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Volume 46 - Issue 7October 24, 2012

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2 Wednesday Oct. 24 2012

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Wednesday Oct. 24 2012 3NEWS

To meet the growing demand for

n-campus living space, the con-

truction of Ryerson University’s

ew student residence at 186 Jarvis

t. has been nalized and will begin

n September 2014.

Last month, Ryerson formally

ubmitted their request to the City

f Toronto for rezoning and site

lanning.

The building will stretch 27 sto-

eys high, a ve-storey extension

f the previous proposal made inebruary.

“The MPI group, our developer,

s responsible for how much height

o go for,” said Julia Hanigsberg,

ice president of administration and

nance at Ryerson.

“They will look at how much

ensity the city is approving on oth-

r sites near ours to determine how

igh it is appropriate to go for the

Ryerson residence.”

The construction of the tower will

ry to meet the growing demand for

tudent living spaces on campus.

“Students can learn so much by

iving in residence, not only to-

wards their schooling but, for their

ersonal lives as well,” says Laura

Darcy, a fourth-year photogra-

hy student and current Residence

Advisor in O’Keefe House.

“Residence is an amazing re-

source for universities,” said Darcy.

The new will include the rst

500 of 2,000 beds being added to

campus.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy

has said that though the tower is a

great development, it is only a start-

ing point.

“We’re trying to deliberately in-

crease the residence rooms that we

have on campus,” said Levy.

With the recent unveiling of Ryer-

son’s new Mattamy Athletic Centre

at Maple Leaf Gardens, Levy has

said that he would like to keep ex-panding into that area.

“My priority is somewhere on

Church between Gerrard and Car-

leton. I would love to see a resi-

dence there so it better connects the

Gardens to the campus,” said Levy.

With the approved proposal for

2000 new beds by the Board of

Governors, Ryerson is looking to

provide opportunity to students un-

able to live on campus because of

space restrictions.

“With the majority of the student

population being commuters, it’s a

hassle getting to school. I think they

want to live downtown, but there is

such a limited space,” said Ashley

Paton, a rst-year urban and re-

gional planning student.

“Ultimately, it eliminates the has-

sle of commuting; they could be us-

ing that time to study or in another

meaningful way.”

Though the residence is not di-

rectly on campus, it is within a ve

minute walking distance.

The development, design and

By Ramisha Farooq

building of the tower will be han-

dled by MPI group in a partnership

with Ryerson.

“We have a lot of condence in

MPI and their ability to deliver the

project,” says Hanigsberg.

A rendering of Ryerson’s newest residence, slated to be built by 2016 FILE PHOTO

New residence plans fnalizedRyerson’s new residence will have more fve storeys to accommodate more students, update reveals

Ryersonnumber onein research

Ryerson had the largest increase in

research funding of any Ontario

university in 2011, according to

statistics by a research consulting

rm.

Research Infosource Inc., a divi-

sion of The Impact Group, released

its Canada’s Top 50 Research Uni-

versities List , a report examining

research income of the country’s

post-secondary institutions.

Despite only a 2.2 per cent in-

crease in total funding for research

universities in Canada — and thefact that most research funds go to

universities with medical programs

— Ryerson’s research funding in

2011 increased to $29,518,000

from $22,524,000 in 2010 — a

jump of 31.1 per cent and the high-

est in Ontario.

The list also named three Re-

search Universities o the Year in

three different categories.

Ryerson placed second in the un-

dergraduate category with a score

of 77.8 points. The University of

Lethbridge got rst place with 78.1

points.

Before Research Infosource Inc.

gives each university a score outof 100, a number of factors are

considered.

The list looks at how much

money is going into a university,

research output, how many ar-

ticles and journals each institution

got published in peer-reviewed

journals, and each university’s

success in being cited in academic

literature.

It also looks into how success-

ful each school was at attracting

funding.

Wendy Cukier, vice president re-

search and innovation at Ryerson,

said the school’s success in researchis a result of many years of hard

work.

“It’s an acknowledgement of

the trajectory we’ve been on in the

last few years as we have become a

comprehensive university,” Cukier

said. “I really think we’re starting

to reap the rewards of many years

of hard work by many people.”

Cukier noted the university has

been shifting towards hiring more

professors with PhDs and a “track

record” in research.

She said the next twenty years

will hold challenges for the school.

“It’s clear it’s a more competitive

environment,” she said.

“It’s clear the traditional sources

of funding for research are dry-

ing up and we have to be more

creative.”

PHOTO: MARISSA DEDERER

ByMohamed

Omar

CUPE addresses credit card misuse

A member of Ryerson’s staff and

aculty union who used a group

redit card for personal expenses isno longer employed by the union,

ccording to a letter obtained by

The Eyeopener.

In a letter addressed to members

of the union, Donald Elder, the Pres-

dent of Canadian Union of Public

Employees (CUPE) Local 3904, ac-

knowledged that “there had been

nappropriate use of a credit card”

and that “the money owing has

since been repaid and the individual

is no longer an employee of Local

3904.”

