Protesters Province wide education protest fizzles. climb Stephanie Taylor says no to gravity. 10 corridors Sarah Craig discusses the architecture of music off colour since 1918 VOLUME 78 ISSUE 45 TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 TRYING TIMES: UBC's Kerry Webb tries to tackle a member of the Vancouver Rowing Club rugby team in Sunday's provincial final. UBC lost the game 25-7. richard lam photo Women's rugby magic runs out After a huge upset win followed by a heart breaking loss in the final, the UBC women's rugby team is still living happily ever after. by Wolf Depner The clock strikes midnight Sunday afternoon, but there is no horse-drawn carriage to whisk away the T-Bird women's rugby team. Their Cinderella season ends with a 25-7 loss to the Vancouver Rowers in the BC championship. But the studded metal cleats still fit and the gala ball is far from over. Indeed, it's just getting started. Decked out in the finest blue-and-gold rugby cloth, with ice packs sparkling on freshly bruised limbs, the sun-reddened T- Birds celebrate in the locker room for everyone to see—with bubbly and suds. "Come on in, guys," urges half scrum Sam Cook to teammates still lingering on the field, talking to friends and family. Coming down the steps leading into the locker room, captain Angie Hays picks up her pace when she hears Cook's call. a\nd as Hays steps into the small room, she is greeted by her older sister Christy with a cold champagne shower. The room erupts with laughter. Make no mistake—Sunday's loss bothers the Birds, but their frowns soon turn to smiles as the players reflect on what a fairy tale year it was. Sunday's impromptu party was all about celebrating the team's finest season in its six-year existence. A long shot, UBC made it to the final for the first time ever, with a team short on experience, but long on heart and athleticism. "I keep reminding them that they are up against people who played ten or fifteen years of rugby and that they have all played what, two or three," said head coach Heather Miller. "So to make it to a final with that Utile experience really says something." They got there by beating the most experienced in BC women's rugby—the Ex-Brit Lions. The Lions had held the crown for the past six years and UBC's 24-14 upset sent a shock through the rugby queendom. All the subjects were asking: can the fair Birds claim the crown themselves by toppling the wicked Rowers? Could Cinderella find Prince Charming? No, but no matter. 'We're already ahead of all the other university teams—SFU, UVic, UNBC—and practically ahead of all the other club teams as well," Cook said. "I don't think we have a damned thing to be ashamed of." "It's disappointing to lose, but everything considered it was a great season, a great team," said full back Kim Bourbonais who scored the Birds lone try. Her 30 yard scoring run pulled the Birds within three with five minutes remaining in the first half. Unfortunately, Bourbonais' run was the lone offensive highlight for the Birds who were without three regulars—most notably prop Leslie Gunning, a force in the scrum front row. And the Rowers pounced on UBC's weakened front. "A lot of the rucks were collapsing and they were diving down on the ball, which is actually illegal," Cook said. "It | "If s disappointing to lose, I but everything considered it was | a great season, a great team/7 I -Kim bourbonais I UBC FULL BACK made it really hard to get the ball back out. It wasn't that our forwards weren't strong enough to go over, they just had bodies lying in their path." That also made it harder to get the ball to the halfbacks on the outside. UBC relied on a strong running attack along the wings to tame the Lions two weeks ago, but never got on track against the Rowers who themselves posessed a strong outside game. "These guys didn't slow down and we didn't get the ball to the wings like we really wanted to," Cook added. The Rowers jumped out to a 10-0 lead twenty minutes into the game with two unconverted tries. Bourbonais' electrifying scoring run made it 10-7, but the Rowers weren't phased. Their try just a minute later restored the ten point margin and another early in the second half put the game away. "When they come right out and score right in our face, right in the beginning, it's a little tough to take," Cook said. "We found it a little bit difficult to adjust" While UBC played a strong defensive game in the second half, they couldn't move the ball against the bigger Rowers. "We didn't catch our second wind quite fast enough. We let down a little bit in the second half and they really played on it," explained Angie Hay. The magic simply ran out, leaving one to ask whether or not the Birds used it all up in the game against the Ex-Brits. Miller doesn't think so. "Beating the Ex- Brits gave this team the confidence it needed for this game," she said. "They know they're up against teams that have national team players on them...in the end, experience won out."»> 2 THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 Classifieds Classified Deadlines: Paid - 2 days prior. Friday Free Student Ads - Wednesdays at Noon. 822-1654 For Sale 78 Suzuki GS1000. excellent running condition. Reliable, fast transportation. $1000 firm. 251- 9789 Wanted Wanted - Macintosh computer troubleshooter. We need help with our LCII. Call Erik or Kathu @730- 5445. Tutoring Services Tutors... French & English Improve your French - conversation and writing. Also get help with your English home-work at all levels. Flexible hours - very reasonable rates. Contact: Oelicia Isabelle Lee@273- 5683. Housesitting Reliable woman is available to housesit 8-12 months. Ch.references available. 681-6098 or 432- 7631. 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The report found that since the 1980s, unemployment rates have gone up while wages and hours worked have dropped for young people between the ages of 15 to 25. Craig Riddell, a UBC economics professor and a specialist in youth employment, says these differences are mainly due to the recession. 'It is well documented that when the economy is in a recession [as it was in the early 1990s) it affects people who are entering the work force, such as youth, more than it affects adults,' said Riddell. 'Conversely, the [youth] unemployment rates also come down more during booms.' The good news, he said, is that as the economy improves, youth unemployment rates, which stand as high as 26 percent, could fall faster than those for the rest of the population. The news for students is also slightly better than it is for other young people. "In the 1990s employers ar.e much more inclined now to hire workers with a post-secondary education," said Riddell, "and almost all the growth in employment has been in the sector of people who have a post-secondary degree." People with only a high school education experienced a decline in employment growth in the 1990s. The bad news, the report said, is that that the quality of jobs for youth are also getting worse. Part- time employment rates have gone up 14 percent since 1976 and earning power in 1995 had gone down by nine dollars since 1989 for young people who are not students. 'There is a strong overall trend toward stronger employment growth for those who are more skilled and weaker employment growth for the less skilled,' said Riddell. The trend is worrying, he said, because over time the gap between the earning power of the skilled and unskilled will grow, creating significant income disparity. Ottawa seems to share those concerns. The federal government an nounced last month it would spend an extra $255 million to help young people get summer jobs and internships. The Canadian Federation of Students, however, views the effort as superficial and misleading. "For the federal government to say that it has increased funding to programs which address youth unemployment is misleading," said Joey Hansen, a CFS representative, "because what they are actually doing is restoring [funding] to the pre-1988 levels. Since 1988 the government has massively cut job creation funding programs.' But Riddell questions how much job-creation the government should be attempting. 'In general, I think governments are better at staying out of creating jobs,' he said, "the only way governments can help youth is by providing more access to a quality education.' And that access, Hansen said, is being limited by tuition fee increases that are being imposed across Canada. "It is clearly the case that it hasn't been in the commitment ofthe government to deal with the problem of youth unemployment," he said. ♦ 30 - 20 10 - a (V o -20 _ -30 -40 - university (+20%) some post sec. (+1%) college (-1%) ••, high school grad (-21 %) 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 SOURCE STATS CANADA Freshmen imagine no classes by Theresa Chaboyer First-year' students coming to UBC next year still won't be getting a frosh week, but they will get more than just an eight-digit number. For the first time in UBC history, the first day of classes will be an official orientation day for all first- year students. According to Associate Dean of Arts, Neil Guppy, the program, dubbed Imagine UBC, will attempt to welcome new students to the university and give them a chance to meet other students. 'What are the two most important days of your university career? Your first and last,' he said. In the past, Guppy said, one ofthe main problems for first-year students was that simple facts about the university were not adequately explained; as a result, adjustment was difficult. "Much of what UBC students learn they don't learn in the classroom,' he said. "We want to try to give to new students some awareness of the things that will make students more successful." Former AMS Co-ordinator of External Affairs, Allison Dunnet, is the student co-chair for the event. She said current plans for the day include a freshmen meeting with both the university and AMS presidents, an academic scavenger hunt in the afternoon and seminars with tips for first-year students. The day will end with a festive barbecue or dance. Dunnet, who made the initial proposal to the campus advisory board, said the project was a long time coming. 'I think one of the reasons this hasn't been done before is that nobody seems to have kind of gotten around to it,' she said. 'People are going to be encouraged not to run classes on that first day. Hopefully we'll get support.' Shirin Foroutan, AMS co-ordinator of external affairs, and a member of the frosh day steering committee said she hopes no classes at all will be held on September 2. She also said she was hopeful the event will compensate for the fact that many under-aged students can not attend the AMS BBQ. "We want to make sure all new students will be welcome to this event. It will be dry, drug and alcohol free." ♦ TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 THE UBYSSEY 3 AMS President's letter draws criticism by Ian Gunn An open letter to students by the Alma Mater Society president is under fire from other members of the student council. In the letter, published in AMS adver- stising space in the April 2 Ubyssey, Ryan Davies urged students to cast ballots in next week's student referendum on the new $90 Student Technology Fee. But the letter, critics charge, went well beyond that, flying in the face of council's position on the fee. "At the last AMS meeting, council had a motion before it to support a yes' vote. It was defeated and later we agreed to support a neutral stance," said Jessica Escribano, director of student affairs for the Graduate Student Society and AMS councillor. But what Davies published, she said, was "basically a statement of support for the 'yes' vote, overriding AMS council's authority-" Davies, though, defends the letter as having been fair. "I did make efforts to keep what I wrote neutral," he said Monday. But as a member of the committee that formulated the fee, he said, "I don't tiiink it was out of line for me to have communicated what I learned while sitting as the AMS rep on the committee." But Davies' attendance on that committee is also a concern for the GSS, Escribano said. "Ryan was not present at many of the meetings, so he's endorsing something he didn't even help to form." In response to what it describes as a great many e-mails from members in recent days, the GSS will present a motion to council tomorrow asking for Davies to retract the letter and apologise to council for overstepping its authority. The letter, Davies says, was written in good faith and achieved its goal of letting more students know about the technology fee vote. "The majority of students I speak to on campus now know about the fee, but don't know that they can vote on it next week. The important thing here is getting students out to vote... [this letter] is not really the issue."