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Women in Sports Initiative makes an impact

by Kaja Surborg on

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In Sept. 2018, McGill Athletics and Recreation launched the new Women in Sports Initiative thanks to a $3.5 million donation from McGill alumni Sheryl and David Kerr. The initiative aims to promote women in leadership roles within McGill Athletics and help female athletes balance their academic obligations with their athletic time commitment. Hiring two women in full-time associate coach positions has been a key part of this initiative: Rikki Bowles joined the Martlet basketball team coaching staff, while Kelsey Wilson moved from a part-time position to a full-time one with the women’s soccer team.

These additions to the teams’ full-time staff have already made a significant impact on coaches and players alike.

“It’s important to have that possibility of having a female role model,” Wilson said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “As a player, I didn’t necessarily have that when I was growing up. I think it’s important for young players, especially, to see that if they are interested in coaching, that it is a possibility, that you can continue on and develop and actually find full-time positions.”

Both Bowles and Wilson played for the Martlets during their undergraduate degrees at McGill. Fourth-year Martlet soccer winger Tia Lore agreed that it is comforting and inspiring to have someone who understands the players’ situation.

“It’s huge when you’re playing on a team, and you might be new to the team, or you feel like you’re not doing great, but you gain this confidence [from knowing that] she’s been through this, so she knows the struggles,” Lore said. “Seeing female coaches and having female coaches is super empowering. Having a coach empower you, not just as an athlete, but as a female athlete, is huge.”

In the future, Martlet volleyball will also benefit from the Kerr donation. The team is planning to expand their coaching staff. Meanwhile, the women’s hockey program has already been receiving support through the Kerr Martlet Hockey Coach Endowment. This endowment has funded the salaries for full-time Martlet hockey coaches since 2007. The team went on to win its first three national titles in the four years immediately following, demonstrating the immediate impact that additional full-time coaches can make.

The purpose of the Women in Sports Initiative is to support not only Martlet athletes, but also female coaches.

“Hiring two new people is already huge,” Sylvie Béliveau, senior advisor to the McGill varsity program, said. “It changes the lives of those two women. They can now bond with and better service their student-athletes.”

With these new positions, the women’s soccer and basketball teams now have more full-time coaching staff than their male counterparts. In almost every other sporting environment, including coaching, competing, and sports journalism, women are underrepresented. This move will give female athletes and coaches additional, valuable opportunities to pursue careers in sports.

“I don’t think we really knew what we could have [regarding having female coaches to learn from and look up to],” Lore said. “We weren’t [thinking that] we were missing this. It was more [realizing that] we should have had this before.”

The new hires from the Women in Sports Initiative are certainly making a positive impact. However, the move to provide extra support for female coaches and athletes was a slow one. A 2013 study found that only 22 per cent of head coaches and 17 per cent of assistant coaches in Canadian intercollegiate athletics were female. In the six years since the study was published, McGill’s female coaching statistics have been below national averages. While McGill was providing the same number of coaches to its men’s and women’s teams, the gender imbalance represents a failure to provide sufficient opportunities for female coaches until now.

The Kerr donation is a one-time donation, which means that the money will eventually run out. It is therefore necessary for McGill Athletics to implement a plan that reallocates funds so that they can continue to pay the program’s coaches. The initiative is still in its infancy, but its longevity appears to be a priority for now.

“Our goal is sustainability,” Béliveau said. “We’re thinking long term. It’s going to be a robust program, built on solid ground [….] It’s a 10 to 12 year program, but, past that, we want it to continue.”

The press release from McGill Athletics announcing the donation stated that the initiative would also fund additional resources for female varsity athletes in balancing the academic demands of McGill with their sports.

“The next step is [asking] how we can service them better,” Béliveau said. “We want to ask them [about what they need]. We’re looking at building a community of practice, for example.”

