Maybe it’s too early to say it, but I didn’t like the blatant Canadian nationalism on display at the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver. I would have been offended if the Americans had acted the same way in Salt Lake City, or the Italians in Torino. Or any other hosts.  Let’s collectively consider the nature of hosting for a second …

I’m glad Canadians were happy, friendly, involved, and by many accounts
created the most engaged Olympic atmosphere ever.  But we were hosting an international event that specifically doesn’t include the word “Canada” in its title because of a long history of global fellowship in sport.  This isn’t the FIFA World Cup, where mini-wars are fought between historical enemies, and players get shot by their own fans.  Nor should Vancouver be some American dollar store that’s draped in red, white, blue, and whatever colour soaring eagles are.  But I digress.

Hopefully I’m not the only person who feels this way, and these Olympics don’t set the bar for future shows of nationalism.

It’s best explained with an example:  It doesn’t make sense to spend three hours shopping for groceries, standing about in the kitchen, and making a sandwich because it will always be cheaper and more efficient to buy a sandwich at Subway. Especially if you could be out there generating $20/hr for your time, and the sandwich only costs $7.

So why am I always somewhat dissatisfied with the sandwich from Subway?

Not because it’s not good (they are artists, after all), nor because the quality is poor, nor because I could make a better sandwich at home. The source of the discontent is, according to Barry Schwartz – choice. I had too many wonderful options to choose from. If I had no choice but to shop for groceries and make myself a simple sandwich based on limited supplies at my local corner grocery store, I would actually be more content with my choice. I wouldn’t be standing at Subway for 15 minutes deciding between Turkey + Bacon and Ham + Cheese.

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice, from Ted.com, via Jon Haber.

First off, what would be the proper budget for an image makeover on the Vice-Presidential campaign trail?  This Toronto Star article makes the argument that the money spent is not outrageous given the sheer quantity and quality of clothes required for Sarah and her family for the duration of the campaign.  We’re not talking haute couture here, just a large collection of high quality, good looking garments.  Her aides can’t dryclean things because the airplane rarely spends more than a few hours in the same city.  That alone necessitates thirty or forty suits.  What about Todd Palin, and her children?  What about the army of makeup and hair people that need to be on hand (and on-salary) for the duration of the campaign?  With those demands, a $150k budget begins to look reasonable.

Secondly, since when does a politician have to have the same clothing budget as their middle class supporters?  When are the two even comparable? The demands of image and presentation of a world leader eclipse similar needs of average people.   World leaders are paid to put on a show, to inspire confidence, to look, be, and act their best at all times.

Hell, the fine citizens of the United States of America would be well served by a higher standard of public dress and presentation.   What do we want, George W. Bush in sweatpants and a No Fear t-shirt?   Someone lend her a Bud Light belt buckle and a NASCAR jacket, because she needs to keep it real.  As a Vice-Presidential candidate keeping it real means being true to the demands of the position, and the culture of global leaders. In that sense she perhaps had more to spend than the average Governor.

Thirdly, this elevates tired themes of sexism and hypocrisy, but that is something other writers have done a much better job elaborating on.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it’s a smoke bomb.  It’s meaningless drivel that actually gives Palin a not-so-well-deserved break from having to address real issues:  economic recovery, poverty reduction, job creation, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the thousands upon thousands of other issues that are still well worth bringing attention to and debating. Hell, someone please ask her about what she thinks happened to dinosaurs and her position on creationism.

On that note, now I feel bad about even writing about this issue.  Please, American voters, concern yourself with something other than Sarah Palin’s wardrobe.

Increases fines for street racers and aggressive drivers, including those who drive 50 km/h or more over the posted speed limit, to $10,000 and allows police to immediately suspend the driver’s licence and impound the vehicle for seven days.

The word “immediately” speaks volumes about how the law is being enforced in Ontario; thousands of drivers have been punished financially via towing charges, fines, and time without a license (not being able to drive to work for seven days can hurt), but later found to be guilty of a lesser crime when they have their day in court.

