november 1, 2012
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November 1, 2012 | The UbysseyTRANSCRIPT
TO THE FRAT HOUSE SINCE 1918 UBC’S OFFICIAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER | NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XVIII
UTHE UBYSSEY
CUPE 2278 union members picket the Geography and Math Buildings on their third day of job action P3
TAs ON STRIKE
PAVLOPOULOSSUSPENDED
DRAMA DOWN UNDER
BASKETBALL BREAK
DOWN
The UBC Players Club prepares for the biggest production in its history P6
Thunderbirds kicker banned for two years after testing positive for steroids P3
An in depth look at the UBC men’s and women’s basketball rosters and their upcoming 2012-13 season P4
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | 2YOUR GUIDE TO UBC EVENTS + PEOPLE
STAFFBryce Warnes, Josh Curran, Peter Wojnar, Anthony Poon, Veronika Bondarenko, Yara De Jong, Lu Zhang, Ginny Monaco, Arno Rosenfeld, Matt Meuse, Hogan Wong, Rory Gattens, Brandon Chow, Joseph Ssettuba. Tyler McRobbie
NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | VOLUME XCIV| ISSUE XVIII
EDITORIAL
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UTHE UBYSSEY
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Post-Halloween haze: All day @ your houseWhether you went trick-or-treating, hit up the club or crashed that rager in the frat village, Nov. 1 should be a day of rest. So skip your classes (or don’t) and have a DQ blizzard to cure your pains. There’s only one more month left until the term ends, so take this time to reboot before papers eat away at that thing formerly known as your social life.
Tue121 THURSDAY
Got an event you’d like to see on this page? Send your event and your best pitch to [email protected].
RECOVERY >>
TUTORING >>
ARTS >>
SPEAKERS >>
VOLUNTEER >>
5th Annual TEDxTerry Talks: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. @ LSCFrom current political topics such as the Enbridge pipeline to ana-lysing the digital era, TEDxTerry is sure to inspire and educate. Featuring ten speakers, this is one event that you won’t want to miss. More information available at www.terry.ubc.ca.
Drop-in writing assistance: 3-7 p.m. @ CLC at IKBLCThere’s no better time than the final stretch of classes to get your essays read over by professional writing tutors. This free service operates throughout the year to help you write better papers.
AMS Volunteer Fair: 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. @ the SUBAMS Volunteer Connect will be hosting a volunteer fair on Monday and Tuesday. The event features not-for-profit organiz-ations from across Vancouver that are looking for students to recruit.
Vancouver Comic Con: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. @ Heritage HallIt may not be the one in San Diego, but at least Vancouver is trying. Comic Con will feature appearances from shows such as Futurama, Debris and Santa Claws. Who knows what kind of shenanigans will happen? $4.
What’s on THIS WEEK, MAY WE SUGGEST...
Tue122 FRIDAY
Tue123 SATURDAY
Tue124 SUNDAY
Tue125MONDAY
OUR CAMPUSONE ON ONE WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE UBC
This year is Lynn Burton’s 15th season working on props for UBC’s theatre department.
Karina PalmitetaCopy Editor
Lynn Burton stands at her workshop counter holding up a thick hemp rope. By Nov. 15, that rope will transform into a dead rooster prop for the open-ing night of Theatre at UBC’s upcoming production, <em> Dancing at Lughnasa</em>.
“We have a dead rooster, but it’s unfortunately the wrong colour.... We need a plumper rooster, it’s gotta be a white rooster, it’s gotta have its throat ripped out, so there’s going to be blood,” Burton says.
Of all the people at the UBC theatre department, Burton knows best that there’s more than one way to skin a cat — or build a rooster. She’s the de-partment’s head of properties, and her days are filled with supervising students in the theatre production and design program, as well as main-taining, building and sourcing the department’s vast collec-tion of props. Her workshop in the Freddy Wood Theatre is a wonderland of objects ranging from commonplace to fantastical.
This particular dead roost-er is being built by one of her production students.
“Because it’s going to be held up by its little [legs], we need to have floppiness.... You carry a piece of something through the skeleton, the spine. The neck has to be floppy, so old hemp rope works quite nicely.... There’s no pattern for building a rooster, so [the student] is kind of figuring it out as he goes.”
Burton didn’t always see props in her future, and even theatre was a stretch at one point.
“I’d always liked musicals and I went to theatre, but I didn’t ever really consider it a job,” she says. “It wasn’t really part of what my family did.”
But after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in French from SFU, Burton found her-self adrift, so she applied to the newly created stagecraft program at Douglas College. Even then, a future in props seemed unlikely.
“I always thought I was going to do costumes. When I was in school, that’s where I lived: the costume shop,” she says.
But a design materials class at Douglas College planted the
seed of what would become a lifelong career. Burton says she found it liberating to bring objects to life from scratch. “That was the [class] that really brought in all sorts of extra elements, like sculpting and using different materials, like styrofoam and rubber latex and casting and mould-making and fibreglass.”
This year is her 15th season at Theatre at UBC, but her first as head of props. The former head, Janet Bickman — an “abso-lutely brilliant props builder” — retired last year, and Burton stepped into her shoes.