“There was a mistake made, it

was corrected and policies are now

in place to ensure it will not happen

again,” Elder said in his letter.

Elder’s letter comes as a direct re-sponse to a letter sent out to union

members by Jacquie Chic, the lo-

cal’s vice-president of campaigns.

In her email, Chic reveals that Elder

and treasurer Rob Coelho informed

union executives of the credit card

misuse in March, but that they alleg-

edly had known about it since 2009.

Chic also notes that both Elder

and Coelho allegedly “made clear

their intention not to” tell members

of the credit card misuse after she

“urged and later begged the presi-

dent and treasurer” to do so.

“They explained that they had

asked the individual to stop and dis-

cussed repayment,” she said in the

letter. “Some repayment was madealong the way but the card contin-

ued to be used improperly. They did

not take steps to stop the practice.

The money was ultimately returned

in June of this year.”

While Elder’s letter acknowledged

the improper use of the group credit

card it did not disclose the name

of the former union member, the

amount that was charged to the card

or when Elder rst found out about

the misuse.

Additionally, it did not touch

upon allegations that the union

did not have trustees overseeing

their nances for two of those three

years or that nancial irregulari-

ties were not reported in statementsfrom 2009 onwards, which both go

against union by-laws.

Elder said that these issues would

be discussed at the local’s annual

membership meeting which takes

place on Oct. 24.

Both Elder and Chic were un-

available to comment on the issue.

With fles rom the Toronto Star

BySeanTepper



Earlier this week was International

Caps Lock Day, or, to put it cor-

rectly, INTERNATIONAL CAPS

LOCK DAY. While not apparent

how this holiday could translate

nto lie away rom a keyboard —

creaming yoursel hoarse, I expect

— it apparently celebrates the art

o typing emotionally.

Speaking o emotions, they are

surely fowing reely in Ottawa this

week. The Canadian Federation o

Students (CFS) is in the capital or

a ew days to lobby the govern-

ment to help students. Amongst

their wishes is the ormation o a

national educational act, similar

to the ederal healthcare act we all

rely on. Also, somewhat predict-

ably, the old chestnut o student

angst that is debt caused by rising

tuition ees is being raised, as part

o what the CFS is calling a lobby

week.

With International Caps Lock

day, that is two well-meaning

though essentially useless events in

the same week.

Harsh, yes, though the banality

o the action taken against high tu-

ition ees is sel-evident. Banners and

chants repeatedly decry ees, which

while unortunate are simply a real-

ity o attending university today.

With public sector jobs seem-

ingly constantly threatened, or

already cut as a way to lessen On-

tario’s $14.4 billion decit, the

province is striving to save mon-

ey. A lot o this weight has been

placed directly on the backs o

Ontario undergraduate students,

who increasingly resemble an open

chequebook to those in power.

With the number o university

applicants rising and classrooms

already straining to t current stu-

dents, it realistically is sensible or

the government to take advantage

o the apparent act that having adegree is a necessity on par with

having a health card or drivers

licence.

While high ees in general are

rallied against, attention is usually

also drawn to the act that Ontar-

io students are paying higher ees

than other provinces. In a recent

CFS press release a complaint is

highlighted — students pay di-

erent ees in dierent provinces,

with “students in Newoundland

and Labrador paying less than

one-third o those in Ontario.”

Again, when taking decits into

account this makes sense. Ontariocurrently owes $14.4 billion, while

Newoundland and Labrador’s

decit clocks in at $258 million. So

it’s only understandable that On-

tario owes more, thereore making

sense that students pay more.

O course it’s not ideal that

young adults are starting their

careers with debt, but consider

the alternative o a deeper decit.

That’s why, essentially, there is

very little chance that tuition ees

will be rozen, reduced or elimi-

nated. Until Ontario stabilizes

its nances, the government will

simply block out objections, how-

ever emotional, pouring out o the

banners, microphones and mega-

phones this week.

Even i those banners are in all

caps.

4 Wednesday Oct. 24 2012EDITORIAL

argos

Editor-in-Chief

Lee “Mr. Miyagi” Richardson

News

Sean “Likes doors” Tepper

Sean “Likes letters” Wetselaar

Associate News

Diana “Likes eatures” Hall

Features

Carolyn “Adult” Turgeon

Biz and Tech

Astoria “Doens’t eat” Luzzi

Arts and Life

Susana “Boo!” Gómez Báez

Sports

Charles “Poltergeist” Vanegas

Communities

Victoria “Loved by priests” Stunt

Photo

Marissa “Comedian” Dederer

Dasha “Martini” Zolota

Associate Photo

Stine “Welcomed” Danielle

Fun

Kai “Checking acts” Benson

Media

Lindsay “Chilli?” Boeckl

Online

Mohamed “Orwellian” Omar

John “Stocks up” Shmuel

Circulation Manager

Megan “Breakast” Higgins

General Manager

Liane “Spokey dokes” McLarty

Advertising Manager

Chris “007” Roberts

Design Director

J.D. “The CDR” Mowat

Contributors

Alea “Up in the air” Donato

Luc “Samurai” RinaldiDaniel “Harry” Rosen

Harlan “Double threat”

