CAMPUS NEWS - Durham College and UOIT

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6 The Chronicle March 17, 2009 SA ELECTION 2009 No contest for new SA President, VPs acclaimed to positions By Sarah Manns and Edith Zikmann Chronicle Staff Amy England will continue her role as president of the Student Association because no other nominees submitted their By Ingrid Saravia Chronicle Staff Name: Amy England Program: Women’s Studies Position: President Name: Ian Ngaira Program: Health Science Position: Director for UOIT Faculty of Health Science Many students will soon have a few extra dollars in their pockets. As of March 31, the McGuinty government is raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour from $8.75. The province of Ontario started raising minimum wage in 2004. It went from $6.85 in 2004 to $8 in 2007. By 2010, Ontario will further increase the minimum wage to $10.25. Increasing the minimum wage is part of a program called Breaking the Cycle, Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy. The initiative is intended to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25 per cent over five years by boosting benefits for low-income families and enhancing publicly funded education. names for the position. They didn’t have to fight for their positions at the March 12 all candidates meeting. Nicole Robichaud will be VP Internal and Anthony Boland will be VP of Campus Life. Name: Adedoyin Odukya Program: Mechanical Engineering Position: Director for Graduate Studies “I love the minimum wage increase,” said first-year business commerce student Danny Takla, who is a part-time sales associate at The Bay Oshawa. “Any extra money will be really helpful.” However, there is a prickle of fear in Takla because since January, sales at The Bay have not been going well and his hours have been drastically cut. “My hours have gone way down,” said Takla. There were a couple of weeks in February when no one in his department got any hours. Satinder Chera, director of provincial affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, thinks that raising the minimum wage will have a negative effect on students. “With the way the economy is going right now, increasing the minimum wage will not only make it difficult for businesses to hang on,” said Chera. “It’s going to make it difficult for them to hold on to their employees.” He believes students’ jobs are some of the most vulnerable. He said if employers start struggling they will try to hold onto their permanent full-time employers over the part-timers. “At least half of the people working at the minimum wage level are students,” said Valerie Naylor will also continue her role as VP of Trent in Oshawa. Acclaimed Board of Directors include; Rachel Calvelli, Ian Ngaira, Adedoyin Odukya and Scott Kelly. As for executive positions, the role of VP of Durham College has not been Name: Rachel Cavelli Program: Justice Policy Studies Position: Board Director for Criminology Name: Nicole Robichaud Program: Biological Science Position: VP Internal Chera. The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses represents more than 42,000 owners of small and medium enterprises across all industry sectors in Ontario. The CFIB wrote an open letter to the Ministry of Labour objecting to the minimum wage increase. “Small businesses account for half the economy,” said Chera. “They play a big part in hiring students and giving them their first work-place experience.” With universities thinking about increasing tuition and part-time jobs becoming harder to come by, it is more difficult for students to pay their own way to school, he said. Tara Blackburn, director of Hired Career Services on campus, said that raising the minimum wage is especially important during times of economic hardship. She does not think that many jobs will be lost due to the pay increase since businesses have had enough warning. “It’s going to be difficult for some smaller business but employers had enough time to plan and budget,” said Blackburn. The wage increase will put around $1,300 a year in the pockets of full-time minimum wage earners. “Thirteen hundred dollars a year is not a filled and the SA will be holding additional nominations for this position in the near future. Melanie Barnett, a second-year office administration student, was acclaimed the to the board of governors for Durham College. Name: Anthony Boland Program: Physics Position: VP of Campus Life Name: Scott Kelly Program: Industrial Animation and Robotics Position: Director for DC School of Applied Science Photo missing: Valerie Naylor, VP of Trent in Oshawa Minimum wage is going up March 31 raise will bring it up to $9.50 very large amount,” said Blackburn. “People are going to put that money back in the economy and spend it locally.” By 2010, raises will have totalled $3.40 since 2004. The minimum wage remained static in Ontario between 1995 and 2004. “How can the price of everything go up but not minimum wage?” said Blackburn. “Minimum wage has to be at a decent level so people can survive.” According to a press release from the Ministry of Labour, some of the major sector industries employing minimum wage earners are food and retail trade, the two most common student jobs. Gibril Sallah, vice-president of Internal at the Student Association and fourth-year Business student at UOIT, said it is a wise move for the province of Ontario to raise the minimum wage to help offset the increasing cost of living. “Most student jobs are low key that pay minimum wage,” said Sallah. “ From a student perspective, any extra money in our pockets is a good thing and helps a lot.” Students on work-study through the college won’t be affected by the March 31 increase since they make $10 an hour. However the next increase in March 31, 2010 will increase their wage to $10.25.
