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Science & Technology

Putting your footprint in your mouth

by Caroline Lou on

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In light of growing global concerns about oceanic pollution, Mathilde Jutras, a PhD student in McGill’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, produced a video proposing a solution to the continuously worsening ocean environment: Labelling consumer products with their carbon footprint. Jutras suggests that products should be labelled to indicate the carbon dioxide emissions from production and transport as well as colour-coded to indicate low, medium, or high levels of emissions.

Jutras entered her video in the Oceans Youth Innovation Challenge, which called for participants from each of the G7 countries to submit a solution to an ocean-related challenge that they were working to address. She was one of two winners of the challenge, both of whom were given the chance to attend the G7 Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia Sept. 19-21 this year. The other contest winner, Kaoru Yokono from Japan, proposed packaging-free areas in stores and the standardization of non-plastic packaging among retailers.

Jutras made her video entry out of a desire to make science more accessible in the fight against climate change and oceanic pollution.

“I realized the importance of science, especially in the communication between scientists and decision makers,” Jutras said. “I saw this opportunity and thought it would be a really good chance to see what the decision makers think, how [the decision making process] works, and how scientists can make their work useful to decision makers.”

Jutras found her time in Halifax to be an eye-opening experience. Although a large portion of the G7 meetings were closed, she attended several environmental outreach events and presentations during the coinciding Oceans Partnership Summit and Inspiration Expo.

“It was really interesting to attend the Oceans Partnership Summit on the first day and to see discussions with people from such different backgrounds […] trying to reach a consensus,” Jutras said.

Jutras noted the diversity of voices and the range of perspectives from which attendees approached climate change. She was pleased to see the variety of stakeholders present to take a multi-disciplinary approach to waste management, one of the leading causes of pollution.

“There are people who are all about technology, saying that we can [make] plastics that are 100% recyclable,” Jutras said. “But [someone else pointed out] ‘the problem is, in Southeast Asia, they have so much plastic being consumed and they don’t have the infrastructure to recycle. So even if industry does [make] recyclable plastic, it’s just going to go in the trash anyway, or directly into the rivers.’”

Even if producers want to help slow down climate change by doing the right thing, they face constraints.

“There are some companies that want to do stuff that’s better [for the environment], but they don’t have money and can’t get money from the banks to start a project,” Jutras said. “So [the man at the conference] was attacking [the problem from] the financial side [….] I thought that was really interesting and it inspired me.”

Although oceanic protection and the broader topic of climate change can seem daunting, local and national governments, industries, institutions, and individuals all have the power and responsibility to tackle these issues.

“One of the things I realized is that not a lot of people will make a major change, but everyone will make a small change,” Jutras said. “And, if everyone is trying to make a change, it will make a big impact.”

McGill, News

Indigenous support inside and outside classrooms

by Isabella Lyons on

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McGill’s School of Social Work held a panel on the indigenous student experience at McGill on Oct. 13, featuring speakers from Indigenous Access McGill (IAM) and indigenous students. The event is part of the celebration for the School’s 100th anniversary.

Nicole Ives and Wanda Gabriel, associate professors from the School of Social Work, spoke about why IAM, a community and academic-oriented support program, is an important initiative at McGill. It has previously assisted 18 indigenous students and is currently helping 13.

“One of the areas [in which] we found support was needed was this disengagement […] from the education process,” Ives said. “The past is based in colonization, residential schools, and day schools. Education was primitive and did not give the students what they needed.”

IAM is defined by three core components: Curriculum development, student assistance, and summer support. It offers an indigenous field course to bring McGill and the Kahnawá:ke community closer together in reconciliation and action. It also provides summer orientations that give incoming indigenous students an opportunity to see what university is like.

The student support creates what Gabriel calls ‘cultural buffers’ to allow students to participate in a classroom setting without feeling the shame of not having all the answers.

“[There are] not many faces that are our own,” Gabriel said. “Pressures [are] experienced in class […from] being the only indigenous person in the classroom. When Indigenous issues come up, that student is asked to speak for all of the indigenous people.”

Alex Gray (BSc ‘ 18) , spoke of his experience as an indigenous student during lectures.