♦ Student protest has little impact by Douglas Quan Last-minute scheduling changes and confusion over objectives turned Monday's province-wide student strike into an event that was less unified than student organisers would have liked. The strike, which was publicised as a province-wide event, only took place at Vancouver's Langara College and Northwest College in Terrace. The Langara Student Union and their supporters set up pickets around the campus early Monday morning to protest lack of government funding to post-secondary education. Everyone that drove onto the campus was stopped and handed a flyer, but allowed to go through; some students had final exams. Many of the banners posted around the campus were directed at the provincial government: "Tuition freeze equal hidden "We are not anti-NDP, we are anti-cuts to education. -Kerri lattimer Langara Students Union fees," read one. "Liar. Liar. Liar. Live up to your commitment," read another. But at a lunch-time rally, Langara Student Union Women's Liaison, Kerri Lattimer, insisted the LSU was not just targeting the NDP. "We are not anti-NDP, we are anti-cuts to education," she told the crowd of about 100 people, which included a handful of supportive faculty. "We want to join together and lobby the federal government." However, she said the Premier has not lived up to his commitment to education by allowing universities and colleges to implement hikes in other fees. "Increased fees are increased tuition," she said. Fifteen students from Langara occupied the Premier's office for 36 hours last Tuesday to make that point. Langara students decided to hold the rally late last week when a rally that was supposed to be held at Kwantlen College was suddenly cancelled. Kwantlen students had planned a rally since February under the banner of "Education Builds a Nation" to coincide with rallies being held across the country by the Canadian Alliance of Students Association. Late last week, however, students announced its postponement. Education Minister Paul Ramsey, who had been scheduled to speak at the rally, changed his mind after the event was publicised as a province- wide student strike, and a day of protest. Outgoing student President Kathryn Fleetwood said the event was intended to be a friendly rally to celebrate the value of education. But she said given the recent flurry of student protests, including Langara's sit-in, she had no choice but to advertise the event as a venue for students to express their concerns. "This is not the way we wanted it to be. We wanted to show how united we are on this issue. Their sit-in at the Premier's office was their own doing, their own initiative. "We admit that the word strike should not have been used", she said. "The word 'rally' would have been more pro-active." "There was definitely miscommunica- STUDENTS protest hidden fees at Langara TARA MURPHY PHOTO tion through all this," added Jason Boon, Kwantlen student-at-large representative. Kwantlen was not the only one complaining after Langara's sit-in. Malaspina College Student Union sent out a press release last week criticising recent Langara radio ads that call the tuition freeze "a sham." Malaspina Student Union Vice- President of External Affairs, Steve Beasley, said the tuition freeze has helped students. "More has to be done, but not giving credit where it is due does not speak well for students. "The statements of the Langara Student's Union make no mention of the millions of dollars in funding cuts by the federal government," he added. Canadian Federation of Students Chair, Michael Gardiner, also criticised Langara's strategy. "Is it bad that ancillary fees are increasing? Yes. But does it constitute a lie on the part of the provincial government? No." Ramsey called yesterday's walkout at Langara "frivolous" and "silly."*> Light rail stops short off UBC by Todd Silver Langara students occupy premier's office by Douglas Quan Sit-ins are the flavour-of-the-month for students protesting fee hikes at post-secondary institutions. Last Tuesday, 15 Langara students occupied Premier Glen Clark's constituency office. They said the government had not honoured its promise to freeze tuition, and demanded a public meeting with Clark. "Universities and colleges have been left to deal with a loss of revenue, and are forced to institute ancillary fees and other hidden fees, which, as far as we're concerned, are just another name for tuition fees," said LSU Staff Relations Officer, Jason Lewis. Langara instituted $1.50/day parking fees in March. But Langara students insist the issue has always been about more than just parking fees. "It's kind of insulting that we would fight about that," said LSU media representative, Chantel Taylor. "[The government] refused to acknowledge that it was a bigger issue of how there are hidden fees, and how extra fees are extra tuition." At the time, Clark's only response to the sit-in was: "I'm surprised they'd occupy my office over parking fees." Both Ramsey's ministerial assistant, Lionel Yip, and Clark's youth advisor, Renee Saklikar, who reviewed LSU's complaints over the parking fee issue, feel that Langara students have changed their tune . "It's always been about parking, parking, parking. Suddenly, they're mouthing the Liberal ideology of cuts to education when there have been no cuts," said Saklikar. Two students from Northwest College in Terrace also participated in the sit-in. Student association President, Rob Laluk, said the college was forced to cut one-third of university-credit offerings. "Anywhere south of Prince George, and you have access to a four-year education, but north of it, you have nothing." Yip said he would be meeting with Northwest College officials to discuss the matter this week.<» A light rail system will cany commuters along Broadway by the year 2005, but it won't connect to UBC, BC Transit has announced. The eight-year process to build a light rail system from Coquitlam to Granville began recently after BC Transit made the commitment to go through with the mas- sive-undertaking. The light rapid transit route would be similar to the current 99B bus which travels down the Broadway-Lougheed corridor, but terminates at UBC. Trace, Acres, who speaks for BC Transit explained the process to get lie system up and running will be a long one. "We are still eight years away from that system being operational we still have to go through the procedures of the engineering of it all and the public consultation." UBC commuters taking the train.. would have to stop at Granville and board an express bus which woidd shaph tie them to campus. There would als6.;bi|f a new rapid bus route running lisal Richmond to the downtown im&s$kk would meet up with the light rail | But while millions of dollars afei ed to be spent on ihe new rail line, i iftu- dent bos pass system is still not a certainty. Acres said negotiations on the subject are still ongoing with the AMS Coordinator of External Affairs, Shirin Foroutan, told The Ubyssey& committee <»ncerned with UBC transport 4 THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 pr UBC FilmSoc Wed-Thurs., Apr. 9-10, Norm Theatre, SUB 7:00 PM —. -\. A H^ Breaking the Waves a5tS^T' ™E Showing BROADWAy& MACDONALD AuTOElICTRrCSttCuUiSfs>• ^r^^T' Complete Service For Domestic A Imported Cars Pflfro-Conodo Ailbwlin Ftott Curt CMtit KMAppttfted Government Approved Wiide Inspection Centre On Going Preventive Maintenance A Service Boys Offering Complete Repairs 736-8504 ""SB 3 NOW A SPECIAL OFFER FOR UBC STUDENTS & STAFF MEMBERS OR STUDENTS 10% DISCOUNT ON PARTS AND LABOR FOR STAFF WE WILL PAY GST ON YOUR REPAIR BILL OFFER VALID UNTIL APRIL 30, 1997 spoirts STEPHANIE TAYLOR hangs out on the wall, richard lam photo Stephanie Taylor never thought she'd find anything she was truly passionate about Then she hit the wall. by Bruce Arthur Stephanie Taylor climbs. Indoors or outdoors, it doesn't matter, although indoors is just training for real rock climbing, she says. For Stephanie, life is a rock face: keep moving—there's still more to discover. And she has found that she is different from most climbers—let alone women climbers. "Many people climb recreationally with no real desire to climb hard...I do," says Taylor who has been climbing for only two years. "Most women won't lead a climb. I've gone forward to lead a climb that the guys thought was maybe too hard for me to lead. "I've had some reactions where I've gone forward to climb and get 'You gonna climb that?', like it hasn't made too much sense to them. But for the most part, it's great being a minority-it's great fun climbing with a bunch of guys." Born and raised near Lancastshire, Great Britain, Taylor was never what you would call an overly athletic child. She wasn't even that interested in athletics. She ran long-distance in high school and played squash for a while. It was fun, but something was missing. "I remember meeting this guy, and he was asking me what I felt passionate about in regards to sports, and I said I couldn't one another," she grins. In fact, the people she's met are very similiar. "Often very smart, very concerned with their surroundings, with the environment, and just really nice, neat, interesting people." Taylor also appreciates being surrounded by the scenic wonders ofthe outdoors. "It's such a meditative experience..you're so oblivious to any people or thoughts or anything around you except your next move. It's a constant puzzle. "What I find so neat about climbing outdoors is that there are so many different variables—you're exposed to the weather, the rain or the heat, the wind. I love to be put in an unpredictable environment—always have, whatever it is. That may go a long way to explain her desire to leave Great Britain and see the world. When she was 22, she firmly decided to live somewhere other th Great Britain, which, she knew had been "in dire [economic] straights for some time." So she left, spending five and half years in Australia before coming to Vancouver. "I wanted to experience life, and not just travel through. I felt from an early age that there had to be a better place to live than Britain, so it was Thero think of anything that I felt strongly about. So he explained to me how he loved golf, and downhill skiing. I It like there was some- ll ing wrong with me, like there was an absence or imething. It was something I just couldn't relate to, id then I started climbing." It all started one fine () :tober day in 19 9 5. Driving through Squamish with l friend, she spotted a climbing group. "I couldn't 1 ilieve that people on a rock face could be so grace- I 1. I was in awe, and I was very, very curious. We \ ound up climbing that afternoon." What began as an impulsive afternoon adventure )w borders on obsession for Taylor who supports 1 ;r climbing addiction with a full-time job in St. I lul's hospital hematology department. She climbs three to four times a week during the winter, more still in the summer, with each session lasting from three to five hours at a time. "Yeah, it's pretty time-consuming," she admits. "Climbing is like a drug—a damn good drug. It's so I hard to stop climbing...you get major withdrawal symptoms." Not even a suspected injury to her right shoulder can slow her down. "Climbers make pretty bad patients, as far as being dedicated," she says with a crooked smile. When Taylor discusses rockclimbing, her passion for the sport is obvious. She leaves spaces between words, as if to savour the strength of her feelings. "If exciting...there's a real thrill to climbing outside. I like the way my body feels when I climb." Taylor also has a lot of other reasons to love what she does. She has met two of her closest friends through climbing. "When you have your life in some- |one else's hands you tend to build a strong bond with kind of a plan of mine when I was pretty young to go to both Canada and Australia." Stephanie Taylor hj-. now lived in Vancouver lot the past six years and *-.t\s she's happy. For the momcnl "I love it here. I'm finding il a nice medium between Britain and Australia. The British are often a little uptight, and Australians are just totally insane. There are so many places I want to go though, for cultural experience as much as climbing. South America, Thail.iim this November, the south of France. "There, they've got limestone. Miles and miles of limestone. It's beautiful. People sit down there, play guitars, tell stories—people climb from such a young age—it's such a way of life, like guys out here play hockey. South America, too. The reason people climb in South America is because there's this beautiful, amazing limestone. Kids just go out and climb for a few hours." If Taylor had her way she would climb forever. "I hope I come back in another lifetime and climb, and maybe get to keep my skills. Many, many lifetimes." As she falls silent, she is left with a faraway look— a gaze from the mountaintop, full of sunsets and stone.♦ Kula shakes it up by John Zaozirny I Kula Shaker Mar 29 at Graceland With a giant flag behind them and incense thick in the air, Crispian Mills and company took the Graceland stage ready to make up for their previously cancelled show, and then some. Most people are only familiar with Kula Shaker from their breakthrough single 'Tattva' which singlehandedly propelled Eastern mysticism back into style and vaulted Crispian Mills into the burgeoning ranks of English rock star heartthrobs. 