I’m a first-year McGill student, and I’m lonely. I did all the right things. I lived in residence. I participated in Arts Frosh. I joined a few clubs. But nothing seemed to work. None of my relationships could bridge the canyon-sized gap between acquaintance and friend. Everyone else, it appeared,[Read More…]
Commentary
Am I (too) #EmotionallyUnavailable?
Living in the small Middle Eastern country of Kuwait for my entire life, teenagers often romanticized the easy-going university hook-up culture that we watched in Western movies and Netflix rom-coms. Much like many other first-year students, when I came to university I was thrilled to be away from a place[Read More…]
Beyond arts versus STEM: Why the interdisciplinary approach could revolutionize higher education
The idea that arts degrees are useless has become a cultural joke. Every holiday, my friends and I repeat the same conversation, poking fun at the fact that our relatives are definitely going to ask us about our studies, followed by the inevitable question: “What happens after graduation?” Yet, this[Read More…]
McGill’s grades-only admissions process needs a holistic revamp
Applying to most undergraduate faculties at McGill is a fairly easy process: Fill out some logistical information, submit a high school transcript, and plug in your grades. It’s as impersonal as an application can get. Students are immediately seen as a letter grade or number, stripped of the personalities and[Read More…]
Young people incite progressive change—why don’t Boomers see it?
On Oct. 31, 2017, Business Insider ran a piece listing the industries and businesses which millennials had supposedly “killed,” or were in the process of killing, in the most recent decade. This article is part of a trend of baby boomer-penned thought pieces demonizing younger generations for their habits and lifestyles,[Read More…]
SSMU’s CARE initiative needs to be revised and expanded
As the semester draws to a close, first-year students are busily finalizing their living situations. Arguably the most popular rental neighbourhood for McGill students is the Milton-Parc neighbourhood, colloquially known as the “McGill Ghetto.” Even if students do not live in the neighbourhood, many pass through it during their morning[Read More…]
Data bank: Your Facebook account is worth more than your chequing account
Facebook has had a rough week. In the past seven days, four different lawsuits were filed against it, Sonos temporarily left its advertising program, and Elon Musk joined the #DeleteFacebook movement by removing SpaceX’s and Tesla’s profiles from the social media giant’s platform. With Facebook in the throws of a[Read More…]
To close the gender gap, STEM fields need to change from the inside out
During a recent studying session in Trottier, my friend—a female engineering student—overheard two male students heatedly critiquing the call for women in engineering. The two students asserted that female engineers are “taking jobs away from the men who need to provide for families.” While most students today would agree that[Read More…]
Testing Quebec’s patients: Students should care about the nursing crisis
On Jan. 29, Sherbrooke nurse Émilie Ricard posted a photo of herself in tears on her Facebook page, giving a sarcastic thumbs up and smile to the camera. She captioned the photo with a diatribe, mocking Quebec’s Minister of Health Gaétan Barrette’s tweet that his government’s 2015 health care reform[Read More…]
It’s not all good in the neighbourhood: Students play a role in gentrification
The McGill Daily published an exposé on Feb. 19 of a landlord’s eviction of the residents of a Parc-Extension building in the name of a luxury apartment project. This comes at a time when Montrealers across the city are protesting gentrification in their neighbourhoods. Gentrification, a complicated process that involves redevelopment[Read More…]
