All Posts Tagged With: "University of Calgary"
The enduring stereotype of the male nurse
The number of men in nursing schools is growing (slowly)
Calgary's Tyler Hume (Photo by Todd Korol)
From the Maclean’s special holiday double issue—on newsstands now.
One recent November day, Tyler Hume, a 20-year-old nursing student, was at work in the maternity ward of Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre. Tending to a patient who’d just given birth, he listened to her heart and checked other vital signs, then moved on to her new baby. Being a male nurse in a maternity unit can be tricky, he says—but as one of just a handful of men in the University of Calgary’s entire faculty of nursing, Hume is used to feeling like the odd man out sometimes. “It’s unconscious things, like when [an instructor] is talking about a nursing action, and always refers to the nurse as ‘she,’ ” he says. To create a resource for men in the program, he co-founded the Nursing Guys’ Group, a club for male nursing students.
Don’t get stuck doing a Victory Lap
Few schools guarantee graduation in four years
Photo by Helga Weber on Flickr.
It’s so common for students nearing the end four-year degrees to suddenly learn they’ll need to take an extra semester that they’ve developed a name for the phenomenon—the victory lap. Actually, make that two names. I recently heard it dubbed “the fourth-year surprise” too.
Whatever you call it, finding out you need a fifth year of school upends plans for graduate school, starting a career, moving to a new city, travelling. It also destroys your budget, as thousands of extra dollars are suddenly needed at a time when you’ve been drained. Oh, and try getting student loans for one course.
I know what that’s like. I was forced to do victory lap after receiving bad advice at the University of Guelph, which was happy to have me back as a paying customer for an extra four months.
That’s why I was pleased to hear last week that more U.S. schools are guaranteeing students can graduate in four years, so long as they follow all the rules. At least 20 U.S. schools now offer four-year graduation promises and more are planning to add them, Tony Pals, spokesperson for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, told the Wall Street Journal.
Why Alberta’s education system is better
The reasons may surprise you
Snowy Edmonton, Alta. by Stella Blu on Flickr
Alberta is as a maverick when it comes to higher education. The province prepares students for post-secondary better than its neighbors, has some of the country’s most satisfied students and punches above its weight in research.
Now there’s even more evidence that the rest of Canada should pay attention to how Wild Rose Country approaches higher education.
New University of Saskatchewan research, which included 12,000 first-year students, found that grades for Albertans tended to drop just 6.4 points from Grade 12, but fell as much as 19.6 points on average for students from another province. In other words, a student from Alberta who graduates with an 86 average is likely to end first-year as an 80 student, while students from that other unnamed province would average 66.
One reason Alberta’s students are much better prepared is that they study long and hard to pass provincial standardized exams, which account for 50 per cent of their Grade 12 marks. Students in other provinces are graded more subjectively, making it easier for teachers to give high marks.
The higher standards are well-known. In recognition of the high standards, the University of British Columbia automatically raises Albertan students’ grades two per cent when they apply.
But it’s a lot more than standardized tests that make Alberta’s schools succed. Here are six more reasons the rest of Canada ought to pay closer attention to Alberta’s higher education system.
1. Public funding of universities is highest in Alberta.
Statistics Canada says that 72 per cent of funding for Alberta universities came from public sources in 2009. The next highest was Newfoundland at 69 per cent. It was only 49 per cent in Nova Scotia.
2. Albertans outperform their peers well before university.
Alberta’s 15-year-olds came second in the world in reading and fourth in the world in science in the 2009 PISA study, the gold-standard international test. Those were the top scores in Canada.
3. Alberta has two teaching-focused universities that work.
Grant MacEwan and Mount Royal Univeristy have faculty who spend most of their days teaching, rather than conducting research—unlike nearly every university east of Edmonton. And both institutions score exceptionally well on the National Survey of Student Engagement. When asked “if you could start over, would go to the institution you are now attending?,” 50 per cent of Mount Royal seniors and 60 per cent of Grant MacEwan seniors said yes. The average is just 45 per cent.
5. Alberta’s transfer system works.
In Sept. 2009, nearly 12,000 post-secondary students transferred between schools in the province. Many of the transfers are from the provinces’ teaching-focused institutions and community colleges into big research institutions. Harvey Weingarten, then-president of the University of Calgary, told the authors of Academic Reform that transfer students are “academically indistinguishable.”