Burton also occasionally builds props and costumes for film productions. “I don’t do much film work — just every once in a blue moon.... I’ve been very fortunate in my career that I’ve worked with absolute-ly lovely people,... but for my own brain, so I don’t fall into the same habits all the time, it’s good to go out and work on another show.”
But Burton says her heart lies in the unpredictability of live theatre. “It’s nice to go see what filmies do, but I like theatre. I like it the best.” U
Inside the prop shopHOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY
Video contentMake sure to check out the Weekly Show, airing now at ubyssey.ca/video.
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | 3EDITORS WILL MCDONALD + LAURA RODGERS
Laura RodgersNews Editor
Teaching assistant strikes have gone on for three days, and now they’re affecting undergraduate classes.
Pickets outside the Geography Building, and later the Math Build-ing, put TAs in the path of under-graduate students looking to attend afternoon classes on Wednesday. Reaction to the strike has been generally positive, and UBC hasn’t yet seen significant disruption for students or faculty.
According to picket captain Glynnis Kirchmeier, roughly 60 TAs represented by the CUPE 2278 union local were at the picket at its height. They started at the Geog-raphy Building at noon, and ex-panded to cover the Math Building before 1 p.m. The strike concluded at 2 p.m.
Students approaching the picketed doors were engaged in conversation by TAs, and most seemed sympathetic to the union, though many did opt to cross the line and attend class.
“We try to talk to people to let them know what’s happening here,... inform them about what it means to be crossing a picket line and to show the union support,” said Michael Stewart, a CUPE 2278 spokesperson.
Tara Stamnis, a second-year geography student, decided not to attend class when she saw the striking TAs.
“I think the TAs work really hard. I have some friends who are TAs and I think they deserve what they’re asking for, which is important, and I support them,” said Stamnis.
During the strike, from noon until 1 p.m., a relatively well-at-tended political science class carried on inside the Geography Building. The class was Political Science 240, and the lecture topic for the day was introductory Marx-ism and organized labour.
“I’m usually not one to cross picket lines,” said the professor teaching the class, Chris Erickson. “But in this case, given what we were talking about in the lecture today, I think it made sense to hold the class.”
Roughly four-fifths of the usually full class showed up for the lecture. “At the beginning of the
lecture, I let people know that if they wanted to leave, they could. And if they wanted to respect the picket lines, they could. And I gave my reasons for holding the class. I also expressed to the class my own support for what the TAs are doing.”
Stewart said he understood the professor’s reasoning for continu-ing to teach, given the situation.
UBC spokesperson Lucie Mc-Neill said that overall, the univer-sity was glad that the picketing TAs weren’t disruptive or confron-tational toward students. “It was a very peaceful, respectful picket line,” she said.
“Theoretically there might be some temporary inconvenience [for undergrads], but the material of the courses will be covered one way or another.”
The TAs have been holding pick-
ets since 3 p.m. on Monday, when their strike notice came into effect. They started with a one-hour strike outside the Jack Bell Building, which houses the School of Social Work. On Tuesday, they held a small strike outside Buchanan Tow-er, which, according to McNeill, houses many Arts faculty offices but no undergraduate classes.
The union is hoping for wage in-creases, though they recognize that any deal needs to fall within the B.C. bargaining mandates that limit pay hikes.They’re also asking for some form of tuition waiver; most of the union’s members are grad students who can only work as TAs so long as they’re enrolled in school. They also want hiring preferences for third-year master’s students and fifth-year Ph.D. students, many of whom have less scholarship and grant money to fall back on.
UBC says that tuition waivers are out of the question, as they see student tuition as something sep-arate from the employer–employee relationship being discussed at the bargaining table.
According to McNeill, the uni-versity has given the union the op-tion of returning to mediation with a new mediator, but they haven’t heard back from the union yet.
“You can expect more of this [job action],” said CUPE 2278 President Trish Everett. “Meanwhile we’re still trying to work things out at the table, and we imagine we’ll be back in bargaining before too long.” U
Andrew BatesManaging Editor, Web
Former UBC football player Billy Pavlopoulos has recieved a two-year ban for testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
Pavlopoulos, the Thunderbirds’ kicker from 2009–2011, failed an out-of-competition test for the anabolic steroid stanozolol on Jan. 9, 2012, according to the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES).
He will be banned from CCES-certified sport events until January 2014, using up his final two years of eligibility as a CIS player.
“[I was] disappointed for our team, obviously, because it’s something that we don’t want to be associated with, but also disappoint-ed for Billy,” said UBC football head coach Shawn Olson. “Nothing will drive home the reality to people that are in our program [more] than this event.”
According to the ruling from the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, Pavlopoulos took a supple-ment called 1MR while on winter break in Ontario. Pavlopoulos said he checked the supplement to make sure the stimulant it contained was allowed during the off-season.
According to the CCES ruling, after testing positive for steroids in January, Pavlopoulos sent a sample of the 1MR he took to a private lab and learned that it contained a steroid.
“I do a fair amount of research of what supplements I would take, and I researched 1MR,” said Pavlopoul-os, who described weight training as a leisure activity. “I had done what I thought was qualified with enough research personally.... I thought I could take this product.”
