Archive for April, 2010
Picking your university
How to make the right choice
The applications have been sent in, and by now you’ve probably heard from many or most of the schools to which you’ve applied. But now comes the hard part–making the final decision. Here are some tips to help you make that choice.
Hey look! Another university fell off a truck
Maybe we should just convert high school diplomas to degrees
One way to create more university spaces is to build classrooms, or erect new universities. Another is to just rename an existing institution a “university.” While Dalton McGuinty is not adverse to creating more classroom space, largely by shifting the classroom to the internet, his Open Ontario plan also includes a rebranding of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), as a university. Well sort of. Judging from the proposed name change–the Ontario College of Art and Design University–suggests that OCAD will still just be a lowly college but also a swanky new university.
(editor’s note: OCAD received independent degree granting status in 2002)
This bipolar approach to naming institutions is something of a fetish in Canada. As is the presumption that renaming every college a university will somehow improve educational quality. For years, British Columbia designated several schools as “university colleges” before renaming them universities in 2008. The name change, of course, didn’t bring with it any new expectations for the institutions.
More weirdly, last spring the Manitoba government gave William and Catherine Booth College, the right to market itself as “A Christian University College” despite the fact that the school has no plans to include the word “university” into its title. Advanced education minister, Diane McGifford, defended the decision by dismissing concerns that Booth College has been granted amnesty for lying. “They’re using the term university college solely for the purpose of advertising,” she said at the time.
We use to take universities to be institutions that offered a broad range of degree programs and research in at least the core arts and science disciplines. Now we take the term to mean any institution that offers a degree in anything. I don’t intend to diminish OCAD, but is a specialized school that only offers degrees in fine arts and design. If it were an American institution, it would be a college, and it would not feel too bad about it.
To be clear, I don’t think there is anything wrong with a college education. Colleges are not inferior to universities, but they do have different goals, and this name game is little more than a gimmick designed to confuse.
Sometimes schools evolve and become legitimate universities (Ryerson for instance) but the problem isn’t so much with what we call schools, but with the fact that all you have to do to elevate your institution is lobby the province. The same way one might lobby city council to change the name of a street.
Rebranding allows the government to say it is creating more university spaces, without actually having to do anything. So I have a suggestion for McGuinty, if you think the proportion of Ontarians who are university educated is too low, why not just convert high school diplomas to degrees? No good?
So you failed your exams, now what?
Understanding academic probation, what it means and what to do about it
As exams wrap up across the country, most students are looking forward to patio nights and a stress-free summer. But some students are dreading their final grades after a not-so-perfect year.
A failed class, a flunked exam, or a mediocre grade-point average are outcomes no student wants to have come May. But what are the actual consequences of an ‘F’ on your transcript? Or missing required credits to move on to your next year or to graduate?
While most students may have heard of “academic probation,” not everyone knows what it entails. The first thing to remember is failing a class doesn’t mean you need to pack up your textbooks and join the circus, and getting put on academic probation won’t necessarily cripple you academically, if you seek help.
“The whole point of academic standings is to identify students who are at risk and then make them aware of the services that are available in obtaining better academic grades,” University of Calgary’s associate vice-provost (enrolment) and registrar David Johnston said. “When we admit a student, we want them to graduate.”
Academic probation is just one of many possible academic standings a full-time student can be assigned at the end of the year. In many cases the bad outweighs the good. At most schools, the only desired outcome is “In Good Standing,” which means you’re in the clear. There are varying degrees of unsatisfactory standings that come with conditions for the following school year, ranging from meeting benchmark grade-point averages, to withdrawing for a year.
In addition to “In Good Standing,” most universities include “Academic Probation” and “Failed” as the three possible standings. And the conditions of these standings are typically outlined in the university’s academic rules and regulations. Students receive notice of their standing in the summer, after grades are calculated through a mailed letter or an online transcript.
At a school like Calgary’s, when a student’s grade-point average is less than 1.70, the equivalent of a C-, students are put on a probationary period. This is typical of most schools, though the grade-point average threshold varies.
“The purpose, of course, of the first warning is to get them on track academically,” Johnston said. He said it’s normal for first-year students to come into university unprepared for the heavy course-load and higher academic standards than they are accustomed. First-year students, he said, are the largest group his school sees placed on academic probation.
Since grades are dealt with at the faculty level, it’s not clear exactly how many students each year are put on academic probation at each school.
It’s often just a matter of showing students their current learning styles aren’t working, associate dean of the faculty of science at the University of British Columbia Paul Harrison said. “Universities are pretty selective of who they invite in,” he said. “Students deep down have the skills if they apply themselves. Unfortunately some of them don’t.”
He said students also usually come out of high school with limited exposure to their chosen program or knowledge of the university’s expectations for them.
Manager of the Student Academic Success Centre at Carleton University, Kathleen Semanyk said besides academics, there could be any number of circumstances that prevent students from meeting program requirements. “We hear everything from ‘We’ve had a serious illness in my family,’ ‘I’ve lost a loved one,’ ‘I had to find a second job,’” Semanyk said. “It’s really common for students to think they’ve hit the end of the academic road.”
Johnston said, what also tends to happen is students may find their chosen program is not as well suited for them as they had hoped. “It’s aptitude and interest,” Johnston said. “If you don’t have an interest it’s hard to apply yourself.” Just the same, students may find their skill set doesn’t match what their program asks of them.
Dalhousie takes course evaluations public
Student survey results will be available in time for the fall
Dalhousie University students won’t need to use Ratemyprofessors.com next year to pick classes, with professor and course evaluations being made public.
