SILENT NO MOREUniversity present vows his second term will address faculty concerns, p. 5

FUN FOR FREEArts Editor Kim Anderson on how and why fun doesn’t have to cost you, p. 4

FILM REVIEWThe Interview made waves over the holiday break, but is it worth seeing? p. 4

Volume 24 – Issue 15 www.truomega.ca Ω @TRU_Omega January 7, 2015

Computer advice for the undergrad

How to make your tech life easier, p. 6

WolfPack take first in weekend tournamentTRU host to visiting team from Japan’s Budo University, p. 7

The latest on hockey’s return to TRUTeam may return under a new name, organization, p. 7

More seats available in health care assistant program thanks to a recent funding boost, p. 5

2 January 7, 2015FEATURE

The changing face of cheating

Academic integrity has been an issue that has long frustrated pro-fessors and school officials. With the rapid production of new tech-nology, students have come up with new methods of cheating on assignments, tests and exams.

Information can now be ac-cessed more easily, quickly and discreetly than ever before.

For professors at Wilfrid Lau-rier University, technology is also changing the way they monitor cheating and plagiarism.

“In the past, to copy off an as-signment you had to have the physical assignment,” said Sofy Carayannopoulos, the BU111 course coordinator. “Now it ’s easy to share that assignment, and store it, and share it again and again and again.”

The advent of wearable tech-nology is a big concern. Google Glass, recently put on the market, is one such example. It is, essen-tially, a pair of glasses with the capabilities of a computer. Smart watches will also enable students to access information very easily.

“We haven’t seen any on the [Brantford] campus yet,” said Judy Eaton, the academic integri-ty advisor at Laurier’s Brantford campus. “But once that becomes popular — if it ever becomes pop-ular — that could be an issue for us.”

Although students are using technology to find new ways to cheat, professors are also using technology to maintain academic integrity.

“In the same way that it ’s easier for students to cheat, it ’s easier for me to catch them,” said Carayan-nopoulos.

However, because of the fast rate at which technology ad-vances, there will always be a lag between the time a new way of cheating becomes popular and the time professors can stop that method.

“I’m sure many of my academ-ic colleagues won’t agree with

me, but I don’t think that facul-ty members can beat students in the use of technology,” said Lea Caragata, the academic integri-ty advisor at Laurier’s Waterloo campus. “Technology is of [the students’] generation.”

Instead of strictly policing stu-dents, Laurier has opted to ed-ucate them. The purpose of the academic integrity advisors is to promote knowledge about the negative effects of cheating.

“When [students] act with-out integrity, they’re diminishing their degree and everyone else’s degree if people come to think of Laurier as a place where you can

cheat,” said Eaton.“So they’re hurting not only

themselves, but other people.”Caragata echoed Eaton’s opin-

ion.“I think the way out of this

isn’t to try to kind of develop a game plan and stay a step ahead of students, but rather work with students so that they understand that we’re all in this together, that Laurier’s reputation is their reputation,” she said. “If Laurier begins to have a reputation as a university where grades and de-grees don’t matter because every-body knows that integrity lapses are rampant … that affects us all.”

At Laurier’s Brantford campus, all students take four core courses, which focus heavily on academic integrity. They learn what it is and how to avoid cheating.

One component of these cours-es is a test on which students must score at least 70 per cent. If they do not pass, they must either re-take the test or participate in an academic integrity workshop.

“We try to bring them back to the ‘you don’t want to cheat,’ not the ‘here’s how we’re going to catch you,’” Eaton explained.

Because the Waterloo campus is larger, students do not take core courses. However, professors of-

ten stress the importance of aca-demic integrity within their own classes.

For example, all first-year busi-ness students are required to com-plete an assignment that teaches them how to source properly.

Additionally, a student-led con-ference on academic integrity is expected to be held in the spring.

“I can talk until the cows come home about academic integri-ty and why it ’s important, but I think the real power of a mes-sage will come when the students themselves are talking to each other about integrity and why it ’s important,” Caragata said.

Technology allows students new ways to cheat, but focus of educators remains the samePearl LeungTHE CORD (CUP)

Smart phones aren’t the only tool available for cheaters. With wearable tech becoming more and more popular, there’s also concerns about Google Glass and whatever else is on the technology horizon. (Will Huang/The Cord)

3The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 15

The Omega

www.truomega.ca

/TRUOmega

@TRU_Omega

Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Published since November 27, 1991

EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

NEWS EDITOR

ISSUES EDITOR

SCI-TECH EDITOR

ARTS EDITOR

SPORTS EDITOR

COPY EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

Sean Brady@iamseanbradyeditor@truomega.ca

Alexis Stockford@AlexisStockfordnews@truomega.ca

Ashley Wadhwani@ashwadhwaniissues@truomega.ca

Ryan Turcot@RyanTurcotsci-tech@truomega.ca

Kim Anderson@K_AndersonSaysarts@truomega.ca

Tayla Scott@taylascott3sports@truomega.ca

Rachel Wood@rachelwooodcopy@truomega.ca

PUBLISHING BOARDEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

INDUSTRY REP

FACULTY REP

STUDENT REP

STUDENT REP

STUDENT REP

Sean Brady

Christopher Foulds

Charles Hays

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LETTERS POLICYLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in any section with an “Opinion” label do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

COPYRIGHTAll material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright The Omega 2014.

