How My University Made it to the FrontPage on Digg.com for All the Wrong Reasons
February 2nd 2007 15:57
I go to Latrobe University and I have to say that I absolutely love it. It isn’t like most other universities, there’s green grass, water and vegetation and trees and birds that go tweet, tweet (or just Ducks that don’t quack), you know? Stuff like that, it’s pretty diverse too in terms of students, lots of Marxist students and… more Marxist students.
That’s ok though, in a way, because it encourages the democratic process, I was forced (rather politely) to vote for who gets what seat in the university student union, I just threw votes down left right front and centre, I have no idea who got what, I think I put a conservative right winger in charge of homosexual/bisexual affairs.
Case in point, Latrobe is as diverse as anything, it’s great, I don’t mind the fact the Computer Science department essentially doesn’t have any lecture rooms and we end up ‘borrowing’ them from the Health Ed and Humanitarian departments, I don’t mind that it has a really cheesy website or that its entrance standards are so low that they accepted me.
So when it comes to the topic of religion, sometime ago, there was a discussion between the Muslim community in the university and whomever it is who runs the show (faculty dean I assume). The problem was simple, there was (still is) a large Muslim community in Latrobe and there was a request for an area we could pray as we have to. It was a matter of convenience, not demand.
Well the university responded grandly, they (and by ‘they’ I actually mean ‘we, the university’) didn’t just provide us with an empty room or something at certain times of the day, they went ahead and built a whole prayer room for us and even a ‘washroom’ were we could… wash. It was another thing, just for convenience, not necessary, but when you have a population of 200 plus students of a specific group (I won’t say nationality, that’s as broad as the rest of the planet) you do tend to start thinking about catering to their needs.
One thing I dislike about the washrooms is the push button key codes we need to get in, I don’t see the point of it, it’s just a bloody washroom, but still, it was there because it was. This apparently has caused some controversy, as our biggest selling newspaper (and consequently crappiest one) got a tip off from a student in Latrobe about how really unfair it is that Muslims get their own washroom and prayer room. So big was this news it did in fact make it to the FrontPage of Digg.com, which is where I found out about it.
Why can’t atheists have their own washroom? Or Christians? Why is it the university caters to the Muslims every demand? Well put simply, Muslims would benefit most from a washroom that caters to their pre-prayer ritual, no one demanded anything, we asked for something small, but were blown away by what we got, it’s like you ask to borrow the beat up old ford, and you get a Ferrari to keep.
This isn’t an ‘us verse them’ for the ‘grass root’ Aussie, this is an ‘us, for us, and us only’, for all Australians.
Thank god most university student aren’t idiots, the Christian union (yes they have a union) doesn’t mind it and pretty much no one else does.
All this just reminds me of one thing, University students are probably the most friendly people on the planet, save for University students who pull double shifts at inbound customer service call centres.
That’s ok though, in a way, because it encourages the democratic process, I was forced (rather politely) to vote for who gets what seat in the university student union, I just threw votes down left right front and centre, I have no idea who got what, I think I put a conservative right winger in charge of homosexual/bisexual affairs.
Case in point, Latrobe is as diverse as anything, it’s great, I don’t mind the fact the Computer Science department essentially doesn’t have any lecture rooms and we end up ‘borrowing’ them from the Health Ed and Humanitarian departments, I don’t mind that it has a really cheesy website or that its entrance standards are so low that they accepted me.
So when it comes to the topic of religion, sometime ago, there was a discussion between the Muslim community in the university and whomever it is who runs the show (faculty dean I assume). The problem was simple, there was (still is) a large Muslim community in Latrobe and there was a request for an area we could pray as we have to. It was a matter of convenience, not demand.
Well the university responded grandly, they (and by ‘they’ I actually mean ‘we, the university’) didn’t just provide us with an empty room or something at certain times of the day, they went ahead and built a whole prayer room for us and even a ‘washroom’ were we could… wash. It was another thing, just for convenience, not necessary, but when you have a population of 200 plus students of a specific group (I won’t say nationality, that’s as broad as the rest of the planet) you do tend to start thinking about catering to their needs.
One thing I dislike about the washrooms is the push button key codes we need to get in, I don’t see the point of it, it’s just a bloody washroom, but still, it was there because it was. This apparently has caused some controversy, as our biggest selling newspaper (and consequently crappiest one) got a tip off from a student in Latrobe about how really unfair it is that Muslims get their own washroom and prayer room. So big was this news it did in fact make it to the FrontPage of Digg.com, which is where I found out about it.
Why can’t atheists have their own washroom? Or Christians? Why is it the university caters to the Muslims every demand? Well put simply, Muslims would benefit most from a washroom that caters to their pre-prayer ritual, no one demanded anything, we asked for something small, but were blown away by what we got, it’s like you ask to borrow the beat up old ford, and you get a Ferrari to keep.
This isn’t an ‘us verse them’ for the ‘grass root’ Aussie, this is an ‘us, for us, and us only’, for all Australians.
Thank god most university student aren’t idiots, the Christian union (yes they have a union) doesn’t mind it and pretty much no one else does.
All this just reminds me of one thing, University students are probably the most friendly people on the planet, save for University students who pull double shifts at inbound customer service call centres.
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Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
Universities didn't used to be run like that. A lot of their cost saving measures are sheer lunacy. Numbers can begin to make anything look right especially if they go about including/excluding whatever they feel without a really sound financial base for it.
The world is full of clowns, University qualifications not required, unfortunately some ot the biggest and worst clowns have them, hence your scarce accommodation.
katyzzz
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
It isn't that big a problem, I'dr ather it be like that, if they developed part of the university and added a lecture theatre into it, it would just take away part of the universities greenery away.
Thanks for dropping by
Comment by Francis
Passionate Apathy
Tell Diggs.com that the University is designing a special prayer room for the atheist students- just trying ot figure out if it should be built out of phlogiston or luminiferous aether.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks