It has been a year to remember for Mohawk College student athlete Aminu Bello. Bello helped his college basketball team win the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) championship and it hasn’t stopped there. The CCAA has announced that Bello has been named their Collegiate Athlete of the Year across all sports in Canada. Just the fourth varsity athlete from Mohawk to win the distinction, Bello wasn’t expecting such an award, but will certainly take it.

“You just go out there and play the best you can and just try to win,” Bello said. “It’s not something you shoot for in the beginning of the season, it’s just something that kind of happens and you take it as it is.”

Bello was a force to be reckoned with on the hard court all season long as he averaged a team-best 24.4 points per game and went off for 32 points in the teams gold medal game against the Mount Royal Cougars of Calgary. Reaching this level of success has not come overnight for Bello and he credits his past coaches in shaping him into the disciplined athlete he is today. He led the league in field goal percentage and free throw accuracy, connecting on 84 of 99 attempts during the season.

“My basketball coaches from high school kind of set the building blocks for my work ethic, getting me in the gym and working on my game; they were kind of the backbone of my basketball career at a young age. I would like to thank them.”

A second year Urban Regional Planning student, this is Bello’s final year of eligibility for varsity sports, but is confident that his basketball career is not over yet and has already made plans for a future in basketball.

“At this point right now I got offered a job out west in a city outside of Edmonton. There are some semi-pro leagues in that area, so I am looking into if I can manage both working and playing at the level; if that can happen than I will pursue it.”

He stressed that his immediate future in basketball involves having one in his hand, not a clipboard.

“I’m a strong believer that coaching comes with age. At this stage right now I still feel I have some playing years left in me. Later down the line when I have more experience behind me, coaching it is definitely something I might consider.”

Bello is also on route to graduate from Mohawk College in the spring, and should have no problem, as CCAA reward recipients must maintain a high standard in academics.

Axl Rose. Sigh.

Rose has recently come forward and declined to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this Saturday, along with his band, Guns N Roses.

…I’ll give you a minute to absorb that.

I’d say if you look up “self-righteous has-been” in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of Rose. But, alas, he probably declined his induction to that as well.

In a rather long statement (which you can read here) Rose states several reasons for declining to attend the ceremony, and rejecting his induction, including what he sees as a lack of respect from the Hall.

Slash and Duff McKagan are still expected to attend, and Guns N Roses will still be inducted, despite Rose’s issue.

There were long-standing rumors that Guns N Roses would reunite the original lineup for the first time since 1992, following their induction to the Hall, presented by Green Day.

But no. Rose couldn’t let Guns N Roses fans have their moment. He couldn’t leave the past behind and play a few lousy songs with his former bandmates.

Now, I am definitely not a hardcore Guns N Roses fan. I’m a “greatest hits fan”, if you will, but I will still pretty damn excited to see Guns N Roses get back together, play Paradise City, and accept their nomination.

Now, this isn’t the first time the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has been snubbed in such a way. In 2006, the Sex Pistols declined to be inducted. The group wrote a letter to the Hall, referring to them as a “piss stain.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame still inducted them, much against Johnny Rotten’s wishes.

But come on! The Sex Pistols! The godfathers of punk. This was to be expected from them. Sticking it to the man is what punk has always been about.

Somehow, when the Pistols did it, it seemed credible. With Rose, it just screams, “diva.”

So, in closing, Rose should just shut-up, be thankful anyone is recognizing him, and learn not to bite the hand that feeds.

There’s a meme floating around Facebook, a list of facts meant to make twenty-somethings feel old despite objective evidence to the contrary (i.e. their age)- did you know Will Smith has an award- for his rap career? That the Seinfeld finale aired a startling 14 years ago? That Stephanie Tanner is 30 years old and strung out on meth? etc., etc.

And it’s not just Facebook. Not-so-long ago nostalgia is getting a wide release, only in theatres. This week, the 15-year-old Titanic will be re-released (in 3-D!) at the box office, hoping to add to its paltry 1.8 billion dollar draw. This comes on the heels of the re-release of Star Wars: Episode One- The Phantom Menace (in 3-D!) back in February, which followed the re-release of Beauty and the Beast (in 3-D!) back in January, which followed the re-release of The Lion King (in 3-D!) back in 2011, which followed the re-release of the first two Toy Story movies (in 3-D!) back in 2009.

