Illustration: Sultan Jum
School, a holiday from the holidays
As much as we love school, many students and faculty members were relieved when the school closed down for the holidays and each went their separate way. The semester was complete, and a good rest from the gruelling examination period was in order. However, with the chaos of the Christmas season, only so much time could be afforded for recuperation, as the long-winded traditions unfolded yet again: shopping for presents for relatives you haven’t seen in years, cooking turkey dinner for hours on end, standing in lines at four in the morning so you do not miss the Boxing Day specials, and hosting elaborate dinner parties with family and friends. (Just writing this list makes my head spin!) Now the break is over and we are here once more, and one cannot help but wonder how many days until reading break in February. As a dear friend so quaintly put it, “We need a holiday from the holidays!”
Rachel Tait
The poor stay poor, the rich get smarter
It’s been an issue for a long time, but is just as frustrating as ever: the high price of being a university student. From huge tuition costs to ridiculously expensive textbooks, new online components, and student loans — all on top of the usual costs of living — it’s practically impossible for people of lower incomes to attend post-secondary school. Why isn’t our country doing more to create better-educated citizens? Does it all come down to money? How much potential is lost because higher education is becoming something only for the wealthy? Canada signed the UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in 1976, aiming for the progressive introduction of free secondary and post-secondary education — yet tuition fees continue to rise. Perhaps one day Canada will attempt to follow the example of free system models such as those in Germany, Denmark, and several other countries, instead of continuing to treat students as profit centres.
Kat Marusiak
HowFi do I WiFi?
Look, guys, I’m not the most tech-savvy dude on campus. I can’t figure out the wifi on my laptop. It works fine in class while I’m pretending to work (but actually checking out the babes on Instagram), but as soon as I try to do anything in the Student Union Building my computer refuses to talk to me! I thought it might be the browser, so I tried to look up what a browser was, but nothing came up!
I’m very frustrated. How do I use the wifi in the SUB? Is there a secret code I need to type in? I asked the people at the Fairgrounds and they just looked all confused at me, like I had just asked the stupidest question of all time. The ladies of Instagram will never love me. I’m not good enough at anything. I’m going to go to A building and cry about my life.
Graham Entsa
The bigger the goal, the harder the fail
January is a month full of mixed feelings. It is often seen as a clean slate for new adventures, new goals, and new hope. While many fitness centres make their year’s worth of profits within the first day of this month, there is also a dreariness that hovers over people’s sense of new beginnings. While this is a month of many new hopes and dreams, it can also be the month in which most of these goals become distanced and less significant as people get back into their everyday routines and habits. As people try to make major changes to become a different and better person than they were a few days prior to New Year’s, these expectations also come with a price. There is nothing like setting the bar so high only to watch yourself not meet these goals and suddenly give up altogether. I argue, however, that setting small and achievable goals is reasonable and can take away that dreariness or pressure.
Sonja Klotz
