Campus Tour Assignment - Draft 2 - Old

Campus Tour Assignment Every year millions of students embark on the _______ journey of post secondary education in hopes of getting a good education and valuable working skills that they can take with them when they step out into the _____ real world. Post secondary institutions are designed to provide the finest education in a healthy learning environment with good academic interests. However, living in an era of globalization and corporate rule our universities have no chance of surviving on its own/ in a world engulfed in corporate rule. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of corporate affiliation with post secondary institutions, due to lack of government funding, that has _________ turned/ converted the academic environment of universities into one that is geared more towards corporate interests (Clarke and Dopp). Universities are desperately seeking to affiliate themselves with _______ corporations in multimillion dollar contracts. In doing so they fail to realize that they are violating the very principles for what they stand for. In a campus tour of York University, corporate involvement is quite prominent in every corner of the campus. Instead of promoting an academic environment, we are increasingly noticing a corporate takeover of the university campus. There are corporate values seen everywhere on campus - in the advertisements on the walls, bill boards, and washrooms, the large food corporations providing food on campus, corporate battles on campus, and much more deeply rooted ideas that are ... Our University was meant to be a learning space for students but is now turning into a more corporate space? Vari Hall for example has had a moment in history where students once misunderstood this space as a place for students and held a protest in the building but soon realized that this act was not allowed there. Police were called in to arrest York students… Vari Hall was designed as a space for students but in reality it is used for corporations to advertise and sell their products. -have to include the theme of social equity in the introduction

York Lanes York Lanes is an on campus mall that houses stores of big corporate companies (Telus, IBM, Apple, HP, etc), a convenience store, a pharmacy, doctor’s clinic, a bank, traveling services, the York University Bookstore and a wide variety of restaurants. These resources are available to students on campus for their convenience but it also serves a more corporate purpose. If the only places available to shop are big corporate stores on campus then one doesn’t have an option but to buy from there. Where else does one go; what other options does one have? Prices are also so high that only the ones who can afford it can buy. Who are excluded and who are included? The unfortunate ones from low income families are unable to afford the prices. Thus only the elite have these resources available to them. Another interesting thing to note is that “…the more campuses act and look like malls, the more students behave like consumers.” (Klein, Naomi. 2000. No Logo: Taking Action at the Brand Bullies.)

Student Centre & Other Food Services Student Centre This space is named “The Student Centre” but looks more like “The Corporate Centre” – committed to corporatization. With 4 or 5 major fast-food chains located there it has turned into a fast-food court. Is this a place for students or for corporate businesses? It was probably meant to be a space for students but has turned into a centre committed to corporatization. If one looks long and hard they might realize that there is a 2nd level that houses offices for student clubs that are mostly ethnic/religious clubs that favour specific ethnicities/cultures and disfavours others – is that social equity? Does our university’s social environment promote social equity? A student centre that provides no healthy choices and a cascade of junk food restaurants. With a fast food giant breathing its corporate fumes on the campus, what choice do students have? If the only available food on campus is junk food where do you

look to for healthy choices? Who can afford the food and who can’t? Again the elitist rule applies. Only the privileged can afford it but then what happens to the underprivileged? Where can they go to buy affordable food? On Campus Food Services Catering giant – Sodexho-Marriot Services, a U.S. based corporation provides food in our campus cafeteria. Again another corporation selling food in our campus with ____ prices that are only favouring the elite and discriminating the underprivileged. Is this social equity on our campus? Can we call our campus one that promotes social equity?

Vending Machines

These massive high priced vending machines are spread about in every nook and cranny of the campus. One doesn’t realize it until you think about it. If one opens their eyes around the campus - there are obvious signs of corporate take over everywhere. Either we just don’t see it or we simply ignore it. Why don’t students take a stand? The university is a space for students and students have every right to voice their concerns … and not be afraid to speak out. Water Fountains vs. Aquafina Vending Machines Rusty water fountains, leaking, overflowing, who would want to drink from that? Why doesn’t the campus fix this? Is this situation intentional? There might be a more intricate reason as to why these rusty water fountains are positioned right beside these vending machines. It is a smart idea to make the cheap water fountains appear so revolting that students would rather spend a few bucks and buy a clean bottle of water from the Aquafina vending machines.