While student leaders are hailing the decision as necessary for improving the quality of education, making sure professors aren’t badmouthed online is a hurdle the school says it can overcome. Allan Shaver, vice-president of academics at Dalhousie told the CBC he doesn’t foresee any issues. “I get to see all the course evaluations, and the professors of this university have nothing to fear,” he said.
At most universities, students are required to fill out questionnaires after completing a class, asking them to rank items like the appropriateness of the workload, and the professor’s availability for out-of-class consultation.
Students typically rely on word-of-mouth from peers as to which classes they want to enroll in. When Ratemyprofessor.com went online, students could look to user-generated comments for insight into a class, but comments on the site appear mostly unmoderated and tend to deviate from academics.
At Saint Mary’s University the student’s association pulled their online rating system because of “uneven participation and unfiltered comments,” the CBC reported.
While rules for the system at Dalhousie are still being finalized, online commenting won’t be allowed and professors can opt to keep their results private.
Dalhousie’s evaluations will be made public for the 2010-2011 school year.
UManitoba threatened with censure
CAUT alleges medicine prof fired without ‘just cause’
The University of Manitoba faces an academic boycott after the Canadian Association of University Teachers threatened to censure the school over allegations former family medicine professor, Larry Reynolds, was dismissed “without just cause or due process.” The decision to pursue censure of the U of M came from delegates to the national council who, coincidently, lifted censure against another institution, Firsts Nations University, on Friday.
If a formal censure is imposed, academics would be encouraged to decline academic positions and from participating in conferences and other academic events.
The decision, which also includes a threat of censure against the Winnipeg Health Regional Authority, was made after an ad-hoc committee of inquiry filed its report on the case. The CAUT is giving the U of M until November to reinstate Reynolds. “Our objective is to ensure that Dr. Reynolds is treated appropriately and in our view that means being restored to the position he held before these inappropriate actions were taken — that of a tenured, geographically full time, full professor of medicine,” executive director James Turk said in a release.
Reynolds, who previously taught at the University of Western Ontario, was recruited by the U of M to head the department of family medicine in 2001. His five year term was not renewed, and in 2008 he was dismissed from the department altogether.
According to the CAUT report Reynolds “was dismissed from the University of Manitoba’s Department of Family Medicine without formal notice and with no hearing regarding dismissal for cause, contrary to his contract and the policies of the University of Manitoba.”
U of M director of public affairs John Danakas told the Winnipeg Free Press that the university will not comment on specific personnel issues. “The university is prepared to stand behind its position. The university does not believe the story, as related by CAUT, represents a fair and accurate account of the situation,” He said, adding, “[b]ias was present from the beginning of the CAUT investigation.”
The last time CAUT formally censured a major research institution was 31 years ago, against Memorial University.
You’re hired, Johnny!
Summer jobs, nepotism, and other unfair discrimination.
First year has finished, too quickly for comfort, and the search for a decent summer job is by now long over for those smart enough to have begun it back in January. Those who have left it to the last minute are likely destined for pizza places and dish pits. Unless, of course, one is lucky enough to reap the rewards of nepotism, that power of connection that lands the otherwise unspectacular candidates coveted internships and other plum positions.
My own summer job is at least partially the result of a personal connection, as are the jobs of many of my friends. To find summer work in the Federal Department of Justice or at Canada’s High Commission to the UK, to name a couple examples, is next to impossible for the average 18-year-old first-year student without personal connections.
Is it fair that someone who, completely by chance, is born to a powerful family, should be afforded more opportunities than someone who is born to poor parents? Even if it isn’t fair, is it even possible to overcome, to control, to enforce equality over nepotism?
On a grander scale than the student summer job market, recent conversations with some of my more socially conscious peers have illuminated the deeply entrenched and often subconscious nature of unfair discrimination in our society.
For instance, one study, which followed more than 300 participants throughout their lives from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, found that “attractive adults are more able to procure aid from bystanders, they often have greater social influence, and they are favored in the job market and in the criminal justice system.” Once hired, attractive men and women have also been found to make more money, while income inequality between men and women is a well-known problem of discrimination.
Systematic discrimination against immigrants is another well-known phenomenon. One survey focusing on the experience of Latin American MBA graduates in the Canadian job market found that “75 percent of the respondents referred either to a general and unspecified sense of differential treatment due to not being Canadian or to the perception of different treatment based on accents or lack of Canadian experience.” Of course, discrimination against Hispanics in the United States is much more explicit, as demonstrated by the recent conviction of a 19-year-old Rhode Island man who killed an Ecuadorian immigrant while engaging in the widespread activity of “Mexican hopping,” which is essentially hunting for Hispanics to assault.
A University of Toronto economist found further support for the trend of discrimination in hiring processes when he sent out more than 6,000 resumes to Toronto-area employers. On some resumes, he changed the last name to an Asian sounding name and left all the qualifications the same. He found that resumes with non-Asian sounding names were 40 per cent more likely to be called in for an interview.
Such are the challenges facing pretty much everyone except good-looking white guys, apparently. Reaping the sweet fruits of nepotism is one easy way for us summer job seekers to help perpetuate the various unfair forms of discrimination upon which our society is built. See what a cynic first-year has made me?
Who needs drugs when there’s email?
University students exhibit withdrawal symptoms when deprived of media for a day
A new study, which is sure to relieve students of those pesky “entitled generation,” “limited attention-span” labels, has been released showing that students are addicted to media. (Similar studies have proven that driving blindfolded increases the likelihood of getting in an accident, and that the majority of preschoolers have a poor grasp of basic logarithmic expressions.)
The study, “24 Hours: Unplugged” by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda in Maryland asked 200 students to put away their televisions, iPods, laptops, cellphones and newspapers for 24 hours. Blogging about the experience afterward, investigators found that students used “literal terms of addiction” to describe the experience. Such terms included: in withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.
