Justin McElroy
Student loans a campaign issue in BC?
It could be if one Liberal leadership candidate has her way
When you’re a relatively unknown politician running for the premiership of a province, you need to think outside of the box to get support.
At least, that’s one conclusion to be made from BC Liberal leadership candidate Moria Stilwell’s announcement that she would reduce the interest rate on student loans should she win the leadership race.
Currently, loan rates in BC are the highest in Canada at 2.5 per cent above prime rate. It’s an issue that UBC and UVic student unions, among others, are pushing because it’s seen as much more probable to achieve results on then say, tuition.
Of course, a cynic might ask why she didn’t push this policy herself when she was Minister of Post-Secondary Education last year. But still, the election of a new premier—which is what this leadership contest is—is a chance for interest groups to push their ideas forward in the hopes of getting some traction with the eventual winning candidate. Thus far, the only thing BC Young Liberals have achieved in this leadership race is getting a bachelor’s degree in petty squabbling. Here’s hoping in the months ahead they can manage to convince more of the candidates that post-secondary education can be a winning issue.
Why student politics and the Middle East don’t mix
When any decision you make is bound to be seen as a political statement, what’s the point?
I don’t have a list of 10 Commandments for student politicians. But if I did, I’m pretty sure one would be this:
Thou shall not make any political judgments, implied or otherwise, on the Israel/Palestine conflict.
Why? What do you gain by putting yourself in the middle of any conflict that does nothing to directly harm or benefit your student union, and will inevitably annoy half the people involved? At any university, there is a large pro-Israeli group and a large pro-Palestine group, both of whom go about their regular advocacy business, but with whom tensions can become inflamed in the blink of an eye. And such a thing has happened at UBC with their student union, the Alma Mater Society (AMS).
As you can imagine, the AMS decision to withhold a $700 donation by a student group for an aid flotilla to Gaza for council approval was the equivalent of skipping the whole match-and-gasoline charade and just going straight to the fire. Student councillors have been inundated with angry letters. Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), the group that was to give the donation, President Omar Shaban was escorted by security out of AMS president Bijan Ahmadian’s office when he came to ask for minutes of the meeting where the decision to withhold funds was made. Even UBC President Stephen Toope has weighed in, with a letter that obliquely refers to the current dust-up.
So how did we get here?
– It’s mandated that $1.50 per student be given to the AMS Resource Groups, a hodgepodge of associations that advocate for various social causes. Though technically a branch of the AMS, all the students’ union does is set the yearly budget for each resource group during the summer, and then allow them to be autonomous.
– In this case, the Social Justice Centre (total budget: $9,741) decided to give a $700 donation to the SPHR, who wanted to put the money towards a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza—leaving in Spring 2011. The money came out of the $4,000 line item in the SJC budget for “grants,” and all that was left to do was to have the VP Finance sign off on the cheque. In most cases, a fait accompli.
– Members of the Israeli Awareness Club complained to the VP Finance that allowing student money to go towards a Gaza flotilla was a foolish thing.
All going as you would expect student politics to go. Here’s where it gets tricky.
The VP Finance consulted with Ahmadian, the AMS President, along with other members of the executive, and it was decided to let student council decide whether they would get the money. Why? Well, at first it was claimed that it was due to the “controversial nature” of the donation. Then, it was argued by Ahmadian that it was due to the SJC not holding a proper AGM, and so was purely an administrative decision.
Except that having council approve funding decisions of its subsidiaries (which include the resource groups and clubs) is incredibly rare. And donations to Palestinian refugees is a wee bit of an international issue. Which meant that the decision, regardless of whether it was meant to be political or not, was always going to be seen as such
What’s next? Well, expect more virulent criticism of president Ahmadian and Shaban—who has gotten targeted online this week based on his incendiary past statements against Canada—on personal/political grounds, a council meeting scheduled for this week that has all the makings of a Tea Party town hall (there’s a chance it will move to one of the largest lecture halls on campus), and plenty of hurt feelings. It may make for a good story, but it makes for a more polarized community.
There are enough reasons for pro-Palestine and Israel groups on campuses to butt heads without getting student governments (or university administrations, for that matter) involved. And if anything good comes out of this, it will be that student leaders across Canada may think twice before wading into a debate they don’t need to be part of.
Related: We need to stop talking about Israel and Palestine so much
Vanier Cup flying well below the radar
A 11:45am start time one of many reasons publicity for the game has been lacking
It says something about the state of university sport in Canada when its marquee game is competing against Saturday morning cartoons and hangovers to get viewers.
But in the case of the Vanier Cup, the Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s (CIS) annual match for university football supremacy, that’s what is happening. The Calgary Dinos and the Laval Rouge et Or will face off at Quebec City’s PEPS Stadium tomorrow, and because Laval has not been able to install lights at PEPS (as was promised when the CIS gave them the game for 2009 and 2010), the game will start at 11:45am.
