An independent, nonprofit, public service student press covering the University of British Columbia community since 1918.
The Ubyssey
Published in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) nations.
JANUARY 22, 2026
VOLUME CVII | ISSUE XI
SINCE 1918
A lone star’s search for brisket in the true north strong and free I set out to find Texas in Vancouver: a brisket in the great white north that I could go to when I missed people with accents like dripping molasses.
UBC’s 2025 Statement of Financial Information The university’s top ten earners received a median salary well over $650,000, with the highest
paid employee making $1.11 million in 2024. NEWS // 3
Programs remove academic progress wheel Saying the feature did “not accurately reflect the percentage of completion” for some students’ academic progress.
NEWS //3 Texan brisket is not a utility food; it’s an art form. | ZOE WAGNER / THE UBYSSEY
Review by Jack Paransky Arts Contributer Texan brisket is not a utility food; it’s an art form. The pitmaster will spend up to 18 hours — after waking at comically early hours — to slow cook a piece of meat in an industrial-sized smoker. People who make brisket are the intersection between cooks and blacksmiths, choosing the temperature needed to hold the brisket at, the wood it will be smoked upon and the length of time to smoke the meat with a level of care and attention to detail that I
have only seen in chemistry labs. It’s a game of patience, sleepless nights, careful planning and a devotion to a craft. When my dad was going through one of his many obsessions, he made brisket. I remember living in Arizona and how he complained about waking up at 5 or 6 a.m. to cook a brisket for 13 hours, just for it to be ready for when guests came in the evening. His brisket was kosher, of course. I came from a religiously observant Jewish family. The intense type, too: waiting an hour-and-a-half to eat dairy af-
ter meat, separate cupboards for meat dishes and dairy dishes, and all meat had to be certified kosher by a Rabbinic organization. So everything we ate was kosher. The only difference between a kosher brisket and an unkosher one is that no barbecue place on earth has kosher brisket. So I ate brisket at home, in awe of the time, care and passion that went into it. When we moved to Texas, the smoked meat beckoned me like wanderlust singing to a secluded monk. We would drive by places known worldwide as holy sites
Point of Inquiry:
Keep the AMS momentum rolling. Opinion by Quyen Schroeder AMS Columnist In 2025, the Huntley administration replaced toxicity with focus. In 2026, as students confront the affordability crisis and the AMS faces its deficit, service costs and businesses’ performance, this is the new bar in student politics. I hoped I’d be done with AMS Council in 2025. My first AMS Council meeting was at the beginning of 2023 during Eshana Bhangu’s presidency. In 2025, after two years of near-perfect attendance, I was ready to retire from following student politics. I associated the AMS with negativity and hostility — within the AMS, and towards student organizers. I wrote all my discontents into the Barry ‘Bee’ Buzzword joke candidacy. After that? I
awaited my life of blissful ignorance, free from student politics. Yet since my editor convinced me to write this column, I’m more involved than ever before — and gladly, too. This is the healthiest and most productive term of AMS council I’ve experienced, and my nearly three years attending council exceeds most councillors’ time sitting on it. With that, I’d like to take you through the previous year: where it started, how it progressed, and where I hope it’s going into this year. A toxic culture At the start of this year, the AMS was a noxious environment. It was known for one thing: the drama. In November of 2024, then-VP Academic and University Affairs Drédyn Fontana was removed from his
position. An internal investigation concluded he made a “misrepresentation to AMS Council” and demonstrated “poor performance and conduct.” It was the first removal of an executive in AMS history. Fontana contests the reasons for his removal and is suing the AMS for wrongful termination of his employment. Two days after Fontana’s removal, then-VP Finance Gavin Fung-Quon took an indefinite leave of absence. (This was effectively a resignation. The only difference is that the AMS wasn’t required to hold an election for his replacement. This loophole has allowed the AMS to appoint unelected replacements for Fung-Quon, 2023-24 President Esmé Decker, 2023-24 VP External Tina Tong and 2022-23 VP AUA Dana Turdy). Continued on pages 10-11.
where barbecue savants made their sauce-stained pilgrimages. But I was stuck in the car, going to eat kosher meat at home. When I turned 18, I took my first step toward gastronomic independence. I had my first unkosher meal at the Rainforest Cafe, and that set me down a path of trying what I had been steered away from in my youth. I got more daring. I went to barbecue places with friends and finally tried the food my father had emulated for the religious palate. Standing in those lines for food felt like a corrupt act. Continued on pages 4-5
Chopping Spree is democratizing jazz
Parkinson’s drug repurposed as new tuberculosis treatment UBC researchers have discovered a 70-year-old Parkinson’s drug is a strong candidate for treating tuberculosis (TB). RESEARCH // 11
Profile by Lucas Rucchin Contributer In December, during the finale of Shindig 2025, I watched Kyler Young, Chopping Spree’s saxophonist, climb a tower of storage boxes mid-performance. Hands flailed up from the crowd. Posing, face contorted with passion, he wailed the chorus of “Koi Fish,” the second of two contagiously energetic singles put out by the band since October. Jazz morphed into funk, then into blues. Hayden Cohen, the keyboardist, ditched his post and, leaping down from the stage, began rapping. Heavy metal ensued. The crowd lurched. A mosh pit formed, and I had to remind myself that the music I was hearing — which had galvanized the most energetic crowd of the night — had its roots in jazz. “Chopping Spree is everything they say they are,” I texted my friend after the show, electrified, bussing home a new fan. Continued on pages 8-9.
Men’s Hockey shuts out Dinos The T-Birds notched the most impressive win of their season thus far on Jan. 16th, convincingly beating the second-ranked team in the country. SPORTS & RECREATION// 13