Next year’s projected budget for McGill Athletics (see cover story), which includes a 67 per cent funding cut for Level II varsity sports, is a sign that the first round of funding cuts have begun at McGill, as the university attempts to reduce a projected $14-million deficit within the next year.
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
PIÑATA DIPLOMACY: Middle-class guilt
Social organization, for all its clumsiness and evil, has accomplished far more and embodies more good than I do, for at least it sometimes gives justice. I am a mess, and talk about justice. I owe the powers that created me a human life. And where is it! Where is that human life which is my only excuse for surviving! – Saul Bellow, Herzog I live in the Global North.
OFF THE BOARD: Trouble down under
Viewers of x-rated films should be able to appreciate the pornographic prowess of men and women of all shapes and sizes as they please, free from fear of censorship. It seems, to me at least, that this is the objective of porn. But members of the Australian Classification Board, however, disagree.
Common sense lacking in feud over MBA tuition hike
The latest round in the McGill administration’s ongoing feud with the Quebec government is much the same as the last. Predictable cries of “accessibility” are again pitted against claims of underfunding, as the sides face-off over a proposed tuition increase for McGill Master of Business Administration students.
A small step towards reducing doctor shortages
In a province with a severe physician shortage, it is somewhat surprising that only 35 per cent of foreign-trained doctors who pass the exams required to practice medicine in Quebec are granted residency positions. Last week, however, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc took an important step in addressing this issue when he announced that the province will reserve 65 residency spots per year for foreign-trained doctors.
MY POINT … AND I DO HAVE ONE: A disingenuous debate
The American health care “debate” has been doomed from the beginning. Rooting their campaign in blatant lies, the American Right came out swinging the moment the massive profits of certain special interests – namely the Medical Insurance/Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex – were put into question.
FRESH HELL: I still hate the situation
I love Jersey Shore as much as the next well-educated Midwesterner – and with as much guilt. I also get a thrill seeing people get thinner on The Biggest Loser, and cackle with delight at every shot of Mary Murphy’s super-Botoxed facehole on So You Think You Can Dance.
RIGHT MINDED: Opting out of QPIRG
I refuse to hand over a penny of my money to the Quebec Public Interest Research Group. The McGill chapter of QPIRG collects a student fee of $3.75 per semester from all McGill undergraduate students. They use those funds to support working groups who advocate for “social and environmental justice.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Oh Ricky you’re so fine
Re: “That evaluation you requested” by Ricky Kreitner (19.01.10) Yes, Ricky, the world is that simple. Professors are desperately hanging on to the words of students so that they can “cater to [your] petty whims.” There’s no way that they might take some advice – “integrate the lectures more with the readings” or “spend more time on the anatomy section of the course and less on the functional part” – while disregarding that kid who never showed up’s advice to “like, slow way down in lecture.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Gaza Remembrance Week
Our history books are filled with stained pages that compel us to criticize our predecessors for their inaction and failure to implement changes, in the hope that we will not repeat our errors and allow for the recurrence of human rights violations. From Apartheid South Africa to the massacres of Rwanda, we have time and again failed to learn from history.