Some students experienced “phantom ringing” from their cell phones, as one student reported:
“I could swear I heard my phone’s sound for when I had a message (which was impossible because the phone itself was turned off).”
Others suffered mood swings:
“By 2:00 p.m. I began to feel the urgent need to check my email, and even thought of a million ideas of why I had to. I felt like a person on a deserted island.”
And many were just plain bored:
“Thankfully, the combination of studying and randomly shooting paper clips into my garbage across the room took me all the way until dinner.”
Rumour has it that a few unlucky participants were actually coaxed into going outside for a walk, though most recoiled in horror when hit with direct sunlight.
- Photo by ydhsu
What if failure was not an option?
Would you rather get an F, or be made to rewrite?
This year, I seem to have reached some kind of breaking point when it comes to grading essays. At one time I kind of liked terrible papers — not because I took a perverse delight in giving a low grade — but because they were easy to assess. Utter incompetence cannot be hidden. But after ten years of such nonsense, it’s getting a bit old, and I’m tired of seeing the Fs pile up at the end of the year.
My first attempt to encourage better writing came a a few years ago when I instituted a generous rewrite policy in most of my courses, but that has had mixed results. Lots of students won’t rewrite papers no matter how badly they’ve done on them, and those who do rewrite often make only superficial corrections, hoping to get a few more points here and there.
I should point out that I’m not talking about papers that are simply dull or jejune; I’m talking about papers that do not even begin to address the issues at hand or remotely attempt to meet the most basic requirements.
Right now, I’m hatching a plan by which I would provide students with a list of basic things that must be included — and done correctly — in any paper. Essays must have a title; they must cite sources correctly; they must actually cite the text in question; they must be of the assigned length. And so on. If the paper does not meet all these basic requirements, it simply gets handed back, ungraded, and must be redone.
If the paper meets these deal-breaking criteria, then it will be assessed for its intellectual quality. If it does not rise to the level of a C-minus, it goes back with comments (inlcuding specifics on what needs fixing) but still without a grade and still must be rewritten. When the rewrite comes in, the student must include a note describing the changes and how the problems have been fixed.
I’m eager to try this out, and curious to see how students will respond. The optimist in me hopes that the lack of a low grade on a failing paper will help prevent students from getting discouraged, and the clear, tough guidelines will force them to be more scrupulous. I also hope the revision note will compel them to think about real revisions and not just pretend that fixing a few spelling errors constitutes a rewrite. The pessimist in me worries that students will get stuck on the first paper and never finish even that, and so fail all the more completely (of course, many students give up after the first paper or two anyway).
I also wonder whether students will object to the no-grade they might get on the grounds that it should be up to them whether they want to accept the low mark. This, in effect, would be students fighting for their right to fail, but I wouldn’t put it past them. I could always remind students that they are still free to fail exams as badly as they want.
CAUT lifts censure againt First Nations U
Only the federal government stands in the way of bringing university back from the brink
Canadian academics are no longer being encouraged to boycott First Nations University, after the Canadian Association of University Teachers lifted its censure Friday Morning. Delegates to a national meeting of CAUT voted unanimously to lift its censure against the institution that was imposed 17 months ago. CAUT initially censured the institution due to a failure to implement governance reforms, and because of ongoing threats to academic freedom.
Over the past two months, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has made what CAUT says are “enormous changes that have addressed concerns about the university’s governance structure.”
Before the reforms were implemented, both the provincial and federal governments pulled financial support for FNuniv. The province eventually restored its portion of the funding after the university entered into an agreement with the University of Regina, that would see the latter oversee FNuniv’s finances. The federal government has yet to announce it will restore its funding, but has provided FNuniv with $3 million so that students currently registered may complete the academic year in August.
CAUT says it is imperative that the federal government reinstate grants for the university. “We were once one of the loudest voices in the country when it came to demanding changes at the institution — those changes have been made, so we’ve lifted censure, and it is time for the federal government to do its part,” executive director James Turk said.
Dropout donates millions to Kwantlen
Endowment to help students get a second chance
Irving Barber quit school in Grade 11 because he liked his car better than high school. Fifty years later, he strains to remember the car, but he can clearly remember the regret of not finishing school and the relief at a second chance.
Barber’s incredible success in business since then has benefited Kwantlen Polytechnic University with a $2.5 million donation, the largest ever received by the university. Barber, 77, went on to graduate from the University of B.C., became the founder of Slocan Forest Products and a multimillionaire.
The endowment will be used to help students who might not be able to succeed at university and who may need the same second chance given to Barber. Barber drove the car for a few years before the Second World War and then joined the air force.
When he arrived back as a veteran, the Canadian government was offering free or subsidized education. At 27 years old, Barber graduated from UBC with a Bachelor of Science degree in forestry. “So I am very sensitive to those people that, for whatever the reasons, don’t qualify by the current standards,” Barber said. “Kwantlen clearly recognizes this and they want to open their doors to those people that are willing and wanting to get in with less than an A and B standard.”
Kwantlen already has a history of being more accessible than other post-secondary institutions. A 2009 survey showed that almost 58 per cent of B.C. high school grads who enrolled at Kwantlen didn’t meet the admission requirements to attend a traditional university.
The endowment will provide access and support to help students who might not otherwise think about university, said Kwantlen president David Atkinson. “Our student population, the demographics are changing so rapidly that if we don’t provide them with opportunity, then all of us are going to lose in the long run,” Atkinson said.
Barber feels two communities in particular — South Asians and First Nations — are being left behind when it comes to education.
