Over The Edge Page 2 January 10, 2000
Canadian teams fail at Pan-Am chess championships

By Tariq Hassan-
Gordon
TORONTO (CUP) -

College teams from the
United States stole the
show at the 1999 Pan-
American
Intercollegiate Chess
Championships held
last week in downtown
Toronto. The team com-
petition was won by
defending champions
the University of
Maryland Baltimore
County. The University
of Texas was second
and the University of
California-Berkeley
came third.

The University of

Toronto chess_ club
hosted the tournament
and fielded six teams. U
of T’s top A team,
ranked second over all
going into the tourna-
ment, failed to make it
into the top 10. The poor
performance was a dis-
appointment for Chris
Chu, the tournament
organizer, who is also a
member of U of T’s
chess club. “This is the
hard luck story of the
tournament,” he said.
With Yan Teplitsky, an
international master
who is ranked number
three in Canada, the U
of T team was hoping to
win the tournament. The

What Do You Do With
Your Used Textbooks

By Tami McHugh

The time is coming up
when students figure
out that the expensive
books they supposedly
needed for that oh so
interesting class, are
going to be of little use
in the future. There is
now an alternative to
selling your books back
to the Bookstore. The
consignment used book
market.

It is ture that you could
sell them back to the
Bookstore and_ get
some cash, but if you
chose the consignment
used book market you
get to set the price
asked for your books.
The consignment fee is
only $1 per book of the
proceeds of your book
sale.

Last semester marked
the first round of the
UNBC Consignment
Used Book Market. It
was a successful first
round as UNBC stu-
dents got back about
$800 for recycling their
books. Many other stu-
dents got textbooks at
very reasonable prices.
The objective to the
market is to provide a
service to the under-

graduate students of
the University of
Northern British
Columbia through the
facilitation of a consign-
ment used book market.
Creating and alternative
way to recycle text-
books that is a more
sustainable option for
students. This market
reduces the cost of text-
books and increased
the amount of money
students get back for
their books.

The market is non-
profit and NUGSS has
provided space and
some start up funds for
the initiative. It provides
a central location for
students to buy and sell
books. Presently the
market is run by volun-
teers, like myself, but
more volunteers are
needed during the
beginning of next
semester to keep the
market — successfully
running. For more infor-
mation, a brochure can
be picked up at the
NUGSS office. If you
have more questions or
would like to volunteer
your time please feel
free to contact me
through email at
mchughO @ unbe.ca

last time Toronto won
the tournament was in
1982. But despite the
poor overall perfor-
mance for the U of T
team, Teplitsky, who
was the second
strongest player in the
tournament, tied for first
in the individual scores
division. Teplitsky said
the team was hoping to

do much better, but
admitted “the team
under performed

because we didn’t have
much practice before
[the tournament].”

He also pointed to the
fact that in the US. many
of the top schools have
scholarship programs to

recruit top high school
chess players to their
institutions. The lack of
university administrative
support for university
chess was a sore point
for other Canadian play-
ers.

Dave Jackson, the lead
player for the University
of Western Ontario, said
that some UWO players
on the team were forced
to sleep on the hotel
floor because of lack of
funding. “Eight hours of
mental exertion takes a
lot out of you, it would
be nice to have a bed to
sleep in,’ he said.

The top. three
Canadian teams in the

tournament

were:
Queen’s University who
ranked seventh, U of T
who finished 1Ith and

the University of
Western Ontario who
came in at 13. Thirty-
one teams competed in
the university tourna-
ment, 11 from Canada,
19 from the United
States and one from
Peru.

Started in 1945, the
annua! Pan-American
Chess Championships
is considered the most
important university
chess event in the North
and South America.
Chris Chu, tournament
organizer, describes the
tournament as “the

world series of college
chess.”

Each player has two
hours to make 40
moves, once the time
control is met they have
another hour to finish
the game. “Chess is the
best mind game that
exists,” said tournament
organizer Chu.
According to Chu, the
Pan-Am tournament is
important for promoting
chess to_ students.
“People who are
exposed to chess see
an improvement with
their school develop-
ment,’ he said.

Toronto students ready to begin free “university”

By Nicola Luksic

TORONTO (CUP) -
Volunteers from the
University of Toronto
and the surrounding
community are busily
laying the grounds for a
free “university” that
they hope to have up
and running by the end
of this month. Still in its
formative stage, the
“Free U of T” is to pro-
vide all members of the
university community

and beyond the oppor-

tunity to attend free
classes and possibly
even attain “degrees.”
“We want to help build
an institution that is for-
ward thinking and imag-
inative,” said Elan
Ohayon, a graduate stu-
dent and one of the ini-
tiators of the plan.
Ohayon hopes the
school will attract those
who may otherwise be

unable to afford a post-
secondary education.
Organizers hope the
school might also reach
out to homeless people.
According to the
Ontario component of
the Canadian
Federation of Students,
tuition at Ontario univer-
sities has increased by
60 per cent since 1995.
“One of our goals is to
highlight the fact that
access to education is
declining,” said Erin
Hodge, one of the Free
U of T volunteers. “We
want to act on it instead
of talk about it.”

A number of factors
inspired the construc-
tion of the “Free U of T,’
including recent univer-
sity labour unrest. “The
labour unrest was the
final straw,” said
Ohayon.

Currently there are five
union on campus

threatening to strike.

The Teaching
Assistants’ union,
CUPE 3902 - which is
currently deciding

whether to walkout -
Officially endorses the
new school. The Free U
of T crew is currently
accepting course pro-
posals and ideas as to
how the school should
be structured. Courses
ranging from computer
science to art and
activism to sociology
are expected to be part
of the curriculum. “And
we’ve only begun to
solicit suggestions,” said
Ohayon. “Imagination is
our only limit - like all
good research acade-
mics.”

There is debate around
whether Free U of T
degrees should be
awarded to those suc-
cessfully completing a
series of courses.

“People are wary of
what might seem to
replicate the hierarchi-
cal system already in

place,” said Ohayon.

“But on the other hand
the ‘degree’ could be
held as a sign that the
person took the time for
education.”

Just over a decade
ago, U of T students
and community mem-
bers put together a suc-

cessful “free” school
which ra n over
two semesters. “It was

a very informal opera-
tion,” recalled U of T phi-
losophy professor Frank
Cummings of the 1989
tuition-free school.
“They were evenings of
free-wheeling discus-
sions.. Students were
there because they
wanted to be there and
were not constrained by
such things as grades.”