PHOTO BY RYAN PARKER

CFS National Day of Action 2

Another NDP candidate pops by 2

Hockey team downs undefeated SFU! 15

THEΩMEGA

VOLUME 21ISSUE 19

FEBRUARY 8, 2012

TRU’s Independent Student Newspaper

Small or large, everyone got a chance to celebrate the Cup at the TCC p. 12

February 8, 20122

News

Feb. 1 marked the National Day of Action for the Canadian Federa-tion of Students (CFS), including the Thompson Rivers University Students’ Union (TRUSU).

The National Day of Action is a Canada-wide event that takes place annually in an effort to fight for education as a right, not a privilege.

This was the first time that TRU-SU hosted the event since 2007.

TRUSU focused its event with an educa-tional stance in mind. Rather than protest in public or in front of gov-ernment buildings, the event’s goal was to edu-cate on issues at hand for B.C. and TRU stu-dents through the use of carnival games on Old Main’s Student Street.

“TRU does receive the lowest amount of funding for post-sec-ondary education out of all research schools in B.C.,” said Jordan Harris, vice president external of TRUSU.

Apart from low funding, tuition fees in the province have also been on a steady rise.

“Tuition fees have risen 200 per cent and 12 times the rate of infla-tion over the last 10 years,” Harris said.

Olivia Skagos is the Women’s Collective representative for TRU-SU.

She was stationed at a table edu-cating students on B.C.’s needs-based grant system.

Students spun a Wheel-of-For-tune-style game that landed them on a game piece representing a spe-cific province.

If a student spun ‘Alberta,’ Ska-gos provided them with a compari-son of the needs-based grant sys-tem in Alberta versus that which exists in B.C.

“If you are a student in Alberta and you’re having a hard time pay-ing your tuition and you need fi-nancial aid, the provincial govern-ment on average will give $2,500 per student,” Skagos said.

“It’s a needs-based grant, so they don’t need to pay it back. In B.C. there is no needs-based grant system.

“If you are having trouble pay-ing your tuition, you can apply for a student loan but you have to pay the interest on that afterwards.”

B.C. is the only province in Can-ada without a needs-based grant system.

Kevin Pankewich is entering the arts program at TRU.

He volunteered at the National Day of Action because he believes that making tuition more expen-sive and education less accessible creates a barrier that prevents people from entering into post-secondary education.

“The work from students and the knowledge that they accumulate winds up going back into society

anyhow,” Pankewich said. “Why should [students] be

strapped with the cost of [school] when it’s a social benefit to ev-erybody to have these students in school?”

According to its 2011-12 bud-get, TRUSU will spend $44,800 on advocacy campaigns and gov-ernment relations this year.

The funding for the National Day of Action came out of this budget, according to Harris.

Apart from educating its stu-dents, TRUSU also lobbies both

the federal and provincial government about these issues.

“We met with the pre-mier and the minister [of education],” Harris said.

“We mentioned all of our arguments from our campaign, from tuition fees to debt to interest rates.”

Tom Friedman is an English professor and former president of the TRU Faculty Association (TRUFA).

He was on Student Street to show his sup-

port for TRUSU’s campaign. “I see that students are having

to work two jobs, maybe three jobs,” Friedman said, “They’re tired when they come to class. They can’t appreciate what cam-pus life is.”

Apart from supporting the Na-tional Day of Action on campus, TRUFA also teams with CFS in lobbying the provincial govern-ment.

Editor’s note:

Check out page five for infor-mation on how other B.C. Interi-or institutions got involved in the National Day of Action.

TRUSU Day of Action

Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

National CFS event held on Student Street

“In B.C. there is no needs-based grant

system.” —Olivia Skagos

Another NDP hopeful speaks at TRUFederal NDP candidate Dewar talks about “building up the grassroots” of the party

TRU is b e c o m -ing a hot-spot for

federal NDP candidates. The second leader-ship contender of the month came through the city and TRU at the end of January.

Paul Dewar, the MP for Ottawa Centre, is currently criss-crossing the country it an attempt to drum up support for his bid. In particular, he’s aiming to re-grow the NDP’s roots.

“My focus has been building up the grass-roots of our party. I want to be the leader of a party that has a strong grassroots pres-ence right across this country,” said Dewar in front of the International Building Jan. 31.

His discussion with media covered a vari-ety of topics including the current attitude of the Conservative party in power, building up local, community and youth support, Senate reform, pensions and education.

“I’ve put forward two ideas that I think are important. First is with the federal, in partnership with the provincial government, is to bring down tuition by an average of $700 per student.

“This is something we did in the 2005 budget when we helped to rewrite the Lib-eral budget. To pass on transfers directing them to reduce tuition.

“The second thing I’ve put forward is an innovative idea called Your Canada Year. To give every student the opportunity to volun-teer either here in Canada or a year abroad for a not-for-profit organization and to vol-unteer for a year to help work in a commu-nity...but then to be rewarded with a year’s tuition.”

While discussing education he also touched on the debt issues in B.C.

“We have students coming out of universi-ty with $30,000 on average in this province. It’s wrong.

“Most people who are in Parliament didn’t have that burden, so it’s hypocrisy, so we have to change that.”

When asked who he considered the grass-roots of the NDP Dewar listed off young people, people involved with not-for-profit organizations, people who work in everyday jobs and one group in particular.

“The one group I’d love to connect with is the 40 per cent of Canadians who didn’t vote. Those are the people who’ve been turned off politics,” said Dewar.

“People are disassociated from federal politics right now.”

While the Republican par ty in the US has had a lot of negative campaigning for its presidential candidate choice, Dewar thinks having eight federal NDP

candidates t ravelling Canada is a good thing.

The candidates are reconnecting with people in a var iety of communities in-stead of all staying in Ottawa. Dewar does concede it is leaving a bit of a vac-

uum in the House of Commons.The NDP leadership convention is

March 24 this year in Toronto with vot-ing taking place online.

The next federal election is tentative-ly scheduled for Oct. 19, 2015.

News EditorBrendan Kergin

ABOVE: Students visit TRUSU’s grants education station on Student Street during Day of Action 2012.BELOW: Omega’s news editor Brendan Kergin tests his strength at the tuition increase station on Student Street during Day of Action 2012. PHOTOS BY TAYLOR ROCCA

Cameron Boyd reads to an energetic audience at the Oct. 26 poetry slam hosted by The Art We Are on Victoria Street.

PHOTO BY DEVAN C. TASA

publishingboardEDITOR-IN-CHIEF * Mike DaviesBUSINESS MGR * Natasha SlackINDUSTRY REP * Mike YoudsFACULTY REP * Charles HaysSTUDENT REP* Sadie Cox

letterspolicyLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in the Letters & Opinion section do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

copyrightAll material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright Omega 2012.

3

THE MEGA

February 8, 2012 Volume 21, Issue 19

Published since November 27, 1991

Cariboo Student Newspaper Society(Publisher of The Omega)TRU Campus House #4

Box 3010, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5N3Phone: (250)372-1272

E-mail: editorofomega@gmail.comAd Enquiries: managerofomega@gmail.

com

(Correspondence not intended for publication should be labelled as such.)

editorialstaffEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Mike Davieseditorofomega@gmail.com/250-372-1272

BUSINESS MANAGERNatasha Slack

managerofomega@gmail.com250-372-1272

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORCory Hope

SPORTS EDITORNathan Crosby

Copy EditorLarkin Schmiedl

Photo EditorCory Hope

News EditorBrendan Kergin

Roving EditorTaylor Rocca

Promotions Coordinator/AdsalesAmrita Pannu

www.theomega.ca

omegacontributors Ryan Parker, Devan C. Tasa, Amy Berard, Matt DiMera, Kristyn Filip, Julia Panikova, Michael Potestio

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19

Editorial

With so much going on around campus and around Kamloops right now, it’s hard to decide what to talk about this week.

I could talk about the football game that just took place, I sup-pose.

I could discuss how the New York Giants must have come up with a whole lot of extra funds to be able to afford to buy the services of the New England Pa-triots receivers — who dropped more Tom Brady passes than they have in the past two years all on one afternoon (or so it seemed).

No, that will just get me riled up. I hate the Giants. I’m not huge on the Patriots, but I can’t stand the Giants. Let’s talk about something else.

I could talk about the newspa-per!

It consumes most of my time anyway, so I’d like to think I’m somewhat of an expert on this particular subject.

