Our Arts & Culture editor Andrew Mrozowski sits down with former Governor General of Canada, Right Honourable David Johnston, to chat about his career, tips he has for students and his book "Trust: 20 Ways to Build a Better Country".
By: Neda Pirouzmand
Being a student should involve learning about global issues. I have only recently become aware of the opportunities that McMaster University has to offer for global education beyond the tutorial rooms, lab spaces and lecture halls.
On Nov. 2, the film “I am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts” was screened at the Concert Hall in L.R. Wilson Hall. When a close friend told me about the screening, I did not think much of it. It was only afterwards when I talked to her about the film that I realized what I had missed.
The documentary was a heart-wrenching production that showed the story of the Rohingya people against the ongoing escalation of military violence in their homeland of Burma. Fourteen young Rohingya refugees act in the film to retell their families’ oppressive experiences in Burma which include brutal beatings, kidnappings and killings that have impacted over half a million individuals within the community.
Following the screening, there was a panel discussion with the director Yusuf Zine, the producer and cast members. The impact of this event cannot be understated. Not only did McMaster promote a film that provides insight into global affairs, but it also gave students a chance to hear a first-person account of the vision and process of executing such a film.
In partnership with McMaster’s Office of International Affairs, Zine’s special film screening was part of MacGlobal. MacGlobal, which took place from Oct. 22 to Nov. 9, showcased three weeks work of programming to shine light on international perspectives.
One can only imagine how much work went into planning and executing this amazing three-week initiative. MacGlobal was created by the university in support of McMaster’s Global Engagement Strategy, as outlined in the 2016 document “The McMaster Model for Global Engagement: A Strategy Document”.
Back in 2016, the university had set a priority to develop a strategy that would increase its integration of internationally-inspired programming. This document continues to be a key player in the progression of said strategy, and will hopefully inspire more initiatives like MacGlobal.
A key quote in this document is that there must be a call to action for “the transformation of the university on its own ground, whereby […] our approach to any problem is informed by a global awareness.” This is the kind of perspective that we should be seeking from all of our degrees, and it should be made possible for students from any faculty to achieve.
The unfortunate thing is that you have to actively seek opportunities like MacGlobal or know someone involved in them, as they are otherwise difficult to find. Part of this issue is because we lack streamlined communication of events occurring on campus on any given day. The monitors across campus can only show so much, OSCARplus offers a select niche of events and our Twitter accounts are just as selective.
This is something our student leaders should consider addressing. What can be done to create a central hub for daily opportunities, events and special programming to be accessible to all students and faculty members? Questions like this are worth considering so that events like MacGlobal do not go unnoticed by a large proportion of the McMaster community.
This is what we need more of. We need it because this is the kind of stimulation and education that is missing from many of our courses. The kind of learning that comes from MacGlobal is the kind that makes you a more informed global citizen. It sheds light on things that we can become oblivious to in our student bubbles. With this new insight comes a greater ability to learn and apply knowledge.
Without a doubt, I have learned an extensive amount of information and developed a variety of skills thanks to my classes. However, what I believe I still lack in my current undergraduate education is an integration of course material with current and relevant global issues or contexts. Until this can be achieved in-class, initiatives like MacGlobal should be made known to more students on campus.
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As my year as Vice-President Finance of the McMaster Students Union draws to a close, I have been doing a lot of reflecting, thinking about what I have been exposed to in this role. What stands out the most to me are the interactionsI have had with so many impressive student leaders from all different parts of the student body.
Unfortunately, I find myself spending too much time in my role defending the value of student leadership to some members of the University administration, even to those who work closely with student leaders, delivering important programming throughout the year.
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Many important initiatives on this campus have been launched by student leaders. These initiatives are inspired and guided by students’ holistic understanding of the needs and wants of their peers. Virtually every service that the MSU offers came from ideas created and developed by students, for students. We talked about sexual health when the University did not want to (SHEC). We started a medical response team from McKay Hall when a student realized that there was a gap in medical services for students on campus (EFRT). We negotiated a bus pass because we know students need an affordable way to commute to campus.
Similar ideas have been developed by student leaders at the faculty level. Recently, the McMaster Engineering Society launched a Peer Tutoring initiative, the first of its kind at McMaster. Students have been so receptive to the idea, that two of our MSU Presidential candidates championed a similar concept hoping to implement it across the campus.
