By: Stephen Clare

I’ve been to every lecture of GEOG 3EE3. I’ve taken good notes, reviewed them regularly, and understand the course material. I’ve even gone to the professor’s office hours a few times.

Please don’t tell the Geography department.

You see, I guess, technically speaking, I’m not actually in the course, per se. Like, it doesn’t show up on my timetable or SOLAR. I also haven’t done any assignments or written any tests. The registrar’s office wouldn’t be able to tell you where I learned about the physics of solar heating or the future of global oil demand.

I honestly tried to get into the course, but repeated emails and course waiver submissions fell on deaf ears (or rather, blind eyes) and the drop/add date passed without me being able to register. I was disappointed, because the course content is super relevant to my capital-F, capital-P “Future Plans.”

So, I thought, screw them. What are they going to do, drag me out of the lecture hall? I just took the class anyway.

I attended lectures, took good notes, and checked up on my fantasy hockey team while the professor gave advice about assignments and reminders of upcoming test dates. Instead of furiously copying the minutiae of each slide, I noted what interested me and ignored what I found boring. For homework I browsed articles on whatever concepts struck my fancy rather than writing lab reports and article summaries.

“Taking” GEOG 3EE3 has been positively relaxing.

It’s made me think about how often I’ve let going to school get in the way of me learning things. We’ve all been there, robotically putting pencil to paper and mirroring the writing on the chalkboard while our thoughts turned to the Leafs’ latest embarrassment or what exactly she meant by “see you later” (like “later tonight” later or just “see you around” later?). Some days you can fill a page of notes without even knowing what course you’re in.

That’s why it’s been so nice to learn for the sake of learning rather than learning for my degree. It’s a whole different mindset, like the difference between opening up a novel and opening up a textbook. These are the same classmates, the same powerpoint designs, the same sickly yellow glow barely illuminating the same grim lecture halls. It’s just that I love this room when I’m left to focus on the material, but resent it when learning carries the added pressure of knowing all-important marks are on the line.

Obviously there’s a big, scary system that needs us to do assignments and write tests. It’s a machine that eats transcripts and craps scholarships. And like all horrible, impersonal systems it makes us feel small and powerless.

But there’s joy and value in the learning itself. And at university, I’m surrounded by thousands of people that know a whole lot and do this weird thing where on a weekly basis they stand at the front of a room and just talk about what they know. It’s good to hear them talk. It’s good to learn from them.

Sometimes, it’s just good to know stuff.

In elementary school, we were taught how to use rulers to measure lines. Since those halcyon days, this fascination with measurement has cemented itself in how we view the world. We use grades to measure how well we do on tests, time to measure how long we take to get ready in the morning, and medals of various colours to measure how good we are in comparison to others. Comparison through standardized measurements is almost second nature in university. Only now, we no longer measure lines. Our GPAs are the new standard by which we measure ourselves – and this is a downfall for many.

In an education system that places such great importance on numbers, it often feels as though these marks are a direct reflection of our abilities. Don’t get me wrong, I think university is incredible. There is always more to learn, always something to do. There’s something for everyone. But we often leave out the less glamorous side of post-secondary education, one where hundreds of students fall through the cracks each year into a state of poor mental health.

Mental illness is a real issue, one that is extremely prevalent at McMaster and across the country. By the end of the year, likely half of the people you know will have experienced some sort of mental breakdown. Hundreds of students with bloodshot eyes will have burned themselves out trying to do everything at once by fuelling endless all-nighters with caffeine. Unforeseen circumstances, coupled with a variety of pressures, will send many of our peers into a dangerous spiral. Depression is among one of the most common mental illnesses in university students, but many more hide in the silence that we encourage.

Unsurprisingly, academic stress is a leading cause in mental health issues among university students. A major contributing factor is our susceptibility to tunnel vision. We zero in on getting high marks, and neglect everything in the periphery. Regardless what program you’re in, competition is stiff. We’re young and ambitious. Our blood runs hot and thick, our dreams are big and daring. The bar for success is continually rising, and with that so is the pressure we put on ourselves. When there is a blip in our planning, difficulties and other emotional vulnerabilities are magnified.