Or, 8:45am pacific. More importantly, if you’re a Calgary student wanting to watch the game on TSN, 9:45 in the morning. It doesn’t help that, with the Grey Cup taking place in Edmonton the next day, media attention on the game has been reduced to a footnote. 17,000–18,000 will fill the stands tomorrow in Quebec, but its long-term significance will be nill.
Next year, the game will be going to Vancouver, and be paired with the Grey Cup. It worked well in Toronto in 2007, though that was partly due to many Vanier Cup tickets paired with Grey Cup ones. There’s also the fact that Vancouver is something less than a university football hotbed, and it’s relative isolation will mean that, unlike a championship in Ontario or Quebec, very few students will be able to make the trek over to cheer on their school
Still, if the game is going to take place on the same weekend as the Grey Cup, it makes sense for the game to be paired with the Grey Cup—there’s only so much corporate, fan and media support to go around.
In animal research, public interest is secondary
When you’re competing nationally and internationally for prestige and donors, who has time to disclose pesky statistics?
Yesterday, I talked (slash-blogged) about UBC’s openness in choosing a new Dean of Education, calling it a model of transparency. Of course, in any large institution transparency only goes so far. If there’s a net loss in disclosing information, chances are it’s not going to happen.
For example, look at UBC’s action (or lack thereof) in releasing information about animal testing done on campus. Thus far, the university has stalled in responding to Freedom of Information requests filed by Stop UBC Animal Research (STOP). Why?
“Under our regulatory system, we would need the permission of the researchers to reveal the information,” said VP Research John Hepburn to The Ubyssey (disclosure: it’s the paper I’m editor of). “We’re never going to get that permission.”
UBC argues that because the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC), the regulatory body that oversees animal testing, doesn’t require individual universities to disclose specific information, they’re not obligated to. Furthermore, they would require the researchers themselves to sign off on disclosing what they do.
This is a bit of a dodge though. If they really wanted to, UBC could release general numbers regarding research activity, as is required in the United States under the Animal Welfare Act. But what would be the point? There is no evidence the university is doing more or less research on animals than other research-intensive institutions in Canada. Yet having the information out there, while other Canadian universities stay silent, would simply put UBC at a competitive disadvantage—for researchers and for reputation.
It’s something Hepburn himself hints at. “[If you] release information without the medical context—in other words, if you ask a member of the public, ‘If I am going to do the following thing to a monkey, or to a cat or to a mouse, what do you think?’—the natural response would be that sounds like something that’s not very nice to do to that animal,” he said. Which is true. People don’t like hearing about what happens to animals, regardless of the possible long-term benefits, and regardless of the regulations in place. There’s a reason it’s kept private.
But hang on. Shouldn’t public universities act in the best interest of, well, the public? Large Canadian universities may be provincially funded and operated, but they compete nationally (and sometimes, internationally) for students, prestige, and donors. The incentive system is skewed towards acting like a private corporation would.
So while the debate in Vancouver on animal testing will go on, this isn’t a UBC issue—it’s a federal regulation one.
UBC sets up very, very open interviews for Dean of Education candidates
Final two contenders asked to give a public speech, take questions from the audience
Transparency is a funny thing to navigate for any public university stuck in that semi-autonomous but government-operated grey zone. Especially if you’re trying to be globally competitive, as some Canadian institutions are. When and how a university attempts to be more open can be an interesting thing to watch, because of course no university has to do such things, but sometimes they do—and it makes it all the more glaring when they turtle up.
For example, at the University of British Columbia, the selection of a new Dean of Education has been remarkably open. Later this month, the final two candidates will make a public pitch to interested observers as to their vision for the faculty, and take questions from the audience.
Last year, when choosing a new Dean of Arts, the university conducted an election for which student would sit on the selection committee. They also let everyone know when the list of candidates was narrowed to three.
In this case, it’s good publicity for the university, it’s a way to consult the community in a key decision without giving over control—and it’s an approach other universities should emulate.
CFS-UVic battle heading to court
Are we to be surprised?
The dispute between the UVic Student Society (UVSS) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) has headed to a lawsuit. It may end up costing the UVSS upwards of $100,000.
Is anyone surprised?
For those blissfully unaware, last year a petition was circulated at UVic to defederate from the CFS (it’s sort of a fad these days), which got the John Hancock’s of 11.4 per cent of the student body. However, the CFS said a counter-petition was sent to them with names of people who signed the original petition, thus removing them from that petition, thus reducing the tally to under the 10 per cent threshold needed to pass. Oh, and they also claimed that the UVSS couldn’t leave until it paid a six-figure debt that traced back from the 1990′s…which they only decided to tell the UVSS about after they threatened to leave (ah, student politics).