Managing the pressure of being a student-athlete is no easy feat, especially given McGill’s recent defunding of mental health services such as the Eating Disorder Program. Relying on private donorship to fund support programs for students, including student-athletes, gives the university administration an excuse not to provide crucial funding itself. Furthermore, donations often target a particular subset of students and do not effectively reach the entire McGill student population.

Expanding opportunities for female coaches in collegiate athletics is important, but such measures do not equally affect all women. Racial and socio-economic factors significantly impact the accessibility of these opportunities. Without a commitment to opening sporting environments to all backgrounds, starting at the youth and development levels, coaching opportunities will remain attainable only to those who can afford to play sports throughout their youth and collegiate careers. Within Canada, and greater North America as a whole, many racialized communities continue to fall into lower income brackets, which makes sports less accessible due to the time and cost involved. Additionally, transgender athletes continue to be excluded from some sporting environments, making it more difficult—and in some cases, dangerous—to participate. These accessibility issues at lower levels of competition need to be addressed before true diversity and representation at the top levels of professional coaching can be achieved, and McGill Athletics should consider this when developing future programs for women in sports.

The Athletics office should also be weary of making claims about striving for equality while the men’s varsity teams are still named after a racial slur. Keeping the name creates an environment in which Indigenous athletes can feel isolated. McGill can take a step toward truly levelling the playing field by changing the name so that all athletes feel safe and welcome in varsity sports programs.

As for the initiative’s immediate impact, other universities in Canada have reached out to McGill Athletics looking to share ideas as they implement their own programs that build gender parity in athletics.

“I’ve connected with other universities [that] are doing similar programs like [the University of] Guelph, [the University of British Columbia], and […] Dalhousie [University],” Béliveau said. “Those are only examples. If there’s anyone out there who is doing similar things, we want to look at their good practices and see how we can implement [them] here. We don’t need to reinvent everything […], we’re looking to adapt it to suit the women who are in a position to [benefit].”

Women in sports are consistently underrepresented and underserved at higher levels of competition, and, while the Women in Sports Initiative is moving in the right direction, it is not enough to level the playing field for everyone.

News, The Tribune Explains

Tribune Explains: Crunch Time – Final Exams

by Helen Wu on

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As the warming weather begins to melt the snow, McGill students can look forward to the summer, but, first, final exams stand as an arduous hurdle in the way of the well-deserved break. While students fill up the campus libraries to study, McGill’s Exam Office in the Enrolment Services is working just as hard to ensure that 64,000 exams are prepared in time for their scheduled date. The McGill Tribune looked into the process of scheduling final exams and what it takes to prepare for a chaotic exam period.

How are final exams organized at McGill?

Approximately two to three weeks before the beginning of each semester, the Exam Office contacts every professor registered to teach a course to determine if their course will include a final exam. Soon after the add/drop deadline, the Exam Office publishes a tentative exam schedule, followed by a final schedule about five weeks after the start of the semester. In the meantime, work is done to assign exam rooms, arrange furniture and supplies, hire invigilators, and schedule exam printing. Course instructors are responsible for organizing non-paper exams, such as lab exams, with their respective departments.

How are final exams scheduled?

According to Stanley Whyte, Chief Invigilator,  a software called Infosilem looks at the exam load for each student and schedules final exams with the least conflicts possible.

“Our scheduling software uses an algorithm that takes into account the enrolment for each course and then attempts to create the best possible schedule for the majority of students by spreading out those courses that have students in common,” Whyte said.

Infosilem is also used to by Enrolment Services to generate McGill’s course schedule.

What happens if I have a conflict?

McGill acknowledges both academic and religious conflicts under conditions outlined on the exam website. Students are responsible for filling out the Exam Conflict Form to be approved by the Exam Office before the exam date. Students who do not have a conflict but require special accommodations, such as McGill athletes who need to play an away game, will need to submit a request for approval to their faculty’s student affairs office.

What if I have a disability?

Students who are registered with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) are accommodated for any disability-related barriers that may hinder their performance on an exam. These students are eligible to fill out an exam sign-up form and get approval for accommodations, such as writing their exam in a different room.

