Top Stories
Quebec and students: worse than you think
Patriquin: there’s a normalcy to all this Gong Show-iness
Photo by Graham Hughes/CP Images
As we approach the three-month mark of the student strike/boycott/study-stoppage/what-have-you, relations between both sides could hardly be worse. An agreement in principle between the Charest government and the FEUQ, FECQ and CLASSE was roundly rejected by the students themselves, and we’ve already seen the fallout: the daily marches have for the most part resumed, much like the caustic rhetoric from both side as each accuses the other of bad faith. Yesterday, the entire Metro system was shut down after a coordinated smoke bomb attack.
Perversely, there’s a normalcy to all this Gong Show-iness, as though demonstrations, riots, street closures and metro shutdowns are part and parcel of the coming very long, very hot summer in la bête noire province. Just like periodic language tiffs. Just like rampant corruption in the construction industry. Just like eye-bleedingly horrendous Éric Lapointe videos. (I warned you.) Ayoye.
It’s convocation. Pass me a pillow.
Prof. Pettigrew on those boring graduation speeches
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.
Top doctor did not abuse position: board
Discussions with minister & medical school were private
A top doctor in British Columbia did not abuse his position when he spoke to a cabinet minister and two medical school officials about his son’s rejected medical school applications, the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s board has found. The province agrees the conversations were “private.”
Health Minister Mike de Jong ordered the VIHA’s board to look into the matter after accusations surfaced earlier this year that president Howard Waldner had abused his authority by contacting cabinet minister Ida Chong, University of British Columbia medical dean Gavin Stuart and UBC provost Dave Farrar about the provincial residency requirements that had disqualified his son.
De Jong told the Times-Colonist that he “bows his head” to the findings, but added: “People who occupy high office and very responsible positions have to be very careful how they conduct themselves and interact with agencies over whom others may see them as having influence.”
Chinese students hooked up to IVs
Drips relax and energize students ahead of exams: school
Photo from 163.com
An official in China has confirmed that a controversial photo of high school students hooked up to intravenous drips is real, reports China Daily.
The photo, taken at a school in Xiaogang City, Hubei during a late-night study session, was posted by a microblogger this week and quickly spread across the country. Students are currently preparing for June’s competitive National College Entrance Exam, also known as the Gaokao.
A spokesman for the school said that the drips contain amino acids to help students relax and stay energized. Experts warn that the practice has no proven benefit and comes with a small risk of infection.
Five arrested in murder of UBC student
Ximena Osegueda was killed in Mexico December
Police in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico say they’ve arrested three women and two men in connection with the December murder of University of British Columbia doctoral student Ximena Osegueda and her boyfriend Alejandro Santamaria.
Their bodies were found in January on a beach in the town of Huatulco with their throats slashed. The gruesome scene was replayed in a computerized reenactment released by Attorney-General Manuel de Jesus Lopez on Tuesday.
Police say the motive was theft of Osegueda’s 2012 Chevrolet. They tracked the car through its GPS system to Oaxaca City, 410 km from Huatulco. A butcher shop receipt inside the car pointed them to gang members, they say. Police are searching for three more men. Osegueda, 39, was in Mexico to work on her Hispanic Studies PhD.
Quebec students rejecting tentative deal
15 college and university associations vote “no”
Photo by Jacob Serebrin
The tentative deal between Quebec student groups, who have been protesting for 13 weeks, and the Charest government, which is planning to raise tuition by $1,778, is being rejected.
At least five CEGEPs held votes and rejected the deal on Monday, as did 10 university faculties at the University of Montreal, Laval University and the University of Quebec’s various campuses. The only student association that accepted the deal was the Cégep de Gaspé, reports CBC News.
The three main student groups’ leaders have sent mixed messages about the deal, which they said they would consult members on this week.
“Is it the perfect deal? I think the answer is no. But is it the best deal we have yet? I think the answer is yes,” said Léo Bureau-Blouin, leader of Quebec’s federation of college students, FECQ.
Why I’m skeptical of the tentative deal in Quebec
Provisional council will look for savings in the wrong places
Photo by Jacob Serebrin
It’s easy to dismiss Quebec’s protesting students. Many people in the Rest of Canada did exactly that about 12 weeks ago when student unions decided that they would skip classes and block others from pursuing their educations too.
