The University of British Columbia-Vancouver is in the process of designing the greenest building in North America for its Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability.

Construction began last September, and the building is currently set to open in summer 2011 on the aptly named Sustainability Street of UBC’s Vancouver campus.

“Sustainability is about what kind of world we want to live in,” John Robinson, project leader and professor at UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability said.

The $37 million building will house sustainability research, development and practice.

It is designed to be greenhouse gas-positive and a net-energy producer, which will reduce the energy UBC uses and the carbon it emits. All water used throughout the building will be collected from rainwater, and there will be wastewater treatment on site.

The university has also designed the building to be easily deconstructed, to make the building more adaptable to future green technologies. As current green systems grow outdated, they can be replaced by more efficient ones at minimal cost.

Building processes such as building occupancy, inhabitant behavior, water harvesting and treatment, heating, cooling, lighting and equipment use will be monitored at all times.

This information will be made accessible to the facility’s desktop computers where they can vote on what features are helpful.

In a October 2009 report, Robinson recommended that the Centre also be the future home of the University Sustainability Initiative to create a single powerhouse for all of UBC’s sustainable activities. Most North American universities separate the academic and operational sides of the sustainability efforts.

“It’s proven hard to [integrate these programs],” Robinson said. “They’re very different worlds.”

The Centre is looking forward in involving the public community. “Community engagement isn’t just desirable in principle,” Robinson said. “It’s actually necessary to achieve a sustainable future.”

CIRS is currently partnered with Simon Fraser University, the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Being sick in college sucks. Alright, being sick anytime sucks, but you remember the time in like elementary school when you used to hope beyond hope for a sick day? This was the time when you did not just want to pretend to be sick — parents tend to see right through that when they whip out the thermometer anyway — but you wanted to have just enough of a temperature for them to relent with a heavy, almost ironic sigh, “I guess you can stay home today.”

Then, your mom takes the day off from work. “The kid’s sick,” she tells them, provoking a symphony of “aw” on the other end of the line. You’re too naive to realize that it’s a sick day for her, too. With her presence, you have Gatorade on demand — your choice of flavors. (No, of course not the yellow one. Who drinks the yellow one?) You watch the “Land Before Time” series, entries one through five. You watch daytime soaps, but, confused by the steady, lugubrious and flow of melodrama, soon switch over to NickToons. It’s a strangely spent day, without the quick recovery and afternoon of playful frolicking you’d expected — but there’s still a degree of enjoyment to the whole thing.

Now, years later — without the sympathy your “rumbly stomach” used to elicit — you’re left completely to your own devices. Make yourself chicken noodle soup? Preposterous. You don’t even own chicken noodle soup, or crackers, Gatorade or ginger ale — all the wonderful, magical nutrients that used to pack your family’s pantry. It seems more like a treasure trove, in retrospect, than you’d ever imagined. Instead, you look in your own refrigerator, and all you find is a half-eaten package of Kraft singles and leftover chili. You have the sneaking suspicion that, if you weren’t sick already, these would more than easily do the trick.
Not to mention, everybody who hears you’re sick has some opinion on the matter, as if your illness turns them into WebMD incarnate. “Get some rest.” “Get some exercise.” “Stay hydrated,” they’ll tell you, to the point where the mere sight of Gatorade makes you more nauseous than you were before.

There’s the obvious compulsion to get work done as well. Unlike in fourth grade, you’re not missing hand-turkeys and multiplication drills. Instead, it’s presentations, quizzes and notes for that class in which you just got a ‘C’ on the midterm. There’s always the assumption that, sure, you’re not feeling great, Bub, but there’s shit needs doing. But your mind’s more scrambled than the immune system-boosting shake you, unsuccessfully, tried to make a few hours earlier.

Instead of focusing, your mind feverishly races from one topic to another: What’s on TV? Why is it called “All My Children?” Are the characters all cousins? Where do ducks come from? Ke$ha songs are like crack cocaine. (I can’t remember why.) Where do ducks go in the winter? Someone’s asked me that before. I should eat Ramen. I should shower. I should shower in Ramen.

And you know you should eventually head to the Student Health Center. Your immune system has obviously failed, once again, at its primary purpose. Reinforcements are needed. But the idea goes against every self-reliant bone in your body. You’re an adult now. Plus, you’re pretty lazy. You’re here. It’s there. The distance seems insurmountable.

But you get there, burst through the frosted glass doors with a sniffle, and low and behold: it’s everything you dreamed of. The place is filled with tissues — not scattered with used ones like your dorm room, but boxes upon boxes of fluffy, moisturizing tissues. They hear your symptoms and the nurse toward the back sincerely says, “Aw.”

After a quick diagnosis — just a virus, they say — you’re led to a room in the back with an adjustable bed and red woolen blankets that recall those at your grandmother’s house the memory is completed by a sort of inviting musty smell.

“Here’s some pills, honey. They might make you a little drowsy, so why don’t you just rest here a bit. I’ll go get you a ginger ale to take them.” You snuggle in to the blanket and you notice “The Land Before Time” resting in a bin near the roll-away TV. You think about popping it in, but you’re overtaken by sleep before you even get the chance.

