C/O John Lott
One alum's journey to winning a World Series
The year was 1996 and McMaster students were arriving on campus. For some, it wasn’t just their first time at McMaster, but also in Hamilton. This was the case for a first year economics major making the trip from Montreal. This was the story of Alex Anthopoulos.
“I remember having left Montreal [with] my father and brother . . . Waking up in Hedden Hall the morning after I got dropped off, I didn’t know a soul. I remember calling home and I had a lump in my throat,” said Anthopoulos.
The experience of leaving home can be stressful, but it’s what follows that makes all the difference.
Anthopoulos remembers his time at McMaster fondly. School, his experiences and his friends had long-lasting effects on his life.
“Definitely the best, both academic and social, experience of my life,” said Anthopoulos. “My best friends in the world are friends I made at Mac and the life experiences and everything I went through, I would never change it for the world.”
It was during his time at McMaster that Anthopoulos would enter the baseball world. He loved sports, specifically baseball, but never expected to work in the sport. He recalled frequently discussing the possibility, but never made a move on it until a friend of his just couldn’t take it any longer.
“One of my good friends to this day, Rich Martinelli, went to Mac with me [and we] roomed together. He was the one who I would just annoy, [telling] him about how I just wanted to get into baseball, [and] kept talking about it. He finally snapped on me one day and said ‘I’m sick of hearing you talk about it, I want you to do something about it,’” explained Anthopoulos.
After that conversation in his third year, it was exactly what he decided to do, reaching out to the Blue Jays and Expos in search of an opportunity. Although it wasn’t exactly what he expected, he found his way in.
“The Expos said, ‘we don’t have an internship in baseball operations, but we have something where you can basically open the players mail, coordinate it, work with them, work in the clubhouse, those types of things.’ It was a non-paying job, but I just wanted to get my foot in the door,” said Anthopoulos.
As minimal as the role seemed, it would play a big part in the advancement of his career. He always eyed scouting and felt he had an opportunity at hand. He would complete his mail duties during the day and spend his nights working on scouting.
“At night when I was done and the games were starting, I would go sit in the seats and write scouting reports. I knew I was capable of more than doing player mail, but that was a way to get my foot in the door. I got paid in experience,” explained Anthopoulos.
"I knew I was capable of more than doing player mail, but that was a way to get my foot in the door. I got paid in experience."
Alex Anthopoulos
This is where things began to take off. The organization took notice of his skills and determination and had him travel to Florida to work as an international scout. After a year and a half, he would become a scouting coordinator. Two years later, he took on a scouting coordinator position from the Blue Jays and would get his big break after another two years.
“I got offered [the] assistant [general manager] position, did that for four [years] and then the GM position came up. A lot of it was right place, right time — no doubt about that. I think the key was that I really enjoyed what I was doing . . . I couldn’t wait to get into the office,” said Anthopoulos.
He discussed many late nights at home, watching VHS tapes and DVDs of draft videos. He worked so hard not just to get ahead, but because he was genuinely interested and loved what he did, calling it “a real labour of love.” He was just glad to do something he loved.
For those wanting to follow in his footsteps, he emphasized the importance of having a true passion for the job, suggesting that it’s a requirement for the line of work.
“Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, meaning you absolutely adore it,” explained Anthopoulos. “The sacrifices, socially, time commitments, things like that — it’s really a way of life. . . I’ve told people before that have interned with us — there’s nothing wrong with just being a sports fan and having another career.”
Anthopoulos was always very passionate and never stopped working on his way to the top. After being named the Blue Jays GM in 2009, he spent six more seasons with the organization. In his final year with the team in 2015, they won the division and made the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
Anthopoulos gained a reputation as a top-tier GM that season and was named the Major League Baseball Executive of the Year following a flurry of moves to bring the team into contention. With a 53-51 record at the trade deadline, Anthopoulos pulled off one of the “best-ever” trade deadlines, acquiring five time all-star and Cy Young winner David Price, and five time all-star, Troy Tulowitzki, along with several other pieces.
In 2021, Anthopoulos found himself in a similar situation with the Braves sitting third in the division with a 51-54 record, and batting injuries.
Over the course of the season the Braves would see Canadian ace Mike Soroka retear his achilles, perennial MVP candidate Ronald Acuna Jr. tear his ACL, and two time all-star Marcell Ozuna break his hand while also being arrested on domestic violence charges. All three would miss the remainder of the season.
Leading up to the trade deadline, Anthopoulos rebuilt the Braves outfield entirely, trading for Joc Pederson, Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario and Jorge Soler, all of whom were huge contributors in the title run. Rosario was named NLCS MVP and Soler was named WS MVP.
