Basu Roy joins USC presidential race

The race to become the next president of the University Students’ Council becomes a little clearer Thursday morning as Blog the Vote has learned that a third candidate, David Basu Roy, has joined the race. When reached via e-mail late Wednesday night, Roy confirmed his intentions of running.

Basu Roy joins Andrew Forgione and Omid Salari, the two candidates Blog the Vote confirmed earlier this week.

Barring a major late entry to the race, these three will be the main candidates for the highest student position on the USC. There is always the possibility of a non-USC candidate catching everyone by surprise and entering the race, but as of Thursday morning no such candidate had emerged.

Basu Roy — majoring in engineering at Western and minoring in social justice and peace studies at King’s — does not currently sit on the USC. Compared to Forgione (social science president) and Salari (two-time USC speaker), Basu Roy has little USC experience, having only served as a publications commissioner.

But Blog the Vote has learned Basu Roy has already had meetings with both current USC President Mike Tithecott and USC general manager Cathy Clarke to discuss the position and prepare for the race.

What sort of platform Basu Roy ­will run on remains unknown. Much of his work in engineering has focused on alternative and sustainable energy, which could lead some to believe a green-focused platform is in the cards. Basu Roy also hosted an environmentally-focused radio show on CHRW 94.9 FM called Green World and currently serves as the VP Equipment for the Western Outdoors Club.

“Desperate” Mustangs earn much needed win

When you talk about a team that needed a win, you don’t have to look much further than these Western Mustangs.

Losers of five of their last six and playing with enough injuries to give the Toronto Raptors a run for their money, the Mustangs scratched and clawed their way to an 82-79 victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks Wednesday night.

It was the first time all season the Mustangs had beaten a top four team in the log-jammed Ontario University Athletics West conference and the squad’s first victory at home since November of last year.

But more than that, it was a statement.

“It says we can play with better teams and we have the capability to win games if we execute properly,” Mustangs head coach Brad Campbell said after the game. “We were very desperate for a victory so we’ll take it any way we can get it.”

Desperate may have been an understatement. Clutching to seventh place in an eight team conference going into the game, a loss would have dropped the Mustangs three games under .500 and meant an uphill climb to reach the playoffs.

Just four points separate fourth and seventh in the OUA West and the Mustangs could ill afford to fall to the tail end of the pack.

“This win was really big. It gives us the energy we need to come out and compete,” Mustangs forward Andrew Wedemire said. “We beat teams like [Laurier] and all of a sudden other teams have to start worrying about our team coming together at the right time.”

As has been the story all season, it was Wedemire who led the way for the Mustangs, finishing with 24 points on 9 of 15 shooting and five rebounds. The fifth-year veteran currently sits sixth in the OUA, averaging 18 points per game, and fifth with a remarkable 55.7 field goal percentage.

“We haven’t been able to handle Wedemire inside for three years — he’s tough,” Golden Hawks coach Peter Campbell quipped after the game. “His quickness really gives our big guys problems.”

Mustangs point guard Ryan Barbeau added 19 points of his own, to go with five assists in 36 minutes of work.

Clearly the shooting was there, but rebounding haunted the Mustangs once again, as they found themselves outrebounded 25-15 in the first half and 15-10 in the second.

The most glaring stat, however, came on the Mustangs defensive glass where the Golden Hawks grabbed 14 offensive boards.

“It’s something we have addressed but we still have to work on,” Brad Campbell said. “It’s no secret we’re in a situation where we need more of our [forwards] to rebound a bit better.”

To their credit, the Golden Hawks stuck around until the final buzzer, shooting 56.3 per cent from the field and getting to the foul line 22 times in the second half after earning just two free throws in the first. Kale Harrison led all Hawks with 22 points, while Matthew Buckley posted a double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, they missed eight of those 22 second half free throws, a crushing reality in a game they lost by just three.

“We certainly had our chances at the end — we just missed the shots,” Peter Campbell said. “When you’re trying to make a comeback, you go to the line and you have to make the shots. It stops the bleeding.”

The Mustangs finished every stanza with the lead, but allowed the Golden Hawks to stay in the game throughout, even surrendering the lead for a brief period after an 8-0 Laurier run in the third quarter — a frame that played more like a ping-pong match than a basketball game with both teams scoring at will.

