After the McGill administration denied the School of Social Work’s decision to independently hold classes remotely until at least Feb. 25, the Social Work Student Association (SWSA) held a General Assembly (GA) on Jan. 17 to discuss the possibility of a strike. The motion to strike was successfully passed, with[Read More…]
McGill
SSMU hosts virtual Activities Night, student groups cite low engagement
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) hosted its Winter Activities Night on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18. During the Fall Activities Night, the virtual hosting platform Gather.Town crashed almost immediately after it failed to accommodate the high volume of participants attempting to join the event. To prevent another malfunction,[Read More…]
Max Liboiron leads webinar on anti-colonial technology within universities
On Jan. 20, Max Liboiron led a webinar on “Building feminist and anticolonial technologies in compromised spaces” as a part of the fourth season of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker and Workshop Series. Co-sponsored by Alex Ketchum, a faculty lecturer at the McGill Institute for Gender,[Read More…]
André Brock charts the hidden history of Black cybercultures
André Brock, an associate professor of media studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, drew on the connections between Blackness, social media platforms, and Western technoculture in a webinar held on Jan. 12. The lecture was part of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technologies speaker series, which was[Read More…]
Students release open letter calling for hybrid learning and stricter campus safety measures
An open letter, written and published just hours after McGill’s Jan. 14 announcement that in-person learning would recommence on Jan. 24, has been circulating among the student body. The letter, titled “Open Letter to the McGill Administration – Return to in-person learning on January 24th,” denounces the administration’s decision to[Read More…]
Federal government requires international students to be doubly vaccinated to enter
The rapid rise in cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has spurred the Canadian government to implement a restriction requiring all international students entering the country to be fully vaccinated, as of Jan. 15. The Quebec College of Physicians has also called on the government to enforce stricter vaccination[Read More…]
Omicron wave disrupts athletics programs and sports clubs at McGill
All Athletics and Recreation programming at McGill came to a halt on Jan. 6, when the university suspended athletic activities—including both recreational and varsity sports—due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. In a Jan. 11 update, the university announced that a limited amount of individual athletics programming, such as running,[Read More…]
Wellness Hub staff drawn to overwhelmed Quebec hospitals amid COVID-19 surge, leaving limited student appointments
The week of Jan. 3, Charlie*, U1 Medicine, said they contacted the Student Wellness Hub’s phone line every day of the week in an attempt to book an appointment for their partner, who was suffering from a concussion. Instead of receiving support at the Wellness Hub, which would be fully[Read More…]
Students report loss of income and stressful working conditions amidst Omicron wave
McGill students with on-campus jobs are facing new struggles since the latest COVID-19 case surge driven by the Omicron variant. The provincial lockdown closed many non-essential sites of employment on campus, from Gerts Student Bar to the Athletics and Recreation facility, leaving some student employees without income. For students with[Read More…]
Council members voice grievances about inadequate stipends at PGSS Legislative Council meeting
McGill’s Post-Graduate Students’ Society (PGSS) held its first virtual council meeting of the Winter 2022 semester on Jan. 12. Secretary-General Kristi Kouchakji announced the society’s efforts to improve COVID-19 safety standards for graduate students, such as distributing higher quality masks in graduate-student work areas. Councillors also discussed possible ways to[Read More…]
