The Donald Lecture Reception

Eva Rachert - News Editor

Eva Rachert, News Editor » thecampus.news@gmail.com

The second Donald Lecture of the year was hosted on Monday, Nov. 21. The speaker was Eva Kuper, a Polish Holocaust survivor and educator who lives in Montreal. She spoke for an hour about her personal experience in the Warsaw Ghetto, the stories of her family members and the ways in which her children have been affected by the loss of their family. Kuper works at the Montreal Holocaust Museum, preserving stories like her own. Principal Michael Goldbloom hosted a reception for Kuper at his home before the lecture, inviting students and professors to gather an hour and a half before the lecture began. Attendees had the opportunity to meet and talk to Kuper in a more casual setting, to thank her for coming and to introduce themselves. Students and professors met with Kuper and asked her questions about her life and experiences, which she then detailed at the lecture. Those invited to the reception attended the lecture together. Kuper’s presentation detailed her family’s experience fleeing from Poland to Canada. She talked about losing her mother and how her aunt intervened to save her from the same death. In addition to sharing personal stories, she provided statistics on the number of people living in the Warsaw Ghetto and the loss of life in her home country.

Kuper spoke about her attempts to track down her own family history and explained that her father had rarely discussed what he had experienced and witnessed. Kuper worked with genealogists to track down relatives and people who helped her family to escape. She concluded the lecture with a message of hope in times of adversity and called on the audience to take part in remembering the Holocaust and preventing future human rights abuses. After her speech, audience members asked questions about how she coped with what she had experienced, many relating personal stories about losing family members to genocide and being unable to uncover their family histories. Kuper encouraged the audience members to research their families and document the stories they discovered. Kuper called on the crowd to remember her story and share what she had said with others. She emphasised the importance of storytelling in remembering history and cautioned audience members against being glib about history. She reminded the crowd that they were the last generation of people to be able to talk to WWII and Holocaust survivors personally.

The opportunity to speak with Kuper personally at the principal’s reception enhanced the content of the lecture. Kuper spoke against forgetting about the humanity of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, which was furthered for those who had the opportunity to speak with her beforehand.

Rubber ducky golf & BU Fashion Show

Connor Kay - Staff Writer

On Nov. 22, the BU Fashion Show organisation held its fundraiser “Rubber Ducky Golf Tournament” for the first time in two years – the fashion show having been put on hold since the pandemic first began. In 2021, the organisation was able to raise a total of $3,400 and donated the funds to Grace Village Retirement Home despite the cancellation of the fashion show. This coming year, the raised funds from the tournament will go towards materials needed at the fashion show and towards supporting the chosen charity. The event will be held in February 2022.

In an interview with Duncan MacIsaac, on the winning team of this year’s Rubber Ducky Golf Tournament, he explained that during his first year at Bishop’s, he was unsure of the purpose of the tournament and how to participate. Later in his university career he was glad to eventually participate in the fundraiser. This year’s course started at Bishop’s University and navigated through Lennoxville, visiting places like the Golden Lion pub and Square Queen, before segueing into the areas of New-Con, Cool Ranch, and Animal House. In addition to ensuring that participants become more familiar with the campus and Lennoxville, the course also creates an environment where friends can bond and support the charity event.

Being able to raise money for the fashion show helps the organising staff and models to be better prepared for the event and also builds a better experience for students who plan to attend the show. This year’s fashion show will follow the same structure that was used in past years; it will be a ticketed event held at Centennial Theatre where models will walk the runway wearing different wardrobes from stores across Sherbrooke. The dance team will also perform between runway models’ sets.

