Archive for August, 2010

Students forced to sleep in common areas while university solves overflow problem

Incoming students at Dalhousie University that were guaranteed a residence room will be out of luck as the school year starts. At least 75 students will have to sleep in residence common areas for as long as a couple weeks while the university finds a solution to an apparent overflow. Heather Sutherland, of the residence and housing office, told CBC that all students who apply for a room before Aug 1 are guaranteed accommodation, but even they may have to make do with temporary sleeping arrangements for the time being. Luckily for those students, Dalhousie will not be charging them for a room, until they actually have a room.

A program to give Toronto students discounted bus passes will exclude students from private career colleges

Not every Toronto student will be able to take advantage of new discounted bus passes. The Toronto Transit Commission is introducing student passes for $99 per month, compared to regular adult passes that cost $121. However, students attending one of Toronto’s private career colleges will be ineligible for the discounted rate. That’s “unfair” and “discriminatory” says John Nunziata of the Ontario Association of Career Colleges. He estimates that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 students attending a career college like Medix School or Herzing College in the Greater Toronto Area.

Nunziata says that the majority of students attending a private college are low income adults who are, in many cases, unemployed. “These are some of the neediest of the post-secondary students, some are on UI (unemployment insurance), others are participating in government-sponsored career programs,” he told the Toronto Star.

TTC chair Adam Giambrone did not rule out permitting students from private colleges from benefiting from the program in the future, but says the sheer number of private colleges raises budgetary red flags. He also pointed out that unlike students in approved programs, many students attending private colleges only attend for a couple weeks at a time. “The problem is you have hundreds of institutions across Toronto. If you were to allow all of them, it is a huge budget impact. Without a detailed review (of each and every one), it would be very expensive,” he told the Star.

Report finds that overall financial returns for university and college are equal

Canada produces more post-secondary graduates than any other country. That fact has often raised concerns over whether  too many students are pursuing a higher education. Not so, according to a C.D. Howe study published last week.  The paper, authored by Torben Drewes and Daniel Boothby, analyzed the average earnings for those with a university degree, college diploma, and a trade certificate, compared against those with only high school. They concluded that the earnings premium, between 1980 and 2005 has continued to rise.

For males with a university degree, they earned 32 per cent more than their high school counterparts in 1980, rising to 40 per cent in 1990 and 45 per cent in 2005. For females, the earnings premium was 60 per cent in 2005. The findings “suggests that we are quite right to promote accessibility in post-secondary education,” Drewes, who teaches economics at Trent University, said. “There is an insatiable demand for high skilled labour in this country.”

Canada’s high levels of educational attainment is largely attributed to producing more graduates from college and trades than any other OECD country, at 24 per cent of Canadians aged 25-64. The OECD average for this category is nine per cent. However, Canada graduates fewer people from university than other OECD countries, with 25 per cent of Canadians holding a degree, compared to 31 per cent for the United States and 32 per cent for Norway. Although the OECD average is 20 per cent.

Given that the earnings premium over high school is much lower for college graduates, at 17 per cent for males and 19 per cent for females, than for university graduates, Drewes and Boothby also considered whether this suggested that too many resources were being invested in non-university education. To answer the question, they looked at internal rates of return. They found that when accounting for the longer time required to complete a university degree, compared to a community college diploma, the difference in overall financial benefit between the two credentials narrowed.

The rate of return for males with a university degree, once opportunity costs were factored in, was 13 per cent, while it was it was 11 per cent for males with a college diploma. Females also saw a more narrow earnings gap between different types of education, though not as pronounced. The rate of return for females with a university degree is 17 per cent, compared to 11 per cent for those with a college education. “If we look at internal rates of return of return for college and university, they are being equalized,” Drewes said. “People follow the money.”

The one outlier was that females who had earned a trade certificate saw no increase over females with only high school.

