Archive for July, 2009

New instructor says it became “difficult” to have Diab in the classroom

Carleton University says Hassan Diab, an Ottawa professor who was released on bail after being arrested in connection with the 1980 bombing of a Paris synagogue, has been relieved of his teaching duties of a summer Carleton course.

On July 30, Karen March, a sociology professor at Carleton, took over as the summer sociology course’s class instructor. She and students addressed the controversy surrounding Diab’s dismissal as part of their class discussion on “social problems.”

Some students enrolled in the first-year sociology class Diab taught since mid-July say they are not happy he has been replaced

“They knew who he was when they hired him. What’s the point of changing it because the media found out?” said one student in the July 30 class, the first scheduled class since the professor’s dismissal.

“Three weeks of class, three profs and I need this courses to graduate,” said another former student.

Diab started teaching the class after the instructor who was originally scheduled to teach, George Pollard, became ill one week into the summer course, which started the first week of July.

For complete OnCampus coverage of this story, including commentary, click here.

March says she took over from Diab because it became “difficult to have him in this class,” but that she was “not coerced” into teaching.

The reasoning for the professor’s dismissal, according to Carleton’s release, was “in the interest of providing its students with a stable, productive academic environment that is conducive to learning.”

The announcement came following reports from several media sources, including the July 27 Ottawa Citizen article, concerning Diab’s new teaching assignment, and criticism from the Canadian national office of B’nai Brith, an international Jewish human rights advocacy group.

The group issued a statement July 28, saying, “the conditions of Diab’s bail do not even allow him to leave his home alone or to own a cell phone, but Carleton officials believe that it is fine for them to make him a member of their faculty? The last place in the world where this man belongs is in a university classroom, in front of impressionable students.”

CUPE Local 4600, the union representing Carleton teaching assistants and contract instructors, said in a open letter addressed to Carleton president Roseann Runte, obtained by the Charlatan July 29, that they are “extremely concerned” about Diab’s dismissal.

“Mr. Diab has the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty,” it read.

In the letter CUPE also raised the fact that Diab was fired after he had already been teaching the course under contract; his sudden dismissal may go against the collective agreement the union has with the university.

CUPE 4600 said they are urging the university “to balance public opinion with the law and a sense of professional integrity.”

The Canadian Association of University Teachers also said in a release July 29 that it “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the change in professors.

It goes on to say that Carleton’s actions “represent a serious violation of basic rights and procedures” and that they are calling for the school to reinstate Diab.

The department of sociology and anthropology at Carleton has said they will not be releasing the name of the course’s new professor until July 30, after the class is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

On Carleton Central — Carleton’s course registration website — the instructor for the class has changed from Hassan Diab, who was still listed July 28, to “TBA.”

Diab was arrested in November 2008 and accused of killing four as a result of the 1980 terrorist blast which was blamed on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations after no one claimed responsibility.

As part of his bail conditions granted on March 31 of this year, Diab has been outfitted with an electronic monitoring bracelet, is under house arrest when not attending work and must obey a curfew and refrain from owning a cellphone, among other impositions.

According to the Citizen, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger said the strict conditions were necessary to prevent the risk of Diab fleeing the country before he is to appear at an extradition hearing to face murder and destruction of property charges in France.

The Citizen also reported Diab was to be allowed to travel to Carleton accompanied by court-appointed surety and his common-law spouse, Rania Tfaily, also a Carleton sociology professor, to teach the course that is scheduled twice a week.

Diab told French newspaper Le Figaro during an interview in 2007 (as translated by the Citizen): “I am a victim of mistaken identity not based on anything . . . I have never belonged to any Palestinian organization, nor have I been militant politically.”

Diab has previously taught courses at both Carleton and the University of Ottawa.

The university has said it is not commenting further on the issue.

Neither Diab’s lawyer or Tfaily, were available for comment.

Diab faces his extradition hearing Jan. 4, 2010.

— a version of this story appeared in the August edition of the Charlatan, Carleton University’s student independent newspaper

Universities see a rise in dorm cooking, more dining hall options

Once upon a time, eating in a college dorm meant soup in a hotpot or getting pizza delivered. The most interesting thing about the campus dining hall was often the salad bar.