Eva Rachert, News Editor » thecampus.news@gmail.com

Dance Club showcase: dedicated practices to final show

Elisha Davidson-Yee - Contributor

Bishop’s dance club has once again been hard at work this past semester. The dancers have been practicing different dance styles like jazz, hip-hop and pop since September, and after dedicated practices all semester, the dance club performed on the stage of the Gait this past Saturday, Nov 26. The past couple months of rehearsals have been a great opportunity to develop dance skills for club members. These rehearsals consist of three aspects, a warmup; across-the-floor exercises; and choreography. Warming up is very important, as it stretches your muscles and gets your heart-rate up before exerting yourself. Exercises across the floor allow the dancers to develop more technical skills that will be eventually integrated into the group’s performance piece. The jazz club had Kayla Vardy as coach and choreographer. The dancers had a dress rehearsal on the stage of the Gait on Nov 25. This rehearsal gives one last opportunity for the dancers to come together and put finishing touches on their pieces. Lights and sounds were finalized during rehearsal to make sure everything would go smoothly during the main show. Show night at the Gait was a success with over 120 tickets sold. Students and family members filled out the room very quickly, and after a slight delay, the show began. The audience was cheering and dancing on their seats while watching the seven performances. It was an intimate experience and allowed the performers to connect with their audience because they were dancing close to the public. During a short intermission, Caroline Homet, the dance club lead, announced an exciting fundraising raffle, and drew a winning ticket for a gift-card from Strom spa. The night concluded with a cypher on the dance floor, a type of dance circle where performers show-

Take Back the Night 2022

Bea Rouse - Contributor case their special moves. Audience members were also asked to join us on the dance floor. Thanks for coming out to support BU Dance, Gaiters.

On Thursday Nov. 10 at 7 p.m., a large group of Bishop’s students and faculty gathered on Optimist Field for the fifth annual Take Back the Night event in support of survivors of sexual violence – particularly violence against Indigenous women and two-spirit people – and to protest the ongoing issues of rape culture in the community. The night began with a land acknowledgement and speeches from members of the Sexual Culture Committee (SCC) about the progress since last year and the road ahead. SRC President Camilla Rizzi shared her experiences as an Indigenous woman living with the horrifying disappearances of so many Indigenous women, children, and two-spirit people. The night began with a slight delay caused by the passage of trains, during which the crowd practised chanting: “No means no, it doesn’t mean maybe. Don’t touch me, I ain’t your baby”, “My body, my choice” and “No more violence, no more silence!” The march then commenced around Lennoxville to a cacophony of support from drivers and community members. There was a safe space at BUnited available and a quiet zone at the back of the march with earplugs available for people who were sound sensitive. Concluding at the white gazebo, the SCC closed with a speech and Vicky Boldo, Special Advisor of Indigenous Student Support, led the crowd in the Wildflower song; a song Boldo has shared with us, which many have learned and sing boisterously. This march stands as a small-scale symbol of taking control and providing a safe campus and community for everyone in the near future.

CALACS Aggression Estrie has a 24/7 helpline at 819-563-9999 that provides support to survivors and those who support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.