From Halifax to Vancouver fresh food and vegetables are being brought to students

Fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables and other artisanal products are turning up on Canadian campuses as students embrace the trend of shopping at farmers markets. McMaster University in Hamilton has just launched a market, the result of student Mary Koziol’s passion for local food. It runs every Thursday in the centre of the campus.

“It’s a completely not-for-profit venture,” says the 22-year-old president of the university’s student union. “But it’s a start in terms of offering healthy and local options to those who study (at), work (at) and visit the McMaster campus.”

At Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., about a dozen local vendors bearing fruits, vegetables, cured meats, fresh lamb, cheeses, freshly baked bread and maple syrup descend on the campus every Friday. “We do it outdoors and have a barbecue going as well as live entertainment,” says university spokesman Iain Glass, adding, “It is the social event of the week, a wonderful break for students and others as well.”

Although the McMaster market is run by students, Koziol says the farmers who supply the produce “are invited to come and share their invaluable knowledge with us.” So far they have managed to source three area growers of fresh produce as a beginning, she says.

Robert Chorney, executive director of Famers’ Markets Ontario and chairman of Farmers’ Markets Canada, says the campus markets are so far relatively unknown by his organization. “We have had inquiries from a few universities, but I know very little about what is going on with them,” he says. “We would be glad to help them in any way we can because it is so positive to see the students keen on local, fresh, nutritional food.”

Dalhousie University in Halifax doesn’t have a farmers market, but it has put in community gardens so students can grow fruits and vegetables for their own consumption, says university spokesman Charles Crosby.

One of the most ambitious projects of all is the farm at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Its market has become so successful that it runs twice a week, Wednesday and Saturday. “This is a pretty unique connection,” says Mark Bomford, director for Sustainable Food Systems at the farm. “Most farmers markets rely on produce grown somewhere else, but the food for our market is grown right in our fields.”

The farm and its market have been operating for 10 years, he says, and has always been student-run from the cultivation of fruits and vegetables to the managing of the market. “Revenue from the market is the main source for all the different teaching and research programs that are happening on the farm,”says Bomford.

The University of Waterloo’s market is located in the Student Life Centre and is operated by student volunteers, says media spokesman John Morris. Students teamed up with the university’s Food Services division and produce is sourced from the Mennonite-run Elmira Produce Auction Co-operative.

The Canadian Press

There are certain standards that have to be abided to that are not the same standards as you may have for a little convenience store

A private online university based in New Brunswick will close by the end of the year after questions arose about its administration and finances, but the school says the shutdown is unfair. The province’s Department of Post-Secondary Education ordered Lansbridge University to close after three reviews found problems with the school’s operations.

The concerns over Lansbridge date back to December 2007, when a review by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission was launched. It found that Lansbridge had failed to meet 10 of 16 benchmarks for post-secondary schools, including dispute resolution, student protection and financial stability. In February 2009, the post-secondary education minister ordered that Lansbridge comply with four conditions: inform its students that it had failed the assessment, address the commission’s concerns, implement a student protection agreement, and pay for a second review.

Rene Boudreau, New Brunswick’s director of post-secondary affairs, says the department did not immediately shut down the school after the first assessment because it believed the university had potential to improve.

Lansbridge underwent the second review, which concluded the school had not made sufficient progress. The department then ordered an investigation conducted by academic governance experts, which confirmed the findings of the first two reviews. The department ordered the school effectively shuttered.

Lansbridge president Ernest Smith did not return calls seeking comment. But in a statement, the school disputed the department’s decision. “We are stunned as to why the (degree-granting) license was revoked. Our programs have been deemed by our students and faculty as above average,” Lansbridge said in a statement. The school said it will prepare a response to the department.

Mireille Duguay, CEO of the commission that carried out the first two reviews, said Lansbridge lacked credibility. “If you’re going to be granting degrees in this province, the institution that will grant those degrees … has to be credible in the pan-Canadian perspective,” she said. “As such, (there) are certain standards that have to be abided to that are not the same standards as you may have for a little convenience store.”