6. Even with teaching-focused universities, Alberta remains a research leader.
Despite having more students in teaching-only institutions and only 11 per cent of Canada’s population, Alberta holds 17 per cent of the Canada Excellence Research Chairs, which come with up to $10-million apiece. Alberta also has 12 per cent of the prestigious Vanier Scholarships. The University of Alberta has the second highest per-faculty research funding in Canada at $309,332.
Club cancels debate on women’s role in rape
“Poor wording” says debate society
Screen capture from Don't be THAT guy on YouTube by extremelineprod via Crime Prevention Ottawa
The University of Calgary Debate Society is blaming the cancellation of an upcoming debate on “poor wording.” They advertised an event on Facebook earlier this month that stated the debaters would discuss whether to “hold women partially accountable for rape prevention.”
Students complained. The event was cancelled.
“People do often debate things they don’t necessarily believe in,” the society’s training co-ordinator Pardeep Dhaliwal told Metro Calgary. That much is true—debaters frequently argue about absurd things. And it wasn’t intended to be offensive. In fact, the debate was planned in conjunction with the Calgary Sexual Assault Voices, which has been part of the Don’t Be THAT Guy campaign, which has targeted young men with ads that say things like “Just because she’s drunk doesn’t mean she wants to f**k.” and “sex without consent = sexual assault.”
Continue reading Club cancels debate on women’s role in rape
See the world with purpose
The basics of studying abroad
Oxford. By John Woodworth/Getty Images
From the Maclean’s University Rankings, on sale now. Story by Jane Bao.
Study abroad programs let students immerse themselves somewhere else, maybe halfway around the world, while earning credit at their home university. And depending on the field, a stint overseas could give grads a career boost. It’s not uncommon for engineers to work abroad, says Jean Choquette, an executive director at Université de Montréal’s engineering school, École Polytechnique. “Openness to foreign cultures, languages and methodology are part of the basic competencies that employers are looking for,” says Choquette.
Tuition is paid to the Canadian university—a good way around some hefty international fees—but students must count on travel and living costs. And the door swings both ways, allowing international students to study in Canada and meet their Canadian peers.
That’s the spirit
Canadian schools have crazy fans and community too
Nipissing University maniacs. By Cole Garside.
From the Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Alex Ballingall.
We’ve all seen it: the near-ubiquitous image of the spirited American college student chanting a school slogan, streaking across campus or slogging back a beer from a Dixie cup in a stadium parking lot. It’s the sort of paint-your-body zealotry often depicted in Hollywood movies.
Doesn’t seem very Canadian, does it?
Certainly not according to the 2010 edition of The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges, a yearly publication out of Yale University that documents the strengths and weaknesses of North American universities. “One aspect of college life that Canada fails to offer is school spirit,” the guide stipulates. “Their attachment to their schools is not as strong as in the United States.”
Canada’s best cycling schools
Two-wheel transport speeds ahead on campus
Cyclist at Dalhousie. By Andrew Tolson.
From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Jason McBride.
If you were to design the perfect bicycling environment, it would include safe, well-maintained and lit streets. It would have almost no car traffic, dedicated bike paths and ample secure parking and storage. It might even have showers purpose-built for sweaty commuters and a well-equipped repair shop where cyclists can get help fixing a flat tire. In short, it would look quite a bit like the campus of McMaster University.
McMaster is located in blue-collar, largely car-centric Hamilton, Ont.—an unlikely champion of the bicycle. But in the past two years, the city has been in the vanguard of sustainable travel, expanding cycling infrastructure, improving regional transit and adding carpooling programs. Municipal support has, in turn, emboldened the university, and encouraged both students and faculty to take up, in great numbers, alternative modes of transportation. According to Kate Whalen, manager of McMaster’s office of sustainability, a 2010 campus survey revealed that 37 per cent of students walked or cycled to school. “We have a very engaged population,” she says. And the university is very responsive to the needs of that population. Just one example: after a civil engineering student did a systematic geographic information survey of the use of university bike racks, underutilized racks were relocated to more optimal spots on campus. Ten additional racks are installed each year, Whalen says.
