Volume 48 - Issue 3September 17, 2014theeyeopener.com

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the men behind the horns

THE TRUE

STORY behind

being eggy

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Wednesday, Sept. 17, 20142

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Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 NEWS 3

In four years tuition will be over nine thousand: study

More than 50 per cent of Canadi-an university students are taught by part-timers who don’t know if they’ll be employed again next semester, according to a CBC documentary.

“I think part-time work is a bad thing. I think that universities should make more of an effort [to accommodate non-tenured pro-fessors] … because the economic model that they’ve built basically depends on [part-time instruc-tors],” said Ira Basen, the docu-mentary’s creator and a part-time instructor at Ryerson.

“That’s basically how the univer-sity business model works now.”

In recent years, post-secondary institutions have increasingly re-lied on hiring part-time instructors looking to earn a tenured position.

On average, Canadian tenured professors make somewhere be-tween $80,000 and $150,000 a year, while non-tenured instruc-tors make closer to $30,000, ac-cording to Basen. As well, part-time professors tend to spend more hours in the classroom teaching than their tenured peers but have little say in the develop-ment of the curriculum, book se-lection or evaluation methods of the courses that they teach.

Part-time instructors are paid on

Students are taught by part-timers who have heavy workloads and little job security. Fun editor Keith Capstick digs into the story

Part-time professors often find themselves working longer hours in hopes of a tenured position down the line.IllustratIon: Jess tsang

either a yearly or course-by-course basis and are not guaranteed long-term job security. There’s also pres-sure on them to do research and publish their work in hopes of ap-plying for a tenured position, but without being paid for their re-search like tenured professors.

When instructors become ten-ured they’re moved onto a salary pay scale and don’t have to worry about their contract ending and re-applying for a new position.

“A lot of selection around ten-ured-track position is based on re-search. Most of it is based around research experience,” said Adam Thorn, an assistant political science professor on a one-year contract.

In addition to research, non-tenured professors rely heavily on bolstering their applications with student evaluations that are com-pleted at the end of each course.

Tenured professors’ pay is split between their three major respon-sibilities: 40 per cent for in-class teaching, 40 per cent for research and 20 per cent for committee work developing the curriculum. This means that less than half of their pay is for in-class interaction with students.

“A large public institution like Ryerson really emphasizes re-search,” said Dale Smith, an Eng-

lish professor in his fourth year as a tenured-track Ryerson instructor.

However, tenured professors have different responsibilities than their part-time peers, he added.

“Part-time faculty actually do more teaching than I would do, but I also have more of a commit-ment to shaping the department,” he said.

In his documentary, Basen em-phasized the financial difficulties that some part-time professors experience.

“There’s a huge disparity in the salary of the tenured faculty and the contract faculty and they can’t all be explained by the fact that the tenured serve on committees and they also do research,” said Basen.

President Sheldon Levy said that the tenure-track process is impor-tant because it gives the school a chance to see if professors are a good fit at Ryerson before being taken on full time.

“You go through the tenure pro-cess to ensure that the faculty mem-

bers you have for the long term are excellent faculty members,” he said.

Non-tenured professors are still a major part of Ryerson’s faculty despite knowing that they might not have a job after each semester ends. Basen said that this uncer-tainty is unfair.

“They shouldn’t have to not know every three or four months whether they’re going to be able to put food on the table,” said Basen.

It’s a hard grind for part-time profs

A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives projects a spike in tuition prices by 2017-18. Sorry, first-years

By Ramisha Farooq

National tuition fees are expected to increase by a total of 13 per cent over the next four years, ac-cording to a new report by the Ca-nadian Centre for Policy Alterna-tives (CCPA).

The CCPA, an independent re-search group, projects that fees will rise to a nation-wide average of $7,755 by the 2017-18 school year. Students in Ontario will con-tinue to pay the highest tuition fees in the country at an average of $9,483, a 12 per cent jump from the current provincial average.

“Everyone here knows how much we all depend on OSAP, I don’t know why they would raise tuition,” said first-year journalism student Alexis Kuskuics.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy doesn’t think tuition costs will rise so dramatically, citing the Ontario government tuition cap policy. The provincial Liberal govern-ment introduced a tuition cap in 2013, which lowered the maxi-mum possible tuition increase to three per cent per year from five

per cent for undergraduate pro-grams. It also added a five per cent tuition fee increase limit on gradu-ate and professional programs.

“Right now the government has the policy established for four years so I don’t think the govern-ment is going to change their pol-icy,” said Levy. “The maximum [tuition] can go up is three per cent each of those two [remaining] years.”

Last year, however, the tuition fees in Ontario for undergrad pro-grams went up by four per cent, according to the CCPA report.

Jesse Root, vice-president edu-cation for the Ryerson Students’ Union, said he believes that de-spite the projected increase, every-thing comes down to priorities for the university.

“[The increases are] something we already know because [they] already fall within the Liberal framework. Ultimately it comes down to underfunding of the insti-tution,” Root said.

Fees in Ontario have quadru-pled over the past 20 years while public funding for university op-

erating revenue fell to 55 per cent in 2011 from 79 per cent in 1993, according to the CCPA.

Ryerson receives just over 30 per cent of its operating revenue from provincial grants, the low-est among all Ontario universities, according to the Ontario Under-graduate Student Alliance.

The rise in fees is also attrib-uted to smaller ancillary costs, like athletic and deferral fees, that students are charged on top of tuition costs. Alberta univer-sities top the list, with students projected to pay around $1,025 per year in additional costs. On-tario students are expected to pay $1,010 in similar fees by the 2017-18 school year.

Erica Shaker, director of the CCPA, told The Financial Post that the cost of getting a degree is an “enormous financial stress” for students and families.

“All the evidence both in Cana-da and the U.S. does indicate that financial stressors on students are even more pronounced than stress-ing about academic performance,” Shaker said. Projected tuition increases from a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy alternatives.

IllustratIon: FarnIa FekrI

4 editorial Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Editor-in-ChiefMohamed “Dung” Omar

NewsJackie “Wish For Tragedy” Hong

Sierra “THE PLAGUE” BeinJake “Sexy Invisible Prof” Scott

FeaturesSean “W” Wetselaar

Biz & TechLaura “Sockcucker” Woodward

Arts and LifeLeah “R U ILL?” Hansen

SportsJosh “Mascot Hunter’” Beneteau

CommunitiesNatalia “Thuglord” Balcerzak

PhotoFarnia “Enter The Dragon” Fekri

Jess “Legend Of” TsangRob “BIRTHED” Foreman

FunKeith “Shit Weekend” Capstick

Media

Behdad “Who?” Mahichi

OnlineNicole “Sked Master” SchmidtJohn “Not Risen Yet” Shmuel

CopyeditorBecca “Typo Assassin” Goss

General ManagerLiane “Hi Chris!” McLarty

Advertising ManagerChris “Hi Liane!” Roberts

Design DirectorJ.D. “Liane, Chris, Hi!” Mowat

Contributors

Jake “Hacker” ThielenMikaila “Pan Am” Kukurudza

Mitch “Hawkeye” BowmileKrista “Double Agent” Robinson

Dylan “Sleepyhead” Freeman-Grist

Blair “Paintmaster” TateEmma “Black Flag” Cosgrove

Amy “Anti-Sugar” FruehJordan “Preview Queen” Cornish

Inshaal “Rosco” BadarBrennan “Balls Deep” DohertyZoe “First Story Ever!” MelnykRamisha “Deadlines?” Farooq

Annie “FUTURE” ArnoneBadri “OF” Murali

Igor “Chandler” MagunJacob “Joey” Dube

Kanwal “Monica” RafiqAndrea “Pheobe” Vacl

Brooklyn “Rachel” PinheiroCalvin “Ross” Dao

Caterina “Xinshi” AmaralSerena “Neologism” KwokOlivia “Afflatus” McLeodEmily “Hexastich” Blatta

Emma “Catharsis” MacIntoshJulia “Ekphrasis” Vit

Mallory “Cinquain” Chate

Playing the part of the Annoying Talking Coffee Mug this week is ev-ery single dweeb who tells you they don’t care about politics or that they find it too boring. The Eyeopener is Ryerson’s largest and only independent student news-paper. It is owned and operated by Rye Eye Publishing Inc., a non-profit corporation owned by the students of Ryerson. Our offices are on the second floor of the Student Campus Centre.