'Tattva' is, however, simply the most extreme example on the album, K, that adds Indian music to a grab-bag of influences, from the straight- ahead rock of the Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix licks and Doors keyboards. Put this toge- | ther with a band that's so tight its |j members even live togeth er, and you have ; formidable sound on record and a captivating show live. Driven by Mills' manic energy, Kula Shaker managed to drive the level up a notch from the already hectic pace of their album, throwing themselves headlong into their west coast tour, on which Vancouver was the first date. Playing most of K, the group put together a very fine and happily diverse set. The driving rock and roll of '303' and 'Hey Dude' was complemented by the more exotic riffs of 'Tattva' and 'Into the Deep'. There was the obligatory Grateful Dead tribute song — here 'Grateful When You're Dead' — and even their recent Deep Purple cover, 'Hush'. The band even test drove a brand new song, 'For This Love', which managed to live up to Crispian's hope that it would "ride like a lamb-bour-ghini". And when Kula Shaker finally finished its heavily anticipated show with the rich strains of 'Govinda', the audience trooped out — sweaty, smoky and satisfied. ♦ The shadowy future lurks by John Zaozirny Jeru the Damaja/dj Shadow Mar 30 at Richard's on Richards Electronic music is getting a push as the "next big thing" that shall come from the shadows and defeat the lumbering beast of alternative. Just as independent films cleaned up at the Oscars, so too are electronic music acts catching all the kudos. So if the Chemical Brothers are electronic music's Coen Brothers and the bombastic Prodigy its Gregg Araki, DJ Shadow must be Quentin Tarantino. Patching together swatches and samples from every kind of music, DJ Shadow creates a fresh, vibrant and elaborate tapestry out of contemporary rap, forgotten albums and old soul music. Unfortunately, despite his on- record brilliance and innovation, DJ Shadow is, like many other DJs, not an exciting artist to see live. Head down and locked into the beat, DJ Shadow delivered the goods, everything from 'Midnight in a Perfect World' and 'Stem/Long Stem' to newer, more up tempo work, but he failed to attract more than a few restless dancers to the floor. Most of the near sell-out crowd just stared in wonder while the THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 5 Distinctly OZZie Things tO DO Go walkabout • fossick for gold or gems • trek the Great Dividing Range • relive bush ranger Our Ozzie Bundles™ offer maximum value and | flexibility for backpackers and independent ' travellers. f The Oz experience | AIR FARE TO SYDNEY, RETURN FROM CAIRNS | • Oz Experience Travellers Network Bus Pass |. "Bruce Pass" - Sydney to Cairns. 7" • FREE night accommodation plus transfer 8 in Sydney. §- 1221 e sampling prodigy swerved from record to record. After a disappointingly short set, DJ Shadow brought out Latyrx, a pair of Bay Area rappers who livened up the dance floor with their more conventional, if more improvised, set. Latyrx brought a refreshing social commentary to the evening, rapping on the current state of the union and, as DJ Shadow would say, 'Why Hip Hop sucks in '97.' Headliner Jeru the Damaja came out later and suddenly Richard's on Richards was crushed with bodies squirming to the beat. Jeru brought the audience back into the act, pulling the crowd into the palm of his hand and keeping them there. His vocal fans couldn't even shut up for the ten seconds of silence Jeru requested so he could drink his juice in silence and meditate on "the state of hip-hop." The evening proceeded quickly and easily, with Jeru taking requests while the crowd rapped merrily along. He gave the audience what it wanted: a laid back, loose and very personable show. It might not be a new style of music or an innovation a la DJ Shadow, but as the show ended and Jeru the Damaja shook the masses of hands pressed in his direction, it was most satisfying.♦ BUNDLES ^ ? TRAVEL CUTS ^^IVOmGES CAMPUS the Student Travel Experts Student Union Building University of British Columbia 822-6890 AIR. NEW ZEALAND The Sunseeker AIR FARE TO SYDNEY, RETURN FROM CAIRNS • Greyhound/Pioneer Express Coach "Sunseeker" Pass - Sydney to Cairns. The Sunseeker PLUS AIR FARE TO SYDNEY, RETURN FROM CAIRNS • Greyhound/Pioneer Express Coach "Sunseeker" Pass- Sydney to Cairns. • 15 nights of accommodation at YHA Hostels anywhere in Australia. greyhound-Pioneer CHECK WITH TRAVEL CUTS FOR COMPLETE DETAILS AND CONDITIONS. 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UPS A uthorized Shipping Outlet #101 -1001 West Broadway (NW Comer At Oak Street) MAIL BOXES ETCr Hours: 8:30 5:50 We're The Biggest Because We Do It Right!™ Phone: 732-4147 Voting for a better learning environment April 9th - 16th The Student Technology Fee Question Do you support the implementation of a student technology fee of $90 per year for a full-time student? How much would I have to pay? How much money would this fee raise and who decides how it is spent? What will I get? The University is asking students to help it create a UBC learning environment where all students have good access to the information technology (IT) tools and resources they need to succeed in today's world of digital media and information. From April 9th to 16th UBC is holding a referendum on the proposed Student Technology Fee (STF). Students have experienced longer lines to get into our crowded computer labs, gotten busy signals while trying to dial-in, tried to get help from the desperately overworked staff on the help desk, or searched the campus in vain for up-to-date computers to access the web or play multi-media CD-ROMS. This situation can only get worse in the future unless action is taken now. If the STF is approved, all funds generated would be allocated by a committee on which students have a voting majority and would be used only to support projects that directly benefit students. The committee would have representatives from every faculty to make sure that students from all parts ofthe university would benefit. Here are short answers to some of the obvious questions. Additional information appears below and at www.stf.ubc.ca. Send any additional questions you have to stf@unixg.ubc.ca. $90 per year, which works out to $7.50 per month. It will raise $2.7 million/year which will be allocated by a committee on which students have a voting majority. Projects will likely include: new and enhanced computer labs, expanded dial-in access, better computer training and help for students, docking stations for laptops, classroom IT-instruction equipment and special prices for purchases of computer hardware and software. Why doesn't the University UBC is already putting several million a year into information technology (IT) access for students but it's not enough.With the pay for this itself? budget cuts UBC is facing there is no way to allocate any further funds without effecting significant cuts. Why doesn't the University get UBC is constantly working with industry and government to get funds to support student IT access, but what we get isn't someone else to pay for this? enough.We'll do everything we can to leverage the funds we get from this fee to bring in still more from industry and government. Who Chose $90 as the amount The Student Information Technology Access Committee prepared the fee proposal and half its members are students nomi- and were Students consulted? nated by the AMS and GSS. The originally proposed amount was reduced as a result of student input. The committee's recommendation was approved by the UBC Advisory Committee on Information Technology (ACIT), and proposed to the UBC Board Governors by the VP, Student & Academic Services. HOW do I vote? Why have a referendum? The Board of Governors has asked that a vote be held on the STF. proposal.The Alma Mater Society and the Graduate Student Society strongly support having students participate in this process.. Will this fee be tax-dedUCtible? Yes, the federal government recently announced that such fees are deductible. How do I vote? Phone 280-8228 and select option 3 for Televote. Or, call 822-VOTE anytime (except 4-6 a.m.) between April 9th and 16th. Students with a hearing disability can call 822-3859 (TTY/TDD). Polling stations (with telephone access) will be set up throughout campus during the voting period (April 9th - 16th). Maria Klawe, VP Student and Academic Services STUDENT TECHNOLOGY FEE - BACKGROUND To improve information technology for all UBC faculty, students and staff, ACIT asked its subcommittee, the Student Information Access Committee (SITAC) to consider instituting a student technology fee at UBC. SITAC is composed of ten undergraduate and graduate students and ten faculty/staff members from different parts of the University. It was very difficult, especially for the student members, to accept the idea of ANY fee increase, but after lengthy discussions, an assessment of the state of student computing on campus and an investigation of experiences at other universities, SITAC supported (14 in favour, one abstention) the STF proposal that went forward to the Board. Principles that SITAC members felt crucial to their support for an STF included: • STF funds will augment, not replace, current UBC expenditures on information technology support for students; • STF funds will be specifically dedicated to projects that will benefit UBC students; • the allocation of STF funds will be mode by a committee having a voting majority of students; • general information technology infrastructure projects will not be supported by STF revenue except where these projects are required by a specific STF-funded initiative; • a review committee having at least SOX student members will be established in the third year of the program to undertake a rigorous review ofthe initiative. " and, that the fee will be universal, charged to all students (graduate and undergraduate) both full- and part-time. In addition to student input from SITAC, the idea of the proposed student technology fee was the subject of extensive discussion at the January 15th "Your UBC Forum" on student fees. It has also been discussed extensively by both the Alma Mater Society and the Graduate Student Society and in their meetings between their executives and theVPSAS. In late February and early March four separate forums were held to discuss the STF and other fee increases and an e-mail address was established to which students could send questions about the fees. How was the $90 fee determined? Based on the experience of other universities of similar size and facing similar problems to UBC, an STF of $ 150 per year was originally suggested. Subsequent discussions amongst SITAC members suggested that the fee be set below $100. In discussing the size of the STF, SITAC members had to weigh carefully the ability of students to pay against the decreased services that would be provided by a reduced fee. It was subsequently decided to establish the fee at $90. Because the $90 covers a full year, it actually works out to only $7.50 per month.The proposed fee would generate an annual fund of approximately $2.7 miljion which will be put toward student information technology initiatives. What are the consequences of not adopting an STF? Given the Universityis current financial situation, the only alternative to establishing an STF . is to maintain expenditures on information technology at current levels and force students to deal with the resulting problems individually and simply purchase computer-based services as their personal resources permit. This will promote inequities in access for students at the University. In addition, this approach will result in delays in effective use of IT in the curriculum until such a time as students have provided themselves with the necessary resources. Moreover, as the use of IT in courses grows, students will have to endure longer lines to get into inadequate computing labs, more difficulties in dialing in to the UBC network and increasingly inadequate computer training for students. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 THE UBYSSEY 7 by Tanya Dubick THIRTEEN HANDS ai ihe Arts Ciub uniii Apr 12 Thirteen Hands by Carol Shields is a handsomely written play that portrays its characters with grace, moving us through the changing membership of abridge group called the Martha Circle over a course of seventy years. The characters played by Nicole Roberl Meredith Bain Woodward. Dolores Drake and Suzie Payne-they go by the names North, West, South and East—are as famiJ iar as the friends and family members in our own lives who often fail to get the recog nition they deserve. At various points, an actor walks in and asks questions such as: "In ten words or less, describe what the purpose of your lift- is." These very impatient and demanding figures represent the modern woman in a society that is changing and challenging val ues. Shields also uses them to present the idea that, across the shifting sociological landscape, the bridge club is a valuable circle of freedom in which these women can express themselves. announces she has something to say. Immediately, her bridge partners assume she is leaving her husband, sparking a catharsis of emotions as the three women proceed to discuss how they would like to Changing hands in a ladies bridge game... Tlie qiii-slions Ihrnwii ■ il WV.