The recent Voice contest was a great success. Many readers entered and shared their ideas for a new, improved Voice. Your input has been invaluable in the revision of the Voice website.

Some of you said that you find the current site a little clumsy to navigate, and that it’s hard to go through the News and Events section. You also said that you love to hear input from other students, so we added the Sounding Off column [sorry, no responses this week], and I am working on getting more student profiles. If you want to be profiled, let me know!

I always knew that the profiles were popular, but I was still surprised by how many entries said that the profiles are the best part of the paper, or that your primary reason for reading the Voice is to find out more about fellow students. The Voice is meant primarily to be a vehicle through which AU students can foster a sense of community, and it is clear that this is how students view the paper.

The format of the paper got mostly good reviews, though of course opinions differ and a few of you felt that some types of articles were not to your taste. The important thing to remember, however, is that the vast majority of Voice articles are written by AU students and may tell you as much about them as the profiles do. The Voice is not only here for the readers, but for the writers as well, who have much to gain by sharing their thoughts and ideas with others. It is great to know that so many of the readers love what the writers have to say.

Many of you indicated that you would like to see some humour and games, which I am also trying to get. Budding humorists take note, we’d love to see what you can do. Also, if anyone has drawing skills and would like to try their hand at a weekly comic, let me know.

There were also requests for more education news, and I will be speaking with AU to see if we can beef up their contribution to the paper.

Some of you said that we should be more controversial, and take stronger stands on the issues. The Voice readership is one of educated adults, and should reflect this.

Overall the comments on the Voice were overwhelmingly positive. Criticism was constructive and detailed, and will be of great assistance in planning future issues.

The two winners of the Voice contest, who will receive AUSU T-Shirts courtesy of the Athabasca University Students’ Union, are Lynn Coubrough and Trevor Siwak, both of Ontario. Congratulations to both of our winners, and thanks again for your input.

For information on purchasing AUSU T-shirts, please contact ausu@ausu.org. An order form will be available on ausu.org shortly.

REVISED VOICE WEBSITE COMING SOON

Very shortly the revised Voice website will be complete. The updates to the site are based on recommendations you made in your contest entries, and new features that we want to add. Some of you also asked about why we are not producing a print version of the Voice, which is a good question! Let me give you a brief history of the Voice, and how we arrived at the format offered today.

The current Voice website was a project that took many months to get off the ground. First AUSU had to decide what formats the Voice should be published in. This was not an easy task. In the past the Voice had been published at different times as a print newspaper, an HTML website, and even a pdf. Each format had its advantages and disadvantages.

Many people prefer reading a newspaper as a hardcopy document. Actually, this is my preference as well! However, this is not always the best option. The Voice was printed and mailed out to students for about the first seven years of publication. The cost was enormous, and increased steadily as more students joined the university. Printing the paper itself carried a significant cost, which was only partially offset by advertising. The greatest expenditure of AUSU at that time, was postage. The most that the Voice was able to published was four times per year. Articles were often limited to 200 or 300 words, leaving little room for the in-depth explorations that you will find in the current Voice.

Today AU has almost 25,000 undergraduate students [more than most universities in Canada!]. Even with a publications agreement through Canada Post, the cost of mailing the Voice to all of our students is about $12,000 each time, which does not take into account printing costs and writer pay. You can see why The Voice was published so infrequently!

It was decided a few years ago [and if you want to know more about Voice history, wait until May when our 10th anniversary takes place] that the Voice should publish more often in order to keep students better informed on university happenings and to provide a much needed link between distance ed students, who may have no other tangible contact with other AU students.

Clearly, the only way to obtain this goal would be to publish electronically. While it was recognized that not everyone likes reading a newspaper online, the many benefits outweighed the disadvantages. Printing online means that there are no space limits, no limits on the number of pictures that we can print, no limit to the colours we can use, and fewer limits on how often we can publish. While not every student at AU has a computer with internet access, the vast majority do as it is extremely difficult to succeed at AU without electronic access to the university. Also, AUSU offers a computer bursary to help students who cannot afford a computer, thus addressing access issues for The Voice as well.

AUSU is aware, however, that some of you still like to receive print materials, and that those without computers need a way to obtain up to date university and students’ union information. This is why AUSU came up with the idea of mailing out a print newsletter last September. The first issue was a great success, and there will be another – much larger – newsletter mailed out in the next few weeks. The Voice, however, will remain electronic.

As I mentioned, the two electronic formats that had been used previously for the Voice were HTML and pdf. An HTML web site has the advantage that it is quick to load, easy to navigate, and can be read online at any time without taking up space on your computer. On the other hand, a pdf file can be downloaded onto your computer and saved indefinitely. When The Voice published only in HTML, we were informed by some overseas students that they must pay for internet access by the minute, so reading online was costly. They wanted a pdf so they could download once, and read at their leisure. Also, some people like to print all of portions of The Voice – including the AU library, who archive our issues – and it is very cumbersome and time consuming to print an HTML web site. Therefore, the pdf was introduced. Of course many people missed the simplicity of the website, and a small number did not have the adobe pdf software [which is free] required to read it.

So, when the web committee convened last year to decide how to present The Voice, it was determined that it should publish in both HTML and pdf format each week. Thus, the new Voice web site was created, and this dual format has been followed ever since.

Compared to the previous site, the new one is much more attractive, easier to navigate, and contains much more information. Some of you noted this in your responses to The Voice contest. It is not perfect, however. The navigation could be improved, especially now that we have more categories of articles including columns and fiction. Some of you have found that the news and events section is a little hard to get around in, and the classified ads section has been all but forgotten. We have grown, and the site needs to keep growing with us.

