Editorial – Risky Business

Have you heard of Sayre’s Law? It’s basically stated as “In any dispute, the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. That’s why academic politics are so bitter.”

Part of the reason for a student newspaper (or magazine, in this case) is to report on those politics. Ideally without becoming involved. But, as we’ve seen over the last few weeks, between AUSU council threatening to dissolve the magazine completely, executive honorarium increases, executives pulling down a critical article and even an entire issue of the magazine as it reports on them, it’s easier said than done.

However, since nobody’s ever accused me of being smart enough to know when to walk away, in this issue, I bring you in a second installment of It’s All About the Benjamins. Go read it. Have a look at the documents I’ve linked and the numbers in them. Figure out some questions that you want AUSU to answer, and then, most importantly, attend the AGM so you can get those answers. Perhaps I’m a bit crazy for doing this, but it’s important. AUSU is an organization I helped build, I know some of the good it can do for students, and I know that the only way it will keep doing that good is if students like you are interested and involved enough to make it do so. That’s part of why I took this job in the first place.

The other part, however, is exactly what you get from the rest of this issue. A lot of great material submitted by students, for students. In particular, check out Philip Kirkbride’s Travelling Student and Barbara Lehtiniemi’s interview with the new AUSU Executive Director, Karyna Hoch.

Also, if it’s still Friday, the 15th when you’re reading this, go immediately to the Did You Know? news item so that you can get your chance at some AU scholarship money. I’ve been told that a couple of the scholarships have not received any applicants yet, so if you can get yours in by the end of the day, you probably have a good chance to not only get a little extra cash (and who doesn’t need that these days) but also put a scholarship on to your resume or post-graduate application.

We also have a full report of the first AUSU Council meeting chaired by Shawna Wasylyshyn where you can find out what reasoning they gave for the recent executive honorarium increases (spoiler: not much). And Deanna Roney takes on the debate of which type of exam is better, online or traditional paper and pen.

Plus the Writer’s Toolbox gives away a secret that I’ve been using to edit submissions for a while now, and of course we have our regular selection of news, reviews, and entertainment articles to keep you busy while you’re waiting for your marks to come in.

As always, enjoy the read!