-.1 an' difficult lo ailswei TllfV ploMile ;i i onlrasi between lhe modern si,lie ol lhings and the lives these women have led devoted lo 1:111111\ am I; i L11 ii2 caie ol oilier.-. Shields exposes lhe (I plai emeiil ol'lhese women III Ihe (imU'Xl ul' Ihe new sot lal value.-' line of m\ lavorile m cue:-, is when liasl leave their husbands as well. This farce comes to an end when we finally learn what East's announcement really is. The shifting periods in time are conveyed by the simple changes in costume, which strongly communicate the unity of those women as the*, whaled Ihe .-.Hill.! dresses hals .ind jimves wilh siilille variations among Ihem I'liirlri'ii II.nub lake- evervdav liiislr.i- lioiis and |ovs and allow-; us to laugh al the llu in.'- we see in onr nun lives and in Ihe lives iil'iiui' mothers grandmothers, (laugh Leis and Ii lends. The music adds a light, touch lo wuiiii' of Ihe more serious mailers at hand and adds lo lhe lim and nil of lhe pla\ ! rani wail lor Ihe ('anadiaii film ver Mini ol I his excellent plav. ♦ ...exploring the role of women in society by Harper Hadden Stai, The Heiress at the Playhouse until Apr 12 What's love (,ol lo do with ilV If you think Ihe lives, of a wealthy dysfunctional lain ilv in lr.fi(is New York have litlle relevance to our own lives today, think agam llu; Hinnvs is a compelling, liincl.'ss plav that should resonate wilh fonteinporan audinnce.s. Adapted from Henry James' l.lth renLiiry nowl Wasliiiifilnn Squan; Ihe play by kuth and Augustus finely, hriugs a superb cast together for a memorable ovemri" of live Ilic-.-iicr. Wendy \oel is the painfully shy reclusive, young heiress Catherine Sluper She twitches, stumbles arid grows mrreasiitglv self c.onscious uruler a barrage of verbal abuse from hei wcall.n and e\ei cutir.il father Dr. Austin Sluper. plaved with austerity h\ Calgary ^ love trap f/re based William Webslcr finds his daughter dull, unat tractive and Jacking in ' wit.' Unable lo believe lhat anyone could find her appealing, lie dismisses Catherine's handsome, dashing suitor. Hit; penniless Morns Townsend (Alan Van Sprang), who sweeps Catherine off her feet while her falher watches wilh suspicious disbelief. Thi; play examines the nature of love and how it aH'i'cL« our lives anti oui1 relationships. Does Morns Iruh low Calheririti for her kind and virtuous nature or is his pas siou kindled by her great Ibrliuu-V Are her father's nhjee lions cruel and insensitive ur has he underestimated llie seductive charms of his daughter? Until the plays stun ning climax, we are loll unsure. If. is remarkable thai (hu issues in (his p!ayrnn(mu.> to be those we struggle with in our d.uh lives When il first opened on Broadway in 1!M7, ne.irlv lillv wars after the publication of \V;i>}iiit»lon Siiuw Ihe nlav was a pheiioinenal hit. Thai it could be revived |us1 bd'oro the niillurmium demonstrates the tuneless u.ituri- ol its subject matter Thi' lleiri'ss is the Playhouse's most expensive pro duel inn this year, with a stunning nut retreating tlie lownhoiise of a privileged familv. The Slopers' addrtiss. Hi Washington Squan:, it, now the dean's residence at New York Cimersity and, basing her work on lhat building, set designer Helen Jarvis has incorporated authentic Regency-style furniture and a working, gas fireplace into the drawing room of the lavish I own house. A portrait of the late Mrs. Sluper looms over the mantelpiece, her beauly pru\iding Dr. Sluper with every ojipoitunitv to insult his daughter by pointing out the attractiveness Catherine does not possess. Nancy laiTarit s \ i'doriari costumes bustle wi(h corsets, crino hues and petticoat.-,. Each outfit has plenty ot detail and suits Ihe characier null as Cathenne s mousy grav dre.ss. Can monev buy liappines.-,'' || eau . ii>oii use it to pm chase tickets lo 'Ihr Urines. *> i&v .; * BOOK SHavtRV ;„*. - ♦ TOAfFIC CONTKQfXEIlS BRING YOUR RESUME, YOUR 0.i?£$TiON5 ANPYOUR ENERGY TO THE VK BOOKSTORE FRONT LOBBY FOR OUR EMPLOYMENT PRE-SCREENING/INFORMATION SESSIONS: APRIL 16-18-NOON-3PM APRIU2'25*NOON-aPM APRil29-30*NOON-3PM INFORMATION: 822-}665 6200 UNIVERSITY BLVD., VANCOUVER, B.C. V6T124 8 THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 FIND US on the 2nd floor Behind CIBC Bank 224-6225 University Village fcfcir^ Wfc""^ 2174 W. Parkway Vancouver, BC Still going to the other copy place? Well ... 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CBLL(*04) 682-BRTS SUITE #5-837 BECITTY STREET http://www.vanarts.bc.ca IBM! BOOKSTORE later at UBC the Student Recreation Building or send in entry form below. for the new convenience shop, opening this August/September in the Student Athletic Centre. We'll be carrying items of interest to participants in all levels of sport and recreation. If we choose your shop name suggestion, here's what you'll win:.. •Ajair of Season Tickets to next year's Thunderbird events from UBC Athletics and Sports Services. •A summertime pass to the Bird Coop from Student Rec. Centre. •$150 Gift certificate from UBC Bookstore. Name .- Address City Dayti me Phone My suggestion for the new shop name is: Code. Mail or drop off to UBC BOOKSTORE • 6200 University Blvd., Vancouver, B.C. V6T1Z4 Entry Deadline: April 30,199? • (No Faxes, please) ... (7 Boy Wonder Apr 10-12 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre by Rachana Raizada This week Ballet BC will debut Boy Wonder, the first completely original, full- length ballet to be created in Canada. The interdisciplinary production is the brainchild of choreographer John Alleyne—Ballet BC's artistic director— and 12 other creators: three choreographers, three composers, Touchstone Theatre director Roy Surette, three actors, artist Tiko Kerr and costumes and lighting designers. The blueprint for the project was laid out in four days during which these 13 people locked themselves up in a room and hammered out an agreement on basic concepts. The choreographers (John Alleyne, Jean Grand-MaiLre and Serge Bennathan) threw the actors for a loop by declaring that there would be no strict narrative and no characters, specifically "a Boy Wonder." The three-act ballet is loosely based on the journey of a classical hero (the segments represent a calling, adventures or tests, and a return); and the idea that heroism often comes from unheralded acts by ordinary people. Together, the dancers represent various facets of heroism, such as faith, grace, humility and successful perseverance through various trials. Dancers Andrea Hodge and Gail Skrela of Ballet BC described the different textures the three choreographers brought to the ballet. Not only did they have very diverse styles, but each of them worked with a different composer for his respective segment. ♦ When Larissa Lai graduated from UBC, she had no idea what to do; she has since become a critically- acclaimed emerging Vancouver writer. Lai spoke with The Ubyssey about making the transition from sociology to analysis to activism. by Charlie Cho Larissa LAi-When Fox Is a Thousand [Press Gang Publishers] Larissa Lai is talking about Canadian-born Asians. "We're here," she says. "We've been here for centuries, as long as white people have been here and we have a relationship with this place." The Vancouver author sits in a cafe on Commercial, talking about her novel and about the years of community activism through alternative arts and media that led up to it. "What I'm trying to deal with in this book is how impossible it is to know what [your] homeland was because it can't be what we imagine," she explains. "We don't come from there; we don't live there; we don't have that experience. Md whatever we flunk of as homeland has changed and moved into the Iwentieth-century at the same time we have. It's no longer what our parents or our grandparents or our great-grandparents left behind. It's something new and different yet again. So that relationship is, I suppose, always an imaginative one." The Ubyssey's Rachana Raizada caught up with Gail Skrela and Andrea Hodge to indulge in some Boy Wonder talk... fQ;r otvle which is lair but raw an ir-rand-Wai1 »-***'"""'. ,*«-«'±f2£S.*-'- andpam Hodge I think we i ^S*^"" , worn' ed about angi< Ap are being aw*- care. eraol long GS.Soroe^- - .Vpe0p^ ^ motled to g hibernation an ^ asomesoxtotae w ^ ^ut^apes th^^f y0u *^T^^^&#* AH: It's very «K*-r:; he ^f^ic because BOY WONDER dancers Gail Skrela, Malcolm Low and Miroslaw Zydowicz play pile on. david cooper photo .Lnn* choice -*£ uf e as uiett. ^ most classic 'vuiong he is mY paftnef in /VNOREA HODGE cal of *e * hand, is the «"^—" ^boundaries« ^dtryandballeU- odemstepand^scomplet. like jazz \ work v classical shapes ^^ , .ortoUeststhatweareP eare ^n0t a these four trials, sort ludingmyse^forms **? tsX^ aT^"teTwe -chrepresen ^ ^ ^ In the hrsv " character.v ne oi tneni u_ .to this- Ubyssey: What's your role? AH: Well, I'm the woman he chooses, the "wrong choice"—which is ironic because he is my partner in life as well, [laughs] .■'.'■'! 17: What about Serge Bennathan [Artistic \ Director of Dancemakers in Toronto], who does the final section? AH: His company is modern [dance], so it's very challenging. Serge has asked us to do more things en pointe than Jean has, so it's very challenging: to do modern dance and make the movements as full as you possibly can [in toe shoes]. It uses all those extremes, yet the pointe shoes can be very limiting. GS: I feel personally, when I am doing this work, it's as if I'm a tree with roots, you have to be so into the ground. ^AJH: And, earthy. ' GS: T would say he puts a lot of emphasis On the centre of gravity and whatever ifus part is [points to her stomach]. AH: Midsection? U: Does the mutimh - - «ghts-we h™ dlJerent sections and ii ? ?d ^ music ^initel^^^ Provoke these anL 7 Jean s lection/ had to hi °Ut Where^ cai terms. yep n^ep nyep. I'm trvir, „l there are i ■**%£££^^-i era* '° GS: Staccato? A*f; Staccato ThanL- «v„ rehearsals wilh th ' Wli] ^owi We ,■„„,, . Lai like a fox Shortlisted for the 1996 Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, When Fox Is a Thousand has three narrators: the Fox of Chinese mythology, a nameless contemporary Asian-Canadian woman and the ninth- century poetess Yu Hsuan-Chi. Lai created the character of the poetess first. Through her involvement with the Asian-Canadian art exhibition Yellow Peril: Reconsidered, the feminist newspaper Kinesis and the organization Asian Lesbians of Vancouver, Lai sensed a real need for an imaginative space where Asian lesbians could relate freely to one another. "The poetess comes very much out of that desire to construct this kind of perfect place of belonging and what that might look like: very romantic, very idyllic, very...utopic, would probably be the best word to describe it. I saw the need there and I suppose I felt it myself." But Lai knew that Asian-Canadians didn't really come from such a place. Artemis Wong lives in the real, 20th century Vancouver, a nitty-gritty place of irresolvable tension, struggling daily with her sense of identity. "In fact, the original a\rtemis was simply a letter writer talking back to the voice of the poetess and saying, 'These things can't be and if you're going to talk about this woman who was a courtesan, who was educated and privileged... Well, what about the women—the girls who were sold in the sex- trade in Asia or here at a very young age?'" Fox, who has the ability to transform into women, transcends that tension that binds the poetess and Artemis—"the impossibly perfect on the one hand and the miserably imperfect on the other." "The traditional Fox is very much a figure of the 'bad' woman. To call someone a 'fox' in Chinese culture is, I suppose, the same as calling them a 'slut' in western culture. It's a fairly fixed archetype. It was something I really wanted to take and turn on its head. Hence my Fox suddenly becomes this mischievous character that can move through time and space—can see things that are happening with other people that they can't necessarily see themselves." While studying sociology at UBC (she graduated in 1990), Lai felt frustrated by her limited access to analyses of race, gender, sexuality, class and other issues of identify. "I'm talking about the anthology A Piece of My Heart [the stories of 26 American women who served in Vietnam] or This Bridge Called My Back [writings by radical women of color, 1983], writers like bell hooks and Dionne Brand, SKY Lee, Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. It's quite alarming in a number of ways that these texts were not introduced at school." Through UBC Creative Writing professor George McWhirter, she met Jim Wong- Chu, co-editor of Many-Mouthed Birds: contemporary writing by Chinese Canadians, who in turn introduced Lai to the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop. When SKY Lee's award-winning first novel Disappearing Moon Cafe was launched at the Chinese Cultural Centre, Lai met Wong-Chu, who was putting together the Yellow Peril: Reconsidered exhibition. "I didn't consider myself an artist or a writer at that time. I had just graduated, kind of burnt