But you’re about to read it — and likely have already read some of it since you’re on page three — so you’ll f ind out about

the newspaper soon enough.I could talk about Internation-

al Days!But I can’t really even do that,

because even by the time you’re reading this (if you get to it the day it hits the stands) Interna-tional Days will only be half over. And I can’t even talk about that half, because newspapers take time to produce, so by the time I need to have the issue at the printer, we’ll only have had the opening day of the event.

It’s not going to stop me from telling you that you should get to as many sessions and activities as you can, though. But I did that last week, too.

Hmmm.I could talk about politics or

theology or capitalism versus socialism!

But that will just make some of you mad, no matter which way I lean on those subjects, and since I didn’t want to piss myself off by talking about the Super-bowl, what right do I have to do it to you?

Puppies.I’m going to talk about pup-

pies, because you can’t be upset when you think about puppies.

Try it.Picture a playful little fur

ball of a puppy, brand new and exploring the world, bouncing around and suddenly getting confused — and a little fright-ened — by a ladybug or butter-f ly.

Now pick him up and put him against your chest so you can feel his heart just thumping away and he nuzzles up to your neck and licks your face.

Yeah.Puppies.

editorofomega@gmail.com

What to talk about?

Mike Davies Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note

Applications open for the Bachelor of Education Secondary12-Month Option

French, Sciences, Business Ed., TESL, Home Economics, Theatre, Music, P.E., English, History, Geography,

Modern Languages, Math, Applied Tech

Middle Years 12-Month Option English, Social Studies, PE, Sciences

Elementary 12-Month Option

www.teach.educ.ubc.ca

Thinking of Teaching?

Study in Vancouver!

As a community, there are still is-sues on our campus left hidden and rarely discussed.

Youth homelessness in Kamloops is a current reality, but without lo-cal research for evidence it is dif-ficult to end the problem. Students on our campus are struggling to find the necessary supports they need to maintain housing, independence and financial stability.

Homelessness does not have a simple definition, as people can fall into one of three different catego-ries.

Absolute homelessness includes the visibly homeless who we see on our streets downtown and are forced to sleep in spaces unintended for liv-ing.

The at-risk homeless are those who may lose their homes because they reside in inadequate housing or have insecure income.

The hidden homeless are people who live in temporary accommoda-tions like motels or stay with family and friends. The hidden homeless can be known as “couch surfers” and this is usually the category most homeless students identify with.

The Kamloops Homelessness Ac-tion Plan (HAP) was developed in 2010 with the goal of ending home-lessness in Kamloops in five years.

It is a bold plan, but with a realis-tic approach based on the ‘housing first’ strategy that determines per-manent housing as the top priority.

There are only a few major cities in Canada that have taken on this kind of challenge with a formalized plan and community support.

Calgary is the first city to create a plan for the sole purpose of end-ing youth homelessness with its own unique goals and objectives tailored to the needs of youth.

It is important to recognize that overcoming youth homelessness in Kamloops will act as a major step in tackling the larger issue.

Student housing is rare in Kam-loops and often unaffordable with a low availability rate.

As a result, many TRU students reside in basement suites and other affordable rental units, taking away

this valuable space from the usual young singles or couples looking for housing.

It has become increasingly ap-parent that while Calgary and some B.C. cities are gathering data on this issue, there is a strong need for local research to be conducted here. Kam-loops is a hub city, a university city, and as such we present very differ-ent needs.

Last week, United Way and the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) announced a new partnership to further explore com-munity-based research.

One of the first projects to de-velop is a partnership between TRU, United Way, and the Kamloops Homelessness Action Plan to gather Kamloops-specific information on youth homelessness.

This research will help our com-munity address the root causes of youth homelessness and hopefully bring a network of business, non-profit and government together to create change. Youth living in poverty deserve the possibility of a better life too. They deserve the same quality lifestyle we all hope to achieve when we reach our convoca-tion day here.

Amy Berard is a TRU business student and the campus liaison for United Way. To get connected with the community, email her at youth@unitedwaytnc.ca.

Know Your Community

Amy Berard

Homeless in Kamloops more numerous than you may think

I’ve seen the trend of apathy on campus for a while now.

I was going to write about it this week, but thought you probably wouldn’t read it anyway.

Apathy. Yeah, Kergin gets it

Kergin’s Take

So B.C. Transit offers Kamloops a whack of more “service hours” to integrate into their bus system.

At an approximate cost to taxpay-ers of an additional two million dol-lars, according to city development and engineering services director David Trawin, there will be more busses more often, one would hope.

I pay my taxes, and I ride the bus, so I’m okay with you putting my tax-es toward improving the bus service. I really am.

But is it too much to ask that I be treated like a human when I use the service?

A couple of weeks ago I watched a bus driver get frustrated that she had to get up to secure a kid in a wheelchair — presumably because that would delay her route — and then get angry at the teenager for having a wheelchair that is difficult to secure.

But at least she waited until he was secure before tearing off down the road (I suppose she had to, since she couldn’t go back to her comfy air-ride seat until he was tethered). I’m not afforded the same “luxury” when it’s just me with my toddler in a stroller.

Hang on, folks. We’re about to be paying more for the increased op-portunities to be treated like shit.

Kamloops to improve transit “service”

Editor-in-ChiefMike Davies

February 8, 20124

News

Feb. 9 is International Sweater Day and as a member

of the TRU Community you are encouraged

to wear a sweater and see how your action

reduces Green House Gas Emissions.

We’re also turning down the thermostats

that day by 3 degrees in all buildings. On Feb. 9,

go to www.tru.ca/sustain to access the

TRU energy dashboard and see how

dressing warmer can help save the planet.

Save the planet 1 sweater at a time

www.tru.ca/sustain

CUEF exists and you’re encouraged to use itFund provides a large variety of services already, but most don’t know how they can take advantage

Peter Hilton, vice provost of TRU and chair of the CUEF is hoping students will start look-ing at what the CUEF actually is.

CUEF stands for Compre-hensive University Endow-ment Fund. Funded by students through ancillary fees paid with tuition, it collects about $1 mil-lion a year for a variety of proj-ects across campus.

It was set up when TRU made the jump a few years ago from college to full university to help create more of a university cul-ture on campus.

Currently it funds a wide va-riety of services, activities and events on campus including the President’s Lecture Series, the Centre for Teaching and Learn-ing (which assists professors in

improving their teaching), dis-ability services, Supplemental Learning (a program for peer-led study sessions), orientation, the Elder in the House, aborigi-nal initiatives in Kamloops and Williams Lake, CIS Athletics, recreation, TRU Survivors (an annual student c o m p e t i t i o n ) , TRU Wolfpack Baseball and en-trance scholar-ships.

Many of these services rely on CUEF to exist as it is often a ma-jor source or the only source of funding for them.

The fund also accepts stu-dent’s applications for a variety of projects and events, such as attending a conference or hold-

ing an open event on campus. Some research grants are also awarded each year.

While the fund is often mostly used up each year, Hilton would

like students to be more aware of it and the opportunities it pro-vides.

“It’s always good for students to know that it’s there. And I

think we f ight all the time with communications, getting the fund out,” he said.

CUEF is run by a steering committee which recommends

to the TRU Board of Governors how the money is spent.

Hilton is a mem-ber of the commit-tee, but as CUEF’s chair, doesn’t vote.

The votes go to eight people, made up of four stu-dents, two faculty and two admin-istrators. TRUSU VP External Jor-dan Harris sits on the committee.

While he sees a lot of posit ives with the fund, as a member of the union he also wants to make sure money f rom the students is going back to the students.

“The union is always watching and mandating,” said Harris.

“We want to make sure that it goes directly to student-run events and grants.”

Harris does consider the fee high and thinks while the grants are a good utilization of the money, some of the services need more base funding from the school.

“We want to have a good solid base for student services [from] TRU [administration],” he said.

“I think there should be more base funding for student servic-es.”

Students will have an oppor-tunity to voice their opinion on the CUEF soon as the committee is working on a survey for stu-dents.

At press time it was uncertain whether that survey will come together this spring or next Sep-tember, the two periods Hilton f igured were most likely.

News EditorBrendan Kergin

“We want to make sure that it goes directly to

student-run events and grants.”

—Jordan Harris

More lawsuits surround Kwantlen Student AssociationImpeached director of finance sues interim KSA board

SURREY, B.C. (CUP) — Recently impeached Kwantlen Student Associa-tion (KSA) executive Balninna “Nina” Sandhu is attempting to undo the re-sults of the Nov. 30 special general meeting (SGM) where she and 12 other directors were kicked out of office.

