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Students walking home on Sept. 27 were surprised to see the usually colourful crosswalks at the most eastern part of campus covered in white paint.
The crosswalks were commissioned by the city of Hamilton in an effort to honour Hamilton’s LGBTQ+ community.
Introducing the beautiful new crosswalks at the Sterling Street entrance to campus! Thank you to #HamOnt Mayor @FredEisenberger and Ward 1 Councillor @aidan_johnson for including McMaster in this initiative. | #BrighterWorld pic.twitter.com/0vDQbNhNRN
— McMaster University (@McMasterU) August 2, 2018
Pooja Sreerangan, a fourth-year student who lives in Westdale, saw the paint on her way home. She also said that the paint was clearly dry by the time she was leaving campus, sometime around 3 p.m., and that the paint had already spread out onto Sterling Street as cars drove over it.
UPDATE, Sept. 28 2018, 10:11 a.m. :
Both McMaster University and Hamilton Police are investigating the crosswalks.
"The University is concerned about this and is investigating. We are working to clean up the paint. The crosswalk is an initiative of the city that’s fully supported by the University and we are working together to repair the damage and clean up the paint," said Gord Arbeau, the McMaster director of communications, in an email.
"Hamilton Police have received a report of damage to the Rainbow painted crosswalk located at the intersection of Forsyth Avenue North and Sterling Street, Hamilton. The incident is believed to have occurred before 6:00 a.m. this morning," confirmed Jerome Stewart, Hamilton Police media relations officer, in an email.
"Detectives are currently investigating and an update will be made available early next week," he added.
McMaster University has begun cleaning up the crosswalks, as of 9:53 a.m., Sept. 28, 2018.
We’re cleaning up the Sterling entrance to campus and the rainbow crosswalk after a large quantity of white paint was spilled. Mac security is also investigating. Thanks for slowing down as you enter during the clean-up. pic.twitter.com/uUG8tPJe9E
— McMaster University (@McMasterU) September 28, 2018
This is a developing story. More information will be added to this page as the Silhouette receives it.
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For most of McMaster’s undergraduate population, Hamilton serves as a second home from anywhere between three to six years. While these three to six years are about expanding personal boundaries, it only makes sense to expand physical boundaries as well.
So, why are so many McMaster students so afraid of Hamilton’s downtown core?
While there are plenty of reasons to stay on campus, from the McMaster Museum of Art to Cootes Paradise, there are more reasons to discover the city you will be calling home. The imaginary borders surrounding the McMaster community, commonly referred to as the McMaster Bubble, allow students to venture off campus, while staying close enough to their comfort zone.
The Bubble is safe and eventually becomes familiar but there is more to Hamilton than Westdale and, quite honestly, the Bubble does not do Hamilton justice. I am not suggesting that discovering a new city is not frightening. It can be overwhelming to step outside of your own bubble. But what I am suggesting is that Hamilton, if anywhere, is just the place to do it.
Hamilton’s core is not what it used to be and it seems as though the social stigma surrounding the core, although slowly losing its edge, is to blame as to why students are out of touch with the opportunities and experiences downtown has to offer.
What previously had the reputation as a gritty, working-class steel town has grown and shifted into a prospering city, chock-full of opportunity and things to discover. The city’s focus on the arts, entertainment and professional development has ultimately brought a new sense of vitality to the core, with unemployment rates being at their lowest in over ten years.
Hamilton has also seen an abundance of investing and development opportunities geared toward students and student retention. In fact, the City of Hamilton identifies the attraction and retention of students and young professionals as a priority in their Economic Development Strategy.
In collaboration with the McMaster Student Success Centre, among several other community partners, the city is working to ensure that Hamilton the leading choice for young professionals through job fairs, information sessions and networking opportunities.
The city really does have a way of turning ambition into practice. Between writing term papers in local cafes or taking SoBi rides to Bayfront Park, I would be lying if I said that who I am today has not been shaped by my experiences downtown Hamilton. So, trust me when I say getting out of your comfort zone will be worth it.
Union Market is stepping up their game with new vibes and affordable options for your between-class cravings.
