All Posts Tagged With: "Shinerama"
Carleton cancels Shinerama; says disease only affects “white people”
Students say decision is “disgusting” and “disappointing”
Carleton University Students’ Association is cancelling Shinerama, the school’s popular fundraiser for cystic fibrosis, after the council said the fatal disease is not “inclusive” enough.
The motion, which passed 17 to 2 at the association’s Nov. 24 meeting, read: “Whereas Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men…Be it resolved that: CUSA discontinue its support of this campaign.”
Read: Carleton president calls on CUSA to revisit decision
Past Carleton student leaders “horrified” at Shinerama cancellation
Coleman’s free advice to CUSA and Carleton students
Vote: What do you think about Carleton’s recent decision to stop fundraising for Shinerama?
Shinerama fundraising takes place during orientation week and has been happening at Carleton University for nearly 25 years. As a result, the school has raised almost $1 million for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.Only one day after the controversial vote, hundreds of Carleton students have flocked online to protest the cancellation of an event they say is incredibly important to the charitable life of the school.
“Students are incredibly upset about this,” said Nick Bergamini, a third-year journalism student who sits on the council and also recently started a Facebook group protesting the move.
“The ones who are the most upset are the ones whose friends or family have cystic fibrosis. They’re upset that a group of small-minded individuals are playing politics at the expense of the charity.”
The website of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation says the disease is most common in Caucasians but can affect all races. According to Wikipedia, “approximately 1 in 25 people of European descent and 1 in 22 people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent is a carrier of a cystic fibrosis mutation. Although CF is less common in these groups, approximately 1 in 46 Hispanics, 1 in 65 Africans and 1 in 90 Asians carry at least one abnormal CFTR gene.”
Wikipedia also notes that, “cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally. For unclear reasons, males tend to have a longer life expectancy than females.” It is the most common fatal genetic disease affecting young Canadians, with an estimated 3,500 people living with the condition.
Shinerama began in 1964 as a shoe-shining campaign and is now Canada’s largest post-secondary fundraiser. High-energy events are held at nearly 60 university and college campuses, where more than 35,000 student volunteers shine shoes, wash cars, run raffles and barbeques, and sing songs on street corners.
Since the event’s cancellation was announced, numerous online groups sprung up in protest, calling the move “disgraceful”, “disgusting”, and “disappointing”. Many expressed dismay at the lack of consultation of the student body regarding the decision.
“This is the weirdest day that I’ve ever had at Carleton,” says graduate student Ashley Darch, who also attended the school as an undergraduate.
She says the Ottawa campus is abuzz with news of Shinerama’s cancellation. “CUSA usually does all kinds of talking and then they never do anything. Now people are walking around campus saying, ‘Did this really just happen?’”
Carleton shelves Shinerama on faulty facts
CUSA has shown itself to be the least-intelligent student union in the country
The Carleton University Students’ Association, Local 1 of the Canadian Federation of Students, has decided to stop fundraising as part of the national Shinerama program.
Shinerama is a national event involving students from almost every Canadian university. During the beginning of September, as part of orientation activities, students leave their campuses and shine things to raise funds which are used by the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for treatment and research to defeat the disease.
Cystic fibrosis is a terrible fatal lung disease which kills most of its victims in their 20s and 30s. It is diagnosed in both men and women at an equal rate and affects people of all races and ethnic backgrounds. However, it is more common in those of white European and Askhenazi Jewish descent than other groups.
Last night, CUSA decided to stop participating in Shinerama because “Cystic fibrosis has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men” and it was therefore not “[as] inclusive as possible.” (Read the exact motion here)
The vote was 17 in favour of the motion and only 2 opposed. With this, CUSA has officially declared that any disease which strikes down only white males is not inclusive enough to be worthy of resources to combat it.
(It is unclear which of the two demographic details is more important in the decision; the “whiteness” of the disease or the “maleness” of the disease.)
I’m at a lost where to start with my critique of this decision, so I’ll begin with the procedural aspects.
The motion was presented at the CUSA meeting with no prior notice. However, according to CUSA councilor Nick Bergamini, the executive were prepared for the discussion and argued in favour of the ban claiming that a former student felt hurt by the non-inclusive nature of CF.
While this may be the normal operating practice of CUSA, it is not the proper way to operate a deliberative governing council.
Councilors should be aware of motions well in advance. The time between the announcement of a motion and the vote on that motion is to be used for research and consultation. CUSA councilors were negligent in allowing a motion to appear on their agenda without prior notice. They neglected to research the motion, they neglected to consult the student body and that neglect resulted in the passage of a poorly written motion, supported by false information.
A simple visit to Wikipedia would have resulted in the death of this motion. Sadly, CUSA councilors acted recklessly in their pursuit of political correctness.