Atkinson said many South Asians in B.C. are from Punjab, an agricultural area, where families don’t expect their children to go to university. The program will also be aimed at older students who have found themselves out of work and needing an education. “It’s that kind of student that I think we have an obligation to provide something for, because otherwise it’s a lost resource,” Atkinson said.
Kwantlen, which has four campuses in Richmond, Surrey and Langley, is named after the Kwantlen First Nation, a Coast Salish people based in Fort Langley.
While Barber has given about $50 million to the University of B.C. for the creation of programs and scholarships, he said Kwantlen is the right location for this endowment. “They are very much aware of the dropouts or the late starters or the people that can’t get a secondary education,” Barber said. “They would provide them with catch-up abilities.”
Barber didn’t start Slocan Forest Products until he was 55 and said he’s always been a late starter, adding that’s probably what keeps him young. As for the car he quit school for, he seems to remember that it was a Ford, but he can’t remember the model. “I left it behind when I joined the air force and I don’t know what happened to it,” he laughed.
The Canadian Press
Pro-lifers charged with “non-academic misconduct”
UCalgary Students could face expulsion for refusing to amend anti-abortion display
The University of Calgary has taken another staggering step in their messy dealings with Campus Pro-Life.
According to the Calgary Herald, seven students have now been charged with non-academic misconduct for refusing to turn their provocative anti-abortion signs inward during an April 8 display. The students could face expulsion.
The same incident resulted in trespassing charges last year, but the Crown Prosecutor’s Office stayed the charges in November.
Alas, just another push for selective free speech from a pseudo-private institution.
Religious educators hit a new low
Teachers at Canada’s Christian universities can prove their open-mindedness by denouncing Ontario’s anti-gay right-wing evangelists.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty did an about-face today on Ontario’s new sexual education guidelines. McGuinty called for a “rethink” (apparently English words like “review” or “reconsideration” are too tricky for the Premier) after parents and religious groups objected.
Let’s take parents first. McGuinty’s suggestion that parents should be more “comfortable” with the changes demonstrate precisely what has gone wrong with public education in Canada. It’s paid for by the public; it should be for the public benefit. The customers of the Ontario public education system are not the parents of students, but rather the general population. No wonder educators have become so weak-kneed about holding kids to high standards: like the children they teach, they are cowed by Mom and Dad.
Worse still is that McGuinty seems to have backtracked at least in part because religious leaders denounced the new policy. Some objections were simply foolish, like this one from Muslim education leader Suad Aimad:
We believe basically that sex education may be taught by the parents to their children. It’s not public, it’s a private matter and that’s why I don’t think [sex] should be part of education, especially at such a young age.
No sex ed at a young age and preferably not at all? Absurd. And of course sex is a public matter: did Aimad miss the debates over gay marriage? Or the debates of the age of consent? Or the polygamy debates stirred by the community in Bountiful?
Other religious extremists went beyond nonsense and moved right on to attack. Christian evangelist Charles McVety had this to say about children learning about sexual orientation:
This is so confusing to an eight-year-old … these are children in the strongest sense of the word — they’re innocent, they’re clean, they’re beautiful — and to corrupt them by imparting a question of gender identity is beyond the pale.
No, Dr McVety, what is confusing is growing up feeling one thing and being given the impression that it doesn’t exist, or worse, feeling natural urges that are condemned by men like you.
What is beyond the pale is that McVety, the president of Canada Christian College, has publicly suggested that understanding the diversity of sexual orientation is a corruption of natural innocence. Even learning about what it means to be gay will warp the beautiful little minds of Ontario children? Children must be saved from such unclean knowledge? His remarks are vicious, and they should be condemned as such. Oh, and in case you think his remarks have been taken out of context, you can read a fuller statement, in which McVety calls education on sexual diversity “evil” here.
When I criticized religious education in the past, readers came swarming to tell me that I was presenting a caricatured view of religious educators as narrow-minded. Well, here is a chance for those same readers to prove it. I am calling on all religious educators in Canada to denounce the comments of Dr McVety, to denounce his “Stop Corrupting Children” campaign, and to call for his resignation.
Students fight admin over control of frosh week
Admin wants a more academic-oriented experience for new students
Despite a firm stance by administration over controversy surrounding control over Carleton’s frosh week, student groups vow to keep the annual event controlled by students.
Amid exam writing, Carleton students have gathered twice on the Ottawa campus in past weeks to protest the recent decision by administration to assume control of frosh week, starting next year. The administration informed student organizers of their decision via an e-mail sent by director of student affairs Ryan Flannagan.
The e-mail, addressed to the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA), who have historically run frosh, commented on the “limited accountability for volunteers,” and a “lack of academic focus,” RRRA president Chris Infantry told the Charlatan.
Though he wouldn’t give a specific example, Flannagan told Maclean’s concern was raised over conduct by orientation volunteers at last year’s frosh.
“Leadership from orientation last year wasn’t exercising appropriate leadership and appropriate accountability with respect to how the orientation program was delivered last year,” he said. “We want our program to be aligned with other universities.” He said that most Canadian universities typically have control over frosh week. “The university has liability for the program so it’s appropriate the university has the accountability for it,” he said.
While they will have control over the planning, the administration is looking at ways to partner with current orientation planners to bring more accountability and academic-focused activities to the week, Flannagan said.
While student leaders have argued the point of frosh week is to meet peers through ice-breaking activities, such as the canal group games and beach day, a press release issued by the school stated new events proposed by the administration include “a student success panel, a theatre play put on ‘surviving university,’ key note speakers, workshops on campus engagement and volunteering, and information on academic integrity.”
The release also makes special note that Shinerama, the nationwide frosh week fundraiser to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research will still be a key element of the week.
