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In the short time that the club has been operational, it has already hosted a documentary screening, produced social media content to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture, and participated in the organization of Eco Week events, as well as promoting the recent climate strike. In the future, Noble says that the club will “support and provide outreach for different projects that the farm undertakes.” Some examples include setting up a new garden and seeing to its tending. When asked why students should join the club, Watson answered that “if they want to […] get some more hands-on learning on activities related to sustainable agriculture, or if they’re not in the SAFS program and they are just kind of curious about the more
Convocation for the class of 2021 When we sing along to the school song, we never seem to linger too long on the lyrics. We heartily chant that “we will never graduate,” believing that to mean that we would never leave the Bishop’s bubble. For the past two years, the reality of that line has been that the graduating classes would have no convocation, leaving Bishop’s unceremoniously without getting to “graduate.” That thought is not a comfortable one to reckon with. Walking across the stage in a cap and gown to pick up your diploma and shake the principal’s hand with all of your peers watching feels like the culmination of the years of effort put into earning the degree. Graduating student María Clavelli says: “It definitely feels strange to know that we’re going to have a non-conventional convocation in a non-conventional time, but I do feel luckier than the class of 2020 who had little to no closure to their university experience.” It’s true that the class of 2021 is luckier than their predecessors: we, at least, have a clearer hope of convocation. Convocation was originally set for June 5, 2021, but with COVID case numbers still heavily fluctuating and the end of the pandemic not yet in sight, the tentative date was pushed back to late August. Clavelli agrees with this decision, saying: “It was a reasonable choice to make. It’s better to give us the expectation that it isn’t going to happen in June like it usually does rather than to have us excitedly wait until June 5 and then pushing it back. My parents have asked me multiple times when they should make plans to come up to Canada for the ceremony, but I have already come to terms with the fact that I’ll just have to send them the Zoom link.”
hands-on aspect of it, it would be a good place to meet some like-minded people.” Noble summarized the club as “a good place to get some hands-on activities […] and learn some new skills.” As one of Bishop’s newest clubs, the SAFS Club is a very active organization that is open to students of all backgrounds who show some curiosity for sustainable agriculture. Mixing fun activities and open-minded people, the SAFS Club is a great way to learn more about a growing and interesting field of expertise while having fun. Check out their Instagram page @bu_safsclub and watch out for the next meeting!
Casey Hebert Senior Copy Editor
Though students are holding out hope for an August convocation ceremony, Clavelli brings up some issues with the recently proposed alternative: “Many students going on to their masters will have already started classes,
Graphic by Leea Rebeca Ruta
and some people with jobs might not be able to get away. Having convocation so late in August is a little inconvenient for those of us who might have something else going on.
I also see the struggle for international students who are leaving Canada definitely and would have to come back four months later for their graduation.” With the looming uncertainty of how the pandemic will unfold, especially given the shifting vaccination schedules, even the August graduation ceremony is no guarantee. An idea had been suggested to host graduation for the classes of 2020 and 2021 in September, the week after Homecoming. The reasoning had been that by September, more people are likely to have been vaccinated. Additionally, if students are coming in from further afield for Homecoming, it might be more reasonable for them to stay an extra week for their convocation than it would be for them to fly in on two separate occasions. Students like that idea as well. Clavelli explains: “I would prefer a Homecoming graduation. The whole idea of inviting alumni back on campus, their home, really compliments convocation, and if it were a joint graduation [between the classes of 2020 and 2021], it would be nice to experience that moment of homecoming and goodbye with friends from the class of 2020 and those who haven’t graduated yet.” Not to mention the parties would be like something we’ve never seen before! Over the past year, students have had to make many concessions to their university experience and relegate most events to the virtual realm, so it would be a relief to get an in-person goodbye after the years spent at Bishop’s. Regardless of how convocation unfolds, one thing is sure: BU has not seen the last of the class of 2021.
Norman Webster: Oxford man, Bishop’s man, inspiring man Norman Webster is widely recognized as the former editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail and the Montreal Gazette; yet he is also the former editor-in-chief of another newspaper: The Campus. Webster’s book Newspapering , published in 2020, highlights how his experience at Bishop’s impacted him. And, after conversations with Norman Webster; his dear friend and hockey partner, Principal Goldbloom; his son Professor David Webster; and his wife Pat Webster, it is evident that this man is an inspirational alumnus of our university. Norman Webster’s remarkable career can be traced back to this very newspaper. Bishop’s was different when Webster was running The Campus. For one, students were obligated to wear long, black gowns to their classes, a rule that did not sit well with Webster. In fact, he wrote an editorial in the paper opposing the gown, believing they made the students “look like penguins, stuffy and old before [their] time,” as highlighted in his book Newspapering. But many of his fellow students passionately disagreed with this view. They thought that the gowns “added a touch of class to the place.” They wrote “stinging letters” and “hissed” at him in the hallways, turning his editorial into “the sharpest possible lesson in humility to a young journalist.” On another occasion, one of Webster’s columnists criticized the university
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administration for helping to pollute the St. Francis River. Ogden Glass, the principal of Bishop’s at the time, “went ballistic—white-faced, barking, fairly dancing with rage.” These lessons in humility stuck with Webster. According to Goldbloom, humility was a defining characteristic of Webster’s writing: he took the situations upon which he reported seriously, yet he never took himself seriously. He could criticize without using the vicious tone that is particularly present on social media and TV journalism. This, along with Webster’s ability to discern the essence of noisy situations, is what Goldbloom believes made him exceptional. Webster and Goldbloom met at the Montreal Gazette. Webster had stepped down from being the paper’s editor-in-chief and began writing for it as a columnist. Meanwhile, Goldbloom became the paper’s publisher. Although Goldbloom is reluctant to characterize Webster as a mentor per se, he did recognize that Webster was one of the few people with whom he had confidence speaking about the Gazette or matters of Quebec politics— Goldbloom was publisher during the tumultuous period in Quebec history surrounding the 1995 referendum. Webster was also one of the few people that Goldbloom spoke to when, over a decade ago, the opportunity arose for him to become the principal of our university. Webster,
Hugh Godman Editor-in-Chief
a current resident of Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, loves the Eastern Townships. And he, an Oxford alumnus who attended on a Rhodes Scholarship, has been known to refer to Bishop’s as “Oxford on the Massawippi.” Of course, he told Principal Goldbloom that he should take the opportunity. This conversation did not in itself persuade Goldbloom to become principal, but Webster did have an influential voice on the matter. Norman Webster’s son Dr. David Webster of BU’s History and Global Studies Department highlighted something else about his father: he was willing to break the rules. Dr. Webster described a time when his father was covering a conference in Montreal with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The prime minister had slipped in a request for his comments to be off the record, but Norman Webster chose to follow his conscience and report on what he believed the public had the right to know. He took some heat from the Prime Minister, but he was ready for it. As described in Newspapering , Webster has “been denounced by prime ministers, premiers, cabinet ministers and great captains of industry,” yet none of these denunciations were as intimidating as the scolding he received from his principal, Ogden Glass, on our very campus.
