Archive for Sarah Petz
Sarah Petz is news editor of The Manitoban, the University of Manitoba student newspaper. She is a third year English major.
Grievance filed against UAlberta faculty association
University says faculty association should have stopped CAUT investigation
In a rather unusual move, officials at the University of Alberta have filed a grievance against the university’s faculty association over an outside investigation into the university’s medical school by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), reported the Edmonton Journal.
The CAUT agreed to launch an investigation in January after they received several complaints from staff in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry that the faculty’s priorities were being shifted from teaching to research, and that by doing so, Dean Philip Baker was changing their employment conditions.
The university’s board has argued that the Association of Academic Staff (AASUA) were in violation of their collective agreement by not blocking CAUT’s independent inquiry.
Don Heth, head of the AASUA, told the Journal that the association believes the allegations are “factually false”, noting that the CAUT operates independently from the faculty association. ”If the allegation is [that] we should stop the CAUT investigation, that’s an absurd conclusion. We are strongly committed to the principles of academic freedom,” Heth said.
In January, CAUT president James Turk said that he had heard from faculty members who said they were threatened that unless they devoted more time to research, they would not get a tenure track position. Dean Baker denied the allegations, stating that during his time in charge, “we’ve given more tenure promotions to people who are getting those on the basis of education than on research.”
Who poisoned water at the University of Manitoba?
Employee’s drink tampered with
Campus security at the University of Manitoba issued a warning to staff and students Wednesday afternoon after an employee’s water bottle was tampered with.
Police are investigating what appears to be the “intentional” contamination of an employee’s personal water bottle with a noxious substance, according to an email sent through a student list serve. They suspect the tampering took place between May 9 and May 10.
A university spokesperson told the Winnipeg Free Press that the bottle was in “a place that wouldn’t have been available to just anybody.” The employee, who was not academic staff, sought medical help after noticing discoloration of the water in their personal bottle.
Students and staff have been advised not to leave their food and drink items unattended, and to report any suspicious activity to the university’s Security Services department.
Sask. funds 150 new campus child care spaces
Capacity at USask will double
Some Saskatchewan students with children will be getting much-needed extra support.
The Saskatchewan Party government announced Monday that more than 150 new child care spots will be funded on university and college campuses. This is especially welcome news at the U of S, which currently has space for only 111 children between its two centres and has sometimes had waiting lists of up to 3 years, according to The Sheaf newspaper.
Approximately 110 will be added at the University of Saskatchewan, doubling its capacity. Another 16 new spaces will benefit students of the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) and those attending regional colleges in Punnichy can look forward to a new 30 spaces.
“Our government wants to ensure that our post-secondary students are supported in their studies,” Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris said in a statement released Monday. “These new spaces provide greater opportunity for our students. They will allow more students with children to focus on their studies and, subsequently, succeed in their careers and stay in Saskatchewan.”
Richard Florizone, U of S vice-president of Finance and Resources, said the new development will help the university attract and retain students, faculty and staff, and will also help make the U of S more accessible for Aboriginal students.
Forget your degree, get a McJob
McDonald’s executive calls for end to education ‘snobbery’
Head of McDonald’s British division Jill McDonald called for an end to education ‘snobbery’ that leads many employers to favour graduates over those with less education at a conference last week, reported The Guardian.
During a talk for the Institute of Directors’ annual conference, McDonald said that many businesses were missing out on a huge pool of talent because they fail to see past academic credentials, and that some youth may be better off in the workforce than pursuing a degree.
“We need to acknowledge the road many young people take today may not be the one we took in the past,” McDonald said.
“We need to remove the snobbery that does down workplace learning. For many put off by high fees, this could and should be the route they take.”
She said that companies such as McDonald’s offer “not just jobs but careers”, pointing out that over half of the fast-food company’s executive team started out at as trainees flipping burgers.
McDonald stressed that she was ‘definitely’ not saying that people should not go to university. “I am definitely not saying that people shouldn’t go to university if they have the opportunity to do so but I do believe it might not be the route for everyone” she said, according to Financial News.