“We still had a chance to get in the playoffs . . . Your job as a GM is to try to get your team in. If you get your team in, anything can happen. Our runs allowed, our runs scored, we had scored a lot more runs than we had allowed, it just wasn’t resulting in wins. We thought we were capable of a lot more,” said Anthopoulos.
"We still had a chance to get in the playoffs . . . Your job as a GM is to try to get your team in. If you get your team in, anything can happen."
Alex Anthopoulos
Anthopoulos surely made the most of this opportunity, never giving up after many had written his team off.
“Our run differential was like plus 100 and something and we were a game under .500, we should’ve been so much better — it just ended up showing up over six months. It wasn’t a tough call. Selling just didn’t make any sense,” explained Anthopoulos.
A few months later, he would be proven correct, as it was the Atlanta Braves celebrating with the World Series trophy during their parade.
It was a long journey for Anthopoulos to become the first Canadian GM to ever win the World Series and it was a journey that all started at McMaster University.
“[McMaster] will always have a piece of my heart. . . I definitely wouldn’t have been where I am today without having experienced it."
Alex Anthopoulos
C/O Peter Ivey-Hansen
Four climate change and sustainability-related events happening around the Hamilton area in the month of November
McMaster students have perpetually been expressing their concerns about implementation of sustainable practices and telling the Mac learning institution to do better. In the month of October, McMaster launched a new Sustainable Development Goals hub on campus, where students can interact more profoundly with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals for 2030 and help promote sustainability at the local and global levels. Now, the McMaster Centre for Climate Change will also be planting a new carbon sink forest in Hamilton to help mitigate climate change.
The beginning of November designates an important time in worldwide action against climate change, with Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 marking COP26: the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference. Held in Glasgow, the COP26 summit is a call to action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement on an international scale. Here are a few opportunities in the month of November to get your feet wet in climate change and sustainability.
Jumblies Artist-in-Residence: Exploring In-Between Places
Jumblies is a theatre organization located in Toronto aiming to increase inclusion in the arts through collaboration between diverse people and communities. Megan Spencer, an artist-in-residence with Jumblies, will be holding community activities and workshops surrounding the theme of ecotones, liminal spaces where biodiversity thrives in the room in-between.
One of Spencer’s events will be stop motion creation sessions, where participants will learn animation skills through two dimensional stop motion. Activities will be held from Nov. 8-20 both outdoors and indoors at The Ground Floor, with an option to Zoom-in for those unable to attend in person.
Lunch & Learn at the Royal Botanical Gardens
Every Wednesday until Dec. 1, Hamilton’s Royal Botanical Gardens will be hosting half-hour Lunch & Learn events with horticulture experts virtually. As a registered charitable organization, the Botanical Gardens are a community centre for plant science, conservation and education. Each Lunch & Learn event features a different member of the Royal Botanical Gardens staff, exploring topics from water conservation to mediterranean plants based on questions submitted by participants upon registration.
GREEN BUSINESS: What does sustainability mean to you?
For those with an interest in the intersection between sustainability and business, the Hamilton Business Centre is hosting discussions on implementing sustainable practices for small businesses and entrepreneurs. To be held on Nov. 18, the discussion is intended as an opportunity for people with entrepreneurial spirit to connect and share their thoughts on ways businesses can become climate advocates at the local level.
What kind of tree is that? Tree identification
On Nov. 20, embrace the reds and oranges of the fall by learning how to identify trees in Cambridge’s Victoria Park. Reep Green Solutions is an environmental charity active in the Waterloo region. In their mission to provide community members with tools and resources to implement sustainable living, they will be holding a tree identification workshop where participants will learn to identify tree species in the fall and winter.
The workshop will be led by Nick Assad, a landscape architect and ISA-certified arborist, and will examine various aspects of tree identification including bud configuration and bark patterns.
C/O Feast Centre
The Silhouette: Please introduce yourselves.
Randy Jackson: I'm Randy Jackson. I'm an assistant professor in the school of social work with a cross-appointment in health, ageing and society and identify as Anishinaabe from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation.
Renée Masching: Hello, my name is Renee Masching. I work with [Canadian Aboriginal Aids Network]. I'm the director of research in this organization. I have bloodlines from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and also [am of] Irish descent. I was adopted and raised in a family of Eastern and Western European descent.
What do you do at the Feast Centre?
RM: It's a great honour and privilege. Randy and I co-direct the centre and that is based upon decades of experience working together. My role in the Feast Centre represents community voice on behalf of and with many others on our team and supporting the centre. As we structure the centre, we want to be really clear about bringing diverse perspectives to the centre and particularly ground ourselves in a community-based research perspective. My ‘community hat’ is a reflection of the organization, where I work and the membership base that I represent, but, of course, recognizing I also have roles and responsibilities in academia and, for example, Randy would have roles in community as well.
