Gradzette September 2015 by The Gradzette

GRADZETTE THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA’S GRADUATE STUDENT MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2015

Coverage of the GU15 conference hosted by the UMGSA Page 3

G R A D Z E T T E The Gradzette is back in print THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA’S GRADUATE STUDENT MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER 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: Dana Hatherly, Lauren Siddall, Beibei Lu Cover: Beibei Lu 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.

Look for the new issue on newsstands near you

e’re proud to announce that the Gradzette is back in print, and if the gods of publishing are favourable, we will continue in print throughout this year. The Gradzette has always been a different kind of publication. Our montly schedule forces us to focus on in-depth coverage, the extended interview, and the personal essay, rather than news coverage. Our most popular feature is the monthly researcher profile, in which we interview a graduate student about their research, thesis, or other project, and ask for their thoughts about graduate education. We depend on you in three ways. First, we can only cover events and projects that we know about. Our network of informants is vast, but we still appreciate the occasional tip about events that might be of interest to the U of M’s graduate students – whether or not they’re strictly academic. Second, like all student publications we depend on the student body for our content. We aim to provide an outlet for student writers and journalists of all stripes – and especially graduate students. I can attest from experience that interviewing people about their research is a fantastic learning opportunity. We also pay our freelance contributors by the word. If you’re interested in writing for the Gradzette, drop me a line at editor@gradzette.com. Third, and most important, we depend on you as loyal readers. The Gradzette is free. We provide coverage of events of interest to your community, we publish informative and entertaining interviews, and we even have a crossword. It’s also a rather slick-looking production (we have Marc Lagace and the fine folks at Derksen Printers to thank for that). Frankly there’s no good reason not to read it. So this time next month, when the spectacular second issue hits newsstands, make sure to pick up a copy. - Tom Ingram Gradzette Editor

In this issue

U of M hosts GU15 conference

by Dana Hatherly

Researcher profile: Prosper Koto

by Lauren Siddall

5-6 Words, Crossed.

By Shane Gibson (@tsgibson) 13

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 Tom Ingram

Diversions Page 7

UMGSA awards

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

SEPTEMBER 2015

Top research universities unite at U of M

The GU15 representatives.

Photo by Beibei Lu.

GU15 conference joins graduate student leaders on academic, advocacy fronts

Dana Hatherly

tudent leaders from leading research-intensive universities across the country gathered at the University of Manitoba last month for the GU15 conference to examine graduate students’ needs.

Hosted by the University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (UMGSA), the event was held from Aug. 17-19 in the Engineering and Information Technology Complex on U of M’s Fort Garry campus. Canada-wide delegates comprising the GU15 organization joined the UMGSA from the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Saskatchewan, McMaster University, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Université de Montréal, and Dalhousie University. Created as a national graduate student organization, the GU15 operates in a similar capacity as the U15 does for the top Canadian comprehensive research universities. UMGSA president Kristjan Mann commented on what he hopes the conference can achieve for the U of M. “UMGSA’s participation is a unique and exciting opportunity at the U of M [for us to examine] time to completion, minimum student funding, and academic freedom,” said Mann. “As a group, we hope to raise the concerns of our graduate communities to the national level.” The group examined major graduate student issues including guidelines on time to completion, the impact on international

students of changes to immigration laws, power imbalances in student-supervisor relations, and creating awareness about students’ responsibilities, rights, and advocacy services available to them. Political fronts In conjunction with student organizations across Canada, Université de Montréal proposed their politically motivated national election get-out-the-vote strategy. Other graduate students’ associations were less inclined to develop national voting

“As a group, we hope to raise the concerns of our graduate communities to the national level”

– Kristjan Mann, president, UMGSA

strategies or take sides on election issues. Some schools ran similar campaigns to improve voter turnout, while others strictly maintained an official position of non-partisan neutrality on their respective campuses. The University of Calgary Graduate Students’ Association represented one faction of executives refraining from moving in an acutely politicized direction, with their president offering “cautious optimism” about the long-term potential of the GU15 organization on that front. Mike Webster, the Calgary union’s president, told the Gradzette that it was not a

student organization’s place to take sides on issues not seen as directly student-related, as they are not elected to act as political advocacy groups. “Unless you have a mandate from your membership for dealing with these issues, you shouldn’t be involved in them,” Webster said, referring to a separate movement aimed at pipeline expansion backed by executives at SFU. “It would be different if our students were clambering on us.” In British Columbia, the SFU’s Graduate Students’ Society is opposed to Kinder Morgan pipeline, condemning what that they call corruption of the environmental review process based on financial contributions to neighbouring universities in the province contingent on approval of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. Mann spoke to the room of delegates about supporting social justice issues on a case-by-base basis – if a portion of the student body were to raise a given social justice issue to the UMGSA, then support could be made possible. Divided on the issue, attendees mostly agreed that student organizations should not take arbitrary sides on issues, but were far from a consensus about politically charged executive branches. Debate ensued about the role of student organizations in pursuing and advertising social justice campaigns, as opposed to responding to issues and supporting initiatives that might be within their purview. The next GU15 conference will be hosted at the University of British Columbia, where delegates have committed to continue working on graduate student issues such as time to completion and minimum student funding. 3

GRADZETTE

“It’s not just about writing academic papers and publishing; it’s also about having a real-world effect on the lives of people”

Investing in the future

Researcher profile: Prosper Koto

Photo by Lauren Siddall.