Homophobia still rampant in schools
Study finds many LGBTQ students feel unsafe
Taunts and insults are a daily occurrence for many students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, two-spirited, queer or questioning (LGBTQ). This is one of the several unsettling findings in a national study lead by University of Winnipeg professor Catherine Taylor, with funding from anti-homophobia human rights organization Egale Canada.
The study, Every Class in Every School: Egale’s Final Report on Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia in Canadian Schools surveyed over 3 700 students between 2007 and 2009 from across Canada. The report found that 64 per cent of LGBTQ students reported feeling unsafe at school, while 21 per cent reported being physical harassed or assaulted.
“What is striking is the gap students are experiencing between official school curriculum, which emphasizes human rights and diversity, and the curriculum of the hallways, where LGBTQ students feel unsafe, insulted or harassed,” Taylor said in a press release issued by the U of W.
“Students also see adults, including teachers, looking the other way rather than dealing with homophobic comments, and they express profound disappointment and cynicism about the adult world.”
Homophobic slurs were heard every day at school by 48 per cent of students surveyed, while 70 per cent of students reported hearing expressions such as ‘that’s so gay’ at school on a daily basis. Nearly 10 per cent of students who identified as LGBTQ reported hearing homophobic comments on a daily or weekly basis from teachers at their school.
58 per cent of straight students said they were upset by the homophobic comments prevalent in their schools. “What that tells me is there is a great deal of untapped solidarity in students, and that the public school culture can change,” Taylor said.
The report also found that LGBTQ students attending schools that had anti-homophobia policies were less likely to be victims of verbal or physical abuse at school. However, the report also states that LGBTQ students in schools with such policies “did not report significantly higher levels of feeling safe at school with regard to gender identity and gender expression.”
“This indicates a need to explicitly address gender identity, gender expression, and anti- transphobia in school and school board safer schools and equity and inclusive education policies.”
Procrastination down to a science
Why you can’t seem to turn off those cat videos
We’ve all been there: your deadline creeps closer and closer but that assignment just doesn’t seem to complete itself. Though you had more than enough time to have it done by its due date, you find yourself scrambling to hand it in at all. As much as we fight it, procrastination can get the best of anyone. But if we know that it will only lead to more stress for ourselves in the long run, why do we continue to do it?
One researcher may have found the answer. Piers Steel, a professor of human resources and organizational dynamics in the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, explores the roots of procrastination in his new book The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop putting things off and Start getting Stuff Done. The book examines why procrastination is on the rise, and dissects the reasons why we put things off and what we can do to stop it.
In an interview with Inside Higher Education, Steel shares the ‘Procrastination Equation’, a formula for why we put work off. It looks something like this:
Motivation = Expectancy x Delay / Impulsiveness x Delay
“We lack motivation and put stuff off when we doubt our abilities (i.e., low expectancy), hate doing the task (i.e., low value), are sensitive to delay (i.e., high impulsiveness), and have to wait for the task’s rewards (i.e., high delay),” Steel explained.
Steel goes on to explain that eliminating distraction and temptation is one of the most important steps in combating procrastination. “Really, there is usually nothing wrong with our goals except when we are trying to enact them in an environment that is incredibly distracting,” Steel said.
He also suggests dedicating yourself to work between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., which tend to be peak hours for productivity.
Iggy’s Ivy League friends react to Liberals’ defeat
Former colleagues surprised by attack ads; point out Ignatieff was a popular and celebrated academic
Some of Michael Ignatieff’s past Ivy League colleagues were surprised the former Liberal leader was so relentlessly criticized during the federal election for the time he spent outside Canada, noting that he was a popular and celebrated academic during his time at Harvard, according to the Boston Globe.
Ignatieff left his position at Harvard to run for a seat in Parliament in 2006. He has also taught at Cambridge, Oxford, the University of California, the University of London and the London School of Economics.
“To me, it’s a puzzle why Michael, who is one of the most charismatic people I know, would be presented the way he was presented in Canada, as some sort of carpetbagger,” Fotini Christia, an assistant professor at MIT who was Ignatieff’s teaching assistant for four years at Harvard, told the Boston Globe.