Even as the Mustangs tried in vain to put the game out of reach with a trio of three-pointers in the fourth quarter, the Golden Hawks stuck around until the dying seconds.

With just over a second left in the game and the Mustangs leading 80-77, Wedemire fouled Buckley in three-point territory, sending the fourth-year forward to the charity stripe for a chance to tie the game with three free throws.

“That was tough,” Wedemire admitted after the game. “I’m standing there hoping he misses at least one and bails me out on the foul.”

Wedemire’s prayers were answered as Buckley hit just two of his three shots, effectively sealing a much-needed victory for the Mustangs.

“That’s not a situation you want to be in. It certainly didn’t help us,” Brad Campbell said after all was said and done. “We fought ourselves down the stretch in the second half. To win consistently, we have to be better than that.”

Textbook ring busted in Montreal

Students in Montreal will no longer be getting their textbooks at an increased discount

Last week, the RCMP raided four photocopy stores and arrested 13 people in Montreal. The raid came as a result of hundreds of textbooks that were being illegally copied.

The RCMP was alerted of the scheme after a complaint from a photocopy store, which used to do business with universities regarding textbooks.

“The legal photocopy store found out by word of mouth that there was something wrong with other photocopy stores, which were doing the same business as them, but only asking for a quarter of the price of the real value,” said Corporal Luc Thibault of the RCMP.

“After we got this tip, we began to investigate this matter. When we did, we found out there was a lot of photocopy stores that had a front that looked to be legal, but were actually illegal based on the Copyright Act,” Thibault explained.

In the last few weeks, the RCMP has discovered over 2,700 illegal textbooks. These were seized from four searched photocopy stores.

“This particular offence is punishable with a fine up to $1 million or imprisonment for up to five years, however the severity of the punishment depends on the price of the counterfeited books, and whether it’s your first offence, second offence, etc.,” Thibault said.

OUSA takes aim at investment strategies

Representing more than 140,000 professional and undergraduate students at universities across Ontario, Meaghan Coker gave a presentation to Ontario’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs yesterday.

As president of the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, Coker brought forward the alliance’s formal suggestions for investments in post-secondary education to go into the future budget.

In their formal document, “An Educated Investment: Advancing Post-Secondary Education,” the group outlined three key priorities and strategies: ensuring access to higher education, making a strategic investment in post-secondary institutions, and promoting student success. She said the priorities are critical to improving accessibility, affordability and the quality of post-secondary education in Ontario.

“This is kind of the pinnacle of work we’ve been doing the entire year,” Coker said.

The document suggests reallocating this investment to reduce upfront costs for students and making more middle-income students eligible for financial assistance as solutions. It also proposes improved access for low-income students to funding via the Ontario Access Grant.

Coker said the strategic investment is about meeting the demand for growth in post-secondary educations.

“We’re asking for more operating grants and for the per-student funding to be increased. With the Open Ontario Plan, if [the government is] looking to increase the number of spots, they need to be able to fund us fully,” she explained. She also noted students were paying for a disproportionate amount of the costs of their post-secondary education.

Keeping the student experience at the forefront, Coker said the focus should be on increasing teacher training, creating teaching chair positions and enhancing student support services.

Debra Dawson, director of Western’s Teaching Support Centre, said increased funding would let the centre improve and increase its programming substantially.

“I could see a multitude of ways that we could be providing more faculty assistance,” she said, noting their programming is popular, but limited by a lack of funding.

Improving teacher training is an important step to improving the undergraduate student experience, she said.

“[Improvements] would benefit all undergraduates because we have over 1,500 faculty registrants in our programs, but think of the number of faculty we could actually reach if we could offer programming more continuously throughout the year. We have over 3,000 faculty, so you can see the impact that we actually could be having,” she explained.

Coker agreed learning in the classroom is important but noted, “There needs to be a greater focus on improving the quality of the experience, whether it’s inside the classroom or outside of the classroom.”

Scott Kerr, vice-president campus issues for the University Students’ Council, said providing adequate student services is essential in improving the student experience.

“Students are more stressed than ever and it can affect how much they enjoy their experience at Western. Mental health is definitely one area that can use more funding,” he said.

The presentation is only part of the movement towards a better system, Coker said.

“This isn’t something where we just end it there. It’s definitely something that we need to spread.”

