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Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

McGill’s first all black play tackles injustice with poetry without mincing words

by Sophie Brzozowski on

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“I was missin’ something,” begins Munyaradzi Guramatunhu’s note, introducing her rendition of the play for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf in Tuesday Night Cafe Theatre’s (TNC) black and white program. “Something so important, something that ought to exist.”

Though the words were adapted from the play’s final poem, “a laying on of hands,” they rang especially true for the Zimbabwe native and first-time director as she reflected on her time at McGill. Guramatunhu’s show has the distinction of being McGill’s first all-black production, a fact that is more embarrassing than it is shocking.

McGill theatre is notoriously lacking in representation, a glaring weakness that is often defended under the guise of cultural neutrality, or lack of content. With for colored girls, Guramatunhu seeks to correct this inequality.

“A lot of what’s disguised as cultural neutrality is not cultural neutrality at all,” Guramatunhu said. “It’s actually white hegemony in practice.”

The soul-crushing effects of racial homogeneity in the media is one of the many subjects packed into the 90-minute play. Presented by TNC in conjunction with the Black Student’s Network, this adaptation of Ntozake Shange’s 1976 choreopoem explores themes of sex, love, abuse, and culture—demonstrating the ways that these universal subjects function in the worlds of young black women.

Located in the basement of Morrice Hall, just beneath the Islamic studies library, TNC’s theater is small, but the cramped room and shallow stage only serve to make the cast members’ performance even larger and more captivating. The six-person cast radiated energy as they transformed seamlessly from persona to persona, each more heartbreaking and believable than the last. Though Ines Vieux Francoeur is the only McGill-based actress, Guramatunhu promises that there will be many more opportunities for actresses of colour to represent McGill in the future.

The play is performed as a series of poems rather than divided into acts. Some of the stories are told in a linear fashion, while others unfold as a conversation. Several are accompanied by musical numbers, choreographed by Guramatunhu. Each of the poems illustrates a particular vignette or scene from a character’s life, written and performed so viscerally that they seem to have emerged from something more personal than a script. Despite the director’s lack of experience, the show is staged to near perfection—each scene tight and polished.

Although most of the stories revolve around broad themes of systemic injustice, the play narrows the scope of its narrative to focus on the intimate stories of individuals, rather than the politics surrounding the issues. Even the poem entitled “abortion cycle #1,” poignantly delivered by Keren Roberts, refreshingly forgoes the usual discursive tropes. Instead of addressing the issue from a legislative point of view, discussing the female body as though it were the subject of some convoluted bylaw, the play tells a story about what it feels like to get an abortion. The pain, the shame, and the isolation of receiving a medical procedure—too often disguised as a punishment—are all portrayed brilliantly onstage.

The cast refused to censor the ugliness of some of it’s subject matter, often at the expense of the audience’s comfort; performances were often troubling, but always authentic. Likewise, the poem, “latent rapists,” performed with heartbreaking vulnerability by Jamila Joseph, Benita Bailey and Keren Roberts, discusses the humiliation and loneliness felt by survivors, rather than trying to tackle the effects of the epidemic at large. Despite the tragedy and injustice that for colored girls depicts, the play is, above all, a celebration of black women and their strength and resilience.

“This is what it feels like to be at the bottom of the totem pole of so many societies,” Guramatunhi said. “But it’s also an act of therapy.”

Students can forward to more representational content from McGill’s theatre companies in the future.

“This is not a singular event,” Guramatunhi insisted. “This is just the beginning, the next play will be all black students from McGill.”

TNC’s for colored girls will show Wednesday to Saturday Night until November 25th at 7:30 pm in Morrice Hall, 3485 Rue McTavish. Tickets are $6 for students and $10 general admission.

Science & Technology

AstroMcGill talk sheds light on the Big Bang

by Emma Gillies on

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The universe is comprised of billions of galaxies—encompassing all of space, all of time, and all of its contents. It all started with a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

On Nov. 16,  particle physicist and cosmologist Oscar Hernández spoke about the Big Bang at AstroMcGill’s event Where, When & Will It Ever End: a Muggle’s Guide to Our Big Bang, at McGill’s McIntyre Medical Building.

Hernández pointed out a common misconception: The Big Bang was not actually an explosion. It was, in fact, an expansion. According to Hernández, a better name for the theory would be the “Everywhere Stretch Theory.”

