McMaster’s Indigenous Studies Program recently announced a new course, titled “RECONCIL 1A03: Reconciling What? Indigenous Relations in Canada”.
The three unit course, which is open to all members of the McMaster community, will be available in Winter 2019 and will examine the sociopolitical and historical relations between Indigenous peoples and Canada in a post-1951 time period. The course will also explore how colonialism, assimilation and resistance movements are situated in an era of reconciliation.
RECONCIL 1A03 can also be selected as a Personal Interest Course, providing an opportunity for students to explore topics which may be new and unfamiliar.
Vanessa Watts, the Academic Director of McMaster’s Indigenous Studies program says that this course aims to offer a thorough look into what reconciliation means within the Canadian context.
“What we’re seeing in Canadian politics and Indigenous politics is how this word is really landing within communities, within universities and within the business sector,” said Watts. “We’re seeing how it’s circulating and so with this course were trying to unpack that notion of reconciliation given certain historical and contemporary contexts of indigenous people within Canada.”
In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was established to facilitate truth telling and to foster reconciliation in Canada, given the legacy of the Indian Residential School system. An objective of the TRC was to increase public awareness surrounding the Indian Residential School system and its impacts.
McMaster University sits on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations and within the lands protected by the Dish With One Spoon wampum agreement. Within these lands stands the Mohawk Institute, the first, and longest-running residential school in Canada, located nearly 30 minutes from our campus.
The Commission also recommended that Indigenous content be offered at a postsecondary level across multiple disciplines to maintain a momentum of reconciliation into the future. In 2017, Canada announced ten principles respecting the Government of Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples.
These principles represent interests including land, treaties, self-government, rights, resources, and economic development, among others. Indigenous peoples have also identified similar areas of interest and highlight areas such as the need for language revitalization, the need to address systemic inequities and the importance of traditional governance systems.
“Just as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls on Canada and Canadians to witness the impact of the Indian Residential Schools and to be active participants in what reconciliation can look like, my hope is that students at McMaster are excited for the same opportunity,” said Watts.
“It is shared legacy and a shared journey between Indigenous and non Indigenous peoples within Canada and I hope that these students are excited to learn more about reconciliation.”
The Indigenous Studies program is celebrating its 25th year at McMaster Uniersity this year. As such, this course is to offer a contextualized idea of reconciliation as it relates to academia and community, according to Watts.
“It’s important that we think about reconciliation within the program from an academic outlook,” said Watts. “We also look at it from a community based outlook and those are the two kind of themes that run through all of our courses within Indigenous Studies.”
Earlier this year, McMaster released an initial draft of guidelines highlighting their commitment to freedom of expression and what could be defined as acceptable limits to protest, prepared by the Ad Hoc Committee on Protest and Freedom of Expression.
The report and guidelines generated a diverse range of feedback, which was collected by the University Secretariat. After formal review, the University administration released an updated set of guidelines for event organizers and protestors.
The document is intended to ensure that all voices within the McMaster community have the opportunity to be heard, expecting to set a tone that is respectful and inclusive of the entire campus community.
It is also in place to ensure that dissenting or opposing views can be expressed, outlining various responsibilities for event organizers when planning a potentially controversial event.
“As an academic institution, McMaster has an obligation to ensure that the regular academic and administrative business of the University (regularly scheduled lectures, classes, exams, administrative meetings, etc.) continues unhindered,” the document reads.
“The University will accordingly take such steps as are necessary to ensure appropriate conditions to enable a conducive learning, working and living environment, and that academic and general facilities, property and equipment are available for use for their regular purposes as part of the ongoing academic and administrative business of the University.”
Event organizers are encouraged to consider the potential impact of their event on other community members and to work with the University so that any necessary measures or supports can be put in place.
The updated guidance document now includes clearly defined roles and responsibilities of various groups on campus, a revised fundamental commitment section to include specific acknowledgement of the power imbalance that exists within our community, tightened language surrounding discrimination and harassment to be more consistent with Canadian law and further information surrounding support services available within the university.
