................................................Bryn Ossington

Advertising Manager .............................................. Angela Endicott

Treasurer..................................................................... Tom Paddock

Vice-Chair .........................................................................Jon Pryce

Director...................................................................... Kayla Darrach

Director.................................................... Joseph McNinch-Pazzano

Corporate Secretary ...................................................... Allie Hincks

Distribution Manager ............................................. Angela Endicott

Web Manager .......................................................... Adam Lazzarato

ColophonThe Cord is the offi cial student newspaper of the Wilfrid Laurier University community.

Started in 1926 as the College Cord, The Cord is an editorially inde-pendent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Opinions expressed within The Cord are those of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of the editorial board, The Cord, WLUSP, WLU or CanWeb Printing Inc. All content appearing in The Cord bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Cord is created using Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.5 using Adobe Creative Suite 4. Canon cameras are used for principal photography.

The Cord has been a proud member of the Ontario Press Council since 2006. Any unsatisfi ed complaints can be sent to the council at [email protected].

The Cord’s circulation for a normal Wednesday issue is 8,000 copies and enjoys a readership of over 10,000. Cord subscription rates are $20.00 per term for addresses within Canada.

The Cord has been a proud member of the Canadian University Press (CUP)since 2004.

Campus Plus is The Cord’s national advertising agency.

Preamble to The Cord constitutionThe Cord will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Cord believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a matter of controversy.

The staff of The Cord shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of com-mission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly. When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartial-ity, and consequently confl icts of interest and the appearance of confl icts of interest will be avoided by all staff.

The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so The Cord will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on Wilfrid Laurier University, and the community of Kitchener-Waterloo, and with a special ear to the concerns of the students of Wilfrid Laurier University. Ultimately, The Cord will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Cord has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfi lled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through The Cord’s contact with the student body.

The Cord will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of the student press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our newspaper.Quote of the week:“... And he thought HE was gonna get periods and it was hilarious.”–Campus News Editor Elizabeth DiCesare describing her brother’s reaction to “the talk”

The tie that binds Wilfrid Laurier Universi� since 1926

Ara An Rebecca Allison Kelly Burwash Robin Daprato

Heather Davidson Ashley Denuzzo Ben Dinsmore Spencer Dunn

Alexandra Flack

Dana Francoeur Kaylee Grootjen

Ryan Hueglin Mike Hajmasy

Alissa MacDonald Kelly McGahey

Kaitlyn Oosterink Julia Pollock

Erin Sheehan

Andrew Savory Autumn Smith Jordan Smith Wesley Taylor

Eric Thompson Jody Waardenburg

Lena Yang

“As long as my grades are good and I am doing it to supplement my ed-ucation, I am okay with more than four years.”–Mitch Danielsthird-year communica-tion studies

“I would be okay with fi ve years if it meant catching up or getting a minor.”–Rohan Rajsecond-year, business

“I’d feel fi ne with one ex-tra year or semester. But I don’t want to go over that in my undergrad.”–Adwoa Tokufi rst-year, sociology

“I’d be fi ne with it, but no more than fi ve years.”–Danielle Thorpefi rst-year biology/psy-chology

This Week in quotes

CORRECTIONIn the March 6 article “Bannerless year for Laurier sport,” the story read that the intramural program has helped fund the intercollegiate program. Intramurals is in fact a break-even operation, not a profi t centre. The Cord apologizes for this error.

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Inside

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DearLIFEDear Life is your opportuni� to write a letter to your life, allowing you to vent your anger with life’s little frustrations in a completely public forum. All submissions to Dear Life are anon-ymous, should be no longer than 100 words and must be addressed to your life. Submissions can be sent to [email protected] no later than Monday at noon each week.

Dear Life, The Tim Horton’s line up in the Sci-ence Building sure is long, but it’s all worth it when I see my favou-rite cashier Bernarda at the counter. Not only does she make the best hot drinks but she is also the sweetest lady in the world! Sincerely, Worth the wait

Dear Life,An ode to hangovers,I poison myself for merry good times,blurring my nights into dead & divineI woke up in bed, an ache in my headthumbing through memories feigned.body in pieces, moral shot to shit,the fetal position fi ts just like a mittthe pain is destructive, the toilet a friendThis is it. This is my imminent end.Eventually better, the drama comes cleanYou wanna go out tonight?I’ll take one for the team!Sincerely,happy birthday tim!!

Dear Life,Your sign says ”Open at 11am’, so why don’t you, Mr. Sub?Sincerely,Where’s your manager?

Dear Life,The geese are back.We are all going to die.Sincerely,Spring

Dear Life,Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?Sincerely,I hate Daylight Savings, but only in spring

Dear Life, I laughed at last week’s ”Ode to Whiskey Dick’ more than I should have. I miss the funny Dear Life posts.Sincerely,We all need a good laugh

Dear Life, Service Laurier has a webcam to see how busy they are. But I think more people would fi nd Tim Horton’s we-bcam useful. Fight for change!Sincerely,Sick of the Long Timmy’s Lineups

Dear Life,While having a medical response team on campus is a great idea, they seem to not respond to much in the ways of medical calls anymore. Maybe WLUSU can get out of debt by cutting the ample ERT budget.Sincerely,Does ERT Even go to calls anymore!???

Dear Life, I will never understand what’s so hard about locking a door. Come on guys, it takes two seconds.Sincerely,Frustrated

Dear I’m trying to talk to you, are you even listening?While it may seem as though no one at Laurier wants to listen, I can assure you that you do not have to go it alone. There are many re-sources on campus that have helped me through some diffi cult times. Counseling services, Adrienne Luft (mental health/student support team leader, [email protected]), or the Dean of Students ([email protected]) are just some of the resources that you can seek guidance from. Don’t suffer in silence.Sincerely,A concerned fellow student who wants you to be heard

Last week’s Sudoku solution

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“To make sure that

when people are giving

a regret, it’s for a valid

reason, it’s not it’s be-

cause it’s their birthday

or things like that.”

—Jordan Epstein, incoming chair of the WLUSU board of directors re: monitor-ing director attendance.











Classifi eds Local festivalThe 49th ELMIRA MAPLE SYRUP FESTIVAL, Sat. April 6th, 7a.m. to 4p.m. “Come Taste the Tradition.” 519-669-6000, www.elmirama-plesyrup.com

“To refl ect the community, it will be very local, so local that it will probably hurt. That is our rea-son for being: to be local.” –Craig Norris, CBC K-W morning host re: approach taken to The Morn-ing Edition

“You can’t bring your derby self to the offi ce.” –Kat Hiller of the Tri-Ci� Rollergirls re: her rollerderby alter ego “Nekro Nancy”

We always say to the younger guys [on Lettermen], if you’re going to do one thing, keep Pow-derPuff alive.–Drew Galpin, Laurier Lettermen executive re: keeping the tradition of PowderPuff football alive at WLU

News DirectorJustin [email protected]

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 • 3

Through radio waves and online re-porting, CBC is finally coming to Kitchener-Waterloo.

CBC’s new morning radio show, named The Morning Edition, launched on March 11 in Kitchener after months of planning and ne-gotiating. The station is a unique union of radio and digital works, acting as the first of its kind.

A launch party was hosted at its new location in Kitchener. Politi-cians including Waterloo Mayor Brenda Halloran and K-W� Progres-sive Conservative (PC) Party of On-tario candidate in the 2012 byelec-tion, Tracey Weiler, attended the event to show their support.

Guests were able to mingle over cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and music before CBC officials such as Jenny

McGuire, the general manager and editor-in-chief for CBC News and Centres and Kitchener mayor, Carl Zehr, made speeches. “We are now being known as the startup region,” Zehr said. “In terms of the new services that you are providing to the regional network, I think this radio launch is most ap-propriate and I am looking forward to it.” Radio host Craig Norris had been working for CBC for over 13 years in Toronto. After being offered the po-sition to host in the Kitchener-Wa-terloo area, Norris excitedly took the opportunity. “It’s a dream come true for me because I lived in this neck of the woods for a long time and I have been commuting to Toronto for al-most 13 years,” Norris explained. “To shorten my commute by three hours everyday is incredible.”

Norris shared that The Morn-ing Edition will be an injection of news and a lot more humour. Local arts and music will also be infused into the morning radio show, as Norris has experience in the music industry. “We’re going to follow the Metro Morning model, it’s the CBC morn-ing show model for the country,” Norris explained.“To reflect the community, it will be very local, so local that it will probably hurt. That is our reason for being: to be local.” In addition to Norris, Andrea Bel-lemare will act as the online host. This differs from Norris’ role as host, as she will be conducting on-line chats while Norris is on the air. “I’ll be moderating and hosting that chat,” Bellemare explained. “Then I will also be going onto the radio and chatting with Craig, doing updates and telling people what I

am seeing and hearing and also ask-ing people to contribute.” Bellemare also acknowledged that The Morning Edition would be in-corporating online features such as videos, interactives and a plethora of other features for viewers to engage in. Both Norris and Bellemare cred-ited their team at CBC has worked very hard and they are proud to have gotten to where they are now, espe-cially since their team consists of only seven people. “We have a good startup atti-tude. We’re a small and young team. I think our energy and curiosity and excitement for the area is what makes us unique,” Bellemare said. “No one is going to agree with our story choices every time, but we are going to work very hard and I hope that we reflect that,” Norris concluded.

Local politicians and community members gathered in Kitchener for the official launch of Kitchener-Waterloo’s CBC radio station. nick lachance pHotogRApHY MANAgER

alanna fairey lEAD REpoRtER

Student representatives from Wil-frid Laurier University Students’ Union and the University of Water-loo (UW) Federation of Students met with provincial parliament members in Queen’s Park last week to discuss issues in education.

Chris Walker, vice president of university affairs at WLUSU and Adam Garcia, vice-president of ed-ucation at UW, were among the rep-resentatives from the nine member associations who met in Ottawa last week for the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) Annual Advocacy Conference.

“Our mandate is to lobby the gov-ernment on behalf of student issues, based on four pillars, which are quality, accountability, accessibility and affordability,” Walker explained.

The representatives from post-secondary institutions spent a week meeting with ministers, MPPs and party critics to discuss the problems and solutions in education for the next year.

They identified specific issues that are relevant to students at this time, which included tuition, men-tal health and credit transfers, and formed a dialogue with Parlia-ment members to achieve a realistic solution.

“I think anytime you are able to put students in front of decision makers is an opportunity to re-ally influence the process, because I think everybody can relate to the stories of students who are in uni-versity,” expressed Garcia.

Among the members that met with students were MPPs Catherine Fife, John Milloy and Brad Duguid, the minister of training, colleges

and universities. Fife broke down her observa-

tions in an e-mail to The Cord and explained that OUSA made a strong case for a tuition freeze.

“We also want to give students a reprieve on paying interest post-graduation,” she stated.

Garcia and Walker both said that there was significance placed on the issue of tuition since the framework has expired and a new decision most be made by the end of the month. Currently, tuition increases by an average of five per cent each year.

“All indications have pointed to the fact that we will see a new tu-ition framework in place by the end of March, so ideally we will have in-fluenced the decision making pro-cess,” Garcia explained.

“The common factor was that ev-eryone pretty much agreed that the current model is not sustainable,

that the amount of funding that we are giving the system is not working for what we want.”

Walker said that the “minister indicated that tuition will not be a status quo, it is going to be less than five per cent, meaning that we are going to see some sort of progress.”

Another prominent area of con-cern was mental health.

“Mental health is obviously a top-ic on everyone’s minds and certainly one that has become more pervasive in the last few years,” said Walker.

Walker continued, “The credit transfer piece is something that has been identified as a priority by the new premier and it’s something she wants to pursue.”

Fife explained that she shares the concerns of students on the mental health file.“We need a two pronged approach — improve crisis response in addition to building campus

support to address stigma with a re-newed focus on early intervention and prevention.”

Reflecting on the week overall, Garcia expressed, “I think it was great that we were able to meet with a variety of decision makes from all the different parties.”

“That’s the best way to influence the process, as well as to demon-strate that OUSA is not a partisan organization.”

Both Walker and Garcia expressed optimism and satisfaction with the results of the conference and ex-plained that the conversation was productive and members seemed interested in solving the inquiries presented.

“We left the week feeling that we were very successful in conveying our message and now it’s up to the government on how far they want to take it,” Walker concluded.

katelyn cullum lEAD REpoRtER

Another ‘voice’ for K-W CBC launches new radio station and online news platform Monday night at gala

wLUsU, Uw Feds head to Queen’s Park

More news inside:

Passion lives

Childhood hobby becomes strong business for two local brothers

Local, page 8

nick lachance pHoto MANAgER

Emissions fall

laurier reports an 11 per cent drop in greenhouse emissions

Campus, page 4

steph truong gRApHiCS EDitoR

local student groups attend oUSA’s annual conference to lobby on the behalf of post-secondary students


Campus News EditorElizabeth [email protected]

Thanks to recent funding from the Government of Canada, Wilfrid Laurier University students and alumni will have the opportunity to work with growing companies in the community within the next year. On March 8, WLU announced that it will receive a $216,842 invest-ment which will fund the Laurier-Industry Internship Program.

The program’s focus is on stu-dents in science, technology, engi-neering and mathematics (STEM). To be eligible, students must have graduated within the last fi ve years from a Bachelor, Master’s, or PhD STEM program or currently in one.