Like most discoveries, this one cannot be localized or attributed to one person. In 1842, Christian Doppler proposed the Doppler Effect for light—that the colour of a star’s light changes according to its velocity. Redshift indicates that an object is moving away from the viewer, while blueshift indicates that it is moving closer. Furthermore, in 1912, Vesto Slipher first observed galaxy light and saw that it was redshifted.

Other scientists contributed to the theoretical understanding of expansion. Albert Einstein  published his general relativity field equations in 1915, which he was able to use to derive a history of the universe—despite its inaccuracy.

“Einstein got a solution to his equation but […] he forced that solution to be static,” Hernández said. “Spacetime tells energy and matter how to move, and energy and matter tell spacetime how to curve, and Einstein comes up with his static universe solution that’s not stable.”

Edwin Hubble was given the credit for the discovery of the cosmos. In 1923, Hubble showed that “clouds” that were previously thought to be nebulae were actually other galaxies that were millions of light years away. He then studied the velocities of these galaxies, and in 1929, concluded that they were receding from Earth, and thus that the universe was expanding.

In 1927, Georges Lemaître proposed the Big Bang Theory—which he called the “hypothesis of the primeval atom”—using Einstein’s equations and theories of general relativity. Building upon earlier observations, he said that if the universe was expanding, the galaxies’ light should be redshifted.

Lemaître proposed and Hubble calculated that space was literally expanding and growing between the galaxies. Hernández equated galaxies to raisins in a rising loaf of bread—they’re not moving apart, but rather space is getting bigger.

“The laws of physics are time-symmetric […] so we can run this movie backwards 14 billion years to get this very dense, very hot, very well-ordered, very small cosmic egg of pure energy,” Hernández said.

This relation directly connects the astronomically big to the infinitesimally small. In other words, to study the beginning moments of something as big as the universe, the extremely tiny must also be analyzed.

“[For the first 380,000 years of cosmic time], when the temperature was above 3000 Kelvin, […] light electrons and protons were in a cosmic soup. They were not bound together,” Hernández said.

But as the universe aged and expanded, it cooled. The protons and electrons had less energy to resist one another, thus combining to form hydrogen: The most common element in the universe.

“With fewer free electrons for light to interact with, the universe became transparent,” Hernández said. “When we finally see the light here on Earth, [it] has been stretched so much by the 14 billion-year expansion of space that its frequency and colour have shifted from the original semi-white all the way to cool microwaves.”

This radiation, called the cosmic microwave background, is the heat left over from the Big Bang. Astrophysicists have even been able to map its afterglow.

So, to answer where, when, and will it ever end—the Big Bang occurred everywhere almost 14 billion years ago, and the expansion is not going to end. In fact, scientists have discovered that it is accelerating over time.

There’s still much to learn about the beginning of our universe. By fully understanding its expansion, the mysteries of its origin can be unravelled.

Emerging Trends, Student Life

Making room for meditation: How McGill students find peace

by Mary Keith on

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It’s no secret that attending McGill comes with a slew of academic and social demands. As a result, many students experience anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems during their time here. While there are ways to treat such disorders, including medication and therapy in persistent cases, another method to alleviate their symptoms is meditation. As a practice that has existed for centuries, meditation comes with a range of benefits, including reduced stress, increased productivity, and improved moods overall.

Meditation is the practice of contemplation or focus for a fixed period of time. It typically entails sitting still and often focusing on one thing, whether one’s breath, a mantra, or a guided recording. Many students who meditate opt for a few minutes per day, while others try for 20 minutes in the morning and evening. There is no rigidity to scheduling, because meditation is what one makes of it. Taking the opportunity to meditate, even if it’s just for five minutes, is beneficial nonetheless.

Netanel Schondorf, U2 Arts, sets aside time everyday to just sit and breathe. He has been meditating for three years, and uses the practice as way to alleviate his anxiety.

“If you are an anxious person and tend to get lost in cyclical thought patterns, one thing that meditation will do is remove you from the situation and let you be a passive observer to your thoughts, and not necessarily pursue them and not get stuck in them,” Schondorf said.  

Aside from experiencing the desired long-term benefits for his mental health, Schondorf found that meditation helped him look inward and harness a sense of self-awareness. Over time, meditating aided in regulating his sleep schedule and altered his relationship to stress.

