Notice of Correction
Due to an unfortunate late night technical error, the wrong headline and photo caption appeared with the article concerning APUS and ASSU’s boycotts of Coke on campus. The proper headline was “The real thing?” and the proper photo caption should have read “U of T students have raised questions about Coke’s practices in South America.” We sincerely apologize for the mistakes.
Story does not represent students
(Re: “Architecture students angered by costs, poor studio facilities,” 12 November 2001)
We are writing to you as representatives of the graduate student body of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design (al&d). We believe that the tone and content of your story does not fairly represent the viewpoints of the student body as a whole but only of a few who were possibly involved in initiating and providing the content for this piece.
The $100 fee is collected only from the master’s students of the programme for facilities provided by the faculty. We enjoy some of the best and most accessible facilities on campus, and though they may not be on par with other privately funded universities in North America, they are by no means “shoddy” or equivalent to “just providing electricity.” We have 24 hour access to our studios where we have our own work spaces for the entire academic year, which are fairly generous in size and can be configured to our own liking. The fee also covers costs of the computing facilities, a large and well equipped workshop, audio-visual-photography lab during weekdays and printing and plotting facilities (often open over the weekends). There is room for improvement but the al&d has always been open to and responsive to student suggestions and the GALDSU is committed to seeking these improvements, keeping in mind the limitations and budgetary constraints of the faculty.
The faculty is equipped with three computer labs. While the number of terminals and the software installed may not be sufficient to meet our night-before-presentation demands, they are well used. The need for individual terminals is one that has been necessitated by the shift in presentation techniques to the digital format. Many students have computers at home and thus choose to work there for convenience and some choose to purchase laptops in order to be mobile. Laptops have never been mandatory and we differ with Provost Adel Sedra’s views on making them so because not all of us can afford the cost. Students have a free choice at the al&d (unless the course requires otherwise) as to the methods of drawing and representation that they choose and the student body of this faculty would oppose any restrictions on that choice.
Graduate Architecture
Landscape and Design
Student Union
No more Coca-Cola products, says ASSU
(Re: “The Real Thing?” 15 November 2001.)
Thank you for your recent coverage regarding the boycotting of Coca-Cola products. The Arts and Science Students’ Union (ASSU) will no longer sell Coca-Cola products. We will, however, continue to provide pop for sale. Students should note that ASSU’s reasons for selling pop in the first place were twofold. First, proceeds raised would be donated. Last year, ASSU donated over $3,000 to assist 14 charities, social causes and student volunteer trips. They ranged from local (Barbara Schlifer Clinic) to international (Red Cross India Earthquake Relief Fund). They included University of Toronto projects such as the David Buller Scholarship and assisting four undergraduate students who were raising money to volunteer overseas during the summer.
ASSU will continue to provide pop as a way of collecting money for donations. We will not, however, sell a product from a corporate giant that allegedly condones violence as a justifiable bargaining tool.
Terry Buckland
There’s a better way to darken one’s nipples
(Re: “Love. Lust and Lies,” 12 November 2001)
Naked Journalist Jewel Michelle Katz,
Please, please, please email that girl who wants to darken her nipples.
I know of a cheaper and non-permanent way she can please herself.
She can go to Holt Renfrew and buy some NARS Colour Wash—it’s a heavily pigmented liquid blush. (It’s meant for your eyes, cheeks and lips, but strippers use it to make their nipples darker.)
It comes in three colours—Pussycat (rose), Modesty (purple), and Blow-Up (cinnamon), so I am sure she can find a colour to suit her.
These liquid tints are very concentrated and they will definitely colour the skin. They also stay put for quite a long time and don’t smudge or run under water. (I’m a cosmetics freak. This is why I know.)
If she doesn’t live anywhere near a HR then she can buy online from www.sephora.com, just look for the NARS company products.
So tell her to save some goddamned money and get those products… or a new boyfriend. And I hope it helps.
Isislee
Shame! Even the source says that the Varsity got the story all wrong
(Re: “Architecture students angered by costs, poor studio facilities,” 12 November 2001)
“Architecture students angered,” you claim in your headline. Oh yeah? So where are they in the article? Why am I the only one you could find who questions the user fee? A little later, you refer to the plight of “undergraduate students,” supposedly misused by a system that favours graduate students. Oh yeah? Where are your interviews to back this up? Those are just two glaring problems that a good editor would have picked up and thrown down.
What gives with your interview with me? We spoke on the phone for 15 minutes, and two weeks later this is what drizzles out? A four-sentence paraphrase that gets most everything wrong? For starters, your first draft quotes me saying the desks are “cruddy.” What am I, Holden Caulfield?
Taken out of context, my remarks that the school provides “nothing” for the money make a monkey of me.
The school’s computer facilities are just this side of stellar. A hundred bucks is cheap rent for the computers that the school provides. Your paraphrase misses the point.
What I question is the way the money is levied. I pointed out that the $100 was cash or certified cheque only, that its purposes were not clearly set out, and that it was only when a student needed a key to the building that the fee emerged.
I also spoke of the “poverty of student life,” and mentioned that I am working hard to afford university. I said $100 for me is two week’s groceries or the price of two or three books. I cannot afford to sit down, let alone a laptop. For me, this is essential to the story. You missed it.
I also emphasized that I wanted the story to be balanced and said it was very important to interview many others and not to take my word for anything. I offered contact info for some of my classmates.
I have some respect for the Varsity. I thought a story about conditions at the architecture school,and the $100 building use fee worth exploring.
But you missed the meat of the story, made a mess of my interview, and didn’t do enough digging to locate the goods.
In the end, it looks like it came down to filler—”What can we put in the blank space beside the female condom bit?”
Jacob Allderdice
Faculty of Architecture
Landscape and Design
ed: Despite appearances, Mr. Allderdice was NOT the only interview subject for this story. Many were called, few were chosen.
