I have a bone to pick with Maclean’s magazine and their university issue. It has nothing to do with their slagging of the University of Calgary yet again. I actually agree that I attend a poorly run, second-rate institution. No, my beef is with their evaluation of student life. They clearly did not do their research.
The breakdown of campus life, what they like to call “Campus Confidential,” includes “What’s Hot”, “What’s Not” and “Popular Profs.” A closer look reveals the ignorance of those who put this together.
Let’s start with a few of the “What’s Hot” items:
Riot Squad
I asked 10 people if they knew what Riot Squad was. None did. For those of you who are interested, they are Students’ Union volunteers who dress up in red coveralls (“Beastie Boys-inspired” according to the “experts”) and throw stuffed animals to screaming eight-year-olds at Dinos games. Not to slag off the Riot Squad, they do their job well, but how can they be “Hot” when no one knows who they are?
Campus is on the LRT line
Fantastic. They make it sound like we’re the only campus that has access to public transportation. That’s assuming we had public transit. To their credit, maybe they found themselves hard pressed to find upsides. I’ll give them that.
Student activism in fighting tuition hikes
Student what now? This is arguably the most apathetic campus in the country, possibly the world. There is next to no student involvement, let alone student activism. Perhaps I misinterpreted this. Maybe they mean fighting for tuition hikes.
As far as “What’s Not” goes they were bang on, but that isn’t incredibly difficult. Between overcrowding, alienation, constant construction, no Den and the “library” they could’ve had a field day. Honestly, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. If they wished to be a little more honest and representative, “What’s Not” would’ve been twice as long as the “What’s Hot” section.
That brings us to “Popular Profs.” Quick question: Who is almost guaranteed to be on 90 per cent of students top five lists? The answer is simple and resounding: Wil Holden. Whether you like him or not, whether you’ve even had him as a prof or not, everyone is familiar with his one-liners, his classroom antics, his anecdotes or, at the very least, his infamous reputation.
(I would’ve never survived my mandatory stint in ECON without him in the faculty.) A quick once over of the 19 popular profs does not reveal his name. A closer look is equally fruitless. This leads one to ask, “where the hell did these knobs get their information?”
They cite their source as “current students.” Were these “current students” the ones who lauded Engineering Week while completely neglecting our national championship calibre volleyball teams, not to mention the swimmers? Were these “current students” the ones who claim the Blue Banana Lounge on Friday’s is a “Hot Hangout?”
While it is not everyday that the Gauntlet and administration see eye to eye, I’m sure even Terry White would agree when I say that the Maclean’s staff had their collective head up their collective ass while “researching” this. They were apparently too busy to exercise any journalistic rigour when compiling this brain-dead assessment. Hell, they even misspelled Curtis Myden’s name.