With four positions uncontested and one position contested, the 2021-2022 Faculty of Arts Students’ Association (FASA) council was announced on April 8.
President Mateusz Salmassi, a third year psychology international student, cited budget cuts, tuition hikes, performance-based funding and healthier academic regulations as desired points of change in his platform. His platform points spoke to building issue-based FASA campaigns “designed to go beyond advocacy,” creating a VP Student Organizing role, expanding the Arts Undergraduate Research Symposium (AURS), collaborations and working with the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS) and continuing to fight for “Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Justice” through various actions.
Close Photo of the Insignia of a Member of the Order of Canada. // Photo courtesy of the Governor General of Canada.
Order of Canada appointed UCalgary Elder in Residence shares wisdom
“Systemic discrimination is like COVID. It is like a virus. It hurts people, it kills people, it’s unhealthy. And if that’s the society we want, that’s what we have. We must find a vaccination for systemic discrimination. We must heal this planet. We must heal as people.”
Doreen Spence, better known as Grandmother to many, is a Cree Elder in Residence at the University of Calgary, and was recently appointed to the Order of Canada. Her impressive and heartfelt activism and advocacy work has encompassed her entire life for 83 years, and she still continues to strive towards a vaccination for systemic discrimination. Her work has resulted in her winning many prestigious awards, including the Chief David Crowchild Memorial Award, YWCA Women of Distinction Award, Alberta Human Rights Award,
Calgary Transit’s
My Fare app launched on July 1, 2020, and while it started off awkwardly with some early-release glitches, it serves as a more accessible way to order and access transit tickets.
The release of this app hit the radars of university student organizations as an option for expanding the accessibility of the University of Calgary’s UPass.
There is no current roll out date for this feature yet. However, when it does happen, the Students’ Union (SU) intends to be involved in the implementation and rollout according to SU vice-president external and Chair of the Calgary Student Alliance (CSA) Marley Gillies.
Discover incredible Black authors with upcoming webinar
In celebration of Black History Month at the University of Calgary, the Faculty of Arts is hosting a variety of webinars over the course of February, including webinars on Black art, history, culture and literature.
On Feb. 25 from 3:30 – 5 p.m., Dr. Suzette Mayr will be presenting a webinar titled
The Value of Black Literature, which will explore Black literature and history in Canada, specifically Black prairie literature, and will also discuss her latest work in progress,
The Sleeping Car Porter, a historical novel about a Black, queer railway porter.
A creative writing professor in the Department of English, Mayr has written five previous novels, most of which tend to focus on Black queer narratives, Mayr says, such as her most recent book,