Operated entirely by MSU members, Union Market has sold bagels, coffee, snacks and cold drinks at the lowest prices on campus since it opened in 2002. Since May 1, the Market has seen some major changes.
From a new paint job, a soon-to-be new front of house vinyl logo and introducing bigger, better bagels, McMaster’s favourite on-campus market is freshening up their look. Jeffrey Campana, Union Market’s Manager, says that the store needed a new vibe to keep up with customers’ interests.
“We were just so outdated,” said Campana. “Our store was retailing to the market that was here in 2012 and we still expect to succeed in doing that in 2018. Sales go down every single year, but this year I don’t think they will just because of all these things we’re putting forth.”
These changes seem to be working, as sales have been higher over the past few months in comparison to previous years. Revenue for May 2018 was up 7.1 per cent since May 2017 and revenue for July 2018 has increased by 18.5 per cent from July 2017.
Campana says that these changes have also come into effect from a pressure to have healthier food options on campus. Union Market has since introduced a real food bar line and will be tracking its progress over the coming months. They have also upgraded their bagels, that were previously met with outrage from customers after their suppliers, the Great Canadian Bagel, had shut down.
“We launched a new campaign called Bigger Better Bagels are Back, supplied by JC’s Hot Bagels just because our bagels actually sucked,” said Campana. “People were just telling us that we needed to do something about it, so we did.”
In addition to all of the major changes the store has seen since May, UM has also introduced dozens of new products, including 1280 sandwiches, Goldfish crackers, La Croix sparkling water, avocados, filled Cliff Bars and almond milk to ensure a wider range of products for customers.
“These changes are coming because there’s someone that can do it,” said Campana. “A lot of times, people think [Union Market] is a convenience store, but while I’ve worked here, I’ve noticed that nothing really gets done. I’m using the summer to facilitate big changes. There is more that is ongoing, I believe that change is constant.”
Behind the scenes, Union Market’s student opportunity position has switched to a part time manager position. This ultimately reduces labour costs, cutting the full time position and hiring a student into the part-time role.
They have also recently signed a three year contract with Pepsi, which will take effect on August 3 after this past year of serving both Coca-Cola and Pepsi beverages. This contract will ultimately add more options for cold beverages at Union Market and serves as a more financially viable option for the MSU.
With success in their recent changes, Union Market is expecting to keep things fresh with several new features, which will be announced over the next few months.
https://www.facebook.com/TheMcMasterSilhouette/videos/2007169706240727/
If you are on campus at all during Welcome Week, you might notice a wave of Welcome Week representatives out and about with flamingo patches on their suits. These patches symbolize the new Pride Representative Network at work, a pet project of Miranda Clayton, the McMaster Students Union Pride Community Centre coordinator.
“This year, when I took over the [PCC], we did this whole thing where we rebranded it, we completely overhauled it and how we conceptualize our LGBT community on campus,” she said.
If a representative has a flamingo patch on their suit, it means that they are knowledgeable about all the services and supports available to McMaster students. These representatives also serve as ambassadors for the PCC during Welcome Week, as they can offer information to any first-year students who may be interested in learning more.
According to Clayton, the LGBT community at McMaster has felt fractured for many years, partly due to the focus on cisgender, gay men in typically LGBT spaces.
“I started at Mac in 2011, and I've been a bisexual on this campus for about 8 years now… When I got here, and I knew the QSCC existed, but I didn't feel like it was a place I could go, because it was very much presented itself as a place if you are gay and only gay, which I'm not,” she said.
“I wasn't in that straight/gay binary that people seem to think exists, so I was like, "I guess this isn't a place I can go,” Clayton added. She also pointed to results from her survey, which illustrated that many students on campus felt they were not welcome at the PCC, whether they were trans, non binary, bisexual or lesbians.
“We are truly for everyone under the LGBT spectrum,” Clayton said.
As a part of her initial assessment of the service, Clayton sent out a community assessment survey for LGBT students to complete, and found that many LGBT students were either unfamiliar or unaware of the PCC’s existence.
Another issue plaguing the service, according to Clayton, is simply its location; unlike other MSU peer support spaces on campus, the PCC’s main space is in a part of the McMaster Student University Centre that does not receive a large amount of foot traffic.