And what can we expect in the future? Well, there’s Monsters Inc. (in 3-D!), Finding Nemo (in 3-D!), and The Little Mermaid (yes, also in 3-D!). George Lucas also plans to re-release the entire Star Wars saga in years to come (all in 3-D!). Movie studios, Disney especially, by the looks of it, have figured out an amazing scheme to separate plebs from their hard earned cash- these are not just your favourite movies returning to theatres, these are your favourite movies returning with a whole new dimension! And Hollywood is reaping in the rewards: The Lion King finished its first week with a $30.2 million, and ended its run with a North American box office take of over $94 million. Beauty and the Beast 3-D also topped its expectations, bringing in over $47 million in its time in theaters.

And let’s not forget the remakes, rehashes, and re-imaginings. The recent hit 21 Jump Street seems to have become more popular than the cult TV show upon which it’s based (though the film, admittedly, has little to do with the show); a remake of Total Recall- not even 22 years old, younger than yours truly-will hit theatres on August 3; Andrew Garfield as The Amazing Spider-Man will reboot a series that ended in 2007 (have we already forgotten the last millennium’s quintessential Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire?); American Reunion unnecessarily revives the hit American Pie series that should have been laid to rest on a deathbed of direct-to-DVD features and Eugene Levy’s career; and on and on it goes, a new decade forever picking at the carcasses of the last two.

So yes, it’s inescapable. And where there’s a cash cow, there’s a whole new pop cultural landscape. This new trend, a new nostalgia, has been helped along by cable television (“I Love the 90’s” five years after the new millennium begins? For crying out loud, let it rest at least another decade before you raid its hallowed grave for cheap punch lines. Oh haha, Jaleel White remembers the Taco Bell Chihuahua. Guess what, Urkel: everybody does!). Television and movies, like VH1’s ungodly series and children’s cinema that is also geared towards adults, has made Generation Y aware that they didn’t have to be old like their parents in order to fondly remember and relive the past, however recent. In fact, there’s a trend now that Gen Y best enjoys cartoon movies when they understand the avalanche of references that sneak past their blissfully unaware, post-millennial siblings.

And if movies and television made us aware, the Internet gave us a place to be annoying about it. Surely people in other decades looked at the one prior with dewy-eyed fondness. But they didn’t have the Internet in which to publicly obsess about their childhood and forever stoke this nostalgia. The Internet may make us more aware of our place in history than ever before, and the venting of feelings on forums, comment sections and status updates makes us suddenly aware that we are not alone. Indeed, other people also enjoyed The Lion King when they were young! Who knew?

There have always been remakes and re-releases, and have been since the earliest days of cinema (a Wizard of Oz had been made in 1925, fourteen years before the classic we know best). But self-awareness and the urge to watch things/plots/ideas you’ve already experienced takes a monster leap when you have a new community with which to bounce around memories and references.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a petition to sign for a Citizen Kane remake.

Hell in a hand basket

You were out all last night at pub and here comes Thursday rolling in like it does every seven days. You’re missing Thursday classes every other week and find yourself constantly asking classmates for what you’ve missed. Your grades are starting to drop and stress begins to build, so on the weekend you start drinking even more to the point of not remembering the night before. All of a sudden you’re in class on a Monday and people are handing something in. The teacher asks where yours is, but you have no idea what they’re talking about. Turns out the project is worth 40 per cent of your final grade and your heart drops. Panic sets in and your brain, which is freaking out, is screaming, “You’re going to fail this program.”

At this point you should have realized that your wild nights have become a real issue in your life. There are usually two responses to this sudden realization – accept you have a problem and seek help or find solitude in denial. Unfortunately, coping with the situation happens to be the most common response to most forms of substance abuse – alcohol not withstanding. But for those looking for a little guidance, seek and ye shall find.

Tucked away in a brand new office, a counsellor of 30 years sits in his slightly cramped and dimly lit room waiting to steer students back to normalcy. In Peter Young’s office at Mohawk College, no subject is too sacred or personal for his experienced ears. Did you drink yourself silly and wake up in a bed filled with multiple, partially naked people wearing grocery bags on their heads? Well, that’s nothing new. All that matters is teaching a student how to cope with the aftermath of their decisions, even if it’s for a single session.