According to Theresa Han-son, UBC’s associate director of high-performance sport, it’s the responsibility of the athlete to en-sure that they aren’t taking a banned substance. “Our big role in this is to educate our student-athletes of the dangers of performance-enhancing
drugs in the hope that they’ll make informed and sound decisions,” she said. “In this situation, unfortu-nately, the athlete made a poor decision.”
Pavlopoulos had appealed the ruling on the basis that he had re-searched the supplement. However, the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada ruled that because 1MR’s label carries a warning of possible banned substances and Pavlopoulos did not contact the supplement’s manufacturer, he should not have assumed it was safe.
Olson said someone who used to work in the athletic supplement industry gave a speech to the players at the beginning of the 2010 season, saying there is no way to be 100 per cent certain a supplement is clean.
“Honestly, it’s just impossible,” Olson said. “[If] you’re buying protein powder and it has more than two or three ingredients on it, then chances are it’s something you don’t want to take.”
All players and coaches must complete a mandatory CCES online course on drug testing. The program works with the Taylor Hooton
Foundation, a group that educates student-athletes on steroid use.
However, Olson said the issue of supplements, which are not required to print a complete list of ingredi-ents, remains a minefield.
“I don’t think there is a failsafe, foolproof way of making sure this doesn’t happen,” he said. “The standard is [that] anything you put in your body is now your respons-ibility.
“We try to tell our guys that you shouldn’t be taking anything.”
This is the 10th doping viola-tion in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) since a 2010 incident at the University of Waterloo when nine members of the football team tested positive for or admitted to steroid use.
The CIS has since brought in mandatory requirements for player education and increased testing. “I’m pretty confident that the mes-sage is getting out there,” said Tom Huisman, CIS director of operations and management. He noted that there would always be an “irredu-cible minimum” of doping cases.
Pavlopoulos took the news hard.
“I was suspended immediately from the team, which was very rough for me,” he said. “It felt like I was on top of the world, I was one of the top punters in the country, I was doing well in my school, I was very active in the school community, and then just overnight I wasn’t allowed around anything that I was used to.”
In the second semester of last year, Pavlopoulos entered aca-demic probation and was asked to withdraw from UBC in July. He’s currently finishing his arts degree at Humber College in Ontario, and he continues to train as a kicker in hopes of playing in a non-CCES league.
His former coach Olson knows these pitfalls well. In his last year as a UBC football player in 2000, he failed a drug test for ephedrine. He tells the story to players as an example of the danger.
“Sometimes you’re just not equipped to know exactly what all the stuff on the ingredients mean,” he said. “And now you’re left holding the bag and [people are] saying, ‘Hey, you know what? You’re responsible.’” U
Thunderbirds kicker fails steroid test Bursaries may soon be open to students without loans
MONEY >>
Billy Pavlopoulos, the kicker and punter for the T-Birds from 2009-2011, tested positive for an anabolic steroid on Jan. 9, 2012FILE PHOTO DAVID ELOP/THE UBYSSEY
SPORTS >>
Ming WongSenior News Writer
UBC students may find it easier to get bursaries in the next few years.
As part of their overall awards audit, UBC wants to repeal the policy that requires students apply-ing for bursaries to have a student loan from the government.
“The Board of Governors had questions about whether our bursary dollars were being given to the students with most need. And this process is … looking at ways to open up the pool of bursaries to all students who can demonstrate need, not just students who are on student loans,” said Kiran Mahal, AMS vice-president academic and university affairs.
Under the new model, incom-ing students have the option to complete a financial profile — a “budget sheet” similar to the gov-ernment student loan application — as part of their application for admission. UBC will use that data to create a financial package that comprises scholarships, bursar-ies or other awards for the newly admitted student.
“The key piece about it is we’ll do it at the point of admission when you’re offered admission so that you know early enough to create financial certainty going for-ward.… You would know what your [financial] gap was,” said Barbara Crocker, lead director the Student Financial Support Project.
Crocker said a benefit to no longer being tied to the student loan process is that UBC can assess financial needs based on realistic Vancouver and Okanagan living costs.
Mahal thinks that transparen-cy and equal opportunity in the bursary process will build on Policy 72, which states that no domestic student is turned away from UBC because of financial reasons.
“UBC offers financial aid, but not all students know about it, so they are turned away just by look-ing at the price. But this [change] will incorporate into the appli-cation process that you have an opportunity to say what your need is, financially, [to] the university,” said Mahal.
As needs-based, non-repayable financial aid from the university, bursaries are currently given to eligible domestic students who demonstrate that they need more money than student loans can provide. Crocker said that under the new system, students will still need to bring some sort of financial contribution to the table.
“You don’t get a bursary unless you have a need above the max-imum student loan,” said Crocker. “The expectation is … if you are eligible for student loan, you’d [apply and] bring that amount to the table, and if you weren’t eligible you would have to find that amount of funding somewhere else.”
Jason Chang, a third-year Arts student who has applied for the bursary program numerous times, finds the current govern-ment-based deadlines “annoying … because if you apply for student loans too late then you can’t get the bursary immediately.”
The project is still in its initial stages and is planned to be fully realized within the next three years. Crocker said the Student Fi-nancial Support Project will make recommendations to the university executives in the new year.
