We had another strike vote, and have approved unlimited strike action that we'll apparently have a vote weekly(?) to renew...
But yeah, yeah, I did it, I'm a terrible person. I've crossed the picket line. Much as I may disagree with the tuition hike, I can't afford to pay for classes and not attend them either. Class was so under-attended today, I think it actually improved the discussion...
Lesson 94: Some aspects of this program feel incredibly redundant, but the best way to deal with it is to sit back and enjoy the company of your classmates.
Or dress like Batgirl.
That made my day infinitely better; spending it dressed as my favourite female librarian.
But I digress... There are really only so many times you can talk about the information seeking models of Belkin, Dervin, Kuhlthau, Taylor, et al. and library anxiety before it just all starts to blur together. Your peers are your best option to avoiding losing it entirely.
Hooray for friends!
Showing posts with label strike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strike. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Day 93: The Strike
Today was the day.
The big Strike... and boy was it big! I had work, so I couldn't go to the rally, but it was terrifyingly huge.
I could hear it from my apartment, which is blocks away from the square it was starting in. And on my way to work, I could see them travelling up Peel as I got closer to it, then as I came up to Drummond and looked south(ish) I could see an equally huge crowd down there, which didn't seem right. When I got up to Sherbrooke and looked down it, the scene was positively shocking... people from building to building from Peel as far as I could see.
Very impressive!
I've heard people saying that as many as 200,000 students were in attendance, though I have yet to see any sort of "official" number... most of the news outlets are simply writing that "thousands" of students were there.
Lesson 92: You know you have a self-depreciation problem (inferiority complex, impostor syndrome, call it what you will) when instead of "Omg! Yay! I did so well!", your first reaction to being hired/accepted to a position is "oh god... Just how terrible were the other applicants?"
...
I am quite unimpressed with myself for just how many times I've had that reaction. But I suppose it's just fuel for the fire. Yeahhhh.....
On the other hand, I'm really really super excited because my friend from Scouting back home is coming to visit me this weekend! I've been trying to get as much work done on Collection Development before she gets here, but I've got so many things to do (practicum placement interviews, work, training for work) that I'm not nearly as far along as I'd hoped. Besides, you can only do so many APA citations before you feel like your brain is about to start bleeding...
The big Strike... and boy was it big! I had work, so I couldn't go to the rally, but it was terrifyingly huge.
I could hear it from my apartment, which is blocks away from the square it was starting in. And on my way to work, I could see them travelling up Peel as I got closer to it, then as I came up to Drummond and looked south(ish) I could see an equally huge crowd down there, which didn't seem right. When I got up to Sherbrooke and looked down it, the scene was positively shocking... people from building to building from Peel as far as I could see.
Very impressive!
I've heard people saying that as many as 200,000 students were in attendance, though I have yet to see any sort of "official" number... most of the news outlets are simply writing that "thousands" of students were there.
Lesson 92: You know you have a self-depreciation problem (inferiority complex, impostor syndrome, call it what you will) when instead of "Omg! Yay! I did so well!", your first reaction to being hired/accepted to a position is "oh god... Just how terrible were the other applicants?"
...
I am quite unimpressed with myself for just how many times I've had that reaction. But I suppose it's just fuel for the fire. Yeahhhh.....
On the other hand, I'm really really super excited because my friend from Scouting back home is coming to visit me this weekend! I've been trying to get as much work done on Collection Development before she gets here, but I've got so many things to do (practicum placement interviews, work, training for work) that I'm not nearly as far along as I'd hoped. Besides, you can only do so many APA citations before you feel like your brain is about to start bleeding...
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Day 92: Political intrigues abound!
That fake spring I mentioned earlier is now a full on fake summer... It's so hot outside! Absolutely fantastic, but it's bound to end by the weekend... At least according to the weather report. Not looking forward to that... but anyways.
As you may or may not be aware, Quebec students have been in quite the tizzy lately. The provincial government wants to raise tuition by 1,600 odd dollars over the next 5 years, which is a pretty substantial increase when Quebec student tuition is only just over 2,000$. As a result, the schools have held strike votes, and nearly everybody has decided that going on strike is the thing to do, though I'm a little lost on how you can strike when you're the one who's paying. While I admittedly didn't participate in the school's democratic process, I was under the impression that it was a reasonably fair vote that was more or less representative of overall student opinion on the matter.
However, the student representation in the vote process may not have been exactly representative.
Apparently, while the meeting had achieved quorum that was largely because the pro-strike students had really mobilized and came out in force to the meeting whereas most ambivalent and anti-strike students actually had no idea a strike vote was happening.
Lesson 91: Quorum is when an assembly has enough members of the group it is meant to be representing in attendance that the decisions made are considered binding, and to be the overall opinion of the group.
I don't really know much about student or university politics in general, so this entire business has been rather enlightening.
I guess it's another occasion where I'm seeing how I shouldn't take things for granted. Whereas normally, I'd be right and a PGSS meeting would probably wind up being roughly representative of overall student opinion, a meeting where an item on the agenda is extremely important to a particular group of people is bound to wind up quite a bit more polarized than usual.
As you may or may not be aware, Quebec students have been in quite the tizzy lately. The provincial government wants to raise tuition by 1,600 odd dollars over the next 5 years, which is a pretty substantial increase when Quebec student tuition is only just over 2,000$. As a result, the schools have held strike votes, and nearly everybody has decided that going on strike is the thing to do, though I'm a little lost on how you can strike when you're the one who's paying. While I admittedly didn't participate in the school's democratic process, I was under the impression that it was a reasonably fair vote that was more or less representative of overall student opinion on the matter.
However, the student representation in the vote process may not have been exactly representative.
Apparently, while the meeting had achieved quorum that was largely because the pro-strike students had really mobilized and came out in force to the meeting whereas most ambivalent and anti-strike students actually had no idea a strike vote was happening.
Lesson 91: Quorum is when an assembly has enough members of the group it is meant to be representing in attendance that the decisions made are considered binding, and to be the overall opinion of the group.
I don't really know much about student or university politics in general, so this entire business has been rather enlightening.
I guess it's another occasion where I'm seeing how I shouldn't take things for granted. Whereas normally, I'd be right and a PGSS meeting would probably wind up being roughly representative of overall student opinion, a meeting where an item on the agenda is extremely important to a particular group of people is bound to wind up quite a bit more polarized than usual.
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