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Contents
Contents
E-vote for the SFUOLeif musicThe Wright stuff
Will there ever bepeace?
News
News
Arts
Arts
Sports
Sports
Feature
Feature
p. 4
p. 4
p. 12
p. 12
p. 21
p. 21
p. 16
p. 16
Megan O’Meara
reveals the new online method of voting for February’selections.
p. 4
Transit strike update: wanna crash with the president?
p. 7Peter Henderson
talks with songwriterLeif Vollebekk.
p. 12Kalin Smith
fi
nds out about
Life After God.
p. 13
Men’s basketball’s newest player lights upthe court.
p. 21
Should
fi
ghting be allowed in hockey?
Megan O’Meara
investigates.
p. 22
Joe Howell
investigates the crisis in theMiddle East
fi
rst-hand.
p. 16-17Di
describes the right climate for climax.
p. 30
Grading good work
Re: “Give me more A+s” (Opinion, Jan. 8)
MR. MICHAEL OLENDER,I read your “Heckles” column o Jan. 8 with interest. An associate pro-essor o history at the U o O since2003, I have taught at the universitieso Calgary, Alberta, Bishop’s, Carle-ton, and the Royal Military College o Canada. Your column raises two im-portant issues: the lack o proessorialcomments on student papers; and acommon student belie that the hardwork alone merits an A+. Let me ofermy two cents.As to the lack o comments, I agreewith you. I think all proessors shouldmake comments on student papers.I am sometimes asked by studentsrom other proessors’ classes to readpapers that contain no comments.Most are quite happy with their gradebut want to know why they did wellso that they can replicate such successin the uture. I do not blame them.Success as well as ailure should beexplained.But comments on a paper are notnecessarily helpul either. Studentswho have taken my courses can attestthat I write all over papers. Lastly, Iwrite a paragraph at the paper’s endreiterating my thoughts about thepaper. I also hand out very detailedEssay Writing Guide sheets in ev-ery course, and dedicate at least oneclass to essay troubleshooting. Stu-dents oen come to me to nd outwhy they did not get the grade they wanted. Teir reactions to my com-ments usually break down as ollows:blank uncomprehending stares as Iexplain (again) why their papers wentwrong, admissions they did not readmy comments, or repeated claimsthat because they worked very hardthey deserve a better grade than theone they got.Let me concentrate on reactionthree and the notion that hard work must necessarily be rewarded with asuitably high grade. I am sorry to say that a student’s hard work may not re-sult in a good grade regardless o howmany hours one works or one mustwork hard and well. Anyone witha reasonable level o sel-disciplinecan complete the requisite numbero hours required to get a term paperdone. But does that mean the paper isgood? Not always. What i the thesisis badly explained? What i impropersources are used? What i the writingis poor? In other words, bad paperscan take just as much efort to writeas very good ones.I explain this conundrum to stu-dents thusly. I I was an engineer whodesigned a bridge, but I miscalculatedthe load actor and the bridge sub-sequently collapsed and killed youramily because o my mistake, I doubtmy pleas that “I worked really hard”would matter as you sued me intooblivion—nor should they. Bad work cannot be deended. Yet my “brilliant”parable rarely carries the day.As you are not my student, I cannotsay why you got 87 per cent on the pa-per that had no comments on it ratherthan, say, 92 per cent. I always tellgood students that they should readthe comments on their papers too be-cause they might be doing one or twosmall and easily corrected things thatprevent that high A assigned to theirpaper rom being an A+. But many do not do that, which reminds meo a quotation rom Admiral AlredTayer Mahan that “deeat cries aloudor explanation, whereas victory, likecharity, can hide a multitude o sins.”While I cannot deend my col-leagues who decline to explain why they hand out the grades that they do,I cannot accept your assertion eitherthat hard work alone merits an A+—one must work well too.
