By Margaret Wente. Student debt in Canada is crushing – at least, that’s what we’re led to believe. 
Soaring tuition fees and an iffy job market mean that many graduates will be paying off their student loans for years to come, we’re told. Today’s graduates say they’re delaying major life milestones (marriage, house, family) in order to pay back their debts. As one news story put it: “With ever-increasing tuition fees … some students are starting to question whether a degree is an affordable option.” More...

By James Bradshaw. Suzanne Fortier was not yet two weeks into her new job as McGill University’s principal when she made her first splash in September, issuing a firm declaration that Quebec’s proposed secular charter “runs contrary to our principles.” 
Dr. Fortier believed she was moving swiftly to protect McGill’s global reputation. Faculty and students feared the charter would undermine the school’s cultural diversity – a few professors wore religious habits to work in protest – and also its international allure. “With people who are extraordinarily talented, the whole world is open to them and they’ll go where they feel welcome,” she said in an interview, ahead of her ceremonial installation on Tuesday. More...

By Melonie Fullick. For some reason, in the last few months I’ve seen a number of articles and blog posts about the nature of “public intellectuals” – how to define the term, to whom it applies, and of course, the long-running series of “critiques” that discuss the failure of public intellectuals and what contributes to it. Maybe I’m just more attuned to the topic because I worked on the Public Intellectuals Project for a year. Or maybe it’s the fact that, uncomfortably, I started to hear the term being applied to me – and I had to ask myself why I wasn’t exactly happy about it. More...

By Jennifer Polk. A few weeks ago I flew to the U.S. for a vacation with my parents. The customs agent I spoke with at the Toronto airport asked me what I did for a living. For nearly a decade, I would have said, “I’m a PhD student.” This time, I said without hesitation, “I’m a coach!” When he inquired further, I told him I worked with graduate students and PhDs changing careers. Doing a doctorate could be crushing, I said while squeezing my hands together. As a coach I help these incredibly smart, creative, motivated people get un-crushed so they can do better for themselves and for the wider world. I opened my hands and spread my lower arms. He seemed convinced, wished me a nice trip, and sent me on my way. More...

By Liz Koblyk. If you’re lucky, you have mentors. They may have come into that role officially – as supervisors or dissertation committee members. They may be personal Yodas you’ve picked up unofficially – that grad student whose unflappability you’d like to cultivate, or the colleague who knows how to make meetings useful. 
The balance of giving and receiving is pretty obviously tilted in mentor-mentee relationships. You get to bask in the sunny rays of your mentor’s time, energy and advice.  So, what do you owe your mentors in return? More...

By Léo Charbonneau. According to the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association, contract academic staff on temporary, per-course contracts taught 52 percent of all students registered in classes, tutorials, labs and seminars at the university in 2012. That 52-percent figure is interesting by its mere existence, since data on contract faculty (also known as contingent faculty or sessional instructors, among other terms) is difficult to come by in this country. We also discover, via a quote from university spokesman Kevin Crowley in a story in the Waterloo Region Record, that there are 376 part-time faculty teaching at Laurier this fall. The number of contract academic staff cannot exceed 35 percent of full-time faculty, which number 600, Mr. Crowley said, adding that this rule was negotiated by the union and the university during the last full-time faculty contract. We also learn that a part-time instructor is paid about $7,200 per course (for one term, typically three months). More...