Archive for January, 2009
University of Guelph – Prairie Café
Guelph’s worst food can go head to head with many other universities’ best
Guelph has a reputation for food: the Creelman Market Place, for example, has long been seen as a model of what on-campus meals should be: fresh, healthy, hearty. But I wondered: if Guelph’s best is so good, how bad is Guelph’s worst? Waiting for a bus to the university, I informally poll students. Where, I ask, is the worst food? They all answer: “Prairie Café.”
Prairie is attached to the concrete fortress that is South Residence, where over 1,800 students live, most of them frosh. The food service area has no natural light, the ceiling is low and there’s not much room to move around.
Not promising.
There is a “home cooked” counter, a short-order grill, and Pita Pit. The fruit and vegetable selection is basic, and an equivalent-sized space is dedicated to (overpriced) bulk candy. I order fish and chips, and the lunch special, “Lentil Chickpea Casserole.” The fish and chips slide around on the plate and I lose most of the fries. The server gives me a full plate of the casserole. It is huge; I can’t image eating all of it in one sitting. The prices are a bit steep at $6.17 for the fish and chips alone. However, residents pay only $4.94, and that’s a steal.
After paying, we enter the dining hall. What a difference. It is by far the best-looking dining hall of any institution I’ve visited. There are large windows and skylights everywhere. The seating feels upscale, with lots of booths. The materials absorb sound and the lighting is soft. This is definitely the place for relaxing and socializing. We end up staying for an hour and a half.
And the food? It’s not perfect. How much batter can one fish have? The fish was good, once you got to it, but encased in a batter twice its size. The fries were horrible; I can make better fries, and I barely know how to boil water. But the casserole was excellent: it was simply one of the best dishes I’ve had at a cafeteria. Guelph’s worst food can go head to head with many other universities’ best.
University of Calgary – The Alberta Room
Good, honest grub that only occasionally sinks to the culinary doldrums of university eating
The Alberta Room: such a grandiloquent name may leave you—Hey, you there, going through the remand bin at Goodwill!—wondering whether this is a place whose dress code and price range were designed for tuxedoed oil barons. Not to worry. The University of Calgary’s main dining hall, in a tent-like building called, imaginatively enough, The Dining Centre, doesn’t ask you to be anything you’re not. It’s just about good, honest grub. Only occasionally does the food sink to those culinary doldrums so much associated with university dining—a perhaps necessary echo of the Stalinist concrete ennui that surrounds the diner through the windows, i.e. the U of C campus.
Well-organized, with a constellation of food stations across the floor—grill, pasta trattoria, fruit and salad bar—diners have a lot to choose from.
To start off, a gourmet Swiss mushroom burger with fries. The latter aren’t exactly Belgian frites, but the burger is a delight––ful surprise—juicy, with all kinds of fresh tomato and run-at-the-corner-of-your-mouth dill pickle. A veal-stuffed tortellini amatriciana is less successful, with a consistency of dense cake and nothing more than pinhead de––posits of veal buried within. Though bland, it’s not altogether unsatisfying once we add a zing of freshly grated Parmesan. The accompanying spinach salad, with cherry tomatoes and cucumber, is delicious.
The bowl of fish chowder doesn’t exactly exceed expectations. A viscous skin, pallid colour and the vague sense that something has died beneath the surface adds to the effect. An apple lentil curry also missed the mark: at first one’s mouth embraced those earthy curried tones; a second spoonful was less curry, all earth. Side orders of parsley boiled potatoes and veggies still tasted of the cardboard they were packed in prior to freezing.
And so what if the server doesn’t know what a kaiser is? The made-to-order deli sandwich—ham and cheese on a toasted bun—was delicious, full of crunchy-fresh bell peppers. The fruit stick was less so. On the day we visited, this dessert and others fell into the “fish chowder” category: eat it just to say you have—and, for those of us who have lived in Quebec, to recall the engineering feats pioneered by industrial pastry chefs in that province, circa 1962.
University of Victoria – Village Greens and Carboro South
Hits the spot with great prices and enough choices to keep even the most finicky rabbit happy
It’s somewhat fitting that en route to Village Greens, the all-vegetarian cafeteria at the University of Victoria, one must navigate herds of plump bunnies. While the resident rabbits mow down on the campus’s lush lawn outside, the rabbit food being served inside the student residence building is a pleasing introduction to the fare on offer at the school.