The investment is provided through the Federal Economic De-velopment Agency of Southern On-tario’s (FedDev Ontario) Graduate Enterprise Internship.

Abby Goodrum, vice president of research, explained, “FedDev has a lot of different programs and this was the one that we applied for be-cause, well, we knew that there was some money available.”

That was nine months ago, when Research Services fi rst met with co-op and career services and the fac-ulty of science to talk about the pos-sibility of the program.

“Now it’s just in the start-up phase,” Goodrum said. “Now we’ll be moving really quickly to get stu-dents to apply.”

The funding will allow up to 20 students to intern at a STEM-relat-ed company for a six month period.

While the government’s interest is focused on STEM programs, Goo-drum acknowledged that Laurier doesn’t have the ‘E’ aspect of this: engineering.

She also explained that business students may have the opportunity to take advantage of the internship program.

“Primarily if they’re going to come from SBE they’re going to be more focused on things like economics or technology management,” she continued.

The university has until March 31, 2014 to use the money, which is

also the date all internships must be fi nished.

Paul Jessop, dean of the faculty of science, said that he is hopeful they will “spend all the money.”

As for his expectations from the program he said, “I’d like to see twenty good, solid placements. A successful program isn’t just to oc-cupy 20 people for six months, but out of those 20 it would be nice to follow and see how many turn those internships into permanent jobs.”

Links for both student and em-ployer applications are already ac-tive online, however, there is no in-formation on the selection process as of yet as the committee that will vet the applications is in the process of being formed.

“It’s a really great opportunity for companies too,” Goodrum said. “Because if you’re a start-up compa-ny you’d like to hire interns even to do research, yet you can’t really af-ford it. So this is a good deal for the companies and the students,.”

The company must provide at least 50 per cent of the intern’s sal-ary, the rest being covered by the funding. Goodrum expressed her hope that the program will help local companies to grow.

She added, “I hope one of the things that this does for us is start making relationships with the in-dustry, with the community, with the companies in this area that will go a long time.”

MARISSA EVANSLEAD REPORTER

Greenhouse gases on campus have declined 11 per cent from 2009STEPHANIE TRUONG GRAPHICS EDITOR

The Wilfrid Laurier University Phys-ical Resources department reported that the university’s total green-house gas (GHG) emissions have reduced 11 per cent since 2009. This puts the department ahead of their goal to reduce emissions by 15 per cent by 2016 as outlined in the uni-versities’ sustainability action plan.

“The GHG reductions are inten-sity based,” said sustainability co-ordinator Claire Bennett. “Take into account the square footage we have grown as a campus in the calcula-tions, so we increased physically by 19 per cent since 2009 but out emis-sions only increased by six per cent, which gave us the 11 per cent GHG intensity reduction.”

Created in 2012, the Sustainabil-ity Action Plan aims to “strategically develop sustainability initiatives across our campuses,” explained Bennett.

Laurier measures its energy out-put based on its use of electricity, gasoline, water and waste. Waste is a scope three emission, an emission produced through organizations on campus rather than the university

itself that is usually ignored in cal-culations, but Bennett insists Lau-rier is striving for accuracy in its assessment.

“It’s about holding ourselves ac-countable,” said Bennett. “Not just here, but we have become a pledging partner with Sustainable Waterloo Region, so we are even more ac-countable to the public.”

The biggest way for Laurier to lower emissions is to design build-ings to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. So far, only one Laurier building meets those standards: the Research and Academic Cen-tre in Brantford. That number will increase upon completion of the Global Innovation Exchange (GIE) building. There are also future plans to renovate the Peters Building to meet LEED standards.

Students have also taken a leader-ship role in helping Laurier increase sustainability. Laurier’s Sustainabil-ity Council — a leadership program for fi rst years — is currently running a competition between residences to see who has the greatest energy reduction over a two-week period from March 11 to 25. As of Tuesday, University Place was in fi rst place.

“The Sustainability Council has the opportunity to reach out and teach students from the get-go,” said Samantha Tremmel, one of the ad-visors for the Sustainability Council. “I think this is why this program is so important to have and why it’s so effective.”

Laurier’s Sustainability Offi ce has also had great success with its waste management programs over the past few years. All public area garbage cans now have recycling bins attached, so students are more inclined to recycle properly. Along with the introduction of water fi ll stations across campus, the program is making it easier for every student, regardless of level of involvement, to help contribute towards a more sustainable campus.

“I do think students care about sustainability and the environment,” said Lisa Truong, an event executive for the EcoHawks. “I think caring about the environment is a choice. It takes two seconds to dispose trash in the proper bins and understand-ing that our everyday choice we make on a daily basis has a conse-quence for the environment and out campus.”

One of the major events of Aborigi-nal Awareness Week last week was “Your Earth, My Earth, Your Water, My Water,” a panel discussion about the implications of Bill C-45 on the environment and the well being of Aboriginals living in Canada. The bill has sparked a large reaction in the form of protests, which even-tually resulted in the Idle No More movement.

The panel discussion was the sec-ond last event of the week on March 9 and featured Kathy Absolon-King, Jode Kechego, Awasis Sakihtowis, Darren Thomas and Sheri Longboat. This Aboriginal Awareness Week, which was the third installment at Laurier, was aimed at getting stu-dents, community members and faculty thinking about Aboriginal issues and culture.

The talk began with a traditional drum song and singing by some of those that were involved through-out the week, and a water ceremony, which was given by Absolon-King, program coordinator for the Aborig-inal fi eld of study.

“It’s something that I think we take for granted, it’s something that we don’t really have to think about because we don’t have to. But with-out water we wouldn’t be alive,” ex-plained Absolon-King while she was addressing the crowd Saturday in Bricker Academic Building.

“Everything we need in terms of medicine and food comes from wa-ter,” she added.

Since the talk was centered on the Idle No More movement and the current relationship between Ab-original groups and the federal gov-ernment, Absolon-King’s ceremony had a bit of a political tone to it.

“If you have voice, if you have a means — whatever that is — use it. Maybe we should put those

politicians on a fast, so they could appreciate water,” she continued. “They probably wouldn’t be able to handle going on fast. Maybe they would take another look at what they are doing.”

The moderater of the discussion was Jode Kechego, senior policy analyst advisor for Anishinabek Na-tion, as well as a writer on Aborigi-nal issues in Canada. He urged the crowd to think differently about how Idle No More is portrayed in the mainstream media.

“Too often First Nations people are seen as either passive or sub-missive, historically and today. That passiveness and misinterpretation is a misguided view of who First Na-tions people are,” he asserted.

“Western society feels the need to control things,” he added, giving his reason to why the federal gov-ernment has introduced some of the

legislature that sparked the Idle No More movement.

In addition to the panel discus-sion, there were interactive work-shops and other speakers through-out the week.

“I think it went well, we did the event [at] both Brantford and Wa-terloo and had some events in Kitchener as well. We really incor-porated a multi-campus approach to Aboriginal Awareness Week,” ex-plained Melissa Ireland, Aboriginal student support coordinator for the Waterloo campus.

“One of the things that we did for Awareness Week was incorporate some of our existing programs al-ready in the week to show the uni-versity that they are welcome to come out to pre existing events,” she said.

“The week was very thoughtful and engaging.”


Jode Kechego engaged the audience in a discussion about rights. NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

‘Your Earth, My Earth’

Greenhouse gases on decline at WLU

Intern programs get funding

“FedDev has a lot of

different programs and

this was one that we ap-

plied for because, well,

we knew that there was

some money available.”—Abby Goodrum, vice-president of research at Laurier









we knew that there was

ERIC THOMPSONSTAFF WRITER

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 campus • 5

ANDREW WESTOLLEdna Staebler Writer-in-Residence

wlu.ca/westollFor more information visit

We welcome you to join author, Andrew Westoll, as he reads from his National Bestseller, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary.

March 26, 7–8:30 p.m.Hawk’s Nest

Public Reading

ART

S-35

6-FE

B13

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITYWATERLOO | Brantford | Kitchener | Toronto

On Monday, March 11, five Wilfird Laurier University students gave up their amenities for for the annual “5 Days for the Homeless.” Their goal this year is to raise $15,000 for two groups: Reaching Our Out-door Friends (ROOF) and Argus Residence.

The students participating this year include Pat Donnelly, Nicholas Goodfellow, Yanna Klimenko, Han-nah Lee and Sara Cousineau.

Laiya Carayannopoulos, the director of this year’s event, stated that the goal for this program is to “raise awareness about youth at risk and the stigma around the issue [of homelessness] itself.”

Carayannopoulos also explained the rules that participants must fol-low, which include not leaving cam-pus, using only the clothes on their backs and having only one pillow and sleeping bag each, which can be traded in for an emergency meal if

needed.Carayannopoulos also said that

she hopes that the participants have a “meaningful experience and [that the campaign] changes peo-ples minds and opinions [about homelessness].”

All who are participating ex-pressed sincere dedication for the cause, and that their goals are to open people’s eyes to the harsh re-alities some people experience.

Cousineau explained that she of-ten complained about others on her floor being loud, but has come to realize that homeless people have more to worry about, “like their safety.”

Lee, who was diagnosed with strep throat a few days ago, has seen the experience in a different manner.

“Being sick and doing this makes me think about how the homeless deal with [living on the street] when they are sick, since they don’t really have access to medicine,” she said.

Each participant also expressed

difficulties they have been facing with each of the rules set in place. For most of them not having access to technology has been, and will continue to be, the most difficult.

For Cousineau, however, not hav-ing access to more clothing has been the most problematic.

“[I change] so many times a day without even realizing it,” she said. “If you get your clothes wet [while on the campaign] you have to find a way to dry it.”

Goodfellow, on the other hand, is having trouble going to his classes, because his natural instincts when going inside becomes the need for sleep.

“I don’t get much sleep sleeping outside,” he said.

Each participant agreed that they appreciate what they have now, and that the experience, while only just beginning, has given them a differ-ent outlook on the situation.

The event closes on Friday.

alissa macdonaldCoRD NEWS

Five Laurier students are living off donations this month to raise awareness for youth homelessness. cristina rucchetta lEAD pHotogRApHER

‘5 Days for the Homeless’ begins on Laurier campus

Wilfrid Laurier University’s Mus-lim Student Association (MSA) has been promoting Islamic Aware-ness Week (IAW) this past week on campus. They have an interac-tive information booth set up in the Concourse, as well as various other events planned through-out the week, such as lectures and discussions.

“Our purpose is to help everybody understand the true meaning of Is-lam because there is a lot of miscon-ceptions portrayed by the media and society,” explained Hassam Azhar, a team leader for MSA.

He continued by emphasiz-ing that the group wants “people to know what Islam is, and clarify some misconceptions.”

One of the examples he gave was the example of a jihad.

“There’s a lot of misconception in the media that jihad [means] holy war, and it is frowned upon,” he said. “The truth is that jihad means ‘to struggle,’ or ‘something to strive for.’”

“There’s a campaign called the My Jihad Campaign where they have posters on buses and benches that say [things like] ‘my jihad is to go to the gym every morning.’ So what

we’re trying to prove is that jihad is not always bad, it’s something that you work towards,” he continued.

MSA had a section at their booth in the Concourse where all stu-dents could participate in a smaller version of this campaign, which allowed them to express their struggles.

Azhar explained that the best way to engage non-Muslim students was through learning activities such as this. Another interactive compo-nent to their booth was a hopscotch game.

“Before you do the first step you have to answer either an Islamic question, or a non-Islamic ques-tion,” he explained. “If they don’t know [the answer] it gives us a chance to explain to them [the an-swer], and after they are done they get to ask us a question. Any other questions that they may have, we answer them.”

MSA believes that what is por-trayed in the media, or spoken about in general terms, is not necessar-ily true.

“Muslim’s are people too, they’re just like you and me. Spreading a positive image is necessary for peo-ple to be happy,” concluded Azhar.

IAW events will continue until Friday.

Breaking down misconceptions

elizabeth dicesareCAMpuS NEWS EDitoR

“I was nervous to come here and speak today.”

Jake, whose last name was with-held for safety reasons, visited Wil-frid Laurier University this past weekend to discuss his experience as a North Korean refugee at the North Korean Human Rights Film Festival (NKHRFF), and expose lis-teners to the lack of freedom and rights the citizens of the country possess.

Jake is 21-years old and currently resides in Toronto, working towards earning high school credits, takes English classes and hopes to one day become an engineer.

He left China in May 2011 after fleeing there with his younger sister to find his mother.

He had to quit school after his mom left his family and his dad was imprisoned, and looked after his sister and attempted to earn a living to survive.

Jake claimed he doesn’t “remem-ber a lot” of his childhood. He suf-fered the consequences of the great famine and was subjected to abuse after stealing food to fulfill his con-stant hunger.

“People are so hungry that they do desperate things,” he said.

Jake, along with Gilad Co-hen, the founder and director of the NKHRFF, and Randall Baran-Chong, the executive director of Han Voice, joined together at Laurier to engage students and raise aware-ness about what is occurring in North Korea.

Three films were shown to inter-ested students that demonstrated the desperate conditions that North Koreans face on a daily basis.

