Reading week ramble

It has been a good week to be an International Relations major. Between Castro's resignation, the independence declaration of Kosovo, and the elections in Pakistan, there has been a lot of global developments to discuss.

I don't always feel so keen about my major - I have gone through phases of wishing that I picked some other discipline for my undergrad degree. This is typical of IR majors, I think, because the programme is so interdisciplinary. Every once in a while I will be in a class or at a talk, and decide that I should have been a Geography major, or a Canadian Studies major, or a Religious Studies Minor.

Recently, I have been thinking about Canadian Studies. This began with a Geography class on the situation in Fort MacMurray, which made me want to take the first plane west to try and volunteer with some kind of charity organization. The class focused on the social, economic and environmental stress caused by the oil sands development. I began to think - if we have these global problems here in Canada, why am I studying International Relations?


This same crisis has recently befallen a good friend of mine who goes to Acadia. She studies music therapy, but has been disappointed a bit by the discipline - or at least how it has been taught. I am currently visiting her out in Wolfville, which has involved some snow shoeing (see photos) and lobster (speaking of Canada).

I sat in on two of her classes today, and was really quite surprised at how many laptops were in the classroom. A good 75% of students had brought their laptops to both classes - one in an auditorium, and the other in a seminar room. While this was useful for taking notes without wasting paper, it was also useful for e-mail, MSN, facebook, and Youtube. The sound of clicking keyboards was nearly constant, with a small crescendo whenever the professor said something particularly relevant.

When I was deciding which university to attend after high school, my choice was between Acadia and Mount Allison. When making my decision, I was deterred from Acadia by "The Acadia Advantage" - the provision of a laptop for each student. These laptops are rented - students return them each summer and have the option to purchase them after graduation. While this would be beneficial for some programmes, it wasn't what I was looking for. Sitting in on a class, I realized the difference that a laptop can make to a class atmosphere.

Next year Acadia is launching "The Acadia Advantage 2.0". This policy still puts an emphasis on technology, but replaces mandatory laptop rental with a list of suggested models for Acadia students to purchase. (This is something Mt. A does as well.) It will be interesting to see if this changes the classroom atmosphere, or if technology still plays a dominant role.

Mount Allison marketing

I love this school - the opportunities it has afforded me and the people it attracts. I would not have chosen any other university for my undergraduate degree. But the very things that I love about this school don't seem apparent in any of the many marketing campaigns that Mt. A has launched in the past five years.

Mount Allison 'sells itself' through a series of disjointed slogans and websites that try just a bit too hard to be fresh and innovative. As a result, the school appears kitschy instead of mature, desperate instead of calmly waiting for students to discover its true depth. An overview:

---

1) The "MTA Survival Guide"


Sponsored by Alcool NB Liquor and Moosehead breweries, this website calls itself a guide "to campus life at Mount Allison University". When I first visited the site I was optimistic - the site offers videos on a variety of topics to provide the 'inside scoop' about student life. Sadly, and somewhat predictably, the site talks almost exclusively about drinking (with an emphasis on over-drinking). Topics include "Drinking + Sex = ??", "Drunks hitting on you", "Who cleans the puke?", "Keeping track of money at the bar", "Remedies for a hangover", and "Can you drink while studying?" This is not the school I chose to go to, and I am ashamed that the Mount Allison name is attached to such a biased portrayal of on-campus life.

There is drinking at Mount Allison, without a doubt. But this has never defined my experience at this University - for the first two years of my degree I didn't drink at all. If I had seen this website as a non-drinking prospective student, I might not have come here - a shame, considering that this is not an accurate picture of the different ways students choose to spend their time at Mount Allison.

I am shocked, really, that Mount Allison would allow its name - its 'brand' - to be attached to this biased website. Luckily, the site doesn't yet appear on a Google search, so perhaps it will remain hidden to prospective students. (Although I suppose posting about it on my blog doesn't help.)

2) "Present Intense, Future Perfect"

This phrase was unveiled a few years ago after a lengthy search for a new Mt. A slogan. I have always disliked it - both as a slogan and for what it is trying to communicate. Essentially, I don't want my present to be intense, and my future will not be perfect. This seems to be an overachiever's interpretation of the school, whereby we are constantly busy and forever striving after some unattainable, fixed future goals. I would much rather enjoy my time here at a reasonable pace, and I think it is much healthier to have realistic expectations and multiple goals for the future.

This phrase still appears on Mt. A websites and brochures, but seems to be a bit less prominent than when it was first launched.

3) "These are the good old days at Mount Allison"


A photo of students in old Mt. A sweaters mysteriously showed up a few days ago on the Mt. A homepage, with "These sure are the good old days at Mount Allison" printed across the top in bold colours. I had never heard this slogan before, and assumed the photo was an experiment by the Mt. A web staff. When I Googled this slogan, however, I found a small article on a marketing website about a Mt. A recruitment campaign directed specifically at Ontario students. The article includes a mock movie poster advertising an idyllic Mt. A - "a timeless place of imagination, creativity, fun, and new beginnings."

---

So, are we full of partiers, keeners, or fairy-tale Allisonians? Do we get hammered here, get good grades here, or get married here?

It is hard to capture Mount Allison in one slogan or marketing campaign. Image-making is necessary, I suppose, in order to attract enough students to fund our high-cost model; we require many buildings and professors for a relatively small student body. But is the corporate image really required? Do we need to project this glossy, sloganized identity in order to attract high-quality students?