The business school had been offering MBA programs to more than 150 students, most of whom are Canadian.

The Canadian Press

University committee to make recommendation on whether condoms can be handed out during orientation week

Condoms might be available everywhere at St. Thomas University, in Fredericton, but a plan to hand them out to first-year students during orientation initially caused confusion over whether the university had a policy that prevented it. To clear up the misunderstanding, university president Dennis Cochrane struck a committee on student health that is expected to make a recommendation within days.

Update: Condom fiasco at an end

In July, the St. Thomas Students’ Union (STUSU) was told by Residence Life that they couldn’t include condoms in Welcome Week kits, alongside t-shirts, clip boards, and information about the campus. When STUSU sought clarification from the administration, it was discovered that no such policy existed, only a long standing convention, although condoms had been handed out in some previous years. It was also suggested to STUSU and reported elsewhere that the decision stemmed from the university’s roots as a Catholic institution, but the university denies that. Although the university originated as a religious institution, it is now a secular university.

Jeffrey Carleton, STU’s director of media relations, said the request to hand out condoms during Welcome Week was denied because condoms are available elsewhere on campus, including from a residence adviser, and because students have “more important” things to worry about during their first week. “Any student who wants [a condom] can just go ask for one . . . the feeling was that [Welcome Week] just wasn’t the appropriate time,” he said.

Student president Ella Henry says while condoms are indeed readily available, students might “feel embarrassed” about approaching a residence adviser for a condom. “It was about establishing a culture where safe sex is normal,” she said. “We have to recognize that students are going to have sex . . . They aren’t going to necessarily put that off.”

Although not all student unions distribute condoms during orientation week, it is widely practiced across Canada, including at the University of New Brunswick which has a Fredericton campus that is shared with St. Thomas.

The committee advising the president is composed of ten members representing various campus constituencies including four students. The committee will also make other recommendations regarding student health and wellness.

U of L’s media coordinator of globalization studies says diagnosis is a ‘boon to humanity’

When U.S. right-wing pundit Ann Coulter attempted to speak at the University of Ottawa in March, protesters gathered outside the lecture hall and effectively shut down the event. The crowd boasted signs branded with “Love,” “Respect,” and  “Free Speech Stops at Hate Speech,” and chanted “Ann go home!” until police and security advised Coulter to cancel her speech in the interest of her safety. The demonstration came after University of Ottawa vice-president academic and provost Francois Houle sent Coulter a letter advising her to “educate [her]self as to what is acceptable in Canada” and to “weigh [her] words with respect and civility in mind.”

Now, I cite this example in hopes that the security personnel at the University of Lethbridge will be adequately prepared for what I expect to be another vehement uproar. Indeed, I’ll bet those same demonstrative individuals are already making their way west to protest yet another exploitative exercise of expression. “Free speech stops at hate speech!” Yup  . . . any day now . . .

Well, maybe they just haven’t heard yet. Joshua Blakeney, media coordinator of globalization studies at the University of Lethbridge, has written a piece for the alternative e-weekly The Canadian Charger where he gleefully rejoices in Christopher Hitchens’ recent throat cancer diagnosis. Hitchens, a journalist and pundit, is known for his stanch views on religion and unapologetic support for the war in Iraq. Contentious as his politics may be, it’s hard to deny he’s a brilliant speaker with a quick wit, a reputation he managed to uphold during a recent interview with Anderson Cooper where Hitchens discusses his impending death.

But for Blakeney writing in The Canadian Charger, it seems “impending” can’t come soon enough. The cancer is “something to be celebrated,” writes Blakeney, a U of L Masters student, “because it deprives the war propaganda machine of one of its most erudite apologists.”

“As I was contemplating this revelation, I couldn’t help feeling that the neoconservative armchair warrior was getting his just desserts,” Blakeney continues.