Several organizers and activists on campus are unhappy with these new guidelines, claiming that these guidelines limit expression from marginalized groups.
“Organizers and activists on campus feel that the guidelines are way to silence those who are resisting institutional repression.,” said an organizer who wished to remain anonymous.
“The university favours free speech but at the expense of marginalized students. Where as our dissent isn’t granted that same protection. The university can’t stop students from protesting, but what they can do is create vague guidelines that hold absolutely no weight.”
The guidance document lists examples of what the university would deem acceptable and unacceptable forms of protests, generally listing any behaviour that would impede on an event’s progression as unacceptable. This includes blocking the audience’s view, inciting violence or hatred against an individual or group, or causing damage to property.
In the case of unacceptable forms of dissent or protest from audience members, the event organizer or any moderator/facilitator should first notify the relevant individual or group that their behaviour is not acceptable, and is interfering with the event.
If the behaviour continues, relevant individuals should be asked to leave and the assistance of Security Services can be sought in the event that individuals fail to leave when asked to do so.
If an individual is concerned that conduct at an event violates or appears to violate any laws, University policies or codes of conduct, they are encouraged to notify the relevant University office so that conduct can be investigated and addressed in accordance with the University’s usual process or policies.
University of Toronto offers an option for students that McMaster should start looking into. The credit/no credit option allows students to designate certain courses to show up on their transcript as either a credit or no credit as opposed to the GPA being shown.
Students may select up to two credits out of the 20 needed to graduate at University of Toronto.
This applies to degree students at all University of Toronto campuses, including University of Toronto, Mississauga.
The equivalent to this at McMaster would be being able to use the option for either four one-term courses, two full-year courses or a combination of both.
This mode of assessment can be applied as long as it is no later than the last day to drop the course.
In order to achieve a status of Credit (CR), students must have a final mark of at least 50 per cent.
Marks that are below this requirement would be assess as No Credit (NCR). Courses with a final status of CR will count still qualify as degree credits and will have no effect on student’s GPAs.
The only possible downfall is that though the courses will not affect students’ GPA, they would count as Distribution Requirements and degree credits, but can not be used to satisfy program requirements.
Courses with a final status of NCR do no count as degree credits, but will not count as failures or factor into GPA calculations.
This is an effective option for students that McMaster should consider making available to students.
Not only would it take away the stress of receiving a poor grade in a course, but it would also prevent students from having to worry about explaining why they have a “W” for withdrawal on their transcripts if they need to drop a course.
Given that the usual course load for students is 15 credits in one semester, the stress of a full course workload would be diminished and students would be able to invest in the course content more thoroughly instead of having to worry about merely getting a grade that would satisfy a required GPA.
In addition, it would allow students to experiment in different academic areas that they may not be familiar with or consider taking courses out of interest without worrying about excelling in it or the grade that might appear on their academic record or transcript.
Courses with a final status of CR will count still qualify as degree credits and will have no effect on student’s GPAs.
It would also allow students to take a course without worrying about severing their reputation with the professor, as the professor would not know which students are taking the course for CR/NCR and which are taking it for the grade.
If, for whatever reason, you have declared NCR in the course and you end up deciding that you want the grade instead, you would also have the option to undo the designation up until the last date to drop the course.
As emergencies and life often get in the way of work when we least expect it, this would be an effective option. It would allow students to maintain their GPAs and still manage to swerve what life throws at us.
Although McMaster does offer the option to submit a McMaster Student Absence Form, this option addresses concerns that an MSAF does not cover.
For full-term courses that are more difficult to escape, the Credit/No Credit option would allow students to not have to commit to a course they may not enjoy and drag on for two semesters.
This mode of assessment addresses areas the McMaster University has yet to. As exam season nears, I can’t help but think how this option could have saved me for some of my courses and I’m sure that many other students feel the same way.
