Comments on: Secular convocation in the Journal

By: ginnerlitrulk

ginnerlitrulk — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:09:27 +0000

Hi, cool site, good writing

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:03:07 +0000

Wrong. The UofA is a public school because it is heavily funded through tax-payer dollars. Public money should not go to imposing one viewpoint over others.

They also don’t publish their convocation proceedings online, so there would be no way to know about issues like this prior to enrolment.

By: Cody Young

Cody Young — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:17:48 +0000

IF I am not mistaken, UofA is not a “public” school. People paylarge amounts of money to attend their institution, nobody is being forced to go there. “Public” schools are when you are younger, and forced to attend school, and you do not pay money to attend those schools because the government REQUIRES you to attend those schools. If you do not like how they do the convocation, you do not need to attend their institution. I certainly would not go somewhere where I did not like something, especially when I am paying huge sums of mney to attend. There are plent of other universities that you can attend…

By: AM 930 The Light interview | Terahertz

AM 930 The Light interview | Terahertz — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:25:11 +0000

[...] Blogrolls « Secular convocation in the Journal [...]

By: Brian D

Brian D — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:37:44 +0000

It seems that CTV’s coverage version was a bit less unbiased. The reporter took a chunk of time to elaborate that religious references are found in the national anthem and the university’s motto (which was drawn from some epistle somewhere), and chose to test “student reactions” by showing two self-professed Christians professing their faith (although one said that he can fulfill his spiritual desires at church rather than on campus). On the flipside, Daryl MacIntyre framed it as a full-on proposed change, and the chaplain of St. Joe’s was caught in a gaffe (he said that the speech was already religiously neutral — we merely want it neutral with respect to one more god).

It seems the media, while giving this exposure, is framing it in terms of a special-interest group crying persecution.

By: Halden

Halden — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:27:24 +0000

Excellent work. It is time to get these references to God out of public places.

By: Chrystal Ocean

Chrystal Ocean — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:11:54 +0000

Good on you Ian! It’s absurd that we still have to fight to get these kinds of phrasing and practices removed from our public institutions or at least altered.

I began my doctoral studies at UA but moved on to another university. Had I been there to get my degree, I’d have fumed on hearing that line during convocation. Never did attend convocation for any of my degrees. In retrospect, given your story, that was a good thing; there’s no telling what kind of trouble I’d have got myself into.

By: UAAA keeps fighting for secular convocation | Edger

UAAA keeps fighting for secular convocation | Edger — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:41:04 +0000

[...] an exerpt (the full story will be taken down in 30 days, after which you can find it on my blog): A student group at the University of Alberta is fighting to make the school’s convocation [...]