Issue 10, November 17th, 2025

THE VARSITY

Two U of T entrepreneurs

are serving convenienceup on campus

T HE VA

T HE VA RSI T Y

Vol. CXLVI, No. 10

21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 (416) 946-7600

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Yousaf, Jean Patrick Vidad

The Varsity acknowledges that our office is built on the traditional territory of several First Nations, including the Huron-Wendat, the Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit. Journalists have historically harmed Indigenous communities by overlooking their stories, contributing to stereotypes, and telling their stories without their input. Therefore, we make this acknowledgement as a starting point for our responsibility to tell those stories more accurately, critically, and in accordance with the wishes of Indigenous Peoples.

HAVE YOU GONE BACK TO SCHOOL LATER IN LIFE?

PhD study participants are wanted to better understand the experiences of women who return to postsecondary education later in life. If you identify as a woman between the age of 55 and 70 who is currently attending or have attended, in the past two years, a postsecondary institution in Ontario you may qualify to participate in this study. Participants would consent to an interview conducted over Zoom.

Please contact Ursula Cafaro at ucafaro@laurentian.ca for more information.

This study has been approved by the Research Ethics Board at Laurentian University, REB # 6021821

Students

protested

Vesa Lunji & Zaneb Asad

Associate Opinion Editors

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Cover: Illustration courtesy of Simona Agostino

Ella MacCormack News Editor

Munk School guest speaker

who then

Heather

Reisman,

missed the event

Protesters mass registered and did not attend, leaving empty chairs at Yascha Mounk talk

originally set to sit down with Reisman and Janice Stein, Founding Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

On November 11, the Munk School event “Things Fell Apart: How a Dominant Worldview Fell Apart, and Liberals Lost their Footing” was left with empty chairs after students mass registered for the event and did not attend in protest of guest speaker Heather Reisman. Ultimately, Reisman did not attend the event.

Reisman, CEO and founder of Indigo Books, was the subject of protest for her HESEG foundation that provides full scholarships to former Israel Defence Force (IDF) “lone soldiers” — soldiers without immediate family in Israel.

The event was held at the Campbell Conference Facility, which can host up to 110 people, but UofT Occupy for Palestine (O4P) estimated there were between 20–30 attendants. Protesters also handed out fliers outside the event describing Reisman’s connections to HESEG and Israel.

Featured speaker Yascha Mounk, author and professor at Johns Hopkins University, was

CORRECTIONS

When asked about Reisman’s absence, a spokesperson for U of T wrote to The Varsity, “Prof. Mounk decided that instead of an interview, he wanted to talk to students about ideas he was testing for his next book. In response to his request, the Munk School changed the format to a lecture.”

“The Munk School looks forward to welcoming Heather Reisman to our stage to interview an author at another time,” the statement concluded.

When asked when it became obvious Reisman would not be attending, O4P wrote to The Varsity that it was not clear to attendees until the event was over. Although Reisman’s name was still projected on the screen behind Mounk and Stein, O4P wrote that “[Reisman’s] name was not mentioned once throughout the entirety of the event.”

O4P also wrote that event staff repeated “I don’t know” when asked about Reisman’s attendance.

“If the ‘dominant worldview’ that Reisman has been invited to talk about is one that upholds settler

colonialism, apartheid, and genocide, we, the students, welcome its collapse,” read a November 11 group post by O4P, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Caucus of the Graduate Student Union, Boycott Indigo Books, Jews Say No to Genocide, and Tkarón:to Students in Solidarity with Palestine. In the same post, O4P wrote that the HESEG foundation “incentivizes foreign nationals or what HESEG calls ‘lone soldiers’ to join in the Israeli military.”

In response, HESEG wrote to The Varsity, “This is categorically untrue. HESEG in NO WAY incentivizes foreign nationals to join the Israeli military. Scholarship applications and opportunities are not available until mandatory army service is completed. HESEG provides scholarships for post-secondary studies to some of Israel’s most vulnerable including those that for one reason or another have no family support or who have experienced extreme hardship.”

Heather Reisman did not respond for comment in time for publication.

U of T holds Remembrance Day ceremonies on all three campuses

Wreaths laid and In Flanders Fields read in honour of university service members

Junia Alsinawi Deputy News Editor

On November 11, all three campuses held Remembrance Day services to honour the fallen soldiers and veterans of the First and Second World Wars, as well as those who serve their country today. President Melanie Woodin and other university leaders offered remarks to the audience of U of T community members and service members.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Canadian forces’ liberation of the Netherlands from Nazi Occupation.

The UTSG ceremony was held at the Soldiers’ Tower, situated at Hart House’s western end. The tower is a monument to the 628 fallen U of T members between 1914–1918, and the 557 between 1939–1945.

Hundreds gathered around Soldiers’ Tower for the ceremony, which began with a land acknowledgement by Peter MacLaurin, chair of the Soldiers’ Tower committee. In the acknowledgement, McLaurin honoured Brigadier Oliver Martin, the first Indigenous person to attain the rank of brigadier in the Canadian military, and who served in both world wars.

President Woodin thanked the university students, faculty, staff, and librarians who served. Afterwards, members of the Hart House chorus sang the Naval Hymn. The event included a reading of In Flanders Fields, written by U of T alum Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae.

During the UTSC ceremony, U of T VicePresident (VP) and UTSC Principal Linda Johnston spoke to attendees in the room and along balconies. For the first time, the Highland Creek Colour Guard from the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 258 participated in the event.

At UTM, Alexandra Gillespie, VP and UTM principal, gave remarks and laid a wreath during the ceremony, which was held outside the Davis Building near the flagpole.

Different groups laid wreaths at the foot of the World War I memorial wall next to Soldiers’ Tower throughout the UTSG service. Still on view, these wreaths were laid by, among others, the U of T Faculty Association, and various student unions. Of note, Woodsworth College alum Major John D. Stewart attended and laid a wreath.

By the end of the ceremony, the base of the World War I memorial was lined with countless wreaths bearing the symbolic poppy. Above the wreaths and the names of hundreds of fallen

soldiers, a reminder to all those who visit is carved into the white marble: “Take these men for your ensamples. Like them, remember that

prosperity can be only for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”

De-Stressor rooms now occupying old UTM Sexual Education Centre office

SEC executives and volunteers discuss challenges of new office space location and size

Celesta Maniatogianni Associate News Editor

In September, the UTM Student Centre’s new “De-Stressor” room opened in room 150 — the office that had housed the student-run UTM Sexual Education Centre (SEC) since the building’s construction in 1999. In April, the SEC was moved to a smaller room on the second floor, which only fits “an executive and a volunteer,” according to Desirée Andrews, the SEC’s media coordinator.

Leading up to the move, the SEC raised their concerns at the 2024 UTMSU Annual General Meeting, and launched a Change.org petition, which received 1,055 verified signatures. Three months into the semester, SEC executives and volunteers have pointed to several challenges with the new office space.

The De-Stressor room is open from 12:00–6:00 pm as a space for students to unwind and socialize between classes. Its two bookable rooms can fit four to six students, with a booking limit up to two hours.

Equitable use of room 150

UTMSU President Andrew Park wrote to The Varsity that the Student Centre “has limited capacity and cannot accommodate sufficient office space for every campus group.” Since the failed 2023 referendum to expand the Student Centre, Park wrote that, “office and activity spaces must be distributed fairly among clubs and levy groups.”

The De-Stressor Room, he wrote, was designed with “general student use” in mind, “to maximize its benefit to the student body.” According to Park, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“The Destressor Room, formerly the SEC office, is now significantly more utilized. Since we began keeping track of bookings towards the end of September, the space has seen nearly 200 bookings in just six weeks… Prior to this, the room was open to students on a drop-in basis, and was regularly occupied.”

In an interview with The Varsity, UTM SEC Head Coordinator Signourney Tisdall was asked about the Destressor room’s visitors compared to SEC’s. At the time, there were closer to 150 bookings, which Tisdall said,“ sounds about the same, or maybe less, than the SEC last year. I didn't know you could book that room. I think having [the

The bookable De-Stressor rooms in the UTM Student Centre are closed unless they have been reserved. CELESTA MANIATOGIANNI/THE VARSITY

Destressor room as] a bookable space sort of removes part of the community aspect that the SEC offered… There were times that we had up to 10 people in there just conversing, just meeting others.”

Park also wrote, “For several years, the room had very little activity, no regular executive presence, and minimal programming taking place. We communicated that if the space continued to go unused, the UTMSU would need to repurpose it to better serve students, and at the time, SEC agreed.”

Tisdall discussed similar critiques when talking to The Varsity. “There is a big problem getting student engagement post-COVID for all student groups, but especially the SEC — there were less than five volunteers after COVID. They were really small and really struggling, and so we had to change a lot… We definitely didn’t utilize the space to its fullest potential. We’re doing a lot more now to engage the student community than we did last year.”

One-on-one support in the office

The new office in room 243 is a smaller space, which has affected the SEC’s ability to provide one-on-one peer support. Previously, peer support

sessions were held privately in the SEC office rooms. In the new space, SEC members must either ask volunteers or visitors to leave or prebook another room in the Student Centre.

Tisdall described this as “hard and confusing… it’s just a lot of awkward moving around.”

In response, the UTMSU has offered the SEC priority booking for peer support within the Student Centre. But as Tisdall noted, “Sometimes you just can’t book a time for these kinds of things — like if someone’s very distraught about something that just happened, or if they can’t book a meeting in a different space because they can’t talk about these issues publicly or at home.”

“It’s not that the UTMSU didn’t try, but they don’t have any other solutions to give us,” Tisdall added.

Park wrote to The Varsity in response, “Regarding peer support specifically, SEC has not reached out to the UTMSU to request space bookings for their peer support program. Should they require a room for this purpose, they are welcome to contact our Campus Groups Coordinator, or anyone from our team, and we would be more than willing to accommodate.”

Accessibility on the second floor

Another concern raised by the UTM SEC’s team is accessibility. Currently, the UTMSU Student Centre only has one elevator, which must be operated by the reception staff downstairs. To access the elevator, students must first get the attention of a staff member.

UTM SEC volunteer, Foggy Stylianou, wrote to The Varsity that the new office is “majorly inaccessible to disabled people” such as themselves. “I can’t get to the office independently.” They wrote. “This is quite stressful because it’s somewhat uncomfortable to reveal my disability to the receptionist (which is often unavoidable).”

Stylianou also noted that they are often late to lectures when coming back from the SEC because they can’t get downstairs until staff notice them. They wrote, this “dissuades disabled students who aren’t volunteers and can’t use stairs from visiting the SEC and benefiting from our resources when they would otherwise.”

Andrews said the space had been especially important for marginalized students who relied on the space “for comfort, community, and safety,” adding that the inaccessibility of the new office “almost suggests that individuals with disabilities are less deserving of these resources or do not need them.”

In response, Park wrote to The Varsity, “The Student Centre has a lift elevator that operates Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Reception staff are always available during those hours to assist students in using the lift, and our team is committed to supporting anyone who requires accessible entry to any area of the building… SEC is also welcome to leave their resources, pamphlets, and materials at the InfoBooth desk, on the main floor.”

While the SEC has faced a challenging transition to the smaller office, they have seen increased engagement and support from the student community, and has created a self-serve area outside the office that is available whenever the Student Centre is open.

Park wrote, “Over the last year, we noticed an increase in their programming, which we appreciate, and do believe that SEC can continue to provide this programming in the space that has been allocated to them.”