Graham Allison, a professor and administrator at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, was angered that Ignatieff was portrayed as unpatriotic and “just visiting” by attack ads during the election. “He is a Canadian, he was a proud Canadian at Harvard, and would introduce himself as a proud Canadian, and he comes from a proud Canadian family, so that’s more of a political rap,” Allison said.
However, some admitted that they were worried when he announced that he was leaving the ivory tower to run for a seat in Parliament, and saw the criticisms launched against him as rather predictable.
“The biggest obstacle he faced was the perception that he was a recent returnee to his native land who wasn’t really qualified to run the entire country,’’ said Stephen M Walt, a Kennedy School professor and friend of Ignatieff’s. “[ … ] It did seem like something of a long shot to have been outside the country for so long and to go back with the clear intention of gaining the prime ministership relatively quickly.”
When asked by the Globe and Mail why he did not respond to attack ads, Ignatieff said that he and his party responded “with the resources we had.”
“I was aware from the minute I entered politics that I had to control the narrative of my life. I did my best to do that. There’s no question that I failed. But the idea that I sat there not trying to reply is not right,” Ignatieff said.
“I tried to reply with the resources I had personally and with the resources that the party had, and I’ll always regret that my inability to control that narrative had an impact on the fortunes of other people.”
Ignatieff has recently accepted a senior resident position with the University of Toronto’s Massey College. Notable politicians to hold the position in the past include Pierre Trudeau, former Ontario premier Bob Rae, and former Reform party leader Preston Manning.
Warning: your prof might be blogging about you
Blog showcases best of the worst student writing
Today I stumbled upon a pretty hilarious blog that showcases what have to be some of the most ridiculously bad examples of student writing out there. Shit My Students Write describes itself as “evidence of the true cost of educational funding cuts,” though doesn’t specify whether the writing quoted is the work of university or high school students. The site gives readers the opportunity to submit their own examples anonymously, so it’s hard to tell where they are coming from. Regardless, I have to give props to whoever was tasked with grading this work, and had the idea to share the worst of it online.
Here are some my favorite quotes posted on the site over the past few weeks:
“Macbeth couldn’t have loved Lady Macbeth because he was crazy and too busy hallucinating witches and stuff.”
“I could blame my results on other factors, like it was the day after Friday when I took it and I had just finished listening to Rebecca Black.”
“There are many different races of bagels.”
“It was started by some famous dead guy.”
“I felt so guilty because I realized I was aiding in the bedding of a criminal.”
“The colonists won because they were better, duh!”
“A mountain could be a symbol of the book. The mountain could represent the mountains.”
“Its not really plagiarism as it was exactly what I was going to write anyway.”
This should serve as a warning to students everywhere: not only will bad writing get you poor grades, it may also end up being mocked on the internet.
UWinnipeg fights against tiered leagues in CIS
Axworthy argues tiering wouldn’t reflect athletic success of smaller institutions
The change would divide schools by size, putting smaller universities on a second tier within the CIS, and would give teams from larger schools more opportunities to compete against one another.
In a letter to George Iwama, chairman of the Council of Western Canadian University Presidents, Axworthy asks for the proposal to be thrown out, arguing that it is “incongruent” with the structure of the CIS and the nature of its operations.
“Athletes and teams from all member institutions–larger or smaller–have enjoyed competitive records when compared with others. There is no reason, in my view, that this tradition should not or cannot continue,” Axworhy wrote.
Axworthy goes on to say that the proposal takes on a “bigger is better” approach that does not reflect the individual successes of athletes and teams from smaller institutions, pointing out that schools such as Brandon and Thompson Rivers universities have recently medaled in volleyball, and that the U of W’s Wesman volleyball team has won 10 national championships.
“We all believe in the importance of our athletic activities and how they enhance the mission of all our universities and we are best able to do this working together in a collective manner,” writes Axworthy.