Even if the judge found the original petition to be valid, there’s no guarantee (unless the court ordered it) that a referendum would immediately ensue—CFS bylaws only allow for two schools to hold a referendum each semester.
Now, at this point, the 10 people reading this post who have no set opinion towards the CFS might be asking “doesn’t the CFS realize that based on past precedent, judges will allow the referendum to happen?”
Well yes, I’m sure that thought has crossed their minds. However, for the CFS, this may be less about trying to win a lawsuit and more about running out the clock. “It’s our hope that we have a referendum by the end of next semester,” said UVSS Chair James Coccola, which is an obvious goal if only because after next semester his term will be over, and who knows what the next group of executives will want to do?
Coccola was elected as part of the RENEW slate, which won three of the four executive positions, marking the first time in over a decade that the slate most closely aligned with the CFS hasn’t been in power. So there are two ways of looking at this—either this was a a sea change in the political culture, or a one-time move to the centre by UVic students. If it’s the latter, than all it takes is a new pro-CFS group of student politicians to be elected for the course to change.
Either way, for CFS-court watchers, another of many cases to watch.
UVic a battleground for BC recall campaign?
BC’s Minister for Universities may have a very short tenure
Fans of schadenfreude, grassroots populism and reenactments of the Titanic have been enjoying the goings-on in British Columiba politics over the past year, as the Liberal Party has been in free-fall since they announced the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) right after being re-elected in May 2009.
A successful petition for a referendum on the tax generated hundreds of thousands of signatures, and now organizers, led by former Premier Bill Vander Zalm, have begun the next stage of campaign: recalling MLAs.
To be successful, a petition must have 40 per cent of eligible voters from the riding, and must be completed within 60 days. The first recall initiative begins on Monday, and the target is Ida Chong, MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, located in Victoria.
(well, not actually “Victoria”. Victoria as most Canadians know is a series of small municipalities, with the capital city at the centre. If you live in Victoria, as I did for 18 years, this becomes very annoying to explain time and time again. Oak Bay-Gordon Head is located in two of these smaller municipalities. We now depart my Grade 10 Civics class, and return to the blog post)
This is interesting to university-watchers for two reasons. The first tie-in is that Chong is the newly appointed Minister of Science and Universities. The second is that Oak Bay-Gordon Head, aside from being home to a plethora of public sector employees (28 per cent of the population in 2001) and old people (21 per cent over 65, from the same year), is home to the University of Victoria.
Now, it doesn’t take much to assume that a university student in Victoria is more likely to be on the left of the political spectrum than not. Until this year, for example, UVic’s student union was dominated for over a decade by a pro-Canadian Federation of Students slate, and generally advocated for policy positions to the left of the NDP. So one can expect at the very least a few thousand eager participants in the recall process.
However, there’s a catch. In BC, recall legislation states that “In order to sign a recall petition an individual must have been a registered voter for the electoral district for which the member was elected on general voting day for the last election of the member.”
Meaning, for a UVic student to sign a recall petition, they would have had to be a registered voter in Oak Bay-Gordon Head in the 2009 election, which would remove most first and second year students. Moreover, aside from being 18 months ago, it is also outside of the traditional school year. The thousands of UVic students who went home/vacationing during the 2009 summer won’t be eligible. So the student influence may not be as strong as it would originally seem.
But will the recall be successful? Well, I’m no Nate Silver, but if it’s going to pass anywhere, Oak Bay-Gordon Head could very well be it. Vancouver Island has always been solidly anti-Campbell, but more importantly, the riding is dense enough and close enough to Vancouver to ensure there will be an army of canvassers. The relative lack of apartments in the riding will make it easier to knock on every door, too.
On the other hand, it’s quite possible that some of the sentiment against the HST has wavered with a) A referendum date set for the HST, and b) Campbell’s promise to resign as premier. Whatever the case, the clock begins to tick Monday.
Volunteer your way to no debt
Alberta is looking at monetizing volunteering when it comes to student debt load. Why it’s not crazy.
Student debt sucks. No two stones about it. But, barring any seismic shift to universities, it won’t be going away as a problem anytime soon. There are things that can be manipulated with the current system—what the interest rate is, the length of grace period after graduation, the requirements to qualify for loan assistance programs, etc.—but these don’t really change the tenor of the debate. Or the amount you actually owe. Which is why creative solutions by governments and student unions to deal with the issue should be lauded.
That brings us to Alberta. A proposal is making the rounds that would see $500 of debt forgiven for every 100 hours spent volunteering by students in the province. Drafted by the Alberta Students’ Executive Council (ASEC) last spring, it would allow up to $10,000 in student debt to be forgiven over a lifetime due to volunteering—no small chunk of change. Just five hours of volunteering a week over the course of a four-year degree would knock off $5,000, for example.
