All Posts Tagged With: "Ryerson University"
Ryerson warns students
Woman sexually assaulted by six men near campus
Ryerson University in Toronto has put up notices around campus seeking information after a woman was sexual assaulted near the downtown campus last week. Police say a 27-year-old woman was picked up on Yonge Street between Dundas and Gerrard on the evening of Jan. 3 by six men in a black minivan with tinted windows. She was driven to a house somewhere in the Yonge and Eglinton area, sexually assaulted and then released. Police haven’t said whether the woman got into the van voluntarily. Detailed descriptions of the six suspects are available here.
“Racialized ethical vegan” alleges discrimination
Wants $15,000 from Ryerson University
A master’s graduate has filed a complaint asking for $15,000 from Ryerson University because she says she was discriminated against for being a “Racialized Ethical Vegan.” Sinem Ketenci, a 37-year-old from Turkey, says that a senior professor at Ryerson disagreed with her comparison of maltreated animals with marginalized people, which caused another professor to withdraw his recommendation of her for a PhD in social work. “This systemic discrimination and harassment that silences marginalized minority peoples’ voices, such as me as a Racialized Ethical Vegan, is a serious threat towards freedom of speech and freedom of belief,” Ms. Ketenci wrote in her complaint to Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal, which will now decide whether the complaint should move ahead to mediation. It’s unclear what this has to do with race, but Ketenci told the National Post: “If I were white, born here, this case would not have happened.” Ryerson has not yet responded.
In a class of their own
Adventure Studies, Space Engineering, Costume Studies!?
UBC Wood Processing students putting together the podia used at the 2010 Olympic ceremonies
From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Alex Ballingall.
Parents have a tendency to dream on behalf of their children. Sometimes they envision their daughters and sons climbing the hallowed staircases of ivory tower institutions. Sometimes they’re graduating from law school, leaping headlong into medical school, or simply training to take over the family business. There’s no doubt such dreams have merit, but they don’t always mesh with what kids want. Canadian universities offer a staggering array of enticing programs in which students can pursue their own destinies and determine their own dreams. Here are a few standouts:
Racist graffiti found on two campuses
Haters target Arabs
Members of the University of Windsor community are shocked by racist graffiti found in a washroom near the new multi-faith space. The space recently had sinks installed to accommodate Muslims who want to wash before prayers, reports the Windsor Star. The graffiti included anti-Arab and anti-South Asian wording, which campus Muslims felt targeted them.
This week, racist graffiti that targets people of Arab decent was found at Ryerson University too, reports The Eyeopener.
Other Canadian universities have dealt with racist graffiti, including slurs against Jewish and black students at York University in 2008, which resulted in a new Human Rights Officer position.
Ryerson students says “yes” to campus radio
$10.35 fee added
Students at Ryerson University in Toronto have approved the addition of a $10.35 per year fee to support a new campus radio station, after CKLN was shut down by the CRTC earlier this year. A referendum was held on campus earlier this week. Although some students organized in opposition to the new fee, the vote wasn’t even close, with the “yes” side winning 2,773 votes, 448 opposed and 18 spoiled ballots, reports the Ryerson Students’ Union. Quorum rules require that 10 per cent of full-time undergraduate and graduate students vote. Ryerson has 20,006 full-time students.
Ryerson to decide on $10 fee for radio station
Previous station shut down by CRTC
Ryerson's Ted Rogers School by ⌘N on Flickr
On Ryerson University’s Toronto campus Tuesday, newspaper boxes and streetlight polls were been plastered with advertisements urging students to vote for a new student-owned radio station in a referendum next week. The old campus station, CKLN-FM, was famously shut down in a rare move by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commision in January. “York University has one,” reads one poster created by supporters of a new station.
But will that be enough to convince students? The cost, a mandatory $10.35 charged annually to each and every student, has caused an opposition group to organize against the proposal. The vote will happen between Oct. 24 and 26. Mark Single, a fourth-year engineering student, started the No to Ryerson Radio Committee: “Supporters see this as another way to grab money from students’ pockets who don’t have money in the first place,” he told The Eyeopener.