Ice rink underway for UWO

Sharpen your skates, kiddies, a new leisure skating rink is closer than you might suspect.

This week on Concrete Beach, construction began for an ice skating rink set to be ready for students by next week. Justin Mackie, vice-president student events for the University Students’ Council, is overseeing the construction. The rink was one of the platform promises during Mackie’s campaign last year during vice presidential elections.

“I really wanted to build a sense of community,” Mackie explained.

“I wanted to have something where it happens all the time and any group, no matter if it’s a club, a soph team, a group of friends independently, can just go out and use something and have fun.”

Rich Caccamo, manager of student activities for the USC, noted this isn’t the first time Concrete Beach has seen an ice rink. Until recently there was a rink every winter, but it had fallen out of fashion in the last five or six years.

“I think some years we’ve had real issues with mild weather spells coming in and that’s always a concern of ours, but it’s done OK in the past,” Caccamo said.

Brandon Sousa, external affairs co-ordinator for the USC, explained the area is already insured under the USC, but students should use common sense before jumping on the rink.

“It’s up to your own risk, you know, if you know how to skate, then hop on the skating rink. But most of the stuff is pretty standard, it’s not as complex [to insure] as if it were to be like a swimming pool or something,” Sousa said.

Costs for the rink were kept down by using recycled supplies and hiring students to help flood the rink, Mackie explained.

Once up and running, the rink will be open for leisure skating during the day, Caccamo added.

“We’re not promoting hockey or any sort of recreational sports, it’s just not a facility to do that. But I’m hoping students enjoy it throughout the day and then early evening.”

Mackie hoped students would take advantage of the space over the next few weeks while the cold weather lasts.

“Go around, get some physical exercise, go skating and have a good time.”

Seedhouse sinks OT winner

There is a reason why fourth-year star forward Ellie Seedhouse is captain. She showed it Friday night, scoring twice in a 3-2 overtime win over the visiting University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks.

It only took 13 seconds for Seedhouse to make her mark on the game, giving the Mustangs women’s hockey team the early lead.  Second-year forward Lindsay Repath doubled the advantage six minutes later.

“Ellie has really been on a roll the past month and is a big reason to our success here tonight,” Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins said.

In the second period, the Ridgebacks came storming back with goals scored by forwards Jaclyn Gibson and Sarah Worthington.

Fortunately for Western, first-year goaltender Olivia Ross rose up to the occasion and shut the door on the Ridgebacks to force overtime.

“We have gotten some bad breaks this year and whether it’s me or [veteran Jessica Ulrich] in the net, we want to stop everything and come up with key saves to help the team win,” Ross said after the win.

When overtime began, Seedhouse made like Sidney Crosby and ceased the moment. Just 45 seconds into the extra frame, she redirected a point-shot from Tara Cation to give the Mustangs the much needed two points.

“It’s always fun to end the game in overtime and avoid the dreaded shootout,” Seedhouse commented.

“We fought hard through the first few periods and were very determined to come out with a win after the early two goal lead,” Repath added.

This game was extra special for Seedhouse, as it was her last game before she left to represent Canada at the Winter Universiade in Turkey.

“I’m anxious and excited to play for the country and most importantly represent Western and these girls who I play with here,” Seedhouse said.

Head coach Chris Higgins was very happy with the team’s performance and work ethic.

“Our penalty kill has been great this year, performing at 95 per cent efficiency rate and the team proved that tonight in the third when it was tied,” he said.

With the win, the Mustangs move to within four points of the Ridgebacks for eighth place in the Ontario University Athletics division and 13 points out of a playoff spot.

“We wanted to [...] get some momentum going as all of us need to step up our game during [Seedhouse’s] absence,” Repath said. “We are hoping we can step up and give it a go the next five games.”

Riders mixed on LTC’s $584K plan

Drugs, garbage and homelessness are among the negative stereotypes defining the bustling downtown intersection at Dundas Street and Richmond Street.

With 55 per cent of bus routes travelling through the intersection, the area is often congested with transit riders and this is becoming a problem for local businesses and homeowners — or so the London Transit Commission is claiming.

The City of London has been working with the LTC in an attempt to revitalize that portion of downtown and assuage complaints about the state of the intersection. They are considering introducing a pilot program, which would aim to eliminate bus stops along Dundas between Ridout Street and Wellington Road. The idea is having fewer bus stops at the intersection will reduce traveller congestion, cleaning up the surrounding areas.