“[Meditation] will make the stress you feel healthier,” Schondorf said. “Stress is just going to happen, and trying to fight stress doesn’t work very well, but coming to terms with it tends to work a lot better.”

In addition to managing stress and anxiety, Schondorf developed productive working habits as a result of his meditation. When presented with the choice of watching Netflix or studying, he has fostered a sense of self-discipline to choose to hit the books. With all of its undeniable benefits and overall positivity, Schondorf recommends pursuing meditation with patience to all.

“Don’t go into it with any expectations,” Schondorf said. “It’s a pretty long-term thing, and the changes are subtle over time. What I will say is that even if you don’t see immediate results, of all the activities I do that have made my life better, this one has the lowest investment with the highest payoff.”

Niketan Valapakam, U3 Management, has been meditating for four months. He began after experiencing sadness and anger following a job rejection.

“When I realized my state of happiness is dependent on such small things around me, I can’t really go far in life,” Valapakam said. “I decided to get more introspective about how I feel about things.”  

Valapakam took lessons through the program Inner Engineering, which includes lessons online, in books, and at retreats. He started seeing small changes in his mindset in the first three to four days, and continues to notice improvements in his mood and outlook.

“I am using this tool to further enhance the things that I don’t know and as I keep using this tool, things are getting more clear,” Valapakam said. “I just have general introspective clarity about things, starting with myself as a person [….] When starting meditation, be skeptical, not cynical, in order to allow something to work, and if it does work, then you are the living experience of the truth that is happening.”

Meditation has stood the test of time and has benefited many at McGill. If students are interested in giving meditation a try, there are plenty of how-to-websites, with free guided meditation and breathing exercises of all sorts of lengths that can fit into any schedule or location: Headspace or Calm are just two of the many free meditation apps available. Furthermore, the McGill Office of Spiritual and Religious Life offers free campus meditation services. With a jump-start on meditation, perhaps the benefits will kick-in just in time for finals–so keep calm, and meditate on.

Meditation is not meant to be a cure-all for depression and anxiety, and should one experience persistent symptoms of these disorders, seeking help through medicine and therapy is the recommended route. McGill offers both psychiatric and counselling services, both of which students can and are encouraged to use. If you find yourself in a crisis, you can call the McGill Nightline at 514-398-6246 or the Quebec National Crisis Line at 1-866-277-3553.

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

Lady Bird forgoes condescending tropes for character empowerment

by Brandon Kaufman on

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Lady Bird is Greta Gerwig’s solo debut as writer and director, but the film is crafted so adeptly you’d think it was helmed by a filmmaker in her prime. Saoirse Ronan stars as Christine (Lady Bird) McPherson, a quirky senior at a Sacramento Catholic school in 2003 who identifies as living on the “wrong side of tracks.” She dreams of leaving her city, going to college in New York “where culture is,” or New Hampshire “where writers live in the woods.”

Lady Bird’s family’s financial difficulties make her hesitant to apply to an East Coast liberal arts college, and this economic stress permeates virtually all aspects of her life. Lady Bird’s enrolment at her private school rests on an academic scholarship; her family’s groceries are bought discounted from the store her brother works at; her wardrobe is comprised entirely of hand-me-downs and thrifted clothes. This pervasive sense of financial dread is captured excellently by Laurie Metcalf, who portrays Lady Bird’s mother Marion. Playing a nurse who works double shifts after her husband (the similarly outstanding Tracy Letts) is laid off and becomes oddly unmotivated, Metcalf is an early frontrunner for Best Supporting Actress. She appears to Lady Bird as uptight and hawkish, and she is. But Lady Bird seems unable to connect this to her stressful 12-hour work days and equally stressful weekends dealing with a volatile teen daughter.