You can reach us at 416-979-5262, at theeyeopener.com or on Twitter at @theeyeopener.

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or smoking them), Doug Ford is now running for mayor.PHOTO: SIerra BeIn

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?By MohamedOmar

we eat tips for breakfastThere’s a fantastic saying that my great, great grandfather once told me while we were harvesting or-anges at our beautiful California farm in 1985.

“None of that happened, you filthy liar,” he said. “And wait a minute, you’ve never even been to California before. Dick.”

Anyway, The Eyeopener is your place to complain, a forum to be-moan and bitch about any issues you’re having with Ryerson, wheth-er it’s related to your academics, your wallet or your lifestyle. For us to be able to help you however, we need to hear from you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a full-time or part-time student, a sessional instructor

or a tenured professor with some sexy job security. When you’ve hit a dead end trying to solve a prob-lem with the school or have heard or witnessed an injustice that you feel should be reported, give us a tip. Here are the ways you can do that, anonymously or otherwise:• Send an email to editor@

theeeyeopener.com• Leave a brown envelope —

the brown ones are cool and mysterious, normal white ones are just boring — by our office door.

• Call us and leave a message if we don’t answer.

• Come to our office and chat. We’re at SCC 207.

rye rhymes

Well slap me on the knee and call me Rick, Toronto’s been tossed into a political twister.

Just kidding, don’t call me Rick. Ricks are the worst.

Just in case you’re a crustacean that has recently joined our soci-ety and missed the news, here’s a quick summary of the batshit bo-nanza that went down on Friday:

Rob Ford, the city’s controver-sial mayor, who for some reason was in second place on most recent polls — i.e. was a major contender in the election — announced that he was stepping out of the race to seek treatment for an abdominal tumour.

Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, best friend and campaign manager, then announced that he would be running for the chief magistrate’s position instead. Bananas.

It gets crazier. Mike Ford, Doug and Rob’s nephew and candidate for Ward 2 (Etobicoke-North) councillor, steps aside to run for school trustee in Ward 1.

Running in his place? Rob god-damn Ford.

That’s right. In less than three hours Toronto learned that its current mayor — who propelled himself and his city into late night talkshows, international me-dia outlets and even a cameo in “Sharknado 2” — would be step-ping out of the race due to illness and run for a city council seat he held for three consecutive terms, and that his brother — who had previously said he was leaving municipal politics — would run for mayor.

For Ryerson, the municipal elec-tion is even more of a blockbuster thanks to the switch-up.

One of Ryerson’s fresh gradu-ates, 22-year-old Munira Abukar, is running for Ward 2 councillor. Originally up against Mike Ford, Abukar will now have to compete for votes with both the mayor and businessman Andray Domise. Read more about Abukar on page 5.

On-campus Q&As scheduled for this week with David Soknacki, Karen Stintz and Rob Ford were cancelled after they dropped out of the race. John Tory pulled out of his Q&A, which was scheduled for Monday. Olivia Chow was the only candidate to attend her Q&A.

A transit debate organized by the Ryerson Students’ Union and TTCriders, scheduled for Monday

as well, basically turned into an extended Q&A for Chow when Tory dropped out hours before the 5 p.m. start time.

Things got even more interest-ing once the debate, if we can still call it that, kicked off.

Chow was joined on stage by another mayoral candidate who wasn’t invited but was clearly ready to speak.

D!ONNE Renée, a registered mayoral candidate, started (loudly) criticizing Chow’s platform and later, after things got a little heated, was escorted out of the room by campus security. Chow then took the opportunity to flesh out her platform, unchallenged. More on that on page 5.

The past four years’ mix of twists, scandal and drama has cul-minated in this ridiculously exciting municipal election, and with Rob and Doug Ford still vying for a spot on city council, the madness could be just getting started.

Is there a better time to get engaged in politics than now? Is the chance to have a say, a voice in one of the country’s — if not the world’s — most electrifying municipal elections not a sexy enough reason to get you hard for democracy?

Are you not entertained?

Every week, we’ll publish some poems to campus in this crappy little space. Send — dear lord please send — your poems to editor@theeyeopener.com with the subject line “Rye Rhymes” or tweet it to @theeyeopener using the hashtag #RyeRhymes.

I am the ram.The ram, I am.Or, I was.I was the ram.The ram was I and I was it as I bit and chewed lattice fries that my eyes stayed glued to.I was the ram.Can you open on Saturdays?

Ohamed Momar

Kerr Hall, your warmth, It captivates my every step,Your stairs stain my pants with sweat,Am I in high school? Am I alive?My eyes scream with the sweat of a thousand sumo wrestlers,My skin,I hope it dries, one day, it will dry.

Mitch ‘Holistic’ Raphael

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 NEWS 5

Rye grad runs against Rob Ford

D!ONNE Renée making her case while security looks serious.PHOTO: BEHDaD MaHicHi

By Zoe Melnyk

Munira Abukar will go up against the mayor for Ward 2 councillor

Debating, now a solo activityMayoral candidates dropped like flies, leaving Olivia Chow to promote her platform to Ryerson students

By Brennan Dohertyand Behdad Mahichi

Munira abukar is running against Toronto’s outgoing mayor.PHOTO: JEss TsaNg

Only one of four expected may-oral candidates showed up to a transit debate at Ryerson Monday.

John Tory, currently leading the poll in the mayoral race, can-celled his appearance three hours before he was supposed to take the stage, leaving the Big Transit Debate with only one scheduled candidate, Olivia Chow — as well as an uninvited fringe candidate D!ONNE Renée.

The debate, arranged by the Ry-erson Students’ Union (RSU) and Toronto transit advocacy group TTCriders, began at 5 p.m. Mon-day evening in the Sears Atrium of the George Vari Engineering Building.

Tory’s campaign contacted both the RSU and TTCriders at 2 p.m. announcing his withdrawal from the event due to “competing cam-paign priorities in the new phase of the campaign,” mirroring an earlier cancellation of a Q & A session with students.

“Obviously, we’re extremely frustrated, especially [by] the last-minute nature of the cancel-lation,” said RSU Vice-President Education Jesse Root. He added that Tory’s reason for cancelling was “frankly, disrespectful to the work that went into it.”

“TTCriders are furious about John Tory’s decision to cancel at-tendance at the last minute,” said Jessica Bell, TTCriders’ executive director, in a press release.

Adding to the confusion were several attempts by Renée to join the debate.