RJ: To add to that, the Feast Centre is a five-year, close to $5 million undertaking that's looking to develop training opportunities for scholars and trainees and community members who wish to use Indigenous knowledge in their [sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections] research. For that, we work across the four pillars of health research, including clinical, epidemiology, basic science and the social sciences. We've developed a number of training opportunities and the centre of that would be our Learning Lodge Institute, hopefully drawing on land-based training opportunities for researchers. We're also developing a webinar series and a podcast series to go along with the Learning Institute. In addition to that, we offer grant opportunities for Feast Centre members who wish to be more focused on the kind of work that they're doing. So, we offer training grants to students across masters, PhD and postdoc. We offer training opportunities for undergraduate students to become involved and learn about Indigenous STBBI research. Just a whole range of things that we've been developing over the last year and a half or so.
How did you both get involved in and become inspired for the Feast Centre?
RJ: Well, the Feast Centre is really a two-decade-long collaboration between Renee and I working across 45+ different research projects over the last 18-20 years. So a lot of community-based expertise in this endeavour. Across those 45+ projects we did, we did a critical review on the way in which we were approaching research and I really wanted to share some of our knowledge around that. Knowledge for knowledge's sake is fine, but when you're in an Indigenous setting like we are, the development of it is a sacred pursuit. It's really about socially transforming society so that we're addressing disparities of health that Indigenous people experience because of structural disadvantages.
RM: Part of that vision is also recognizing the need for a response to STBBI that is meaningful and evidence-informed and it is also informed by the people who live every day in this reality. Both in the context of living with various infections, as well as the context of prevention work, so we're thinking of the researchers, the individuals, the healthcare practitioners and also, maybe a little bit self-serving, but we're really overworked. There is a lot of interest, and rightly so, in Indigenous health . . . but there's a very small cadre of people who are doing that work, particularly in the context of health and even narrower, in the context of STBBIs. So part of the vision of the Feast Centre is both to bring in new people and to recruit and encourage those who are involved in health research already to focus their attention and energy on Indigenous STBBI research. That's a combination of joining our fellow Indigenous scholars into the work, as well as working with our allies to do more to introduce and explain and understand how we would bring Indigenous ways of knowing and doing into research. This is so we can share the burden a bit and have confidence that good work and good research are proceeding as we understand it and as our team helps us to build that perspective. This also comes from a foundation of a response to HIV, particularly an activist response. I think an activist orientation and activist researcher orientation is exciting and necessary. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, knowledge for the sake of understanding, for instance, the philosophy and theory of Indigenous research is really important. But, every day, I have to go back to our community of people living with HIV, to our organizations that are responding. If I'm standing in front of a group of people saying: "Well we've learned about what it's like to live with HIV, that's really interesting" — that's an absolutely inadequate presentation for people's lives. We're celebrating the lives of people who are with us, we're acknowledging the lives of people who have passed. Research has to have an impact because people's lives are on the line. What we're learning and doing and why we're doing it is because we want people to live well and live longer. We want people to be in a place where prevention is in place so that people aren't living with STBBI . . . You know this matters, this is a commitment. We're really trying to make a difference in people's lives.
RJ: In addition to what Renee said, our centre draws on several sorts of methodological approaches, including decolonizing and Indigenous methodologies. But really, we're community-driven and that's really an important value that we try to articulate so community-identified concerns are really what drive the Feast Centre. We want a social transformation that positively addresses some of the disparities, issues that were identified by Indigenous communities themselves. We try to work from that perspective. The other perspective that I think is really, really important here is this idea of strengths. So there are enormous Indigenous cultural strengths that we want to foreground in the research that we do. It's that focus on strength that articulates a position you don't often hear in research literature about Indigenous people. That research that's being published overwhelmingly tends to focus on challenges and pathologies that Indigenous people are thought to live with, whereas we want to tell a fuller, greater picture about Indigenous people that focus on their strengths in the context of those challenges that they experience. We want to show that Indigenous culture is very efficacious in terms of helping people heal and live successful and productive lives. The responses to health disparities need to be grounded in Indigenous approaches and ways of being in the world.
What is your favourite memory of the Feast Centre?
RJ: What floats to the top of my mind right off the get-go here is the launch of the Feast Centre, which was about a year ago and you can watch the video on YouTube. We had a number of Indigenous artists participate along with us, a number of other people connected to the Feast Centre, the hope that they had for the Feast Centre. Renee and I talked in that video about how we orient ourselves to the Feast Centre and the work that we wanted to do.