A couple weeks ago, I received a set of marks that were the lowest I had ever gotten. I remember being so overwhelmed, I felt paralyzed. All I heard were the humble responses of friends who did well, and all I wanted was to leave the lecture hall and hide in my comforter. I didn’t feel like I belonged in my program anymore. But talking to an upper year student put everything back into perspective. I realized that one mark, no matter how important it may seem at the time, was no measure of my capabilities. The isolation I felt dissipated, and I realized the importance of finding a healthy way to cope with setbacks.

Everyone needs an outlet. It can be anything, as long as it’s something that will give you some time to yourself and help relieve stress. It’s important to schedule in activities that make you happy and recognize how much more there is to life than whatever it is you’re worried about. Some hit the gym. Some dance, some paint, some jog. Some people choose to sit back with a tub of ice cream and Netflix. I write, play volleyball, or spend time with my guitar. Your outlet could be going out and doing something you love, or staying in and doing absolutely nothing at all.

Nobody is immune to pressure. Both the feeling and the effects of stress are harrowing. While finding your outlet is important in maintaining a healthy mind, it is by no means a solution to mental illness. Going to the gym will not end breakdowns, and playing the guitar doesn’t guarantee nirvana. Staying healthy is about taking care of your body and mind, a fact that we often forget.

Our experience at McMaster cannot be measured by how badly we did on that organic chemistry mid-term, or by how we failed last week’s English paper. This isn’t easy to grasp. But by gaming, knitting, or just chilling out, we make numbers and measurements seem a little less important.

By: Feven Yeshanew 

What are your plans once you are done school? Are you applying to grad school once you graduate? Med school? Law school? What program are you in now? What kind of jobs can you get with your degree?

Since when did going to school and conversing with others become an interview regarding my ten-year life plan? We are not psychics, and we don’t have a crystal ball that can see into the future. But as I go into the fourth and final year of my undergraduate degree, I find myself bombarded with the buzz of urgency to figure out the next big move. The incessant way conversations seem to continuously circle the topic of the future causes students both panic and frustration.

For the past three years at McMaster, I have been cosily bubbled in by the idea that my future will figure itself out, and I’ve been dismissing the looming questions of the future. However we will soon be forced to depart from the ever so snuggly bubble and make some “serious” life decisions. With the increased competition for what seems like everything and the growing youth unemployment rates, the idea of graduating can be very daunting.

Now, add in these intimidating questions into the mix, and you’ve got yourself an existential crisis. I had my own angst-induced breakdown this summer, where the pressure of not knowing what I wanted to do following graduation got to me – just as I’m sure it’s getting to most of my fourth year peers. For those of you who know what you’re doing, huzzah! You may be applying to your med schools, your grad schools, your dream jobs, but not everyone is in the same boat. In fact, the unknown collectively daunts those of us who are unsure.

Similar to my fellow fourth year students who have experienced much of the same emotions, I made it to the other side of my meltdown alive and with some insight; it’s okay to be planless. It’s especially okay to not know the next fifty steps of your life. I understand this may be hard to accept. Although most of us need a job to provide us with the money for survival, this said job in no way needs to be the one you do for the rest of your life. Sometimes trial and error results in the best outcomes. Perhaps the best plans are not linear, but are with no particular direction.

We hear of quotes that speak of life as a journey and not a destination, so why is it instilled in our minds that our lives need to be prearranged as if we’re trying reach an arbitrary finish line?

Sometimes the best things in life spring from the unexpected and the unplanned. The only thing left to do is embrace this uncertainty. If you do not know whether to continue in school, get a job, or travel, try your hand at all three or take comfort in knowing that taking time to figure out what feels right is okay.

As for me, I have decided to put off applying to medical school and take a gap year. During this time, I hope to work abroad and acquire a different kind of knowledge that textbooks fall short of providing.

Perhaps we will find our dreams in the unexpected, in a way that we would have never known if we stuck to a single linear plan. Most of all, know that you are not alone in the midst of this frustrating buzz.

