Tag Archives: university

A Tribute to the Beginning of a New University Semester

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I am experiencing some serious nostalgia these days as I see the numerous notes from friends and old colleagues about the fact that students are just around the corner, set to enter university en masse for what will hopefully be one of the most satisfying and challenging learning experiences of their lives.  And while I truly grateful to spend the months of August and September in a more relaxed and less frantic state of mind, I do remember just how exciting and important this time of year can be.

Campuses will be buzzing with activity again, moving trucks will mark the weekend moving madness, the supermarket shelves will be nearly empty as student apartments are stocked, some sort of back-to-school flyer will crowd out of every mailbox on the block, orientation programs will be scrambling to get the last bits in order for the big day, information booth duty becomes a central part of your job description, and those lovely, curious, keen, bright, and energetic students will come bounding into campus, hesitantly ready to make their mark.

And as the “fresh” students collide with the tradition and culture of the old, I am also reminded just how hard that clash can feel.  The sense that there may just not be any room left for newness in all the oldness.  The feeling of needing to “catch-up” and get there faster to ensure you blend in and avoid any cultural blunders.  The wish for someone newer than you to arrive so you can feel experienced and knowledgeable again.  It sounds hauntingly familiar to my own culture shock here in Nepal actually.

So…

To my old colleagues at UBC who are working tirelessly right now – I am with you!  I can sense the energy and imagine the dedication, exhaustion, and anticipation you are feeling.  Keep your eye on the end of September, keep your student leaders at the front, and yourself on the sidelines.  Enjoy the familiarity and the camaraderie that this time of year brings – I will miss being part of that feeling that an entire campus is poised and looking towards the same goal.  Watch it amazement as it all unfolds magically and with some predictability – another year, another slice of pizza 🙂

To the campus oldies, remember to make space for all the newness.  Leave room for those who follow you to step into new roles, test new ideas, and change the campus that you have so willingly cared for and loved.  You made it better and they will continue your legacy – but they might also begin some legacies of their own.   Support and help them do that and then get the heck out of their way – you have a new role as the shoulders on which they will need to stand.

To the campus new ones, despite what it may seem (and it may seem exceedingly chaotic, large, overwhelming, and secret-club like) your new community has the potential to change your life.  And you have the potential to change it right back.  You will get lots of advice – you should listen to all of it, but choose to take only what seems valuable to you.   There is space for you here to find whatever it is you are looking for – space to choose, to experiment, to explore, to change your mind, to disagree, to get swept up, to lose track, to find focus, and to learn.

And I am looking forward to being back and a part of the fray next year perhaps because there is no better place to work than on a university campus!

Student Elections in Nepal

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Last week marked the annual student elections for some of the major university and college campuses in Nepal.  These elections, unlike most of the student elections I have seen, are incredibly heated and tumultuous events.  They are political statements of youth who through their voting align themselves with national political parties.  That’s right, you heard me, ALIGNING themselves with variious national Nepali parties.  The result is a highly charged, dangerous and fear festering process that looks nothing like a demoncratic voting process and more appears to resemble violent mob behaviour.  Each student party is a youth wing of the major political parties and the ripe and fertile grounds of higher education institutions are used as a grooming ground for future national politicians.  Through the ranks of student politicians come the national leaders.  The current politicians take student elections very seriously – this is their opportunity to froth, foam, and rile the groups into a turmoil.  To pit youth parties against each other and crush any chances that these youth might for a moment consider collaboration more fruitful than war.

UBC students please take note…this message is for you.  You are so incredibly fortunate to be able to undertake a safe and democratic process through which you hopefully elect student leaders who sincerely care about your experience. Please imagine for a moment, as was the case in Nepal last week, that 1 student was killed while voting.  He was risking life and limb to cast a vote and was killed in his student union elections.  Add to that the 6 students who were seriously injured as a series of bombs exploded near various voting stations.  Imagine, what it must feel like to be a university student here.  Imagine the intimidation tactics that can play into election campaigns.  Please, please count yourself so lucky to be part of a system that allows you to voice an opinion safely.  You have peers in other countries that are not as lucky and would be ashamed to know that so many of you do not vote – that you do not take the democratic process seriously.  If they can get themselves to the polls and risk death…it means you have no excuse.