Continue reading Ryerson to decide on $10 fee for radio station
Layton’s books to rest at Ryerson University
Late NDP leader was lecturer at school from ’74 to ’81
Photo courtesy of Medmoiselle T on Flickr
The family of Jack Layton, the late New Democrat leader, has donated his book collection to Ryerson University. The donation was announced by President Sheldon Levy at the Ryerson Senate meeting on Oct. 4, reports The Eyeopener. Levy said the University is still in the “thinking stages” as to what to do with the books. Renaming or appointing a Chair position to honour Layton is also being considered.
Layton began lecturing in the politics department at Ryerson in 1974. He stopped teaching after joining Toronto City Council in 1982. He earned an MA (’71) and a PhD (’84), both from York University.
On May 2, Layton led the New Democrats to new heights, winning 103 ridings out of 308 total to become the official opposition for the first time. He died of cancer on Aug. 22 at the age of 61 and was honoured with a state funeral.
Journalists are gettin’ schooled
Why master of journalism degrees are big news in 2011
Photo courtesy of thivierr on Flickr
Carmen Smith used to think she didn’t need graduate school. And why would she? Even before finishing her bachelor of journalism degree at Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C., Smith was the publisher of a women’s magazine called Belle, which she founded.
But she changed her mind after an academic adviser told her about a new master’s in journalism program offered at King’s College in Halifax that could help her do better with her own publication. “I really thought it was interesting to see how they were developing their program around entrepreneurial journalism,” Smith recalls. “That’s why I came.”
Smith, now 22, is one of a growing number of wannabe journalists heading to master’s programs in Canada. Before 2000, there were only two degrees available in the country, at Carleton University and the University of Western Ontario. Today, there are six, with the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University both gearing up their own programs.
Dalhousie abandons anti-plagiarism software
Victory for student groups
A majority of university presidents in the U.S. (55 per cent of them) say that plagiarism has increased in the past 10 years. Of those, 89 per cent blame the Internet, says a new study by Pew.
Many universities have fought back by using software like Turnitin, which forces students to upload their papers to be scanned against a database of published works, before their professors grade them. If passages appear to have been copied, the professor is informed and may investigate.
But profs at Dalhousie University learned this week that they no longer have access to the software, in part because papers were being stored on U.S. servers against the school’s wishes, Dwight Fischer, the school’s Chief Information Officer told the Toronto Star.
“We’re moving quickly to replace that system with something else,” said Fischer. “We’re not bailing on our academic integrity strategy. Students should not think that this is a retreat on what we hold dear and valuable here.”
Dalhousie University’s Student Union has long opposed Turnitin, partly because it presumes students are guilty before proven innocent. Some students were concerned that their intellectual property was being stored in the U.S. or copied and stored against their will.
McGill University student Jesse Rosenfeld won the right to submit his paper in person, instead of through Turnitin, after the university punished him for refusing to use the software in 2003.
Ryerson University uses Turnitin, but students can opt out if they make alternate arrangements.
Seven students at the University of King’s College were found guilty of plagiarism in December after fifteen papers had been flagged by Turnitin.
Atom Egoyan lands at Ryerson
Film director will work with students on stage production
Atom Egoyan, celebrated Canadian film director, will join Ryerson University’s faculty of communication and design for the 2011-2012 school year.
The director, who studied international relations at the University of Toronto, produced Palme d’Or-nominated Felicia’s Journey, Oscar-nominated Where the Truth Lies, and the 2009 film Chloe.
Some students will work with him as he prepares to direct Cruel and Tender for the Canadian Stage. Egoyan will also participate in a retrospective and public discussions while on campus.
Oslo terrorist referenced Canadian universities in manifesto
Madman’s essay is hateful toward Muslims
Photo courtesy of L.C.Nøttaasen on Flickr
The terrorist who killed 76 with a bomb in Oslo and a shooting rampage at a children’s camp made reference to two Canadian universities in his rambling anti-Muslim manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence.
