Gradzette October 2015 by The Gradzette

Gradzette The university of mANITOBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GRADUATE STUDENT Magazine OCTOBER 2015

U of M faculty of human ecology officially shuts down Page 4-5

Gradzette THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA’S GRADUATE STUDENT MAGAZINE

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September 2015 October 2015 Gradzette c/o The Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation 105 University Centre University of Manitoba Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2 General inquiries and advertising Phone: (204) 474.6535 Fax: (204) 474.7651 Email: editor@gradzette.com Editor:Tom Ingram Copy Editor: Katy MacKinnon Designer: Marc Lagace Contributors: Anatoliy Chersakov, Dana Hatherly, Lauren Siddall, Seamus Hamilton-Pattison Cover: Anatoliy Chersakov The Gradzette is the official student magazine of the University of Manitoba’s graduate student community and is published on the first Monday of each month by the Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation. The Gradzette is a democratic student organization, open to participation from all students. It exists to serve its readers as students and citizens. The magazine’s primary mandate is to report fairly and objectively on issues and events of importance and interest to the graduate students of the University of Manitoba, to provide an open forum for the free expression and exchange of opinions and ideas, and to stimulate meaningful debate on issues that affect or would otherwise be of interest to the student body and/or society in general. The Gradzette serves as a training ground for students interested in any aspect of journalism. Students and other interested parties are invited to contribute. Please contact the editor listed above for submission guidelines. The Gradzette reserves the right to edit all submissions and will not publish any material deemed by its editorial board to be discriminatory, racist, sexist, homophobic or libelous. Opinions expressed in letters and articles are solely those of the authors. The Gradzette is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national student press co-operative with members from St. John’s to Victoria. All contents are ©2015 and may not be reprinted without the express written permission of the Manitoban Newspaper Publications Corporation.

If you’d like to get involved, contact editor@gradzette.com with some writing samples (not necessarily published elsewhere) and some information about yourself and your interests.

Correction: The photo on page 3 of our September issue was incorrectly credited to Beibei Lu. The photo was actually taken by Dana Hatherly. We regret the error.

In this issue

The changing world of bullying

3 U of M Human Ecology by Lauren Siddall

faculty shuts down

4-5

by Dana Hatherly

6 Words, Crossed.

By Shane Gibson (@tsgibson) 13

Across 1. Like Bettie Page 6. Can’t pay the bill 11. By yourself 12. “The Raven” author, briefly 13. Debussy’s “___ de Lune” 14. Arrive, in Quebec 15. Hamilton player 17. June bug 20. Took the title 21. 2009 Hilary Swank flick 23. Toronto player 27. Use pressure 29. Perform with a choir 30. Hall of Fame members 31. “The Fox and the Hound” fox

15 17

16 20

27 30 31 33

2-9

5. Washington’s hairpiece 6. Brad Pitt thriller 7. It’s cut and dried 8. Oil cartel letters

by Seamus Hamilton-Pattison

Diversions Page 7

Building Bridges

34. Chemical ending 35. Capital of Norway 36. Like some whisky orders

October 2015

The changing world of bullying

U of M alumnus wins Master’s Thesis Award for research on cyber-bullying

Lauren Siddall

niversity of Manitoba alumnus Courtney Andrysiak was honoured with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) Master’s Thesis Award for her dissertation on cyber-bullying this summer. According to Andrysiak, her passion for the topic emerged early in her academic career.

“One of my first practicum placements was in a school, and I thought that cyber-bullying was a timely topic and planned to run a group for students who had been bullied or cyber-bullied. But there was absolutely no literature on how a counsellor or psychologist would run a group,” said Andrysiak. “So I felt that there was obviously a major gap in the research and that this is something that needs to be addressed because cyber-bullying, although it overlaps with bullying, is really a distinct phenomenon in that it is different than what we have ever seen before.” While traditional bullying occurs for only finite amounts of time (typically the length of a school day), cyber-bullying is essentially ceaseless and often more vicious due to the impersonal nature of the attacks. “I’m sure everyone has heard in the news that it can be a very traumatic experience for individuals. It can cause depression, anxiety, and lots of other complications. So I really wanted to look at it from the perspective of the individuals who had lived through the experience to see what sort of strategies they had come up with,” said Andrysiak. In addition to working with students, Andrysiak also collaborated with school counsellors to learn what the counsellors perceived as the best coping strategies for students. “My main finding was that individual survivors had survival strategies that