“I can remember taking a global health course,” Gray said. “Oftentimes, when indigenous issues came up, I felt like [I was] representing all of [my] people. You get your heart pumping, you start to sweat a little, and it’s not a fun experience. You feel compelled to talk [….] You’re not just in a post-secondary institution representing yourself, you are representing your community. ”

Gray also felt the burden of correcting misconceptions.

“It can be very awkward as an indigenous person,” Gray said. “Whenever your culture is mentioned or your people are mentioned, it’s in the form of stereotypes.”

Even when correcting stereotypes, Gabriel sees that it is difficult for people to express themselves as an Indigenous because their very culture has been broken.

“When you have a sole student being asked, ‘what does the indigenous world think,’ they won’t have all the answers,” Gabriel said. “When that kind of pressure is put on over and over, it brings lots of stress.To have these places where we can see ourselves within the university, to see people that are sharing the same journey, is so important.”

Gray, who is also member of the Medicine Bear drum group, credited the First Peoples House as a helpful resource in his time at McGill.

“A number of us met through First Peoples House, and there was a growing interest in getting a drum group going,” Gray said. “Bringing the drum out […] is an easy way to make a space, especially in a colonial body such as McGill, into something more welcoming to Indigenous peoples.”

The indigenous experience has always involved barriers, yet Gabriel puts faith in initiatives like IAM to rise to the challenge.

“We have to keep pushing with determination, [though] we are born into struggle and resistance,” Gabriel said. “Our people survived cultural genocide through determination and [resilience]. After all of these actions to eradicate our people, we’re still here [….] There needs to be further dialogue of what comes up for non-indigenous professors when they are teaching indigenous material. There are ways to teach about indigenous studies by coming from this perspective—the honest perspective—not Canada’s little secret.”

Student Life

LGBTQ+ McGillians making history

by Anna Sixsmith on

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Throughout October, the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminism (IGSF) has organized a diverse spread of events, featuring famous LGBTQ+ speakers, professors, and authors, as part of McGill’s inaugural LGBTQ+ History Month. This achievement has initiated a conversation about LGBTQ+ culture and knowledge on campus, and the events have highlighted the achievements of the LGBTQ+ community. In celebration of this initiative, The McGill Tribune reflects on LGBTQ+ McGillians who have made history on campus and beyond.

Will Aitken

Originally from the United States, Will Aitken is one of Canada’s most celebrated openly-gay film critics as well as a highly-regarded novelist and journalist. He graduated with an MA in English literature in 1975. In 1973, Aitken co-founded Montreal’s first LGBTQ-oriented bookstore, Librairie L’Androgyne, located on Crescent Street before its closure in 2002. He has worked as a film critic and journalist for various news outlets including the BBC, CBC, and National Public Radio. Additionally, Aitken taught briefly at Dawson College and continues to write in the Montreal area. His most recent book, Antigone Undone, was shortlisted for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Charline Labonté

An alumna of McGill’s Physical Education program (BEd’12), and former Martlet, Charline Labonté enjoyed an impressively-decorated hockey career. Labonté played for the Canadian Women’s Hockey team in the 2006 Turin Olympics, and her impeccable goaltending helped Canada win the gold medal. Later, Labonté won ‘Top Goaltender’ at the IIHF Women’s World Championships in 2009. When she publicly came out as lesbian in 2014, Labonté thanked her Team Canada and Martlet teammates for their support, acceptance, and love. Labonté retired in 2017 with three Olympic gold medals, two world championships, and six world silver medals.

Suniti Namjoshi

Born in Mumbai in 1941, Namjoshi is an internationally-acclaimed author, poet, and fabulist. In 1972, her thesis on the poetry of Ezra Pound earned her a PhD in English literature from McGill. Namjoshi has produced a dynamic body of literature, publishing  novels, poetry collections, scholarly articles, and over a dozen children’s books. Her 1981 anthology, Feminist Fables, is critically acclaimed as a scintillating reframing of traditional fables that encourages female empowerment. Much of her work explores themes related to gender and sexuality  and actively challenges sexism, racism, and homophobia. Between 1995 and 2001, Namjoshi held the position of Honourable Research Fellow at Exeter University’s Centre for Women’s Studies.