The featured item this day is a spicy red Thai stir-fry, and it doesn’t disappoint. A nice variety of fresh vegetables are cooked up and presented on a bed of noodles. The sauce is full of flavour, even if the ramen-style noodles are uninspired. One can chose a protein of either tofu, soy beef or prawns. (A word of warning to carnivores: the one-inch cubes of brown tofu can be intimidating.) At $3.50 (plus $2 for protein) this is one of the best values available.
Upstairs, the Cadboro South Dining Hall is the main food option for most UVic students. Those with a taste for the exotic will be disappointed: pasta is the chef’s favourite ingredient (with alfredo sauce, tomato sauce, or for added zing, linguine with prawns). The only Asian dish on offer, prepackaged sushi wrapped in plastic, should be avoided. But there are some cafeteria staples that come out ahead. The majestically named Baron of Beef sandwich from the grill should satisfy any hungry meat eater, especially when dipped in the accompanying jus. The featured item is chicken Parmesan; the side of veggies was well-prepared, and the breaded chicken got it right with a blend of crispiness and tenderness. Tons of cheese and sauce made this a standout.
The dining hall does offer pre-made sandwiches wrapped in plastic that are both dry and, at $3.50, overpriced. For an extra dollar, go to the Caps deli for a delicious, freshly made sandwich that would make Dagwood Bumstead drool.
Despite some rough spots, UVic’s residence eateries hit the spot with great prices and enough choices to keep even the most finicky rabbit happy.
Wilfrid Laurier – Fresh Food Company
Thank goodness for ketchup. A wholly pitiful experience
Upon walking into the Wilfred Laurier cafeteria, we were greeted with a freshly painted and clean room, welcoming with booths and windows and soft lighting that gave a feeling of home. The mood didn’t last. The dining hall closes at the ultra inconvenient hour of 6 p.m. on Sundays. Our arrival at 5:30 may, therefore, account for our pitiful experience.
At this time of the day, there was little choice. Even the lettuce had left the salad bar with only soupy pasta salad remaining, plus a few vegetables swimming in water. Apples and oranges complete with brown spots and old complexion also deserved a pass. The roast beef, despite its pinkinsh hue, was lukewarm and devoid of moisture; accompanying corn and carrots tasted like they had been microwaved hours earlier. The chef cutting our portions didn’t even acknowledge our thank-yous.
Onto to the grill. For some reason I thought it would be prudent to try the soya burger. It was apparently the last one they had, as they promptly removed it from the menu after I ordered. Now one shouldn’t expect a soy burger to be full of juices (that is a byproduct of eating a real burger), but this had little flavour—a fact heightened by the enormous bun that rendered the patty almost unnoticeable to my pallet. A further contribution was made by a rubbery and brown lettuce. Thank goodness for ketchup.
The sandwich bar was more appealing, with a variety of meats (ham, beef, turkey) and an assortment (though limited) of vegetables. The popular stir fry station offered a vibrant meal, served up by someone who appeared to be the only cook on staff not annoyed that dinner-hour students were interrupting cleaning duties.
But these stations, along with the relatively affordable cost, were the only redeeming qualities that night at Fresh Food Company.
Dessert also got a failing grade. The chocolate cake was soggy, crumbly and the icing tasted like sweetened whipped butter, more suitable for topping pancakes than cake. Finishing shortly after 6:00, we were happy to leave. As we did, hungry students were still entering the cafeteria, only to learn that, tonight, there would be no supper for them.
University of Manitoba – Pembina Hall
For those looking to fulfill more debased appetites, the old Pembina Hall is alive and well
Pembina Hall has been long reviled by those living in residence at the University of Manitoba, so we entered cautiously. But thanks to a number of menu enhancements introduced last fall, we were pleasantly surprised.
Dinner was all you can eat for $11.99. The sandwich and wrap bar offered fresh tomatoes, peppers and pineapple, among the many other toppings for your wrap or sandwich. There was a choice of lean meats, and the salad bar offered a dozen or so ingredients ranging from your standard carrots and cucumbers to the slightly more exotic chickpeas and kidney beans. Both the romaine and iceberg lettuce were green and crunchy.
The stir-fry was pan-fried to order, in a Thai and oyster sauce. The slices of chicken breast were adequately tender, though the sauce was over-reduced, leaving the bed of rice especially dry and nearly inedible.