RM: That was the first thing that came to mind. Running a major centre, running a major grant [and] working closely in partnership across distances and in COVID as we've tried to bring life to the Centre. The launch really culminated a lot of that passion and vision. The other side of that is we've stuck together and worked really hard and through hard times and through really exciting times.
C/O Jesse Martini
Intelligence is made up of more than one IQ test
By: Rankini Kulatilake, Contributor
If FP = 10 and HX = 16, what does DS mean? The answer? 15, the number of alphabetical spaces between the two letters. This is an example of a question from the Mensa IQ test. The Intelligence Quotient test is largely regarded as a way to assess intellectual capacity.
Yet, a closer look at the IQ test reveals that intelligence cannot be measured using a single test. This is illustrated through the reality that the IQ test isn’t subjective, coupled with the fact that intelligence is not composed of one element.
When approaching intelligence in a culturally diverse context, using an IQ test created in Western society in a different community would result in the exclusion of factors that determine what each community sees as intelligent behaviour. One model of intelligence is not universal as it doesn't take into account key points such as cultural values.
Richard Nisbett, an American psychologist, suggests that the Western belief includes the ability to engage in logical discussion while the Eastern view focuses on social roles and the capability to identify contradiction and complexity. Therefore, the IQ test is neither objective nor equal in its assessment of cognitive ability. Intellect cannot be quantified using one biased form of evaluation as it does not consider the vast differences between cultures.
In a study conducted by Adrian Owen, a professor at Western University, it was concluded that one test cannot judge the cognitive performance of a person. Human intelligence is not made up of a singular component, but rather a multitude of elements. Therefore, the idea of intelligence has a variety of definitions and ideas.
One recent theory is Howard Gardner’s, in which he proposes the idea of eight intelligences which includes values from different cultures and various skills. Intelligence is not composed of one element but is categorized by different capacities, including interpersonal and musical capacities.
Now, if a writer with exceptional literature skills isn’t math-oriented, their intellectual ability isn’t diminished. Contrarily, it proves that there is another field where they would excel. As university students, there may be subjects that many of us still struggle with. The same argument goes for many of us who feel that our unsatisfactory results in one area lessen our intelligence. Judging the mind through one viewpoint takes away value from the other kinds of intelligence present.
In spite of this, the IQ test is an effective way to identify young children who may need additional education services, such as “gifted” programs. The gifted program uses IQ tests to determine a student’s admission. These programs help students who are struggling in the general stream reach their full potential as the classroom supports each student’s learning style. However, these programs have traditionally shown a lack of diversity.
In TDSB public schools, students in the gifted stream are disproportionately white and from higher-income families. This imbalance only allows for further inequities beyond public school, translating into post-secondary and work life as well.
“TDSB’s gifted program is lacking in racial diversity and needs a total overhaul,” stated Carl James, a professor at York University.
The fact is the IQ test has indirectly led to inequality and has negatively impacted students of colour. Judging students’ intellect by one subjective test does more harm than good. Casting aside all other factors to place a label on one group of students based on one test is not only harmful to others who harness the potential to fulfill that label, but sets a dangerous precedent for future educational development. As intelligence cannot be accurately quantified, using one test that does not take into account many crucial elements of intellectual ability results in social inequality that translates beyond school.
The IQ test claims to objectively measure intelligence, yet it has been proven otherwise through its exclusion of important cultural differences and other components that contribute to intelligence. When we look around at our peers, we see different values and abilities. While one may argue that one subject produces “smarter” students than another, that’s simply not true. “Intelligence” incorporates a wide variety of elements that cannot be judged through one lens. At the end of the day, our intelligence cannot be compiled into a single number.
Yoohyun Park/Production Coordinator
After dissolving for a year, WALC has officially been brought back
The Women’s Athletic Leadership Committee was originally formed during the 2017-2018 season. However, during the pandemic season, the committee unfortunately dissolved. This year, it has been revamped, spearheaded by fifth-year basketball player Sarah Gates.
“My coach [Theresa Burns] has been a huge advocate for women's sports ever since I was in first year. She's always kind of encouraged us to find our voices and stand up for things we believe in and as I'm now in fifth year I kind of realized that I'm super passionate about women in sport,” said Gates.
WALC is made up of several teams that focus on initiatives such as education panels, fundraising, special events and community outreach. WALC also includes team representatives. The goal of WALC is to create a platform that empowers women athletes and encourages them to find their voice. During her past four years as a female student-athlete, Gates realized an opportunity to step up as a leader, and aid female student-athletes to find greater success by utilizing the community around them.
Mia Spadafora is also a member of WALC and she sits on the educational panel's executive team. She, like Gates, stressed the importance of the committee going forward.
