Track and field left in the dust

Hello,

I am a first-year Cross-Country and Track and Field athlete, and frequent reader of the Journal, but I am writing to you today with regards to my massive disappointment and frustration with the latest edition of the Queen’s Journal (March 14th).

It is clear that no single person cared to follow up as to what happened at the CIS Track and Field championships in Edmonton, AB last weekend, because there was no article in the sports section this week, and nothing on the Journal website, so I will gladly provide the updates.

Women’s 3000m
Julie-Anne Staehli 1st place 9:32.91
Victoria Coates 5th place 9:40.98

Women’s 1500m
Julie-Anne Staehli 5th 4:28.97

Men’s 3000m
Alex Wilkie 9th 8:30.40
David Cashin 12th 8:38.59

I am in no way trying to toot my own horn – while I am proud of my season, I feel if anything, a simple mention of the results of my teammates and I would suffice. Instead, a full 2 pages were dedicated to Women’s basketball – who, don’t get me wrong, have had a stellar year, but how can the Queen’s Journal call it self a comprehensive student paper when it leaves out some of the biggest individual achievements of the year.

Frankly, it takes a pretty ignorant person to disregard the achievements of Julie-Anne Staehli and Victoria Coates especially in the 2013-2014 year, who will be headed to the World University Championships next week in Uganda.

I love everything about Queen’s and hope to become Track/XC captain someday. I am incredibly proud at the results on the trails and tracks this season, but the latest performance from the Queen’s Journal is embarrassing to say the least.

Sincerely,

Alex Wilkie, ArtSci ’17

Union Gallery fee is key

Dear Editor,

The Union Art Gallery, which is supported mainly by a student levy, and exhibits mostly student work, will likely be shuttered because it is repeatedly denied a $3.75 levy by a referendum of the AMS students, ostensibly because they do not feel it is money well spent.

This art gallery, in providing an exhibition and a vernissage for Queen’s artists, forms a critical role in the professional development of our BFA students. Is there any faculty that has their co-op element dependent on the approval of and funding by the student body at large?

In the meantime, St Patrick’s day this year was another embarrassment. By lunchtime, the residences were completely blotto and the outside campus areas were filled with swarming groups of drunken children outfitted in lime green Dollarama and Giant Tiger novelty fashions.

The grownups of the SGPS can be relied upon to approve their subsidy in referendum, but without the contribution of the much larger student body represented by the AMS not much can be done. Funding for the Union Art Gallery should be made secure and reliable by being sourced by the university, the faculty, or the AMS itself, and let’s do away with endless referendums to placate penny-pinchers. It’s obvious that because of the priorities of so many of our undergraduates, we can’t have nice things on this campus.

The amount of the levy requested by the Union Art Gallery is $3.75. That’s half a beer, braa, or the same amount you spent on your leprechaun hat that you wore for three hours and then threw in the gutter outside Ale.

Steven Meece Ed ’12