At 4 p.m. on Nov. 10, Chancellor John McCall MacBain kicked off the first in-person joint Board of Governors (BoG)-Senate meeting since 2019. The meeting, which took place at the Faculty Club at 3450 McTavish Street, centred on “experiential learning at the local, national and international levels.” Attendees worked to[Read More…]
Tag: Accessibility
Accessibility on campus is shameful
Nobody enjoys trekking from New Residence Hall to McMed in subzero temperatures to make it to an 8:30 a.m. lecture. Most people take their ability to walk into class or a library building for granted. Montreal’s winters are particularly brutal, and the city is infamous for its never-ending construction. For[Read More…]
Students raise concerns about McGill governance’s accessibility and transparency
McGill’s primary governing bodies, the Senate and Board of Governors (BoG), have recently been subject to criticism from students regarding issues of transparency and accessibility, with meetings being difficult to attend, and recordings not being made public, or only staying up for a limited period of time. Students have also[Read More…]
Zooming in on positive changes this school year
This year has placed us all, however unwilling, in Zoom University. Now, weekends are for binge-watching lecture recordings. It’s easy to tire of the everyday routine of Zooming and the stifling feeling of cabin fever, but let’s pause to reflect on some of the positive changes made this school year.[Read More…]
SSMU revamps accessibility policy, creates commissioner position
The Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) adopted a new Accessibility Policy during the Legislative Council meeting on Jan. 28. Last updated in 2016 and having expired on Jan. 1, 2021, the new policy expands beyond its previous focus on physical disabilities to include a more comprehensive commitment to accessibility[Read More…]
Alice Wong calls attention to the importance of disability visibility
As part of a speaker series organized by McGill Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Faculty Lecturer Dr. Alex Ketchum, author and disability rights activist Alice Wong and Faculty of Education professor Elizabeth Patitsas gathered virtually on Oct. 28 to discuss the diverse experiences of people with disabilities. Wong, the keynote[Read More…]
Online learning must prioritize accessibility
Like many students, I found myself returning home before the end of the Winter 2020 semester. Recognizing that these unique circumstances presented an opportunity, I decided to enroll in courses during the summer semester. This was both a wise idea and a horrible one. Having never been to my parents’[Read More…]
Zoom University threatens to leave students behind
During the last two weeks, students were welcomed back to a McGill that no one had ever seen before. Across time zones throughout Canada and around the world, frantic searching for class locations was replaced with anxious scrambling for Zoom links as students and academic staff struggled to adapt to[Read More…]
Students deserve to choose distance learning after the pandemic ends
The recent announcement that the Fall 2020 semester will take place primarily through remote instruction was jarring news to students who have already experienced significant disruptions to their academic routines due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the switch to distance learning has been challenging for some programs, there are undeniable[Read More…]
Podcasting as a medium for all
For the 20th event in the Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker Series, podcaster Anna Sigrithur led a Feminist Podcasting Workshop on Jan. 10 in Wilson Hall. With about 20 participants, the workshop was an interactive and judgement-free space. Sigrithur began by describing the most common podcast formats,[Read More…]