Registration stress

Stress of early registration

Stress and uncertainty alongside a glimmer of hope for normal life

Much to the surprise of University of Regina students, upon checking our emails in the past couple of weeks it had been announced that course registration for the upcoming winter semester will be pushed forward by an entire month. Registration in previous years began in November, much closer to the end of the fall semester. This year, course registration opened at the beginning of October, only a month into the new academic year and a full month ahead of schedule.

Having course registration begin so close to the winter semester allowed for administration to have completely finalized details on course dates, times, and locations. Now with COVID, there is another important element to prepare for – whether courses will be delivered remotely, in person, or as a hi-flex option. It may be too early to decide how classes should be offered until we see improvements in our COVID numbers.

Anxiety is rising with course selection starting earlier this year. If covid cases are as high as ever, how can the school ensure a safe transition back to the campus environment? If cases continue as they are, it may be safer to continue remote learning, but it’s still too early to say which will be the better option.

Personally, I find the situation to be worrisome. When planning for course registration it appears that four out of the five classes I’m registered for will be offered in person. As someone who doesn’t live in Regina yet, this means big changes coming my way, and soon. I will be moving to a city where I don’t know anyone and am unfamiliar with my way around. If the campus closed again, it would be a very difficult time alone in a new city. If COVID cases continue rising as they are now, the courses

Behnam Nourouzi via Unsplash Just because you fill in your calendar doesn’t mean you have your life together.

we are choosing may be changed back to online before the winter semester begins.

However, the University of Regina has put in place many safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID and ensure everyone is able to make this transition a safe one. Masks are mandatory at the campus and must be always worn, and you must show proof of vaccination. If you aren’t vaccinated for any reason, the school will be conducting regular COVID tests and requiring negative results for those unvaccinated to be present on campus grounds.

In a certain way, the earlier registration does benefit me as it provides an extra month for me to find an apartment in preparation for the second semester. There are many kids from my classes who come from out of town, so I’m certain the administration took this into account when making their decision. Furthermore, many students have most likely widened their work or volunteer schedules due to the flexibility of asynchronous learning. This way, students are offered ample amounts of time to reorganize their schedules and provide adequate notice to the other places that they are committed to.

If things go smoothly with the return of students to campus, this could be a turning point for the mental health of many students and staff. The isolation of online school has felt suffocating at times. I’m already in my second year, and still haven’t managed to make a friend due to the detached setting of zoom classes and asynchronous learning, which has been incredibly lonely. Not only that but asking for help on an assignment means emailing back and forth multiple times with your professor instead of them being able to explain any question you may have in person. For a lot of students, their grades may see vast improvements.

This means that now more than ever, there needs to be a strong community presence within the University of Regina. There are two years of students who may have never stepped foot on campus, so there will be quite a big transition period. But having classes in person and perhaps even some clubs will help students meet one another and bring back a strong sense of community.

Campus life starting back up again brings with it an air of excitement. We can only hope that the administration has not spoken too soon, and that courses will be able to be delivered safely in person as planned. Choosing courses so soon leaves the opportunity for many things to change on a dime making the experience stressful for all involved. However, hopefully seeing the chance to be in person among your peers will provide people the motivation they need to keep pushing through to the end of the year.

halyna mihalik contributor

Inconsistencies in Sask QR code checks

The government may have mandated QR codes, but nobody was prepared to implement

Since October 1, the people of Saskatchewan are expected to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated to access a variety of businesses and services. While there is a list of places that are exempt as they are deemed essential services, this requirement has been received well by many as being essential to public health and safety. At the same time, no small number of people are concerned that this represents an overreach by the provincial government. While I do not agree with the latter, it can be emphasized that even if the government did not get this done, many private businesses likely would have done so anyway.

Nevertheless, the government did act. True to their standards ever since the beginning of the pandemic though, they only did so in a manner than leaves much to be desired. Firstly, the list of places that are exempted from requiring a proof of vaccination made little sense to me. Why are restaurants supposed to check for one, but not hotels? In what way is my staying for one meal a potential public health risk, but if I am staying multiple days and nights, sleeping in a hotel bed, and using other hotel facilities, all is well? I certainly hope that hotels require such proof through their own initiative. The last thing we need is an outbreak in a hotel during a busy weekend when all rooms are booked.

