Snapshot Message from the President - April 12, 2010
Published by Cabinet du recteur | Office of the President on Monday, April 12th, 2010 – 03:03 PM -Canada's University Solid and Strong
But for the photograph of Tabaret Hall, I would not have recognized the University of Ottawa from the erroneous portrait contained in Sunday's front page story in the Ottawa Citizen.
Given uncertain economic times, all Canadian universities face challenges in maintaining excellence in teaching and research while balancing budgets. This is all the more so since governments, the most important sources of funding for universities, face deficits and pressure to control or reduce spending. Some Canadian universities have had to lay off staff, close programs, levy special fees and reopen collective agreements.
Fortunately, the University of Ottawa has not had to do any such thing. And contrary to Sunday's Citizen report, we remain in a very strong financial position as a result of a history of fiscal prudence.
Tags: courriel, éclair, finance, snapshot
Posted in General |
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010 at 07:36 PM
Mr. Rock, what will you do about class sizes? It seems that this report was the first time anyone ever painted an accurate picture of my experiences here. All of your solutions (more buildings, more research space and environmental friendliness) just seem to reinforce the idea that your focus is on research prestige and not the students.
Professors are not malicious, but because we admit so many students, it is hard for anyone to have an adequate interaction. You do have a good lineup of quality professors in Science, but they are the 'old guard' and are soon to be retired. Many of the young professors are very career-research minded and spend little time on teaching efforts.
Moreover, it seems that for us bilinguals in the English division, we are dealt with rudely and unfairly by staff at this college. In my first year, I remember inquiring as to why my housing placement was not correct. Housing rebuffed me at first. I called later and spoke in French, giving the same details and was switched immediately to my preference, by the same person.
What you need is a direct survey of uOttawa students who have a GPA of 9.5 or over. Let it not be run by the SFUO nor let it be altered by sycophants. We are indeed the ones that will most likely have the potential to endow this University ones our careers kick off.