November 16, 1994

The Other Press

Volunteer fair flunks

Generation X apathy as viewed from the fourth floor

by Trent Ernst

Apathy is a social disease; every- one is affected by it.

Consider the volunteer fair held here on November 8th. Volunteer or- ganizations from around the lower mainland came to Douglas searching for new volunteers. The response was posi- tively underwhelming.

I watch as people of all ages and backgrounds walk by, not noticing, or pretending not to notice the booths and tables that ring the concourse floor. A few take note, and slow to read the signs then pass, their curiosity satiated.

A very few inspect the booths from a distance. Fewer still approach. The

vast majority walk past, uncaring, or perhaps unwilling.

OSes". a slight flurry of ac- tivity around the Deaf Children’s So- ciety booth. “It’s the cookies.” says the woman behind the table promi- nently displaying books, literature, and the aforemen- tioned refreshments. Her co-volunteer agrees. “Last year by this time we had fifteen or twenty people volunteer. This year, we’ ve had five.”

As I leave the kiosk someone else approaches. He signs a greeting, and

“Last year by this time we had fifteen or twenty people volunteer. This year, we’ve had five.”

the volunteer responds in kind. Perhaps he is deaf himself. Perhaps he is just proficient in sign language. It doesn’t matter.

He approaches because he shares acommon bond with the people behind the booths. How many others share this bond? Not many.

Yet proficiency is not a prereq- uisite to be a volunteer. “What we really need volunteers for is Bingo night. You don’t need to know

how to sign.”

One person (just one) makes the round. I watch as she approaches every booth, chatting amiably with the peo- ple behind the tables. Her hands over- flow with pamphlets and business cards.

Taken by her enthusi- asm, I approach.

“T’m actually doing research for a project.” She says when I ask her about the Volunteer fair.

She is not planning on volunteering with any of the organizations from the fair, though she assures me she would, if she had more time. She has nothing but praise 8 for the volunteer organi- § zations. a

She talks about the $ personal wellness, and community wellness that can be found in volunteering - she herself -already does volunteer work at a daycare.

I leave her in the cafeteria, pon- dering her words. Community wellness; personal wellness can be found through

volunteering. If this is so, then the com- munity here at Douglas is sick, inflicted with the most contagious social disease of all.

Maclean's prints phony ‘What's Hot, What's Not' list Student newspaper fabricates campus fads in "token" survey

by Tracy Hitchcock

OTTAWA (CUP) — When they submitted a phoney list of what’s hot and what’s not on campus to Maclean’s magazine as part of its university survey, the staff at York University’s newspaper, the excalibur, didn’t think it would ac- tually make it to print.

Maclean’s sent a fax to student newspapers at 51 universities across the country and asked them to make a list of “what’s hot and what’s not”

on their respective campuses. The staff of the E xcalibur

thought the request was just a “to- ken offering” to appease those who had criticized Maclean’s in the past for not getting enough student in- put for the issue, said Catharine Soukeroff, the paper’s editor-in- chief.

Soukeroff said the newspaper’s staff wanted to “send a message” about what they thought of the re- quest. She said she “definitely” didn’t think the bogus list would make it to print.

“We were sitting around and we were saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if they printed it?’ — but we ex-

pected they would fact-check it.”

Seven things were published in Maclean’s as “what’s hot” at York University. Five are false.

For example, there are no vir- tual-reality semi- nars at York, no breast-feeding fa- cilities for student moms and no mas- ter’s degree in creative writing (that program was actually cut last year in a storm of controversy).

Soukeroff also said there is no new makeshift theatre, as the paper told Maclean’s, only “an old one and it’s falling apart.”

‘Wouldn’t it be funny if they printed it?’ — but we expected they would fact-check it.”

Arts Library is actually the Nellie Langford Women’s Studies Library — there is no visual arts library at all.

In the “what’s not” section, sev- eral other en- tries are false.

For example, the list says York’s. radio station “plays too much clas- sic rock.” It ac- tually plays only hip hop and airs talk shows.

Also false were statements that there is not enough convenience food on campus and not enough liq- uor-licensed establishments.

According to the list, the “hot ~

hangout” on campus is Mac’s Well Pub. “It’s a closet with a table and it doesn’t even have a liquor li- cence,” Soukeroff said.

One excalibur staff member said Maclean’s did call to fact-check some items, but obviously didn’t do a thorough job.

When asked how information in the “What’s Hot, What’s Not” sec- tion was verified, Maclean’s educa- tion editor Victor Dwyer says facts were checked as they would be with any story.

“But we also assume that other journalists would tell us the truth, just as you are assuming that I am telling you the truth,” Dwyer said.

And the Nellie Langford Visual

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