“How do you like the real world?” From what I can tell, almost everyone over the age of 30 asks recent college graduates this question. I personally hope to never impose those seven words on anyone. But since you are wondering, the real world is just fine, thanks for asking.[Read More…]
Articles by Steven Hoffer
SSMU Council votes to reinstate Choose Life’s club status
After a semester of meetings on the future of Choose Life – the controversial pro-life group whose club status was suspended last semester – the Students’ Society Council officially reinstated the group’s club status last Thursday. Choose Life’s club status was suspended last year on November 12 in light of the conflicts surrounding the club’s “Echoes of the Holocaust” event.
Gross talks physics and the history of the universe
Can you construct a machine with free will? Will the universe accelerate forever? And how will the universe end? These were the questions that David Gross, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, addressed during his lecture at McGill on Thursday. Born in Washington, D.
Motion moves SSMU towards vegan-friendly Shatner Building
Thanks to a motion passed last Thursday by the Students’ Society Council, McGill vegans may soon have more food options available to them in the Shatner Building. The motion, put forward by Emil Briones, the representative from the Faculty of Music requires SSMU to encourage its food service tenants to offer more vegan-friendly choices, though it does not mandate tenants to provide vegan options.
Newburgh to face J-Board
Four weeks after the Students’ Society’s Winter General Assembly, the SSMU Judicial Board has accepted a submission from members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights concerning the impartiality of Zach Newburgh, the current speaker of SSMU Council and next year’s SSMU president.
CD REVIEWS: Jimi Hendrix: Valleys of Neptune
Where would Jimi Hendrix fit into today’s music scene? Seasoned but pushing into the mainstream like Eric Clapton? Playing Super Bowl halftime shows like Pete Townsend and The Who? The release of Valleys of Neptune, a posthumous follow up to 1968’s Electric Ladyland, may convince you that Hendrix was simply too much of a psychedelic, blues-thumping, break-through-the-boundaries-of-your-brain invention to ever escape the “27 Club.
Caravaggio vs. Michelangelo
Although art historians and casual tourists probably won’t stop peering up at the brilliance of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, the 16th-century Italian Renaissance man may find himself looking up at another art world rival as the top Italian artist in history, according to one renowned art historian.
Audiophile
No more than two dozen patrons have filed into the upstairs concert hall of Montreal’s La Sala Rosa for an evening of live jazz. Among the dedicated few sits Mark Crawford, a beer in his right hand and a focussed yet unassuming countenance on his face. Positioned front and centre, Mark is preparing a medium-sized microphone stand that is wired through a pre-amplifier, digital to analog converter, and power supply into his digital recorder.
Understanding Wednesday’s General Assembly motions
Undergraduate students will gather tomorrow beginning at 5:00 p.m. in the Shatner cafeteria to participate in the Winter General Assembly. With seven new motions on the table there is a wide variety of SSMU policy to be decided. Motion Re: The Defense of Human Rights, Social Justice, and Environmental Protection Put forward by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, this motion has emerged as perhaps the most controversial Genderal Assembly motion.
Senate meets for first time in 2010
The McGill University Senate convened for the first time in 2010 last week to discuss pertinent issues affecting the university. Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, the senate’s chair, offered her remarks prior to the questions and motions period. Munroe-Blum first discussed McGill’s participation in an upcoming research relationship between Quebec and India.
OFF THE BOARD: My beef with Schwartz’s
For 21 years I did the best I could to remain kosher as my parents raised me. The tradition was, and still is, a cornerstone of my dietary identity. But the allure of Montreal’s most renowned non-kosher Hebrew delicatessen – so famous that it appears as a landmark on Google Maps – was too much to resist.
AUS, Caribbean Students’ Society respond to Haiti earthquake
In response to the massive earthquake that struck Haiti last week, McGill student organizations and the greater Montreal community are rapidly organizing to raise money and contribute to relief efforts. With over 100,000 Haitians currently living in Montreal, the disaster has mobilized the city’s student community.
A conversation with Stuart Cobbett, Board of Governors chairman
On January 6, the University’s Board of Governors, McGill’s highest governing body, announced Montreal-based lawyer Stuart H. (Kip) Cobbett as its new chairman. Cobbett, who succeeds outgoing chair Robert Rabinovich, received his B.A. from McGill in 1969 and B.
AMUSE gains accreditation
After a year and a half of campaigning, the Assiciation of McGill University Support Employees, the oraganization composed of McGill’s 3,000 casual workers, has unionized and affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The campaign, which began in September 2008, started when a group of undergraduate students in the McGill work study program felt they needed a union structure to balance their working conditions with those of the represented colleagues.