“This is all on paper [still]; it’s a vision,” said Crocker. U
LABOUR >>
KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEYPicketers, some in costume, surrounded the buildings Wednesday afternoon.
TA strikes hit Geography, Math Buildings
4 | SPORTS + REC | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012
Lose six top-quality players and suddenly become the favourite in the Canada West? It may not make
much sense, but that’s just how good this year’s UBC men’s basketball team is.
There are only four returners from last year’s T-Bird squad, and seven new players. Three of them are true first-years, while the other four are transfers.
Yet despite all the new faces, the coun-try believes that UBC men’s basketball is the team to beat in the Canada West. After a strong preseason that saw them go 6-1, the ’Birds were awarded the No. 2 ranking in the CIS preseason poll, an honour that will put a target on their backs and have the rest of the Canada West gunning for them.
“Nobody knew what to expect at the beginning of the preseason, and I think people saw a very talented group, so it’s great to have this ranking,” said forward Brylle Kamen, who transferred to UBC from San Jose State University. “But once again, it doesn’t mean anything, because you’re going to play again and everybody’s going to want to beat you.… It’s going to be a lot of work at practice now that we have this ranking, but it’ll be good for us.”
With so many new faces, the pre-sea-son easily could have been full of sloppy play as the new team got used to working together. However, the group came out and played as if they had been a team for years.
“The last few years we’ve had 14, 15, 16 guys, and it was difficult to get team cohesion,” said UBC head coach Kevin Hanson, who is entering his 12th year at the helm of the team. “Team cohesion can carry a long way, and I think that’s
one of the things we have this year. This team has really gelled together on the floor and also off the floor, and partly I think that’s due to the smaller numbers.”
The smaller roster also means that every player is expected to contribute, but Hanson doesn’t see that as a problem; the Thunderbirds have tremendous depth, and eight players have started games already during the preseason.
“I think we’re two deep at every position at least, and when you have that kind of depth in these positions, I think it bodes very well for what you can do,” said Hanson. “I think anybody on our team is capable of starting.”
Doug Plumb and Tommy Nixon were fixtures in the starting lineup last season, and will be expected to shoulder a good deal of the load again this year. Nixon is a third-year who combines an ability to shoot from the outside and play in the paint, while Plumb is one of three fifth-years on the squad who will be counted on for leadership.
“Coming into the year, I didn’t really know what to expect,... so it’s kind of like learn[ing] as you go,” said Plumb. “But I feel that if you just come to play every day and do the right things, then people are going to respect you a lot more.”
Second-years David Wagner and Geoff Pippus round out the rest of the re-turning players. Wagner is a 6-foot-9 post who is expected to be a big presence in the paint, while Pippus poses a shooting threat, especially from beyond the arc.
As for the trio of first-years, all three are expected to make an impact on the court. Isaiah Soloman from Vancouver College and Jordan Jensen-Whyte from Calgary will both see time in the point
guard position during the year; both pos-sess great court vision and solid defen-sive skills. And Conor Morgan is a 6-foot-8 post player from Victoria who will help out down low, but can also extend the defence with his shooting game.
“Conor, Isaiah and Jordan have played big minutes for us already, more so than any other freshman class that we’ve had,” said Hanson. “Their own confi-dence is growing, and they’ve played very well.”
Fifth-year O’Brian Wallace is ex-pected to fill the void left by last year’s stand-out point guard, Nathan Yu. Brylle Kamen will attempt to replace Kamar Burke and Balraj Bains at the post pos-ition, but he also adds a shooting game to go along with his post presence.
Michael Steele, from Capilano Uni-versity, and 6-foot-11 Jared Casey, from Seattle University, round out the roster and will also see plenty of action.
Last year was a disappointing one for the T-Birds; they fell to Alberta in the Canada West quarterfinals, which marked the first time since 2004-05 that they didn’t qualify for nationals. But this close-knit squad has the potential to return the men’s basketball team to its former glory.
“I’m very rejuvenated [in] the last couple months here, coaching this group of guys,” said Hanson. “It was good for me to get a group in here that I really like, and I have a lot of respect for these guys.”
This year’s team knows that they’re good, and the rest of the country knows it as well. But it will be up to them during the regular season to prove that the re-spect they’ve earned is well-deserved. U
THUNDERBIRDS BASKETBALL MEANS BUSINESS
DOUG PLUMB5TH YEAR | GUARD
2008–20092009–2010
2010–20112011–2012
CW QF
CW FINAL 4
CW FINAL
CW CHAM
P
CIS SEMI
CIS FINAL
CIS CHAMP
KEVIN HANSONHEAD COACH
13th season as head coach
2 time cis coach of the year
4 time canada west champion
170-592011–2012 FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
Men’s b-ball rejuvenated by new-look roster
TOMMY NIXON
3RD YEAR | FORWARD
O’BRIAN WALLACE
5TH YEAR | GUARD
ISAIAH SOLOMAN
1ST YEAR | GUARD
DAVID WAGNER
2ND YEAR | FORWARD
CONOR MORGAN
1ST YEAR | FORWARD
JORDAN JENSEN-WHYTE
1ST YEAR | GUARD
BRYLLEKAMEN
2ND YEAR | FORWARD
GEOFFPIPPUS
2ND YEAR | GUARD
MICHAELSTEELE
3RD YEAR | GUARD
JARED CASEY
5TH YEAR | FORWARD
6' 10"
6' 8"
6' 6"
6' 4"
6' 2"
6' 0"
6' 10"
6' 8"
6' 6"
6' 4"
6' 2"
6' 0"
CIS RANKING 2
PRESEASON RECORD: 6-1
THURSDAY, | SPORTS + REC | 5
THUNDERBIRDS BASKETBALL MEANS BUSINESS
A year after coming one win from capturing gold at CIS nationals, the UBC women’s basketball
team will have a whole new look in 2012-13. The Thunderbirds have lost three of their starters from last sea-son, and will bring in five rookies to go along with only one fifth-year and one fourth-year on this year’s roster.