Dozens of universities are referenced in Anders Breivik’s 1,500 page essay. Of those, at least two are Canadian schools.
First, he recounts a scenario written about in a student newspaper at Ryerson University in Toronto. A Catholic student group had challenged a Muslim student group for space on campus.
“At Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada,” writes Breivik. “The largest student group on campus, the Muslim Students’ Association, has monopolised use of the multifaith room. Eric Da Silva, president of the Catholic Student Association, said the group looked into using the room for mass but was told by RSU front desk staff that the room was “permanently booked” by Muslim students.”
Later on in the manifesto, Salim Mansur, associate professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario is quoted as having written: “Democracy is in a cultural sense an expression of the liberal modern world that situates the individual as the moral center of politics and society. It is the idea of the inalienable rights located in the individual, rights that need to be protected, nurtured, and allowed the fullest unhindered expression that makes democracy so morally distinctive from other cultural systems. From this liberal perspective, the common error about democracy is to view it as a majority system of governance.”
The logic behind Breivik’s selection of this quotation is unclear.
Breivik confessed to the murders on Monday, according to police. Both his defense lawyer and his estranged father, a former diplomat, have publicly questioned his sanity.
Boomers are the latest cash crop
Later-in-life schooling ‘is not just growing, it’s growing exponentially.’
When David Prosser, 64, graduated from Ryerson University in June of last year, it was his third time there in a cap-and-gown ceremony. In 2005, after ending a lifelong career at Kodak Canada, he enrolled to train as a fundraising manager at Ryerson’s G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, and now works as a development director for a Toronto-based mental health charity. “It was a big change to get from the corporate world to the non-profit,” he says—but his alma mater was there to help.
Prosser is one of an increasing number of students who are trotting back to campus decades after their first graduation, and changing the face of universities across Canada. Mid-career and mature professionals going back to the books are fuelling a boom in adult education that goes well beyond colleges. At the Chang school, enrolment rose by 49 per cent since 2001; at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies (SCS), it’s up 75 per cent since 2007; at the University of Ottawa, it nearly doubled between 2000 and 2009, growing 28 per cent this academic year alone; and at McGill University, it grew by around 6.5 per cent since 2009-2010. When Simon Fraser University (SFU) advertised a free workshop called “Later in Life Career Transitions” around Christmas last year, the 70-spot event was fully booked before New Year’s, and when the school decided to make another 100 seats available, they sold out in a week. “I think it says a lot about the hunger for learning and career options later in life,” says SFU’s dean of lifelong learning Helen Wussow, who added that enrolment at the school was up this year.
Continuing education used to be predominantly the realm of public and private colleges, but universities are now diving into the sector. Many have been offering some continuing education classes for decades, but the recent eye-popping rates of growth reflect a conscious effort to step up those programs. “In the last four years we’ve created a new visual identity for the school and a new brand-awareness effort,” says Almira Mun, strategic marketing director at U of T’s SCS, adding that this included a facelift for course catalogues and publications, and more ads in local newspapers. In 2008, the U of O turned its adult education classes into a new Centre for Continuing Education, which offers both personal enrichment and professional development classes and is housed in a brand-new building with a view of the Parliament Buildings. SFU and McGill are both conducting market research to lay the foundations to expand their offerings for adult learners.
The increased demand for later-in-life schooling is coming from foreigners seeking a quick gateway to the Canadian workplace, mid-career professionals who want to update their skills and, especially, sprightly baby boomers looking for a new career after retirement or some stimulation to keep an aging mind in shape. But regardless of place and year of birth, when skilled workers look for a professional upgrade or intellectual pastime, they increasingly want to do so at the university level, says Serge Blais, director of U of O’s adult ed centre. The sector, he says, “is not just growing, it’s growing exponentially.”