No more. These days, college students have gourmet palates and a growing interest in preparing their own food. Mini-refrigerators and microwaves in dorm rooms are as essential as laptops. Chefs drop by dorm kitchens to give lessons, and dining halls provide takeout containers and ingredients for kids who want to cook their own meals.

“‘Are we allowed to have mini-fridges and microwaves in our residence hall room?’ That may be the No. 1 question our residential staff encounter from new students entering Western Illinois University,” according to John Biernbaum, who oversees the school’s housing and dining services in Macomb, Ill.

“The culinary literacy of college students is increasing,” said Tom Post, president of campus dining for Sodexo, a food service and facilities management company that works with 600 campuses in North America. “Students today grew up watching celebrity chefs on TV, eating organic food, enjoying authentic world cuisine and valuing good nutrition.”

In response, cafeteria menus have changed, with Sodexo’s top campus foods for 2009 including Vietnamese pho (noodle soup), mini-samosas, goat cheese salad and chicken mole. But colleges are also catering to student demands for more flexible and individualized dining options.

Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., offers recyclable takeout containers called “GustieWare” in the dining halls. This fall, Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., will offer students on its meal plan a chance to pick up groceries in the cafeteria as an alternative to a cooked meal.

At Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., food waste from the dining hall is used as compost for an organic garden where students grow lettuce, peppers, corn, kale, squash, carrots and other vegetables.

“The students also throw a garden party every week – usually Friday afternoon – where they get together to harvest the vegetables, then dine on the food with some live music,” said Jim Marchant, Pitzer dean of students. The garden is used “to teach principles of sustainable agriculture and encourage college community members to become more connected with the source of their food.”

Chartwells, the company that prepares food for dining halls at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, offers microwaveable meals that students can take away, as well as a program called “My Pantry,” where students can have food individually prepared, or even do their own cooking.

“Clearly there has been a great rejection of the (traditional) campus meal plan, both because of the inflexibility of it and because you have so many different kinds of tastes now,” said Nach Waxman, owner of the Kitchen Arts & Letters cookbook store in Manhattan. “And the dorms have changed: They have kitchens and food prep rooms. When I was in college, there was no such thing.”

A great opportunity from a fabulous grassroots organization

I was recently approached by the Spanish Speaking Education Network to participate in their annual conference as a keynote speaker. I’d like to advertise the opportunity to attend to everyone who happens to be in the Toronto area or who could come in for the day. This is really a fabulous grassroots organization that I’m pleased to support now that I’ve learned more about it. The conference (or congress, as they call it) is free to attend for students, prospective students, their families, and other interested parties such as educators and community workers. Free busing is provided from the local subway, and breakfast and lunch is free as well. There’s even free childcare available. The point is to reach out to the Spanish community and to make information about post-secondary education more accessible to them.

If you’d like to learn more about the conference you can do that here. You can also register online. The conference isn’t until October 3rd but of course a little advance notice never hurt anyone. I’d be glad to hear from folks who follow this site so if you do make it in please let me know. I’ll be there all day, along with other speakers and presenters.

OnCampus blogger tweets live from former professor’s classroom

One of my colleagues at Carleton University and fellow OnCampus blogger, Jennifer Pagliaro, is live-tweeting from the former classroom of Hassan Diab, a professor accused of bombing a French synagogue nearly 30 years ago. Diab was hired to teach introductory sociology at Carleton University, then quickly replaced following public outcry. This is the first class being taught by his replacement, and they reportedly will discuss Diab’s situation as part of the lesson.

You can follow the updates at http://twitter.com/CharlatanLive

For background, you can also see Pagliaro’s piece that appeared in today’s edition of The Charlatan (Carleton’s independent newspaper) at http://charlatan.ca

Funding cuts were announced by Moira Stilwell, UBC faculty member

Irony of ironies: The BC government’s $16 million worth of funding cuts to a slew of financial assistance programs was announced by newly minted Minister of Advanced Education Moira Stilwell, herself a faculty member at UBC (though now on indefinite leave, obviously).