This week, our wonderful web designer Kara Tersen [with Metafusion Design in Calgary] is working on an update to The Voice web site which will address some of these issues and update our look. It was always the intention of AUSU that The Voice and AUSU web sites be updated regularly. Technology grows quickly, new options become available, new ideas are presented, and people get tired of looking at the same thing. Therefore, as we think of better ways to present The Voice, the website and other delivery media will be updated.

The new Voice website is almost done, and I hope you all like it. The front page will have a new look to complement our change to The Voice Magazine, and it will more closely resemble the pdf in format. News and Events will be easier to access, and the columns will be separated from the articles. Also, there will be a ‘Features’ category where you will find our top story or two each week.

The pdf listings will now be categorized by year, so they are easier to look through. This is necessary because we are working on getting a pdf copy of every Voice issue since our inception in 1993 available online. The list will be very long! I think you will really enjoy reading the old papers, and seeing how AU has changed over the years. Also, the new site will allow you to read an entire issue in HTML format, rather than just individual articles.

The writers section will be updated to only include regular writers, so you don’t have to scroll through all of the government contributors, etc. I am working on obtaining improved writer bios for this section, and some photos too.

Look for the updated site next week [I hope!] and feel free to drop us a line if you feel there is still need for improvement, or if we have taken away something that you used to like. I realize that it takes a little time to get to know a new site, and changes can be irritating. Rest assured that the changes are mostly cosmetic, and the underlying data is much the same. Let me know what you think!

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief
voice@ausu.org

ARE YOU GRADUATING THIS JUNE?

I want to feature graduating AU students for the profiles section in May and June. If you are graduating this year, write to me and I will send you a profile form to fill out or we can arrange for a more in-depth interview. Remember how hard it was when you started at distance education? Well here is your chance to share your wisdom with new students.

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief
voice@ausu.org

There were no responses to last week’s question. For next week, give us your thoughts on the following: Do you think that the conflict between the US and Canada will encourage Canadians to seek more independence from the US?

Send your response to this, or any previous question, to voice@ausu.org, with Sounding Off in the subject line. Feel free to suggest a topic

REDHEADS AND PAINKILLERS

McGill Reporter [April 3, 2003; v35 n13]
The McGill Reporter wrote this week that “Psychology professor Jeffrey Mogil has proved that a gene that causes red hair and fair skin also plays a role in how some women respond to painkillers.”

“‘In a nutshell, what we found is red-headed women are more sensitive to the effects of a particular class of analgesics: ‘ explained Mogil.”

Mogil has found that “Pentazocine is more effective on the crimson-crowned due to a variant of the gene melanocortin-1 (Mc1r). Though the gene is found in everyone, one variant of Mc1r is responsible for the distinctive pigmentation of 65 percent of all redheads (unrelated genes are the cause for the remaining 35 percent). The more common variant found in blondes and brunettes produces a protein that normally blocks the effect of kappa-opioid drugs. In redheads that protein isn’t doing its job, and so pentazocine can work unhindered.”

Bottled redheads cannot expect any advantage when using pentazocine:

http://www.mcgill.ca/releases/2003/march/redhair/

MATCHED DONATION TO LIBRARIES PUSHES PLEDGE TO $1 MILLION

McGill University Press Release

April 2, 2003 – McGill students have done it again. For the fifth consecutive year, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) have given $500,000 to the University’s libraries. McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum will commemorate the gift — which will be fully matched by the University — during a special ceremony on April 3 at 4 pm in Redpath Library (3459 McTavish St.).

:

Since 1992, the SSMU has raised close to $11million for libraries, bursaries, the new Brown Student Services Building and the McGill Athletics Complex.

http://www.mcgill.ca/releases/2003/april/donation/

MOUNT ROYAL MEETS NEED FOR WATER SANITATION TECHNOLOGY TRAINING

“Mount Royal College is about to become a link in a chain of activities that will provide clean water to thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of families in developing countries.”
In an innovative new program, Mount Royal College, in conjunction with Petro Canada and The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology will offer a certificate program in water filtration devices and water hygiene for use in third world countries. “The CAWST volunteers will use this training to teach core groups of people in developing countries, who can then pass on that knowledge until the families who make up the population have the same access to clean water that most North Americans enjoy.”

http://www.mtroyal.ab.ca/news/view.php?item=000139

UNIVERSITY RETIREES FORM NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Dalhousie University Press Release

April 3, 2003: Halifax – A new national organization will be formed in May when participants to the first College and University Retirees Associations of Canada (CURAC) conference gather at a founding meeting at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

The new organization will represent the interests of university retirees on issues such as pensions and benefits and provide social and cultural services to its members. It also will provide a link to other local and national seniors’ organizations in order to join the debate on issues such as health care, social benefits and the changing nature of retirement.

“Canada’s population is aging fast,” says Dr. Tarun Ghose, one or the conference organizers. “Our governments need to rethink and reconfigure government health care and social benefits policies.

“As university and college retirees, CURAC will have the responsibility to initiate or join the discussions on matters concerning seniors, and also for other pressing social matters such as the quality of education and accessibility to higher education, including professional education.”

:

CURAC’s membership is open to organized groups of staff and faculty retirees associated with one or more institutions of postsecondary education in Canada. It will officially come into being at its national conference at Dalhousie on May 26.

http://www.dal.ca/~pubrel/media/2003/2003-04-03.html

World Health Day was recognized this year on April 7th with the theme “Shape The Future Of Life: Healthy Environments For Children.” To Commemorate the day, Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi A. Annan issued a message in which he stated that “healthy children are crucial to sustainable development. ”

“A child’s world,” Annan continues, “is centred around the home, the school and the local community. These should be places where children can play, thrive and develop, and where they are protected from disease. But in reality, these are often places where children — particularly children in poverty — face multiple threats to their health. Common risks include unsafe drinking water, air pollution, poor housing, lack of hygiene and sanitation, as well as inadequate waste disposal.”

