Blog Central
Get ready for a long summer in Quebec
Photo by Jacob Serebrin
With student groups representing over 160,000 students still enforcing boycotts, Quebec’s “maple spring” looks like it will turn into a long summer.
On Monday, Quebec’s education minister Line Beauchamp resigned suddenly. In her resignation speech, Beauchamp blamed student leaders for being unwilling to compromise. That’s after she spent the previous week saying that she would only discuss small details of the tentative agreement made on May 5, which fell apart after it was rejected by most student associations.
Five things to do this summer (besides nothing)
Photo by justinrussell on Flickr
If you have finished a year or two of university, it’s tempting to sprint into your summer months with abandon, not giving school work another thought until Labour Day. But what if you still considered yourself a student in between semesters? Surprisingly, there’s a lot to learn even when the sun is shining. Here are five things to consider for those lazy hazy days.
1. Take a course. Obviously, not everyone can afford the time and money required for a summer course, but if you can swing it, it’s a lot more pleasant than it sounds. For one thing, summer courses are condensed, so you get through the material quickly and it’s easier to remember everything when the final exam comes around. Also, if you ask really nicely, your prof may hold class outside.
Continue reading Five things to do this summer (besides nothing)
It’s convocation. Pass me a pillow.
Photo by m00by on Flickr
This weekend is convocation weekend at my august institution. Loving ceremony as I do, I tend to look forward to it. We wear our robes, there’s a bag-piper, people are happy. It’s a good day.
But I always dread the speeches. Not because I don’t enjoy a good speech. I do. It’s just that the speeches are almost never good. In fact, they often suck. And usually for the same reason. Strange as it sounds, the reason is this: people don’t try to say something interesting.
We’re losing the art of campus dating
Photo by dustinj on Flickr
Only 15 per cent of married people met their spouses on campus, according to a 2004 study.
It wasn’t always like this. Before 1955, 40 per cent of female college graduates had met their husband at school. Think about that for a second. In a time without cell phones, text messaging, and e-mail—let alone dating websites—university students easily found love in person.
Now, campus dating websites are popping up at universities all across Canada—from UTODating at the University of Toronto, Connections on Campus at Alberta to McGill Date—and they’re supposed to make things easier.
Shirt storm brewing in Nova Scotia
Photo by Roby Ferrari on Flickr
This week, Nova Scotia student William Swinimer was suspended from his high school in the town of Chester Basin for wearing a t-shirt that read, “Life is WASTED without Jesus.” While school officials say the shirt is inappropriate, Swinimer says he is merely standing up for his religious beliefs and exercising free expression.
School board superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake says the board is going to hire an expert to mediate the dispute.
Since I am already in Nova Scotia and am always right about everything, let me save the good people of Canada’s Ocean Playground some money by explaining what that exquisitely-named functionary should do.
Let the kid wear his shirt.
Smokers at Alberta pushed too far
Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr
Every student has some way of relieving stress during final exams. Just imagine for a moment that your relaxation method is suddenly prohibited.
That is the dilemma now faced by smokers at the University of Alberta if a new policy introduced by a select group of University of Alberta Students’ Union councillors goes ahead (it has already passed the first reading). The policy would restrict on-campus smoking to remote areas of university property called “health promoting areas.”
Why you’ll never be an alumni
Photo by Will Folson on Flickr
Every English professor, professional writer, or, let’s face it, speaker of English has at least one pet peeve when it comes to how people use the language. For some it’s “nuclear” pronounced “nuke-u-ler.” For others it’s “I could care less” when what you really mean is “I couldn’t care less.”
For me, it’s someone referring to himself or herself as “an alumni.” A Google search for “he is an alumni” gets nearly three million hits, “she is an alumni” almost a million more. But I maintain they’re all wrong. Why? Because alumni is plural. You, an individual, can’t be alumni any more than you can be a students.
U of T law school adopts new grading system
Photo by JD Hancock (DC Comics)
The only thing worse than stressing out about upcoming exams is when you’re done writing them and you stress out about the marks you’ll get.
The University of Toronto Law faculty knows this and they want to make students focus less on marks and more on “intellectual engagement.”