That was followed by near-nightly vandalism in Montreal, regular disruptions to commuters and policing bills that are no doubt in the millions.
Besides, the tuition students pay outside Quebec is much higher. After a fee increase of $1,778 over seven years, Quebec students will still pay far less than the rest of us. The economy is weak, Quebec taxpayers are overburdened, therefore it seemed to many of us that students are simply being selfish.
Continue reading Why I’m skeptical of the tentative deal in Quebec
Professor pay ranked from highest to lowest
What profs at 59 Canadian universities earned in 2010-11
Photo by Rainer Ebert on Flickr
Every student has heard at least one professor complain that he or she is overworked. At certain times, that’s no doubt true. But the annual Statistics Canada report on full-time faculty salaries shows that along with the big workloads come big salaries. The average full-time professor earned $115,513 in 2010-11. The average full-time employee in Canada earns just $50,000.
Does that mean we should all enroll in PhDs? Not exactly. The number of PhDs is increasing rapidly, while the number of professors hired in 2010-11 was up just 0.8 per cent over the year before. The professoriate is graying: the average age is 50.
Continue reading Professor pay ranked from highest to lowest
An update on Quebec’s tuition protests
A worried judge, a counteroffer and an eager opposition
Photo by yanik_crepeau on Flickr
Retired Superior Court judge John Gomery, famous for heading the commission into the federal sponsorship scandal, has told the Montreal Gazette that he’s concerned about the fact that court orders allowing students back to class are frequently being ignored in Quebec.
Approximately one-third of Quebec students are protesting a $1,625 tuition hike by boycotting classes. Many of them continue to block students who have a legal right to return to school.
This week, classes were cancelled at CEGEP de St. Laurent, Collège de Maisonneuve, CEGEP de St. Jean sur Richelieu, CEGEP de Sherbrooke and CEGEP de l’Outaouais, despite injunctions.
Shirt storm brewing in Nova Scotia
Let the kid wear his offensive Jesus shirt: Pettigrew
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.
Transgender students can use chosen names
Birth names remain on transcripts
After a two-year campaign, transgender students at Concordia University who make written requests will be able to use their chosen names on student IDs, class lists, exams, and class websites, starting in September. Their birth names will remain tied only to transcripts so that no professor risks embarrassing them by calling out a name that they no longer identify with. The change was made after Ben Boudreau, a second-year science student, complained about having to use his birth name, reports the Montreal Gazette. The University of Toronto has a similar policy.
Selling beer to students shouldn’t be hard
But when campus pubs lose money, shut ‘em down
Photo of an English pub by fabbio on Flickr
A few students at the University of Windsor are fighting to save their troubled campus pub.
Many more students are likely asking: but why?
The Thirsty Scholar, inside the CAW Centre on campus, will reopen in the fall as a small licensed cafe and bookshop, after the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (which owns the space), turned it over to the campus bookstore in a 10-year lease deal, reports The Windsor Star.
A tale of two colleges in Sudbury
English college questions French school’s funding
The president of Sudbury, Ontario’s English-language college wants the province to look into the funding disparity between her school and the city’s French college, which gets significantly more provincial funding per student. Cambrian, the English college, is cutting staff, while College Boréal is planning to give all new students iPads. “Cambrian doesn’t get enough funding to offer every student an iPad,” president Sylvia Barnard told CBC News. College Boréal president Denis Hubert-Dutrisac defended the disparity. The iPad money came from fundraising, he said. He also said it’s more expensive to run his college because of translation costs and its network of small campuses.
Eureka! Discovery learning works
3M Fellow Connie Varnhagen explains her approach
Connie Varnhagen, Alberta
University of Alberta psychology professor Connie Varnhagen doesn’t always know what students will learn when they enter her classes—and she likes it that way. She wants them to discover knowledge on their own.
Here’s a story that shows what she means. In one class, she instructed her students to come up with a test to identify which of her two cats has a worse case of cerebellar hypoplasia, a brain disorder that causes the poor felines to tumble over when they walk. While trying to come up with tests, the class observed that both cats are left-handed. That was news to Varnhagen. Exciting news. “Most cats are strongly right-handed,” she says. Could left-handedness be related to the disease? The students jumped into the research literature to find out.
The result? “They developed better critical thinking skills and scientific literacy because it was something they discovered all on their own,” says Varnhagen. One went on to veterinary school and studied even more about it.
Striking Quebec students reject gov’t offer
But compromise could be near
Photo by yanik_crepeau on Flickr
Student groups in Quebec were quick to reject Liberal Premier Jean Charest’s Friday offer of concessions. Still, there are new reasons to believe some of the groups opposed to the $1,625 tuition increase could be ready to compromise and end their ongoing “strike.”
On Friday, Premier Charest said he would spread the impending tuition increase over seven years instead of five, which would reduce the increase to $254 per year from $325. CLASSE, the province’s largest and most militant student group, said Saturday that it will not accept such a deal.
But FECQ and FEUQ, the other two large students groups, asked for mediation with the government. Education Minister Line Beauchamp said today that it’s too early for mediation—she wants students to vote on the offer made Friday first. Still, the fact that she didn’t entirely reject the idea of mediation seems to indicate progress.
Continue reading Striking Quebec students reject gov’t offer
Smokers at Alberta pushed too far
Current policies do enough to protect non-smokers
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.”
Quebec premier offers strikers concessions
Jean Charest would reduce tuition hikes to $254 per year
Quebec Premier Jean Charest has offered concessions to student groups opposed to the tuition hike of $1,625 over five years, in hopes they’ll end their protests. Charest says he would spread the increase across seven years instead of five. That means fees would go up by $254 each year, instead of $325, although the hikes would continue until 2019 instead of 2017. The premier would also add $39 million in new bursaries, would link loan payments directly to income (as his government previously proposed) and would create a council to oversee the management of the province’s universities. The 10-week-old strike has put many students’ semesters in jeopardy and has spawned violent protests, including one on Wednesday at which 85 people were arrested.
Lakehead student reps can’t vote on tuition
Board chair cites conflict of interest rules
Are tuition hikes a “conflict of interest” for students who represent their peers? The chair of the Lakehead University Board of Governors certainly thinks so. A new bylaw requires the three student representatives to leave the room when changes to tuition are discussed and voted upon.
Michael Snoddon, president of the Lakehead University Student Union, thinks that the new bylaw—an apparent oddity among university boards—is unfair. “I think that this change in the conflict of interest bylaw silences students,” he told CBC News. He says LUSU may ask for a judicial review.
Colin Bruce, the chair of the board, said that the new conflict of interest bylaw covers all board members and was developed with legal advice. He said, “any solid reading of conflict of interest will tell you you cannot vote on something in which you have a financial interest.”
Enter the Maclean’s On Campus Contest. Follow us on Twitter. “Like” us on Facebook.
A place just for men?
Simon Fraser students debate gender-exclusive spaces
Midgley (centre) Photo by Brian Howell
Keenan Midgley played basketball, soccer, baseball and football. But it isn’t his athletic skill that has made him well-known on campus in Burnaby, B.C. It’s the budget he’s written as treasurer of the Simon Fraser Student Society.
The fifth-year accounting student added funding that will carve out a special space on campus for guys. The men’s centre, assuming the budget passes a final vote, will get $30,000 next year. That’s the same amount that the women’s centre, started in 1974, will receive.
The pending creation of the men-only space is the source of much discussion at Simon Fraser University. Since the news broke in April, many students have questioned whether the men deserve funding. Along with that, a debate has emerged over whether women—who make up 55 per cent of undergraduate students at SFU—still need their own women-only space.
Newfoundland continues tuition freeze
Province increases university funding despite deficit
Photo of Memorial
Newfoundland and Labrador will soon take the crown as the cheapest place to study, despite a deficit budget that includes job cuts and that will cause provincial net debt to rise by $1-billion to $8.5-billion by March 2013.
Tuesday’s budget includes $44 million for Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic to prevent them from raising tuition fees, which averaged $2,649 in the fall of 2011.
The province will soon have the lowest fees in Canada. Nationwide, university fees averaged $5,366 in 2011, according to Statistics Canada.