And, along with enrolment, revenue is on the rise. At U of O, for example, it grew by 89 per cent between 2000 and 2009. Other schools declined to disclose financial information to Maclean’s. Yet, with young people’s full-time post-secondary enrolment expected to dip by nine per cent between 2012 and 2025 due to Canada’s aging population, catering to seasoned students looks like a good insurance policy.
Ryerson student paper steals $6,614.47
Video: Eyeopener staff expose security weakness
Ryerson’s Eyeopener has a reputation for taking a cheeky, and often combative, approach to covering their university, while still pursuing campus stories vigorously and objectively. Few student publications live up to the mandate of both serving as a training ground for would-be journalists and producing an informed view of university governance and campus life, as well as the Eyeopener does.
Most recently, associate news editor, Brad Whitehouse, risked a criminal record when he stole $6, 614.47 from a Ryerson Tim Horton’s. After deciphering the cash register’s password of 9,8,7,6, Whitehouse had access to the system. “I clicked the multiply button and ordered 5003 small coffees. No one needs that much java, so I tapped the return button, entered my student number and refunded my OneCard for $6,614.47 that I never spent,” he writes.
The next day, he turned himself into security, the money was refunded, and changes are being made so that Whitehouse or a more sinister-minded student won’t be able to “repeat the performance.” The university admits that the password Whitehouse cracked should have never used in the first place.
While I imagine the prank was likely done for giggles, it did highlight a serious security flaw.
The whole thing was videotaped and can be seen below.
The night we stole $6,614.47 from Ryerson from The Eyeopener on Vimeo.
Photo: by Marta Iwanek, The Eyeopener.
The day I left class
I understand if students don’t have enough respect for me to pay attention, but they at least ought to have enough respect for themselves.
Two Ryerson profs created more waves than they probably meant to recently when they decided that they would simply stop teaching and leave class if things became too rowdy. Critics seem to take the view that while their concerns may be valid, there must be a better way.
As a professor, I am particularly sympathetic to the plight of the Ryerson Two, since I know first hand how soul-destroying it can be to do everything you can to be engaging about a fascinating topic and still watch students pass notes back and forth or try to make their cell phone spin like a top. I have never walked out for the reasons cited by the Ryerson profs. The most I’ve ever done on that score is stop teaching, walk over to an offending quartet and tell them quietly that they were causing a distraction. This was so mortifying to all of us that it was never needed again. But then, my classes are fairly small compared to those at most universities, and I can easily stroll over a few steps and correct the behaviour of a few students. But I wouldn’t want to climb the stairs to the back of a big lecture hall to tell off dozens of malcontents.
But one day I did walk out.
I had just graded a pile of papers so that I could hand them back in class. There were nine papers in the pile and of those nine, three of them had been blatantly plagiarized. And they were not the only ones that year. I had had enough and felt like I had to do something to convey to my students how serious the problem was. So I went into class and gave a very stern lecture about why plagiarism was wrong, about how it was an insult to me, to other students, and to the academy in general. Plus it was stupid because a bunch of them now had zeroes on their papers.
And then I left.
I don’t know what was said in the room after I was gone, but I’m pretty sure it made an impression. A student later told me that everyone in the class was now “paranoid” about citing sources correctly, which, in a way, was what I wanted because what they viewed as paranoid was merely what I considered diligent.
My case, of course, was something different than what the Ryerson profs are doing (or said they would do). It was a one-time thing, not a regular policy, and it was designed to make a particular point to the students, to actually teach them something. In that case, I felt like I could teach them more by leaving than I could by staying.
Looking back, I’m not entirely sure whether I did the right thing. There was no more misuse of sources that year, but when evaluations came around, it became clear that a lot of students were hurt because they felt they were being yelled at because of what other students did. No doubt some Ryerson students feel the same way about their profs walking out. And how much less will they learn because they no longer feel like they are being treated fairly?
Of course, it should never have had to come to that, and it should never have come to this. Students should pay attention for the simple reason that they should be embarrassed not to.