Renée, an officially registered mayoral candidate who wasn’t invited to the event, shouted over attempts by the moderator and the crowd to bring the debate to order, saying Chow’s Scarborough

LRT plan would have a negative impact on Scarborough. She made note of Tory’s absence.

“There’s been much said about Tory ... not wanting to talk to the issues at hand to the students and to the people who’ve attended here with regards to transit,” Renée yelled as RSU President Rajean Hoilett tried to usher her offstage.

Ryerson security arrived shortly after and escorted her outside.

Chow, the sole candidate in the debate, used questions posed by the moderators to flesh out the de-tails of her new transit plan. The first priority on her list is building the long-discussed Scarborough Light Rail Transit (LRT).

“I have the courage to stand up for this issue. Courage to say the Scarborough LRT is the better way to go,” she said. Other highlights include an additional $15 million devoted to increasing bus service, freezing fare rates at current lev-els and calling on the provincial government to provide additional funding for municipal transit.

Some Ryerson students were disappointed with the debate.

“It would have been better with more candidates,” said Amanda Buckingham, a second-year social work student. Her friend Jordan Perreault-Laieu, also a second-year social work student, said the two are part of Mobilizing Ac-tively Political Students (MAPS), a student political involvement group. MAPS had arranged for all the major Toronto mayoral candi-dates to meet their members in a town-hall-style meeting.

Chow showed up to the meeting while Tory cancelled.

“Interesting thing in the email, he said ‘I’m not able to attend this one, but I will be at the evening one.’ So we were like ‘OK, there should be access to the students in some form,’” said Perreault-Laieu.

One of Ryerson’s own will duke it out against Toronto’s infamous mayor at the polls Oct. 27.

Munira Abukar, a 22-year-old who graduated from Ryerson’s criminology program in June, is running against Rob Ford for city councillor in Ward 2 in the munic-ipal elections. The Etobicoke na-tive is focused on improving pub-lic transit, offering more support for students, health education and reducing unemployment.

“It’s a matter of bringing respect to those who live in the communi-ty and putting them first and put-ting their needs first and fighting for things we haven’t had,” Abu-kar said.

Abukar grew up in social hous-ing and held a variety of positions at Toronto Community Housing, including vice-chair of the Resident and Community Services Commit-tee and director of the board. These experiences give her first-hand knowledge about changes public housing needs, she said.

“I know the city needs to build affordable housing, we need to respect the people of the city and build better housing and build our houses up to code,” she said.

Abukar’s mother, Asha Mo-

hamed, is hands-on with her elec-tion campaign. Mohamed said she works full-time making calls and canvasses neighbourhoods in sup-port of her daughter.

“I’m proud of her and I know Munira, she can change Ward 2,” Mohamed said, adding that Abu-kar always wanted to be involved in politics.

Curtis Caesar, Abukar’s cam-paign co-manager, has known her for four years and is confident she’s a perfect fit for Ward 2.

“She only talks from the heart. She’s relatable, you know? And she’s also someone who has a strong work ethic,” he said. “I think you would know right away, when you meet (her) and hear her talk, and we trust she’ll resonate

with voters.”Abukar only recently found out

she would be running against out-going Toronto Mayor Rob Ford after he decided to drop out of the mayoral race to seek treatment for an abdominal tumour. He decided to run for Ward 2 instead, current-ly held by his brother Doug Ford. Abukar said she’s is not deterred by the high-profile candidate and wishes Ford a quick recovery.

Abukar said she thinks her chances of winning “are phenom-enal,” but that she will continue to help the community even if she does not win.

“It’s about being in it for the community for the long haul. If not 2014, then we know 2018 is around the corner,” she said.

DEADLINE to OPT-OUT, OPT-IN or ADD DEPENDENTS:

There are ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS to this deadline

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014

Need Info? Contact Member Services Office, Student Centre Lobbyor email health@rsuonline.ca

ALL STUDENTS MUSTOPT-OUT ONLINE

even if you’ve opted-out previously

OPT-OUT ONLINE:https://studentplans.hroffice.com

Attention All Full-Time StudentsOPT-OUT SYSTEM HAS CHANGED!

Apply online as early as September 1st and supply your bank information to get refund via a direct deposit in early NOVEMBER.

The Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) provides you extended Health & Dental Insurance, but if you have comparable coverage, OPT-OUT for a refund.

6 NEWS Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

The Scope tries to catch some wavesRyerson’s online radio station is ready to stop surfing the web and hit the AM dial

HitchBOT comes home

News Bites

HitchBOT is the travelling robot that spent its summer hitchhiking across Canada. On Monday Sept. 15, it finally came home, landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

One of the men behind the trav-elling robot is Ryerson’s Frauke Zeller, an assistant professor in the School of Professional Com-munication. HitchBOT was able to travel 6,000 km on the Trans-Canada highway.

The project was meant to figure out if robots can trust humans, ac-cording to a press release.

HitchBOT recharged right be-fore getting on its flight home and arrived covered in stickers and pins from his travels.

Gould Street will be sexy again, one day

Gould Street is getting fixed. Even-tually. Ryerson President Sheldon Levy confirmed that the school has submitted a request to have the in-famous road repaved.

That means that our blue-and-yellow abomination will get a coat of fresh, sexy tarmac at some point, but the university has no say in when the project will begin.

Since the city is responsible for returning the road to its former un-painted glory, we find ourselves at the mercy of the dreaded city proj-ects waiting list. The Eyeopener gave our friends at the 311 hotline a call and they were able to tell us that this isn’t happening until fall 2015 at the earliest. Get cozy.

A hearing for The Scope’s AM license ap-plication will be held on Sept. 25.

PHOTO: SIERRA BEIN

Ryerson’s web-based campus radio station, The Scope, is waiting to hear its fate after applying for an AM non-profit campus community radio license.

The hearing will be held on Sept. 25 and the Canadian Radio-tele-vision and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will an-nounce its decision soon after.

Students used to pay an annual levy of $10.35 to the operations of CKLN 88.1 FM, the former com-munity radio station. CKLN had its license revoked in 2011 after vi-

olating CRTC regulations. A refer-endum held that same year decided that a new station could get the money if it receives a radio license.

The application for a license is a multi-step process. In July, The Scope was finally given a hearing date and an open call, where the Ryerson community was encour-aged to voice its support for The Scope.

Jacky Tuinstra Harrison, the station manager, said that the sta-tion is currently running on limited cash and drawing on funds from the 2011 referendum, which was held to direct a levy to fund a new

campus station. The Scope’s staff and volunteers are aware of this, she said.

In order to fund the rest of the activities, The Scope has also started selling sponsorships, ran a radio camp and received grants. Additionally, it has ongoing fund-ing projects like book sales to raise money.

During the summer, in order to conserve resources, The Scope had to scale back staff hours since it was not as busy as during the school year. Due to limited fund-ing, it was not able to take on spe-cial projects, but Harrison added

that “a creative solution to this has been found in grants for a few projects, such as documentary pro-duction or training placements.”

Despite the recent difficulties, those involved with The Scope have no complaints. Vjosa Isai, a third-year journalism student who is a volunteer, said her experience at the station has been very re-warding. “The staff are incredibly supportive and have helped me navigate through learning about radio and being able to start a show.”

If The Scope gets the AM license, the levy that they will receive will

provide a stable source of funds. But, if they don’t, the board, which consists of students, will meet and approve of a revised plan.

