Archive for Jennifer Pagliaro
Jennifer Pagliaro is an undergraduate journalism student with a knack for campus news reporting. From student government to the House of Commons, cafeteria food to national-scale protests, she has no inhibitions about telling it like it is, getting the story and trying to make sense of the madness. She currently lives in Ottawa and attends Carleton University.
College students prep for strike
Students, faculty urge ‘no’ vote to strike
With next week’s strike vote deadline approaching for Ontario college faculty, hundreds of thousands of the province’s college students prepare for what could be an unwelcome extended holiday.
Full-time professors, counselors and librarians, roughly 9,000, represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, will vote Jan. 13 on giving their bargaining team a strike mandate if a deal cannot be reached.
The results of a strike for 500,000 college students (350,000 full time students and 150,000 part time students) would mean canceled classes, and could mean the extension of classes into summer, or a canceled term if the strike continues well into the four-month semester.
As most students pack their bags to go back to class next week, many are left holding their breath, while some plan demonstrations of their own.
Graeme McNaughton is the creator of the Facebook group ‘Ontario College Students Against A Strike,’ which has over 18,000 members. The petition linked to the group has been signed by more than 3,000 students.
McNaughton started an event called the ‘All-Ontario Student Walkout‘ set for Jan. 12, the day before the strike vote, and student groups have begun to sign-up to participate.
The last major academic strike happened at York University in Toronto where the union for the school’s contract faculty, teaching, graduate and research assistants participated in a 12-week standoff, affecting 50,000 students.
Metro Ottawa spoke to a professor at Algonquin College, one of 24 colleges involved in the collective bargaining, about the possibility of a college-wide strike.
“It doesn’t mean there will be a strike, but it does mean that one is possible,” Rod Bain told Metro. “Unfortunately, it is something that we pretty much need to do in order to move management toward a settlement.”
In a document on why professors should vote ‘yes’ to a strike mandate next Wednesday, the OPSEU said in 15 rounds of bargaining since 1972, there have been 12 strike votes but only three strikes — in 1984, 1989 and 2006.
In 2006 the strike fell just a month before the end of the second term and lasted 21 days, leaving those slated to graduate or to start jobs or work placements scrambling to catch up.
The OPSEU said that in the past when faculty have given the union a strike mandate and subsequently gone on strike, results of bargaining were “significant.”
They also said in another note that students benefit from the union’s conditions, which have included “changing learning environment of students, as well as looking for ways to deal with the increasing number of students attending college.”
Bain told Metro, this time around, professors are asking for a 20 per cent increase in paid time to prepare for classes or to meet with students outside of class time.
However, not all college faculty are on board for a strike. A website authored by William Tenant, a business professor at St. Lawrence College, has cropped up, dedicated to encouraging faculty to vote ‘no’ to a strike mandate next Wednesday.
The College Student Alliance, which represents over 70 per cent of Ontario college students wrote an open letter entitled ‘College students are NOT bargaining chips.’ In it CSA president Justin Fox said: “Students are concerned with the fact that, yet again, there is a threat of a province-wide faculty strike looming over their education.”
- photo by Gamma-Ray Productions
Who asked students?
The ‘Big 5′ debate in review
When the presidents of what have been named the “Big 5” schools — the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, McGill University, University of Alberta and Université de Montréal — met via video conference with Maclean’s Paul Wells this summer, what they had to say was sure to ignite some buzz in the academic sphere.
Though some smaller schools are up in arms about the thought of losing their place in competitive Canadian research, as the ‘Big 5′ presidents propose, perhaps by creating these research-intensive graduate schools, a new focus on undergraduate learning that would directly benefit students is a worthwhile flipside.
Most recently, a book funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education argues that undergraduate education is in need of an overhaul. The authors argue several points, the concept of focusing on teaching and not research for undergraduate faculty needs to become the new norm ties into the ‘Big 5’ proposal.
Despite the fact no one has actually asked the students what their take is, it’s fairly easy to say students would not be opposed to smaller class sizes, where professors are accessible and solely focused on their learning. After all, it’s their tuition dollars that go towards funding these research-based programs and whose enrollment these schools set up in booths in high school gymnasiums to obtain.