Then, after toting some 9/11 “truths” (Blakeney studies under prominent 9/11 conspiracy theorist Prof. Anthony J. Hall) and other wisdom about Iran and Israel, Blakeney concludes his “Hitchens deserves to die” thesis:

“It is fair to say that if cancer is good enough for babies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and soon Iran, then it is good enough for [Hitchens].”

Ironically, The Canadian Charger originated as an outlet to counter “hateful” messages printed in Maclean’s magazine, which were brought to (and later dismissed from) human rights commissions. Yet curiously, here beholds a piece where the terminal illness of someone is rejoiced because of his political beliefs.

“I wouldn’t rejoice in someone’s sickness unless it was someone as ghastly as Christopher Hitchens,” Blakeney told the National Post. His inability to write “could well reduce cancer rates,” he continued. “He is a dangerous demagogue who made a career out of selling aggressive wars that cause cancer. . . . I haven’t stooped to his level.”

Okay everyone; are we all ready with our placards? “Love,” “Respect,” “Free speech stops at hate speech!”

No?

Of course not. Blakeney’s not entertaining in hate speech. Fallacious and vile cheap shots, but not hate speech. But then again, neither was Coulter. So I’m wondering where the student unions are on this one. Where’s the protest to ensure a “safe space” for Iraq war supporters on campus?  After all, if we have the so-called “right to not be offended” in one case, aren’t we going to uphold it in another?

A cropped tee and mini skirt certainly doesn’t say ‘love me for my mind,’ it does say something about Western emancipation

There exists a point in many young girls’ lives where it becomes fashionable to stick your tongue down your best friend’s throat at a club and later post the pictures on Facebook. Ideally, your best friend is of the same sex, clad in a cheap polyester bubble dress, and surrounded by a gaggle of young men chanting, “Dooo it!” or “Guuuuhh!”

This is not power. That point is made clear by Maclean’s recent cover story titled “Outraged moms, trashy daughters,” which tries to make sense of how mothers of the women’s lib movement managed to produce the barsexual daughters of today. Anne Kingston writes, “For these girls, Snoop Dogg’s misogynist Bitches Ain’t S–t is not an affront but a ring tone, and ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ are not put-downs but affectionate greetings between female friends.” Nancy Vonk, the co-chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather, was quoted in the article saying, “I’m so deeply pained to see where women are today and how girls—and I mean girls—are being groomed to believe their purpose in life is to be sexual beings that please men.”

Of course, there’s a perpetual belief that the new generation is always more misguided than the one before. A few years ago, mothers watched their abhorrent daughters flip the bird at tradition and march on parliament so they could be seen as the “housekeepers of the nation.” Fast forward a few years and a new generation of daughters are letting their poor husbands starve as they seek paid work and—gasp—stop shaving! Later it’ll be an affront to want to be a “full time mom” and suddenly, “A blow job is just like shaking hands,” according to Kate Lloyd, the director of program and service development for the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario. But even Lloyd acknowledges that, “there is some of that sensationalizing for sure,” though she’s fervent in her belief that “the sexualization of young girls is at a point it’s never been before.”

But is it just tired moms fussing about their unruly daughters? Not entirely. The New Yorker’s Ariel Levy published a book back in 2005 called Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, in which she laments the idea that sexual power amounts to any real type of liberation or clout. Levy speaks with American author Erica Jong who says, “If you start to think about women as if we’re all Carrie on Sex and the City, well, the problem is: You’re not going to elect Carrie to the Senate or to run your company. Let’s see the Senate fifty percent female; let’s see women in decision-making positions—that’s power. Sexual freedom can be a smokescreen for how far we haven’t come.”

So it’s not just exasperated mothers sensationalizing their daughters’ rejection of “traditional feminism.” According to Levy, we’ve developed a real raunch culture where “Bimbos enjoy a higher standing than Olympians.” Everyone agree?

