There’s a lot of important stuff in this issue. The feature article is the result of attending the various teleconferences and my own interview with Dr. Kenneth Coates, the man leading the third-party review of Athabasca University to help chart a path to sustainability. Longer than I’d typically include (after all, you’ve been studying all day, so I expect if you’re here it’s because you want a short break from that while still staying in touch with what’s going on at AU) it was important it all come out this week, because you only have one more week to get your opinions in to Dr. Coates to help inform his report. And those opinions will matter.
However, if you’ve already sent your ideas to Dr. Coates, then you’ll definitely want to read our second article, “The Incalculable Cost of a Vowel”, as writer Barb Lehtiniemi found a problem that could mean your opinion was sent to the wind, or at least to the wrong place.
Another important milestone in this issue is the end of our graphic novel “The Doppelgänger Cure”. Over the past 29 weeks (more than that if you count in the Christmas break) we’ve been publishing this science fiction graphic novel at a page per week. I’m in the process now of trying to link all the pages on the website, but you can find the first page in our archives at volume 24, issue 32, back in August of 2016. You might want to try it out, once you put it all together, it’s an interesting story of a revolution, in consciousness and in life.
We also have a Council Connection which looks at the last meeting of the former Executive Director, Sarah Cornett. Sarah has now moved on and AUSU Council is in the process of looking for a new Executive Director, and needed to budget extra money for the hire. This meeting was also important because it revealed details of a possible plan of Athabasca University to begin providing a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 to AU students, along with, at long last, properly branded AU email addresses.
Tying in with that, a call from a student to revive the idea of student clubs, with a game-plan on how students might be able to make that happen.
Then a look at what you can do to help Canada for its upcoming 150th birthday celebrations. We give three simple steps that, if followed, could make this country better for everyone. There can be little that’s more important than that.
But we also have some lighter fare, including a look at the how the rumors of vinyls’ death may have been greatly exaggerated, a plea for balance within busy-ness, an examination of the recent film “Get Out!” and what it can teach us about racism, the second part of Technical Observations (this time looking at the web’s most popular browser, Chrome), and of course our listings of events, scholarships, Canadian education and post-secondary news, and our regular columns to give advice or something to think about as you wait for the muse to strike for your next essay. Enjoy the read!
P.S. If you didn’t already know, The Voice Magazine has a Facebook page and a twitter feed if You’re into that kind of thing!