Arunveer Sidhu UTM Bureau Chief

Melanie Woodin attends her first UTM Campus Council meeting

Governing Council reflects on the UTMSU’s event and enrollment statistics

On November 12, the UTM Campus Council held its second annual meeting for the 2025–2026 academic year, where President Melanie Woodin was introduced, and council members discussed matters related to the UTMSU and cybersecurity.

President Woodin’s first UTM council meeting

This meeting marked President Woodin’s first appearance at the UTM Campus Council meeting since her tenure as U of T’s 17th president began on July 1, 2025. During her introductory remarks, President Woodin shared that she had visited UTM “a few times” since starting her role, receiving “a number of gifts” during her visits.

One of those gifts was a UTM scarf, which she said she has been wearing often — including at the World Series watch party. Her take on UTM merchandise? “UTM is where it’s at… some great swag out here.”

UTMSU and the “Honouring Our Martyrs” commemoration

On October 7, the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) held a “Honouring Our Martyrs” commemoration that sparked backlash.

Updating the council, UTM Vice-President and Principal Alexandra Gillespie said members of the UTM administration had met with the UTMSU to “share [the administration’s] deep concerns — and the deep concerns of some

in our community — about this event.” In response, the UTMSU assured administrators that they didn’t intend to cause pain or exclude community members, and that the event was meant to commemorate all victims of the conflict.

Despite “honouring all that is right… and standing against what causes suffering and standing for peace,” Principal Gillespie expressed regret that the UTMSU chose to hold the event on October 7. She noted that

this decision went forward even after the administration raised concerns that it could cause “more suffering and more pain,” adding that she does “not think that is the way we end devastating cycles of hate.”

Government Appointee David Jacobs commented that the UTMSU “shouldn’t have been allowed, not because of laws, not because of issues of freedom of speech, not because of morality, but just because of common decency,” adding, “we shouldn’t have

to put in place rules to encourage common decency.”

Jacobs emphasized that “a horrible act of violence happened against predominantly civilians” on October 7. He noted that Canada is a multicultural society — one that will “ become more multicultural as we progress” — and that “in order for a multicultural society to be successful, we must learn how to live with one another on issues of conflict.”

Cybersecurity

Acting Chief Information Security Officer

Deyves Fonseca and Chief Information Officer

Donna Kidwell reviewed matters related to cybersecurity, highlighting statistics showing that higher education institutions face about 4,356 cyber attacks every week, often for financial or espionage purposes.

They noted that the use of AI on the university’s network rises sharply between the summer and fall terms. ChatGPT roughly 700,000 in June to “just under nine million” in August, and then to 25 million in September.

Enrolment statistics

This fall, UTM enrolled over 3,000 new domestic undergraduate students for the third straight year — a 30 per cent increase compared to six years ago. Meanwhile, the number of international students remained the same as last year despite a 10 per cent drop in applications.

In 2025, summer enrolment also reached a new record, surpassing the previous peak in 2024.

U of T Nepalese Student Association holds first event of the year, months after national revolution

Students discuss importance of creating a cultural club and community from abroad

Eleanor Yuneun Park Varsity Contributor

On November 8, the Nepalese Student Association (NSA) held its first event of the academic year, RamJham. Over 50 attendees and NSA executives from all three campuses gathered at Hart House’s East Common Room to celebrate Tihar, or the Festival of Lights — one of the most significant Hindu festivals in Nepal.

Established in 2024, the event kick-started the NSA’s second year as an association. With the September student-led anti-corruption protests in Nepal that overthrew the country’s prime minister and resulted in the deaths of over 60 protesters, some NSA executives stressed the importance of the event and the club’s presence at U of T.

Start of the event and the year

RamJham is a word without an official definition, but commonly used by Nepalese people in conversation. The word is a combination of ‘ram’ from the word ‘ramailo’ –– meaning fun and enjoyment — and the onomatopoeic ‘jham,’ describing sparkling lights and used in contexts of dancing as ‘jham jham.’

The word “refers to a particular rhythm and gives a sense of sensory to a sentence,” according to NSA President and third-year political science student Ajaswi Regmi.

The event began at 7:00 pm with land acknowledgements, followed by a slideshow presentation on quick facts about Nepal’s history and politics. Although brief, the segment aligned with Regmi’s vision for the club to focus on education in the upcoming year.

The rest of the event included students’ cultural dance performances, speeches from NSA Presidents from all three campuses, and bingo. The night concluded with a trivia game based on the

slideshow presentation. Students who purchased food tickets were also treated to a buffet dinner, sponsored by local Nepali joints, Kathmandu Restaurant and The Chulo.

Connecting with home at U of T

To Regmi, born in Nepal and raised in Canada, the NSA and its events are important parts of her identity. “I’ve never had a student association like this to be part of ever in my life,” she says.

NSA UTSG events coordinator Abhipsa Lamsal was raised in a community with many Nepalese friends, and said finding a sense of Nepali community was difficult at U of T. In an interview with The Varsity , she said, “Especially in my first year at U of T, because we didn’t have the NSA then, I did not meet a single

Nepali person outside of the Nepali friends I already had.”

Given the small size of the Nepali community in Canada, Lamsal says that at first, getting the club’s voice heard and recognized was hard. But both Lamsal and Regmi say that since the September student protests, many people have begun asking them about Nepal.

The Nepali youth-led protest was initially peaceful, calling for an end to corruption, severe wealth and opportunity disparity, and the government’s sudden social media ban. The mass protests quickly turned deadly as state security forces shot dead at least 19 protesters, some of them in school uniforms. The death toll soon tripled with more than 2,100 injured, Parliament and politicians’ homes burned, and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli stepped down.

In the 17 years since Nepal became a republic, the country has seen 14 governments and no single leader completing a full five-year term. Three leaders, including Oli, returned to power multiple times. Nepal’s decade-long civil war, which ended in 2006, killed more than 17,000 people prior to the country’s democratization. Regmi says almost every Nepali generation has a sense of injustice and revolution.

At RamJham, there was a noticeable absence of any mention of the student protests, which Regmi says was intentional. The NSA did not want the discussion to be flippant or performative through a brief mention because it is a vulnerable topic for many — “especially [to] students who just came from Nepal and would not to be reminded of something so tragic while celebrating the Festival of Lights,” she added. Regmi stressed that while she sees the protest helped the public recognize “the powerful people of Nepal,” it is tragic that so many lives had to be lost to reach that point.

Though they didn’t discuss the protests at RamJham, Lamsal says she internalized her pride in Nepal’s youth when organizing the event. “You want to represent people that have done so much good already and contribute in any helpful way you can,” she says. “I just want to make my Nepali community proud.”

At times like this, Lamsal understands the importance of a community like the NSA. “Having this community of other Nepali people… a positive space to discuss the nuances of what’s going on… having a respectful safe space was very helpful for me,” she says.

Regmi echoed her sentiment and added that, in the academic year, she wants to make sure “we aspire for the NSA not to just be a hub for culture, but for aspirations for the future and truly seeing Nepalese excellence.”

Graduate students discuss U of T’s increased base funding implementation

Increased labour, decreased years of and opportunities for funding, among major concerns

Matthew Molinaro Graduate Bureau Chief

Last November, U of T announced that base funding guaranteed for all PhD and SJD students would increase to $40,000 in the funded cohort. Given that Ontario still provides the lowest amount of funding per student in Canada, graduate student leaders have approached this shift with reservations.

The Base Funding Committee

In July, a coalition led by the Base Funding Committee (BFC) released an open letter calling on U of T to ensure the base funding increase did not come at the “cost of clawbacks of other funding sources at the university, faculty, or department level.”

Signatories noted that while this was the first significant increase to graduate program funding in a decade, the letter called on the university to increase base funding to a minimum of $40,000 per year and to provide annual increases to match inflation going forward.

The letter also highlighted how departments have responded to previous funding models: increasing workload and research responsibilities, reducing or cancelling additional funding, shortening program timelines, and shifting funding responsibilities onto supervisors.

BFC Chair Julian Nickel and member Dorothy Apedaile wrote to The Varsity to discuss the committee’s evolving work in response to funding concerns and austerity. They emphasized their efforts to support departmental-level organizing, push back against changes, and collect survey data on funding policies.

As part of their research, the BFC has identified specific impacts: arts and science students faced cuts to travel grants, engineering students saw increased TA work requirements, and public health students’ funding timelines have decreased from five to four years, with additional non-thesis work required to secure their funding.

To address these issues, the BFC has put forward a motion for the December 4 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the University of Toronto Graduate Students Union (UTGSU) to take a larger role in advocacy. This is one of three AGM motions concerning base funding.

“What this experience has really taught us is that without a negotiation process between graduate students and the university, we’re not

going to see future stipend increases and reasonable workloads,” Nickel and Apedaile wrote. “Graduate students deserve a living wage for the work they do at the university.”

Departmental and upper-year graduate student funding

Apedaile is now a fifth-year epidemiology PhD candidate and, earlier this summer, was among the graduate students notified that funding would be cut for their upcoming fifth year. After organizing with her department, public health science students successfully secured partial transitional funding for the fifth year, rather than the full cut.

“It’s grad student research a lot of the time that gets held up as groundbreaking stuff. It’s grad students doing a lot of that… And the university, historically, has gotten that for pretty cheap, and unless we are able to negotiate with them and able to sort of show the collective solidarity we have as students, they’re going to keep paying us as little as possible,” Apedaile told The Varsity

The Varsity Newswire

Professor Mark Duggan has been appointed Director of the Munk School

Byline: Junia Alsinawi, Deputy News Editor

On November 12, Professor Mark Duggan was appointed Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, replacing founding Director Janice Stein. Duggan will serve in the role from September 1, 2026, to June 30, 2031. Stein’s term as Interim Director, which started on July 1, 2024, has been extended to August 31, 2026.

Duggan is a Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. In his research, Duggan has investigated the economics of the healthcare sector, the impacts of large government programs like Social Security and Medicaid, and the effectiveness of public policy in reducing homelessness.

U of T launches $24 million initiative to bolster independent research

Byline:

Junia Alsinawi, Deputy News Editor

This week, the university announced the launch of its $24 million program designed to increase independent research. Central to this plan is the creation of 100 two-year post-doctoral positions

“Regardless of the program, the overall impact is consistent,” UTGSU Vice-President Academics Nicholas Silver wrote to The Varsity. “Students are working more or just as much as before, while effectively receiving less for their labour.”

Silver noted that the Funding Letter Collection survey in one way that the UTGSU has highlighted base funding issues. The UTGSU also meets regularly with the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Joshua Barker.

Marwa Hussein, a history PhD student and Graduate History Society president, explained in an interview with The Varsity that the Department of History had implemented measures before the base funding increase in response to ongoing discussions about precarity in the historical profession.

She noted that labour and funding concerns were more evenly distributed in a larger department than in smaller, less-funded programs. Hussein questioned why the funded cohort of five years does not match the typical time to completion

across all three campuses for the “best and brightest.” This $20.9 million initiative, which begins in 2025–2026, is part of the Research Excellence Postdoctoral Fellows Program, and recipients will receive a salary and $10,000 annually in additional research funding.

An additional $3 million has been allocated to the Postdoctoral Competitive Awards Research program, which begins in 2026 and will award smaller $10,000–$30,000 research grants to fellows.

These initiatives expand on last November’s base-funding increase for graduate students, and are in line with the university’s goal of attracting top global research talent.

Division I representatives elected, but “no part time rep” in UTMSU fall by-election

Byline: Arunveer Sidhu, UTM Bureau Chief

The annual University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) fall by-election was held to elect two new Division I first-year representatives and one new Division III part-time representative member of the BOD. A total of 3,000 students were eligible to vote during the voting period, but only 264 ballots were cast, with four abstentions.

