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Volume 49 - Issue 20March 16, 2016
theeyeopener.com@theeyeopener
Since 1967
PHOTO: CHRIS BLANCHETTE
!" !$% &!" %'"$(&!)* )* &!" &"$(
Ryerson’s coach of the year,
and how he led his team to new heights.P8
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2 Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2016
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 NEWS 3
Parkside residence not as advertisedStudents living at the Gerrard Street residence building have been paying for amenities they haven’t received all year
By Alanna Rizza
tudents living at Parkside StudentResidence have sought out legal
uidance after months spent deal-ng with contract discrepancies,maintenance issues and construc-
ion disturbances.Many residents have seen a con-
istent stream of problems, includ-
ng leaks, ceilings caving in andnadequate food services.
First-year fashion design stu-dent Nicole Raitakari moved into
he building at the beginning ofhe school year. While taking ahower, she says part of her ceiling
ollapsed and the vent fell and hither on the head.
In the summer, Parkside adver-
ised 24-hour food services onheir website, which Raitakariaid was one of the main reasons
he wanted to live there. She pur-hased a meal plan, only to find outater that the hours were changed
o “all-day service” (7:30 a.m. to:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9:30.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekends).
During the evening hours, Raita-kari said there is often very littleood and sometimes none at all.
She added that when she firstmoved in, the water was runningbrown. Last semester, she fainted
because of dehydration and a lackof food — which she attributes to
The state of one student’s bathroom posted on the Parkside Facebook group. PHOTOS COURTESY: NICOLE RAITAKARI
the problems at Parkside. At the
residence, she said she was afraiddrink the water.
“I missed a test because I was in
the hospital … I feel like a criminalwhen I live here,” Raitakari said.“We’re all really young, we’re all
students living here, most of us arein first-year. We don’t really knowour tenant rights and [Parkside]
knows that, they’re just taking ad-vantage of it. ”
Complaints about the build-ing started at the beginning of the
year, when the move-in date wasdelayed by about two months. Pri-or to renovations in 2015, Park-
side was known as the PrimroseHotel — a half hotel, half studenthousing building. The building
was revamped with new hallways,bathrooms and bedrooms, total-ling $25 million in renovations
said Kamal Uppal, the marketingmanager for Parkside, in August2015.
Summer rates for Parkside werelisted at about $1,400 for a stan-dard single, according to Raita-
kari. The prices have since goneup and now the same room costs$1,865 per month.
A private Facebook group wascreated for residents to vent theircomplaints. Several residents post-
ed about ongoing construction —one student wrote that they were
prescribed an inhaler because of
the construction dust.When Raitakari posted on so-
cial media, she said Parkside staff
contacted her mother asking forher daughter to stop posting on-line.
David Simor, a policy and com-munity relations advisor from citycouncillor Kristyn Wong-Tam’s
office, said he started receivingcomplaints in the fall about Park-side not living up to the terms andagreements stated in the building
contract.Parents and students have since
been connected with Municipal
Licensing and Standards, a branch
of the municipal government
which handles complaints relatingto the Landlord-Tenant Act.
“There have also been someconcerns about the property stan-
dards of the building … we havelooked into that and we’ve hadcity staff do an investigation,” Si-
mor said.Danny Roth, a spokesperson
from Knightstone Capital, said he
is unaware of any investigation in-volving Parkside. “I would strenu-ously disagree with the suggestion
that a lot of students are unhap-py,” he said. “I would suggest toyou that majority of students are
quite pleased.”
Knightstone Capital is a real
estate investment, asset manage-ment and development companythat oversees Parkside StudentResidence.
Municipal Licensing and Stan-dards was not available to com-ment at the time of publication.
Ben Ries, a staff lawyer atDowntown Legal Services at theUniversity of Toronto, said that
the clinic has been helping stu-dents from Parkside since com-plaints started in the Fall. “Thatbuilding alone has taken a signifi-
cant chunk of our resources thisyear and continues to do so,” hesaid.
Briefs&
groaners> Dude takes a leak on my diorama
Some student left their flashy di-orama to dry outside of the Archi-tecture Building. Wouldn’t it be a
shame if someone would happento pee on it? Well, some dude did.Bet the student was pissed.
> Dazed and confused at RUIn true high school fashion, some
group of straight-A students setoff a fire alarm in TRSM aftersmoking the devil’s lettuce in astairwell. How lame is that?
Seen some crazy stuff? Email
> Student escapes death by Buggy
Engineers were cautioned dur-ing their annual Buggy Push afterthey almost hit a passerby with a
thousand-pound killing machine,otherwise known as a car.
> Love in POD building
Another couple was caught doingthe do in a Ryerson bathroom.
This. Happens. Every. Fucking.Week. What’s going on RU?
Lack of multi-faith prayer space still an issue
By Jake Scott
Nine years later the MSA has a multi-faith prayer space in TRSM, but there’s still need for more at Ryerson
Earlier this year the MSA held a prayer-in in Lake Devo.PHOTO: JAKE SCOTT
t took nine years for the Ryer-
on Muslim Students’ AssociationRMSA) to get a temporary multi-aith prayer space in the Ted Rog-
rs School of Management (TRSM)and it’s still only temporary.
There are currently two perma-
nent, multi-faith prayer spaces at
Ryerson, on the Student CampusCentre’s (SCC) third floor and at 111
Gerrard Street East. The latter build-ng is not accessible. Despite roomsreated by opening the Student
Learning Centre (SLC), space is still
carce partly due to the rising num-ber of student groups. These prayerpaces are student-run with minimal
nterference from administration.“We’re here to support our stu-
dents, but unfortunately the space
s very limited on campus and thisyear the request from the RyersonStudents’ Union (RSU) is making
ure we get more student grouppace,” said Ryerson interim presi-
dent Mohamed Lachemi.This year alone, 14 student
groups were ratified through theRSU — an all-time high — meaning
he race for space only got tighter.
“We are now 39,100 studentson campus that are in undergrad-
uate programs. We only have oneaccessible prayer space on cam-pus, which is located in the SCC,”
said Mariam Nouser, vice presi-dent external affairs for the Ryer-son Muslim Students’ Association
(RMSA) and incoming member ofthe Board of Governors.
It’s an issue affecting Ryerson’s
Muslim population, as the RMSAidentifies TRSM as the most incon-
venient place for members to accessmulti-faith space.
“Students, especially in TedRogers School of Management
... it’s very hard for them to find
prayer space near their classes,thus they have to pray in halls orstairwells or places that are really
not effective,” said Nouser.Thus the rotating, temporary
multi-faith space was created
through the RMSA. It operates twohours daily during peak prayer timeswith its location always in flux.
“TRS looks for rooms that areavailable at that time and I thinkthey give them a week’s notice ...
that [information] gets emailed to
[MSA members] to communicateto their membership and that is
also updated on those [kiosks],”said current Ryerson Students’Union president Andrea Bartlett.
Other religion-based studentgroups like the Ryerson Catholic
Students’ Association (RCSA) use thespace only occasionally as they haveample space on or around campus.
“In terms of when we need timefor prayer we have designatedspace. There’s also a lot of church-
es downtown and in our area,”said Cesar Membreno, vice presi-
dent communications for RCSA.As well, prayer practices for
other religions are a little less rig-orous than the Muslim faith.
“I feel like most Jewish studentswho make prayer part of their daydo it in the hall or a corner,” said
Naomi Shore, Jewish LearningCoordinator for Hillel at Ryerson.
Jews aren’t required to prostrate
themselves during prayer, makingimpromptu prayer in a stairwell orhallway a little more palatable.
These worship and meditation
spaces are for all. Non-religiousstudents can go meditate, but manystudents using these safe spaces are
Muslim, especially when faced withrampant Islamophobia in the city.