How are invigilators hired?

Most invigilators are graduate students and external candidates, with undergraduate students being ineligible. Hired invigilators must attend a mandatory training session that explains their duties and expectations, as well as how to address any complications that arise during exams. Invigilators are unionized through the Association of Graduate Students Employed at McGill (AGSEM) and hired under the conditions of the Collective Agreement certified in April 2010.

Can I feign illness during an exam to get out of it?

According to Stanley Whyte, Chief Invigilator, there is no guarantee that a student who falls ill while writing an exam will be permitted to write the deferred one in August.

“Each case of a student falling ill during their exam is different and the circumstances of the situation are reviewed before a decision is made,” Whyte said.

Student Life

Trivial pursuit

by Gabe Nisker on

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On Oct. 6, 2014, Mariusz Galczynski, at the time a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, watched the taping of an episode of Jeopardy!. He had passed the many required tests in order to be on the show, and it was almost his turn to compete.

“Anyone who knows me […] knows that I love the Spice Girls and Celine Dion,” Galczynski said in an interview with The McGill Tribune. “[In the game before mine], there was a Celine Dion question and then Final Jeopardy. The answer was the Spice Girls, and no one knew of the contestants. So, right away, I was like ‘Agh, my god, I wish I was playing that game.’”

Jeopardy! records a week’s worth of episodes in one day of taping, and Galczynski was up next on the Tuesday episode. He won $20,350 in his initial appearance before losing the following ‘day’ in an episode taped 15 minutes after the first one ended.

When his winning episode aired on Nov. 25, Galczynski hosted a viewing party at Thomson House, where he and his friends used to participate in trivia nights.

“I invited all my friends that could make it, and it was great,” Galczynski said. “We watched the episode live. I knew the result, but they didn’t, and, when you watch the episode, it was a really close game and also pretty exciting [….] Obviously, they’re rooting for you to win, so it was awesome to deliver that at the end of the episode.”

Throughout Montreal, trivia-junkies host events at pubs, basements, and student unions. Venues around campus host themed nights with The Office, Game of Thrones, or even Shrek-specific trivia. For more general-knowledge-based questions, chemistry professor David Harpp has hosted his Centraide Trivia Nights at the Faculty Club for the past nine years.

“My daughter teaches at a university in the [United States], and I was visiting her about 12 years ago, and she said, ‘Do you want to go to a trivia night?’,” Harpp said in an interview with the Tribune.

Harpp’s trivia nights attract the McGill community, Montreal residents, and even a regular visitor from the University of Waterloo. As quizmaster, he runs seven rounds of 10 questions on a Powerpoint slide show. Harpp explained that, in preparation for competitions, he thoroughly researches his questions.

“If I think of [a potential question], like ‘that’s an interesting thought,’ I’ll just research it and make sure that it’s at least ‘Wikipedia right,’” Harpp said.

At Harpp’s trivia nights, around 30 teams of four or five discuss the questions at their tables and submit their answers on scorecards marked by undergraduate students.

“[It] gets very noisy [and] very competitive,” Harpp said. “[There’s] high-fiving, and [then also] a little bit of gentle cursing when they get something wrong or are talked out of a right answer at the table.”

A similar spirited atmosphere is present at the McGill Trivia Club’s events. The club meets twice a week in library group study rooms to practice for Quiz Bowl competitions with other schools across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Club president Akhil Garg has been participating in trivia competitions for nine years. He enjoys trivia competitions as a way to absorb new information.

“It’s all about learning new things,” Garg said. “I specialize in science and social science. As a medical student, I’m mostly studying biology, so trivia lets me study [all of the other sciences]. It’s a way to really expand my knowledge base.”

Overall, participants’ appreciation of learning promotes healthy competition. Garg compared this relationship to his favourite piece of trivia.