The NKHRFF worked with the

Global Youth Volunteer Network at Laurier to bring the films, which was the first chapter screenings to a stu-dent audience.

Cohen, a communications gradu-ate from Laurier, explained that he had a travelled to South Korea after graduation to teach English.

While there, he visited North Ko-rea for one day and experienced a life-changing moment.

“I did some research on the coun-try and I was shocked and horri-fied,” he said. “What also horrified me was how little other people knew about.”

Cohen made it his goal to raise awareness of the conflicts and suf-ferings in North Korea by address-ing the issues through film and art.

NKHRFF travelled to Guelph last week and hopes to go to McMaster later on in the month.

Back in September, they were in-vited to speak at the United Nations and presented the world premiere of a film called 48M.

Joanna Ciolfi, a member of the Global Youth Volunteer Network, explained the club’s desire to bring the films to campus.

“I like to consider myself a global person, but I had no idea that this was happening in North Korea, it just struck me,” she said. “We decid-ed to bring the awareness here.”

Jake also appreciated the interest shown by students at the event.

“I wanted to do something for us, there are a lot of people who are suf-fering,” he said in an interview with The Cord.

He explained that it was not pos-sible to stay in China as a refugee, so he and his sister chose Canada as a practical alternative.

“I believed I could find my future if I came to Canada,” he concluded.

katelyn cullumlEAD REpoRtER

the Muslim Student Association is addressing stereotypes regarding islam

Exposing the atrocities North Korean refugee speaks at laurier


WLUSU board meetings so far this year, and only one saw all 15 di-rectors present.

“The work you do outside of the board meetings is great, I appreciate it, it’s good to talk to these directors and go to these ownership linkage committee events and all that type of stuff,” explained Pryce. “Howev-er, when push comes to shove, being at the board meeting is imperative.”

While the directors do know of the dates of each ahead of time, Pryce said that there were instanc-es when different priorities might arise. The board also had some spe-cial board meetings, which made scheduling a bit more difficult.

Jazz Clement, a second-year stu-dent at Laurier and a director, said she missed meetings because of opportunities she couldn’t miss, such as conferences and personal matters.

“I just had a lot of personal issues going on, especially with school. I’m pretty sure everyone can relate to that,” she explained, adding that she meets with the other directors and students outside of the boardroom and that the board as a whole has been effective.

“There are some people who don’t always go to meetings because they don’t want to. There are some peo-ple like myself who do want to be at meetings, but unfortunately other things have happened,” she added.

Despite there being over 60 ab-sences from directors this year, Pryce affirmed that the board has been able to accomplish everything that they had to do. Most of the time

the board work will be postponed, such as the last cancelled meeting on Friday.

“Candidates running should have to make sure and make it clear that ‘this is my priority, I’m treat-ing this like a job,’” explained Jordan

Epstein, the vice-chair for this year’s board and the chair-elect for the 2013-14 WLUSU board of directors.

Both Pryce and Epstein noted that they would like to encourage any-one who is running to be a director to evaluate their time commitments

and to communicate to candidates what the role entails. Epstein said that he has done more training for the board-elect than years previous.

“A lot of it does come into the need for better training,” added Epstein.

Another issue with directors missing meetings is the potential for more diverse discussion on certain topics.

“It would almost be a shame if certain people didn’t come because you would really want to hear what they say for a certain issue,” added Pryce.

“Because without good at-tendance, it takes away from conversations.”

Epstein gave the example of di-rector Sebastian Dudek who still communicated with board with-out being there. Dudek, who has missed eight meetings so far this year because of co-op, still sent in his comments and thoughts on cer-tain issues.

“Even though you can’t make it, showing that you’re still interact-ing with the board, still making sure that your voice is getting out there,” said Epstein.

Each director is elected the year before they join the board, so there’s no formal disciplinary action for missed meetings unless if comes from the WLUSU membership. Ep-stein said that the board is in the midst of working up a new policy that will clarify what can be deter-mined as a “regret.”

“To make sure that when people are giving a regret, it’s for a valid reason, it’s not it’s because it’s their birthday or things like that,” he said.

—cover

‘Regret’ definition being tweaked

Things began to get heated at the Wilfrid Laurier University’ Students’ Union meeting on Tuesday night. This meeting was established be-cause of the one that was cancelled on Friday due to loss of quorum.

After a few quick discussions, the conversation became quickly tense when director Scott Fleming at-tempted to approve motions before they were properly discussed.

While his attempts to move the meeting along at a quicker pace was supported by director Caleb Okwu-bido. Other directors, such as Matt Casselman, were unimpressed with his behaviour.

During the meeting, Casselman said that if any directors had issues with time commitments or were un-able to sit through an entire meet-ing, they should not attend at all.

This type of behaviour, he said, was “extremely inappropriate.”

Jon Pryce, chair of the board and chief governance officer, seemed unimpressed with the way the meet-ing was digressing, and reminded his fellow directors to concentrate on the tasks at hand.

“We’re not getting into this [argu-ment] right now,” he said.

Later, when Fleming began to comment on how the meeting was going over time — when it in fact was not — Pryce had to remind him to “respect your chair.”

Stephanie truong GRApHiCS EDitoR

elizabeth diceSareCAMpuS NEWS EDitoR

tensions build at meeting

On Friday March 8 the departments of political science and global stud-ies at Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as the Tshepo Institute for the Study of Contemporary Africa, or-ganized a talk by Robert Rotberg, president emeritus of the World Peace Foundation. He came to Lau-rier to discuss the future of Africa.

Rotberg discussed Africa in new terms. He felt that despite the many critical challenges that have bur-dened Africa there is hope for the future.

“There is an entirely new Africa, there’s an Africa which is part of the global village,” explained Rotberg. “Africa is now part of the picture.”

He discussed that despite Africa undergoing revolutions, before it can be fully integrated into the mod-ern world, it must deal with its criti-cal challenges for the next 70 years.

Rotberg then asked the audience what they thought the crucial prob-lems the continent is currently fac-ing. One major issue students came up with was population.

He described just how drastically Africa’s population is exploding and that by the end of the twenty first century their population will be al-most as large as Asia’s.

“Think of the challenges in sheer numbers, Africa can either have a demographic dividend or a demo-graphic disaster,” said Rotberg.

A second, very serious challenge for Africa is education, particularly education for girls. Rotberg stressed the important of literacy and how evidence of poor literacy is reflected in the low number of primary and secondary school graduates.

“Only six per cent of Africans get a chance to go to university in Af-rica,” Rotberg explained. So there is real educational challenge ahead … Africa has also had a huge brain drain.”

“There are more Ethiopian doc-tors in Chicago than there are in Ethiopia,” he continued.

Rotberg discussed many more critical challenges in great detail in-cluding disease — particularly ma-laria and tuberculosis — civil war and a shortage of electric power.

To stress the lack of electric pow-er in Africa, Rotberg shared some shocking statistics.

“All of the power available today in Kitchener-Waterloo would power all of Nigeria,” said Rotberg.

Government was another key fac-et for Rotberg, and as he explained, a third to half of Africa is now bet-ter governed. However, some ar-eas, such as Somalia, are still bur-dened with lack of transparency and corruption.

“Many countries are coming to appreciate what it means to be bet-ter governed. Good governance leads to wealth, prosperity and higher standards of living,” ex-plained Rotberg.

Despite the many challenges Rot-berg explained to the audience, he felt optimistic about Africa’s future. He said that he believes the good governance some countries in Af-rica have exemplified will work as a powerful example for the rest of the continent.

Rotberg also stressed the impor-tance of China in driving Africa’s future and making it possible for Af-rica to grow.

“If you see in the deadlines [that] China’s GDP has fallen, worry about Africa,” he said. “Without China, it will be very difficult to see how Afri-ca will afford to educated its popula-tion, much less feed them, particu-larly in the cities.”

Despite the many critical chal-lenges Africa has faced and is facing, his speech discussed Africa in new terms. He said that Africa, now part of the global village, has the poten-tial to really grow and progress.

alexandra flack StAff WRitER

Discussing the future of Africa


Local EditorLindsay Purchase [email protected]

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STEPHANIE TRUONG GRAPHICS EDITOR

Forecast bright for regional growth

According to a recent report by Rob-ert Kavcic, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, Waterloo Re-gion’s economy is excelling in com-parison to other regions in south-western Ontario.

“We’re seeing a relatively stable growth in that part of the province,” Kavcic shared.“It’s probably a little faster than the province, overall.”

Kavcic’s report, released two weeks ago, suggests that the Wa-terloo economy will likely generate 13,000 jobs by the end of 2016, due to Waterloo’s strong diversity, spe-cial attention to education and the wide range of services.

If this occurs for the future, this will bring the unemployment rate down by six per cent, a full per-centage point below the Ontario average.

In addition, the account claims that Waterloo’s local housing de-partment is currently very well-bal-anced. Kavcic explained that local housing is reasonably affordable, especially compared to other cities in Ontario.

At 3.9 times the median house-hold income, Waterloo Region’s housing affordability index is third highest of major urban areas. To-ronto comes in at 6.6 while Hamil-ton is 4.2.

However, despite the positive ob-servations made in the report, Ka-vcic also took note of the declines and struggles that are apparent in the region.

These noticeable patterns of struggles, Kavcic said, are ones that need to be resolved for the near future.

“Even though the city outper-forms that growth, it is still pretty sluggish by normal standards,” Ka-vcic said.

“Even things in the housing mar-ket and population growth are quite a bit softer than they were back in

the late ’90s and early 2000s, which was a pretty strong period for the city.”

The promise of 13,000 jobs for the future may not be as glamorous as the numbers seem to suggest. Ka-vcic shared that this kind of data is based on an employment intensifi -cation of just more than one per cent per year, which is essentially just below the 1.5 to 1.6 per cent average over the previous ten years.

The layoff of about 5,000 employ-ees at Blackberry is one of the most relevant indicators that Waterloo Region still needs to improve eco-nomically for the future, according to the report.

Kavcic also shared that the re-gion continues to see manufacturing

exporters struggling, due to a slow-moving fi nancial augmentation. He explained that this part of the fi nancial system is still under im-mense pressure. However, based on a potential pattern he noticed from his report, there may be little to fear in Waterloo.

“We do see a much stronger U.S. economic growth for the second half of the year,” Kavcic predicted.

“So that part of the economy could potentially pick up a bit for the next year or two.”

Kavcic shared that there is a pos-sibility that these reports will be done periodically, resulting in their appearances once a year and indi-cated that he plans on doing an up-date report in the next six months.

ALANNA FAIREYLEAD REPORTER

“We’re seeing a relative-

ly stable growth in that

part of the province.”

—Robert Kavcic, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets

“We’re seeing a relative-

ly stable growth in that

part of the province.”

Waterloo Police are investigat-ing after an assault early Saturday morning on Seagram Drive sent a 20 year-old Toronto man to hospital.

The victim was attending the Uni-versity of Tamil Association Formal at St. George Banquet Hall in Water-loo, which he departed from at about 1:40 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Nearing 3:00 a.m., he arrived in the area of student residential com-plex UW place, located at 102 Sea-gram Drive. The assault began in the parking lot of the residence, where he was attacked by three men. The attack continued out onto Seagram Drive when the victim attempted to run away. The victim contacted emergency services.

Olaf Heinzel, the public affairs coordinator for the Waterloo Re-gional Police Service (WRPS), said that no theft occurred and that “[po-lice are] investigating it as an as-sault only at the moment.”

The victim has since been re-leased from hospital.

The police have no knowledge of any witnesses to the event and the only description available of the attackers is that they were

“dark-skinned.” “We’re looking for information

from the public, anyone who may have witnessed it. We are also right now looking for help in identifying a female who may have some in-formation in regards to this,” said Heinzel. “She might have some in-formation in relation to the assault.”

An image of the woman can be found at wrps.on.ca or thecord.ca.

UW Tamil Association president Sujith Sutharsan was unaware of any potential connections to the event. “We had no problems at the formal because all the security and cops kept the formal clean. Even our security didn’t tell us about any-thing,” he said.

Motivations for the attack are currently unknown to police as the investigation continues. “We don’t know if it’s something that an inter-action may have taken place at the social event,” said Heinzel. “It’s re-ally wide open right now in terms of what could have occurred and why it occurred.”

Police are asking anyone with information relating to the assault or the identity of the female to call North Division Detectives at 519-653-7700 ext. 6399 or Crime Stop-pers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

LINDSAY PURCHASELOCAL AND NATIONAL EDITOR

Man attacked on Seagram Dr.Police are investigating after three men assaulted a Toronto man on Saturday

K-W in brief

City of Waterloo to expand food and beverage servicesWaterloo city councillors voted to take over food and beverage services from private operators at places in-cluding RIM Park and the Waterloo Recreational Complex. The change will happen at eight locations city-wide. The transition will occur by the end of 2014 and will cost the city $363,000 in unplanned money – 196,000 on food equipment and $168,000 on operating costs. Part of the reasoning behind the switch was that having privatized food services prohibited people from bringing in their own food for events, which sometimes discouraged use of the venues. Employees who are currently employed at these locations will be protected by the Employment Stan-dards Act. It is anticipated that this change will bring in about $100,000 to the city annually.