Nemerosky

Ramisha “High rise” Farooq

Nicole “Great teeth” Schmidt

Tara “A+” Deschamps

Ryan “Business errday” Smith

Arti “Relentless” Panday

Sam “On” Tapp

David “New Yorker” Owen

Aran “Hipster Chair” Raviandran

Emily “Game ball” Weingartner

Salma “Graphic master” Araa

Brian “ B5” Batista Bettencourt

Yara “Trick or treat” Kashlan

The Eyeopener is owned and

operated by Rye Eye Publishing Inc.,

a non-prot corporation owned by

the students of Ryerson. Contact us

at 416-979-5262 or at SCC 207.

Lower fees means lower sense

The CFS is calling or lower tuition ees in Ontario. But a $14.4 billion defcit means that’s unrealistic

ByLeeRichardson

The Canadian Federation of Students’s campaign to reduce tuition fees has repeatedly visited campus. Now the rally has been taken to Ottawa, during what the CFS iscalling a lobby week. It is asking for a national education act while campaigning for lower fees, especially in Ontario.

FILE PHOTO

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Wednesday Oct. 24 2012 5NEWS

PHOTO: ARAN RAVIANDRAN

Registrar declaresabrupt resignation

After 22 years at Ryerson, Keith Alnwick announced his resignation last week

BySeanWetselaar

Long-time registrar at Ryerson Uni-

ersity, Keith Alnwick, ofcially an-

ounced his resignation last Tues-

ay, Oct. 16.

The news came suddenly, in an

mail sent to Ryerson sta and ac-lty late in the aternoon. Alnwick

ited a desire to pursue alternative

onsulting options as motive.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy

eclined to comment on the sud-

en departure o one o Ryerson’s

ongest serving executives. Alnwick

oined the university as registrar in

uly 1990, making him one o only

hree executive members at the

school who predate Levy’s appoint-

ment as president.

Heather Lane Vetere, vice provost

students, took over as interim reg-

istrar Monday, the date Alnwick’s

registration took eect. Her goals

as interim registrar are largely to en-

sure the ofce continues to unction

smoothly and ease the transition,

she said.

“There’s a really good team o

managers there [at the ofce o theregistrar], who work hard to keep

things moving,” she said.

“And it’s my goal [in the time]

that I’m interim registrar to do ev-

erything I can to support them, so

they can ensure, rom the students’

perspective, they don’t really see a

huge change.”

The registrar’s responsibilities

include recruiting and admitting

new students, as well as academic

support once students are enrolled

in the school. The ofce o the reg-

istrar also handles scheduling o

course exams.

The process or the selection o

a new registrar is the same as with

most executives at the school, and

will be conducted via a lengthy

search process by a specially select-

ed committee.

“We want to recruit and hire thebest registrar that we can fnd or

Ryerson,” Vetere said in a release

Tuesday.

A time rame or the appointment

o a new registrar has not yet been

announced.

TTC plans forsubway cellservice

News

Bites Monsterimplicated inve deaths

According to a report released Oct.

9, the TTC has plans to equip sub-

way stations with cell service.

While the initial plan does not in-

lude coverage in subway tunnels,

t is likely that some service will be

ccessible.

The TTC has plans to expand the

etwork in the uture. This comes as

art o a deal with Broadcast Aus-

ralia Limited, which, i successul,

would create a payout o $25 mil-

ion to the TTC.

Monster Energy Drinks is being

investigated by the U.S. Food and

Drug Administration in conjunction

with fve deaths, the Toronto Star re-

ported Oct. 23.

According to the autopsy, the

death o a 15-year-old girl was

caused by caeine toxicity. Monster

denies allegations that their product

led to the deaths.

As a partner with Coca Cola,

Monster energy drinks are distrib-

uted on campus. •*One entry per person. tell your friends to enter

Get to the gameThe Eyeopener and the

Toronto Argonautswant you at the game.

Enter to WIN great gear andtickets to the November 1stArgos game.

Want’em?Write your name, student # andcontact info down and drop it atthe Eyeopener ofce (SCC207) by

noon, Monday October 29th.

TheMerchandise

BuildingSalon & Spa

Ryerson students with I.D. get 35% o and enjoy a

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6 Wednesday Oct. 24 2012NEWS

ILLUSTRATION: SALMA HUSSEIN

CESAR to vote on health and dental planThe continuing education students association o Ryerson (CESAR) is set to vote on whether its students need health benefts

ILLUSTRATION: DASHA ZOLOTA

Mental health strategy in the works

While Ryerson full-time stu-

dents are given automatic access

o health and dental coverage,he part-time student community

hasn’t had the same opportunity.