Pembina Hall has become better and healthier; unfortunately for those (like myself) looking to fulfill more debased appetites, the old Pembina Hall is alive and well. The pizza had been under the heat lamp for hours, leaving the cheese hardened and congealed. The macaroni and cheese was runny and flavourless, and only slightly surpassed the quality of the frozen variety.
The roast beef was a bit overdone, though cut to order. Choice of sides included vegetables (slightly undercooked), potato wedges (hashbrown-esque), rice (but no soya sauce) and tofu (decent consistency) soaked in a sweet and sour sauce that lessened the blow of actually eating tofu.
Dessert was mixed. Lemon meringue pie had an odd texture and an odder aftertaste; the Jell-O was runny. But the brownie —perfect consistency chocolate mousse atop a chewy chocolate crust—was delightfully rich.
Virginity for sale: grad student selling it online
Part of her “thesis project”; bids up to $3.8 million
Natalie Dylan, a 22-year old women’s studies graduate from Sacremento, California, is auctioning off her virginity. She writes in the Daily Beast that she is preparing to enter graduate school and is “exploring my upcoming thesis project: the value of virginity”:
“It started in college, where my eyes were opened by my Women’s Studies professors and fellow classmates. I came to understand the role of “woman” spanning culture and time. At the university level, I was given permission to think differently and form a moral code of my own design. College opened my eyes.
Like most little girls, I was raised to believe that virginity is a sacred gift a woman should reserve for just the right man. But college taught me that this concept is just a tool to keep the status quo intact. Deflowering is historically oppressive—early European marriages began with a dowry, in which a father would sell his virginal daughter to the man whose family could offer the most agricultural wealth. Dads were basically their daughters’ pimps.
When I learned this, it became apparent to me that idealized virginity is just a tool to keep women in their place. But then I realized something else: if virginity is considered that valuable, what’s to stop me from benefiting from that? It is mine, after all. And the value of my chastity is one level on which men cannot compete with me. I decided to flip the equation, and turn my virginity into something that allows me to gain power and opportunity from men. I took the ancient notion that a woman’s virginity is priceless and used it as a vehicle for capitalism.”
Interested parties can bid and consummate the deal at the Bunny Ranch, a house of prostitution in Nevada that is sort of like this, but without the musical numbers. Dylan claims that bidding for the right to deflour her has reached…. US$3.8 million. The oldest profession is supposed to be recession-proof, but if you find that number a little hard to believe, you are not alone.
But the alleged principal investigator’s publicity-seeking exaggerations aside, the question she claims to be trying to answer is a real, graduate-school-appropriate question. How much is virginity worth? You’d love to see someone like this guy considering the issue: his months with a Chicago crack-dealing gang allowed him to precisely measure the degree to which drug dealing can be a remarkably low-income business for most of the people involved (but not for a very small number of people at the top of the pyramid). I suspect prostitution is a similar story.
Oh, wait a second… Dylan is apparently now reconsidering her project.
York back-to-work legislation: Day 2
Minister calls for speedy passage; NDP continues to delay
The New Democrats say they won’t agree to a marathon debate in the Ontario legislature that could see legislation aimed at ending a long strike at York University passed more quickly.
The Liberal government says it’s willing to debate the back-to-work bill until midnight at the Opposition’s request, but the NDP says it will oppose a night sitting.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton says he’s not playing games by refusing to go along with the legislation.
He says he wants to debate the bill because Ontarians need to know about the chronic underfunding of the province’s universities and colleges.
The Progressive Conservatives slammed the Liberals in the legislature for failing to take action sooner to help end the 12-week strike.
With the premier absent from the legislature, it was up to Colleges and Universities Minister John Milloy to call on all parties to pass the back-to-work legislation quickly.
The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives had hoped for speedy passage over the weekend but the New Democrats voted against the bill.
The strike has kept about 50,000 York students out of classes since early November, but about 5,000 students have been allowed to return under a special deal with the university.
The government says it’s unlikely students will return to school this week unless the New Democrats have a change of heart.
The Liberals say Thursday is the earliest the legislation could be passed – so the school likely won’t reopen before Feb. 2.
— The Canadian Press
Budget to include $2B for PSE infrastructure
In recent weeks, both the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges have been lobbying the federal government for funds to improve post-secondary education infrastructure. It appears that they have succeeded. According to Transport Minister John Baird, tomorrow’s federal budget will include $2 billion in spending for maintenance [...]
In recent weeks, both the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges have been lobbying the federal government for funds to improve post-secondary education infrastructure. It appears that they have succeeded.