“The ministry has been really keen on this idea because it’s not something they have heard a thousand times before and this is something I think is most exciting for them because it’s a new idea that could potentially solve a lot of problems,” said ASEC Chair Steven Kwasny, and the quote hits home the key to effective lobbying on the post-secondary education file: Give them a new idea that they can take credit for implementing.
The downside of this is the effective monetizing of volunteering, which sort of goes against the point of volunteering. But in high school, many schools require a certain number of volunteer hours to complete Career and Personal Planning courses. In Medical School applications, admissions officers look up and down each person’s resume to tick off the number of volunteering stints in hospitals. Scholastic incentives to volunteer are already ever-present in our education system. If we’re going to insist on social engineering, can’t it help save students a buck or two in the long run as well?
UBC’s new Arts Dean epitomizes Arts stereotype.
And that’s a good thing.
Being the Dean of Arts at a large, research-intensive university is often like being between a rock and a hard place. You oversee a sprawling faculty of around 10,000 students…but often get the short end of the stick when it comes to grants and new buildings.
But a couple months into his new job, Gage Averill, UBC’s new Dean of Arts, is highlighting the positives.
“You can’t take [international rankings] too terribly seriously,” he said in a Vancouver Sun article, “but UBC comes in around that ranking in most global surveys. But in terms of social sciences we’re listed as 18 – that’s a high ranking, in a very competitive world. And 22 in humanities and the arts. So in the core parts of this faculty we’re actually ranked higher than the university [overall] rankings.”
Averill, who was formerly Dean of Music at Toronto, has been getting plaudits from students and faculty alike over the past few months, though that’s par for the course in a honeymoon period. Perhaps most interesting is his background, which gives an interesting—and perhaps more appropriate—viewpoint on students.
He’s dropped out of university for a while. Then traveled the country and played with a band. Had multiple jobs. Used his diverse skill-set to stay employed and make something good of his life.
Now, I’m not Averill that sounds exactly like an Arts student, but if you had to pick a faculty background based on that…
The point is, when Averill says, as he did to The Sun, that gatekeepers are wanting “creative students who can change over their lifetime,” you can have more confidence that he fully understands what that means, because he’s lived it.
Hey look, an education debate
Scuffle over Trillium Scholarships just what we need
Most stories about universities have all the media play of a government committee hearing, minus the shouting politicians. However, the Ontario government’s decision to create the Ontario Trillium Scholarship, which will provide 75 foreign doctoral students a full-ride scholarship yearly has broken through the media membrane to become what is known as “an issue.”
To which I say: Good.
Now, whether the $30 million is an efficient use of the government’s money is largely irrelevant to me, and yes, the debate is tinged by economic turmoil and the slightest hint of xenophobia, but you know what? It’s a debate about university policy and priorities, being played out in the open. As this is both a rarity and a good thing, that it is happening should be celebrated.
Let’s face it, post-secondary education is not exactly the most controversial of topics. Despite the billions and billions provincial governments spend on them, it doesn’t get the sort of public debate that health care, the environment, or social services tend to get. And when a debate about post-secondary politics magically breaks out, it tends to exclusively be about tuition, which is like limiting the health-care debate to “public or private?”: Yes, it’s a big issue, yes, it gets people talking, but there is much more to what’s happening in our universities outside of the magic tuition number. And all too often, it’s ignored by the general public.
The Ontario Trillium Scholarship kerfuffle, however, is being discussed. And with it are some interesting questions: How much should large, research-based universities focus on international students? Should their focus be seen as educating provincial students, or also as a tool for expanding the economy?
Ultimately, the net effect on schools will be negligible—but Ontario politicians will have to answer a few more questions about the future of our universities when they hit the hustings next year. Anyway you slice it, that’s a positive.
India on the campus radar
15 university presidents have packed their bags and headed to India
If you keep up to date with discussions about the knowledge economy, globalization, or just read too many Thomas Friedman columns, you’re well aware of how the phrase “China and India” can be shorthand for seemingly every sector of the economy investing in the two countries that continue to rapidly expand.
Except when it comes to Canadian universities, the level of investment has been rather one-sided towards the country we don’t have Commonwealth ties with. Whether you agree with the policy outcomes or not, we’ve ingrained ourselves heavily with China when it comes to post-secondary education. To cite but one example, over 1,200 UBC students have Chinese citizenship—just 200 less than American students.
However, the tides may be turning. A law is currently before the Indian parliament which would allow foreign universities to grant degrees within India. And this week, the presidents of 15 Canadian universities have packed their collective bags and headed to India for a seven-day mission.