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Phone: 250-828-5069Advertising inquiries:

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PUBLISHING

/tru_omega

OPINION & EDITORIAL

Outrage won’t get us anywhere

Snapcash users should proceed with caution

The year of 2014 was littered with sexual assault scandals and honest discussion about a prob-lem that just won’t go away. In particular, there was a lot of talk about university sexual assault policies and how to deal with al-legations of sexual assault.

TRU tackled the matter through an event held by the Wellness Centre. This year’s Sex-ual Health Week, held in early November, focused on what con-stitutes consent and aimed to get students talking about the issue. While the university has not put a sexual assault policy in place (something I think it may soon feel pressure to do), it does have a structure in place to deal with sexual assaults, as reported in our Nov. 12 article on the matter. At any rate, it ’s a positive sign that the university is showing some signs of affirming its responsibil-ity for student safety.

Elsewhere, things have been much rockier. Every so often a school emerges as the “rape cul-ture” noisemaker and word of

its messy affairs echoes across the country. Last year it was St. Mary’s University (SMU) and UBC’s Sauder School of Busi-ness, where rape chants during Frosh week got a lot of attention. In case you missed the details of these scandals, the chants at both schools were similar, chanting “U is for underage, N is for no con-sent” while spelling “YOUNG,” which according to the chant is “how they like them.”

The noisemaker right now is Dalhousie University. In a private Facebook group called the “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen’s Club,” 13 male students made posts and comments that amounted to flat out sexual harassment and also contained jokes about sexual as-sault. This private group was dis-covered and screenshots were tak-en that exposed who these students were and what they were saying. Specific women were named in a poll asking “Who would you hate fuck?” along with crude rape jokes like “does this smell like chloro-form to you?”

These comments are obvious-ly unacceptable, especially from a group of students about to grad-uate from a professional school,

but I think they’re also not very surprising. From my own point of view, which I’ll acknowledge is far removed from the situation, I don’t see the intent behind these posts as sexual harassment or cyber bul-lying. That is certainly what they have become and that is how they will be interpreted, and rightfully so, but I don’t think we’ve uncov-ered a secret group of would-be rapists here. A lot of the pitchforks and torches need to be put away.

These were comments and posts made by students who really weren’t thinking about anything other than impressing their fellow male classmates. This was prob-ably the result of an absurd and damaging game of sleazy one-up-smanship.

There hasn’t been much produc-tive conversation around the Dal-housie scandal. It seems like people are simply too angry at this point. Before comments were closed on CBC’s article about professors go-ing public with a complaint over the matter, there were over 2,600 comments – some just as vitriolic as the very comments that started this scandal. The outrage and en-ergy spent by some over is wasteful and unproductive and only serves

to cloud the issue with anger rath-er than point the conversation in the right direction.

People have been saying the most horrible things they can think of on the Internet for about as long as it ’s been around. Part of that is because of this “one-ups-manship of shock value” game that some choose to play. The differ-ence with this case, though, is two-fold. First, specific women were named and effectively targeted for this kind of abuse. Second, these students are in their final year of a professional school. By now they should realize that there’s no place in the real world for this kind of “frat bro” nonsense.

On Monday, Dalhousie an-nounced it would be suspending these students. Whether or not that will affect their graduation is yet to be seen. The busting-up of this Facebook group was messier than it needed to be, but with spe-cific people being targeted it was something that had to happen in the interest of student safety. Dal-housie’s reputation may take a hit, but that ’s not an issue that should be of concern when students are at risk.

editor@truomega.ca

Since its initial release in 2011, Snapchat has come to dominate the mobile app marketplace. This photo/ video messaging service has amassed hundreds of millions of users world-wide, being especially popular with millennials thanks to its fun and easy-to-use interface.

This app has become so well-known that its developers have even started to offer a money transferring service called Snapcash, which al-lows Snapchat users (over the age of 18) to send each other small amounts of currency via text message.

