By Mark Kissel
Editors, the Gauntlet,
Re: "And funding for some…" March 22, 2001
Unfortunately, the Gauntlet editors entirely "missed the boat" and, in fact, sunk swiftly to the bottom of the lake when writing about the CBC interview between Jeff Collins and myself from Fri., March 16.
While I may not have highlighted specific problems that are taking place at Calgary, the purpose of that radio interview, like the nine others I participated in that morning, was to raise awareness on behalf of post-secondary education students across the country.
I agree that new buildings do not necessarily indicate progress. CASA knows that because of a lack of funding from the government the quality of our education has been in decline for a number of years.
But you wrongly state the U of C is unique because of "the largest class sizes" in the country. This is not the case. According to Maclean’s, Calgary is ranked 14 out of 15 for first-and second-year class size, and 6 out of 15 in third and fourth-year classes. Large class sizes are a national issue, one that CASA tackles head on.
But while the editors decided to focus on one minute of a 10-minute conversation, they neglected to report the other areas that we were discussing that morning; namely, that CASA is also campaigning for increased federal transfer payments to the provinces and an overhaul in the Canada Student Loan Program. We were also discussing our lobby efforts in Ottawa that week.
I would suggest the editors get their facts straight and begin reporting on entire events instead of relating selective accounts in a biased manner.