However, a recent user survey conducted by the LTC showed riders may not be in support of the suggested change in routes.

“The majority of respondents of the LTC questionnaire indicated that the rerouting would have an unfavourable impact on their travel time and transfer connections,” Larry Ducharme, general manager of the LTC, said.

Ducharme pointed out 49.5 per cent of riders who completed the LTC Pilot Program survey felt commuting from downtown to other areas of the city would be made worse by the change. Only 25 per cent felt it would improve the quality of the downtown area and LTC performance, and 25.5 per cent felt it would not contribute to change.

“I think the problem for many people is having to walk that extra distance to get to Dundas Street. That may have been the reason riders aren’t behind the survey as much,” said Judy Bryant, Ward 13 councillor for the City of London.

“You really don’t know how people will respond until you do it. [The reroutes] would take people away from crowding the corners of that area, which would help the business and homeowners,” Bryant continued.

“Proceeding with this initiative is subject to approval of the related 2011 budget by municipal council,” Ducharme said, adding the project would not be funded by the LTC but rather through the city council budget.

It would cost the city an estimated $583,400 to run the pilot project and about $1.4 million to make the reroutes permanent, introducing three new buses to the city. It would cost $125,000 to restore service back to its original Dundas routes.

Ducharme also believed there may be a negative impact on the downtown core if the pilot project is given the green light.

“From LTC’s perspective, there will be higher operating costs, service inefficiencies and potential loss of riders,” he said, pointing out a possible benefit of the program would be the additional economic gain to the city of London and local businesses.

Bryant pointed out the negative responses from survey results meant city hall will have to spend more time looking into public opinion before going ahead with any rerouting.

“I think the main thing is that the public gets the opportunity to voice their opinion on the issue. I think the next step will be to see it at a public meeting, for people to see what is planned and have their say in public process.”

Gaels storm past Mustangs

The unfortunate thing about rebuilding seasons is you have to learn lessons the hard way. The Mustangs women’s hockey team discovered that on Sunday afternoon.

After coming off a win Friday night, the Mustangs were outclassed by the Queen’s Gaels 6-1.

“We’re fighting for playoff positioning right now. We were disappointed with yesterday’s loss [to Windsor] so we definitely wanted to rebound with a good game today,” Queen’s coach Matthew Holmberg said.

From the drop of the puck, Queen’s came out aggressive and kept the Mustangs pinned in their own end for most of the period. The Gaels efforts were rewarded with three goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.

“We needed to start strong and keep up the momentum,” Holmberg said. “I warned them that Western’s a well-coached team that works hard and we couldn’t let them back in the game.”

A more urgent Mustangs team emerged in the second period, but were unable to beat Queen’s goalie Karissa Savage despite several chances.

“We had a very good second period where we could’ve gotten two goals, but we just didn’t,” Mustangs coach Chris Higgins said. “We had chances to score when it might’ve turned the game around and we didn’t.”

Higgins admitted his team struggled during the first period, forcing them to play from behind. Although satisfied with a strong second period, he knows his team needs three solid periods to win.

“We keep telling them the next period is the first period of the rest of your life. You can’t change the past just keep moving forward,” Higgins said. “It’s been like that for us all season. We have one bad period and it sets us back.”

As the third period began, a rejuvenated Queen’s team took advantage of Mustang penalties scoring two powerplay goals within 12 seconds and another goal a minute later to put the game out of reach. The Queen’s powerplay unit finished with four goals in the game with forward Alex Cieslowski cashing in twice.

“We needed to pick it up a level if we were going to get the win,” Holmberg said. “3-0 in my mind was not enough of a lead to win and the girls responded which was good to see.”

Mustangs forward Lindsay Gidomski answered late in the third, but it was too little too late for the Mustangs.

At times the young Mustangs squad looked leaderless on the ice with captain Ellie Seedhouse away at the Winter Universiade in Turkey.

“She’s one of the 12 best forwards in Canada. We can’t afford to lose a player like her without suffering,” Higgins said. “Ellie makes everyone on the ice around her better, but that’s no excuse. I thought we played well, but we just didn’t score when we had chances.”