By Inshaal Badar

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Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 SportS 7

E-G-G-Y who dat? Who dat?By Rob Foreman

Wronzberg squared

By Mitch Bowmile

The Ryerson women’s hockey team is getting double the Wronz-berg this year with sister Ashley joining Melissa for the first time.

Ashley, the older of the two, will be joining the team as a defence-man this season, making it the first time the siblings have played on the same competitive team.

“I’ve watched [Melissa] play on the team since the team started three years ago and kind of always thought that it’d be really cool to go back and play,” Ashley said.

Melissa has been one of the leading scorers on the Rams and will be going into her fourth year as last year’s team MVP. Her seven goals and 11 points led the team last season.

Despite sibling rivalries that date

back to playing mini-sticks at home and road hockey outside, Melissa says she’s excited for her sister to be joining the squad.

“Ashley’s like one of my friends though, so it’s not way off she’s just joining my group of friends,” Melissa said.

Melissa isn’t the only one thrilled to have Ashley. Head coach Lisa Haley is happy with the decision to add Ashley to the roster.

“She asked to try out for the team, I really had no choice [not] to take her, she was fantastic,” Haley said.

Being a rookie, Ashley will need to work her way up and fight for the ice time her sister gets on the top line, but Haley said things will work out for her if she con-tinues, “steady improvement on a daily basis.”

Two is better than one for women’s hockey

Ashley and Melissa Wronzberg are inseparable. PHOTO: Jess TsAng

Men’s hockey hits the books With 10 players gone, the team has a lot to do before the season starts

By Krista Robinson

You might not recognize the Ryerson men’s hockey team this season, as ten players have left the program.

Jamie Wise, top scorer on the team last season, left Ryerson to try out for a spot on the Chicago Blackhawks. Former captain An-drew Buck, along with forward Dustin Alcock graduated after five seasons and defenceman Tyler Mc-Carthy transferred to Conestoga College to become an electrician.

Forwards Daniel Lombardi, Steve Taylor and Jason Mc-Donough are gone, along with de-fencemen Peter Hermenegildo and David Searle, and backup goalie Steve Gleeson. According to head coach Graham Wise, they all quit to focus on school.

At the time of publication, the former players either declined to comment or hadn’t responded to The Eyeopener’s requests for an interview.

“It came as a surprise to me,” said defenceman Brian Birkhoff. “But [hockey] takes up a lot of time, and not everyone is able to do it.”

The Rams practice up to five days a week and usually have two games on the weekend.

“It’s not easy,” says centreman Michael Fine. “When you’re on road trips and have those three, four hours on the bus, you’ve got to bring homework.”

Last year, the Rams came in third place in the Ontario Uni-versity Athletics (OUA) west divi-sion. They finished second overall in goals per game. In short, it was

a successful season, but it didn’t come without some setbacks.

The Rams were suspended last November for drinking on a road trip in New Jersey. They had to forfeit two games and assistant coach Lawrence Smith was fired.

But Birkhoff says that didn’t hurt the team, it did the opposite.

“It’s no secret we went through a lot of trials and tribulations as a team but I don’t think that would push them away,” he said. “I actually think that brought us closer together.”

Despite the roster revamp, Gra-ham isn’t worried about his team.

“You can’t worry about who you don’t have,” he said. “I think we’ve got a really good group of kids here [and] they’re capable of putting a very competitive Ryer-son team on the ice.”

There will be some new smiling faces on the men’s hockey team this year. PHOTO: FArniA Fekri

Like any good superhero, Eggy the Ram lives a double life — a student by day and a party animal by night.

Jeremy Pearl, a Ryerson gradu-ate, was Eggy in 2012-13 and agreed to tell all about what it’s like behind the mask, a story never before told on the record.

“When you’re in a suit, when you’re acting as a mascot, you’re willing to go a little bit crazier,” he said.

The radio and television arts (RTA) graduate, who now does freelance work with Sportsnet and CBC, got the Eggy gig by work-ing for Ryerson athletics, running their Twitter account.

His first time in the suit just happened to be for, according to Pearl, the biggest game in Ryerson basketball history.

The Ryerson men’s basketball team had made it to the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) final four in 2012 and upset the Lake-head Thunderwolves to send them to the national championships. The team had not been there in 10 years.

“I was going nuts — cause I’m a fan myself and because I was Eggy,” Pearl said. “So I was just trying to pump the crowd up as much as possible.”

Another graduate, ARi Lyon was Eggy between 2008-10 when the costume looked a lot more

like a dog.“Eggy was fuzzy and adorable

when I did it,” he said in an email.Lyon’s first experience with the

suit was a hot one.“It smelled terrible and the fan

in the head was broken so I was dripping sweat within minutes,” he said.

Lyon’s version of Eggy tended to perform stunts during Rams games. He said his past experience with a Russian circus helped him with his tricks.

“I would take off the jersey he was wearing and go ‘streak-ing’ through a game,” Lyon said. “[And I would] throw my-self down the bleachers just to freak people out.”

Pearl said that he was a little short for the ideal height of the “one size fits all” costume, but he was able to get around it by mak-ing the best of the platform shoes

that come with Eggy’s outfit.Pearl said it is really hard to see

out of the eyes and so he needed a handler to keep an eye on him.

“Your peripherals are really shot, and you can only really see straight forward,” he said. “Some weird things would happen ... I’d be taking a picture with someone and they would, you know, grab my butt.”

Kristen Burkard, Ryerson’s mas-cot coordinator, said Eggy “ex-emplifies the true Ryerson spirit, reflecting the heart and and pas-sion of the student body through a commitment to optimism, sports-manship, and the pursuit of excel-lence through entertainment.”

This was important to Pearl, who said that if there’s a five-year-old waving and [the mascot] doesn’t see them, “you look like a dick, and you can’t have Eggy look like a dick.”

Ari Lyon as eggy.PHOTO COUrTesY: Ari LYOn

Jeremy Pearl was eggy in 2012-13.PHOTO: rOB FOreMAn

For the first time ever, two men who have been Eggy speak, taking us inside the most famous Ram on campus

8 Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014FEATURES

ILLUSTRATION: BLAIR TATE

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 9FEATURES

“I CHALLENGE YOU TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE”

G. Raymond Chang was more than a Bay Street millionaire, philanthropist and Ryerson chancellor. Though he died this summer, he left a lasting mark on campus. By Dylan Freeman-Grist

On a hushed stage facing Ryerson’s graduating class, Raymond Chang stood in front of the departing se-niors. Dressed in a robe of

blue and gold, he gazed over the crowd.He was a millionaire, a sucessful business

man and a reknowned philanthropist but ask anyone who knew him and they would tell you that it was here, on this campus, he was most at home. Ryerson students were his passion and of all the passions in his life, and there were many, education was near the top.

Beaming with his signature smile, he be-gan what would be his final speech to a hall filled with the class of 2012.

Chang, who would become Ryerson’s third chancellor, was born Nov. 24, 1948 in Kingston, Jamaica.

He was the third of seven children and lived on the same street as his family and cousins (35 in total) in Kings-ton. He assisted his mother in running one of the largest bakeries in Jamaica, which peddled fruitcake across the island.

Chang went on to immigrate to To-ronto, where he became a millionaire on Bay Street and a well-known champion of philanthropy in both Canada and Ja-maica. Later in his life, when he came to the school, he was often refered to as the “Students’ Chancellor” of Ryerson.

Chang died on July 27, after a battle with leukemia. He was 65.

In 1967 Chang left Jamaica for Troy, N.Y. before settling in Toronto shortly af-ter to study engineering and commerce at the University of Toronto.