The Medium reported that Mekayel Omier and Maryam Kashif Zeeshan won the Division I positions.

The Chief Returning Officer (CRO) reported that five students

when most PhD students finish their degree in seven years.

“What types of scholars are we producing? Are we just trying to get them out of here? Are we just trying to get people to get diplomas?” Hussein asked.

At the same time, Hussein highlighted the immense labour that upper-year graduate students perform with less guaranteed funding. She also pointed to the equity concerns that the funding increase has exposed across cohorts and academia.

“[Upper-years] are more seasoned, they’re more knowledgeable. They course instruct, they support emerging research. Our professors rely on graduate student labour,” Hussein said, “And so this is a weird kind of academic thing where […] greater experience results in greater devaluation.”

In response to an inquiry from The Varsity, U of T Media Relations stated that “the university addresses matters raised by student societies and employee unions directly with them.”

submitted a Division I nomination package, but no one collected or submitted a nomination package for Division III. “So, there will be no part time rep for this year,” the CRO said during the UTMSU BOD meeting.

During the election, two candidates violated the Elections Procedure Code, one enough to disqualify a candidate.

UTSC academic appeals have tripled since 2017–2018

Byline: Ella MacCormack, News Editor

In an October 16 UTSC Academic Affairs Committee meeting, Shelby Verboven, Registrar & Assistant Dean, Strategic Enrolment Management, presented the Subcommittee on Academic Appeals, which reported that UTSC academic appeals have tripled since 2017–2018.

Academic appeals are made after a formal petition has been denied, which requests exemptions for academic regulation or policy. Common petition topics include deferred exams, withdrawal from courses without academic penalty, term work extensions, or taking a course for a third time.

The number of appeals submitted increased from 2,812 in 2017–2018 to 6,034 in 2024–2025, outpacing university enrolment increases. Deferred exams were the most common appeals, and Verboven noted international students were disproportionately represented in petition cases.

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November 18, 2025

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Two U of T entrepreneurs are serving up convenience on

Jake Takeuchi Managing Online Editor

On the second floor of the UofT Bookstore, among the shelves packed with thick textbooks and stacks of assigned readings, you’ll find two yellow appliances that don’t quite belong. Futuristic, bright, and about the height of a bookshelf, quintessential vending machine snacks and drinks gleam behind their glass doors. These next-gen vending machines are UmaBoxes, the flagship product of Uma, an autonomous retail startup launched by a pair of U of T students.

In an interview with The Varsity, Uma co-founders Walid Al Khalidi — a 2024 Rotman alumnus — and Jim Ma — an economics student taking a gap year — discussed launching a startup as students, the impact of U of T’s entrepreneur environment, and what the future holds for the young company.

Snack to the future

“What we’re trying to build is… an AI-run vending cabinet that redefines the traditional way of retail,” explained Ma, who began working on Uma in November 2023. “We want to provide this ultra point of convenience for the consumer.”

Instead of paying with change or a bank card, you pay the machine by scanning a QR code through the Uma app to unlock it: “You open the door, you grab your items, and then you close the door, and automatically, we detect what you take out what you didn’t take, and we charge you accordingly,” said Al Khalidi. Users are charged based on the payment method they have listed in their Uma account.

Uma is currently integrating AI for “[UmaBoxes’] front end, centre piece, and back end,” explained Ma. An AI avatar will act as a shopkeeper at each location as the product’s front end. The centrepiece will be the AI model collecting sales data in each location. The backend system of the product will

manage logistics based on the data each box collects.

Al Khalidi and Ma also highlighted unique features such as dynamic promotions, user requests for products, and local partnerships — such as stocking Toronto brands Quench and Earth Greenhouse — as keys to Uma’s ambitious attempt to shake up the snacking industry.

Despite launching live UmaBoxes this May, there are already 15 units in operation across the city — such as in physiotherapy studios and gyms — and Uma plans to expand to offices and residential buildings.

Three of these UmaBoxes can be found on campus; two are placed on the second floor of the UofT Bookstore, selling snacks and drinks, while the third unit is located in Kelly Library, selling St. Michael’s College merchandise. “These are huge accomplishments for us to be trusted by large corporations like U of T,” explained Al Khalidi.

U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem

Over the last five years, University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (UTE) has reported that U of T accelerators and innovation hubs have raised a staggering $14 billion in funding for startups. Although Uma has not received any capital from UTE, they have nonetheless directly participated and benefited from the startup-friendly environment cultivated by UTE and U of T.

Al Khalidi and Ma first connected with The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, a U of T program that “provides a comprehensive suite of activities and programs designed to create startup companies.”

The program is open to all U of T students and faculty and provides various services to help launch startups, including connecting potential founders together.

“[The Entrepreneurship Hatchery] is the first [incubator] that we applied to,” explained Al Khalidi. A business incubator is a program that gives early-

campus

stage companies mentorship, investors, and other support to help them get started.

The two used the “workshop space to critique [our] business plan… everyone that we talked with was super encouraging of the idea. They said, ‘You have a product here. Let’s do a demo, and we’ll make it happen.’ ”

In December 2024, Uma attended the Startup Holiday Market organized by UTE. Hosted in collaboration with the UofT Bookstore, the Holiday Market is one of several UTE events that allow student entrepreneurs to showcase their products and services.

There, the duo participated in an “on the spot” pitching opportunity hosted by UTE Director Jon French. “Jim and I, we went up and we talked to the crowd,” said Al Khalidi. “That’s how we got lucky. If you just sit at home and do nothing, you don’t even put yourself out there, you’re not gonna get lucky.”

Following the impromptu pitch at the Holiday Market, Uma was connected with potential investors, the UofT Bookstore, and French himself. French then “wanted us to go to this event called True Blue Expo,” another UTEhosted community event that runs in March, where startups demo their products.

“The event was extremely useful for getting our name out there and getting initial customer feedback, because at that point, on March 3, we still did not have any real-life deployments,” said Al Khalidi. Just two months later, in May 2025, Uma secured their first live deployment. “We never took part of the [UTE’s financial] resources, but we did leverage the connections that it brought.”

Responding to a question about advice for student entrepreneurs, the pair continually emphasized shaping your own luck. “You can twist your luck. You need to position yourself where you can be the luckiest,” said Al Khalidi.

The future of Uma

When asked about the future of the company, the founders highlighted how the expansion starts from right here on campus. “We have many more [UmaBoxes] to roll out. We want to leverage current students in U of T to help us put machines out there. We’re hiring brand ambassadors. We want to grow our U of T team. We want to make a local team for the products,” said Ma.

The company is currently collaborating with the University of Toronto Machine Intelligence Student Team to develop its own in-house software. The startup also hosted a live demo in the Rotman School of Management last month.

The team behind Uma believe that the environment at U of T, where everyone has the drive to accomplish something, is a great atmosphere to be in. “U of T is a central hub… [in] Canada to make things happen,” said Ma.

How hard is it to find a job as a university graduate? Geopolitical factors and AI are resulting in an uncertain job market

Medha Barath Business and Labour Editor

Over 4,000 students graduated from U of T during the fall convocation ceremonies between October 27–30. While many of these students may choose to attend graduate school, a large number will also enter the job market.

However, finding a job as a student could be a challenge right now. A recent report from Statistics Canada revealed that only 457,400 jobs were vacant in August, the lowest number observed since 2017. In fact, this marked a shocking 15.2 per cent decline in available jobs from last August.

Things do seem to be improving — the unemployment rate in October was 6.9 per cent, 0.2 per cent below forecasts. While this is encouraging, it’s hard to tell if this is a long-term trend given that unemployment has been fluctuating around this level for the past few months.

How are things looking for students?

Youth unemployment peaked at a 15-year high of 14.7 per cent in September.

This number is rising largely due to shortage of available jobs. Geopolitical uncertainty, which may stem from American tariffs, has made employers cautious about future sales growth. Consequently, businesses are limiting hiring in anticipation of reduced workload.

A substantial increase in job application s is also impacting younger people seeking employment. Trina Smith, a program manager at Prospect Human Services, told CTV News, “It’s hard to sift through all the applicants when so many people are looking for work right now.”

To address the shortage of jobs for youth, the government plans to create 175,000 new positions

over the next three years, investing $1.6 billion into various government programs. This includes the Canada Summer Jobs program, which will create 100,000 jobs next summer, and funding to further develop young workers’ skills.

On the bright side, youth unemployment fell to 14.1 per cent in October. Part-time employment drove much of this improvement, with 85,000 people gaining part-time jobs last month. Analysts attribute the increase in temporary work to higher demand in restaurants and hotels, boosted by the Blue Jays’ World Series run. However, the economy saw a decline of 18,500 in full-time jobs in October, showing that challenges remain in the job market.

AI’s effect on the job market

The emergence of AI is also impacting students’ ability to find work.

Automation of various tasks is threatening many entry-level roles. For example, according to Bloomberg, more than 50 per cent of a market research analyst’s role could be replaced by AI, while only nine per cent of a manager’s role in the same industry would be affected. Employment of people aged 22–25 in roles particularly vulnerable to automation is down 13 per cent, suggesting that finding work is becoming increasingly difficult for young people in the age of AI.

While this may cause anxiety for graduating students, it could also reflect the economic concept of “creative destruction,” where new methodologies replace old ones.

The World Economic Forum predicts that 170 million new jobs will be created by 2030 due to global trends, including technology, with many roles likely focused on evaluating and certifying AI outputs.

The process is not unprecedented. Researchers from MIT, Northwestern, and Utrecht University found that 60 per cent of today’s jobs did not exist in 1940. Roles like elevator operators have disappeared, making way for engineers and analysts. Of course, the future remains uncertain, and it is difficult to predict how AI will reshape opportunities for students.

A student’s perspective on finding a job Ekaterina Brechko, a fourth-year computer science student, shared her experience looking for employment after graduation in an email to The Varsity.

“[AI] has made the pool of applicants much wider because of the ease of making resumes,” she wrote, noting the increased competition brought on by technology. According to The New York Times, job applications on LinkedIn have risen by 45 per cent, largely due to generative AI tools. “This makes me feel a bit discouraged of putting super high quality into my applications because I often feel they won’t be read anyway,” Brechko wrote.

As a computer science student, she is also cautious about applying to certain roles in her field. The mass public discourse surrounding AI has made her aware of the criticism related to her industry.

While she recognized that there is often misinformation, she is mindful of AI’s real-world impacts. “There are very real issues regarding ethics, privacy, environment, etc that the quick rise of AI brings about. I want to be careful with what impact I have in this area,” she explained.

Opinion

November 18, 2025

thevarsity.ca/cateogory/opinion

opinion@thevarsity.ca

Mamdani’s historic win shows that there is a place for hope in politics

Zohran Mamdani is creating an uproar

On November 4, Zohran Mamdani made history by becoming New York City’s first South Asian and Muslim mayor, as well as its first mayor born in Africa and of Indian origin.

My social media feed has been filled with celebration from South Asians, Muslims, and immigrants celebrating this political win. I started to wonder: why are so many people, including non-New Yorkers, taking pride in New York’s mayor-elect?

Over the past decade, the US, once hailed as the land of opportunity and freedom, has become a place where exclusion, racism, and xenophobia directed towards immigrants are being normalized. In the midst of Trump’s divisive presidency, which has been defined by a crackdown on free speech, violent ICE raids, and divisive rhetoric, Mamdani’s historic win has brought hope back to politics.