out, and at a loss for what to do. It was really empowering for me to meet older artists who were dealing directly with issues of race and identity, also elhptically sexuality and gender, class. "I remember being in a restaurant with my friend Anne, who's also a writer, and her brother. There was this table of white guys that was just staring at us, not infrequently. I remember turning around and giving them hell and just feeling so great that I could do that because it was something that I probably never would have done up until that point. There was a power equity [there] that I had a right to address and that it wasn't okay for them to stare at us like we were objects to be watched." She moved to Ottawa and worked at an artist-run video production co-op, but left due to blatant racism. When Lai returned to Vancouver and got involved with the Not Just Another Page collective at Kinesis, in which women of colour talked about issues of racism, sexism, homophobia and classism. "I think that magazines like Kinesis, Adbusters and Angles, radio stations like Co- Op and CiTR, and publishers like Press Gang and Arsenal Pulp are really, really important in terms of being the place LARISSA LAI, Vancouver author and UBC graduatein sociology. CHARLIE CHO PHOTO where the real creative work takes place, where everybody gets their start, and I think where people are at their sharpest and most imaginative because they're allowed to let their minds open as wide as they can open." Lai is currently at work on her second book. Arsenal Pulp recently published the anthology Bringing It Home: Women Talk About Feminism in Their Lives. Lai considers the articles and art reviews that she wrote at Kinesis to be part of a larger project "to affirm the history particularly of women of colour, but also people of colour, and to document the projects we did. "I see this book as a continuation of that project, which is about the construction of a culture of people of colour in the west." ♦ THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 9 UBC Humanists' Society "The Ethics of Cloning" By Dr. lain Taylor (Head of the Dept. of Botany) 12:30 PM, Friday April 11th, Buch A202 ♦□□▼!;& €.*♦* --ai^fei-BafcsCfcfc — -V?a> □ ■*:▼.□.*□ Conference on Lcademic Freed thf Inclusive Universit Panelists from all over North America, including Peter Emberley, This Weekend Frederick Schauer, Lorna Marsden. rrjaJav AnrSI 11th & Participatory workshops Saturday *' ^ morning, Vancouver Institute with Saturday, April 12th Stanley Fish and John Fekete Saturday evening. Students Free. Faculty and Staff $20 per day. Full Conference fee (including dinner and lunch speakers) $125 Call 822-1050 for registration. r Twf n fcy^5 5!£RET5e^c eh ..Share the Secret.. Daily Baked Goods ♦ Lunch ♦ Dinner Live Music & Tapas - Thurs., Fri., Sat. STUDENTS WELCOME lO% discount with student ID between 3:30 & 6:30 pm Restaurant • Licensed Ik Takeaway • Catering 4434 West lOth Ave. 222-9800 JJ You haven't filed your tax return. You need to find an accountant who can spot tax-saving opportunities. Now. So you can relax. Call Greg Bogdanovich at 737-1355 Providing e-file and quick turnaround so you can reduce your stress att ta time Gregory P. Bogdanovich, Chartered Accountant #603-2695 Granville Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6H 3H4 Accounting • Tax • Audit • Consultant to Management 1 0 TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 THE UBYSSEY by Andy Barham Sara Craig is an elegant young woman who displays that effortless poise, so seldom seen these days, which betokens a well- brought up, even genteel, sort of person. This makes her even sexier in real life than she is on all three Sweet elegance tar phrase repeated throughout the song. Says Craig: "I love the sounds that Chris comes up with and the effects—it's a really tasty production." There's a distinct message in 'Mr Right' for those poor souls desperately seeking a lover of some kind. The song's emphasis switches from looking for Mr Right to becoming Mr Right, which is kind of an empowering thing. "That's when the person found happiness," says Craig. "It's like, when you realise you're too good to be desperate to look for something, that's usually when somebody finds you. There's of her CD covers, where Craig has made a steady progression from undress on her first EP to the ballerina leotard of Sweet Exhaust to the bawdy, high-class undergarments on Miss Rocket. But Craig denies any suggestive intentions. "I just want it simple, no complications. If they're sexy, that's cool, but I think they're all really quite...elegant That's how I want to be portrayed. "I guess I think of the obvious sexy as being somebody looking at the camera, pouting lips with lip gloss and bedroom eyes." Sexy or not. Miss Rocket has a slinky seductiveness generally lacking in popular music. Like a really good bowlful of opium- laced hash, it can veer from vaguely disquieting to dreamily soporific. Perhaps its most distinctive feature is its melodiousness—the CD is replete with the sort of sweet hypnotic melodies that have been long abandoned by a popular culture that values being super hardass over actual music. Not that Craig's music has always been so soft and dreamy. In fact, her first two CDs are raunchier, betraying the usual punky influences so de rigeur for any band debuting since 1976. According to Craig, the differences in tone reflect the differences in her ever-changing band membership. "Back then I wasn't so specific and I really like to let people create. I resent being told what to do, so I try to do my best not to be like that with other people." This willingness on Craig's part to let the creativity of others influence her own inspiration extended to producer Chris Tsangarides, who has also worked with, among others, The Tragically Hip. 'Mr Right,' the opening song on Miss Rocket, has a definite minimalist quality which wouldn't succeed nearly so well were it not for the heavy reverb on the straightforward gui- Miss Rocket herself Sara Craig returns with a new album, a new look and another suggestive cover SARA CRAIG strikes one rap part where I talk about not looking any more—I'm just going to expend my energy on my art and, as soon as you start focusing on something tangible, when you're productive and you feel good about yourself—that's when you're so much more attractive to everybody else." Art is a crazy thing any way you look al it; there are those who believe that art is best created by finding a theme and going after it hellbent for leather, forcing art to do what you want it to do, as it were. Then there are those who believe inspiration must precede creation and concepts like theme will fall naturally into place whenever art is allowed to have its way. Sara Craig adheres to this latter school of thought. "It's the most effective way. When you're deliberate, it doesn't tend to work. But, at the same time, I've been proven wrong on that So it's total luck. I woke up this morning thinking of two words that I really love and I didn't write it down and I'm really kind of mad. One of them is 'corridor.' And I'm not sure what the other one was, but it sounded really very similar. I think it was 'cordonned.'" She pauses to mull over these words. "Cordonned off. Corridor. I really love the way those sound together. Chances are that might be in a song someday. "Corridor. Cordonned. That might have been in my dream or a video. That whole word could be the premise of a brand new song about a restrictive architectural environment and the word corridor never even comes up in the song. "That happens a lot." And thus, in one of those strange conversational quirks, we've found ourselves discussing architecture, and it turns out Craig shares my enthusiasm for Art Deco. "Oh, I love Art Deco. That's my thing right now. I can't get enough of it. That's what's happening in the fashion world right now, all the colours and everything are Art Deco." Craig is also an avid promoter of all things Canadian, including the cross-cultural delights of our decidely multicultural cities. "I love culture; I mean, last night we went out for sushi. I don't know how people can survive when they're eight hours from the big city and all they have is, like, a burger joint I'd go crazy. Being a city girl, I couldn't handle the quietness of the country. That would just make me crazy. I'd be so uninspired, I'd just sleep the whole time." Craig thinks of herself as a big city girl, but she actually grew up in the smaller urban centre of Burlington in southern Ontario. "It was so boring. Very white and safe. Maybe I was forced to be creative, use my imagination because it was so stale." Although she says she couldn't actually live there, she found nearby Hamilton more alluring. "Hamilton's a totally different vibe than Burlington. Burlington's very perfect and Hamilton's really rough'n'ready and there's a lot of characters there. A lot of people love it" Currently, Sara Craig makes her home in our country's largest city, which is almost as multicultural as Vancouver. With any luck, she may soon return to our rainy coastal town to play a gig or two. I, for one, look forward to it. ♦ r Ubyssey staff meeting Staff of The Ubyssey will have the last meeting of the publishing year on Wednesday. April 9.1997. The agenda includes, bat will not necessarily be restricted to, the following items of business: • Chaiv • Election results • Budget for the 1997-93 year • Canucks tix giveaway • CO? liason position • U?S BoD position • Last issue • Staff party • soberin' op and plans for '97/98 • Other business Announcing The editors ofthe Ubyssey for 1997/98 will be: Joe Clark-j-coordinating editor Federico Barahona—production coordinator WollVlepner—sports editor Sarah Galashan—news editor Chris Nuttall-Smith—news editor Jamie Woods—features editor Richard Lam-photo editor Rjche||e Rae_culture emtor Thanks to everyone who voted in the elections THE FIRST ANNUAL INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR THE CLASS OF '97 AP1RJL 8&D9-, 19 97 Graduation Ceremonies Information. Order your regalia (gown and hoods) now for the big day. Souvenir mortarboards (hats) for sale. UBC crested diploma frames. UBC grad rings by Jostens Canada on sale. UBC crested gifts, souvenirs and clothing. A selection of books for the well-informed graduate. UBC Computer Shop hardware/software at educational discounts [must be a current student, staff or faculty member). UBC Bookstore 6200 University Blvd; Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 Phone: 822-2665 www.boolcstore.ubc.ca. TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 features THE UBYSSEY 1 1 by Peter T. Chattaway It's not easy to discuss the meaning of life, the universe and eveiything—in a word, God- over a cup of coffee, but Alvin Plantinga, director of the Centre for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame, is willing to give it a try. with differing beliefs live together in harmony and peace? It's a problem the world hasn't found much by way of solution to. The best solutions, I guess, you'll find in the western democracies, but it's really a tough problem. One hopes that everyone will adopt maximal tolerance with respect to other people's views, but of course that means you might be What makes it outrageous? Is it outrageous to flunk that there's a material universe or other people? Well, the other people are here. There's evidence for them. There is no evidence for God, just as there is no evidence for the invisible pink unicorn that happens to be The philosopher king Since earning his PhD at Yale in 1958, Plantinga has been a leading participant in the philosophy of religion. He delivered three public lectures on Faith and Rationality at UBC last month You say that exclusivism is "necessary" for "clear thinking." In the Christian tradition, Paul says it doesn't matter whether you believe one day is holy or all days are alike, as long as each person is convinced in his own mind. There are uie seeds of a sort of pluralism in that There are lots of things about which a person might say, Well I just don't know if you have to do this or not,' with regard to movies or dancing or eating meat. But exclusivism is really just the view that certain things are, in fact, true, and that given a certain proposition, any proposition incompatible with it is false. And as long as you're proposing to have any opinion at all on these topics, you don't have any alternative to exclusivism! The only way you can fail to be an exclu- sivist completely would be not to believe anything on these topics, to say, "I just don't know if this is true or false." Then you wouldn't be an exclusivist, but you wouldn't be a pluralist either. A pluralist believes that a certain way of thinking is better than other ways of thinking, namely the pluralist way of thinking. So there is no way you can adopt any position, have any view, without being exclusivist It's not logically possible. You can try, but it doesn't work. But how does one translate one's exclusive beliefs into practice? An extreme form of exclusivism might lead to the Crusades. Well, it's a general question: how can people intolerant of the views of somebody