Man arrested after shots fi red in Wilmot TownshipWaterloo Regional Police arrested a man at the University of Waterloo (UW) on Saturday after hearing re-ports that he had been fi ring shots in a rural area off Cedar Grove Road. Despite the fact that a semi-auto-matic rifl e, ammunition and a fran-kenstein mask were discovered in the man’s car, the gun activity was determined not to be of a dangerous nature. He was doing target prac-tice, but as the area is popular for hikers, it alarmed a nearby resident. The 25-year-old man is facing charges of weapons dangerous to the public, unsafe storage of a fi re-arm and careless use of a fi rearm. His weapon, which was registered, was taken by police.

Follow us @cordnews


J&J Cards and Collectibles has be-come an institution in Waterloo as a source for all kinds of toys, games and other collectibles.

Owned by brothers Jim and Jason Schill, the store was originally locat-ed at the corner of King and Colum-bia. With the initial success of the store, they moved to their current location at the corner of Weber St. and University Ave. in Waterloo to facilitate the expanding venture.

Since the move the store has ex-panded its size and inventory to its current 5,000 sq. feet to offer premi-um stock and selection.

“My brother and I did a lot of col-lecting in sports cards when we

were younger and we started doing some collectible shows… and that led us into starting up the business,” Jason Schill recalled.

Although they decided to open the store, he said that the business “just kind of materialized.”

As the business matured, so did its inventory.

“We’ve actually branched off to be fairly diverse, which has been the key to our growth over the years,” said Schill.

“Then about ten years ago we re-ally made the shift into the toys and games and that’s been our focus over the last decade.” “Sports cards and comics are a very small part of business now,” he added. The products the store car-ries range anywhere from marbles

to cards, to large and elaborate models and board games.

Running a business like this no doubt presents some challenges. One of the largest hurdles that faces them is how to remain competitive in a market that has big time players like Walmart and Toys R’ Us, among others. Schill explained they’ve de-cided to “focus on some of the items you won’t fi nd in the majors [that are] exclusive to the independent retailers.”

With a store like J&J, repeat cus-tomers are no doubt an essential aspect to a thriving enterprise. Be-ing in the market of collectibles and very niche products, Schill sees “a lot of regular customers who will come in on a weekly basis.”

Aside from giving the store

regular business, this keeps the owners in touch with the changing trends in the market and their cus-tomer base, more specifi cally.

Some people would be apprehen-sive about entering into a business with their family members. How-ever, despite the potential pitfalls of combining money and family, the two brothers have managed very well.

“The one advantage of working with family is that at the end of the day you’re still family,” explained Schill.

On the business end of the mat-ter it does have its advantages as well. “We see things in two different perspectives ... it gives us that op-posite angle to look at,” Schill noted, acknowledging that this helps them

assess and overcome any issues with the business.

As well, there is a risk of dete-riorating interest when running any business that started out as a hobby. Schill has found this in his experience, noting that as it has be-come “more of a business … you lose it as a hobby.” Despite this, he remains interested in the products they carry.

Facing many challenges from competition with multinational store brands, to working with family and staying competitive in a niche market, the Schill brothers believe they have succeeded in maintaining a local and independent venture.

Schill summed up their success in simple, yet accurate terms, conclud-ing, “It’s worked really well.”

JORDAN SMITHCORD NEWS

Jason Schill owns and operates J & J Cards and Collectibles, along with his brother Jim. Among other things, it sells board games, collectible items, comics and sports cards.NICK LACHANCE PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGER

Childhood hobby turned thriving business J & J Cards and Collectibles, a successful local game store, has diversifi ed its stock to stay competitive

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National EditorLindsay Purchase [email protected]

release a MOOC in July 2012. In January, U of T and McGill signed a consortium with edX, the online course provider for the Massachu-setts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. “On average, if you look at sta-tistics that are reported by other universities, about five per cent of people actually finish all of the as-signments for a MOOC, and in this

particular one [course at U of T], for the people who started at the begin-ning and finished it was about 10 per cent, which is about twice as high as you see in other MOOCs,” explained Cheryl Regehr, the vice-provost of academic programs at UofT. Regehr noted that the purpose of these courses is not necessarily for the certificate that the student re-ceives at the end, but for people to engage in higher learning. “It might be some use to their workplace, but in large part people

take them because they want to ex-pand their own knowledge base,” she continued. “So it’s the learning, not the cer-tificate, that has the greatest value.” While education becoming eas-ier to access online, Leyton-Brown warned that a future with complete-ly online postsecondary education would be not as effective. He sees MOOCs as a “supple-ment” to the course material already instructed in-class or as a continu-ing education course.

“I think it’s going to become an-other tool in the arsenal. I really can believe that a MOOC is somewhere between a textbook and a class,” he said. “We talk about MOOCs being courses, but we really think about them as textbooks. They’re really just self-study devices.” Leyton-Brown added, “There’s just something kind of compelling about getting into room, interact-ing with other human beings, get-ting feedback on your work, in a way

that really a MOOC is never going to provide.” Leyton-Brown claimed that just like the emergence of the Internet didn’t completely remove the preva-lence of television, the use of online courses would not remove the im-portance of in-class study. “We usually overestimate the short-term impacts of technology and underestimate the long-term impacts and I think that it is true here as well,” he concluded.

—cover

Students taking more time to graduateWith only a month of school left, many students who are near gradu-ation are asking themselves the in-evitable question: “What happens next?”

For some, the following months will consist of relentless job hunt-ing, while for others, it will be pre-paring for graduate school or some sort of college program.

However, a large portion of fourth-year students will actually be enrolling back at university for an-other year and research is starting to show that this is not an uncommon choice.

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) re-leased a report discussing the time it takes for students to graduate with a bachelor’s degree.

A 2011 statistic cited in the report, uncovered by McMaster University professors, Martin Dooley, Abigail Payne, and Leslie Robb, found that only 45 per cent of students com-plete a degree by their fourth year of study.

A total of 74 per cent of grads will achieve a degree by their fifth year and 80 per cent of students will get it in six.

“I don’t think what [Dool-ey, Payne, and Robb] found was

particularly surprising,” said Alex Usher, president of the Higher Edu-cation Strategy Associates (HESA), which was involved in the research and compilation of the report. “I think we’ve known for a while that basically most students who are graduating are doing it in the nor-mal time of completion plus one.”

Usher went on to say that Canadi-an universities did not always have the standard four-year system. He explained that around 15 years ago, many Canadian institutions actually offered three-year programs.

“I think one of the nice things about North American higher edu-cation is that we’re quite flexible,” Usher continued. “People don’t real-ize that it costs universities quite a lot to have that kind of flexibility.”

With regards to the specific rea-sons why a student would choose to stay in school for longer than the four-year duration, a lot of it has to do with the student’s schedule and workload.

Bonnie Patterson, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Uni-versities (COU) explained that

many students are taking advantage of getting involved in leadership ac-tivities. “Even though they are tak-ing longer to get the degree, they are setting up a better basis for future employment,” she said.

Many students enroll in co-op opportunities, internships, inter-national experiences, varsity ath-letics or student government, for example..

Patterson also explained that there are other students who go through their education with the understanding of what they wish to

refine or specialize in. So in many cases, those opportunities require a combination of college and univer-sity integrated programs.

“I see many research programs right now looking at forms of part-nerships between colleges and uni-versities,” Patterson elaborated. “In some situations, institutions are designing programs where students can both benefit from a degree and a diploma.”

Patterson emphasized a direction towards more flexibility and mobil-ity within curricular design. She also noted there is also a trend toward enrollment in post-degree programs to add specialization to undergradu-ate degrees.

“They want a four-year degree behind them so they develop the communication skills or the prob-lem solving skills,” she said.

Usher, however, believes that the future of higher education might re-sult in shortened degrees, eventually going back to the three-year system.

No matter how long it may take a student to eventually attain their “piece of paper,” there is an em-phasis on individuals finding what they’re good at and specializing on these preexisting abilities.

“[It’s about] rewarding people for doing a certain amount of work, not being in class for a certain amount of hours,” Usher said.

ashley denuzzoStAff WRitER

lena yang gRAPHiCS ARtiSt

MooCs emphasize importance of learning

10 • Features Editor • Colleen Connolly • [email protected] FEATURES

By day, Kat Hillier is a legal assistant working towards her masters in counselling psychology. But by night —Wednesdays and Sundays to be exact — she is Nekro Nancy, a hard-hitting blocker for the Vicious Dishes of the Tri-City Roller Girls roller derby league.

“I think that we create a version of ourselves that we really like,” said Hillier of the derby alter ego. “You can’t bring your derby self to the offi ce … it’s a really healthy way to channel any frustrations you have, I consider it therapy.”

Hillier’s fi rst exposure to roller derby happened nearly a year ago when she came across an ad in the newspa-per calling for “fresh meat” and thought it might be a good way to get some exercise. “I went to the try out and they had me put on quad skates and try that out,” she recalled. “I didn’t completely eat fl oor so we went from there.”

Roller derby is an entirely female contact sport that has been gradually gaining recognition since its resur-gence in Texas in 2001. Scott Jones, media chair for the Roller Derby Association of Canada, referred to this as its fi rst wave.

“It was girls who wanted something that they could call their own,” said Jones. “There was no pre-concep-tions, no ‘you can’t do this, you’re not good enough,’ no ‘you’re just doing what your boyfriend does,’ total blank slate for everybody.”

Now, in what Jones would call the second wave of der-by, the sport has begun to develop focus and structure. However, derby is still in its early stages and maintains its grassroots nature. Any number of women, no matter their age or skill level, can form or join a league.

“Derby’s a little unique in the sense that it’s all skater run and not for profi t,” said Carrie Livingstone, a block-er for Tri-City’s Venus Fly-Tramps and secretary for the league’s board of directors. “The board is a govern-ing body but everything has to be voted on between the league.”

“Everybody is so different,” said Hillier. “You have house wives, you have religious people, you have coun-try girls, you have all sorts of punks. There is no limit on what people could be into. It’s open, anyone could play.”

Tri-City is divided up into three home teams and one all-star team, the Tri-City Thunder, which is custom-ary of leagues across Canada. However, there is a strong sense of community between the girls as a whole, not only in Kitchener’s league, but within and between those across the country.

“You get that many girls together, there’s bound to be drama,” said Hillier. “But it’s dealt with on the track and it’s left there. As soon as the game is done, we’re talking about ‘where’s the after party’ and ‘let’s go have a drink.’”

“You go from being competitive and fi erce beside this one girl and then you’re out afterwards laughing and it’s great,” added Livingstone.

After attending a game three years ago, Livingstone thought she’d give derby a try and joined up with Tri-City. Since then, she has come to be known in the derby world as Ann Killbiter, for her short stature but aggres-sive edge.

“When I started three years ago, there were about four people starting with me and one of the refs kind of trained us in the corner, taught us the basics,” she re-called. “Prior to that people would kind of just trickle in. And now, because it is gaining in popularity, now we have boot camp.”

Tri-City’s boot camp, an extended try out for women wishing to be drafted for a team, runs simultaneously with their season which begins in the spring and ends in October. This intensive learning experience is still fresh in the mind of Hillier who was selected for the Vicious Dishes — one of Tri-City’s three home teams — just this past December and played her fi rst league game last Fri-day at the season opener.

Hillier recalls an overwhelming rush of nerves and delight at the calling out of her derby name when Light-ning Slim, their league announcer, fi rst introduced her to the crowd. Stepping up to the starting line, Hillier turned to her team captain for reassurance; she felt like she might be sick.

“Once you start skating, you won’t even think about it,” was her response. And she didn’t.

“If I’m struggling with something, like at the fi rst game if I was nervous or stumbling, they literally picked me up. They would not let me fall,” said Hillier. But even causing a fall, in the right circumstance, can be well received.

At one particular moment in her fi rst game, Hillier remembers a fellow team-mate delivering a beautiful hit on the other team’s jammer, sending her soaring and splayed out on the track. Afterwards, the defeated stood up, smiled and rolled over to hug her worthy opponent.

Jammers are the players that are able to score. They wear a star on their helmet and receive points by pass-ing players on the other team. These players are called blockers and they follow the pivot who sports a stripe on

Gone are the days of scripted roller derby with pre-determined victors. Features Editor Colleen Connolly looks into what is now a full contact female sport with an ever increasing fan base and player pool since its recent resurgence

Rolling into a new derby

FEATURES THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 • 11

“You get that many girls together, there’s bound to be drama,” said Hillier. “But it’s dealt with on the track and it’s left there. As soon as the game is done, we’re talking about ‘where’s the after party’ and ‘let’s go have a drink.’”

“You go from being competitive and fi erce beside this one girl and then you’re out afterwards laughing and it’s great,” added Livingstone.

After attending a game three years ago, Livingstone thought she’d give derby a try and joined up with Tri-City. Since then, she has come to be known in the derby world as Ann Killbiter, for her short stature but aggres-sive edge.

“When I started three years ago, there were about four people starting with me and one of the refs kind of trained us in the corner, taught us the basics,” she re-called. “Prior to that people would kind of just trickle in. And now, because it is gaining in popularity, now we have boot camp.”

Tri-City’s boot camp, an extended try out for women wishing to be drafted for a team, runs simultaneously with their season which begins in the spring and ends in October. This intensive learning experience is still fresh in the mind of Hillier who was selected for the Vicious Dishes — one of Tri-City’s three home teams — just this past December and played her fi rst league game last Fri-day at the season opener.