“I’ve had students come in and often times they will come twice and think they’re okay and away they go or they decide to fire me without telling me,” jokes Young. “We try to focus on short-term solution focused counselling where they may be here for three to six sessions, and I would say that’s sort of average. There are some people that I think have this idea of counselling that something magical will happen and that the counsellor will have this insight on what the root problem is that makes them do things in certain ways and within one or two sessions it will go away.”

But, as we all know, magic only exists at Hogwart’s.

“It takes work on both sides – the interpretation of the counsellor and then looking at these things and going out and working on them almost on a daily basis in terms of changing behaviours, attitudes and thoughts. Do they stick with me? I think until they feel they’re somewhat satisfied when they leave. Whether or not they’ve got it all figured out varies.

“The fact is on two levels. One they might be right. My grades will probably suffer a little and I will probably do a few stupid things in my life that might affect my liver, which will impact me when I’m 83, but overall I will get through this process and I’m not necessarily going to be a problem drinker in life. There is this other group that may end up doing and saying, ‘Well, it’s still something I have to do, partying is part of life and if I flunk out I will start a new program in January.’ So they rationalize or they say it’s not that big of an issue.”

Young says breaking free of the boundaries set by their parents often play a significant role in college life, which is further fueled by alcohol. Whether it’s skipping class, getting blitzed on Wednesdays or silently firing your counsellor, students suddenly have the freedom to make their own bad decisions. Set a caged 19-year-old loose into a life of responsibility and you will witness one hell of a transformation. The innocent child you once knew has suddenly changed their Facebook picture to an artistically framed middle finger amidst a backdrop of beer cans.

Can you blame them? They just spent their entire life living under their parent’s rule in a home where they were fed and given money for mowing the lawn. Almost over night, freedom falls into their lap in the form of free money (OSAP), transportation (The family’s 17-year-old car), and a room that doesn’t require a window for sneaking friends in. Welcome to Responsibility 101.

“Well it seems like a rite of passage for kids for decades, if not generations, where young people may have tasted freedom in a full sense for the first time and alcohol always seems to be a part of the post-secondary experience,” says Young. “Kids are away from parental controls and experimenting with a number of things – expressing themselves more openly through taking some risks, through sexual behaviour. I think over the years [alcohol] has always been there for some time.”

Drinking sounds like an inevitability. Surely with all the alcohol education programs that exist in schools some of the dangers that surround alcohol consumption must be sinking in, or at least that’s what I thought until Dr. David Brown set me straight.

“Given the risks associated with heavy drinking and the opportunities for young people to engage in it, I’d say that as a community we are not preparing youth sufficiently,” says Brown. “Educating by just giving information on risks does not have a strong track record for helping people manage their behaviours, whether they are young or older.”

Brown is a Health Research and Policy Analysis Consultant who focuses on substance use problems. For over 10 years, he has advised Canadian health leaders on issues surrounding substance abuse and has engaged in studies with other researchers across North America.

Brown says despite attending a conference recently where they discussed and analyzed anti-substance abuse tactics, a clear and easy way of handling the situation has yet to be discovered. He says in order to help curb some of the abuse, a three-level approach would be needed for any level of success. In an ideal situation, you would first need to reach an individual on a personal level, then the establishments that serve the alcohol. Afterwards policies would need to be put in place to help keep the two in check. Until then, Brown says the onus still falls on the post-secondary institution to help look after and regulate what’s happening on campus.

“One of the things that campuses can do with respect to drinking limits is to find ways to curtail ‘drink specials’ in bars on and near the campus. This usually takes cooperation from the community and municipality. Drink specials lead to dangerous levels of consumption.”

As seen in our investigation, this could certainly be true, but I still wanted to know why campuses even serve alcohol. Wouldn’t going “dry” be an effective strategy for campuses?

“It would be hard to put into practice, I suspect, except as a policy,” says Brown. “Students can always find places to drink on or off campuses. Again, it comes down to increasing the capacity of students to make healthy choices and to provide as safe an environment as possible, and also establishing ways to help students who are at risk or harmed. These steps all require well thought out policies. But this means talking about it as a campus, rather than pretending the issue isn’t there. Administrations tend not to like talking about it too much.”

So in other words, it’s a waste of time. Is binge drinking something that’s so engrained in our culture that we’re literally forced to accept it? I really don’t want to believe that. Surely there’s some form of damage control out there. For now, Young says it’s up to the individual to strike a balance.