Snapcash flaunts the same “fun and easy” quality as its photo mes-saging counterpart, and that isn’t a good thing. Snapchat’s poor security record and laissez-faire attitude to-ward information distribution have a high potential for disaster. This isn’t good news for a service that’s supposed to handle your bank ac-count.

The first quality you would look for in a mobile payment system is airtight privacy and security set-tings. Snapchat has proven that it isn’t ready to handle that kind of re-sponsibility.

For one thing, the app’s security features are flimsy and have been subject to a couple of massive hacks in the last year. On New Year’s Eve 2013, the names and phone numbers of about 4.6 million Snapchat users were stolen and posted online. This October, hackers obtained at least a hundred thousand “deleted” user

photos, despite Snapchat’s assuranc-es that these kinds of images disap-pear from your phone after receiving them.

These security breaches mostly stem from Snapchat’s basic encryp-tion software, something that se-curity experts like Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of the app security company Veracode, call “the bare minimum” when it comes to privacy settings.

For this reason, Snapchat has been publicly condemned by digital rights groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the Elec-tronic Frontier Foundation, mostly because of its inability or unwill-ingness to protect its users’ private information.

In an era when online fraud and invasive Internet hacking is at an all-time high, I wouldn’t trust Snapchat with my grocery list, let alone my debit card number.

The app’s approach to sharing in-formation is also poorly suited to fi-nancial exchange. The whole appeal behind Snapchat is that it lets users share images that are supposed to be taken spontaneously or in the spur-of-the-moment. While this technique works fine for sharing goofy selfies, it does not encourage sensible financial decision-making.

When someone decides to pur-chase something or send their friend money, (no matter what the amount) that act should always be given serious consideration. But

when people use Snapchat they are not in the correct venue to dis-tribute something of value. They are looking to deal with electronic information that’s cheap and dis-posable.

If you’re absolutely desperate to find a mobile app that allows you to transfer money, there are so many other alternatives. Services like Venmo, Paypal, and Google Wallet all have much better security rat-ings than Snapchat.

Right now, my biggest concern is that Snapcash users, who are most-ly young people, will begin to treat their money like they do their im-ages on Snapchat: a worthless text message that they never have to see again after they push “send.”

Dalhousie is the latest school to make headlines for all the wrong reasons

New feature could lead to reckless spending, security breaches

Sean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Kyle DarbysonTHE FULCRUM (CUP)

Snapchat’s latest offering “Snapcash” allows friends to send a lot more than images that disappear after 8 seconds.

4 January 7, 2015ARTS

A good time doesn’t have to cost you anything

Here we are, in our first week of the winter semester. Many of us are waiting, but not for new expe-riences, challenges or a fresh start at a new semester. We are wait-ing for our student loans, or “free money” as some people see them.

I’ll admit, I fell into this allur-ing trap in my first year. Instantly I had several thousand dollars at my disposal. Obviously I paid my fees and made sure my housing was taken care of. But, there it was, an extra $2,000 or so. Do I have any-thing to show for it now? Maybe a bit of the “freshman fifteen” that seems to have lingered far longer than the money.

I spent it on exactly what you can imagine, food, going out, clothes, all disposable things. I should’ve just tossed that money

into the trash. Sure, it was fun, but at what cost? Five per cent interest plus prime? I do not have a shad-ow of a clue of what that means.

Taking the leftover funding and putting it towards the loan right away is a grand idea, but how often do you think it actually happens? There are always a million reasons not to do something and when friends are knocking at your door, beckoning you to go out. They usually win over the responsible alternative.

After my second year I knew I had to shift my lifestyle and pri-orities. By holding two jobs, I somehow managed to fund this year and last on my own, without any loans. It ’s come at a cost. I’ve lost any semblance of a normal sleep schedule, and by the end of the semester, the few conversa-tions I have are usually sharp and short. But I don’t have the burden of guilt that I’m wasting borrowed

money. I only have to live with the manageable amount of anxiety over the sum I already owe. With no way to bail myself out of finan-cial trouble, I’ve had to adjust my spending habits accordingly.

The most significant lesson I’ve learned by ditching the student loans and becoming financially in-dependent is how to find free fun. Having a good time doesn’t have to mean spending all your grocery money. Katy Perry commends kids for buying bottle service with their rent money, but please don’t listen to her. I’ll wager she never has to worry about being late on rent, at any of her houses.

We get caught in a poisonous trap of thinking that fun has to cost money. Or perhaps it ’s just that our free time is so scarce and in-between, when the opportunity arises, we are down for whatev-er, without a second thought. We shouldn’t be looking at fun as a

commodity that can be purchased. Often we allow modern day con-sumerism and spending habits to dictate how we spend our free time. If we only have one evening off, we scramble to find a way to spend it and, coincidentally our money, however little of it we may have.