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In April 2017, an agreement between The Building Union of Canada on behalf of the Operation and Maintenance Staff of McMaster and the university was reached to update the Pay Equity Plan. Effective Oct. 8, all cleaning staff, regardless of job title, will be paid identical wages. This does not include wage increases due to experience.
This conclusion has been overdue for decades. At a Board of Governors meeting on Oct. 21, 2010, they voted to ratify the tentative agreements between the University and the Service Employees International Union, the ones representing the staff at the time. These negotiations left a lot to be desired.
84 full-time employees were assigned wages at or below the poverty line without dental or health coverage benefits. Part-time employees were left even worse off as they were non-unionized until the mid-2000s, and their recency became a disadvantage. It resulted in a 25 per cent reduction in pay for cleaners according to Peter Foulds, director of operations for BUC.
The BUC took over in August 2013. Using arguments related to the living wage, a heavily researched concept at McMaster, points made in Patrick Deane’s “Forward with Integrity” paper, arbitration and digging into the specifics of old agreements, they eventually got to a point where they could renegotiate.
After lawyers, government officials and a large amount of legal back and forth, the university conceded that they had not had proper pay equity practices in place for an extensive period of time dating to before the 2010 agreement.
This agreement from April includes pay increases between 5.2 per cent and 21 per cent for staff, lump sum payments to compensate for the failure to maintain the pay equity and represents the first monetary increase since that 2010 date.
Foulds believes that McMaster is now treating its employees fairly. The legal progress and agreements are one that the union, the university and the staff are happy with.
The next steps relate to the potential for the Ontario government to push forward additional legislation on the minimum wage in the province. Another, more immediate process currently in progress is a grievance filed related to parking privileges during employees’ night shift. The next meeting for this is expected to take place on Aug. 3.
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The latest research from organizations such as Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, Council of Ontario Universities and the Canadian Federation of Students paint a grim picture for international student attending a postsecondary institution in Ontario. Despite the growing international student population, their tuition has risen at a remarkable rate — meant to make up for reductions in government grants.
At McMaster, this gap is just as obvious. A domestic, full-time student enrolling in a program such as life sciences will pay $7228.79 in tuition fees whereas an international student in the same program will pay $25,923.88. International students also do not have access to needs-based scholarships McMaster offers, though they do have access to an international student bursary.
Likewise, due to stipulations in their student visas, international students are limited to working 20 hours a week off-campus during the school year and can only take on internships and co-op placements if they are explicitly a part of their degree.
It is unfair to expect international students to foot the bill of our education when McMaster is a public university. These funds should be coming from the provincial government. Targeting a group that is expected to pay such a high fee and actively recruiting them over domestic students is unethical to all parties involved as it drains resources from one group while taking opportunity from another. High tuition costs also ensure we limit international students to only those of means, which can alienate students who may want to attend McMaster in order to flee hardships or prejudice in their home country.
In addition, it is clear that this money is not being re-invested into supporting international students who attend our universities. McMaster’s International Student Services office mainly focuses on helping students with immigration issues and offers some programming like a mentorship program and English classes. The “Student Life” section of their website mainly focuses on getting international students to explore Hamilton and informs them of popular Hamilton events such as Supercrawl. There is little evidence of support services on their website.
“Considering how many extra fees international students pay, it would only be fair to us that other support services were put in place to ensure that international students’ mental and physical health is being cared for,” said Paula Daidone, a McMaster alumna. Daidone was an international student of McMaster’s Communications Studies program, and is currently enrolled in the McMaster Communication Studies Masters’ program.
Under “Campus Support Services,” the three McMaster Student Union-run services listed are MSU Spark, the Queer Student Community Centre and Diversity Services. Spark focuses on first-year transition, the QSCC offers peer support and programming for LGBTQ students and Diversity Services focuses on creating an inclusive environment for students of colour and other marginalized groups.
While these three services are undeniably relevant to international students, why is Diversity Services, a service geared more towards advocacy and education rather than support, listed when services such as Peer Support Line, the Women and Gender Equity Network, Maccess and the Student Health Education Centre all have on-campus spaces equipped with peer-support volunteers? The page reads as though someone looked through the MSU services tab 10 years ago and picked the first three that sounded right.