“It’s an old, tired expression, but everything in moderation,” advises Young. “Whether it’s alcohol or late-night studying sessions or eating French fries three days in a row…I get kids to sort of do a self-analysis and ask what’s out of line, what’s getting in the way of being where you want to be. Step back and reassess why you’re here, what can you let go of, when can’t you party. Time management is a key to success.”

Change

Much of what I’ve learned while researching this topic didn’t come as a shock to me. Heavy drinking seems to be a necessary evil for some people, especially students. It’s almost this taboo subject that nobody really cares to think or talk about. It exists and it’s better to let things run their course. But something Dr. Brown said to me during our interview was rather sobering. When writing this article, I was so focused on alcohol and education that I didn’t think of the bigger picture.

“Understanding why people drink too much at a time may be less important than understanding the consequences,” says Brown. “Drinking beyond low risk levels has a larger burden on the health system and society than all illicit drugs combined. A large portion of this is from people who get drunk and put themselves and others at risk for injuries. For example, intoxication can actually make depression worse in the long run, thereby increasing the risk of suicide, and won’t make the underlying stresses of someone’s life go away. Extreme levels of consumption can result in often fatal alcohol poisoning, which happens tragically more often than you might imagine on or near campuses when students play drinking games.”

And it’s not just your health you need to worry about. Think of all the relationships that are ruined, families torn apart and bank accounts that are running on empty. The list of effects touch almost every aspect of one’s life, which can then ripple into any number of other lives. Brown suggests to “spend a Friday or Saturday night in an emergency department to get the full sense of these risks and harms.” Sounds like tough love. Maybe that’s what’s needed to educate people. Although slightly cruel, I always thought fear was the best motivator. I admitted to possibly being scared to drink earlier, so maybe there’s some truth to it. However, being on the front lines, Young doesn’t think things are as bad as they once were.

“I think, generally speaking, there is not the sort of preoccupation that there was ten, certainly 20 years ago,” Young says. “You get the whole zero-tolerance stuff on the highways, but back when I was in university when you were drunk the cops would say drive slow. I’m exaggerating a little bit but not much. I’m talking about the 70’s when I was in university. There has been a real cultural shift in terms of attitudes. I see kids getting that. I see people taking taxis and stuff. I think the overall consumption has decreased and kids are getting the message.”

As for the university alumnus, Kennedy doesn’t blame anyone but himself for the twist his life took as a student.

“I have a lot of friends and family that would talk to me about it, and I knew that I was going down the wrong road, but that road you’re going down, you’re the only one that could ultimately change yourself. No one else can change for you. A person needs to know that they are ready to change and it may be a health scare of some kind that could make them change, but if I went back in time right now – that might have helped, but at the time nothing anyone said to me really hit home.”
If he could give advice to someone going down the same path, “maybe they would understand the same things, but talking to that person would be, I don’t want to say pointless because it sounds bad, but it’s the truth,” admits Kennedy. “Denial is a very powerful thing and if you’re not ready to change, you’re not going to change.”

Photo by Michael Black

After what he could only describe as “many hours” practicing with his teammate Ryan Fletcher, and watching their bot maneuver its way through five mazes, 2^nd year Software development student Brandon Lloyd was shocked that “Eggman” had finished in first at the A-Maze-Bot programming competition.

“It’s not that I wasn’t confident in our bot – I am confident in our bot. But I mean winning first place; it’s a little unreal.”

Eggman, the bot programmed by Lloyd and Fletcher completed each of the five mazes required, one of only 5 entrants to due so. They even topped SolSolari; the bot captained by David Kmet, a Software Development graduate who was competing for fun, but were modest about the achievement.

“We have some advantages that he didn’t. His bot didn’t have a few capabilities like sprinting that didn’t work in the competition a few years ago.

For the competition, students program a “virtual-bot” using Java or Scala and are given about a month beforehand to write their program and work out as many kinks as possible. When the competition takes place the entrants are forced to sit back and watch, hoping that they have programmed a winner.

“We release the package that gives them the sample code, gives them all the tools they need to test the bots,” explains Aravin Duraikannan, A-Maze-Bot’s chief programmer. “They can download it, start working on it and the system will generate random mazes… so they can practice.”