Pesi Cola vending machines The appearance of Pepsi vending machines everywhere on campus can suggest that Pepsi could likely be the “official soft drink” of York U (Klein, Naomi. 2000. No Logo: Taking Action at the Brand Bullies.). York University campus is becoming a Pepsi - Coke battleground. No coke is ever sold on campus and there is no sight of it anywhere. “In Toronto, [Pepsi Cola Company] gets to fill the 560 public schools with its vending machines, to block the sales of Coke and other competitors…” (Klein, Naomi. 2000. No Logo: Taking Action at the Brand Bullies.) What is in those multimillion dollar contracts? CONCLUSION Based on the examples of corporate rule on campus, it seems quite plausible that York University campus has been re-imaged as one that promotes corporatization and commercialism rather than academic interests. The increased involvement of corporations in our campus environment suggests that our university is falling short of what it stands for. York University is an academic institution that -

Why is our university going on an upward slope of corporate rule? Are we going to allow a corporate takeover of our university? York U campus has been re-imaged as a place that promotes corporatization and commercialism. York University is ______ly falling short of the _____ it stands for…very roots of its institution Is York University an academic institution or a money-making monopoly? “The agreements [with corporations] infuse money into student unions and the university itself, again underlying just how cash-strapped universities are.” (Clarke & Dopp. 2001. Challenging McWorld ).

Moreover, the York University Bookstore can be under threat of a potential corporate take over. “In the U.S. Barnes & Nobles is rapidly replacing campus owned bookstores, and Chapters has similar plans in Canada.” (Klein, Naomi. 2000. No Logo: Taking Action at the Brand Bullies.) If York Lanes is a corporate mall then what holds the York U Bookstore back from becoming a corporate identity or be taken over by a corporate identity such as Chapters?

York University as a corporate environment: In this day and age our post secondary institutions are increasingly (accession, accumulation, upsurge) getting involved (affiliation/coalition) with the private sector. There is an accession/upsurge of corporate affiliation with post secondary institutions. More universities are turning towards the private sector to fund their institution due to lack of government funding (Clarke & Dopp. 2001. Challenging McWorld). A university is designed to provide post secondary education and its aim is to promote a healthy learning environment with good academic interests rather than a corporate or business / profitable interest. However, York University is ______ly falling short of the _____ it stands for…very roots of its institution

York University as Destroying Wilderness …

Construction of buildings (Archives on Ontario & York Research Tower)

In the process of urbanization we are destroying nature and the wilderness to make room for construction of buildings on campus such as the recent Archives of Ontario building and York Research Tower. York U is proud to have these buildings on our Keele Campus but do we realize that we are constantly reducing the amount of natural space available to us on campus. … Our campus clearly does not practice environmental sustainability. Where does the garbage from the construction go? Where is that place?

Irony in the name ‘Frontiers of change’. We are constructing these buildings in hopes of creating a place where some groundbreaking discoveries can emerge that will hopefully bring about a new change in our understanding of life but in the process of doing so we are bringing about a massive change in the environment’s sustainability as well.

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Parking lots o Are they being used or not? o Large population of students commute by bus o Parking lots built everywhere – some are half empty o Tore apart the wilderness to build parking lots but half of them aren’t being used. How can we say our campus practices environmental sustainability when we are destroying the wilderness to build parking lots that don’t get used half the time? We are limiting the amount of nature on our campus. It should be of concern to us that we are destroying so much of the wilderness and nature for our own purposes – urbanization- that we don’t realize that eventually we won’t have any natural conserved areas left. How can we call our William Small Centre and the Archives of Ontario ‘green’ buildings when they were built by the very act of destroying wilderness?

Cigarette butts

Cigarette butts everywhere…why do people not take the time and effort to just walk a few feet to throw it in its appropriate place. Clearly students do not value nature as they throw it any place they want, most likely in bushes, near trees, or on grass.