Because of that, the continuing

ducation students association

of Ryerson (CESAR) is holding a

health and dental care referendum

o give part-time students an op-

portunity to receive equal benets.

“Most [part-time] students

don’t have a health and dental

plan because of affordability, or

because they don’t have employ-

ee insurance,” said Annie Hyder,

a part-time student and thedirector of membership and com-

munications at CESAR.

Last month, the board of

governors of Ryerson University

approved CESAR’s referendum

request for Nov. 5-12.

The plan will cost students

$155.95 and cover 90 per cent of

prescription drugs, and 95 per cent

of dental services.

“People think that part-time

students have full time jobs,

and are just pursuing their stud-

ies on the side,” said Hyder. “ButI don’t think that’s really the case.

A lot of times these students are

juggling two jobs and they don’t

have any benets at all.”

There has been an extreme-

ly positive response regarding

CESAR’s plans to develop a health

and dental plan. A recent sur-

vey completed by students cur-

rently enrolled in a part-time de-

gree program at Ryerson showed

that 84 per cent were in favour of

the plans.

“You get your health care

in Canada through the collec-

tive paying for it,” said MatthewCwihun, part-time student

and CESAR director of campaigns

By Nicole Schmidt and equity/public administration

and governance.

“The same social struc-

ture needs to be present in

the university community environ-

ment.”There has always been a

demand for health and dental

coverage among part-time

students, but CESAR has failed

to make these implementations

until now due to the lack of

support part-time student unions

receive in comparison to full-

time student unions, Cwihun

said.

The focus of the newly

elected group is largely on camp-

gains and services, according to

Hyder.

“We are denitely focused on

the present,” she said. “Our pres-ent is what’s going to shape our

future.”

If the plan goes through, “it

means that nally a student

can be enrolled in a part

time degree program and not

feel like they’re a second-class

student,” said Cwihun.

By Harlan Nemerofsky

Nine months into their rst year

of operation, the Mental Health

Advisement Committee (MHAC)

has big aspirations. Reporting to

the vice president of academic and

nance and the provost, the team

is trying to develop the rst-ever

comprehensive mental health strat-egy for Ryerson.

“Our goal is to try to

create supportive environments

and programs for students, staff,

and faculty,” says the committee’s

co-chair, Dr. Su-Ting Teo. She is

also the director of Health and

Wellness at Ryerson.

The committee is trying to

create four working sub-groups to

address different strands of mental

health services. The four working

groups are: awareness, training and

education; curriculum and peda-

gogy; policies and procedures; and

services and programs. So far, thereaction has been positive — be-

tween 75 and 100 students, faculty

and staff members have applied to

join the committee’s four sections.

“We are just in the process of

conrming the membership for

those working groups,” said Teo.

“But we’ve actually had a lot of

interest for people to join. And so

we sort of need to make a decision

on how to move forward.”

Teo said that although the grouphas no specic events planned, she

hopes the working groups will

create a dedicated line of commu-

nication between student concerns

and accessibility policies.

“This year’s work is about do-

ing an environmental scan to see

what’s happening on campus, doing

a gap analysis to see what maybe

needs to happen, and then creating

an action plan on how to imple-

ment that,” she said. “Year twowill be actually implementing

the plan.”

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Wednesday Oct. 24 2012 7

Should I stay or should I go?Many students deer their studies or a year. David Owen fnds out why they do it, and how they spend their time out o school

While their peers packed their bags

nd found their classes at the start of

chool, Adelaide Andrews boarded

plane to San Diego, Jessica Beuker

unched in for a shift at her part-me job, and Monica Neumann set-

ed back into her parents’ house in

Waterloo.

It was all to contemplate their

rogram choice, and ultimately gave

hem a reality check as to what not

eing in school is like.

However, these three students have

ot abandoned their undergraduate

egrees altogether. They all deferred

heir programs for a year to pursue

aths outside the boundaries of cam-

us.

The burden of student loans rests

n the shoulders of many university

tudents, and when considering theverage tuition at Ryerson is almost

7,000, it is no wonder why.

The inevitable nancial debt is

what made Andrews, a second-year

adio and television arts (RTA) stu-

ent, reassess her feelings towards

he program.

“While looking at the thousands

f dollars I owed, I asked myself ‘is

he debt worth the program?’” she

aid. “I decided I needed some more

me to decide because I always felt as

hough I had been rushed into gur-

ng out what I wanted to do.”

Andrews is volunteering at a hostel

alled Lucky D’s in San Diego for a

month of her time away from school.Although she said this has opened her

mind to new people, places and ex-

eriences, the desire to take a break

rom school and come back as a

hanged person may not be realistic.

“People think taking time off school

to travel will deliver some kind of

epiphany on life, and it really doesn’t

work like that,” Andrews said.

Students can defer their studies foreither one or two semesters and then

return easily; however, after a year

away from Ryerson, the re-enroll-

ment process is more extensive.

