AUSU This Month – AUSU On The Klein Paper

AUSU On Klein’s Paper

AUSU members continue to write to The Voice concerned about AU’s response to Premier Klein’s essay earlier this year.

Specifically, our members want to know how the media attention directed at the academic quality and marking of Mr. Klein’s essay will affect the integrity of their hard-earned degrees.

The students’ union had these same concerns. We were concerned that the reputation of an AU degree might be tarnished by this public examination of Mr. Klein’s essay.

We immediately wrote to Dr. Judith Hughes, Athabasca University’s Vice-President Academic.

Dr. Hughes responded that all students, whether they hold public office or not, are entitled to fair judgment of the facts and to have their case treated in confidence. Dr. Hughes assured AUSU that AU reached its decision about the matter following a thorough investigation of the matter. Further, according to Dr. Hughes, AU has already and will continue to take steps to maintain the integrity of its degrees, including improved media relations and the possible use of plagiarism detection software such as “turnitin.com.”

The Students’ Union appreciates Dr. Hughes’ response and AU’s efforts to be fair to all students. However, our members remain genuinely concerned. And rightly so. Studying part-time by distance education takes time and sacrifice, often for several years, fueled by the knowledge that the ultimate reward is a university degree respected by the academic and business community.

The Students’ Union believes that this episode was a singular occurrence and is not reflective of the quality of the education that AU students receive. That said, I encourage all AUSU members to contact AU President Dr. Dominique Abrioux (dominiqu@athabascau.ca) or Dr. Judith Hughes (judithh@athabascau.ca), or by mail at 1 University Dr, Athabasca, AB T9S 3A3. Offer your opinion. Ask what steps AU will take to protect the integrity of your degree.

It’s up to the university to protect our degrees. It’s up to us students to ask questions.

Marketing and Public Relations Committee Recruiting Members

The Marketing and Public Relations Committee (MPRC) was created by the Athabasca University Students’ Union (AUSU). It works to advise the AUSU and its committees on marketing and public relations matters and to develop and implement marketing and public relations programs and services on behalf of AUSU when entrusted to do so.

For more information on this opportunity, see this link: http://www.ausu.org/committeead/index.php

AUSU WANTS YOUR OPINION

The AUSU is in the process of improving our website and we would like to get your opinion on what needs to be done.

You can help us out by sending us a list of your pet peeves about our website, your favourite parts of our website, your suggestions for what you would like to see added to or removed from our website and/or any other comments that you feel will help us to make our website better.

Please send your comments to marketing-committee@ausu.org with the subject line “Website Comments.” After we review the comments we may conduct chat room focus groups to discuss the website further with a group of volunteer students.

Please let us know if you would be interested in participating in a chat room focus group.

The AUSU thanks you for taking the time to read and reply to this ad.

AUSU IN PERSON COFFEE GROUPS

Getting together physically with fellow AU students adds to your university experience. Other students will be able to understand and relate to the joys and frustrations of distance learning. It’s also a way to stay abreast of information relating to AU and the Athabasca University Students’ Union.

See the Coffee Groups web page on the AUSU site, at http://www.ausu.org/coffee for a list of groups.

Anyone interested in starting up a group in your area (anywhere in Canada, from small towns to major centres) please contact LONITA at lfraser@ausu.org.

CHAT WITH AUSU ONLINE

Our chat room is always open for student chats, but if you have a question for AUSU, or would like to get to know your council, drop by the chat-room during one of our scheduled councillor chat times. The chat is accessible through the ‘Message Forums’ option on the AUSU home page http://www.ausu.org. You will need an AUSU web site account.] Times are MST

Mondays at 8:00 PM Councillor Karl Low