Alan Emtage

One of the founding fathers of the modern internet, Alan Emtage (BS’ 87, MS’91) earned two degrees in computer science from McGill. After graduation, Emtage went on to invent Archie, the world’s first internet search engine. Emtage was also a founding member of the Internet Society, a multi-national nonprofit committed to improving internet standards, policies, and access. Previously, Emtage has stated that he felt isolated as a child, due to his LGBTQ+ identity, which encouraged him to pursue solitary interests including computer science and technology. He is currently chief technical officer at web engineering company Mediapolis, which, among other projects, operates popular LGBTQ+ internet forums.

Brian Lewis

A professor with degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, Brian Lewis currently teaches in McGill’s History and Classical studies department, specializing in British History and sexuality studies. In his History of Sexuality survey course, Lewis often ‘comes out’ to his students. He finds this practice liberating and an effective way to create a safe space for his students. An author of multiple books in his field, Lewis remains a notable LGBTQ+ scholar and teacher and is a favourite professor among history students.

Science & Technology

Orgasm equality is a long time coming

by Gwenyth Wren on

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Many women are familiar with the frustration of finishing a sexual encounter without actually finishing. This disparity between men and women’s sexual satisfaction, colloquially known as the ‘orgasm gap,’ refers to the fact that  men are far more likely to orgasm than women in heterosexual encounters. In a recent study from The American Association of University Women examining 800 college students, 91 per cent of men reported that they usually or always experienced orgasm during sex, while only 39 per cent of women could say the same. The orgasm gap is not an individual problem, but rather a function of western sexual culture.

Mayte Parada, a sexologist and postdoctoral research fellow in McGill’s Department of Neuroscience and Psychology, looks at intimacy to explain why heterosexual men are the most likely to experience orgasm, followed by gay men, lesbians, and, lastly, heterosexual women.

“One of the theories [of why] lesbians are more likely to experience orgasm [than heterosexual women] is because they have more of a connection with their partner and are more comfortable communicating what they like and don’t like,” Parada said.

A paper published by Meredith Chivers, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University, reaffirms the importance of having an intimate connection. Chivers explained that communication between heterosexual partners can increase a female’s likelihood of a to experience orgasm. Chivers said that, for many women, sexual pleasure requires more than just physical stimulation.

A recent study from McGill’s Laboratory for the Biopsychosocial Study of Sexuality investigated the orgasm gap further. Researchers found that the subjective experience of orgasmic pleasure and satisfaction depend more on psychological and psychosocial factors than on physical ones. These could include the quality of a couples’ relationship and their emotional intimacy.

Despite these recent scientific endeavours, the physical mechanics of female pleasure remain shrouded in mystery. In fact, the female orgasm remains one of the most poorly understood sexual responses, since past sex research predominantly focuses on male sexuality. For example, labs previously only used male rats when conducting sex research, until they realized that the findings in males were not representative of the female population.  

“Researchers are still studying what purpose [orgasm] serves in women,” Parada said. “If people are enjoying themselves and communicating, orgasm doesn’t have to be the be all and end all.”

According to Parada, the orgasm is a poorly-understood sexual response because it actually isn’t that important for sexual satisfaction.

“A lot of people […] don’t have sex just for orgasm,” Parada said. “Different phases of sex are what people are aroused by, and the activity itself [is] what people [find] most enjoyable.”

Regardless of the emphasis on orgasms, the topic of sex and promiscuity is still extremely gendered and worth exploring from a female perspective. Even though society is becoming more progressive and permissive, topics of sex and its idiosyncrasies are still difficult for some people to discuss without embarrassment, ignorance, or cultural taboo coming into play. As a result, women can find themselves with a shortage of opportunities to learn about sexual pleasure.

“This stuff is important to research and know about,” Parada said. “Because, without sex, we wouldn’t be here.”

Montreal, News

Montreal’s second Demonstration Against Racism draws support across city

by Lauren Mayes on

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For the second year in a row, the Demonstration Against Racism drew around 3,000 protestors on Oct. 7. The protest was co-organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC), Montreal Antifasciste (ANTIFA), Food Against Fascism, Solidarity Across Borders, and Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Protesters moved into the streets around 3 p.m., gathering at the moving truck provided by ANTIFA, which was filled to the brim with speakers. It blasted out three main speeches, touching on the normalization of racism, colonialism, and disappointment in the recent Quebec elections.