By Asmahan Garrib Chronicle Staff They shoved grass in Lumo’s mouth and tied her with her clothes. Afterwards, she couldn’t walk so they used her clothes to drag her along the ground. A hunter found her the next day. Lumo was hospitalized for three years. After nine operations she still has a fistula, a hole between her birth passage and internal organs. Her husband left her and got his dowry back. Lumo is just one of more than 200,000 women who have been raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since an ongoing conflict started in 1996. Her story was one of the many told during the Women in the Congo Teach-In, which captivated an audience of eight who sat in to learn about the atrocities and struggles millions of women suffer through each day. Approximately 40 women are raped every day in southern Kivu, a province in eastern Congo. Almost 50 per cent of those sexual assault survivors are children. “One of the ways the soldiers maintain power is to victimize women over and over again,” said Allison Alexander, co-ordinator of the Women’s Centre. “It’s a sick sense of power that they must maintain. It’s also a way of traumatizing the man, having to see his wife or mother or sister raped. Then the man leaves the woman, so she is victimized and victimized again.” In a presentation that included a first-hand video illustrating the horrors these women endure, a PowerPoint presentation detailing the history of violence and a group discussion to find ways to help, this year’s Women’s Centre cause brought awareness to a topic few people in this part of the world know much about. “We want people to be aware of what’s happening to women in the Congo,” said Stephanie Armstrong, a first-year Human Services Worker student and one of the presenters of the teach-in. “We think people know, but not to the extent of how bad it really is.” The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the third largest country in Africa, situated north of Angola and Zambia. It has been ravaged by conflict since the 1880s. “Women and girls are feeling the brunt of this war,” said Viola Morrison, a first-year Human Services Worker student and one of the presenters of the teach-in. “But the root of this conflict goes back to the 1800s when the Democratic Republic of the Congo was ruled by leaders who didn’t have the rights of the people at heart.” Belgian King Leopold II took control of the Congo in 1880, exploiting its natural resources--tin and rubber. Violence, forced labour and starvation caused the death of millions of people. After gaining its independence in 1960 the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced a nationwide army mutiny. Joseph Desire Mobutu took power of the Congo in 1965 and in 1994 provided a safe haven for the militia that directed Rwanda’s genocide. This provoked Rwanda and Uganda to invade Congo in 1996 in pursuit of the Rwandan militia, pushing out Mobutu and allowing Congolese rebel Laurent- CAMPUS NEWS Desire Kabila to take power. “Between 1996 and 2002, the two massive wars fought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were arguably the world’s deadliest since WWII,” said Morrison. Since the 2002 peace agreement, conflict has erupted in eastern Congo in a battle for control of natural resources. “Eastern Congo right now is the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl,” said April Witt, first-year Health Services student and a presenter at the teachin. “Doctors without Borders has stated that 75 per cent of all the rape cases it has treated are in the Congo.” The presentation started with a YouTube video titled The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. Guests at the teach-in watched as Congolese women and children recounted their stories of rape and torture. One woman recounted being raped in front of her children, then the soldiers shooting her children The Chronicle March 17, 2009 7 Congo teach-in raises awareness By Melissa Bies Chronicle Staff Every year, thousands of students graduate with a business degree or diploma in Ontario and begin searching for a job in their field. As resumes pour in to potential employers, what makes one student’s credentials looks more appealing than the others? Jake Simmons believes that what helped him obtain an exciting, challenging and well-paying entry-level marketing position was the Durham College Marketing Competition (DCMC). Simmons graduated from Durham College’s three-year Business – Marketing program last year. In both his second and third years, he competed and placed in the annual competiton. “Competing in the DCMC is something that can really Photo by Asmahan Garrib WOMEN HELPING WOMEN: First-year Human Services Worker students Viola Morrison, Ashley King, Stephanie Armstrong (back row), Sarah Ojha and April Witt (front row) with Women’s Centre co-ordinator