You ignorant clods, you
Congratulations to the Varsity staff for showing sexism is alive and well on its front page.
I refer, of course, to that oh-so-catchy headline “Shoe Lady Stalls Rez Construction.”
Such a dilemma for you. What to call a well-known member of Canada’s business class who happens to be female? You could have said museum founder, businesswoman, philanthropist. But oh no, it had to be shoe lady. Too bad the Batas didn’t sell garbage bags—you could have done the ultimate headline.
It’s not just the belittling of the museum founder, but also belittling her important point about the lack of creativity in another glass tower proposed for the campus. At least her building shows a little creativity in design.
The same can hardly be said for yet another glass tower. But then, U of T makes its position pretty clear.
As Paul Kendall said, aesthetics are low down on the scale. Let’s just get that tower built, he says, displaying an attitude that lends itself to medocrity.
S. M.Pratt
Freedom don’t come cheap
(Re: “From the vaults,” 14 January 2002)
Rob Thomas post-scripted a 1991 article on the Persian Gulf War protests claiming that the US presence in Saudi Arabia provoked Osama bin Laden to terrorize the United States. The United States, Canada and a United Nations contingent moved into the Persian Gulf in 1990/1991 to protect Saudi Arabia and retake Kuwait from Iraq’s expansionist dictator Saddam Hussein. Yes, U.S. troops were and continue to be placed in Saudi Arabia, but with the permission of the Saudi government. I found the flippant comment hurtful and disrespectful of the men and women who died in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and the servicemen and servicewomen who died in the Persian Gulf War. As it is written on the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C.: Freedom is not free.
Megan Dawn Howie
Anti-Calendar shouldn’t leave T.A.s off the list
ASSU’s Anti-Calendar: I am sure many students grab a copy each year before or while looking for courses. Why? To look for the grades of the professor teaching the course to see if the course is easy and worthwhile to take. But I feel these grades (especially retake) are greatly influenced by the one person who is left off. While it is true the professor will be teaching and setting the schedule for the course, it is the T.A. who marks and grades, greatly influencing the way you feel about the course. Most of the interaction in the course is that between the T.A. and student. Why is there no space to mark T.As when ASSU passes its course evaluation around?
I know T.As move around from course to course and some stay with the same course or prof. But isn’t there a way to have a separate section to grade T.A.s and post them in ASSU?
T.A.s should be graded just as profs, as they will have a greater effect on the mark received and generally the overall feeling about the course.
The main point of ASSU is to inform the student about the course and T.A.s are an integral part of the course.
Bob Patterson
Give some more thought to this cheating thing, please
(Re: “Stop or I will tell you to stop again,” 17 January 2002)
While I realize the majority of cheaters in university do it for personal gain, I am surprised that Rob Thomas, a generally erudite critic of repressive institutions and elements of society, would so strongly advocate acceptance of the most repressive aspect of the education system: the exam.
I ask myself the same question as Rob [“What would profs and invigilators do if someone cheated and cheated big?”], but on a larger scale; what would happen if an entire department of students and teachers decided to simply not have examinations and give everyone a hundred percent? It surely would be unprecedented, and it would no doubt make newspaper headlines.
Would the university tolerate such an act? How could U of T (or any other school) continue to objectify its students if it were no longer possible to compartmentalize them in an ideological system of “academic” rankings?
Perhaps organized mass cheating could, while possibly tarnishing the name of students within our current system, expose the repressive and contradictory nature of supposedly fair examinations. So, while I don’t believe cheating for personal gain will accomplish much, perhaps organized mass cheating could be used to send a message to the university that students do not accept their ideological manipulation and the so-often-cited pretence of a free education.
Shea Coulson
St. Mike’s has not repudiated Christian values
(Re: “St. Michael’s College compromises the Christian ethic,” 14 January 2002)
The observations in [Mike Pereira’s] article supporting his conclusion are incorrect. To take just two examples: the observation that USMC’s security company does not pay Worker’s Compensation premiums is simply false, as is the statement that USMC violated labour laws. The observation is made that USMC does not forewarn residents and employees before applying noxious-smelling herbicides. This practice was formally discontinued some time ago. Finally, the observation about the USMC grounds supervisor’s disregard for safety that prompted a 27-point grievance by one of his employees to the Ministry of Labour is misleading, as only one of the 27 points was later addressed by the Ministry of Labour. Mr. Pereira also failed to inform Varsity readers that a) he was the employee who filed the grievance and b) he was aware of the largely negative Ministry response to it and c) he was informed that the USMC administration had subsequently addressed all other points, even those that lacked obvious merit.
Like all institutions, USMC has decisions to make, which not everyone agrees with. Mr. Pereira has clearly demonstrated his own personal dissatisfaction. Fortunately, he has lacked significant company in this. Varsity readers may be assured that St. Michael’s College has not repudiated the Christian values for which it has stood for the last 150 years.
Peter Venton
Bursar SMC
Well-deserved criticism of the Varsity
Stories that start on the front page of most newspapers continue somewhere on the inside. I’m not really sure why this is the case, except maybe that one can fit more eye-grabbing headlines onto the front page with the realization that a lot of people only read half the story anyway. To help along the people who want to read the entire story, there is a useful little line that says something like “Please see ‘TA Strike’ on page 3” so you can find the rest of it. For a matter of months and with remarkable consistency, the Varsity has been getting many of these references wrong; “TA Strike” was on page 6, for example. It’s really annoying to have to hunt around the paper to find the story you were reading. Please add a last check to your reference page numbers after the last changes and before you send it off to press, and the quality of your paper will be even higher.
Kalen Martens
Warm and unsolicited praise for the Varsity
I picked up the Varsity at the Green Room recently, and was pleasantly surprised. The article “The War on Flu Season” was a good piece of locally focused and critical journalism, and I was fascinated by the photographs of U of T in the ’20s. I was features editor for Excalibur many years ago, so I thought I’d drop a line to tell you that your paper is appreciated outside of the academy!
Jim Munroe