A two-tier system?
As lectures grow, special classes emerge for the academically-inclined
Photo by Cole Garside
From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now.
It’s the third week of her university career and Maya Helferty, a first-year sociology (soon to be philosophy) major at the University of Guelph, admits that she’s already skipping her women’s studies and sociology classes. “There’s no point to those lectures,” says the Canadian who went to high school in Pennsylvania. “We just go over the same material that’s in the readings.”
Don’t assume she’s a bad student. She excelled at high school, in everything from Greek mythology to advanced calculus. Helferty is skipping lectures precisely because she is a good student. She’s read the material. She doesn’t need to hear it again. Being filled with facts is not why she came to university. She came to ask questions, discuss ideas and be inspired.
More men choosing nursing
Nursing Guys Club created at University of Calgary
Male nursing students by besighyawn on Flickr
The University of Calgary has attracted so many male nurses that third-year student Tyler Hume felt compelled to start a Nursing Guys Club, reports the Calgary Herald. The school is roughly 13 per cent male. It may seem like a low figure, but it’s up from roughly nine per cent the previous year.
It’s also much higher than the 6.2 per cent national average for the profession, according to a 2010 study by the Canadian Nurses Association.
Wanted: dead coons (and other things)
University of Calgary student’s strange research project
Photo courtesy of MikeWu on Flickr
A University of Calgary veterinary student is collecting dead raccoons and their feces, she told the Calgary Herald. And she wants the public’s help.
Dayna Goldsmith is researching what kind of parasites the animals carry. ”I’m interested in the animals that live in close proximity to people,” Goldsmith said. “They’re the ones that tend to run into problems with people.” Coons have been in Calgary for roughly thirty years, but little is known about what diseases they carry. Goldsmith’s research is a partnership with the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre and Alberta Fish and Wildlife.
Grad school: not just a plan B for med school applicants
What you need to know about MD-PhD programs
Thousands of students apply to medical school across Canada every year, and the vast majority of them will never even make it to an interview. The chances of success improve for repeat applicants, but the fact remains: even with high marks and stellar extracurricular activities, applying to a Canadian med school is an uphill battle against discouraging statistics. After completing their undergraduate degree and receiving a rejection letter, the big question facing these students is: now what?
Mike Saccone, a fourth-year Health Studies Co-op student, already has a plan B.
“My back-up plan is research based. I will pursue a Masters in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University,” he says. The Masters degree could even hit two birds with one stone.
“Hopefully, this will improve the chances of me getting into medical school, along with fulfilling a degree requirement that I will eventually pursue.”
Saccone says he was exposed to both sides of medicine- research and patient care- while working with a research-focused orthopaedic surgeon, and then working with a surgeon whose primary focus was on patient care.
Colleen Shortt, a fourth year Health Studies and Gerontology student, isn’t considering research as a backup plan to med school. She recently applied to graduate school programs at the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, and McMaster, and is hoping to pursue a career in cancer or HIV/AIDS research. Shortt says that once she’s through grad school she may be interested in applying to med school.
“I thought about applying to med school and originally it was my plan A. But once I started looking into research opportunities I found that this may be a more effective way of reaching more people.”
Khuram Bhatti, a fourth year arts and science student, says he has considered numerous programs and careers, including optometry or pharmacy, and even programs in the States.
“I am considering schools such as the osteopathy programs in the United States, or other types of up and coming schools which have a schooling regiment which is sort of ‘newer,’ comparatively to something such as the MD career field.”
For med school hopefuls who don’t make the cut, pursuing a grad school program is a win-win: it improves their chances on a second application, and at the same time, they’re developing the skills for a different career path. Many med schools look for research or medically-related experience, and some even award additional points to applicants who have completed a graduate degree. McMaster gives an additional 1% to the pre-interview score of MSc students, and an additional 4% for PhD students. Others, such as the University of Toronto, lower the GPA cutoff for graduate students.
Keith Colaco, a third year Biomedical Sciences student, says that although he has always wanted to attend med school and become a physician, in high school he considered becoming an optometrist because of the challenges of pursuing a career in medicine.