The spaces are on 111 Gerrard
Street East’s third floor, room 319of the SCC and TRSM.
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4 EDITORIAL Wednesday, March. 16th, 2016
nterim Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi celebrates with the team. PHOTO: CHRIS BLANCHETTE
ByDevinJones
For the entirety of this year I’ve
been the sports editor at The
Eyeopener and I’m honestly notven the biggest fan of sports. Don’t
get me wrong, I understand and ap-
preciate the work that goes into a
hampionship-winning team, but
here are other people in the of-
fice far more knowledgeable about
when and how to execute a flaw-
ess half-court press. In fact, I had
o check with one of our photo edi-
ors, Chris Blanchette, to make sure
had the correct understanding of
what exactly a half-court press is.
It sounds contrite and over-
wrought but my biggest interest
n sports comes from the moments
when the whistle blows, the gametops and you get to see the play-
rs as more than the faceless num-
bers on the backs of jerseys cov-
red in simple game recaps.
As a contributor last year I fol-
owed both basketball programs
xtensively, even taking a trip to
Quebec to cover the women’s bas-
ketball CIS championships for the
paper. Imagine the pleasure I’ve
had this year of watching both
eams build upon their success of
ast season, and absolutely demol-
Keep the fan train rollingThis year, sports at Ryerson have been special. Let’s keep it that way
ish all expectation set for them.
Just typing the words “both the
men and women’s teams have
won OUA banners and gold med-
als,” puts a smile across my stupid
bearded face.
I couldn’t care less about the
the accolades, because the accom-plishments that the Ryerson bas-
ketball programs have achieved
this year go beyond trophies, stats
and scoreboards. This year is the
first time during my career at Ry-
erson that I’ve felt invested in a
community of peers, and oh my
what a community.
The cliché of Ryerson being a
commuter university that doesn’t
give a shit about school spirit not
only went out the window this year,
it broke the entire fucking campus.
From student-organized events, to
the sold out Coca Cola court, ath-
letics and the basketball teams thisyear have caused a group of people
to turn away
from bullshit
residence par-
ties and to care
about a com-
mon cause. It
made me, a
normally self-
ish and insular person care about
a common cause. And for a jour-
nalist normally removed from the
action, it’s been nice to slip away
from my own trumped-up priori-
ties and cheer alongside the hun-
dreds, if not thousands, of dedicat-
ed students. For a few hours at a
time, those fans worry about noth-
ing else besides cheering on some
of the best damn sports Ryerson
has ever seen.
So please, let’s not make the
fandom a flash in the pan, let’s
continue to make the Coca Cola
court one of the most intimidating
places to play — and not because
of the players, but because of you,
the fans, who have stripped away
the stats and made it about thepersonalities on the court. Aaron
Best, Adika Peter-McNeilly, Jean-
Victor Mukama — not just con-
ventional “athlete” stereotypes,
but the root of something bigger.
The next time you find yourself
sitting in the crowd at a Ryerson
basketball game, take a second
and look around. Look beside
you to the non-Ryerson friend you
dragged out to a game, and look
at the amazement on their face
when they realize that yeah, Ryer-
son is cool. And even more than
that, watch them immerse them-
selves in a community of supportand adoration for teams that were
years earlier an afterthought.
The responsibility is on us to
make this something special, to
raise the profile of Ryerson to
more than just a game, because
this season the fans have made Ry-
erson basketball a fucking event.
And that, is dope.
As to that whole birthing of
Eggy thing? Wow.
This year is the first time during my career at
Ryerson that I’ve felt invested in a community
of peers, and oh my what a community
Victoria “Gone fishing” SykesHannah “Chillin’” Kirijianv
Lidia “BRB” Foote
ContributorsNatasha “The” Hermann
Jaclyn “Selfie” TansilNoushin “Flärdfull” Ziafati
Justin “Don’t you forget aboutme” Chandler
Zeinab “Her very own” SaidounMelissa “Hairy” Bennardo
Mitchell “To the left” ThompsonMiriam “Got one person”
Valdes CarlettiBen “Where’s” WaldmanZoe “Eccentric” Melnyk Jess “Da best” Valeny
Celina “Saviour” GallardoTova “Deep” Friedman
Isabella “27 edits” BalcerzakNick “Dun DAT” DunneSarah “Mario” Krichel
Brenda “Luigi” Molina-NavidadRasha “Bowser” Rehman
Parth “Yoshi” ParikhNatasha “DK” HermannBrennan “Toad” Doherty
Brontë “Ferris” CampbellEmma “Cameron” KimmerlyDiana “Sloane” Whistance-Smith
Gabe “The babe” ChahinianIan “Not my motto” Yamamoto
Lindsay “Dear Abby”Christopher
Playing the part of the AnnoyingTalking Coffee Mug this week is thatitch that you just can’t scratch.
The Eyeopener is Ryerson’s largestand only independent student news- paper. It is owned and operated byRye Eye Publishing Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by the stu-dents of Ryerson.
Our offices are on the second floorof the Student Campus Centre. Youcan reach us at 416-979-5262, attheeyeopener.com or on Twitter at@theeyeopener.
Editor-in-Chief Sean “ParmeSEAN” Wetselaar
NewsKeith “Moosh-stache” Capstick
Nicole “Analytics” SchmidtAl “Snifflés” Downham
FeaturesFarnia “+ SEAN 4EVER” Fekri
Biz and Tech Jacob “Fresh-cut” Dubé
Arts and LifeKaroun “Nominations”
Chahinian
SportsDevin “Lies to Sean” Jones
CommunitiesAlanna “On the beat” Rizza
PhotoAnnie “Moosh queen” Arnone
Jake “#Blessed” ScottChris “Lucky covers” Blanchette
FunSkyler “Turns her enemies to”
Ash
MediaRob “Fade” Foreman
OnlineIgor “Reasonable” Magun
Tagwa “Demands a page” MoyoLee “Cute headshot” Richardson
General ManagerLiane “Keith’s hair” McLarty
Advertising ManagerChris “*^*&%*” Roberts
Design Director J.D. “Loaf?” Mowat
Intern ArmyBen “On break” Hoppe
CORRECTION: In a March 8 story
titled, “Transformed RU” it was
reported that RSU president Andrea
Bartlett cautioned the RSU should
never be run like a business. Bartlett
actually said that other people have
made that suggestion, and that the
RSU should be run like a business.
The Eyeopener regrets this error.
8/19/2019 The Eyeopener - March 16, 2016
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Meet your next RSU executive
The upcoming RSU executive were recently voted in. PHOTO: FARNIA FEKRI
By Sarah Krichel
The results are in for the 2016
Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU)
Board of Directors (BoD) elec-
ion. The Impact slate, which ran
gainst opposition RU Connected,ecured all five executive positions.
Participation rates in voting for
he executive positions ranged
rom 10.9 per cent to 12 per cent.
Votes cast ranged from 3,440 to
,792 for each executive out of
3,905 eligible voters.
Here’s what your upcoming ex-
cutives’ plans are:
President: Obaid Ullah
Current vice-president opera-
ions and upcoming president Ul-
ah advocates for a student-driven
union. Ullah wants to tackle stu-
dent transit discounts, experien-ial learning and cleaning up the
OSAP process.
“I think the way to build a sup-
portive community is through our
board,” Ullah said.
On study spaces, Ullah looks to
make the Student Learning Cen-
re (SLC) or the library a 24-hour
tudy space, plus adding study
paces to the engineering building.
He wants to make booking study
pace more organized through a
entralized booking process.
VP education: Victoria Morton
Current BoD member Morton
aid she ran to facilitate advocacybetween the provincial govern-
ment and students.