The advantage that comes from hard work and experience was evident at the end of the day when the results were in and the top five competitors were all 2^nd and 3^rd year students; the top ranked 1^st year student was Kaushal Ghandi.

“It’s not just about raw talent or about being some kind of wiz. It’s really about effort; it’s about the time they put in. There is a very strong relationship, the amount of effort and time, and how they perform.”

For their first place effort, Lloyd and Fletcher were awarded a $500 dollar cheque from one of the tournament sponsors, Fluid Media, Inc. One of the prizes was even sponsored by Imaginauts, the start-up company that Mohawk College students Leo and Jerad Godreault founded in May 2011.

Brady Heslip

The tournament is called March Madness for a reason. For some, it is a time to sit back with a beer and see how your “bracket” is doing. But for others, it is a chance to be remembered.

“It was something I dreamed about as a kid and taking part in it was everything I expected it to be an even better,” said Burlington native Brady Heslip.

He had already connected on six 3-pointers in the first half, but his Baylor Bears were losing 53-51 in the round of 32 at March Madness; it looked as though the number three seeded Bears might lose to the number 11 seeded Buffaloes. But Heslip was not finished, the tall and lanky freshman rained down three more 3-pointers, finishing with a career high 27 points, helping his team to a 80-63 win, and a birth in the sweet 16. The team would eventually lose to the number one ranked team in the country, Kentucky in the elite eight.

It has been more than a week since the Bears were eliminated from the NCAA tournament, but Heslip is still riding high on the experience.

“It was a dream come true. My first season in the NCAA, for us to set a school record for wins. The NCAA tournament is an unbelievable experience something you’ll never forget.”

Heslip comes from a basketball family, stating “I got into basketball the day I was born… My dad always had me around a game.”

His father was an All-Canadian basketball player at the University of Guelph in 1980, and his uncle is former Toronto Raptors Head Coach Jay Triano. Heslip says he scored his first basket when he was three, and it didn’t take him long to realize what he wanted to do with his life.

“From elementary school you see these guys in March Madness; I loved basketball so much I said that what I want to do. I knew from a really young age that it was my dream to play in the NCAA tournament.”

Heslip got his first chances in basketball through Grassroots Canada Basketball, a Toronto based program. Heslip credits founder and president Ro Russell with giving him his first opportunities.

“From when I was a little chubby guy in grade nine, he took me under his wing and took me to tournaments and I just kept learning about everything and how things worked. He gave me the exposure to all these scouts at tournaments in the states.”

Grassroots Canada Basketball has also been the training ground for now NBA player Tristan Thompson and NBA D-League player Cory Joseph.

Heslip still has two years left at Baylor and is looking forward to playing in the tournament next year, and the exposure for Canadian basketball that comes with it.

“It’s great for Canada basketball you know, guys playing at various schools, Chris Joseph at Syracuse, Kevin Pangos, one of my best friends Junior Cadougan at Marquette; there’s tons of Canadians making a mark. I think it opens doors for a lot more Canadian kids.”

From left to right: Rachelle Abella, Aminu Bello and Justin Scapinello pose with their outstanding athlete awards at Mohawk's 2012 athletics banquet//Photo by Elia Koolsbergen

Mohawk College Athletics 2011-12 Major Awards

Dr. Sam Mitminger Award: (To graduating year student, combining academics and athletic excellence) Aminu Bello, basketball

Wes Hicks Outstanding Male Athlete: Justin Scapinello, volleyball

Outstanding Female Athlete: Rachelle Abella, basketball

All-Around Female Athlete: Ashley Hagen: soccer, volleyball

Male Freshman Athlete: Andrew Cicuttini, basketball

Female Freshman Athlete: Megan Campbell, basketball

Department of Athletics & Recreation Award (Outstanding participation in varsity and campus recreation): Jordan Crockett

Hap Holman Business Award (For varsity athletics, academic excellence by a second or third-year business student): Nicolaas VanGemert

Dr. Keith McIntyre Athletic Leadership Award: Daniel Clark, Jamie-Leigh Haughn

Barb Moore Spirit of Athletics Award (Dedication and the true spirit of student life in support of athletics): Elia Koolsbergen