Sandhu, the KSA’s former director of finance, and student Gary Singh Dhaliwal filed a petition Jan. 10 in B.C. Supreme Court claiming that the SGM was invalid and seeking a court order to reinstate the impeached directors and to place 14 other current and for-mer students and staff members back in good standing as KSA members.

As members in bad standing, the

26 are currently not allowed to run for office in the KSA or vote in KSA elec-tions.

According to the petition filed with the court, Gary Dhaliwal intends to run for office in the next KSA elec-tion.

At that Nov. 30 meeting, more than 350 students voted unanimously to remove Sandhu, Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi, Nipun Pandey, Par-minder “Bobby” Padda, Jaspinder Ghuman, Tarun Takhar, Shivinder Grewal, Money Dhaliwal, Gaven Pan-gly, Simmy Grewal, Kamalpreet Dha and Jagraj Hayre from their elected KSA positions.

Sandhu and Dhaliwal have also asked the court to set aside the new bylaws that were passed at the meet-ing and to prevent the current KSA

board from holding new elections un-til the court case has been resolved.

The day after the SGM, Sandhu accused the meeting’s organizers of not allowing her and the other ousted board members to speak in their own defense.

“We were barred,” she explained to The Runner Dec. 1. “Ask the peti-tioners of that meeting why we were barred from the meeting. I’m a stu-dent. I’m an elected official. I was barred from the meeting.

“Someone told me I wasn’t allowed in. He said, ‘You’re not allowed to get in.’ They wouldn’t let us register,” she said. “If I was let into the goddamn meeting, I could have said my state-ment.”

According to the court petition filed by Sandhu and Dhaliwal, none of the

impeached board members attempted to sign in.

However, the impeached direc-tor of operations, Nipun Pandey, told The Runner Dec. 1 that he was able to register for the meeting, but claimed that he had been refused entry.

Sandhu, Pandey and former direc-tor of external affairs Bobby Padda all said at the time that their support-ers had been too intimidated to at-tend the meeting.

The court petition also specifi-cally mentions that all of the im-peached board members and all of the students placed in bad standing are South Asian.

None of the allegations made by Dhaliwal and Sandhu have been proven in court.

The court dismissed an application Jan. 13 to expedite the case.

In a second application, heard Jan. 17, Sandhu and Dhaliwal asked for a court order to prevent the new KSA board from bargaining with their staff’s union, from signing or changing any contracts, and from calling any elections until the case had been resolved by the court.

That application was withdrawn when the KSA’s legal counsel then agreed that the new board would not take any “extraordinary actions — out of the ordinary course of business until the application or interim relief is heard on a preemptory basis.”

Sandhu did not respond to an email request for an interview before dead-line.

The new KSA board has not yet filed their statement of defense.

The Runner (Kwantlen)Matt DiMera

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 5

The TRUSU and student coun-cil will be without a leader for a couple months as President Abdal-lah El Chami has resigned his po-sition.

He made the decision over win-ter break and recently sent a letter to the TRUSU to step down offi-cially. He made the decision due mostly to personal obligations and also new opportunities away from Kamloops.

“I just had some per-sonal obli-gations and after I gradu-ated I kinda had to decide whether or not I was go-ing to go back to Vancouver or stay in Ka-mloops,” said El Chami.

He graduat-ed last semes-ter from TRU with a BBA concentrating in marketing with a minor in finance.

“Me gradu-ating wasn’t the reason I left. Origi-nally I was planning to stay for the whole term,” he said.

“I made the decision very re-cently. It got to a point where it was last minute and I had to decide whether or not I was going to stay.”

As part of the TRUSU executive he worked closely with the vice president external, VP internal, VP finance and the executive di-rector while also chairing student council meetings. He’s confident that the team he was working with will be able to continue solidly without him.

“Obviously when you’re part of team you don’t want to put your burden onto the others,” he said.

“There [are] a lot of professional people now working at the student union that would be able to handle

anything that comes their way. “If they need any help from me

I can help any way I can.”Dustin McIntyre, TRUSU VP

internal, is one of the executive members helping fill the duties El Chami had been performing, in-cluding chairing student council meetings.

“It was unfortunate [to see him go].

We wanted to continue working with him; we were proud of the work we had done together,” said McIntyre.

Before be-coming presi-dent last May, El Chami had held the posi-tion of VP in-ternal.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved with the governing of things that go on around you. At TRU, it’s such a young school, having a stu-dent voice is really, really important be-cause you’re helping build the foundation for the univer-sity,” said El Chami.

“So being part of stu-dent politics you know that you’re

able to get your voice and your peers’ voices out there to make sure that decisions being made are in the best interest of the stu-dents.

“I feel that I did contribute a lot and helped push it in the right direction, but there’s still a lot more work to do.”

The TRUSU will continue without a president for the rest of the term due to how the election procedures work for the union.

According to McIntyre it would not be cost effective for there to be a by-election. The soonest it could happen would be only a couple of weeks before the gen-eral election, so the TRUSU will hold all elections together.

Student Union president resignsNews EditorBrendan Kergin

News

“We wanted to continue

working with him; we were proud of the

work we had done together.”

—Dustin McIntyre

Student organizations at the three universities located in the interior of B.C. took different ap-proaches to promote awareness of post-secondary issues during the National Day of Action on Feb. 1.

The University of B.C. Stu-dents’ Union Okanagan (UBC-SUO) held an off-campus rally as well as a festival with guest speakers on campus.

The Northern Undergradu-ate Student Society (NUGSS) at the University of Northern B.C. didn’t participate, instead choosing to organize a different campaign. TRUSU focused on educating students about post-secondary issues.

The UBCSUO’s day of action began with a rally along Kelow-na’s main highway.

Students then returned to cam-pus around noon for a free lunch. They then participated in a festi-val and listened to guest speak-ers.

“We had Adrian Dix, leader of the official opposition speak,” said Kirk Chavarie, UBCSUO executive chair, “We had a pro-fessor speak. We also had our student [representatives] speak

about their personal experiences and how they have spoken with students on these issues.”

Also on the speaker’s list was Michelle Mungall, the B.C. NDP critic for advanced education.

NUGSS choose to not partici-pate in the National Day of Ac-tion.

“Because we aren’t members of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), we didn’t par-ticipate formally,” said Nadia Nowak, NUGSS president.

NUGSS had recently joined a different post-secondary lobby group called Where’s the Fund-ing?! (WTF), which includes the student unions at the University of B.C., Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria.

“We didn’t want anybody to be confused about what our mes-sages and campaign goals were,” Nowak said.

“We didn’t want the media to think that we were part of the CFS when we were part of WTF.”

Novak says that NUGSS is do-ing a Valentine’s Day campaign in which students send Valen-tine’s cards that ask Premier Christy Clark to commit to more funding of post-secondary edu-cation. NUGSS will also partici-pate in a lobby week in March.

TRUSU focused their day of action on informing students

about post-secondary education issues. They did that by running a series of carnival games that each highlighted a particular is-sue.

“We went with that route for the day of action because we think the best thing right now is to educate the members about post-secondary education,” said TRUSU Vice-President External Jordan Harris.

“When change is to come, we need to have community support. We think that educating the com-munity is the best way to build support for the campaigns.”

All three student unions felt that their approach to the day of action was effective.

“We have politicians speaking more on the issue and we’ve been able to engage in dialogue with students to talk about these types of initiatives,” Chavarie said.

“We haven’t really done advo-cacy work in the past for student funding, so [WTF] is a really good first step for us,” Nowak said.

“I think it’s a good way of edu-cating and building support,” Harris said.

“If everyone from across the province is informing their mem-bers and creating support for an affordable system of education, I truly think it’s effective.”

Different student unions, different Day of ActionOmega ContributorDevan C. Tasa

Student street was busier than normal on Feb. 1 as the Canadian Federation of Students’ National Day of Action activites took place all afternoon.

PHOTO BY TAYLOR ROCCA

February 8, 20126

News

In case you missed it, Kergin’s got you covered: Things you probably didn’t see happening around you last week

Global• Life on a dwarf star?

GJ 667C. That string of letters and numbers

is actually the name of an M-class dwarf star with another planet which may support life outside our solar system.

This would be the fourth such possibility found in about a year by a variety of space agencies around the world.

At about 22 light years away, this Super-Earth is orbiting a much smaller star, though it’s much closer to it. Four-and-a-half times the size of Earth with a rocky surface, this looks to be another chance for liquid water to exist on the surface of the planet, which is considered vital to life.