Children are especially vulnerable to environmental threats, says Annan, because their “capacity to absorb health hazards is still developing, and thus they are more susceptible to the effects of toxic chemicals and to germs as well as other pollutants. ” Additionally, notes Annan, children are exposed to higher levels of contaminants because they consume more water, food and air per pound of body weight than do adults, and also because they “possess more natural curiosity but less knowledge and experience.”

Annan wants people to ensure that children can live in safe and contaminant free environments, which he says will not only save many young lives, but will also have a positive impact on economic development by keeping more children in school which will increase the overall skill base that societies need to ensure economic growth.

The task Annan urges people to take up, is to “build on the momentum generated by the Healthy Environments for Children Alliance” of 2002, a task which begins with the recognition that “children are our future — and that a future of sustainable development begins with safeguarding the health of every child.”
(Kofi Annan’s message http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/press/sgannan/en/)

Annan’s sentiments are echoed in the address of Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization, who adds a number of frightening facts and statistics. For example:

“¢ Every year over 5 million children ages 0 to 14 die from diseases directly related to their environments. They die of diarrhoea, respiratory illnesses, malaria and other vector-borne diseases, injuries, and other environmental threats in and around their homes.

“¢ Unsafe water, poor hygiene and sanitation, air pollution, including from dirty household fuels used for cooking and heating, tobacco smoke, hazardous chemicals and other environmental threats affect the health of children disproportionately.

However, Brundtland notes, “the deaths and overall ill-health can be prevented. We know what to do. We have developed strategies to combat these environmental risks to children’s health. They need to be implemented on a global and national scale, and at the household and community level.”

The onus of carrying out this implementation is on us. Brundtland urges “everyone to look around and think about what they can do to help so that every child grows up in a healthy home, school and community. And then, take action. The future development of our children depends on our action today.”

(Brundtland’s message http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2003/press/dgbrundtlandstat/en/).

These risks do not only exist in third world countries — many of them effect the health of children here, and it is up to us to make our environments safer for our children, and all people.

News From AU: Tuition increase, Edmonton Playwright to write an AU course, new AU governing council member and VPFA and more:

AUSU’s Sandra Moore covers the First National Forum on Post Secondary Education in Winnipeg. Read the highlights of this four day conference and learn AU had to add to the discussion.

The Popstar Experience by Debbie Jabbour. Read the conclusion this week.

A multitude of opinions [almost] on the proposed new AU extension policy, in Sounding Off.

I am still seeking comments for the upcoming Pets and Peeves column. Tell me what you love, and what you hate. Send in a favourite joke, a link to a great website, or anything at all:.

AU TUITION INCREASES

On March 5 AU academic council met to discuss the new AU budget [for more information, read News From AU in this issue]. As expected the university has determined that it must increase tuition in order to meet rising expenses. The higher tuition rates are meant to cover a shortfall that is said to stem from a combination of an estimated ten percent registration growth in the coming year, offset by only a two percent increase in government funding.

The result is a tuition increase of 7.32% – raising it from $381 from $355 – plus a $19 increase to books and materials fees, which will bring your total payable, including alumnae and student union fees, to $541.00 per undergrad course for Alberta students.

This number is even more startling when you compare it to the 1998/99 rate of $372.00, an increase of about 45% in 5 years.

AU insists that there is no other way to make ends meet, and offers some palliatives to the numbers. We are told, for example, that the new books and materials fee in fact brings the rate to a cost recovery basis. However, we are not told how this rate applies to different courses or faculties, and if it is being increased due to an inordinately high rate in some courses.

This could be the case. For example, many of the COMP courses [specifically COMP 200] do not come with any materials at all – not one text book or reader – but just a link to use the course manual and study guide online. Surely those materials are quite cheap to produce, and the materials fee is therefore excessive. Other courses, however, come with a great bundle of books, many of them pricey hard-covers, but the materials fee is the same.

AU is quick to point out that they are still taking a loss on the costs of the intellectual property fees incurred in creating materials, and certainly it does cost quite a bit to have professors write and design courses, but isn’t this something that is included in the costs of any university? To me, the time spent on creating study guide materials is commensurate with the time a professor in a regular university spends preparing lectures and classroom handouts. It is an integral part of the job. Also, the more students who take a course, the lower the cost per student will be, since the same materials are used over and over. Given that AU has one of the largest student populations in Canada, they must have many courses that have massive enrolment, which would therefore offset much of the materials creation fees. Using online materials in these cases would render the materials fees almost non-existent.

Besides, I have also noted over the past 5 years that I am getting fewer and fewer books with my courses, which makes the value somewhat less than it once was. Often, textbooks seem to be discontinued in favour of AU produced course readers, and individual books are replaced with large compilations, as I have noted in some of the English courses. I don’t mind reading a poem or short passage in a Norton Anthology type reader, but I suspect I’m not the only one who finds it impossible to read the book length passages from those semi-transparent, onion skin pages with the smudgy 6 point font.

In most of my English courses I have had to go out and purchase a number of the works in cheap pocket book format anyway.

Also, given that books fees are included, and AU indicates that they have in the past taken a loss on books, I cannot help but wonder if professors often find they are forced to select fewer, or lower quality texts for their courses in order to keep costs low. Admittedly, in a regular university where the student must carry all of the text book costs, some tutors might conversely become overzealous in their materials selection and place an undue financial burden on the student. I’m not sure if there is a happy middle ground for this situation.