“There are a lot of women in sport, especially women in Canadian sport, that don't really get the light shed on them that they need and deserve. So it's really important that we can kind of form and start this in our own community before hopefully getting more of an outreach and growing that towards other people and other communities,” explained Spadafora.
For Spadafora and Gates, WALC is just the first step in generating a larger spotlight on female sports. They focus on women supporting women as they advocate for themselves and their own well-deserved recognition.
For example, they hope to begin with women's teams going out to support other women's teams at their games. Spadafora explained that the stadium only starts to get full near the end of the game as spectators come out to watch the men’s game that happens right after. As such, simply putting women's sports on the map and building awareness is a high priority and challenge for the committee.
However, simply empowering female McMaster athletes is not enough for this team. Gates wants to be able to reach out into the community as role models and mentors to people of all ages and experiences, from alumni to those who are no longer actively competing.
In addition to encouraging awareness, WALC has many events planned on the horizon. In October, they recently completed their first workshop, the WALC Empower Hour designed to support female student-athletes in all aspects of their life including nutrition, sleep habits and networking.
In November, they are planning an alumni panel with a coaches panel in December. They are also starting community outreach virtually by conversing with community and club teams about goals, goal setting and balancing a student-athlete lifestyle. There are many more events in the works, including a women’s athletic leadership event for International Women’s Day in the second semester with continuous workshops and panel discussions.
WALC is back and here to stay. Be sure to keep an eye out for their events. Tickets for the women’s basketball and volleyball games are now available at https://mcmaster.universitytickets.com/.
C/O Yigi Chang
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Ark & Anchor Espresso Bar remains a beloved café and community hub
Nestled between King Street West and Queen Street North is the Ark & Anchor Espresso Bar. Established in the fall of 2015, the café is not only a hotspot for avid coffee drinkers in the Strathcona neighbourhood, but also an important community hub for folks around the city.
Partners Patrick Guilbault and Yigi Chang are the faces of Ark & Anchor. With over 10 years of barista experience, Guilbault is in charge of brewing all the coffee and tea beverages in the café. Chang, on the other hand, is interested in health and nutrition and works in the kitchen, baking delicious pastries and fresh food items for breakfast, lunch and snacks. Chang also has a background in illustration and is the artist behind the incredible murals found throughout the building.
Although the couple is originally from Toronto, they were drawn to Hamilton by their friend who moved to the city in 2014 and introduced them to their current café location.
“We had already been looking for real estate in Toronto [to open a café], but it was all completely out of our reach. But we were able to find this beautiful building here and all the stars aligned,” said Guilbault.
The same friend who showed them the building gave the couple inspiration for the name of the café as well. While doing research about the neighbourhood, they were inspired by the Scottish Rite located kitty corner to the café and the symbol of the ark and anchor from Masonic history, which represents well-grounded hope and a life well spent.
Although Guilbault and Chang had no intentions of picking a religious name for their business when their graphic designer friend drew the ark and anchor logo for them, they felt it was too beautiful to pass up. The symbolism also resonated with their story.
“[The ark and anchor] means being comfortable with taking things with you as well as leaving things behind and it felt really great as an idea for us moving cities and all that kind of stuff,” explained Guilbault.
Since the opening of the café, the couple’s vision for the business has been to create a safe, welcoming and inclusive space. It serves as a hub for everyone — from those seeking a space for studying, having meetings and hanging out with friends to those looking for a community. Community is an especially important part of the café’s culture.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous clubs and events were hosted at Ark & Anchor, such as the Ship’s Log Book Club, Monday Night RPGs for monthly role playing games and On Board for board game nights.
They started the clubs about four years ago due to high interest from their customers. The couple had also been wanting to create a space for sharing books and playing games for folks who aren’t comfortable participating in evening culture or can’t stay out too late.
“My big reason for wanting to [start the book and game clubs] was I was finding it was hard to find spaces for games and book clubs that weren’t nighttime spaces. So, if you didn’t feel like you had to get a beer or you had to get dinner. We were able to use the top [floor] of the coffee shop as more of a clubhouse to come and play games,” said Guilbault.
Maintaining and promoting inclusivity and safety of the space was crucial to the clubs’ operations. For instance, at the beginning of the Ships’ Log Book Club meetings, the captain’s code was read out loud which outlined zero tolerance for transphobic or ableist comments or harassment of any kind.
“[We had] a couple book club members say, ‘The fact that you’ve actively said nobody is going to do this, we are not only going to save space for you, but keep safe spaces for you, made it a lot more inviting,’” said Guilbault.
However, since the pandemic, the clubs have been put on hold. The last book club meeting was in February of 2020. There are a few members who have continued to hang out and play games online, however, the book club did not make the transition to a digital platform.