“There’s this thing called Bergman’s rule, which is that species in higher latitudes tend to be larger,” Garg said. “We at McGill Trivia always like to joke that we’re bigger than the clubs we compete against.”

A friendly atmosphere goes a long way in the trivia world even though competitions can get tough. Harpp agrees: Trivia remains competitive, even at home.

“My wife plays [at my trivia nights] with a team,” Harpp said. “She doesn’t get any inside answers. If I’m playing a piece of music, she’ll say ‘Who’s that?’ and I’ll say ‘That’s for you to find out.’”

Science & Technology

‘I feel you’

by Morgan Sweeney on

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Empathy is often talked about in popular culture, particularly within the realms of politics, advertising, and psychology. Articles from ‘Why Empathy May Be Your Most Important Business Skill’ to ‘How to Avoid the Empathy Trap’ are popping up all over the internet. Generally, popular culture labels empathy as a positive, sociable trait.

Despite its universality, though, it seems that there is very little consensus on what empathy actually means. The common confusion is a result of the term’s complexity and wide scope.

“The problem is that empathy is one word that we use for a whole bunch of different things,” Jeffrey Mogil, a professor in McGill’s Department of Psychology, said. “You can functionally define it, but, then, it’s hard to categorize what it is. Is it a cognitive ability, is it an emotional ability, is it something else entirely? [….] That’s why it’s so interesting, right? Precisely because it’s so mysterious and hard to pin down.”

The general consensus is that empathy refers to the understanding and experiencing of another’s emotions. Though both of these endeavours are intertwined in the general definition of empathy, scientists consider each as their own distinct cognitive processes.

“Consistent evidence has emerged for two broad forms of empathy at least partially separable at the neural and cognitive levels,” David Vachon, an assistant professor in McGill’s Department of Psychology, wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “Cognitive empathy [is] the ability to detect or understand emotions, [while] affective empathy, [is] the tendency to feel the emotions of others.”

Feeling others

One way that scientists have understood the different types of empathy is by studying people with external behavioural disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder and psychopathy. While psychologists often broadly characterize these disorders by a decreased amount of empathy, it is important to note that empathy does not decrease across the board.

“People with externalizing [behavioural] disorders are not any different in their cognitive empathy, but tend to have lower affective empathy,” Vachon wrote. “They can tell what you are feeling, but they care less.”

Meanwhile, people on the autism spectrum may have the opposite condition. They can have high, sometimes overpowering, affective empathy, and are able to experience the emotions of others. Conversely, though, they generally have lower levels of cognitive empathy, meaning they can have more trouble understanding how other people are feeling in the first place.

Both popular culture and science often link low levels of empathy to violent tendencies. However, unlike certain forms of psychopathy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is rarely associated with violent crimes. Based on a meta-analysis, Vachon pointed out that the current model of empathy actually has very little predictive power when it comes to aggression. To address the unpredictability, Vachon and his colleagues posited a third sub-scale of empathy, known as affective dissonance, or ‘anti-empathy.’ This scale measures cognitive and affective empathy in addition to the emotional ‘resonance’ of subjects.

“Empathy can be extended beyond resonant responses (e.g. empathy, sympathy, compassion) to include a lack of response (e.g. callous, unemotional, indifferent) and dissonant responses (e.g. sadism, scorn, schadenfreude),” Vachon wrote.

There is a distinct difference between someone who feels neutral when viewing a sad person and someone who is elated by another’s sadness. The ACME scale Vachon and his colleagues developed includes this important distinction in its measurement, and is a promising predictor of aggression.

Feeling stress

Stress, another key factor in aggression, also plays a vital role in the process of empathy. In 2015, Mogil and his team published a study that found a strong relationship between empathy and stress.

Mogil, a pain researcher, initially came across the link while experimenting on mice. He noticed that a mouse’s pain response would be more dramatic when a mouse that they knew was present in the same room. He explained this as a sign of an empathetic ‘emotional contagion’ between the two mice.

“Emotional contagion is when the emotional state of one animal affects the emotional state of another animal,” Mogil said.