 

Lady Bird’s romantic life is explored with nuance and sympathy. She dates Danny (Lucas Hedges), the star of the school play. The relationship ends quickly and on a particularly poor note, devastating her. She sobs to Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me” with her best friend Julie (Beanie Feldstein), but in a couple of scenes is back to her typical, single self

Gerwig does not let Lady Bird’s relationships define her, though she is honest in depicting teenagers as earnestly thinking a two-week fling is the one. Later, Lady Bird begins dating Kyle (Timothée Chalamet), a guitar-playing anarchist who reads Howard Zinn and lives in a house four times the size of Lady Bird’s. She begins hanging out with his friends, whom a less astute filmmaker would depict as bullies. Gerwig’s screenplay avoids this cliché—they seem to be kind people, inclined to socialize among themselves but genuinely happy to engage with outsiders. The increasing amount of time Lady Bird spends with this group comes at the expense of her time with Julie, and a temporary falling-out ensues. No coming-of-age movie, it seems, can avoid the fallacy of limited time—where a character must choose between two easily reconcilable interests. The subordination of practicality to drama is necessary in storytelling, but can be frustrating. Still, this choice serves as a lesson for Lady Bird and is but one step in her film-wide development.

By the movie’s end, Lady Bird realizes her ego has been obscuring her vision of those around her—recognizing that her father is afflicted with depression, that Danny suffers from his own problems, that her mother doesn’t hate her, but is naturally overwhelmed with having to keep her family afloat. This initial self-centredness isn’t a character flaw but a stage all high schoolers have to get over.

 

Album Reviews, Arts & Entertainment, Music

Album Review: Sleigh Bells – “Kid Kruschev”

by Josh Marchesini on

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Since their 2010 debut, Sleigh Bells have been dubbed the poster child for “noise-pop”—defined as a combination of angelic pop vocals, distortion, and white noise–conveying an overbearing presence that cannot be ignored. Four albums later, vocalist Alexis Krauss and producer/songwriter Derek E. Miller embark on a thematic departure, Kid Kruschev, reflecting their artistic development over the years with new personal and political undertones. Upon the first listen, Sleigh Bells’ new album deviates from the singular explosive, in-your-face temperament, opting for the inclusion of synths and acoustic guitars. However, a closer look at the 7-track EP proves that Sleigh Bells evolve their sound, not only with these new vibrant tones but also with Krauss’ vocals governing the album’s sonic nature.

On their debut, Treats, Sleigh Bells established a genre-bending sound that would carry over the next two albums. However, the synth-pop Jessica Rabbit was a precursor to this new album, harnessing the noisy guitars with the domineering vocal presence of Krauss. Notably, “Blue Trash Mattress Fire,” the opening track, exhibits this position with Krauss belting over the droning guitar riffs throughout. As well, in “Rainmaker,” her voice dictates the booming synths as she croons over a failed relationship.

Like other American artists, Sleigh Bells allude to the current socio-political climate. During the instrumental crescendo in “Show Me the Door,” Krauss duets with a robotic voice, repeating the phrase “Check it out/ Check it out/ The faith’s going away.” This absence of faith, reinforces the darker subject matter present in the album. As well, in “Blue Trash Mattress Fire,” Krauss alludes to political instability: “Evidence of moral detours/ In the downtown holy wars/ Hysterical depths of casual hatred/ Taking place in everyday places.” On a personal level, “Florida Thunderstorm” substitutes the rough guitar riffs for acoustic guitars, layered with Krauss’ low pitch vocals singing over the loss of a loved one. While this deviates from their conventional sound, this experimentation still compliments Miller’s strategy of incorporating unorthodox sounds, such as chirping birds and pronounced reverbs, to disrupt the listener’s experience.

Kid Kruschev can be viewed as Sleigh Bells looking back at their artistic evolution, holding onto their noise-pop roots with powerful vocals. Sleigh Bells find themselves trying to balance a signature sound, while evolving sonically with electronic textures adopted by many in the last decade. Nonetheless, Sleigh Bells deserve attention, looking at their artistic oeuvre to suggest what may well be, the future of pop music.

Sleigh Bells will be performing in Montreal on Jan. 27, 2018 at L’Astral.

 

Science & Technology, Student Research

McGill alumni poised to blow out speaker industry

by Karl Neumann on

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Audio loudspeakers, unlike many other technologies, have seen relatively little advancement since their creation in the late 1800s. That was until ORA Graphene Audio Inc., founded by brothers and McGill PhD graduates Robert-Eric Gaskell and Peter Gaskell, integrated a new material into their speaker design—taking the audio world by storm with their groundbreaking graphene-based headphone technology.