The trip, organized by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), will see the presidents meat with educators and government officials. So you can bet press releases will be issued, hands will be shook, smiles will be had, etc.
But the trip is already getting a fair bit of press, from places you might not initially expect. Given that, and the progress already made on the file this year, as well as the breadth of universities attending—including UBC, Queen’s, Alberta and Manitoba, among others—this is one Team Canada mission worth keeping an eye on.
B.C. dysfunctional on higher ed
Splitting education department is no master plan, it is a symptom of incompetence
Danielle Webb has already covered the BC government’s bizarre decision to change the Ministry of Advanced Education into the Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development (for Colleges) and the Ministry of Science and Universities (for, you guessed it, universities). And I’m quite comfortable labeling it as bizarre, if only because everyone else seems to also.
“Post-secondary education is a collaborative field but, to get the most out of that collaboration, you need to have a single minister responsible for the entire system,” said Cindy Oliver, president of the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. “Our concern is that dividing those responsibilities between two Ministers may well detract from the kind of collaboration that we think is necessary and possible.
For her part, the new minister, Ida Chong, said “Science and universities are really going to be an important part of our economic future going forward,” which is true, but also a pretty hilarious non-justification for the two portfolios being together (example: Technology and Tourism are important parts of BC’s economic future, so why not make them one ministry? Oh right, it’s because they’re two separate things).
Anyway, Danielle analyzed the decision under the assumption that the government had a plan in this restructuring that could have long-term ramifications for how governments view post-secondary education. And that’s possible. But here’s another theory: The provincial government did this because it doesn’t know what it’s doing with post-secondary education.
In 2008, Paul Wells described the post-secondary file in BC as “a spiraling helldive of disaster”, and that was before a cut of over $16 million in aid programs for students last year. They’ve turned a number of regional colleges into universities, and invested heavily in graduate and research funding, but haven’t given the file anywhere near full attention over their nine years in office.
And if they’re suddenly going to change that, why have Ida Chong in charge of it? Since 2001, she’s been Minister of Healthy Living and Sport, Minister of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development, Minister Responsible for the Asia-Pacific Initiative, Minister of Community Services, Minister of Advanced Education and Minister of State for Women’s and Seniors’ Services. In other words, someone who gets shuffled from minor file to minor file.
With the Liberals currently languishing with Mulroneyesque numbers in the polls, the government is throwing things at the wall (Tax cuts! Full-day kindergarten! Cabinet Reshuffles!) at the wall and seeing what sticks.
So yes, this could all be part of some master plan to re-conceptualize the role of the universities in today’s knowledge economy. Given the care and attention—or lack thereof—lavished on post-secondary education by this government though, I doubt it.
University sports are doing just fine
Outside of football and basketball, attendance in most sports is just as insignificant in the States as it is up here
Maybe it’s the former Sports Editor in me talking.
But, my first reaction to reading Jacob Serebrin’s post wondering, in light of cutbacks to McGill’s athletic program, if it’s time for universities “to start thinking about whether recruiting high calibre athletes, promoting these teams and maintaining stadium infrastructure is a worthwhile investment,” was to sigh.
Serebin says that “varsity sports are often touted as a way to boost a schools profile and school pride,” and it’s true that in Canada, very few university sports teams do this. But I’m pretty sure no athletic director anywhere thinks that the women’s volleyball team is going to turn the campus upside down with their inspired play en route to a national championship.
The real reason we have varsity sports in universities is the same reason we have sports teams in elementary schools and high schools—it’s part of an educational mandate to provide athletic opportunities to those predisposed to them. Multiple forms of learning, extracurriculars, etc.
A lot of our perceptions and expectations of university sport, much like anything else, are drawn from south of the border, and what we see with the NCAA. Ninety-thousand pack a stadium for the Rose Bowl, we watch it up here on TV, and then get all sorts of silly ideas.
Of course, this is flawed. First, outside of football and basketball, attendance in most sports is just as insignificant in the States as it is up here (here are the attendance numbers for women’s volleyball, to cite just one example). Secondly, athletic programs in the NCAA are big-budget, and more often than not, big money-losers.
In Canada, athletic programs are still quite frugal, provide opportunities for amateur athletes to continue their passion while getting an education, and if it spurs a little bit of school pride, that’s a bonus. Modest? Yes. Something in need of drastic rethinking? Not really.
UPass hits a bump in the road
One contract for all B.C. students causing friction
Back in June, the BC government announced, with great bravado, that a province-wide transit pass would be available to all post-secondary students for $40 a month. Politicians get to look sustainable, students save a buck. A slam-dunk, right?
Er, no.
The deal is contingent on a) Students voting in favour of the pass via referendum, and b) Student unions signing off on the contract between them and the government. A contract which, as of now, will require all students to pay for the pass, whether they use it or not. And in the case of Kwantlen University, both issues are at play right now, which has caused them to miss a deadline for having the transit pass implemented by January.