According to Transport Minister John Baird, tomorrow’s federal budget will include $2 billion in spending for maintenance and construction at colleges and universities across the country over the next two years.
Tech-savvy educators connect via virtual classrooms
With avatars and online games, students can interact with professors, curriculum and each other
As pens and legal pads have given way to laptops in the lecture hall, professors who are usually incensed by key tapping and the annoyances of technology have gradually adjusted – or at least accepted that such gizmos are here to stay.
The most innovative of the bunch have turned the distractions of technology to their advantage.
These tech-savvy educators are transplanting the classroom into the digital realm, shifting eager students into cyber-classes and shedding teaching limitations of the past.
Lyle Wetsch is one of those professors. Last year, he joined at least 10 other Canadian educational institutions inhabiting Second Life, an online virtual world, to teach an MBA class for students at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L.
Interacting via his lifelike representation – called an avatar – Wetsch led students on virtual visits of the headquarters of major car companies. He also had virtual office hours and encouraged students to meet and practise presentations before the real deal.
“One of the advantages of education in the virtual world is you’re not limited to what you’re stuck with in the real world,” he said.
Indeed, entirely new demographics are being reached. Online learning opens doors for the sick, disabled and shy, to those living in remote areas or who are financially disadvantaged, and to students being home-schooled.
For students in grade school and high school, online tutoring is being offered for free through programs such as TV Ontario’s Ask a Teacher service, or for a fee by services such as newly launched TutorJam.
“There are students who for some reason got left behind,” said TutorJam founder Ajit Singh, who is also a professor at the University of Waterloo. “They cannot clearly state that they are not ‘getting it.’ And this tutoring service is right in the privacy of their homes, so kids can just open up.”
Loyalist College in Belleville, Ont., Canada’s first school to build a campus in Second Life, has used the platform successfully.
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, students hoping to become border guards saw their grades drop after practice sessions at the Canada-U.S. border were cut back.
The creation of a realistic simulation in Second Life provided a way for the students to attain the same skills. Students later tested in mock interview scenarios of people passing between countries saw their marks jump 28 per cent.
Online, tuitionless university planned
University of the People would have study communities, homework and exams
From The New York Times:
An Israeli entrepreneur with decades of experience in international education plans to start the first global, tuition-free Internet university, a nonprofit venture he has named the University of the People.
The University of the People, like other Internet-based universities, would have online study communities, weekly discussion topics, homework assignments and exams. But in lieu of tuition, students would pay only nominal fees for enrollment ($15 to $50) and exams ($10 to $100), with students from poorer countries paying the lower fees and those from richer countries paying the higher ones.
Experts in online education say the idea raises many questions.
NDP stalls back-to-work bill in York University strike
Students could have returned to classes as early as Monday
Ontario’s New Democrats have stalled the provincial government’s bid to end the York University strike with back-to-work legislation.
The legislation tabled today could have ended the strike and sent students back to class early this week, had it passed with the unanimous consent of the legislature.
But the NDP’s eight members voted against early passage, arguing that an end to the labour dispute should not be forced by the government.
As a result, the legislation will have to be debated several times before it can go to a final vote, likely later this week or early next week.
Premier Dalton McGuinty says there’s no reasonable prospect of a negotiated settlement between the university and the union representing contract faculty and other staff.
About 3,300 workers at York have been off the job since Nov. 6., cancelling classes for about 50,000 students at Canada’s third-largest university.
York has seen three of the country’s five longest faculty association strikes. Saturday marked Day 80 of the current strike, while in 2001 there was a 78-day strike and in 1997 a strike lasted 55 days.
The length of those strikes are surpassed only by strikes at the University of Quebec in 1976-77 and Laval University in 1976, which both lasted about four months.
- The Canadian Press
Dawn of the cyberstudent
This article from The Guardian discusses some of the ways in which post-secondary institutions are being challenged to keep up with web 2.0 and our changing students: [S]tudents will soon be mixing their higher education experiences from resources all over the world, choosing to study at Harvard, say, while listening to lectures from Oxford, taking [...]
This article from The Guardian discusses some of the ways in which post-secondary institutions are being challenged to keep up with web 2.0 and our changing students:
[S]tudents will soon be mixing their higher education experiences from resources all over the world, choosing to study at Harvard, say, while listening to lectures from Oxford, taking part in discussion groups at the University of Mumbai, and sitting exams somewhere entirely different. Thanks to ever more rapid advances in technology, the university experience of undergraduates and academics in 2020 will be radically different from that of their 2008 predecessors.