Allison Alexander (on right). help you stand out in the crowd to potential employers. You gain experience and have something for your portfolio that looks great to pull out in an interview. It’s something above and beyond going to class.” The DCMC is a full-day competition that takes place Friday, March 20. In teams of five, Marketing students must come up with a product or service based on a chosen industry. Teams must consist of at least one first- or second-year student. They must create a sales pitch and business plan and present it to a panel of judges. The judges will have “money” to invest in products or services, and will allocate amounts of their choice to the teams based on the team’s pitches. At the end of the day the team that has accumulated the most money from the judge panels wins. “Prizes are usually gift certificates from local businesses, but the biggest prize is bragging rights,” said Simmons. “You are competing against your classmates, the people who you sit beside every day. It gets very competitive.” and demanding she eat them. Alexander found the story of Eve, a six-year-old girl, especially touching. “She’s never even been hugged,” said Alexander. “No one wants to be around her because she smells like pee.” Eve constantly smells like pee because she has a fistula that causes incontinence, according to fistulafoundation.org. It’s a common result of rapes in the Congo. “When the tyrants sexually assault the women, they insert their guns into them, which damages their uterus, bladder and intestines,” said Alexander. In addition to traumatic fistulae, the sexual violence also causes genital lesions, unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. PANZI, the only hospital in the Congo able to perform an operation to fix fistulae and vaginal reconstruction is often a week-long walk for many of the women in need. After the operation, the women are provided with only a few days of rest in the hospital before having to give up their bed to another woman in need. “They are having major surgery and having only a few days rest and then having to get up and walk with nowhere to go,” said Alexander. These women have nowhere to go afterwards because their husbands and families disown them, and feel the raped women bring bad luck, said Armstrong. The video also showed Congolese men explaining what they would do if they saw their wives or mothers being raped. Their response was a resounding “nothing.” “The boys are being taken out of their homes so young and being taught to rape and kill,” said Armstrong. “It’s a vicious cycle and the country’s so corrupt. Even if the men committing these crimes were penalized they could just bribe their way out of it.” The teach-in educated everyone who attended in ways Canadians must help. “We want to make people aware that they can help,” said Witt. “It doesn’t seem like we can from so far away, but we can.” The Women’s Centre is calling on all students to help. All the proceeds from a bake sale held by the S.A. and the proceeds from the tickets to the Vagina Monologues on March 11 and 12 will go to help build hospitals and transition houses for women in the Congo, according to Alexander. Students can also compel world leaders to assist. By sending a letter to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon, writing a letter to Durham’s MPP, Christine Elliot or the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila, Canadians can urge them to stop the violence against women. Anyone interested in helping should visit vday.org, raisehopeforcongo.org or womenthrive.org. “They have so much further to come than we even realize to get to where we are,” said Ashley King, first-year Health Services Worker student and a presenter at the teach-in. “Can you imagine if this was happening in our country and no one would help us?” Marketing themselves to the top of the pack After the teams present their work in a dragon’s den format – just the presenter and the panel of judges – they attend a dinner and awards banquet. This year, Simmons was asked to be on the panel of judges. “I still stay in contact with some of my professors and was honoured to be asked to come back to the competition this year as a judge,” he said. He said the best piece of advice for this year’s competitors is to be prepared. “If you’re serious about the competition, it really is quite a lot of work,” he said. “Do your research and be ready for any questions the judges may have for you. Make sure you utilize each person’s strengths in your group – for example, some people are better presenters than others, but others may be more computer-savvy and be able to spruce up your visual presentation. And know your stuff. Believe in what you are presenting, be passionate, and be professional yet personable.”
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