Despite not being the official reason the march was called, the newly-elected CAQ was the main target of the protest. Shouts of ”Francois Legault has got to go” rose through the air as the masses of people snaked through downtown.

The CAQ has proposed several changes to Quebec’s immigration policies, including a ‘Quebec values test,’ which Legault has stated will test whether or not immigrants agree with Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and will guage their grasp of conversational French. It is still unclear what would happen to those who fail the tests, as the CAQ has stated that it is, ultimately, Ottawa’s responsibility to deal with unsuccessful attempts.

Bénédicte Santoire, a protester and Université de Montréal (UDeM) Master’s student, said that she had known about the protest before the election, but Legault’s victory spurred her to come out.  

“I just don’t like their position on the [Quebec values test], on immigration,” Santoire said. “[The CAQ is] a right-wing party. I disagree with their core beliefs.”

The protest was an opportunity to raise awareness for many causes to be heard. Nicholas Gibbs was a black NDG resident shot on Aug. 21 in a police altercation. During the demonstration, his nephew called the Montreal Police (SVPM) the “biggest gang in the city,” stating that the police had unfairly profiled his uncle due to his previous convictions and that they were lying about his uncle being armed the night he was killed.  

The protest followed ANTIFA’s truck down Boul. René Lévesque, mostly broadcasting chants like “so-so-so-solidarité” and “say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here” while intermittently relaying speeches from members of the community. In front of Complexe Des Jardins, a large banner read “JUSTICE POUR NICHOLAS GIBBS: another racist murder by SVPM.”

“When we separate, when we show hate, we hate on each other. They love that because we’re divided,” Gibbs’ nephew said. “They’re the biggest gang in the city, they’re the biggest gang and when we’re like this, when we’re together like this, I can guarantee you on my life, none of us will get profiled. We need more of this.”

The nephew claimed that the city’s police intend to divide residents, revealing the need to stand in solidarity. This speech was followed by chants such as “tout le mode déteste la police” (“everybody hates the police”) directed at the police officers blocking off the roads for the protest.

The demonstration ended with speeches from members of the community and leaders of the co-organizing groups sharing messages against racism, Islamophobia, capitalism, colonialism, and fascism. Graham Bélanger, a first year fashion design student at LaSalle College, captured the crowd’s mood.

“It’s really important [that] citizens engage,” Belanger said. “Democracy can be very corrupt sometimes, and this is our last chance as people to gather and push it in the right direction.”

Student Life

Implications of the ‘Freshman 15’

by Jessie Ye on

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Incoming university students are susceptible to gain weight, due to the change in lifestyle that university precipitates, such as diet modification, lack of exercise, stress, and alcohol consumption. But, the infamous ‘Freshman 15’ are more of a playful alliteration than a representation of reality. According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, only 50 per cent of students gain weight during their first years, and even then, they only gain about 2.7 lbs on average. Nevertheless, the myth persists within contemporary culture and has many tangible consequences on first-year students.

The idea of the Freshman 15 is so entrenched in popular culture that most students have heard of the phenomenon far before they’ve even begun to think about university. In movies and TV shows, first-year weight gain is a recurring gag. For example, on the hit television show Gilmore Girls, as the protagonist Rory Gilmore prepares to leave for university at Yale, her family jokes about her possible weight gain.

Catherine Dillman, U1 Arts, notes that the idea of weight gain isn’t always threatening until students begin to receive personal warnings about it. When friends and family offered her advice about life at university, many cautioned her to be wary of weight gain, and others even deemed it unavoidable.

“[I was told to] beware of the Freshman 15,” Dillman said. “‘Make sure you exercise, make sure you eat well’, but I would also [hear] that it’s inevitable, there’s nothing you can do about it. The food the [cafeteria] offers isn’t very healthy, but because we’re aware of it, you always want to try to eat healthier, [especially with] the […] pressure of everyone talking about the Freshman 15.”