Causing tension is the fact that transit to and around Kwantlen’s mutiple campuses in the Fraser Valley can be quite scattershot, to put it mildly. In September, students raced on bike and foot to beat buses that went between the school’s Surrey and Langley campuses—and the buses lost.
Naturally, students wonder if paying $40 a month for a system they may not be inclined to use is actually worthwhile, and there’s a push to allow Kwantlen students to be able to opt out of the plan if they want. However, the government wants one contract for all post-secondary institutions, which is causing some friction, according to the Georgia Straight.
No doubt this will eventually get resolved—but it will be interesting to see if the provincial government budges on this, or whether intra-student union solidarity will break first.
What to do about rowdy frat parties
After RCMP officers were assaulted at UBC party, fraternities should show some regret
Across this great land of ours, young first-year students are earnestly hunkering down for a semester’s worth of classes after a week of introductions, orientations, and—perhaps—even enjoying a few alcoholic beverages. Or a lot.
Universities not-so discreetly allow such imbibing—heck, some organize week-long events centred around the concept—because they want students to feel they had a rich, fulfilling time getting their bachelor degree, and having a wicked awesome first week at your new university certainly helps with that.
Of course, this trade off is only beneficial to universities if students somewhat behave themselves. If not . . .
Which leads me to last Saturday’s delightful shenanigans at the University of British Columbia, where dozens of police had to be called in after a party at a fraternity got out of hand. A group of around 15 people were fighting in the Fraternity Village courtyard, and when two RCMP officers attempted to break up the brouhaha, they were physically assaulted. And while no one was seriously hurt in the incident, you don’t have to be a public relations expert to know that a story involving a frat party, assaulted police officers, and a possible gun will get picked up by the media. Unsurprisingly, the university said “the fraternities must take responsibility for all individuals they host at their parties and in their houses. Many clearly failed in this duty.” They’re now talking with the fraternities to find a solution so this doesn’t happen again.
Thus far, the response of most frat members I’ve gotten in touch with has been to a) turtle up and not talk to the press (as they’re generally instructed to do by their superiors) or b) complain about biased media coverage. They do have a point. Most articles either had sensationalist headlines (“Mounties assaulted at rowdy UBC frat party”), grossly overstated the number of people at the party (it was estimated between 500-1000, but each of the fraternities are separate organizations with separate buildings, so it’s impossible for one party to have more than 200-300 people. What the police did was take the number of people at each separate party, add the people in the courtyard, take the total number, and say close to 1,000 people were at the party. Big difference in semantics. End rant.), didn’t point out that the vast majority of people who cause issues at fraternity parties, including this case, are not UBC students (something the RCMP readily admits) or didn’t include any sort of response from the fraternities themselves.
However, given the negative perception of frat boys in society, when your first response is to claim victimhood, as the Intra-Fraternity Council President did when he said “It’s unfortunate that the fraternity systems are being taken advantage of by people outside of the UBC system for the social activities that we offer,” you aren’t exactly helping your cause. And when a university wants to curb excessive partying on campus, they can move quite quickly.
Take Queen’s University as an example. For years, Homecoming events were a highlight of the year for students, and a lowlight for permanent residents. Amazingly, when adults see thousands of drunken students laying waste to the streets for an entire weekend—complete with a burning car or two—the cry of “can’t students have a little fun?” falls on ears made deaf after hours of being kept awake at night. And so, at a certain point, the university put their foot down, and suddenly, there was no Fall Homecoming, at least until 2011.
Mind you, UBC is limited in what they can do in this situation, as the fraternities have a 99-year lease on the property, and it is private property. But it’s still owned by the university, and they can certainly make life difficult for fraternities in a number of ways (having Campus Security patrol the area, reducing the housing capacity, etc.). So if fraternities want to avoid more hassles down the road, they would do well to show some contrition in the coming weeks.
Is there a really a steroid problem in university sport?
In light of more positive steroid results, CIS will triple the number of football players tested
Tuesday afternoon, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) and the Canadian Inter Interuniversity Sport (CIS) held a press conference to announce the results of drug testing done on university football players this summer. You may recall there was an avalanche of press—or what passes for an avalanche in Canadian university sport—when nine players from the University of Waterloo football team tested positive for drugs, and the university suspended the program for a year as a result.
The CIS and CCES acted quickly to alleviate fears that drugs were corrupting good young Canadians across the country, and announced it would be tripling its random testing, along with creating a Very Important Task Force (I paraphrase, slightly) to get a better long-term sense of the threat.
And to get a short-term sense of exactly how prevalent drug use really is, the CIS and CCES tested 60 university football players over May and June. The results?