Mogil decided to try this same experiment on humans and found similar results: A person with their hand immersed in ice water experienced more perceived pain when in the presence of a person they knew, as opposed to a stranger. Moreover, the most interesting thing the study found was how to foster emotional contagion.

Mogil’s experiment had three conditions. He divided participants into a control group where two subjects immediately went in, a treatment group where the subjects took a stress-blocking drug, and another treatment group where the two strangers played the music video game Rock Band together for 15 minutes before participating in the experiment.

There was little difference between those that took the stress-blocking drug and those that played Rock Band; both exhibited significantly-higher emotional contagion than the control group that immediately walked in with the stranger. This suggests that the bond of familiarity is more important than the particular activity.

“Once the strangers got into the room to have their pain tested to see if they had emotional contagion, they weren’t strangers anymore, [since] they had just been doing something together for 15 minutes,” Mogil said.

Mogil’s study further showed that the instinctive stress response triggered when encountering a new person blocked emotional contagion, and that this immediately prevents the formation of empathic connections with strangers.

Feeling good

Despite the widespread perception of empathy as morally-sound, there are situations in which it can be a hindrance. Empathy deficits can be favorable in high-stress fields that require quick and unemotional decision-making, such as in surgery or stockbroking.

In fact, empathy’s weaknesses form the entire basis of //Against Empathy//, a book written by Paul Bloom, a psychology professor at Yale University. In a 2017 interview with Vox, Bloom explained some of the key misconceptions about the term, most notably the prevalence of empathic bias.

“I’m [more] likely to feel empathy toward you [the interviewer], a handsome white guy, [than] somebody who is repulsive or frightening,” Bloom said. “I actually feel a lot less empathy for people who aren’t in my culture, who don’t share my skin color, who don’t share my language [.…] Empathy is as biased as can be.”

Bloom cited empathy as a factor influencing individual donations to charities in developing countries. While unconditional donations from sympathetic foreigners can provide short-term benefits they can bankrupt local businesses in the long-term.

“It might feel good, but empathy often leads us to make stupid and unethical decisions,” Bloom said.

McGill, News

Quebec Order of Dentists finds former McGill professor guilty of sexual misconduct

by Helen Wu & Nina Russell on

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CW: SEXUAL VIOLENCE

Nareg Apelian, a former assistant professor in McGill’s Faculty of Dentistry, has yet to receive a date for his disciplinary hearing, where the Quebec Order of Dentists (QOD) will decide on the consequences for his sexual misconduct. Back in February, the Order found him guilty of groping a student during an off-campus dentist appointment in 2016. The dentistry student, whose identity is protected, made an appointment with Apelian to adjust her mouthguard. Apelian requested to see her at his off-campus clinic, where he groped her in a locked room.

Immediately after the appointment, the student filed a complaint with the Montreal police and McGill. Apelian maintains his innocence, arguing that he required the student to come to his off-campus clinic for accommodations because the necessary equipment was unavailable at McGill. If he is not able to overturn the QOD’s guilty verdict, he may face a suspension of less than five years.

The QOD found Apelian to have violated section 59.1 of the Order of Dentists’ Professional Code, which regulates appropriate workplace conduct.

“The fact of a professional taking advantage of his professional relationship with a person to whom he is providing services, during that relationship, to have sexual relations with that person or to make improper gestures or remarks of a sexual nature, constitutes an act derogatory to the dignity of his profession,” the Code reads.

The police investigation, initiated in response to the complaint, was concluded in May 2017 after the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) missed the deadline to pursue any charges against Apelian. The SPVM declined to comment on the investigation.

Apelian was placed on administrative leave from McGill in Dec. 2016 following the incident, although the university’s investigations failed to implicate him. He returned to work after the university concluded its investigation in January 2017. After the QOD’s guilty verdict, McGill cut all ties with the assistant professor at the end of February 2019. Associate Provost (Equity and Academic Policies) Angela Campbell attributed McGill’s failure to remove Apelian from the University as a result of the different tools at the QoD’s disposal.  