Obviously, if I took this rhetoric at face value I would be grooming my nails instead of my next point. But not all girls are solely preoccupied with achieving the perfect tan, and reasonable readers know that. Along with more American Apparel-clad asses conquering our downtown billboards and reality TV shows of Sn00ki performing fellatio on a pickle comes increased coverage on the effects on young girls. And while some may, in fact, reach for the Strubs, many others turn and chuckle, then go back to the books.

It goes without saying that sexual exploration is a normal part of growing up. Our bodies are changing, hormones are going wild and the brain is trying to fervently catch up. The decision-making area of the brain—the frontal lobe—is not fully developed until the mid-20’s, according to some studies, which explains why many teens post their underage drinking photos on their Facebook pages, even though they are Facebook friends with their mom. Oopsies.

Luckily, these impulsive trends begin to settle; the numbers swing significantly after 24. But for many, like Jong quoted above, the problem is not just that this promiscuity—however temporary—is so exaggerated, but that girls believe it gives them a sort of power. To them, the freedom to show cleavage is feminism.

Now, before we start digging up dusty copies of The Feminine Mystique and writing off this generation as wholly composed of “lost, trashy souls,” maybe it’s worth exploring how this idea got its roots. Undoubtedly, this group of young women is more globally tuned-in than any generation before. We have access to breaking information from all over the world, sent directly to our inboxes, iPads and phones at all hours of the day. Pair that with an increasing global social conscience, and girls undoubtedly pick up on stories of women journalists in Sudan being sentenced to 20 lashes for wearing pants, or catch a glimpse of Time magazine’s recent cover of 18-year-old Afghan Aisha, who had her nose and ears cut off by the Taliban after fleeing her in-laws.  There are even stories closer to home; just two months ago, a father and son plead guilty to the so-called honour killing of Toronto teen Aqsa Parvez, who refused to wear a hijab.

If we draw our gaze slightly up from our navels, is it really any wonder why many girls today believe sexual freedom amounts to a certain form of strength and liberation? While a cropped tee and mini skirt certainly doesn’t say “love me for my mind,” it does say something about Western emancipation.

Of course, portraying one’s self as a sex object isn’t quite the right way to gain esteem and respect, but neither is portraying one’s self as hopelessly disadvantaged. In Kingston’s article, Susan Nierenberg, a mother of a 25-year-old woman and the vice-president of global marketing of Catalyst, an organization tracking female advancement, says her daughter mistakenly believes that the workforce is an even playing field. “I hate to tell her that’s not the way it is. I want her going into it thinking she can do anything. But I also want her to be smart about it,” Nierenberg says.

In other words, go in thinking you’ll have to work doubly hard? Why not convey that idea also? Indeed, there’s no better way to convince someone to see you as equal than to perpetually remind him of how unequal you are. It worked for Hillary Clinton, right? Everyone remember: “To be able to aim toward the highest, hardest glass ceiling is history-making.”?  While Obama’s racial allusions were subtle and infrequent during the Democratic primary, so much of what we heard from Clinton was, “Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a female president?” I suppose we can keep wondering.

To get back on point, while the ‘fight’ for sexual equality may not be over–so to speak–it’s been reduced largely to an ideological battle, which, granted, is probably the hardest to tackle overall. But hounding the new generation to “look for the sexism” in daily life probably isn’t the way to go. Internalizing the belief that one will is perpetually victimized can be just as debilitating as the belief that flirting will get you respect in an office. At least you can shape up for the next work placement.

So, we can provoke this hysteria that the new generation of harlots is soiling the efforts of women past, or we can take a good look around at the women in higher education, medicine and the general workforce, and take a global perspective to evaluating the strides women have made in our society. And girls—do me a favour—take down those loathsome Facebook photos.

-Photo by wolfgraebel

And your phone. And your iPod. We have work to do.

Another day, another attack on us mean old industrial-age professors.