Dr. Galen PerrasHistory professor
Kind words
Re: “Support for the sake of support” (Editorial, Jan. 8)
I JUS FINISHED reading the mostrecent edition o the
Fulcrum
, ter-minating as always with the editorialpieces. Aer reading the two edito-rial articles that you wrote, I eel com-pelled to share with you just how im-pressed I am with the ideas presentedin the articles as well as the mannerin which they were presented. Jour-nalism, to me, has always been abouthonesty, relevance to the layman, in-tegrity, daring to say what others willnot, and presenting events in a clear,direct, well thought-out manner. Bothyour piece about the ideal StudentFederation o the University o Ottawa(SFUO) president and the decision tosupport striking transit workers ulllmy denition o good, responsible,well-craed journalism. I just wantedto share with you how happy I was toread such well-written articles.
Adam RobertsTird-year history student
Cowardice in opinion
Re: “Fulcrum seeks ideal SFUO presi-dent” (Editorial, Jan. 8)
SHAME ON YOU,
Fulcrum
, shameon you. Here I was, thinking thatwe had a respectable and respectulEnglish-language student newspaperon campus, but I guess I was wrong.I say this in regards to the last edito-rial rom the
Fulcrum
. Unortunately,there was a blatant lack o respect orthe
Fulcrum
readers and their collec-tive intelligence. For the readers whodid not have the chance to read overthis arce, it appeared to be an edito-rial that listed what the
Fulcrum
looksor in the next SFUO president. Itcould have been an awesome piece,but you missed your shot.Instead, what you published wasa very thinly veiled list o criticismsabout our current president and oth-er possible candidates vying or thesoon-to-be open position. But thenagain, it’s obvious that this missedshot was actually a perectly execut-ed one. It’s obvious that this missedshot actually intended to attack thesepeople.Tat’s alright though, it’s actually not that bad. As a newspaper, you arewell within your right to criticize thepresident or anybody else with youreditorials. But this is not really whatyou did.My point is this: i you are goingto advise us on what to look or in thenext president, then do so. And i youare going to criticize SFUO PresidentDean Haldenby and other candidates,then do so as well. But or the sake o our intelligence and o your paper’sreputation, be honest about what itis you are saying. Do not hide behindyour editorial, taking cowardly shotsat these people, without being honestand brave enough to admit that youare doing so. I you did not like theact that mass axes were sent out as aorm o protest, or that Haldenby wasallowed to take a second bilingualismtest, then call out by name whoever itis you blame or this, so that they canreply to that criticism.In essence, what you publishedlast week was a spineless attempt at voicing your discontent with certainpeople, but without actually sayingso. We are university students, we arecapable o intelligent thought, and weare most certainly capable o seeingwhat was really implied in that edito-rial. In the uture, i you want to say something, just say it. Do not try to bewitty, do not try to be clever, becauseyou just end up insulting us and em-barrassing yourselves and your repu-tation in the process.
Luc RoyTird-year criminology student
Time to grow up
I CAME AS no surprise to me whenI read o the city’s rejection o the U-Pass, as well as its reluctance to in-clude the students o the University o
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Jan. 22–28, 2009
Letters
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Do you think the benefitsof online voting outweighthe potential problems?
Yes:No:
thefulcrum.ca poll
Last week’s results
Ottawa in the decision-making pro-cess. What I’m wondering is: can youblame them?Student activist behaviour in thepast has been, quite rankly, embar-rassing and a detriment to its owncauses. ake or example the Board o Governors (BOG) meeting held lastsemester to vote on increasing tuition.I was primarily appalled at the ridicu-lously disrespectul picture chosenby the SFUO to promote the eventon Facebook. Tough pleased by thestudent turnout at the BOG meeting,my condence in the student move-ment quickly turned into completehorror when said students held uprude signs and called out “Shame!”during discussion and again during voting. I’ve also heard about studentsattempting to “make a point” by shov-ing cameras in the aces o senatorsat Senate meetings, causing them tosimply adjourn instead o holdingmuch-needed reviews on courses o-ered at the university.Is it any wonder that Allan Rock and the U o O administration showless and less enthusiasm to collaboratewith students? Firstly, as the adminis-tration, they deserve a modicum o respect, since the act that they runthe university allows us students tograduate with valuable degrees. Teact that we are their clients entitlesus to respect as well, but so ar, we’vedone a great job o negating that en-titlement.
amar FriedmanSecond-year economics and political science student Read the rest of this letter and others at thefulcrum.ca/letters
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