Similarly, only two MSU clubs are listed: McMaster International and Exchange Club and McMaster Outdoors Club. This is particularly odd given how many cultural associations exist at McMaster that attract many international students who wish to connect with those from their home country.
While this is likely because the ISS wants international students to integrate into the community rather than only befriending other international students, it exemplifies how little they understand the immigration process and how being surrounded by people with the same lived experiences as you can aid in the immigration process.
The website’s focus is clear: recruitment, recruitment, recruitment. International students are expected to crawl through the pages and pages of services and clubs the student union has to offer despite many groups explicitly supporting them. I’d willingly wager that they have not updated most aspects of the Support section of their webpage since it was created.
If a student were to exclusively use the ISS’s website to integrate themselves into the McMaster and Hamilton community, they would struggle.
If McMaster as an institution is going to focus on international student recruitment, the very least they could do is ensure that the immigration process is as smooth as possible outside of the legal aspects. Immigrating to a new country alone is a difficult endeavor, as is adjusting to university. If proper support services outside of simply helping them get into the country and speaking English are implemented, McMaster will continue to be a disservice to the international students who pay for bills.
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Before we concluded our interview, Hannah Martin shared a poem from the late Mik’maq poet and songwriter Rita Joe.
“I am the Indian/And the burden/Lies yet with me.”
Martin, too, is Mik’maq. As a First Nations person, and a member of the McMaster Indigenous Student Community Alliance, she personally identified that burden as a distinct responsibility to educate, and to make real the long history of the overlooked injustices of indigenous people across Canada.
The federal government’s work in addressing the issues faced by Indigenous communities across Canada has largely been seen as inadequate. The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation commission pointed out the failure to meet proper Indigenous curriculum standards throughout the country. Education on Indigenous culture, as well as the historical atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples, is only recommended and not mandatory in the public education system, even in a time where residential school survivors and victims of the Sixties Scoop — the practice of taking Indigenous children from their families and putting them in the foster care system — are still facing the repercussions of these tragedies.
Martin and her colleagues are frustrated, but also deeply driven to promote dialogue around MISCA’s latest initiative: mandatory Indigenous courses at McMaster University.
The petition
The Change.org petition was drafted by the student community association as a means of addressing the gaps in Indigenous awareness and education. Similar student movements have been successful at implementing an undergraduate Indigenous studies credit requirement at both Lakehead University and the University of Winnipeg. Preliminary discussions among the faculty of Indigenous studies have already begun taking place.
“I think a lot of what is wrong with Indigenous relations in this country is that it has been simplified for people.”
MISCA’s petition is calling for the implementation of mandatory Indigenous courses in recognition of the University’s location on historical Haudenosaunee land. The association also considers it an integral part of the reconciliation process recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Council’s Calls to Action.
Educational structure
The logistics of implementing a required Indigenous studies credit have yet to be worked out by the University, the Faculty of Indigenous studies and MISCA’s members. While the latter two are looking to the University of Winnipeg and Lakehead University for guidance, the requirement will only begin for students enrolling in the 2016 fall school year, so the results remain to be seen.
In Winnipeg, students will be able to choose from a list of three-credit courses spanning across departments that will fulfill the requirement. Lakehead has offered a similarly flexible approach, as there is a significant number of pre-existing courses that have a minimum of 18 hours of content related to Indigenous issues ranging across different departments. Lakehead has explicitly committed to adding no additional costs for the students that need to fulfill this requirement.
Both universities have pushed themselves away from the implementation of a mass, one-size-fits-all course, and similar attitudes have been shared by members of MISCA and the Faculty of Indigenous studies.