This time, it’s historian Fred Donnelly telling us all to chill out over lap tops in class. Students are not ignoring the work at hand, Donnelly suggests. Instead, they are returning to a pre-industrial mode of work:

Consider how people worked in the pre-industrial era. Labourers in agriculture and construction sang on the job. Weavers composed poetry to the rhythm of the loom and many skilled artisans employed a boy to read to them while they worked. Everyone talked on the job and took unscheduled breaks quite frequently. In short, they laboured away in a multitasking environment.

Right. And if slaves in the old South had had the internet, their masters would have been perfectly happy to let them caption Lolcats instead of picking cotton.

But seriously, the argument fails not just because of what seems to be an overly romanticized view of pre-industrial labour (oh to be a medieval serf: that was the life!), but because it creates a false analogy. There are some tasks you can do while you listen to music or chat with your friends. Who has not whiled a way a long car ride singing along to the radio? But there are other tasks that require one’s full concentration if they are to be done well. Listening to a lecture, and thinking about the content, and considering its connection to other things in the course, and taking notes — not to mention asking and answering questions — these are things that simply cannot be done effectively while watching videos on YouTube or killing zombies or updating your Twitter feed.

The laptop, Donnelly suggests, is a challenge to the authority of the professor, who is really no more than a Dickensian shop foreman:

Now, students have their own portable windows to stare into, their own songs to listen to, their games to play and messages to send to friends inside and outside the classroom. All the while they are seated at their work benches – oops, sorry, their places in the classroom – and presumably also taking notes from an instructor.

But that’s just it. They’re not also taking notes. They’re chatting with their friends in other classes:

ths class = CWOT prof thinks we r t8king notes FAIL LOL

That’s what kills me about the new apologetics of this supposed digital generation. While professors pat themselves on the back for being in touch and progressive, for creating a dynamic new learning environment, they are really creating an environment of increased contempt for learning and study.

All these students with laptops? They’re not multi-tasking. They’re just ignoring you.

I mean, I am excited. Or I was. Abject fear has been slowly overtaking excited as my dominant pre-law school emotion.

Blogging might be light in the next two or three weeks as I enter what the French call le panic mode.* For one thing, I’m departing Edmonton by car for Victoria in slightly more than a week and I have packed … (looks around apartment) zero things.

So that constitutes, rough estimate, about 20 per cent of my stress. The rest resides in this little knot in my stomach that explodes into full-body terrors, usually right after someone says something like “School starts so soon! Are you excited?”

I mean, I am excited. Or I was. Abject fear has been slowly overtaking excited as my dominant pre-law school emotion as orientation day approaches. This is normal, probably, but it’s not enjoyable.

For example, the other day I was talking with UBC law professor David Duff during which he proffered this little nugget:

“At the end of the day, when students get to law school, they’re all in the same pool. There’s always this phenomenon whereby law students have always been above average and, by definition, half of them are not going to be above average.”

I think I managed to continue talking, but there’s also a definite chance I stopped conversing and devolved into making tiny rodential squeaks as my brain was like “Me. It’s me. I’m totally going to be below average. Oh my God. What am I doing? I’m going to spend $–,— just to fail and I’m going to have to move in to my parents’ basement and live there for all eternity waaaahhhhhhhhh.”

I’m sure I felt this way as a 17-year-old heading across four provinces to start my undergraduate degree, but I don’t remember, because in my own mind I can fold the space-time continuum so that 17-year-old me is also 25-year-old me who is imbued with the knowledge that undergrad was not only completely achievable but amazingly fun and therefore has no fear, and tells 17-year-old me this and we high-five in my memory and retroactively erase all the fear and doubt I had eight years ago, leaving me only with my current fear and doubt.

Well, that, and Google. If you type something along the lines of “Law school won’t kill me, right?” you can turn up a treasure trove of living, breathing current-and-former law students willing to help out with friendly advice. Some of my favourites are here, here, here and here.

Also, advice is also welcome in the comments section. For the meantime, I’m going to start packing … or curl up in the couch in the fetal position. TBD.

*La mode panique? That can’t be right, because I think that means the panic fashion. Oh, small town Alberta high school French. You have forsaken me.