who thinks tolerance is a lousy thing. What should I do about Nazis? Should I insist that they have a right to teach their children all this really wicked stuff? Or, on the other hand, do I try to take their children away from them? Either way, I'm sort of stuck. I don't like either one. Are you trying to prove that Christianity is intellectually credible, or are do you want to per suade people of youi own belief? Well, in my first lecture, I was trying to persuade people that naturalism is not a credible position. It's not one you can sensibly accept. I am, myself, a Christian, and I would argue that the usual objections to the rationality of Christian belief don't really work at all. And I want people to see that Then they can think about whether they want to be Christians without having all this garbage in the way. What about the claim that belief in God is untenable because "outrageous claims require outrageous proof?" right here. But there isn't any evidence for a material world that isn't evidence from other things one believes. You couldn't prove that perception is, in fact, a reliable way of processing beliefs. You just assume that it is. And the same for your belief that there are other people and not just other bodies. In my first book God and Other Minds, I argued that arguments for other people, other minds, are exactly like the arguments for the existence of God. Neither argument is very good, in tlie long run. But it seems to me the conclusion to be drawn is not that one can stop believing in other minds—that would be outrageous. It's rather that, for lots and lots of important beliefs, one can be perfectly rational in accepting them without accepting them on the basis of arguments. One might object, men, mat if mere is a God who's got the world so in control, why is the world such a mess? Well, Christians have their explana- Philosopher Alvin Plantinga flirts with hell to chat about religion and God tions about evil, and somehow it all arises out of sin, but as to why God permits evil- why did he give humans freedom, for example? Human beings often misuse their freedom and turn away from God, and they love themselves instead of God and they hate their fellow man. But why does God permit evil, exactly? Well, I don't really know. I think the right answer has to be that one doesn't really know why God permits evil. But if one thinks that's a powerful argument against theism I think that's a mistake. It is, perhaps, an argument with some force. It could be that this argument from evil is enormously outweighed by other propositions, and the real question here would be, "Well what's the likelihood ofthe existence of God given all that we know?" We only see a small segment of it, but the world as a whole could be absolutely magnificent There's heaven, there's the incarnation and atonement, there's the fact that most people like their lives well enough that they don't want to commit suicide or something like that—if you consider the whole sweep of the world, it might be absolutely magnificent, even though certain pockets and corners are pretty dark. But what does that mean to the person who gets stuck in that pocket and, perhaps, ends up on the road to hell? If you do go to heaven, then it doesn't matter what the first initial tiny segment of your life is like, from a certain point of view. If you go to hell, then the same thing is true. I'm inclined to think that only people who really want to go to hell—and by that I mean they want to separate themselves from God—do that. Have you ever read CS. Lewis's novel The Great Divorce"} In there, everybody gets a second chance, but most people turn them down. They like hell better because, one theologian says, there's much more intellectual stimulation. "There's too much unanimity in heaven, everyone believes in God. Give me hell, because there we can get a good theological discussion." So you could live with all this intellectual stimulation—your life's work, basically— coming to an end? It might end. Thomas Aquinas was one of the greatest thinkers of the western world, and maybe Christianity's greatest thinker and philosopher. Towards the end of his life, he had a genuine mystical experience, and he said all that he had done before was as straw. But that doesn't mean that, for him, there wouldn't be, henceforth, any such thing as intellectual stimulation. There would be learning more and more about God. There would be this infinite being. That might be something that would be enormously more intellectually stimulating than arguing about various things, the way that you and I do.«> Facility or Grounds Trouble? Contact Plant Operations by phone, fax, or e-mail to report any campus building or grounds problem and request service. Facilty or Grounds Exterior Lights Only ph: 822-2173 ph: 822-2173 fax: 822-6969 fax: 822-6969 e-mail: tc@plantops.ubc.ca e-mail: lightsout@plantops.ubc.ca Please give complete details including CONTACT NAME and NUMBER FANNING HOUDWS — _ ^aUfUI —< •* Need ground transportation when you get there? You know...what're you going to do when you get off the plane, down from the train or scrape yourself out of your buddy's springless '62 pick-up? RmA'Pass gives you access to the services of more than 35 inter-city bus companies throughout the two provinces. We serve hundreds of communities everyday with comfortable and reliable air-conditioned coaches. Our classic 14-day format lets you travel for fourteen consecutive days at your leisure...the itinerary's up to you. Our brand-new 18-day format includes access to New Iterk City as well! . i ■ Information: Toronto Montreal Toll Free: Fax: email: (416)393-7911 (514) 842-2281 (514) 866-1001 1-800-661-8747 (514) 527-2065 www.omca.com FROM $199.99 " PLUSTAXEf " Greyhound (Ontario routes)/Orleans Express/lntercar/O.N.R./Maheux/timocar/P.M.C.L. OUT?? Chill Out! at OIUE 2291W. Broadway ■fe^asfi&f# 733-2821 After studying. After Exams. After Anything. LxL 1 O vJ *■—' V-A CX L fc^ Safewalk Hours During Exams! Safewalk is proud to announce that it will be operating in full swing during exam period! SUB Location March 15th - 28th, 1997 (inclusive) 7:00 pm to 12:00 am (midnight) Buchanan Location March 15-17,21-23 7:00 pm to 12:00 am (midnight) Also look out for a designated waiting area is Koerner Library - it will be marked with a red and green sign!) For more information, please contact Safewalk at 822-5355. applications for club offices and lockers for 97/98! A ttention all clubs! Pick up your application forms for SUB office space and SUB lockers in SUB Room 238. Completed applications are due no later than 4:00 pm on Friday, May 2nd, 1997. Applications will be reviewed and assigned by SAC by Monday, June 2nd, 1997. All assignments will be posted in the locked display case for clubs on the second floor of SUB outside Room 238 by Monday, June 2nd, 1997. For more information, please contact Jennie Chen, Director of Administration, at 822- 3971 or drop by SUB Room 254 during posted office hours. Create your D o you have a great idea that would benefit UBC students and the AMS as a whole? Is there a service missing on campus which you think would be beneficial to students? own job at the AMS! The AMS is inviting you to submit a proposal for such ideas! Some examples of services which came out of Special Projects are The RentsLine, Safewalk and the AMS Used Bookstore. Put together a proposal outlining all salaries, capital requirements and resources needed. A total of $15,000 is available for Special Projects this year. Send your project proposal no later than Friday, May 2nd, 1997 to: Ryan Davies, AMS President c/o SUB Room 238 *Late applications may be considered. The AMS Budget Committee: Student At-Large Positions Available (2)! The AMS Budget Committee is looking for 2 students who are interested in sitting on the AMS Budget Committee. Interested applicants can send their resumes to SUB Room 238 by 4:00pm on Monday, April 21 st. For more info, please call Vivian Hoffmann, Director of Finance at 822-3973 or drop by SUB Room 258 during posted office hours. Just Pick Up the Phone and VOTE The AMS encourages all UBC students to participate and vote in the Student Technology Pee Referendum, Pick up any touch tone phone from April 9th to 16th, and make your vote heard! The Question: Do you support the implementation of a student technology fee of $90 for a full-time student, beginning September 1, 1997? □ YES □ NO When: How: Wednesday, April 9th to Wednesday, April 16th, 1997 Call 280-8228 (50 lines) or 822-VOTE (8683) (7 lines) Open 22 hours per day (not available 4:00am to 6:00am) ** You may vote from any touch tone phone. 1997 Student Technology Pee Referendum VOTE APRIL 9TH TO APRIL 16TH TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 op/ed THE UBYSSEY 1 3 Crippled political consciousness of UBC students a humiliation I would like to let Sara Wong ("Crippled Statue, a humiliation," April 2, 1997), and any other concerned UBC student, know that APEC Alert has not, and will not, vandalise the statue of the Goddess of Democracy. Our group has made sure that the AMS understands that we were not responsible for the damage to the statue. I sincerely hope that this is the last tune our group is inaccurately and irresponsibly linked with the vandalism of the statue. As one of the few student groups at UBC actually willing to stand up for democratic values, we deplore the act of vandalism that was committed against a monument to the thousands of students who were willing to stand up to their government and die for democracy and social justice at Tiananmen Square in the summer of '89. Sara Wong could not be more incorrect when she says that our group is making a "mockery of student sacrifices" made at Tiananmen Square. The truth of the matter is that corporate- ass-kisser Dr. Strangway and the conformist clique that make up the UBC administration are the people at UBC who are guilty of making a mockery of these sacrifices. I can think of no greater mockery of democracy that inviting Jiang Zemin (the Shanghai Party boss responsible, as President, for overseeing the crackdown on tlie pro-democracy movement after Tiananmen) to our campus as an honoured guest. Similarly, I can think of no greater mockery of human rights than inviting General-come-President Suharto (the man responsible for the invasion of East Timor and the subsequent unrelenting campaign of extermination carried out against its people) to our campus as an honoured guest. Our administration is either too stupid, too greedy, or both, to comprehand that inviting bloody- handed military dictators to our campus constitutes a severe transgression of civilised ethics and democratic principles. APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) is the largest grouping of outwardly fascist and quasi-fascist nations since the demise ofthe Axis powers in 1945 (NATO excluded). The pandering to APEC that is going on at UBC is a travesty, a disgrace and an affront to everyone who gives a damn about democracy, human rights, the well-being of workers, or the protection ofthe environment. The nonchalant way the majority of UBC students have responded to APEC coming to our campus is an outright humiliation, and I cannot find polite words to describe the sycopantic opportunists among the UBC student body and faculty who are in favour of having the APEC leaders on our campus (you know who you are). APEC Alert was formed in January to resist APEC's operations at UBC through protest and education. We have sacrificed our time and energy; we set up a table every week in the SUB to inform the student body about APEC and to build opposition to the planned economic leaders' meeting; we have dis tributed thousands of information pamphlets, gratis; we have written perspective stories in The Ubyssey; we have explained what we are doing on CiTR; we have put on forums, panel discussions, and teach-ins; we have invited everyone to join our movement and come to our meetings. We will continue to make every effort to fight against our adrninistration's and our government's authoritarian attempts to force APEC's antidemocratic, monopoly capital nightmare down our throats. We will continue to mobilise the UBC student body against APEC. When our group labels the Goddess of Democracy the "Goddess of Hypocrisy" we are expressing our opposition to our university administration's unhesitating endorsement of an organisation committed to dismantling democracy and burying human rights to ensure that transnational corporations around the world can make the biggest profits possible and be accountable to no one. If our protests make a few stu dents angry or unhappy, so be it. The price of catering to the demands ofthe superwealthy corporate elite is immense: millions of people will be effectively disenfranchised and have their rights and livelihoods snatched from them, hundreds of millions will suffer terribly and thousands upon thousands will be killed for the sake of their gigantic profit margins. Sara contends that the goddess has been shamed by students fighting against APEC at UBC. If the statue could be offended, she certainly would be much more pissed-off at the behaviour of relatively privileged UBC students and faculty, who take democracy for granted and leave the hard work of protecting it up to other people. What are you doing to defend democracy? Nothing. As long as the political climate at UBC is one of self-righteous ignorance and self-satisfied compliance, I ftiink that it is better that the Goddess of Democracy be left in her current sorry state and under wraps. —DaveJago is a Phd candidate and member of APEC Alert Democracy bound and gagged at UBC As one of "the people who label the statue the 'Goddess of Hypocrisy/' I would like to respond to Sara Wong's letter' "Crippled Statue, a humiliation' in the last issue of The Ubyssey. The Goddess of Democracy statue was erected to commemorate the students who were killed by the government of China at Tiananmen Square in 1989. It demonstrates our support for the students who are still working for democracy, the cause for which the others died. The label Goddess of Hypocrisy is a result of the fact that the president of UBC has invited the president of China along with other major human rights abusers, murderers and dictators to our campus. President Strangway would like to welcome them here as part of an APEC (.Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit meeting to be held in Vancouver this coming November. Human rights are explicitly not on the agenda of these trade meetings. There are many students, staff and faculty at UBC who are deeply upset by the hypocrisy of UBC's president and adnrinistratian. We do not want the leader of a government that kills its students who speak out for democracy welcomed at this campus. Our efforts to address this included presenting panel discussions, workshops and presentations on APEC, and handing out information. We are gathering support from all over UBC's community, and are demanding that these leaders not come here. We have been chalking the outlines of bodies representing the students who were run over by government tanks at Tiananmen Square so that we do not forget nor become apathetic. We want to show our solidarity with those students. We are in no way indined to make a mockery of their sacrifices. We did not vandalise the Goddess of Democracy. I too was outraged at seeing the Goddess of Democracy taped up in plastic, apparently bound and gagged. As for your concerns about being proud of being a UBC student, 1 am not proud of our president nor our administration. However I am proud that there are students, faculty and staff who truly care about what happened at Tiananmen Square and about what is happening to people in other countries with undemocratic leaders, and are working hard to do something about it. I hope that Sara now understands that she mistakenly accused the very people who are fighting to ensure that UBC upholds the values of democracy, and that she has a better idea of who at thus campus really is making a mockery of those who have sacrificed their lives for this ideal. Outrage is a wonderful response to what is happening here, please express it loudly, and direct it where it is needed. Amem* STUDENT DISCIPLINE ADVOCATE ~K Plagiarism Misrepresentation All Cases CLAYTON_3.TJRNS Ph.D. 222-1286 WEST 10TH OPTOMETRY CLINIC Dr. Patricia Rupnow, Optometrist General Eye and Vision Care 4320 W. 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC (604) 224-2322 SO,o Tlie Ubyssey Publications Society Membership Fee The Opt-Out period for The Ubyssey Publications Society Membership Fee for those students enrolled In Summer School will be 14 days from the first day of classes, ie. May 1-14. Please note that this applies only to Summer School students and only for Summer School courses; the regular opt-out period will be held in the Fall. Those wishing to opt-out should come to SUB 245 between the hours of 10am-4pm between May 1-14,1997. Those opting out will no longer be members in good standing of the Society. g^packer Bus Pisses Flexible bus passes that are great for independent travellers. Buses operate a set itinerary and passengers get on and off enroute for the validity of their pass. ElirobUS: Europe ■ 4 months/1 zone rom $290 SlOW Coach: l month Britain from $199 i Experience: New Zealand - North & South Island from $437 OZ Experience: Australia- Sydney to Cairns from $328 i*V PLUS • EurailPasses issued on Iks spot with no soritioo charge! ::travel curs Student Union Building & 2nd Floor UBC Village Owned and Operated by the Canadian Federation of Students 14 THE UBYSSEY, APRIL 8, 1997 ubyssey APRIL 8, 1997 • volume 78 issue 45 Editorial Board Coordinating Editor Scott Hayward News Ian Gunn and Sarah O'Donnell Culture Peter T. Chattaway Sports Wolf Depner National/Features Federico Araya Barahona Photo Richard Lam Production Joe Clark The Ubyssey is the official student newspaper of the University of British Columbia. It Is published every Tuesday and Friday by the Ubyssey Publications Society. We are an autonomous, democratically run student organisation, and all students are encouraged to participate. Editorials are chosen and written by the Ubyssey staff. They are the expressed opinion of the staff, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Ubyssey Publications Society or the University of British Columbia. The Ubyssey is a founding member of Canadian University Press (CUP) and firmly adheres to CUP'S guiding principles. All editorial content appearing in The | Ubyssey is the property of The Ubyssey j Publications Society. Stories, opinions, pho- | tographs and artwork contained herein I cannot be reproduced without the I expressed, written permission of The s Ubyssey Publications Society. j Letters to the editor must be under I 300 words. Please include your phone ] number, student number and signature | (not for publication) as well as your year ] and faculty with all submissions. ID will be I checked when submissions are dropped off j at the editorial office of The Ubyssey, oth- | erwise verification will be done by phone. ) "Perspectives" are opinion pieces over 300 \ words but under 750 words and are run | according to space. i "Freestyles" are opinion pieces writ- | ten by Ubyssey staff members. Priority j will be given to letters and perspec- \ tives over freestyles unless the latter is \ time senstitive. Opinion pieces will not | be run until the identity of the writer has been verified. I Editorial Office : Room 241K, Student Union Building, 6138 Student Union Boulevard, | Vancouver. BC. V6T 1Z1 j tel: (604) 822-2301 fax:822-9279 i ; Business Office ! Room 245, Student Union Building j advertising: (604) 822-1654 business office: (604) 822-6681 I • Business Manager Fernie Pereira i Advertising Manager James Rowan Joe Clark was looking for the ideal companion, someone with the sunglasses of Sarah Galashan, the leather pants of Scott Hayward, the verbosity of Charlie Cho and the sassy snap of Sarah Christiana O'Donnell.To his call answered Jo-Ann Chiu, who had the pedantic nature of Peter "Chatty* Chattaway, the alcholism of Wolf Depner, the troubling genius of Ian Gunn and the hip musical taste of Federico Barahona. Richard Lam matched up their photos and smiled at his perfect match, yet Paul Kamon couldn't figure out the attraction. Meanwhile, Tara Murphy was responding to Douglas Quan's call for an invisible soulmate. -Andy Barham was on the lookout an strangely attractive, intellectually quirky and crazily crazed girl of his dreams. Could Harper Haddin meet his call? Definitely. But she had to beat Desiree Adib out of the way and push Theresa Chaboyer out the window and down the stairs. Todd Silver was only looking for a simple friend to spend quality time with. When Bruce Arthur showed up at his door, he realised he should have been more specific. Tanya Dubick just wanted to have fun and Rachana Raizada took her up for a night on the town. a\nd John Zaozirny doesn't read the personals. op/fed SI Canadian University Hess Between a rock and a hard drive UBC students are being given a rare chance to vote on a fee increase. This uncharacteristic flirtation with democracy on the university's part is a hard-won concession resulting from lobbying efforts by student groups, the student members of the Board of Governors and, perhaps most importantly, thinly veiled threats from the Ministry of Education in Victoria. It's a shame then that the choice on the electronic ballot is such a difficult one to make. Students are being asked whether or not it is worth $90 a year for upgrades to student technology access on campus. Without the $2.7 million the fee will raise, warns Maria Klawe, UBC vice-president and pointman for the fee lobby, "students will have to endure longer lines to get into inadequate computing labs, more difficulties in dialing in to the UBC network and increasingly inadequate training for students." It is a point well made, and much of it is likely true. And it raises the most troubling aspect of the decision students have to make next week. Saying yes' to the fee could well set a dangerous precedent. Students, it will say loudly to every cash-strapped arm of administration from here to Ottawa, are willing to dig into their own pockets to provide themselves with what would normally be considered core services. Today it's a much-needed technology upgrade, tomorrow a user-fee for heat, light and sewage. Which is not as far-fetched as it may sound. This time last year the brains on the Board of Governors approved a $40 student sewage levy. Only when the Minister of Education stepped in did the university change its mind. For this reason, if no other, it is seriously tempting to vote 'no'. But the fee has its merits—as the copious university advertising on the subject makes clear. Not least of which is the obvious need for access to adequate computer technology for anyone hoping for a worthwhile education in the late 90s. „\gr *L> ^\»s#JL ^ The short-term benefits of approving the fee are many; the long-term ramifications have been little considered so far in the debate and demand more sober analysis. In the end, what is not in any doubt is the need for students to demonstrate an interest in the fact that we are being allowed to vote at all. And on a campus where the student body is notoriously hard to get excited about anything at all, there is a danger the vote could become Ein embarrassing fizzle. For despite its being widely used to describe the event, next week's vote is not a referendum at all. It is a plebiscite, with no iron-clad guarantee that the university will follow the outcome. Because of which, arguably the most lasting and significant legacy of the vote will be not the decision on a technology fee, but the message it sends to the administration about how involved students really want to be in their education. So if you do only two things at UBC next week make them these: Think. Then vote. Much depends upon your doing both. Canada Post Publications Sales Agreement Number 0732141 Goddess statue on the mend In response to the letter to the editor titled "Crippled Statue, a humiliation" in the April 2nd issue of The Ubyssey, I would like to give an update on the repair of the Goddess of Democracy. The AMS is responsible for the restoration of the Goddess of Democracy and although we share the same respect for the statue and for who and what it represents (as expressed in your letter) we must make sure it is repaired properly, not just quickly. Information supplied by the President's Art Advisory Committee states that the statue is comprised of polyester resin and marble dust and in order for it to properly cure it requires at least 24 hours of above 10 degree weather. As soon as the weather warms up the work will proceed. The AMS has requested the President's Art Advisory Committee to oversee the restoration ofthe statue by enlisting the services of the Fine Arts department to do the work and forward the costs to the AMS. In the meantime plant operations will continue to do its best to keep the statue covered (despite the frequent mysterious unveilings) so that no further damage results. If I can be of any assistance or if you have any questions please do call. Waiting for warmer weather, Mike Swan Facilities Development Manager Ph: (604) 822-6450 Fx: (604) 822-9019 e-mail: facman@ams.ubc.ca Yikes! A caring administration? Oh, Maria Klawe! What a friendly- sounding lady! She cares so much for students! She has our best interests at heart! So does the Board of Governors! It only took 35 students marching into Davey Strangway's office and staying there for six days to get them to ask our opinion on this new Technology Fee! And why should they ask us anyway? We're just dumb old students. That's why we're here right? And that bad old province put on this tuition fee freeze. So, what's an administration to do? Well, everyone knows students at UBC have rich, rich parents. So, let's add on this new fee and give it a trendy name— Technology. That's pretty cool and hip. And tell these students that if this fee isn't put in place, why the computer labs will become dustballs filled with antiquated, hamster- operated word processors. Do students want state-of-the- art technology at UBC? Yes. But recent student protests across this country are an indicator that our pocketbooks are being