“Once you’ve been gone longer

than a year, you have to be formally

reinstated,” said Donna Buczkows-

ki, Student Affairs Coordinator for

RTA. “The students who really want

to be here will go through the effort.”

She attributes the majority of de-

ferrals to the cost of receiving an

education and family crises at home.

For both, Buczkowski is able to offer

options such as bursary and schol-

arship opportunities to assist withnances as well as online class pro-

grams for those who need to move

back home.

As an RTA graduate who deferred

her studies for a year, Buczkowski

said the rst suggestion she would

give a student thinking of taking a

year off is to make an appointment

with an academic advisor.

“Speak to someone who knows

what your choices are. Sometimes

this decision is made in a stressful

time and we want to avoid hasty de-

ferrals,” she said.

Neumann, an image arts student,

deferred her studies in 2011 after she

completed her rst year of classes.Her dad passed away in her rst term

of school. She moved back home to

Waterloo with her family.

“I was in a different state of mind

after what happened to my dad. I just

didn’t care,” she said. Putting school

on hold allowed her to contemplate

her options, and now Neumannis back at Ryerson this year to start

her second year of photography.

“This year is different. It’s fun and

I enjoy it a lot,” she said.

Beuker made the decision to

defer after her second year in the

journalism program. Her bills in-

creased over the summer, and she

realized that she would need to se-

cure an income before going back to

school.

“This semester has been a

reality check,” said Beuker, who

works 20 hours per week at a local

Second Cup.

Her time away from Ryerson

has provided perspective on herprogram. “Once I’m back in school

I’m going to have to work even

harder to catch up. So many students

take their spot in university for

granted.” she said.

By Arti Panday

ing a lot about diversity in rst year,”

said Magdalena Sokoloski. “The

lecture opened our eyes to diversity

and how we should be trying to

change our perception of how fash-

ion should be displayed and on what

kind of models,” she said.Kristina McMullin, a third-year

fashion student, said what she learns

in the program mirrors the industry

right now, and that includes not al-

ways using as many diverse models.

She said you have to sell your

ideas more if they promote diversity.

“You’re almost promoted to use the

standard because it’s almost easier

because that’s what’s expected. If you

are going to use an older model...or a

plus-size model you’re going to have

to work a lot harder to convince peo-

ple that that’s a good idea,” she said.

Frankin hopes her message of di-

versity will spread. “It’s new minds

that are coming to this that are start-

ing up new businesses that are going

to make big changes.”

Diversity Now! at Rye’s School of Fashion

Diversity Now!, a lecture presented

by the Ryerson School of Fashion,

onfronted the issue of diversity inhe fashion industry last Saturday.

Caryn Franklin, former fashion

ditor at i-D Magazine, delivered the

ecture. Franklin is the co-founder of

All Walks Beyond the Catwalk, an

nitiative aimed at celebrating non-

uniformity in the fashion industry.

Franklin founded the project three

ears ago, along with communica-

ions specialist Debra Bourne and

model Erin O’Connor.

“After thirty years in the industry,

can feel the destabilization that is

aking place,” said Franklin. “When

started, I was good enough. I knew

was and I didn’t have a media to un-

dermine me in the way that the me-

dia now, including the fashion media,

undermines young people.”

Diversity in fashion includes an

rray of shapes, sizes, ages, races and

abilities. But this year at New York

Fashion Week, 79 per cent of models

were white. In 2008, 87 per cent of

models were white.

Franklin said the industry needs to

recondition the creative process used

to envision the next season’s style,instead of focusing on who will be

modeling the designs. “They’re con-

stantly trying to reinvent something

out of nothing when, in fact, the

reinvention is the creativity, not the

person,” she said.

Although there are no courses spe-

cically designed to teach students

about the importance of diversity,

professor at the Ryerson School of

Fasthion Ben Barry said it’s featured

in the courses.

“I think the students are starting to

incorporate diversity into everything

they do. Denitely in the courses I

teach and my colleagues teach, it’s

part of the curriculum and part of

the focus of their assignments,” said

Barry.

Some students disagree.

“I feel like we’re actually not learn-

PHOTO: M DDMonica Neumann, a second year photography student, took a deferral from school last year

COMMUNITIES



8 Wednesday Oct. 24 2012FEATURES

The rst day of classhas come to an end,and students arepacking their bags

and getting ready to leave. Butthe day isn’t over for MarkDukes. He rises from his seat

ByDianaHallandCarolynTurgeon

Standing upand walks between the rows of desks to the podium, becausestudents with letters from theAccess Centre have been askedby this professor to hand them inby the end of class.

Dukes stands six-feet-tall,weighs about 225 pounds andhas been told he looks pretty t.Though he shows no outwardsigns of having a disability, hehas just revealed himself as a reg-istered user of Ryerson’s AccessCentre to his professor and anystudent who has stopped and

stared at his walk of shame.Dukes has had enough.“So what do I do, wait around

outside of class?” the public ad-ministration and governance stu-dent asks angrily. “Lurk in theshadows and throw a paper air-plane at him?”

