Bullying is a big issue and has become more and more of an issue in recent times. As such, the campaign to stop it has been ever increasing. My heart aches to all those victims of bullying that have taken their own precious lives away. Bullying must stop and I thank (though some won’t, I know) Casey Heynes for being a poster boy, though under unfortunate circumstances, on this issue.

Above is a video capturing Casey Heynes, a kid from Australia and victim of bullying, being punched in the face and stomach by a scrawny kid. Casey decides he’s had enough and picks up the kid, body slamming him to the ground.

Am I advocating violence? No. Am I advocating self-defense? Yes. (more…)

It has been a week since the UTSU elections. Let’s take a look at my predictions and see how they compare with the unofficial results.

‘Winner’: Unite For Action (UFA)

Wow! Really? Who would’ve guessed?

Sarcasm aside, the UFA executive candidates took home an average of 80% of votes. I really hoped VP Internal candidate Nathaniel Tang would have drawn more votes but alas, he ended with just 22% of the vote. Obviously, the uncontested candidates had no trouble ‘winning’ their positions.

Why did this happen? There could be a few reasons:

• Only one slate was up for election;
• Part of the student population was boycotting the election;
• Few eligible voters were aware there even was an election.

Obviously with just one slate, there can only be one winner. No matter how one votes, at the end of the day someone has to be sitting in that position, and, for the nth year in a row it is the incumbent slate. Does this count as winning, or does it count as ‘winning’?

Voter Turnout: Virtually Non-existent

Voter turnout was a meager 5.45%. Wait. What? Approximately 3,000 people voted. That’s about the size of a high school. Needless to say, for a school of around  55,000 people that’s just sad.

Part of the reason why so few votes were submitted had to do with a group of students encouraging others to boycott the election. I realize that boycotting an election is meant to make a statement and promote awareness, but without the appropriate media coverage it is simply a joke. (more…)

Is it just me or is everyone else doing one of…

1. Taking a break constantly, aka procrastinating, even though you’re supposed to be reading/writing that essay/studying for an exam.

2. Just plain tired/frustrated/angry from all the exams  you had last week or from all the assignments you’re doing that are due next week.

3. Gone on vacation but you know that you’re going to be miserable and regret ever going on vacation.

4. Back from vacation and wishing that you had a time machine to be back on vacation.

5. Lounging around at home feeling guilty for not being as productive as you should be.

6. Realizing that reading week was rather appropriately named.

7. Seeing friends/relatives because despite all your assignments, they are important to you after all.

8. Dreading the end of reading week.

9. Being a total miracle and is actually working.

10. Maybe, just maybe, having fun?

Any Mortal Kombat fan knows that saying, “Your soul is mine” is completely synonymous with that video game franchise. But did it ever occur to anybody how that same saying could be said by U of T itself? I was recently inspired by re-reading a post by one of our featured bloggers about university students. After reading, agreeing, and laughing along with how true those statements were, I had to ask myself, “How the hell did I allow university to steal my soul?”

We all know the saying, “U of T is a soul sucker” or something along that line. But what is it that makes this institution so… soul-sucking (for lack of a better term)? Is it the fact that we do nothing but study 99.9% of the time? Is it the fact that once we catch up in one class, we’re completely, and I mean COMPLETELY behind in the others? We go to the top school in Canada (since the last time I checked), so we should be proud of this accomplishment right, RIGHT?!

Although we do take some pride in being U of T students, we’re all in the same boat of losing our soul to this ever so awesome institution. How did our once brightly shining naïve selves become so jaded and lackluster?

In my personal experience, U of T has done the following to take over my soul:

- Although I try my best to catch up on my readings, it just never seems to be enough. The times I think I’m ahead, I’m actually just catching up with (everyone else in) the class. So I’m pretty much forever reading.

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While browsing through U of T-related Tweets, I noticed a pattern — people were complaining left and right! Their grievances ranged from people talking in the library to not having cell phone service on campus. If I were part of the U of T admin, these would be enough to keep me awake at night.

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… is who I currently feel I am. Let me explain my situation.

I have been an undergrad since 2005. I took a year off to do PEY (Professional Experience Year) and also switched my program four times (yes I am indecisive), which is why I have been university for 6 years and counting. Last semester, I took the last course I would ever have to take in university… or so I thought until this afternoon when I received the worst news I have received in a long time:

I went to my registrar’s office immediately after I read that because I could not sit around and wait for that damn letter to come in the mail.

My registrar confirmed that it was not a mistake; I simply did not read the fine print, to to speak. When I heard this I almost started to cry right there. I was so sure that I was able to graduate that I started to plan my life around that assumption.

I know that the same thing has happened to many before me — people who I know personally. It is a devastating experience and also humiliating to have to tell people “whoops I’m not graduating after all,” especially when you’ve already been in university for so long. I don’t want it to happen to anyone in the future, so here is what I want you to learn from me:

1. Before the beginning of what you think is going to be your final year of your undergrad, do two things:

• get all of the departments of each of your POSts to confirm exactly what courses you still have to take to complete your POSt
• get your registrar to confirm that you have all the general degree requirements

2. If anything changes, repeat step 1. For example, if you are not going to be taking the exact credits you were supposed to according to what all of those people said, ask them once again if things are still good to go.

What happened to me is that I got waivers for two courses in my program, which allowed me to substitute two other courses that I already took for them. I didn’t realize that this waiver would affect my general degree requirements.

I’m not sure how other colleges and departments work, but receiving the notification that I got today was pretty last minute, considering that:

• classes for the new semester are already starting on Monday; if I had waited for the letter to come in the mail I would have missed the first week
• a lot of courses have waiting lists
• courses that I might have needed aren’t necessarily offered this semester

Not only that, but I never received any kind of program assessment from the math department.

I don’t know what is up with all of this last-minute business, which is a big WTF, but don’t learn this lesson the hard way. Take initiative to make sure that you don’t get screwed and that your plans play out as you expect.

It’s a sore thumb on campus. We have a love/hate relationship with the grumpy, unhelpful staff. The stacks are always messy and when you look at the library catalogue and see that the only copy of a book left on campus is at Robarts, you get a sinking feeling that the book is missing. Robarts library is just one of the things at U of T that we all love to hate. In fact, you probably aren’t a real U of T student until you get frustrated at it for some reason or another. It’s just one of those experiences that every U of T student goes through.

Unhelpful staff and messy shelves aside, we love to complain about the fact that the turkey “peacock-shaped” building is hideous. And it is, when you compare it with some of the lovely structures we have on campus, like Trinity College, UC or the fascinating Pharmacy building (if we want to have a more modern building on the list).

In any case, U of T is trying to transform the building and according to an article in the Toronto Star, this is what Robarts could look like after all the construction that is currently going on: (more…)