The sibling entrepreneurs both received their doctorates from McGill: Robert-Eric specialized in sound recording while Peter studied electrical engineering. The brothers founded ORA, now valued in the millions, in 2014 while they were still pursuing their doctorates. At the time, Peter was trying to use graphene in batteries while Robert-Eric Gaskell was working on microphone technology. What began as off-the-clock experiments, mixing Robert-Eric’s microphones with Peter’s material-of-interest graphene, eventually transformed into a success story.

 

Graphene, the key to ORA’s innovation, was first extracted with regular Scotch-tape in 2004. The professors responsible for the discovery, Andre K. Geim and Konstantin S. Novoselov at the University of Manchester, subsequently won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. The material is comprised of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged into a hexagonal or ‘honeycomb’ lattice and has a variety of remarkable properties. The substance is the strongest ever discovered, over 150 times stronger than steel and 40 times tougher than diamond. Furthermore, it’s one of the world’s lightest materials, extremely rigid, and excellent at damping vibrations.

Despite this assortment of useful characteristics, graphene has resisted commercialization since its debut over a decade ago. That remained the case until the Gaskell brothers created a composite material in 2013 which they dubbed GrapheneQ. Thomas Szkopek, associate professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, urged the siblings to patent their invention in 2014. GrapheneQ is made up of thousands of layers of graphene which comprise 95 per cent of the material, while the remainder contains binding components that enable its usability beyond that of pure graphene.

What sets ORA’s headphones apart from others on the market is the vibrating cone within each speaker, made of GrapheneQ. This cone converts electrical signals into mechanical waves that are then interpreted as sound. Other speakers on the market use materials such as aluminum or composite paper for this component, but have to make cost-benefit decisions in order to maximize the three central qualities of a speaker cone: Minimal weight, maximal strength, and great damping ability.

The quality of these headphones will be benefitted by their cone material because graphene excels in regards to all three of the properties. The difficulty comes in molding and manufacturing the notoriously complex material. The layered GrapheneQ must be shaped while maintaining these desired properties. The result is crisp, loud, and energy-efficient acoustics that could potentially set a new standard for headphone design.

Even though the brothers are currently pursuing the headphone market, the company has larger plans for the future. Robert-Eric envisions potential for their technology beyond headwear.

“We can make loudspeakers much smaller but with the same output [as other products], which is attractive to smartphone producers in particular, in order to make thinner or louder devices,” Robert-Eric said.

This potential next step could bring GrapheneQ into millions of pockets worldwide.

A product that began with two brothers working off-hours in a McGill lab has amplified to the point that even Silicon Valley is yearning to integrate their new technology. No matter ORA’s next move, the burgeoning company is at the precipice of changing an industry and is turning up the volume in an otherwise unchanging market.

News, SSMU

SSMU Legislative Council discusses committee on governance reform

by Emma Avery on

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At its Nov. 16 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion for Nominating Committee of the Board of Directors to Undertake the Selection of Future Board Members Anonymously and the Motion to Amend the Standing Rules to ease the deadlines for presenting motions. Faculty Councillor Anthony Koch was nominated to sit on the Special Committee on Anti-Semitism, which will report to Council in Winter 2018.

Ollivier Dyens and Council talk Governance reform

The first major topic of the session was governance reform. Ollivier Dyens, deputy provost (Student Life and Learning), spoke to Council on this matter before the call to order.

Dyens explained that responsibility for student mental health falls not only on the university, but on students, who must work to cultivate a supportive environment for each other. To Dyens, clarifying SSMU’s constitution is essential to reducing conflicts between students. He suggested hiring an external party to lead the charge in reforming SSMU’s governance structure.

“You guys are going through a turbulent period,” Dyens said. “Your own constitution seems to be, at certain moments, unclear [….] As a university, we want to see SSMU survive. We want to see SSMU together, and being a place where things are healthy for students and debate.”

Council later debated the Motion to Call a Special Referendum Period, which proposed an additional referendum later this month to consider a question regarding constitutional reforms. As the mover of the motion, SSMU Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer conceded that the question should be moved to the Winter 2018 Referendum, following concerns over voter burnout within SSMU’s membership. In the interim, she called for Council to commit to starting a larger conversation on governance reform in order to prevent similar issues from recurring every year.