Take the story of George. He rides a motorcycle, and in traffic he did a silly thing: he lane-split (filtered, drove between two lanes of stationary traffic) during rush-hour gridlock to get off the highway. He deserves a fine; instead he lost his license and his motorcycle fighting the “stunting” charge. The end result: an “illegal lane change” fine, and a few hundred dollars. He has already paid thousands.

CBC – Bill 203 Casting too wide of a net? (cbc.ca – video clip)

The history of this, from George’s point of view, can be found on the forum GTAMotorcycle.com:  Heading to court, CBC coverage.

Anyways, worth a look.  The interesting thing to note is that Ontario’s roads are, kilometer for kilometer, some of the safest in the world (if not the safest).  I don’t know whether we ought to be attributing that to enforcement, the laws, or the giant grid of incredibly safe megahighways that run across the populated centres of this province.   Hey MTO, credit where credit is due.

Since many of us know the tuition increase is imminent, and aren’t really willing to protest against it publicly out of fear of reprisal, skepticism, or ignorance, we say:

Hey at least we’re not in the U.S. … tuition is like $<xx>,000 per semester!

There is a prevailing belief in Canada that American tuition fees are completely out of reach for the average lower-middle-class student; thus in Canada we have it a little better, and shouldn’t complain about 4% tuition increases.

This is a popular theory amongst students in times when the Administration corrects budget shortfalls with student money rather than public money, and raises tuition. In hopes of affirming the “at least we’re not as screwed as the Americans”-theory of public education management, I decided to do some research.

The results were surprising: tuition at Guelph is definitely not less expensive than at similar U.S. schools.

Methodology

First, I visited the U.S. Department of Education College Navigator and found some schools that compared to the University of Guelph in terms of demographics, funding model, and whatever else I could search on.

I used the following criteria: schools that offer advanced degrees (Ph.D, M.Sc, etc.), publicly funded, 10k – 20k Undergraduate students, on-campus housing, a city setting, offer distance learning, and have men’s Football at the varsity level. Once I got that list back (50+ schools), I narrowed it to 13 candidates by demographics: about 17000 undergrads, about 2000 graduate students.

Then I visited StateUniversity.com, a service that collects a tremendous amount of information about post-secondary schools in the U.S., including graduate tuition. I grabbed 2006-2007 tuition data (average, as reported for two semesters) for both resident (In-State) and non-resident (Out-of-State/International) students for each of the schools:

• Ball State University
• Boise State University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Missouri State University
• Oregon State University
• SUNY at Albany
• The University of Texas at El Paso
• University of Arkansas
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Nevada-Reno
• University of Oregon
• University of Toledo
• Western Kentucky University

Then I graphed the resulting data, sorted from lowest to highest.

Guelph Tuition

The tuition reported for Guelph at external sources does not match what you’d find at Student Financial Services, nor what is presented in the graphs: USD 4,700 and USD 10,450.

To get Guelph’s numbers: I took the SFS reported tuition in 2006/2007 (varying by semester), took the average for all programs with the most common program (“Other”) weighted four times heavier. Then multiplied by two, for two semesters. Same was done for the International (Non-resident) tuition. The compulsory UHIP fee was added to the Non-resident tuition. The final amount was adjusted for the exchange rate, at 0.95 USD.

American Tuition

The reported tuition for the American schools involved in this study are averages based on posted tuition fees for all programs. The U.S. tuition fees for graduate programs vary in cost based on number of hours per week, from 3 to 25+. Also, health care coverage is sometimes included, sometimes not, often subsidised. Since I had no control over that data, I decided to just use the value which was reported on StateUniversity.com.

Results

The two figures (click on either to get a larger, more readable version) show the graduate tuition fees of each of the schools, including the University of Guelph. Figure 1 shows resident tuition, Figure 2 shows non-resident tuition (International, Out of State, etc.).

Figure 1 – Graduate Tuition – Resident Students

Figure 2 – Graduate Tuition – Non-resident Students

Raw data is available upon request.

