This is when I turn into a zombie
- At February 11, 2009
- By Cassandra
- In Career, Politics
0
Voting for the Ryerson Students’ Union elections ends tonight and we’re staying at school into the wee hours of the morning to get all the results live.
I’ll be liveblogging the evening’s events at RyersOnline. Look for a page to go live around 5:30 p.m. if all goes as planned.
The other editors and I will be posting results, photos and possibly even interviews and interesting tidbits of information as they pop up.
I have to be honest, though: I haven’t voted yet and I don’t think I will.
Aside from the fact that I’m graduating this year and these elections’ winners will have no affect on me, I’m completely disillusioned with the RSU and have no interest in supporting any of the candidates.
As a journalism student, I’ve been forced to pay attention to the students’ union since first year in order to survive story assignments about student politics. It was even more important last year and this year as I developed story ideas and was assigned more complicated political stories.
It’s been great reporting training because although some of the RSU members have good intentions, they are politicians. They know the tricks of the trade and can talk around an issue in ways most students couldn’t dream of.
But the infighting, allegations of corruption, nepotism and lack of getting anything done is truly disappointing. Other than a purely professional one, I have lost all interest.
It doesn’t bode well for my political interest when I will have to report on politics in the future.
Chances are I’ll have to report on some politics at some point, whether on the municipal, provincial, federal or international level. And unfortunately, politicians on all of these levels seem to be mostly the same.
I’m a politically passionate person. I believe in things and parties and even a select few politicians. I’m interested in watching the rising stars to see what they’ll do. I vote.
I’ve always wondered how becoming a journalist would affect this part of me. Will my passion for politics help me as a journalist? Hinder me? Or will it just disappear altogether as I become more immersed in political reporting?
How not to become a viable political option
- At January 26, 2009
- By Cassandra
- In Education, Politics
- 0
Yesterday, the NDP chose not to fast track back-to-work legislation to end the strike at York University and the strike will continue for at least another week or two.
As a university student and an NDP supporter, this makes me very upset.
I don’t attend York, but I can sympathize with the more than 50,000 students who have been out of class for nearly three months. I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of students who, like me, rely on a fixed income from student loans or lines of credit to fund their education.
And once the money runs out, that’s it.
Even if they get their tuition back for these lost semesters (and they probably won’t), the true cost of attending university is the cost of living and, more importantly, the cost of not working.
I understand the fight for higher wages by teaching assistants and contract professors, but I don’t necessarily support it. Not for three months when tens of thousands of students (and many of their parents) are struggling to pay for school so they can try to get a decent job in the future.
If Ryerson had gone on strike this year instead of York, I would have been completely screwed. I wouldn’t be graduating this April with a Bachelor of Journalism and I probably wouldn’t be graduating in the next few years either, simply because I would not be able to afford to return to school for quite a while.
The provincial NDP made a huge mistake by not supporting this back-to-work legislation.
Not only did they alienate hundreds of thousands of young voters, many of whom want a viable political alternative to the Liberals and Conservatives, but they also gave critics of the party reason to continue to think of the NDP as a one-dimensional labour party.
If the provincial and federal NDP truly want a shot at leading a government in the near future, they’ll have to take a less extreme position on issues such as these.
Supporting unionized labour is a good thing — to a point. Once millions of dollars are lost, tens of thousands of students are forced out of the classroom and lose up to an entire year of education, and there is no hope of the two sides negotiating a contract, it’s time for back-to-work legislation.
I never thought I’d say this, but this is one time the Liberals and Conservatives have it all right and the NDP have it all wrong.