Varsity Coaches Awards

Badminton: Kien Tran; Most Valuable, Chris Hong, Mohammed Nazimuddin

Men’s Basketball: Manny Campbell; Defensive Player of the Year, Taylor Dowhaniuk; Most Valuable, Aminu Bello

Women’s Basketball: Marina Ciannavei; Rookie of the Year, Megan Campbell; Most Valuable, Rachelle Abella

Cross country: Rookie of the Year, John Miles; Most Valuable, Jonathan Redfearn

Curling: Jordan Crockett, Most Improved, Sarah McFarlane; Most Valuable, Sandy Toole

Women’s Fastball: Stephanie Duffin, Most Improved, Sybel El Kareh; Most Valuable, Nicole Leitch

Golf: Most Improved, Heather Brouwer; Most Valuable, Curtis Henshaw

Men’s Rugby: Eric Moyer; Most Improved, Nathan Lemstra; Most Valuable, Phil Jackson

Women’s Rugby: Rebecca Halliwell; Most Improved, Reyanna Sangestino; Most Valuable, Raquel Rose

Men’s Soccer: Momo Veljko, David MacLeod; Rookie of the Year, Alex Mickeloff

Women’s Soccer: Shelby Dawdy, Jaclyn Halliday; Most Valuable, Ashley Hagen

Men’s Volleyball: Justin DesRoche, Andrew Ross; Most Valuable, Justin Scapinello

Women’s Volleyball: Julie Gagnon, Rookie of the Year, Chi Chi Chuks-Mady; Most Valuable, Kristin VanHartingsveldt

Barbara Hall // Photo courtesy of Toronto Star

When Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Barbara Hall praised Hamilton as a model city for fighting racism, she puzzled several people close to the issue.

“I’d sort of question how she came to that conclusion,” said Brian McHattie, councilor for Ward One and the City Council liaison for the Committee Against Racism. “I suppose I’m not unhappy, it’s a positive comment and we’ll take it, but as the council rep on the anti-racism committee I’m aware that there is still a significant degree of racism in Hamilton.”

Hall’s comments were made on Wednesday, March 21, when she spoke at the Hamilton Convention Center on the International Day for the Elimination of Racism. She praised the city’s community-level initiatives.

“We did much of what you did in Hamilton. We sent a message that this was not acceptable, that all of us needed to take action,” Hall said. “Hamilton, you are an example to other cities across Canada.”

But McHattie believes the city is hardly exemplary, and there are many issues still need to be addressed.

“The subtle kind where there’s comments made or that sort of thing versus outright violence or anything like that, people who are unable to obtain employment for any obvious reason,” he said. “There’s that kind of stuff going on.”

“Certainly if you spoke to the chair of the anti-racism committee [Roger-Wayne Anthony Cameron], there’s still quite a ways to go here in Hamilton.”

Hall’s comments referred to the community’s response after a Hindu temple was burned down following the 9-11 terrorist attacks. The interfaith initiative to combat racial discrimination that was spawned by the attack became the Center for Civic Inclusion, the committee that invited Hall to speak.

Hall also attended at a smaller presentation hosted by the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic. Maria Antelo, Community Development Coordinator at the Clinic and one of the organizers of the event, says singling Hamilton out isn’t entirely justified, but she understands why such praise could apply.

“I wouldn’t know why she said that, but I think that Hamilton is a community unlike other communities,” she said. “Hamilton has a very strong labour history, and in our culture that history has made people really fight for their rights.”

Antelo said the presentation put on by the Clinic was smaller and attended by people from the local community, and that could have impressed the Human Rights Commissioner.

“There were community members that came and they didn’t know she was coming to speak to our event, it was a surprise,” she said. “They registered for the workshop without knowing Barbara was coming.”

“There were people from unions, people working with people with disabilities, Aboriginal people. We had seniors and people who worked with seniors come to the training. It showed a community of all ages, ethnicities, and conditions.”

Photo by Steve Spriensma

Three environmental technician students are looking into Mohawk’s composting habits, and they want to make this examination as public as possible.

As part of a class project, Adom Bouchard, Chris Chevrier, and Zvezdan (Tom) Petrovic are working with Mohawk’s Sustainability Office in auditing the MSA’s compost program. This involves a lot of meticulous and messy work.

