Author: Christina Rowan

Categories
Sports

Men’s golf team heads to nationals

Representing ConU at the 2015 CIS National Championship in Ontario

The Stingers golf season may have come to a close last month, but next season will tee off swiftly as the men’s team have qualified to compete in the 2015 Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) National Championships for the first time ever.

After the Stingers men’s and women’s golf teams played their strongest season yet, coach Ben Painchaud says that qualifying for nationals this year is redemption for the team.

“Last year was difficult for the guys. They finished fifth in the conference and missed qualifying for the National Championships by three shots,” he said. “They worked very hard [this whole year] and didn’t take anything for granted. On paper we were a good team, but I think the guys wanted to come out strong, play good consistent golf and ensure that spot for nationals.”

By competing in the championships this year the Concordia golf team will attain its first CIS national ranking, which Painchaud says is an important aspect given a program revival was implemented in 2013 after the men finished at the bottom of the Quebec conference.

At the end of the three Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) events and the provincial championship this season, two Stingers placed in the top five of over 80 players who participated: Paolo Addona finishing third overall in the conference and Jacob Peterson finishing fourth overall. The two players were also named part of this season’s all-star team, which includes the four best conference players.

Having tied with and beat the top ranked golf team, Université de Laval, multiple times during the season, the Stingers proved that Concordia is a powerhouse.

“Being able to compete and beat Université de Laval and Université de Montréal was very encouraging [this season]. The guys definitely know they belong amongst the best players in the country,” said Painchaud.

This year’s CIS National Championship will take place in Guelph, at the Cutten Fields Golf Club in May 2015. In order to get a solid grasp on what to expect of the course, Painchaud and some of the team members travelled there and studied it closely.

“We have taken notes and measurements and we are beginning to formulate a game plan for that course. Google maps, pictures and the creation of a yardage book will be invaluable to team success,” said Painchaud. “We will be training in the Concordia Dome all winter.”

The week-long event at the end of May 2015 will include four rounds of competition as well as multiple practice rounds. Once the snow melts and the season springs forward in April, Painchaud will take his team on another trip to the course to further familiarize themselves with it and the city of Guelph.

“Personally, I will make sure that Concordia is the most prepared team at the event,” he said.

Categories
Student Life

Took the words right out of my mouth

Japanese-made SpeechJammer gun aims, points, and leaves people tongue-tied

Imagine that, while you were speaking, someone pointed a device in your direction that literally left you speechless. Apparently, such a contraption exists.

Back in 2012 two Japanese research scientists, Kazutaka Kurihara and Koji Tsukada, designed a gun-shaped device they call the SpeechJammer that can be used to disturb people’s speech, make them stutter or make them stop talking altogether.

By using a directional microphone, a directional speaker, and a distance sensor, the SpeechJammer gun trips up its target by playing back their own voice to them at a slight delay of around 200 milliseconds. Putting together each of these pieces on top of a black acrylic case, with a trigger added below, allows the device to resemble a gun.

The science behind this device’s success is the use of artificial speech disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF).

As Kurihara and Tsukada write in their paper, aptly titled SpeechJammer: A System Utilizing Artificial Speech Disturbance with Delayed Auditory Feedback, “[w]e report a system that jams remote people’s speech using Delayed Auditory Feedback, a well-studied method involving the human auditory system. This effect can disturb people without any physical discomfort, and disappears immediately [when] the speaking stops. Furthermore, this effect does not involve anyone but the speaker.”

In essence, all it takes to disrupt someone’s speech is relaying their own voice back to them at a slight delay.

Since our brain is used to processing only one speaker’s voice at a time, feeding a second voice — which is our own — at the same time confuses the brain, induces mental stress, and therefore leaves us tongue-tied and unable to speak properly.

“In our preliminary study, we dealt with ‘reading news aloud’ and ‘spontaneous monologue’ as the speech contexts,” write Kurihara and Tsukada. “From the results, we observed a tendency for speech jamming to occur more frequently in the ‘reading news aloud’ context than in the ‘spontaneous monologue’ context. Further, it is obvious that speech jamming never occurs when meaningless sound sequences such as ‘Ahhh’ are uttered over a long time period.”