Courtney Andrysiak

were either online or offline coping strategies. The online strategies were things like blocking people, getting off online media altogether, and some people would shut down their computers for periods of time,” explained Andrysiak. “Offline strategies varied from getting involved with extracurricular activities where they felt supported and engaged, to mindfulness – which I thought was an extremely advanced strategy for a high school student.” While the coping strategies proved

“I’m really passionate about this. I see it a lot in the media, and I see a lot of the suicides publicized, which is heartbreaking because I know we need to do more research and find more mediums that actually help people”

– Courtney Andrysiak

to be important aspects of resilience, Andrysiak found that the personality traits were the most important in predicting successful recovery. “What I really found is that it boiled down to participant’s personality. Those

Photo by Lauren Siddall.

are what I deemed to be the resiliency factors. There were some internal characteristics, things people possess, like having a strong sense of self, a ‘choosing to be a survivor’ mindset, feeling empowered, and being able to make sense of the experience and making sense of what it meant for their lives.” She also found that external factors and environment both played a role in an individual’s resilience. Factors such as feeling accepted and understood fostered the internal resilience characteristics necessary to recover from the trauma. As Andrysiak moves into pursuing her PhD in psychology, she hopes to follow up with her findings, implement an intervention plan, and see the effects on affected children – such as lower rates of depression, suicidal thoughts, and anxiety. “I’m really passionate about this. I see it a lot in the media, and I see a lot of the suicides publicized, which is heartbreaking because I know we need to do more research and find more mediums that actually help people,” she said. “My goal is to see intervention plans in schools, to see that there is something in place for students, which wasn’t previously the case.” Whether schools have group interventions or use one-on-one strategies for tackling cyber-bullying, Andrysiak hopes counsellors have some kind of program in place so that the youth are getting the care that they need. 3

Gradzette

Human Ecology building.

Photo by Anatoliy Chersakov

U of M faculty of human ecology officially shuts down

Last faculty of its kind in Canada absorbed by other academic units

Dana Hatherly

fter 105 years in existence, the faculty of human ecology at the University of Manitoba has dissolved, bringing to a close the last school of its kind in the country and dispersing its former programs among other academic units.

On June 23 of this year, the U of M board of governors approved three recommendations from the human ecology faculty council and U of M senate, which resulted in the remaining departments within human ecology merging with other faculties and departments across the university. As of July 1, 2015, the faculty ceased to exist. The department of human nutritional sciences retained department status as it joined the faculty of agricultural and food sciences leading into the 2014-2015 academic year. The remaining two departments (family social sciences and textile sciences) were absorbed over this past summer into the departments of community health sciences and biosystems engineering respectively.

Students’ degrees will be unaffected – the programs continue to be accredited and the degree designations will remain the same. For undergraduate students, the cost of tuition and associated student fees will change to reflect those of their new academic units. Graduate students are assessed program-based fees that will not change. The move to close the faculty of human ecology falls under the university’s broader Academic Structure Initiative, announced by U of M president David Barnard at the beginning of 2012. The aim of the plan is to cut the number of faculties from 20 to 13 – a move that the president said is more in line with the academic structure at other large research universities. Aside from the closure of the faculty of human ecology, the other major change brought on by the Academic Structure Initiative was the creation of the faculty of health sciences to absorb the university’s many health sciences faculties and schools. When asked about foreseeable changes down the line, John Danakas, executive director of public affairs at the U of M, responded that further rearrangements to

faculties and departments “remain at the exploratory stages.” As for the recent departmental mergers faced by the faculty of human ecology, the university has been striving to make the change easy. “All efforts have been made to facilitate as smooth a transition as possible for students, faculty and staff. Offices and classrooms remain in the same building,” Danakas wrote to the Gradzette. Danakas said that partnerships with other faculties should provide new opportunities for research and learning collaborations. In a letter to the provost’s council, Joanne Keselman, the U of M’s vice president academic and provost, wrote that “the transition of human nutritional sciences, family social sciences and textile sciences to their new faculties will enrich educational experiences for students in these areas, enhance leading edge, multidisciplinary research, and forge new connections with community partners.” Over 100 years of history The history of the faculty dates back to 1910. In its early years it was a diplo-