This is the second straight year in which the Liberal Campbell government has slashed post-secondary education funding for the upcoming year without any advance warning to those being affected. Last year, it caused plenty of last minute scrambling for universities, and this year, it’s students who have been suckered-punched her. Because really, communication is sooo overrated. Little wonder why one prominent post-secondary education advocate has referred to the government’s handling of this file as “a spiralling helldive of disaster“.

Jeff Rybak takes aim at the “extremely negative trend” of unpaid internships

Like just about anyone with a social circle of twenty-something friends, I know a lot of people who are un(der)employed. Most of them have completed post-secondary degrees and diplomas – in some cases more than one. More and more I’m hearing about offers they receive concerning unpaid internships, volunteer opportunities and the like. At times they are forced to even consider these offers. I’d refuse to describe these things as “offers” and “opportunities” if not for the fact that I can “offer” someone the “opportunity” to get punched in the face several times. Grammatically it is correct. But not in any other sense.

Moral outrage aside, there are four distinct reasons why this is an extremely negative trend. Two of them are public policy reasons. The free labour takes the place of paid jobs, and to the extent that these positions lead to real opportunities the fact that they aren’t paid lends gross advantages to the already privileged. Two other reasons are purely personal. Working for free will low-ball the value of your labour, and exactly because these positions aren’t paid the legitimacy of the experience you gain will always be in doubt.

Free Labour

The problem of free labour has been well explored in connection with workfare. I tried to find a relatively non-partisan explanation of the workfare experience in Ontario and this is the best I could come up with. Most organizations are much more scathing on the topic, but comparisons to slavery are probably counter-productive. There’s no need to so rhetorical about it anyway. The problems are right there on the face on things.

Just as in workfare, unpaid positions in the workforce (whether billed as volunteer positions, internships, whatever) do not become full-time jobs. Unpaid interns are replaced with new unpaid interns. In an ideal situation one might hope that the last unpaid intern moves on to a paid position somewhere else (see below) or even in the same organization, but regardless the work stays in that unpaid position. So whatever the value of the experience the work performed in any position such as this is work that has been permanently removed from the paid workforce. Any argument that this work would not exist otherwise is idiotic and self-defeating. If it’s completely made-up work then it can’t have much value as experience. And if it’s meaningful work then someone would be getting paid to do it, if not for the unending stream of people willing to make victims of themselves in the hope of it leading to something better.

I say “willing,” by the way, because I’m back on the topic of volunteer positions and internships. In the case of the workforce it’s anything but voluntary. But my intention isn’t to focus on that topic. I just want to illustrate a basic point of logic. For everyone who does a job for free in the hope of scoring a coveted position in some field of work, there’s actually one less paid job in that field. And everyone loses.

The Already Privileged

Of course some lose more than others. The Globe ran a great article on the issue of prestigious internships getting auctioned for charity – so instead of getting paid you actually pay (potentially big bucks) for the privilege of the experience. And privilege it is. Who can afford such a thing? The already wealthy, of course. And I do hope we can agree there are problems with this. We accept that money can buy elite education, private tutors, that privilege often contributes to networking opportunities, etc. But surely it’s a problem once it becomes even the way to buy your way directly into the workforce. Anywhere else we’d simply call this graft. But the charity angle does complicate things.

These high-profile examples aside, even your garden-variety unpaid internship is out of reach for many people. Folks need to eat and pay the rent and even (God forbid) support children. Only a limited sampling of people can move back home with their parents, or hit them up for living expenses, or fall back on a trust fund. The rest simply can’t afford to live without an income. So let’s believe for a moment that these “opportunities” are opportunities in any sort of true sense. Who’s getting them? Certainly not the most qualified or the most deserving. Just those with money

I’m aware that many people aren’t in a good position to worry about these public policy concerns. When you’ve got problems of your own to worry about it’s easy to say “life isn’t fair” and just do what you need to do. I respect that. So now I’ll get into the reasons why I believe that most of these positions are bad for the individual as well as bad for the community.