Dukes, 39, decided the onlyway he could protect himself andhis fellow students was to makehis voice heard, and hold Ryer-son’s Access Centre accountablefor its aws.

It’s a mission he has taken on

alone: he wants to refocus Ryer-son’s accessibility policies. Dukeshas gone to the trouble of speak-ing up as a student with chronicmental health and addiction is-sues in order to ght for otherslike him who may be afraid toact.

Getting the form to his pro-fessor is a necessary part of theaccommodation process. Yethis professors can to refuse himthe measures recommended by aqualied psychiatrist and a stu-dent accommodation facilitator

(SAF) from the Access Centre —and they have done so more thanonce.

Marc Emond, manager of theAccess Centre, explains that theprocess has been updated as of this semester. Now students canarrange the entire process, fromthe accommodations procedureto the submission to the profes-sor, via email.

“[The old process] suited somestudents … but it was archaicin this day and age,” admitsEmond. He says the long line-upof students coming to pick uptheir forms made it inefcient for

other students waiting to meetwith the centre.

Heather Driscoll, director of the Ofce of the General Coun-sel and Information and PrivacyOfcer, claries that studentswere never required to go tothe front of a class and had theoption to meet with professorsoutside of the classroom beforethe email option was available.Dukes’ professor did not extendother opportunities.

When the Access Centre sentout a mass email on Oct. 15 thatcompromised the private email

addresses of registered students,the centre dragged Dukes’ iden-tity into the open. It was the laststraw in a series of wrongdoingsthat sent Dukes over the edge,and he says there has been noformal apology.

“You’re going to change yourpolicies, Ryerson, surroundingdisabilities,” says Dukes. “I’mnot asking.”

He says he took his concernsto Driscoll, who states that if someone les a privacy com-plaint with her ofce, the ofcewill keep it condential and lookinto the problem. Dukes saysDriscoll was not of much help:when Dukes got frustrated overthe phone, she hung up.

Dukes suffers from depression

and anxiety. When he began atRyerson in 2009, his only con-cern was succeeding in schooland making the most of the op-portunity to get his education.

“Unfortunately, my mentalhealth issues don’t see it thatway and sometimes things getout of control for me. SometimesI can’t manage it,” says Dukes.When he started having troublemanaging his schoolwork, Dukessought help.

It was suggested that he go tothe Access Centre, which, ac-

cording to its website, “[facili-tates and supports] accessibilityand inclusion through educationand academic accommodationfor the diverse mix of studentswith disabilities...”

However, when Dukes rst ar-rived to register with the centrethe line was too long for him tospeak with anyone. Dukes feltvulnerable; waiting in line wouldidentify him as someone whoneeded accommodation. Dayafter day Dukes would stop bythe centre only to leave withouthelp.

In Winter 2010, he gave the

centre another shot. Upon arriv-ing, he was greeted by a sign onthe door saying the ofce wouldre-open after lunch.

Mark waited until after thestated time when an employeenally returned. She entered theofce, ipped the lunch sign andimmediately put up another say-ing the centre would be closedfor the rest of the day. That waswhen Dukes had had enough.

Dukes fought back tears of frustration as he marched downthe hallway to the manager’s of-ce where he says he grovelled

— just to reach someone whowould allow him to register withthe Access Centre.

Finally, Dukes was in — butthat was just step one. The nextstep was to ask for the accom-modation letter that would helphim manage his course load, amulti-layered project that re-quires both doctor approval andSAF to produce an ofcial rec-ommendation.

The problem is professors candeny that recommendation onthe basis of academic integrityand, according to Dukes, it hashappened to him at least twice.Emond says that if a professordenies the measures suggested,the student should inform theAccess Centre and their SAFPHOTO: MARISSA DEDERERMark Dukes is worried about graduating from Ryerson.

Mark Dukes went from the streets to the classroom in order to get his education despite his chronic mental health issues.



Wednesday Oct. 24 2012 9FEATURES

for the silent

I DON’T GIVE UP,

I DON’T QUIT, I

DON’T STOP ... I’m

doing it for them

Mark Dukes, a public administration and governance student, is unhappy with Ryerson’s accessibility. PHOTO: MARISSA DEDERER

may try to nd an accommoda-ion that works better for the

professor.“In general I would say it runs

moothly, but there’s no rhymeor reason to it,” Emond says.Students may encounter dif-ult professors occasionally, oth-rs won’t.”Though Emond asserts that

he system mainly runs smooth-y, Dukes does not nd it accept-ble.“There is no way that anyone

without a medical doctorate has

he right to supersede what mydoctor has said,” he says. “Mypsychiatrist says I need this ac-ommodation. The Access Cen-re backs him up. And then bud-

dy with some fancy-pants degreeays no.”Dukes says the decision has

lso jeopardized his ability toucceed academically: he haswo incomplete courses from lastear due to missed exams (which