What makes this planet a little more interesting is the star it orbits. As a much smaller star than our Sun, it was thought this was an unlikely place to find the right type of planet, as they would have to be close for energy to make its way across the void and there are fewer minerals in it.

While there may still be lethal amounts of radiation from the star, it has scientists interested as M-class dwarf stars are the most common star around. If this one has potential, there are many more possibilities.

Read more at news.nationalpost.com.

• South Sudan

South Sudan, the world’s new-est country, is going through some growing pains.

A planned meeting to reduce inter-ethnic issues ended in blood-shed, with trucks full of gunmen reportedly rolled in as the meeting degenerated.

It is reported that 37 people died in a gun battle that included differ-ent police forces, soldiers and secu-rity guards.

Like Libya, South Sudan is find-ing it difficult to take many of the participants of a rebel movement and turn them into government troops with a proper control and command structure.

Read more at bbc.co.uk/news.

National• Oilsands

With Canada regularly being criti-cized for the oilsands in Alberta, the federal and Albertan provincial gov-ernments are joining forces to work on a better monitoring system of the en-vironments around and affected by the energy-rich area.

Tests will be made public, though there won’t be an independent commis-sion for oversight. While many critics and environmentalists believe the new plan is a positive step, there is great con-cern about the lack of independent over-sight to improve accountability. They say federal and Albertan governments have lost trust over the oilsands.

Read more at cbc.ca.

• New Canadians

Citizenship and Immigration Canada is in some hot water for set-ting up a photo shoot for the Sun News Network in the fall. The point of criticism is the use of bureaucrats

as “new” Canadians for an event set up for the cameras.

It turns out they were brought in last minute to fill out a rather poor showing for the ceremony. Only three of the 10 people shown were actually new, the rest were em-ployees of Citizenship and Immi-gration Canada. While the event was held at the request of Immi-gration Minister Jason Kenney’s office’s request, it looks like the poorly thought out decision was made by bureaucrats from Citizen and Immigration Canada who just grabbed colleagues for the show.

Read more at thechroniclehe-rald.ca.

Provincial• Gangster guilty

Normally people are a fan of ba-con. However, the courts last week agreed a Bacon was guilty.

This time it was a brother, one of the three believed to be heavily involved with drug trafficking in Vancouver.

Undercover police linked him with a cocaine deal.

One of his other brothers is charged in a targeted hit in Sur-rey while another was killed in Kelowna in what police believe was a targeted hit.

Read more at cbc.ca.

• Dix on top

Adrian Dix, leader of the pro-vincial NDP, is currently outpac-ing Premier Christy Clark in polls.

When British Columbians were asked who would be better suited for the job as premier, Dix bested Clark for the first time since they became leaders of their respective parties.

Dix did this despite a negative ad campaign aimed at him.

Clark has been steadily declin-ing since she was sworn in, while the B.C. Conservatives have seen a rise in three straight polls, show-ing they may be coming back into relevance.

Read more at vancouversun.com.

Local• Trees need planting

Students are being courted by the forestry industry for a classic student job. The difference now is that there are fewer youth going for the basic manual labour that is tree planting. The indus-try is aiming to put 40 million trees in the ground, but looking at a labour shortage. Some are suggesting this is due to the high demand for young la-bour in the Albertan oilfields.

Read more at kamloopsnews.ca.

• Sweater Day

Campus will be a couple degrees colder on Feb. 9. We can be certain of this as all the buildings will be dropped down three degrees as part of Sweater Day. The World Wildlife Foundation created the event to bring attention to energy conservation, especially around heating concerns. By dressing a little warmer a lot of energy can be saved by not warming unnecessarily.

Read more at sweaterday.ca.

News EditorBrendan Kergin

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The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 7

Life & Community

OTTAWA (CUP) — The light at the end of the tunnel appears for many undergraduate students in their fourth year of study.

As the month of April approaches, graduating students dream of donning gowns and tossing caps in the air in before heading off into the proverbial “real world.” For others, receiving an undergraduate degree is just the tip of the iceberg. How do professors and students — those working toward ob-taining a graduate degree and those in the midst of the application process — perceive the jump to grad school?

Make up your mind

While there is no universally ac-cepted “right” time to start thinking about pursuing a graduate degree, many professors suggest students be-gin considering their options in their third year of undergraduate study.

Professors Victoria Burke of the University of Ottawa English department and Magdi Mohareb of the faculty of en-gineering both men-tioned the ability to apply for scholarships in a timely manner as a reason why students should think about graduate studies be-fore their fourth year.

“I think it’s ideal to have made a decision by the end of your third year because there are external grants you can ap-ply to in the fall,” said Burke, noting that the Ontario Graduate Studies Fellowships and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada fellowship are due by early October.

“It is best for a student to consider graduate studies one year before graduation, particularly if he or she is seeking financial support,” said Mo-hareb. “You can start the process later on, but your chances of getting finan-cial assistance will [decrease].”

U of O history student Laura Gurn-ham had been thinking about grad school since she began university, but found her third- and fourth-year courses gave her the final push neces-sary to make up her mind about pursu-ing a master’s degree.

“By exploring school through more challenging courses in third and fourth year, my determination [to go to grad school] has become a bit more solid,” she said. “I feel I can handle the work and I have started to narrow down specifically what type of pro-gram I want to apply to.”

Students in their fourth year of university who are just beginning to consider grad school need not panic. Krissy Coulas, who is working to-ward a master’s of library science degree at University College Dublin, didn’t know what she wanted to do until her fourth year of study at the U of O.

“It wasn’t until the summer before fourth year that I decided [a master’s] was something I wanted to do,” she said in an email. “Even then, I had to decide if I wanted to pursue a master’s in English, which was my undergrad major, or a master’s of library science. I ended up choosing a master’s of li-brary science after getting some work experience in the Morisset Library.

The golden ticket: The reference letter

Perhaps the thing students worry about most when applying to graduate school is getting glowing recommendation letters from professors.

U of O English professor Thomas Al-len reminded students that professors are accustomed to requests for reference let-ters.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to be shy about [approaching a professor for a letter of recommendation] because it’s part of our jobs,” he said. “We all write plenty of letters every year, so you’re not the only person who has asked us to do so.”

Nathan Young, a U of O sociology pro-fessor, encouraged students to research their professors before approaching them.

“Profs who are full time are the ones who expect to write letters,” he said. “Part-time profs often will hesitate [to write letters] because they know they don’t carry as much weight. You should also choose a prof who is recognized by other universities.”

Burke recommended potential appli-

cants ask for reference letters from profes-sors whose classes they excelled in.

“The first thing is to approach profes-sors who gave you the best marks,” she said. “Even if you’re not entirely sure the professor remembers you, as long as you have the written material you produced for that professor, he or she will be able to look at your work and speak in really con-crete terms about what your skills are.”

Gurnham expressed concern that large class sizes may have hindered her ability to get to know professors on a more per-sonal level, which is often an important factor in an instructor’s decision to write a recommendation.

“I know professors are really open and friendly, but I have a hard time getting over that student-professor relationship enough to make a connection to a profes-sor in a large classroom,” she said.

“I obviously have talked to some, but I am worried they don’t know me well enough to provide a letter of recommen-dation.”

Fortunately for nervous students ev-erywhere, Madeleine Sourisseau, a U of O student working toward her master’s in public and international affairs, said get-ting reference letters was not as scary or tough as she anticipated it would be.

“It wasn’t difficult to get the letters be-cause the professors I approached were more than glad to write them for me,” said Sourisseau.

What was the most trying part? “Work-ing up the nerve to ask them!” she said.

In order to give the professors a broad view of her as a student, Sourisseau was sure to provide them with her statement of interest, an unofficial transcript of her grades and an academic resumé.

One of Sourisseau’s professors even let her help with the letter-writing process.

“He gave me a reference letter tem-plate,” she said. “I could tell him what I thought were my strengths so that he could write me an even better reference letter.”

Applying and the aftermath

After obtaining reference letters, the grad school applicant must move on to the next step of the process: Preparing all necessary documents and actually apply-ing to his or her program of choice.

Admission processes differ according to school and faculty, but both Sourisseau and Coulas emphasized the importance of asking for help when necessary.

“The process of applying was a bit daunting, but it just comes down to reading the requirements for the schools you’re interested in, following directions, and calling or emailing their application representative if you need help,” said Coulas.

Sourisseau turned to her professors for guidance.

“The application process was straight-forward and pretty easy once I’d made the decision to do it,” she said. “I asked the professors who had agreed to be my references for tips on how to write a state-ment of intent.”