ma program in household sciences at the Manitoba Agricultural College, which changed into a degree in home economics in 1915. When the Manitoba Agricultural College became a part of the University of Manitoba in 1924, the program became a division, and later a school, in the faculty of agriculture and home economics. Home economics was not made into a free-standing faculty until 1970. Eleven years later, in 1981, its name was changed to “human ecology” to represent the diversification of studies. The bachelor of human ecology degree was established the next year. The faculty’s dissolution has been met with both optimism and criticism. Before the closure was officially approved by university governance, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that the Canadian Association of University Teachers was in disagreement with the decision, arguing that the university should have viewed the unique faculty as an asset. According to some recent graduates and undergraduate students who were initially appalled by threats to their faculty, human ecology offered a holistic approach to educating people with skills in food science and nutrition and for understanding family issues and the root causes of poverty. The Manitoba Association of Home Economists (MAHE), which is charged with regulating the professional practice of home economics in Manitoba under provincial legislation, put out a position paper opposing the closure of the faculty in 2013. According to the MAHE’s statement, the continuing existence of the faculty as a single unit, rather than a collection of far-

October 2015 flung departments, “is critical to enable the continued credentialing for the practice of home economics professionals.” The MAHE also praised the holistic nature of the faculty’s approach, saying that

“My undergraduate program has actually become part of the faculty that I’m in right now. So it actually makes it easier to transition from the undergraduate to the master’s program” – Sarah Turner, master’s

student in community health sciences

it is “unique in the education it provides students, and consistent with promoting interdisciplinary study and practice.” “The faculty of human ecology is the one remaining fully interdisciplinary faculty in Canada,” the MAHE’s statement said. “The faculty can and should be widely promoted in Canada and internationally.”

Differing responses Danakas responded to questions about possible harm to interdisciplinary study as a result of the change, arguing that the new

Inside the Human Ecology building.

arrangement will actually promote interdisciplinary research. “The approach in the new faculty of health sciences, for example, is one that in fact encourages collaboration, as it brings together all healthcare professionals, and the joining of human nutritional sciences with the faculty of agricultural and food sciences may allow, for example, for ‘farm to table’ perspectives, opening up exciting new possibilities for students and researchers alike,” Danakas wrote to the Gradzette. Not all students are upset about the restructuring, either. Sarah Turner, a master’s student in the department of community health sciences who completed her undergraduate degree in the faculty of human ecology before its dissolution, spoke highly of her undergraduate program and the recently implemented changes. “My undergraduate program has actually become part of the faculty that I’m in right now. So it actually makes it easier to transition from the undergraduate to the master’s program,” Turner said. “So I think that for students in the future it will be beneficial for them to be tied to community health sciences and to the faculty of health sciences to give a bit more direction for those people that are doing an undergrad in health sciences.” Anthony Ngayan and Darren Fife, former president and vice-president respectively of the Human Ecology Students’ Organization, told the Gradzette that their council supported their faculty’s decision to disband. “Students are still attached to the faculty itself, like the name of the faculty, but they are beginning to accept the changes,” said Ngayan.

Photo by Anatoliy Chersakov

GRADZETTE

Players during the weekend tournament at Bridge Manitoba’s studio.

Jenna Tichon and her partner with the the opposition players.

Building bridges

U of M PhD student opens up about playing competitive bridge in Manitoba

Seamus Hamilton-Pattison

enna Tichon, a PhD student in statistics at the University of Manitoba, has been playing the card game Bridge competitively for some time now. Her initial interest in the game can be traced back to a simple desire to be included in family pastimes.

