Opinion
11.03.2011 |
10
Editor: Brian Platt
At TedX, learn for the sake of learning Editor’s Notebook Justin McElroy
Given their lucrative tuition fees, it’s little wonder international students have more payment options.
INDIANA JOEL/THE UBYSSEY
The Last Word Parting shots and snap judgments on today’s issues Domestic students should have the option to pay by credit card Unlike domestic students, international students can still use credit cards to pay their tuition. This came as a suprise even to us at The Ubyssey. For domestic students, not having access to paying tuition by credit card—as is the option at many other universities—means that struggling students have to find a way to pay their tuition in a single lump sum at the beginning of term. For those that are suffering financially, this is a real worry. We understand why UBC cancelled the credit card payment option, as it was costing them $3 million in fees every year. We also understand that the credit card fee for international students is covered in the internationl tuition rate. What we don’t understand is why domestic students aren’t allowed to cover the cost of their transaction fee if they choose to do so. Surely UBC could make that possible.
A mushy middle ground does not mean transparency Over the last year, UBC had been stubborn in releasing information about its animal testing—but they had at least been consistent and principled. They claimed that it wasn’t their responsibility to change laws on animal research, but rather the responsibility of the Canadian Council on Animal Care. For UBC to release information voluntarily while all other Canadian universities sat silently would damage UBC’s competitive advantage. After a year, UBC has changed its tune. They’ve released some information, and said that they want to be a leader in Canada on the topic. But while we applaud the university for responding to concerns, being transparent and taking a lead in Canada doesn’t mean releasing a few statistics with little context. It means releasing as much information as possible without putting researchers at risk. It means explaining the process—in detail—by which most research happens. It
means being a champion in Canada for overhauling our animal research laws so that they are more transparent and humane. In its change of opinion, UBC has taken a mushy middle ground that doesn’t actually satisfy STOP or other defenders of animal rights, and will make the university’s future decisions on animal testing open to further scrutiny. That they changed their tack is commendable; whether UBC is willing to really commit to transparency remains to be seen.
STOP is providing an activism model for Occupy Despite the released animal research statistics being mostly useless, it still represents a small victory for UBC STOP Animal Research. We’ve made this point before, but STOP has been one of the few examples of organized activism on our campus in recent years. In fact, STOP has been so effective at getting their message across that the Occupy Vancouver participants may want to spend a bit of time learning from them. There have been stories of Arab Spring organizers giving advice to the Occupy camps, but STOP may in fact provide a better model. The methods required for influencing squalid dictatorships are not the same as those needed for influencing democratic governments. STOP provides a model for how to keep your cause in the media spotlight and get the attention of political leaders. At Stephen Toope’s recent town hall, the room was filled with STOP members who, one by one, held up signs during the proceedings. They didn’t interrupt Toope or stop others from speaking; they just reminded everyone that they weren’t going away until they got some answers. Shortly after, UBC released statistics on research. At any UBC event with senior administration members present, you can expect STOP to be there, asking questions. That’s how to effectively represent your cause.
Private security for the Pit benefits students As you may have noticed if you go to the Pit regularly—which means most of you probably haven’t noticed—the AMS now has a private security firm, Live Host, doing security on Wednesday and Friday nights. This is due to a lack of student security guards who meet the training requirements. One of the benefits of having a large and experienced security company manage the doors on busy bar nights is that it gives the police and the liquor board less reason to clamp down on our bar nights. AMS bars get far more attention from these organizations than most bars in Vancouver, and it means they are under a microscope anytime the room is full of students having fun. Depending on how much it ends up costing the AMS (we’ll know that number soon) this may prove to be worth the cost even if there are enough student security guards to do the job. With the closing of Koerner’s, we have precious few places left on campus to have a beer with friends; whatever it takes to keep the RCMP at bay is generally a good thing in our books.