For many, Mamdani represents a new kind of leadership, one rooted in empathy, justice, and inclusion. To see a Muslim, African-born, South Asian man leading one of the world’s most influential cities, is moving. I believe that Mamdani is the embodiment of a politics of hope that aspires for better and that can belong to everyone — including the working

class and marginalized people, not just the top one per cent.

His democratic socialist platform called for taxing the rich, including a two per cent tax increase on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year. This would help pay for affordable housing, public transit, and healthcare projects.

His message resonated with New York’s working-class voters who felt ignored by current politicians.

Despite $22 million in opposition spending and waves of Islamophobic attacks, Mamdani stayed true to his principles. When challenged on his background, he didn’t shrink; he responded with grace and intelligence.

During the campaign, Mamdani faced a shocking amount of Islamophobia. He accused the Super PAC, supporting former New York governor and independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, of manipulating an image of Mamdani to make his beard appear darker and longer, and playing into racist stereotypes of Muslim men. Additionally, Cuomo said that Mamdani would celebrate “another 9/11.”

In an era where Islamophobia and xenophobia have intensified, Mamdani’s unapologetic embrace of his faith and culture felt authentic.

In Mamdani’s words, “I am Muslim. I am a democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I

refuse to apologize for any of this.” As a Muslim myself, his confidence and pride in his identity resonated deeply.

Mamdani’s charisma and genuineness have set him apart, as he was vocal in his criticism of President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and his criticism of capitalism, positions that earned him both admiration and backlash. Yet, he refused to waver, giving New Yorkers something they haven’t felt in a long time: a politician who stands firm and for the people.

Mamdani had the biggest turnout among youth voters and first-time voters, compared to his competitors — 78 per cent of voters under 30, according to ABC News polls. Youth support for Mamdani is an example of the onset of a progressive, newer generation. In New York, younger voters shaped the conversation around contemporary policies and inclusivity.

Among first-time New York City mayoral voters, 66 per cent supported Mamdani, many of whom were immigrants and young people, compared to 47 per cent of returning voters. Newcomers to the city backed him, with 81 per cent voting for Mamdani. His message of progressive change clearly resonated in New York among youth, and citizens were moved by his vision and leadership.

Mamdani’s campaign spoke to the current generation, as his social media videos showed

him speaking directly to voters in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic. This became a defining feature of his campaign as he embraced the oftenoverlooked communities that make up New York. The United Bodega Workers of America, the New York State Nurses Association, and the New York City Taxi Workers Alliance endorsed Mamdani, symbolic of Mamdani’s willingness to reach out to the diverse communities that make up New York City.

When Mamdani ended his victory speech with the Bollywood song, “Dhoom Machale,” meaning “create an uproar,” it was both a celebration and a declaration. It said that immigrants, their joy, and culture belong in one of the world’s most influential cities.

Mamdani’s victory was celebrated by immigrants, South Asians, and Muslims, across the world. For our communities, his win was more than a political milestone. For me, it is proof that resilience, empathy, and authenticity can still “create an uproar” powerful enough to shake the world.

Ishmul Malik is a second-year student at the University of Toronto Scarborough studying journalism and political science. She is an International Affairs Columnist for The Varsity’s Opinion section.

Trinity’s controversial tradition deserves a new meaning

Why Trinity students are reclaiming the gown

Eishaal Khan

Varsity Contributor

Draped in nostalgia, gowns have returned to Trinity College. When Trinity College joined U of T in 1904 as a federated college after being an independent institution, it entrenched gowns as a symbol of its history; students wore them to classes and university events as a marker of their identity as Trinity students. Once an everyday uniform, the gowns were quietly retired during the pandemic, and their recent return is facing mixed reactions.

More recently, the gowns were worn at specific Trinity College events, such as academic and High Table dinners, where students eat dinner alongside faculty and special guests. For some, they conjure memories of an elitist past, the visual shorthand for Trinity’s reputation as the most insular of U of

T’s colleges. While for others, the gowns’ return sparks the revival of a sense of belonging at the college, serving as an avenue to restore communal traditions that make college life about more than just coursework.

As a Trinity student, I’ve found myself caught between these competing narratives. However, I believe the debate misses a larger point: the problem was never the gowns themselves, but the implications attached to them. We need to assign a new meaning to the gowns as symbols of equality rather than hierarchy.

When everyone wears the same garment, the lines between wealth, style, or background begin to blur. The gown can flatten the very same hierarchies that critics claim it enforces. “Historically speaking,” said Trinity College Meeting (TCM) Chair Anneke Lee in a message to The Varsity, “the

purpose of gowns has been to champion a spirit of academic excellence.”

At Trinity, wearing a gown wasn’t a sign of division or exclusion. “It was a way we could express our shared identity as learners.” She adds that, if anything, “gowns make Trinity less exclusive, as wearing them reduces our focus on visible signs of socioeconomic status and wealth.”

Trinity College student Lily Portsmouth admitted she was initially indifferent. “I thought they didn’t serve a special purpose,” she said in an interview with The Varsity. “But now that I’m seeing everyone excited about the gowns, it’s uniting Trinity into more of a community.” I believe that the return of gowns brings Trinity students closer together, something that has notably been lacking since COVID-19.

Still, some skepticism around the gowns lingers, especially the criticism that Trinity, in comparison

to other colleges, is more isolated and elitist. This sentiment is a common one, and it’s not entirely unfair. From High Table dinners to Latin graces, Trinity’s distinct culture can appear closed off to outsiders. But its distinctiveness doesn’t necessarily indicate a sense of superiority. I believe traditions also have the capacity to evolve without erasing their history.

The question isn’t whether the gowns are elitist, but whether we allow them to remain so. I feel that symbols only carry the meanings we give them. Portsmouth said, “Other colleges could do this if they wanted to. They just don’t. Trinity’s traditions don’t have to be about privilege; they can be about participation.”

Despite this, the financial accessibility argument also deserves nuance. During COVID-19, former leadership discontinued the gowns on equity

grounds, believing that it was unfair to ask students to buy or rent one. But as Portsman said, “banning traditions doesn’t solve class differences. A better response is helping people join in, not excluding everyone altogether.” Reclaiming the gown in this sense means making it accessible, steps which Trinity College has taken by allowing students to borrow gowns for free for specific events.

Traditions are living and are shaped by those who inherit them. I believe that today’s Trinity students are, by and large, socially conscious and politically engaged; so why should the gown be any different?

I don’t romanticize the college’s history. Trinity’s reputation for exclusivity didn’t emerge from nowhere; it reflects decades of cultural ignorance and social stratification that can’t be brushed aside. But rejecting every remnant of that past risks throwing out what’s worth keeping: the sense of belonging that makes university more than a purely academic experience.

The gowns will become a shadow of Trinity’s past if we allow them to be. The return of the gown doesn’t have to mean a return to old hierarchies. It can mark a break from them. So yes, I believe the administration made the right call. Not because Trinity should cling to its previously tethered image, but because it should revise it. The gown can become a statement of unity and belonging; the choice is ours.

Eishaal is a second-year student pursuing a double major in public policy and political science. She currently serves as the head of finance at the Women in Political Science student association.

Gen Z is stuck in a fake news trap

Social media is rewriting reality for Gen Z, how we can fix it?

Emma Appathurai

What’s New in News Columnist

For most of us, sharing a post or video with our friends is a daily occurrence. Whether it is a funny video or an update on a situation you are following, scrolling on social media has become a main source of entertainment for young people.

While this allows us to connect with our peers and share information, it has also burdened us with the responsibility of making sure what we are sharing is true. We are living in an age of citizen journalists and crowd-sourced reporters — but how much truth is actually being reported? And more importantly, how much fake news are we inadvertently sharing?

The 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report found that 34 per cent of adults in their sample of about 2000 Americans used social media as their main source of news. Around 40 per cent of young people, aged 18–29, reported using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok as their main sources of news.

While it is encouraging to see people take an interest in local and international events, increased social media use as a news source has made it easier for false information to spread far and wide. In my opinion, navigating social media to form your own opinion is getting harder by the day, as false information and malicious intent buffet us in every direction. Therefore, I believe that making sure you only take in information from trusted sources, and pausing before sharing it with your friends, is the only way to make sure you won’t be led astray.

What is ‘fake news’?

We have all heard the term ‘fake news’ being thrown around, either to discredit an unreliable source, or as a defensive tactic to justify one’s own opinion — correct or not. With the uncertainty of information running rampant, it’s important that we frame this issue in the proper context.

Misinformation is the imparting of information that is false or incomplete, but without the intention of misleading someone. Disinformation, on the other hand, is the spreading of information that is false and has been purposefully created in order to cause harm. While one is intentional and the other is not, they both result in the viewer receiving incorrect information.

A May study in the Journal of Public Economics found that 50 per cent of people believed false

information when presented to them on social media.

The growing spread of fake news has led to omnipresent uncertainty within the general public when it comes to trusting new information, whatever the source.

According to a 2025 Pew Research Center report, only 56 per cent of the adults in the US reported trusting the information they get from national news organizations, which is down 11 per cent since March. While this means people may be wary when consuming fake news, it also means they are reluctant to trust reliable sources as well. So what does this mean for the average young person?

Young people and the news

In my own experience, people aged 18–22 consume a huge amount of content from social media every day, and are by no means immune to falling victim to both misinformation and disinformation.

Having just gone through a Federal Election in Canada this year, we saw how political parties and their prime ministerial candidates utilized social media to boost their platforms. I also saw a number of independent creators sharing their own opinions and versions of the facts to sway people

into voting one way or another. These posts were shared again and again. But I believe that they were often missing crucial information and deliberately spread lies in order to sway those who are not wellinformed enough.

One instance of this that I remember distinctly is when a friend showed me a TikTok from a creator advising against voting for now Prime Minister Mark Carney. The creator made the argument that since Carney was Governor of the Bank of England when the UK government made the decision to leave the European Union –– a very costly economic mistake for the UK –– he should not be trusted with Canada’s economy.

While the fact that Carney was Governor at the time was correct, what the creator neglected to mention was that Carney publicly advised against Brexit, and is credited by many as having helped the country avoid a dire economic situation by guiding it through the transition cleverly.

Making a decision when it comes to voting in an election has become not just a choice between candidates, but an all-out battle to see through all of the false information being targeted at you.

In addition to election-based interference, another area that has been heavily corrupted by creators spreading false information is the health industry. While we have seen all kinds of health-

based fads and theories, I feel as though the amount of misinformation that is being perpetuated on the internet borders on a serious crisis.

The “HealthTok” trends that make the rounds of TikTok and Instagram, such as the “carnivore diet” and “dry scooping” pre-workout powder, may have some health benefits, but when creators push these lifestyle changes, they neglect to include the serious, detrimental side effects that can arise from following their instructions.

Whether this can be blamed on the short time limit for videos and character limit for text, or on the creators themselves, it results in the consumers trusting unverified information and practicing unsafe habits.

Why are so many people getting their news from social media?

The 2025 Reuters report found that only 14 per cent of Canadians pay for their news source. In a time of recession and economic uncertainty, few people are willing to spend their money on a traditional, reliable news source, preferring to consume news from free sources and take their chances with sources that may not be presenting information in a fact-based, wellfounded manner.

Many major news organizations only allow free access to a certain number of articles before a payment must be made. For organizations like the Washington Post, whose motto is “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” the use of a paywall seems to be a departure from their mission statement, as crucial information for voters is limited to those who can afford the monthly subscription.

What can be done about this?

The key to trusting the information in front of you is knowing who it is coming from. While some of the biggest names in news have put limits and paywalls up on their articles, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, many more have made the tradeoff with advertising in order to keep their information available to all — such as the BBC, CBC, and The Guardian. You can even check out your school newspaper, as many, such as The Varsity, have a trusted process in place to help mitigate the spread of false information.