On OSAP, Morton wants to im-
plement a one-stop-shop for students
o learn its application process. She
lso wants parents’ income to cease
being a factor in OSAP applications,
but to add the cost of living in a stu-
dent’s residential area as a factor.
Morton wants an active role in
the 2017 tuition framework, the
elimination of unpaid internships
and she wants grade postings on
D2L made mandatory.
Former RU Connected candidate
Martin Fox said he wants Mortonto have more ambitious goals on
tuition. Fox said he’ll stay engaged
to make sure action is taken.
“Transform centered their cam-
paign on transparency and open-
ness, and there’s essentially noth-
ing to point to in the last year
that’s evidence of that commit-
ment,” Fox said via email.
Fox said students should see in-
creased mental health services and
anti-tuition advocacy campaigns.
VP equity: Tamara Jones
Jones wants to increase trans-
parency in the RSU and make stu-
dent group discussions inclusive.She wants to create discourse on
classism by addressing problems
low-income students face.
“With the new tuition policy,
we’re going to be seeing a lot more
people coming from that back-
ground on campus,” said Jones.
“We need to make sure we know
when they get here that they have
the same opportunities and quality
of education.”
The upcoming vp equity said she
wants to see if events for the equity
centres can get more sponsorships.
“I’m interested in reaching out to
other corporations, student groups,seeing if they’d want to work to
fund or donate,” said Jones. “I was
thinking [about] a zine where any-
one can submit anything about eq-
uity. That could hopefully pull in
ad revenue.”
Jones wants Ryerson to work
with existing groups on campus
like Divest Now and Microbe Hub.
“We like to act like we’re a very
environmentally conscious school
but we only do the things that are
flashy like the green urban roof,”
said Jones. “We’ll hold Ryerson
accountable to that and ask that
they invest in green energy so we
can go into industries that arethriving instead of ones that are
suffering because of oil.”
Jones wants to work with these
groups to implement more com-
post bins on campus.
On mental health, Jones said
she wants mental health and eq-
uity training with faculty, profes-
sors and security to make sure
they know how to to deal with the
people who face these issues.
On men’s issues, Jones said stu-
dent groups don’t need to be affili-
ated with the RSU to be involvedon Ryerson campus. “Even if peo-
ple don’t agree with their opinions,
they deserve to have a safe place,”
Jones said, adding that she hopes to
work with the university to create a
better system.
VP operations: Neal Muthreja
The upcoming executive said
that he wants to promote mental
health initiatives, the RSU’s health
and dental plan, and revamp
CopyRite printing services.
On mental health, Muthreja
said he is going to look into the
budget to hire one more mentalhealth counsellor.
“I’ll find ways to cut costs and
I’ll keep some costs in the budget
for [hiring another],” he said.
On the health and dental plan,
Muthreja said he wants to add
benefits and increase time between
the opt-out due date and winter
tuition fees dates.
“Students who opt out from
their plan would not be charged
for the next year onwards. So if
they opt out this year they don’t
have to opt out again.”
On CopyRite, Muthreja wants
to add more services such as 3D
printing, decrease the wait timeto make the system more efficient,
along with revamping its website.
“For CopyRite I feel like you
spend a lot of time not getting
stuff done and it’s not fast enough
by making some of the processes
online,” he said.
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 NEWS 5
Plans for safeinjection sitenear campus
After more than a decade of debate,
Toronto is planning on movingahead with creating supervised in-
jection sites to give users a hygienic
environment to inject pre-obtained
drugs. One of the proposed sites
will be housed in the Toronto Public
Health facility at Victoria and Dun-
das streets, beside Ryerson campus.
These sites are among several
strategies that have been put forth
to reduce overdoses and diseases,
along with the amount of public
drug use and discarded needles.
Michael Forbes, interim director
communications at Ryerson, said
in an emailed statement that the
university is aware of the proposal,which was released on March 14,
but it has not yet been reviewed.
“We will need to see the specifics
before we can provide comment,”
he wrote. “As with all social initia-
tives in our precinct, the university
looks forward to participating in
open, transparent consultations.”
Canada currently has two safe
injection sites, both in Vancouver.
In 2013, the Board of Health ap-
proved a report from the Medical
Officer of Health supporting these
services in Toronto. This decision
came after a 2012 study found the
city would benefit from having
multiple safe injection sites.In addition to the Victoria Street
location, plans have been made
to create sites in South Riverdale
and on Queen Street West. These
locations, according to the report,
were selected because they have
high rates of injection drug use.
Although some people have ex-
pressed concerns about public safe-
ty, David McKeown, medical offi-
cer of health for the city of Toronto,
said the sites are beneficial for the
community. He added that harm re-
duction programs are already pres-
ent at the selected locations, and
have been for 20 years.“[Harm reduction programs]
have been going on for quite some
time with very little negative impact
on the neighbourhood,” he said.
Injection drug use is associated
with HIV and hepatitis C, transmit-
ted through contaminated needles.
Supervised injection is sterile and
can increase access to treatment ser-
vices. Providing a safe space for us-
ers also lowers the number of peo-
ple injecting in nearby washrooms
and stairwells, said McKeown.
The proposal is still in its early
stages and will require munici-
pal, provincial and federal re-
view and approval before sites
are created, said Forbes. If the re-
port is approved, there will be a
community consultation process
which Ryerson will be involved in.
By Nicole Schmidt
The multi-coloured lights that il-
uminate the outside of the ImageArts Building (IMA) will now be
nteractive all year round.
Rye Lights, a committee found-
d in 2015, plans to create more
ommunity engagement with the
building by giving students an
opportunity to request colours
pertaining to special events, like
mental health awareness week and
Pride. The project is expected to
be completed by September 2017.
An interactive component was
first incorporated into the IMA in
2014 as part of a new media exhi-
bition, created by Dave Colangelo
— a former graduate student and
member of the Rye Lights commit-
ee — and artist Patricio Davila.
The project, In the Air, Tonight,
aised awareness about homeless-
ness by changing the building co-
lours from blue to red when tweets
included the hashtag #homeless-
ness.
The building features 727 exter-nal glass panels. Behind each panel
are two strips of LED light modules,
making for 1,400 LEDs in total, ac-
cording to Colangelo. The panels and
lights are connected to a computer
system that coordinates the display.
“This is becoming a real form of
communication and engagement,”
said Colangelo. “Other buildings
around the world are coming to
that realization. It just took a bit
of time to get the right pieces at
Ryerson, but at this point we are
at full speed ahead.”
The IMA has been compared to
the CN Tower, the Empire State
Building and the Calgary Tower,
all of which have exterior chang-
ing lights. Colangelo refers to
them as “digital monuments.”
These monuments can foster
communication between commu-
nities. After the 2015 Paris attacks,
the CN Tower changed its lights to
blue, white and red for France.
According to interim president
Mohamed Lachemi, the new proj-
ect will not cost anything because
the technology is already in place.
“The IMA is a world class gallery.
It attracts visitors from the city but
Rye Lights wants the Rye community to help l ight up Image Arts. PHOTO: JESS TSANG
also elsewhere,” said Lachemi. “The
idea now is to really use [this tech-
nology] for our benefit ... it’s part of
our mandate as a city builder.”
Michael Forbes, co-chairperson
of the Rye Lights committee and in-
terim director of communications at
Ryerson, said Ryerson is working on
a system where students can submit
their light requests for specific dates.
By Brenda Molina-Navidad
Image Arts to light up the community year round
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6 Wednesday, March 16, 2016FEATURES
! hen I typed “should I” into the Google search bar, there was
an incredibly diverse group of suggestions. One read Should I
Stay or Should I Go lyrics. Another, Should I upgrade to Win-
dows 10? But the top suggestion, with about 66 million results
found: Should I Drop Out of College?