Despite the loss and the tough season, Higgins is proud of his team. They may not be as talented as the top teams, but he knows that every game his players refuse to quit.

“I give every single one of those girls in that dressing room credit. We’re trying and not one of them has quit at any point this season and they should be commended for that.”

The birds, the bees, and the dialogue

The Gazette is counting down to our annual Sex Issue by giving readers the chance to submit questions anonymously for our sex survey. (Visit wgaz.ca/gaz-sex-survey to submit yours.) For years, the survey was available only in print and yielded a handful of submissions. Last year, the survey went online — and completely anonymous — quickly yielding over 300 responses.

Sex is a paradoxical topic in the West.  It’s seen nearly everywhere —heck, the internet was practically founded on it — but it’s still taboo to talk about in public.

Sex is effective in advertising because it’s still shocking and titillating. It’s in this way that the West suffers from a false sense of sexual liberation — the idea of sexual freedom with a litany of stigmas preventing true expression.

But there may be a way to encourage a more open discussion of sex — anonymity. It’s easier to talk about sex when your identity isn’t at risk. Sex clinics and HIV testing will advertise themselves as anonymous to encourage participation. The adult industry is practically based on anonymity, evidenced best by opposition to a new licensing bylaw proposed in London, which would require exotic dancers to register with the city.

With the increased accessibility of the internet, people can engage in safe, open discourse about sex in ways they couldn’t before. While this will surely lead to a lot of vulgarity and abuse online, this is true of any anonymous forum. But with the internet, people can leave their inhibitions at the door and talk about sex without the influence of public opinion.

The topic of sex is an ongoing struggle between stigma and openness. It’s important to have frank discussions about sex, and for there to be plenty of sexual education available. But limiting sex talks to classrooms makes those spaces the only accepted spaces to talk about it. The Gazette is guilty of it too, spending the year with a largely sexless newspaper, dedicating one special issue to the topic.

The stigma surrounding sex is a vast problem, affecting everything from family dynamics to the education system. Improving sentiments towards sex to encourage a more comfortable, open dialogues is a noble goal. But it’s nearly impossible to achieve when any single solution cannot have a meaningful impact.

— The Gazette Editorial Board

Suzuki talks oil sands

How would it feel not being able to drink water out of the tap for fear of getting cancer, or not being able to eat fish from the lake nearby because they all have tumours?

To most this is unfathomable, but to the people in Fort Chipewyan this is a reality.

Fort Chipewyan is located in northern Alberta along Lake Athabasca and downstream from one of the world’s largest construction sites — the oil sands.

Filmmakers Tom Radford and Niobe Thompson of Clearwater Media, united with Canadian environmental activist David Suzuki to produce a tell-all documentary of the environmental, health and political controversies of the oil sands development titled Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands.

“Here is an issue [of] absolutely vital concern for this generation,” Suzuki said in an interview last week. “Young people are going to live with the consequences of what we are putting into the atmosphere for their entire life.”

The oil sands development is praised for its contribution to the Canadian economy. It supplies thousands of jobs to Canadians and has become the most important supplier of foreign oil to the U.S. But for all these benefits, a vocal group of activists are decrying the environmental and health effects, saying Canadians are vastly unaware.

“By not dealing with our carbon emissions we are just making it a worse problem. Basically, we are mortgaging your future,” Suzuki says. “We are saying let [future generations] deal with it. Now we need economic growth — we need to exploit this oil. Young people ought to be able to see this and ought to be up on the ramparts.”

The list of environmental and health issues facing Fort Chipewyon is staggering.

Carbon dioxide emissions, water pollution, bile duct cancer, biliary tract cancers, cancers of the blood and lymphatic system, and soft tissue cancers are just some that the documentary addresses.

The issue of the oil sands is out of sight and out of mind for most Canadians, but according to filmmaker Niobe Thompson, this needs to change.

“It all began two and a half years ago when we were having a conversation with Dr. David Schindler and he mentioned that he was embarking on this semi-secret research project to finally do an independent assessment to see if the oil sands were putting pollution into the Athabasca River,” Thompson says.

Schindler is a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, and was the first scientist to find that the oil sands development has been contaminating the Athabasca River watershed through different pathways. Schindler was the first scientist to conduct independent research on the oil sand environmental effects.

