University of Zero

I was once told that brief joke and should have taken it to be a warning.

The University of Ottawa fails its students again today. To recap:

Yesturday a group of students were permitted to sit in on the Science committees class-approval mechanism, its highly bureaucratic trust me. At first the process was marvelous; the students got to observe how their academic futures are shaped by a handful of people. Yet we were also privy to exactly how parts of the academy felt about 'activism' and implicitly their views on the left [though it was never suggested once that 'activism' was only one doctrine and forced upon students. My girl narmeen pointed out that none of these people talking about the class had bothered to attend it, to actually see what it is like.] We witnessed the bureaucratic structure waffle, nitpick at definitions, course content, and eventually move to push back the agenda; send the course description back to committee [where it had already been in limbo with students assisting in definitions], only to ensure that the next vote for and against the class would exclude students.

The fact that a prof resorted to a second-rate dictionary definition of the word 'activist' just to support his bias against activists made the whole day bunk; smell fishy, less groovy. Luckily a girl in the ranks had already found Oxford and Cambridge definitions which better defined activist to what non-conservatives would view it as.

And also, as my chum Seamus later pointed out, the word 'activist' is used by the right all the time. Bush appointed 'activist' judges to the supreme court.

But anyways, we have a few plans and that isnt over yet. I will instead let you know what happened today.

While serving for the People's Republic of Delicious, a confrontational, anal, controlling, pseudo-powerful, self-declared king of the university centre started attacking me and my fellow Republicans over our right to be there. He started first with me, and I couldn't sustain his attack and utter glibe and tongue towards those students whom he was employed by and for. He started asking what we were doing, why we were serving, who we were, where our contract sheet is, where we got permission from, and so I tried to find someone who knew all these things more than I did.

admittedly, that was my first mistake.

I should have instead reminded him of his position and mandate for students, kindly asked him to be less confrontational when talking to his equals, told him if he really was effectively concerned for the matters of the unicentre he would have noticed us long ago, and furthermore, directed him towards the Chartwells office for proof. Basically, I should have told him, I have a job and a half here to do; go find out for yourself and quit bugging me while I'm allowed and cleared to be here. Just because you don't actually pay any attention to your job but get off being bossy doesn't mean I should stop what I'm doing, just because you didn't read a memo. But this man- honestly. I was going to scream; between yesturday and todays attitudes of the administrative types I feel like the next one I'm just going to metaphorically tear apart.

I hate this school, I hate the way he was talking to me, I hate that the assumption is that I shouldn't be occupying my student space without some losers permission. I hate that he got snarky and asked if we were even students... no buddy, we're just a bunch of hipsters giving away food and we needed a place to play hacky.

The moment I didn't take him seriously [asides from his condescending attitude from the moment our eyes met], was when he told us we weren't allowed to be serving food in the unicentre- when first of all, all kinds of student tables were, and secondly, we had been for a long time.

I am ranting.

There is nothing philosophical about this, except for what I have already said about power, discipline, punishment, roles, egos, administration, and how I hate micro-level bull loney.

In other news I spoke sign language with a very nice woman today, she told me my friend and I were cute together, and that it was a beautiful day outside. Ending on a happy note? really?