“An external authority like an administrative tribunal leads a quasi-judicial process and, consequently, has access to ‘tools’ or measures that are not available to the University,” Campbell wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune. “For example, it can issue subpoenas to compel anyone to testify and/or to provide documents and information. The tribunal’s process is based on examination and cross-examination of witnesses and the parties themselves, which provides a better opportunity to test the evidence and the credibility of witnesses. These powers are provided by law. The University does not have these powers. “

Soon after McGill concluded the investigation, the student stated in an interview with CBC that the administration had actively worked to discredit her during her testimony. She stated that she felt as though members of the administration had colluded before meeting with her, enabling them to undermine her testimony throughout the investigation. The Tribune also uncovered a series of emails between members of the administration who had contacted the student’s professors regarding her class attendance without her consent.

The Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry Elham Emami wrote to the Tribune expressing her commitment to the safety of dentistry students.

“This has been a difficult issue for our Faculty, and one that we have taken very seriously,” Emami wrote in an email. “As Dean, I’m committed to ensuring and maintaining a safe and secure learning environment for our students.”

Student Life

Nine hours on campus

by Gabriela McGuinty on

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McGill University boasted an impressive 40,036 student population as of Fall 2018. On any given day, at any given moment, there are 40,036 lives in the close proximity that only a university campus can provide; 40,036 schedules, routines, habits, strangers. Although the number can be daunting, I have found that my time at McGill was shaped by the fact that no two students’ lives are the same, a comforting idea that mitigates a socially isolating atmosphere. McGill students lives are diverse, but that does not mean that they do not share any relatable experiences.

9:00 a.m.

Not only does the excessive construction on campus contradict the aesthetic presented in of the school’s brochures, it also infringes on my usual path to class. I have to rely on my quick-thinking skills to navigate a sea of students and unfamiliar territory to travel to my next lecture.

10:35 a.m.

By mid-morning, McGill has already gifted me with two things. The first, a professor that is a genuine expert in their field. They are the type of person that appears as the reference point when searching keywords related to their research. And second, it builds up an overconfidence in my abilities that, more often than not, is destructive. I start every semester excessively confident taking a course that I should have most definitely taken pass-fail. In this next hour, this truth becomes clear.

11:28 a.m.  

I failed the midterm of said class. Never one to downplay its own generosity, McGoll has ingrained in me the expectation of ice cream as compensation for poor performance. As I trek to McConnell Engineering to wallow in pity and free ice cream as a result of my  ‘F’ grade, I can’t help but wonder if indulging in this post-failure ritual is only going to condition me to accept defeat. In the meantime, there’s ice cream.

12:00 p.m.

On my way to meet a professor during their office hours in Leacock, I am distracted by the overwhelming fragrance of a samosa sale. McGill has given me an appreciation for the little things—prismatic, pocket-sized, potato-filled, one-dollar morsel things.

1:30 p.m.  

During my second class of the day, McGill brings out my tendency to tell white lies. That one I time I asked for an extension for my paper was not necessarily because my grandmother was ill, nor because my mother broke her toe, and definitely not because the dog I have had since I was four years old died. Rather, I got a really good deal for a flight to New York and spent the weekend sans laptop. It happens.

3:00 p.m.

McGill, at around this hour every day has gifted me with the phenomenon that I have named the ‘studious step’: the walk that students take on their way to the library. I approach the library with a calm facade, while inside, my stomach coils, my heart rate increases, and beads of sweat slowly form on my forehead, before, I realize that I left my computer charger at home.

3:15 p.m.

I have learned a lot about bad financial decisions during my time at McGill. I usually do not last half an hour in McLennan before hurrying down to Première Moisson to order an overpriced coffee or an even more ridiculously-priced box consisting of two grapes, a four-by-four centimeter block of cheese, and three crackers. What I really learned from this experience is to make the most out of a bad situation. Exhibit A: I can neither confirm nor deny whether I have usually eaten my cookie in line before paying, but I would prefer if the cashiers didn’t check the security footage.