Coleman defends Ontario NDP position opposing back-to-work legislation
Yes, you read the headline right. I’m defending the position of Ontario’s NDP to oppose back-to-work legislation to end the York University strike by members of CUPE 3903. You’re probably wondering why, find out by reading the latest blog post on my personal server at: http://www.joeycoleman.ca/blog/2009/01/in-defence-of-ontarios-ndp-on-york-university-strike.html
Yes, you read the headline right.
I’m defending the position of Ontario’s NDP to oppose back-to-work legislation to end the York University strike by members of CUPE 3903.
You’re probably wondering why, find out by reading the latest blog post on my personal server at: http://www.joeycoleman.ca/blog/2009/01/in-defence-of-ontarios-ndp-on-york-university-strike.html
New Democrats set to block York’s back-to-work bill
With unanimous support, classes could have restarted as early as Monday
Plans by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to get 50,000 York University students back to class on Monday after an 11-week strike will be blocked by the New Democrats, who plan to oppose back-to-work legislation to be tabled Sunday.
McGuinty said with unanimous support the legislation could pass Sunday and classes could resume Monday, but opposition by the New Democrats means the strike will continue at least several more days.
“There is, to my way of thinking, no reason whatsoever not to support this legislation and have it pass first, second and third reading tomorrow, Sunday,” McGuinty said.
New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton later said the party believes a resolution shouldn’t be forced and his members are set to debate each reading.
“It almost looks like the university has taken the position ‘We won’t bargain and then we’ll allow the McGuinty government to settle this.’ And that’s wrong,” he said.
The real issue is that education in Ontario is “chronically underfunded,” Hampton said.
“That’s where the real problem lies. And trying to blame the workers is frankly just wrong.”
Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory had been pressing for back-to-work legislation and said he expects his party will support it.
“What he’s done today is very, very, very late, but better late than never,” Tory said.
“But he should be ashamed of himself for the fact he’s let this go on for so long.”
Though the process could last up to two weeks, when it’s through McGuinty says the school must examine what appears to be a “systemic issue” that led to the “labour mess” and jeopardized its students’ futures, Premier Dalton McGuinty said.
“Educational aspirations, opportunities, a bright future – I mean, that’s what we want for our kids and all of that was compromised as a result of what took place at York University,” McGuinty said.
“I cannot help as a parent but resent that and be angered by that.”
York University gets back-to-work legislation
Bill will be voted on at a “special sitting” Sunday afternoon
An 11-week strike at York University could come to an end as early as Sunday and send some 50,000 students back to class the next day if back-to-work legislation gets the support of all parties, the premier said Saturday.
What you probably don’t know about the York University strike
For complete coverage of the York University strike, click here
Dalton McGuinty appointed the province’s top labour mediator just days ago to help bring an end to the labour dispute, but Reg Pearson told the premier Saturday morning there was no “reasonable prospect” of a negotiated settlement.
After previously rejecting Opposition calls to table back-to-work legislation, McGuinty announced he would recall the legislature for a special sitting at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“I am now absolutely convinced that the two sides are in deadlock,” McGuinty said.
“There is no…reasonable prospect or resolution through the traditional bargaining process, so time’s up.”
McGuinty said if the legislation receives the support of both the Conservatives and the New Democrats, it could pass first, second and third reading on Sunday. If not, the process could take up to two more weeks.
Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory had already been pressing the province to take such action.
York University students woke up Saturday to the news they could be back in class sooner than expected.
“I just think that if they had of really been on the ball and they had really been paying attention, then they would have known that back-to-work legislation was necessary a month ago,” said Scott McLean, 20, a third-year film production student.
“It’s really disappointing that (McGuinty) continued to still drag it for this long. So it’s nice, but it’s a little late.”
Stacey Russell, 21, a fourth-year sociology student, said she’s feeling divided.
“I’m excited to go back, just because this is my final year and I’ll be graduating,” she said.
“However, I am not looking forward to going back at all because if we have to cram, it’s going to be ridiculously stressful.”
As faculty and teaching assistants may be forced back to the classroom rather than reaching an agreement, Russell said she’s concerned about the mood on campus.
Back-to-work legislation coming
McGuinty has recalled the legislative assembly and will be tabling back-to-work legislation. Full story here. My thoughts on the developments will be coming in a post later today at www.joeycoleman.ca/blog Tomorrow, watch the byline at The National Post. If Sarah Millar is writing their coverage of the BTWL, I’d turn to her for extensive and [...]