Despite their team’s youth, last year’s Canada West champions aren’t planning on using this season to rebuild. Head coach Deb Huband is counting on a strong supporting cast to step up this year to fill the void left by the graduation of standout for-wards Zara Huntley and Alex Vieweg and point guard Kristen Hughes.
“Anytime you graduate your fifth-years, it’s a bit of a learning curve,” said Huband, who is in her 18th sea-son as head coach of the T-Birds. “You think that it’s an adjustment for your rookies coming in, but it’s also an adjustment for people who reaped the benefit of their leadership and their performance, and now the responsib-ility lies with different people.
“But it’s not like any one person; I think we just need everybody to step up a little bit more from last year to this year.”
Two of the main players who will carry a heavier load this season are forward Leigh Stansfield and guard Kris Young. As the lone fifth-year on the team, Stansfield will anchor the post position. Third-year Young was named a second-team Canada West all-star last season.
“Leigh is really eager and ready to take on even more in her fifth year,”
said Huband. “She’s had a real great start to the season and been our most consistent player up to this point.
“Kris, as an all-star, I think bene-fited from being around an older cast where she could be a talented young player who didn’t carry responsibil-ity. But now she carries some of that responsibility, even though she’s only in her third year.”
The younger players on the team are also expected to play well beyond their years.
“We need some of our rookies to be able to get on the floor and contribute for us,” said Huband. “Some of them have had good minutes for us, some of them have been held back a bit with silly little injuries and so forth, but we expect some of our first-years to make a big impact over the course of the year.”
Maggie Sundberg from Connecti-cut brings a high basketball IQ and great experience from playing against tough U.S. competition. Cherub Lum, Jaime Hills and Andrea Stujic are joining the T-Birds from Vancouver, while Susan Thompson hails from Calgary and will be a help in the post position.
Fourth-year Victoria Spangehl will play a forward position that looks much different from last year. Second-year Adrienne Parkin may also start some games at the power forward position.
“I think we still have a balance inside and outside,” said Huband in regards to their guard and post game on offence. “I think we obviously have youth in the post, with both Leigh
[Stansfield] and Tori [Spangehl], but we have good potential there.”
Stephanie Bell is a second-year who will also help out at the forward spot. As for the guard position, there will be plenty of depth; along with rookies Lum and Hills, Cassandra Knievel, Alyssa Binns, Erika Vieweg and Zana Williams will all provide threats from the outside and help run the Thunderbird offence.
The T-Birds, ranked 10th in the nation in the CIS preseason poll, will once again need to have a strong all-around game on offence if they want to compete. Regina will be looking for revenge after UBC ended their un-defeated season in the Canada West semi-final last year, and Fraser Valley is a top up-and-coming squad that has a large group of players returning. Add in traditional rivals Victoria and Trinity Western, and it’s clear that this season will be anything but a cakewalk.
Winning that national gold is the big prize for UBC, and coming so close last year will hopefully give them the added motivation to go all the way this season.
“We were very proud to earn our way to the national championship final,… and I still feel like we accom-plished a lot last year.... Every year we step on the floor, we want to do the best that we can,” said Huband. “We want to make every game and prac-tice matter, and hope to be in the mix come the end of the season.
“We just take it one day, one step at a time and keep our focus on getting better.” U
CASSANDRAKNIEVEL
2ND YEAR | GUARD
DEB HUBANDHEAD COACH
19th season as head coach
1 time cis coach of the year
3 time canada west champion
244-125
KRIS YOUNG3RD YEAR | GUARD
ALYSSABINNS
3RD YEAR | GUARD
ZANAWILLIAMS
3RD YEAR | GUARD
ERIKAVIEWEG
4TH YEAR | GUARD
LEIGHSTANSFIELD
5TH YEAR | FORWARD
ADRIENNE PARKIN
2ND YEAR | FORWARD
6' 4"
6' 2"
6' 0"
5' 10"
5' 8"
5' 6"
SUSANTHOMPSON
1ST YEAR | FORWARD
ANDREASTRUJIC
1ST YEAR | FORWARD
MAGGIE SUNDBERG1ST YEAR | GUARD
VICTORIASPANGEHL
4TH YEAR | FORWARD
CHERUBLUM
1ST YEAR | GUARD
6' 4"
6' 2"
6' 0"
5' 10"
5' 8"
5' 6"
STEPHANIEBELL
2ND YEAR | FORWARD
JAIME HILLS
1ST YEAR | GUARD
2008–20092009–2010
2010–20112011–2012
CW QF
CW FINAL 4
CW FINAL
CW CHAM
P
CIS SEMI
CIS FINAL
CIS CHAMP
2011–2012 FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE
Women’s team brings
young energy to the court
CIS
RA
NKIN
G
10PRESEASON RECORD:
4-3
by C.J. Pentland
KAI JACOBSON PHOTOS/THE UBYSSEY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | 6EDITOR ANNA ZORIA
Rhys EdwardsSenior Culture Writer
History runs deep in the UBC Players Club. Founded in 1915, it isn’t just the oldest club on campus; it’s also the oldest theatre company in the province. Current-ly, its members are getting ready to step back into history with their largest-ever mainstage produc-tion, <em>Our Country’s Good</em>.