By: Mia Kibel

Maybe your parents pay for your tuition, and maybe they don’t. Maybe you get subsidies from OSAP, maybe you work, or maybe you subsist off a diet of air, cheetos, and pirated videos. But the fact remains that any way you slice it, university isn’t free, and students are the ones that have to find a way to pay.

University is never actually going to be free. Professors, campuses, and programs are always going to cost money. It is, however, worth questioning whether students should be the ones to pay. Germany, for example, recently decided that we shouldn’t. At the beginning of October, university became completely free in all German states, not only for German students, but for foreign students as well. So, if you can get a German visa, Auf Wiedersehen, and enjoy. But can university be free in Canada, and should it?

The rationale for making university entirely subsidized by the government is obvious, and it feels good in the gut. More education is a social good. On a macro level, a more educated population can drive innovation and development across all sectors the university touches, in areas as diverse as business, science, law, and the arts. For individuals, university education opens doors to careers that are typically more profitable and stable, and gives them the tools to specialize in areas that interest them, not to mention the simple implicit value of learning new things and ideas. Tuition fees make it harder for a large segment of the population, typically those that are simultaneously disenfranchised, to access these benefits. They restrict university education to the rich, thereby setting up a cycle where only those who already have money can access the jobs best suited to making money.

Though students can take out loans to pay fees, the interest that kicks in as soon as you graduate means that university costs more for poor students than it does for rich ones. When students do decide to take out loans to pay for school, the interest can be crippling, and an uncertain job market makes it difficult to determine when or if the loan can be paid back.

If we believe that education isn’t an elitist privilege and that see that loans aren’t an equitable, or even necessarily viable, way for poorer students to pay for school, it seems like moving towards a system like Germany’s is the obvious choice. But a closer look at Germany’s system reveals that, while completely subsidized university education is possible, it’s not exactly compatible with our university system. German university students mostly attend institutions in or near their hometowns, so university residences are extremely limited. Most classes are large lectures, not the small group discussion based classes that become so rewarding in upper years. While “university” here is an institution replete with amenities, German schools are, for the most part, just classes. Think about Mac without DBAC, the student centre, big sports teams, four libraries with support staff, and all the other things that happen outside of class, then consider what a “free” school would look like.

As it stands, universities are already heavily subsidized. Only 25.9 percent of university and college revenue in Ontario comes from tuition fees. And with budgets tightly stressed, both in universities and in governments, it’s clear that fully subsidizing schools as they are isn’t really an option for Canada. Trimming down universities might not be such a bad thing— in fact, it might a good one. But, the next time you hear someone proclaim they’re off to the vaterland, use those critical thinking skills you’re paying so much for to decide whether “free” is a price you’re willing to pay.

In an environment of change, McMaster’s Provost is “incredibly optimistic about the future.”

Provost David Wilkinson expressed this idea at the State of the Academy address last Wednesday, Oct. 22. This annual speech is focused on current issues relevant to the running of the university.

Wilkinson began this year’s address seeking to focus on the inevitability of change in the university environment, and the challenges that may come with this.

“We’re certainly going through enormous amounts of system change,” he said of McMaster. He referred specifically to the new budget model and Mosaic, garnering a laugh from the audience of primarily faculty and administrators when he promised that he wouldn’t be talking about the revamped and much-discussed online system.

He also noted that much of this climate of change could be attributed to external factors.

“I want to focus on how the landscape is changing in higher education…thinking about how we are affected by the outside globally and perhaps more importantly in terms of our relationship with the governing climate,” said Wilkinson.

With this in mind, the provost recounted in detail the process the university went through to establish their Strategic Mandate Agreement with the provincial government, a process undertaken by all Ontario universities in a trend towards increased differentiation. While the government’s goal was to encourage each university to shy away from breadth of programming and put significant resources into fewer areas of expertise, Wilkinson claimed the SMA process “certainly didn’t drive us to be narrow.” In McMaster’s SMA document, almost all of the faculties are named explicitly, leading the provost to conclude that the main points the university presented were “deep but incredibly broad.”

However, the impacts of the Ontario policy for differentiation and of federal government policies on higher education remain unclear, but is expected to be “outcome-driven.”