At the U of O, the general requirements for master’s of science students are a B

average in an honours bachelor degree and good letters of reference.

“If the student meets [the faculty’s] require-ments, his or her file is circulated in the depart-ment,” said Mohareb, who is the graduate pro-gram coordinator of the Ottawa-Carleton Insti-tute for Civil Engineer-ing. “Files for master’s students, if admissible,

are circulated among professors the candi-date identified as possible supervisors for his or her thesis. If the professors are pre-pared to accept the candidate as a student, he or she is admitted in the program.”

Although the faculties of arts and sci-ences are very different, their admission processes are similar.

“[In the English department] the mem-bers of the graduate committee — who are usually four or five professors from the department — read all the files and make comments about them,” said Al-len. “Some applicants are obvious ‘yes’es, while some are ambiguous, and there are obvious ‘no’s, unfortu-nately. For the ones who are ambiguous, there will be a meeting to dis-cuss whether or not to admit them.”

The application pro-cess is not easy, but for some students, it’s a small difficulty that pales in comparison to the payoff of having a master’s degree.

“The application process is more inten-sive than for an undergrad degree, but if you’re committed to the program you’re applying for, it isn’t difficult,” said Souris-seau.

Concerns, worries, and self-doubt

After making the difficult decision to actually apply to grad school, some stu-dents report feelings of self-doubt begin to surface. They become uncertain they “have what it takes” to succeed in a mas-ter’s program, despite having achieved high grades throughout their undergrad.

Gurnham, who will be applying to graduate school in the near future, ad-mitted to feeling nervous about starting a master’s degree.

“I am concerned that I am not smart enough,” she said. “I get good grades, but

I’m still worried that the level of original thought required from grad students is a bit beyond me still.”

Coulas had similar concerns.“I was terrified that grad school was

only for smart people, and though I’ve always gotten good grades, I’ve never considered myself smart enough for that sort of thing,” she said.

Studying at a master’s level is certainly more demanding than the undergraduate level, but Coulas mentioned that students shouldn’t feel graduate school is only for the elite.

“What you have to remember is that while grad school is challenging, it’s not reserved for the kids that get 90 per cent and upwards,” she said. “It’s just another level of education, like university was af-ter high school.”

Professors tell all

How can a student guarantee his or her application will dazzle the gradu-ate school committee? While there is no magic formula for success, professors are more than willing to offer general advice to any student applying to grad school.

Mohareb believes the biggest mistake applicants make is “not talking to poten-tial supervisors before submitting their application.”

“Sometimes professors cannot accept students because students have specified they need funding while the university is unable to provide it,” he said.

“In other cases, the department may already have a large number of students to supervise or may find your interests do not match their present research activi-ties.”

In regards to statements of interest or research plans, which many programs require applicants to submit, both Burke and Young urged students to avoid in-

cluding generic declarations of passion for their chosen field.

“When students are too general — for example, expressing a general love of lit-erature — it’s just not specific enough,” said Burke. “If there’s a little too much non-specific enthusiasm, that’s harder to evaluate. Maybe there’s a fantastic stu-dent in there, but we want to have their skills demonstrated to us.”

“Sometimes the research plan is writ-ten like a life story and that’s a thing to avoid,” said Young. “It ought to be about what you intend to do as opposed to how you got here. A research plan should not be about why you’re interested in sociol-ogy — we assume you’re here because you want to be here. It should be about what you plan to do in the two years.”

Not only should statements of interest and research plans be specific, but they

should also demonstrate the applicants’ ability to write coherently.

“[Some submissions] are not very well written and that tends to disqualify peo-ple,” said Allen. “People can really knock themselves out by being a bit sloppy with their statements of purpose.”

Is it worth it?

Given the somewhat dismal state of the current job market, many students decide to apply for graduate school sim-ply to avoid facing the real world.

Others consider this to be a mistake, believing a master’s degree to be unnec-essary and little more than another mas-sive debt to pay off in the future.

Allen noted students with high grade point averages could have their master’s degrees funded.

“[The English department’s] course work program here is only one year long and if you have an 8.0 grade point aver-age, you’ll be funded. Given what the job market is like, why not get an MA?” he said.

Although Allen believes a master’s in English will “pay off down the road,” he cautions students against “getting a [mas-ter’s degree] just because they think, ‘Oh, I need to beef up my resumé.’”

“Nobody’s going to hire you for a spe-cific job just because you have an MA in English,” he said.

“But on the other hand, if you’re going into teaching or if you’re applying to law school later, it looks good. The intellectual challenge is good.”

Burke mentioned the transferability of skills acquired at the master’s level as a valid reason why a student might want to pursue grad work.

“I often hear [graduate] students say, ‘This year has blown my mind. This is difficult and exciting and I understand

how to work at a high level now,’” she said.

“We think of that as concretely useful for fu-ture work.

“We really think that the in-depth train-ing you get from doing grad-level courses gives you additional skills that are transferable to a countless number of dif-ferent jobs.”

Young believes a master’s of social sci-ence degree to be a “practical thing.”

“The majority of our graduates go into the workforce using their degrees,” he said.

“A master’s degree can also clearly be a stepping stone for getting a PhD or for personal fulfilment, but it does carry a lot of weight in the job market.

“We track our grads pretty carefully.”Perhaps Sourisseau summarizes the

validity of grad school most succinctly.“Yes, it’s a lot of work. Yes, it’s chal-

lenging. “But it’s also rewarding, interesting,

and filled with great professors and new friends,” she said.

“If you like what you’re doing — if you feel as though you’re benefiting from it personally, academically, professionally — then it’s worth it.”

The grad school journey

The Fulcrum (U of Ottawa)Kristyn Filip

Professors and students offer insight into taking the big jump at the end of your degree

“It is best for a student to con-

sider graduate studies one year

before graduation. ” —Magdi Mohareb

IMAGE BY JULIA PANKOVA/THE FULCRUM

“It ought to be about what you intend to do as opposed

to how you got here.” —Nathan Young

February 8, 20128

International Days

MC115782

For more information contact:Krista Bergmann, Events Coordinator 250.852.6449 or email: internationaldays@tru.ca

February 6–10, 2012

www.tru.ca/internationaldays

facebook.com/international.days.2012

International Showcase12pm–7pm, TRU Gymnasium

This free International Showcase event has become a favourite for many in the TRU and Kamloops communities. As TRU continues to grow and become a globally minded campus, so has the popularity of this celebrated event!

Schedule:

12pm–6pm Submit entry for Passport to International Days Contest

12pm–7pm International Food Fair

12pm–7pm International Exhibits

12:30pm–1pm Showcase Opening Ceremony

1pm–4pm Cultural Performances

3pm–4pm International Fashion Show

5pm–7pm Cultural Performances

6:45pm Passport to International Days Prize Winner Announced

Note: Time subject to change

Gwynne Dyer (top left), award winning freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs gave the keynote speech after the opening ceremonies of TRU International Days. The celebration of our multiculturalism and diversity runs all week and culminates with an extravaganza in the old gymnasium on Friday afternoon (Feb. 10). Don’t miss out on the great events and speakers.

www.tru.ca/internationaldays for schedules and more information. —PHOTOS BY MICHAEL POTESTIO

Life & Community

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 9

Community CalendarWednesday, Feb. 8

• TRU Lecture SeriesArend Hardorff speaks on the

importance of events in regards to city marketing and regional

development.Mountain Room, CAC

2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 9• Yaniv Belhassen speaks on drug abuse amongst tourism workers.

IB 101510:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

• Kamloops Toastmasters open house

public speaking tips and confidence to be gained!

Desert Gardens, 540 Seymour St.7 to 9 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 10• Kamloops Symphony presents

Romancing the TenorSagebrush Theatre downtown

7:30 p.m.

• The New Cities with guests Take me to the Pilot

at Cactus JacksBands start at 10 p.m.

$10 cover

Tuesday, Feb. 14- DODGEBALL!

South Sahali Elementary(Up across from 7-11 on Summit

Dr.)Contact Garrett Horvath

garrett.horvath@gmail.comfor details

Know of upcoming events the student body should be aware of?

Get them in the calendar for free!Contact:

editorofomega@gmail.com

Life & Community

Kamloops

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February 8, 201210

Life & Community

EUReKA! Science Program

SUMMER JOB POSTINGS EUReKA! is a student-run, non-profit organization that strives to increase interest in and excitement towards science in youth. We are looking for enthusiastic individuals to become the next EUReKA! instructors. Responsibilities include: developing and delivering science workshops (May- June) and summer day camps (July-August). Please visit www.tru.ca/eureka/staff for information.