He went on to complete his chartered ac-counting designation before earning a for-tune on Bay Street while helping to morph a then-tiny investment firm into current juggernaut CI Financial. In the most recent financial quarter, CI’s total assets topped $128-billion.

“I always thought of Ray as someone who thought the highlight of his career was the six years he spent at Ryerson,” said Bill Holland, a longtime business partner at CI

and close friend of Chang. “As much as he was a huge success in business his real pas-sion was education.”

Chang’s tenure as chancellor began in 2006 and ran until 2012.

While the title of chancellor can often be simply ceremonial in nature, Chang’s life-long passion for education culminated in his office and manifested in his actions.

“I would say that in any university a chancellor is an important figure repre-senting the values of the university and Raymond did that extremely, extremely well,” said Ryerson President and Vice-Chancellor Sheldon Levy, who worked with Chang for all six years of his tenure. “He was someone who really generally loved students.”

That love took many forms, with per-haps the most notable being the philan-thropic activity Chang brought to the cam-pus. He poured millions of his own dollars into helping to develop and build Ryerson into the institution it is today.

Publicly, Ryerson discloses that Chang donated five-million dollars. But he had a tendency to request anonymity when he gave back, so the figure could be much larger. Either way, the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education today car-ries his name because of his generosity.

Marie Bountrogianni first met Chang when she worked at the Royal Ontario Museum. She stayed there from 2007

to 2011 as president and executive director.She recalls pitching the idea of making

the Toronto landmark the most accessible museum for those with disabilities in the country.

Chang put up the money instantly, fund-ing ramp and incline renovations and the development of miniatures to allow the blind to interact through touch with exhib-its blocked by glass. It also funded staff and training for special walking tours — the list goes on.

“For six months I couldn’t tell anyone either, I couldn’t tell anyone he gave us the money,” Bountrogianni said.

Now dean of the Chang school, she re-calls his same zeal for helping where he could right here on campus.

One major project he backed was an ini-tiative by the Chang school to support and maintain an online continuing-education nursing program for students in the West Indies.

The program has helped to train over 400 nurses in nations such as Jamaica, St. Lucia and Belize.

“This had tremendous impact on the healthcare in the West Indies, they have a nursing shortage,” Bountrogianni said.

The nursing program is now offered to students across Canada.

On the corner of Yonge-Dun-das Square, a bustling office looks out onto one of Can-ada’s busiest intersections. Huddled on the sixth floor

is Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone. Apple computers and messy desks are a

signature of the entrepreneurship incubator, the number one university-affiliated startup centre in Canada and the fifth in the world.

Employees and entrepreneurs, many of them Ryerson students, dash wildly from meeting to meeting or tinker for hours on the next great analytic service, social media platform or smartphone app.

Millions of dollars have been developed in revenue, most of it enhanced or support-ed by students in some capacity.

This whole operation was made possible by Chang, who put up money to speed the process when the DMZ was just an idea be-ing tossed around Ryerson board rooms.

“There were many occasions where a student would need some funding for a project and I would talk to Raymond,” Levy said. “I’d say, ‘Ray I just met a stu-dent,’ [and] immediately he would have a big smile on his face and be willing to sup-port them.”

Levy recalled a time when Chang simply called him to say he’d be giving half a mil-lion dollars for any student projects the ad-ministration wanted to support.

Chang sat, looking on in-tently as a group of students mulled over the details of a classical revamp of an Ant-ony and Cleopatra script.

He was sitting in on a performance act-ing class. Though he may have been one of Ryerson’s most generous donors, his dedication to the school transcended his chequebook.

“How many chancellors show up at the school every single day?” Holland said. “He went to the classes because he wanted to know the students’ experience, he wanted to know the teachers’ experience, he wanted to understand the quality of teaching.”

Chang would spend extraordinary amounts of time in Ryerson’s classrooms,

like this one, learning from students. His choice of lecture was in no way tied to his own academic background.

While students ran through their lines and motions Chang did not stir, remain-ing in his seat to ensure he saw the class through.

“It was nice because some people just do it to make an appearance but he’d stay for hours,” said Cynthia Ashperger, an instruc-tor at the Ryerson Theatre School who taught a handful of courses that Chang attended. “He was curious about it and I think his curiosity is what took him far in life [and] apart from his ambition, he was genuinely curious.”

A steel drum buzzed through the hall during Ryerson’s convocation. The instru-ment, a polished plate that is a pillar of West Indian

music, was added to the ceremonies to honour and celebrate Chang’s final cer-emony as chancellor.

Chang flashed his signature smile on stage before he spoke.

“We are counting on you to draw on the knowledge and skills you have gained at Ryerson — transform them into ideas and actions that bring prosperity, peace and happiness,” he said. “But whatever you do, or wherever you go, I challenge you [to] make a difference. Ryerson believes in your abilities and stands ready to help you again if further learning is in your plans.”

He stuck around after the ceremony, as he often did, ceremonial mace in hand, to pose in as many pictures with students as he could, always making sure they showed their degrees.

He believed there was nothing more im-portant than education. To him, it was an equalizer, a building block, the first step to a bright future.

As they posed for pictures, Chang made sure to greet all the students by name, read-ing them off their degrees, to make a per-sonal connection.

Two years later he was gone. Yet in his six years at Ryerson he left his mark all over the campus. His legacy, as a man who dedicated his life to propping up others, tied infinitely to Ryerson’s future.

As much as he was a huge success in business, his real passion was education

How many chancellors show up at the school every single day?

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014arts & Life10

Welcome to your Ryerson ArtspaceFormer IMA Gallery gets a literal new lease on life after 20 years of staying static

The brand new Ryerson Artspace, located next to the Gladstone Hotel, offers natural light and access to Queen Steet West.

PHOTO: LEAH HANSEN

After 20 years in the same spot, Ryerson’s non-profit student art gallery has made a move that aims to get student work more public exposure.

The IMA Gallery, formerly lo-cated on the third floor of a walk-up at 80 Spadina Ave., moved to a spot next to the Gladstone Hotel at the beginning of September and has been renamed the Ryerson Artspace.

The lease for the IMA Gallery space was up in May, said gal-

By Leah Hansen lery director Robyn Cumming. Although the option to stay in the building existed, much had changed over the years and the gallery location was no longer ideal.

“When they first got into 80 Spadina there were a lot more gal-leries in that building and it was sort of the gallery hub of Toron-to,” Cumming said. “A lot has changed in terms of where the gal-leries are and the building doesn’t get as much traffic as it used to.”

And so the search was on for a space that would facilitate easier

access to student exhibitions. An opportunity arose that put the brand new Ryerson Artspace next to the Gladstone Hotel, a well-known Toronto art destination.

The new space boasts a wealth of natural light, an entrance just off Queen Street West and 14-foot ceilings.

“It was difficult at 80 Spadina to get anyone just walking in off the street because they wouldn’t even know we were in the build-ing,” Cumming said. “We’ve al-ready seen, just from opening in the last couple days, how much more access we have to the public in the new space.”

As part of the new partnership, Artspace events will be included in marketing materials sent out by the Gladstone and some student gallery programming will extend into the upper floors of the hotel, Cumming said.

In addition, opening nights at the Artspace are planned to take place at the same time as Glad-stone openings, giving student work more publicity. The Art-space’s grand opening was held Sept. 11 in conjunction with the grand opening of Hard Twist 9, a fibre optics installation at the Gladstone.