In both cases, resident and non-resident, tuition at the University of Guelph is decidedly in the middle-of-the-road, and far from the blow-out I was expecting. Tuition at Guelph may be significantly less expensive than at the University of Toledo, but it is significantly higher than at the University of Arkansas.

Regardless of Ohio, the hypothesis that tuition at Guelph is less expensive than at equivalent schools in the U.S. of A. has been proven false.

Discussion

So who cares? Check out Figures 3 and 4 and let me know if students are bearing a proportionate brunt of the increases in the cost of education. There are many other sources for revenue that can be tapped, though undoubtedly student tuition is the easiest one to access.

Some U.S. states have progressive policies about funding public education that do not involve increased tuition. Georgia has the Hope Scholarship program. All Georgia residents are eligible: as long as a student gets out of high school with a 3.0 GPA, and maintains that GPA in University, tuition is free.

Figure 3 – CFS Tuition increase data.

Figure 4 – U of G revenue breakdown.

Join the Student Budget Advisory Group (SBAG) for Tuition Action Day:

U.C. Courtyard
Thursday, March 20, 2008
11:00am to 1:00pm

It’s tough to find information on the specific outstanding issues, but information from the UGFA at least details what faculty members were voting for when they voted for the strike mandate.

But what are we students supposed to do: Graduate Students who are GTAs, Sessionals, or those of us just attending classes?

Teaching Assistants

I’m currently a GTA, so a member of CUPE 3913. CUPE 3913 is the union for all UTA, GTA, GSA, and Sessional Lecturer employees on campus. I’ve been trying to get some information about what to do, as a GTA, in case there is a faculty strike and my supervisor is on the picket line.

Remember that nobody is legally allowed to ask GTAs to do the work of the striking faculty. Furthermore, performing that work would seriously undermine and cut the legs out from underneath the people striking. Strikes are typically financially crippling for the people on the picket lines, and personally I don’t feel like compromising their position any further. The rule of thumb for TAs is don’t do anything differently than you would otherwise do if your supervisor wasn’t on strike.

If you’re unsure of your duties, check out the Unit 1 Collective Agreement between the U of G and CUPE 3913 … it’s a great read for a variety of reasons. This year is also the year this agreement expires (in August). Notice how only one (1) of the 70+ pages of the agreement concerns itself with the hourly wage. There is a lot of information there regarding benefits, leave, termination, multiple supervisors (not allowed), overtime, health & safety, harassment, rules regarding guaranteed TA-ships, and much more.

Update: If there is a strike & Survey (from CUPE 3913) as received in my inbox on March 12, 2008.

Sessionals

Sessional Lecturers are employees hired to teach one course, one semester at a time. Since they are not faculty, they are not subject to the UGFA vs. U of G negotiations. They have their own Unit 2 Collective Agreement, which also expires this August.

Sessionals are generally used in place of faculty to do the same teaching, with similar qualifications, for far less pay, less benefits, and very little job security.

I think Sessionals can use this strike as an opportunity to raise a little hell regarding their position as well. If you’re a sessional, I believe that during a faculty strike it’s the Dean of your College that becomes your immediate supervisor. Before crossing the picket-line, call your supervisor and ask for your legally-entitled security escort, and join the picket-line for a bit. :)

Show some solidarity with the UGFA, because God knows your union will need some faculty support during Unit 2 contract negotiations this summer!

Students

If you’re a student, remember that it’s the job of the University Administration to make sure you get your education without compromising their duties and responsibilities towards their employees.

I hate to see students vocally undermining organised labour, special interest groups, and fellow students in realms where the Administration makes policies, doles out the cash, and ultimately has control. In the 1960′s and 70′s students used to strike and picket on behalf of groups and causes that were far removed from student life … now we can’t even rally together for causes affecting people on our own campus.

Educate yourself before decrying someone’s work. Keep your eye on the official University of Guelph News for updates on exams, classes, and their negotiations with the UGFA.