DAF devices, it turns out, have been used for decades as a technique to aid people with stuttering issues, according to the researchers.

In a study conducted for the International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders back in 2003, nine stuttering individuals between the ages of 18 and 45 participated in a three-month investigation to test the effect of repeated exposure to DAF to improve their speech fluency.

At the end of the three-month period, the percentage of stuttered words during non-altered feedback, before and after repeated exposure to DAF, showed significantly less stuttering after the repeated exposure to DAF.

Given these results, if both a non-stutterer and a stutterer were to be exposed to the SpeechJammer or any DAF device, the stutterer would actually be more likely to speak clearly than the non-stutterer.

Although the SpeechJammer gun is still a prototype, anyone can build their own version at home. For people willing to test it out themselves, a Speech Jammer app is available for iPhone and Androids to try and play around with.

Categories
Sports

The women are taking a swing at it

Ladies hit the links as Concordia’s newest sports club

It looks as though the Stingers’ golf club will no longer be for gentlemen only. For the first time ever at Concordia, the club has an official competitive women’s team to play alongside the men in the annual provincial university tournaments.

Although the Stingers’ golf club always welcomed women to play, it never had enough women players to compete. Concordia’s golf club coach Ben Painchaud, who took over the program two years ago and coaches both the men’s and women’s teams, explained that the program has been rebuilt and revived.

“We’ve had one, two or three girls participate [in the club] before, but you need four girls to have a complete team and compete,” he said. “We’ve never had four women who were experienced golfers who could play in a competitive tournament but now we do.”

From left to write, Gabrielle Marois and sisters Nathalie and Jackie Pearsall pose for a photo op. Photo by Ben Painchaud.

The team was assembled at the start of the summer, and the new lady recruits immediately headed to the course in Blainville, where they practiced once a week for the upcoming season. The season, which lasts from the end of August to October, has both teams playing in three provincial university tournaments, two of which they have already played.

Jackie Pearsall, 19, is one of the four players that make up the Stingers’ women’s team. The other members are Gabrielle Marois, Alyssa McDougall and, Nathalie Pearsall.

As an experienced competitive player at the Beaconsfield Golf Club, Pearsall expressed how keen she was to be playing for her school.

“It’s exciting to be on the first ever girls team. Everyone is supportive and it is a really good group of people. The girls are amazing and, conveniently, we all click really well.”

The first tournament of the season was from Aug. 26 to 27 and kicked off just before school began at the Gatineau Golf Club, where 12 Quebec universities competed. The men’s team placed second and the women’s placed fourth.

“The Gatineau Golf tournament went well, although we did not place as well as we would have liked,” Pearsall said. “The guy’s team, contrastingly, did very well.”

“As the girls get more experience, they are playing better and I think every time that they beat a school they’ll be really pleased and motivated to do better,” Painchaud said about the tournament.

The results from the second tournament, which took place over the weekend at Le Victorien Golf Club in Mirabel, were once again strong for the men’s team as they tied for second. The ladies’ team, on the other hand, admitted they need to practice some more in order to get ready for the provincial championship.

“For the next tournament we are just aiming to improve our two team scores from the last two tournaments,” Pearsall said.

Given that it is the women’s first go at a provincial competition, Painchaud said that his concern lies more with them wanting to play, rather than winning.

“Part of building the program was getting four or five girls and making sure that they really want to stay and continue, so we’re not being very hard on them in terms of what place they finish,” he said. “As long as they feel part of a team and they enjoy competing. That’s the most important thing right now.”

The final provincial championship will take place from Oct. 4 to 7 at Club Laval-sur-le-lac.

Categories
Student Life

A kiss a day will keep the doctor away

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

A look into how kissing is considered to be good for your health

For everyone who has had the pleasure of exchanging kisses with someone before, you know that the short – or long – moment that your lips meet another’s can warm your heart, put you in a happy, uplifting mood and make you want to repeat the action over and over again. But did you know that this wonderful worldwide celebrated expression of endearment is actually considered by experts to be good for your health?

According to professed “kissing expert,” Andrea Demirjian, author of Kissing – Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About One of Life’s Sweetest Pleasures, “a kiss a day really can keep the doctor away.”