If I recall correctly, the policy about having to provide proof of vaccination was announced on September 15, to come into effect October 1. This means that the people of this province had around two weeks to create an online SaskHealth account and obtain the document which included their vaccine information and QR code. Two weeks is already cutting it close, and it certainly was not helped by the excruciatingly slow and roundabout process of creating an online account. On top of this, the SHA announced that the machine-readable QR codes would take some more time to be made available online.

I had to try four times before successfully obtaining the two-page document, with the QR code on the first page and the same information in a human-readable table on the second. During one of these four attempts, I saw an error message that I had not seen in the last decade – one about how the server is unable to handle the number of requests it is currently getting. Based on the experience in my day job, I can tell you this is a problem that could have been foreseen and solved by spending at most a couple of hundred dollars. When the government tells a province of a million people that they will need to go online and obtain a document and gives them roughly two weeks to do so, the government better invest in some server infrastructure for the kind of demands they just set themselves up for.

I did obtain the document eventually. I put it on my phone and walked into a restaurant, head held high. When asked

Markus Winkler via Unsplash So you’re scared of being tracked, but you have your phone with you everywhere you go... I see... to provide proof of vaccination, I opened the file. The staff member scanned the QR code, and all the necessary information popped up. This person even cross-referenced the name with my photo ID. All was well, I placed my order, and thought that maybe the initial jitters of this proof of vaccination business are over. As I soon found out though, not all businesses are being as mindful.

See, the QR code needs to be scanned by the relevant SHA app. The next time I was at a restaurant, the staff member asked me for proof. When I held it out for her, she looked at the QR code and nodded me in. Did you get that part? She just looked at it, with her bare eyes! Eyes that I am sure cannot read QR codes, let alone then interface with the SHA app to verify all the information.

But maybe I am wrong. Maybe what I am concerned about was a somewhat lackadaisical human-robot equipped to read QR codes and go online all in less time than it takes me to say “Here you g-…” I guess I will never find out. However, I am now once again deciding to forego restaurants until I can be sure they are scanning QR codes and matching the name with a photo ID. Either that, or news that a certain restaurant has secretly been employing cyborgs…

Stop treating our hygiene products as though this is a choice we are making

Bleeding: a fact of life for roughly half of us, and we accept it, sometimes bleeding through pants at school or work. “Menstrual Equity in Canada: What is happening in Public Policy” was a Zoom meeting held on October 5 to connect people across Canada in discussions of the related efforts taking place across the country. It was hosted by the organizations Changing the Flow and Days for Girls Canada.

Advocates for menstrual equity are looking to capitalize on campaign promises made in the recent federal election. The Liberals promised to provide free tampons and pads in federally regulated workplaces, and to establish a $25 million Menstrual Equity Fund for women’s shelters, not-forprofits, community-based organizations, and youth-led organizations to make menstrual products available to vulnerable people.

I know what to do when you don’t have period products. You pray that you have toilet paper. I also know that toilet paper does not work well, and you exist in a state of constant anxiety about a leak until you find something better - meaning you tend to avoid situations where you may not be able to take care of your needs, and those needs are more pressing without proper products. That translates into academic, athletic, and professional inequities.

Therefore, I find the proposed Menstrual Equity Fund for not-for-profits and community-based organizations to be an important step towards equity for the most vulnerable Canadians. There was also consensus in the aforementioned Zoom discussion that free tampons and pads in federally regulated workplaces was more valuable as role modeling for other organizations than in providing for an actual need among federally employed workers. Period products need to be available free of charge through all local authorities, education providers, and businesses with public restrooms. In recognition of this, the Scottish Parliament enacted the Period Products Free Provision Act in January 2021. It is the first country in the world to provide free period products to all who need them.

In a smaller Canadian step, the Ontario government recently announced a partnership with Shopper’s Drug Mart to supply a total of six million free period products annually for the province’s schools. As critics have pointed out, while a positive step, it still falls short of fulfilling the need. In Canada, menstrual equity has been an excruciatingly slow process. From the years of effort to finally change the classification of menstrual products from luxury to essential and remove the GST in 2016, to the governments of British Columbia and Nova Scotia providing free period products to students in public education in 2019.

This is partly due to any decision-making about providing free period products in public restrooms ending up on the desk of a non-bleeder. They dominate the power positions. The non-bleeders tend to say things like: “Why should we offer free period products when we have to pay for razors? That is something my body does naturally, and I have to pay for it.”