Based on true events, <em>Our Country’s Good</em> is set shortly after the first British coloniz-ation of Australia in the 1780s. The production follows a group of deported convicts and their adjutants as they attempt to stage a play for the purpose of building morale. Amid the worst conditions imaginable, the criminals unite with their captors in a tale about the tenacity of the human spirit.
In a sense, this production within a production reflects the diversity of the UBC Players Club itself, for although the members of the club aren’t criminals and soldiers, they do come from many different backgrounds. Some are senior BFA majors, some are
freshmen and some of them aren’t even students.
“Of necessity, the [UBC] theatre department has only so [many] re-sources, so they can only use pri-marily full-time theatre students,” said director Chris Robson, a senior student in the UBC MFA directing program. “The UBC Players Club offers an alternative to people who aren’t full-time theatre students.”
One such person is Kiah Cato, a first-year Arts student who discovered the Players Club on Imagine Day. Two weeks later, she was already in rehearsals. Joining the Players Club has allowed Cato to get a taste of what it’s like to be in a professional theatrical pro-duction without fully committing to an academic program.
“I’m getting knowledge about different opportunities for me to act, as well as to see other shows, by being involved in [the Players Club], and it’s been key in these past few months for me,” said Cato. “Otherwise I’d just be stuck with homework and not with the-atre, which is what I love.”
By contrast, stage manager Jayda Novak, a fifth-year BFA pro-duction major, has gained valuable extracurricular experience with the production. “With such a big cast, a tight budget and a small amount of rehearsal time, it’s been a huge challenge, but we’ve man-aged to scramble through, and it’s come out on the other side looking very good.... It’s going to be an ex-perience I’m going to remember.
“We’ve been able to pull off magic with what we had,” said Novak.
As well as their mainstage pro-ductions, the club also conducts play readings, workshops, contests and a variety of other events, all run by and for students. Although the productions are on a smaller scale than their Theatre at UBC brethren, the cast and crew are no less committed to their art.
“We are doing our absolute best to make sure it is as professional a production as we can possibly manage,” said Robson. “And also given the fact that we have a very low budget,... it’s still going to look like a professional production to people who would be used to seeing shows in any of the major theatre companies.”
Aside from directing <em>Our Country’s Good</em>, Robson has also worked with the performers as a dialect coach to ensure that they capture the diverse accents of 19th century Britain and Australia.
“We’re definitely trying our best to keep it very accurate,” said Cato.
The cast will also perform in authentic period costumes, which have helped them to fully embrace their roles.
“It’s actually helping me to stay
in character a bit more!” said Cato, who will don a corset for her role as convict Mary Brenham.
Although the show is based on a particular moment in history, Robson emphasizes that the humanity of the play transcends time.
“I think that in a university, people are studying things like sociology or history, et cetera, and so these are all things that people may have read about.... But when you actually see these things happening on a stage in front of you, it affects people [in a way] that’s not merely intellectual; it’s a much more visceral and emotional experience.” U
Our Country’s Good runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4. Book tickets by emailing [email protected].
THEATRE >>
Convicts, colonies and corsets
Matisse EmanueleContributor
Sweat, dancing and fun. According to the artist himself,
this is what audiences can expect from a Kyprios show. On Nov. 2, the Vancouver-based MC will be opening for Down with Webster at UBC’s Pit Pub.
Kyprios is well-known in Van-couver for his hit “How the West Was One,” an ode to the Vancou-ver Canucks that he played live in Rogers Stadium at the Stanley Cup finals. He is also known for winning the Peak Performance Project, a $100,000 prize through the Peak radio station.
But after touring across North America as a member of Canadian hip-hop collective Sweatshop Union, he is now embarking on a solo career.
The artist has broken away from the traditional rap formula; he is collaborating with a live band to cre-ate his music. “Making music with a band is completely different. I’ve gotten towards making songs from the ground up,” he said.
“There is a lot more body in more traditional songwriting,” he added. “[I] still rap, but because of the band, it’s really inspirational and a great opportunity.”
Kyprios started writing rap
music and learning to freestyle at age 15. But it wasn’t until a couple of years later that he decided music was what he wanted to pursue as a career.
