Born and (mostly) raised in Calgary, Karl has been taking courses on and off at AU since 1999. At one point, he changed his major from Computing Science to Computing Science because the new program requirements fit what he’d already taken better. Since then, he switched to English and graduated (w/Great Distinction he likes to add) proving along the way that it is entirely possible to complete an entire AU course within a three week period. If only he had done this at the beginning of the course instead of in the last extension.
This is not something he advises unless you are desperate, masochistic, or, ideally, both.
He is currently the managing editor of The Voice Magazine, where he tries to put his education to use helping other students as they provide content for The Voice
Recently, Premiere Danielle Smith of Alberta has started floating the idea of an Alberta Pension Plan. Supported by some numbers which don’t seem credible on the face of them, and which several economists suggest are completely unrealistic, she is suggesting that Alberta is entitled to over half of the total current net holdings of the… Read more »
There are a number of high-profile strikes going on in the United States right now. From the United Auto Worker’s Strike to that of the Writer’s and Actor’s Guilds. Of them, it’s that of the Writer’s Guild that most interests me because of how they’re attempting to head off with legislation and negotiation what technology… Read more »
If you haven’t looked at University Affairs in the last while, you might want to head over there to read the story about the battle over post-secondary education in Alberta. In particular, it points out that cuts to post-secondary education have been more than half a billion dollars since 2019 and points out, rightly, the… Read more »
This week, I got the Council Meeting report from the last AUSU Council meeting completed, with some light reporting on the newly approved budget and upcoming AUSU fee increase. Initially I was thinking of going through category by category noting significant differences, but in looking through, most of the changes except the one I singled… Read more »
The meeting came to order at 6:03 with VP External Manmeet Kaur, Councillor Karen Fletcher, and Indigenous Circle Council Voice Rylee Feschuk absent with regrets. The agenda was amended to add an item regarding the Executive Compensation Review Committee (ECRC). This is the committee AUSU establishes to review the AUSU executive compensation, comparing it to… Read more »
I like the fiction feature this week. It can be read as a cute little story that’s just a fun read, but if you look a little closer it has something more to say about the power of personal suggestion. Or maybe magic. You decide. With no student interview this week, I’m happy to also… Read more »
It’s been a busy week. Just today it was announced that the UCP experiment of moving all public health related lab work to private company Dynalife is being walked back. Although they apparently were able to provide decent service in north Alberta and the Edmonton region, their significant difficulties in adapting to the more densely… Read more »
Welcome back! So, after a short staycation we return with the latest issue of The Voice Magazine. This week, we start it all off with a feature interview with a student raised in Zimbabwe and now pursuing his psychology degree at AU with an aim to take it to post-graduate studies. Also this week, we… Read more »
Recently, Alberta Premiere, Danielle Smith, provided a new mandate letter to her new Advanced Education Minister, Rajan Sawhney. In it were 17 points that she wants the Advanced Education Minister to focus on. Not one of those includes dictating where universities need to hire from, so perhaps after this current IMA expires, Athabasca University will… Read more »
I’ve got another article you need to read. This one about former AUSU President, Karen Fletcher. She joined an international contest, “Map the System”, and became one of six finalists that gave their presentation as Oxford. Her presentation revolved around how the connections between systems can fail students even though people in each system want… Read more »