It’s a question stemming from other ones that have undoubtedly crossedevery student’s mind: “Am I wasting my time here? Do I really know what I
want to do in life? Strippers make how much?” People who follow through on
that top search result are thereafter referred to as dropouts, just as a biology
student would be called a biology student. The verb “to drop out” transforms
into a noun. If you jump, you’re a jumper. If you drop out, you are a dropout.
A quick glance at Ryerson’s statistics in the 2015-2016 budget report shows
a retention rate of 88.4 per cent for first-time, full-time first-year students
in 2014-2015 who returned to the institution in the next fall term. On the
surface, this number seems fine. But the flip side of “retention” is the vast
number of students who leave university each year. The university’s budget
also estimated that 8,100 students began their first year at Ryerson this year
— if that 88.4 per cent figure holds for the next academic year, nearly 950 of
that group were not retained. It’s a popular explanation that some students
aren’t cut out for the rigors of the post-secondary education — what is harder
to admit is that perhaps this very system is not cut out for the needs of the
hundreds of students it loses every year.
Idid not drop out.
I clarify this every few days to people who work up the courage to
ask me why I’m in Winnipeg — my hometown — instead of studying
at Ryerson for another year in the undergraduate journalism program.
“I’m taking some courses here. I’m going back to Toronto in the fall,” I say.
!"#$%
Photo: Gabriel Chahinian, Illustration: Farnia Fekri
#$%&
'()* *"'
)+, Why do some students getpushed out of university?
!- !"$ ./0'1/$
Inevitably, they ask why I’m home. “Family issues,” I sometimes reply even
though I have none. Depending on who asks, my answer changes.
“My girlfriend broke up with me and I stopped caring about school. I had
a tough time sleeping. I was too sad to do anything but sulk and I thought
I’d never get back to being myself if I stayed in Toronto,” would be a more
accurate answer.
Sitting in class, I often wondered why I was even there. This thought might
seem fairly common, but it didn’t come up during my first year in my pro-
gram. In first year, I’d go into class excited to learn, brimming with optimism.
My professors and instructors were interesting, knowledgeable and inspiring.
Not once did I think, “I made a huge mistake by coming here.”
Things change, though. As soon as I started to spiral downward, I panicked
and considered leaving it all behind. My dad always told me that an educa-
tion is never a waste; to learn what you don’t want to do is perhaps more
important than knowing how you’d like to spend your life. In these moments,
I thought that that was the reason this period of pessimism started: to figure
out that I needed to leave.
I got set up with a psychologist at the Ryerson Centre for Student Devel-
opment and Counselling (CSDC) and met with her within three days. It was
painless. When we first spoke, I was still incredibly depressed and conflicted
about whether I should go home or not. The counsellor asked me what I was
so scared of, and mostly I didn’t want people to think I was a failure. I always
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 7FEATURES
put too much pressure on myself to succeed and in moments like these, that
pressure — sustained over several months — proved suffocating.
“School matters too much to me for it to not matter to me,” I told myself,
and I made the necessary arrangements to go home. The process was rela-
tively easy, and after filling out a few forms and having a couple of meetings
with faculty members, I came up with a plan to come back the next fall.
Everything transpired in rapid succession. I had a step-by-step plan to get
back to being who I am. Wrongly, I assumed that every student got this type
of attention and help. If I didn’t, I could very well have been among the more
than 10 per cent of first-year students who walk out the university doors and
don’t turn back.
Omar Quiroz thought he knew what he wanted.
After finishing Grade 12 at Toronto’s Cardinal Carter Acad-
emy for the Arts, he took a fifth year of high school in an at-
tempt to boost his grades. Going to university was a priority for
Quiroz. He applied to Ryerson for the 2015-2016 academic year and was
accepted to the child and youth care program.
All of Quiroz’s hard work paid off.
Judging from his Facebook profile, Quiroz wants the rest of the world to
know who he is as well as he knows himself. His current cover photo shows
the wrinkled face of a French bulldog. The one before that reads “Hillary2016” right next to the smiling face of Lizzie McGuire-era Hilary Duff. This
is what Omar Quiroz shows everyone.
He has worked hard to get to where he is, but it isn’t the place he expected
to be midway through his first year of university.
“How did I get here?” Quiroz repeated my question over the phone late on
a Wednesday night.
Here, for Quiroz, is a bus home from his job at Yorkdale Mall. He didn’t
plan on working as much as he has this year, but he’s had a lot more free time
since leaving child and youth care.
“You mean, why am I not still at Ryerson?” Quiroz continued.
Quiroz’s first indication that he needed to “get out” was four weeks into his
first semester. It was a 9 a.m. class and he was staring upward at a slideshow
on a giant screen in one of his introductory courses. His professor was talk-
ing, but Quiroz, who touts himself as having been a “pretty darn good high
school student,” was not necessarily listening.
He was there and he was gone.
In high school, Quiroz was heavily involved with student council, evenserving as vice president at one point. He participated in improv troupes and
theatre programming, and he managed to balance it all fairly well. But, as he
wrote in a blog post on Bell Let’s Talk day, Quiroz was hiding an intense bout
with anxiety and depression.
“I wasn’t good enough,” he wrote on his Tumblr page. “No one had told
me I wasn’t, though. I had decided that I wasn’t.” Quiroz’s life turned into a
battle with himself, which he didn’t see ending any time soon.
His grades, which he always tried to maintain at a respectable level, began
to slip, and he had serious panic attacks. In Grade 11, Quiroz writes, he
stepped down from his position on student council to focus on his grades
and ultimately his mental state. But instead of being met with helpful advice
or other good wishes, he got criticism. People thought he was running away
from his responsibilities, but Quiroz knew that his first responsibility was to
his own well-being. So there he was, sitting in that university lecture, staring
at the giant slideshow of facts that had no meaning. When he was having
trouble in school — he’d been placed on academic probation — due to hisintense anxiety, Omar Quiroz walked away again.
He wrote his midterms, but was indifferent about their outcomes. He still
got marks in the high 70s and mid-80s. But he decided to leave nonetheless,
and sought the advice of a career counsellor.
Together with his parents, Quiroz finalized his decision to leave Ryerson for
good. Now, he wants to go to George Brown College or York University to
study theatre or pursue a broadcast journalism career. He’s decided he’s more
interested in those fields than his previous endeavour in child care.
Once students start to seriously consider dropping out, they’re
encouraged to discuss the alternatives, said Sophie Quigley, the
undergraduate program director of computer science at Ryerson.
“There’s a form that they have to fill out, and they have to talk
to an academic advisor to discuss why they’re doing what they’re doing,” she
explained, adding that if there are mental health or financial reasons for the
decision, the advisor can direct them to other university services.
But the students who fill out the form have usually made up their minds, she
said. “There are a few who aren’t — who don’t know what their alternatives
are, so this is why it’s useful to have that conversation. But some of them have
explored the alternatives by themselves and they’ve decided.”
Quiroz says he wishes he knew more about the services that were available
to him, like academic mentors or extracurricular activities, but by the time he
figured it all out he was too far gone.
“There wasn’t much [the career counsellor] could have said to convince
me to give Ryerson another try,” Quiroz said, so he filled out the short-term
withdrawal form. Now he is starting to fill out the permanent one.
When Quiroz told me this, I immediately wondered if it might have been in
his best interests for the counsellor to hand him a brochure about Ryerson’s
top-notch journalism school or media production program, or perhaps the
theatre program which could always use passionate students interested in the
craft.
But instead, Quiroz is looking elsewhere. And while his example is anec-
dotal, I can’t help but wonder how many students aren’t retained for the samereason.
Of course, some students drop out and are better off for it. Qiming Weng, a
former medical sciences student at the University of Western Ontario, stayed
in school for only one year. Weng had a 4.0 GPA, but left to join a start-up
company called Edusight, now based out of Ryerson’s DMZ.