“[I] studied theatre and went to university for two and a half years,” he said. “I was always attracted to the arts. Music, theatre,... every-thing was trying to go towards what
I was really passionate about.” Paying attention to what’s
popular on the radio isn’t a big part of the creative process for the emerging artist. Instead, he draws from his personal struggles and achievements.
“These mistakes [I have made] have shaped who I am and these personal experiences definitely are
what I like to write about,” he said. This explains the raw power of
his lyrics. One of his more famous songs, “Hate,” tackles the subject of racism with daring, in-your-face lyrics: “I am racism / And I don’t discriminate / I hate you all equally / I hate hatred for hating me be-cause I am hate manifest.” The song won him a poetry slam in New York
City, and it’s a perfect example of how he can take away the music and impress an audience with just the power of his words.
Kyprios is set to release a new EP in November, which, like his shows, will feature a live band instead of a DJ. The MC was quick to add that this new direction is what listeners can expect from his solo career in the future.
As for what UBC can expect from his Friday night show at the Pit? Probably something that they’ve never heard before.
“It’s going to be really high energy,” he said. “It’s up-tempo; we play funk, hip-hop. We play a lot of my music that morphs from one song to another.”
The Pit will be a rather intimate venue for both Kyprios and the main act, Down with Webster; both have drawn in very large crowds before.
But Kyprios said that whether he’s playing a large or small venue, it’s all about the audience.
“You can be in a big venue with people just standing there like wallflowers or you can be in a dark, sweaty little box, hardly bigger than your practice room, and the audi-ence can go crazy and get into it.” U
<em>Tickets are available at the Outpost and northerntickets.com. The show is at 9 p.m. on Nov. 2.
A way with words: Kyprios draws inspiration for his rap lyrics from personal experiences.PHOTO COURTESY NICOLAS ALARY
RAP >>
Expect the unexpected from KypriosLocal hip-hop artist is set to open for rap-rock band Down with Webster at the Pit Pub
MAB COATES-DAVIES PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY
Set in a penal colony in Australia, Our Country’s Good, examines the humanizing qualities of theatre.
Players Club gears up for a “visceral, emotional” period piece
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | 7STUDENT VOICE. COMMUNITY REACH.
PAVLOPOULOS A VICTIM OF CONFUSING REGULATORY REGIME
Former Thunderbirds football kicker Billy Pavlopoulos has been banned from CIS sports for two years for testing positive for stanozolol, found in a work-out supplement he reportedly took during the offseason.
It’s disturbing that a steroid illegal in most sports leagues supposedly can be found in a legal supplement. It’s even more disturbing that the ingredi-ent may not be clearly labeled on the package. The workout supplement industry is high-ly unregulated. It is almost impossible to know what is really in these supplements with ingredient lists longer than a football field.
This is why the CIS recom-mends players not take any workout supplements. Their an-ti-doping rules put the respons-ibility on athletes to make sure they don’t consume any banned substances.
In a league where players can be suspended for using the wrong type of cold medicine, athletes should know better than to take workout cocktails.
Still, it’s hard not to feel that Pavlopoulos tried to do his due diligence. He didn’t do weight training during the season, and felt he had a lot of catching up to do in the offseason. The same feelings have resulted in more athletes taking illegal drugs than anyone will ever admit.
It seems like Pavlopoulos never intentionally took banned substances, and props to him on that. He felt like he had fallen behind, and tried to catch up by playing within what he thought were the rules.
Pavlopoulos had no inten-tion of breaking the rules, but he did. With the current CIS policies, products from a highly unregulated industry are not a gamble worth taking.
UBC DOING WHAT IT CAN TO SHORE UP BROKEN STUDENT LOAN SYSTEM
UBC’s plan to tweak its bursar-ies is a good step to shore up B.C.’s problematic student loans.
Currently, the university offers bursaries to students in need in Vancouver, a crazy-ex-pensive city. But those bursar-ies have relied on the student already having a loan, which passes over students with full-time jobs, cars or other assets that push them over the in-need mark. UBC’s plan would make those students eligible for bursaries.
But despite this and pro-grams like Canada Student Grants, there’s still a massive problem with student debt upon graduation and students in need are still not getting covered. In the end, people are having real trouble affording school. All those problems demand a substantial rethink from the province.
TAS STILL NURSING OLD WOUNDS
While the current TA dispute is over a four-year contract, people need to realize that this strife goes back years.
The last time TAs went on strike, in 2003, it was over the same issues. Wages had been
depressed by rising tuition, which had been uncapped by the BC Liberals. The TAs struck for weeks, but were eventually legislated back to work.
Through all this, UBC Presi-dent Martha Piper was hardly a bystander. After the strike ended, a <em>Ubyssey</em> Freedom of Information request unearthed a letter sent by Piper to the province requesting some action to prevent the school year from being “lost.”
Essentially, the UBC presi-dent asked the government to put TAs back to work.
It’s fairly easy to trace the TAs’ current troubles back to that era. This is an issue that was shoved underground and has never gotten a proper airing. We can only hope it gets one this time around, and that the UBC administration doesn’t ask for any more favours.
SANDY BRINGS OUT THE WEIRD DICHOTOMY IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Watching social media in the lead-up to Hurricane Sandy has been a profoundly weird experience.