Clayton hopes that the Pride Rep Network will alleviate some of that confusion by offering students information about LGBT spaces on campus the second they enter campus grounds.
At the time of writing, there are currently 192 representatives signed up to be a part of the Pride Rep Network, and Clayton only expects that number to grow as more representatives are given the chance to sign up. Both the PCC and other faculty societies will post about the initiative during Welcome Week to ensure students are aware of what the flamingo patches mean.
For another representative, supporting LGBT students comes at a crucial time, as they will be a social science representative and is one of the reps a part of the Pride Rep Network.
“When [the MSSS Welcome Week planner] reached out to us about this experience, that's when I researched roughly some of the communities, I looked up Miranda, and saw some of the movement and the story she was telling and I thought that was very compelling and I thought it was an important initiative that needs to be on campus,” they said.
As the summer winds down and campus is flooded once again, LGBT students attending McMaster can take solace in the flamingos that will quietly attending classes with them.
The new Bertrand Russell Archives and Research Centre is officially open.
This state-of-the-art facility is located across from McMaster’s Sterling Street entrance in a former home, which has been retrofitted in recognition of the 50th anniversary of McMaster’s acquisition of the Bertrand Russell archives.
The project, led by McMaster University Libraries, in partnership with McMaster’s Facilities Services and mcCallum Sather Architects houses the University’s largest and most heavily researched collection and is in place to help support activities related to Russell scholarship.
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and renowned peace advocate. His archives came to McMaster Library in 1968, where his library in addition to his correspondence, manuscripts, tapes, films, photographs, medals and writing desk have been on display since.
The 4300 sq. ft. facility sees a reading room, a sophisticated library surrounded by Russell’s works, a compact shelving unit to host the archives and will feature Russell’s personal writing desk and armchair. It also sees McMaster’s Bertrand Russell Research Centre upstairs.
The Russell Archives are the largest collection of Russell’s materials available anywhere, containing over 250,000 original documents written by Russell, 3400 books from his personal library, 3900 volumes of his published works and other scholarly materials, in addition to photos and artifacts.
Andrew Bone, Senior Research Associate at the facility, notes that Russell’s interests ranged over a variety of topics and groups
“It makes it enduringly fascinating that he had so many interests and had so many things on the go at the same time, so it’s never a dull moment,” said Bone. “It’s not all about a focus on one individual, it’s [about] who will be touched or reached, the organizations that he was involved with, the philosophical ideas that he influenced in others or was influenced by, and we continue to learn and discover new things, and to reconsider things as well.”
Among the many projects taking place at the facility, the Bertrand Russell Research Centre will be publishing all the letters that Russell wrote during his imprisonment in Brixton Prison in 1918. Each letter is to be released exactly 100 years after the letter was written.
Bone says that these letters shed light on Russell’s personal life and notes that in terms of the integrity of the centre’s research, both public and private works are equally vital parts of the puzzle.
“[The Brixton letters] is almost unique amongst things that Russell wrote because of the constraints that he was under. He wanted to get a little bit of everything into many of these letters,” said Bone.
“In these letters, you’ve got politics, personal relationships and philosophical ideas that he was developing. So the personal, the political and the philosophical, which is more frequently compartmentalized in the Brixton project, is all together.”
The collection previously housed in Mills Memorial Library, but now sees a dedicated space in a formerly private residence on Forsyth Avenue. The residence has been fully renovated and converted over the past nine months and is now open to the public.
McMaster’s Indigenous Studies Program recently announced a new course, titled “RECONCIL 1A03: Reconciling What? Indigenous Relations in Canada”.
The three unit course, which is open to all members of the McMaster community, will be available in Winter 2019 and will examine the sociopolitical and historical relations between Indigenous peoples and Canada in a post-1951 time period. The course will also explore how colonialism, assimilation and resistance movements are situated in an era of reconciliation.
RECONCIL 1A03 can also be selected as a Personal Interest Course, providing an opportunity for students to explore topics which may be new and unfamiliar.
Vanessa Watts, the Academic Director of McMaster’s Indigenous Studies program says that this course aims to offer a thorough look into what reconciliation means within the Canadian context.