Another sugar-coating offered by AU is the assurance that the increase in tuition still leaves us paying the lowest tuition rates in Alberta.

This may be true, but it assumes that you only look at tuition, and do not take into account varying book fees. It is true that at the U of Calgary, Alberta or Lethbridge, you have to pay a significant amount on books for all courses, but that amount does vary greatly and you can somewhat control your book costs by ascertaining which courses are particularly costly on books before enrolling. If you still can’t afford books, you have the option – and I know students who have done this – of not buying the books, but using copies from the university library instead.

With items of restricted circulation this can mean a lot of long hours in the library and it’s certainly not convenient, but it is an option. Alternately, you may also choose to purchase second-hand books from the book resellers on the library campus. You can even share books with another student in the same program for trade books back and forth with other students in your faculty. In other cases, you may buy only some of the required books, and rely on libraries or friends for those you are missing. There are a number of ways to avoid paying for books in a traditional university, although I admit it is much more convenient to have your own copies of those books.

Realistically, with tuition skyrocketing many students have no choice but to forgo convenience and instead may choose to make other sacrifices – such as increased library dependency – so that they can continue their educations. The number of options is as varied as the number of students at AU. I, for example, live in a two student household; My husband also attends Athabasca University. While the two of us are taking different degrees with different majors, and our courses seldom overlap, we have over the course of our time at AU taken courses that the other has already completed. In these cases we’ve had to pay for two full sets of textbooks and materials, with no opportunity to return the second set.

The materials fee is what makes the most difference, and it can work in your favour, or to your detriment depending on your situation. To compare, the tuition for a single course at the U of Calgary, including fees, is $488.50, at the U of Lethbridge it’s $474.59 and at the U of Alberta it is $477.20. In all three of these schools, the fees level off as you take more courses per semester, effectively reducing the per course costs for full time students by up to $40 per course [at the U of L].

By these standards, AU still comes out on top if you take into account book fees for the average course, but on a course by course basis some AU courses with few books may cost the most of all, and for those students who would forgo buying books to save extra money, AU is by far the most expensive.

I realize that it is not entirely AU’s fault – in fact the extremely low provincial funding they receive is has necessitated the raise in tuition more than anything else. However, by forcing AU students to purchase books whether they need them or not made place an undue financial burden on the very poorest students who are otherwise accustomed to sacrificing book ownership to save money and buy more courses.

There are also the smaller hidden costs to go along with attending a somewhat less known university. For example, I was recently pricing the Microsoft Office software package, which is required for a number of AU courses. The university of Calgary, being a very prominent university in this country, has acquired a special deal whereby their students, and only their students, can purchase the software package for only $130.00. AU students, however, must pay the more common academic rate of $310.00 for the same software through the AU Bookstore. I don’t think I’m the only student at AU who has had to forgo certain courses because I cannot afford the software.

Similarly, the course fees at the other major universities come with some bonuses, such as athletic facility membership and health and dental insurance programs. These are benefits that AU students lack, and areas where the university saves. I won’t even get into the dramatic savings made by AU for not having to maintain a massive building and hundreds of classrooms.

I should point out however that I do understand some of the rationale behind AU making students purchase course materials. AU’s materials are not simply textbooks; they take the place of lectures, and other in class teaching methods. It might be very difficult for a student to succeed in an AU course without the study guide and student manual, and these materials cannot be bought anywhere else or borrowed from libraries. However, as anyone who has taken a number of AU courses knows, the amount of material contained in these guides varies greatly. Some are little more than assignment manuals, while others contain a significant amount of teaching material.

Besides, textbooks are part of the non-negotiable course materials fees, and it would be nice to have an option should we have the textbooks, have a source for second hand copies, or wish to use library copies. It is also imperative if we are to have to pay for these textbooks and receive them through the university, that they be of the highest quality. I do not feel particularly fortunate to receive a single anthology in the place of a number of low cost pocket books which would many cases be easier to read. This is a personal preference, but one that I could more easily exercise at another university.

Mostly, my reaction to the new increase is tuition is a great sadness. Every year I see my degree slip farther and farther away, and the new rates are so high that I’m not sure when I’ll be able to afford a new course. Student loans have not been increased by any significant amount since I started in 1998, despite that 45% increase – what am I supposed to do?

:. And before you mention it, I’ve already considered dropping a flaming bag of dog poop on Ralph Klein’s doorstep, but I can’t afford the gas to Edmonton either:

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief

NOTE: Am I the only one who totally hates the new AU Bookstore ( https://auburn.cs.athabascau.ca/forms/cmshop.htm) web page? You used to be able to see pictures of items on the main page, but now you have to click into each one. This is not an improvement: and it’s ugly! I sure miss the old website. It seems that the AU website is being systematically dismantled and some of the best pages are being downgraded or removed. It now takes me forever to find that wonderful registry services page where I can look up my course registrations and end dates. I’d like to know if students think that the recent ‘improvements’ to http://www.athabascau.ca are of benefit to you.

The Voice is also currently seeking articles on some new topics. Suggestions have included more political commentary, more education-related stories, study advice, a food column, home and garden news, and a comic.

WORKING AT HOME; SCHOOLING AT HOME

Few resources exist to help the home student. Not only is distance education a relatively new phenomenon [actually, it’s been around a long time, but at the post secondary level it is still rather innovative] it is not yet a universally accepted mode of study.

Distance ed students attest to the value and quality of home study at AU. Nevertheless, these students face a number of special challenges, and they may find that there is nowhere to turn for advice on how to best succeed with this unique study method.

In the future there will probably be an entire shelf in the library devoted to books for distance learners, just as today there are reams of materials for home office workers and traditional university students. Until then, we must adapt information from other sources to help us develop good home-study habits. The aforementioned books for home office users are one good source of information on setting up a home work environment, and maintaining a consistent but flexible schedule.