UBC’s democratic deficit needs some proposed solutions By now, anyone who pays even a small amount of attention to issues on campus should be aware of the democratic deficit at UBC: thousands of people live here, including around 7500 non-university residents, but there is no elected council with the power to make land use decisions. Those who consistently bring this problem up—and we include ourselves in that category—need to start putting more effort into proposing concrete solutions for how the situation could change. It’s very difficult to think of a governance model that both UBC and the residents would be happy with, but we have to try. If not, there’s no real pressure on the university to move toward a more democratic system. U
In case you hadn’t noticed, UBC is in the middle of “Celebrate Learning Week.” This week, not to be confused with Thrive Week, Celebrate Research Week, International Week, Business Week or any other themed week on campus, celebrates—you guessed it—learning. That we have to celebrate “learning” with a special week is indicative of how so much is now done by rote, automatically, as part of the tasks needed to acquire a degree and eventually a job. The financial pressures are incredibly high on both university administrators and students alike, so it’s not surprising that more and more of university life is structured around specific purposes. Hence, we get a Celebrate Learning Week. At the end of the day, large universities have evolved so much in the last century that little of our learning is for learning’s sake, for the pure pleasure of exploring our world and opening our eyes. Which is why the events of this week, all of which implicitly celebrate this idea, are pretty cool. And while there are dozens of free events around campus that everyone can enjoy, there are two inexpensive ones that UBC is justifiably hyping. One is a lecture by David Suzuki in the Chan Centre on Thursday. While the UBC professor emeritus has been delivering a variation of the “can the planet be saved?” talk for upwards of two decades, he’s a Canadian icon speaking at his home university. On Saturday, the highlight is the annual TEDxTerry talks. It’s an
independently organized TED event, it takes place in the Life Science Institute for most of the day, and it’s something I’m terrified for. They’ve foolishly allowed me to give a talk about media and communities on behalf of The Ubyssey—which means that I have to dust off my atrophied public speaking skills, wear something presentable and try to speak for 16 minutes straight without slouching my shoulders. But I’m just one of nine speakers at the event. Others, all UBC students (and one alumnus) have amazing stories to tell. Stories about alternative medicine, and the power of choir. Of HIV, and living with bipolar disorder. Every one of us is standing in front of our peers and sharing stories that we believe powerfully in. We gather, we share, we leave enriched. It’s the sort of communication method that used to be much more common—and today, the idea of a storyteller is an odd, antiquated concept. Yet the internet, which has fragmented audiences in so many ways, is responsible for the growth of the public talk. An idea presented to a group would once end with those who watched it in the moment. Now it can be shared, forever and with whomever. A talk, whether it’s part of TED or not, isn’t the end of a discussion, but the beginning. So come to the talks on Saturday if you want to learn, among other things, how amazed I am that a video we made of UBC engineers blowing stuff up can have, at this writing, 150,000 views. But if you don’t come to this event, try and attend another this week. Learn for the sake of learning. Even if it’s wrapped up in a gimmicky week, let’s celebrate the core reason why universities exist. U
Your role in housing Perspectives >> Matt Parson
We all know the Vancouver housing market is outrageous. The lack of affordable housing is particularly salient for students, for whom education is becoming increasingly more expensive, but also for the university itself, which is finding it harder to compete for top faculty with universities in less expensive cities. But UBC is in a unique position to address the issue of affordable housing for students, faculty and staff given its enormous land endowment and propensity for development—and students need to play a role in this. In June 2011, the Board of Governors approved the guiding principles for developing the Housing Action Plan (HAP) to address the housing issue at UBC. President Toope identified affordable housing as “the biggest challenge that UBC faces going forward in terms of recruitment and retention both of students and faculty.” The HAP has most notably aligned the campus housing plan with the academic mission of the university. The goal is to provide a comprehensive framework for affordable and desirable housing choices for students, faculty and staff. This is why students need to pay attention.
The university has set an aggressive growth strategy to increase the number of student beds on campus by 2600 by 2015. The days of thousands of students on waitlists will hopefully soon be gone soon. However, the question of what kind of housing, and at what price, has yet to be answered. It is not uncommon for universities to view student housing as a necessary service to provide rather than a convenience for those who can afford it. Considering the unfortunate housing market that UBC is surrounded by, it is even more crucial for there to be some form of housing assistance to make UBC a more accessible university for all. Thus far, the conversation surrounding the HAP has been dominated by the idea of homeownership for faculty and staff, without much consideration of affordability for students. UBC has made an outstanding commitment to building the Brock and Ponderosa Commons, but these units will be far outside of the budgets of most students on campus. This is why the AMS is hosting a housing forum on November 18. If you also feel that the discussion on how student beds should be offered is one that isn’t finished, please come out and make your voices heard. U —Matt Parson is the AMS VP Academic