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I've been closely following Ryerson University's campus enlargement program for the last couple of years. It all started with this innocent photograph I took, and later transformed into a pastel and charcoal drawing, of a building right across from the campus and next to the Theater School. I loved the grey and black outlines of the building, and the pale violet colors of the lilac bushes.
A year later, the building was on the verge of being demolished, and I thought it was going to be transformed into one of the usual condominiums silhouetting Toronto's downtown in increasing numbers. I even quoted former blogger Dispatches from the Hogtown Front who had evidence for this.
Later on, I was struck by my premonition, which had led me to take a photo of the original building, and to record it as a drawing. Something must have told me to preserve this little piece of the city which we might not be seeing too much of in the near future. But in truth, this was not hard to decipher since the visual landscape of Toronto has been changing into glass high rises for a while, with smaller, older houses losing out.
It was also obvious that this rush to build more was a campus affair, where Ryerson (as well as University of Toronto) had made extensive, long-term commitments to expand its campus buildings.
I duly noted this, and the only conclusion I could come up with was that the expansion was in response to the increasing number of immigrant students. I based this on personal observations. I frequently go to the Ryerson Library, and find that over 80% of the students are non-white - mostly East Asian (Chinese, Korean and Philippinos), and South Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi), with quite a large number of Middle Eastern origin. Many still have their original accents, so they were clearly not born here.
I had also read that such spurts in buildings are related to increases in immigrant numbers. So I concluded that the Ryerson campus building spree beneficiaries are likely to be new immigrants, or more precisely, new immigrant students. In fact, this small building was eventually converted into a high rise (I was right on one count, at least) for student housing.
And now here is the ever-diligent Canadian Immigration Reform Blog saying that new immigrants are indeed calculated into the various campus expansion schemes. Both his February 21, 2009 and his February 15, 2009 posts are relevant.
Firstly, he says that foreign students will bring in the much-needed "revenue" (really? Or is it a matter of bad planning - as in high levels of campus expansions) for fees and other costs into universities. Secondly, he talks about the fast track into immigration these foreign students can enter into, a pathway he believes will increase the voting block of immigrants.
These days, Liberals and Conservatives are really fighting for the same groups, since their ideologies and polices are almost exactly the same. It might then just be a matter of "who does what first". The savvy Conservatives are beating the Liberals in their own game, and catering to immigrant groups.
What is more important and disconcerting is how much the Ryerson campus has changed over the last few years. At least so has the campus library, where I was never left deficient, and which has always had great staff to fill in the gaps that I may find wanting.
Here is my list of grievances, which I think is directly related to the inordinate number of new students the campus has been accepting, and the changing campus "culture" that has resulted from that.
- My deep shock occurred when I realized that students can now eat FULL-FLEDGED MEALS IN THE LIBRARY. When I naively complained about this, the LIBRARIAN told me that many students live far away from home, and need a place to eat, sleep, rest and study! This living away far away from home has never been an issue for other students in previous years. Students usually build their own culture of coffee-houses, hot dog stands, convenience store specials and other ways to get their victuals in on a regular basis. This "new" need for eating in the library is unprecedented and strange.
- The library reading rooms are no longer "reading rooms", but rooms where large group discussions are always in progress. I remember approaching a group of South Asians students studying in a "group". I asked what they were studying, and they said "chemistry". Then I said that whenever I used to study for my science classes, I DID IT ALONE. Studying with someone else either pulled me back, or left me more confused. Science is also a solitary study. No amount of group work can really make you better. They had NO CLUE what I was talking about.
- I asked a librarian if they could set aside a free table, and preferably a free room, for newspapers and journals. I said it is hard to open a large newspaper with other people's books scattered all over the table. She said that there are too many students who use the library’s facilities, and they cannot afford to give up any "unnecessary" space.
- Summers used to be great times to catch up on large amounts of research and study. They were quiet, space was ample, and books were often available and not required to put on hold. The past three of four consecutive summers have not shown ANY difference from regular semesters. Each summer session is now packed with large numbers of students. There are no breaks except when school is out, which are the first and last two weeks of the summer.
In short, the Ryerson campus now resembles a congested Third World city, both in the incoherence of the languages spoken, and in the number of people cramming every nook and cranny of the various spaces.
And the Ontario government and the Ryerson University bigwigs plan to continue in this manner for the foreseeable future. In the process, academia is sacrificed for enlarging the purse strings.