“We need to start having a very large and very long conversation about what governance at SSMU is, and what we’re expecting, and where all the holes are,” Spencer said. “I would really like to pitch […] a commitment to start a larger conversation about [SSMU’s governance structure within…] this body, because we’re all the elected representatives from all the different faculties, and we can make sure our students’ voices are heard within that.”

Following the debate, rules were suspended to add a Motion to Investigate a Committee on Governance Reform, which carried. Council decided that executives and councillors would first look into the options available for starting the process of governance reform, and then determine whether creating an internal committee would be the best solution. VP University Affairs Isabelle Oke explained her stance that more research is necessary before a committee is formed.

“Committees as a first step are one option, [but] I don’t think it’s our only option moving forward,” Oke said. “What I’m suggesting is some kind of mandate, for somebody […] to put together all of the options that we can actually take as a council moving forward, and what resources we’re working with as well.”

Motion for selecting future Board of Directors members anonymously passes

Council voted to remove applicants’ names from applications for future Board of Directors (BoD) seats, through every step of the nominating process until the interview stage. The motion passed with 27 votes in favour, with an amendment added to remove other identifying information irrelevant to the applicant’s qualifications for the position.

While discussing this motion, Council members advocated for the additional need to create a broader policy on hiring processes, which it does not have. SSMU is seeking to fill an equitable hiring position to investigate current hiring practices and alter them for accessibility and transparency.

“This [motion] is an interim step to try and deal with all of the cases that come to the Society now until we have the research that will help us have more rigorous and sustainable practices in our Society,” Oke said.

 
McGill, News

MUS investigates Hype Week participant donning shirt with misogynistic slurs

by Helen Wu on

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On Nov. 3, a student entered the Bronfman Building Quesada wearing a shirt that read “Newhore 17 Year Olds Only” on the back in permanent marker. The shirt was a team uniform for Hype Week, an annual week-long social event with a prominent focus on drinking, organised by the Management Undergraduate Society (MUS).

Mads Motush, U3 Arts student and floor fellow at Solin Hall, reported the incident to the Dean of Students, Chris Buddle, the MUS Executives, and the Students’ Society of McGill University Equity Committee. McGill and MUS have since begun investigating the misconduct, although the circumstances of the investigations are currently confidential. Word of the incident also circulated throughout social media, sparking discussion of misogyny and rape culture on campus on McGill’s subreddit.

In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Motush explained that he, along with other onlookers at Quesada, felt outraged by the message on the student’s shirt. Motush later posted a photo of the shirt publicly on his personal Facebook page. However, even after reporting the sighting to the university through formal channels, Motush was disappointed by the responses he received, which he felt did not address the culture of Hype Week as a whole.

“I felt that, despite my initial email where I detail how the perpetrator must have felt supported enough by the institution in order to wear that shirt, the email that Chris Buddle sent out really only addressed [the misconduct] as a singular instance,” Motush said. “I felt he should have at least acknowledged the structure of Carnival [and] Hype Week that encourages this type of behaviour.”

According to Vice-President Events of the MUS Yannick Leblanc, the MUS worked with McGill to take action against the student on Nov. 4 after receiving reports from Buddle and Motush. MUS President Alexandre Perron also posted an official statement about the incident, clarifying the Society’s stance on the matter.

“The MUS and the Winter Carnival Committee are committed to ensuring that a culture of respect, tolerance, and inclusivity is upheld in every event that we hold," Perron wrote. “The MUS will continue to review and adapt its policies and implementation of events to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all students involved.”

Buddle noted that his administration has been working closely with all student societies in an attempt to mitigate sexual violence at large social events.

“We have been working with all student societies on a suite of their events, including Frosh, Hype week and others,” Buddle said. “I believe there have been many improvements, including additional training and education. Our goal is to continue to work collaboratively with student societies.”

Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic) Christopher Manfredi also addressed this incident of misconduct in an email sent to all McGill students on Nov. 13. Manfredi condemned the Hype Week participant for perpetuating misogyny, and encouraged all those with concerns to reach out to McGill’s Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support and Education (O-SVRSE).

According to Bianca Tétrault, Sexual Violence Education advisor at the O-SVRSE, McGill’s organized drinking events are central to any discussions of sexual violence on campus. She recommended ways to prevent this type of misconduct, including educating students on the impact of inappropriate actions, encouraging bystanders to be active, and holding offenders accountable.