While trying to stay healthy is wise, weight is an unreliable indicator of overall health. Research suggests that half of ‘overweight’ people are actually metabolically healthy, while a quarter of those considered ‘slim’ have two or more cardiovascular risk factors. However, for many students like Dillman, weight is often the only quantifiable measure of health that they have access to, and its importance, in turn, is overstated. Consequently, weight gain is concerning for many students because so much of self-esteem can come from body image.

Fortunately for some, the Freshman 15 puts a healthy amount of pressure on them to pay attention to their nutrition. Adin Chan, U0 Arts, explained that, while his family did express concerns for him to eat healthily, he was not worried about weight gain. He views gaining weight as inconsequential, rather than shameful.

“My family was just worried that I wouldn’t eat vegetables, not so much gaining weight, [and personally] I would not be concerned.” Chan said.

The opposite is true for many femme-identifying first-years, who express far more concern for their weight. For them, ‘getting fat’ is emblematic of straying from an ideal body type. Lena Kozarov, U0 Science, and her friends discussed their fears of gaining weight before leaving for university, a fear which she attributes to social media. Kozarov views the constant digital onslaught of perfectly-edited images as partially responsible for female insecurities because  they set standards that are impossible for university-aged students to attain.

“Me and my friends from high school would […] be like, ‘Oh, Freshman 15, you gotta be careful, you gotta watch out,’” Kozarov said.  “No matter how healthy you eat, no matter how much you work out, that comparison [to those on social media] is always in the back of your head, like, ‘I could be doing better.’”

First year is hard for everyone, and the constant fear of weight gain, whether placed upon students by well-meaning family members or gleaned from popular culture, only makes the transition to university harder. The Freshman 15, though grossly overstated, is not in itself a bad thing—it is reflective of the problematic stigma of weight gain. Though it can help to encourage healthier eating habits, more often than not it leads to feelings of inadequacy and shame and could even push students to develop unhealthy relationships with their bodies. The most stressful thing about first year should be midterms and exams, not worrying about a number on a scale.

News, PGSS

PGSS Council continues debate over student federations

by Elizabeth Strong on

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The Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) Council meeting on Oct. 3 focused on Council feedback and student federations.. The meeting began with an introduction by Krista Houser, a representative of the Office of Sustainability, about the Sustainability Projects Fund. External Affairs officer Hocine Slimani later presented his annual observation report about the PGSS’ potential involvement with a student federation. Maria Tippler, Academic Affairs officer, also reminded attendees of an essential skills training taking place on Oct. 15 for all Post Graduate Student Association (PGSA) executives.

After the conclusion of new business the council went on to review and approve the reports of the executive officers and other council members. In their reports, Environment Commissioner Isabella Boushey and Tippler called attention to f upcoming events including a community garden event taking place on Oct. 12 and a thesis information session on Oct. 17.

 

Addressing concerns regarding council conduct

Secretary General Helena Zakrzewski addressed concerns about the conduct of the prior council meeting and advised councillors on delivering effective feedback.

“I very much want everyone to take something positive from the council experience throughout the upcoming year,” Zakrzewki said. “If someone has a concern, the best way of addressing that concern with respect to providing feedback is to be specific [….Also] consider whether council is the best forum. You are here to represent your PGSA and not to vent your own frustrations.”

To this end, Zakrzewski vocalized the importance of building a safe space in PGSS.

“The only way to have a positive dialogue where you can effectively represent your PGSA and the concerns of your membership is to ensure a safe space whereby every single person feels safe and comfortable standing up,” Zakrzewski said.

 

PGSS Involvement in the QSU or AVEQ

Following a brief overview of his annual observation report, External Affairs Officer Slimani asked the Council whether or not they believed belonging to a student federation is important for PGSS’ advocacy abilities at the provincial level. A lengthy debate followed about the value of the Quebec Student Union (QSU), Slimani’s recommended federation, versus the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ). A motion mandating was presented that the executive committee draft a referendum question regarding QSU involvement by Jan. 15. The floor was then opened up for debate.

Bradley Por, a graduate student in the Faculty of Law, spoke in opposition to the QSU.

“My successors have presented it as if the Quebec Student Union is the only viable option,” Por said. “I just don’t think AVEQ has been given a fair shake.”

Por also noted that AVEQ has never been invited to speak before the PGSS despite requests from multiple students at last year’s annual general meeting.