Most of the students I know at Mount Allison did not choose to come here because of a poster or a slogan. One-by-one, we each discovered this institution and realized that we liked it because of its broad uniqueness - the community, the opportunities, the clubs, the high academic standards. I am no marketing expert, but I think if Mt. A promoted the diverse "Mount Allison Experiences" instead of trying to squeeze its identity into a compact, marketable package, the school would still attract students. It might even attract better students - those who went out of their way to find a school that suited their dynamic interests.

If we are going to market ourselves, it should at least be according to a uniform set of values and images. The school seems almost schizophrenic when comparing the absolute identities promoted in these three campaigns.

This weekend I went out to a charity ball, participated in an academic conference, had tea at Mel's, and went to see some student theatre. I just can't see my experience in any of the identities attached to Mount Allison marketing - what happened to the simple but elegant idea of the "education of the whole person?"

Civic creativity

Richard Florida looks pensive

This week I attended two very different on-campus talks. The first featured Richard Florida, the celebrity US academic who has recently been hired by the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The event was co-sponsored by the town of Sackville and Mount Allison's Wilfred B. Jonah Lecture Series.

Apparently he is a big deal, so I decided to go hear him speak. I realized during his talk that I had read one of his articles in an economic geography class - specifically about his "Gay Index" and "Bohemian Index". Allow me to explain.

Florida is not a conventional professor; he straddles the gap between the isolated 'ivory tower' and mainstream culture. In same the vein as "Freakonomics", Florida uses clear language to explain broader economic concepts.

His argument is based on the role of the "creative class". The choice of the word "class" is a bit strange, however, since Florida's main point is that every human being has the capacity for creativity. Harnessing and releasing this creativity is the key to both happiness and economic development.

Creativity creates value, which creates wealth. This is why we see a correlation between prosperity and the presence of a creative, tolerant, open culture in a given community. Thus the "Bohemian" and "Gay" Indices - the more gay or artsy people in a municipality, the more wealthy and developed it will be.

I enjoyed the overall message of the talk: arts and culture are not peripheral to development, but are at the core of human expression and development. Some of his examples and assumptions betrayed him as a bit elitist, however. (In fact, this has been the main critique of his work.) Some of his thinking only applies to middle-class America - those "yuppies" who value design and aesthetics as the highest form of expression. Meanwhile, the working class and entire societies in the developed world do not necessarily have access to his particular vision of a creativity-based society.

Perhaps my critique comes merely from his persona. Dressed in a hoodie, a blazer and jeans he casually delivered his talk without notes, dropping names like Hillary, Oprah and Colbert as if they were old-time friends. At the reception following the talk, a black limousine was waiting for Florida outside; this is a strange luxury in Sackville. (While the car waited, I stuffed some havarti and pita from the snack trays into a few tupperware I had gone home to collect.)

I found an entertaining visual version of his talk online (click to enlarge):


The second talk I attended featured Mount Allison professor Andrew Nurse. The co-ordinator of the Canadian Studies academic programme at Mount Allison, Nurse gave a talk entitled "Canadian Liberalism and the Dynamics of Civic Nationalism" as a part of the annual George Stanley lecture series. (Remember George? He designed the Canadian flag.)

Nurse used citations from Michael Ignatieff's and Pierre Trudeau's writings to argue that civic nationalism is a flawed ideology. Civic nationalism, according to these thinkers, is the rational alternative to the heated, potentially violent loyalties of ethnic nationalism. We are so immersed in the logic of civic nationalism that we fail to acknowledge how it too can tend toward irrationality and violence. This liberal ideology cannot be a superior method of political organization; it is merely a matter of cultural preference.

The talk was thought-provoking; Nurse speculated on new ideas, while making his logic accessible to those who were not fully familiar with the terms and concepts of Canadian Studies. He applied his thinking to Canadian pop culture, explaining how various Canadian artists had already negotiated our 'hegemonic liberalism'.

The best part of the evening was its community spirit. Before and after the talk two professors sang the praises of Dr. Nurse, who has been an active member of the Mount Allison community and a strong advocate for Canadian Studies programmes across the country. While being introduced, he looked humbly at the floor as if to downplay his long list of contributions to the school and his discipline. The question period following the talk included thoughtful comments from students and professors who I have met during my five years here, and I left feeling I had participated in something uplifting and stimulating.

So, in one week I saw a high-profile, stylish, Hillary hob-nobbing academic in Convocation Hall, and a humble, home-grown, provocative professor who sits at the centre of the Mount Allison community.

Andrew Nurse makes lunch for his daughter

On another note, it is snowing outside, and I am hoping, somewhat in vain, for a snow day.

Curl for Cancer 2008

The Sackville Curling Club hosts an annual "Curl for Cancer" as a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. It is an all-day event featuring recreational games between teams of all ages and varieties.

I have never participated, but this year I stopped in to watch a few friends play a game. It was a great atmosphere - local songwriter R.A. Lautenschlager was playing his folk music, small children were running around eating cookies, and spectators were enjoying cups of coffee and beer. As I walked into the lounge area, I saw a team dressed like 1960s hippies come off the ice.

My friends soon went onto the ice in a game against "team Canada". This team had dressed in Canada paraphernalia (maple leaf scarves, hats, and lots of red and white), and apparently sang the national anthem before their first game.

As I sat spectating, I realized the "Canadianess" of the entire experience. Between "ends", I ran to the library to find a Mexican exchange student who attends the same school where I did my exchange last semester. She had never seen the sport before, and I struggled to explain the game - which I only loosely understand - without knowing the Spanish verb for "curl".