Hillier recalls an overwhelming rush of nerves and delight at the calling out of her derby name when Light-ning Slim, their league announcer, fi rst introduced her to the crowd. Stepping up to the starting line, Hillier turned to her team captain for reassurance; she felt like she might be sick.

“Once you start skating, you won’t even think about it,” was her response. And she didn’t.

“If I’m struggling with something, like at the fi rst game if I was nervous or stumbling, they literally picked me up. They would not let me fall,” said Hillier. But even causing a fall, in the right circumstance, can be well received.

At one particular moment in her fi rst game, Hillier remembers a fellow team-mate delivering a beautiful hit on the other team’s jammer, sending her soaring and splayed out on the track. Afterwards, the defeated stood up, smiled and rolled over to hug her worthy opponent.

Jammers are the players that are able to score. They wear a star on their helmet and receive points by pass-ing players on the other team. These players are called blockers and they follow the pivot who sports a stripe on

their helmet and leads the plays. “Because the scoring mechanism is a person, each of

the jammers can score at the same time so it can get very confusing,” said Jones.

Roller derby in this way requires that players be offen-sive and defensive simultaneously which is very unique in comparison to most organized sports.

“It would be like playing hockey with two pucks,” said Jones. “If you were playing with a red puck and a blue puck and you had to score with your puck and block the other puck at the same time, that’s what it would be like.”

The challenge has had men taking an interest in this fl ourishing sport with co-ed scrimmages becoming in-creasingly common amongst leagues. Livingstone even recalled there being a male exhibition game at Montreal Roller Derby’s annual tournament Beast of the East, where the Dishes placed fi rst last year.

Jones explained that with seven referees for each game, males have an opportunity to skate along and learn the rules. Their modern perspective, however, is far different from those who reffed derby bouts of the past.

Roller derby in the 20th century was largely a scripted means of entertainment described by Jones as essential-ly WWE on skates. But not all of those aspects are lost.

From players sporting fi shnets and colourful accesso-ries to showing off with fancy footwork after a nice play, “It’s not only a game,” said Hillier. “It’s also a show.”

This element of performance continues to give roller derby a distinctive appeal, but Jones guesses that it also attributed greatly to the sport’s fading out during the 1960s and ‘70s when civil rights movements had women revaluating that which put the female on display. Nowa-days, there’s a much different attitude.

“There’s the clichés, like guys go to roller derby be-cause they want to see girls in miniskirts and booty shorts and that kind of stuff. Of course, those things ex-ist but it’s not the focus,” said Hillier. “Generally speak-ing, derby girls don’t go to make a big scene of it. They don’t want to be viewed as sex objects ideally; this is a sport.”

Roller derby is slowly building on its revised reputa-tion as something to be taken seriously within the ath-letic community. Jones predicts there is a third wave coming that will speed the process where the daughters of the fi rst and second wave will be able to build on a foundation in the sport that was not available for their mothers.

“These are going to be girls who have come up through derby,” said Jones. “We already now have the fi rst trickling of juniors starting to come in … and in the next three to fi ve years as the bulk of them come up, you’re going to see the competition level go up incredibly.”

This could mean both good and bad things for roller derby, which fosters deserving talent but also offers an outlet for those looking to express themselves or escape the pressures of everyday life. As a current student, Hill-ier can relate.

“Derby is my release,” she said. “Right now I’m work-ing on a huge paper and I’m struggling with APA format; I want to pull out my hair. I can’t put semi-colons in the right place and comas are weird and blah, blah, blah. So, I love the fact that when I’m really stressed out, I just put my skates on and it’s gone.”

A more immediate advancement occurred last year when roller derby was selected as one of eight new sports to be considered for the 2020 Olympics at the 123rd International Olympic Committee session in South Africa.

“I fi nd it interesting that a lot of people don’t know about derby; especially in cities where it’s really popu-lar and it’s in almost every city everywhere. So it would defi nitely put it in the public spotlight for sure,” said Livingstone.

Roller derby as a serious sport is still a fairly recent development but this is not why Jones thinks it is absent from the public eye. He feels that there is a serious lack of marketing. However, the kind of attention that a place in the Olympics might provide for roller derby could have negative effects as well.

“I actually know people who’ve been involved with Canada’s Olympic Program and some of the stories they’ve told me about the level of control they exert over sports, I’m not sure that the average roller derby girl un-derstands how much change would be implemented,” said Jones.

But roller derby has already achieved an international status on a slightly smaller scale. Thirteen countries took part in the fi rst roller derby world cup which was hosted by Toronto Roller Derby in 2011. The next one is scheduled to take place either late 2013 or early 2014.

“As far as the future of derby goes, it is wide open,” Jones concluded. “They are talking Olympics, we have another world cup coming up, there is a lot happening. My hope is that eventually these girls start getting paid.”

Gone are the days of scripted roller derby with pre-determined victors. Features Editor Colleen Connolly looks into what is now a full contact female sport with an ever increasing fan base and player pool since its recent resurgence

Rolling into a new derby

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TCRG FLIKR


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THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MArch 13, 2013 • 13

Life Editorcarly Basch [email protected]

Life beyond the screenTime to ask ourselves: are we too dependent on technology?

“I remember a time when the In-ternet was just the Internet and real life was cooler,” reads a recent tweet from Hayley Williams, lead singer of Paramore. This brief memento of a thought sheds light on an important sub-ject that concerns the majority of the student body at Wilfrid Laurier: technological dependence. Today, technology enters virtually every realm of our lives. Whether it’s for social relationships, schoolwork, research, entertainment, job appli-cations or simple communication, technology plays a critical role in how we conduct our days and con-verse within society. Computers, tablets, iPods and mobile devices are just a few of the technological devices that assist us in our daily tasks, from the complex to the mundane. “I use technology in almost every aspect of my life. It is rare that I’m not using technology in some way. I use my cell phone almost every cou-ple of minutes,” said Kathryn Riley, a fourth-year communication studies major. “When in class or at work I am on

a computer. When I get home I turn on my TV. Technology consumes the majority of activities in my everyday life.” These devices go unquestioned and the majority of people enjoy the fast-paced and high-graphic quali-ties that owning a smartphone, lap-top or any other device has. It’s important, however, to look beyond the ‘pros’ of technology and its presence in our lives and to also consider the potential downside. Have we become too dependent on technology? In the process of making technological gains, what is lost? These are the types of questions that entered my mind after reading William’s tweet. “I feel as though we are all left without a choice but to be depend-able on our technological devices,” said Autumn Smith, a fourth-year communication studies major, on her dependency towards using technology. “Profs expect us to participate in online discussions. Information about the community we live in is largely available online and societal expectations require us to be con-stantly available through e-mail or over the phone.”

If the consensus is that many people are dependent on their tech-nological devices, often spend-ing more time engaging with a screen than with another person face-to-face, it makes you wonder about the impact this has on our communication. After posing this question to Ri-ley, she expressed her opinion that overall technology has had a nega-tive impact on the amount of face-to-face interaction she has. “While face-to-face communica-tion is typically lengthier and more fulfilling, communicating over text, e-mail and even phone calls are usually very straightforward and short,” she said. “And because a large part of our communication with people today is through these devices, we tend to have less meaningful conversations, more often.” In a time when technology is continuously marketed as the next ‘must have’ item, it is easy to be-come lost in a world of Wi-Fi con-nection and the latest touch screen gadgetry. However, lest we forget that there is still life outside of the screen to remain in control of our devices, and not to let them control us.

mike hajmasycorD LifE

‘Can we just be friends?’The fact about dating is that some-times people just don’t click. It’s in-evitable that not everyone you date means that you two are meant to be compatible. But when this happens the best thing is to be honest or you will just end up looking and feeling like a “plastic”. After conversing with one male friend about relationship articles, it immediately turned into a discus-sion about the last man I had been with, who I call the “essential oils” guy. In theory he was the type of guy that I wanted and needed. Although sometimes a little too confident, he was extremely creative, open and respectful. But he caught me at the wrong time. It was a very short time after my interaction with “bow-tie man” and since I did not have feelings for the “essential oils” guy, I decided to end it. When I told my friend that I end-ed it by texting him with the line “let’s be friends,” I thought it was a nice way to let him go. Even after,

when I continued to answer his texts even though I was not as into it as him, I thought it was okay be-cause I thought I was not hurting his feelings. However, when my friend stated that what I did was mean I began to see that, by pulling out that line and not meaning it, I was actually being a real-life Regina George. The “let’s just be friends” line is almost as bad as when a wom-an tried to break up with George Costanza using his: “It’s not you, it’s me” routine because the meaning behind it, which appears innocent, is a similar lie that hurts the other person more in the end. As the Lemonheads sang: “He’d rather be alone than pretend.” I used to only think of this in relation to not being with someone I did not have feelings for. Yet by reflecting on my experience as a “plastic”, I have learned that you should be honest with the person you are with throughout the rela-tionship, even at its end. “Let’s be friends” can be some-thing good to say if you do not want

to sever all ties. Just be respectful of the person’s feelings when you do friend-zone them. Have a talk about it, make sure you are on the same page and do not taunt them about it later on. If you are like me and either can’t do it at all or need some time apart, be honest with them. The need for honesty does not mean that you should be a dick about it either. Do not just text them. Arrange a time to meet in person and explain to them why you are ending it. You may be hurting them but if you are respectful it will be easier as it gives them the dignity they de-serve. This is because you did not just lead them on, dragging it out and making you both unhappy. I know I respect the guys who have done it to me. Telling the truth in person will also help you both avoid the awk-ward run-in that eventually does happen if you go to the same school. And you never know, maybe after some time, you will run into each other in the Concourse and actually become friends.

Eating healthy for dummies

Who has time to eat healthy these days? With our hectic schedules, it can be almost impossible. Student life is so easily inundated by busy work that it’s the little things that are left undone; eating healthy is one of them. Something so small, yet so crucial, is left in the back of our minds when it should be the first thing we think about when we wake up in the morning. Fueling your body with nutri-tion is how you’re able to function on a daily basis and have fun with friends. There are easy steps you can take in order to make sure that you are staying healthy even within a student lifestyle. Breakfast is your first stop. What your mother told you all those years is true: breakfast is the most impor-tant meal of the day. As most of us enjoy our beauty sleep, breakfast in five minutes is our reality. Some quick, easy things to whip up for breakfast can be oat-meal, whole wheat toast with jam, yogurt with granola and berries, fruit, cereal and granola or oatmeal bars: the ones without chocolate or other sweets. All of these things are quick to put together and can be eat-en on the go. Lunch and dinner, while often times can turn into one meal with awkward class schedules, they are important to plan out properly. The weekend serves as a great time to cook large portions of bal-anced meals with vegetables and freeze them to eat during the week when you’re short on time. Another option to keep you going

throughout a long day is having healthy study snacks. Pack snacks such as cut up vegetables like pep-pers with humus. Whole-wheat pretzels are also a great alternative to chips, along with nuts of any kind such as almonds or cashews. Veggie or Kale chips are easy to find at your local grocery store and they’re not as bad as they sound. Trail mix is something quick to throw together and keep with you at all times, along with sunflower seeds. You can never go wrong with crackers and cheese, and if you real-ly can’t kick that chocolate craving, reach for the dark chocolate, which, under moderation, can be healthy for you. Getting into the habit of keeping snacks with you will pre-vent you from reaching for a bag of chips in dire circumstances and will help in reducing your portions dur-ing lunch and dinner. Keeping a healthy diet is not easy when your friends are dragging you out every other day. Instead of going to the same spots where you tend to reach for unhealthy choices, propose a new venue like Café Pyrus, across from the bus station in Kitchener. Their food is organic and every-thing they serve is vegan. Jane Bond on Princess Street is a great place to try with their healthy alternatives and Lotus Tea House and Raintree Café on Regina Street have healthy foods, teas and desserts that are all vegetarian and vegan friendly. Even though it’s easy to let go of eating healthy during our busy schedules, it’s the most important thing to hold on to in order to keep our bodies healthy and our energy up. Once you establish a routine and create a habit of eating healthy, it becomes second nature.

kelly mCgaheycorD LifE

autumn smithStAff WritEr

Staff Writer Erin Sheehan explains why sometimes just being honest can be a more effective way to end a relationship

jody waardenburg StAff photogrAphEr

ben dintsman grAphicS ArtiSt


Arts EditorCristina Almudevar [email protected]

At least they’re being honest ….Kings of Leon are currently record-ing their follow-up album to 2010’s Come Around Sundown but that’s easi-er said than done. Bassist Jared Followhill decided that getting smashed on wine was a much better idea than recording: “…Just tried for a sequence to the new album … I can’t quite nail it down due to the being too drunk. ?#To-morrow,” he tweeted. Lucky bastard, this excuse never works for an essay extension.

Please fly the hell awayHarry Styles got a giant butterfly tattoo in the middle of his chest, just underneath the millions of nipples he has. Let’s hope this is the cruelest drunken dare the freaks from One Direction could come up with. If not, Harry came up with the design

himself and that is horrifying. Who knew there were more em-barrassing tattoos than tramp stamps? But good job Harry you’ve shown us all.