Andrew Savery-Whiteway, a fourth-year photography student, is part of the collective that is showing the first-ever exhibit in the new space. The Daytrip col-

lective exhibition will hang in the gallery until Sept. 28 — it explores forgotten pieces of Canadiana that the group photographed in day-trips away from the city.

Savery-Whiteway previously ex-hibited at the IMA Gallery along-side other members of his collec-tive and said the new space was a definite improvement.

“Even just to see the tally of the amount of people that have come in, there’s no way we would have gotten that kind of traffic [at the IMA Gallery],” he said. “By square footage, it’s probably smaller than the last gallery, but it feels like a bigger space.”

The new space is further from campus than the 80 Spadina lo-cation, but Savery-Whiteway said venturing off Ryerson’s campus gives students a chance to discover

Toronto’s art scene.“It’s really important that you

get used to the Toronto arts com-munity and outside that ecosystem that Ryerson generates,” he said. “It’s nice to show students that this is a step towards being a pro-fessional outside of the Ryerson support group.”

The added distance aside, stu-dent work is sure to get a boost from the partnership with the Gladstone and access to widely-known Queen Street West after 20 years of being tucked away.

“Just the sheer audience that the students are able to get at this new location is immense,” said Cum-ming. “The students now have ac-cess to those people and are able to speak about their work and get public opinion which is really ben-eficial for them.”

Preview: Ryerson Image CentreRIC marks 100th anniversary of First World War with three exhibits

Dispatch: War Photographs in Print, 1854-2008Dispatch examines the relationship between photojournalism and the press during times of war. The ex-hibit covers 150 years of war docu-mentation. See it in the RIC’s main gallery from Sept. 17 until Dec. 7.

Harun Farocki: Serious Games I-IVLate German artist Harun Farocki explores the relationship between technology and wartime violence. This four-part large-scale installa-tion explores the virtual reality used by the U.S. military for recruitment. It’s on display in the RIC’s univer-sity gallery from Sept. 17 to Dec. 7.

Drone WeddingThis exhibit addresses the matter of public surveillance and privacy breaches caused by modern sur-veillance methods. Displayed on eight screens, Elle Flanders and Tamira Sawatzky used four sur-veillance cameras and a military drone to take footage of a wed-ding, emphasizing how surveil-lance footage changes the way we view an everyday event. See it at the RIC from Sept. 17 to Dec. 19.

Spit and ImageSam Cotter, a Ryerson photogra-phy graduate, merges photogra-phy, sculpture, installation and film to address his interest in bridging art with culture. Through Spit and Image, Cotter takes you inside the deceptive nature of film-making through an immersive au-dio and visual experience. Spit and Image is showing on the second floor of the Image Centre from Sept. 17 until Oct. 26.

PHOTO: LOUIE PALU, COURTESY RYERSON IMAGE CENTRE

Afghan soldier with henna-stained hands, Kandahar, Afghanistan. 2007. Photo © Louie Palu

By Jordan Cornish

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Eyeopener - Sept 17 2014.indd 1 2014-09-15 4:09 PM

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 COMMUNITIES 11

Robo-friendsRye profs and robots are helping children with autism

By Emma MacIntosh

Two Ryerson professors and their robots, Max and Rob, are on a mis-sion to help children with autism.

Stéphanie Walsh Matthews and Jamin Pelkey from the lan-guages, literatures and cultures department are involved in a re-search project focused on the de-velopment of technology in special education. The robots, known as NAOs, are created by Aldebaran Robotics.

“Through human-robot in-teraction, we’re trying to col-lect speech information from children with autism,” Walsh Matthews said. The study is usu-ally done in therapists’ offices inside the participants’ schools. Programmed to act out emo-tions, recognize faces and partici-pate in educational games, NAOs are being tailored as a tool for children with autism.

Therapists, researchers and ro-bot technicians observe the child interact and play with the NAOs.

“It’s possible that children will provide more speech data with a robot that they wouldn’t be will-ing to provide with ordinary con-

versation partners… possibly be-cause they feel less judgment for what they say,” said Pelkey. “The robot is humanoid, but smaller than most children — they inter-act with the robot on a different plane.”

Pelkey recalled one session in particular where one participant’s progress really began to show. “When a child entered the room, he didn’t address any of the adult observers, he focused in on the ro-bot and said in a hushed tone, ‘Hi, robot.’”

Matthews said that the research demonstrated that children who took the first steps to interact with the robots are 30 per cent more willing to participate in human in-teraction.

There is some concern however, that the study could backfire. It’s a potential risk that a child may prefer to talk to a robot instead of a human being.

Matthews and Pelkey are cur-rently focused on collecting data from their research and have no imminent end date for their ex-periments.

“We want to let the data do the talking,” Pelkey said.

The NAO robots can express emotions and even recognize faces.PHOTO COurTesy Amy smiTH

A Hell of a JobWorking alongside celebrity host and chef Gordon Ramsay can get pretty hot.

Arthur Smith, executive producer of Hell’s Kitchen and Ryerson radio and television arts grad, is back for the show’s 13th season premiere.

“We knew we had something special when we started,” said Smith. “Hell’s Kitchen is unlike any other reality series.”

The show is a reality TV cook-ing competition set up in an in-tense culinary academy run by Gordon Ramsay.

The Emmy-nominated show first aired in 2005, and has since been considered one of the most popular cooking shows on TV.

While some reality shows might

seem unrealistic, Smith said that Hell’s Kitchen is always natural and never scripted. “The contes-tants are authentic, we get real chefs and real people.”

After launching his career at CBC sports and producing three Olympic games, he went on to work with Dick Clark Produc-tions and FOX Sports.

In 2000, Smith and his friend Kent Weed started their own pro-duction company, A. Smith & Co. Productions, now one of the leading production titles in North America, bringing Hell’s Kitchen to the top.

“I knew I wanted to work in the entertainment industry, and Ryerson gave me the confidence I needed,” Smith said.

For the full story, go to theeyeopener.com

By Emily Blatta

Are you part of a student group on campus that’s doing something cool? Do you know someone that has

done extraordinary things? If so, email communities@theeyeopener.com and let us know!

Chancellor’s Award of Distinction President’s Award for Teaching Excellence

Provost’s Experiential Teaching AwardProvost’s Innovative Teaching Award

Provost’s Interdisciplinary Teaching AwardDeans’ Teaching Awards

Call for

Nominations

Visit the Recognition & Awards website for information about award details, guidelines and eligibility, and to submit a nomination through the Online Nomination Portal.

www.ryerson.ca/recognition

Please Note: Completed nomination packages, including the nominee’s online consent must be submitted before November 3, 2014 at noon.

Learning sessions will be hosted on September 29, October 15 and October 23 to answer any questions you may have about the nomination process and the Online Nomination Portal.

To register, visit the Learning Events Calendar at www.ryerson.ca/hr/learning.

Sarwan Sahota Ryerson Distinguished Scholar AwardEarly Research Career Excellence Award

Collaborative Research AwardKnowledge Mobilization & Engagement Award

Social Innovation & Action Research AwardYSGS Outstanding Contribution to Graduate Education Awards

Deans’ Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Awards

President’s Blue & Gold Award of ExcellenceErrol Aspevig Award for Outstanding Academic Leadership

Alan Shepard Equity, Diversity & Inclusion AwardLinda Grayson Leadership Award

Larissa Allen Employee Experience AwardMake Your Mark Award (new sustainability category)

Deans’ Service Awards Librarian and Counsellor Awards

Recognize someone’s outstanding contribution in the areas of:

Deadline November 3, 2014 at noon

Teaching and Education

Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity

Service and Leadership

For further information, contact Emily Pomeroy, recognition project lead at epomeroy@ryerson.ca or 416-979-5000, ext. 6250.