“Edusight’s goal is to use data to enable teachers to personalize their educa-
tion,” Weng said. “For me, I had always hoped that the next year, the next
grade or the next school would be somehow more challenging or more fulfill-
ing or that all of a sudden school would click and I would be like, ‘Oh wow,
school makes sense.’ But I never really felt like that, and I don’t think most
people ever do.”
Weng’s company is essentially trying to make the school system work more
efficiently for students. “Even post-secondary education, I’m not sure that
most people really find that it’s the most efficient way to get value. I think for
a lot of people [university] becomes a mandatory part of life, and I suppose
that’s why I felt I needed to make a change.”He may have dropped out, but Weng is adamant that it doesn’t hold him
back.
“This is a time when not having a degree has become just well-known
enough in society that it’s not shocking to that many people,” he says. “And
for the most part [other] people don’t care.”
Ihave a problem with the language of dropping out.
People who leave school have to constantly justify their decision.
Quiroz tells people he’s taking a break. Your cousin might say she’s just
taking some time to figure things out. I might tell you it’s none of your
business. The way that this burden will shift is by changing the way that the
topic of dropping out is discussed.
Terms like “retention rate” are pats on the back to universities, ignoring
the hundreds of students who leave in the same period of time in question.
“It’s like focusing entirely on the positive and ignoring the negative,” Quiroz
added in our conversation. Student Loss Rate might be a more suitable title.
Euphemistic statistics like retention rates focus on the majority who stay in
school, but not the sustained faction that habitually leaves.For reasons like excessive wait times for counselling (a phenomenon which
this paper has documented repeatedly) and steep tuition rises, some might say
that Ryerson is effectively setting up boundaries to education that are increas-
ingly insurmountable, but the real issue is that the university is not making a
big enough push to squash existing ones.
In a January 2016 article, The Eyeopener reported that wait times for coun-
selling services at Ryerson can reach as high as three months based on a triage
assessment in which students’ personal safety is determined by counsellors
at the CSDC. It was also noted that Ryerson and University of Toronto’s St.
George Campus staff 15 full-time counsellors while York University staffs 17.
The CSDC has established that shortening wait times is a priority.To keep up with the strong demand for education at Ryerson, which cur-
rently has the highest applications-to-registrant ratio in Ontario, the amount
of student support provided must increase quickly. At Ryerson, these 15 full-
time counsellors are staffed to provide support to more than 38,000 students,
a number which will likely increase in coming years.
Ryerson’s 2015-2016 budget priorities and expenditures report shows that
Ryerson’s position on the National Survey of Student Engagement in the cat-
egory of “providing the support students need to succeed academically” has
dropped from 65 to 60.7 per cent since 2011. Exact figures on how many
students drop out due to the unavailability of student assistance are not avail-
able, but one can imagine that the number would decrease if more resources
were allocated to places like the CSDC.
I was incredibly fortunate to get the attention I needed when I needed it,
and I suppose that the triage system has its benefits. But I was only helped
because I showed I needed it on the surface.
Who knows how many good students are suffering quietly like Omar
Quiroz, and how many the university loses every year?
“I’m itching to go back to school,” Quiroz told me sincerely, even though
he won’t be at Ryerson. “I like the feeling of holding a textbook, highlighting
it and studying it.”
Omar Quiroz paused and took a deep breath. “I miss it.”
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Wednesday, March. 16, 2016SPORTS8
Sitting in his office, Patrick
Tatham looks like a giant
in a shoebox. His massiveframe swivels in his chair
as we sit down for an interview.
For a man who’s just won Ontario
University Athletics coach of the
year, there was a time where he
ooked to find his place as head
oach for one of the best basket-
ball programs in the country.
To outsiders the task at hand
eemed insurmountable: step in as
head coach for a team that just last
eason won their place as the third
best team in the country under the
guidance of legendary coach Roy
Rana. And the biggest fear for Ta-
ham was failing to live up to thetandard of success that Rana had
achieved for the Rams, effectively
putting Ryerson basketball on the
map. As Tatham talks about the
moment he really felt at home in
his new role, he smiles shyly, rubs
he side of his face with a baseball
glove sized hand and responds
with: “University of Toronto.”
“The season opener at home,
we do not lose to U of T, and I’m
ust thinking, ‘Oh my god.’ I was
o nervous because they shot the
ights out in the second half,” Ta-
ham said. “Someway somehow
we just kept it positive and kept
he energy high and pulled off awin in nine seconds. At that point
t was like, ‘Okay I’m built for
his, this is alright.’”
And after attaining the title of
best team in the country, beating
Carleton University for the first
ime in 16 years and winning gold
at the Wilson Cup final four this
past weekend, it’s safe to say Pat-
ick Tatham has exceeded the ex-
pectations anyone could ever have
or an interim head coach.
The process for Tatham started
arly. After learning — in early
August — about Rana’s planned
abbatical for the upcoming sea-on, he worried about whether or
said. “The ball isn’t going to stay
in one spot or one player’s hand
for long. That whole, ‘Everybody
gets a piece of it,’ has been great, I
think we have five guys averagingdouble digits so go figure.”
After defeating Toronto on
opening night and finding his
rhythm as head coach, Tatham
took off. And while some people
were surprised by the success the
team achieved early on, it’s easy
to forget that Tatham has been a
head coach before, filling in with
the Rams and at Stoneridge pre-
patory school in California. Not
only that, but much of the Rams
roster for the 2015-16 season was
made up of returning players, used
to Tatham’s honest and direct ap-
proach on and off the court. Anddespite the readjustment in terms
of filling in gaps on the court, the
camaraderie and overall way they
move on the court is distinctively
Ryerson.
Arguably the best transition
team in the CIS — centered around
their ability to force clean turn-
overs — is summed up by the fact
that the Rams have the luxury of
not only relying on the two-on-
one, but punishing teams from
any spot on the court. This quick
full-court transition strategy has
been the foundation Rana has laid
over the seasons — a foundation
Tatham believes is crucial for theteam to be successful.
“I would like to say I’m sur-
prised, but I’m really not. Ever
since my first year coaching along-
side Rana, he’s been there for us.
And when I heard the news this
year I was pretty excited because
people were looking down on us in
losing Jamal and Rana and he had
some big shoes to fill but he did
it, he never failed us,” said guard
Jean-Victor Mukama.
T
hen there was Carleton.
The behemoth team
that Ryerson Univer-
sity hadn’t beat in 16straight years — the enemy they’re
forced to respect out of sheer tal-
ent. It was Tatham’s mountain; a
challenge any coach would be hun-
gry for. But for Ryerson it was a
shared hunger, the need to defeat
a team every single player on Ry-
erson knew they were capable of
beating. And it wasn’t only Car-
leton on the weekend of Jan. 22
but on back-to-back nights, the
Rams also had to take on the na-
tionally number one ranked Uni-
versity of Ottawa Gee-Gees.
The week leading up to the
games, Tatham had an idea to get
his team motivated for the chal-
lenge ahead. Not knowing how
each player would respond, he
taped a poster to each individu-
al locker and door in the men’s
not he could command the same
respect his predecessor did. His
fear was put to rest quickly at a
team building retreat, intending to
create chemistry and trust betweenplayers.
“I got to tell them my real feel-
ings like, ‘I am just as nervous as
you guys and I’m learning just like
you guys, but I’m going to work
really hard to do this right,’” Ta-
tham said.
At the beginning of this season,
you wouldn’t have been wrong to
doubt the success rate for the Rams
in their upcoming season. Not
only were they faced with the loss
of their sideline leader in Rana, but
also their captain in Jahmal Jones
graduating and moving on to play
in Europe. The eventual turnover
is a natural part of the game. But
arguably the best player to ever
lace-up for the Rams left — on pa-
per — a sizeable hole to be filled.