“What we’re seeing in Canadian politics and Indigenous politics is how this word is really landing within communities, within universities and within the business sector,” said Watts. “We’re seeing how it’s circulating and so with this course were trying to unpack that notion of reconciliation given certain historical and contemporary contexts of indigenous people within Canada.”
In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was established to facilitate truth telling and to foster reconciliation in Canada, given the legacy of the Indian Residential School system. An objective of the TRC was to increase public awareness surrounding the Indian Residential School system and its impacts.
McMaster University sits on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations and within the lands protected by the Dish With One Spoon wampum agreement. Within these lands stands the Mohawk Institute, the first, and longest-running residential school in Canada, located nearly 30 minutes from our campus.
The Commission also recommended that Indigenous content be offered at a postsecondary level across multiple disciplines to maintain a momentum of reconciliation into the future. In 2017, Canada announced ten principles respecting the Government of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples.
These principles represent interests including land, treaties, self-government, rights, resources, and economic development, among others. Indigenous peoples have also identified similar areas of interest and highlight areas such as the need for language revitalization, the need to address systemic inequities and the importance of traditional governance systems.
“Just as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls on Canada and Canadians to witness the impact of the Indian Residential Schools and to be active participants in what reconciliation can look like, my hope is that students at McMaster are excited for the same opportunity,” said Watts.
“It is shared legacy and a shared journey between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples within Canada and I hope that these students are excited to learn more about reconciliation.”
The Indigenous Studies program is celebrating its 25th year at McMaster Uniersity this year. As such, this course is to offer a contextualized idea of reconciliation as it relates to academia and community, according to Watts.
“It’s important that we think about reconciliation within the program from an academic outlook,” said Watts. “We also look at it from a community based outlook and those are the two kind of themes that run through all of our courses within Indigenous Studies.”
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I just graduated from McMaster with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art. I started in 2012 and had somewhat like a rough start; changed my mind, left, worked in between and then came back. It took me a while to figure out that Studio Art was the right progran for me but when I did I feel like it really paid off and shaped who I am today.
What is “I’m the Bomb”?
I created two, large scale banners that depict two women, one who wears the hijab or a veil and the other one does not. Both are wearing shades and they’re also wearing t-shirts that say “I’m the bomb” in the two pieces hanging beside one another. The piece kind of works on a few different levels. One of the most obvious levels is addressing our innate prejudice against certain groups of people and who is more privileged than others to wear or represent certain things or what kinds of stigma do we attach to certain groups of people versus others. It’s also a piece that, at least for me the way I view it, is empowering for the Muslim community. In the face of radical groups like ISIS today kind of making a claim for Islam and using the Muslim identity to do heinous acts, this is sort of to address,in an unapologetic way, that people have created this idea of who Muslims are based on falsehood. We can’t express ourselves in a way like that without certain questions being raised about whether or not we as just people are safe to be around. A lot of people took this piece in the opposite direction. It infuriated a lot of people and I was aware that it could possibly do that. I was aware that people might think it’s just recycling the image of violence back out there again. But I would claim maybe it could do that if the woman on the left was by herself. She’s not, she’s contrasted with another image, and in that conversation that happens between them is the point of the piece. The last level, at least based on the feedback that I got, was that a lot of people who identify as female are excited about how empowering it is. We don’t often get to say “I’m the bomb”, like I’m awesome, or wear shirts that say that. We often come across items of clothing that have different kinds of messages on them.
“This is sort of to address in an unapologetic way, that people have created this idea of who Muslims are based on falsehood We can’t express ourselves in a way like that without certain questions being raised.”
Can you tell me more about the feedback you received?
The first week that it was up, it went viral on social media and a lot of people thought that it was an advertisement on a subway done by H&M. So, in light of what H&M did in December, they took it as that. So some people got it, some people didn’t, but I was also aware of that when I made it. I knew what H&M had done and I knew that there was a possibility that people would take it that way and that’s okay, because it plays into the dialogue or the conversation surrounding the work. It’s upsetting that people didn’t dig a little deeper, didn’t try to figure out what it really was. Not for recognition or anything like that, but that it wasn’t an act of racism towards anybody and actually there’s a deeper message behind it. That was a tough weekend. I had a lot of hate mail but it was good overall.