“Inappropriate behaviour are not isolated to specific events,” Tetrault said. “Our office strives to work with all different types of groups on campus to address violence in our community, but we do try to give extra attention to the larger groups as we know that when participant numbers rise, there is a higher chance that problems can occur.”

If you are affected by sexual violence or harassment, McGill has resources that you can turn to. You can contact the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) at 514-398-8500 or [email protected] or the Office for Sexual Violence Response, Support, and Education (O-SVRSE) at 514-398-3786 or [email protected].

 

Commentary, Opinion

McGill Arts Freshman Program needs a rehaul

by Hannibal de Pencier on

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McGill’s U0 Arts curriculum is failing its students. The Arts Freshman Program’s purpose is to encourage academic diversification, and provide students with a basis of knowledge in the liberal arts. It requires first years to fulfill broad credit requirements across three of four streams—social sciences, humanities, languages, and mathematics and sciences. Ideally, first-year McGill students would see the value of a varied and challenging education and choose their courses accordingly. If this were the case, the current system would be a sufficient framework; however, leaving the burden on students to develop a challenging and well-rounded U0 curriculum is ultimately wishful thinking. McGill’s freshman program has the right idea in spirit, but not in execution. The university needs to radically reorganize the Freshman Program in order to realize its intended value.

The program’s current form allows students to largely subvert its aims. Many courses, like English and French, overlap as two categories (language and humanities), allowing students to avoid one layer of diversification. Instead of pursuing challenging and widely applicable subjects, students often take whatever courses seem easiest in a category, particularly within the categories that they are less academically interested in. Fringe courses, like The Art of Listening, Natural Disasters, and Chemistry of Drugs end up packed with apathetic students, enrolled purely to meet program stipulations, or trying to get an easy A. Such courses may be valuable in and of themselves, but are often insufficient to serve as a basis of knowledge in that field.

Students’ disregard for the value of academic diversification, and inclinations to specialize prematurely are understandable. Undergraduate degrees, especially in the arts, are an increasingly large and uncertain investment. As such, aggressive specialization—especially in majors that are seen as employable—and a subsequent disregard for exploring a diversity of subjects seems like a logical solution. Expertise is marketable, and it’s often tempting to simply take the easiest route to gain proof (a diploma) of such specialized knowledge.

In a field of study as interconnected as the liberal arts, a system funnelled toward specialization limits the possibilities of valuable cross-subject conjecture.

While specialization is necessary in academics, it should be preceded by comprehensive overview of subjects for two major reasons. First, taking a breadth of courses allows students to consider multiple fields that they may not have previously been exposed to. More importantly, it also forms a necessary basis of cultural and intellectual context from which to view and critically examine a narrower academic field. In a field of study as interconnected as the liberal arts, a system funnelled toward specialization limits the possibilities of valuable cross-subject conjecture.

Philosophy, for example, cannot be divorced from any subject in the Arts. Be it art history, political science, gender studies, or linguistics, a basic education in philosophy immediately expands a subject’s potential breadth. A student of 17th-century literature, for example, is at a loss if they are completely ignorant of the era’s popular political theory, just as their study of Wagner is lacking without consideration of Nietzsche. The liberal arts are ultimately cultural phenomena, and lose potency when perfectly siloed.

Examples of comprehensive general programs do exist. Columbia University’s Core Curriculum claims “to provide all students [regardless of major] with wide-ranging perspectives on significant ideas and achievements in literature, philosophy, history, music, art, and science.” The freshman program’s mandatory courses include a survey of moral and political thought since Plato and an introduction of Western literature. In Canada, the Foundation Year at King’s College in Halifax incorporates a mandatory and intensive seminal reading list comprising its entire first-year curriculum. While McGill may not need to go as far as to adopt a uniform curriculum like King’s, the university should be more prescriptive in its role to ensure a foundational freshman education.

McGill cannot assume that students will independently choose a diverse range of courses, rather than the easiest option to fill a quota. Instead, the school should make certain courses mandatory in each of the already specified streams, for example an introductory philosophy course in the humanities. Education should be an end unto itself, and McGill’s Freshman Program should emphasize this principle. That means overcoming the reduction of university education into a simple transaction of money and time for a diploma. McGill needs to re-evaluate its U0 Arts program, and build it as an introduction to new ideas and fields of study, rather than just a hurdle to U1.

