[ac888yow]

CUSA voted on Monday to terminate support for Shinerama, which raises money for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, because the disease "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men.".

Since then the fallout has been immense. The radio and news programs in town have been covering this story nonstop. The story has legs nationally, with print and TV media giving the story fairly extensive coverage. CUSA is (rightly) being lambasted across the country.

Just some of the coverage:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081125/carleton_fundraiser_081125/20081125/

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=992946

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/11/25/ot-081125-shinerama.html

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=fefe3116-e2d1-4f94-a01d-3c5e4e3bae7a

etc.

Poor Carleton. It struggles enough with its reputation and now has to deal with this ...

[adam-machiavelli]

I'm getting the feeling that these articles aren't telling the whole story. I'm more interested to find out how they came to such a decision and whether they'd planned on giving the money to a different cause, which I'd support because I think that you should make new university students aware of a wide variety of worthy causes out there.

[lrt's friend]

I'm getting the feeling that these articles aren't telling the whole story. I'm more interested to find out how they came to such a decision and whether they'd planned on giving the money to a different cause, which I'd support because I think that you should make new university students aware of a wide variety of worthy causes out there.

The story is not their future plans for giving to another cause but the rationale for their decision. As a Carleton grad, I am very disappointed, and yes, it does affect the reputation of the whole university.

[ac888yow]

The story is not their future plans for giving to another cause but the rationale for their decision. As a Carleton grad, I am very disappointed, and yes, it does affect the reputation of the whole university.Exactly. They justified this decision based on factually WRONG (and outrageously stupid) information, which speaks to the idiocy of every one but 2 of those CUSA councillors who voted in favour of the motion.

This was blatant racism, politically-correct garbage under the phony guise of being inclusionary, but thankfully the students, local, and national media jumped all over them for it.

I'm also a Carleton grad but I'm not so much disappointed at CUSA's decision as I am embarassed by it.

[c_speed3108]

Exactly. They justified this decision based on factually WRONG (and outrageously stupid) information, which speaks to the idiocy of every one but 2 of those CUSA councillors who voted in favour of the motion.

This was blatant racism, politically-correct garbage under the phony guise of being inclusionary, but thankfully the students, local, and national media jumped all over them for it.

I'm also a Carleton grad but I'm not so much disappointed at CUSA's decision as I am embarassed by it.


The trouble on student government boards is most of the people on them do not have time to research things so they basically rely on what information is put in front of them along with a touch of gut instinct.

For example I am a U of O grad. While I was there, the student bar name the Nox was closed down. Regardless of whether that was a good or bad decision, one of the facts cited at the time was that with U of O's proximity to the market area, it was much harder for the student bar to make money and hence why it was losing so much. The thinking was that a school like Carleton (so often cited as an example) was in a more isolated location and therefore the student bar had less competition and made money.

Reason makes sense right? I thought so too at the time.

The following summer I enrolled in a class at Carleton and made a couple friends there. One was scrutinizing CUSA's financial statements and ask me what I thought of a few numbers. Anyway in the process of looking over the books I saw the numbers for Carleton's bar....and my jaw hit the desk. Carleton's bar was losing more money than the Nox did...at a smaller university....

[hackunion]

Embarrassing indeed. I'm thinking of grad school for next year and even though CUSA doesnt represent grads, I'm definitely thinking about other options now.

[adam-machiavelli]

The only reason this decision raised such a fuss was that they targeted white males -so the mainstream media had a field day bashing them. Had they pulled support for another ethno-racial group, there wouldn't have been such a hoopla about it.

[O-Town Hockey]

Actually, one of the major reasons it made headlines is the blatant inaccuracy in their logic for changing charities. As a physician, and someone who has been personally affected by CF (a friend....who was a girl....and not white anglosaxen), I was shocked. CF is an AUTOSOMAL recessive genetic disorder meaning males and females are affected equally. There are different genetic variations of the disease found in whites (especially French-Canadians), Arabs, Asians, and some areas of Africa. Those Carleton student representatives should have done their homework before they opened their mouths. I guess you can't blame them, not having a med school and all ;).

[c_speed3108]

It sounds like they are now going to reverse this decision..which is good.

The interesting upshot to all this is that CF and information about it has gotten TONS of press. I bet the donations will go up at least a bit.

[c_speed3108]

Embarrassing indeed. I'm thinking of grad school for next year and even though CUSA doesnt represent grads, I'm definitely thinking about other options now.

Having just finished a Master's a couple weeks ago I will say this on grad school:

1) Nothing like undergrads at all....Like comparing undergrad to high school.

2) When picking a school: Pick based on your supervisor more so than the school itself. You are far better to choose a lesser school with a superstar prof as your supervisor than you are to choose the best school with a so-so supervisor. Also, consider what profs are around the department that teach grad courses you want to take.

When I say superstar prof - make sure of one thing though: that they don't have so many grad students they have little time for each. This is particularly true if it is a master's you are going for. PHD students have a bit higher of a priority.

The thing with grad school is that while the university will try to do things/put on a few events for grad students 99.9% of the experience is within your own department and most of that within your own research group.

I was at U of O and I can say that I was only inside the graduate faculty office twice: 1) I handed in my admission offer in person. 2) When I handed the final copies of my thesis for binding. Basically, the first day and the last day :)

[hackunion]

Yeah, I know that depending on which advisor one has, it will affect the grad experience the most. My department has a good selection of professors and a brilliant visiting critic this year (winner of the Whitehouse Redux design competition). Staying at Carleton would also make financial sense. But after five years of undergrad here, and a growing senile attitude in regards to the school and Ottawa in general, a change of scenery isn't a bad idea either!

[Ottawade]

I'm in agreement with all of you. Lots of signs on campus. Lots of head scratching going on here.