Everything about being a stu-dent is expensive. For as long as you are at TRU, you should take advantage of all the free or dis-counted things you get just for be-ing a student.

TRU recreation holds free weekly fitness activities as well as an awesome and organized intra-murals program that works out to only being a few dollars per week. TRUSU sells blazers tickets for $5.00 a piece – a steal, as the gen-eral admission price is $25.00.

If sports aren’t your thing, the Kamloops Art Gallery is free on Thursdays. As for movies, the Cineplex theatre in Aberdeen has its discount night with general ad-mission at $6.50 on Tuesday. The Paramount theatre downtown has $3.50 movies on Tuesday and $5.00 matinees all week.

If you’re after more of a bar at-mosphere, many pubs and bars of-fer free pool on certain nights and weekly drink specials for students.

Beyond that, sometimes all it takes is a quick look at the bul-letin boards on campus. TRUSU and other campus clubs are always holding free events, which usually have free food!

The winter season does make spending time outdoors more dif-ficult, but not impossible. There’s nothing like a good old-fash-ioned snowball fight to make you and your friends feel alive (and perhaps a bit frightened of you). Most trails and parks like Ken-na Cartwright and Riverside are open, as long as you’re willing to

trek through some snow. Kam-loops boasts several outdoor skat-ing rinks that are obviously the most Canadian way to spend time outdoors (a full list can be found on the Tourism Kamloops web-site).

Creativity and thinking beyond the norm are both vital in being able to manage your finances and fulfill your social needs. Just be-cause every movie about college features drinking to excess, going out to eat and living like the bill will never come, it doesn’t mean we have to live that way.

Society, for some reason, has given students a free pass to be financially irresponsible for the sole reason that “these are the best times of your life,” “you’re only young once” (I refuse to use the acronym), and my favourite, “that ’s just what college kids do!”

All of those excuses are belit-tling our intelligence and thus postponing our maturity and fi-nancial independence. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t fall into the trap of blowing funds like you live in a never-ending forest of money trees. Take control of your habits now. Absolutely take advantage of all the perks, freebies and dis-counts you get as a student, be-cause they exist and we might as well use them.

But, I implore everyone to ex-amine your spending habits. I mean, take a good look at them. The moment we realize that we are capable of creating our own experiences and making our own fun, we will be free to step outside the prescribed boundaries of the price of leisure today.

Experiences and true connec-tions cannot be manufactured, bought or sold. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line we were fooled into thinking they can be.

The Interview is far from the po-litical statement it’s been portrayed as recently. It’s just a silly comedy, more Looney Tunes than The Great Dicta-tor: easy-to-follow; over-the-top; and utterly ridiculous.

Equally ridiculous is the incredi-ble hype surrounding Seth Rogen’s most recent dick-joke-athon: The Interview is currently the best-selling movie on Google Play, has been ille-gally downloaded over 750,000 times, and made over $1 million playing in only 10% of its planned theatres.

And yet for all that hype, The In-terview is a pretty light, low-stakes movie. It’s the story of a big event in the life of two friends, fitting squarely within that formula. Entertainment journalist Dave Skylark ( James Fran-co) and producer Aaron Rapaport (Rogen) are given the opportunity to conduct the first ever internationally

broadcast interview of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. This puts both of them in a fish-out-of-water situation that tests their friendship; eventual-ly they have a heated argument over their mission; in the end they make up and are best friends again. Also, since it’s a Seth Rogen film, there’s an exceedingly gory and gratuitously violent climax, and lots of Katy Perry music.

Despite being a light movie, some of the characters are surprisingly deep. The best example is Randall Park’s Kim Jong-un, who is portrayed as evil, scheming, and yet a fun guy to hang out with. It’s made clear he’s manipulating Skylark the entire mov-ie, yet his complaints about the pres-sures of his father, his love for mar-garitas and Katy Perry (this is actually important), and his friendship with Skylark are all relatable and genuine. In his best scene, Kim is absolutely star-struck when meets Skylark, his idol, in person.

While Park is the standout, The In-

terview is full of great performances. Franco’s Skylark struggles with being the laughing-stock of the journalism world, while maintaining his E! per-sona, bringing a level of relatability to a world so far removed from that of most of the movie’s audience; Rapa-port is a lovable loser Rogen’s played several times before, but does well, acting as the straight-man to Fran-co’s bumbling character. Diana Bang plays Kim’s propaganda minister, pro-viding plenty of laughs with claims like “the Supreme Leader does not have a butthole; he does not need it,” while having a great on-screen chem-istry with Rogen. Meanwhile, the film’s many cameos (including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eminem, Bill Maher and Seth Myers) don’t hurt, either.