Each year, I talk to my students about my expectations around behaviour in class, including refraining from using their phones and laptops instead of paying attention. The reason I usually give is that it provides a distraction — not just to them but to other students and to me as well. But next year, I’m going to give another reason why students should pay attention: because anything else is beneath them. They are university students, for whom thousands of dollars of theirs (or their parents) and the taxpayers’ money is being spent so they can be there and to learn. They seek a university degree, a centuries-old designation, and a time-honoured mark of the educated man or woman. To do anything but pay attention is gormless and infantile.
I understand if students don’t have enough respect for me to pay attention, but they at least ought to have enough respect for themselves.
Dealing with classroom disruption
While bailing on students seems attractive, profs should find better solutions
Professors at Ryerson University are taking an interesting approach to dealing with a high volume of inappropriate disruptions in class. And it’s hard to blame them.
Paper airplanes whizzing past their heads, movies played at high volume during their lectures. It sounds like a free-for-all. One student even complained that it was hard to hear the lecture, even though he was sitting in the front row.
The two engineering professors, Robert Gossage and Andrew McWilliams, announced that if the behaviour continued, they would simply leave the class and it would then be up to the students to learn the material on their own. They also threatened to make midterm questions more difficult since “the class appeared to know the material well enough so as not to listen during lecture.”
But as satisfying as these strategies might be for teachers — and as much as thousands of teachers across the country have wished to be able to do the same — there’s a reason why we don’t hear about it very often: It’s irresponsible and ineffective.
Dealing with disruptive students in the classroom is difficult. Nobody is going to argue that point. But because it’s so difficult, resources exist at every institution, from kindergarten to grad school, to help handle the situation.
Most universities have established standards and procedures for escalating responses to disruptive students. Everything from staring them down in the middle of the class to banning their attendance until they show respect for their fellow students is explored in a number of academic articles.
Ryerson University president Sheldon Levy told the Eyeopener that walking out of the classroom as a means of dealing with disruptive students “doesn’t sound to me like it would be in our policy.”
He’s right. It’s not in anybody’s policy.
Ryerson’s two engineering professors became folk heroes among teachers in the same way that Steven Slater became a folk hero among flight attendants when he escaped via the emergency hatch after verbally berating a passenger. Everyone wishes they could do it, but almost nobody actually does.
Maybe it comes down to how Ryerson trains its teachers. Or maybe it comes down to frustration at a frustrating job. But Ryerson’s two professors should take a closer look at the literature on dealing with disruptive students. Escape hatches aren’t an option in this scenario.
Against specialization
Remember when choice and flexibility were good things?
With Nova Scotia’s O’Neill report in the books, and a similar report just released in Ontario, specialization is the new watchword for Canadian universities. Thus Bonnie Patterson, President of the Council of Ontario Universities: “the funding realities mean we’re going to have to build on the differences that already exist.”
Setting aside the question that the so-called funding realities are really funding decisions, the emphasis on specialization is troubling from the point of view of quality higher education.
Of course, some specialization is inevitable, or at least practical. Not every university can have a medical school, and a law school, and a major in South American Urban Geography. Fine. But I worry when I hear people like Harvey Weingarten, President of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario say things like this: “If Ryerson were to say its priority is undergraduate programs that graduate the next wave of entrepreneurs, for example, it might be that the U of T wouldn’t have a program exactly like that.”
Setting aside the fact that if Ontario really wanted to save money it could eliminate a few of these education councils, Weingarten’s comments hint that specialization is all about output. If Ontario needs graduates in various areas, the implication runs, it doesn’t need every school to fulfill that need. Put another way, if a student wants program x, she only needs one school to offer it and she can go there.
But the underlying assumption is that a university education is designed only, or mainly, as an economic investment. Universities are understood like factories, turning out useful products and thus should be specialized so as to be more efficient.