So much for vote mobs
Though a noble effort, youth vote push did little to address issues students actually care about
Watching the vote mob craze sweep across the country and my Facebook and Twitter streams during the federal election, I’ll admit I was looking forward to a boost to the traditionally low youth voter turnout May 2. Yet after the votes were tallied, the national voter turnout sat at just 61.4 per cent, a small increase from the 2008 federal election turnout of 59.1 per cent. Turnout has yet to be broken down between demographics, but given that the decline in overall voter turnout in federal elections over the last twenty years is largely due to declining youth turnout, if young voters had rushed to the polls it would have shown in the overall count.
It’s not terribly surprising that student-led vote mobs did little to drive people to the polls. Most studies on youth voter turnout have shown that students are already voting. It’s typically youth who aren’t attending university that don’t cast their ballots, as University of Manitoba political studies professor Jared Wesley has pointed out. Campus-based vote mobs and social media campaigns aimed at education issues did little to address this issue.
Further, though the youth vote movement perpetuated the idea that education issues are the focus of all young Canadians, in reality, education was probably the furthest from their minds during the election. A poll published by the Historica-Dominion Institute showed that youth aged 18-24 were most concerned about their standard of living and health care, not how high their tuition is. Organizers and supporters of vote mobs across the country stressed that the parties were not talking about youth issues, but were out of touch with what the general youth population actually cared about themselves.
It was also endlessly frustrating to watch the majority of the mainstream media gush over how exciting it was to see young people care about politics, but fail to explore whether those attending vote mobs and tweeting about the election would have voted anyway. What was published over and over again were a few photos and some video footage of students screaming about how excited they were to vote. I saw little commentary on who actually attended these rallies, and what practical impact the vote mobs would have come election day.
At the vote mob I attended at the University of Winnipeg, I recognized a lot of student union representatives, student journalists, and their friends. I don’t believe many of the approximately 100 people in attendance were average students who felt compelled to rally for youth engagement. Anyone who’s politically motivated enough to become a student politician and attend a rally will probably cast their ballot in a federal election before you encourage them to do it. What did these vote mobs accomplish if that’s who made up the majority of those who attended them?
It may be more difficult to reach out to the silent masses of youth who are uninterested in politics, but that’s what needed to be done to truly turn around youth voter apathy in this election.
UManitoba teaching assistants turn down new contract
Vote to authorize strike action
Members of CUPE Local 3909, the union representing teaching assistants, markers, tutors and student instructors at the University of Manitoba, decided to reject the university’s contract proposal and approve strike action in a vote held last Friday, reported the Winnipeg Free Press.
The university’s four year contract offer called for a two year wage freeze while the last two years of the contract included an annual 2.9 per cent wage increase. 97 per cent of the union’s members voted in favour of rejecting the deal.
John Danakas, director of public affairs at the U of M, explained that the offer is similar to what other bargaining units at the university have accepted from the administration.
However, CUPE Local 3909 president Matt McLean argued that some bargaining units on campus will be receiving a wage increase in the second year of their contract as well as increases to benefits.
“We will not accept an agreement which fails to address our basic needs of getting paid for all the work we do, job security, guaranteed hours, and salary increases,” McLean said in a statement.
McLean explained that members typically work 60 to 80 hours each semester and make an average of $3000 for the academic year, according to the Free Press.
Study find students most likely to vote NDP
27% say they’re voting NDP; Liberals come in close second
Most of the students surveyed confirmed that they would definitely be heading to the polls May 2, with 76 per cent saying that they were “very likely” to vote, and 10 per cent saying they were “somewhat likely” to vote. Of those who said they would not be voting, little interest in the election was the primary reason for deciding not to cast their ballot.
When divided by sex, female students were more likely to vote NDP or to be undecided, while male students were more likely to vote for the Liberal Party.
Vote mob craze hits UWinnipeg
Approximately 100 students mobbed the university’s downtown campus
With vote mobs organized at over 30 campuses across the country, I knew it was only a matter of time before the craze hit my hometown of Winnipeg. Since the energy of these rallies is better illustrated with multimedia coverage than in print, I produced a video of the vote mob organized by students at the University of Winnipeg and University of Manitoba that took place on the U of W campus Wednesday for The Manitoban. Approximately 100 people, most of them students, showed up to support youth engagement in the upcoming federal election, along with a handful of local candidates.