And it is here that the Rams can be
likened to the Pittsburgh Steelers
of 1976 or the Buffalo Bills of the‘90s. The loss of a superstar forced
Tatham and his group of very tal-
ented players to readjust and figure
out a different way to succeed. For
Tatham this different way meant
taking a narrowly focused team
— surrounding one great player
— with largely the same roster and
turning them into a dynamic, fast-
paced team that spreads the ball
out.
“I really love watching the Gold-
en State Warriors and if you watch
them closely you notice how much
they move the ball and for me I
think that’s the one thumbprintI’ve made on this team,” Tatham
By Devin Jones
change room with the quote: “If
we continue to do the same thing
that we have always done we will
get the same result. Be uncom-
mon.”
“When you have that level of
communication and trust it’s just
not players and coaches anymore,
we’re brothers,” said fourth-year
guard Adika Peter-McNeilly.”
Then Tatham and the Rams did
it. Beating Carleton Friday and Ot-
tawa Saturday night to secure the
title of the best team in Canada.
And Tatham notes that his initial
thought after beating Carleton
wasn’t to celebrate, but to get the
team back into the video room, at
10:30 p.m. to study film for the
Ottawa game the next night. That
weekend was the arrival of a team
a full season in the making —
showing the Ryerson community
and beyond just exactly what Ta-
tham and the Rams were capable
of.
And with the Rams fly-
ing out to Vancouver
to face off in the CIS
championships as the
number one seed, only one ques-
tion remains: What do the next
few years hold in store for Patrick
Tatham?
While he alluded to the fact that
Rana is expected back with the
Rams in the beginning of May, it
still begs the question as to wheth-
er or not Tatham will move back
to an assistant coaching role. Yetafter this historic season, it’s hard
to imagine that Tatham won’t be
fielding head coaching offers from
other universities.
The future, as Tatham notes
with a wave of his massive hand,
has yet to be decided — with his
focus, zeroed in on the weeks
ahead, a potential national cham-
pionship within his grasp. And
as the interview comes to a close,
Tatham smiles at something that’s
crossed his mind and swivels in
his chair again. Now for the man
who’s just won the OUA coach of
the year, Patrick Tatham looks per-
fectly at ease.
Next week look for our cover-
age of the women’s basketball
team and their gold-medal win-
ning season.
He had some big shoes
to fill, but he did it, he
never failed us
I told him [Rana] that this
team was better than last
year’s team that won a
bronze
The coach of the yearAs Rams head to the CIS championships we take a look back at the year of Patrick Tatham
PHOTO: CHRIS BLANCHETTE
PHOTO: CHRIS BLANCHETTE
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 BIZ & TECH 9
On Feb. 24, fourth-year Ryersonlobal management studies stu-
dent at Maria Poonawala took
over IKEA Canada.Through the Odgers Ber-
ndston’s CEO x 1 Day program,
he shadowed and acted as thehief executive officer (CEO) ofhe company.
The program matches third andourth-year university students
with some of the country’s leadingCEOs, giving them an opportunity
o take in-class learning and applyt to the real world.
“The [CEO x 1 Day] programprovided me with a glimpse intothat executive search process,
which again consists of gettingmeaningful feedback on a leader-ship style, as well as gaining the
hands-on knowledge of what ittakes to be a successful leader,”Poonawala said.
Poonawala went through anintensive application process verysimilar to an executive search
process, which included severalrounds of interviews as well aswriting an essay and handing in a
transcript and a resume.“What I learned by participating
Student spends one day as CEO of IKEA
Maria Poonawala spent a day discussing marketing with the CEO of IKEA Canada.PHOTO COURTESY: MARCUS QUAGMIRE/FLICKR
By Noushin Ziafati in the program was to never loseyour curiosity about learning as
well as the importance of refiningthe scale of selling your personalbrand. Each step of the selection
process taught me a lot about myweaknesses and strengths when itcomes to leadership skills.”
She was one of 18 students se-lected out of hundreds of appli-cants across Canada to spend aday leading a major company in
Canada.Bright and early, Poonawala
started off her day as CEO at 7:45
a.m. She met with CEO of IKEACanada Stefan Sjöstrand and they
chatted for a couple of hours, dis-
cussing several things such as theirpersonal backgrounds, the visionbehind IKEA and technology in
retail.After that, Poonawala met with
the marketing team at IKEA to goover a new marketing campaigncalled “Every Second.” Poon-awala is minoring in marketing,
so the company wanted her toget a peek at the marketing sideof IKEA.
Sjöstrand then took her on atour through the store and ex-plained the positioning of the
merchandise and the reasoningbehind the IKEA store’s complexlayout.
This was followed by a manage-ment review meeting, where theydiscussed IKEA’s 40th anniversary
in Canada. Sjöstrand gave Poon-awala a lot of background of whatwas going on and asked for her
input as well.“He really made me feel like I
had a voice even though I had only
been there a day,” Poonawala said.At the end of the day, the two
discussed what they had learned
from each other during the experi-ence.
“One thing I learned is reallyhow to look at [things] from a
big picture perspective … be-cause there are so many differentmoving parts as a company. As a
CEO, you really need to have a
long term vision and create thoselittle strategies to execute that vi-
sion,” Poonawala said.Sjöstrand gave her some mean-
ingful advice — to always follow
one’s inner compass, to go after
what you’re passionate about in-stead of money and to live and
breathe the vision of a company.“From Stefan, I really learned
how to look at all those moving
parts of the business and sort ofput it together like a puzzle, andsort of go from there.”
She even offered advice toSjöstrand, suggesting that IKEAshould grow its business-to-busi-
ness segment, meaning to expandits business ventures with othercompanies, which Sjostrand told
her is something the company islooking into for next year.
Poonawala said that being ableto see the theories that she haslearned about as an internation-al business major in school be-
ing applied in a business such asIKEA, as well as being able to talkto several business executives was
definitely invaluable to her.“I’m super thankful for this
opportunity because I think ex-
periential learning is such a goodcomplement to anyone’s educa-tion. Since I’m in my last semes-ter, it’s the perfect way to end off
university, especially shadowingthe CEO of a global companysuch as IKEA.”
With spring coming along soon,
and the warm weather with it, it’s
about time that we start sheddingour winter layers. And I’m not
talking about clothes.The hardest part about exercis-
ing is getting started; TV mara-
thons and Kraft Dinner seems likea much better alternative to jog-ging. But Strava can help you out.
Strava is a fitness app centeredon running and cycling. You pickyour preferred method of exercise,
and the app helps you make a pro-file. Then you’re in the circle. It’slike exercising with thousands of
people that follow your progressand support you.
The way Strava works is by
connecting runners and cycliststo each other through their socialmedia program. New challenges
are added every week, like finish-ing a half-marathon or running 10
k.m., and users can join and sharetheir results for a chance to appearon the leaderboards.
The site has an option to create
running or cycling tracks to follow.And if you’re just starting out and
don’t know the best routes aroundyour location, the app has a route-sharing feature to let you try out
other users’ favourite spots.Strava is compatible with some
smartwatches as well. With thewatch, users can track their steps
with the pedometer and measuretheir heart rates.
The premium version at around
$8 a month gives users access toseveral training videos, as well asthe option to keep track of their
progress and distance travelled.The app is also compatible with
several GPS devices to track yourroutes that way.
Strava is available for the iOSApp Store and Android’s Google
Play.
App of the
WeekBy Jacob Dubé
Get off your lazy ass and do some exercise for once.