Why did you choose to display this piece in the Student Centre?
For a while I had been creating work for gallery spaces and museums, and I actually struggled with getting people who were part of a community that didn’t interact with art to view the work. I was creating work for Muslims to view as well as other people and unfortunately, although there’s a move towards the arts in the Muslim community, most of the time the spaces, especially in Hamilton and the surrounding areas, are not occupied by people of color, let alone Muslims or religious people or people who like to create artwork about their religious identity. I knew that if I wanted to reach Muslims and talk about the things that address us and who we are and have that seen by everyone and not just Muslims, I had to bring it into a public space. I had never done anything on a public level before so I thought that since I had my graduating show happening at the McMaster Museum of Art that having it somewhere close by would be a good idea. I liked the idea of it being on display in the University specifically because it’s an institution of education, it’s a place where people are still shaping who they are. So it’s just a great opportunity to educate people in a place where they’re already learning.
“Community projects like this, where learning is happening outside of a classroom and you get to interact with it is a type of learning that’s more accessible...”
Why is this piece important to the McMaster community?
Other than the fact that there’s a big Muslim community at McMaster, I think that, at least from my time here, the arts program itself isn’t really known all that much. One thing that I find is really great about this piece is that if people get intrigued by it and dig a little deeper about where it came from they’ll discover the program. It’s good representation for something that brings a lot of experiential learning to the McMaster community and I think often gets overlooked. At the end of the day, you get a degree and you go to classes and stuff like that, but community projects like this, where learning is happening outside of a classroom and you get to interact with it is a type of learning that’s more accessible and it’s relatable to everybody. It’s that connection between the artist and the viewer that doesn’t necessarily happen in a classroom or a lecture setting for everybody because it just crosses that boundary and crosses hierarchies too. I’m not there when people are looking at the work. I’m not like some authoritative figure. So I’m able to just speak to people without having that baggage with me. It’s a form of experiential learning and I think McMaster can really benefit from having more of it outside of the McMaster Museum of Art. Not to say that what’s going on in the museum is an amazing, it is. But I’d like to see more artwork on campus because I feel like people enjoyed it.
Following spring exams, many members of the McMaster community vacate the campus for the summer, forgetting about university responsibilities until after Labour Day. That is not the case for everyone however, especially for the Marauders men’s basketball coach, Patrick Tatham.
While it may technically be the offseason for Ontario University Athletics basketball, recruiting season is in full swing for the maroon and grey, with coach Tatham already adding several prospects to the roster.
Since the end of the spring semester, Tatham has added three key prospects to help out the Marauders next season. This includes Sefa Otchere, who is ranked 39th in Canadian basketball prospects by NorthpoleHoops, Tristan Lindo, a 6’3” shooting guard ranked at 45th in Canada, and most recently, Southwest Academy’s Joshua Massela, a 6’4” swingman who boasts a 7’ wingspan.
For Tatham, and after talking with his connections in the National Collegiate Athletics Association, there’s no special secret to recruiting. Yet, it goes deeper than statistics and raw talent.
“You want to recruit a lot of talent, but you also want to recruit kids that have great character or are willing to work hard, and are just good students overall,” Tatham said. “In our program we talk about having ‘our kind of guy’. For us, our kind of guy looks like a guy that has heart, he is willing to play hard, he’s willing to play through pain — he’s just mentally tough. We’re looking for guys that can fill certain areas, and the areas we really want to fill are athleticism, hard workers, high character kids, and guys that aren’t afraid to get down and dirty.”
Tatham certainly is enjoying his opportunity this year to start building the Marauders team he envisions as his first truly full offseason. As a coach coming to a new team, Tatham found the toughest part to be deciding which players would form his lineup as he inherited a pre-made roster.
“It’s always tough because you come into a situation where you’re not really coaching the kids that you’ve recruited, you’re coaching the team that’s already been here,” said Tatham. “I want to give everyone a fair kick at the can, but at the same time, during the season you build up a great relationship with the guys that it makes it hard to say ‘this is the end of the road for you’ because you’ve developed more than just a basketball relationship with them.”