Hailing from Manhattan, New York, Demirjian – whose expertise and philosophy has been featured in over 15 newspapers, eight magazines and showcased on dozens of radio broadcasts – explains five ways in which kissing can simply yet profoundly impact our physical lives in an interview with upwave.com.

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

First off, kissing can help reduce blood pressure.

“Kissing passionately gets your heartbeat revved in a healthy way that helps lower your blood pressure. It dilates your blood vessels…blood is flowing in a good, solid fashion and getting to all your vital organs.”

It can eliminate minor pain caused by headaches or cramps. The adrenaline and endorphins our bodies release when engaged in a heated, passionate kiss or intimate situation steers our attention clear of the pain allowing us to focus solely on the given moment.

When it comes to oral health, kissing can actually help fight off viruses and cavities. Demirjian explains that, “When you’re kissing, you’re secreting more saliva in your mouth [which is] the mechanism that washes away the plaque on your teeth that leads to cavities.” Research done for the journal Medical Hypotheses adds that women build immunity against infected partners by kissing them.

It also helps rejuvenate your hormones.

“If you’re feeling stressed or rundown, a little kissing or lovemaking [is] actually the elixir you need to feel better,” says Demirjian. “It will relax, restore and revitalize you. The feel-good chemicals in the brain get percolating: serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin – things you can get from the rush of exercising.”

Doctor Sharon Stills, a naturopathic physician based in Tuscon, Arizona, also explains to sheknows.com that “kissing lowers cortisol levels, [which] is our stress hormone [that] has a negative effect on our immune system, endocrine system and brain health, specifically the hippocampus.”

Finally, believe it or not, it helps burn a few calories. Think about it — kissing can be a major full-face workout. You use your jaw, your lips, your cheeks and most importantly, your tongue. “Kissing and lovemaking can be a vigorous exercise if you’re fully engaged,” says Demirjian. “You need to have a passionate kiss [in order to burn those calories], but it doesn’t have to be a 10-hour make out session.” Who knew?

So there you have it. Kissing won’t necessarily help you beat off a disease, drop 20 pounds or lower your cholesterol, but it can help with some of the lesser worries of life. Something I’m sure most of us would be happy to add into our daily list of things to do.

Categories
Student Life

A day in the life of an SPCA dog walker

Photo by Florence Fournier

They’re there for you when you need them most. Without having to ask, no matter where or when, whether you’re happy or sad, you can always count on them to be there. I’m talking of course about dogs. Without judgement or preconceived ideas about you, dogs make for some of the best company in the world. They are, after all, man’s best friend.

Photo by Florence Fournier

Concordia student, Alexandra Sammons, 20, is repaying the favour a dog’s friendship provides. Not to her own dog, but to those that don’t have a home — dogs that live at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

Currently in her first year at Concordia, studying in neuropsychology and working administratively part-time at engineering and construction group, SNC-Lavalin, Sammons spends what little time she has left volunteering at the SPCA as a dog walker and trainer.

To become an official dog walker, it takes more than just a love of dogs. As simple a task as walking a dog may seem, the SPCA has standards and looks for someone who has more to offer than just love. Sammons explains that several steps must first be taken.

“First you have to sign up on the website, give your name, your phone number, and then explain why you want to walk dogs. From there, [the SPCA] will call you, interview you on the phone or in person and see how motivated you are, how interested you are, and whether you have some knowledge of dogs.”

After the initial application, the SPCA asks that you come in for an observation test run by team leaders — experienced trainers who work for the SPCA — who will then determine how compatible you are with the dogs.

“The team leaders will walk dogs with you and two other people [that have applied] and they’ll observe you with the dogs, and have you walk yellow walkers to see how you react when they’re excited,” says Sammons.

Something not everybody knows is that the dogs at the SPCA are divided into two different categories: silver walkers and yellow walkers. Silver walkers are easy to handle, well behaved dogs that can be trained and walked by all volunteers. The yellow walkers are more aggressive, scared, or excited dogs, that perhaps came from an abusive home and therefore require more experienced and trained walkers. As of now, there are approximately 150 dogs at the SPCA, and about 20 of those are yellow dogs. Out of the 150 volunteers, only about 10 of them are yellow walkers.