But incoming CUSA president Alex Sirois said student’s will have plenty of time to participate in academics during the four years they are students at Carleton. What’s more important is for new students to adjust to their new surroundings. “Carleton residence is your new home and Carleton is your new home and to be able to meet your new family is something that is very important,” he said.
Sirois said the decision was unexpected after administration participated in frosh week preparation, including the hiring of orientation volunteer leaders, something Flannagan said has been true of the past two years. “It’s pretty disgusting of them to do,” Sirois said.
Sirois says CUSA is looking to run an independent orientation for incoming students. He said their biggest obstacle to running frosh without administration approval would be the events normally held on campus, like the end-of-week concert would have to find a new venue. Typically, 50 per cent of frosh events are held on campus, he said. He said ideally the student leaders would like to see the frosh take place as normal, even with admin overseeing and finalizing all decisions. But, where the two groups differ, Sirois said, is over the types of activities they will introduce to new students.
The press release indicates the approximately 400 frosh volunteers who had already signed up to participate in running next year’s frosh are still welcome to continue that role.
As for funding, Sirois said the administration would still be looking to CUSA and RRRA to fund the week, but Flannagan said it’s a choice they’ll have to make. “We’re not going to ask CUSA to do anything financially or volunteer-wise unless they want to do it,” Flannagan said. He explained that 90 per cent of the money for frosh comes from voluntary student registration for the events, and he said the administration would use the same funding model for next year’s frosh.
Last year’s frosh week cost $135,000, RRRA president Chris Infantry told the Charlatan.
Flannagan’s e-mail also said the university’s decision is partly based on poor student participation in events. A survey released by Carleton’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning shows 61.8 per cent of first year undergraduates sampled participated in last year’s frosh week.
Of those who participated, just over 60 per cent said their overall satisfaction was “high,” 25.2 per cent said it was “medium” and 14.4 per cent said it was “low.”
Flannagan said increasing numbers over time is one of the administration’s goals. But for next year, if CUSA and RRRA decided to run a separate frosh off campus, numbers may be lower than they hope for, he said.
Queen’s principal wants to ban bottled water
And, in other news, “paternalism” is the new “freedom of thought”
Because you shouldn’t make your own decisions, Principal Daniel Woolf of Queen’s University has pledged to eliminate the choice for you.
According to the university’s website, Woolf plans to end the sale of bottled water on campus within five years. This news comes as relief to thousands of head-scratching Queen’s students who regularly hold up concession lines. (“Coke, or Dasani?! I just can’t decide!)
A plan is to be drafted in the fall, which will include measures to improve access to communal drinking fountains. The initiative has also been championed for providing the opportunity for university administrators to print ambiguous, feel-good phrases and socio-academic buzz words:
The need for ongoing education to foster sustainable and holistic attitudes about water conservation on campus has also been identified [as part of the plan].
The Queen’s announcement comes after Ryerson University pledged last month to become the first bottled water free campus in Ontario. In related news, a collaborative study is to be released from both universities, proving that self-motivated change is more persuasive than imposed accommodation.
Ivana Zelenka, sustainability commissioner of the Society of Graduate and Professional Students, commented on Woolf’s initiative on the Queen’s website. “Principal Woolf’s commitment to sustainability initiatives on campus has truly been amazing and sets up a fertile ground for future collaborations and projects that are bound to move Queen’s University even higher on the sustainability ladder,” she said.
Future Queen’s plans include imposing a “Say Your Prayers and Eat Your Vitamins Day,” and removing all coloured paper options from campus photocopy machines.
Need guidance? Get the Guide
It’s the encyclopedia of higher ed — Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities
This year marks the 15th anniversary edition of the Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities.Since 1996, the Guide has been providing information, advice and perspective for students as you prepare to make one of the most important decisions of your life: choosing the university that’s right for you.
A lot has changed on the post-secondary scene since that first Guide, but our mandate remains the same. With profiles of 69 universities—19 more than when we started—we report on the remarkable diversity on offer at schools across the country.
The Guide has a new look this year, helping readers focus on key components of each university: the campus, the programs, the extracurricular life and unique features of each school, as well as direct feedback from students themselves. You’ll get a sense of the look and feel of each campus. And while the Guide may not answer all your questions, it will start you thinking about what else you should be asking, and we tell you where you can go to find the answers.
Where will you be most comfortable? At a small liberal arts school in a town where everybody knows everyone? At a sprawling, intense university in one of the largest cities in the country? Or something in between?
Your range of choices—of universities and programs—has been expanding as well. Several university colleges and art colleges are now full-fledged universities. So are Algoma University—previously a Laurentian affiliate, and profiled in last year’s Guide for the first time—and Calgary’s Mount Royal University, which makes its first appearance in this year’s edition. One new option, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), opened in Oshawa, Ont., in 2003. And Canada got a new medical school, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, shared by Lakehead and Laurentian universities, in 2005.
Meanwhile, the original 50 schools profiled in the 1996 Guide have hardly sat still. Wilfrid Laurier University has doubled its student population and opened a second campus in Brantford, Ont. The University of Regina has invested in construction campuswide, more than doubling its physical capacity. Billions of dollars have poured into infrastructure across the country, resulting in campus construction sprees creating new research centres, libraries, labs, classrooms and residences—many built to environmentally friendly LEED standards. Alumni returning to their university hoping to check out old haunts will in many cases find their campus unrecognizable.
University enrolment, for full- and part-time students, has increased by about 29 per cent over the past 15 years, now standing at more than one million. Unfortunately, full-time faculty numbers during the same period have increased by roughly 17 per cent, resulting in growing class sizes at many campuses.
How students are studying has changed as well. Co-op programs and study-abroad options have increased significantly, as have graduate offerings, even at many of the primarily undergraduate universities. There is a growing emphasis on service learning and community involvement in many programs.