If, like many other distance students, you find it hard to remain motivated or you have trouble fitting schoolwork into your schedule, try some of the following tips to get back on track.

CONVINCE YOURSELF THAT SCHOOL IS WORK!

We’ve all been there – you set aside time to study, and someone calls. Not only do they call, but when you mention that you are reading your course materials or working on a paper, they assume that means that you are not very busy and therefore available to talk.

Now suppose that you are attending a traditional university, and your friend calls while you’re in the middle of a lecture. If you happen to answer your cell phone and tell them where you are, in all likelihood they will apologize for disturbing you and offer to call back later. If you work at a full time job, it is unlikely that friends will call you during the day, or if they do, they will be brief.

It can be difficult to convince people that home study is work. However, it can be more difficult to convince yourself. If you find that people are consistently disrespecting your study time, then your own attitude toward your schoolwork may be part of the problem.

Often distance ed students do not feel comfortable telling people that they are too busy to talk when they’re working on their courses. You may feel as though home study is not a legitimate reason to hang up the phone, or shut your door and tell your children to give you some quiet time. After all, you make your own schedule so you’re responsible for being busy when people need you, right? I may be wrong, But I suspect that women are particularly susceptible to the latter misconception.

Get it in to your head that school is work. Important work. Valid work. Work that may alter the course of your life. If nothing else, the amount of time and money you’re putting into courses is a very good reason to approach them seriously, and to demand that others do the same. The next time someone interrupts you in the middle of your studies, don’t be afraid to say “can I get back to you later? I’m studying now.” Make sure that your family members, especially children and spouses, understand that you will be studying for the next few hours – or even the next few minutes if that’s all you can fit in – and that you are not to be disturbed except in case of emergency. Your schoolwork should command as much respect as a paying job; after all, you’re working for your future, self improvement, and possibly a better paying career.

If you are beginning a particularly time consuming project, make sure that you tell people that you are going to be busy and they will have to fend for themselves. If you were to work overtime at the office and only come home at 8:00 pm, your family would probably understand if you didn’t have time to make dinner or pick up the cleaning. However, when doing home study we often feel guilty if we haven’t completed all of our household tasks. Clarifying ahead of time that you have a lot of work to do will help others adapt to your new student schedule.

Planning ahead can also help. Sometimes when I’m working on a really big project, I’ll put in twelve, fourteen, or even sixteen hours in a day, and then feel bad because I did not get supper ready. I also may feel guilty for being so tired. After all I didn’t leave the house or do anything physical! It is important to remember that brain-work is exhausting. Thinking, planning, and writing all day long is as taxing as any job outside the home. Keep this in mind, and let those around you know that you are working hard. Don’t feel bad about being wiped out after putting in a lot of study time and allow yourself to relax.

MAKE A PLACE TO STUDY, AND MAKE IT YOUR OWN

One way to help emphasize that your course work is work, is to make a home office for yourself where you can study in private. If you do not have room for an office, at least define one small section of the house – even if it’s just a desk or a table – as your workspace. Approach this like you would a home business, and make sure that your family members respect your workspace and don’t disturb your books and papers.

It is important that you have somewhere that you can leave your work open and available, so that you are not having to constantly put things away and take them out again. Having to do this can make you daunted about sitting down to study for just a few minutes. Also, when you are constantly shoving your course materials under beds, in drawers, or in other out of the way places, you are indicating that your schoolwork is not important enough to take up space in the home.

A full course load worth of materials can take up a lot of room. Between your workspace, course books, library books, papers, magazines, and drafts of assignments – not to mention a computer – you may find that AU materials begin to take over every part of the house. Find a place for your materials, and take pride in that space. If you have no choice but to put a desk in the living room, don’t feel that you have to hide your work away when company comes over – this is your space, and a significant part of your life – it is not clutter. It is important to your success that your materials be available at all times so that you can read for a few minutes whenever you can, or so you can jot down a quick idea when it occurs to you.

Make sure you that if have to share your computer with other household members, that your studies are a top priority. Don’t wait to use the computer if others are playing games or surfing the web for fun. You have invested a lot in your courses – kick them off and get to work! If your spouse uses the computer for work, then make sure your studies get equal time, or try to get your own computer. The same goes for office space. Don’t share a home office if your school work won’t be given the same space and time considerations as the other home business.

Make it clear also that when you are in your study space people are not to disturb you. Put a hanger on the door that says “Student at Work,” or schedule times that you will be in there studying so everyone knows. If you tend to get distracted during the time you have set out to study, make a resolution that you will only use your study area for schoolwork, and nothing else.

DISTRACTIONS

Speaking of distractions, they can be your worst enemy. It is hard enough setting aside time to study, but many students may find that even though they spend one or two hours in their study space intending to work, very little gets done. You may become distracted on the computer and end up surfing the internet or playing games, or you may end up planning what you’re going to do the next day or the next week. Perhaps you so seldom get time for yourself that you spend your study time just thinking, resting, or reading for pleasure.

These things are all important, but when they infringe on your studies too often, they can prevent you from completing your courses. They can also lead you to feel very guilty for spending so much time and money on courses that you are unable to complete.

As mentioned above, one of the best ways to ensure that you will get work done in your study space is to decide to never use that space for anything but studying. This advice is very similar to the common advice for insomniacs: never get into bed unless you are prepared to sleep. If you want to read, sit up in a chair so that you don’t associate your bed with sitting awake. The same advice can be applied to your office.

