cordelianne (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cordelianne) wrote2005-09-27 12:50 pm
cordelianne) wrote2005-09-27 12:50 pm
Entry tags:
Beer Bad. Bad, bad beer. (btvs 4:5)
When I chose to go to U of T instead of Queen's University (my hometown university), everyone kept asking my mother and I why I didn't go to Queen's, and now I have the perfect answer:
Queen's Univ. reviewing homecoming after 'drunken street brawl'; 35 arrests. "Queen's University officials and police said Monday they will examine the future of the school's annual homecoming festivities after a weekend street party degenerated into an alcohol-fuelled riot that saw drunken revelers pelting police officers with beer bottles and overturning and burning a car."
I'm not that surprised about this news story - it seems like the logical conclusion to the increasingly bad behaviour of Queen's University students. For years we've been appalled by the loud drunken parties, and the complete lack of care many students have for their housing and their belongings (often paid for by rich mommies and daddies). At the age of 10, my brother declared he would never go to Queen's (and he didn't) because of the ridiculous behaviour of the students.
I was glad to see that the university's academic vice-president said that: "Every aspect of our culture and traditions is going to be looked at critically to assess the role that it may play in the fostering of this kind of behaviour." From my experience growing up in Kigston, going to high school right down in Queen's and working at a Queen's cafeteria, I could easily answer that question and say that the culture and traditions of Queen's do foster this kind of stupid and inappropriate behaviour. It seems like the administration is only acting now that things have gotten to a point that they can't ignore, whereas previously the drunken reveling was just indulgently tolerated as "school spirit."
I'm particularly appalled by racism displayed by the rioters: "A black police officer at the scene on Aberdeen Street, just north of the campus, became the target of racial slurs shouted by some among the crowd of 5,000 to 7,000 people, many of whom were intoxicated." That is absolutely horrible and I hope that this actually wakes up Queen's and Kingston to the prevalance of racism in the school and the city. I almost laughed - if I wasn't so angry - at the reaction of one of the Queen's administrators to the racism: "This coming from probably one of the most liberal campuses in Canada." Of course, they're conveniently forgetting the date rape scandal in the later '80s, early '90s when the male students hung signs from their dorm windows with phrases like "No means Yes" and "No means harder." Liberal indeed. Also, one of the other reasons I didn't go to Queen's is that it was the least diverse university campus that I visited.
U of T may be big business oriented, large, bureaucratic and impersonal but this just reaffirms that I ultimately made the right decision to attend U of T instead of Queen's.
Queen's Univ. reviewing homecoming after 'drunken street brawl'; 35 arrests. "Queen's University officials and police said Monday they will examine the future of the school's annual homecoming festivities after a weekend street party degenerated into an alcohol-fuelled riot that saw drunken revelers pelting police officers with beer bottles and overturning and burning a car."
I'm not that surprised about this news story - it seems like the logical conclusion to the increasingly bad behaviour of Queen's University students. For years we've been appalled by the loud drunken parties, and the complete lack of care many students have for their housing and their belongings (often paid for by rich mommies and daddies). At the age of 10, my brother declared he would never go to Queen's (and he didn't) because of the ridiculous behaviour of the students.
I was glad to see that the university's academic vice-president said that: "Every aspect of our culture and traditions is going to be looked at critically to assess the role that it may play in the fostering of this kind of behaviour." From my experience growing up in Kigston, going to high school right down in Queen's and working at a Queen's cafeteria, I could easily answer that question and say that the culture and traditions of Queen's do foster this kind of stupid and inappropriate behaviour. It seems like the administration is only acting now that things have gotten to a point that they can't ignore, whereas previously the drunken reveling was just indulgently tolerated as "school spirit."
I'm particularly appalled by racism displayed by the rioters: "A black police officer at the scene on Aberdeen Street, just north of the campus, became the target of racial slurs shouted by some among the crowd of 5,000 to 7,000 people, many of whom were intoxicated." That is absolutely horrible and I hope that this actually wakes up Queen's and Kingston to the prevalance of racism in the school and the city. I almost laughed - if I wasn't so angry - at the reaction of one of the Queen's administrators to the racism: "This coming from probably one of the most liberal campuses in Canada." Of course, they're conveniently forgetting the date rape scandal in the later '80s, early '90s when the male students hung signs from their dorm windows with phrases like "No means Yes" and "No means harder." Liberal indeed. Also, one of the other reasons I didn't go to Queen's is that it was the least diverse university campus that I visited.
U of T may be big business oriented, large, bureaucratic and impersonal but this just reaffirms that I ultimately made the right decision to attend U of T instead of Queen's.