Another focus of the speech and thus for the university in the coming years was growth, both of the student body and of the campus capacity. Wilkinson explained that McMaster is currently operating at 117 percent of capacity, “stuffing students into classrooms.”

McMaster is looking to deal with this reality in part through pursuing a satellite campus. The university already has buildings away from its West Hamilton base (through the downtown Health Campus and Continuing Education Centre), but hopes to expand its presence with the goal of having 10,000 students living and studying downtown in the coming years.

Wilkinson’s closing topic for the address was excellence, which is to be the focus of the Provost’s committee for the coming year. A specific consideration in this broad topic is potentially raising the entrance average across all programs at Mac. He proposed increasing the 75 percent average to an 80.

“It raises the question as to whether or not by raising the bar we actually raise the attractiveness of the institution in all of our programs,” said Wilkinson. “there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that people want to get things that are hard to reach.”

Further details on some of the longer-term ideas for the university are expected to be addressed by President Patrick Deane in his upcoming lecture as part of a series on higher education on Nov. 5.

"If you can walk and talk faster, you can go to McMaster."

On one hand, there's a level of juvenile appeal in comparing and bragging about the superiority of one's own school over another. But McMaster students can still take pride in their school after the most recent updates to world university rankings reaffirms McMaster's strong position in the global community.

With the release of the annual reports for the three most influential world university rankings, McMaster continues to demonstrate a consistency in both its ranking and its relation to Canadian contemporaries in post-secondary education.

Gord Arbeau, Director of Public and Community Relations, says that it indicates the prestigious standard McMaster is held to.

"If you look at [recent] rankings, if you look at them all together, the university has done quite well," Arbeau said. "It's a reflection of the university's ability to attract and retain, really, some of the best faculty members in the country, and to attract the very highest quality students."

In an early October update to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Canadian universities actually suffered in position, with the exception of the University of Toronto, which remained at its position of 20. While McMaster dipped from 92nd to 94th overall, the school remains as one of only four Canadian universities in the top 100 in the world, behind the University of Toronto, as well as the University of British Columbia and McGill University.

Meanwhile, earlier in September, the QS World University Rankings saw McMaster make a large leap to 113th, from 140th last year. Along with similar trends among other Canadian universities, QS noted the best indicator for improvement was academic reputation. McMaster also rose in standing in the latest update to the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities, moving from 92nd to 90th late this summer.

"I think with rankings, the important thing to remember is that they really are a snapshot in time, that each of the rankings use different methodologies and measure different things," Arbeau said.

"When you look at [recent rankings] individually, you might see the university might move up a spot or down a spot, but when you look at them collectively [...] you'll see that McMaster remains one of four Canadian universities firmly entrenched in the top 100 in the world. There are some 15,000, 16,000 universities around the world, and McMaster remains in the top 100."

Each of the three major ranking systems uses its own unique criteria when judging the placement of universities. For example, the THE looks at 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas, with an emphasis on teaching and research. The QS rankings uses the student to faculty ratio as a simple measure of teaching quality, with an added attempt to evaluate more subjective criteria through their focus on a survey of reputation.

In contrast to the THE and QS rankings, the ARWU system attempts to focus on more objective criteria, with a heavy emphasis on research. Criteria such as faculty that have won Nobel Prizes or other major awards, and the number of citations in prestigious journals are all weighed heavily.

Among the three rankings, McMaster specifically performs well in the evaluation of its science programs; this includes a global rank of 25 in THE's assessment of Clinical, Pre-clinical & Health programs.

In comments captured by a recent news release, Patrick Deane responded to the recent updates on world university rankings.

“When this ranking is considered with the others released over the past few weeks, it is clear McMaster is providing high quality teaching and learning, conducting groundbreaking research and attracting and retaining the best faculty and staff."

By: Sally Musa

“[Colonialism] turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it. This work of devaluing pre-colonial history takes on a dialectical significance today.” These words, written half a century ago by philosopher Frantz Fanon, are still relevant today. Colonialism is the vestige of European imperialism that imposes unbalanced power structures that favour colonists over other groups. As university students, our most common and intimate relationship with colonization is through our education. University education, as well as ideas of what constitutes higher education, has become a gear in the machinations of colonial practices.