Low-balling Your Value

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from business students (and they have an interesting perspective on things) it’s that once you set a value on something you can’t erase that number. The number can go up or it can go down but the value you try to place on that thing will always be judged in relation to the past. I hear that frequently from recent graduates casting around for entry-level positions. They say things like “it’s a good job, with some interesting prospects, but I know if I enter the workforce at $38k/year I’ll be stuck down there for a long time.” And that’s an extremely good point. So what if you enter the workforce at $0/k year?

Actually, I can see the benefit of that in one regard. It’s more like having no income history at all rather than a low one. I’m willing to believe that maybe in the best positions it isn’t a problem that you started out by working for free. But most of these unpaid positions aren’t the fantastic kind that go up on the auction block at charity events. Most of them are the step that comes before the entry-level position and salary. So how exactly do you negotiate your starting salary from any position of strength when the person across the table knows that last time you agreed to work for nothing? Unless you’re one of those independently-wealthy types, who can continue to work for nothing as long as you want until the right offer comes along, there’s got to be a limit. The need to pay the bills will trump any desire to hold out for a good income.

Many people eventually face this soul-crushing choice, and realize that it’s better to volunteer than do nothing at all. I can see the logic to that and I wouldn’t advise against it. But I’d add that it isn’t any way at all to jump to the front of the queue for a real job. You’re far better taking paid work at any level with the intention to move up from there than doing it for free. Either way you’re stuck low-balling your value. But at least in the later instance you can salvage some of your dignity. And more than that, when you apply for better jobs it will be apparent from your CV that the first job you held, no matter the low income, was indeed a real job.

How much does your student union president make?

Two weeks ago, my OnCampus colleague Dean Tester did some sleuthing on the salaries earned by student union executives in Ontario. Seeing as how it got the interweb comment board buzzing, I thought I would follow it up with a look at what our student leaders make west of the Canadian Shield (Western Canada, for those not geographically inclined).

Most of these numbers comes from a report done by the UBC student union (better known as the AMS), which had a committee review the salaries of their own executives. So these numbers come from either available budgets/minutes, or correspondence between the AMS committee and executives at other universities. So without further adieu:

University of Calgary: $35,160

Simon Fraser University: $30,000

University of Victoria: $25,077  (This number is very approximate—they’re expected to work 37.5 a week at $12.86 an hour)

University of Manitoba: $25,000 (This is a number from 2005—it’s been raised by CPI every year since then)

University of British Columbia: $25,000

University of Alberta: $24,000

University of Saskatchewan: $22,494

University of Regina: $20,656.56

University of Lethbridge: $19,200

Hi everyone, This is my introductory post for Maclean’s OnCampus. As my awesomely creative blog title suggests, I hope to pamper you with campus news about cool extracurricular activities, artsy going-ons, outstanding cultural leaders, culinary wonders, fashion funsies and anything else hip and exciting. Everyone could use a healthier, more balanced brain. Sure, the school [...]

Hi everyone,

This is my introductory post for Maclean’s OnCampus. As my awesomely creative blog title suggests, I hope to pamper you with campus news about cool extracurricular activities, artsy going-ons, outstanding cultural leaders, culinary wonders, fashion funsies and anything else hip and exciting.

Everyone could use a healthier, more balanced brain. Sure, the school books are important, but so is building social networks and exploring your inner Picasso. Or Jane Austen. Or David Cronenberg

Personally, I like to tap into the creative juices of Lady Gaga.

Just joking. Or am I?

But before you answer that question, a bit about me: I’m currently a Master of Journalism student at the University of British Columbia. I’m also a summer arts and features reporter for the Victoria Times Colonist.

You can find some of my other freelance work here, here, and here.

Oh, and follow me on Twitter: @AmandaAsh. Sometimes I say really great stuff in 140 characters.