“As I started taking more medically-related courses in university, volunteering in hospitals and speaking to medical students, I quickly changed my mind because I was so intrigued by the field and strongly felt the need to help those with medical problems.”
This summer Colaco will be working at the Holland Orthopaedic and Arthritic Centre in Toronto, where he hopes to gain insight into pursuing a medical career. Ultimately, he may combine his passion for medicine and research.
“I am very interested in clinical research rather than focusing on just research in the lab because I have always enjoyed interacting with patients in past volunteer experiences,” he says. “By working in a patient-care setting, it allows me to evaluate patients and conduct research at their bedside.”
Students like Colaco, who want to combine research with patient interaction, are in luck: an MD-PhD program offers the best of both worlds, allowing students to complete the MD curriculum while pursuing a PhD, training them for careers ranging from medical research to the design of healthcare delivery systems. Most of the programs describe their graduates as ‘clinician-scientists,’ with the curriculum juggling between academic course work, training in basic sciences and research, and clinical rotation. Dr. Norman Rosenblum, Director of the MD/PhD Program at the University of Toronto, says that applicants should have “considerable background with some area of science” in addition to experience that “demonstrates an interest in medicine and a knowledge of the clinician-scientist role.”
Some programs, such as the “MD Plus” Leaders in Medicine program at the University of Calgary, go beyond the basic sciences and allow students to pursue any graduate-level field of interest, including a Masters in philosophy or business.
Most med schools across Canada offer the MD-PhD program, with many being created in the past several years. The only drawback? Getting in is even tougher than med school. The program requires students to be accepted into both a medical and a Masters program (or in some cases, a graduate program) and enrollment is extremely limited, with most MD-PhD programs only having enough spots for a handful of students. For example, there are only five spots available in the University of Toronto MD-PhD program, while the University of Ottawa program only has room for four.
Getting ready for the MCAT
The most important test I’ll ever write?
Even though it’s been more than a week since my last exam, I can’t relax and fully embrace summer vacation. Some of my marks haven’t been posted yet, but that’s not the problem. And I’m pretty sure that I’m not suffering from Post-Exam Stress Disorder, which is usually caused by physics or chemistry exams (I only had biology courses this semester). The reason I can’t relax is because I’m now studying for one of the most important tests that I’ve ever written: the MCAT.
For most schools across Canada, a high GPA and solid extracurricular experience are usually given more weight than the MCAT. Some schools don’t even consider MCAT scores, such as the University of Ottawa and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. McMaster University only considers the Verbal Reasoning portion of the test, and although the University of Toronto requires applicants to write the MCAT, their score isn’t included in the overall academic calculation. Instead, it’s just used as a “flag” during the admissions process, with less than minimum marks possibly disqualifying the application.
When it comes to medical school admissions, an applicant’s MCAT score isn’t a universally-important deciding factor. But it’s still going to be one of the most important tests I’ve ever written.
For one thing, the MCAT is much more important to med schools in the States and abroad. And even if some schools don’t consider the MCAT in their admissions process (or they only use cut-off scores), it’s still important for many Canadian schools, such as the University of Western Ontario. This is especially true outside of Ontario- the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary, and the University of Manitoba all consider MCAT scores, just to name a few.
So unlike my last summer vacation, the next couple of months won’t just be a combination of part time jobs and relaxing- I’ll also be preparing for the MCAT. And stressing out about the physical sciences section.
Alberta freezes student assistance, operating grants
CAUS says budget does not improve access to university
While post secondary education in Alberta may have faired better with this year’s provincial budget than in 2010, some student representatives are still concerned that the funding allocated is not enough to make up for last year’s drastic cuts.
The ministry of Advanced Education and Technology saw a 1.2 per cent increase to its operational support budget, which covers basic operational funding for Alberta post secondary education. However, funding for student assistance programs and operating grants to universities and colleges have been held at 2010 levels.
The budget also saw payouts from the Access to the Future Fund, an endowment created in 2005 to match private donations to post secondary institutions, suspended for two years, leaving $700 worth of donations left in limbo, according to the Edmonton Journal.
While spending for some programs in the Advanced Education and Technology ministry saw a slight increase, overall the department’s budget, totaled at $3 billion for 2011–12, saw a 9.6 per cent, or $320 million, decrease from last year. This was due to lower capital grants with projects such as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trades and Technology Complex nearing completion.