McGuinty has recalled the legislative assembly and will be tabling back-to-work legislation. Full story here.
My thoughts on the developments will be coming in a post later today at www.joeycoleman.ca/blog
Tomorrow, watch the byline at The National Post. If Sarah Millar is writing their coverage of the BTWL, I’d turn to her for extensive and knowledgeable reporting. Otherwise, I’d suggest Murray Campbell at The Globe and Mail or Robert Benzie at the Toronto Star. (Although I don’t expect either publication to dispatch an education reporter tomorrow.)
I’m working overnight Sunday/Monday at my bill-paying part-time job (I’ve taken a lot of weekends off for journalism and can’t afford to take more) and will not return to blogging until late Monday at the earliest.
Tick Tock
One quick thought on the BTWL announcement. I wonder if the union can still accept York’s “final offer”? It’s likely much better than anything they’ll receive from an arbritator. If I were the union, I be rushing to get the better deal before Queen’s Park sends this off to arbitration and effectively makes the strike [...]
One quick thought on the BTWL announcement.
I wonder if the union can still accept York’s “final offer”?
It’s likely much better than anything they’ll receive from an arbritator.
If I were the union, I be rushing to get the better deal before Queen’s Park sends this off to arbitration and effectively makes the strike a waste for the union. (Arbitration will achieve the same results the union would’ve received without a strike by taking the offer of arbitration from the university.)
Colleges seek funds for expansions, upgrades, repairs
This week, the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) released a list of 120 expansion, upgrade and repair projects that are “ready-to-go” and could create thousands of jobs if the federal government makes the necessary funding available in Tuesday’s budget. The list of projects, requiring a total of $2.12 billion in financing, was compiled by [...]
This week, the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) released a list of 120 expansion, upgrade and repair projects that are “ready-to-go” and could create thousands of jobs if the federal government makes the necessary funding available in Tuesday’s budget. The list of projects, requiring a total of $2.12 billion in financing, was compiled by the ACCC following a survey of its 150 member institutions.
McGuinty’s stance on York strike “puzzling”: union president
The national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Wayne E. Hanley, calls McGuinty’s stance on labour rights “puzzling.” Hanley, in an open letter published today, says the provincial government is being inconsistent respecting court rulings granting labour rights. “I find it puzzling you would cite that 2007 Supreme Court ruling to defend [...]
The national president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Wayne E. Hanley, calls McGuinty’s stance on labour rights “puzzling.”
Hanley, in an open letter published today, says the provincial government is being inconsistent respecting court rulings granting labour rights.
“I find it puzzling you would cite that 2007 Supreme Court ruling to defend the workers’ rights at York University, while ignoring that same Supreme Court decision by continuing to deny Ontario agriculture workers their rights to join a union and bargain collectively,” wrote Hanley.
The UFCW has been fighting to unionize and protect workers at factory farming operations in Ontario. UFCW recently won a court ruling granting these workers the right to unionize. However, last week, the McGuinty government decided to appeal the ruling.
Hanley is clear that he agrees with the McGuinty government’s current position that it is unable to legislate back-to-work.
More information on attempts to organize factory farm workers is available on the UFCW website.
Personally, I’m inconsistent on this subject. I believe government’s should have the ability to legislate back-to-work when necessary and that it should be allowing factory farm workers to unionize.
The three day week: living every 12-year-old’s dream
Back in high school, course selection was simple. Once all the mandatory courses were filled into your schedule, you could choose between art, family studies, or shop class. And then everything was put together automatically. In university, it got a bit more complicated. Suddenly, you have some control over what day of the week each [...]
Back in high school, course selection was simple. Once all the mandatory courses were filled into your schedule, you could choose between art, family studies, or shop class. And then everything was put together automatically.
In university, it got a bit more complicated. Suddenly, you have some control over what day of the week each course is, or whether a course has three one-hour lectures a week, or one three-hour lecture a week. It’s this sudden extra control that made my number one goal for second semester possible.
As in, scoring a three-day week.
Sure, I get home late on Mondays and Wednesdays, and Fridays are long enough. But no matter how brain dead I am, I have a mini-weekend the next day. With two extra days off every week, keeping up with the workload is also much easier. And there’s something particularly awesome about never having two days of school in a row.
I’m living every 12-year-old’s dream.
