All Posts Tagged With: "University of the Fraser Valley"
When to say no to unpaid gigs
Working for ‘exposure’ is sometimes a raw deal
marfis75/Flickr
Like so many other starry-eyed hopefuls, I started a band in my freshman year.
Starved for music venues and promoters that would give us the time of day, we naively agreed to play a show for a production company. These were the terms we accepted: the band was responsible for selling tickets to the “showcase” concert at $10 a piece. Twenty or so artists were crammed onto the same bill and asked to compete against each other for the most ticket sales. The incentive? Set times (both length and placement) would be determined by which band sold the most tickets. It was unpaid. In exchange for our trouble, we were promised only exposure .
Tom Flanagan, a gross art project & #Lebowskipalooza
What students are talking about today (March 1st)
Flanagan on CBC's Power and Politics
1. Tom Flanagan, a soon-to-be former professor at the University of Calgary and a noted conservative strategist, has been lambasted for questioning the illegality of viewing child porn, which he originally did in an interview with The Manitoban in 2009 and again when asked about it at a lecture in Lethbridge on Wednesday. Practically every politician who ever worked with the guy was tripping over another to distance himself or herself from the comments on Thursday. Part of what he said was this: “I certainly have no sympathy for child molester, but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail for their taste in pictures.” On Thurday he apologized, but the damage was done. Still, one brave student columnist, Travis Gordon of The Cadre at the University of Prince Edward Island, wants people to calm down a bit and consider Flanagan’s academic freedom. “My question is this: Why was a professor retired for voicing an unpopular opinion in an academic setting? Further, why did students not challenge Flanagan’s thinking intelligently? Why instead did they boo him and call him disgusting? Has academic discourse in Canada rescinded into simple, guttural responses?”
Continue reading Tom Flanagan, a gross art project & #Lebowskipalooza
What students are talking about today (November 19th edition)
A Nicki Minaj t-shirt at Harvard, football & bike-sharing
Harvard State
1. As the deadly Israel-Gaza conflict continues, CNN has footage of Anderson Cooper ducking from rocket strikes on repeat while Maclean’s Michael Petrou explains what to watch for next and Nick Taylor-Vaisey analyzes the headlines.
2. Proving that Harvard is still a refuge for the world’s foremost intellectuals, the student-run clothing store Harvard State is selling t-shirts with singer Nicki Minaj’s likeness and the words “Yale You a Stupid Ho.” The photos have offended some (at Yale I assume), but they need not worry. Unlike the shirts that proclaim “Veri Drunk Since 1636,” these ones aren’t yet sold out online.
3. McMaster University’s Marauders football team beat the Calgary Dinos on Saturday at the Mitchell Bowl held at Ron Joyce Stadium in Hamilton in front of nearly 6,000 fans. That means the 48th Vanier Cup on Nov. 23 in Toronto will be a rematch of the 2011 final when McMaster barely beat Laval’s Rouge et Or. Read more in The Silhouette.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (November 19th edition)
What students are talking about today (October 17th edition)
Free textbooks in B.C. and a couple of dumb online posts
wohnai/Flickr
1. British Columbia says it will become the first province in Canada to offer students free online textbooks. They will be available as early as 2013-14 and will cover the 40 most popular post-secondary courses. Printed options would come at a “fraction of traditional textbook costs.”
2. An Ontario man who wrote “Thank God this b—- is dead” on a memorial page for Amanda Todd was fired from his job at a London, Ont. menswear store. Justin Hutchings told The Toronto Star that he wanted to “stir up the pot” and called it “more or less a social experiment.” A Calgary woman called his boss after seeing the post about the teen who killed herself last week.
3. Speaking of dumb internet postings, Lena Dunham, the writer and star of HBO’s Girls, is making headlines for her offensive Tweet to a couple of friends. It says: “You guys go as killer Canadian couple Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka. I’ll be her sister they murdered. Scariest! Luv U.”
Continue reading What students are talking about today (October 17th edition)
What students are talking about today (Sept. 19 edition)
Rich kids tweet, poor kids move home, iPhone 5 cost revealed
ABRAHAMY2K2/Flickr
1. Maclean’s has explored the Rich Kids of Instragram phenomenon where “recent not-so-humblebrags include a snapshot of a $42,000 bar tab (hashtagged “Balliinnn’ #bottles #alcohol #rkoi #richass #cashmoney”) and a pose in front of a sleek yacht (“How else do u expect to get around in the Hamptons??”).” Apparently there are all kinds of legal issues—and you know these kids have got good lawyers. Tweeters beware.
2. New data from Statistics Canada shows that 4.3 million Canadian 20-somethings had either never left their parents’ home or had moved back in during the 2011 Census count. That’s 42 per cent of the total, which is far above the 32 per cent who lived with their parents in 1991. Statistics Canada says cultural differences, school and the cost of living help explain the shift.
3. The new 16 GB iPhone 5, starting price $649 U.S., costs Apple about $207 U.S. to build.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (Sept. 19 edition)
Plenty of room in pilot school
Students scared off by huge tuition and low entry-level pay
Photo by DieselDemon on Flickr
A pilot training program at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C. is running at half capacity, student coordinator Marion Harris told The Ubyssey. That’s despite the fact that 97,000 new pilots are going to be needed in Canada and the U.S. over the next two decades, she said.
One reason cited for the lack of new recruits is that UFV’s four-year Bachelor of Business Administration degree costs about $95,000 in tuition and fees alone—living costs not included.
And although commercial pilots and co-pilots can make $100,000 or more at major airlines, graduates usually start at charters, which pay a median of $40,000—and as low as $18,000—according to the Air Transport Association of Canada.
Even if students scrounge together loans, it’s going to be a while before they can pay them back.
Grow-op electricity thefts “like a five per cent surcharge”
University of the Fraser Valley researchers calculate $154-million annual loss
More than half (52 per cent) of marijuana grow operations in British Columbia are stealing power from the grid, says a new study from the University of the Fraser Valley. Add in all the opportunity cost of not selling that subsidized power to legitimate industriesand those grow ops are costing the electricity system $154-million per year.
That figure is like a five-per-cent surcharge on the electricity bills of the province’s other 2.2 million customers, say the researchers. Darryl Plecas and Jordan Diplock told the Vancouver Sun that their new estimate is about twice what they found in similar study between 1997 and 2003, partially because more theft is occurring as grow ops get bigger, increasing the return from tapping into the system. They say that smart metres, currently being rolled-out in the province, should cut down on the thefts. The study was not sponsored by the main electricity provider, BC Hydro.
