On the Québec Student Strike

 

           The strikes in Québec universities, notably and centrally the francophone universities in Montréal, have been going on for over 100 days now. Québécois students are opposing tuition hikes and rightly so; the rest of Canada should not be blaming them for having lower tuition, but asking why we ourselves are not fighting harder to keep higher education affordable. Recently, their provincial government put into effect Bill/Loi 78 in an effort to quash protestors and strip their rights away. Unfortunately, the media outside of Québec is presenting only one side of the issue.  So this post is an aggregation of links that explain things, and help to explain why I am in support. (These links and this information is due mostly to the internet communities I frequent, and the friends I have made there)

 

- Student Strike in Québec 2012 (Fr)

- Bill 78 (Eng)

-Timeline of tuition issues in QB

-Manifestations de casseroles (video)

-Concordia University’s media (Both Fr/Eng)

- Translating the Printemps Erable  (translated articles from Fr to Eng)

- McGill article on the 100th day of protest (Eng)

- Bloquons la Hausse (Fr)

- On public spaces and protest (Eng)

 

Campus Elections: Platforms or Posters?

University of Alberta is having another, yearly Students’ Union election! Hurrah? If you’re like me you haven’t heard much about the elections other than seeing a ton of posters suddenly assaulting you in the past week. Here’s a quick run down of the candidates for Students’ Union President – whether you vote by platform or poster.

VIKRAM SETH
 Poster: Well-designed, stand out, original. Seen over most of campus.
Website (http://votevik.com): Less than satisfying. Poor design, difficult to read. The hover text is annoying.
Platform: Increasing programming events, publishing a quarterly review of all SU executives both in the Gateway and online, implementing a sustainable tuition plan

 ADAM ZEPP

Poster: Haven’t seen around campus at all. I like the font, but not necessarily the neon green.
Website (http://votezepp.com/): Again less than satisfying. Inconsistent capitalization, missed apostrophes. Has testimonies from the Mayor and owner of the Oilers, who is he kidding? Ugh.
Platform: Transparency of student government, greener campus, supporting student groups.

NICK DEHOD
Poster: I had to track down and snap a photo of this myself, so minus points for not having the poster online. But in general: Seen over almost all of campus, good marketing.
Website:(www.picknick.ca) Much more well-constructed than the others. However, small font and grey colors make it difficult to read. Pages fall into danger of becoming “walls of text”.
Platform: Take action on tuition :address the $550 fee,  develop the infrastructure of student government ,  pursue a Fall Reading Week.

Well that’s my nutshell guide to our Presidential Candidates!

On Getting a “Useless” Arts Degree

“What are you studying?”
“Philosophy.”
“Oh.”

Too many of my conversations, too many of my introductions to new friends or classmates go this way. This happens all too often to a lot of students who are getting humanities or liberal-arts-focused degrees. But why?
These are things we often study because we value them in themselves, not because they will afford us a better job, make us rich, or allow us to become famous and publish several best-selling books. I’m not knocking anyone whose area of passion happens to lead to the above consequences, but if those are the only reasons you chose to study what you’re studying, you seriously need to re-evaluate your life.

Post-secondary institutions have become like businesses now, and education is more of a means to an end than an end in itself. This picture is wrong in so many ways. People should be able to study whatever they want and still make a decent amount of money in the future – not exorbitant, but decent. A baseline.
For now, universities and colleges costing so much money just leads more people to abandon their interests for the sake of paying back student loans. But that does not mean degrees without blossoming job growth should be shunned or discounted.
I want to do a bit more “writing-writing” on this blog in the future, whatever that means.

How to Survive the First Week Back to Classes After Winter Break

I had almost a month off from university classes this winter break, and I'm guessing most other students had the same amount. This is the perfect length to breathe, play some videogames, sleep in, and abandon all responsibility.  But what happens when you're jolted back into real life?

Monday night I set my alarm for 6:30 and crawled into bed. Morning came and I was awakened by my kind mother at 7 am. First slip-up: I had set my alarm for 6:30 PM instead of AM. I got all my books together fine, and left. Second problem: I got home quite early, but felt like collapsing. I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep the night before. I met some accomplished younger students and doubted my own academic abilities. I felt overwhelmed with the new information of new classes.

This morning, my alarm went off properly. I'd prepared everything the night before. I filled up on coffee. The moral of the story? Think about waking up at a decent hour a few days before classes start again. Don't expect the first week back to go perfectly smoothly. Know that everyone around you is just as frazzled as you are. Breathe.

On a Recent Campus Scandal

 

I don't mean to be terribly UofA-centric, but I thought I'd write a bit about what's going down on campus lately.

Our university president, Indira Samarasekera (who may I mention is one of the highest paid university presidents in Canada), recently made statements to the local newspaper about how women are starting to outnumber men in undergraduate studies, how she wants to be an advocate for white males, and her worries that in 20-30 years we will have a lack of white male talent to be CEOs and run businesses.

Wait, what?

Samarasekera, herself a woman and a racial minority, seems to be undermining her own position and the position of women in post-secondary institutions everywhere. God forbid women be excelling in universities!

A campus group - which I'm sorry I didn't hear about earlier, or I would have helped out - put up a series of satirical, GREAT posters. Unfortunately, they face possible charges under the Code of Student Behaviour for merely exercising their outrage at the president's behaviour.

 

As if our university weren't in a dire state with this president already, I am just FLABBERGASTED at her behaviour. Seriously, Indira, haven't you heard of privilege? No? 

More on this story:

The Gateway

CBC News