Back in 1996, Acadia University was a pioneer in integrating notebook computers into the undergraduate curriculum. Since then, technology has revolutionized the way classrooms function and how students interact with their profs all across the country. New courses have developed that few could have envisioned 15 years ago. If you’re interested in a master’s degree in computer game technology, Algoma offers one. Computer science students at the University of Saskatchewan can now take a course focusing on iPhone programming and apps development.
In 1996, the average tuition for universities profiled in the Guide was $2,400. This year, it stands at $5,200. Not surprisingly, about 60 per cent of undergraduate students graduate with debt, and today the average owed is roughly $25,000. As tuition soared, the Guide has included more information on how to cover the cost of an education, including details on grants and loans, figures comparing residence and rental costs, as well as an ever-expanding scholarship directory.
This year’s Guide has articles giving practical advice on careers, university admissions and dealing with some of the challenges campus life can throw your way. Also included: the 19th annual Maclean’s university rankings. We ranked 48 Canadian universities according to more than a dozen criteria ranging from resources, faculty quality, students and classes, to libraries, student support and reputation. In addition, the Guide has results from two major student surveys, revealing how tens of thousands of students feel about their educational experience.
Pursuing a university degree requires a large investment of time and money. At the same time, recent stats show that full-time workers with an undergraduate degree earn on average $20,000 more annually than those with only high school credentials. So in financial terms alone, a university degree is worth the effort, but it’s important to choose wisely and find the right fit for you. That’s why we offer you this Guide. We hope it sparks your imagination and excites you about all the many post-secondary options that await you.
The Guide is available in printed or electronic form. Want to see more? Click here.
Canadian university humour not dead
Our coast to coast review of campus satire
Last month, in true Chicken-Little style, I declared the death of the student newspaper satire issue.
I will admit that my panic was only partly a sincere response to an allegedly controversial spoof issue, which I will not name again here because I’ve already given them a hard enough time. My panic was also a very clever ploy, designed to goad writers and editors of student papers to send me their funniest articles and their best humour issues, so I can post them here to inspire future generations of student humour writers.
I was not disappointed by the goadability (Editor’s note: not a real word) of the student press. Our offices were inundated by responses from literally hundreds of thousands of Canadian student newspapers. We had interns working around the clock sifting through the submissions until my editor pointed out that they were not actually interns, but customers of the café next door who got lost while looking for the washroom and blundered into my office, where they were bullied into working for free.
As a result of the unfortunate emancipation of my interns, I was forced to research this article myself. It was an enjoyable task; it really was. You people are funny. But there was really a lot of stuff, and there are only so many jokes about Catholic sex scandals and the menstrual applications of iPads that a guy can read in a day. Consequently, there’s a chance that I didn’t read every word of every newspaper that was sent to me, nor did I use Wikipedia to puzzle through every pop culture reference and inside joke those newspapers contained.
So if you think your spoof issue was funnier than the ones I’ve posted below, please don’t organize a picket outside of the Maclean’s office at the Rogers Building, One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto; there’s just the tiniest chance that I overlooked that one nuance of your humour issue that made it funnier than the ones I’ve posted below.
And if you’re easily offended, do both of us a favour and just close this window now. Seriously, there’s nothing innocuous to be had here. It’s pretty much all potentially offensive to those with delicate sensibilities.
Best Sex Columnist: Di Daniels at the Fulcrum.
She’s frankly filthy, but she never gives the impression that she’s saying dirty stuff to show off or get laughs. Her article on how to have better sex foregoes all of the foreplay and intimacy stuff and goes straight to bondage, exhibitionism and group sex. Absolutely filthy — but practical!
Best Shit Disturbing: The Athenaeum, Acadia University.
Their cover story for their April 1 issue this year announced that McDonald’s will be opening in the student union building and take over the food service for the campus pub. Wing night at the pub will be replaced by nugget night. In response to the new McDonald’s, student health plan fees will be increasing next year.
I can only imagine the knee-jerk uproar this caused among students who only read the first half of the article. Well done, Athenaeum.
There’s plenty more good stuff in this issue, and I’d love to send you a link, but the Athenaeum hasn’t updated their website since October ’09, so this one is just for me to enjoy. Or, you guys could wake up, update your website, and my editor will post a link here.
Best Cartoons: Nexus, Camousun College
I’m not going to try to describe these cartoons. You’ll just have to look yourself. The only good way to see them is to follow this link and scroll down to page 15. I first read those cartoons three days ago, and I’m still waking up in the morning, laughing about that cat. That cat made my week. Thank you, Shane Priestley and Cam Wright.
Best Photoshopping: The Gateway`s Metraux Spoof, University of Alberta
There’s actually a lot of great stuff in this issue, but the photoshop of Ann Coulter in a hijab on page 6 takes the cake for me. Too much. The photo is accompanied by an article quoting newly converted Islamic extremist Ann saying, “we should invade the west, kill their socialist leaders, and convert them.” Also worthy of honourable mention is the article, “You will always be a repulsive slob: study” on page 13.
The student editors among you will also want to take the time to admire the Gateway’s advertisers. I swear, these guys must have better ad revenue than Maclean’s.
Best Fake Ads: The Sheaf, University of Saskatchewan
Taking a more principled and independent stand on journalism, the Sheaf’s spoof issue contained no real ads at all, I hope. Instead, they squandered their potential revenue-generating space on ads for underage night at a pub, and the 19th annual skinhead picnic, down at good old Rotary park.
