Editorial Archives - Page 2 of 4

Raising the minimum wage isn’t a solution to student poverty

Written on January 24, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

Raising the minimum wage isn’t a solution to poverty, particularly poverty among student populations. As students who often work minimum wage jobs and struggle to make ends meet, pushing for a raise in minimum wage seemingly makes sense but we need to put more thought into its real implications. Increasing...

When it comes to math, language matters

Written on January 24, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

When people in positions of responsibility use the excuse ‘math is hard’, it may not seem like much. But when you zoom out, it can be a casual dismissal of a huge part of what pushes us forward as a generation. In an Opinion piece in Maclean’s, writer Anne Kingston claims that women and their capabilities...

Support for students with special needs requires long-term changes, not short-term tweaks

Written on January 24, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

Implementing long-term supports for students with special needs is pressing in the elementary setting — without proper resources in elementary classrooms, students get left behind. In a recent Globe and Mail article, Sam Hammond, the head of Ontario’s elementary teachers’ unions, was quoted pushing...

Public editor position is a first step towards transparency and trust

Written on January 20, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

In a world where newspapers are struggling to maintain a trusting relationship with their readership, the new public editor position at The Varsity is a step towards rebuilding that broken bridge. In a statement explaining why The Varsity would be introducing Sophie Borwein as their first Public Editor,...

A comparison between Canadian and American universities invites the bad and the good

Written on January 20, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

Comparing Canadian universities to America’s Ivy League institutions is like comparing apples and oranges — it’s an invalid comparison as well as unnecessary. When Justin Trudeau stopped in London, ON last week as part of his cross-country tour, he told a roomful of Western students that the school...

Seasonal Affective Disorder deserves a separate conversation

Written on January 20, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

After winter break, as temperatures drop and days become shorter, students often experience a parallel decline in spirits. Sometimes, it’s not just a case of “winter blues” — it’s a form of depression that needs to be addressed by students and professors alike. According to Canada’s Centre for Addiction...

Define the standard, then say tenured profs aren’t meeting it

Written on January 17, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

The system that grants tenure, while getting the most out of professors seeking to earn tenure, is worth a critical look. In an editorial published by University Affairs, writer and Lakehead University professor Gerald Walton claims tenure may be preserving underperforming professors. With a system...

For AMS Speaker policy changes, timing is everything

Written on January 13, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

A recent push to change the AMS Speaker policy just before the AMS election season seems too hasty. At AMS Assembly on Dec 1, a motion arose to amend the AMS constitution, which before had prohibited the Assembly Speaker from running for AMS executive in the January election. The proposed amendment...

Yes, let’s hear about professors’ mental health too

Written on January 13, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

There can be a place for professors to talk about their mental health in a classroom setting. In an article in The New York Times an instructor at George Washington University who taught a first-year writing seminar called “Composing Disability: Crip Ecologies” wondered whether it would be appropriate...

Polarizing opinions block productive dialogue

Written on January 13, 2017. Posted in Editorials.

After a tense and divisive online reaction to the controversial countries-themed costume party that happened last semester, I still can’t explain the reason for such polarizing conversations and I’m still not confident about what qualifies as a racist costume. All I could really tell you was that...

Shutting out diverse opinions isn’t a holistic education

Written on December 1, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Marie Henein shouldn’t be shut out from university campuses for playing her part in a judicial system with a rape culture problem. Henein is the renowned Toronto defence attorney who sparked controversy when she defended Canadian media personality Jian Ghomeshi against several counts of sexual assault...

Look past the prison, to the person

Written on December 1, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

While it’s not wrong to be interested in the corrections field, our interest often wrongly stems from a romanticizing of prisons with little genuine regard for inmates and their personal lives and experiences. In my second year at Queen’s, I joined a club that allowed me to tutor an inmate for a...

Divided learning is a grey area

Written on December 1, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Lumping everyone together doesn’t ensure an equal education. Inclusive classrooms and separate classrooms for enriched students each have their merits for providing a good education. But neither one is never going to leave a student behind. A new inclusive education model in New Brunswick has sparked...

Faltering media literacy spans wider than one generation

Written on November 25, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Our deteriorating ability to read the news is more than a generational shortcoming — it’s worth a larger and closer look at how we all evaluate information, millennial or not. A Stanford University study found that approximately 82 per cent of young teens can’t differentiate between sponsored content...