Photo by Florence Fournier

To become a yellow walker, volunteers must have been with the SPCA for at least one month and must attend a training session run by team leaders and yellow walkers to learn the rules and strategies used when taking yellow dogs out for a walk.

Sammons, who has been volunteering at the SPCA for eight months, hopes to become a yellow walker within the next two weeks. She explains that while being a dog walker is very enjoyable it’s also physically challenging, especially if you are a yellow walker.

“It’s very emotionally demanding, especially physically. You have to pretty much be fit. It’s as if you’re jogging for three hours, but you get used to it, and it’s great physical activity. The dogs are so excited, that they just want to run everywhere,” she said.

During their shifts, volunteer dog walkers take as many dogs outside as they can at one time for either a 15 minute walk or 15 minutes of playtime in the backyard.

“Walking dogs makes you feel like you’re doing something good. You really see that there’s a difference being made. What makes me stay is the fact that I notice that some dogs over the weeks have actually changed, you see that they notice you and remember you. You’re in a community of people who love animals as much as you,” said Sammons.

Since dog walking is voluntary, the SPCA allows volunteers to make their own schedule as long as they do at least a three hour shift on the days they do come in. Since Sammons is a full-time student and works part-time, she volunteers once a week on Fridays, during the school year.

With more and more dogs coming in each month, and dogs not always being adopted, the amount of walking to be done can be overwhelming, but with more volunteers the load can be managed fittingly.

For those who have a passion for dogs and helping those in need, and have some spare time, Sammons strongly encourages you to sign up and volunteer.

“People need to understand, if you want to volunteer, the longer you’re going to stay, the more you’re going to like it.”

Sammons goes on to say that the SPCA isn’t a place to feel sadness and despair, it’s a place to help and motivate dogs to understand that there are people out there who care.

At the moment, there are approximately 150 dogs, 400 cats and dozens of smaller animals such as rabbits, hamsters, and birds residing at the SPCA.

If you or someone you know would like to become a dog walker or volunteer at the SPCA visit www.spca.com for information on how you can help.

Categories
Student Life

Got to pee? Use a Shewee

Photo by KarenVBryan on Flickr

Ladies, the latest and greatest feminine product to grace this wonderful planet has slowly but surely made its way to North America. Behold, the Shewee: a portable, ergonomically-designed, plastic funnel device that allows women to urinate standing up.

Photo by KarenVBryan on Flickr

Gone are the days when women despise men for being able to go with ease, even in the most undesirable situation. With the Shewee, women too can pee standing up, anywhere they please.

With the Shewee, women no longer have to worry about bathrooms while camping, travelling, or while participating in any outdoor activity for that matter. No more squatting, using unhygienic public toilets or porta-potties ever again.

The concept of this device may have you raising an eyebrow at first, but its sole purpose is to be easily convenient for women who find themselves in a tight bind.

The Shewee, although new to North America, was designed and invented by British native, Samantha Fountain, in 1999, while she attended De Montfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom, studying to get her Honours B.A. for product design. In July of that year, the Shewee won the James Dyson Product Design Award,which provided the necessary encouragement Fountain needed to pursue bringing the product to market.

Fountain has made several television appearances on shows such as Dragon’s Den (U.K.) and BBC One’s The Great Outdoors, to promote her product, alongside several radio, newspaper and magazine appearances, most of which have been British and Canadian.

Photo by KarenVBryan on Flickr

As for where the name Shewee comes from, it’s quite simple by nature: “she” is for the audience in which the product is aimed at, and “wee” is a British term which refers to having to urinate. Put both together, and you get Shewee.

So, how exactly did Fountain come up with this concept? It all started while she was writing her dissertation in university about how to improve lavatory facilities.

“As a child, I was taught not to sit on public toilet seats, for fear of catching germs. At first I had the idea of designing retractable toilets that could be washed after every use, but as this was a bit impractical, I decided on a device that women could use to avoid contact with the toilet altogether,” explains Fountain on her website. “Also, it struck me how much easier it was for a guy to go to the toilet in a place where there were no facilities or nowhere to squat behind, so I came up with a way of effectively urinating like a man.”

How does one go about using the device?