Last year’s budget saw universities scrambling to cover their costs, with provincial funding to the University of Alberta and University of Calgary lowered by $27 million and $7.8 million respectively.
Hardave Birk, chair of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), said he is worried that last year’s funding cuts, including $54 million from grants and bursaries for students, were not restored this year. He says this will result in heavier debt loads for some students and make it “tougher and tougher for students to access post secondary education.”
“This was definitely a step forward from what happened last year, but no where near far enough,” he said. Birk explained that ultimately, the CAUS would like to see the funding that was cut from post secondary education last year fully renewed “and would like the government to even go further.”
“At the end of the day, we want the government to increase access, and we want more people going into post secondary education in Alberta.”
Kim Capstick, spokesperson for the Alberta Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology, said that overall, the ministry was pleased to see a slight increase to their program expenses “considering the fiscal times.”
She pointed out that the province is still feeling the effects of the economic recession, and that the levels of funding CAUS is calling for is simply unavailable. “If there were more money available, we’d love to put more money into some of these programs, but the fact of the matter is, there isn’t more money available,” she said.
It’s good to see Alberta universities investigating ‘liberation therapy’
Not just ivory towers, universities are doing work that will give important answers to thousands
The Alberta government’s decision to have provincial universities study the so-called “liberation therapy” for multiple sclerosisis is a good step forward for public health and a good example of the important role that universities play in the community.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced a similar study a couple of weeks ago.
Canada has one of the highest MS rates in the world and this treatment has attracted a lot of interest. So much in fact that New Brunswick has announced plans to fund treatments in other countries.
But there are still many unanswered questions. The treatment has not been subject to serious study and while there are many anecdotal success stories there have also been reports of serious side effects, including death.
The studies in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador are not clinical trials but they are a first step. Over the summer, expert advisers to the federal government said that clinical trials would be premature.
But Canadians are still leaving the country to receive this treatment and it’s important for people suffering from MS to have answers about it so they can make informed decisions and, if it is as successful as has been claimed, be treated in Canada. It’s also important for Canadian doctors to be aware of the side effects, in order to treat them, whether this treatment gains approval or not.
Many people, both inside and outside of academia, tend to think of universities as detached ivory towers, so it’s good to see universities doing work that has the potential to directly improve the lives of many Canadians and, at the very least, will give them piece of mind.
How do you stand up for your rights?
Students in Toronto, Calgary are proving that authority still rests with the governed
This has been a good year for students wielding power over their administrations. A high school student in Toronto, suspended for speaking his mind to the administration, got the school and local media on his side and had his record cleared. Two students at the University of Calgary criticized a professor online, but a court cleared them.
It hardly even matters what the students at the University of Calgary were speaking out about. As it has it, the kick-off was a relatively childish Facebook group about a disliked professor. But it quickly turned into a story about a university pushing its students around arbitrarily without regard for their rights or due process. The students saw this and asked a court to side with them. On Oct. 12, 2010, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench saw fit to do so, ruling that the students’ Charter rights had been infringed.
In Toronto, the situation never escalated quite as far, but was no less dramatic. After a 17-year-old soccer player voiced his concerns about support for the school’s teams at an assembly, his school banned him from athletic activities and suspended him for two days. The heavy-handed and blatant act of censorship did not go unchallenged. Parents, fellow students and media outlets across the city quickly rose to his defence. Inside of two weeks the school’s administration backed down, reinstating the student’s privileges and allowing him to return to class.
He’s now trying to expunge the suspension from his record as he prepares to apply to university, and it seems he has support on his side again. While his principal has said it won’t be an easy feat, if precedence is any indicator, I don’t think he’ll have a problem realizing his latest ambition.
In a year where we’ve heard much about heavy-handed government from WikiLeaks, G20 abuses and corporate scandal, that the power of the people can still be wielded, and wielded with courage, is itself encouraging.
These are students who showed incredible courage and wisdom. They recognized that they had been wronged, and recognized the most effective avenues for correcting those wrongs. But what these examples demonstrated most effectively was the power of the people when they come together.