McMaster’s Indigenous Studies’ Academic Director Dr. Rick Monture identified several concerns with the implementation of mandatory Indigenous courses. Monture said that the discussions have only begun to take place, and it is too early to tell where the additional resources needed to provide a greater range of Indigenous courses for different faculties could come from. Furthermore, the faculty is weary of potential tensions that could arise by making Indigenous studies a mandatory academic components, and wants to avoid creating potentially detrimental learning environments. While Monture and his colleagues are happy to be discussing the possibilities of this initiative with the University, he personally recognizes the difficulty of working with professors’ academic freedom and the limited scope of their own expertise.
“I think that sort of points to a big issue of people thinking that teaching Indigenous stuff is simple and that it’s kind of an easy fix to a big, big problem that’s been festering or has been in process for several decades now. How do you untangle all of that complex history, Canadian history and political history and social history, again, into a three unit course? Yeah, any little bit would help but I don’t want people who would be leaving that course to think that they understand these things now because I think a lot of what is wrong with Indigenous relations in this country is that it has been simplified for people,” stated Monture.
“The media has simplified things, elementary and secondary and post-secondary curriculum pays very little attention to Indigenous stuff so people don’t think that there is anything they really need to know … When you present them with something more complex, it confuses people, so we need to be very thoughtful of how we move forward with this.”
Despite the pragmatic difficulties, members of MISCA are still confident that Indigenous applications have the potential to be valuable for a wide range of disciplines under a more faculty-oriented model.
Last week, the Global Engineering Conference included a presentation from MISCA with a guest speaker that addressed the need for developers to speak with Indigenous peoples across the world about matters of land. Earlier this year, an Indigenous Health Conference united Health Sciences students and professionals to discuss some of the unique health challenges that face Indigenous communities.
“It’s my responsibility to carry that knowledge on to make sure no one forgets that it’s happened. That’s like the greatest fear of our people … we’re not mad, we just want people to be aware of what happened, we want people to be aware of the truth.”
The petition has been received with mixed receptions from the student body, but as current MISCA Secretary Treasurer Gail Jamieson explained, the lack of knowledge that has come up time and time again in conversation has only led to the group believing more needs to be done to educate more people about these issues.
“Every city has people with addictions, but it’s funny how non-Natives will point at you, and point out everything wrong in the community, and not ask … why has this happened. I think education is a really big part of that. You can’t help anybody or support anybody unless you know why, and I think Canada really has to look at that,” explained Gail.
Three-year-long MISCA member Evan Jamieson-Eckel explained that individuals would often object to the notion of increased Indigenous education, largely pointing at a variety of real and stereotypical associations with Indigenous culture and contemporary issues. He said that the importance of this history is for all Treaty peoples, which explicitly includes non-Indigenous individuals.
“Even when treaties are being brought up, it’s not like we want these things for ourselves. The treaties are between native nations and Canada. That’s everyone, everyone is a treaty person that’s one thing you’ll hear a lot too. That’s what people need to realise too. We’re all in this together right? And that’s what we’re trying to push. We can’t get to the point of reconciliation without looking at the past and learning from it and how to best move forward with that information.”
The grade school gap
Still, the necessity of mandatory Indigenous education at the post-secondary level ultimately stems from a lack of mandatory curriculum at the grade school level. MISCA has officially supported and began to circulate a petition started by KAIROS, a human rights advocacy group, that demands more vigorous implementation of age appropriate K-12 Indigenous education in accordance to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 63. The curriculum would include studies of residential schools, Treaties, and contemporary and historical Indigenous contributions to the country.
“Maybe eventually it wouldn’t have to be mandatory once all these ones that have been taught in public school catch up to your university grade and maybe more people would love that subject and want to learn more and want to take it when they are in university as an elective. But for now, I think it has to be mandatory because there has been a lack that the government has done, and they’ve lied about the true history of Canada,” explained Jamieson.
Encouraging dialogue
While it is highly unlikely that a single, three unit course could be a satisfactory means of implementing this mandate, advocates will need to carefully look to Lakehead University and the University of Winnipeg more integrated model in the coming school years to evaluate the pre-existing models.
Nonetheless, the logistical complications should not prevent serious consideration about the state of Indigenous education in post-secondary institutions and especially grade schools where this part of Canadian culture and history is actively overlooked.
