Simon Poitrimolt Quebec’s high school drop out rate is by far the highest in Canada. The provincial government estimates that the 2009-10 school year saw the graduation of only 73.8 per cent of students under 20. Mounting popular demand has pressured legislators to adopt aggressive goals and implement a variety[Read More…]
News
News, off and on campus.
SSMU hosts Consultation Fair
Last Wednesday, SSMU hosted the inaugural Consultation Fair, a joint effort by SSMU, McGill faculty and administrators, and a number of other members of the McGill community. The fair, initiated by the Working Group on Consultation and Communication, was designed to respond to calls for a more transparent administration and[Read More…]
Students exonerated for protest
McGill students Joel Pedneault and Micha Stettin were exonerated Friday on charges of disrupting university activities due to their involvement in a demonstration in support of MUNACA on Oct. 11. Pedneault, VP External of SSMU, and Stettin, Arts Representative to SSMU, were originally accused of violating two sections of the[Read More…]
Referendum period opens with ballot on CKUT and QPIRG
The fall referendum campaign period opens this week, and features two questions on whether QPIRG McGill and CKUT’s student fees should cease to be opt-outable via the Minerva online system and instead be refundable directly though each organization. Students will be able to vote on the questions from Nov 4-10.[Read More…]
Mansur on clash of civilizations
Sam Reynolds Salim Mansur, himself an immigrant to Canada from India, may seem like an unlikely candidate to talk about the dangers posed by other cultures, yet he discussed just that in his McGill lecture on Oct. 17. Mansur, a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario,[Read More…]
RIM launches next generation of blackberry smartphones
Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled a next generation platform for its Blackberry smartphones on Oct. 18 at a developer conference in San Francisco. The operating system, known simply as BBX, aims to merge Blackberry’s current smartphone platform with that of its PlayBook tablet, QNX. In an attempt to encourage developers,[Read More…]
McGill waves goodbye to 40-year Book Fair tradition
After over 40 years, McGill’s annual book fair has closed its doors for the last time. The volunteer-run fair, which took place this year from Oct. 18-20, will be the last of its kind at McGill, not due to budget cuts, but rather because those who run it are retiring[Read More…]
MUNACA strike update: tensions arise
Sam Reynolds The MUNACA strike continues without advances at the bargaining table. Outside the negotiating room, however, relations between the two parties have taken a sour turn. The last few weeks have seen the confrontation of alumni by picketers over homecoming weekend, the picketing of several administrators private homes, the[Read More…]
Academic Amnesty fails to gain ground at Senate
A motion that failed in Senate on Oct. 17 sought to protect the academic standing of students with moral objections to crossing MUNACA picket lines. The motion argued that students should not be penalized for failure to submit work out of their desire to respect the picket line. It would[Read More…]
SSMU joins tuition hike protests
Incensed by recent tuition increases, a number of SSMU execs organized a bus trip on Oct. 22 to Quebec City to protest tuition hikes outside of the Quebec Liberal Party Convention. This marks the latest in a series of protests that began over a year and a half ago, pitting[Read More…]