In my opinion, the divide between “accessible” and “reliable” is widening by the day, when they should be indistinguishable. Only by taking this issue seriously, and protecting ourselves and those around us from consuming false information, can we form our own opinions and build a solid foundation on which to have real, educated debate.

Emma Appathurai is a fourth-year human biology and English double major. She is also the Opinion Section’s What’s New in News Columnist.

I’m walking here!

Wait for gaps and watch for jerks — the worst intersections on each U of T campus

U of T has three campuses that span the GTA. In Mississauga, to the west of downtown Toronto, lies UTM. All the way in the east end of Toronto, Scarborough is home to UTSC, and back westward, in the heart of downtown Toronto, sits UTSG right in the middle.

With such a dispersed university geography and over 100,000 students, U of T students are bound to become proficient at navigating the streets, sidewalks, and semisafe crosswalks in between, which get them to and from class.

After making endless stops at the same intersections we use to get to class every day, it’s natural to start thinking: how safe is U of T for pedestrians? After nearly getting hit by a car at Military Trail and Ellesmere Road –– a hotspot location for pedestrians crossing to UTSC –– I asked myself that same question.

In order to gain more insight, I asked U of T students questions about their commutes. What do they think is the most dangerous intersection for pedestrians near campus? Which part of campus do they feel is at most risk of accidents? Are U of T’s intersections and streets overall safe for pedestrians and drivers?

Coupled with the independent research on collision reports on and around each campus, these students’ answers help paint a picture of the most dangerous intersections on and near campus.

UTSG

It’s the main campus, the most populous of them all. UTSG boasts an undergraduate student population of over 49,000 and a land area of 138 acres. Interwoven with four major streets –– Bay Street, Bloor Street, College Street, and Spadina Avenue –– UTSG is embedded in the heart of downtown Toronto.

Amalia Enache, a first-year life science student at UTSG, identified College Street and University Avenue as one of the most dangerous intersections for her because of its narrow sidewalk and large crowds. This portion of University Avenue at College Street is split by medians into two one-way lanes. This widens the gap between street sides, and increases the time pedestrians spend in the intersection.

Enache also thinks danger lurks a few blocks west at the “stretch of St. George [Street] between Ursula Franklin [Street] and Sidney Smith, where there are no crosswalks with stop lights.”

The lack of a stop sign or street light makes priority crossing feel more unsure between drivers and pedestrians. As Enache highlights, “pedestrians are instructed to ‘wait for gaps’ in traffic,” making crossing the street feel even more unsafe without a firm system displaying when it is safe to cross.

I’ve seen countless students hovering near the edge of the road, tediously timing the next batch of cars to gauge whether they’re far away enough for them to cross. This heightens the risk of crossing the street — something students simply going to and from class shouldn’t worry about. Enache feels that the planning of this stretch of road makes the risk of accidents higher if drivers or pedestrians are not paying attention.

In 2016, a pedestrian was hit on St. George near Ursula Franklin at a mid-block pedestrian signal — which is specifically designed to regulate traffic and ensure safe crossing for pedestrians. St. George and Ursula Franklin has recently been deemed an “urgent safety risk” by BlogTO, as drivers struggle to cross it amid the constant flux of students who cross it with no streetlights to direct anyone. This illustrates how driver behaviour mixed with poor road design can be a recipe for catastrophe.

In 2018, driver behaviour similarly proved fatal for a U of T student who was hit and killed just a few hundred meters southwest at College and Huron, while crossing the street with the right-of-way.

Enache proposed changes to increase safety. For the intersection of College Street and University Avenue, she proposes increasing the crossing times for pedestrians from 10 to 20 seconds. Enache suggests that for St. George and Ursula Franklin, there should be more prominent signage, particularly for drivers.

UTSC

My own campus is known for traits like its proximity to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre and the extensive Highland Creek Ma Moosh Ka Win Valley Trail. UTSC is less populated than UTSG, with an undergraduate population of 14,000, but greater in size, with a 300-acre sprawl.

First-year UTSC management student Ali Tabandeh identified two major intersections near UTSC that he feels are dangerous: Military Trail and Ellesmere Road –– where I was almost hit –– and Military Trail and Pan Am Drive.

“During peak rush hour, the road is filled with both cars and slow-moving traffic. This frustrates drivers, leading them to rush to make turns on [yellow] lights and sometimes even red lights. Additionally, since Military Trail

which acts as a detriment to pedestrians.

Drivers sometimes think that roads are built primarily for them, leaving others to adapt to however they choose to drive. This manifests in small but telling ways, with drivers edging forward at crosswalks, honking impatiently at slow walkers, or even turning as pedestrians are midway through an intersection.

This mindset becomes especially dangerous when it’s reinforced by car-centric road designs — narrow lanes and short light cycles send the subtle message that vehicles take precedence over pedestrians.

Tabandeh also feels that the western parking lot G also poses accident risks, as “it opens right onto Military Trail.” This lot doesn’t have sidewalk entrances, so students who want to enter on foot often walk in through the car entrance.

This prevents cars from exiting the lot, and enhances impatience, as drivers who’ve had to wait for pedestrians to walk through are more eager to turn out of the lot and “might try to ‘make the best’ of a lull in pedestrians and advance quickly, possibly missing a student and hitting them.”

A 2019 article from The Varsity reported that a UTSC student was struck and injured

is a one-lane road, if a bus is stopped, some drivers may swerve around it.”

The intersection of Military Trail and Ellesmere Road “stands out as the most dangerous because of the pedestrian platforms. On the northwestern and southeastern sides of the intersections, there are dedicated rightturn lanes [for cars] that split the pedestrian platforms.”

Tabandeh opined that this sharing of road and sidewalk space is contentious for drivers, which often leads them to “attempt to turn right regardless of the [pedestrian] block, increasing the risk of accidents.”

Interestingly, Tabandeh speaks from the perspective of someone who both drives and walks around UTSC. This unique point of view allows him to empathize with the fears of both pedestrians and drivers; cars, pedestrians, and buses are often interlocked in a battle for the road during rush hour, which poses safety risks for all of them.

Drivers’ attitudes in particular seem to reflect a sense of entitlement to the roads,

part to increase [pedestrian] safety.” For students, he recommends that they “Wear light colours at night, don’t jaywalk, be fully aware of your surroundings, respect pedestrian lights, and don’t cross at a red light.”

UTM

The only campus lying beyond the geographical boundaries of the City of Toronto, UTM — like UTSC — is enmeshed in nature, with the UTM Nature Trail. It is also larger in acreage than UTSG, with 225 acres of land. Slightly larger in student body than UTSC, it has an undergraduate population of over 15,000.

Valeria Martinez Sanchez, a first-year computer science student at UTM, feels that the Mississauga Road and Dundas Street West intersection near campus is the most dangerous due to its heavy traffic flow.

“It’s always packed with cars, buses, and [oncoming] traffic, making it tricky for both drivers and pedestrians.” In September 2023, a crash occurred at Mississauga Road and Dundas Street West, an intersection just east of the UTM campus.

Despite these incidents, Sanchez states that “Overall, the area is fairly safe, but it can feel tense during rush hour.” She implores students to “stay alert and use crosswalks whenever possible.”

This echoes Enache’s sense of the danger at UTSG, which stems from “The planning of intersections,” which she thinks “makes the risk of accidents higher.” These insights point to two key elements of road safety that come into play beyond tangible accidents: perceived danger and road planning.

This idea of perceived danger shows how fear can reshape public spaces. A 2024 Open University UK study found that when walking, pedestrians are prematurely cautious about things like “lack of streetlights, insufficient crossings, poor signage… road works, and obstructions of pathways.” On campus, this can manifest in students avoiding certain routes after major accidents.

Toronto’s road planning also affects how people feel on their commutes. An April CBC News report notes that the city council approved a congestion plan and a new “traffic czar” to better coordinate construction and improve intersections. Even seemingly small factors like poorly timed lights or ongoing roadwork can heighten pedestrians’ danger, showing how both perception and planning collude in shaping how safe students actually feel.

Final verdict

in a collision near the intersection of Military Trail and Ellesmere. According to the Toronto Police Service’s Safety Data Portal, there was another collision on Military Trail and Ellesmere in 2020, which led to major injuries.

As a UTSC student, I agree with Tabandeh’s opinions on these intersections. Having traversed both Military Trail and Pan Am, and Military Trail and Ellesmere Road on a regular basis, I’ve witnessed several dangerous situations firsthand. I have seen students barely miss getting hit by a vehicle, risking major harm.

I’ve also seen the intersection of Military Trail and Pan Am suffer from similar issues — especially when there is an influx of students entering campus. The aggregate of pedestrians and heavy traffic flow — especially in the early morning — makes it a potential safety risk beyond its perceived danger.

Like Enache, Tabandeh highlights some potential solutions. [Road safety] is a twoway street, and drivers should also do their

Attending university at campuses that are so enmeshed in urban and suburban sprawls means we have to get familiar with how to navigate each road, sidewalk, or random back alley we use to get to class each day. It means that whether we’re on foot, in our cars, or cycling, we have to be more cognizant of each other, and adopt a mutual care for each other’s safety on our daily commutes.

Projects like Toronto’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan promote safer urban design and transportation habits across the city. Vision Zero aims at “reducing traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on Toronto’s streets.”

Dalla Lana School of Public Health professor Bruce Kuimi similarly frames road safety as a public health concern, and urged in a U of T News article to implement the Vision Zero approach, which looks at ways to design roads and policies that account for human error. Kuimi said that, on the road, “people will always make mistakes.”

It’s hard to assert whether the solution to pedestrian-vehicle danger lies in the hands of pedestrians, drivers, or urban planners. It might be a shared responsibility between all three. Either way, we all have a part to play when we’re navigating our days at U of T to make sure we feel safe when we leave the classroom.

Arts & Culture

November 18, 2025

thevarsity.ca/category/arts-culture arts@thevarsity.ca

Schrodinger’s middle class

Canadian writer Sheung-King on how the facade of middle-class success cons international students

Vancouver-born novelist Sheung-King grew up in Hong Kong. Canadian-Singaporean writer Thea Lim described his work as an examination of “the interior lives of the transnational Asian diaspora,” and his second novel, Batshit Seven, is an ode to Hong Kong, set during the 2019 protests.

The story is told through the perspective of a disillusioned millennial returning home after living as an international student in Canada, and has an artistically innovative sentence structure, with a Woolfian stream-of-consciousness and QR codes for readers to scan as a part of the reading experience.

Last year, the book won Sheung-King the Atwood Gibson Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize, which recognizes the best in Canadian fiction of the year. Earlier this month, on November 1, Sheung-King spoke with The Varsity at the Toronto International Festival of the Authors about his novel and its literary expositions.

The Varsity: You described your novel as a psychological profile rather than strictly autofiction. The book also reminded me of psychogeography, the analysis of urban environments through interpersonal connections.

How do you think the differences between the psychological profiles of Toronto and Hong Kong contribute to different aspects of Glue’s evolution throughout the novel?

Sheung-King: I think when Glue left Hong Kong, he didn’t really want to go back. When he was in Canada, he studied theatre, read a lot of Marxist theory, and thought about Frantz Fanon a lot.

Ideologically, he’s stuck because Hong Kong is a hypercapitalist finance hub by design. He can’t escape this reality, which is his raison d’être. It’s already engrained in him that he’s bound to return home, so he struggles a lot with that.

Throughout the book, he’s realizing more and more what he’s unsatisfied about. Or rather, his physical body is realizing that, even though he isn’t able to mentally and emotionally articulate it.

