THE VOICE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA
Novemeber 19, 201 8 Volume 45, Issue 1 0 themedium.ca
UTMSU tackles online voting?
A student’s take on UTMSU pay
Women’s rights aren’t so trifiling
From UTM professor to CEO
Homage to a friend
News, page 2
Opinion, page 4
Arts, page 5
Features, page 8
Sports, page 11
UTMSU ‘course retake policy’ a reality Amendments to the “repeating passed courses policy” gives students a second chance at a better grade ALI TAHA NEWS EDITOR Last week, the University of Toronto Mississauga Academic Affairs Committee passed a motion to make changes to the existing Repeating Passed Courses policy that currently allows students to use one repeated course credit towards their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). With the new changes, the second attempt will be labeled as a “Second Attempt for Credit” (SAC), and it will count toward credit totals and their GPA. The changes come after years of advocating done by the University of Toronto Mississauga Students’ Union (UTMSU) for a “Course Retake Policy.” According to the current policy, “students are allowed to repeat passed courses only once” and “the second attempt is not counted in the student’s GPA calculations or in the degree credit count but is instead denoted as ‘extra’ on the student’s academic record.” In 2012, the UTMSU brought up the issue after succeeding on passing the “Credit/No Credit Policy.” In their advocacy work with the Office of the Dean and the UTM Registrar,
the union stressed the importance of academic policies that would help combat poor mental health among students. During the meeting, UTMSU President Felipe Negata praised the policy, stating, “I cannot begin to imagine the number of students this policy will help. I’m an international student and, reflecting on my experience, I moved here by myself—I was learning how to cook and budget my finances, and I was also taking a full course load. It’s really exciting to see what we’re doing here today, the second chance we’re giving to students.” “I’ve been able to call UTM my home for the past four years, and like a home it’s always nice to see improvements,” he continued. Since September of 2015 there have been 1340 instances of repeating passed courses. When the second attempt was completed, students achieved a median increase of thirteen per cent over their previous grade. Of the overall instances, ten per cent of students received lower marks than their original grade. During the meeting, acting VicePrincipal Academic and Dean Angela Lange stated, “[Grades] don’t improve hugely on average, so the notion is
MUHAMMAD ALI/THE MEDIUM
The policy change will go into effect starting May 1st, 2019. why not let them have that percentage increase? We don’t want students to think, ‘I’m going to take this second attempt and I’m now going to
increase my GPA a huge amount’. A student who got a seventy isn’t all of a sudden going to get a hundred.” The policy changes passed unani-
mously, and will go into effect starting May 1st, 2019. Policy continued on page 2
PSLA panel discusses the impact of 1968 The panel took an interdisciplinary approach at how political events fifty years ago have shaped politics today MELISSA BARRIENTOS ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Last Wednesday, the Political Science & Pre-Law Association hosted an interdisciplinary panel called “The Impact of 1968: How the World Changed,” in recognition of global events that “shocked the world” fifty years ago. With an interdisciplinary approach to the political and cultural revolutions of 1968, the panel consisted of professors from Political Science, History, and Sociology, including UTM Professor Mark Lippincott and UTM Professor Spyridon Kotsovilis from the department of Political Science, U of T Professor Sean Mills from the department of Historical Studies, and U of T Professor Kristin Plys from the department of Sociology. Professor Kotsovilis opened the panel with an introduction to four events that highlighted the year: the communist North Vietnamese surprise attack on South Vietnam and the U.S., the two-week long strikes throughout France led by students
PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The panel discussed the North Vietnamese attack on South Vietnam and the U.S. and workers, the brief period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia known as the ‘Prague Spring’, and the staggering effects of Maoism in China.
Viewing the revolutionary events of 1968 through a global perspective, Plys stressed the fact that it was the idea of decolonization that spurred strikes and movements
against traditional political parties. After World War I, the U.S. emerged as a superpower with political and military dominance, but it’s involvement in the Vietnam war stirred
civil unrest as more than 16,000 Americans had already died in Vietnam when the North Vietnamese communists launched the ‘Tet Offensive,’ which took the U.S. army by surprise. Following the attack, Vietnam War protests began across America, which was compounded by the civil rights movement and the beginning of the cold war. Similarly, in Asia, Plys stated that people began to realize “not much changed after they gained independence” and attempted to “fully realize their global independence.” For instance, in India, workers were promised an improvement of working conditions but were instead met with poorer conditions than when they had been ruled by Britain. Moreover, the student-worker protests for better working conditions and civil rights transformed France and paved the way for the women’s liberation movement and the gay rights movement in the years to come. Panel continued on page 2