Editor, the Gauntlet,
First off, let me just say congratulations to Dr. Dube for getting out of the U of C. It is definitely a sad day for any student who was lucky enough to have him as a teacher.
Dr. Dube is a reflection of what is wrong with the U of C. Our school is not what it once was. In the five years that I have attended the U of C, I have, with some exceptions, witness the overall degradation of the institution. “Increasingly worse teachers” is a statement that many students must agree with.  Our school is consistently ranked low in Maclean’s and all other surveys–ironically, one of our highest ratings has been service, which we will most likely lose after t his tyrannical credit card decision–and because of this, prominent profs do not want to teach at our school. A certain East Asian Studies prof is still forced to teach about Japan: Japan is not his specialty, his specialty is China. Why? The school cannot find a prof specializing in Japan who wishes to teach at the U of C.
Students have lost any sense of community. No longer do students rally or unite to show their disgust with policy of the administration. The camp-outs have become smaller every year; the SU did not even make a peep over raised tuition. This is a result of black mail: students, most of whom now come from the honour roll variety from high school, need school to achieve a career and life that they wish; the administration knows this and knows that we are powerless to do much. Back when I first started to work in Alberta, times were bad. If you complained about your job, the boss would take you in to his office and show you the 200 resumes on h is desk and ask you, “are you going to keep complaining?” This is how students feel now; we need the job. Moreover, school is so expensive that increasingly, large amounts of students have to work more to pay f or it, leaving little time to do extracurricular activities. I am not claiming that students have the roughest life, however, university is supposed to be a time when we can explore and can rebel–a liberal education is supposed to instill in us what it feels like to be free as an individual. Instead, U of C prepares us to be another brick.
The profs have no guts anymore. How many profs have spoken out f or Dr. Dube? Zero. The administration and department of political science shun him. “Do not give him attention and he will go away.” How many years, just in Canada, have profs had to fight for academic freedom? And why–so that profs can be too afraid to use it?
The administration is a heartless corporate machine. Harvey claims we are a business because $900 million go through the school. Using that logic, I guess health care is a business. I guess elementary schools are businesses. Money goes through it, there it is a business. It is an interesting rhetorical note. I believe the school is a public service–a public right no different from our streets, the police or street lights: society needs all these things. A university education (should) promote the creation of better citizens for our cities, provinces, country and world. The best example is t he recent Credit Cardgate fiasco. What numbnut decided that was a good idea? No student who ever had to wait in line for a year would agree with that. How about putting the extra money towards tuition, even that is somewhat better. It is a foolish decision done in complete ignorance of the people it effects the most.
Hey Harvey! Can’t you at least pretend to give a shit about us–like you do when you seek our consultation on tuition increases? We should get to vote if you should get a raise (interesting results most likely). But, I digress.
Goodbye Dr. Dube. Know that you changed the lives of many.