On the one hand, you have a bunch of idiots trying to score points and RTs by making little quips about the storm (“Looks like my trip to New York is going to be delayed. It’s been reclaimed by the Atlantic!”)
But you’ve also got a direct line into the terrified thoughts of someone in NYC as they wait for the power to go out and their laptop battery to die.
And for every organization tweeting about recovery efforts and evacuation instructions, there’s another person re-posting that stupid <em> Day After Tomorrow</em> photo.
It’s a good reminder of how crisis brings out the best and worst in people, and that social media can amplify stupidity just as much as humility. U
The longer the picket, the shorter the strike
Salvation Army responds to ad decision
Right now, teaching assistants at UBC are gearing up for a strike. They have been patient in their negotiations to a fault. But now they’ve served strike notice and the picket signs are being made ready. Expect picket lines outside your classroom soon.
Teaching assistants are a key part of a great education. In a gi-gantic lecture hall, it’s more likely the TA, not the prof, that a student gets to meet on a regular basis. The TAs lead discussion groups, hold office hours and meet with students. I know: I’ve been a TA and I teach a course with four TAs. The TAs who have worked with me over the years have all been dedicated, hardworking teachers and scholars. They do this without very much pay and oftentimes do more than they are expected to.
The TA union is concerned that their action will have an impact on students, staff and faculty. I am sure it will. But every important social justice win has required some small amount of sacrifice. The TAs’ struggle is really a struggle over the type of education system we have and want. Do we want a system that only those with the money to pay can attend? Or do we want an education system that is available to those who have the capacity and desire to learn?
Most graduate students are only able to afford their graduate studies because they get a chance to have a teaching assistant-
ship. It doesn’t pay much, but it makes the difference and opens the doors to a lot of people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to take a post-graduate degree. My own graduate study was fund-ed in large part by being able to work as a teaching assistant and a research assistant during my two post-graduate degrees. Without that kind of funding, I wouldn’t have been able to con-tinue my studies. That’s the case with many of the teaching assist-ants here at UBC as well. When it comes down to it, TAs aren’t really asking for much — just the chance to have a fair contract that values the hard work that they do.
We can quietly sit by and hope that nothing happens, or we can actively support the teaching assistants in their struggle for a just settlement. Of course, UBC admins will remind us that we have a responsibility to do our normal jobs even if there is a strike. The tone of these reminders may even, at times, come across as vaguely threatening. Don’t be cowed. There is strength in numbers.
I, like many other faculty, will be honouring the TAs’ picket lines and making sure that no student, no colleague, no TA will be discriminated against because they have the courage to stand up for social justice. Remember: the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike.
—<em>Charles Menzies is an associate professor in the department of anthropology.
My name is Graham Moore and I am the public relations and development secretary for the Salvation Army in Canada and Bermuda. I am writing in response to your recent editorial, “Why we declined to run an adver-tisement from the Salvation Army: an open letter,” in order to clear up some discrepancies and paint a clearer picture of the work that the Salvation Army has done in Canada for the last 130 years.
First, the Salvation Army in Can-ada has a long history of serving those in need without discrimination. All of our social and community services are equally available, based only on need and according to the capability of the Army to serve. We uphold the dignity of all people and believe that all are equal in the eyes of God, regardless of sexual orientation. We firmly oppose the vilification and mistreatment of gays and lesbians.
Secondly, the Salvation Army is a
Christian organization, founded on Christian values and biblical stan-dards. However, this has no negative effect on our extensive social work, which is supported by public dona-tions. We are the largest non-gov-ernmental direct provider of social services in this country, serving more than 1.8 million people each year. In fact, it is our faith that motivates us to help anybody in need, regardless of who they are.
While we understand that it is ultimately up to you and your editorial board to choose which advertise-ments to run in your newspaper, I hope that you may reconsider know-ing a little more background about the Salvation Army and the work that we do. I do hope that this helps to answer your questions and address your concerns.
Graham MoorePublic Relations and Development SecretaryHeadquarters for Canada and Bermuda
PERSPECTIVESby Charles Menzies
LETTERS
ILLUSTRATION KIM PRINGLE/THE UBYSSEY
A Ubyssey Freedom of Information request unearthed a letter sent by Piper to the province asking the government to put TAs back to work.
Re: the 2003 TA strike
LAST WORDS
“Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to become a high-performance athlete while avoiding these common household performance enhancers. If caught, UBC will disavow any knowledge of your existence.”
HOGAN WONG PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2012 | 8PICTURES + WORDS ON YOUR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE
PIC OF THE WEEK
KAI JACOBSON PHOTO/THE UBYSSEY
The UBC women’s volleyball team unveils the banner signifying their fifth straight CIS national championship on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
HACKÉDEXYOUR UBC WORD OF THE WEEK
ESP, or Enrolment Service Professional, is the title for a bunch
of people UBC hired to be your human computer. They can help you with tuition, fees, finances,
registration, planning, transcripts, referrals to other services, et cetera.
In other words, they are your human SSC, and if you are in first
through third year, chances are you are lucky enough to already have
one! Take advantage now and meet [Insert First Name] ESP. They’re
super friendly — and hey, you pay for them anyway.
the g
ood
the bad
HALLOWEEN!!!
HALLOWEEN.....