Already boasting a combined 40 per cent of the country’s research funding, the presidents of the ‘Big 5′ schools spelled out their dissatisfaction with the current state of universities in Canada.
Having to spread funding and resources to educate the masses — a disproportionate number of undergraduate students to graduate researchers — these presidents argued for a change of focus at these ‘top’ schools, enrolling fewer undergraduates and transforming these institutions into primarily graduate research-based schools.
Their reasoning being that in order to “attract the world’s best scholars” and pump out graduates who can match or best their world colleagues, a greater focus needs to be paid to these programs and leave the undergraduate population to the smaller schools.
“If you strongly support the very highest forms of international peer review,” said Indira Samarasekera president of the University of Alberta, in the article, “and you drive toward excellence, and you create pools of funding where people can compete at an international standard, you will then encourage and enable certain institutions to differentially excel.”
Now almost five months later and the merits of the proposal for higher education institutions as set out by the schools’ presidents is still being debated.
In August, the smaller schools retorted in a second Maclean’s article, including the University of Waterloo, Lakehead University, Laurentian and the University of Guelph, who collectively argued their graduate research programs, many producing high-caliber researchers, should not be designated to instruct solely undergraduates.
While the ‘Big 5’ argue that Canadian research is not measuring up, the smaller schools have said that’s a reflection of the large programs and they’ve had their chance to prove their worth. “They had their opportunities to clearly demonstrate that they can make a difference,” said Frederick Filbert, president of Lakehead University.
Other schools responded through other media outlets. Roseann Runte, president of Carleton University wrote an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, arguing that differentiating schools as proposed squanders competition and collaboration.
“Canada needs to create an environment in our universities, our cities, our provinces that will support and generate such innovation. This will not happen by closing the door to potential players or instituting an intellectual caste system,” she wrote.
Since then provincial governments, bloggers and other media outlets have chimed in on what is to become of higher education. When Katie Engelhart talked to Canada’s provincial education ministers many expressed the fact that differentiated schools already exist, as it is not the intention for all universities to be “top researchers.” But none are eager to openly support the ‘Big 5’ proposal.
It seems imperative that all these voices, both larger and smaller schools along with governments and the students attending Canadian universities each have role to play in the decision. Regardless, as with most politics, a change won’t happen overnight.
- photo by dcJohn
Networking U
How IT is helping educators engage students in new ways
She wanted to engage the “we generation” in a new way. In 2007, Jean Adams, a professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, took two classes of almost 400 first-year business management students, divided them into groups and handed tablet PCs to those who didn’t have their own notebook computers. (That was made possible by a Hewlett-Packard Technology for Teaching grant that Adams won that year.) The students’ challenge: to work together in real time, through screen-sharing on their laptops, and create storyboards to solve the viciously difficult business cases Adams had presented to them. She then put their work on a projection screen in front of the class, where she could comment on and pull ideas from it—making the classroom experience more immediately gratifying and highly visual. “This ability to get what’s in their heads in a very practical way—it’s just really quite amazing,” Adams says.
Once upon a time—before laptops, cellphones and iPods—a professor’s only competition for attention in the classroom was her students’ wandering imagination. But at today’s leading institutions, the digital classroom is no longer a novelty. These days, high school graduates, armed with shorter attention spans but greater expectations that their teachers go beyond “chalk and talk,” pose a real challenge to educators. How to inspire students to conduct their own research or engage with course materials, when the traditional lecture no longer measures up to the eye candy and possibilities of new media?
The good news is, universities over the past decade have been adapting to meet students at the level of technology they’ve come to accept. That means not only deploying state-of-the-art hardware and software, but also embracing the concepts of social networking and virtual communities. “Learning is a social activity,” says Adams, who is now in the third year of her learning and technology project. “I’m trying to use the technology to make the face-to-face contact even richer.” There’s also the challenge of teaching students themselves how to use these new technologies productively—learning the ropes in university, Adams says, puts her students at a huge advantage.
Piggybacking on the popularity of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, educators see new opportunities to engage students in their studies. It’s now common for institutions to use an online learning management system, such as Blackboard or Moodle—“the academic Facebook,” as Adams’s students call it—in order to organize and distribute lecture notes, assignments and quizzes.