Despite the political hype and some undeniably great performanc-es, The Interview is really just a silly comedy to tune out to. If you’ve en-joyed Rogen’s work in the past, you’ll probably get a kick out his most re-cent movie, too.

Finding free fun

Film review: The Interview

Kim AndersonARTS EDITOR Ω

Jeff BulmerTHE PHOENIX (CUP)

The Interview made headlines when it was pulled from theatres after threats of violence were made following the hacking of Sony Pictures. (Sony Pictures)

A little can go a long way. No need to break the bank to have a fun and exciting outing. (Kim Anderdson/The Omega)

5The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 15 NEWS

Newly reappointed TRU president hopes for better faculty relations

Government funding means more seats for health care assistant training

TRU’s health care assistant pro-gram will expand in 2015 thanks to government funds.

The university is accepting ap-plications to fill 43 extra seats at TRU’s main campus and its Wil-liams Lake campus. There are cur-rently 64 students enrolled in the seven-month program at TRU’s main campus.

“Normally we have seats avail-able in September and January. This third cohort is going to be offered for March 2015,” dean of nursing Donna Murnaghan said.

According to Murnaghan, the university usually fills all the seats in the program each year. She add-ed that the demand for workers is usually greater than the program has graduates to fill, particularly in senior’s facilities and rural ar-eas.

“That’s why it ’s been important to offer (the program) both in Ka-mloops as well as Williams Lake,” she said.

In early December, TRU an-nounced that it would receive $356,000 from the province, the most out of six other B.C. colleges and universities to receive simi-

lar funding. In total, $1.5 million will be dispensed province-wide to short-term health education of one year or less. According to local MLA and B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake, the additional fund-ing is due partly to the province’s aging population and increased demand for geriatric care.

“We recognize that there is a need for health care assistants around the province, and so we asked post-secondary institutions to put in proposals that would point to the need in the areas they serve and talk about the quality of programing,” Lake said at the funding announcement.

“TRU was top notch. There is a need in our area for health care assistants and the quality of pro-gramming here is exemplary.”

Health care assistant student Darcy Watson said she thinks the increased funding will lead to a jump in the program’s popularity.

“A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to get into the pro-gram and how great and beneficial it is and now that there are more spots opening up and the funding I think that there will be a higher demand for it,” she said.

Watson entered the program in order to “get a feel” for the health care field.

“I wanted to do a nursing pro-gram, but I have two small chil-dren, so the four years [nursing requires] isn’t really ideal for me right now,” she said.

Since the additional seats were announced, TRU has been actively promoting the program to attract

applicants. “We’ve been advertis-ing in the newspaper, we’ve been advertising on Facebook,” Mur-naghan said.

TRU also received $100,000 from the Provincial Health Ser-vices Authority for the respiratory therapy program.

“This is a very unique pro-gram and, again, as people age, pulmonary problems, breathing problems, respiratory problems are more common…so respira-tory therapists play an extremely important role on the health care team,” Lake said.

Alan Shaver, who was recently re-appointed as TRU’s president until 2018, said he hopes to fix relations between faculty and administration as he moves towards his second term.

“There are people on campus that are not happy with their knowledge and engagement with what’s going on, and so I have to do something about that and I’m determined to do something about that,” Shaver said. “We have to work as a team.”

Tensions between TRU facul-ty and the president’s office came to light last semester when TRU Faculty Association president Tom Friedman wrote a highly critical let-ter to Brian Ross, the TRU Board of Governors chair and chair of the presidential review advisory com-mittee that made the recommenda-tion to reappoint Shaver. The letter was also sent to members of the fac-ulty association.

“I felt that it was important for me to point out problems that my mem-bers had pointed out to me,” Fried-man said. “There’s a lot of faculty discontent with the way things have been going, particularly in terms of adequate support for programs. What we’re seeing in particular is that academic programs are being underfunded and understaffed.”

The letter criticized Shaver for his distance from TRU students, staff and faculty and protested an increase of “middle managers” such as associate vice presidents and as-sociate directors, which Friedman said limit contact between admin-istration and those actually dealing with students.

Friedman added, however, that the administration must make diffi-cult decisions in the face of funding challenges.

“The government is strapped for resources and they have priorities in health (care) and K-12,” Shaver told the Omega in December. “That means that we’re not getting the kind of financial support that we think we deserve, but we have to see this through and we’re going to have to see this through as a team, as a community.”

Both Friedman and Shaver said they hope to meet to discuss better internal engagement. Friedman said he plans to reach out to the TRU Board of Governors in January to discuss issues raised in his letter.

“If we want to build a strong university, we’ve got to have people who want to come and work here. We’ve got to make sure we’ve got a workplace that people are proud of working at and that new people considering working at TRU will hear good things about,” he said.

