Post written by Kamil Amir.

There is no better way to experience another culture than through its food. Food embodies all the best that a culture has to offer while appealing to the five senses and touching the heart in the most profound way. Nothing portrays goodwill and harmony better than the image of people from various cultures sitting together sharing and a meal, laughing and rejoicing in a celebration of understanding.

With that in mind, the University of Toronto Dinner Club (UTDinner) was created.

Imagine a book club, but more delicious.

The main goal of the club is to celebrate the University of Toronto’s cultural diversity by sharing various recipes and cooking styles from around the world. So far, UTDinner has organized cooking sessions featuring Malaysian, Kazakh, Japanese, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Turkish, Russian, Bosnian, French, Macedonian, Bangladeshi and Senegalese cuisines. The next event, planned for June 17, will feature Lithuanian food (see below for information).

At the meetings, members learn to cook dishes from around the world. These cooking lessons are taught by UTDinner members or special guests. Everyone then sits down together to enjoy the food. Yummy!

However, the benefits of the club go beyond the delicious food – UTDinner provides a great opportunity to make friends and learn about other cultures.

To learn more about UTDinner and their events, email Yayo or check out http://utdinner.herobo.com/. Your taste buds will dance with excitement!

Lithuanian Cooking Event

June 17, 2011 at 5PM (Location TBA)

A student of Lithuanian heritage will share her grandmother’s recipes.

Starters: Saltibarsciai (Cold Beet Soup) & Kugelis (Potato Pie)

Main: Cepelinai

Price: $10

Email Yayo to RSVP.

What: Third U of T General Assembly
When: Thursday, April 28th, 5:30-8:30pm
Where: Main Activity Hall, Multi-Faith Centre, University of Toronto, 569 Spadina Avenue

- posted on behalf of William Nakhid

The University of Toronto General Assembly embodies a commitment to transform this University into one that is organized and operated by those who make it what it is.

After all, UofT is our university. It comprises our education, our workplace, our living space, our community – and frequently all of the above. It is a public institution whose aim is to promote the wellbeing of all of its members and of society at large. We, and no one else, are its stakeholders and its governors. As members of the General Assembly, we are reclaiming our role as agents – a role we are denied by current structures of governance.

All members of the UofT community, including students, workers, staff, faculty, alumni, and neighbors, are invited and welcome to participate in the General Assembly.The University of Toronto Multi-Faith Centre has a powered accessible main entrance on its east side. All floors are accessible via elevator. Accessible washrooms are located on the first and second floors. For any other accessibility-related requests or concerns, please e-mail utgeneralassembly@gmail.com.

Come to get involved with a UT-GA working group, and learn about what some of them have been doing recently. At this meeting we will be continuing to shape our Basis of Unity and Structure.

For more information and other news, take a look at www.utgeneralassebly.wordpress.com

This is a guest blog by Samantha Cross, a history/French/English undergrad just trying to make it through 4th year alive. (P.S. she also plays the guitar and sings!)

Disclaimer: certain people may be offended by the following. This includes but is not limited to:

a) those irritating people who participate simultaneously with UTSU, the Varsity Blues, and The Trinity Tripod or whatever while maintaining a GPA of 4.0 (barf)

b) anyone who did not understand why I ended that with a “barf”, or

c) anyone who thinks that 15 pages for a paper is just not enough and always wants more, MOREEE!!!1

If you’re still with me, I feel for you. You’re probably like me – a fourth-year student, disillusioned after having all the Froshie enthusiasm beaten out of you by years of torture and abuse. The copious amounts of caffeine, the late nights, and tens of minutes spent cramming (THANK YOU WIKIPEDIA) have all taken their toll. You’re just trying to make it to Con Hall alive. And according to your countdown (there’s an app for that), you just have to hang in there for 35 days, 7 hours, 26 minutes and 8 (7! 6!! 5!!!) more seconds. So why does this semester feel like the hardest yet?

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After three days of voting, the UTSU 2010 Election results are in. “Stronger Together” won five out of the five executive positions with “Change UofT” winning 7 BOD spots. Approximately 16.4% of the 44,000 undergrads who attend the University of Toronto voted (which is a lower turnout than the 2006 municipal election in my home town of Whitby Ontario). President-elect Adam Awad received 58.24% of the votes cast for President which means only 9.3% of U of T students voted for him.