Really? Are we going there? Here is my answer. Step one: remove all toilet paper from public washrooms. Step two: fol-

Natracare via Unsplash More luxury products for people who don’t menstrate to decide we’re not worthy of. lowing your business luncheon, realize that you forgot to carry your personal stash of toilet paper today (and it’s too late). Step three: walk around for the rest of the afternoon hoping that no one will notice. Step four: they will notice. Step five: recommend that all public washrooms henceforth be supplied with free toilet paper.

Period care is not an issue on the same level as razors. Societal expectations regarding shaving habits can be changed, but menstruation carries on regardless. Another common objection to free period products in public restrooms is that people will take all the free products offered. Again: toilet paper. People tend to take only what they need.

Period products are just as necessary to people with periods as toilet paper is to all of us. Stop penalizing people with periods for a natural consequence of the reproductive cycle that supports human survival. It should be a priority to support our comfort and dignity in ways that accommodate our full participation in our communities.

Menstrual equity is not just about making period products more accessible. It is about addressing the stigma that surrounds menstruation in our society. The goal is that by re-educating ourselves to view menstruation as a neutral bodily function and/or a source of pride, we will enable the self-care, critical thinking and informed decision-making necessary to a healthy relationship with one’s body. This is my hope for the future. The Liberals’ promise is an important step toward this goal. As a society, we need to advocate for public policy that works toward achieving respectful and supportive communities.

mandy friesen contributor

Canadian fall customs through a different lens

The norms we follow for these few weeks are both wonderful and confusing

Fall is a beautiful season in North America, and more so for the maple-leaf country of Canada. The changing of colours in the leaves from green to golden has an unexplainable charm and warmth to it. While there are numerous traditions and celebrations around this time of the year in Canada, here is my take on what these fall norms mean to someone who is an immigrant to Canada experiencing them.

For a person new to this country, it takes quite a bit of practice to start using the term fall instead of autumn. The term fall is more common to North America than it is to the rest of the world. The confusion surrounding the terminology gets sorted as newcomers engage in day-to-day conversations. With time they adapt to which months comprise fall and how fall gradually leads to winter.

It is a tricky time for dressing up, as it is neither as warm as in summer nor freezing like in winter. For their first fall in Canada, many individuals are fooled by the sunny weather and clear skies, and they dress like it is summer in the morning only to scamper back into their apartments for a warmer piece of clothing. Fall allows people to wear everything that they thought would be too hot for summer, and so it turns out to be an incredible time for fashionistas. For some countries, pumpkin is consumed as a vegetable or soup on a regular basis. Other references of the usage of the pumpkin would be Hollywood Halloween films. It is interesting to immigrants to see Canadians be so excited about pumpkin and its flavours in an entirely different way. It does not take long though for newcomers to get hooked on pumpkin pies, pumpkin-flavoured coffee, and pumpkin puree yoghurt among many other pumpkin flavoured options.

It is a wonderful Canadian tradition to come together and celebrate Thanksgiving. While many cultures around the globe have gestures and traditions to be thankful, there isn’t an entire day dedicated to it. Halloween too is a fun time for many newcomers to Canada, as it is like witnessing Hollywood’s Halloween films in real life. These celebrations are also an opportunity for immigrants to gradually participate and assimilate in Canadian society.

The significance of the Orange Shirt Day and its slogan, Every Child Matters, has touched people living coast-to-coast. It is a day that has raised awareness and support from all sections of the society. For immigrants, it is an excellent way to familiarize themselves about the history behind this movement, what it is, and the relevance it will hold for them moving forward in the future.

No one knows exactly when the leaves will turn orange and how quickly they may disappear with a strong gust of wind. For people witnessing their first fall, there is child-like happiness in clicking photos with an orange background. It is quite a bit of work to find that beautiful fall-themed tree in the neighbourhood. This perfectly orange-leaved landscape in Regina lasts about a fortnight before they drop to the ground, making it even more exciting to be a part of while you can.

While everyone has their favourite season and reason behind it, fall would be a strong contender in that category. It is a distinct season with its colours and feel, and above all a subtle expansion of the summer-like feel, before winter starts creeping in. Although it may be fast and fleeting, it is certainly a season for everyone to enjoy.

sonali currie contributor

Sonali Currie

graphics

editors: sarah carrier, rooky jegede graphics@carillonregina.com the carillon | oct 21 - oct 27, 2021