What I wish I had known about roommates
Advice for successful cohabitation
After living with four different sets of roommates since I moved out of my parents’ house two years ago, I’ve decided to give up on cohabitation for now as I leave my townhouse I share with two people in downtown Winnipeg and settle into a one bedroom apartment. Looking back on my rather extensive experience, there are a few pieces of advice I wish I had been given about dealing with roommates before stepping out on my own:
1. It’s not going to be an episode of Friends: Like every naïve young student first leaving the nest, I imagined that I’d automatically become best friends with the people I was living with. While I have had roommates that I’ve become close with, and am still friends with, I’ve had others that were virtually strangers. You may get lucky and hit it off with your roommates right away, but you might find yourself living with people who are only interested in sharing your rent and nothing more, which can be a perfectly fine situation too.
2. Best friends don’t always make the best roommates: You already hang out with them all the time, so why not live with them, right? While you may know everything about who they’re dating, it’s hard to know what they’re like to live with until you live with them. Make sure to seriously consider if you can deal with any weird habits they may have, and having to spend that much time with them before moving in together. These things may seem trivial but can be really taxing on your relationship, so be honest with your friend and yourself.
3. But be wary of living with strangers: It’s a lot harder to talk to a roommate you met through Kijiji.ca about paying their share of the bills on time or keeping up with housework than someone you’ve known for a while. You’re also setting yourself up for getting stuck living with someone that creates bigger problems for you than making your home less than tidy if you decide to board with someone you don’t know.
4. Communication is key: Sometimes it can be difficult to keep the lines of communication open with whomever you’re living with when you have opposing schedules and hardly ever see them. But having good communication with your roommates is really essential to having a happy household. If they’re doing something that’s bothering you, you need talk to them about it and not let it stew. No one wants to feel uncomfortable in their own home because they’re secretly mad at their roommate.
5. Try to shop together, at least for groceries: If you can split the bill on things like staple groceries and bathroom supplies, it will make living together much easier. Having to label who’s salad dressing is who’s can get really tedious.
6. Chore charts are bogus: I don’t find chore charts or chore wheels to be effective in keeping your home in order. No one really wants to have to check their names off each time they mop the floor, and they just end up seeming anal and annoying. If you’re worried about everyone doing their fair share of housework, you’re better off dividing up tasks or sections of house for each person to look after.
7. Have each others’ emergency contact info: This is something I’ve never done, but probably should have in hindsight. Hopefully you will never have to use it, but it’s a good thing to have just in case. If you haven’t seen them in a while, a nice courtesy text or call is always a good idea as well.
Of all the advice I could give however, the most important thing to remember is to always be respectful and considerate of whomever you’re sharing your home with. Seems like a pretty basic rule of thumb, but it’s something that is forgotten much too often, especially once you’ve been living with someone for a long time.
California may add gay history to textbooks
Bill passed to require social studies lessons to cover LGBT community
Though schools will have some flexibility in what they choose to teach, textbooks and teaching materials used by California school districts will be required to cover contributions by the LGBT community in California and the U.S. by 2013-2014. For example, teachers might include lessons on politicians such as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay city official in San Fransico’s history. The bill also requires that lesson materials used by schools do not “reflect adversely” on any religions.
Supporters of the bill say the change will help put a stop to bullying of students for being homosexual, by curbing negative stereotypes some students hold on to.
“It is very basic to me that people dislike and fear that with which we are less familiar,” Senator Mark Leno told the New York Times. Leno, who is a Democrat, sponsored the bill and is one of the first openly gay men to be elected to the State Senate.
However, the bill has come up against a considerable amount of opposition. Those against the bill have argued that educating children on same-sex relationships should be a decision for parents to make, not the state. Certain churches and conservative groups have also questioned how schools will reconcile educating students on contributions of the LGBT community while also teaching them about religions that don’t agree with homosexuality.
“How would one responsibly teach concerning a religion that holds a less than favorable view of homosexuality without such instruction, per se, reflecting adversely on that religion?” Robert Evans, pastor of Christ Church in Pleasanton, California asked during a hearing before the Senate Education Committee, according to the Associated Press.