Clark Hall response positive, but after-the-fact training only goes so far

Written on November 25, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

The actions following the insensitive tip jars at Clark Hall were reasonable and quick — it’s just disappointing that these actions were needed in the first place. During Friday Ritual at Clark Hall on Nov. 11, two tip jars were set up at the bar. One was labeled “grabbing her by the pussy” while...

It may be far, but U of M’s issues beg a far-reaching question

Written on November 18, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

The labour strike at the University of Manitoba may seem a few provinces away, but over-enrolment, pressures on professors and suffering student experiences are problems that exist in our own backyard. After nearly $11 million in budget cuts at U of M, students are paying their peers to get into courses...

Take some taxes with your trigonometry

Written on November 18, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Financial literacy belongs in high school curriculums, the only questions are when and how. In the past few years, there’s been a push to mandate basic financial literacy in current high school curriculum. A recent statement by Ontario Minister of Education Mitzie Hunter announced that the province...

Othello warrants conversation, not retaliation

Written on November 11, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Queen’s Vagabond’s artistic choice left students of colour in the dark and it’s a decision that can’t be ignored. Student theatre company Queen’s Vagabond released a statement last week announcing the suspension of their production of Shakespeare’s Othello. The decision follows a torrent of backlash...

In defense of small towns

Written on November 11, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

There are many truths about living in a small town — McDonald’s is far away, I never lock my house, Domino’s doesn’t deliver and nobody ever knows where I’m from. But some myths about living in the country that impact the way people think about me are outdated, unfounded and need to go. Nothing...

Getting to the core of food insecurity: we have to start somewhere

Written on November 11, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

There are many factors that feed into food insecurity on our campuses — but when it comes to solving the issue, the hunger will only be satisfied if someone takes the first bite. The Hungry for Knowledge report released recently revealed that almost 40 per cent of Canadian students are food “insecure”...

Hangover shortcuts lead to the wrong destination

Written on November 4, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Quick-fix hangover cures only distract from learning how to develop healthy drinking habits. A Manitoba company is touting the all-natural Clear Head, a pill designed to cure symptoms of hangovers. It’s not the first of its kind, but taking a pill before a night of drinking to prevent pain the morning...

Athletic scholarships make sense across the border, not here

Written on November 4, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Adding sports scholarships doesn’t guarantee our athletes will stay, and it may spark a cultural shift we’ll regret. Opportunities for students to play sports under full scholarships in Canada pale in comparison to American schools. Many American universities offer full scholarships for promising...

It may not be thought-provoking, but it works

Written on October 28, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Leaving offensive costumes at the door protects other students, but not explaining why may be a missed opportunity. This Halloween, Brock University’s student union prepared a list of prohibited costumes for those attending their annual Halloween party. The list includes culturally appropriative...

Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself

Written on October 28, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

When I was a child, I was “solemn.” When I was a teenager, I was “temperamental.” After my second year of university, I was diagnosed with depression. Using coded language to discuss mental illness does more harm than good. Initially, it may have been a comfort for those around me to use vague and...

CBC: your value is in your reporting, not your opinions

Written on October 25, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

The CBC is stepping into territory that isn’t theirs to claim. The national media outlet is planning to launch a new opinion section that features commentary on the day’s news. But as a publicly-funded body and a credible news source to many Canadians — particularly in places where other news sources...

University of Ottawa pub crawl deserves more than a template response

Written on October 25, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

It’s easy to publicly condemn something once you’ve been caught doing it — but uOttawa’s Science Students’ Association (SSA) shouldn’t have needed such a public wakeup call. An editor of the University of Ottawa’s French student newspaper, Yasmine Mehdi, recently reported details about an invitation-only...

BISC100 is silencing immigrant voices overseas

Written on October 25, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

“You’re all immigrants now,” my first-year professor announced to an audience of mostly white, affluent first-years on exchange in Britain. That was the start of BISC100/101, a course supposedly designed to increase sensitivity to other cultures that alienated me based on my own. BISC100/101 was introduced...

Replacing textbooks is a bigger change than we might think

Written on October 21, 2016. Posted in Editorials.

Buying textbooks comes at a high cost for students, but the price of more accessible resources is one we may not be willing to pay yet. Open education resources (OER) are educational materials that can be freely accessed, distributed and — in the case of classroom use — reworked to accommodate the...

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