12 Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014BIZ & TECH

An online tool that connects stu-dents with different skills, created by two Ryerson students, is planned to launch on Blackboard on Sept. 18.

Each spring, the Slaight Business Plan Competition hosted by Enactus Ryerson chooses two entrepreneur teams — one female-led team and one male-led team — and awards them $25,000 to grow their venture.

Kaylie Greaves and Allison Rhodes, digital media masters stu-dents and creators of Kahoots, were one of the two winning business teams.

Kahootshq.com is a website that connects students with specific skills needed to contribute to a project.

“The idea for Kahoots came about in our capstone class for en-trepreneurship last year,” Greaves said. “Students in the class had strong ideas for businesses but lacked necessary skills to get them started. There were students looking for programmers, artists, designers and film editors. We knew there were students on campus who had these skills but we didn’t know how to get in touch with them. We started de-signing the project-sharing platform and quickly realized that if Ryerson students were having this issue, the same was probably true for students everywhere.”

A good idea paysBy Jacob Dube

PHOTO COURTESY ENACTUS RYERSON

Sean Wise, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and strategy men-tored Greaves and Rhodes during their startup.

“Kahoots gave a great pitch but what set them apart is the fact that they found a problem that stu-dents need to solve,” Wise said.

Brian Lesser, Ryerson’s director of computing and communications ser-vices and his team helped build the website in its early stages.

“Students always have a problem linking up with each other. It would be great if they had a marketplace to find the talents they’re looking for,” Lesser said.

After winning the competition, the founders began working on Kahoots in the Digital Media Zone.

“The majority of the prize money will be going towards the cost of developing the site. Once we get it to a stage we’re happy with, we’ll be looking to shift our focus to a mobile application,” Greaves said.

“Throughout our experience in university, we’ve had the most fun and learned more from the proj-ects we’ve elected to work on as opposed to those that were academic requirements,” she said. “So much value can come from extracurricular projects. If we can help bring students together, build experi-ence and build something their excited about, we’ve done our job.”

By Igor Magun

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy proposed recommendations to the House of Commons standing com-mittee on finance for the 2015 pre-budget consultations on Aug. 5.

Levy’s three recommenda-tions focused on investments for campus-based incubators, mak-ing the economy more supportive of startups, improving the adop-tion rate of new technologies and

reducing entry barriers in the job market for young people.

“All the recommendations were geared to provide more opportu-nity for young people across Can-ada,” Levy said.

Levy suggested the government offer tax relief to businesses in-volved with campus-based projects.

“In the case of the innovations, we should see some support from the government because they have also ... been going in the same di-

rection,” Levy said.The standing committee on fi-

nance will have a report on all the recommendations submitted by Canadians ready in time for parlia-ment’s adjournment in December.

“I think some of the recommen-dations that we made, if imple-mented right away, would begin to benefit students almost immediate-ly,” Levy said. “But the reality of it is that these recommendations are put in slowly.”

Levy budges the budget

Professors get cyberbullied too They just experience it on a different website

For Kahoots, it was $25,000 and a spot on Blackboard

After a Maclean’s article surfaced about professors feeling cyberbullied on RateMyProfessors.com — a site allowing students to evaluate their instructors anonymously — The Eyeopener decided to ask Ryerson professors for their opinion about the site’s not-so-nice comments.

“I really try my hardest not to re-spond to anything on Rate My Prof because what a site like that is going to do is attract people who are high-ly motivated to comment on your teaching, either adoring you or hat-ing you,” said Lisa Taylor, assistant professor in the school of journalism.

Taylor said the worst thing she ever read on the site “was something about ‘lectures being a joke, I didn’t go to them but I still managed to do fine in the course.’”

A study on post-secondary cyber-bullying at Simon Fraser University found that 25 per cent of the 330 faculty members surveyed reported being cyberbullied by students in the past year — 42 per cent of those said the main source of bullying was through RateMyProfessors.com.

“I’m pretty blunt when it comes to

Rate My Prof comments because the main point is to help out other stu-dents by being as honest as possible about [a professor’s] teaching,” said Ricky Gomez, a third-year account-ing student.

The site’s terms of use state that comments regarding any “profanity, name-calling or vulgar, derogatory remarks” will be taken down.

But comments describing profs as “bitches” and “douchebags” still surface the site.

“I think some students get carried away with their comments, espe-cially when they have nothing to do with the prof’s teaching and are more about what the prof looks like,” said

Shayna Richmond, a fourth-year nursing student.

But some profs don’t think the comments are accurate and turn to faculty surveys for a depiction of their teaching.

“From a professor’s point of view, you sometimes feel that it’s not true and you wish you could set the re-cords straight,” said Catherine Beauchemin, an associate professor in the physics department.

“For the most part Rate My Prof just becomes a running joke between profs — one prof will read another prof’s comments and make jokes about it to each other,” said Beauchemin.

Some professors feel like they are getting virtually punched with mean comments.illUSTRATiON: JESS TSANg

The winners of the Slaight Business Plan Competition are happy.

By Laura Woodward

Hackathon at Ryerson tackles dementiaWednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 13BIZ & TECH

Architects design more than just buildings

Jad Joulji and Justin Picone were frustrated with the employment pro-cess — so they hired themselves.

Two months ago, the Ryerson architectural science graduates launched Houseit.com, a website that gives young designers a chance to showcase their work and connect with clients.

Users log onto the website and select the type of project they need designed, describe their design criteria, their budget, the deadline, the award to the winning designer and then launch the competition. Designers then propose a variety of options for the client to choose. Once the client chooses which design they like, they award the designer with a cash prize.

“We try to target young designers because we want to give them the opportunity and experience they don’t have and give them a risk-free environment where they can try out their design ideas, to mould them-selves into the designer they want to be and develop their own style and

way of doing things,” Joulji said. Joulji and his partner also found

that clients struggle to find designers and often don’t know how to begin the process.

“Traditionally a client has one designer and that one designer will give them one design,” Joulji said. “But in our model, the client can target several designers to get several designs at the same time versus the one.”

The entrepreneurs’ inspiration came from the website 99designs.ca, a crowdsourcing model for logos and

graphic design. Joulji and Picone said they thought the same idea could potentially be applied to architecture and home design.

Joulji and Picone turned to the DMZ to put their idea into action. Now in their fourth week at the DMZ, the two entrepreneurs have worked to further develop the site and gain mentorship.

“Right now, the website is func-tional and everything is working, but we’re in our phase where we read out the bugs and figure out what works and what doesn’t,” Joulji said.

By Kanwal Rafiq

The creators of HouseIt Jad Joulji, right, and Justin Picone.PHOTO cOurTesy HOuseIT

Ryerson architecture graduates start a website to give designers experience and clients options

Students, computer programmers, healthcare professionals and tech-nology enthusiasts gathered for a weekend-long “hackathon” at Ry-erson’s Digital Media Zone Sept. 12-14.

The software building competi-tion — dubbed DementiaHack — was organized by the nonprofit pro-gramming organization HackerNest and the British Consulate-General in Toronto. The hackathon brought skilled people with an interest in de-veloping technologies to make the lives of those living with dementia and caregivers easier.

