Full Fees and Empty Pockets: An Evening with Laura Penny

O-Week to Activists: Your Presence is Not Welcome Here

Student activism… Well done, Western Solidarity Network!

OPENWIDE online

On Tuesday evening, the night marking the official opening of Western’s Orientation Week, a small group of activists (myself included) was asked by Campus Police (CCPS) to leave campus while protesting the increasingly high cost of education and student debt. Organized under the banner of the Western Solidarity Network, our group sought to raise awareness about issues which we feel are conveniently absent from O-Week, but which nonetheless constitute a grim reality for many university students: the financial realities of tuition and student debt, and the predominance of corporate interests on campus. By highlighting the ways in which these trends insidiously pervade Western’s Orientation Week, we hoped to situate them in an immediate and resonating context for first year students. In doing so, we wanted to offer to incoming students an alternative way to think about their new and unfamiliar surroundings.

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Entrehojas: Revista de Estudios Hispánicos

I have been appointed as the Editor-in-Chief for Literature, and Cultural and Film Studies sections of the grad journal Entrehojas: Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/entrehojas/).

Entrehojas: Revista de Estudios Hispánicos busca generar un espacio de debate académico y de difusión de estudios culturales, lingüísticos y literarios en el mundo hispano. La revista es una iniciativa del Departamento de Lenguas Modernas y Literaturas de la Universidad de Western Ontario.

Entrehojas: Revista de Estudios Hispánicos is a publication of the Hispanic Studies Graduate Program of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at The University of Western Ontario. Entrehojas aims to create a space for academic debate about cultural, linguistic and literary studies.

Entrevista con Elena Poniatowska

Candidate’s Statement – SOGS’ VP External Affairs and Communications

Society of Graduate Students, University of Western Ontario

Dear colleagues:

I am a first year Ph.D. student in Hispanic Studies, a grad program within the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Studying at Western has been an enriching experience mainly because of the high involvement of grad students within organizations such as SOGS and PSAC610. The debates that take place during each of the SOGS’ Council meetings are unique and exemplary of the idea that I have of a university: the place to establish dialogue across disciplines in a respectful manner. As VP External Affairs and Communications, I aim to foster the dialogue that I have witnessed within SOGS. For this reason – and also for the D not to be left out between the C for Communications and the E for External – I have decided to centre my platform on the issue of…

…D for Debate…

Three “d words” come to my mind when I think of a grad student organization: dissemination, distribution, and dialogue. Call it 3D, the relevance of projecting the ideas and research we discuss at the university into the wider spectrum of the community within and outside campus. It is my objective to take these three pillars to build a solid image of who we are and what we do. By dissemination, I propose to keep on developing the SOGS newsletter into a web-publishing magazine that portrays the engaging discussions that take place at SOGS as well as to give an opportunity for grad students to present their research or other interests. With distribution, I aim to open the doors between campus and the community at large by representing SOGS at diverse forums and to continue the work of previous SOGS leaders to nurture student engagement through symposia in relation to academic policies that may affect the student population. But, as I have learned through my experience in student and labour activism, it is very important for us to turn the current crisis in post-secondary education into an avenue for dialogue with the university administration as well as with provincial and federal authorities. For instance, as a member of the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario Executive Board, I would like to advocate for CFS to focus more directly on graduate and international student issues.

We are here not to be timid in front of others: we are serious scholars with full potential to excel within our own field. And believe me, I am not being a demagogue – I have seen it with my own eyes at every SOGS’ Council meeting. Shyness is the last thing that would come to my mind when I recall these meetings. It is our duty to show others our brave tactics to represent ourselves and communicate our ideas.

Certainly, there are “d words” that we should watch out for, such as disempowerment and disengagement. But, these are words in company of prefixes, which means that we can reverse social tendencies by diversifying the doors for communication within our organization. In other words, I will do my best to ensure that student departmental meetings are taking place and to attend as many of them as time allows. Also, in case delegates are not attending the Council meetings, I will contact them to discuss ways that would allow them to work more actively within our organization. The power is on our hands to include more people in the debates that we like to engage in at the Council.

I am open to discuss these ideas in a regular time basis with the Council delegates. I aim to develop and design a cohesive communication model that would be useful and practical for all SOGS’ members and the community at large. I am here to debate – no doubts about it!

Jaime R. Brenes Reyes

Candidate to VP External Affairs and Communications

Academia’s indentured servants – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

“Last week, a corporation proudly announced that it had created a digital textbook that monitors whether students had done the reading. This followed the announcement of the software that grades essays, which followed months of hype over MOOCs – massive online open courses – replacing classroom interaction. Professors who can gauge student engagement through class discussion are unneeded. Professors who can offer thoughtful feedback on student writing are unneeded. Professors who interact with students, who care about students, are unneeded.”

Academia’s indentured servants – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.