Of the 60, the number of positive tests for drugs was . . . 3. One of which was for pot. So really, all things being equal, 2. Or 3.3 per cent of student-athletes in the sport most likely to use performance-enhancing drugs.
Is this a large number? With something this subjective—not to mention the margin of error with a relatively small sample size—it’s hard to say. In 2003, Major League Baseball announced that “5 to 7 percent” of all players tested positive for drugs in random, non-punishable testing, though players had a full eight months between the announcement of tests and their commencement.
No one is disputing that increased testing, especially during the offseason, is a Good Thing. Likewise, the fact that the CIS has finally stepped up and formed some sort of coherent policy—as opposed to closing their eyes and crossing their fingers—is something that should be belatedly applauded.
But given the piddling results of the tests, it’s possible that this was a Waterloo issue, rather than a giant national issue, and that the sports media may have overplayed a controversial issue about a league that they rarely cover. It’s a slight that annoys those who follow the league full time.
“When else is Sportsnet going to post anything about the CIS?” said Neate Sager, founding editor of CIS Blog, a leading blog for university sport (full disclosure: I contribute there occasionally).
In football and hockey, basketball and volleyball, soccer and field hockey, thousands of our top young student-athletes are competing their guts out, sometimes in front of thousands of fans, and sometimes in front of dozens. Regardless, it’s demeaning to them that the only national coverage they get comes only after a few bad apples from Waterloo get caught. The CIS has moved aggressively to show how serious they are about drugs, but have they cast a pall over all their teams and athletes as a result?
“The rank-and-file either don’t care, or if they’ve made their piece with it,” Sager said. “Instead of this being a three-day story for the CIS, it’s become a three-month one.”
UBC Okanagan wants roads, neighbours want fences
Farmers sue university over cycling students using their road
Sometimes it’s not easy for UBC Okanagan—UBC’s Kelowna-area campus—to fight conceptions of being a middling rural college (as it was before it was taken over in 2004). The school 
has over 5,000 students, a burgeoning research and graduate program, and doubled in physical size last month.
Yet, there have been a grand total of two stories from UBC-O that have gotten national coverage this summer. One is about a “Petey the Peacock,” a rogue bird that showed up out of nowhere to suddenly patrol campus and delight students, only to be removed by the administration.
And the other is about how them Duke Boys keep driving them fancy mopeds down old man Peterson’s private dirt road on the way to school, infuriating the townsfolk!
That last sentence is only partially incorrect. Really.
A group of farm owners have launched a suit against UBC, asking the BC Supreme Court to bar students from using their road, which they argue they have full control over. Earlier this year, they erected a fence to stop the cycling scourge, but the university got an injunction against the fence, contending that they have been bequeathed access to the road by the province.
Andrew Bates, Editor-in-Chief of the UBCO Phoenix newspaper, wrote a great feature on the decade-old squabble earlier this year. The issue stems from the fact that thousands more students attending UBC-O then they did when it was known as “Okanagan University College,” and the only way for bicyclists to get to campus without going on the highway is the dirt road.
In this debate, private land owners certainly have a point. But so to do students. Discerning viewers of the map attached (click to enlarge) will note that UBC-Okanagan is surrounded by a) a highway, b) farmland, c) golf courses, and d) more farmland. Bus service to the university is still sub-par, owing to its relatively rural location. So sustainable transportation isn’t exactly easy, and while residents can say “not in my back farm” all they want, UBC seemingly does have legal right to use the road, and for lack of better alternatives, one imagines the road will continue to be used for some time.
Ultimately, the university will probably be involved in developing a compromise, and it isn’t far-fetched to think that it will come from the 236 acres of land they purchased next to its academic lands. But the story is a reminder that UBC would prefer that good roads, rather than fences, define its relationship with its neighbours—both in Kelowna and Vancouver.
UBC one step closer to being a city
Class-action parking lawsuit goes out with a whimper
UBC students holding out hope that their parking tickets issued by the university would have the same value as Zimbabwe currency were surely disappointed last week.
The Supreme Court of Canada tossed out a class-action appeal against the University of British Columbia, meaning the university will not have to repay the approximately $4 million they’ve collected in parking fees since 1990.
Last year at this time, it looked as though those dinged by the university over the years would get payback. The BC Supreme Court ruled that UBC, which isn’t under the municipal jurisdiction of any city, didn’t have the legal right to issue tickets/fine people/tow cars as it pleased. This greatly upset UBC, for the valid reason that they would lose $4 million, but also for the petty reason that it never like being told it can’t act like a city.
Luckily for the university, the provincial government stepped in last year to amend the University Act, allowing all BC universities to have jurisdiction over parking on their campuses. A few appeals by the university later against the original court ruling, and suddenly free parking only exists on a Monopoly board once again.
