Darts and laurels 2008-09

Darts

Dean of Student Affairs Jason Laker: Laker’s botched interviews defending the intergroup dialogue program, attempt to visit Herstmonceux Castle on student money and mishandling of ethical purchasing show he’s unfit to represent students—and that’s just what he got up to this year.

Boxes of confidential AMS employee T4 forms left in a hallway in the JDUC: Too bad the rats didn’t get to them; then our personal information would have been safe from prying eyes.

Don Rogers: Rogers’s Save Our Neighbourhood website unnecessarily soured town-gown relations.

Anonymous commenters on the Journal’s website: Stop posting comments anonymously or under a fake name. If you have something to say, have the courage to own up to it.

ASUS President Jacob Mantle: Mantle’s poor decision not to resign after making an Islamophobic comment, subsequent silence on anti-oppression issues and unmannerly conduct in harassing Journal reporters merit much more than a dart. It’s disappointing he got off so easily.

Lack of transparency about the Queen’s Centre project: The only thing administrators have been consistent about is ignoring students’ requests for information, which suggests they have something to hide.

Anti-Muslim graffiti and the reaction to it: It goes without saying that racism is unacceptable. But what made things worse was the anonymous name-calling that followed, further polarizing the campus.

Student leaders’ poor behaviour at the John Orr dinner: AMS Vice-President (University Affairs) Stephanie St. Clair apologized at AMS Assembly for being asked to leave the annual dinner after allegedly throwing a glass of wine at an alumnus who had questioned Social Issues Commissioner Kavita Bissoondial. Such behaviour is always deplorable but even more so when St. Clair was acting as a student representative.

Cancelling the Queen’s National Scholar (QNS) program: The QNS, which hires three new professors each year for either tenure-track or short-term appointments, was cancelled after some candidates had already been interviewed, making us look more like the Queen’s National Screw-up.

First Year ASUS Representative to the AMS Kevin Wiener: Wiener’s misguided motion that would have effectively removed the Ontario Public Research Interest Group’s student fee to further his personal agenda is troubling and sets a bad tone for next year.

Laurels

Queen’s University Muslim Students Association: QUMSA went above and beyond to encourage proactive discussion with their hate-free campus campaign. Club members carried themselves with class when they could have fallen into divisive debates.

Naming the Robert Sutherland Hall: Thanks to years of dedicated student efforts, the Board of Trustees finally took a step to recognize the University’s first major benefactor and, more generally, the contributions of people of colour

to Queen’s.

The $10,000 anonymous donation to Queen’s English department: The money gave each graduating English student a copy of the Giller Prize-winning book, Through Black Spruce, and brought the author, Joseph Boyden, to Queen’s.

The Grad Club’s inclusion in CBC Radio 3’s Top 10 Live Music Clubs in Canada: The Grad Club is finally getting the recognition it deserves for being a welcoming venue for local and wider-ranging musicians.

Rick Byrom: The JDUC is a bad building, but the staff do their best to keep it clean, safe and functional. Byrom, in particular, stands out and his well-deserved recognition at AMS Assembly has been a long time coming.

Vice-Principal (Academic) Patrick Deane: Deane spent a good part of the year answering for Dean Jason Laker’s inexplicable behaviour. Extra points for sticking it out the whole year.

Pride Week: The events achieved a good balance between education and celebration. Including the Trans Day of Celebration broadened the inclusive space on campus.

Queen’s Backing Action on Climate Change (QBACC): Unlike other activist groups that are all talk and no action, QBACC organized a “die-in” and other events to lobby the University to put climate change on its agenda.

New graduate programs in gender studies and cultural studies: In a time when the University is cutting back on academic spending, it’s a pleasant surprise to see new, innovative programs that tackle relevant issues.

ASUS Assembly’s decision to dock part of ASUS President Jacob Mantle’s honorarium: The fact that Mantle spent nearly six hours at ASUS Assembly Mar. 30 defending his motion to re-introduce the docked amount—arguably more time than he has spent at anti-racist activities this

year—shows he hasn’t learned from his mistakes. ASUS hasn’t done much to be proud of, but this is a step in the right direction.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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