Another way to get things done, is to set very specific goals. If there’s still time left in your course schedule it’s very easy to put things off because you feel that you’re not ready, or because you don’t have enough information yet. Nevertheless, when your deadline arrives you manage to cram 3 weeks worth of work into a single marathon session. Clearly, you are able to just sit down and write without a lot of preparation. Often, you just don’t do it until you have to. The problem with that is, you then do not have time to let your paper sit so you can go over it with fresh eyes. If you are someone who can’t get anything done until the last minute, set some firm goals. Tell yourself that when you sit down tomorrow you will get your outline done, or you will write the first four pages of your paper. What if you are not prepared? Write them anyway. It’s what you’ll end up doing it the long run, but at least this way you will have time to rework it later. It can be helpful to approach your paper like a final exam. What do you do when you enter the exam room, with a three house deadline and a topic? You just write, and hope for the best. If you never seem to be able to get going, try setting aside three hours and writing your paper as though you were in an exam. Rush it if you have to. Then you can go over it later, and use what you have as a starting point.

Think of the part of your brain that you use to write papers as a muscle. It needs exercise. The more you write, the easier it is to begin next time. Exercise this muscle and writing will get easier and easier.

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief

Everybody’s got an opinion, and everybody wants to be heard.

Here’s your chance. In our new column, SOUNDING OFF, we’ll explore a different topic each week and print the best responses from the readers.

Next week, for our first SOUNDING OFF column we’ll focus on the issue that’s on everybody’s mind – The War on Iraq.

How do you feel about the war, about Canada’s involvement, and about the approach taken by the united states. Is Iraq truly a threat to the western world, and if so, is war the answer?

Take off the gloves and give us your best shot – we’re ready:
Email your 250 words or less response to voice@ausu.org. Replies will be edited for grammar, spelling, and length if required.

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DUBIOUS REALITY

Lately I’ve been mired in reality. Through four years of university, I’ve gone from reading two or three novels per week to reading nothing but textbooks, research papers, statistical analyses, professional journals, and course materials. I edit this publication, which is a fun and exciting job, but it also requires me to be objective, discerning, and a stickler for grammar, syntax, tense and spelling. Even my most rewarding hobby – the eternal project that is my first novel (I have many pages, but no chapters; dozens of plot points, but few links between them) – has been overshadowed lately by my work to improve my academic writing and become a saleable essayist. It’s engaging work, but once again I have replaced something that was full of spontaneity and creativity with something that keeps keep my feet on the ground and my focus on reality.

Reality: the word is been bandied about quite a bit lately, usually in the most inappropriate contexts. So much so that I feel compelled to place the word in quotes whenever I write it. It may be the first word to become inherently ironic.

Television is the cause. So much of what we see on the tube these days is said to be based on reality. This annoys me, because on the rare occasions that I have time to watch TV, I’m looking for a break from the relentless reality of my life. Maybe it’s not a problem, though, because what these shows offer is a very dubious reality. No one believes that anything they see on these programs is real, do they? The evidence to the contrary is certainly abundant. Take Survivor, for instance. Any of its incarnations will do, but right now the Australian edition of the program comes to mind, and its picture-perfect finalists, Elizabeth and Colby: America’s sweethearts. We are to believe that the cutesy twosome had been on this “?remote’ island without any amenities – no shower, no toothpaste, no razors, soap, makeup, dentists, physicians, or even nutritious food – for over forty days.

Forty days without a proper wash, a mirror, a blow dryer, or a cosmetician, and yet in every episode these two blinded us with their over-bleached teeth [how is it that all of these financially challenged young contestants can afford movie-star quality dental bleachings? You can’t get that obnoixious glacier-white from Crest White Strips:], their shimmering hair, and their gleaming, satiny skin. Perhaps they are simply genetic marvels? They would have to be, because I assure you that after 40 days without washing my hair I’d be sporting some skanky, oily dreadlocks. Wouldn’t you? I’ll tell you something else. After 40 days without a razor, you definitely would not want to see me in a string bikini. Nuff said.

I feel comfortable saying these things, because I’m pretty sure everybody can relate. If you have ever been camping for three days without a shower, you have a pretty good idea of how quickly glamour fades when there’s no access to electricity or modern cosmetics.

So, it is obvious that there really is no reality behind Reality TV. One look at Elizabeth and Colby on day 40, and you can almost picture them in the makeup chair each morning, as a hive of busy estheticians ensures that they are shaved, coifed, and dentifriced to perfection. No shrubbery is allowed to grow in Liz’s pristine armpits, no way! Bad for the ratings:

Still, you wonder if people can actually be blind to all of this. When, after the end of the first Survivor series, one of the contestants claimed the game was rigged, it was major news! Could it be that viewers believed the show’s producers would leave the outcome up to chance in order to provide a fair experience to a group of nobodies, when millions and millions of advertising dollars were riding on the show’s ratings?

As reality shows proliferate, the big question is: how much do viewers really believe? It is becoming a very relevant question. Lately about half of what’s on television is “reality” programming, and with good reason. Economics drive television programming, and reality TV is damn good business.

Consider that the cast of Friends are making about a million dollars an episode each. That’s $6 million for every episode just for the cast! Add to that the cost of sets, costumes, script writers, producers, directors, and extra actors and the production budget continues to swell. Clearly, television shows bring in enough money to pay for all of this, or these high salaries would never be approved.

Now consider a show like Survivor, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The shows are massive ratings hits and ratings are what determine the income of a show – not production costs. In fact, it costs very little to make a “reality” show. The “actors” on survivor don’t get paid at all. At best, one of them will earn a measly $1 million, and the shows producers will play it up like they’re breaking the bank. Add to that the smaller prizes that the runners-up win, the promo items are given away – most of which are donated anyway – and you may reach a sum of $2 million – one third of the actors budget for a single episode of Friends. The sets are cheap, and there is only one location, so the shooting costs are also minimal. Can you imagine the profits? I can’t, but they must be spectacular.