Shaver said that, while he has ideas on how to improve communi-

cation at TRU, he also hopes for a more collective solution.

“To engage the community, I should talk about my ideas and lis-ten to their ideas about how we as a community can work better togeth-er,” he said.

Shaver and Friedman have already met to discuss faculty concerns.

TRU’s Board of Governors unan-imously decided to reappoint Shav-er on Nov. 28, following a perfor-mance review. The review process included an advisory committee drawn from “all sectors of the uni-versity community,” according to Ross, as well as an online survey available to TRU staff, students and faculty.

“I’m extremely upbeat about how the university is progressing,” Ross said. “Unfortunately, some of these critical comments ignore how far we’ve come in our growth, not only in our capital structure but in the ability to deliver courses of a wide variety to a large number of stu-dents.”

Ross added that the board orig-inally offered a five-year term, but Shaver opted for a shorter contract.

“[He] felt that three more years would give him the opportunity to achieve some of the goals he’s look-ing to achieve at Thompson Rivers University,” Ross said.

Shaver has been president of TRU since September 2010. His second term begins in fall of 2015.

Shaver says no more silence for his second term

Health care program at TRU gets a booster shot

Alexis StockfordNEWS EDITOR Ω

Alexis StockfordNEWS EDITOR Ω

How to (not) put your back into it. Health care assistant students demonstrate how to move an elderly patient with a lift. (Alexis Stockford/The Omega)

Shaver faced criticism during the presidential review process last semester. He says he hopes to address those concerns. (Alexis Stockford/The Omega)

6 January 7, 2015SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Computer advice for the undergrad

BY RYAN TURCOT

It’s no secret that university is time consuming, or that many university students are perpetually broke. Let’s kill both birds with one stone: I’m deviating from my usual journalistic voice this issue to share some of my personal, tried-and-true computer advice for saving valuable time at absolutely no cost. All you need for these to work is access to your own Windows, Mac or Linux-based computer.

Here are a few things you can try that might make your tech life a little easier.

Use Zotero to automate your citations and bibliography

In-text citations and bibliographies are essential for research papers and reports. They are also a real pain in the butt, espe-cially if you are still learning how to put a bibliography together.

Use Zotero to take the guesswork out of your citations altogether. The software pro-gram will build you a database that stores the necessary info for all your sources, both digital and print, in one place that is search-able, organisable, and accessible from any computer that has Zotero installed.

Zotero integrates seamlessly into most popular web browsers as well as Microsoft Word, if you can afford it, or Word’s free alternative LibreOffice Writer, if you can-not.

The browser integration means that if you are citing sources from online journals (and honestly, who isn’t these days) you can often let Zotero pull the details you need directly from its webpage without having to lift a finger. At the very least, you can bookmark all your online sources with

a single click, and the “last accessed” and “URL” info will already be filled in when you come back to them later.

Zotero’s word processor integration means that you can pull up sources for in-text citations without leaving your doc-ument. It will let you bring up a search bar that lets you find the sources you need with a few keywords, then automatically generate an in-text citation. And yes, Zote-ro supports all the citation styles I’ve ever encountered at TRU. From here, building

the bibliography at the bottom of your pa-per literally happens with one click, as it will build it using all the in-text citations you placed throughout your paper.

There is a bit of a learning curve to this software so, if you don’t consider yourself a fast learner on the computer, take some time to experiment with it before you begin your research. Once you become comfort-able with the software, it can be a real time saver in your essay writing.

Read more at www.zotero.org

Time management is key to success in university. Part of time management is know-ing where your grades stand in each of your classes, so you can focus more of your ef-forts in the classes you are struggling in, or in the classes that matter most to you.

The following spreadsheet trick will tell you where you stand, grade wise, in each of your classes based on (a) the scores you have received on your completed assignments to date and (b) the weight that each assign-ment carries on your overall performance in a course. Follow these steps:

1. In your spreadsheet program, begin labelling off four columns (A through D) with different names. In row 1, column A, type the word “assignment name.” In row 1, column B, type the words “grade received.” In row 1, column C, type “assignment weight.” In row 1, column D, type “overall contribution.”

2. Move down to row 2 and begin inputting data. In column A, label an assign-

ment you’ve completed using a name that makes sense to you (for example, “midterm exam” or “research proposal”). In column B, type the score you received on that as-signment, as a decimal equal to or below one. For example, if you received 75 per cent on an essay, type “0.75” or, if you received 100 per cent, write “1.” Sometimes instructors will simply give you a letter grade instead of a percentage. If this is the case, type the percentage value that is equivalent to your letter grade. In column C, type the weight of your assignment, again as a decimal equal to or below one. In other words, if a paper you write is worth 25 per cent of your over-all course grade, you would write “0.25.” In column D, write down (without the quotation marks) “=B2*C2” to multiply row 2, column B by row 2, column C. The resulting number will tell you the overall impact your assign-ment has made on your final course grade. For example, if you received 70 per cent on

your term paper, and it was worth 25 per cent of your overall grade, your paper earned you 17.5 points out of 100 towards your overall grade. A perfect paper would have earned you 25 points out of 100.