When media outlets and hundreds of supporters rally behind a cause, it cannot be ignored. A mentor of Russell Crowe’s Gladiator said it best: “Win the crowd and you will win your freedom.”
Even Barbie in this summer’s Toy Story 3 was on to this idea. “Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from threat of force!” she declares in the film.
And while there is much to be sorrowful in this world, as 2010 nears its end we can be thankful that it is still our consent that is required above all else in government. And we are still free to withdraw that consent, whenever we see fit, so long as we have a few friends to stand with us.
Flanagan should quit comedy, stick to politics
UCalgary prof should not be charged, should not be let off the hook either
Monday night, Canadians learned that Tom Flanagan is not a particularly funny man.
Asked to comment on the latest WikiLeaks revelations by CBC’s Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, the University of Calgary professor and former PMO adviser said, “I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract to maybe use a drone or something.”
Is your side splitting yet?
Interrupted by Solomon calling Flanagan’s comments “pretty harsh stuff,” Flanagan replied, “Well, I’m feeling very manly today.”
Cue the drums; he’ll be here all week.
As it turned out, Flanagan did hijack headlines for the most of the week, as he was called out by Julian Assange himself and a served as a brief topic of discussion in the House of Commons. Flanagan has since apologized, saying he did not seriously intend to advocate the assassination of the Wikileaks founder with his “glib” comment.
Too little too late for some, however. A group of students and alumni of the University of Calgary has begun circulating a letter calling for the university to “condemn [Flanagan] in the harshest possible terms” for disgracing the reputation of the university. Others, including Julian Assange, have called for Flanagan to be charged for “incitement to commit murder” and handed over to authorities. And then of course there are some, such as my colleague Sarah Petz, who believe we should just “let Flanagan’s remarks die.”
Yet these positions each seem somewhat misguided. An official censure, as advocated by the signatories of the U of C open letter, would be counter-productive to the supposed intention of salvaging the university’s reputation. How can you at once ask the administration to officially admonish Flanagan’s behaviour, while at the same time ask for distance from the unwitty professor?
Charging Flanagan under the Criminal Code of Canada would be problematic also, nevermind difficult. There is no “incitement to commit murder” provision, and as far as I can tell, any charge that could be laid in relation to counseling another to commit an offense would, at minimum, require an attempt. Even if authorities could find a way to wade in the matter, and I have no doubt they could, the infiltration would only serve to convolute the issue. The incident would evolve from a straightforward case of a professor making deplorable comments on air to a shades-of-grey wider debate about free speech and Big Brother. Why create the opportunity to shift blame?
That said, Flanagan is in the midst of receiving the worst punishment possible: public condemnation. Indeed, there are many who have brushed off Flanagan’s comments as simply made in mirth, but even still, there are few applauding his “manly” call for murder or his acerbic wit. We don’t need government to get involved or the university to slap his wrist; all we need is to keep talking. For a man of Flanagan’s esteem and reputation, that is the worst punishment of all.
Let Flanagan’s remarks die
UCalgary prof wasn’t inciting violence, just making a really horrible joke
Already a rather controversial character in Canadian politics, Tom Flanagan got himself in hot water again this week over his remarks about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
When asked what he thought of the Wikileaks revelations in a panel interview on CBC’s Power and Politics with Evan Solomon on Monday, the University of Calgary professor and former senior advisor to the prime minister said that Assange should be assassinated, in what seemed to be an attempt at humour. Flanagan has since apologized for his remarks, saying that he never “seriously intended to advocate or propose the assassination of Mr. Assange,” he told the CBC.
Assange and his lawyer don’t seem to be taking Flanagan’s comments in jest, calling for Flanagan to be charged with incitement to commit murder.
Coming from someone with such an extensive political background, I can’t imagine what Flanagan was thinking. Joking about the assassination of a major public figure is terrible coming from anyone, but it is particularly shocking coming from someone who should be an expert in what not to say. However, considering it was obviously a bad joke and not a serious incitation to commit violence, maybe it’s time for everyone to move on.
Flanagan’s comments have since been denounced by the Prime Minister’s spokesperson, and alumni from the U of C are petitioning the university’s president, Elizabeth Cannon to take disciplinary action against Flanagan.
