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The Ubyssey •

Hope on a post-it note: Students, faculty reflect on a year of COVID-19

Psychology lecturer Dr. Benjamin Cheung was in the middle of a midterm prep session when one of his students notified him that starting Monday, March 16, 2020, due to the spreading COVID-19 pandemic.

The midterm for Cheung’s class was scheduled for Monday, March 16, 2020.

“I almost felt weak in my knees … It was funny because my students could see how immediately stressed out I was.”

Cheung recalled a student coming up to his desk after class and giving him a post-it note that said “Don’t giv
The Ubyssey •

'You have a right to safety on your campus': UBC students’ return to campus may mean a return to illicit substance use

Content warning: This article references substance use and drug overdose.

It’s been 18 months since you were at your last party. It’s the weekend before school starts and for the first time in a long time, things feel normal. Or at least as close to normal as they can get.

You’re with your friends having a good time — you think that nothing can go wrong. It never has before. You’re invincible.

But this week is different. Your friend stops breathing. They’re overdosing. What do you do?

Studen
The Ubyssey •

Lacombe to the Lower Mainland: How Laura MacTaggart navigates UBC as a graduate student-athlete

Lacombe is a city of roughly 13,000 people in central Alberta. For some, it's a town that you drive past on the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. For Laura MacTaggart, Lacombe is home.

Playing volleyball has always come naturally to MacTaggart, a master's of Indigenous community planning student in the School of Community and Regional Planning and member of the women's volleyball team.

How it all started

"I was six feet tall when I was 12," said MacTaggart. She started playing club volleyball in gr
The Ubyssey •

UBC Housing retires cannabis awareness posters criticized for promoting stigma

UBC Student Housing and Community Services (SHCS) has retired a cannabis awareness poster campaign in student housing that some students said created stigma around cannabis use.

The campaign — which was launched in 2018 following the legalization of cannabis in Canada, according to Associate VP of SHCS Andrew Parr — included information about cannabis, its consumption and residence policy around cannabis use. All but two of these posters on information on housing policy and safe consumption wer
The Ubyssey •

AMS joins calls for free prescription contraception

The AMS is joining the BC Federation of Students in calling for free prescription contraception in BC.

On July 17, the BC Federation of Students (BCFS) endorsed an AccessBC campaign calling on the provincial government to fulfill its electoral promise to make this form of contraception free. The AMS is not part of the BCFS, but told The Ubyssey in a recent interview that it also supports the campaign for free contraception.

The 2021 and 2022 BC budgets did not include free prescription contrac
The Ubyssey •

Does policy create consent? How undergraduate societies govern consent on campus

This article contains mentions of sexual assault.

“Y-O-U-N-G at UBC, we like ‘em young. Y is for ‘your sister.’ O is for ‘oh, so tight.' U is for ‘underage.’ N is for ‘no consent.’ G is for ‘go to jail.’”

In 2013, students yelled this chant on a bus ride during frosh week. The sound of the words travelled through the bus and made its way into major news outlets across the country.

The ‘Sauder rape chant’ became a symbol of sexual misconduct and rape culture in the Sauder School of Business an
The Ubyssey •

‘I know he knows’: Inside UBC’s sexual assault reporting process

This article contains mentions of sexual assault. Olivia’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

Olivia picked up her phone early on a Monday morning last November to call her friend to recount the events of the night before. She was confused, with hazy memories of her night out.

“‘[Olivia], you were sexually assaulted,’” her friend said on the other line when she finished recounting the events of the night before.

It felt like a shock to her system. Olivia almost didn’t believe it a
The Ubyssey •

Women's volleyball sweeps the UFV Cascades in home-opening weekend

The UBC Thunderbirds started their Canada West season with a weekend sweep over the University of Fraser Valley (UFV) Cascades. The ‘Birds defeated the Cascades 3–1 on Friday and 3–0 on Saturday.

Friday’s home opener started off slow, with a series of unforced errors from both the ‘Birds and Cascades. Midway through the first set, a succession of kills by UFV outside hitter and former T-Bird Gabrielle Attieh swung the momentum in favour of the Cascades. Despite the push from the Cascades, the s