3. Repeat step two for each assign-ment you have completed, moving down one row each time (for example, move from row 2 to row 3). In column D, make adjust the num-bers in the formula to match the row you are working in (for example, write “B5*C5” if you are working in row 5).

4. Once you are done adding in all the assignments you have completed, find a new cell in a column beyond column D (for example, select row 1, column E). In that cell, write the following formula (without quotation marks): “=SUM(D1:D100)/SUM(C1:C100)” The result of this formula will tell you what overall grade you are currently receiving in your course, based on the assignments you have completed so far. For example, if you

received 70 per cent on your term paper weighted at 25 per cent, and you received 90 per cent on your midterm exam weighted at 25 per cent, your overall course score to date would be 80 per cent.

5. Now that you have this formula down, you can also predict the effects that your future assignments could have on your scores. Simply add uncompleted assignments below your completed ones and, in column B or “grade received,” experiment with differ-ent hypothetical scores to see how they will affect your overall grade. For example, if you want to bump your final grade up to at least 85 per cent when you are currently at 80 per cent with 50 per cent of your assignments completed, and you have an upcoming final worth 50 per cent of your grade, you would find that you need to score at least 90 per cent on your final to move your overall grade above 85 per cent.

One of the fastest ways to get more functionality out of your browsers and office programs is to install add-ons or extensions. Most of them are free. For example, if you are browsing through an online academic journal and stumble across a big word you don’t understand, there are add-ons that will enable you to double-click that word and get an instant, in-browser dictionary defini-tion. In Chrome, an extension called “Google Dictionary (by Google)” will serve this in pur-pose. A Firefox equivalent is “Wiktionary and Google Translate.”

Browser extensions aren’t a huge secret among the tech savvy, but less people are

aware that office software can also benefit from add-ons. Want to spice up a presenta-tion with an interactive poll? There’s a Pow-erPoint add-on called “Poll Everywhere” that will generate an interactive survey – your audience can input answers by SMS text and their results will update in real time on your slide.

Installing add-ons for any program is generally a simple process. For browsers, you can find the “add-ons” or “extensions” settings within the “settings” tabs of their menus.

Visit store.office.com or extensions.libre-office.org for more information.

There are few things worse than working for hours (possibly through an all-nighter or two) on a research pa-per only to find that your computer has crashed and all your hard work was for nothing. Worse yet, explaining this scenar-io to your instructor probably won’t get you an extension, seeing as this kind of story has become the digital age equiva-lent of “my dog ate my homework.”

So, to avoid this scenario, regularly save a spare copy of your assignments on a cloud-based storage system like Drop-box, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive. In the event of serious computer issues,

you will be able to access your spare copy from any computer, including TRU’s lab computers. Dropbox offers 2 GB of free storage, while Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive both offer 15 GB. If you need to, get an account with all three services and you’re up to 32 GB of free storage.

Why not check them out for yourself? Check out these sites for more details:

www.dropbox.comdrive.google.comonedrive.live.com

Use add-ons in your browser and office software

Use a spreadsheet to track your grades in real time

Back up your files in the cloud

7The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 15 SPORTS

With hopes of another university team abandoned, hockey’s resurrector turns to TRUSU

WolfPack takes first place in McDonald’s International Tournament

The WolfPack men’s volleyball squad saw first hand how Japanese volleyball is played during a special international tournament on the weekend of Jan. 2 at the Tournament Capital Centre. The tournament included men’s teams from Trinity

Western University, UBC Okanagan and Budo University of Japan.

The WolfPack finished first in the tournament winning three out of five of its games. Trinity Western took second place, Budo third and UBCO fourth after having to leave the tour-nament early due to increasingly poor road conditions.

“It’s always fun to play against a different country in volleyball and

just kind of see the way they play vol-leyball compared to us. We play most of these teams a lot throughout the year, so it’s kind of repetitive,” said team captain Matt Krueger. “They play volleyball in a different way that we’re not expecting. It’s always fun and interesting to see.”

The WolfPack alternates between hosting and travelling to interna-tional tournaments. They’ve played in Hawaii and California and have hosted Korean and Japanese teams.

Krueger remembers watching Budo University play against the WolfPack the last time they were in Kamloops six years ago.