CFL pitches in for university drug testing
Until now, the only thing keeping a university player from taking drugs was his sense of right and wrong
When the University of Waterloo’s football team was suspended for the entire year after nine players had tested positive for drugs, Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) CEO Marg McGregor looked at the Canadian Football League to throw her a lifeline.
“There are probably many factors at play when an athlete chooses to take performance-enhancing drugs, some players have identified their desire to play professionally as a factor in their decision,” she said at the time. Two weeks ago, the CFL was the only major pro sports league in North America without a drug testing program. As a not-insignificant count of CIS players end up playing in the CFL (upwards of 100 last year, according to one count), it follows that the only thing constraining a university football player from taking drugs was his sense of right and wrong.
Tuesday, the CFL announced a drug-testing program that includes urine and blood tests—which test for human growth hormone as well–for 25 per cent of its players beginning next spring, and 35 per cent the year after that. The league has also thrown university football that lifeline and has agreed to test the top 80 CIS players at the CFL’s evaluation camp. Free of charge.
The CIS has got to be thrilled about this—overnight without doing anything at all, they’ve doubled the number of drug tests administered to football players each year without spending anything.
Waterloo steroid scandal is only the beginning
Unless Sports Canada antes up some funding, CIS drug problem will persist
“I am very hopeful,” says Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) CEO Marg McGregor, as she speaks about the year-long suspension of the University of Waterloo football team for the umpteenth time this week. “The scope of the issue at Waterloo is an eye-opener, and the steps they took . . . it’s not taking the situation lightly, and all of the indicators are there that our members are very concerned. But it will take a sustained effort over time.”
Yes Virginia, it only took an arrest for drug trafficking, an unheard-of testing of an entire team, nine positive results, and a school’s football program to be kiboshed for the CIS to realize that they may have a problem on their hands. And it’s going to get worse before it gets better. It always does when a league realizes it has a drug problem. While the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) administered tests to a sprinkling of players from McMaster and Guelph (six and eight, respectively) with no positive results, the next person who gets caught won’t be a fluke occurrence to the public.
Related: Players protest suspension of football program, UWaterloo football suspended over steroids, The truth about steroids in university sport
There’s also the fact that urine tests are not even close to bullet proof. The CCES is still awaiting the results of blood tests administered to 20 of the Waterloo players (blood tests are much more expensive than urine tests, which themselves cost around $500 each). Those will be especially interesting to see, because not only is it immensely harder to use masking agents for blood tests, but they also reveal Human Growth Hormone (HGH) usage. HGH, while not technically a steroid, is banned by the NHL, the NBA, the MLB, the PGA Tour, the . . . you get the picture.
One league that doesn’t test for HGH, or any drugs for that matter, is the Canadian Football League, and yes, there may be a correlation there. The CFL’s new collective bargaining agreement, currently being negotiated with the players’ union, is expected to have drug testing included for the first time, which (in theory) will act as deterrent to star university athletes. “We’re quite encouraged and think that will have an impact,” said McGregor.
Aside from that, McGregor hopes that a greater emphasis on the mandatory education program all student-athletes undergo will yield results. But she also hopes that performing-enhancing drug use can be curtailed by changing the culture of sport for student-athletes,” she said. “I think we lose sight of the value of sport. A kid will come home, and the first question they will hear from parents is ‘did you win’?”
She has a point—the immense pressure put on athletes at all ages is helping to drive drug use. But is working with athletes to get rid of the “win at all cost” mentality realistic? “A big part of our success, and what we preach, is winning on the field and off the field,” says Theresa Hanson, UBC’s Associate Director of Athletics. UBC and other schools with large athletic budgets have resources to put into health programs; UBC employs a coordinator of athlete training and a therapist. Many schools don’t have those means.
Regardless, the only major deterrent is ensuring testing is done on more than two or three per cent of student-athletes. But that takes money. “There’s been a significant increase in the number of tests,” McGregor says, adding that more will be happening in the off-season, when athletes are more likely to be bulking up. Are they hoping to hit a target? “I don’t think it’s a specific number. It’s like a speed test on the highway. You don’t need to think there’s a speed trap at every intersection, but you need a concern that it might be there.”
In other words, while the amount of tests are going to increase from the meager 202 this year, unless the CCES gets a large boost in funding from Sport Canada, it probably isn’t going to be a giant increase. And frankly, increasing the number of urine tests done for a 60-person football team from three to five isn’t really going to create a large enough presence to be a deterrent. Teams, programs and schools will still be in the dark until it’s too late.
“We have a full program in place, we work with our coaches, we’re taking the responsibility to ensure that they’re educated,” Hansen says. “Can we do more? Um . . . ” She pauses. “You don’t know. How much is enough? This is obviously another learning experience for all of us.”