After two years of studying how to reduce stress about marks and help students enjoy their studies, the law faculty is considering dropping letter grades (A, B+, B, C+, C, D, F). Several law schools in the United States use the pass/fail system, including Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, and Yale, they note. A pass/fail system can help reduce students’ anxiety over marks, they say.
Except, uh, U of T’s news system won’t be pass/fail. Instead, five categories of marks will be used: High Honours, Honours, Pass, Low Pass, and Fail. In other words, the letter grade system isn’t being dropped, it’s just getting a face-lift. It’s like making a director’s cut and calling it a new movie.
I’m not exactly sure how renaming the letter grades is supposed to reduce anxiety over marks. Instead of stressing about getting A’s, students can stress about getting ‘high honours.’
Here’s an idea: instead of assigning them grades, why not rank students on a superheroes scale, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Green Lantern…
Then again, that might not work. Students would still fear getting an ‘Aquaman.’
Scott Dobson-Mitchell is a Biomedical Sciences student at Waterloo. Follow @ScottyDobson
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Waterloo grad sets Kickstarter fundraising record
When most students graduate, they desperately search for jobs so that they can start paying off their giant student loans.
That won’t be necessary for Eric Migicovsky, a 2008 University of Waterloo systems design engineering graduate and entrepreneur, who has raised more than $4.4 million for his “smartwatch.”
The idea behind the Pebble is simple: it alerts users when a new call, email or message is coming through on their iPhone or Android phones and displays it on the electronic paper screen. It’s especially useful if you don’t have easy access to your phone, which means the Pebble is the perfect solution for cyclists, joggers, or lazy people who want to stay connected while only having to move their wrist.
Continue reading Waterloo grad sets Kickstarter fundraising record
Muslim’s big bra photo spurs oversized outrage
I would guess that the vast majority of Canadian Muslims, thoughtful, tolerant, law-abiding citizens, must really hate it when their fellow Muslims go crazy over the barest of perceived slights.
If my guess is right, there must be a lot of sighing going after news broke yesterday that a brou-ha-ha had erupted at Thompson Rivers University over a photo of a woman wearing a niqab and abaya (garments sometimes worn by some Muslim women that cover almost the entire body) while looking at a bra.
Click here to see the original photo.
Continue reading Muslim’s big bra photo spurs oversized outrage
How will an ‘occupation’ lower tuition fees?
Drop Fees balloons by Tania Liu on Flickr
A group of students staged another pedantic tuition protest last week at the office of Glen Murray, Ontario’s Minister of Training Colleges and Universities.
The daylong “occupation,” attended by executives from Canadian Federation of Students locals, was to protest the five per cent tuition increase expected in the fall. Armed with recycled chants and glossy placards, the group of about 20 people shut down operations for the day.
To those students, I say “well done.” Yes, if your aim was to give the minister a day out of the office, or if you sought to expedite public exhaustion with student foot-stomping, you likely succeeded. I just hope you weren’t pining for actual change to Ontario’s tuition structure.
Continue reading How will an ‘occupation’ lower tuition fees?
5 ways your prof knows you’re failing
Photo by rileyroxx on Flickr
I didn’t set out to make a study of student exam-room behaviour, but by my estimation, I’ve invigilated well over a hundred exams in my career and, after a while, you start to notice things.
One thing I realized lately is that I’ve been getting good at telling who’s failing the exam even as they’re writing it. I don’t use this as a basis for evaluation, of course, but, as I say, you can’t help developing a sense.
Quebec strikers may cross point of no return
Photo by Jacob Serebrin
The student strike in Quebec, ignited by a $1,625 tuition increase over the next five years, is now the longest in provincial history—and participants may soon pass a point of no return.
Professors’ contracts require the semester to end by June 15 and some universities are hinting that the entire semester will be in jeopardy for students who don’t go back in time to meet that deadline.
The Université de Montréal, Quebec’s largest, announced Wednesday that it will extend the term into May for students who have already returned to class.
At the same time, it said it can no longer guarantee students who haven’t returned that they will be able to finish their semesters. Groups representing around 25 per cent of U de M are still on strike.
Continue reading Quebec strikers may cross point of no return
Should profs give points for showing up?
Photo by Menno van der Horst on Flickr
With final exams on the way and final grades right behind them, students across the country are wondering where they stand. How much was that mid-term worth? Can I still hand it that essay?
Oh, and what about my attendance grade?
