Canada is a global centre for tertiary education and research: the nation is ranked as the fourth-best country for education by U.S. News & World Report, with top schools such as McGill University publicizing its educational mission of “fostering the very best.” Every year, hundreds of thousands of students have flocked to Canada to access the highest standards of post-secondary education.
Recently, the discussion regarding the importance of higher education has re-entered campus conversations. In light of the federal government’s caps on international students and McGill’s own budget cuts to its faculties, students are beginning to question how much Canadian post-secondary institutions truly value education. In particular, as universities become increasingly corporate and inaccessible, they are less recognized as critical informational nuclei. Attending an academic institution typically includes access to a substantial array of resources. Students at McGill can take advantage of millions of academic and cultural databases — from maps to musical scores — in addition to hundreds of extracurricular clubs and engagement opportunities. Given the threat to the survival of these resources — such as the downsizing of McGill’s physical library — it is crucial for undergraduate students to stay informed about the opportunities available to them beyond the classroom.
This is especially important as continued demand for change within our institutions — for instance, McGill divesting from arms manufacturers — forces us to consider how we want to shape universities to become stronger centres for social change. Correspondingly, a key element in advancing this change can be through the reinvestment of funds into educational and cultural resources that have the power to encourage socio-political praxis.
At McGill, our physical and digital libraries already contain a plethora of academic journals, books, and articles. However, few are aware of the media collection available both for download and streaming. These collections act as both an educational alternative to dense academic texts and as a source of entertainment for students. This audio and visual resource contains an immense collection of various film streaming platforms, e-books, audiobo oks, and music files that all students can utilize. Moreover, McGill students have access to radical student-run catalogues, such as those from the Quebec Public Interest Research Group’s (QPIRG) alternative library and the Union for Gender Empowerment’s library, which supplies anti-oppressive and independently published texts. Knowledge about the availability of these resources is imperative for our intellectual and political freedom. In times of structural repression, education is one of the most constructive tools in collective consciousness raising. Thus, with McGill’s numerous prohibitions on students’ ability to protest and freedom of expression, we must capitalize on the means at our disposal to stay informed about social and political issues.
As students at a university with a distinct international population, campus life exposes us to a variety of cultures. This diverse demographic — accompanied by the numerous student clubs, art exhibitions, concerts, and research opportunities — opens students up to a rich set of ideas and customs. This diversity is what makes McGill, and by extension, university campuses, so central to cultural change. The campus acts as a microcosm of the global: through direct engagement with the opportunities it offers, students learn to cultivate their own aesthetic tastes, interests, and philosophical missions. As federal policy continues to reduce the international enrolment rate in Canada, reaffirming our commitment to this diversity is necessary. Students from all cultural backgrounds should feel welcome on campus: we must continue to foster multiculturalism.
Despite the nominal freedom of information granted to us as students, we must still maintain a nuanced assessment of our position on campus. Quality of health services at McGill University remains a persistent problem. Cuts to student-run services has made it difficult for students to access essential resources and exercise their voices. In the larger picture, the administration has failed to respond to community demands, such as divestment from arms manufacturers. These issues underscore the growing distance between the institutional structures that make up universities and the student body they are meant to serve.
We must remember that access to higher education is an opportunity we as undergraduates have the privilege to capitalize on. The materials at our disposal can provide us with the tools to better ourselves and the world around us. We must remember that these means are not universal, nor is their quantity and quality guaranteed. University resources are a privilege, and it’s in our best interest to make use of them.