Lauren Siddall

rosper Koto is a University of Manitoba graduate student in economics. During the fifth and final year of his PhD program, he is exploring the interaction between entrepreneurship and economic development.

“My research looks at the issue of accessing finance in small- and medium-scale enterprises in developing countries, and in particular sub-Saharan Africa. When it comes to job creation and economic development, the small and medium enterprises play a very important role in job creation in developing countries,” said Koto. “Previous studies have almost always identified accessing finance as a major obstacle,” said Koto. “Over the years, World Bank and some other organizations have been pushing for reforms in these business environments to make it easier for enterprises to be able to access finance.” Previous studies on enterprise financing constraints have tended to focus on enterprise-specific attributes, rather than examining the effects of reforms in the financial sector and business regulatory environment of enterprises, which would allow more access to debt finance. “Here, you have credit reports and you have your credit history. For some of these countries, you don’t have anything like that,” said Koto. “Creating a formal credit reporting system would make it easier to track people’s credit history to know whether or not they will be able to pay back the money lent to them.”

Koto believes having better access to debt finance opportunities will contribute to job creation and economic development, which is essential to helping developing countries progress. “Another way of thinking about the research I’m doing is of all the obstacles to entrepreneurs – if you fix one, it’s likely to have an effect on the other ones. So if you fix the regulatory environment, it could make it easier for firms to access finance.” Koto said that working on some of these policy-oriented obstacles could help take care of the other obstacles that the enterprises identify as problems to their operations. “I was looking at a survey done by the World Bank across developing countries and I noticed that when you look at the responses that enterprises provided – they’re given questions to identify what they felt was their major obstacle to their operations – and for the enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa, most of them identified accessing finance as a major constraint.” Koto feels that accessing finance is still a large issue that needs to be examined. His interest in the topic was cultivated through his work throughout his degree, but it also has roots much deeper. “Part of my interest came from reading that literature and looking at the data. And also to some extent I’m familiar with the issues, coming from a developing country myself. I had opportunity to see some of these issues firsthand.” The data consists of upwards of 8000 longitudinally studied enterprises from 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and

is analyzed using panel data econometric models to indicate the financial status of each enterprise. While the research focuses on the developing world, Koto believes the insights from his studies are applicable in Canada as well. “There is a recent study that was published for businesses within the Canadian economy and they identified five factors as being what affects business, with access to finance being one of those things.” In addition to analyzing the large volumes of data, Koto also faces the challenge of communicating the technical concepts in a manner everyone can understand. “Writing a thesis or a paper is a process. The way I look at it is this: if I write something and you read it and don’t understand, it means I did a bad job writing,” said Koto. “One of the goals of my research is to contribute to people’s understanding of issues in terms of what enterprises face in doing their business and what can be done to help.” Moving toward finishing his dissertation and getting it published, Koto has his eyes on the prize. “I’m looking at the end goal. I’m more interested in research that has a real-world applicability. One of the things I’m aiming for is somebody somewhere picking up my research and using it to make their case for why reforms are necessary, why countries or governments need to make it easier for businesses to do business,” said Koto. “It’s not just about writing academic papers and publishing; it’s also about having a real-world effect on the lives of people.”

SEPTEMBER 2015

Left to right: John Wiens, Sarah Turner, UMGSA VP academic David Terrazas, Aimee Bowcott, Alyse Newman, Barbara Lepp. Photo by Beibei Lu.

‘Leadership and literacy’

UMGSA awards support education, community health sciences students

Tom Ingram

he University of Manitoba Graduate Students’ Association (UMGSA) held its annual awards luncheon on Aug. 25, honouring five distinguished graduate students who have been overlooked by other grants and awards.

The UMGSA Awards are meant to support the work of students who have not received the U of M Graduate Fellowship or other national awards. There are two awards for full-time master’s students (valued at $12,000), one award for a fulltime doctoral student ($16,000), and two awards for part-time master’s or doctoral students ($5,000). All recipients are expected to be involved in the community in addition to their scholarly activities. A teaching award, valued at $500, is offered by graduate students to a professor who has made a significant contribution to their teaching profession. This year’s recipients were Sarah Turner and Alyse Newman (full-time master’s), Barbara Lepp and Aimee Bowcott (parttime), Chelsea Jalloh (Ph.D.), and John Wiens (teaching award). Turner, a graduate student in the depart-

ment of community health sciences, studies the effects of breastfeeding on hyperactivity in children. She also works as a research assistant with Jitender Sareen and Tracie Afifi, both of whom recently recieved Foundation grants by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Newman, a master’s student in the school

“We want to become better people. But we want to make it possible and help others to become better people” – John Wiens, recipient, UMGSA Teaching Award

psychology program, studies reading difficulties in children. Her research focuses on the strategies children use to cope with reading difficulties, and the way these strategies differ in younger versus older children. “My research and practicum have been a great balance as I love working with children and feel it is important to maintain the

most scientifically supported assessments and treatments when working with children in schools,” said Newman. Lepp, a part-time master’s student in the faculty of education, completed her first year of graduate studies in the early 1980s and only recently returned to finish her degree. She runs her own educational consulting company. “I specialize in leadership and in literacy, so [schools] will often have an idea for a project, and I can help them out with that because I have the time to do the research and to do the preparation,” Lepp said. Bowcott, a part-time student in the department of community health sciences, is studying for a master’s of public health. This degree is a practicum-based program, rather than thesis-based. “I look at the practicum more as the ability to learn how to take the research and translate it so it can be applied,” Bowcott said. “I want to be able to apply things and kind of get in there right away, so I’m more of a hands-on person.” Bowcott came to graduate studies through her volunteer work with HOPE See UMGSA AWARDS on pg. 6 5

GRADZETTE

Clockwise from top: Sarah Turner, Alyse Newman and Barbara Lepp accepting their awards. Photos by Beibei Lu.

UMGSA AWARDS worldwide, a Christian charity organization that operates a wide variety of education, medical, and disaster response initiatives around the world. Jalloh, a doctoral student in the faculty of education’s ad hoc program, studies literacy as a social determinant of health, especially in homeless and street-involved people. According to Jalloh, we know little about the literacy habits of this group. “When I was talking to some of the people who hang around Siloam Mission, I saw a man reading a John Irving novel,” said Jalloh during her award presentation. “I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got a couple degrees, and I’ve never read a John Irving novel.’ ” Studying the literacy of this community can help to “improve service delivery, improve working with this population in a

way that is an effective way of communicating and exchanging information and signals,” Jalloh said in an interview. Jalloh’s ad hoc program draws from education, sociology, and community health sciences. Her aim is to work in academia while continuing her community involvement, which is through the community resource and Sunshine House drop-in centre. The teaching award went to Wiens, a professor and former dean of the faculty of education. Wiens congratulated the award recipients in his address, acknowledging their contributions to research and their potential as educators. “Education is about human flourishing [...] about the flourishing of all peoples,” Wiens said. “We want to become better people. But we want to make it possible and help others to become better people.”

Get your research featured in the GRADZETTE Are you a graduate student eager to promote your research and provide exposure for your master’s or doctoral program work? The Gradzette has an ongoing “Researcher Profile” column, which showcases the important and exciting research being conducted by U of M grad students for a larger audience. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming issue, please contact editor@gradzette.com with details regarding your field of study, a short blurb about your current research and any pertinent contact information for interview purposes.

SEPTEMBER 2015

Diversions 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 32. ___ Speedwagon 33. Not where you want to be thrown 38. Away from port 39. Sits down with a book 43. Back biter? 44. Gobbled up 45. Schemes 46. Laughable Down 1. ___-Man 2. Rad, in rap 3. Profane, in Hawaii 4. Troop group

15 17

16 20

30 31

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5. Washington’s hairpiece 6. Brad Pitt thriller 7. It’s cut and dried 8. Oil cartel letters 9. Place to start a home improvement project 10. Try 16. Pan, for one 17. Little bits 18. Biblical king 19. Horse strap 22. Coat part, for short 23. Lincoln nickname 24. Behind 25. Airport terminal area 26. Words of approximation 28. Picked off a menu 31. Russian rulers 33. Room brightener

34. Chemical ending 35. Capital of Norway 36. Like some whisky orders 37. In the neighbourhood 40. From ___ Z 41. Computer key 42. NBC weekly comedy S T A G E

P A L I R

A H O L E

T R I R E T E X A A V A P I P T E S

T O R T I L L A C H I P S

S E S H O S A T L I N T A A T L I A

O V E R T I M E C R E E

C O M P U T E R C H I P S

T A L I L A P T Y P O R U D E T E D R E A C T

I T T O O

P S A T S

PREVIOUS ANSWERS

THE GRADZETTE BULLETIN BOARD 2015 ORIENTATION EVENTS All events take place in the UMGSA Lounge, 217 University Centre. Free lunch will be served at 11 a.m. on the Pedway on Wednesday and in the UMGSA Lounge on Thursday and Friday.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9

THURSDAY, SEPT. 10

FRIDAY, SEPT. 11

Academic Success Session

Student Support Session

UMGSA Roundtable

1 p.m.

10 a.m.

10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Student Engagement Session

1 p.m.

Orientation Social 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Come out to the UMGSA Council meeting on Sept. 23 in the UMGSA Lounge. All graduate students are welcome to attend. Keep up to date with all the latest from the Gradzette:

gradzette.com

Download past and current issues of the Gradzette:

issuu.com/thegradzette/docs For news, photos and events, follow the Gradzette on Twitter:

@gradzette

Pick up your FREE copy of the

2015-16 UMGSA handbook at the UMGSA office (221 University Centre)