The book is an exploration of that disconnect.

TV: A lot of novels exploring Hong Kong’s nationalist identity tend to center around the Cantonese language, how to keep preserving it, and the politics surrounding it. I was talking with my friend about this because he speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese, and he mentioned that Canadians and Chinese Canadians veer more towards the Cantonese dialect because of the earlier settling of Cantonese immigrants in Canada.

How do you think these immigration patterns shape nationalist identity in the diaspora?

SK: That’s an interesting question because Cantonese is being taught less and less in places other than Hong Kong, or in other cities in Southern China. Now that I teach in the region, I notice that not too many of my students are able to speak it as fluently as I did growing up.

There’s a national homogenization of language going on. There’s a pragmatic reason for that, as a simplified language is easier to learn, which helps increase literacy rates faster.

But the interesting thing is that the people who leave are culturally stuck in the China of the time that they left. My relatives here can’t speak Mandarin. Even my parents can’t really speak Mandarin. They can speak Cantonese fluently, and they’re able to speak English, but that’s because they didn’t really go through the changes that China has gone through.

A similar thing goes with spaces like Chinatown. There’s certain cuisines that left China and established themselves here. The tradition is actually, because of that, preserved within the diaspora.

This nostalgic displacement of cultural things produces a longing in everybody. You’re in Canada, in a Chinatown, eating a regional specialty, and you’re thinking to yourself, “I’ve never had this in China.” And then you’re filled with longing for this dish only because throughout your childhood, it did not exist.

TV: It’s interesting that you mention the immigrant time freeze. Glue’s mother characterizes his Canadian-born cousins as lazier than the kids raised in Hong Kong. Glue goes through a similar diasporic transformation as well, with his malaise upon returning to Hong Kong.

Do you think the international student experience fast-tracks the traditional

immigrant disconnection with home cultures?

SK: I think it’s definitely a very different experience. It also depends on the background you come from before you become an international student.

If you’re educated, bilingual, or grew up in an English-centric environment in Hong Kong before studying abroad, you are, for almost your whole life, preparing for an exit and return. That’s very different from going to public school and then going to a different country to study.

TV: The almost being trained to leave part jumps out to me. Glue’s friend, Po, is quite resentful of Glue having access to resources that will help him leave. And I think that middle and upper-class privilege is reflected in a lot of Asian immigration to Canada, as often only wealthy people are able to immigrate.

How do you think that shapes the modern-day orientalizing of the East?

SK: That kind of orientalizing is definitely one that’s tied with the economic status of the people who are able to come. Even international students are actually very wealthy, in order to be able to afford international student fees. They bring a different kind of culture because of the rapid economic growth of their home countries. They’re presenting an aesthetic of economic growth in living that kind of wealthy life. Living in China, you see the hyperconvenience of, like you can order food at any time —

TV: Within ten minutes —

SK: Within ten minutes, yeah! There’s this convenience, and ease, and materiality that you’re almost forced to enjoy because you learn from a young age that “Oh we went through so much to get to this point, you have to enjoy it.” Why else live here? And from that background, coming here to Canada, you present yourself as somebody used to that.

Hyperconvenience is a byproduct of productivity and capitalism. It’s convenience so that people can do the most amount of work possible. So I’m also cautious of that.

TV: Do you think that middle-class upbringing and desire for constant growth in hypercapitalist societies trap immigrants in a self-orientalizing pattern?

SK: Yeah, yeah, of course. That’s why people force their kids to play the piano: there’s an upper-

middle-class aesthetic to classical music. I was only recently able to enjoy classical music because I was forced to play piano.

Within Hong Kong, if you’re able to speak fluent English, it means that you probably belong to another class of people. Or if you’re able to actually be trilingual — Mandarin, Cantonese, and English — then it says something about your class signifier.

TV: That’s fascinating because Glue is also an English as a second language (ESL) teacher. You also mention IELTS fees. How do you think that financial pressure interferes with learning the language when it’s out of necessity rather than passion?

SK: Glue thinks it’s a scam. It’s so expensive. Passing the test doesn’t necessarily mean you can do anything.

I have a lot of friends who had to take the test. They can speak English completely fine; it’s just

something about the test that they struggle with. It’s not because they’re bad at testing or that they don’t speak English.

Because of the prevalence of English globally, these companies and institutions, of course, need to commodify that. They make up a test you have to pass in order to continue your studies.

Glue, having gone through this system himself, hates being a part of it as an adult. He’s also dyslexic, so he hated testing. Becoming an ESL instructor is like he became what he hated most. But because he needed to maintain his life, he had no choice. He’s very trapped in this middleclassness.

TV: You mention that you wanted to mimic the modern attention economy with the QR codes. Do you think that helps the readers visualize this very specific time and context of Hong Kong?

SK: I definitely think so. The form of the novel is a product of this age of platform economics, attention economics, and algorithmic commodification.

You see what’s in Glue’s algorithm by scanning the QR codes, right? It captures how it feels to be in this time, where attention is short, attention is split, attention is not very much on the self. That’s why it’s in a third-person narration, because Glue doesn’t know what’s happening to him. A narrator needs to tell the reader what is happening to Glue.

There’s also this distance between event, affect, and self-awareness that exists within the novel’s perspective. There are many things that Glue could have done differently, but in this time and in this story, that’s not what happens.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What a thesis and pining for your brother’s fiancée does to a man

Thoughts

Medha Surajpal Editor-in-Chief

Frankenstein , Guillermo del Toro’s recreation of the sci-fi classic, had its North American premiere at TIFF earlier this year. The film made it to Netflix on November 7, and as a poor opponent of peer pressure, it didn’t take much for my friends to convince me to see Jacob Elordi as Frankenstein’s monster.

The gothic sci-fi film follows a similar trajectory as Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel of the same name, jumping between the past and the present to tell Baron Victor Frankenstein’s story. While I haven’t read the book in years, I can’t say that I remember Victor having such apparent daddy issues. He grows up very close to his mother (Mia Goth), and when she dies in childbirth, Victor blames his father (Charles Dance) — a renowned surgeon — for letting it happen.

He resents his baby brother William (Felix Kammerer) for being the golden child, and hates his father for favouring the younger boy. Victor’s anger fuels his studies. After all, there’s

nothing like your father’s unattainable standards to provide academic motivation.

As a child, the ‘Dark Angel’ appears in Victor’s dream and promises that he will conquer life and death. As an adult, Victor (Oscar Isaac) is obsessed with the concept of bringing bodies back to life, and you know how the story goes.

The motif of the Dark Angel and images of twisted bodies, corpses, and other horrors, such as the nineteenth-century’s sanitation standards, are woven into nearly every scene. Isaac’s egotistical Victor is constantly surrounded by bodies: living, dead, or carved. His character was hard to watch, but that only means it was well performed.

Victor is like a child who begs for a puppy and doesn’t take care of it once he has it. His ultimate creation — a successfully reanimated corpse — should have been a source of pride, but he instead curses its existence for its supposed lack of intelligence, since the only word it can say is “Victor.”

He defaults to abusing it, physically and verbally, mirroring how his own father treated him while drilling facts about the human body into his mind.

Elizabeth, William’s fiancée, is everything Victor isn’t: innocent, curious, and nurturing, especially to the Creature. It is a tired trope to have a woman be caring and delicate, but she’s also played by Mia Goth, and I couldn’t look away when she was acting. She plays a double role as Victor’s mother in the film, so for all of you psychology majors, do with that what you will.

Victor suffers from a lasting infatuation with Elizabeth, and is unable to fully let her go, even on her wedding day — but who hasn’t had a messy situationship in this day and age?

Elizabeth treats Victor’s Creature like a person and teaches it her name, which leads Victor to further abuse his own creation, out of jealousy.

Speaking of the Monster, Elordi’s Creature is a beautiful, twisted thing. At first, he did

remind me of Dragon Ball ’s Freiza, with the naked, white, hairless body and deep-set, almost purple scars. Once the Creature starts to grow hair and wear clothes, he seems more like the classic monster of Frankenstein, only this time with an insane healing factor.

True to the novel, the Creature never receives a name, though his character develops over the 149 minutes of the film. He learns to talk, acquires a love for reading, shares berries with wild deer, takes care of the elderly, and violently murders multiple people.

I wouldn’t call Frankenstein a horror film, but it was a gruesome and tragic retelling of the sci-fi staple. Through a new creative lens, the lifelong battle between Victor and his monster made for a really stunning work of art. If you’re any sort of del Toro fan, or if you have a soft spot for unsettling body horror and dysfunctional, arrogant men, Frankenstein might be the next film for you.

Zaneb Asad Associate Opinion Editor

Seinfeld : Separating the art from the artist?

What to do when comfort shows collide with our conscience

“But my feet… My feet are resilient!” My mother shouts this line from the TV show Seinfeld quite often. In my house, Seinfeld is a lot more than just a comfort show — it’s a shared language.

I’ve always thought that the best family traditions and inside jokes must include laughter and questionable ethics. Nothing says family bonding like a good ol’ ’90s sitcom — even if it’s created by someone whose politics I’d rather not bond over.

Seinfeld is often called a show about nothing, as it focuses on the everyday lives of an average group of friends. Even so, lines from countless episodes have wormed their way into mine and my family’s everyday speech and have become a shorthand for humour and irony. The show has also forced me to confront the impossibility of ethical media consumption.

More about Seinfeld to enlighten less seasoned viewers: Jerry Seinfeld — who is both the creator and star of the series which shares his surname — is a Zionist. He has expressed his support for Israel in regard to the war in Gaza, which has been deemed a genocide by human rights organizations

such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In response to backlash he received for his support for Israel, he has also said that he doesn’t “care about Palestine.” Additionally, Seinfeld compared the Free Palestine movement to the KKK, in a speech at Duke University.

Still, the reality is that I adore the show. I remember watching it with my mum when I was younger, so it’s a time capsule of my childhood wrapped into a cynical package that is equally warm as it is offbeat. Within the ‘separating the art from the artist’ dilemma, is ethical consumption even possible?

Is it okay to consume media created by someone whose politics I disagree with? An answer, or at least something to consider, could be finding a way to consume Seinfeld or any media created by people with whom we politically or ethically disagree that doesn’t profit the artist directly.

Would this absolve the consumer, or is it just a convenient loophole? Would the situation become more justifiable if I told you that I only watch the show on DVD from a box set that I thrifted instead of on a streaming service that pays royalties?

I struggle to accept my relationship with Seinfeld, because although I love the show, I also know that consuming entertainment isn’t passive, and

We are deeply connected to the media we consume, especially when they are tied to memories that shape our lives in ways that we can’t clearly undo.

Within the ‘separating the art from the artist’ dilemma, is ethical consumption even possible?

art cannot be neutral. I ask myself, how does this entertainment reflect me as a person and shape my worldview in general?

As comforting as Seinfeld is to me, its continued relevance gives Seinfeld a platform to spew hateful rhetoric. The art we consume is not separate from our political and ethical scope — and that’s why it matters. The choices we make as consumers have the power to challenge or support creators’ views.

We are deeply connected to the media we consume, especially when they are tied to memories that shape our lives in ways that we can’t clearly undo. I think that’s why it’s hard for me to come up with clear-cut answers on how to move forward.

My goal as a writer is to plant a seed of thought. In response to Seinfeld’s comment, Mo Amer, a

Palestinian-American stand-up comedian and actor, recently said, “Jerry, I care about everyone.” I think caring about real people is more important than apathetic comments from influential figures. For me, it’s important to support Palestinians in their ongoing struggle for justice.