Millioinaire gives out the top prize only one or two times a season, and they complain that people are winning too often. But, add Jennifer Aniston as a co-host and they’d be dropping that much more for each and every episode.

The next time you wonder why the networks keep cramming all this reality television down our throats, remember that these programs are a license to print money. They have attained the capitalists dream – where they once sold a very expensive product and made a fortune, they have now figured out how to cut production costs to a tiny fraction, without diminishing their returns. As a result, the profit margins swell without any noticeable increase in market share. Understand this, because this is why the networks are not going to stop making “reality television”. However, audiences are getting bored with these shows, so in order to keep them the networks will have to keep pushing the envelope. How far will it go?

Literature, in hindsight, so often seems prophetic. Years ago, when Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange, the thought of an adolescent boy raping, thieving and murdering for kicks seemed unthinkable. Today, that and worse have become commonplace.

Reality TV brings to mind some of the earlier writings of Stephen King. Actually they are the writings of Richard Bachman, King’s cynical (and much more sinister) alter ego. These books now seem prophetic too. In Rage, for example, a frustrated teen student vents his spleen upon his fellow students and his teacher, whom he holds hostage at gunpoint. The similarity to Columbine and other rage-related school tragedies is obvious. King, as Bachman, also wrote several stories about violent, futuristic game shows. The best known of these is The Running Man, made into a film with Arnold Schwartzenegger. The film is very different from the novel, but they share a common backdrop of a brutal game show where people risk their lives for the entertainment of the slavering, jaded masses. In another story, The Long Walk, young people sign up to walk relentlessly across country in a contest where anyone who stops or walks too slow will be shot and killed on the spot: last one alive wins.

The stories are fantastic – I doubt that we will ever go that far for entertainment, but then I am surprised lately by the kinds of risks that many shows are taking. I recall a recent episode of Fear Factor – a celebrity edition – that required contestants to sit inside a parked car and try to find the correct key to get it started before a monster truck could cross over a row of junk cars and then drive over their own vehicle. Two of the four contestants didn’t get their car started in time, and were driven over. The car was equipped with a reinforced roof, roll cage, and other safety devices, but this hardly seems adequate. There was nothing to protect the driver should a shard of metal or a piece of glass be thrust toward them, and there was no way to protect them if the monster truck had veered to the side and punched one of its massive tires through the windshield.

This is not the only episode of Fear Factor that has taken foolish risks. On another, contestants were required to shove their hands into the mouths of massive fish to retrieve a disk that would tell them what disgusting fish part they had to eat (this part of the program should be called “Gross Factor” or “Demeaning for Dollars”). Although the fish parts the contestants had to eat appeared fresh, the fish containing the disks were clearly rotten – (the eyes were actually oozing and deflated – a sign of advanced decomposition). The “?challenge’ was to retrieve the disk without vomiting from the stench. Predictably, when one of the girls slipped her hand into the fish, she cut herself quite badly on the jagged teeth and she was bleeding quite a bit as she removed her hand. While this might have seemed a benign injury, it struck me right away that her wound would be filled with bacteria from that rotten fish. Sure enough, as I watched the girl stand off to the side of the screen waiting her turn to gobble up raw fish entrails, she winced and squirmed and rubbed her wound worriedly. A short time later she was removed from the show. The announcer explained that she had had to be taken to the hospital due to a rare allergic reaction to the fish. They apparently even managed to convince her of this cover story, because moments later they aired a more recent videotape of the recovered girl who said incredulously “I had no idea I was allergic to fish! ” As though you have to be allergic to fish to suffer septicaemia from a filthy cut.

These are just two examples, but I very rarely watch TV. How far will they go, and how many lives will they risk to get ratings? We think that if someone were to die on one of these show it would be all over for that network, but would it? Or would more people tune in just see what would happen? When the first of the reality dating shows, Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, ended in scandal, it was said that they would never be able to make another show like that again. On the contrary, there are now at least half a dozen reality dating shows on television, many of them ending in “?marriage’ (you see how this subject prompts the use of quotations marks around so many concrete terms?).

The dating shows are even more obviously fake than the Survivor type. So far, every one has ended with the happy couple going their separate ways, but people still tune in to see who will get married. Maybe no one really believes in the marriage anyway, and they only watch to see who will get picked. If so, then maybe we don’t care of our reality TV is real or not, we just want it to be exciting.
Unfortunately, it seems that the only things that excite us are watching people demean themselves, or risk their lives.

Are safety, morality and good sense even factors when profits from a single season can reach hundreds of millions of dollars?

The television networks used to hope to produce the next Cheers, Seinfeld, M.A.S.H., or Hill Street Blues. These shows were once the cash cows, but once the networks figured out how much more money they could make by drawing the same ratings and the same advertising dollars, without the massive drain of high paid stars, expensive sets, and hit-making writers; the gloves came off. To discontinue these reality shows and go back to a full roster of traditional sitcoms, dramas, and actions series would dramatically reduce the current profit-ratio that the networks enjoy, and in business it doesn’t matter that you’re making enough money to stay in the black, it only matters that you make more money than you did last year. There is no going back. The networks are desperate, they must keep us watching reality TV, no matter what it takes.

That’s the reality.

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief

BYE BYE BUG

Alas, the time has come to retire the bug. He’s been with us for many years, but to me has come to symbolize Tammy Moore, as he graced so many of her articles and letters over her years as editor.

So, it has not felt right for me to use the bug for my editorials, and I have decided instead to retire the chipper little critter, and reserve his use for Tammy when she submits future articles [hint, hint, Tammy, are you still reading?]

