Carleton U, Once Again

I honestly thought that after my recent visit to Carleton University I would not get a chance to write about them ever again. Not so, however. Feministing reports that the school's administration just came out with an extremely offensive statement about a student who has been a victim of assault on campus: "Carleton University is being sued by an assault victim who says the school failed to have adequate security measures in the building where she was attacked. In response, Carleton has said that the student didn't keep a "proper lookout" for her own safety and should have locked the door to the lab where she was working." It is incredible that a university in Ontario, of all places, would engage in such blatant attempt at victim-blaming.

As I have discussed in an above-quoted post, Carleton is trying to squeeze out of the university's curriculum all courses that would give the students the skills necessary to analyze, question, and change ideological conditioning. They strive to create mindless little drones who would perform their duties and shut-up. In Carleton administration's ideal world, it would be possible to blame the victim of an assault for "provoking" the crime and get away with it.

But they can't get away with it. I am going to write a letter on my departmental letterhead protesting this disgusting statement to Carleton University's President and Vice-Chancellor. For those who want to do the same, here is the address where we can send our protests. I believe that doing this in a letter format will be more productive than sending an e-mail.

Dr. Roseann O’Reilly Runte
President and Vice-Chancellor
Carleton University
1125 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1S 5B6

P.S. Here you can find the description of the attack and Carleton U's unconscionable response. I have to warn you, though, that the details are painful to read.

Conference at Carleton U, Part II

I never thought I would enjoy this conference quite as much. First, I was approached by somebody who has read my articles and used them for his research. There is nothing an academic loves more than having her name recognized. It is so rewarding to hear people (well, one person for now, but I am ever hopeful for more) say "So you are the person who wrote those articles about identity."

Then, a publishing house offered to review my book for publication. They said my topic is "just what we might need."

Another positive thing is that there is wireless in all conference rooms and I can blog during boring presentations. This is especially useful during those sessions where the first and the last talks are really interesting, while the two that come between them are a huge yawn.

The campus, of course, leaves a lot to be desired. It seems that nobody here has heard of air conditioning. I had to prowl all over the campus to find one air-conditioned room. It has now become my refuge between sessions. The only food we have access to without going all the way downtown consists of burgers, hotdogs and donuts. I love hotdogs but there is a limit to how many you can stand eating in three days. Even this paltry choice of food disappears after 6 p.m. Which is right before the end of conference sessions. I finally located a cafeteria that might have a widero choice of food, but of course they had closed down 10 minutes before a arrived.

People at this school surely haven't heard that equal rights entail equal responsibilities. If they want visibility and profits attached to our conference's presence on their campus, they should make efforts to make our stay bearable. Knowing of our association's egalitarian stance they feel that no effort is needed. And this is wrong.

Next year, the conference will take place at Concordia University in Montreal. There, we will not have to depend on anybody's inept organizing. The only problem will be that people will skip presentations in favor of enjoying the beautiful city.

Conference at Carleton U, Ottawa

My conference takes place at Carleton University in Ottawa. The choice of location for this annual event is part of an egalitarian effort of our association. The goal is to hold a conference at every single one of Canadian universities in turn. It is, of course, a failed project. Some universities are located in places where nobody wants to go. Some schools don't have the capacity to accomodate this enormous annual congress of Humanities and Social Sciences. This is the kind of fate that expects any attempt to impose equality by force.

Of all the places I have visited so far for this conference, Carleton University seems the worst in what concerns organization and facilities. Ottawa is beautiful this time of year but we have to be stuck far away from all the fun in this sprawling inconveniently located and geographically confusing campus. I want to hope that the substance of presentations will be worth spending three days on this very uninspiring campus.

The question I always want to ask is why in North America campuses are located so far from anything we can call "life"? The students come out of college with no experience of living in a real grown-up environment. It becomes so much more difficult for them to adapt to less infantile environments than campuses. It is also so much harder to develop intellectually, emotionally and in any other way when you are stuck in this boring artificial enclosure for years.