Honestly other than the whole strike thing (which hasn't affected me a whole lot) none of these things have affected me. I've never had problems with profs, there's been a bad one here and there but none of them have ever been actually horrible enough to make me lose marks. Administrative people, within my faculty and university wide ones, have always been helpful to me and it's not like I've always had the easiest of questions and requests for them. Also never really had a problem with MUGSI, SOLAR, Elm (when it existed) and the internet on campus. I usually bring my own computer so I don't really use the computers on campus so I don't really know about the number of computers on campus.

I still like this school!

Hi all,

I thought I'd offer some comments. This is not an attempt to paint everything a nice rosy pink, to deny that McMaster has problems or to try and make it seem like there is no one to blame in all of this.

Rather, it is just to offer some context so that the situation seems less hopeless:

The bad news: The financial situation at McMaster right now is particularly bad, due in large because the grants provided by the provincial government are largely tied to new developments/initiatives, and do not grow annually to match inflation and the escalating cost of delivering a high quality education. As such, the University is looking for ways to cut costs in order to avoid off-loading the burden completely on to students (though students have definitely seen rising costs nonetheless)

The good news: There are a few things...
- There is an upcoming provincial election in the Fall. Make sure you get informed and vote! Students are often neglected because politicians do not see us as a sizable voting bloc. Provincial politics has a large bearing on the quality of education that we receive
- Currently, the Wilson Building for the Social Sciences and Humanities (which would include renovations to the interior of TSH, KTH and CNH) is the University's number one capital funding priority. Patrick Deane did a presentation about it on Queen's Hill, and the MSU organized a letter writing campaign that sent over 300 letters to th Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. Such a building would offer a significant boost in quality to students in social sciences and humanities (who get the short end of the stick in a lot of situations)
- The MSU is doing some cool work with our provincial lobbying group OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) to present well-researched solutions to the provincial government to make post-secondary education more accessible, affordable and of high quality (www.ousa.ca/). One thing of particular interest is our efforts to introduce mandatory teacher training for PhD students who go on to become professors. Currently, to teach high school or elementary school, you need training - but to teach university you don't! As a lot of you have seen, some teachers do not know how to teach (at all). We've had positive reception from the government so far and have also been working with the Centre for Leadership in Learning (CLL) on ways (such as course evaluations) to make teaching better at Mac.


Okay, I'll stop there in an effort to keep this concise. The MSU is releasing a document called the "State of the Union: 2010/2011" which is a much more comprehensive look at what the University and the MSU are doing and our current challenges and areas for improvement.

Again, this isn't meant to say Mac (or the MSU) is perfect... but there is certainly room for improvement. If you're interested in getting involved with how to improve things (or even just learn more) email me anytime at [email protected] r.ca

One last thing I wanted to mention was about the strike! The MSU has expanded our service at Union Market and TwelvEighty during the strike to provide food options on campus (no meal plan required)

Also, (again) please feel free to email me at [email protected] r.ca to tell me your account of the strike and how you've been affected. The MSU is collecting student accounts to make sure we are doing whatever possible to help students during this time.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Originally Posted by bcars

You know what? All universities suck. **** it. I'm going to Hogwarts.

That school also has it's various problems:

-their MUGSI is worse than ours, cept they give it a fancy name called "the sorting hat". plus only one student can use it at a time...imagine the waiting time and frustration.

-if you're going as a muggle you'll be rediculed and threatened by various factions. that, imo, is probably just as bad as the threat of unemployment and bureaucratic frustrations that we'll get from mcmaster.

-i 'm not heavy into the lore but from what I gathered, if you get sorted into raven claw or hufflepuff, you'll get much less screen time for the movies.

Since this thread is mostly negative, I am going to shed some positive light!

Over my 3.5 years here, I have had an amazing time. I have had so many opportunities to get involved and i have great pride in McMaster. A strong majority of profs I have had in the social sciences and humanities have been amazing. There are numerous ways for student involvement and development. Hell, I am living proof of that point, when I came here I was a shy and intimated 17 year old and now I am highly involved and have a great time doing it.

Of course there are problems with our university. Yea we have had a strike every year, and yes that sucks. And yes administration does seem like crap sometimes. But the fact of the matter is, I have friends from tons of other schools all across Ontario who say all of the same things. So if you're going to transfer you might as well transfer out of Canada because these particular problems are country-wide.

