One of the biggest problems about being a student is the short lifespan. We come to university and spend a great deal of time learning about our various disciplines, and rarely understand how the university actually works until our senior years. We tend to know what is currently going on, but the past is often murky, so we are unable to root ourselves into a continuous history. What went on a few years ago probably does not register with a freshman who accepts the reality of university life at the time of enrolment. So, it is the responsibility of those who do remember or know of times gone by to inform other students how the culture of this University has changed over the past ten years.
McGill is aggressively pursuing cost-cutting measures, charging for services that were previously free, while selling off student culture and the mandate of our university to multinational corporations. For years, student life has been sacrificed for an obsession to place better on the scale of international rankings. This desire to compete is destroying McGill principles, and now it is time for the students of this great university to teach the administration something about the nature of power.
On Wednesday, September 22, 2010 there will be a rally to save the Architecture Café, but if anyone in the administration or faculty believes this protest is just about the closure of this student-run “lemonade stand,” as it has been described by our Deputy Provost, Morton Mendelson, then it is clear you need to return to the classroom, because your lesson in discontent is about to begin.
Ryan Hughes
Vice-President external, PGSS