Best Spoof: Martha Student Living by The Fulcrum, University of Ottawa
To really appreciate the design work that went into this masterpiece, you have to download a PDF of the entire issue, and scroll down about a dozen pages to get to the spoof insert. I can only marvel at the discipline it must have taken to write an entire Martha Stewart-style spoof issue, without ever breaking voice or straying from the subject matter.
This issue contains advice on how to throw an elegant kegger, how to decorate your beer bong using stencils and beads, and how to make origami claws so you can unleash your inner Wolverine. To avoid looking haggard on your “walk of shame” home from partying the night before, Martha Student Living suggests placing “cucumber slices on your eyelids 10 minutes before passing out.” To spruce up your dorm, you’re instructed to put potpourri between your garbage bag and the can it sits in, so “your overflowing garbage can will smell like a cornucopia of flowers!”
The cartoon illustration of Martha Stewart with a beer keg dressed up in doilies, ribbons and flowers is reason enough alone to take a look at this one.
Thanks to everyone for submitting their work. There were many articles I laughed at, but didn’t have room to mention here. Keep on fighting the good fight against mediocre humour issues and tired, old jokes.
And if you’re procrastinating and you want more good stuff to read, try this. Or this. Or this!
Graphic courtesy of the Gateway
Accepted, and then rejected
U of T mistakenly sent acceptance email to dozens of grad school hopefuls, cites ‘administrative error.’
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2010/04/15/on-second-thought-we-dont-want-you/
http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/04/13/13570401.html
Cracking down on textbook bootleggers
Affluent students are scamming bookstores for spending money
Those on the hunt for student “bookleggers” trafficking in stolen texts at Canada’s universities know the fraudsters come in all shapes and with all kinds of scams.
It might be as subtle as Mr. Four-Eyes Pocket-Protector Flood Pants–traditionally a bigger fan of Ensign Chekhov than Anton Chekhov–trying to hock a tome of Russian plays. Or it can be as obvious as the shifty-eyed undergrad in the dark glasses, with a fake ID, a hoodie over her head like a brooding Jedi, pawning the same anatomy textbook five times in five months and, unlike other students, not bothering to dicker over price.
Or it can be as galling as the student caught on security camera taking a textbook off the new-books shelf, delicately peeling off the price tag with his fingernail, then sauntering over to the buy-back table to sell it. It’s an age-old scam to defeat a program aimed at helping students buy the books they need without leaving them bankrupt. Many universities, which often sell new textbooks at $170 or more, will buy back some of the books at a reduced price and then resell them to other students looking to save some cash.
At the University of Alberta, the booklegging racket is small but growing. From January to March this year, there were 14 cases on campus, more than double compared with the same three-month period a year earlier. “I think word just got out that, ‘Hey, you can do this and make cash really quick,’ so they started coming, getting their friends or affiliates onboard,” says campus security officer Stephanie Hartwig.
She says it’s not a Dickensian tale of grubby first-year urchins fencing books to put Kraft Dinner on the table. “They seem to be well-off students, students who come from families who are able to afford their tuition easily,” says Hartwig. “They want spending money.” She says the serial thieves have netted $500 or more, no small feat when you consider they are stealing a $200 textbook, then selling it for, say, $30.
“Some of them have done it over and over again and that’s how they get caught. It raises red flags on the system,” says Hartwig, who notes that sellers have to show student ID.
“They try and wear disguises. There’s one girl, she would always put on a baseball cap, sunglasses and wear her hood up, and she never looked the sales clerk in the eye. She came in three and four times like that. That raised a lot of red flags. “And they always wear gloves when they handle the books. They think they’re going to get fingerprinted or something.”
At the University of British Columbia, bookleggers number about one or two a year, still enough for staff to keep their eyes peeled, says Debbie Harvie, says who oversees the UBC bookstore. “Sometimes it is a ring. We noticed a couple of individuals recently. There was a spotter and person trying to take the books.”
The university has security in place: sellers have to present ID; the transactions are kept on computer and the store has one book-buyer with the skill of a bloodhound at sniffing out scams. The store also has cameras and undercover security. There are regular audits to check on those returning a large number of books.
The camera does the work for them on the more brazen ones. “They’re the (students) who peel the sticker off and walk across the store to sell it to the buy-back table,” says Harvie. The bigger problem, she says, remains shoplifting among students who are spending anywhere from a few dollars for a paperback for literature class all the way up to those who have to buy UBC’s top-end model–a $500 medical anatomy textbook.
In January to April 2009, they caught 11 shoplifters; this year they had 14. “Of more concern is (the fact the shoplifters) often have the money in their wallets. I think sometimes it’s a crime of opportunity,” says Harvie. “A lot of times they think nobody would notice. (Once they’re caught) there are a lot of tears and (a lot of), ‘Please don’t call the police,’ but it is our policy to call police because it’s part of the education process on shoplifting.”
At McGill University in Montreal, Jason Kack, general manager of the student bookstore, says there was a big problem with serial textbook fencing a few years ago. “It had gotten to the point where it was quite bad,” he says. “Then they put certain (security) things in place and slowed it down. They figured out who was doing it. Once those people were identified and taken care of, it stopped becoming an issue, but we always have some.
“We figure it out at inventory when we see shrinkage levels on certain textbooks. Then we start looking for the obvious things–who are the people we see more often than not? Who are the people that come back to buy back? Who are the people who are selling newer books?”
He declined to discuss the security measures in place, but confirmed hot items tended to be commerce, science, medicine and math textbooks–hardcover tomes of $180 or more. “The books were not so expensive to stand out, but expensive enough to be worth the while.”
At Edmonton’s Grant MacEwan University, spokesman David Beharry says students have to present ID and their course listing when selling their books.
“If they’re returning a book not part of their course list that’s also looked into,” he says. “When students are returning books it (now) does take a while longer, but they have to understand it’s for security reasons.”