With this in mind, let me be the first person to arrogantly prescribe a complete overhaul of the political system here at U of T. Here, in no particular order, is what I would change:

Scrap 90% of the EPC:

If the University of Toronto consistently gets one thing right, it’s treating us like adults. The UTSU Elections Procedures Code does the exact opposite. The EPC assumes that voters at the best University in the country won’t be able to recognize false information on a poster or punish candidates who have annoying literature. It lets Adam Awad and Steve Masse run on their records but denies either campaign the ability to question their opponent’s past performance. Before the next election, the UTSU should remove the prohibition of pre-campaigning, allow for negative campaigning and unfetter the candidates. The institution of the University is built on a philosophy of intelligent and honest debate. The EPC’s definition of “fair play” is so narrow that candidates are prevented from really interacting with each other,  segregating their ideas and stopping them from entering the political sphere.

The UTSU can keep the rules that facilitate the actual casting of votes but should remove all of the rules that get in the way of what. While this doesn’t require a completely libertarian UTSU electoral process, new rules can and must be brought in as the status-quo is rigid and counter-democratic.

Formalize official UTSU Political Parties:

If you want to engage students in the political process, make it openly partisan. In the 2010 election various clubs picked sides and both sides engaged in behind-the-scenes negative campaigning. If pre-campaigning was no longer prohibited opposition groups would actually have a chance at winning (there has been a 100% incumbency rate over the last five years) and it would make the UTSU visible all year, not just during the elections. The EPC has very strict spending rules, which are intended to level the playing field. If political parties were formalized (they already sort-of exist but only in the shadows) and students fund raised (limited to donations from U of T students only) it would further increase interest in the political process. Members of the UTSU executive are visible and get to campaign-without-really-campaigning in office. If political parties existed (with rules prohibiting affiliation with any outside political party) every candidate would be incentivized to have a full-fleshed out platform with a website that exists all year (I’d like to clarify that I am not anti-point form but ST/Change could have done a lot better) instead of creating a website in a rush, from scratch with low site-traffic.

Political parties will level the playing field, engage more students all-year-round and  raise the level of debate to one appropriate for the University of Toronto.

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During UTSU elections it is always a good idea to step back from all the Orwellian0-sounded Solidarity and Unspecified Change and look at the election process itself. Like any municipal election, byelection or election in an authoritarian state, the University of Toronto Students’ Union elections tend to have a low voter turn out.

In the UTSU Elections the rules determine the outcome as much as any other factor yet electoral-reform doesn’t seem to be on the radar as an issue this year. The Varsity writes:

Gabe de Roche asked both candidates about the Elections Procedures Code. “Currently the incumbency rate over the past seven years at the UTSU is one hundred per cent. I’ve never heard of another democracy where that’s the incumbency rate,” he said.

“So to clarify what that means to the audience, candidates who are running as incumbents are winning every time?” asked Meslin [the moderator.]

“Yes, they’re incapable of losing,” said de Roche, drawing laughter from the audience.

Amendosun did not respond to the question. Maher said reform of the EPC is a top priority, and that he found the rules “restrictive” and “draconian.

The Elections Procedure Code (EPC) for the University of Toronto Students’ Union defines “Campaign Material” as “any item, design, sound, symbol or mark that is created or copied in any form in order to and / or likely to influence at least one voter to cast a ballot in favour or in opposition of a candidate” and “Campaigning” as “any attempt by an individual or organization to encourage a student to cast a ballot in favour or in opposition of a candidate. This may occur with or without campaign material.” These definitions are so broad that almost anything a candidate does during the campaign falls into the category of campaigning and therefore must be approved by the CRO (Article IV Section 1, F.)
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Things I learnt in skule

Greetings!

I’m Danny Hui, a recent grad of Computer Engineering at UofT.  You may remember me from such post as Engineer Identification, and Evil TA’s.  Alex Ku and I run a web comic called TOBlender.com, and we are here to give you a slice of technology, life, and Toronto, every Sunday.  We are always looking for new ideas so drop us some comments below.

Danny

This is a guest blog by JP, blogUT founder and former editor, who has gone on to do bigger and better things, like uh… open an online store to sell condoms.

So, by now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about the general uproar over the pope’s comments regarding condoms during his visit to Africa. Here’s a recap of what he said, according to The Times Online:

In his first public comments on condom use, the pontiff told reporters en route to Cameroon that Aids “is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”

As it turns out, the issue is always more complicated than it appears at surface level. What if I were to tell you that: the pope didn’t exactly say what you thought he said; condoms aren’t exactly “safe”; and I’m writing about all this as a subject matter expert on condoms after having done a whole bunch of research in the process of opening an online condoms store?

Well, I’m about to tell you exactly that. So please read on. (more…)