“It’s been really hard with adjusting to the pandemic because for everybody who was coming to these events, it was really like a big community thing for them. [But] it just never really made the switch to digital,” said Guilbault.
Guilbault and Chang unfortunately don’t have the capacity to run the clubs again themselves while running the business, citing concerns about long business hours and overworking. However, they hope members will continue the clubs in the future.
“The dream is that some of the community members will pick up the mantle and say, ‘I’m willing to organize more, I’m willing to do more,’ as we kind of move into the next stage of things,” said Guilbault.
Despite all the changes and challenges to the café amidst the pandemic, the community has been supportive and patient. Currently, the couple is working hard to keep up with the new developments and residents entering the neighbourhood. They recently reorganized the second floor of the café to allow more indoor seating with proper physical distancing and are open from Tuesday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Guilbault emphasizes Ark & Anchor has not forgotten about its community. As life slowly returns to normal, more people move into the area and with enough demand, Guilbault and Chang are open to launching more community-focused programming and use their spaces to serve the interests of the community.
C/O Yoohyun Park
Pizza Pizza becomes the first major sponsorship signing for the Marauders this season
One of the largest pizza companies in Canada, Pizza Pizza, has entered a partnership with the Marauders as of Oct. 29.
Pizza Pizza has over 500 locations across Canada and has played an important role in the communities that they have served since their foundation date in 1967. The pizza company had more than $458 million in gross sales in 2018, making it the most successful Canadian pizza brand by far.
What exactly does this partnership mean for the Marauders? Would it provide better financial stability to the McMaster sports association? Would it benefit the performance from McMaster athletes in general?
Although there is no concrete answer, it is no secret that for years now, many sports teams at McMaster have pleaded for donations to keep themselves running. Even the men’s soccer team, which has had a very successful season so far, has a donation website. Additionally, there are numerous teams which require their athletes to pay a fee before representing the school.
With that said, it might therefore be expected that this partnership will result in more financial stability for Marauders teams. Although no financial income has been published by the Marauders regarding this partnership, they have promised unique experiences and promotional offers for the members of the Marauders community.
In a statement made by the director of athletics and recreation, Shawn Burt, mentioned that the new partnership with Pizza Pizza will not only benefit student athletes, but also varsity games attendees through engagement opportunities that the pizza giant has to offer.
This new sponsorship deal can turn out to be a big game changer for the Marauders, but what is the student perspective on Canada’s largest pizza company? To find out the answer to the question, a Reddit poll was created by the Silhouette Sports reporters which would help to gather some perspectives from the students.
According to the poll results, most of the McMaster students wouldn’t mind having Pizza Pizza as a sponsor, as there's an even divide between those who like and dislike the pizza giant.
Although the students have their own opinions on the new sponsorship, there is still much to know about what the true benefit of this new deal is. What the McMaster community can hope for though, is a new financial boost for the varsity teams and possibly a better playing experience for the student athletes.
C/O Jeswin Thomas
First-years at McMaster share the academic and social impacts of “missing out” on high school
By: Zara Khan, Contributor
Exams. That’s quite the scary word when it comes to first-year students who went through online school and “quadmesters.” Although this might not apply to every first-year student, the education of more than 1.5 billion students were affected by school closures worldwide. The majority of university freshmen entered after completing two grades online, where exams and standard testing were not mandated during this time period.
So now, when freshmen are faced with double the amount of courses in addition to exams they feel at a loss as to how to study and prepare for their assessments. We all knew that post-secondary education was not supposed to be easy but because of the pandemic, university has become increasingly difficult for some students to handle.
In Ontario high schools, having a course that was supposed to be learnt over four months was cut in half, but had students attending each course for double the amount of time in one sitting. This not only made students lose interest in the subject, but also left students not retaining much information either. A study conducted by Per Engzell reveals that this style of learning throughout the pandemic is equivalent to a learning loss of one-fifth of a school year. This left many seniors going into post-secondary education without retaining much from their last high school year.
First-years on campus at McMaster were asked about their thoughts regarding how online high school prepared them for post-secondary. Many felt it had hindered their learning.
“Online schooling caused me to learn everything faster, that way I was learning to pass and not just for the sake of learning, which is really important to be successful in university,” explained Sandra Eldho, a first-year life sciences student.
The idea of learning in order to get through the school year and not necessarily to understand the concepts being taught impacted first years greatly this year. They now have to study, understand more difficult concepts and handle double the course load with a flawed strategy to study effectively.
Exams are also a major source of stress for many students.
“I’m nervous because all of [the exams] are close to [worth] 50%,” explained Kirsten Espe, a first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student.
With COVID-19 leading to the cancellation of in-person exams in most high schools last year, new university students are struggling with being thrown into exams worth almost half of their entire grade.