He says the digital age has cut down on the crime and also opened new avenues for students trying to save a few dollars. Some textbooks can be acquired online at reduced prices. And some students might also be able to point, click and download just the chapters their professors are focusing on. “It is the next trend (in book buying),” says Beharry. “It’s probably not even the next trend. It’s a trend that’s already here.”
The Canadian Press
UOttawa president finally talks Coulter
Says, “Freedom of expression applies. Even when it’s painful”
University of Ottawa president Allan Rock has finally addressed that itchy little PR debacle that stung the university a few weeks ago.
In an address to the university senate, Rock discussed the cancellation of right-wing commenter Ann Coulter’s speech on March 23. Coulter’s talk was called off after student protests prompted security concerns.
“From the moment we learned about Ms. Coulter’s intended presentation, there were groups and individuals who insisted that we prohibit her from speaking on campus,” Rock said. “We rejected those demands, asserting that Ms. Coulter had every right to appear and to speak.” Coulter has been criticized as being overly inflammatory and offensive.
“Freedom of expression applies,” he said later. “Even when it’s painful.”
And for Rock, it seems it was pretty painful. He said he turned to the Internet to learn more about Coulter and admitted to “using intemperate language in exchanges with colleagues” in her regard.
And then there was the infamous email from Provost François Houle–the one sent a few days before Coulter’s visit, essentially warning her to watch her mouth. “I share responsibility for the letter from the Provost to Ms. Coulter,” Rock said. He explained that the letter was sent with his knowledge on behalf of the administration.
Rock later added: “I acknowledge that there are other, and indeed better ways, of achieving the letter’s stated purpose.” He also confirmed that the university did not cancel the event; it was indeed Coulter’s representatives.
So what have we learned? Well, it seems the administration champions freedom of expression. That’s a good start! Even though they paradoxically encouraged self-censorship and incited uproar with a preemptive cautionary email (not so good), which culminated to a hostile situation beyond their control—a situation of which they really haven’t yet taken ownership. But hey, at least we know Rock did some solid Googling before that “welcome basket” popped up in Coulter’s inbox.
Living on social assistance
Looking back at the “OSAP diet” campaign
Some time ago I wrote a couple of pieces about OUSA‘s campaign revolving around the so-called OSAP Diet. The idea was to draw attention to the fact that post-secondary students, living on OSAP, are budgeted at $225/month for food, or $7.50 a day. I’ll draw your attention to the older stories if you want to catch up, but suffice it to say that a lot of the debate revolves around whether or not students should reasonably be expected to cook their own meals and pack lunches for themselves, and whether or not a daily Starbucks “coffee” (read $5 frappasomething) constitutes a necessary food expense.
Related: The OSAP diet and the student lifestyle
Related: Budgeting for the real world
Now I’m all for giving students a livable budget for their studies, and we can debate back and forth just what that budget should be, but I was underwhelmed then and I remain incredibly skeptical now about the verbiage thrown around in context of this campaign. Students continually referred to this as “poverty” (for which no official definition exists in Canada, by the way) and suggested it was simply impossible to eat healthily on this budget. I won’t put further words in the mouths of the OUSA campaigners, however, and if you’d like to view the results of their experiment you can do so here.
My major issue, all along, is that comparisons to poverty and even starvation are rather apoplectic when welfare recipients in Ontario (excuse me, “public assistance”) receive so much less. If students imagine that they are starving on $225 a month, you’d expect those on welfare to be literally dropping dead. And in fact the reality isn’t far short of that. If OSAP represents a diet then welfare is a real famine. It isn’t so much that I resent students for their campaign for more funds as I’m rather embarrassed when it ignores such a terrible and inevitable contrast. It suggests, much as I hate to admit it, that students are fine with our most vulnerable starving just as long as they can avoid packing their meals for school.
Anyway, I was reminded of this again when the Star (which is rapidly becoming Canada’s best investigative newspaper) ran a similar experiment. In context of The Stop’s “Do The Math” Campaign the Star asked some prominent Torontoians to try living on a true welfare diet. The results were very much like what OUSA wishes it could demonstrate about the OSAP situation. We’re talking about true, desperate poverty now–visits to the food bank, reliance on public agencies, excitement at receiving a doggie bag to take home following a free lunch. The article made me cringe. Now we’re not talking about students who simply fail at cooking their own meals. We’re talking about very competent adults using every tool they have, and still struggling.
Most affecting in this story was an observation from Catherine Mihevc, Councillor Joe Mihevc‘s 11 year-old daughter, and which pretty much secured my lifetime support of his political career. Their entire family participated in the challenge, and she said that she and her sister were rarely hungry because their parents let them eat first. For me that’s a part of my immediate family history. My grandparents were refugees and their children always ate first too, when things were bad. As the children got older they knew to leave enough for their mother, because otherwise she simply wouldn’t eat. And this is what true poverty looks like. These are the strategies that it teaches.
I hate to ever set one group’s claims in direct competition with another’s. There is no reason why adequate funding for post-secondary studies needs to come at the expense of livable public assistance, or vice versa. But I do wish OUSA could have adopted a wider view on this issue, because the OSAP Diet campaign unavoidably trivializes the real problems that some people experience in simply feeding themselves and their children. It locates the needs of those who rely on public assistance outside of any operative definition of human norms. And really, that is exactly the problem with the system as is stands. No one is even trying to be realistic. Welfare is viewed as a punishment, not as an adequate amount of money to subsist on. And that has got to change.
Anyway, it’s something to think about the next time you stop at Starbucks. Or perhaps even before you do.
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Questions are welcome at jeff.rybak@utoronto.ca. You can also follow me on Twitter.