At the University of British Columbia, the Learning Enhancement Academic Partnership program—or LEAP—builds on the idea of multi-platform learning. It’s a portal for tools and resources that’s been online since 2005. Brian Lamb, manager of emerging technologies and digital content at UBC, says that weblogs and wikis aren’t new phenomena at UBC—in fact, the university pioneered the use of these learning tools in Canada. LEAP takes online resources even further by giving students and those managing the site the ability to aggregate their own content. On LEAP, students blog about campus life and academics; there are also helpful links and tips on various tech topics, such as how to find and use academic podcasts, or where to find and download flash card software for studying. (The portal also lets students share the tools with friends via Twitter.) “Getting students to manage their own learning experience is extremely important,” says Michelle Lamberson, director of the Office of Learning and Technology at UBC.
Mount Mansbridge
CBC News The National anchor named new Mount Allison chancellor
My roommate joked with her friend today about how they wished they were back graduating at Mount Allison University this school year. While I’m sure the small Sackville, N.B. school has its fair share of nostalgic charm, I wasn’t sure what would cause two professionals to want to return to their alma mater.
The answer? Peter Mansbridge.
Graduating students at Mt. A will bow before Mansbridge to receive their diplomas next May, CBC News and Mount Allison reported Nov. 9.
According to a press release from the university, Mansbridge’s appointment was endorsed by the school’s Board of Regents.
Mansbridge’s duties as chancellor, as with at most Canadian universities, is to preside over convocations and act as the public face of the school.
Mt. Allison president Robert Campbell said in the release: “It will be wonderful to have a national figure with his public stature help take the University’s message of excellence to an even wider audience.”
Though Mansbridge is in the homes of Canadians across the country, it is left to be seen how he will fulfill his role of public outreach.
Mansbridge will serve as chancellor until December 2013.
Canadian universities have historically chosen established or famous chancellors. Other selections of celebrity status have included former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson who served at Carleton University from 1969 to 1972 and Robert Borden at Queen’s University from 1924 to 1930.
- photo by gorbould
Puzzling numbers
Study claiming ethnic, gender inequality is out-of-date, says Oxford
The Guardian recently reported on a study conducted by academics from Oxford, Manchester and London University on the admissions of students at Oxford University.
The study analyzed 1,700 UK students who applied to 11 Oxford colleges in 2002, according to the article.
The study covered details such as their predicted A-level results — a qualifying test most commonly recognized by British universities for admissions— and type of high school they attended.
The results concluded that men are twice as likely as women to be offered a place in science programs and 1.4 times as likely in arts programs.
From a gender perspective, white applicants are five times more likely than those of south Asian heritage to be offered place in science programs.
Based on the type of high school students attended the study found applicants from state schools were more likely to be offered a place in arts programs than private school applicants.
Director of undergraduate admissions at Oxford Mike Nicholson, who was quoted in the article, said that the study did not represent current admissions statistics.
Nicholson offered up more recent 2009 statistics to squash what the study appears to imply are unequal gender and ethnic admissions practices.
The article itself says, “Last year, the proportion of undergraduates at Oxford was 50.2 [per cent] females and 49.8 [per cent] male.”
I’ve recently been reading the book The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot that tries to demystify the use of statistics as the shock factor in daily news.
After the first few chapters, my fear that it’s sometimes easy to misrepresent unjustified statistics in the media was confirmed.
While I’m not faulting the Guardian of shoddy reporting, I feel it’s easy to just quote numbers without giving context to where they came from, like with this article.
To me, there are several apparent holes in the methods and findings of the study as reported.
For starters, of the 1,700 UK students used for the study, it is not discussed whether a proportional sample of male and female and those of different ethnicities were polled, or how that ratio was decided upon.
While the study likely covered these bases, it would be nice to know the breakdown of where the data is coming from in the article and what ratio of students actually applied to Oxford in 2002.
The article also elaborated on the question posed to students for the study of whether they had attended or participated in certain “cultured” events or activities in the past year and concluded that this information had no reflection in the results of their study.
Jobs and qualifications of the applicants parents were also assessed.