Betty Draper vs. Hannah MontanaThere is speculation that January Jones and Liam Hemsworth (Gale from The Hunger Games and Miley Cyrus’ fiancee) hooked up at one of the many pre-Oscar parties. Cyrus’ life is spiraling around her as she’s been photographed not wearing her engagement ring. I guess Gale really can’t have the best of both worlds. Solution? Send all three to a fight club and let them figure it out.

—Compiled by Cristina Almudevar

Arts bitesThe latest news in entertainment

On June 16 1967, the music world experienced a groundbreaking event and whether they knew it then or not, this event was going to be the single force behind the emergence and forever-changed outlet for how we experience live music.

This event was The Monterey Pop Festival. The Monterey Pop Festi-val was a three day music festival in Monterey, California with appear-ances by legends of rock including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Janis Joplin, Simon & Garfunkel, Ravi Shankar and Otis Redding—just to name a few.

The Monterey Pop Festival, next to Woodstock, which followed suit two years later, is recognized as be-ing the model for the hugely popu-lar music festival subculture that has seen a recent international resurrection.

Music festivals, for a long time, were seen as being exclusive to the “Woodstock Generation” and was thought to have died when these hippies inevitably grew up and trad-ed in their tie-dye and long hair for suits and nine to five jobs.

However, with the rise of the

digital age and the prevalence of pi-rating, it seems there is one bene-factor from all of this — live music. Musicians rely on live music in or-der to make a living and music festi-vals are the perfect way to do this. Beyond that, music lovers long for community and a connection to the music that cannot be achieved sit-ting behind your computer screen or the disconnection from huge sterile venues such as the Air Canada Cen-tre. People now experience music in solitude because technology allows us to do such. Music is not meant to be expe-rienced alone. This is a mentality that many have adopted and this has created a counter-culture of peopl who long for the sense of communal stimulation that music once ignited. Over the past few years, it seems anyone and everyone is attend-ing some sort of festival or another. This year, however, there has been an unprecedented enthusiasm and demand by fans to hop on the music festival bandwagon. Tickets for the first weekend of California festival Coachella sold out in 15 minutes with numerous

site crashes from the high traffic of international users trying to get tickets for this concert. This was the fastest sell-out they have ever experienced. The popularity of such festivals can be hugely attributed to the un-believable lineup of bands these festivals attract. Coachella head-liners include Red Hot Chili Pep-pers, Vampire Weekend, The XX and Postal Service. Tennessee’s Bonna-roo has Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers and Wu-Tang Clan. Overseas, England’s V Festival is hosting hugely popular headliners such as Kings of Leon and Béyonce. Music festivals all over the world are attracting artists who can eas-ily sell out their own shows, to be part of this amazing music festival experience. For fans, the excitement of see-ing an extensive lineup of so many remarkable musicians is an experi-ence that only a festival can provide. It is no stretch to say, that the summer of 2013, is going to be the summer of festival fever.

the rebirth of WoodstockStaff writer Robin Daprato explores the past of music festivals

Unless you knew beforehand that Sonny Assu was Ligwilda’xw First Nation, you wouldn’t be able to tell. Assu admits that because he looks white, he has to struggle with the discourse of being half white. So when he’s presenting a selection of his work and how he mixes tradi-tional native art with pop culture, it’s easy to see that discourse com-ing through. Assu has been an active Canadian artist for 11 years since graduating from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. From a young age, he has been interested in how his na-tive ancestry is intertwined with his white identity and in becoming a graphic artist he sought to use that discourse to create relevant and ex-citing visual art. Early in his career Assu created pieces taking common and popular brands of children’s cereal and rede-signing them with native art styles and names to reflect current issues. One of the more poignant was a take on Frosted Flakes which he called Treaty Flakes in reference to the sordid history of treaties be-tween the Canadian Government and Canada’s First Nations. The reason for Assu’s talk at Lau-rier on March 12 was his most recent set of pieces that are based off of the

famous Barack Obama “Hope” post-ers from Shepard Fairey. These have been redesigned with Native Ico-nography and with slogans in trib-ute to the Idle No More movement. The most thought provoking of these was captioned as “Idle ‘Know’ More,” which served to highlight a key point of Assu’s presentation. He criticized the idea of Canadian mul-ticultural and accepting ‘utopia’ and spoke of all the ways in which the government has used its power to oppress the First Nations of Canada. Much of Assu’s work is centered on a particular facet of culture sup-pression called the Pot Latch ban. This was a law that made it illegal to practice a particular tradition called the Pot Latch. During this suppres-sion which lasted 67 years, large amounts of cultural property were stolen from First Nations and all un-der the guise of assimilation. It is events such as these that lead Assu to try and educate the public and have the idle know more. He sees a lack of knowledge in Canada’s true and controversial history. He wants the pursuit of the rights of First Nations to also bring about a general education on the tragedies of the past so that Canadians can move to a decolonized future. Assu’s work can be found at www.sonnyassu.com along with state-ments from the artist.

Idle ‘know’ morejon marsellusStAff WRitER

lena yang gRApHiCS ARtiSt

ryan hueglin StAff pHotogRApHER

THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013 ARTS • 15

Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Power-ful is a prequel that returns viewers back to the world of the 1939 classic,The Wizard of Oz. The story that the fi lm revolves around the mysterious wizard known only as “Oz,” who in the 1939 movie worked behind a curtain in order to portray himself as an oracle of prophetic proportions to those who all that came to him seeking advice. Of course, we all remember the big reveal when the curtain is drawn and we see that Oz isn’t the god-like character that we imagined him to be, but merely an average human being. However, Raimi’s installment paints the backstory of how things came to be prior to Dorothy’s trot-ting down the yellow brick road. In order to accomplish this, the 2013 fi lm chooses to deliver the nar-rative through the perspective of small-time magician, Oscar Diggs,

played by James Franco, who later assumes the title role of Oz follow-ing his unexpected trip to the Land of Oz from Kansas. Given that we live in an age of Hollywood cinema where original and authentic stories are hard to come by, starved screenwriters have turned to drafting remakes, sequels, and prequels rather than coming up with unique stories of their own. The result is an excessive amount of big budget and CGI stuffed mov-ies that hope to garner a profi t as previous fi lms did, regardless of when it was fi rst released. But beyond the layers of special effects and big name actors the fi lm as a whole fails to really come into its own, suffering greatly from the fact that none of the characters re-ally evolve. It’s your typical tale of cause and effect, with nothing innovative be-sides the opportunity to stare at the reimagined beauty of the Land of Oz that we all so fondly remember. Unfortunately, with every prequel comes the expectation that the fi lm will recapture the magic of the fi rst fi lm, while also adding something new to differentiate itself as a sepa-rate and genuine picture altogether. This task is a daunting one, but with a director like Raimi, who is cred-ited with the Spider-Man trilogy and some horror classics, one had hopes going into this fi lm that it wouldn’t be just another prequel to forget in a month’s time. Despite the fi lms shortcomings, the stellar cast features the likes of Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, and Rachel Weisz alongside Franco. Oz the Great and Powerful had the mak-ings of a real hit but it fell short. Not even Zach Braff, the star of the beloved series Scrubs, playing Oz’s monkey assistant, could save this movie.

ANDREW SAVORYSTAFF WRITER

Take hip-hop, remove all the noise and just let the message speak. What you’re left with is slam poetry. On March 12, a large audience in the Turret was fi nding this out for themselves as Laurier Sociol-ogy Student Association’s (LSSA) hosted their third and largest slam poetry event entitled Poetic Justice. With Poetic Justice, LSSA was trying to expand how sociology students, and subsequently all arts students, interact with social issues outside of writing essays. Featuring a combination of per-formances from both students from Laurier and more seasoned slam poets, the night was an equal mix of subject matter and approaches from many differing perspectives. Performances from Laurier stu-dents Fatima Attia, Tobi Ajibolade and Senmone Grant were strong and powerful. Fourth-year student

Attia performed a piece called “Muslim Woman,” a powerful work about the struggles of a young Mus-lim woman who wants people to realize that she has the freedom to choose how she lives and that she is proud of it. The audience was com-pletely engaged with Attia’s undeni-able stage presence. Emcees Chelsea Paul, LSSA pres-ident, and Donya Mosleh did not try to out-perform the poets; they provided simple introductions and let the artists’ work speak for it-self instead of putting on a grand production. LSSA slam poetry night veteran Carlos Andrés Gómez returned for his seventh performance at Laurier, beating his six-time streak at Princ-eton. Gómez, born in New York City, has had the unique distinction of witnessing the differences of slam poetry culture in Canada and the

United States. “I think I would explain the differ-ence the same way I would explain Canadians versus Americans,” he said. “I fi nd that there is more per-mission to enter softer spaces emo-tionally than in America. In New York, it’s very ‘rah-rah’, v ery angry, very big … but that’s the general consensus not the whole thing.” But what exactly is slam poetry? Why do people dedicate their lives to it? And gather on to celebrate it? Kahsenniyo, one of the profes-sional poets performing, defi ned slam poetry as “healing, it is free-dom, it is feeling, it is de-coloni-zation, those feelings of oppres-sion and all of those other complex things, those never go away.” “You walk through life with all of these and I feel with spoken words it’s the only time [you] get that free-dom from those feelings.”

A lyrical slam dunk

Don’t go to Oz

Arts Editor Cristina Almudevar reviews the rhyme of slam

REBECCA ALLISON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

These unsigned editorials are based off informal discussions and then agreed upon by the majority of The Cord’s editorial board, including the Editor-in-Chief and Opinion Editor. The arguments made may reference any facts that have been made available through interviews, documents or other sources. The views presented do not necessarily reflect those of The Cord’s volunteers, staff or WLUSP.

The Cord is published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications.

Contact Emily Frost, WLUSP President and Publisher 75 University Ave.W, Waterloo ON N2L 3C5


Opinion EditorDevon Butler [email protected]

Where’s the value in my Laurier arts degree?

Cristina almudevarARTS EDITOR

In the past two and a half years, I’ve been a student in Laurier’s faculty of arts and I’ve learned next to nothing. I know exactly what words and terms to use to beef up my essay to get it to 2,000 words or eight to ten pages, depending on what professor you ask.

I know what font setting to change all my punctuation to so that it adds pages onto my essay.

I’ve mastered the art of skimming SparkNotes to make it seem like I’ve read the required book.

Other than that, I’ve learned very few practical skills that I can apply when I attempt to get a real job.

I can almost guarantee that when I apply to jobs, my interviewer will not care that I can deduce the role of a fe-male character by the colour of her dress.

Generally, arts students are aware that we cannot make a career out of studying history or communication studies. But what could help would be to have practi-cal courses available to us.

We could have courses on how to edit or how to translate your research skills into a well-paying job.

We are in the unique position of learning a greater skill than what we came to Laurier to learn, but we are not taught how to advertise these skills to the work force.

This is not to say that none of the pro-grams at Laurier offer such skills. Many disciplines have a class solely devoted to

research methods that is usually man-datory for second-year students.

Why can’t this be replicated through-out the entire arts departments?

Since most arts programs are so unfo-cused, professors can only do so much.

Some professors consistently ignore lesson plans to go off topic to perhaps regale students with stories of their per-sonal lives or because they haven’t fin-ished rambling on about a poet’s sex life.

One professor I had even admitted to the class that they hated the subject matter they were teaching.

This is extremely disrespectful. We are paying thousands of dollars to at-tend a post-secondary institution and better ourselves, only to have to listen to a professor lecture their students like elementary school children about mundane topics such as how univer-sity was in their day or their opinions on technology.

How are we supposed to respect

them when they clearly have little re-spect for us and our time?

The blame does not fall square-ly on the shoulders of the professors themselves.

Between their research and ever-expanding course load, many profs are indeed overworked. But that doesn’t ab-solve them from actually trying to en-gage with their students.

Laurier needs to educate professors on how to connect with their students. Most professors have been teaching for 30 years and know their subject matter fully, but we are a completely different generation and simply learn things in a different way.

Lecturing for a full two hours without engaging the class will only hinder the students. We are a multi-media gen-eration, why not cater to that? At least make an effort to do so.

Of course, this does not apply to ev-ery arts professor at Laurier. Yes, there are faculty members who truly do care about their students and engage with them.

However, the disheartening thing is that these kinds of professors seem to be getting more and more rare at this university.

There is also the issue on the admin-istration level. With more and more money being pumped in to other facul-ties — namely business — and projects like new buildings and new campuses, it is clear that strengthening the faculty of arts is quite low on WLU’s priority list.

How is Laurier going to uphold its reputation of a respectable arts school when it is clear that the university has little respect for the arts that once made it such a great school?

There must be major changes to the way the arts program is structured and it needs to come [email protected]

Laurier’s faculty of arts needs serious changes to be successful

WLUSU board attendance dismalLast Friday the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union board of directors meeting was cancelled due to an inability to meet quorum.

In simple terms: it was cancelled because less than ten of the 15 elected directors were going to show up.

While this is the first time a meeting has been can-celled this year due to insufficient attendance, the abil-ity for directors to make board meetings—the main responsibility of their elected position—has been an ongoing concern.

So far this year, there have been 63 regrets from di-rectors. Last year, there were just 37.

This begs several critical questions, one being how elected individuals can accurately represent Laurier’s student population if they are too busy to attend a re-quired meeting?