Soon I’ll introduce a new graphic and title for my editorials, but this week we must say goodbye to our antennaed green friend.

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WRITING FOR THE VOICE – AN OPPORTUNITY LIKE NO OTHER

This week I posted a notice for a Voice contest [see below] requesting feedback on the paper. Among the many responses I have received so far, was one from an AU student who indicated that she was a little intimidated about submitting her writing to a university newspaper.

I can understand where she is coming from. I was also intimidated the first time I submitted to the Voice. My fear was partly based on the many harsh rejection letters I had already received from editors of much larger publications.

For a long time I viewed editors as these infallible writing gods. It seemed that an editor was to a writer as a judge is to a lawyer – superior in knowledge and skill, and the final word on what is correct and proper.

Time and experience have taught me that this is not necessarily so. In particular, I recall a letter from several years ago penned by the editor of the revived legendary horror/fantasy pulp, Weird Tales. The editor’s name was one I knew well – I had aspirations of working with him one day. You can imagine how I felt when I saw this familiar name on the top of my rejection letter. But, I’m not sure you can imagine how I felt when I saw the salutation: “Thank you for your submission Tamara,:”

The letter went on to criticize my writing in a few brief but callous sentences. In retrospect the story was poorly written [though the criticisms bore no relevance to the true failings of my story, and instead ridiculed my use of a phrase that the editor disliked], but I was new to writing and had a lot to learn. Somehow, noticing that this famous editor was not capable of getting my name right – my five letter name that was clearly printed in letter-perfect text on every page of my manuscript – accomplished the equivalent of painting glasses and a moustache on my mental portrait of the All Powerful Editor.

It has the same effect as the imagine-your-audience-naked technique of public speakers. It allowed me to accept editorial criticism without being crushed by it.

I’m glad of this, because finding the courage to submit your work is about 50% of becoming a successful writer. Another 30% is a willingness to learn from your critics, and evaluate your work without personal prejudice. The rest is simply hard work and talent, the proportions of which vary considerably from writer to writer – the lack of one requiring an abundance of the other.

Courage can be hard to find, but some publications are more approachable than others. I know of no better opportunity for beginning writers than the Voice, and I say that as someone who started with the Voice as a writer nearly two years ago.

As a publication of the students’ union, The Voice is not only a service for students, but also a forum where new writers can start out and get some feedback. It is true that The Voice does not accept everything that is submitted – we have standards, and these standards will continue to rise as we receive more submissions – and at times we print stories from other university newspapers and writers who are not AU students. However, we will always prefer submissions from our students.

No one should feel intimidated about submitting to the Voice. In fact, this is true for any publication. The very worst that can happen is that your submission will not be accepted, and if this occurs you will be given an opportunity to revise your work. An important reason for submitting articles, is to obtain feedback on your writing. Any successful writer can tell you how valuable this is. Unfortunately, editorial feedback can be very hard to come by. I can tell you that very often when you submit manuscripts you do not receive any response indicating why an item was not accepted. I once received a reply reading, “Thank you for your submission, alas it is not working for us.” Occasionally I have received a sentence or two of criticism from which I attempted to glean as much insight as possible. My recent submission for Bitch Magazine [a really good publication] was refused because it was not “quite right” for them. That’s all they said. Does this mean my writing is not appropriate to their style? Or was it my subject matter? Should I bother to submit again?

Some writers spend a lot of money to obtain professional feedback on their writing. Even seasoned professionals can benefit from the scrutiny of another writer. I was humbled last week by an honest critique from an editor friend. It stung, but his observations were dead-on and I will not make the same mistakes again. The more I write, the more I value such observations.

When you submit to The Voice you will get feedback. If your item is not accepted, I will tell you why and give you suggestions for improvement. Editors of commercial publications are only responsible for finding content for their magazine. As the editor of the university newspaper, I am responsible for helping students who wish to write. If nothing else, article writing can teach you about writing and research, which may help you write better papers for your courses. Whether you like to write or not, you must write to be successful in university, regardless of your major. No one wants to receive low marks for a brilliant thesis because their writing obscured the brilliance of their ideas.

The Voice is the first place I published my writing, and this gave me the confidence to begin submitting to other publications again. Last year I, along with two other Voice writers and members of the students’ union, submitted a paper to the ISEC conference, which was accepted for presentation. We were the only undergraduates on the list of speakers. I would not have had the confidence to submit this paper had I not published many articles with The Voice. Also, I recently had a creative essay accepted for an upcoming book project. Again, my experience with The Voice was instrumental in helping me hone the skills I needed to become published. I still receive rejection letters, but the most recent one praised my writing sample and gave me the contact information for another magazine that might want to purchase my work. Experience pays off, and the only way to become a good writer, is to write!

Experience with the Voice pays in cash as well. Rates vary, but for most submissions you will receive $30, which is far more than most university papers, which often do not pay at all.

If it is your goal to become a published writer, The Voice is the very best place to begin. If this is not your goal, and you simply want to express yourself to other AU students, then that is another wonderful reason to try. One of the most popular parts of The Voice is the AU Profiles column, which provide short bios and comments from other AU students. However, many of the students who’ve done profiles have told me that they feel they are boring and have nothing to contribute. I have had to strongly encourage them to submit, and the readers find these submissions very valuable. No one thinks that they themselves are interesting, and yet it is the regular students who are finding a way to succeed at distance education who are of the most interest to our readers – other regular students. Whatever experiences you would like to share are probably ones that other students can relate to and would like to know about. No one expects you to be extraordinary – they just want to know if you are like them. If you feel that you are boring, think about how much interest you have in the lives of other people like you.

Tamra Ross Low
Editor in Chief

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