“When positioned securely under the crotch, with panties pushed to one side, Shewee directs urine away from the body to a suitable place, such as a toilet, a container, a Shewee Peebol or a conveniently located tree,” explains Fountain.

The device, available online for $29.99, comes in a variety of colours and packages which include accessories such as cases, Peebols (pocket-sized bags for men, women and children to use while on the go) and even underwear designed for women who use the Shewee for easy access.

The device is NATO approved, supplied to armed forces worldwide and hospitals, according to the website.

Hate to break it to you boys, but it looks as though you won’t be the only ones peeing on the sidelines from now on.

More information: http://www.shewee.ca/about/

Categories
Concordia Student Union News

CSU demands equality for reduced STM fare

Photo by Keith Race

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) and seven other Montreal-based student associations are in the midst of requesting price reductions for all full-time students, regardless of their age, when it comes to Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) public transportation fares.

Photo by Keith Race

After joining forces with several student associations around Montreal, the CSU released a collective statement containing its goals.

“The CSU supports equal access to resources for all students. While we have been proud to partner with the STM in encouraging sustainable travel methods, we cannot support the inequality contained within its policy on student pricing. While a reduced rate for full-time students is important, limiting who may be considered full-time based on age does not reflect the reality of university life. Resources for students should be available to all students.”

According to the STM website, in order to obtain student privileges for a monthly pass on one’s Opus card, the individual must be a full-time student at an institution recognized by Quebec’s Ministere de l’Education, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS), and be 25 or less by October 31 of that year.

“We expect the STM to offer the same reduced fee to all full-time students, regardless of their age,” said CSU president Melissa Kate Wheeler. “So far we’ve been [promoting our demand] through social media and by speaking to the press, [but] we intend on increasing our support for this cause in the coming weeks through posters around the school, and by discussing it at our next council meeting.”

With bus and train passes getting more expensive each year, the significance of this demand is pertinent for the students in question.

STM fares have increased nearly $10 in the last five years. In 2008, a student discount monthly bus pass cost $36, whereas now it costs $45.50, an increase of 26.4 per cent. As for a regular bus pass, in 2008 it cost $66.25 and now is $77.75, an increase of 17.4 per cent. For those who take the train, the most expensive mode of transport, fares range between $69 to $121 for students, and regular fares between $87 and $151, depending on the zone.

The CSU’s current demands for reduced student fares are not their first attempt.

Back in February of 2010, the CSU made the same demand and created a petition which received 330 signatures online to allow students regardless of their age or enrollment status to be eligible to receive student fares.

The petition, which was directed at the City Council of Montreal, highlighted several areas concerning the STM student discount requirements and its unfairness to certain students, specifically to fares applying only to those aged 25 or less; not to part-time students but only full-time; STM being the only Canadian public transportation company to place an age restriction on which students qualify for the student discounts; that the average age of Concordia’s student population is 26; that those who continue their studies past the age of 25 often have greater debt; and that the city of Montreal has pledged its commitment to accessibility for both public transportation and higher education on several occasions.

Unfortunately, after approaching the STM with the petition in 2010, the CSU was unable to successfully negotiate an agreement. This time, however, the CSU hopes the STM will recognize the severity of the demand by publicizing more extensively in and around the school.

The Concordia Student Unions’ next council meeting will take place Nov. 13 at 6:30 p.m. where the situation will be discussed further.

Categories
Student Life

Top 10 best time-wasting apps

Screen cap from Candy Crush Saga, available in the AppStore.

If you have a smartphone you know that having apps basically comes as a packaged deal. Today, you can find an app for just about anything. Sadly, for a lot of us, we use these apps just to kill time. Here is a compilation of the top 10 best time-wasting apps out there:

Screen cap from Candy Crush Saga, available in the AppStore.

10. Snapchat: Take photos and videos and share them with your friends. The catch: you can only share them for up to 10 seconds. Talk about taking it all in in a matter of seconds. This app can help kill the time by getting creative in your conversations with friends. Show them instead of writing to them what you’re up to.

9. iBooks: Download and read books straight from your iPhone for free. It may not literally be a page turner, but this app will do the trick if you’ve got some free time while on the go. Catch up on some reading from a selection of bestsellers, classics, fully illustrated books and more.