“I grew up in a card-playing family [...] My parents often played Bridge with an aunt and her husband, or my grandmother and one of their aunts, and I was never included in the Bridge playing growing up. Near the end of my undergraduate they started playing again, and the weekly card games I was not included in because I couldn’t play. So I decided to pick up a Bridge book and learn to play with my family because I love playing cards and didn’t like the idea that there was a game I couldn’t play,” Tichon said. Bridge is a card game requiring four players as two opposing sets of partners. The goal of the game is for partners to make “bids,” predicting the expected number of “tricks” they might win. For example, a bid might be “four hearts.” Some guesswork is involved, as partners cannot see each other’s cards. A “trick” is a series of four cards, one played by each player in succession. A trick is won by the team with the player who discards the highest numbered card that match6

The cards inside their holders.

es the suit of the first card played. Tichon’s family enjoyed playing Bridge casually. However, Tichon herself chose to dive straight into the more complex and competitive Duplicate Bridge after a chance meeting with a Bridge-playing U of M professor at a conference in Brandon. “About a week later, he pulled me aside. I was a summer research student and had

“I decided to pick up a bridge book and learn to play with my family because I love playing cards and didn’t like the idea that there was a game I couldn’t play”

– Jenna Tichon, PhD student, University of Manitoba just graduated. He said, ‘you know, Jenna, I know you’re learning to play Bridge but you really don’t want to play kitchen Bridge with your family. What you really want to play is Duplicate Bridge’ [...] We started off with some home games. I spent all my summer studying how to play Bridge. I went out to one Duplicate game at the club and I was ab-

Photos provided by Bridge Manitoba

solutely hooked,” Tichon said with a laugh. Tichon explained that Duplicate Bridge – as opposed to the more casual version of the game – “takes the luck out” to a degree. In Duplicate Bridge, the same hands of cards rotate through the room of players. When Bridge is played this way, the player’s scores are compared against other teams that have used the same hand. The margins between the scores determine the victors, with the players who scored highest placing first. In the past, Bridge was played with relative frequency on university campuses. However, Tichon said that the game’s demographic is a much older one nowadays and she believes it would be a welcome return to the U of M campus as a regular activity, be it in a club or for recreation. “With enough interest, [Bridge Manitoba would] love to start holding lessons again at the university. I think it’s a really great game. It’s a lifelong hobby and I encourage anyone who’s thinking about it to dive right in and don’t be afraid to call up Bridge Manitoba or if they come my way, I’m happy to talk to them.” Jenna Tichon participates regularly in Bridge Manitoba tournaments. She has competed regionally and in the largest North American Bridge tournament (occurring tri-annually), in both Canada and the United States. Find out more about local competitive Bridge at www.bridgemanitoba.org

OCTOBER 2015

Diversions Words, Crossed.

By Shane Gibson (@tsgibson) 13

Across 1. Carrier to Oslo 4. Black or Red 7. Down 10. Bubbly, bubbly tummy reliever 11. Occurrence 12. Mao ___-tung 13. German “a” 14. Sixth sense 15. Copy 16. Unpaid TV ads 18. Happy 20. Storage spot 22. Perfect places 23. Span, as in a bridge 25. Type measures 26. Ordered take-out 27. Old camera, briefly 30. Like some ballots 32. Kraft Dinner part 35. Particulars, in slang 36. Don’t finish a sentence? 38. Challenge 39. High card 40. Ace 42. Sign before Virgo 43. Pro’s opposite 44. Rapper ___ Wayne 45. There’s a pair under your hair 46. Hot time in Quebec 47. Computer key

18 21

19 22

30 32

48 2-10

48. Line on a highway map Down 1. Slow leak 2. Pitt’s ex 3. Beethoven’s Moonlight and others 4. Her 5. Let up 6. Sowing pioneer, Johnny 7. Put into words 8. Colorado skiing spot 9. Stack in a Monopoly set 17. Command to an attack dog 19. Spots on a TV screen 21. Tart backyard fruit

24. NBA tiebreakers 27. Pittsburg player 28. “Dig in!” 29. Fix up 30. “One ___ time!” 31. Hair piece? 32. UN’s goal 33. Neckwear 34. Temper tantrum 37. Ms. Brockovich 41. Mature P I N U A L O N C L A I T D O R A M E L B R I N S I N G L A M P

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