“We don’t feel well prepared and don’t want to [write] it,” said Leanne Chen, a first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Hima Patel, a student in engineering.
“I believe from my high school experience, I don’t feel as prepared as other kids may feel. I grew up in a small town and our political standings, which were conservative for 20 years, had a lot of impact on what we learned. One of the big things is that we never learned how to be responsible in settings which include partying, intimacy and drinking” said Patel.
With such a focus on the academic aspect of university, we often forget about how social university can be too. Some students from smaller towns, such as Patel, were already underprepared to handle the new social settings that come with university. With the pandemic, we can only imagine how isolation may have contributed to a decline in the social skills that come with high school. With all this said, the loss of first years’ last two years of high school negatively impacted the majority of first-years within both their academic and social environments.
I would imagine that regardless of your high school background, all students were startled (at least slightly) by the pandemic and this impacted their academic and/or social skills in some way or another. As mentioned by numerous first-years at Mac, the pandemic and the loss of a traditional end to high school has set up the steep learning curve they must face now.
When it comes to pre-exam stress, we must accept that our study techniques from high school are destined to evolve. Planning ahead, giving yourself more time to practice the material and fully understanding the concepts will help in lessening academic stress. Taking time for yourself periodically is also critical to the mind and we must explore methods to prevent burnout. In the end, whether high school prepared us well or not for post-secondary, we can always try and put our best foot forward when it comes to preparing for our future.
C/O Ainsley Thurgood
An examination of testimonies from freshmen across different first-year majors
By: Kirsten Espe, Contributor
Over the past few months, McMaster University students faced the daunting task of preparing and completing their midterms for their selected courses. For many first-year undergraduate students, this was the first high-stakes assessment they have had since the beginning of 2020 — almost two years ago.
Ariana Petrazzini, a first-year health sciences student, said that like most other Ontarian high schools, her exams were cancelled. Petrazzini also noted that her quizzes were mostly open book.
“The content itself wasn’t necessarily easier, but the teachers did go a little bit softer and gave us more time than usual,” said Petrazzini.
On the other hand, Veronica Larrazabal Zea, a first-year integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student, continued to have class exams in high school.
Although Larrazabal Zea felt more prepared for the testing aspect of university midterm season, she highlighted that she found it difficult to adapt to the increase in class work due to the implemented ‘quadmester’ system last year.
“It was really weird because it was one week, one class, all day for a week and then another class, all day, for a week,” said Larrazabal Zea.
Now, Larrazabal Zea’s classes have increased to a simultaneous seven upon enrolment into her program.
Sharanya Badalera, a first-year social sciences student, says that the lack of exams in high school was not the only factor that threw her for a loop coming to McMaster.
“Online [learning] is just way less engaging and it’s really easy to get distracted . . . You’re missing the social interaction with your teachers and your classmates. It’s a really important part of learning that I didn’t realize,” said Badalera.
Badalera points out, however, that many students have gotten used to online learning, especially when accessing teachers during online office hours and having recorded lectures, both of which could be considered positive and negative.
“With the chat, I feel like you’re interacting more, but once you go back in-person [it won’t be the same],” explained Badalera.
All three students expressed their concern for the winter semester, which was just recently announced to be fully in-person.
“I don’t know if they’re going to just do a 180 degree entirely and try to do exactly what they used to do before COVID . . . That's just a little stressful. [People have] changed their studying habits to fit the kind of tests and assessments that we have,” said Larrazabal Zea.
Petrazzini had a similar experience.
“I was probably a better student in grade 11 than grade 12, where it was easier to slack off,” said Petrazzini.
Indeed, many students echo the sentiment that their education constantly evolves to changing expectations.
“Learning is a changing thing and your learning is not going to be constant. You have to adapt to it,” said Badalera.
All three first-year students pointed out that they are all striving to adjust well to the university experience. This is not uncommon for most first-year students, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the online environment do entail unprecedented complications for current freshmen.
MacDivest’s first in-person protest on campus a success as support intensifies for divestment across McMaster
Photo C/O: Shaded Lenz
McMaster University Student Center was abuzz on the morning of Oct. 27 as many Mac students rallied up for the sit-in organized by MacDivest as part of their ongoing mission to make divestment a reality at McMaster. The protest consisted of students banding together at the Student Center for a duration of 24 hours, until the morning of Oct. 28 to encourage the university to follow suit with the trend of divestment recently spearheaded by Canadian universities such as the University of Toronto and Simon Fraser University. Mainly, the students wished to grab the attention of McMaster’s Board of Governors, a major directorial committee responsible for McMaster’s budgeting and spending practices. Given the crucial role of the Board of Governors in determining the trajectory of divestment at McMaster, the sit-in event was geared directly towards the Board of Governors, naming itself as “Drain the B.o.G.”