8. Flow: This puzzle-like game has over 1,000 levels where the main objective is to connect matching colours with pipe. Pair the colours and cover the grid. This game starts out simple, but definitely picks up as you move on, passing the time while testing your puzzle skills.

7. Hanger:  This game app is very Spider-Man-esque in nature. Guide your stick figured buddy through 2-D levels by holding and releasing cables. Hit anything — I mean anything — and your buddy will suffer serious injuries, dribbling blood the rest of the way. But fear not, as long as your figure has a head and an arm to hold the cable you can still make it to the finish line.

6. Vine: These videos may only last a few seconds, but they get to the point of the message they’re trying send in a timely fashion. Vines, tending to last between five seconds to a full minute, display something either hilarious that everyone can relate to or instantly recognize, or merely capture a memorable moment.

5. Twitter: Thoughts and feelings expressed in 140 characters or less, Twitter has a whole world of opinions waiting to be noticed and retweeted. Short and to the point, Twitter tweets can be funny, informative, and sometimes downright weird or offensive. But with hashtags and trends forming every day, it’s an easy app to find exactly what you’re into if you need to kill time.

4. Buzzfeed: Get the stories and lists that interest you first on this app by customizing your own feed. Whether it’s 100 things you need to know or 25 things you must see, Buzzfeed will be a great source of news and entertainment to pass the time.

3. Instagram: The app that takes photos to a whole new level of creativity. Enhancements, frames, and focus capabilities offered with 20 different filters to choose from allow us to make our pictures that much more eye-catching. With hashtags as a key aspect of the app, people can search whatever they are intrigued to see.

2. Facebook: Let’s face it. Facebook is a never-ending story that you can easily get lost in for hours if you want to and even if you don’t. With more friends come more bios, pictures, pages, statuses, and — lest we forget — games. The time-killing capabilities of Facebook are truly endless.

1. Candy Crush Saga: If you aren’t already playing this game, know that you are saving yourself copious amounts of time. This addictive candy themed game is similar to the legendary game Bejeweled. The goal: line up three or more candies to either clear all the jelly or bring down the ingredients. You can also see how many you can line up in a designated time span. With hundreds of levels to play, this app is sure to keep you hooked for as long as your lives last you.

Categories
News

CUPFA’s MicroTalks launches this month

On behalf of the Concordia University’s Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA), the first Microtalks event of three to come this school year, which consists of six-minute talks presented by part-time faculty, will be launched and open to students on campus Tuesday Oct. 22.

Taking place in the EV building on the sixth floor in the department of Design and Computation Arts, MicroTalks will explore and educate, with visual and verbal material, various topics of interest sought out and researched by part-time faculty members.

“The primary goal of the MicroTalks is to promote and share part-time faculty research with other part-time faculty members, full-time faculty and students, in order to create an engaged discussion around [what] part-time faculty are up to outside of the classroom,” said CUPFA Vice President Lorraine Oades.

“Too often students, faculty and the administration forget that part-time faculty are engaging in cutting edge research and we wanted to highlight the diversity and achievements of our members.”

Oades, who has been preparing the MicroTalks project for the past year, is excited for it to begin next week.

“I began officially organizing the MicroTalks series this summer with Donna Nebenzahl, from journalism, and Alison Loader, from computation arts and design, who are co-ordinating the MicroTalks with me,” she said. “We started meeting in early June and met regularly throughout the summer.”

Each MicroTalk event will have a specific theme around which all participating part-time faculty will focus their six-minute talks. The theme for the first event is control and identity.

This theme, as written in the MicroTalks press release, will address the “often invisible forces of power we face every day as twenty-first century global citizens living in a rapidly shifting and often uncertain terrain. The presenters explore various mechanisms of control, how they shape us as individuals and at times circumscribe our future.”

During the event’s two hour timespan, students will hear and learn from a variety of part-time faculty members focusing on and interpreting diverse areas of expertise such as sociology, painting and drawing, religion, urban planning, business technology management, design and computation arts, intermedia/cyberarts and more.

This week’s event will feature 10 different part-time faculty members. The reasoning behind the specified six-minute talks derives from the presentation style called PechaKucha in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each — a format that keeps presentations concise, fast-paced and powers multiple-speaker events.