__Kevin Mooney is a Flat Hat Confusion Corner columnist. He’s turned his alcohol funds into medication funds for the weekend.__

When looking down the list of stops on Tanya Morgan and Kooley High’s most recent tour, it seems like a normal list, hitting all of the major cities: Chicago, New York City and … Williamsburg. As a part of this year’s annual Student Hip-Hop Organization concert, Tanya Morgan and Kooley High will be headlining, accompanied by many local performers and additional acts.

This year’s show will be held tomorrow in the Sadler Center. SHHO is a club that focuses on exposing the College of William and Mary community to hip-hop. Every year, the club hosts a free concert with different local and national performers to highlight up-and-coming hip-hop music.

“Our goal with SHHO is to have students who never listen to hip-hop enjoy and listen to it,” SHHO president Blair Smith ’11 said. “They are able to meet the artists and buy their merchandise, and it is also a way for the artist to get his or her name out there.”

In order to provide these shows for free with a long list of performers including local artists Intalek, Nikelus F, Smiles Crew and JB, SHHO fundraises throughout the year and teams up with other organizations.

“This year we are co-sponsoring with IPEX, the Center for Student Diversity and [AMP] Late Nite funding,” Smith said.

In addition to performances, SHHO will be collecting donations for the J.Dilla Foundation. The J.Dilla foundation is a non-profit organization that helps fund inner city music programs and provides music scholarships.

“I thought it would be cool to add a service aspect to our shows,” Smith said.

While Kooley High has performed at the College before, it is Tanya Morgan’s first time visiting the Williamsburg area.

“I have never been there before,” Von Pea of Tanya Morgan said. “I think it’s going to be cool. It’s all ages and it’s free, so everybody can just come and check it out.”

The SHHO concert proves to be a very different performance from the other stops on Tanya Morgan and Kooley High’s High Fidelity tour.

“I’m looking forward to the experience of the show, not even so much any artist in particular,” Von Pea said. “Doing shows that are all ages are more fun for me. They appreciate it more.”

One of the local performers featured in this year’s concert is Jerome Waller ’12. Waller, who goes by the stage name JB, has recently become much more serious about his music.

“In middle school and high school it was just a hobby,” Waller said. “Last year I released my first mixed tape, and from there it has really just taken off. I have done a few radio shows and a few things locally since then.”

This will be Waller’s first time performing at the College. While he feels comfortable performing in front of countless strangers, performing for his peers is another story.

“I’m excited and also nervous,” Waller said. “Being in front of people that you know makes it a little different, especially at a school like ours where you don’t really see anyone outside of the classroom atmosphere.”

Waller became involved with SHHO after attending last year’s concert.

“I found out about it after last year’s annual show,” Waller said. “When I found out about it I got really interested. I went to a couple of things last semester and really joined this semester.”

For Smith, watching the club grow over the past three years has been a rewarding experience. This year’s show promises to be bigger than the past year’s shows.

“JB is a classmate of mine. I haven’t been able to see him perform so I am excited about that,” Smith said. “I am also excited about the B-Boy cipher, and especially about having other schools come out.”

For local performer Intalek it will be his fourth time performing at the College. Although not a member of SHHO, Intalek has been very involved with the organization.

“I was actually found by [Smith] through my music online,” Intalek said. “Word of mouth got around to [Smith] and SHHO, and she booked me for their show last year. From then on I have been in close contact with her about any upcoming performances.”

As the show date draws nearer, Smith and members of SHHO prepare for the biggest annual concert they have hosted at the College.

“I feel like it’s going to be a great event,” Smith said. “I envision it to be bigger than it has been since the three years on campus. It’s been getting a lot of attention.”

The lights have gone down, and the crowd has finally gotten quiet. A back door opens, and at least two dozen women file in and take seats in the front of a lecture hall. What is most striking about the group is how different its members are. Almost all wear some combination of red and black. Some have a bit of white. Several ethnicities are represented. Clearly, this will not be an ordinary night at the theater, and any notions to the contrary are dispelled when the language takes a distinct turn toward the anatomical. But when the show in question is Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” who would expect anything different?

As the title suggests — with all the subtlety of a charging rhino — this is a show about being a woman, and all that entails. In a series of direct conversations with the audience, one and sometimes up to four, actress talks about topics which range from first sexual experiences to, in one memorable piece, just how angry a sex organ can get. These stories were culled from interviews done by Ensler of over 200 women about their bodies and sexuality. What came out of those interviews is often surprising, funny, and at times even, tragic. Monologues about Bosnian women forced to endure sexual assault and genital mutilation practices in Africa and Asia serve as sobering reminders that all is not right with the treatment of women around the world.

Although this style of theater leaves little room for ambiguity of message, it is altogether effective and entertaining with the right people performing. Some are the right people. Some aren’t. Thankfully, the fine readings far outnumber the uninspired ones. Performing with her own character is Karina Tejada ’11, speaking as a young girl happily seduced by an older woman. Tejada handles one of the toughest monologues from the play with poise, with a realistic yet distinctive portrayal.

Examining the merits of a certain four-letter-word, beginning with ‘C,’ Katie Darby ’11 brings the most comic energy to the play, and is a welcome reprieve from the somber details of atrocities committed against women. Also worth looking out for is Virginia Butler ’11, who plays a female-only prostitute and describes the fine art of moaning during sex.

“The Vagina Monologues” is tempered from greatness by a few performers holding it back. But for those pieces performed effectively, a performance of the show can be an unforgettable night. This particular production is no exception.