Positions Available (#): Assistant Director (1), 4-Month Instructor (6), 3-Month Instructor (2), and 2-Month Instructor (4).

Requirements: TRU student with a science/computer background and/or experience working with children.

Submit your resume, cover letter, and a write-up of a hands-on science project for elementary students in any science discipline by February 17th, 2012 electronically to eureka@tru.ca

You might have noticed the signs for VASA (Visual Arts Students Association) fundrais-ers going on throughout the year.

The art auction held in the gal-lery on campus and a few nights at Heroes were done to help raise money for the visual arts stu-dents.

But what are they using the money for?

According to Stephanie Ste-venson-Patsula, co-president of VASA at TRU, “Us folks at VASA... [h]ave been doing our darndest to ensure that a few great trips and events will be open for the creative creatures of Kamloops, the most imme-diate being the Seattle trip that will be taking place February 17 to the 20.”

The Seattle f ield trip is an op-portunity for students from the visual arts program to visit art galleries in Seattle and take in whatever art shows are going on in the area.

“Although it’s a bit of short no-tice, all f ine art students who are interested in hearing about this trip should come to the meeting this Wednesday the 8 at 12:30 in the lighting room.” Stevenson-Patsula said.

“We [VASA] have donated funding for this trip, so there may be little to no cost for stu-dents depending on participa-tion.”

In March, the Southern Graph-ic Conference is being held in New Orleans.

“The trip has already been

f illed with student and staff par-ticipants,” Stevenson-Patsula told us.

“However, we will be having a bake sale to raise a bit of extra money for the trip.

“If anyone is interested in getting involved and channel-ing their inner Martha Stewart, VASA will be looking for vol-unteers and baked goods dona-tions.”

Anyone inter-ested in help-ing out can at-tend the weekly VASA meeting at 12:30 p.m. in the lighting stu-dio.

The fund-raising done by VASA members helps to pay for these kinds of trips, which en-hance student’s educational ex-perience.

Although en-rollment in a vi-sual arts course t e c h n i c a l l y makes a student a member of VASA, not all of the members take advantage of what is of-fered to them.

S t e v e n s o n -Patsula is quite happy with the numbers VASA is getting so far, although she would like to see

the numbers improve. “This year VASA has very

strong regularly attending num-bers of visual arts students, and as cheese-ball as this may sound it has been an excellent way to network and meet fellow art makers and shakers.

“As co-president of VASA, I feel that having an increased number of f irst and second year students attending meetings

would be the best thing for us, as most of us [active members] will be graduating or in our third year this fall.

“I am hoping to see some fresh meat in these meetings to carry this community onward,” she said.

“If you have not shuff led down to a meeting and met the regularly attending VASA folks then I suggest you do.

“It’s just a bunch of people who love art, and want to go places to see it.

“We want this student associa-tion to work for you guys, so that there are wacky times to be had, and money for places to go.

“Plus you may just learn a thing or two about postmodern-ism.

“[I] hope to to some new faces next week.”

VASA to fund field trips and conferences

Arts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

Students association holds auctions and bake sales to help fund their endeavors

Stephanie Stevenson-Patsula and Lee Giddens are loving life as artists and members of the Visual Arts Students Association.

PHOTO BY CORY HOPE

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 11

Arts & Entertainment

CFBX Program Schedule for February 2012

CFBX Radio -92.5 FM, 106.1 CableCampus/Community Radio for TRU and KamloopsPhone: (250) 377-3988Email: radio@tru.caWebsite: http://www.thex.ca

Look for us on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

I will admit that I was skepti-cal when I heard that Hollywood was producing a silent f ilm.

But when a f ilm has a pedi-gree that includes John Good-man and Malcolm McDowell, it’s hard not to at least be in-tr igued.

I’m going to write this with-out spoilers, despite how much I want to tell you about this movie.

The Paramount Theatre was almost empty when I went to see this, which I thought didn’t bode very well.

It occurred to me that it might be the f irst time I had ever seen a movie in the theatre where it wouldn’t really bother me if people were talking.

It’s not like I would miss any-thing that anyone had to say, r ight?

But let’s talk expectations. Or, more to the point, let’s

talk about what I didn’t expect.For one thing, I had no idea

how true the creators of The Artist were going to be in stick-ing to the format of the original silent f ilms.

The aspect ratio was cer tainly closer to the 4:3 than the 16:9 that we have become accus-tomed to, and my eyes took a few minutes to adjust to watch-

ing a vir tually square image on the big screen.

I don’t think I had seen any-thing formatted in this way since I had last watched a Godzilla movie at the theatre when I was a kid.

And yes, it was done as a clas-sic cinema piece even back then, and not as a f irst-run movie.

Another thing that took me a while to adjust to was the softer focus the entire movie was done in.

I cleaned my glasses three times before I asked my wife if something was wrong with me, or if the movie itself was out of focus.

It hadn’t occurred to me that they would f ilm the entire mov-ie in a softer focus to closer ap-proximate the f ilm quality of the 1920s.

They really went all out, pay-ing attention to every detail.

At least as far as I was con-cerned they did.

I’m not exactly a historian, but it looked to me to be as true to the period as anything I’ve seen, and even if all I did was stare in awe at the cars, it would have been well worth the price of admission.

But there was more.The acting in The Artist was

far more physical, of course, than the average present-day f ilm, out of necessity.

Exaggerated movements and

dramatic music were used ex-tensively where modern cinema would have placed much of the emphasis on the delivery of the lines.

The best par t is, that was par t of the plot of the movie.

The Artist takes place in the 1920s, when “talkies” began to emerge and replace silent mov-ies.

Jean Dujardin stars as George Valentin, an action movie star who is having diff iculty dealing with the transformation of cin-ema from silent f ilms to “talk-ies.”

Peppy Miller, played by Béré-nice Bejo, is an actress Valentin helped discover, and as a young-er player in cinema, Peppy em-braces the change from silent f ilm to talking cinema.

Is that too close to a spoiler? I hope not, as I highly endorse you heading out to see this f ilm.

When I thought about going to see this movie in the theatre, I was afraid that I would be bored senseless before an hour was up, and that by the end of it I would just be angry with my-self for having sat through it.

But my fears were unfounded, as when it was time for the cred-its to roll on The Artist, I was baff led that it had been almost two hours since I sat down.

Without divulging spoilers or other information about The Artist I feel you would be bet-

ter off f inding out for yourself, I can’t go on, but I will tell you to go out and see The Artist for yourself.

A unique cinematic experi-ence (in this day and age) such

as this one shouldn’t be missed, and if I only had pockets deep enough to back it up, I’d offer you your money back if you didn’t leave this movie willing to see it again.

Arts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

Back to a simpler timeThe Artist doesn’t just remind you of a by-gone age, it takes you back to it

Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo play George Valentin and Peppy Miller in the silent throwback to silent films, The Artist. The two struggle to negotiate the new Hollywood world of the “talkies,” and leave the audience wondering how they just spent 100 minutes without dialogue without noticing.

theo

meg

a.ca

February 8, 201212

Sports

When BC Lions slotback Ge-roy Simon rolled into the Tour-nament Capital Centre on Feb. 1, it was hard not be envious of the guy.

Fresh off his second Grey Cup, Simon, along with centre Angus Reid and safety J.R. LaRose, brought the trophy to the place where it all started at last year’s spring training facility.

“It was the best feeling that I’ve had as a professional athlete, to win the Grey Cup at home, es-pecially after the way we started and when no one believed in us,” Simon said.

“Everybody thought we were finished at 0-5, and to turn it around and go on a nice winning streak at the end of the year and win the Grey Cup at home, it was a great experience.”

The Lions’ spring camp is held at Hillside Stadium on the TRU campus and the team uses the TCC gym and new residence for the couple weeks they spend here in June.

With the current contract be-tween the city and Lions usage of the TCC set to expire in two years, Mayor Peter Milobar said there is no reason not to continue their relationship.

“I think it’s been very good value for the city, we get some advertising down during Lions games, promoting Kamloops, as well as national exposure during training camp,” he said.

“It works well for both groups and that’s the key to a long and strong relationship.”

The Lions’ wide out agreed with the mayor.

“I think this [TCC] has been very good for us to train here in Kamloops and I could see them renewing the contract and mak-ing it longer because it’s a great facility,” he said.

Simon had another reason to celebrate on the day the cup came to Kamloops.

His oldest son, Gervon, made his father proud last week by signing a letter of intent to play football at Army in West Point, New York.