Women, African Americans, Mexican Americans, entrepreneurs, Asian Americans, European Americans, American Indians and labor are already on the list of social and ethnic groups California public schools are required to teach about.
Despite attracting some criticism, it’s predicted that the bill will pass through the largely Democratic Legislature and be approved by Gov. Jerry Brown. If written into law, California will be the first state in the U.S. that mandates for gay history to be taught in its schools.
MP running for USask riding claims Planned Parenthood funding axed
Student reps worked to fight against Brad Trost’s anti-abortion petition in the past
Though no plans to halt federal funding to the organization have been officially announced, Trost thanked those at the Saskatchewan ProLife Association’s annual convention last Saturday for helping with petitions and said they played a huge role in halting the group’s funding from the Conservative government, according to CBC News.
“Let me just tell you, I cannot tell you specifically how we used it, but those petitions were very, very useful and they were part of what we used to defund Planned Parenthood because it has been an absolute disgrace that that organization and several others like it have been receiving one penny of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars,” Trost told the crowd.
This isn’t the first time the MP has voiced his disapproval of the organization. Trost circulated a petition in 2009 asking the federal government to stop funding the IPPF. The petition accused the group of promoting “the establishment of abortion as an international human right, and lobbies aggressively to impose permissive abortion laws on developing nations,” according to The Sheaf.
This was countered by a petition organized by the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union (USSU) in support of the group, after student representatives caught word of his initiative.
“The IPPF is directly affiliated with Saskatoon Sexual Health, which helps train the staff of the USSU…. The university does tons of work abroad and IPPF helps with that. These are issues that directly affect students and can have both a positive or negative impact depending on whether this goes through,” Warren Kirkland, then-USSU president, told The Sheaf.
Since Trost’s speech, the Conservative Party has tried to distance themselves from his remarks. Dimitri Soudas, spokesperson for Stephen Harper, told reporters Trost was a “backbench MP who, without question, isn’t aware of the way that our program works” at an emergency press conference Thursday morning.
However, the party has yet to confirm or deny if the IPPF will receive its federal funding. The organization has been waiting for over a year to hear whether or not the Canadian International Development Agency will approve their request for an $18 million grant.
USask faculty members criticize university governance
Letter to Advanced Education Minister calls for changes to Board of Governors
This follows controversy surrounding the appointments of the dean of law and head of the school of environment and sustainability, after the recommendations of volunteer search committees for the positions were overlooked by the Board of Governors.
The professors are asking for several changes to the University of Saskatchewan Act, including making all Board of Governors meetings open to the public and requiring board members to have public service experience as well as university teaching or administrative experience.
One of the professors who signed the letter explained the faculty members were motivated by what they felt was a lack of transparency from senior university officials on major decisions affecting the university.
“So much of the decisions, in fact all of the decisions, simply go on behind closed doors. We request more transparency,” engineering professor Todd Pugsley told the StarPhoenix.
The letter was also signed by professors Robert Gander, Len Findlay, Howard Woodhouse, Linda McMullen as well as the chair of university council, which oversees all academic affairs at the U of S, Claire Card.
U of S president Peter MacKinnon said the authors of the letter had “no understanding” of university governance, and that limiting board members to those with public sector or university experience would mean the board would lose out on many qualified people.
“Even worse, the writers of the letter want a board of insiders. . . . On what basis do they claim that only insiders should serve on the board? On what basis do they claim that only insiders should pass judgment on the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars, some of them on themselves?,” MacKinnon told the StarPhoenix.
Norris said that the demand for legislative changes was “a bit of an unusual request”, since these matters are usually dealt with internally.
“But that being said, we are referring it to ministry officials and I’m asking them to follow-up with university stakeholders,” Norris said.
Surprise! Students are voting
At least, more than youth who aren’t in university
An Elections Canada study published this past January found that youth in post secondary education are voting more than their non-student counterparts.