Controversy surrounding the oil sands is nothing new. After the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973, the price of oil skyrocketed and, according to Suzuki, international eyes turned to Canada’s oil sands as a fix for the problem.

“At the time there was a small plant in the tar sands, Syncrude, that was producing about a 10,000 barrels of oil a day. Peter Lougheed, the premier of Alberta, said we had to ramp up [the production] and build at least 10 bigger plants than Syncrude,” Suzuki explains.

From then on it was full speed ahead with the development of the oil sands.

“There was an opportunity then to take these social and ecological issues [of the oil sands] seriously, way back then, but now there has been so much money invested in the infrastructure to get at the oil. There is no way that the government could shut it down,” Suzuki says. “This is a warning that we are going to have a mess, that we have a mess, that is going to have to be dealt with.”

This documentary hopes to bring this situation to light.

“We called the documentary Tipping Point for a reason. We felt that the research conducted by Schindler was going to lead to a tipping point — that we need to start monitoring pollution because we haven’t, that is one tipping point,” Thompson explains. “The other bigger tipping point is that what the oil sands shows that we are at the end of the age of oil.”

Thompson and Radford wanted to make a documentary that showed as many sides of the debate as possible.

“We built our documentary based on two points of view: the downstream point of view which is the very personal point of view of the people that are suffering because of this development — there is cancer in their community. The other point of view is the scientist, not any scientist, but Schindler and his research,” Thompson says.

The film also highlights the debates of both the Federal and Alberta’s Provincial governments. Clips of international environmental conferences and parliament sessions were included to cover all sides of the story.

“Governments can make strong assurances that everything is OK […] and tell people not to worry about it, but people always have to be critical — especially when a government is so closely tied in its dependence on the revenue from an industry such as the fossil fuel industry,” Suzuki says. “When they say that there is no impact from the industrial development of the oil sands, people have to be very skeptical and demand more responsibility.”

Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands will air on CBC’s The Nature of Things with David Suzuki this evening at 8 p.m.

Letter: Campus full of trashy people

To the Editor:

There are garbage cans everywhere you go on campus — especially in the dining areas — so why is it that I constantly find myself having to throw out other people’s garbage whenever I sit down at a table to eat my lunch?

You would think that university students would know by now, that their garbage belongs in the garbage cans — not on the table or anywhere else for that matter. There is absolutely no excuse for not cleaning up after yourself when you’re finished at a table. It astounds me how so many students can be so inconsiderate as to leave their garbage all over the table when they leave.

Last week, I had to throw out someone’s leftover banana peel, their soggy Subway wrapper, and their coffee cup, before I could sit down at the available table — and the worst part was that the garbage can was literally a few steps away!

Are students really so lazy that they can’t walk a few steps to throw out their trash? You can’t really walk anywhere on campus without passing a trash can, so I really don’t understand why some people can’t be bothered to use it. Other people shouldn’t have to throw out your shit just so they can use the table you were previously at — it’s disgusting and unsanitary.

Is it so much to ask that you clean up after yourself when you leave an area?

—Ann Huynh
Science III

Letter: Grad students should vote

To the Editor:

The Society of Graduate Students is conducting a referendum on whether or not Western grad students should withdraw from the Canadian Federation of Students.  I would like to explain why I think grad students should vote.

I have no role with SOGS or the CFS, but I have been a student for a long time, and I know that the CFS has been our voice when students have faced tuition hikes, government cut-backs to post-secondary education, and changes to student grants and loans. I would be dismayed to see SOGS abandon the solidarity available to us through the CFS.

They provide us with a united voice for students at federal and provincial tables and represent our interests in consultation processes, such as the one prior to the Federal Budget. The CFS also conducts campaigns on tuition fees, affordable student transit passes, and students’ right to organize as students.

Beyond advocacy, the CFS gives student unions the opportunity to pool their purchasing power and get better rates on day-planners, extended health benefits, and website hosting (SOGS takes advantage of some of these and not others). Individual members have access to the ISIC card, which provides discounts on travel fares, TravelCUTS, free tax filing and student work-abroad programs.

The vote takes place from Jan. 24-27 in University Community Centre Rm. 260. There are costs associated with staying in CFS, of course, but there would also be a cost if we were to leave. I encourage all grad students to take the time to vote.

—Liz Sutherland
Political Science PhD Year IV