Public hearings for Bill 40, which would remove all school boards in favour of service centres, began at the National Assembly on Nov. 4. While the bill fulfills one of the CAQ’s election promises, its provision to maintain elections for the board of directors of Anglophone, but not Francophone, service[Read More…]
Commentary
Students’ reliance on technology is increasingly distressing
Upon entering the typical McGill classroom, a sea of screens makes it clear that the use of laptops and tablets for note-taking has become commonplace. In response to this phenomenon, professors tend to clarify their technology policy during their first lecture of the semester: Even if they permit the use[Read More…]
McGill should prioritize affordable housing
For the past two decades, housing prices in Montreal have risen consistently by around five percent per year. While students from other Canadian universities, such as the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, have benefited from large scale affordable housing projects sponsored by their universities, McGill students[Read More…]
Embrace the McGill lifestyle
McGill is a quintessential ‘take it or leave it’ school. Far from fully supporting its students, many of the institution’s realities make it unnecessarily difficult for students to succeed. Most emblematic, academic advisors are overworked because the need to serve as many students as possible in the shortest amount of[Read More…]
A case against divestment
On Oct. 10, McGill’s administration held a soirée in celebration of the McGill Sustainability Projects Fund’s (SPF) 10th anniversary. Since its creation, the fund has sponsored a variety of projects related to campus sustainability, ranging from mental health campaigns to climate change sensibilisation. The existence of the SPF, however, does[Read More…]
Legal weed is safe weed
On Oct. 29, Quebec’s National Assembly passed Bill 2, which will raise the legal age for Cannabis consumption to 21 on Jan. 1, 2020. This change comes as a result of a major campaign promise made by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) ahead of last October’s provincial elections, despite Quebec[Read More…]
Lecture halls are still unsafe for racialized students
On Oct. 23, an English professor at the University of Western Ontario used the n-word while describing terms that were historically used to refer to certain classes of slaves. The nonchalant use of a word with such violent historical and current implications was justifiably met with outrage by Black students[Read More…]
A samosa ban could have been prevented
Samosas sales, not midterms, seem to be what is now giving many McGill students a hard time. On Oct. 22, Montreal Inspection des Aliments issued a warning to the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) due to sanitation concerns over a samosa sale in the basement of Burnside Hall. If[Read More…]
Gerts, it hurts: I want you back
With vain hope in their hearts, students received an email from the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) on Oct. 28, hoping to read a promising update on the University Centre’s closure. However, students were disappointed by yet another delay: Gert’s, club spaces, and community spaces are still inaccessible. Initially,[Read More…]
“Made by McGill” disregards students’ ongoing concerns
Two years ago, McGill cut its Eating Disorder Program. Then, this fall, a change in policy left note-takers working for McGill’s Office for Student Disabilities without proper compensation. McGill has excused these cuts, and other functional problems, as tough decisions forced upon the administration by complex financial difficulties stemming from[Read More…]