He will play at a school famous for alumni such as former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower as well as five people who have walked on the moon.

“He’s getting the opportunity to play college football at the highest level, it’s a great accomplishment for him. He’s put in a lot of work in his high school years and it’s paying off for him,” he said.

Gervon played quarterback in his last year of high school foot-ball for Greater Johnstown High School in Johnston, Pennsylva-nia, were Geroy himself played.

Gervon’s acceptance includes a full scholarship to the military academy, which competes in the Patriot League of the NCAA.

Unfortunately for father Si-mon, he had to watch his son’s high school games over the web from his home in Surrey, B.C.

“I see all his good throws and all his bad throws,” he said.

At 36, Simon knows his years in the CFL could be counted on one hand, yet the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player of 2006 is still one of the best wide outs in the league.

He finished the 2011 season second in receiving yards with 1,350 and trails only Milt Stegall by 66 yards for the record of total career receiving yards.

“There are a few records there that should be attainable, but my main thing now is to win Grey Cups, I want to win as many as possible,” he said.

Stegall has 15,153 receiving yards and Simon has 15, 087. Si-mon however, has the edge, with two more cups on his resume over Stegall.

“I have two now and I’d like to play two, maybe three more years. If I could finish with four, maybe five Grey Cups, it would be a great opportunity. That’s the ultimate goal,” he said.

The piece of the puzzle that helped propel the Lions over the hump to a championship was the emergence of quarterback Tra-vis Lulay, who finished second in passing yards and was named Grey Cup MVP.

Now that the Lions have found their stud quarterback, Simon be-lieves it isn’t crazy to think they will be returning to the big game.

“We have a great team and a great core group, especially when you have a great quarterback like Travis, anything’s possible, and he’s a young guy that’s going to be around for a long time.”

Editor’s note:

You can check out the Lions’ training camp free of charge up at Hillside Stadium this spring, and they always have a fan day where you can meet the players and get some autographs.

Check out bclions.com for details.

Geroy Simon on life, football and the TCC

That’s what you saidFor this week’s issue, we patrolled the grounds looking for your answers to this question:

“The Super Bowl, to me, was a waste of time.

“There was two teams that I didn’t like. The only great thing about the Super Bowl was seeing LMFAO out there performing, Madonna was a waste of skin.

“She’s too old and needs to get a new day job.”

“Instead of watching the Super Bowl, I was too busy studying.”

“Brady kind of choked, couldn’t hit his targets and his receivers weren’t open.

“Manning just showed he’s clutch.”

What did you think of the Super Bowl?

Sports EditorNathan Crosby

Police and Justice StudiesChris Boyptchko

Natural Resource SciencesLauren Wheeler

Pre Requisite Studies (Journalism)Mike Riddle

ABOVE: Fans packed the Tournament Capital Centre on Feb. 1 to see a few of the Lions and have a chance to hold the Cup.

BELOW: WolfPack women’s basketball player Diane Schuetze checks out the premier trophy in Canadian Football.

Want to get involved in covering campus news?

Email editorofomega@gmail.comto find out how!

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 13

Sports

The TRU WolfPack men’s hockey team earned a much-needed victory over rival Simon Fraser University (SFU) on Friday night. The ‘Pack overcame a late one-goal deficit to defeat SFU by a final score of 5-4 in a scrappy affair.

The defeat was the first of the sea-son for SFU who is currently first in the British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) with a 13-1-4 record. TRU sits third in the standings with a 9-4-4 record.

The WolfPack out-hustled, out-played and out-hit SFU with a solid 60-minute performance. Head coach Don Schulz was pleased with his team’s play.

“It’s a sweet victory,” Schulz said, “They’ve [SFU] been riding the un-defeated roll through the course of the season.

“Our guys really answered the bell. They played hard and stayed consistent.”

Jose Reyes led the WolfPack comeback as he notched both the game-tying and game-winning goals late in the third period. Reyes’ hero-ics were good enough to earn him the first star nod.

“They were unbeaten so it feels really good to give them their first loss,” Reyes said.

The 23-year old forward has been a

welcome addition to the squad since joining the team on Jan. 20. In four games Reyes has tallied three goals and one assist.

“We’re missing our top scorer out there so we know we had to fill some shoes and we did,” Reyes said, “It was a good solid effort.

“Our goalie Mainprize played an excellent game.”

Shane Mainprize recorded the vic-tory in net for TRU, stopping 24 of 28 shots. At the other end of the rink, the ‘Pack peppered SFU’s Evan Kurylo with 44 shots. Kurylo would turn away 39 shots in the losing effort.

The WolfPack jumped out to a two-goal advantage in the first pe-riod.

A quick strike by third-year for-ward Casey Patterson followed by a tally from captain Andrew Fisher would send TRU to the dressing room with a two-goal lead at the first intermission.

The only goal in the second period would be credited to SFU’s leading scorer Ben Van Lare.

With only three goals collectively through two periods, both teams saved up their offence for a six-goal explosion in the third period.

Shane Oatway restored TRU’s two-goal lead only 48 seconds into the final frame.

SFU responded with three straight goals to take a 4-3 lead. Colton Graf provided a fast response, cutting the

WolfPack lead to just one before Jono Ceci would snipe two goals to put SFU in front for their first lead of the night.

Then it was Reyes’ time to shine as he scored to tie the game with 9:34 remaining. His winning tally came with 5:45 remaining in regulation.

Oatway recorded three points for the ‘Pack while Andrew Fisher

and Reyes both chipped in with two points each.

SFU has had TRU’s number over the past two seasons in BCIHL play. The last two league championships have featured both teams, with SFU triumphing in both.

TRU heads out on the road for four games with back-to-back games against the University of Victoria fol-

lowed by back-to-back games against Selkirk College.

The ‘Pack then returns to Kam-loops for its next home game on Feb. 24 against Trinity Western University.

“We’re on the road now for a while,” Schulz said, “but this was a great launching pad to move on and see if we can come out with some wins there.”

WolfPack hands SFU first loss of seasonRoving EditorTaylor Rocca

Big weekend coming up for women’s basketball team

Win and you’re in. That’s the case for the Wolf Pack women’s basketball team, who are 7-9 after an impressive sweep on the road over Trinity Western. Only two games remain on the schedule for TRU, at home Sat-urday hosting the 2-14 UBCO Heat, and a rematch on Sunday in Kelowna.

“I don’t have to talk to them about playoffs because they’re educated people, they know where they’re at and we have to win games to make the playoffs,” Wolf Pack women’s basketball head coach Scott Reeves said.

“Right now we don’t have enough wins. At the end of it, if we’ve given it our best effort, we’ll see what happens.”

Saturday’s home game will be the last for f ifth veterans Kaitlyn Widsten, Kailey Col-onna and Michelle Dimond, but Reeves downplayed any notion that it will be a distraction.

“Does it make it a little more special knowing that those three have their last games here, prob-ably, but we’re happy with any win we get,” he said.

A 9-9 record would be ade-quate to push the team into the playoffs, but they wouldn’t mind some help. The 8-8 Victoria Vikes, who swept TRU in No-vember, have to lose their f inal games against UBC.

A Winnipeg loss in Calgary and another Spartans loss to UFV would guarantee the Wolf-Pack a post season date.

None of this would be possible without the two ‘Pack wins over Trinity Western on Feb. 3 and 4

in Langley. The women’s team beat the Spartans 66-61 on Feb. 3 and 76-56 on Feb. 4, who were led by Jorri Duxburry and Jen Ju, respectively.

“We executed our offensive systems, we spread the f loor out and we used match ups that worked to our advantage and defensively we took them out of their rhythm,” Reeves said.

The Canada West women’s basketball picture got a lot more complex after last weekend. The top three in the Pacif ic division make the playoffs, and one wild-card spot is available for the best record not in the top three of the Pacif ic or top four of the Prairie division.

The wildcard is the most like-ly scenario for TRU to make the postseason, trailing the 8-9 Spartans and the 8-8 Victoria Vikes.

Winnipeg is also in the wild-card hunt with their 8-10 record, but they will have to hope for TRU and Spartan loses to get into the postseason.

The best bet for TRU is just win.

At 5-11, the men’s basketball team will not go to the play-offs, after losing twice to Trinity Western last weekend.

“It was disappointing for the guys,” WolfPack men’s basket-ball head coach Scott Clark said.

“It’s really tough on first year guys at this time of the year, in that they’ve played so much bas-ketball, way more than they’ve ever played in their lives.”

