4
OPINIONS
THE CAMPUS JANUARY 30, 2023
Colin Ahern, Opinions Editor » thecampus.opinions@gmail.com
I don’t know how to celebrate Lunar New Year “post-pandemic” Gabrielle Liu - Junior Copy Editor
I
n my culture, adults give hong bao, red envelopes with cash, to younger family members during Lunar New Year. It symbolizes elders passing blessings and wealth on to younger generations, preparing them for the future. I wonder what kind of future that is. I wonder what it means to be Asian in majority white spaces “post” pandemic. Despite the pandemic’s lengthy duration, a few years is a short time to process the violence we now know can arise from the more common micro-aggressions, ignorance, and disdain we have experienced in our day-to-day lives. Having conversations about racism is awkward because entrenched racism affects other minorities to a deeper extent and the model minority myth has designated East Asians a status where they’re neither fully accepted nor rejected in majority white spaces. One thing is clear, however: we should acknowledge that Asian racism sits within a context of white supremacy, genocide, and ongoing violence against Indigenous and Black people on the continent – this
is the responsible way forward. According to Statistics Canada, reported hate crimes against East or Southeast Asians rose by 301 per cent in 2020. Similarly, in 2021, there was a targeted shooting in Atlanta killing six women of Asian descent and in 2023 a university student was repeatedly stabbed on a bus for being Chinese. One Canadian youth reported that their principal allegedly said “my ‘kind’ was not the one that started the virus” when asked to put on a mask. These are only a handful of accounts. And, Lunar New Year – in all its joy, food, and tradition – cannot shelter us from this reality. Eleven more people have died in a shooting during a Lunar New Year celebration at Monterey Park, L.A. We live in a culture of invisibility and constant messaging not to subvert order. I was taught not to draw attention to oneself, not to speak up, to listen and learn from authorities and from elders. Deference and “hunkering down and moving on” is typical in many Asian cultures, compounding the resistance to speaking out lest we sacrifice the white man’s favour. Apart from some current privileges we hold, I think
that is why we rarely examine Asian discrimination in North America, and why there is no Asian student association at Bishop’s. Last year, I did not even mark Lunar New Year on my calendar. It was my non- Asian friends who invited me over to make dumplings. This year, we did so once again.
The dumplings we made looked more like xiao long bao rather than jiaozi, but they warmed and ached my heart at once. The experience left me wondering when and how we, as an Asian community, can begin talking about the toll these last few years have had on us.
Photo Courtesy of Gabrielle Liu
Having AI write your essay is not the flex you think it is Sufia Langevin - Associate Editor
T
he advancement of artificial intelligence has caused controversy in many areas, from AI making art based from existing works to AI that can write full essays. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot that was launched at the end of 2022 and has recently garnered lots of attention from educators since it allows users to create essays written as if done by students. It is also very accessible to students as it is a free program. The reaction to ChatGPT has been varied. Some educators and educational institutions seek to ban the program, as it can be used to cheat. Submitting an essay written by an AI program for grades and credits is a form of plagiarism, since it is not content written by the person turning it in. Programs are being developed in response that would have the ability to check if a piece was written by AI, similar to the existing programs that check if pieces are plagiarized from sources online. Others view it as a tool, and are finding ways to show students how to utilize it positively, creating boundaries so that students still create their own work. While the pandemic and online learning saw a shift to take-home exams and essays as opposed to inperson timed exams, the existence of an AI program that can write a student’s final exam in a mere fraction of the time may lead to a turn back
to in-person or proctored exams. Educators that use the program seek to introduce students to technology that they will likely interact with in the workplace. Educators who ban the program fear students cutting corners and cheating. Since the pandemic, students have been feeling overwhelmed, drained, and fatigued in many ways. The idea of being able to create an essay using AI to save time and stress while still getting a decent grade feels really attractive. Even without considering the use of AI plagiarism, there are important reasons why students need to resist the temptation to let ChatGPT boost assignments. In the end, copying an essay from a friend or an AI amounts to the same thing: no engagement with the material and not learning the lesson the assignment was meant to be about. The purpose of higher education is to learn the process of gaining knowledge, rather than a diploma. The essay format involves engagement with course material while developing and defending opinions through research. Cutting corners with ChatGPT robs the student of class lessons and the skills necessary to think for oneself. There are useful and positive ways to use AI tools to enhance learning and engage deeper with material being presented, but having ChatGPT give you a completed essay to turn in is certainly not one of them.
Graphic Courtesy of Leea Rebeca Ruta