However, just as many of us continue to consume media from artists with questionable ethics, such as J.K. Rowling or Taylor Swift, Seinfeld remains a show near and dear to my heart. Nonetheless, I continue to try to navigate this complicated media landscape by watching it exclusively on DVD. I also make an effort to strengthen my media literacy and awareness of social justice issues. That way, I can engage with the show intentionally and grapple with the complicated and oftentimes disappointing legacies art and artists can hold.

November 18, 2025

thevarsity.ca/category/science science@thevarsity.ca

The philosophy of science

On scientific thinking and why ‘truth’

Siriah Subit

Varsity Contributor

Consider this: science isn’t a perfect collection of true facts. Instead, science is closer to a game whose goal is to explain patterns, uncover mechanisms, and make reliable predictions about natural phenomena. Philosophy of science functions as the rulebook and commentary for that game, clarifying how evidence should be interpreted, how theories evolve, and where the limits of our reasoning lie.

This way of thinking prompts deeper questions: how does scientific thinking operate? Why do we teach models that are only partially correct, like classical Newtonian mechanics? By examining scientific methods and their limits, the philosophy of science offers a more nuanced view of how we build scientific knowledge.

Scientific reasoning relies on logical thinking, skepticism, and reproducibility — the ability to repeat an experiment and yield the same results. Importantly, a scientific hypothesis is never considered ‘true,’ and like all scientific theories, it is always open to revision based on new evidence. This adaptability is what separates science from rigid beliefs or dogma.

isn’t final

Why we teach ‘incorrect’ theories

In practice, science frequently leans on the

By recognizing that knowledge in science is always subject to revision, we also welcome the potential for paradigm shifts — those moments when the scientific ‘game’ changes because new evidence compels us to reconsider old assumptions. To appreciate how such shifts arise, we need to consider what reasoning tools scientists use to construct, test, and ultimately revise their theories.

The power and limits of logical reasoning

Logical reasoning in science combines deductive and inductive approaches. Deduction is a method of reasoning that starts

specific case to draw a conclusion. For example, if it is known that all metals expand when heated, we can deduce that a copper rod will expand under heat.

Induction, in contrast, draws general conclusions from specific observations. For instance, by inductive reasoning, if we observe multiple times that several different metals expand when heated, we might infer that all metals expand under heat.

Through the philosophy of science, the limits of both are evident. Deductive conclusions are only as valid as the premises they are based on; inductive conclusions are tentative. Clearly, scientific knowledge is never absolute, but rather always tentative and open to modification, as reflected in how we model the world.

Things that go bump in the

night

How sound helps bring horrors to life

Mia White Varsity Contributor

Have you ever had to put a horror movie on mute?

Maybe your anticipation of jump scares made you cover your ears or pull a blanket over your head. Or maybe the slow build of the soundtrack alone was enough to make your stomach churn and send chills down the back of your spine.

The science behind musical stress measurement

If you’ve ever been shaken by a horror movie’s musical score, you are not alone. Slow musical

builds and sudden percussive notes in film scores can cause a real physical response in listeners.

In a 2022 study by Germany’s University of Giessen, researchers discovered that scenes from horror movies elicit a higher skin conductance — how well electricity can move through the skin — in viewers when they are layered with intense music than when they are viewed without music.

This means that during these scenes, the viewers’ skin was better able to conduct electricity.

According to a 2019 study by Turkey’s Bogazici University, the human body begins to sweat, increasing the electrical conductivity of the skin in response to stressors — like those experienced in an office environment or under a time constraint.

By attaching two electrodes to the skin and measuring the strength of a small electrical current running between them, researchers are able to take an indirect measurement of the stress experienced by horror movie audiences.

Cringing from creepy sounds

Sound effects can have the same effect as music on horror audiences. From the wildly unique and abstract noises in Stranger Things to the familiar terrors of Quint scraping his fingernails across a chalkboard in Jaws, every horror movie fan knows that all kinds of discomfort can be stirred with the right noise.

A 2011 study presented by the University of Vienna and the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences investigated physiological responses and perceived unpleasantness to uncomfortable sounds. The list includes the sounds of fingernails on chalkboard, the shrill squeaking of styrofoam, and the scraping of a plate with a fork.

Participants were asked to rate how pleasant or unpleasant various sounds were; this was compared to their physiological response by studying skin

motion, which describe how an object will accelerate in response to a force, but fail to describe motion in extreme conditions, like at high speeds. Similarly, classical models of atoms are rudimentary representations that do not capture the full complexity of quantum mechanics. However, both fulfill a practical role: Newton’s laws accurately describe simple motion, and, like traditional chemical models of atoms, act as effective tools for teaching and calculations.

The existence of these models highlights a core philosophical debate: are theories useful because they describe reality itself, or is their worth measured by how well they predict and explain the world around us? The latter perspective proposes that reality can never be fully captured, and science can still be successful, as long as the models consistently predict and explain phenomena. In

this view, ‘incorrect’ theories are not deemed as failures, but practical tools — that is, their utility may matter more than the absolute truth. Simplified models reveal that scientific theories are practical tools, whose validity is continually tested and refined — a process formalized by Popper’s falsifiability criterion and exemplified in Kuhn’s paradigm shifts.

Falsifiability and Kuhn’s paradigm shifts

Karl Popper was an Austrian-British philosopher best known for his falsifiability criterion. In his view, for a scientific theory to be falsifiable, a scientist must make testable predictions that could, in principle, prove them wrong. In this way, falsifiability ensures that science is always self-correcting and dynamic. This process is closely related to paradigm shifts, a concept developed by philosopher Thomas Kuhn. It describes the moments when prevailing scientific frameworks are significantly revised or replaced in response to new evidence or anomalies. Consequently, when a model fails under extreme or novel conditions, it is refined rather than simply discarded.

A classic example is the shift from Newtonian mechanics to Einsteinian relativity: Newton’s laws remain valid within certain limits, but Einstein’s theory extends and corrects them to account for phenomena that Newtonian mechanics cannot explain. Together, falsifiability and paradigm shifts illustrate how science advances by testing, questioning, and refining theories.

Science as a way of thinking

Philosophy of science treats knowledge as everevolving, rather than fixed in place. Scientific theories do not need to capture reality perfectly to be valuable; they need to work in context.

Science moves forward by relying on models that are imperfect but powerful, providing ways to explain and predict phenomena. By framing science as a way of thinking rather than a set of fixed truths, we foster curiosity, skepticism, and reasoning skills that are essential not only in science, but in all areas of life.

conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure.

The obtained results were similar to the University of Giessen’s 2022 study of horror movies’ music, where sounds that were rated as more unpleasant led to a more significant physiological response and a higher difference in skin conductance, again showing a connection between noise and the body’s physiological stress responses.

Innovative use of infrasound

Because these discomforting sounds can be identified by viewers, it would be easy enough to just turn the volume down and wait for the spooky scene to pass, steering clear of the scares engineered by a movie’s sound designer. But what if your ears couldn’t hear particular sounds — no matter how creepy? Would they have the same effect, and would it be so easy to avoid?

It’s possible you’ve already experienced the phenomenon of infrasound — a sound so low it

is inaudible to human ears — in a horror movie. Director Gaspar Noé confirmed using infrasound in the sound design of horror cinema, notably in the opening of his violent 2002 thriller, Irreversible Infrasound is often described as being felt by listeners, instead of heard, often causing feelings of discomfort. Its particularly low frequencies include noise within a range of 0–20 hertz. For reference, our normal hearing range is around 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. With this in mind, one can only imagine how horror movies might continue to use infrasound to increase their thrill for audiences. Although the spookiest season of the year is over, the fear endured by horror fans is almost certain to last in memory, thanks in no small part to the work of the sound designers and composers who helped bring these stories to life. One can only hope that next year’s scares are even bigger and better than ever as research delves deeper into the science behind the creepiest sounds.

Sports

November 18, 2025

Varsity Stadium hosts a snow-covered U SPORTS Men’s Soccer Championship

Varsity Blues finish sixth in the nation after first-round loss

to be on the rails as starting defender Zakary Minka accumulated two yellow cards in the 77th minute, resulting in an ejection.

Eight university teams across Canada congregated at Varsity Stadium this past week for the four-day-long U SPORTS Men’s Soccer Championship. The tournament marked the third time U of T has hosted the tournament, having done so previously in 1986 and 2010. University teams from Canada’s four regional conferences — Atlantic University Sports (AUS), Canada West (CW), Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), and Ontario University Athletics (OUA) — battled it out on the pitch to claim the coveted title of U SPORTS National Champions.

The Varsity Blues’ run

As the first seed of the tournament, the Varsity Blues looked poised to advance in the bracket, following a stellar OUA gold medal run where they shut out the York Lions in the final to secure their first OUA banner since 2010.

The Varsity Blues’ first round match against the eighth-seeded Université du Québec à TroisRivières (UQTR) Patriotes was dramatic and dynamic. At the end of the 90th minute, both teams were deadlocked at 2–2. UQTR looked

Playing with a man down in overtime, UQTR substitute midfielder Mouhamed Ndiaye scored the game-winning goal in the 96th minute.

Although the Blues fought hard to force many scoring chances, captain and goalie Mathieu Lacharite held the Pariotes’ defensive line, making five critical saves in the last 15 minutes of overtime. The final score of 3–2 eliminated the Blues from championship contention.

The Varsity Blues would proceed to win their next match in the consolation bracket by handily defeating the Cape Breton Capers 5–0. Rookie Gianluca Scurti led the game in goals by executing a stylish backheel goal in the 54th minute and scoring another in the 74th minute.

Blues goalies Charles Donvito and Alex Lin kept the sheet clean for the Blues during the first and second halves, respectively. Midfielders Andrea Schifano, Niklas Hallam, and Jacob Prested scored the other three goals for the Blues.

In the following day’s consolation final, the Blues were pitted against the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds, where they were bested 2–1. The Varsity Blues ended their 2025

season with the title of OUA champions and finished in sixth place in U SPORTS. Fourthyear Michael Osorio earned the U SPORTS Championship All-Star team for his stellar tournament performance.

Quarterfinals

While the York Lions dominated in their round one match against the Dalhousie Tigers 5–1, the remaining two matches were decided by clutch plays that broke 1–1 stalemates. The Mount Royal Cougars narrowly beat out the Cape Breton Capers in the 84th minute through a timely goal from U SPORTS Rookie of the Year Chanan Chanda. The Montréal Carabins edged out reigning national champions UBC Thunderbirds with a heroic goal from substitute Orene Cohen in the 74th minute.

Semifinals

The RESQ looked to be the strongest region as the only conference to have two teams in the final four. However, by day’s end, the Québecois teams would both fall in shutouts and be relegated to the bronze medal match.

In a heated match between the York Lions and Montréal Carabins, it was the Lions that emerged victorious 2–0 in light of being a man down in the second half. York’s goalie, Michael Williams, closed the game out with a clean sheet and nine spectacular saves.

OUA Rookie of the Year Chanan Chanda once again proved to be the key to victory in the Cougars’ round two match against the UQTR Patriotes. Chanda secured two goals in the match during the 17th and 72nd minutes, while a strong defensive play from the Cougars

Montréeal Carabins and UQTR Patriotes arrived at Varsity Stadium on Sunday morning to find the field lightly dusted in snow and mixed precipitation. In light of the chilly and slick surface playing conditions, the Carabins played an offensively dominant match by scoring four goals in the first half and one more in the 68th minute. Carabins forward Sami McDuff was the goal leader, scoring back-to-back goals in the 21st and 29th minutes.

