Author: Aleksandra Sagan

The wooden double doors were closed Wednesday afternoon at St. Mark’s College Chapel. Father John McCarthy preached inside the concrete walls to his student congregation attending the weekly 12:10 p.m. mass.

Plato’s Cave, the student run café to the right, had its single wooden door propped open. The laughter and chatter of the volunteers inside carried into the outdoor square. They worked together to set up the free soup lunch.

Catholic Campus Ministry co-ordinator, Maureen Wicken, organized the event. She said Catholics are responsible for taking care of everyone in the world, which can be partially achieved through hospitality. “I can’t do their laundry. I can’t tuck these kids in at night. But I can feed them,” said Wicken.

Mass was over. The doors opened. The congregation filed out into the square. A group of students claimed the lone picnic table. Some lingered in the sun conversing with other patrons. Many walked inside Plato’s Cave and relaxed on their couches and chairs. Everybody waited for soup.

Wicken said the weekly student soup lunch is just part of the ministry’s hospitality work and they perform a lot of community service. They run frequent food drives for the AMS Food Bank, which startled some people in the community who did not realize that students were going hungry, she said.

The soup arrived. A thick cream of mushroom and a spicy Thai curry were served to the crowd. The sound of silver spoons clinking against glass bowls filled the student space.

The picnic table outside was cramped with people dining. A student intern for the ministry, Anna Francia, said she knows some people who have lunch do not go to mass. “Students are starving too though, ’cause they have to pay for tuition,” she said.

Sydney Thorne sat at a table inside the café with fellow students Matthew Richardson and Peter Vetter. They came to socialize and connect with others. Only one of the three attended mass earlier. Thorne said going to mass is not a requirement to participate in the lunch. “I’ve never seen anyone turned away,” said Richardson.

The ministry’s mission of hospitality allows anyone to take part in the event, although going to mass is encouraged. “Mass and soup is always a nice combination,” said Thorne as her empty bowl sat on the table in front of her.

The Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling blasted Tuesday evening from the speakers in the Walter Gage Towers lounge. Volunteers staffed information tables by the doors and distributed pamphlets about sexual assault. Twenty-eight women and eight men sat in the room and bopped their heads to the music’s rhythm. Meghan Gardiner stood beside a velvet footstool in front of the audience. She prepared to perform her one-woman show on sexual assault, Dissolve.

Lau Mehes, the program assistant for the Sexual Assault Awareness Program, helped organize the performance for the education initiative. She said the play offered the opportunity to reach more people with the information.

Tanya Prinzing sat in the third row beside her friends. Prinzing said she came because she had to attend a women produced event for her women’s studies class. She spotted many of her classmates dispersed throughout the audience.

The music stopped. Gardiner emerged onstage dressed in a simple black tank top and matching pants. She puffed out her chest, squared her shoulders and lowered her voice transforming into a club bouncer. For the next hour she morphed between different characters and delivered the story of one victim’s realization that she was drugged and sexually assaulted. The audience continued to applaud while she ran and grabbed a well-earned bottle of water after the show ended.

Gardiner returned with her face flushed from her performance and answered questions from the audience. She said that the play was based on her personal experience. She intended for it to entertain and be cathartic, but realized that it also educated, she said. “It’s hard because – dare I say it – the people who really need to see this show aren’t here,” Gardiner said.

Most of the blue and grey folding chairs in the room were occupied. The audience was composed of mostly females, a handful of volunteers from various relevant organizations on campus and the mandatory attendance of Prinzing and some of her classmates.

Gardiner had performed the piece for over 450 audiences. At the University of Portland it is mandatory to see the show and students have to write a 10-page paper and pay a $100 fine if they do not participate, she said.

At the University of British Columbia it was not a mandatory event, but the students who participated began an important discussion about sexual assault and walked away asking how to get involved.