The study looked at electoral engagement in Canada over the past five federal elections, dividing participants into those aged 18 to 24 and those aged 25 to 30. When comparing voter participation of youth aged 18-24 with some post secondary education versus those without, those with post secondary education had a voter turnout rate of 41.1 per cent, versus a 32 per cent turnout rate amongst those with none. The gap between the groups grows to 17 per cent for those aged 25-30, with 52.5 per cent of those with some post secondary education voting compared to only 35.2 per cent of participants with no post secondary education.
58 per cent of those 18 to 24 profiled for the study were students, though only 23 per cent of participants aged 25-30 were still in school.
Household income had a similar affect on voter participation. In the 18-24 age group, 33.7 per cent of those with a household income below $40 000 headed to polls compared to 39.3 per cent with those with a household income above $40 000.
The authors concluded that these results “suggest that being a student has the effect of increasing participation among those aged 18-24,” though there was “really no difference” between students and non-students aged 25-30.
Votes cast at U of Guelph valid
Conservatives applaud Elections Canada’s decision ‘not to disenfranchise University of Guelph students’
Elections Canada has ruled that the votes cast by nearly 700 students at the University of Guelph Wednesday are valid, after the Conservative Party demanded for the votes to be tossed out.
The Guelph Mercury reported Conservatives claimed that Elections Canada had not sanctioned the polling station, there was partisan campaign material too close to the ballot boxes, and that scrutineers from each party were not monitoring the vote in a letter sent to the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.
However, a press release issued by Election Canada Friday afternoon states that “all information at our disposal indicates that the votes were cast in a manner that respects the Canada Elections Act and are valid.”
The statement goes on to explain that a “well intentioned” returning officer took the initiative to create a special ballot at the university to encourage students to vote. When Elections Canada became aware of this, they instructed the returning officer “not to engage in any further activities of a similar nature.”
“While the initiative at the University of Guelph was not pre-authorized by the Chief Electoral Officer, the Canada Elections Act provides that electors may apply for and vote by special ballot,” the statement explains.
“A special ballot coordinator, appointed by the local returning officer, oversaw the activities at the University of Guelph.”
In response to the ruling, the Conservative Party released a statement stating that they “applaud the decision not to disenfranchise University of Guelph students because of errors by the local Returning Officer. These student voters should not suffer because of mistakes by the local election officials.”
A spokesperson for Elections Canada told the Guelph Mercury that special ballots had been held on campus for the past two federal elections without any issues.
Elections Canada has also asked that all returning officers stop setting up such polls at universities.
Students petition to save USask language program
Cuts slated to reduce course offerings, increase class sizes
Some students at the University of Saskatchewan are hoping that a petition signed by nearly 2,000 people may prevent major cuts to the university’s language program.
Knowledge of proposed cuts to the Language and Linguistics department had spread amongst students through instructors and two town hall meetings held by the College of Arts and Science, which houses the program, though the university’s budget has not been officially released, according to The Sheaf. The rumoured changes include reducing the German language program to one third year course and increasing class sizes. For example, first year Spanish courses could be pushed to hold 125 students.
One instructor explained that having 40 students in her German tutorial was overwhelming enough.
“I did not know how to incorporate every student, especially as they all have different questions about the course material,” Elena Hagemann, a tutorial leader for a third year German course, explained to the Sheaf. She also felt that a class of 125 students “would be of no use” to students.
Hearing of the changes prompted students in the department to circulate a petition to stop the cuts to their program. In three days alone, the students were able to collect 1,944 signatures on campus. Officials in the College of Arts and Science were presented with the petition at a town hall meeting last Friday.
“I’m apprehensive, but feeling a lot better than last week,” Josh Kroeker, a first year student in the department who helped draft the petition, told the Star Phoenix.
David Parkinson, U of S vice dean of humanities and fine arts, said that it was low demand for language courses that led to plans to reduce the program, and questioned whether students who signed the petition to save the courses would then register for them.
However, he told the Star Phoenix he was “inspired” by the students’ organized and well-prepared presentation, but added that reducing costs is still a reality for the college, as it is with many units on campus.
Parkinson explained that the university wants to continue teaching all the language courses currently offered, but that they may not be taught every year. Right now, the university is primarily concerned with making sure students in the program who are planning to graduate in the next year can complete all their required credits if any courses get axed.