“They play a little more of a defen-sive-minded game. They’ll dig a lot of balls and their passing is done ex-tremely well. They’re just not quite as physical as us Canadian teams would be,” Krueger said.

There are no differences in the rules of the game for the Canadi-an and Japanese teams. But there is a noticeable difference in style and physique.

“Physically, we’re a little taller and jump a little bit higher. They rely on, at the university level and interna-tionally, more finesse in their game and precision in their setting and their ball control,” said head coach Pat Hennelly.

“Their defence is usually pretty good and their offence is usually very

precise and quick, with lots of move-ments. They’re trying to negate the size difference a little bit if they can,” Hennelly said.

On Jan. 4, the ‘Pack got the chance to socialize with the Japanese players when they went out to dinner.

“To hang out with them and get to know them on a more personal level I think will be cool for some of these guys that have never quite had that experience,” said Krueger before the dinner.

Following a two-week break, the exhibition tournament was a good

opportunity for the ‘Pack to get ready for the season to start again on Jan. 10.

“It’s more of a way for us to work on things that we needed to work on from first semester,” Krueger said. “We’re working on a couple new of-fensive things, putting guys in new spots and trying to mix it up a little bit.”

The ‘Pack still has eight games before the season ends. To qualify for post-season play, Hennelly said the ‘Pack will have to win all eight games.

If hockey returns to TRU in the foreseeable future, it proba-bly won’t be under the WolfPack banner. Victoria’s Trevor Bast has been working to get the team rein-stated since it was scrapped along with the program that ran it in July. After having his most recent plan rejected, he has now turned to TRUSU.

Bast, father of a player recruit-ed in the summer to play for TRU, wrote a financial plan and started a petition in an attempt to get the team back. On Dec. 7 that plan was officially rejected during a confer-ence call between Bast, TRU pres-ident Alan Shaver, vice president Matt Milovick and athletic direc-tor Ken Olynyk.

According to Bast, the univer-sity administration was concerned

with player behaviour and academ-ic performance in comparison to the university’s varsity teams. He pointed to an issue last year, where seven of the team’s players failed to meet academic standards in grades and attendance.

Now Bast and former WolfPack player Cam Weir are working to-gether to make hockey a team un-der TRUSU. Weir will be applying for club status before TRUSU’s next meeting on Jan. 13, when the decision will be made whether or not to approve the team as a club.

“Under this format we wouldn’t be able to use the WolfPack name. Simon Fraser University’s team is run out of that exact same format,” Bast said.

If the club is approved, Bast will apply to get the team back into the BC Intercollegiate Hockey League, which Bast said won’t be a challenge. The challenge will come in finding sponsorship.

“If we get 25 players and they pay $1,800 [each], we know we’re halfway or more toward our budget to run a season,” Bast said.

“What we’re looking for is a major donor or sponsor. We want someone that feels that this pro-gram has enough value, that they would come in and drop like $25,000 a season on some sort of sponsorship or donor situation so that every year is not such a ques-tion mark.”

Bast has been speaking to three companies about sponsoring the team but none have committed yet.

Bast said that the team might consider offering its naming rights to companies interested in provid-ing sponsorship.

“We’re exploring way more cre-ative advertising and sponsorship potential,” he said.

While he’s not worried about finding players, there could be an issue in finding a coach, a gener-

al manager and a few more people to run the team. Last season, the team’s sponsorship and marketing was operated by the Kamloops Collegiate Hockey Society.

Bast, who keeps in regular con-tact with the society, said none have committed to returning if hockey becomes a club.

“They experienced a lot of hard-ship trying to fight for the team and run it for the five years. Espe-cially towards the end when they were struggling so they don’t really have a desire to repeat that in their own lives,” Bast said.

“Another group of adults has to step up and run the team who are Kamloops-based. If that doesn’t happen, none of this is relevant at all,” Bast said.

Bast hopes to help as much as he can from Victoria with recruiting, but will be stepping back from the program if it does ever get up and running.

Hockey may return to TRU under a new banner

Tournament pits WolfPack against visiting Japanese

Tayla ScottSPORTS EDITOR Ω

Tayla ScottSPORTS EDITOR Ω Above/below: The Red Army team

is comprised of players displaced by the shutdown of TRU WolfPack Hock-ey. With nowhere else to play, many joined the newly created Red Army beer league team. (Tayla Scott, Ashley Wadhwani/The Omega)

Stuart Richey jumps to spike the ball against two defenders from visiting Budo University. (Tayla Scott/The Omega)

Budo University calls itself an educational institution based on the tenets of the Japanese martial arts, or “Budo.” Its team finished third overall in the tour-nament. (Tayla Scott/The Omega)

January 7, 20158