Most people came to the President’s Campus Town Hall carrying umbrellas on the rainy Monday morning. Arrivals shed their wet raingear in the Chan Centre of Performing Arts and a homogenous business casual crowd emerged.

Platters of bite size sandwiches, colourful vegetables and chocolate covered deserts spread across three tables in the lobby and invited participants to sample the lunch buffet. Uniformed servers maneuvered through the crowd and restocked diminishing food supplies.

People mingled while carrying glass plates filled with refreshments and sipping non-alcoholic beverages. Groups formed around tall tables draped in white cloths that grazed the floor. Postcards lay on the tables promoting Place and Promise: The UBC Plan.

Sweatpants and hoodies infiltrated the sea of suits when the student crowd lingered in. The buffet line grew longer and plates were piled higher with snacks. But the free lunch was not why students attended.

Andrew Longhurst said he came to report for CiTR, the campus radio station, and would not have otherwise. He said he finds these types of events formulaic and would prefer an organic session. He was interested to see if the president would take questions from the floor, he said.

Jennifer Peverelle, a first year engineering transfer student, came because her unique academic question went unanswered after being shuttled through a long line of administrators and faculty members. It is a “last ditch effort to take it as high as I can,” said Peverelle.

“10 minutes ladies and gentleman,” said an aide and people moved inside the Telus Studio Theatre. Many chatted with their neighbours while a baby’s wail carried throughout the dark hall. “Good afternoon everyone,” said Sarah Morgan-Silvester, chancellor elect of the University of British Columbia, and silenced the crowd.

Professor Stephen J. Toope, president and vice-chancellor of the University of British Columbia, began his speech after a series of thanks and introductions. The speech discussed the university’s upcoming strategies to promote research, excellence and community engagement. The audience listened and waited to hear what form the question and answer period would take.

Toope finished his speech and pointed to two microphones set up on either side of the audience. Anyone with questions would be allowed to line up at the microphones while he answered two queries received earlier by e-mail, he said.

Longhurst arrived at the microphone first. He and many others seized the opportunity for an open discussion.

The paved road to the University of British Columbia Farm guided a constant stream of motorists, cyclists and pedestrians to the weekly Farmer’s Market. Student volunteer, Arthur Krumins, greeted visitors at the gate and the music of the Grist to the Mill Ceilidh band’s banjos welcomed them inside on the chilly Saturday morning.

Toddlers stumbled carrying giant nectarines, adults warmed up with mugs of coffee and dogs slept on the grass in the picnic area. Regulars Jan Smith and Gwen Boyle, a local artist, sat on picnic benches. They chatted in between bites of jam sandwiches on fresh bread. Smith said the Guatemalan Maya gave her the bread recipe last year, but her attempt tasted differently.

Maximo Morales sat under the Maya Community Garden Project tent. He peered at customers from beneath the brim of his straw hat and smiled to welcome those who approached him. He said him and his family immigrated from Guatemala and Mexico. Before the garden his adjustment to Canada was difficult. “But things are better now,” said Morales.

Morales leaned forward in his chair and folded his rough-skinned hands on the table. He said the Maya culture is rooted in farming. The six families plant corn, beans, squash and flowers in the garden and eat what they grow, he said.

Sharing suits the Maya culture. They teach others about farming by giving tours and accepting volunteers, said Morales. “Anyone can join us, help us,” he said.

Seven-year-old Yamanik arrived with her family to help in the garden. “I like to plant the seeds. It’s fun,” she said and chased a younger helper around the tent.

Yamanik may be too young to realize that she is participating in a conscious effort to allow her community to embrace their Maya and Canadian cultures simultaneously. She is just having fun and can because the Maya Community Garden Project suits the University of British Columbia Farm’s vision. Market volunteer, Lauren Wright, said it is to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture.

Yamanik will be able to continue having fun in the garden as long as the farm’s vision remains a relevant part of the University of British Columbia community. But the housing developments on the south campus and debates over the farm’s land use point to an uncertain future.