The letter to Cannon, penned by Kris Kotarski, a writer who contributes a bi-weekly column for the Calgary Herald, stated that Flanagan “should understand that academic freedom is not possible without political freedom, and that political freedom cannot survive in a climate where journalists and opponents of a ruling regime hear public intellectuals advocate for their assassination on the nightly news.”
Kotarski and the undersigned alumni are asking Cannon to publicly distance themselves from Flanagan’s comments, condemn him in the harshest possible terms, and censure him for hurting the university’s reputation.
A university spokesperson has stated that they’re not currently planning on reprimanding him, explaining that Flanagan was representing himself on the CBC, not the university, and has a right to his opinion. The Conservative party has also been trying to distance themselves from Flanagan, saying that he hasn’t worked for the Conservative party for years.
In the video footage of the interview, Flanagan’s comments don’t come off as if he’s seriously advocating for the swift assassination of Assange. They come off as something your conservative uncle would say in a drunken argument over an awkward family dinner. The difference is that Tom Flanagan is not your drunk, conservative uncle, he’s a prominent academic and someone who is often associated with the prime minister. He should have known better than to make a joke about assassinating the founder of WikiLeaks on the CBC.
I agree that the university should distance themselves as much as possible from Flanagan’s remarks, and make it clear to the public that they don’t condone what he said. I’m also not defending his remarks in any way. Yet to censure him for what seems like a joke gone horribly wrong seems like a bit of an overreaction.
In a couple weeks, most people will forget Flanagan’s remarks on their own. However, if the university censures him, it will make it much harder for people to let Flanagan’s remarks die, considering it would probably be a huge news story itself. That will only draw stronger connections between his assassination comment and the U of C, something those petitioning for his condemnation probably don’t want.
Time for UCalgary to leave students be
The Pridgen brothers won their case, but it’s not over yet
The University of Calgary has decided to appeal an Alberta judge’s ruling not because they disagree with it, but because they want to know how close to the line they can go in the future without the courts stepping in again.
At stake is students’ right to free speech regarding their experiences on a university campus.
The case in question surrounds a Facebook page created by brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen that heavily criticized a professor they both had for a survey law course. Aruna Mitra, the professor, complained to the university after finding these comments online and the university found the brothers guilty of non-academic misconduct, were place on probation and threatened with expulsion if they did not apologize to Mitra.
Typically the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has not applied to universities because they are not government institutions. While they are publically funded, for the most part, universities are deemed legally autonomous, as they are not part of the government infrastructure — i.e. judicial, legislative and executive branches.
But these two students successfully sued the university after a second appeal to the board of governors was denied. Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf’s rulings states: “Students should not be prevented from expressing critical opinions regarding the subject matter or quality of the teaching they are receiving.”
The difference at the University of Calgary, the judge ruled, is that the university was punishing students to try and force desirable behaviour, a job typically performed by government, but universities are allowed to do by legislation. Because these punishments were being carried out in a manner that would normally be dealt with by a government body, the Charter applies.
Interestingly, the University of Calgary has no issue with the ruling and has no intention to pursue further legal action against the Pridgen brothers.
University spokesperson James Stevenson told the Canadian University Press, “This is not about fighting the Pridgens. This is about us trying to seek clarity.”
He said that case law is “all over the map” when it comes to how the Charter applies to universities and the University of Calgary is “seeking clarification as to what aspects the charter plays in day-to-day operations.”
But in doing so, they’re further dragging the Pridgens through hell.
The University of Calgary is right in seeking clarification on what could be a tense legal issue in its future. But at this point the Pridgens should be allowed to continue on with their lives, content that their case was well argued, and well won.
The Charter right to insult your prof
Landmark ruling involving Facebook criticism confirms university actions are government actions
How universities deal with their students may never be the same after an Alberta judge ruled that at least some of their policies and actions can be subject to Charter review. The case involved a challenge from twin brothers, Keith and Steven Pridgen, who were reprimanded in 2008 under the University of Calgary’s student code of conduct for creating a Facebook group that the university says was defamatory towards Aruna Mitra, a former law instructor in the interdisciplinary department of communication and culture.