All-star forward Justin King had 29 points, four rebounds and four steals in the 97-92 loss on Feb. 4, after missing games in January with a hand injury.

The night before, Feb. 3, the men lost 89-77, in a game that stayed close until the fourth.

“The first night I thought we played reasonably well, tied at half and down by two going into the fourth quarter. But we have to do a better job at the defensive end, especially when you’re on the road, and we didn’t do that,” Clark said.

“We can use a million quotes: Rome’s not built in a day or whatever, but it’s a process and the process doesn’t happen over-night.”

The intensity of playing under

pressure in February to make the playoffs was a factor for the ‘Pack. Coach Clark agreed.

“I think I’d be a fool to say that it wasn’t,” he said.

“If you look at our roster, there aren’t a lot of kids that have played meaningful games in Feb-ruary.”

One player who will play his last game in front of the home crowd is forward Chas Kok. He is the only fifth year player on the team and will be honoured in Saturday’s game against the 2-14 UBCO Heat.

With no playoffs this year,

coach Clark still expects his team to compete in their last two games.

“I think they are meaningful (games). I think every game is meaningful, of course, that’s the coach’s viewpoint,” he said.

“From my perspective, the goal from day one has always been to win your next basketball game. That’s all you have control over.”

Meaningful or not, coach Clark still sees it as a an oppor-tunity.

“Given these circumstances, this is when character is re-vealed.”

Sports EditorNathan Crosby

Men’s season will finish out of playoff contention

TRU goaltender Shane Mainprize makes a glove save on SFU’s Jono Ceci in BCIHL action on Feb. 3. The WolfPack defeated SFU 5-4.

PHOTO BY TAYLOR ROCCA

Kailey Colonna, Kaitlyn Widsten and Michelle Dimond (left to right) might be in their last year of eligibility, but there’s still a chance of extending the season.

PHOTO COURTESY TRU ATHLETICS

February 8, 201214

This & other eventse v e n t s . t r u . c a

Watasun is coming

Puzzle of the Week #14 – What’s Wrong?

I am thinking of a three-digit number. It has at least four distinct primefactors, and it is odd.

What is wrong with the above?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The

full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next

Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net>. Submissions by others are

also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in the Math

Centre (HL210A). Come visit: we are friendly.

Science & Technology

WATERLOO (CUP) — “I’m really just looking at it to read books and share pictures, I guess — and maybe textbooks, hope-fully textbooks,” said Klara Raic, justifying her purchase of an expensive, but increasingly popular piece of technology: the tablet.

The Wilfrid Laurier Universi-ty second-year business student bought the Lenovo a1 tablet dur-ing boxing week sales for $200.

While she hopes to use her new tablet for storing photographs and portable internet access, like many other students who have purchased tablets and e-read-ers, Raic was mo-tivated by hopes of saving money on textbooks.

“This semester, I don’t have any more textbooks that I can buy on-line … but in the future, I would definitely continue using it and putting my books on here,” ex-plained Raic.

While tablets and e-readers undoubtedly offer an advantage for avoiding the lines on cam-pus to buy new and second-hand books — typically ranging from $200-$500 — are they worth the investment?

Raic thinks so.“I’m thinking of just getting

the online code and using this as my textbook and not spend-ing the extra $120 dollars on the textbook itself … which is half of the price of this [tablet],” she said.

The second-year student ex-plained her theory that after

buying one or two e-textbooks online instead of in print, the cost of the tablet is likely made up in money saved.

While e-textbooks save mon-ey in the short term, Laurier’s Bookstore manager of academic material Mika Zybala pointed out that e-textbooks are usually a rental service, through which students miss out on resale value of the book.

“We’re seeing that bit of divide because general book reading is definitely moving in the e-book direction, where the traditional

textbook is more in that access code, so it’s a short term access … you do not own that e-book,” said Zybala, explaining that stu-dents do not save as much money with e-textbooks as they would expect.

Coursesmart.com offers a f irst-year cultural anthropology textbook for $44.98 compared to the Bookstore’s price of $108.75, but the e-textbook can only be rented for 180 days.

“You’re not able to sell that material back to the store at the end of the semester, so that’s re-ally where the biggest difference is,” he said.

When asked which she would buy from if books from a sec-

ond-hand book fair and an e-textbook resource were priced the same, second-year student Vanessa Frey agreed that there is an advantage to buying print books.

“[Second-hand] resale value, you can still sell it back for thir-ty bucks.”

But with the iPad 3 rumoured to be released in upcoming months, tablet popularity is in-creasing despite the fact that e-textbooks do not save as much money as students expect.

“We’ve definitely seen some strong sales through the tablet … there’s defi-nitely a lot more interest in a tablet than the tradition-al desktop,” said Zybala, referring to the bookstore’s technology sales.

“On a person-al level, yeah I wouldn’t mind a tablet for conve-nience of every-thing, for Inter-net access, for being able to ac-cess email ... I think they’re be-coming a bit more

of a useful tool that can be used in multiple aspects,” said Zyba-la, who bought the Kobo e-read-er last year.

Despite the trouble with tablets saving students money on text-books, Zybala predicts that like Raic, students will continue to use the multipurpose e-textbooks because of convenience and the Bookstore will need to adapt in order to survive.

“It will definitely have an im-pact on our business,” Zybala said.

“I think [the tablet] has its place and I still think that the printed book will have its place as well.

“I think, in general, it’s all about choice.”

Tablets vs. textbooks

The Cord (Wilfred Laurier)Katie Flood

There are pros and cons to moving toward electronic textbooks, but when it comes right down to it, as Mika Zybala says, “it’s all about choice.”

“We’re seeing that bit of divide because gen-

eral book reading is definitely moving in

the e-book direction...” —Mika Zybala

Despite the increasing popularity of tablets, e-textbooks are not necessarily as cost-effective as expected

Math Puzzle of the week

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 19 15

Across

1. Paperlike cloth6. Apple variety10. Window part14. Owning land15. Carbon compound16. Arch type17. Head starts20. Military cap21. Channel22. Anxiety23. Defunct ruler25. Hit ground27. Dust remover30. “You betcha!”32. Has a mortgage36. Frenzied38. Bauxite, e.g.39. Gingrich40. Head starts44. Case45. Do exist46. The “N” of U.N.C.F.47. Microprocessor type48. Calculator grid51. Precognition (abbr.)52. Wounded ___54. “___ my word!”56. Pond buildup59. 1987 Costner role61. Greek letter65. Head starts

68. Flu symptoms69. Bog70. Fred of hockey71. Form72. Aspersion73. Itsy-bitsy bits

Down

1. Approach2. Feel pity3. Strengthen, with “up”4. European gull5. Obstacle to learning6. Actor Depardieu7. Soon, to a bard8. Mooning9. A pint, maybe10. Metaphysical poet11. All excited12. Ryan and Tilly13. One-up18. Flair19. Amscrayed24. “The Open Window” writer26. Blown away27. More crude28. Cremona artisan29. Masters31. Bunk33. Shoe type34. Cream vessels35. Razor sharpener

37. “My Little ______”41. Camp sight42. Dowel43. Annul49. Narc’s target50. “Spirit” rock band53. Colo. neighbor55. Dusk to dawn56. First fellow?57. Child’s building brick58. Showy trinket60. Almond62. Sundae topper, perhaps63. Course64. Stirs66. Dash lengths67. Group w. troops

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Notice anything wrong with The Omega? Bring it to our attention and win a prize. We may have done it on purpose just to keep you on your toes...or you might just be helping us get better. Either way...you win!

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February 8, 201216

TRUSU Membership Advisory

Advocacy | Services | Entertainment

This Week:

Check out the Events Calendar at trusu.ca

for details!

Post-Secondary Education Fact:

Log on to trusu.ca and

get connected!• SubscribetotheNewsletter

• Joinusonfacebook

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•SweaterDay•HooHooWillYouChoose?

• TRUSUTaiwaneseClubArtExhibit

Don’tbelieveitcanhappen?TuitionFeeshavebeen

reducedby25%inNewfoundland&

Labrardor

Sweater DayOn Feb. 9th TRU will be turning down the thermostats

by 3 degrees to raise awarenesss around energy conservation as part of a campaign from the World Wildlife Fund. So bundle up and save some energy!

Didyouknowthatyoucanfileyourtaxesonlineforfree?

UFile and the Canadian Federation of Students have partnered so that students can file online for free! It’s fast,

easy, and convenient, and all you need is a tutition tax recipt.

Pick up your

FREE ISIC

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