Setting aside the fact that it is inherently repugnant to think of people as products (the report calls for graduates who, like iPods should be “highly valued and competitive” [p.15]), the specialization perspective assumes that students know what they want to study when they go to university and will stick to that field of study all the way through. Anyone who teaches at a university knows that these assumptions are actually false, and idealists like me see them as deeply troubling.
For one thing, circumstances mean that students are not infinitely mobile. A student in Sudbury may not feasibly be able to move to Windsor to study. Consequently, specialization means limiting choices. The report claims that “differentiation” will mean more variety of programs overall (p. 6) but later reveals that claim to be false by insisting that universities must work with their existing programs (p.10). In other words, the Kingston girl who might have been a world-class artist may end up toiling as an accountant because Fine Arts was only available at Western, not Queen’s. Such things may happen even now, but they become more likely the more specialized institutions become.
Students who dropout over grades
Universities aim to improve retention rates
A grade of C+. It’s enough to shake up a first-year student and spell the end of university career, say some school officials. As mid-term marks begin to pour in for university freshmen over the next few weeks, Ontario schools say they’re on hand to help curb dropout rates across the province.
“We’re dealing with students who are overachievers in high school. They often have never had anything worse then an A,” said Deanne Fisher, director of student life for the St. George campus at the University of Toronto. “So, when they come to U of T and find they might have got a C +, or worse, on their first mid-term that can have quite an emotional impact on them,” Fisher added.
Related: Your grades will drop
While most students continue with their studies after first year — retention rates are steadily improving for many universities– there are still a small number of students deciding to pack it all in. The reasons are varied, from a crisis at home, to poor marks, financial struggles to a program that just doesn’t deliver.
Adam Miceli, 24 — an affable, bright young man — laughs sheepishly as he describes the years he spent meandering through different schools, unsure about his programs, uncertain about his future. Miceli, now a music student at the University of Toronto, began at York University in biology five years ago. By the time second semester had rolled around, he knew he was ready to leave the school. “I was coming right out of high school. I was thrown into things,” said Miceli, who said he had been overwhelmed by classes the size of stadiums.
Miceli was under pressure to succeed after receiving a scholarship. “I was pushed into the university because of that and plus, my parents were looking at me to perform.”
According to the Canadian Federation of Students there is a patchwork of information regarding retention rates across the county, but nothing on a national scope.
At most universities in Ontario, the retention rates are high. For example, at Ryerson University in Toronto, 89 per cent of the students from first year continued on to their second year in 2008. At the St. George campus at U of T, the retention rate for students coming back to school in 2008 was 90.3 per cent, at McMaster University in Hamilton it was 86.2 and at the University of Windsor it was 80.1 per cent.
But there are those who slip through the cracks. “We do know from our surveys that the primary barrier to success for our first-year students is not financial, it’s their own academic performance,” said Fisher. “You can feel you’re in over your head and it’s a palpable feeling for them, ‘wow, this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever done,’ ” said Fisher, as she described some of the feedback she’s heard from students.
Clayton Smith, vice-provost for students at the University of Windsor, said often students lose their way because they fail to “academically connect to their major.”
“This is a very different place than high school. They should commit to doing well. It sounds like daddy kind of talk, but the reality is just making the decision, ‘I’m going to do well,’ ” said Smith.
But not every first-year student is the same, and retention rates can vary, he added. “An aboriginal student who is away from home is in a different culture now, if they haven’t found a way to keep their values alive and be well supported, they often will go home and not finish university,” said Smith.
Smith also pointed out that if a school doesn’t make accommodations, such as providing a Muslim prayer room on campus, it could risk alienating a student.
Universities have taken aggressive steps to keep retention rates high. At Ryerson University, transition activities on campus help to integrate new students into the community by offering information on time management, writing and research. U of T addressed a problem with retaining its first-year engineering students a few years ago by creating an office solely dedicated to new students in the faculty.
It has also launched a pilot program for its life science students by offering organized study groups for students in large classes. Fisher said while university can be daunting for many, students need to reach out for help or else they will get lost in the shuffle. “We are tough and we expect a lot but we have to match that with the amount of support,” she said.