he insists he won’t nish in time),nd has received an F on an as-ignment after missing a dead-ine in another course. Withoutccommodations, Dukes is wor-

ied he won’t be able to gradu-te. The missed assignments aretacking up.“I’ve also spent years not being

ble to do anything about [beingntelligent] because my societynd my school aren’t accessible,”

he says. “They accommodatehemselves. Not me and not oth-rs like me.”Education is immeasurably

mportant to Dukes. He spentwo years living on the streetnd has an almost ten-year gap

on his resume due to not beingble to get a job while on his dis-

bility pay, which provides only1000 a month. An opportunityor rent-controlled income hous-ng helped him get a place andave him the chance to nallyaise enough money to come to

university.“I pay Ryerson a lot of that

money to receive F’s on courseswhere I had high 90s at the mid-erm,” Dukes says.

He’s spent a long time advo-ating for mental health and ad-

diction issues in Toronto and byetting his degree he will be ableo work in that sector and actu-lly be paid for his work, some-hing his disability did not previ-

ously allow.“The only way that I can be

alidated in this world is with

one small, little piece of paper,”says Dukes. “And if I can’t getthat, I don’t know. I can’t quit. Idon’t know what to do.”

In his years of unpaid advo-cacy, he has sat on the TorontoDrug Strategy for six years astheir drug user representativeand consulted with the ten-yearmental health and addictionstrategy for the province. He iscurrently working on regulatorychange for people in Ontariowith disabilities.

“I didn’t want to be that guy

here, I just wanted to be anony-mous,” says Dukes. “I wanted tobe left alone and I just wanted toget my education.”

Unfortunately, events such asthe email from the Access Centrerevealing many students’ infor-mation and the death of a femaleclassmate who was strugglingwith mental health issues, haveforced him to come out of hidingas a defender of the people whoare hurt by the system.

“I want those people to knowthat I’m doing it for her,” saysDukes. “I was going to walkaway, but there should never,

ever be anyone else like her thathas to go through shit and notget help.”

He says student wellness cen-tres, including the Access andcounselling centres, aren’t serv-ing Ryerson students effective-ly: too often, he found moreroadblocks than immediateassistance.

“It’s about the fact that theydon’t have the resources or thecapacity to handle the inux of people with mental health oraddiction or any other disabil-ity that they come across here,”

Dukes insists.According to Heather Lane

Vetere, vice provost students,about 1,100 students are regis-tered with the centre, and thatnumber is only expected to grow.

“Everyone that we can add re-duces case loads for the others,so they’ve got more time and en-ergy to spend one-on-one timewith the student. Would thatbe desirable? Absolutely. Is thatlikely on the horizon? I don’t seeit,” Vetere admits.

Darren Cooney, manager of the public education and part-nerships unit for the accessibil-ity directorate of Ontario, saysthere’s exibility for an organi-zation like Ryerson to gure outhow to meet the requirements

that work best for their service.“At the end of the day it’s up to

Ryerson,” says Cooney. “Rightnow [they] need to have a policyfor accessible customer service.”

Ryerson is responsible for sub-mitting a report to the depart-ment every two years conrmingthey meet legislation. Cooney’sdepartment then audits themand the rest of the public sector.In 2010, Ryerson submitted a re-port that they were fully compli-ant and the department is in themidst of its audits.

“It requires that the organiza-tion have a feedback process andthey state how they will respondto complaints,” he says.

His department does not havethe power to investigate com-plaints or get involved in issuesbetween customers and orga-nizations. They do track broadtrends in issues and concernsin the sector but cannot get in-

He doesn’t believe Ryerson is doing what they can to help him and wants to change their policies to protect his peers

volved in individual problems.Dukes is determined to take

his message to the top. He wantsSheldon Levy to consider thenext “mega-deal” to focus on

providing reliable mental healthresources, to smooth out cracksin university-wide policies —and he says he won’t give up un-til the university hauls itself outof its “antiquated” accessibility

procedures.“I don’t give up,” Dukes

says. “I don’t quit, I don’t stop— and the reason being hasnothing to do with me: it has

to do with the people who doquit, with the people who dostop, with the people who arecompromised by the system.I’m doing it for them.”



12 Wdnsday Ot. 24 2012Bz & Tech

Ten thousand songs. 250,000

mails. 13 million pages on Micro-

oft Word.

That’s the equivalent amount of

pace Dropbox is offering in its

atest promotional offer, the Great

Space Race.

Like Google Drive, the free le

haring program allows users to

tore their les in one readily avail-

able ‘Cloud’, or backed-up virtual

erver space, so it can be shared

and accessed easily.

Launched earlier this month, the

offer challenges universities and

colleges all over the world to get as

many new Dropbox users as they

can.

At stake: 23 additional gigabytes

of storage space for the winning in-

stitutions users for two years.

Just for applying for the promo-

tion, the user gets an extra gigabyte

of storage space on top of the origi-

nal two.