Photo Courtesy of Emily Crunican

Colin Ahern, Opinions Editor » thecampus.opinions@gmail.com

Financial gatekeeping in the education department

Sufia Langevin - Associate Editor

The second-year practicum in the education program at Bishop’s creates a barrier for students hoping to graduate from the program. In order to graduate with a Bachelor of Education, students must complete four practica, increasing in hours and workload. The first-year practicum consists of scheduled visits to schools as a class, and the professor works with students to arrange carpools, with the visits taking place during the scheduled class hours. The second-year practicum consists of seventy hours of time in the classroom, including the successful implementation of a minimum of five lessons, with planning and reflections. The seventy hours are scheduled on the students’ own time, and they are to arrange their own transportation to and from their schools. Unlike the first-year, third-year, and fourth-year practica, the professor, Practice Teaching Office, and School of Education do not support the student with transportation or costs, upholding barriers for students to be able to successfully complete the program. The seventy hours of practicum can either be completed in full days of seven hours or half-days of three and a half hours. Therefore, the practicum can be completed in ten full days. However, students with packed course schedules may not have full days that they can spend in the high school or elementary classroom. They will likely rely on half days, taking up to twenty days to complete the practicum. Scheduling ten to twenty days to spend in practicum can be made more difficult when the student also works. Working while completing the practicum causes difficulty with scheduling, but is practically unavoidable, considering the cost of participating. The course has a required fee of $62.68, on top of the tuition fees. For an in-province student, the tuition for the three-credit course would cost $279.69. For out-of-province students, it would cost $873 and for international students, it would cost $1934.19. The minimum amount of tuition and fees that a student can pay for this singular course is $342.37 and can cost up to $1996.87. All of this so far does not factor in the cost of transportation to the schools for visits and implementing lessons. The closest high school is Alexander Galt Regional High School. For students without cars, there is no reliable bus to take them to and from the school, especially if they are working on half-days as opposed to full days. Carpooling is also inefficient since everyone operates on different schedules based on their jobs and courses. I have found that the most reliable way to get to Galt is by taxi. While this is the closest available high school, the taxi costs $30 for a round trip. Between full and halfdays, transportation can add $300-600 to the cost of the course. The least expensive scenario still costs $642.37 more than a normal course. The median price is $1385 and the highest cost is $2596 to take the course. With a range from $642 to $2596 with a realistic estimate of almost $1400, it would not be unreasonable to expect the School of Education to provide support for students, especially with transportation costs contributing to the issue, and with the estimated costs in this article being calculated for the closest high school. Furthermore, the fact that students are expected to cover these extra costs on their own is not well advertised before registering in the course, which is necessary to graduate. The information can be found in the Practicum Handbook on page 9 of 21, under “Do I have to pay for my transportation and accommodation costs during practicum?” As indicated above, the 2021-2022 Academic Calendar explains on pages 69 and 70: “In addition to the costs listed in the Fees section of this Calendar, students are responsible for all travel and accommodation costs related to the required student teaching practica in the Bachelor of Education degree. Placements are made in schools throughout the province according to criteria established by the School of Education. Student teachers may have additional travel and accommodation costs during a practicum”. This document is given to students when they are registered in the practicum course and is also available on Bishop’s website, but it is difficult to find unless a student knows what they are looking for. It is otherwise a surprise to the student that they could have to cover triple the cost of tuition for an ordinary course in order to be transported to and from their practicum, a course required to complete the program. The cost of completing this practicum and the fact that support only becomes available during the third-year practicum makes it a barrier for students to graduate from Bishop’s School of Education. Photo Courtesy of Emily Crunican

Creating a creative writing club

Isabelle Callan - Contributor

Bishop’s University should form a creative writing club. While there is an English literature club, it is focused largely on events such as escape rooms. I believe that the addition of a creative writing club could allow students to focus on their individual projects with the help of their peers. There is a class next semester on creative writing. However, it will likely be focused through the lens of assignments and is not offered every semester. Having a club that allows students to work on long-term projects could also increase the number of submissions to The Mitre. Similarly, professors from the English department can be invited to the meetings to help foster growth in students’ creativity. This club would not replace the English literature club, since it would be focused on another element of literature and writing. I believe it is important to form clubs that are based around a shared hobby rather than a shared identity. The reason for this is that unless there is an obvious activity to do, the club must constantly come up with new activities that often don’t relate to their theme. Without a strong unifying hobby, clubs can decline in popularity until they have very few members. For instance, the skating club is experiencing exponential growth because they have a strong and unique activity for its members. A creative writing club would function similarly since it holds a wide range of types of creativity. The inherent variety that comes with creative writing allows students to connect with the club through many different forms of writing. In addition, the club would require almost no budget at all. With the presence of teachers occasionally joining meetings for talks, the club can offer a high-quality experience at a very low cost. I believe this club would be beneficial to campus culture and would produce far more creative writing on the Bishop’s campus. This would increase submissions to The Mitre as well as the Arts and Culture section of The Campus newspaper. Similarly, it could bring about the presence of live readings during events on campus that focus on art and creativity. I believe that this club’s finances could eventually focus on publishing collections of creative works by students several times a year, enriching campus culture and sparking the careers of aspiring writers.