We regularly witness colonialism in the content of our courses, in the manner and the setting in which courses are taught. At McMaster, a quick glance at the undergraduate calendar for programs like Art History, English or Sociology shows that only about 25% of those courses are concerned with non-European subjects. General or introductory courses are almost completely European in subject matter. Areas of study including the Humanities, Social Sciences and Business are used to critically examine the human condition. Through the omission of non-European groups, realities of racialized and marginalized groups have been shelved. To decolonize education would be to redefine what it means to be human.

The manner of discussion surrounding non-European people, ideas, and history is problematic. The “objective” discourse of these groups of people can reduce those very people to objects. Education systems place a specific group as dominant and normative, and all other groups become just that – the “other.”

The setting in most university classes can reaffirm the colonial foundations suspected of being taught. University classes are often structured to have a single teacher, with the complete lexicon of knowledge, surrounded by learners. The structure in itself reaffirms power hegemonies similar to that of a colonizing power towards a colony. The roles in the classroom are not interchangeable, and when a learner is unable to assume the role of a teacher it reduces classroom experiences to a single narrative. This narrowed view can diminishes a learner’s capacity for critical approaches to education.

The questions remains: how do we decolonize education? To clarify, decolonization here does not refer to the integration of different communities, whether African, Asian, Indigenous, etc. The tolerance of colonized people within a colonial system appears as progress, but it is merely a step in a circular path. Rather, decolonization involves shifting from a culture of denial to the creation of space for new philosophies and systems of knowledge. This can alter cultural perception and power relations in material ways. In Canada, the call for indigenous knowledge in education has been met with the establishment of Aboriginal Focus Schools. This school teaches skills and knowledge within the context of aboriginal cultural values.

I’ve heard many people use the phrases “decolonize your mind” or “decolonize your thoughts” and although I agree with the sentiment, it is only the first step. Recognizing the structure and implications of colonization on our education is a massive hurdle, but it is not the end of the path. To once again quote Frantz Fanon, “no phraseology can be a substitute for reality.” Decolonization is not a metaphor used for social justice or awareness. It is a tangible goal.

Since colonialism is foundational in institutions of higher education, it will persist if met with indifference. Thus, decolonization needs to be engaged directly and consciously. To combat colonialism in higher education, the voices of all groups must be brought into the discussion of course curricula and instruction. McMaster currently has programming in Indigenous Studies, Jewish Studies, Asian Studies and most recently, African and African Diaspora Studies. Having personally witnessed the growth of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program, I have an appreciation for the deliberate establishment of cornerstone programs. These areas of study address the longstanding gaps within university programming. Educational reform can only be the result of analysis, problem solving and discussion – so let’s continue the conversation.

This article was first published in Incite Magazine

McMaster allocates $1 million to blended learning courses

David Wilkinson, Provost and Vice President (Academic) of McMaster University announced on Sept. 9 the allocation of $1 million towards creating ten new blended learning courses over the next two years.

The courses will focus on online learning, while also providing students with experiential opportunities to apply what they’ve learned online.

“We are working with the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning and working the faculties, investing quite heavily in a number of those kinds of courses,” said Wilkinson. “Five different faculties are going to be engaged in this. The Faculty of Science in particular will be leading the way.”

As well as in the Faculty of Science, blended learning courses will be offered in engineering, business, social science and humanities. The new blended learning technique will mainly be used to develop first-year courses.

A portion of the $1 million allocation will be set aside for MIIETL to develop tools to measure the effectiveness of blended and online learning strategies.

“There is evidence that providing students with different pathways to learn is effective. There is certainly lots of evidence that transfer of knowledge through lecture is a particularly ineffective approach […] to transmitting content,” said Wilkinson. “One of the areas where McMaster wants to lead through MIIETL is actually the development of evidence around [types of learning].”

In addition to the blended learning courses, McMaster has received funding from the Ontario Online Institute to develop seven online courses. These courses will be offered in both first-year and upper-level courses.

“We are going to focus more on blended learning than on purely online content, but we are developing online in a number of different ways,” said Wilkinson.