Despite the frustration, and despite the determination to promote this initiative, time and time again, the members of MISCA showed that above all else, they want to be heard. They were ready for both constructive input, criticisms and concerns, but they are also bracing themselves for outrage, confusion and outright rejection.
Hannah Martin left with a final anecdote about the personal responsibility she feels to her people and culture, and Canadian society as a whole.
“It’s my responsibility to carry that knowledge on to make sure no one forgets that it’s happened. That’s like the greatest fear of our people … we’re not mad, we just want people to be aware of what happened, we want people to be aware of the truth. It’s a huge responsibility for us to try to educate people every single day, and that’s a responsibility I carry with me every day and I will until I die.”
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Although it is only February, 2016 seems to be my year of introspection and big decisions. I am in my third year of the Arts and Science program and although I chose this degree to get exposure to a variety of fields, I pushed myself into focusing on biology — certainly not my favourite subject — with seemingly no pressure from anyone but myself. Unhappy with my schoolwork, this year I decided to change that. I took a step back and asked myself, what’s so appealing about science? Why is my story so common?
McMaster students may be more biased towards the sciences since our university is best known for its scientific research. With so much campus space designated for science students, it’s understandable to crave being part of that community. McMaster made a proactive choice when deciding to build L.R. Wilson Hall, a space for liberal arts students to feel the same sense of togetherness and appreciation that science students experience. Perhaps it will encourage students to embrace their interests and not feel pressured into a stream that doesn’t suit them. Perhaps not.
The way in which many students generally speak about the humanities is relatively simplified. When we talk about the humanities, we should be talking about philosophy, art history, French, communication studies, and linguistics, to provide a few examples. It is misguided and inaccurate to reduce a program to nothing but writing essays and calling that “easy.” Not everyone can communicate effectively enough to get a point across in an essay, just as not everyone is able to work well in a biology lab. Yet, we need both types of people. Part of the reason science is so appealing could be attributed to the seemingly infinite options it presents. But if science can be divided into chemistry, physics, biology, and technology, then let’s not forget to acknowledge the diversity within the humanities. Regardless of the fact that studying the humanities can lead to very successful careers, there is a pressure to avoid them at all costs. Maybe that’s because it’s convenient to pursue the sciences to avoid the usual questions about what on earth you’re going to do after graduation. If you’re in the sciences, you tend to get off easier because there’s always med school, right? However, if you’re in the humanities, people often forget the boundless options that exist because they forget how vast a field it is.
Studying science gives the illusion that there’s an obvious answer as to what you will be doing next. There’s either research or medicine, and that’s all. That, too, is a dangerously singular way to think, and yet, this seemingly clear path could be what attracts so many students. Tunnel vision is an interesting thing when it comes to education. On one hand, you may love it because it steers you in a defined direction. On the other hand, you could hate it because you may find that direction doesn’t fit you. The important thing is to take a step back once in a while and ask yourself what you find appealing about your field of study. If nothing comes to mind, it might be time to explore a bit more.
Studying science gives the illusion that there’s an obvious answer as to what you will be doing next.
The reality is that this pressure we feel to study the natural sciences isn’t solely because of McMaster’s reputation, but rather, the wider growing obsession with scientific and technological advancement. While it is important for us to study science and develop technologies to better our world, it takes all sorts of people to better society. We fail to recognize that this growing culture of praise for science and technology is giving us tunnel vision when it comes to our education.
At the end of the day, university education has become the new baseline for future career prospects. The majority of us, no matter what we go into, will have to continue our education. Therefore, if you find science to lack the appeal it’s hyped up to have, then you should explore other fields of study. It would be short-sighted to limit yourself so early in your education and feel pressured to pursue something that has just as many prospects as other fields of study. As a fellow Marauder, I urge you to remain open-minded about other faculties and programs and take courses outside of your comfort zone. You’ll never know what you’ll find intriguing.