It seems, especially from those aspects, the study was trying to uncover the truth behind the possible stereotype that white males from “cultured” upper-class families are favoured at prestigious institutions.
According to Nicholson’s current data, that idea was not proved or disproved.
Based on that knowledge, I’m having a hard time figuring out how the statistical results of one year of admissions implies a gender and ethnic disparity at an institution, especially if current statistics reflect that male and female admissions are nearly at par and more recent ethnic admissions do not reflect the findings of the study, as Nicholson says.
If the study had, perhaps, compared data over several years of admission to imply an ongoing trend, I may be more inspired to join co-author Alison Sullivan in proclaiming the results “striking” (she is quoted as saying) in terms of inequality.
While I hope that all universities would consider applicants on the basis of academic merit, cynicism kicks in and tells me this is highly unlikely for all schools.
Regardless, I still want the proof.
Whether or not the article or the study is lacking, I think more background is needed to make a judgment call on the issue of unjust admissions.
What do you think about the article and study? Leave your comments below.
- photo by Stewf
Zombie logic
Ottawa researchers study flesh-eating fiction for answers
A number of articles surfaced Aug. 18 about a study conducted by a professor and team of students concerning the outcomes and preventative possibilities of a zombie attack on the human population.
O.k., wait. Zombies?
According to the Toronto Star report, University of Ottawa mathematics professor Robert Smith and three students from both the University of Ottawa and Carleton University “spent a month doing research consisting mainly of watching zombie movies and playing zombie video games.”
While this sounds like an extremely awesome way to “conduct research,” I was a bit skeptical on its credibility.
Reading on, however, I learn this research was then used to create mathematical models to conclude whether or not the human race could survive a zombie plague and incorporated it into a paper entitled: “”When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.”
On top of narrowing the zombie ‘type’ they used for their model to the “slow” kind (Phew, the infection-ridden, speedy buggers from 28 Days Later still give me nightmares), the team took into account the different incubation and spread of ‘zombification’ times across a population that vary from countless zombie movie plots to games.
Now, to anyone who’s watched Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, heck, even Shaun of the Dead, a million times and watched their dedicated group of friends team up to play Left 4 Dead more than is recommended for good health, you’d know the chances of making it out alive are slim — and especially if you remember to watch the credits for Zach Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
Not surprisingly, this is what the researchers discovered as well.
The study concluded that the only way to rid the world of zombies (hypothetically, of course) is 10 consecutive days of military strikes.
Great. I’m thoroughly amused. But where are they going with this?
The research paper, according to the article: “Takes a decidedly lighthearted approach to exploring serious, real-world infection rates.”
In the wake of an ongoing swine flu pandemic that joins a long list of deadly viruses, including the recent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), studies contributing to fighting the spread of infectious diseases could be significant life-saving strategies. However, I don’t think I’ll hold my breath if the solution for a zombie-like pandemic is military annihilation of all infected beings.
Interesting, though, is the idea we can look into popular culture and movie magic — literally figments of our own imaginations — to gleam ideas for real life problems. Though zombies fall on the extreme side, examining statistical models on how to fight infection (fictional or real) may provide the answers we need, and therefore, is a step in the right direction.
Now, if only someone would start studying Ferris Bueller to figure out how to get kids to stop cutting class.
- photo by quixado
Learning 3.0
The power of the Internet + you is being redefined
While browsing the stacks of magazines at a local drug store (a favourite pastime of mine), the cover of MIT’s Technology Review caught my attention.
Pictured was the newest in the Google-dominated search engine world — Wolfram Alpha.
Launched on May 15 of this year (2 months, 27 days, 22 hours, 24 minutes, 47 seconds ago, when I asked it) and branded as a “computational knowledge engine” (whatever that means), Wolfram differs from its Google competitor in that it answers your pressing questions and queries from a base of knowledge it curates, instead of pulling results purely from the web.
Like the kid in class, who when asked a simple (usually hypothetical) question during a lecture, chooses to answer in paragraph form — except, with Wolfram, the answers are useful.
When I entered the question, “What is a student?” — something I thought may be too ambiguous to answer beyond a simple definition — Wolfram gave me that basic definition, as well as word origins, frequency of use, synonyms and a variety of other intriguing information — all laid out in an easy-to-use, one-stop-shop page.