 

 

Hannibal DePencier is a U0 Arts student at McGill. He is a canoe tripping enthusiast and all-around granola guy.

 

@mcgilltribop | [email protected]

 

 

News, PGSS

PGSS General Assembly debates DPS and external affiliations under new Secretary-General

by Kendall McGowan on

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McGill’s Postgraduate Students’ Society (PGSS) held its Fall General Assembly (GA) in the Thomson House ballroom on Nov. 15. At the GA, Unité de travail pour l’implantation de logement étudiant (UTILE) and the Quebec Student Union (QSU) gave presentations on their work and discussed an affiliation with PGSS would look like.

The GA also unanimously voted to condemn Bill 62, endorsed a ‘yes’ vote on the Daily Publication Society (DPS) Referendum after extensive debate, and welcomed recently-elected Secretary-General Maria Tippler to the executive. Following a brief presentation from Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) External Connor Spencer on the Our Turn national action plan, GA attendees voted to endorse the creation of a task force to implement the plan within PGSS.

Presentations and debate on Montreal student groups

In their presentation, UTILE President Laurent Levesque, who was joined by SSMU Community Affairs Commissioner Julien Tremblay-Gravel, described the organization and invited PGSS to collaborate. According to Levesque, UTILE is a nonprofit organization that works with student unions throughout Quebec to improve students’ living conditions.

Levesque referenced “studentification,” in which the growth of a student population in a neighbourhood decreases local property values and alienates other permanent residents. He cited the Milton-Parc community and the Plateau as examples of this. According to Levesque, UTILE is conducting a study on this form of gentrification and the feasibility of student housing options that avoid perpetuating it.

However, PGSS Equity Commissioner Emil Briones said they were not satisfied with the UTILE feasibility study proposed, and called for further examination of the disproportionate impact studentification has on minorities.

“Housing is a really loaded issue and I was not satisfied from the response of the UTILE representatives,” Briones said. “We know from empirical studies on social inequality that there are hard racial lines to be considered when we discuss housing, and at McGill in particular. Because of the demographic makeup of the student body we are very much complicit in the displacement of minoritized communities.”

In the second presentation, QSU Vice President Guillaume Lecorps gave an overview of the organization, which advocates for 77,000 students in Quebec at both the provincial and federal level. Some PGSS members took issue with the Union’s stance on Bill 62, which only condemned its specific effects on students, not its broader social impact.

PGSS External Affairs Officer Hocine Slimani explained that he invited QSU to speak because PGSS is currently unaffiliated with any student advocacy group, leaving it unrepresented on a provincial and a federal level. He also explained that former Secretary-General Jacob Lavigne observed both QSU and the Association for the Voice of Education in Quebec (AVEQ), and wrote a report recommending that PGSS join the former. The PGSS currently remains unaffiliated with any federal student association, but hopes to vote to change this at some point in the future.

DPS endorsement vote narrowly succeeds

Family Medicine Graduate Student Society (MSc) Representative Jacquie Safieh moved for the PGSS to endorse a “yes” vote on the DPS Referendum. Safieh highlighted the Daily’s 116-year history and Le Délit’s status as the only francophone newspaper on campus.

Financial Affairs Officer Matthew Satterthwaite spoke against the motion because of frustration over how the referendum was implemented. He raised concerns that undergraduate students were overrepresented in the vote, and referenced confusion with distributing the ballot to all PGSS members, a miscommunication that led Elections SSMU to cancel the original online ballot at the end of the first day of voting.

“I don’t want this to be seen as me being against the DPS, I’m not taking a stance on that,” Satterthwaite said. “I’m against this referendum itself because it has not been run in a transparent manner, and it has been very full of confusion for everyone involved.”

The motion passed 35-25. The DPS has since won its referendum vote.

Introduction of new Secretary-General

Nov. 15 marked PGSS’ first meeting since electing Tippler to fill Lavigne’s vacant seat. Satterthwaite welcomed and congratulated her, and thanked the executives who fulfilled Secretary-General duties while the position was vacant.

“It has been fairly difficult for the executives in the past few months, and we have been without a Secretary-General since August, essentially,” Satterthwaite said. “I’d just like to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work of all the other executives, a lot of which are sitting here. Everyone really stepped up and we survived throughout all of this. We’re very fortunate to have a very strong team.”

 

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