The Best Class Talk Ever.

{ February 10, 2009 @ 18:23 } · { Uncategorized }

Hey,

I just came from a really cool class talk in Sean Saraka’s Marxism course that lasted about half an hour. CJ Symons and Sarah Jayne King were also there. We talked about everything from how to foster a sense of community on campus, to disobedience and how to approach the university on issues.

I think we came to some conclusions:

• It is difficult to try and build a sense of solidarity between students if we don’t feel as though we are part of a university community. Even though it is important to support students who have been treated unfairly, that sympathy can easily be compromised.
• Sometimes the Student Federation is placed in a difficult position when it comes to representing as many of its’ students’ divergent interests as possible in one instance.
• Dealing with the University is best achieved by attempting to  show how university and student interests can indeed converge. Hard decisions, often financial ones, are often made that hurt the student population, and in turn foster bad feelings towards the university, which are reflected when students interact with others in society. The University should consider the student experience and the amount it supports it as being beneficial from a corporate, for-profit standpoint. More students would enroll and the institution’s reputation would grow. Have you ever heard of students being marginalized and arrested at Cambridge, Leiden or Yale?

It’s important to me that these sorts of discussions take place. I really, really enjoy them. Dr. Saraka is a top-rate professor and he clearly knows what University is about where political thought is concerned. More and more, as we gradually realize our sense of community, I predict that we will be able to make great gains in the improvement of our communal student experience.

Mike Fancie

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