The Elite Universities in Alberta

I recently read an article that suggested, well, actually argued and stated outright  that the cuts to Alberta’s post-secondary education system are both good and bad.  The “cuts” are bad because “cuts” are “bad.”  But those “cuts,” the “article” “argued” are “good” because they raise admission standards, and only those people who “deserve” to be in post-secondary “education” will finally be able to be in the “education” system they "deserve."

Are you wondering why I have put so many “words” in quotation “marks”?  It’s because our “esteemed” Minister of Advanced Ignorance has put the very word "cuts" in quotation marks.  He actually, apparently, “believes” that these “cuts” are not actually “cuts” but some variation upon not-cutting.  Those ideas, I would like to emphasize, have cost REAL PEOPLE REAL JOBS.  That is the price of your quotation marks, Mr. Lukaszuk.  Let me reiterate: “real people, real jobs.”  “Cuts” are not “arbitrary.”  Your government had choices, and your government chose elitism and some bizarre idea that those with money should rule.

To return to the article that suggests it’s a good thing that admission standards are rising at the #UofA. I disagree with the passion of a thousand burning stars.  I have had students who are “qualified” to attend university who should not be there.  I have had students who should not be in university excel.  And yet we determine admissions by what? Grades from high-school? By what the student or the students' parents can afford?

Nevertheless, I agree with the article:  the University is an “elite” place, but only if we are forced to make the university about money.  But, really, what would happen and what would we lose if we did away with tuition and student debt?  What would happen if we cared about where students are going as opposed to where they came from?  What if education were free?  What if our government cared for students (by which I mean people, Mr. Lukaszuk)?  What would happen if everyone thought it was possible to achieve a post-secondary education?  Would the elitism of that article die away? I hope so.  Would the idea that deep and important thinking was only available to the elite die a grisly death? I also hope so.  Post-secondary education does not need to be elite.  What our dear minister wants is a war among the houses so that he might make money immediately.

I bet “cutting”education makes money now.  But education is not something you happen to run into.  Education pays out in the long run, but Mr. Lukaszuk and the Progressive [snicker] Conservative Association of Alberta are just in their jobs for the sprint.  Who cares about the long run?  Who cares about the marathon?

Are Universities elite?  Absolutely.  Should they be?  No. Are universities equal?  Absolutely not.  I say this as someone who is a second-tier “faculty” member; I say this as somebody working in what some call a “third-tier” university.  And yet, would I put my students up against any other student from any other school in Alberta?  You bet your ass I would.  And I guarantee that the undergraduate students at the U of L would excel, would do as well as (if not better than) their “first-tier” compatriots.

Despite my protestations, is the UofA a flagship institution? Yes, it is.  Should it remain so?  I think so.  How could we have a higher education system that is entirely equal?  The institutions in Alberta’s advanced education system are not equal; they do not repeat themselves.  In other words, Mr. Lukaszuk, each institution has already differentiated itself.

What Lukaszuk and his cronies want is that we who are not part of that “flagship” institution to sit quietly and not speak up about this abuse of education, about whatever Mr. Lukaszuk has against his Alma Mater.  I refuse to stand for that.  We are all in this together:  scientist and artist; social scientist and humanist; student and professor; U of L instructor and U of C staff member; U of A student and Mac U faculty member.  We have to realize that this assault, though concentrated on the University of Alberta’s Arts and Humanities, is an assault on our education.  It’s an assault on all of our educations; it is an attack on education itself.

Raising admission standards is not a simple “good.”  Elitism is not a simple “good.”  Raising tuition (as it will sky-rocket next year) is not a simple “good.”  Those who care about post-secondary education, about education at all, have to stand together.  All of us.  I stand with the real Campus Alberta; I stand for education and refuse to let it fall to the whims of the oil and gas industry.  I urge you to do the same.  We need to stand together to protect ALL education across Alberta.  If we don't do it now, it might be too late.  Stand with the Real Campus Alberta: those who actually care about education.