In short, all universities are going through a hard time right now. However, McMaster has many positives. In particular, It is great for student life if you do go out and get involved. I couldn't be happier with my choice to come to MAC and am going to be very sad when I leave at the end of the school year.

Originally Posted by Werd

Since this thread is mostly negative, I am going to shed some positive light!

Over my 3.5 years here, I have had an amazing time. I have had so many opportunities to get involved and i have great pride in McMaster. A strong majority of profs I have had in the social sciences and humanities have been amazing. There are numerous ways for student involvement and development. Hell, I am living proof of that point, when I came here I was a shy and intimated 17 year old and now I am highly involved and have a great time doing it.

Of course there are problems with our university. Yea we have had a strike every year, and yes that sucks. And yes administration does seem like crap sometimes. But the fact of the matter is, I have friends from tons of other schools all across Ontario who say all of the same things. So if you're going to transfer you might as well transfer out of Canada because these particular problems are country-wide.

In short, all universities are going through a hard time right now. However, McMaster has many positives. In particular, It is great for student life if you do go out and get involved. I couldn't be happier with my choice to come to MAC and am going to be very sad when I leave at the end of the school year.

tl;dr

12stfucharacters

Originally Posted by mkozi

Hi all,

I thought I'd offer some comments. This is not an attempt to paint everything a nice rosy pink, to deny that McMaster has problems or to try and make it seem like there is no one to blame in all of this.

Rather, it is just to offer some context so that the situation seems less hopeless:

The bad news: The financial situation at McMaster right now is particularly bad, due in large because the grants provided by the provincial government are largely tied to new developments/initiatives, and do not grow annually to match inflation and the escalating cost of delivering a high quality education. As such, the University is looking for ways to cut costs in order to avoid off-loading the burden completely on to students (though students have definitely seen rising costs nonetheless)

The good news: There are a few things...
- There is an upcoming provincial election in the Fall. Make sure you get informed and vote! Students are often neglected because politicians do not see us as a sizable voting bloc. Provincial politics has a large bearing on the quality of education that we receive
- Currently, the Wilson Building for the Social Sciences and Humanities (which would include renovations to the interior of TSH, KTH and CNH) is the University's number one capital funding priority. Patrick Deane did a presentation about it on Queen's Hill, and the MSU organized a letter writing campaign that sent over 300 letters to th Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. Such a building would offer a significant boost in quality to students in social sciences and humanities (who get the short end of the stick in a lot of situations)
- The MSU is doing some cool work with our provincial lobbying group OUSA (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance) to present well-researched solutions to the provincial government to make post-secondary education more accessible, affordable and of high quality (www.ousa.ca/). One thing of particular interest is our efforts to introduce mandatory teacher training for PhD students who go on to become professors. Currently, to teach high school or elementary school, you need training - but to teach university you don't! As a lot of you have seen, some teachers do not know how to teach (at all). We've had positive reception from the government so far and have also been working with the Centre for Leadership in Learning (CLL) on ways (such as course evaluations) to make teaching better at Mac.


Okay, I'll stop there in an effort to keep this concise. The MSU is releasing a document called the "State of the Union: 2010/2011" which is a much more comprehensive look at what the University and the MSU are doing and our current challenges and areas for improvement.

Again, this isn't meant to say Mac (or the MSU) is perfect... but there is certainly room for improvement. If you're interested in getting involved with how to improve things (or even just learn more) email me anytime at [email protected] r.ca

One last thing I wanted to mention was about the strike! The MSU has expanded our service at Union Market and TwelvEighty during the strike to provide food options on campus (no meal plan required)

Also, (again) please feel free to email me at [email protected] r.ca to tell me your account of the strike and how you've been affected. The MSU is collecting student accounts to make sure we are doing whatever possible to help students during this time.

Thanks for taking the time to read!

You got a good point there ..

Originally Posted by Kendoon

Thanks for the heads up. Doing my masters in europe.

because European nations like France & GB are known for their strike-free, union-free systems. Oh, no, wait...

Unless you're referring to Eastern Europe. You'd be one of the few to go from Canada to Belarus instead of the other way around - trend setting

What rage ???

All of my friends from other universities have complaints about their school too. It's nothing new.

Originally Posted by Mahratta

because European nations like France & GB are known for their strike-free, union-free systems. Oh, no, wait...

Unless you're referring to Eastern Europe. You'd be one of the few to go from Canada to Belarus instead of the other way around - trend setting

LOL I KNOW RIGHT?

internet achieved.