“There are more products to help people with hair loss than demen-tia,” said Sharris Beh, a Demen-tiaHack organizer working with HackerNest.

Brenda Hounam, who suffers from dementia and spoke at the event on Saturday, expressed her need for technology and described how game apps on her iPad “help clear the cloudiness in [her] mind.”

The technological entries at the event were judged on ease of use, consumer interest and potential business opportunity.

The grand prize was awarded to the team behind an app called Ca-reUmbrella. Powered by Near Field

Communication (NFC) connectiv-ity, it allows patients of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease to call up specific information on their phone by tapping it on an NFC-enabled sticker. This technology comes at the cost of just cents per sticker, ac-cording to Hayman Buwan, a phy-sician who came up with the idea three years ago.

“The reason why NFC was used is because it’s a simple, cheap device that can be used as memory triggers for anything,” Buwan said. They demonstrated CareUmbrella by tap-ping their phone onto a sticker cod-ed to bring up an instructional video on how to use a microwave.

One factor that he and his team kept in mind was the importance of letting patients be independent, re-gardless of their disease’s limitations.

“The worst thing is for these guys to feel helpless,” he said.

As part of their reward, the team will fly to Cardiff, Wales to show their innovation at the December UKHealthTech conference.

This project was personal to Ravi Amin, a design engineer who cre-ated the CareUmbrella web app, as his father has dementia. But he was just one of the competitors who’ve been impacted by the disease.

Nitin Malik, an iOS developer who has a family member with de-mentia, won a runner-up prize with

his team for a hardware innova-tion they called All the Pi. It uses a single-board computer to play au-dio reminders to remind patients to complete tasks and sends push noti-fications to caregivers if a task was not complete at the usual time. For example, when a light switch with this system is turned on, a program-mable recording is played reminding them to turn off the light.

“Talking to a lot of people af-fected by it ... gave us a lot of feed-back,” said Bien Pham, member of the All the Pi team and a graduate from the mechanical engineering program at Ryerson. “[It] helped us

with brainstorming [ideas] to tackle the problem.”

DementiaHack “stimulated con-nections between Canada and the U.K.” to break into an “untapped market,” said Arlene Astell, one of the judges on the panel and the research chair in the Community Management of Dementia at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences.

Astell said that the outcome of the event was a surprising success, espe-cially with the way that the competi-tors “have grasped the issue,” and she hopes that it will be able to take place more often.

New software to help dementia patients and caretakers was presented at the DMZ’s weekend-long event DementiaHack

By Calvin Dao and Andrea Vacl

entrepreneurs shared and explained inventions aimed at easing the lives of those with dementia.PHOTO: cALVIN DAO

App of the week

iamsick

The iamsick app uses your phone’s location to find the closest drug store, pharmacy, walk-in clinic and hospital. The app is soon in-troducing virtual Walk-In-Clinic queuing, allowing students to stay at home and rest while moving up the line to see a doctor.

Check out the full story by Brook-lyn Pinheiro on theeyeopener.com

14 FUN Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Bring your completed sudoku to The Eyeopener office (SCC 207) for a chance to win a $25 Subway giftcard. Make sure you include your name and phone number on your page. You can even bring lattice fries!

Sandwich-DokuHoly crap I’m bad at naming these... (Jake, HELP!)

A Battle of Wits

Lattice bow our heads in mourningRyerson’s most beloved crispy companion is gone, but not forgotten

By Keith Capstick

For years, Ryerson students have forked over an extra $1.25 with an anxious smile on their faces to have their Ram Burger be ac-companied by a heaping pile of Shreddie-like fried potatoes. Now, those smiles lay dormant.

The Ram in the Rye decided this summer that lattice fries would no longer be a part of the Ryerson student experience. My fellow Rams, lattice fries are no more.

Walking around the halls of the

Student Campus Centre (SCC), the gaping hole in the “drunchie” community punches you in the face with the mighty force of hun-dreds of empty student stomachs grumbling in protest.

It’s the smell that students miss most — there was something dif-ferent about the Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (or “SAP”, as the students called it) fried to perfec-tion and wafting through the ven-tilation system all the way up to The Eyeopener office.

There are no words to describe the feeling of absolute emptiness that comes with sitting down to get your first Ram Burger of the year only to be met with the phrase, “Oh, we don’t have those anymore,” after politely asking to substitute your pathetic straight cut fries with lattice-tastic-ness.

One Eyeopener media editor, after learning the news about the absence of his favourite mid-day snack said, “Looking at the menu I had to hold back my tears. I looked up at the server and asked, ‘Where are the lattice fries?’ All I got back was empty eyes and a re-sponse filled with regret.

“We’re the last generation of lattice lovers. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like for first-years joining the Ramily without becoming cap-tivated by that crispy texture.”

The student also brought up the most important question of all — what is a Ryerson student without the ability to enjoy this delicate se-

ries of potatoey quadrilaterals? It is certainly not outside the realm of possibility that this could have a massive impact on campus cohe-sion.

“What’s a lattice fry?” a first-year student said the other day. I could see the barriers building up between him and his second-year friends. The truth of the mat-ter is that lattice fries brought us together; they paired with meals of all shapes and colours. Above all else, they made us feel like we were a part of something bigger than ourselves.

All of this in mind, The Eyeopen-er would like to invite you to join us in mourning the loss of our closest companion, as we remem-ber (or try to remember) the drunk times and the moments where we just needed a familiar taste to get us through the day. Tissues and ketchup will be provided.

Please join us as we rent a deep fryer and try to replicate the once great taste of these taters. We will stand around the deep fryer and allow the skin on our legs to be seared by the frolicking grease, be-cause to truly come to terms with this, we have to replicate the pain that this loss has caused.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: FARNIA FEKRI

HERE LIE LATTICE FRIES

SCC 207

PHOTO: JESS TSANG

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 15

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11 3

“There is something very special about achieving your CFA designation. I’m very proud to be a member of CFA Society Toronto. It’s a great organization that brings together and supports some of the smartest financial talent in this city.”

Som Seif, CFA; President & CEO, Purpose Investments Inc. and esteemed recipient of the 2011 Caldwell’s Top 40 Under 40

BENEFIT S OF CFA SOCIETY TORONTO MEMBERSHIP

HOW WILL YOU SUCCEED?

CAREER CENTRE• access to exclusive online career centre • hundreds of job postings annually

RAISE AWARENESS• promote the designation and the high ethical standard

the charter embodies

THE ANALYST• quarterly publication for industry professionals• a rich archive of research, trends, reading recommen-

dations, and interviews with influential leaders in the investment industry

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM• experienced mentors are

assigned on a one-on-onebasis to motivated protégés

NETWORKING• meet and engage with peers throughout

the industry• connect with other members• develop professional relationships

ONLINE RESOURCES• participate in hot industry

topic discussions on CFA Society Toronto Members Only LinkedIn Group or attend one of our many informative webinars

STAY ENGAGED – ATTEND ONE OF OUR MANY EVENTSKeep up to date with the changing investment industry by attending a course. We offer a variety of continuing education courses, topical seminars, workshops, confer-ences and webinars some of which can earn CE credits.

• develop professional relationships

Society Toronto Members Only LinkedIn Group

Join today! www.cfatoronto.ca > Member Centre > How to Join Tel. 416.366.5755 Email: membership@cfatoronto.ca

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 201416