That transition from the old guard to a new coach and system is not easy, which is likely the reason Marauders fans witnessed a Jekyll-and-Hyde-like season from the Mac men in 2017-2018. The team that faced Laurier in the OUA playoffs by the season’s end was markedly different from the team that tipped off the season in October.
“It was interesting, a lot of ups and downs,” Tatham said of last season. “I always say it was a tale of two seasons. One season was from essentially September to December, the guys are trying to figure me out, I’m trying to figure the guys out. But in the second half, everything starts to click and the guys start to really understand their roles and what’s expected of them. I start to get comfortable with them and they’re getting comfortable with me. So then we finished off the season on a nine out of 10 game winning streak.”
While there is still a long way to go before the 2018-2019 season tips off on Oct. 24 against the Waterloo Warriors, Tatham does not have too many big goals in mind for the remaining months.
“It was just a down year this year, at least for me,” Tatham said. “I’m literally just trying to get my feet wet still and hopefully in the coming offseasons we have a few International trips and a few NCAA games. But I think this year is a good year for us to kind of lay low and just really chip away at getting better at our skills, getting better individually and also getting better as a team.”
While the news from the Marauders’ camp may be relatively quiet in the coming months, it certainly does not mean that there is not work being done. The Marauders will be aiming for a much stronger start than they got off to last season, and that does not come easily.
“It’s going to be interesting because as much as I think we finished on a pretty high note last year, I think 2018-2019 brings its own set of hurdles,” Tatham explained. “Because I’ve gone out and recruited a few kids, still adding a few more kids, they’re all going to be new to this level. So can they pick up things as quickly as possible? Can we pick up where we left off last year? Or are we going to take a step back because now I’ve got to reteach all the young guys especially where we were last January through March? It will be a fine balancing act but I think if the guys are willing to work hard and they’re willing to understand their roles and really buy into being a star in their roles, then I think we’ll start off on a better note then we did my first year.”
Already off to a strong start this summer, whatever the coming months hold for Tatham and the Marauders, the Fall will likely reveal a different team in Burridge Gym than before. A squad that promises to be the building block for Tatham’s Marauders, with their eyes squarely set on a successful season for the boys in maroon and grey.
A few days after this issue is printed, I’ll be a McMaster alumna. I’ll have crossed the stage at the FirstOntario Centre, I’ll have shaken Patrick Deane’s hand and I’ll have a degree. This has been something that I’ve been looking forward to for four years, so why am I so anxious about it now?
Prior to this past year, there had never been a time where I wasn’t looking forward to graduation. That’s not to say I haven’t had some of the best of times over the past four years. I’ve been lucky enough to be met with some incredible opportunities, meet phenomenal people and to be able to learn how to think much more critically. But a mix of the late night cram sessions, caffeine induced tear-fests in Thode and the general pressure of pursuing an undergraduate degree while working full-time often got the better of me, and I couldn’t wait to get out of here.
Fast forward to fourth year, where I’ve spent the better part of these past twelve months grappling to make sense of leaving university. I still absolutely haven’t, and am unsure when or whether it will make total sense to me. I genuinely don’t want this to be over.
It’s an exciting time, most definitely, being faced with this much opportunity. As the class of 2018 is facing the inevitable fate of questioning what’s next, we’re also faced with a chance to write our own narratives and to own the experience that comes with this big step.
It’s also our time to be reflective. How have the past four years changed me? Where do I want to be four years from now? Am I ready for what’s next?
I don’t know the answer to any of those questions, and the fact is that at this very moment, I don’t have to.
Now, more than ever, is the time to take this opportunity and run with it. It’s our time to take the jump in the deep end, not knowing where our feet will touch. It’s our time to take the long way home, to purposely get lost and to find our way back with more stories under our belts.
It’s our time to live these mega cliches and to experience life on our own.
There is no universal plan and honestly, that’s the best part. The world is big and the anticipation of finding out what it has in store for us is overwhelming. But that’s the point. The endless possibilities that come with life after Mac are ours to explore.
While I’m sure I’m not the only one struggling to make sense of it all, the fact is that we’re in this together. We’ve made it through these past four years with resiliency and there is no doubt in my mind that we’ll keep shining for years to come.