Probed with a more difficult question — “What is my diploma worth?” — Wolfram was unable to compute an answer. But if you read the FAQs provided on the website, you’ll learn Wolfram is programmed solely on fact and not opinion.
So instead I tred a more complex input, that required a result that would otherwise be hard to find and that I would have to organize graphically on my own, if I was say, writing a paper on “Employment in the Millennium.”
I enter “U.S. salaries 2000 2009” and it gives me this.
Not bad. Now that’s information tailored to my exact needs with the bonus of a chart I could pop right into an essay (assuming both my professor and I agree the calculations are correct).
Even though Wolfram is still tweaking its know-how, I’m sold on the design and innovation because I’ve never seen an engine as organized as this. Plus, with it being built on the back of a massive software brain capable of millions of lines of code for computing information, I feel confident sourcing it academically.
Combining the ease of Google, encyclopedia-like quality of Wikipedia (without the public interference), Wolfram reminds me of just how innovate and easy learning away from the classroom has become.
Waterloo wars over leaked logos
“Unprofessional” rebranding causes student uproar
A friend who attends the University of Waterloo mentioned to me today that students in the ‘loo are raging against the university’s new proposed logos.
The logos were leaked July 13 by a co-op student working at the school, according to an article in the Imprint, Waterloo’s student newspaper.
As part of a rebranding effort, the new designs include a new marketing logo — a bold black ‘W’ emblazoned with crisscrossing, coloured lines — and a new seal — an update of the old Waterloo school crest to be used for diplomas and official documents.
A Facebook group created by Waterloo students against the new logos has amassed over 8,000 supporters and caught the attention of local news reporters.
Student criticism didn’t stop there, however.
In an extremely co-ordinated effort, external websites and petitions have been created to protest the new rebranding.
Students on the Facebook group have expressed sentiments that the marketing logo is “ghastly” and “unprofessional.”
The university has said however, that the new logo was meant to be unconventional.
In a July 24 daily bulletin on the school’s official site, Meg Beckel, vice-president (external relations) explained: “Waterloo’s reputation and specific strengths were not clearly understood across Canada.”
The school’s characteristics, Beckel outlined are: “unconventional, collaborative, connected, innovative, creative, courageous, risk-taking and critical-thinking.”
The new ‘W’ design, the bulletin says, is designed to represent those attributes.
Students most critically and comically have compared the coloured lines in the logo design to laser beams, however, Beckel explained in the bulletin that they are meant to represent the school’s different faculties.
Less criticism has been raised about the updated crest logo, which, despite a few tweaks and additions, stays true to the historical crest the university has been solely using for decades.
While it seems the school has put a lot of work into the complicated process of rebranding, students seem to be extremely disappointed with the outcome.
What do you think about the University of Waterloo’s redesign? Leave your reactions, thoughts and insights below.
- photos: Imprint Online
Accused terrorist’s replacement takes over at Carleton
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
Getting the ring
“Marrying” your alma mater and what’s behind our post-grad pride
I barely acknowledged graduation season at Canadian universities last school year (though some are still on their way in September, so I’ll hold my breath) — besides the annoyance of more people it took to sift through on my way to Tim Horton’s at Carleton — but it still got me thinking about something that’s always puzzled and amused me:
The class ring.
From what I can gather, almost every university in Canada has a thick, gaudy (some more than others), gold ring that you can pay more than your two weeks salary for to don after completing your program of study. But after a bit of research, the whole ordeal of purchasing and attending the ceremony seems more like a long term commitment then a piece of jewelry you may never wear in five years.
“Do you take this university to be your alma mater, to have and to cherish, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer (let’s hope so after four years of education), for poorer, in recession and collapsing job market, until death do you part?”
Though it may seem ridiculous to those even inside the academic circle, most schools take their gold bands very seriously.
Perhaps the most extreme is St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., who’s reputation largely stems from their coveted “X-Ring.”
The iconic band, with large black ‘X’ set in a large gold square, has its own special spot on the StFX website complete with heart-melting alumni stories and a lost and found.