The Ontario Online Institute is a project that aims to provide online learning opportunities for students in Ontario, eventually enabling students to take online courses at different universities and apply the credit at their home school.

Stephanie Mascarin
The Silhouette

Parents often tell their children that they can be whatever they want when they “grow up.” Teachers support this notion, decorating their walls with posters that have slogans like, “your attitude determines your altitude.” The media glamorously portrays young men and women with fun and prosperous careers. Society promotes hard work as the key for success.

What they don’t say, though, is that no one will help you get there.

Obtaining a university degree or college diploma in Ontario should be more affordable for students. As is engrained into children from elementary school onwards, education is a fundamental aspect of having a successful career. But with rising tuition costs it is increasingly difficult for students to afford this education. Coupled with rising credentialism and increased competition in the job market, this generation of students is faced with more obstacles than generations past.

In Ontario, the average student debt has increased and youth unemployment is higher. The game is the same as it was for past generations, but the rules have changed; a university or college education is still necessary to obtain a good job, but it is more costly.

Between 1976 and 2012, tuition costs in Ontario have more than doubled, from around $2,500 to $6,600 per year. Although the Ontario government offers the Ontario Student Assistance Program, or OSAP, not every student can qualify for this. OSAP is a government-funded student loan that is based on “educational plans and personal circumstances.” OSAP does help many students afford school, as they offer a combination of loans and grants that do not need to be paid back until the student’s schooling is complete. In this way, Ontario is making strides in the right direction for making college and university more affordable for students.

However, this loan does not apply to everyone; the amount of money a student and their parents earn during the fiscal year, through their income tax return form, determines if aid is offered and how much. It seems that an education is only obtainable for the upper class and those who are considered by the government to be financially needy. But what about the middle class? What about the average family who earns too little to pay tuition in full, yet too much to qualify for OSAP?

In 1990, an Ontario family on average would spend 93 percent of their disposable income on tuition for their child. This equated to about 87 workdays to pay off tuition debt for one child.

This figure has drastically increased to date, with tuition now costing 150 percent of their disposable income to put a child through school, which translates to 195 workdays to pay back the debt. For families with more than one child, these numbers become staggering. And students often need to obtain graduate or professional degrees to stay competitive, which substantially increases their debt. Students and their families get caught in this trap of needing to obtain an education that they simply cannot afford.

This ties into the issue of student unemployment, as graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to get a job to pay off this debt. This year, the unemployment rate for people age 15-24 was 15 per cent, which is double the unemployment rate of the general population. When graduates do find a job, it is often in fields that they are either overqualified for or ones that are unrelated to their degree. This is partially due to baby-boomers staying in the workforce longer, which is a variable that the education system cannot control.

However, the system can control how many students are accepted into programs with a low demand in the economy. Since schools do not do this, there are more graduates than jobs available. Students used to come out of school with a guaranteed job; now they come out with a piece of paper and $30,000 debt. Students are sent out to battle in the real world being told they have ammo, but instead they are given blanks.

It is evident that this needs to change. Imbedded in higher education is the notion of exclusion; part of what makes a degree or diploma so valuable is that it is specialized and elite. However, this exclusion should only be based on academics.

Why should someone’s financial situation affect the level of education they are able to obtain?

Privileging the wealthy, or those who can qualify for funding like OSAP, over other students is not conducive to societal progression. Just because someone can afford school does not mean they will benefit society. Excluding a substantial portion of the population from being able to afford an education is limiting society’s potential; perhaps the next Steve Jobs will come from a low-income family.

This generation of graduate students is Ontario’s, Canada’s, and the world’s future. It is a shame that society leaves them so ill equipped to be successful in the real world—successful not only financially, but also personally. Imagine how productive students could be if they did not have to worry about staggering tuition debt, or if they could enter into the field of their choice. There might be fewer students entering the corporate rat race and more pursuing careers based simply on their passion.

For the sake of graduates and society, hopefully there will be at time when children can be whatever they want when they “grow up.”

Jessica Franklin talks about  the transition from being a student to teaching students.

A video series collaboration between four undergraduate buy viagra online students: After Office Hours.

Videography & Editing by Anqi Shen.