Editorial—Loving Every Minute of It

Sometimes this job has some interesting turns to it.  Recently it came to my attention that there’s a Facebook group out there devaluing AU degrees by advertising for students and running essay and assignment “sharing” (read, plagiarising) services.  What’s more, it’s doing so using a photograph taken from one of the articles in The Voice Magazine.  A photograph they definitely don’t have permission to use.

So, steps are currently being taken, but if you’re a student who wants to make sure your degree maintains the most value, consider helping out by contacting AU and asking them if they know about this type of activity, and what they’re doing to stop it.  (And if you’re one of the students who’s using such a service, good grief, stop it.  You’re only going to get yourself in trouble when you get that job that you’re not actually qualified for and wind up blacklisted and wasting a year or so of your life.  Buckle down and do the work. Be methodical. It’s not really that hard if you simply put the effort into it.)

Also interesting is that the candidates for the next AUSU general election have been announced.  Hit the link if you want to find out more about them, and if you want to know any specifics, the AUSU election forums are now open where you can post your questions directly to them.

But if that seems like too much effort, not to worry; next week, I hope to post the candidates’ answers to eight questions that will hopefully help you decide which way you want to cast your vote.  And while we’re speaking of Council, this week, we’ve got a fairly long Council Connection, detailing what happened during the January 16th council meeting.  Council just voted a raise for the members of the executive committee, and our report has the breakdown on both the how much and the why of it, as well as a report on the changes to the bylaws that came into effect, and what AUSU has been doing when it comes to dealing with AU’s recent tuition hikes.

Also this week, we resume our regular feature interviews. This time, Brittany Daigle interviews Brittany Johnson.  Sadly, the opportunity to ask about how awesome the name Brittany is was not taken, because that would have made me laugh. Even so, the interview is a good read, and Brittany (Johnson, not Daigle) gave a pet peeve that I haven’t seen given before, even though I know it has to be annoying to a lot of people.

Also this week, if you’ve ever wondered just where the world’s largest sausage is (as you do, from time to time) we’ve got the answer, as Natalia Iwanek takes us along with her as she explored many of the “World’s Largest” things that are to be found in Alberta, and along the way, discovers a bit more about her own roots from her Ukrainian heritage here in Canada.

Plus, as always, news, events, advice, humor, and more!  Enjoy the read!