Gold medal match

By the early afternoon, the light snow and mixed conditions had intensified into a full-blown snowstorm. Despite the challenging conditions, the York Lions and Mount Royal Cougars came prepared to duke it out for gold.

The match was the textbook definition of a slug-fest. In the snow, both teams were forced to adapt a more static defensive playstyle as the slick surface made quick sprints and lateral movements nigh impossible. After a goalless 90 minutes of regulation play, neither side had many strong scoring opportunities outside of a penalty kick for York in the 58th minute, where Cougars goalie Sjard Strauss made a spectacular save. In the overtime period at the 115th minute, the York Lions received a penalty kick opportunity once again. This time, U SPORTS 2024 Player of the Year Christian Zeppieri cleanly converted the penalty into a game-winning goal. Zeppieri’s goal earned him the Championship MVP and secured York’s sixth national title.

Blues Women’s Basketball fall to Gryphons 60–69

The Gryphons best the Blues for their seventh consecutive matchup

The Varsity Blues women’s basketball team hosted the Guelph Gryphons at Goldring Centre this Saturday, November 15. In their previous home game, the Blues emerged victorious over the McMaster Marauders in an exciting overtime period, where the Blues won 72–69.

Yet, despite their best attempts to capitalize on home court advantage, the Blues were defeated 60–69 after four hard-fought quarters against the Gryphons.

What happened?

The Blues and Gryphons were equally matched in the opening quarters of the game. The Blues took a small 15–13 lead by the end of the first quarter. But by halftime, the Gryphons had clawed their way back and pushed the Blues back 24–29.

Although the Blues upped their scoring pace and ended the third quarter with 20 points put up compared to their opposition’s 21, the Gryphons held their lead in the final quarter. They eventually defeated the Blues 60–69.

Second-year guard Lia Barbieri stood out as the core contributor for the Blues with 16 points, six

steals and seven rebounds. Fourth-year forward Janet Enge ended the match with 12 points, and second-year center Zi Yang Wang also fought hard in the key, scoring 10 points and securing seven rebounds. The Gryphons offence was led by Christina Morra’s 18 points, followed by Hannah Bourdon with 16 points and Macy Weber, who contributed another 12.

What’s next?

The game marked the Blues’ seventh consecutive loss to the Gryphons, with their previous matchup ending with a score of 52–82 on November 9, 2024. Their last win against the Gryphons came in 2017. After falling to the York Lions on the road the previous day, the women’s basketball team ended the weekend with two losses and an overall record of 2–6, bringing them to fifth out of six teams in the OUA central division.

Three more games are scheduled for the Blues before the year’s end. Algoma University will host the Blues next Friday, on November 21, in Sault Ste. Marie, and the last two matches will be played from the Goldring Centre on November 28 and 29 against the Nippising Lakers and Laurentian Voyageurs, respectively.

Julia Agostinelli on her long run towards U SPORTS Champion Agnostinelli’s academic and athletic success and her commitment to giving back

Agostinelli, a student pursuing a master’s of physical therapy and applied human nutrition, is a star member of U of T’s Varsity Women’s Track and Field and Cross Country Teams.

Last season, the London, Ontario native claimed first place in the Women’s 1500-metre race at the U SPORTS National Track and Field Championships. Earlier in this season, on October 25, she won an individual silver at the Women’s Cross Country Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships in Kingston. Most recently, she claimed fourth place at the U SPORTS Cross Country National Championships in the eight-kilometre race on November 8, earning U SPORTS first team allCanadian honours.

In an interview with The Varsity, Agostinelli detailed her journey en route to becoming a U SPORTS Champion and dual-sport Blue.

An athletic start

Surprisingly, Agostinelli’s journey as an athlete began not with running, but with basketball. She joined a high-level team and played competitively throughout elementary school and high school,

walks of life joining]… it was super special to me to have such a

Towards the end of high school, Agostinelli found herself in a position where she had to choose between pursuing basketball and track and field. She ultimately picked track and field, which brought her to the University of Guelph, where she completed her undergraduate degree in nutrition.

Competing as an undergraduate Agostinelli arrived at Guelph in 2020, during which there were no competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She fondly recalls what she called the 2020 “season of fun,” where she trained with her teammates without using any of her eligibility.

In the meantime, Guelph was undergoing a major coaching change. In her second year, under the leadership of a new coach, Terry Radchenko, who joined Guelph from U of T after serving as a cross-country coach in Toronto for 12 years, Agostinelli saw marked improvements in her performance. After a four-year tenure as Head Cross Country Coach at Guelph, Radchenko returned to U of T this year as an assistant coach for the cross country and track and field teams.

“[He] changed the game for me. I wasn’t super

describing her time playing basketball as her first experience with a “big sports commitment.”

However, her success as an athlete didn’t end there; her natural affinity for running also emerged early on, when she won her first-ever cross-country race in the fourth grade. While she never did cross country in high school, as she was “playing basketball in the fall and [wasn’t] allowed to do both,” she competed in track and field, where she was drawn to the sense of community on the team.

“[Track] happened in a term where not a ton of other sports were going on, so it was really exciting because you got people from all [different

awesome at running in my second year; I was definitely not a standout on the team; I wasn’t even selected to represent my team at any championship races.” Despite the challenges, Agostinelli continued working hard, saying that “the community that [the team] brought me was what I kept going back for.”

Agostinelli eventually saw her work pay off, with a breakout season on the track in her third year, where she qualified first for U SPORTS, as an individual athlete. She also earned a spot on Guelph’s women’s 4 x 800 team. which won a U SPORTS gold medal. That year, the women’s team also took the overall U SPORTS scoring record, “[It

was] a super proud moment [for me] to be on that team.”

In her fourth year, Agostinelli continued to show solid results and assumed more of a leadership role on the team. She earned 2023 OUA MVP and OUA first-team all-star honours after winning the individual title at the 2023 OUA championships.

Beyond the track

Agostinelli also spoke of her experiences off the track and how they have impacted her growth as a person. As she puts it, “an accumulation of [my] track, school, and volunteering experiences [really] shaped me into who I am and continue to help me grow and see new perspectives.”

Her long list of accolades also includes the 2023 U SPORTS Cross Country Community Service Award. During her time at Guelph, Agostinelli joined Brainworks Youth Programming, which works with youth to develop literacy and physical activity. She also joined The Grove, which is a Youth Wellness Hub run by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CAMH) that serves to promote wellness within the community.

These experiences effectively tied her educational and athletic endeavours together. Working with these organizations helped her “feel like I had something to give back. She also “really experienced what health and wellness was from a different angle.”

“As a Varsity track athlete…I’m always being fit and doing all the things I can to live out what I think is a healthy lifestyle, but it's really performance [oriented] ….… I was able to really zoom out through this experience to understand health [so much more holistically and] what health meant to other people… I think I’ll carry it with me through my physiotherapy practice and continue my training.”

Success at U of T Agostinelli eventually made the decision to attend the University of Toronto to pursue a master’s degree in physical therapy. She continued to see success on the Blues’ cross country and track and field teams, capping off her 2024 season with a pair of bronze medals at the OUA Track and Field Championships in the 1000-metre and 1500-metre races, and a first-place finish at U SPORTS in the 1500-metre race.

Her U SPORTS gold places her alongside U of T track and field elite athletes who have won the same title. Among the Blues’ 1500-metre national champions are Gabrielle DeBues-Stafford and Lucia Stafford, sisters who competed together for the Blues from 2016–2019. The pair have represented Team Canada at the Olympics and most recently competed at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Speaking of her achievement, Agonstinelli says, “[The U SPORT title is] one that four years ago, if you had told me that I had it, I probably would not have believed you… It’s such an honour for me

to be joining such a long list of super competitive Canadian female athletes who have won [this title].”

Underlying Agostinelli’s accounts of her success is a clear message emphasizing the importance of community. “[Running] is such a unique sport because at the end of the day, you’re running for yourself. But I think community starts with the team culture… It’s not always fun going in circles all the time, but having such awesome people around you makes it more fun.”

Agostinelli also highlights the importance of having good role models to build a sense of community. “[It’s crucial to have people] that make you feel welcome [and] important… even if you [aren’t] the best, [it’s important to] set a good tone that [shows] everyone is welcome, as long as you’re here with a smile and working hard.”

As an athlete and physical therapist-to-be, she has made it a priority to be a champion for women athletes, always “[trying] to set a positive example [to show that] there’s space for women in sports.” She hopes to cultivate a sense of community, particularly within women’s athletics. “I’m a huge proponent [of] women doing hard things. For young girls, growing up as an athlete [plays] such an essential role in learning skills [like] how to be a good friend [and] how to be a leader…. Unfortunately, more and more girls are finishing sports [earlier] than in the past.”

Future aspirations

With regards to her future aspirations, Agostinelli keeps an open mind to the available avenues within the field of physiotherapy. “I didn’t start university thinking that I would go into physical therapy… in my third year, I took a human kinetics and anatomy course, and… I became obsessed with it because everything I was learning in the classroom, I was then understanding when I was running, stretching, lifting. What I was doing in the classroom was so [relevant] to my goals on the track.”

Her experience ultimately led her to pursue physiotherapy.

“I’m really happy being at U of T. It’s such an amazing program, has awesome faculty, [and is a] great way to tie in passions to my daily life.” Since studying in Toronto, she has been “inspired by the breadth of physiotherapy [and] finding new avenues in physio that are really inspiring.”

For Agostinelli, the opportunities seem endless. Yet, whichever avenue she pursues, she hopes to maintain the ties to her academic and professional pursuits and athletics. “I have a lot of internships coming up where I’m hoping to dip my toes into many things, but I’m hoping for physio to be a way that I can stay connected to the world of athletics when I’m finished [with] my career as a runner.” Whether it is on the track, in the classroom, or in the community, Agostinelli has continued to make every step count. The national champion isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Photo November 18, 2025 thevarsity.ca/section/photo photo@thevarsity.ca

Between borders: A reflection on land-based learning

In May, I had the opportunity to travel across Belize with New College’s Indigeneity, Food and Sustainability international experience program. Traveling across the districts of Belize, I was taken aback by the familiarity within the unfamiliar, like I’d crossed these roads before. The tin roofs, bright pastel homes with foundations lifted slightly off the ground, and banana trees stretched toward the sky.

My time in Belize embodied a feeling of acknowledgement; a body of land that, although far from my own Trinidadian origins, bore a synonymous feeling of existence. It rang a reminder that the Caribbean is not defined solely by borders, but by the shared histories of cultivation, care and resilience.

Here, I learned agriculture is not solely defined as labour, but as a path of knowledge keeping. Being able to witness families tend to plots of land together, it made me reflect on the politics of who gets to harvest and sustain the land. Is the land for any of us to ‘own’?

As I connected my feet to the bare soil, I thought about the weight of colonial history; the fruit, cassava, spice and sugar export economies which have formed the Caribbean’s so-called “place” in the world.

In Belize, agriculture is treated less like an institution, and more like a communal practice, where neighbours grow each other’s fruit, elders pass on techniques and stories, and younger generations learn the patience of growth, and the importance of sustainability. Being able to cook with local families reminded me that food serves not only as a commodity but also as a

means of sustaining relationships, heritage, and identity.

Being taken in by the community helped me reflect on how Caribbeans make space for each other, beyond our geographies. I didn’t feel like an outsider observing, but an active learner, and

Through my photography, I was able to recognize the quiet but resilient power of placemaking; the merging of land, labour, and care that holds our beautiful islands

MAGAZINE LAUNCH

8PM

5PM DEC 5 21 SUSSEX 2ndfloor