In order to attend the ring ceremony in black-robed attire and finally pump their X-Ring-graced fist into the air at graduation (there’s not a whole lot else to celebrate in Antigonish, I imagine), Xaverian’s (StFX folk) must fulfill a list of seven comprehensive criteria upon ordering.
According to local Antigonish retailer, Cameron’s Jewellers, the 10-karat ring starts at over $500.
So what’s the hoopla all about? Xaverians gather on the same day every year — December 3rd — to celebrate what legend has it is as the third most popular ring in the world (after the papal and Super Bowl variety).
On the other side of the country at the University of British Columbia, the same quality of ring (of much less fame) will run students between $450-$550.
Xaverian’s claim that when they meet another Xaverian on their worldly travels, they are instantly recognized by the ring on their finger. While this may be true, even for other less iconic class rings, what’s the big deal?
Perhaps it’s the feeling of being drawn together by a common fact that along with thousands before and thousands to come you’ve survived two to four years (or more, for the stragglers) of university and you belong to an elite class of academics.
The same may be true for other school merchandise, however — faculty-specific sweaters, mugs, key chains, caps — you name it, your school makes it possible for you to completely brand yourself with (insert university name here) stuff.
The result? Congratulations! You’ve been hitched to your alma mater. And you’re paying them to advertise it.
I hope the honeymoon in adulthood entails a half-decent job.
- photo by Casey J.
Why we fight
Study finds one in five students reported recent violence
Maclean’s reported July 16 on a study that revealed one in five university students reported recent violence.
The study, conducted at the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin and the University of British Columbia, also concluded one in four of the reported incidents was the result of romantic partner abuse.
Several sexual assault incidents took place at Carleton University and York University in 2007. This study provides contrast, focussing on the statistically significant amount of violence happening amongst university students “behind closed doors.”
The report also covers the rarely included violence experienced and reported by male students. The gender inclusiveness of this study recognizes the diversity of relationships university students experience and diverts from the stereotypical assumption that only females are victims of partner violence.
The study also concluded that the majority of violence reported resulted after consumption of alcohol.
While this may seem obvious to most students who have witnessed their fair share of bar brawls, the article does raise the question of whether schools have yet to make clear to students the connection between alcohol and violence, with the same warnings that come with alcohol and sexual assault and drinking and driving advertisements and campaigns.
The article reveals students need a better understanding of healthy relationships.
Though some schools have posted helpful tips on healthy relationships like Wilfred Laurier University, the consumption of alcohol as it relates to maintaining a healthy relationship is an issue the study raises.
What the study didn’t cover is the rate of increase or decrease in violence amongst students at the selected campus. As well, the study only assesses reported violence and that the actual rate of violence experience by university students is likely significantly higher.
So the questions still unanswered are: Why is there an alarming amount of violence among students? Are we becoming an increasingly violent generation or is it just a passing fad?
With still too recent memories of the shootings at Polytechnique in Montreal and Columbine High School in Colorado, these questions may reveal insight on and prevention of excessive violence on campuses and among students.
- photo by CTRL-F5
Understanding the big picture
There are more than two angles to every story
Let’s start with introductions.
My name is Jennifer Pagliaro and I’m entering my third year of journalism at Carleton University. Over the past three years I’ve been freelancing for local papers, including the Ottawa Citizen, and was news editor at The Charlatan, Carleton’s independent student newspaper for the 2008/2009 school year.
Besides that I love to listen to live music, create and experiment with Asian-inspired cuisine (I make a mean Pad Thai), make you your triple grande non-fat no-foam latte (if you frequent Starbucks in Ottawa, that is) and stockpile current affairs magazines.
Through my few short years as a professional journalist I’ve discovered I have a passion for storytelling, or rather, truth telling, in a way that’s compelling and informative.
After participating in an unprecedented number of breaking news stories with The Charlatan, some even sweeping national news last year (i.e. Shinerama-gate: here and here), I’ve realized there are more than two angles to every story and more than one story for every issue.
With Canada’s expanse of diverse campuses, all with their own unique news (and news outlets), I hope to draw together commonalities, oddities and reoccurring themes that you want to hear more about.
Essentially — what’s the big picture?
We’re going to find out.