Students earn points for their

school by signing up and referring

other classmates to Dropbox and

getting them to complete a getting-

started kit. The contest runs eight

weeks through Dec. 10.

Ryerson currently has 1,894

points. That’s good for 254th over-

A worldwid ra for storag spaall, 14th in Canada, and 6th in On-

tario.

“I think a student would want to

use Dropbox over Google Drives

because to share a le its probably

more convenient and it seems to be

more intuitive,” said David Gelb,

Director of Graduate Program in

Design at York University. “If they

were working on a project and

sharing those les with members of

their group, Dropbox is much bet-

ter.”

Maya Levinshtein knows all

about that.

The University of Waterloo ar-

chitecture student uses Dropbox

several times a day and has over

33 gigabytes right now, 23 from

Space Race. Being a design student,

she routinely uses 300 MB les like

Photoshop or Illustrator, so the

high storage space really helps.

“We use it during group projects

at school so that we don’t always

have to meet up. Instead, we can

just put our work on Dropbox so

that the rest of the group members

can see it, open it, edit it, and what-

ever else. It’s very convenient. It’s

such a hassle if the person is beside

me, taking out a USB stick, loading

it from one computer to another.”

The rules of the contest: When

a school earns enough points they

‘level’ up — the levels are 3 GB, 8

GB, 15 GB, and the grand prize of

25 GB. Schools get a single point

for each person who registers for

Space Race and installs Dropbox

on their computer and two more

points for each person that goes

through the Get Started guide.

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Wdnsday O. 24 2012 13Bz & tec

Last week from Monday to Friday,

we quit spending. Cold turkey. Re-

ently we have noticed how much

money we spend merely because we

haven’t been managing our time.

We rush to get to school and don’teave time to make lunches, so we

buy food impulsively throughout

he week. As third-year journalism

tudents who work approximately

25 hours a week on campus, plan-

ning meals isn’t often our rst pri-

ority. We decided it was time for a

hange in budgeting.

So we quit. Impulsively, that is.

The plan was to spend money

only on essential groceries and

not spend on a whim for a week.

This meant we couldn’t grab a cof-

ee on the way to school, fulll a

hocolate craving, or venture down

o Oakham Café for a quick mealo-go.

“It might be the shock value that

omeone needs in order to get start-

d with making some changes,”

aid Julie Jaggernath, education me-

dia manager from the Credit Coun-

elling Society. She added that put-

ing a stop to spending abruptly is

he hardest way to go. “Would you

be able to carry out those changes

or six months? Or for the whole

emester?” she said.

Getting used to the changes took

ome doing. Going from buying an

average of eight small coffees in a

week, which totals about $11.20, to

not being able to fulll our caffeine

x while on-the-go, left us frustrat-

ed and tired.

“We are creatures of habit, welove our habits, they give us com-

fort, they give us routine…” said

Jaggernath. We started our experi-

ment the Monday after reading

week. Like most students, the rst

week back welcomed us with long

periods at school lled with study-

ing for midterms and meeting dead-

lines. With the demanding weeks

that students face, we found that

it can be difcult to make time to

grocery shop, resulting in the un-

planned spending habits we have

developed. In fact, Victoria couldn’t

nd the time to do a full grocery

shop until Friday of that week.Our rst attempts at breaking our

spending habits varied in success.

Jaggernath told us that we needed

to “switch the habit…‘cause you

can’t take away a habit, you need to

replace it with something.”

Astoria packed a healthy pasta

salad accompanied with juice,

snacks and tea-making supplies to

fulll her hunger throughout the

day. Victoria, still without groceries

but determined to stick to the chal-

lenge, managed to survive her rst

day of no-spending with free crack-

ers from a soup bar and a homemade

bean salad. That night, Victoria was

able to make a sandwich with some

small groceries she bought from the

pharmacy near her apartment.

The rst few days of the chal-lenge prompted us to take the plan-

ning more seriously and replace our

habits with more money-conscious

ones. We ended up following the

same advice we received from Jag-

gernath. She said that if you know

you will be getting home late from

class, and will be too tired to cook,

“a day or two ahead of time cook

something that has enough leftovers

so that you know there is something

sitting and waiting for you.” We did

exactly that and it made our experi-

ment a lot easier.

Reaching the end of the week,

we realized how much we were sav-ing, which prompted us to ask the

question, “How much had we been

spending normally?”

We buy eight small coffees, three

cheap lunches or dinners, and three

snacks per week, which we estimat-

ed would be about $1046 per year.

That amount is comparable to one

sixth of the average tuition, two

months rent, ten metro passes or a

round trip ight to Buenos Aires,

Argentina. Would you stop buying

food on impulse to go on that much

needed vacation? We would.

cuing habis us ossNo impulse food runs all week? Bi & th dior Asoria Lui and communiis dior Vioria Sun tried it and saved big

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Wednesday Oct. 24 201214 FUN

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Wednesday Oct. 24 2012 15

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