6:30 p.m.

Finally, an adequate hour to leave the library after some ‘productive’ studying. As I walk past the Arts Building and down through the Roddick Gates, the wind carries a whisper past my ear: ‘Study, samosa, studious step, ‘spend’, Suwu, sleep, repeat.’

Cartoons

Evolution of a McGill Student

by Sunny Kim on

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Students should reach out for help if they feel they are in a crisis situation. Campus services are available to offer students professional and medical treatment, including Counselling and Mental Health Services. If you feel that you, or someone you know, is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1, or if you are on campus, Campus Security at 514-398-3000.

Off the Board, Opinion

Fake football, real friends

by Stephen Gill on

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In my final semester of high school, I joined an online dynasty fantasy football league. We set up a group chat to facilitate league communications, and, after a million on and off-topic messages, a ditched podcast, and a half-dozen new offshoot leagues, the “Dream League” became my steadiest, longest-standing social circle.

I often find myself concerned with the current trajectory of technology—I get little value from my Instagram feed, and I have seen enough episodes of Black Mirror to know where things like Cambridge Analytica lead. But, thankfully, there is at least one positive: The new wave of technological advancement has allowed people the opportunity to access and develop deep, satisfying interactions and friendships entirely on their own terms. As jobs become more precarious and the workforce more competitive, students often prioritize their long-term goals over present-day social lives and require greater flexibility to work around their demanding schedules. While social media has obvious flaws, it also allows people to connect through shared niche interests, and and at their leisure.

It took me 30 minutes to explain to my mom how I grew so closely connected to a group of fifteen 23 to 40-year-old fantasy football degenerates. It took another half-hour to convince her that I probably wouldn’t be abducted. Nonetheless, this crew, as well as a more normal collection of online content channels, has provided me with fulfilling, convenient social outlets that my everyday life hasn’t always offered.

My transition from high school to university opened gaps in my social life that I failed to fill: In first year, I fell out of touch with my high-school friends and struggled to replace them at McGill beyond a single lasting group of three buddies.

An inability to establish a fulfilling social environment is anything but rare at McGill. With an intense, highly-segmented social scene, it can be extremely difficult for anyone to make and maintain friendships on campus. It is even more challenging to find people who share one’s unique, hyper-specific interests. But, the magic of the internet makes it possible for students to fill those voids, and a plethora of social media sites allow like-minded individuals to connect over distance. While most of these connections will probably go nowhere, with time, one can often find a meaningful social circle.

In the past two years, student journalism has ushered a band of new friends into my life. That development came with the stipulation of a hectic weekly schedule that wears me out and, even then, leaves me with little free time before midnight. In turn, I’ve stumbled further into the weird worlds of podcasts and Twitch streams. While most normal people can carve out free time into their afternoons or evenings, anyone can get burnt out. For introverts and extroverts alike, there’s value to the idea of simulating social ‘interaction,’ but without the effort.

Ninety years ago, people would make friends when they went over to see the neighbour’s new 10-gallon hat; today, people can make friends by reacting to Ice-T tweets. This dynamic is new, but it isn’t harmful. It’s hard for friendships to fade with distance when they were forged and exist entirely online. And, after a hectic week of classes, projects, and student journalism, my library of dumb comedy content has allowed me to turn off my brain, laugh, and, most importantly, feel a pseudo-connection to others. Thanks to the internet’s flexibility, that fulfillment can take many forms; for me, it’s talking trades with a web developer from Florida named ‘Sticky.’

Cartoons

Remembering the friend that is graduating

by Cordelia Cho, Winnie Lin, Sabrina Girard-Lamas, Sunny Kim, Daria Kiseleva, Erica Stefano, Arshaaq Jiffry, Kaitlin Wong on

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