“We did a waste audit on all of the garbage stream and recycling stream waste in the Student Centre G wing,” said Chris Chevrier, the student spearheading the audit. “We went through each of these streams and sorted them into recyclables, garbage, and compostable materials. By doing this we were able to identify how much contamination was in each stream. In the recyclable stream, all the garbage and compostables were considered contamination. In the garbage stream the recyclables and compostables were contamination.”

Along with this close inspection of the school’s trash habits, the three students are conducting a campaign to make students aware of the compost program already in place, with help from the MSA.

“The survey that we launched on MoCoMotion was to gauge the student awareness of the current composting program,” said Chevrier. “It was also used to identify any other weaknesses of the program regarding knowledge or compostable products and overall usage of the program”

And in an attempt to increase student engagement, the MSA and the environmental technician students are using new tactics in an effort to get the school interested in composting.

Photo by Steve Spriensma

In one stunt performed on February 17th, Chevrier, Petrovic, and Bouchard took to the stage at the Arnie and performed a little audit for the public. After tearing open bags of garbage collected from the day before, the three students proceeded to examine the trash, weigh and measure it, and determine the results.

“We had one complaint from a student who said it was gross, and duly noted obviously, but the benefit is that we had 20 or so questions coming from students,” said Alan Griffiths of Mohawk’s Sustainable Environment Department. “The other part of it is not a scare tactic, but people are seeing that they’re actually looking at where we’re putting our waste. It’s that message people think of next time they go to throw something out, and go and find a proper place to put it instead of taking the easiest way out and throwing it wherever.”

Alan Griffiths says knowledge among the student population is important for the compost program to succeed.

“Awareness is key to participation in all sustainable activities here,” he said. “We see a change in the mindsets of today’s youth and people wanting to be involved in these types of programs, but they have to know how they work and they have to be aware of them.”

The audit, split up into two parts over the semester, will hopefully show how effective the campaign has been.

“We are conducting a second follow up audit next Thursday,” Chevrier. “This second audit will show us if the awareness campaign has worked or not. We will then be able to provide more recommendations to the MSA for program improvements.”

Chevrier and his fellow students chose to take on the MSA’s compost program as part of their Environmental Projects class, where students work with not-for-profits to perform environmental audits. Chevrier’s team is just the latest to work with the MSA.

Photo by Steve Spriensma

“There was a similar audit done performed last year and we will be comparing those results with our own.”

The Sustainability Office and the students work together not just to create awareness; the Office monitors the students’ work in examining the compost. But Griffiths, himself a graduate of the Environmental Technician program, takes a hands off approach when lending support.

“I set the scope of the work, but I try not to tell them what to do. We do meet every couple of weeks, just so I can keep them on track, but I really let them go at what they know, obviously it’s in line with what the standards are for audits. Let them go and let them learn.”

Captain Crunch as seen at the bridge competition.

The room is dark and rock’n roll music plays as the maniacal Captain Crunch readies his next victim. The audience watches in delightful anticipation of what is to come next, but the students who created that so called victim do not share the same feeling. They have spent the last month building a bridge to enter in this year’s Mohawk Bridge Competition, just to see it destroyed in mere seconds as the crowd cheers and the Captain smiles.

This year’s winner, third year transportation technology student Ben Gammie, has entered the competition before and knows the feeling of watching your creation get crushed; but he also knows how valuable the prize is.

“I was in it two years ago, I entered a bridge and came third overall. This year I just tried to improve a bit on that design,” explained Gammie. “I know the last [prize] was as-you-wish money, but this one is possibly more towards tuition; I know where it’s going.”

Bridges are placed on a scale that steadily applies weight until they inevitably snap, much to the enjoyment of all those in attendance and the mustached Captain Crunch. The load the bridge carries is divided by its weight; bridges must hold at least 1,000 times their own weight to qualify for the competition; Ben’s bridge held 4,168 times its own weight.

It was the competition’s 25^th anniversary, with a record 99 bridges being destroyed. The school also hosts a bridge competition with local high school students.

“The idea is that were promoting the college as well – it’s a promotion for the college in that the students see it, they see what happens here and see the fun side of it,” said Captain Crunch. “Whether they come into engineering or not is not important as long as they come.”

Also taking place during the bridge competition was the “Mad 4 Cad” competition, where students use AutoCAD drafting software to see who can reproduce images the fastest. Taking home the $500 prize for first place was architectural tech student, Eddie Partito.