Photo Credit: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore
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Re-examine setbacks
It’s easy to say that you didn’t do well because the instructor was an asshole, but there’s usually something on your end as well. Be critical about your study habits! Sometimes the reason is not as obvious as “I just didn’t go to class and crammed everything in the last week.” Maybe it’s because you’re studying to music with lyrics and you need to listen to ambient sounds instead. One of the best apps around is called “Noisli;” download it onto your phone and get ready to focus like never before.
Learn to adapt
There’s no one way of studying that will get you a 12 in all subjects, so make sure your study method is appropriate for what you’re trying to do. This will increase your likelihood of success and minimize wasted time. If you need to memorize a boatload of notes, you want to test yourself with cue cards (or the like) and not just read your notes. If it’s a problem-based course, you want to do as many practice problems as possible instead of focusing your time on reading the textbook.
Time to get organized
In your planner or calendar, mark down all the quizzes, tests, and assignment due dates for all your courses. This way you can plan ahead and know when you cannot afford to go to Motown. If you want to be even more detailed, set your own due dates for when you want a part of your assignment, or a reading, to be done. That way you won’t have a revelation at 2 a.m. that you have a 2,000 word essay due in a week.
Get a fresh start
If you need to get the sour taste of those 6s from last semester out of your mouth, get a fresh start by getting a new set of stationary and notebooks. Clean up your room and start a new routine. These changes require time, preparation and commitment, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t succeed initially. Actually sleep at appropriate times. Don’t fixate on your bad marks, because you can’t change those and they just add an unnecessary pressure.
Pencil in a break
Your mind tends to become petrified into stone when you continuously focus on one task for too long. Take 10-minute breaks for every 40 minutes of studying. Switch subjects every few hours. Go to the gym or even the grocery store. To ease your guilty mind when you’re not studying, know that your break can still be productive in some way. Try downloading the Pomodoro Timer on your laptop or phone, a great app to help you keep track of your work and of your breaks.
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Students across the province may soon have a little more change in their pockets. On Jan. 11, a letter-writing campaign was launched by the MSU and other schools belonging to the Ontario University Student Alliance with the aim of convincing the Ontario government to fund a five-year tuition freeze.
TimeOut Tuition is the actualization of MSU President Ehima Osazuwa’s much-discussed tuition platform point, an issue whose solution students have been waiting to see come to fruition.
“Tuition and financial aid and affordability has been a priority for the MSU this year, and one of the biggest things we wanted to do was galvanize a lot of student support behind ideas like a tuition freeze for the next tuition framework,” explained Spencer Nestico-Semianiw, VP (Education).
He hopes the letter-writing campaign will help gain much of this support. The letter itself succinctly explains the main concerns OUSA-affiliated schools have with the steady increase in tuition, namely the unsustainable nature of the increase and the serious financial burden tuition and debt place on students. Nestico-Semianiw hopes that students relate to the issues identified in the letter, and welcomes any who wish to write their own personal notes.
Nestico-Semianiw’s goal is to send a package of 1,000 signed letters to Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Ministries of Training Colleges and Universities and Finance. “What we’re urging the government to do is reallocate some money that’s already in the sector, specifically the tuition and education tax credits to fund a fully-funded tuition freeze,” he said. This means that not only will tuition remain stable for the duration of the freeze, but that it will be funded by the government to ensure Ontario and Canada at large remain competitive in the academic world.
“If next year’s teams don’t make this [advocacy] as big of a priority, then it’s going to be very easy for this conversation to be lost in the next framework.”
Nestico-Semianiw was quick to admit the freeze comes at a high price. It would cost the province around $106 million. The MSU and its OUSA colleagues are asking that this be replaced with money from the $340 million the government spends on post-secondary education tax credits. He explained that the issue with these tax credits is that they are not distributed in an equitable manner. Lower income families claim around one fourth the amount that higher income families do because they pay less taxes.
Another issue with the way tax credits are distributed is that none of the money is available to students or their families upfront. “It’s something you only get back after you’ve completed a year or two years or you might not receive the benefit for half a decade,” Nestico-Semianiw said.