Por’s criticism launched a discussion on whether or not more research on both federations was necessary. Slimani argued against this, saying that resuming research would simply delay progress towards what he believes is a major step forward for the PGSS.

“When this body decides on something, it’s bigger than us,” Slimani said. “When a motion passes, it is bigger than us.”

After further discussion, the motion was amended to include the requirement that an unaffiliated party conduct research on student federations by  prior to the executive committee drafting the referendum question, and the motion passed.

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment

Album Review: Kurt Vile ‘Bottle It In’

by Luke Sarabia on

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Halfway through Bottle It In, Kurt Vile’s newest album, he covers country veteran Charlie Rich’s “Rollin With The Flow.”

“Guys my age are raising kids,” Vile sings.

Vile is raising kids too. Not only that but, at 38, he’s on his eighth album: By that age, many of Vile’s well-documented influences—Neil Young and Stephen Malkmus among them— were already several years past their prime. Yet, Bottle It In is Vile’s best work to date by a significant margin.

          Vile’s songs rely on repetitive, acoustic-picking grooves laid under dense instrumentals. It’s the same formula that produced his biggest hit, 2015’s “Pretty Pimpin’,” but, on Bottle It In, the arrangements are more diverse and sophisticated.

The album’s title track features the harp, played by classically trained musician Mary Lattimore, contrasting with Vile’s curious and wandering country drawl. Although the album spotlights Vile’s best lead guitar to date (“Check Baby,” for one), the strongest instrumentals occur when Vile’s backing band, the Violators, relax into a groove for a while. On “Bassackwards,” backward guitars guide strains of organs through ten minutes of what feels like staring out a car window on a gorgeous country drive. It also features some of the album’s most incisive writing: Vile loops through surreal rhymes, repeats them, forgets some, sets up expectations, defies them, and then follows them again.

The album’s opener, “Loading Zones,” showcases Vile’s wit: It is a song about parking a car, but it is also about loving a city and elusive moments of freedom. Throughout the album, Vile juggles cerebral instrumentals, guitar heroics, and sing-along hooks.“One Trick Ponies,” likely the album’s best song, manages all three at once with ease.

Vile has a strong sense for musical history; he has used his expertise to inform an album that is both inventive and engrossing. Bottle It In is an accomplishment not just in its own right, but also as the extension of a larger body of work: As the patient listener will find, Vile’s effortless growth as a writer and guitarist are just as magnificent.

Off the Board, Opinion

Corporate culture, as seen on TV

by Tristan Sparks on

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Popular media offers a vivid portrayal of modern corporate culture, but I didn’t expect it to translate so literally to my experience at my first tech internship this previous summer.  It was nothing short of jarring to recognize so many phrases I had previously only heard from the mouth of Jared on HBO’s Silicon Valley. Still, my introduction to corporate culture was positive, if bizarre.

The office I worked in implemented an ‘Agile’ methodology. Agile, a term coined in the unironically-titled Manifesto for Agile Software Development, is an approach to software development that emphasizes individual interaction over processes and tools. In practice, this meant that every morning at 9:30 a.m. my coworkers and I engaged in ‘Scrum,’ a meeting for team updates that takes place in front of a Scrum board—a visual organization of all of a team’s tasks to track their progress. The Scrum board my office used was nearly identical to the one featured in Silicon Valley.  As I moved my completed ‘stories’ from the ‘in progress’ column to ‘peer review,’ I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was participating in some religious ritual. I felt as though those around me, who seemingly found the entire affair completely normal, were brainwashed by some Agile god whose influence I had somehow escaped. The whole experience was made even more peculiar by the requisite card game that followed. I quite enjoyed this part, though, I almost always won the little plastic giraffe offered as a prize.

Scrum has been proven effective by countless performance metrics, so, undoubtedly, my secret theory that it was all some tedious exercise meant only to please the powers that be was misguided. This was, however, hard to keep in mind as I sat through my umteenth ‘Q4 Fun-times’ celebration. My tenure overlapped with the fourth fiscal quarter, so, every Friday, we would sign out 15 minutes early and go down to the concert hall, a magnificent old stage complete with crown mouldings and intricately-crafted pillars, to celebrate the week’s sales of abstract corporate research. The powerpoint presentation that followed was almost always painfully boring for a young software-developer intern such as myself. But, in keeping with the company’s emphasis on competition, it was followed by a thoroughly entertaining game invented weekly by the ‘Committee of Fun.’