Adeola Egbeyemi, a fourth-year arts and science student, is a representative of the arts and science student caucus at the McMaster Students Union and uses her knowledge to involve herself heavily in the divestment project.
“We did not expect this level of student engagement. We were very visible and we had a lot of students notice what was happening and want to get involved. Students are tired of climate inaction,” explained Egbeyemi.
Being MacDivest’s first in-person gathering following COVID-19 safety protocols, the rebellious measures employed in the sit-in are a response to the university’s repeated pattern of inaction towards the climate emergency throughout this year. In February of 2021, McMaster’s financial affairs and facility services hosted a virtual town hall regarding McMaster’s investment decision where all Zoom controls were deactivated, effectively rendering the town hall a seminar, and not providing a platform for students to voice criticisms. Immediately following this in March 2021, the first climate strike was coordinated with MacDivest and 13 other activist groups across Hamilton where over 100 letters were sent demanding divestment, with no responses from the McMaster administration or the Board of Governors.
Photo C /O: Shaded Lenz
Caption: Adeola Egbeyemi speaks at the sit-in
Over the summer, McMaster University’s secretary and privacy officer contacted MacDivest to state that the Chair of the Board of Governors had asked for a written submission from, to which MacDivest preferred to present their findings in a virtual meeting format with the Chair and other relevant parties present due to the earlier submission of letters, to which they received no further responses from the Board of Governors. Finally, the event which forced MacDivest to conduct the sit-in as a physical form of protest on campus was the power washing of a mural painted which emblazoned “no brighter world without divestment.”
MacDivest chose Thursday, Oct. 27 to put on the sit-in, given that it was the day before the Board of Governors were to meet for the first time in the 2021-2022 academic year and since David Farrar, the president of McMaster demanded the Board craft a divestment plan.
The sit-in wished to evaluate how the Board of Governors approached the divestment planned and if it was in accordance with MacDivest’s thoroughly researched demands.
“We expected there to be lower to higher points of engagement throughout the sit-in as it is a 24-hour event and at our highest point of engagement was when community speakers addressed the university, with over 50 people listening in. We had around 30 people sleep in at the Student Center,” explained Egbeyemi.
The sit-in was a carefully planned event on behalf of MacDivest, with planning beginning over reading week and MacDivest coordinators reaching out to various experienced activists and organizers involved in the Hamilton climate scene, specifically with Defund HPS and Hamilton 350. The sit-in was coordinated by four MacDivest internal teams dedicated to managing various aspects of the event.
The sit-in attracted the attention of McMaster University security services, who reached out to MacDivest on Oct. 26, a day before the sit-in was set to occur. Security services expressed concerns regarding COVID-19 safety protocols and fire safety and had attempted to convince MacDivest to end the sit-in and disperse the crowd at 11 p.m. instead of conducting it overnight as planned.
“We had Divest members who were fire safety trained be present for every shift and we were not going to back down on our event. We felt surveilled by campus security throughout the sit-in,” said Egbeyemi.
Despite the success of the event, when MacDivest did attend the anticipated Board of Governors meeting, they were faced with disappointing news that divestment was not announced. In place of complete divestment, the Board of Governors in conjunction with President Farrar announced a carbon neutral plan and stated that McMaster’s indirect investments with asset managers were too complicated to facilitate divestment.
However, support still reigns strong for MacDivest, with most student faculty groups at McMaster chiming in their support and the McMaster Students Union endorsing university-wide divestment while divesting themselves. MacDivest and its projects are also backed by McMaster Green Invest, a group of McMaster professors fighting for reinvestment in non-fossil fuel industries, with many faculty members expressing their views on why Mac should divest.
However, deciphering why the Board of Governors refuses to take the final step towards divestment despite the entire university voicing their support is not MacDivest’s responsibility. MacDivest only intends to keep pushing the university to recognize the facts of climate change and that the climate crisis is here to stay. This sit-in also demonstrated to the Mac community and students how intensely tied the Board of Governors are to the fossil fuel industry and how removed they are from the sentiments of the university, with many Board members such as Chair Bradley Merkel having decades of history at major fossil fuel corporations such as Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil.
“The involvement of fossil fuels and those who have a stake in it should be separated from an institution that brings in students and is about a ‘brighter world’ and a brighter future. McMaster needs to live up to its saying and it should actively try to also have a stake in creating that brighter future,” said Egbeyemi.
Board of Governor’s Secretary Andrea Thyrett-Kid was not available to comment on the situation when contacted.
The Sil will continue to monitor the development of divestment at Mac.