Students are likely to think outside the box, try new things. And sometimes, they fail. Placing students in positions of leadership has its risks, but I am confident that the rewards outweigh them significantly.
As with any organization, we need to minimize our risk and ensure that groups are behaving and operating in a responsible manner. The MSU has long supported University efforts to develop consistent expectations of student societies and student groups. These include examples such as the development of responsible event planning guidelines, as well as the implementation of rigorous financial accountability mechanisms.
That said, as my term winds to its conclusion I worry that University administration is beginning to devalue the work that student groups do, focusing solely on potential risk. What happened with the Engineering Redsuits’ songbook is tragic, and the group(s) involved need to be held accountable.
Yet this culture does not reflect a campus-wide problem with student leadership, and it will be inappropriate if the University reacts by curtailing student responsibilities both during Welcome Week and at large during the school year.
When harassment at the faculty level was reported in the Degroote Faculty of Business, the University appropriately suspended and disciplined those who were responsible. The tenure system was not broken, suspended or destroyed in response. Rather, specific individuals who had acted inappropriately were identified and the situation was dealt with professionally. Why should issues at the student level operate any differently?
McMaster is a community of 22,000 students and sometimes things go awry. When they do, it’s important that we consider those accidents in the greater context; that we remember all the amazing work done by students on campus.
The University must balance their desire to keep students safe, with the reality that students can and should falter occasionally – this is just part of the learning process. When left to their own devices, students’ successes will far, far outshine the negatives.
The student experience will only truly be enhanced when student leaders are in the positions of decision making and authority over student life. Student leaders have the best understanding of the needs, wants and issues that face undergrads at McMaster University.
I first heard about the Canadian Conference on Student Leadership through a friend who, on March 3, was being asked to sit as a panellist on March 7. Though my friend was and is an excellent candidate for the position, the fact remains that four days prior to the panel of an event that has more than a year to prepare, the CCSL was soliciting the unpaid help of an undergraduate student to fill presenter seats.
My impression of the CCSL did not improve from there. Looking through the titles and descriptions of sessions taking place at this conference, many of them stood out to me as patronizing, self-indulgent, offensive and frankly useless.
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Take for example an Idea Exchange (read: presentation with an interactive component) named, I quote, “Gay, Straight, Bi or ?”. This session was apparently intended to provide attendees with “the tools and advice that you may need to interact and understand that individual or anyone else in that individual’s situation.”
Improper syntax aside, this description is problematic for a number of reasons, first and foremost being – in my opinion – the extremely othering tone. It immediately places the queer community as a completely separate breed, able to be lumped into one mass of “anyone else in that individual’s situation”. To clump the entire community into a tidy bunch separate from the attendees is by definition othering and in this case marginalizing. Though I suppose I should not have expected more from a session that reduces much of the queer community to a piece of punctuation.
But what stood to me most about the CCSL, time and again in various ways, was the prohibitive cost of attending.
Keeping in mind this is a conference aimed primarily at students from across Canada, the fee for student delegates and presenters was $365. Right then, right there, the CCSL is excluding an enormous demographic. Equivalent to many students’ rent for a month, groceries for two months, or utilities for a year, this fee is exorbitant. It restricts this event for ‘student leaders’ to ‘high-income student leaders’. It is elitist and classist, and I’m embarrassed by my University for hosting a conference as exclusionary as this.
Unfortunately, this is not a phenomenon restricted to one university or one organization. The CCSL is a mere example of how we’ve come to commodify ‘leadership’. This ‘leadership industry’, like many others, fabricates the need that it fills.
In the CCSL’s description of a session entitled “Leveraging & Showcasing your Leadership”, we find the following sentence: “Overcome the “I’m just a volunteer” syndrome, and find leadership in every position you’ve held.”
I found this to be incredibly ironic, as they lack the self-awareness to realize that the only reason this session needs to exist is because of the culture the CCSL perpetuates. We should already be putting stock into a variety of experiences, not just those with jargon-laden titles and nametag lanyards.
There is value in what you and those around you do for reasons other than what profiting parties tell you is leadership.