After all, these individuals were specifically elected under the assumption that they would strive to serve the students who chose them. Why bother running a campaign to be elected if you know you will be unable to fulfill the position’s requirements?

The answer seems obvious. Most WLUSU board members seem to desire the prestige of the position simply to add something to their resume.

It appears it is more about what this position can do for their future rather than how their actions impact students.

With the current financial situation that WLUSUs in, it is imperative that there be an evident level of com-mitment from members to problem solve and re-in-state student confidence in the institution.

But apparently many of the people elected to make such critical decisions as approving budgets and finan-cial audits can’t fit this responsibility into their sched-ules. Yes, the board of directors is made up of students; and between assignments, exams, and other extra-curricular activities, commitments can pile up fast. But these directors need to remember that they are elected to represent student needs, and if they cannot fulfill that duty they should not be on the board.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, members of the board further showed their lack of engagement as multiple directors showed little or no interest in even being in the board room. This certainly does not apply to every director, but between the lack of attendance and en-gagement, it is anything but unreasonable to expect more from these people we elected.

Universities are often known for their rigid deadlines, complicated bureaucratic systems and for the pressure they impose on students to graduate with unparalleled honours.

However, it is becoming increasingly clear that post-secondary institutions are more than accommodating when it comes to graduating in a timely manner.

A 2011 statistic revealed that only about 45 per cent of university students in Canada will graduate in four years as opposed to the 74 who obtain their degrees in five years and an astounding 80 percent in six.

Yet this statistic should not come as much of a shock for the majority of us who witness many of our peers taking an additional year or two in order to ensure they graduate with the grades they know they deserve and are capable of achieving.

Too often there is immense pressure put upon stu-dents to get their education in order to find a job as quickly as possible. The very nature of a university ed-ucation however, is to take your time learning and de-veloping. There should be no rush to enter into a rap-idly declining job market.

For most students, obtaining a degree in four years is not only mentally straining, but financially draining as well. Thus, taking an extra year may give students the time to hold down two or more jobs in order to pay for their education.

Considering the current state of our ever-failing em-ployment options, it has become even more crucial for students to get involved in extra-curricular activities that will enhance the quality of their degree.

Involving yourself in athletics, international experi-ences, co-op and leadership roles give you exposure into real-world situations that often prove to be just as useful as your university degree itself. —The Cord Editorial Board

Students shouldn’t rush to earn a degree

stephanie truong gRApHICS EDITOR

Since most arts programs

are so unfocused, profes-

sors can only do so much to

make up for it.


OPINION Opinion EditorDevon Butler [email protected]

Hollywood unfairly represents CanadaThe recent success of Argo sheds light on the tradition of Hollywood to under represent Canada on film

If you consider yourself to be a proud Canadian at all, you will do yourself and our country a favour by not spending a nickel on Ben Affleck’s academy award winning movie, Argo.

While Affleck has gained world-wide recognition for his latest movie due to this past award season, the film is also getting a bad rap for knowingly minimizing Canada’s role during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and the extraction operation that followed.

For those who have not yet seen the movie, Argo is adapted from the book, The Master of Disguise by Cen-tral Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez (played by Affleck), in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran by creating a fake movie.

As well, more than 50 members of the embassy staff were held cap-tive for over a year.

If you have seen Argo, I will chal-lenge you to re-watch it. Try not to get too swooped up into the clas-sic Hollywood “damsel-in-dis-tress” story that Affleck is trying to convey.

Pay attention and you will quickly see that the CIA and Hollywood are

seen as the gallant saviours of the world, while former Canadian Am-bassador Ken Taylor, who hid the six diplomats in his home, is demoted as hardly a hero.

If Affleck had done his homework right, he would have known that Canada had contributed 90 per cent of this elaborate plan.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter even stepped forward and confirmed that not only was Canada dismissed in the film, but he also re-vealed that Affleck’s character was unfairly glorified.

In fact, his character in the real story was only in Tehran for a day and a half. The real hero was Taylor who orchestrated the entire process.

Affleck, claiming that Argo was “based” on a true story and not actu-ally a true story, poorly justified this neglect of Canada’s involvement.

Therefore, that gave him the dra-matic license to downplay Canada’s role, as he could not possibly fit so much into one single movie.

Argo is not the first—and probably will not be the last—product of Hol-lywood that has falsely represented Canada. In fact, I don’t even see why this is considered controversial anymore.

If Hollywood isn’t creating films that are under-represent-ing Canada, they are creating idi-otic films filled with stereotypical misrepresentations.

Whenever American television depicts Canada, it’s hard to ignore the fact that our nation is essentially seen as a sweet and slightly back-wards version of America, where all

of the people eat maple syrup, play hockey and redundantly end every sentence with “eh”.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Cana-dians, according to American films and television shows, ride polar bears as a means for transportation.

And how could it be impossible for me to forget about all of the ste-reotypes and remarks that South Park has made about Canada?

Apparently, according to this American made show, all Canadians speak with an exaggerated accent and pronounce “about” as “aboot”.

The list of stereotypes and the plethora of different ways in which American films have cheated Can-ada out of their good name could go on. Maybe these stereotypes were funny the first five times, but now they are beginning to lose their humour.

In fact, this petty form of humour is only blowing up in the faces of the Americans who choose to unfairly misrepresent our country.

They are no longer seen as witty, but instead are being perceived as ignorant.

The harsh reality is that Hol-lywood will always make movies. And yes, Hollywood will cash out on movies that both demote and falsely epitomize Canada.

So when you’re at the movie store and you’re thinking about buying Argo, just think about how little Af-fleck thought about the place you call home. That should confirm whether it’s worth your money or [email protected]

ALANNA FAIREYLEAD REPORTER

wAdE thompsoN viSuAL DiRECTOR

Women need their own holiday

The phrase “Happy International Woman’s day. Make me a sandwich” was far too common on Twitter and Facebook last Friday.

This submissive attitude towards International Women’s Day (IWD) is the general response given by most people when they hear about it.

Holidays like Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah and Kwanza are all wide-ly known and celebrated by most of the population while days like IWD, which advocate for human rights, seem to fall to the side and be ig-nored.

International Woman’s Day be-gan on March 19, 1911 in Europe. Millions of men and women partici-pated in events showing their sup-port for women’s equal participation in society.

This cause and awareness be-came global with the help of the United Nations and March 8 be-came the official day of celebration that is known and celebrated across the globe as a national holiday.

For the majority of us students, the holidays we focus on other than religious ones, are those that give us an excuse to pursue our love of alcohol.

These would include Oktoberfest, Halloween, New Year’s Eve and, of

course, the wonderful St. Patrick’s day. With all of these, who needs to focus on the other holidays? As members of society and the future generation, we do.

I will be the first to admit that I did not know this month included IWD. Thinking about it, I feel that as a woman it is especially some-thing I should be aware of and par-ticipate in.

Women have been oppressed for years and have struggled just to have the right to vote.

We have lived in —and still live in— a male-dominated society. This is especially evident in less devel-oped countries where women have little to no status.

This may all seem repetitive as we have learned about women’s strug-gles since elementary school, but it is an important issue to be aware of and to participate in fixing.

This year’s topic for IWD is “End-ing Violence Against Women” as abusive relationships are the cause of 40-60 per cent of homicides in the United States as outlined by the United Nations.

Women rarely tell others if they are being abused and often blame themselves for the actions of the abuser. More awareness of this is-sue needs to be advocated especially on campus where the majority of students are unaware.

So this year, we should take the time to not only focus on the holi-days that give us the opportunity to drink, but that inform ourselves and others of the issues that still exist in society in order to make a difference in the lives of women [email protected]

JULIA ChRIssOPiNiON COLuMNiST

RE: Community Service Learning still has a long way to go

Dear Editor,I read with interest the Cord article by Heather Barnes, and your editorial, on the community service learning (CSL) component of cours-es now supported by the CSL Office.

I am glad you highlighted the positive impact of this aspect of the Laurier experience.

I would be remiss not to point out that CSL has a very long tradition (over 30 years) at Laurier, and that it is in psychology in the faculty of sci-ence where most students see these courses.

In 2006 the psychology model was broadened to become avail-able to the whole university with the establishment of the CSL Office through the generosity of the McCo-nnell Foundation.

This made it possible to sup-port the service component of many courses in SBE, arts, and at the Brantford campus.

Our long experience in psychol-ogy with CSL, which now ranges from the two hours a week model, to courses where students become much more involved (like in envi-ronmental psychology) suggest it is a very positive learning experience.

For some, it is life changing. Oth-er students continue their volunteer placement after the course is over.

We pay careful attention to which courses should include a CSL com-ponent and it is clear from the arts examples given, others do this as well. Our psychology program would be greatly impoverished without its CSL involvement.

Remarkably, in the same Cord is-sue, there was a central spread on the intern experience highlighting the need to (and difficulties of) connecting the classroom

experience with needs of the com-munity and the job market.

These programs (CSL, co-op pro-grams, internships) need to be sup-ported and improved so that our students can continue to receive a rich educational experience in their time at Laurier and strengthen their potential to engage the world in all its complexity.

Thank you for highlighting as-pects of the richness (and problems) ofextending education beyond the classroom and we encourage you to continue writing about these impor-tant issues. –Rudy Eikelboom

RE: Community Service Learning still has a long way to go

Dear Editor, The Laurier Centre for Commu-nity Service-Learning (LCCSL) was pleased to see the article and editorial on Community Service-Learning (CSL) in last Wednesday’s edition of the Cord. We are hopeful that it will stimulate some discus-sion about the merits of experiential pedagogies such as CSL. We wanted to acknowledge the history and strategic initiatives be-ing led by the LCCSL in collabo-ration with its many partners on campus and in the community. Over the past five years, the LCCSL has supported a total of 47 unique courses, taught 164 times, across 23 departments. While the McConnell grant has produced increased recent activity, the history of CSL is a long one dat-ing back over thirty years to a field placement model within the De-partment of Psychology. More recently, the LCCSL has spear-headed and initiated a part-nership to develop and design an ambitious new Option that provides

in-depth learning for students across the Faculty of Arts. The Op-tion in Community Engagement is currently in development with faculty members and community partners. The Option will be a more fo-cused series of courses that will cul-minate in an intensive internship in community learning. Similarly, new courses are in development that will prepare students for meaningful, ef-fective and enriching local and glob-al community engagement. Staff at the LCCSL work hard to build reciprocal partnerships between faculty, student service-learners, and community partners. In addition to rigorous learning and application of course content, stu-dents in CSL courses have demon-strated a clearer perspective on their career plans and report to be more job ready. Based on a recent evaluation, 73 per cent of students at Laurier who have taken a CSL course indicate that it helped them prepare for fu-ture employment. Laurier strives to inspire lives of leadership and purpose. By provid-ing students with opportunities for meaningful community engagement and enhanced learning, CSL pro-vides exactly these opportunities. We are thankful to the faculty, community partners and students who step into these new contexts to learn together. –Dr. Megan ConwayDirector, LCCSL

Letter policyLetters must not exceed 250 words. In-clude your full name and telephone num-ber. Letters must be received by 12:00 p.m. noon Monday via e-mail to [email protected]. The Cord reserves the right to edit for length and clarity or to reject any letter.

Letters to the Editor

international Women’s Day showcases the need to globally respect women

Sports EditorShelby Blackley [email protected]


EMPLOYEE achievement AWARDS

WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY Waterloo | Brantford | Kitchener | Toronto

wlu.ca/achievementawards

As a student, has a staff or faculty gone above and beyond to positively impact your student life by:• Building a meaningful relationship with you• Demonstrating opportunities for continuous improvement • Providing exceptional customer service• Modelling leadership and accountability by serving as a mentor• Promoting team and organizational success by sharing ideas and seeking opinions

Nominate this staff or faculty for an Employee Achievement Award by May 3, 2013

Hawks sign fi rst wave of recruitsMembers of Laurier’s football team practiced at RIM park March 8. The football program announced their fi rst wave of recruits last week.

HEATHER DAVIDSON STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

ERIC THOMPSONSTAFF WRITER “Part of my talk when

I fi rst got hired is that

you’ve got to own your

own backyard.”

—Michael Faulds, men’s football head coach

Sports in brief

Outstanding Women of Laurier fi nalists announcedWomen’s rugby captain Carmen Baker, women’s basketball forward Doreen Bonsu and women’s hockey captain Fiona Lester were short-listed Monday afternoon as fi nalists for the annual Outstanding Women of Laurier (OWL) Award. The OWL Award recognizes a female Laurier student who combines athletic and academic achievement while show-ing commitment to leadership and development of young athletes in the community. Past winners in-clude Laura Crocker, Brittany Shaw and Liz Knox. The winner will be announced Mar. 21 at a luncheon at the Waterloo Inn Conference Hotel.

Women’s basketball players honouredFifth-year guard Amber Hillis was named the OUA West Tracy McLeod award winner this past week. The award is given to a player who dis-plays qualities of determination, perseverance and unwavering spirit. Hillis has dealt with multiple inju-ries since the beginning of her OUA career but still managed to fi nish with impressive numbers in Lauri-er’s all-time records. First-year Kai-tlyn Schenck was also named to the West division all-rookie team after an impressive year.