The students, who were placed on six months probation, took the case to Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench in the spring, arguing that the university violated their Charter right to free expression. On Wednesday, Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf agreed with that assertion. “I cannot accept that expression in the form of criticism of one’s professor must be restricted in order to accomplish the objective of maintaining an appropriate learning environment,” she wrote in her 39 page ruling.
At the Judicial review university lawyer, Kevin Barr reiterated U of C’s position that the comments were defamatory. “It is simply outrageous to suggest that the publication of defamatory statements by a student, directed at a professor over the Internet, does not amount to non-academic misconduct by any standard,” he said.
The Facebook group titled “I no longer fear Hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra,” contained comments from at least 10 other students, one of whom compared Mitra to a shoe. Another comment said that Mitra “got lazy and gave everybody a 65.” Yet another alleged the instructor said that the Magna Carta was signed in 1700 when it was signed in 1215. After Mitra, who had discovered the Facebook page, informed the dean, the brothers were placed on probation. The university lifted the requirement that the students write an apology letter after they refused to do so.
What is precedent setting in the judgement is that Strekaf ruled that the U of C’s actions regarding discipline constitute government action, and, are therefore subject to Charter review. Universities have long held that their actions cannot attract Charter scrutiny because they are autonomous entities with their own decision making bodies. A 1990 Supreme Court case, involving a challenge to the University of Guelph’s mandatory retirement policy ruled that university decisions are not government decisions.
While Strekaf did not dispute that earlier judgment, at least when dealing with university staff, she added that because educating students constitutes a core government directed mandate, as outlined in Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act, that policies related to dealing with students beyond day-to-day operations are subject to Charter scrutiny. While the U of C argued that its disciplinary policies were a part of independent contracts between students and the university, Strekaf argued that such policies cannot be clearly separated from the mandate of educating students.
She also stated that the students’ actions on Facebook constitute a part of the learning process. “The commentary may assist future students in course selection as well as provide feedback to existing students and perhaps reassurance that one is not alone in finding that they are having difficulty appreciating instruction in a particular course,” Strekaf wrote. Update: Though she did allow that some of the comments made on the page by the Pridgens may have “reflected a lack of maturity.”
The Calgary Herald quoted the students’ lawyer who was clearly excited. “Henceforth, the university should be a little slow to say the charter doesn’t apply to them,” he said.
The case could have implications for protest groups that have been denied access to university space, including a U of C pro-life club that has in the past been charged with trespassing for holding demonstrations on campus.
Alberta needs more family doctors
U of C might have the solution
The University of Calgary has found a way to bring more family doctors into Alberta.
According to an article from the Calgary Herald, Alberta needs hundreds of family physicians in both urban and rural areas. With an estimated 200,000 Calgarians without a family doctor, the city needs at least 150 new doctors, along with another 150 rural doctors.
It’s sort of a doctor shortage within a doctor shortage: we need more doctors, but we especially need more family physicians.
In the past, there weren’t nearly enough family doctors coming out of the U of C. In 2007, the department of family medicine accounted for 18 per cent of the school’s total graduating class, much lower than the national average of 33 per cent. At the time, the U of C held the second-lowest rate in the country. “The only school that had fewer students choosing family medicine was McGill (University in Montreal),” said Cathy MacLean, the head of family medicine at the U of C, in an interview with the Herald. MacLean said it was an alarming situation, considering the fact that the U of C’s medical school was founded to train more family doctors.
Fortunately, things are changing. This year, 24 per cent of the U of C’s medical graduates are on the way to becoming family physicians.
The article from the Herald describes some of the changes that lead to this turnaround. Dr. John Keegan was hired as undergraduate director of family medicine to promote and oversee the program, and the clerkship for family medicine was increased to six weeks (it was originally four). The department hopes this extended hands-on experience will translate into an increased interest in family medicine, as students gain more exposure to the field. Additionally, the department increased the number of family doctor teachers.
Despite the extra family doctors on the way, there’s still room for improvement. “We have a large number of people in the Calgary area without family physicians,” Dr. Valerie Congdon, AHS’s acting head of family medicine and the head of rural medicine for the Calgary zone, told the Herald.
The U of C is on the right track, but officials want even more students to choose family medicine. They hope that by 2013, half of all graduating medical students will become family doctors.
More med school news:
McGill eliminates MCAT requirements