Anyone who’s taught a university course has struggled with the question of attendance grades. The arguments against giving marks for simply showing up are clear. University students are supposed to be adults, and it’s up to them to decide whether they want to be in class or not. Besides, grades should reflect the actual work done in the course: just being there doesn’t mean you’ve learned anything. And giving an attendance grade means taking attendance in each class, and that is boring and time consuming.
Who needs Hollywood?
Filmmaker Cathy Beasley
Most filmmakers aren’t like Transformers director Michael Bay. They don’t have millions of dollars, huge advertising budgets, or the ability to ruin childhood memories with expensive CGI robots.
So young directors have found a new way to raise funds. Cathy Beasley, a graduate of the New York Film Academy, is making an ambitious film called The Scapegoat. She doesn’t have Hollywood backing, but the film about jewel thieves hiding out in Venice will be shot on location in Italy nonetheless. The 2,000 followers of @KitCatFilms have helped her raise more than $10,000 already.
Photo gallery: Quebec’s Day of Action
On March 22, tens of thousands of Quebec students skipped classes to march in Montreal against a tuition fee hike of $1,625 over five years. Blogger Jacob Serebrin was there on the street. Check out the photos he snapped below, then read his take on what’s next for the student movement.
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- Many protesters carried Quebec flags
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- The protest stretched for three kilometres
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- Protesters filled downtown streets and sidewalks
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- Red squares of fabric are the symbol of the student movement
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- Some took issue with Quebec’s high taxes
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![For sale: one [education minister Line] Beauchamp and her plow](http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/wp-content/uploads/P10101341-150x150.jpg "March 22 National Day of Action")
- For sale: one [education minister Line] Beauchamp and her plow
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- Protesters condemned fiscal management of universities
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- Some brought instruments; others improvised
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- Photo by Jacob Serebrin
What’s next for Quebec students?
Photo by Jacob Serebrin
Students gathered en masse Thursday to protest Quebec’s plan to increase tuition by $1,625 over the next five years.
It’s impossible to say exactly how many attended the Montreal march, but it was one of the largest ever. Estimates range from 50,000 to 200,000. CBC News described the march as being “considerably larger than the one at Montreal’s famous 1995 pre-referendum rally.” I personally watched protesters pass through one intersection for over half an hour with no end in sight.
The march was the latest in a series of escalating protests, including the province-wide student “strike” during which thousands of students have skipped classes, some for over a month.
But now that the sun has set on the March 22 Day of Action, the big question is, what’s next?
The art of asking good questions
Photo by vancouverfilmschool on Flickr
This week my Detective Fiction class was looking at Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter, a novel about a Miami forensics analyst who is secretly a serial killer, but who only targets other killers (and yes, the inspiration for the Dexter TV show).
Trying to get my class to think through the complex moral questions that the novel raises, I asked them, “To appreciate this novel, you have to support capital punishment, don’t you?”
One of my best students jumped right in. “No” she said firmly, then instantly changed her mind: “Yes.” Then reconsidered again: “Ummm…”
And I knew I had asked the perfect question.
The case for more nutty professors
Eddie Murphy, The Nutty Professor (1996)
When my august institution was creating its new course evaluation form, I was asked to provide input, and I dutifully suggested a number of questions that I thought should be on such a form.
One of my ideas, a question asking whether the professor was funny, was rejected outright on the grounds that not all professors are funny, so it wouldn’t be fair to include that criterion.
To my mind, the response begged the question, though. Some professors may lack foresight— does that mean you can’t ask if the course seemed to have been planned well?
The tablet classroom
Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
All incoming first-years enrolled in full-time post-secondary programs at Collège Boréal in Sudbury, Ont will receive iPads for the start of the 2012 school year. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, also in Sudbury, handed out iPads to each student starting in September 2010.
It’s easy to see the appeal. Writing notes by hand is a pain. You have to print lecture slides out ahead of time, transport them, and then (if your penmanship is anything like mine) scribble all over them. That’s why many of us bring laptops.
But laptops have drawbacks too. Unlike a good-old-fashioned spiral bound notebook, you have to worry about the battery life. Tablets like the iPad are—in the words of Hannah Montana—the best of both worlds. They’re small, easy to transport, and have longer-lasting batteries.