You guys are officially adults nowHere’s a list of some benefits students should cash in on during this tax season
Don’t be like him. PHOTO: CHRIS BLANCHETTE
By Natasha Hermann
ending away documents to a pro-essional seems like an easy way toeceive your income tax, but how
asy is it to trust strangers withour money? And why pay for the
money you deserve anyway?
Here is what you should be
ooking for in your tax return thisear:
· Tuition fees over $100 canbe claimed for an education taxredit. RAMMS provides students
with two forms, T2202A, whichs a certificate for tuition, educa-ion and textbook amounts, and a
T4A, which provides informationbout any scholarships, and other
help towards payment.
· Full-time postsecondary stu-dents can claim moving expensesf their new residence is 40 k.m.
loser to school. You can claimransportation, utility-cancellingees or connecting fees, and stor-
ge expenses. This does need tobe your new permanent residence.You can claim these expenses from
he beginning of each academicperiod. Fill out a T1-M form for
each move.· Keep your transit passes and
receipts. The passes are only validif they provide you with unlimit-ed travel for more than five days,
or if you buy enough for at least20 days in a 28-day period. Youcan claim four weekly passes for
a month, monthly passes or yearlypasses. In regards to electronicpayment cards, you must travel at
least 32 times in 31 days. You alsoneed a receipt that produces thecost and usage of the card.
· Make sure you are receivingthe GST/HST credit if you are over
the age of 19. This credit gives youa payment four times a year.
· Make sure that you have yourT4s from work. You need separateT4s for each payroll accounts. All
you need to do is fill in the num-bers that correspond with the taxreturn form.
· Students living in residence canclaim a flat tax credit of $25. Oth-er students can claim the Ontario
Energy and Property Tax Credit ifyou have low or middle income.This year you can claim up to
$784 to help with property taxesand $224 for energy tax.
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10 ARTS & LIFE Wednesday, March 16, 2016
ophie and Justin Trudeau beside Barack and Michelle Obama at the state dinner.
Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau wears Rye grad’s gowns
PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIEMEDIA COMMONS
By Annie Arnone
Ryerson fashion grad Lucian Matiswas in a meeting when his phone
uddenly started ringing, and it
wouldn’t stop. Moments before
he Toronto designer sat down with
client, Sophie-Grégoire Trudeau
rrived at the U.S.-Canada state
dinner — alongside Barack Obama
nd the first lady — wearing an
original piece designed by the Ry-
erson graduate himself. Matis ex-
cused himself from the room to
silence his phone, only to find whathe described as dozens of messages
“pouring in,” of people requesting
interviews.
“[My team] put in all of our ef-
forts to make Canada proud,” said
Matis.
He was in contact with Jessica
Mulroney — Grégoire-Trudeau’s
stylist and daughter-in-law of for-
mer Prime Minister Brian Mul-
roney — prior to the Washington
state dinner, and was aware thatthe purple evening dress would
be worn by the Prime Minister’s
spouse, but was unaware of the fact
that she would also wear the day-
dress he designed.
“I actually grabbed the last piece
on my way out, it was kind of the
last add on into the pile and it end-
ed up being the dress [she wore]”
said Matis. “I was pleasantly sur-
prised.”
The designer met with Grégoire-
Trudeau two weeks prior to the
dinner in Toronto for a fitting.
“It was a very sweet meeting,” he
said.
He explained that Sophie Gré-goire-Trudeau was an exception.
Her positive and down-to-earth
outlook on picking an outfit was a
breath of fresh air for the designer
— who typically deals with opin-
ionated celebrities.
“I felt very included,” he said.
“Celebrities usually have more
of an edge or an attitude but she
would say, ‘Lets work together, let’s
make this the best we can.’”
Matis drew from spring patterns
for the dresses, and initially began
with paintings of flowers, which
then became appliqués, seperate
fabric sewed or embroidered on,designed to line the dresss. The fab-
ric was complimented by both light
and saturated colours.
“Gardens in bloom were the co-
lours that inspired the Spring/Sum-
mer 2016 collection, therefore most
detailing and colours were bright,
bold and gorgeous,” explained
Matis. Specifically found in the day-
wear dress — a fitted short dress
completed in flowers — consistent
with the evening wear dress design.
After immigrating from Romania
in 1999, Matis was drawn to the
fashion industry and was embraced
by Ryerson as a new student.
“I went to Europe once and I gota job there, but the pace wasn’t for
me. I didn’t feel like home, so I had
to come back,” he said. “[Canada]
felt like home to me.”
After graduating in 2003, Matis
worked in various positions with
companies such as Urban Behavior
and Sirens, where he learned skills
as a designer and a buyer — skills
he did not gain until after he gradu-
ated from school.
“I created my job — in the last
nine years I’ve been working for
myself, but the companies I have
worked for in the past taught me
things that school didn’t,” he said.The designer has been recently
nominated for a Canadian Art and
Fashion Award.
“I feel very honoured,” said Ma-
tis. “These are the Oscars of our in-
dustry in Canada. I’m honoured to
get the recognition. If I win or not,
being narrowed down to top four
or five is quite an honour.”
Ryerson takes over the Canadian Screen AwardsBy Karoun Chahinian
Ryerson made a mark at the Ca-
nadian Screen Awards (CSA) onMarch 13 with 15 nominees and
one winner.
Ari Millen from the sci-fi series
Orphan Black won Best Perfor-
mance by an Actor in a Continuing
Leading Dramatic Role.
“[When I found out I was nomi-
nated], my reaction was a mix of
humbling and disbelief,” said Mil-
en. “I was very happy to be includ-
d amongst a very strong group of
alented people this year. When I
won, I was extremely humbled and
t was very unexpected.”
The show premiered in 2013
nd follows the life of Sarah Man-ning, an English orphan and con-
rtist who is revealed to have many
lones around the world. Millen
plays Mark Rollins, who is first
ntroduced in Season 2 and is a
homicidal member of the extremist
Prolethean clan.
Orphan Black aired three sea-
ons with the fourth set to release
n spring 2016.
Along with Millen, Ryerson The-
tre Performance Acting Director
Cynthia Ashperger was nominated
or Best Performance by an Actress
n a Supporting Role for her work
n The Waiting Room.
Set in Toronto, the film illus-
rates the professional struggles of
ormer Yugoslavian refugee Jasmin
Geljo who is trying to find work as
n actor. Ashperger plays the lead’s
ex-wife who is suffering from ter-
minal cancer. Director Igor Drljaca
said the inspiration for the film was
drawn from Jasmin’s personal ex-perience of moving to Canada and
his pursuit of an acting career.
“We constructed a narrative
that embraced his experiences in
Canada, the success he had in Yu-
goslavia and his road to becoming
a cultural worker and the difficul-
ties to work as an immigrant,” said
Drljaca.
The message of the film rang true
for the majority of the cast mem-
bers who are from the Bosnian
community, including Ashperger.
She expressed that after working as
a successful performer in Croatia,
she experienced cultural shock af-ter moving to Toronto permanently
in 1991 at the age of 28.
“It is very difficult to get a job, so
for me being nominated is nothing
short of a miracle,” said Ashperger.
“It is quite astonishing that I would
be nominated for an award, it was
a wonderful honour.”
The film was also featured in the
Toronto International Film Festival
in September 2015.
She met lead actor Jasmin “back
in the day” when her theatre
school in Zagreb, Croatia visited
his school in Sarajevo, Bosnia and
their friendship and acting relation-
ship grew from there.
“Now 32 years later, we got
to act together and we’re both
nominated for Canadian Screen
Awards,” said Ashperger. “The
awards have made me really
proud to be Canadian.”
Millen was one of Ashperger’s
former students and was initiallyasked to present her award catego-
ry, but due to scheduling issues, he
presented the Golden Screen Award
for TV Drama/Comedy.