If the letter-writing campaign is successful, the Ontario government will freeze tuition rates for five years, following the expiration of the current framework in 2017. Without this constant hike in tuition, a first-year student in the 2017-18 school year would hypothetically save approximately a total of $750 over the course of their four-year undergraduate program during the freeze. Students in a five-year program would save closer to $1,000.
While he anticipates a successful outcome for the campaign, Nestico-Semianiw acknowledges TimeOut Tuition is only the beginning of a surge of advocacy for lower tuition in Ontario. He expressed confidence in the soon-to-be-announced MSU presidential candidates, many of whom are eager to work on this project as well. “If next year’s teams don’t make this [advocacy] as big of a priority, then it’s going to be very easy for this conversation to be lost in the next framework if students aren’t at the forefront of that,” he said.
The MSU hopes to gain support for TimeOut Tuition not just from students, but from politicians, community members and even the university. “It’s definitely student-centered and student-run, but we want to show that these are ideas [others] all get behind,” Nestico-Semianiw explained. As of Jan. 12, the campaign had received just over 400 signed letters, including one from Hamilton Ward 1 councilor Aidan Johnson.
Photo Credit: Jon White/Photo Editor
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This semester the McMaster Museum of Art is infusing art and healthcare onto the same canvas. On display until March 26, Picturing Wellness is a two-part exhibition that concentrates on using a health-humanities perspective as a guide in understanding resilience through treatment, care and social action.
The first segment, Picturing Wellness I: From Adversity to Resilience, is currently on display at the museum. Coordinated by Christine Wekerle, Associate Professor of Paediatrics at McMaster, the didactic exhibition examines how visual literacy can be used by health professionals to develop their observational and empathetic skills.
The exhibition developed out of two collaborative courses at McMaster, offered by the Faculty of Health Sciences: “Engaging and Educating in Child Maltreatment” and “The Art of Seeing.”
“We really wanted to have that opportunity to engage the student community in what really is social action,” said Wekerle.
The scientific basis of healthcare is often thought of as being strictly separate from the arts. Yet, as Wekerle hopes to demonstrate with the exhibit, there is considerable overlap between the two fields. “Both in [visual] arts and in sciences, we rely on systematic observation, natural experiment, and interdisciplinary methods,” she explained. “Even when considering something such as surgery, the process of determining which actions to take and where to make incisions, these decisions can certainly be considered artful.”
The fact that art can enhance evidence-based healthcare practice is due to the observational skills gained from visual literacy. Specifically, visual literacy entails for perceptual accuracy of details and a template for systematically moving through a visual.
“[The exhibition] aims to show that art and science both have a lot of emphasis on detail,” explained Wekerle, “because much of the details [in healthcare] are open to interpretation, education in visual literacy provides practice in a no right-or-wrong situation.”
“Visual literacy means that you develop a language and tolerance for ambiguous situations,” Wekerle added, “when you encounter a distressful situation and you are capable to have a very systematic method which mimics the scientific method, you begin to realize that science and art are very closely aligned.”
Picturing Wellness I features a number of works from the McMaster collection, including those by David Blackwood, Blake Debassige, Michelle Bellemare and Betta Goodwin. The pressing issue of mental health and child-abuse resonates from a significant number of these works.
“Collectively we can play a part in alleviating the stigma for mental health, especially in men. The MSU Mental Health Strategy has a vision of different ways to encourage McMaster students to reach out, and reinforcing the notion that reaching out is resilience,” affirmed Wekerle.
“We know that child abuse is unfortunately also a common experience, and one that should be disclosed as soon as possible, to ensure better mental health as an outcome,” she added.
Picturing Wellness II: Museums and Social Engagement reflects on broader issues concerning trauma, body, memory, medicine, history, health and the museum. The opening reception will take place on Jan. 14 followed by a panel discussion on Feb. 25.
Photo Credits: Jon White/Photo Editor
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