“We wanted to create a series of high-energy interdisciplinary evenings, each of which would focus on a specific theme,” said Oades. “There will be a question and answer period at the end of all the presentations, which we hope will develop into a real dialogue between the audience and the individual presenters.”

The MicroTalks project will also allow students the opportunity to find out more about their instructors and introduce themselves to areas or disciplines they aren’t already familiar with.

The second MicroTalks event will take place Jan. 21, focusing on a theme of light and landscape, and the third on Feb. 25, with a theme of community and culture.

The first MicroTalks event will take place Oct. 22 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in EV 6.720, 1515 St. Catherine St. West.

Categories
News

Sexual assault resource centre to open at Concordia

Photo from jasonparis on flickr
Photo from JasonParis on Flickr

After nearly two years of students trying to establish a sexual assault resource centre, Concordia will be opening a centre this fall, in the GM building on the Sir George Williams Campus. On March 5, 2012, in an attempt to demonstrate how important and needed a sexual assault centre would be, students took it upon themselves to rally and campaign in and around the school to gain recognition. Students also created a petition in which they managed to receive more than 1,000 signatures. Nearly a year and a half later, students’ efforts have been acknowledged and they are being provided the space and funding to support the centre they’ve been asking for.

Administrative coordinator for the Centre for Gender Advocacy, Julie Michaud, acted alongside the group of students last year, to show her support and to bring as much awareness as possible to the issue of sexual consent.

On Jan. 25, 2012 in a Dragonroot Radio interview, a workshop series at CKUT radio, Michaud spoke about the campaign to open a sexual assault centre at Concordia and why it is so crucial.

“We’re asking them to re-vamp their policies around sexual assault to make them more comprehensive, more accessible and more understandable by everyone in the university community,” said Michaud. “That includes making sure that security staff and counselling and development staff understand those policies really clearly and that they get sensitivity and awareness training around sexual assault.”

Director of the Counselling and Development Department at Concordia, Howard Magonet, was one of six members on the advisory committee that spearheaded the organization and recruitment process of the sexual assault resource centre.

“Andrew Woodall, the dean of students, brought a whole group of people together for us to have a consultation [with], which has been, in my opinion, a great consultative process that’s included representatives from the CSU, centre 2110 [Centre for Gender Advocacy], as well as a variety of internal Concordia departments.”

With a background in social work, Magonet will act as a supervisor for the centre. Interviews for a centre coordinator wrapped up last week.Many candidates applied to fill the position as coordinator for the centre and after thorough background and resume checks by the advisory committee, three applicants were chosen to be interviewed, after which the advisory committee came to a unanimous decision about one candidate, whose name cannot yet be given.

“The candidate [chosen] is very eager, and we’re obviously very eager. I think he or she will be a great asset to the Concordia community,” said Magonet.

In order to further solidify the importance and actuality of opening the centre at Concordia, Magonet took to the streets of Montreal to spread the word.

“I’ve gone out and started initial conversations with external partners, such as the police, the Montreal Sexual Assault Centre, different CLSCs and different shelters, just to try to get the ball going before all this gets launched.”

Services that can be expected at the centre include interventions, education, outreach, as well as appropriate referral resources for survivors of sexual assault. Services will also include crisis intervention and accompaniment for individuals who require it and the development of peer support initiatives.

At the moment, there is no set date for the opening of the centre. However, Magonet has said the centre can be expected to open “sometime at the end of September, [early] October.”

Concordia will be the sixth Canadian university to open a sexual assault centre on campus.

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News

McGill University Health Centre implements deficit plan

The McGill University Health Centre’s implementation of cost-cutting measures in order to reign in a growing budget deficit has led to the layoffs of nine trauma and orthopedic nurses working at the Montreal General Hospital.

After government auditors came to the conclusion last December that the MUHC network was looking at a projected deficit of $115 million, the network came up with a series of cost effective strategies.

The cuts planned by MUHC Chief Executive Officer Normand Rinfret for the 2013-2014 year include: 65 per cent reduction of manpower hours, 16.4 per cent related to contracts and other non-salary expense reductions, seven per cent from standardization of practices, 5.6 per cent related to team consolidation/work redesign, 3.5 per cent from capping clinical volumes based on budget and 2.5 per cent from unspecified application of the Quebec Health Department policies.