Another one of Ashperger’s for-
mer students was recording artist
Peter Katz, who was also nominat-
ed Sunday evening for Achievement
in Music — Original Song. He co-
wrote the song “Where the Light
Used to Be” with Karen Kosowski
for the action-packed thriller 88,
which was written and directed by
two Ryerson graduates, April Mul-
len and Tim Doiron.
“Their film started getting higherand higher profile over the year and
they asked if I’d write a song for
them for the climax scene of their
movie. We literally watched the
screen and wrote the whole song
while watching it,” said Katz.
“Most of my song-writing pro-
cesses are trying to pull ideas out
of the air, you don’t know exactly
what direction you’re going. But
when you have such a clear inspi-
ration in front of you, it’s limit-
ing, but that limitation is actually
liberating.”
The film is about a young
woman attempting to find out
who was responsible for the mur-der of her boyfriend after she
wakes up in a roadside diner not
remembering how she got there.
While on the treadmill one day,
Katz recieved a message from
Doiron saying the song was nom-inated for a screen award.
“I was flabbergasted,” said
Katz. “I lived more in the music
world, so it wasn’t really on my
radar that I would get a nomina-
tion for a screen award.”
Katz described his evening at
the awards as both surreal, but
also an untraditional Ryerson
reunion. He was able to see Ash-
perger along with many other fel-
low theatre school alumni.
“It was surreal to be sitting
there and see Martin Short and
Donald Sutherland, it was a fun
thing to be a part of and to see
everything behind the scenes,”said Katz. “It was also great to
see alumni. You know how hard
everyone works, so it’s nice to see
them get a little pat on the back,
it brings people together.”
Millen also said the CSAs area great opportunity to showcase
Canada’s talent, which is often
hidden in the shadow of “big
brother America.”
“One question I was aked
often that night was whether
Canada does enough to pro-
mote its own. Certainly having
an event like that is exactly what
we need,” said Millen. “Canada
has a handicap being next to Hol-
lywood, but [still] has a lot to offer.
I think our industry tries its best to
recognize our value, but it’s hard
to convince the rest of the public.
This will really go a long way to
help Canada’s brand and exposethe public to what we’re making
and hopefully have them choose a
Canadian product over an Ameri-
can one.”
From left: Rob Tinkler, Peter Katz, Cynthia Ashperger and Ari Millen at Nominee Night.
PHOTO COURTESY: CYNTHIA ASHPERGER
8/19/2019 The Eyeopener - March 16, 2016
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Wednesday, March 16, 2016 WOW, LOOK AT ALL THAT FUNTENT! 11
!"#$%&' )*"+, If you’re one of those iPhone-swindling, Starbucks-sipping, Gucci-bag-owning sons-of-lawyers, then you need to sit back and re-eval-uate your life. Are your problems really problems, or are they justminor annoyances? We recognize that first-world problems are stillproblems, so we took the liberty of making a list of what you, as amoney-lovin’ hussy, might suffer from. Check off the boxes to see just
how first-world you are and determine your level of suffering!
E
You own at least one pair ofunning shoes that you can’t runn or else YOU’LL RUIN THE
LEATHER, ASHLEY!
You don’t wear a coat when
t’s cold because it will ruin yourook but then you go out andomplain about being cold.
“Snapchat filters make myRay-Bans look tacky!”
You hate your parents formaking you get a job — like, wehave enough money! I don’t need
o work!
You break your iPhone
creen and complain that Applemakes flimsy products, and thenbuy a new iPhone.
Your parents won’t let you
borrow the car because last timeyou had it you got in an accident(it was just a scratch, mom!)
You just scratched your newleather jacket because of the studs
on your leather backpack.
Your expensive watch
stopped working because youwore it in your pool.
You think you’re gluten-intolerant and fear you can neveragain eat the scones at Panera.
You bring your own wine toparties because you don’t want
to sip whatever “sewage water”your lower-class friends will sup-ply.
[][][][][][][][][][]
0-3: Middle-Class Mess
You’re doing pretty well,
but you need to chill.There are starving chil-dren in Africa, you know.
j
4-7: Basic Bitch
Your life is pretty great, so
stop complaining. There arepeople dying out there.
8-10: Suburbanightmare
Honestly, just get out. Thereare people with real problems
and you aren’t one of them.
j
j
How to have a good time
ust a regular guy trying to live his life. PHOTO: ANNIE ARNONE
f you’re an introvert at heart, orust really hate people, then you’llknow that it can be hard to get out
nd join the living world. Peoplere loud, rude and disgusting —
but not you, you’re lovely and cul-
ured and above everyone else. Butou still want to have a good time,o here are some surefire ways to
help you get there!1. Smile. A lot. Probably too
much. Do you seem creepy? No!Well, maybe a little. Just smile
when you make eye contact withpeople. Or is that too much?
2. Don’t smile. Don’t look likeou’re trying too hard.3. Hold something. A drink,small snack, your phone, that
tranger’s hand, whatever you
need to do to keep your hands oc-cupied. Being nervous can makeyou fidgety, so just hold onto
something. Or will that make youlook weird?
4. Don’t hold anything. You
don’t want to look like a hoarder.5. Laugh. Often. Loudly. Wait,
no, not too loudly. That’d just
be obnoxious. Just laugh whenappropriate, like when someonemakes a joke. But don’t laugh at
every joke, that’s a bit overzeal-ous. Plus, people aren’t as funnyas they think they are.
6. Don’t laugh. It’s just too much.7. Mingle. Mix-it-up, meet
some new faces. But don’t do thatthing you always do, you know?You know what I mean. Don’t dothe thing. It’s weird, and you take
it too far.
8. Don’t mingle. Maybe you’renot ready to meet new people justyet. You don’t need new friends.
9. Have a party trick. Can yousing? Dance? Do magic? Juggle?Anything? God, how have you
made it this far in life with so fewtalents?
10. Don’t have a party trick.
Don’t be that person.Maybe you aren’t cut out to
have a good time. At least not
with other people. Just stay athome, read a book, watch TV. Or go to parties. Be that awkwardperson in the corner smiling too
much, holding at least five things,
laughing too loudly, mingling witheveryone and pulling quarters out
from behind people’s ears. Justkeep being you and chances areyou’ll have a good time.
The Ofce
Sales
Paper
PartyCommittee
DunderMifin
Jello
Bears
Beets
Battlestar
Galactica
MichaelScarn
Complete this word search and drop it off with your name, contactinfo and favourite song to The Eyeopener office (SCC 207) for your
chance to win a $25 Tim Hortons gift card!
THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID
A Boston Chipotle restaurant shut down after workers fell ill, with one
testing positive for Norovirus. This news follows Chipotle’s E. Coli cri-
sis from Nov. 2015. There have been no reported outbreaks in Canada
as of yet. Toronto, what do you think?
Voices of Toronto
“What’s a Chipotly? Chipotee?Chipoatul? Am I saying it right?”
Janice Turlington - Retired Carnie
“Norovirus shmorovirus, I needthat guac, give me the guac. I
don’t care if it’s not safe to eat, justslather it on my chest.”
Brad Williams - Pickler
“Still a safer bet than Taco Bell.”
Steven Lee - Mustache Groomer
P h
o t o
b y
M a t
t h ias W i e m a n n
/ F l i c
k r
P h
o t o
b y V
l a d i m i r P us t o v i t / F
l i c k r
P h
o t o
b y m
o y e r p h
ot o s / F l i c k r
By Ian Yamamoto
t
t
By Skyler Ash
8/19/2019 The Eyeopener - March 16, 2016
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Wednesday, Mar. 16, 201612
Education: Ten master’s and certificate programs
Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling,
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AQ Course (online)
Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy
With graduate classes starting year-round, now is the perfect time to learnmore about a graduate degree from Niagara University.
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Graduate StudiesSpring Open House
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