As I became more comfortable at my internship, Scrum actually became my favourite part of the day. As embarrassing as it was to mumble “I’m still working on the failing tests” fourteen mornings in a row in front of coworkers I admired, by July or so we had developed a rapport. Eventually, I even looked forward to miming the phrase ‘Hannah Montana’ for my puzzled superiors to try and guess—by this point, we had graduated from simple cards to ‘Heads Up.’

One of the strangest parts of working in a company like this was that no one ever acknowledged how peculiar the environment really was. When you’ve never heard the phrase ‘backlog grooming’ before, it can be easy to assume everyone around you is brainwashed and chalk the vernacular up to doublespeak. But, eventually, I realized that my coworkers weren’t brainwashed: They were just adults going to work every day. Scrum didn’t exist at my company to impose arbitrary rituals—it existed because it works. And, as peculiar as the mandatory company ‘Fun Day’ still felt to me in the final weeks of my internship, it did serve its purpose. The softball tournament was a fun and welcome break from the day-to-day monotony, even if it was at the expense of half of the IT department’s ability to walk for the next week.

McGill, News

Department ratifies guidelines on staff-student relationships

by Elizabeth Strong on

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The Political Science Students’ Association (PSSA) announced on Oct. 9 that the Department of Political Science had unanimously ratified a set of guidelines regarding relationships between instructors and students at McGill, becoming the first department at McGill to do so.

McGill’s Policy Against Sexual Violence suggests that professor-student relationships constitute an abuse of authority, although the administration also released a memorandum in May which outlines how intimate relationships between staff and students should be conducted. For its part, the Department of Political Science’s new guidelines take a strong stance against intimate relationships between instructors and their students.

“The department regards intimate friendships as well as sexual and romantic relationships between instructors and students as generally incompatible with educators’ professional responsibility,” the guidelines read.

The guidelines define ‘instructors’ as professors, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and teaching assistants. The document also offers a list of recommended practices for teaching staff, including advice on appropriate office hours, social media conduct, and respecting students’ privacy.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, PSSA President Bella Harvey stressed the importance of having these guidelines formally and explicitly written out.

“I think some things, even if they’re understood, [need to be formalized],” Harvey said. “I think [the guidelines are] an accountability mechanism for students to have and for the department to have.”

Harvey also expressed her belief that these guidelines will set an example for other departments and even inspire them to pursue similar guidelines.

“I know [the Department of History] is working on [similar regulations] now, too, and I’ve had [the Institute of] Islamic Studies [ask about them as well],” Harvey said. “I think a lot of students and professors in various departments would like to establish these on a departmental level. I think they’re a good template for other departments and students to use, as well.”

However, Harvey emphasized that these guidelines are part of a greater change.

“Hopefully these issues will stop in their tracks,” Harvey said. “But I also realize that a piece of paper isn’t necessarily going to do that […] I at least think it is a step in the right direction.”

PSSA Vice President (VP) External Jennifer Chan echoed these sentiments and further clarified that these guidelines are the result of the previous work of many students.

“I think it’s important to remember that this is just one step forward and that the step forward could only happen with the labour put in by people, student groups, [and] individuals last year,” Chan said. “It’s not the first time people have been talking about student-teacher relations. And this kind of labour is disproportionately taken on by women, women of colour, black or Indigenous folks, trans folks.”

According to Chan, SSMU’s April 2018 Open Letter Regarding Complaints Against Professors helped mobilize the Department of Political Science to pass their guidelines. The letter, which asserted that the Office of the Dean of Arts had failed to seriously address complaints of sexual violence, called for a third-party investigation into the Office of the Dean of Arts on the handling of formal and informal complaints.

Chan and Harvey both emphasized that the good nature of the relationship between the PSSA and the Political Science Department was essential in getting these guidelines ratified. According to Harvey, had it not been for the support of the department, it would not have been possible to pass these guidelines.

“We are very privileged and lucky as a student association to have the relationship that we do with our department.” Harvey said. “I know other groups have a harder time, but it’s still important that they try.”

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