Sometimes, the best ideas are the simple ones

This week, I’m working on Bishop’s University’s new “teaser” piece for prospective students. It’s a booklet destined for distribution across the country. In some homes it will line the bottom of the birdcage, while other students will find exactly what they’re looking for buried in its pages. For years now, Bishop’s – along with every other school – has published this viewbook with the requisite smiling students, pictures of the campus, and pithy catchphrase. But, when you’ve got 95 universities across the country doing the same thing, how do you make your school stand out?

That brings us to the Internet. While some university homepages have sat stagnant for years, many schools have recognized the importance of online exposure. Companies like EDGE even design websites specifically aimed at student recruitment. EDGE’s “EZ-Recruit” is a top-selling product in use by schools such as University of Lethbridge and Acadia University for their “Future Student” portals. The result is a clean, bright portal that addresses the precise needs of prospective students.

EZ-Recruit also uses data provided by students to create targeted communications. Are you a student from Halifax, interested in biology? There’s an e-mail with your name on it, prepped and ready to be sent out. Targetting means that recruitment departments don’t have to send as many blanket communications. Each e-mail and message feels personalized, so that the student receives only the information pertinent to him or her.

Outside of packages like EZ-Recruit, the pickings are slim. For places that are supposedly hubs for research and development, most university websites aren’t terribly engaging. If you look south of the border, the opposite appears to be true. Oberlin and Bennington are two sites that work particularly well, making information available in a captivating manner. Australia’s Bond University even has a minute-long television ad extolling the virtues of attending that particular school. (Just in case living on the Gold Coast wasn’t motivation enough!)

Back to Bishop’s. While we won’t be releasing an award-winning television ad anytime soon, I’ve spent most of my day on the same sites you guys have: Facebook and YouTube. The difference being that it’s my job to overhaul our social media presence, and I’m getting paid for my Facebook/YouTube time. That’s because a little while ago, it dawned on universities that prospective students were spending a lot of time on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and other study distractions. So, why not go to where your audience is? Schools ran towards Facebook and YouTube, populating those two sites with content. Recognizing the trend, YouTube developed “YouTube EDU”, which helps educational institutions transform this into this.

With Facebook, targeted ads allow universities to get in front of potential students in a way they never could before. Is there a particular high school in Vancouver you’ve had multiple applications from this year? Why not give them a bit of a nudge during decision time, and purchase targeted ads in their high school network. The Internet opens up new avenues for targeting potential students that universities are still discovering.

Companies like Inigral and UTours are capitalizing on the push towards the Internet by creating content students are genuinely interested in, on platforms that are both visually attractive, and easy to navigate. In the case of Inigral, they’ve taken it one step further, integrating student information systems with Facebook, in a move that has been called frightening by some, revolutionary by others.

So is this viewbook I’m working on headed the way of the dinosaur? Eventually, yes. You can put more into a few minutes of video then you can into sixteen pages of text. There will always be course calendars and promo materials, but I think there will be a migration away from print, as universities begin to exploit text messaging, iPhone apps, and technologies yet to come. The early adopters will see increased enrolment, or at least increased applications. And the students? Well, they’ll have access to more information than ever before, arriving to them in a personalized and timely package.

While the future of student recruitment looks to be high-tech, there will always be great, low-tech ways to get attention. Last September, Bishop’s hired a chalk artist during the Toronto Student Life Expo. The artist sketched a huge graphic that read “Think Outside the Box”, encouraging students to consider their options outside of Ontario. It didn’t cost much, and it was incredibly effective. It just goes to show that sometimes… the best ideas are simple.

Education, business students became more religious during university, study finds

A new study released by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research is shedding some light on the relationship between the religiosity of students and how it interacts with their higher education.

Religious high school students, meaning those who attend religious services or view religion as being important in their lives, were overall more likely to attend university. That group of students may be under pressure from fellow churchgoers to pursue higher education, something the four University of Michigan researchers who conducted the study called “nagging theory.”

Additionally, studying humanities or social sciences had a negative effect on the religious beliefs of students, while education and business students showed an increase in religiosity during their university years.

For students majoring in biological or physical sciences, their religious attendance was not affected by their program of study. However, studying physical sciences did have a negative impact on how those students viewed religion’s importance in their lives.

For study abstract, or to order a copy, click here.