squeezed far too thinly. $7.50 per month may not sound like a lot to an administrator who has a regular, perhaps quite comfortable salary. But to use the same kind of numbers game, a course, when broken up in cost-per-class works out to about $ 13/class. So, in other words, this monthly addition to our pocketbooks is almost the equivalent to adding the cost of one class per month for an entire year. Yikes! Question: Where did the money come from for the original computer labs? Why aren't those funds there now? Why do we have new buildings going up but no money to put anything in them? And, Maria? What's next? A lightbulb changing fee? How about a campus entry fee! Oh, yes. We can put in rides, corporate logos on everything, sell candy apples... Colleen Subasic 2nd year MFA Theatre, Film & Creative Writing Technology fee propaganda Unnoticed by most of us on this campus, UBC administration is continuing their old routine: a void of communication, and the "cold war" of bad propaganda. We have a referendum on, did YOU know that? Well, if you are a frequent Ubyssey reader you might have found out about it in the last issue from April 2nd. But if you don't, chances are you wouldn't know. Unless you have checked your e-mail just to find another little incomprehensible hint. But look around you on campus, look in other publications—notice anything? Nothing? Well, that's the way administration handles communication with students, even after a week- long occupation of the president's office which was just about that: lack of communication and consultation (among other things like YOUR money). And here is the rule by which administration has been playing the game in the past at last minute forums, and is still playing with the upcoming referendum: Nobody will know about the referendum, therefore nobody will show up, and bingo— the implication is students don't want to be consulted, or do YOU? In case you feel you should have a say where your money is spent, come out and vote against or in favour of the information technology fee. Let us have a closer look at Maria Klawe's (VP Student and Academic Services) advertisement on page 16 in issue 44. If you hadn't been informed properly by then, now you are—at last a sign of goodwill. It's exacuy what we as students had been longing for: objective and clear information about the information technology fee and a break down on how the increased revenue will be spent. Or??? Well, continued on page 15 TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 THE UBYSSEY 1 5 continued from page 14 one has to be pretty dumb not to notice the tactics in this campaign, a disgusting manipulation of students to vote yes for a fee they know nothing about and to press more money out of their already stretched pockets, despite the provincial government's tuition freeze. How stupid and naive do you think students are, Maria? Is that the attitude administration has towards their students, manipulative in such a primitive way that I couldn't help myself laughing as I was reading on. I certainly don't want to be addressed like this, the virtual pat on the shoulder, "yup" sure I will vote yes, because it's so good for me. I must say I felt patronised and insulted, but not informed. Would you kindly give me a breakdown of the costs of improving UBC's information technology? Is that too much to ask for or could it simply be that you don't know? I imply you really just don't know, because it's a scam designed to hide a tuition fee increase when there is a freeze in place. It's a bad design. Let's say your kid is asking you for 90 bucks, wouldn't you want to know what that is for? And if your kid says she will tell you after you have handed over the cash, would you give it to her? I think you probably wouldn't, especially when you earn something close to a minimum wage or live off a loan. Well, that's exacuy how we feel. Another thing I noticed in the last issue d The Ubyssey. Ryan Davies, President of the AMS, how come your hands got untied so suddenly? Not long ago you couldn't do anything about the issue of ancillary fees and now you are arguing so strongly in favour. It makes me wonder, whether some of this technology fee money will be allocated to... Feel free to speculate, as we are anyway left in the dark at UBC. Annette Muttray Microbiology and Immunology grad Human rights spotlight: abuses against women in Mexico Over the past twenty years Amnesty International has documented a continuing pattern of gross human rights violations and impunity in Mexico. Although the underprivileged are most affected, evidence suggests that all citizens, regardless of social status or ethnic origin, are at risk. In recent years there has been an increasing pattern of politically motivated human rights violations against women in Mexico, including torture, rape, political killings and "disappearances". In its recent report "Overcoming Fear: Human rights violations against women in Mexico", Amnesty International has documented many cases of human rights abuses against women, targeted for their political activism, participation in community and human rights organizations and peasant unions, for openly demanding that their rights be respected, or in the case of young or indigenous women, simply because they are vulnerable. Women who have suffered sexual or other abuse j at the hands of the security forces in Mexico are often afraid to pre-1 sent a criminal complaint or even^ make their abuse public, for fear oV reprisals. However, Amnesty t International has been receiving an increasing number of reports relat-1 ing to human rights violations against women. The fact that women are reporting more of these crimes may indicate that they and the organizations which work with them will not be intimidated by these aggressions. Despite repeated statements to the contrary' by the government, human rights violators operate with impunity in Mexico. Court sentences are rare, and officials accused of gross human rights violations are frequendy transferred or even promoted to other jurisdictions or departments. Although it has ratified the UN Convention against Torture and other human rights treaties, Mexico appears to have failed to live up to its international obligations to protect its citizens and women in particular against human rights violations. Amnesty International believes that only a firm political commitment from the Mexican Government to eliminate impunity in all its pervasive forms will make it possible to eradicate human rights violations against women in Mexico. Amnesty International recognizes the importance of steps taken so far by Mexico to try to resolve some of these problems, and welcomes President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon's recently stated commitment to create a National Women's Program. However, Amnesty believes that the implementation of programs and legislative changes aimed specifically at improving the condition of women in Mexico should go hand in hand with a political commitment to effectively end impunity for the perpetrators of human rights violations in Mexico. Amnesty International calls on the Mexican Government to: • fulfill its stated commitments to ensure that women's human rights are protected; conduct investigations into all reports of "disappearances", extrajudicial executions and torture, including rape and sexual abuse, and death threats and harassment, and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice; • ensure that violations perpetrated by the security forces are investigated and tried under civilian jurisdiction and not by the military courts, which have been responsible for ensuring the virtually complete impunity of members of the security forces responsible for human rights violations; • ensure that victims and their relatives receive compensation and medical care; • ensure that government agents receive adequate training on national and international standards which protect the human rights of all women, and be instructed that rape of women in their custody is an act of torture and will not be tolerated; • guarantee that women activists working peacefully for the promotion of human rights can carry out their activities without risk of intimidation, harassment or physical attack; • ensure that special steps are taken to uphold the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women and other relevant international standards, including the UN Convention against Torture. These steps should include a clear prohibition of gender- based violence. For further information about Amnesty International contact Amnesty UBC at Box 24, SUB, UBC, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, or visit our office at SUB 63. Martin Otterson (Science 3) is a member of Amnesty International. THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA St. John's College St. John's College is a new residential graduate college that will focus on international research themes and issues. The College is the realization of a dream held by local and international alumni of the former St. John's University in Shanghai (SJU) to revive the spirit of their alma mater. SJU was operational between 1879-1952/ with a renowned international reputation as one of the most prestigious and influential universities in China. Its alumni can be found in key posts on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, in Hong Kong, Singapore, and on every continent. Continuing in the tradition of its namesake, St. John's College will strive to build bridges between different parts of the world, serving as an intellectual and social centre for graduate student and senior scholar residents, and for other members of the University of British Columbia and wider community who share the scholarly objectives of advanced international studies. Its aim is to create a vibrant international community in which students from different parts of the world will learn from each other in a collegial setting. St. John's College is located on the west side of the University of British Columbia campus, close to ocean and forest. The College is being developed in three phases, with completion of Phase I by Sept. 1, 1997, and anticipated completion of Phase II in 1998 and Phase III in 1999 on the 120th anniversary of the founding of St. John's University. Upon completion, St. John's College will have accommodation for 170 residents and will include several lecture facilities, seminar rooms, as well as dining facilities, lounge and social areas, and a landscaped open air courtyard. Upon completion of Phase I, the College will accommodate 35 graduate students, post doctoral researchers and visiting scholars. In addition to these residential members, there will be a number of members from various academic units on campus and from the wider community who will enrich College life as non-residential members. Applications for graduate student, post doctoral researcher and visiting scholar residential as well as faculty, graduate student and post doctoral researcher non-residential membership are welcome at any time. Residency in Phase I of St. John's Collge will commence on Sept. 1,1997. Call for membership applications For further information or to receive an application form, please contact: Susanna James, St. John's College phone: 822-0533, fax: 822-5802 e-mail: st-johns@mercury.ubc.ca After Finals... The Cramming Begins! Having trouble getting your stoff home from school? Ut your local Mad Poxes Be. Centre pack and ship it for you. We're not only a UPS Authorized Outlet we also carry a wide range of packing and shipping supplies (ncloding: Movhg ami Storage Poxer Sizes anywhere from 4"x4"x4"to3rx19"x19" Mirror/Picture Frame Boxes Golf Club Boxes Ski Boxes Wardrobe Boxes Malert' Mailing Tubes Padded Envelopes Photo Mailers Cassette, CD & Video Mailers Clasp Envelopes R^ Material* Bubble Wrap Peanuts (foam) E.P.S. Bead Board Glass Mask Packing Tape Kraft Paper MAIL BOXES ETC* 4 Convenient Locations to Serve you! 3495 Cambie Street, Vancouver B.C. 8623 Granville Street, Vancouver B.C #101-1001 West Broadway, Vancouver B.C. 1917 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver B.C. Over 3,100 Centre worldwide to serve you. Services and products available at most locations. An independently owned and operated franchise. (604) 871-0038 (604) 263-8777 (604| 732-4147 (604) 731-1048 16 TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 1997 ncu¥S THE UBYSSEY STfeeteRs Who would you clone for your personal use and why? Photos by Paul Kamon Td dem myself so rd have a -JasmMatOand Td done myself so that I wouldn't have to mhe the same choices the AMS dM." THE VOTE April 9th —April 16th, 1997 tudent echnology ee Referendum THE QUESTION Do you support the implementation of a student technology fee of $90 for a full-time student beginning September 1,1997? Any questions about the TeleVote system? Call the Registrar's Office at 822-4367. Students with a hearing disability may call 822-3859 (TTY/TDD). Results will be available on 822-VOTE on Friday April 18th. 3) (7 lines) Phone lines are open 22 hours per day (not available 4:00 - 6:00 a.m.). You may vote from any touch-tone phone. 1997 Student Technology Fee Referendum