As reported by The Gazette last week, it appears as though employees are now part of the cuts the MUHC will be establishing as part of the budget deficit plan. About one quarter of the Montreal General’s 12th floor trauma recovery nurses have been notified that their positions in the hospital have been cut and closed.

Montreal Children’s Hospital nurse, Nathan Friedland, worries that the cuts will affect aspiring nursing students as well.

“When new nurses join the profession they’re already somewhat discouraged because they know they’ll get burned out because of the long hours and so on, so when they read about cutbacks and layoffs, they realize it’ll likely be them, the young new ones being laid off,” Friedland said. “Two new nurses, who were grads, had 90 per cent of their hours cut, because they don’t have a specialized position. They’re mostly filling in for someone on a leave of absence.”

Not only will these cuts be affecting MUHC employees but with fewer nurses in each ward of the hospital, nurse-to-patient ratios will be significantly altered.

Where originally there was one nurse with four or five patients, each nurse will now have up to eight patients, essentially doubling the workload. This will add more responsibility and more pressure to nurses to make sure that they perform up to par.

The MUHC network controls six of Montreal’s major hospitals including the Montreal Children’s Hospital, the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Hospital, the Montreal Chest Institute and the Lachine Hospital.

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Opinions

Wrestling with hunger

Image via Flickr
Image via Flickr

After the announcement last month that wrestling is to be removed from the summer Olympic program following the year 2020 by the International Olympic Committee, Bulgaria’s national wrestling team coach, Armen Nazaryan, has begun a hunger strike.

The IOC reviewed all 26 sports from the Olympic program and decided to keep the pentathlon — which was facing the most risk — over wrestling; which includes both freestyle and Greco-Roman categories.

This is sad news for wrestlers across the world. Wrestling was one of the original Olympic sports established for the inaugural modern Olympics, which took place in Athens back in 1896. To say the least, it has been around for a long time.

With over 110 years of Olympic attention, perhaps the committee felt the game had lived out its glory. Out with the old and in with the new?

As a matter of fact, yes. With wrestling now out of the picture, an opening slot for a new sport is available in the program which will be up for discussion and selected later this year by the IOC.

“This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics,” said IOC spokesperson Mark Adams.

“In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It’s not a case of what’s wrong with wrestling. It is what’s right with the 25 core sports.”

Although I see where the board is coming from, it looks as though Bulgarian wrestling coach Nazaryan would beg to differ. Bulgaria’s wrestling federation said on Sunday that Nazaryan “will not eat until the start of the European Championship on March 22 in Tbilisi, Georgia, and will only take juices.”

The 39-year-old has won Olympic gold in wrestling for his native Armenia in 1996 and Bulgaria in 2000 and is now is head coach for Bulgaria’s Greco-Roman wrestling team. Bulgaria, which has brought home a total of 16 gold medals in wrestling, will be losing the chance to compete for more of what has become a national sport.

Unfortunately for us, not only is Bulgaria going to be affected by this removal, but Canada as well.

Just last summer in London at the 2012 Olympics Canada brought home silver and bronze medals in the sport from athletes Carol Huynh, who previously won gold in Beijing in 2008, and Tonya Verbeek, a three time winner who has won two silvers and a bronze in her career.

Between 1908 and 2012 Canada has won a total of 16 medals in the freestyle category of wrestling, most recently won by women. Not exactly our strongest suit, but still a competitive field in which Canadian athletes have flourished.

Nazaryan’s hunger strike for wrestling is a strong statement. It shows his passion and willingness to support the sport he loves and to have it continue as an Olympic one at his own risk.

I truly hope his action is seen and heard by the IOC and taken into consideration. After all, wrestling is one of the original sports, why take it out now? Just because something is old doesn’t mean it isn’t worth anything.

The issue has made headlines and the IOC seems to be set on their decision, but it isn’t 2020 yet. There is still time. Perhaps Nazaryan’s hunger strike will grab the IOC’s attention, change its plans of removing it from the program and giving society an idea why it is in fact an Olympic-worthy sport.

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