The Canadian Press
Stephen Lewis a steal of a deal
Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/ AIDS in Africa appointed visiting professor at Ryerson
Stephen Lewis will be taking up residence at Ryerson University as a distinguished visiting professor this fall. And according to Ryerson president Sheldon Levy, Lewis came to the university for a bargain price. The president told campus paper, the Eyeopener, that Lewis’ salary will be less than the normal salary, between $50, 000 and $80,000, for visiting professors of Lewis’ notoriety. Levy called it “a relatively small amount compared to what would normally be for someone of his stature.” The former UN Special Envoy for HIV/ AIDS in Africa will lecture to both graduate and undergraduate students, on a variety of topics in the faculty of arts, and will give two public lectures a year.
‘Don’t make surprise, unannounced visits’
Ryerson advises students and parents how to cope with university
Ryerson’s department of public affairs has some advice for students and parents to help both adjust to university life.
Here are the tips for students:
1. Relax. Everyone else is going through the same thing you’re going through. So go and introduce yourself to someone new. Chances are they don’t know anyone else either.
2. Get to know your city. Get on public transit and get familiar with the different travel routes.
3. It’s OK if you don’t know how to do everything right away. That’s what your family and friends are there for. So call them up.
4. Prioritize. It may be easy to “forget” to do your readings and keep up with your work, but if you let these things slide, chances are you won’t have a reason to be living on your own for much longer.
5. Get connected. There are numerous events going on to suit everyone’s tastes. Whether it be program-specific, faculty-wide, religious, athletic, or just plain entertainment — there’s a little something for everyone. This is your chance to meet new people, and the more people you meet, and the more activities you do, the less likely you are to be homesick.
6. Have a late class? Stayed late at the library? Be safe. Check out your school’s website for security programs or head over to your student union office to find out what they can do for you.
7. Balance is the key. There is so much going on all the time that you can easily lose track of time — so allocate it efficiently. Make sure you have time for your studies, yourself, and time to go out and have fun.
8. Enjoy it all. There are going to be some really great times, some really bad times, and some in the middle, but all of these experiences are necessary for you to get accustomed to this new life. So stay positive.
And here are the tips for parents:
1. Your continued support through any changes (dress, interests, level of academic success, etc.) will be an important part of your student’s success.
2. Don’t be surprised if there is an initial drop in grades or concern about workload.
3. Send pictures and news items from your hometown paper.
4. Don’t make surprise, unannounced visits.
5. Expect the frequency of communication to lessen with time, it means they’ve made a successful transition. If there is a sudden drop-off in contact, however, calmly and tactfully inquire to see if things are OK.
6. Write even if they don’t write back.
7. Ask questions, but not too many. Express interest without seeming like you’re interfering. Remember, this is a transition into independence. Students may take excessive parental interest to mean that you don’t trust them as they are gaining a sense of autonomy.
8. Anticipate more bad news than good news, at least at first.
9. Students are under a lot of pressure and stress, with a fair measure of insecurity. So when those first phone calls come, do not respond by saying, “But these are the best years of your life.”
10. Assess how street-smart your son or daughter is. Discuss safety issues with them and encourage them to find out about campus safety and security, travelling around campus at night and emergency procedures.
Undercover RCMP officer kicked out of Ryerson
Officer in plain clothes tried to monitor 10 G20 protesters from the student paper’s office
If you are planning to protest the G20 meeting being held in Toronto, and you want to make plans from the Ryerson University Student Campus Centre, be warned that the RCMP may be watching you. Late Wednesday afternoon, officer Leslie Tull, who was wearing plain clothes, was using the office of student paper the Eyeopener, to observe 10 protesters in the student run building. According to the paper, Tull “refused requests to leave while asking several people in the office if they knew how many exits were in the building and if the protesters could be kicked out.” After Eyeopener staff contacted security,students’ union president Toby Whitfield had Tull escorted off campus.