Montréal captures fi rst-ever CIS titleIn the women’s hockey national championships, the Montréal Cara-bins defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-2 to take home their fi rst women’s hockey national banner. The win is also the fi rst Canadian Interuniver-sity Sport (CIS) championship for Montréal since the resurgence of the Carabins athletics program in 1995. Ontario University Athletics (OUA) teams the Toronto Varsity Blues and the Queen’s Gaels, fi nished fourth and sixth respectively. This is the fi rst year in ten years that WLU was not at nationals.

Max Allin named to CIS sec-ond-team all-canadianFourth-year men’s basketball star Max Allin was named a CIS second-team all-canadian last week, be-coming just the sixth player to earn the honour in the history of WLU’s program. Allin is also the second player from WLU to be named to the second team in three years, fol-lowing Kale Harrison. Allin fi nished as the CIS leading scorer, averag-ing 23.2 points per game. He was ranked in the top ten nationally in both rebounds and assists per game.

Over 25 players have committed to Laurier’s football program for the upcoming year

Laurier’s football team took a big step towards putting a disappoint-ing season behind them last week, announcing its fi rst wave of recruits for the 2013 season. So far, over 25 players have com-mitted to Laurier next year, with more names expected to join in the coming weeks. This marks the fi rst recruiting class of new head coach Michael Faulds’s tenure, and his fi rst time convincing players to join the Wil-frid Laurier community. “There’s a lot [of selling points],” said Faulds. “The tight-knit campus feel, the real collegiate atmosphere, in terms of how half the student body always wears Laurier gear around campus, that’s really nice. The actual city of Waterloo is a beautiful, safe city. “In terms of our football pro-gram, the great winning tradition and history, and I can’t say a bad thing about our coaching staff … so I think it’s pretty enticing.” Faulds and recruiting coordina-tor Dwayne Cameron opted for a unique way of signing recruits this

year. Instead of having the recruits come to Laurier when they commit, the duo would travel to the recruits’ various high schools so they could sign their letter of intent in front of family, friends and local media. Some of the players highlight-ing this year’s class include receiver Marcus Arkarakas from King City Secondary. Arkarakas has experience play-ing quarterback, running back and defensive back. Faulds sees the dy-namic receiver as a strong slot pres-ence and useful special-teamer. Another receiver expected to contribute immediately is Anthony Pizzuti. Pizzuti is a current Laurier stu-dent who missed out on playing for the team last year. Instead, he played for the Hamilton Hurricanes of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) last season. Edward Cadougan will be one of the names boosting Laurier’s of-fensive line. Listed at 280 lbs, he is guard out of Senator O’Connor Col-lege School in Toronto. “He is a strong kid, he’ll look to push the play as well,” commented Faulds. Laurier also drew a good crop of

players from the Kitchener-Water-loo area. Eric McCormick, Matt Davidson and Chris Reddy are just some of the players from the surrounding area to join the team. “We want to make a strong pres-ence within Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge,” said Faulds. “Part of my talk when I fi rst got hired is that you’ve got to own your own back-yard. If you are constantly losing re-cruits from your local high schools to other universities, you’re behind the eight-ball already. We need to continue to get the top players in high schools around here, and then start looking elsewhere.” While still waiting to hear back from a few undecided players, Faulds admits that his staff has al-ready started looking towards re-cruiting for the 2014 class. As for the upcoming season, the Golden Hawks will have their spring game April 7 at 1 p.m. at Knight-Newbrough Field. “I want to encourage the student body to come out to that and that will give everyone a sense of what they are going to see in the fall. I think we’re going to be competitive,” Faulds said.


Soccer should be about skills, not score

WADE THOMPSON VISUAL DIRECTOR

OSA’s move to eliminate scores and standings for players under 12 could be benefi cial for performance

ERIC THOMPSON STAFF WRITER

Recently, it was announced that the removal of scores and standings will be mandatory for Ontario youth soccer players under the age of 12, as of 2014. The movement is part of the Ca-nadian Soccer Association’s (CSA) Long-Term Player Development plan (LTPD). I am not here to ex-plain or justify the program. I am here to explain why the current sys-tem is in fact, broken. The arguments raised against the removal of scores have been, for the most part, from the perspective of parents worried about teaching their kids valuable life lessons on winning and losing. As a player that was enrolled in youth soccer for over 12 years, I would argue that learning the game of soccer should be the most impor-tant lesson. It’s been roughly six years since my last “youth” soccer game, and since then it’s become quite clear to me that I barely learned anything. Unlike hockey, soccer is a sec-ond language to our country. We are not raised with a ball in our hands. Many of us enter youth soccer with no background knowledge of the

game or the proper ways to play. When winning is stressed before players truly understand the game, bad habits form quickly. If you have ever watched six-year-olds play, you have seen a clump of children follow the ball around the fi eld, and the fastest ones usually end up the heroes. That was my game for the begin-ning of my career. I had a lot of suc-cess based solely on the fact that I was fast. But as long as you’re scor-ing goals, no coach is going to stop you and try to correct your kicking technique.

Then all of a sudden you’re 13 and the playing fi eld is more even. Ev-erybody is quicker and stronger and the techniques that used to be suc-cessful no longer work. That was when I realized I had to completely re-learn the game of soccer. Everything I had done for the past seven years was inapplicable to the way the actual game of soccer should be played. It was a frustrat-ing place to fi nd myself in, and I’m sure I was not alone in that regard. In my post-soccer career, I have developed a much stronger

appreciation for the game by watch-ing it. I have an understanding of it that I didn’t have for most of my playing days. When played correctly, it truly is a beautiful game. If kids can under-stand that earlier, their appreciation of soccer culture can grow. More kids may fi nd themselves watching soccer on TV instead of dismissing it as boring. Eliminating scores and results will teach young children that there is a game outside of acquiring the all-important ball. They will be encouraged to pass

the ball more and improve their off-the-ball position as well. At a young age, kids are not as competitive as parents think. Prop-erly learning the game should hap-pen at an age when kids are simply getting enjoyment of being outside and playing with friends. Then later in life, when they are more competitive, they can go play for wins and losses in a game they truly understand and appreciate. The elimination of scores at an early age may help more kids fi nd the true enjoyment the game of soccer can bring.

20 • SPORTS THE CORD • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013

PowderPu� more than a tournament

Picking up where it last left off, Lau-rier Lettermen’s annual PowderPuff invitational tournament continued last weekend after being postponed due to a snowstorm on Feb. 8. And according to Lettermen pres-ident, Andrew Barbati, and execu-tive coordinator, Drew Galpin, this year’s PowderPuff season was cer-tainly worth the extra work. “It might only be two weekends of a year, but it’s an entire year process in terms of getting teams organized for it,” Galpin said. The weekend-long tournament occurred March 8 and 9 and hosted 26 teams stemming from all over Ontario. This year, “Body Shotz” from Queen’s University captured the PowderPuff title with a 9-6 win over “Y U Mad?” from York Univer-sity. The game was determined by a fi nal-play fi eld goal, which earned Queen’s the extra three points. However, the real story goes far beyond the actual game of fl ag football. The entire tournament is said to be more signifi cant to players, teams, coaches and organizers. “It’s kind of funny because as soon as our [varsity football] season is over, the fi rst thing on our mind is PowderPuff,” said Galpin, who played his fi fth and fi nal season on Laurier’s football team this past fall. “So the vets will try and recruit the rookies that they think might be good in that position.” Galpin explained the process of recruiting rookie varsity athletes as volunteer coaches. He said that many fi nd themselves involved with PowderPuff because they are asked to keep the tradition of their teams alive. “For one thing, it’s handed down,” Barbati added. “One team’s head coach is there because he helped out when he was younger and learned everything from the previous head coach.” “The younger guys come and see

how we run it and each year they do more until they’re eventually in our positions,” Galpin continued. PowderPuff fi rst came to Lau-rier’s campus in 1997 and since then it has expanded across Ontario universities. Laurier hosts the largest Powder-Puff tournament available to Ontar-io schools. According to Barbati, Lettermen had to turn down some teams who were interested in sending multiple rosters. Because of this, many Ontar-io schools are beginning to cre-ate all-star teams to play in the

tournament. “Queen’s does a really cool thing where the seniors of the [varsity] football team have one team and the rookies have another,” Barbati explained. “They have all the girls who want to play PowderPuff try out and the seniors get fi rst pick and the rookies get whoever is left over.” Galpin added that the University of Ottawa could only send one team and therefore held extensive tryouts. “Something like 200 girls showed up and did this try out and they drafted like 50 players,” he said. In the future, Galpin would like

to see Laurier have its own all-star team. Ideally, the fi rst tournament held early in the new year, and is made up almost completely of Lau-rier students, would act as a tryout to the coaches. “We’re so saturated,” Galpin ex-plained. “We have 12 teams in a tournament out of 26 so the talent gets spread out.” Although Barbati does like the idea of a more competitive Lau-rier team, he does not think that an all-star roster would ever work on campus. He enjoys being able to have a large Laurier-only tournament.

“Also I don’t think the girls would go for that; girls are very loyal to their teams,” he added. That being said, Barbati and Gal-pin both agreed that the female par-ticipants truly make the tournament what it is. The spirit generated is what Galpin refers to as “a second Homecoming.” “We have guys coming out to vol-unteer to ref who have been out of school for fi ve years,” he said. “It’s a sweet mix of players,” Bar-bati continued. “You have guys who won the Vanier cup [back in 2005] who are coming back and work-ing with fi rst-year WLU football players.” PowderPuff alumni are also con-tinuing to play football at their next educational endeavour. Let-termen explained that one Laurier player went on to teacher’s college at Nipissing University and actually created a team just for the occasion. “That’s how much it means to them,” Galpin said. But for now, the three-month long PowderPuff season has fi nally come to an end. As for Barbati and Galpin, who will not be returning to their posi-tions on Lettermen, they have com-plete faith in the next set of hands. “We always say to the younger guys [on Lettermen], if you’re going to do one thing, keep PowderPuff alive.”

ASHLEY DENUZZOSTAFF WRITER

PowderPu� resumed last weekend after being postponed due to inclement weather on Feb. 8.CRISTINA RUCCHETTA STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

“We always say to the

younger guys [on Let-

termen], if you’re going

to do one thing, keep

PowderPuff alive.”

—Drew Galpin, Laurier Lettermen executive coordinator

Laurier Lettermen executives emphasize the tradition behind the annual fl ag football tournament

Fourth-year goaltender Ryan Dan-iels will not use up his fi nal year of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) player eligibility with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks and signed a professional contract with the Central Hockey League’s (CHL) Missouri Mavericks. Laurier head coach Greg Puhal-ski will have his hands full recruit-ing this off-season to replace his Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West division MVP and former fi fth-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators. Puhalski will offer his current backup, Duncan Long, who has played two seasons with the Hawks, an opportunity to battle for the starting job in 2013-14. “We will be bringing in at least one goalie, possibly two if we feel it helps make us a better team,” said the reigning OUA West Coach of the Year. “We are offering a goalie the chance to be our starter ... This op-portunity does not happen too often in the CIS.” According to Puhalski, goalten-ders in the CIS are typically given their rookie season to be tutored

before they are considered for the full-time starting job. Daniels spent his rookie season splitting time with veteran Jeff MacDougald. Long played in three games and registered a 1-0-0 record during the 2012-13 regular season. Prior to suiting up for the Golden Hawks, he played for the Kitchener Dutch-men of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL) and was the Mid-Western Conference MVP in 2010-11. “This off-season is going to re-volve around hockey,” said Long. “This is a great opportunity for me going into my last year here at Lau-rier and I plan on taking advantage of it.” “[Puhalski] is an excellent coach and will make the decisions he feels are best for the team. I am concen-trating on playing the best hockey I can,” he continued. The men’s hockey program will look to improve their 14-12-2 regu-lar season record from 2012-13 and fi fth place fi nish in the OUA West. Laurier’s fi rst-round best-of-three series loss against Guelph ended their season in mid-February. Puhalski remains ambitious re-placing Daniels, who played in 27 of 28 games during the regular season

and was an integral part of Laurier’s playoff berth. Daniels ranked inside the top ten in games played, wins, saves and save percentage in the OUA and was named the OUA West top goalten-der for the year. During his tenure, Daniels was named an OUA West MVP twice, an OUA West top goaltender of the year twice, a fi rst-team all-star twice and a second-team all-star once. His career record with the Hawks was 43-50, with save percentage of .921 and goals against average of 2.96 with fi ve shutouts. “Ryan’s best attribute was his consistency,” said Puhalski. “[Daniels] usually gave our team a chance to win the game. We want that quality in our next goaltender. Plus a good work ethic, upbeat atti-tude and team player.” “We need to play better defen-sively in front of our goaltender, we relied too much on Ryan. I believe we did that much better in the sec-ond half of this season. We have control to make our goaltending turnover a positive one,” Puhalski said. The Hawks are also losing fourth-year Mitchell Good and fourth-year captain Kyle Van De Bospoort.

Star netminder Daniels leaves big shoes to fi ll

WESLEY TAYLORCORD SPORTS

Backup Duncan Long o� ered chance to fi ght for starting spot

Ryan Daniels was named a provincial all-star three times, the OUA’s best goalie twice as well as winning two conference MVP awards.

NICK LACHANCE FILE PHOTO

march 13, 2013

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