Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
• York Lanes
o 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.
York Lanes favours some students (the elite – those who can afford it) and
disfavours others (those who cannot afford these services). York Lanes is an
example of a corporate environment that violates the concept of social equity
on campus.
o If the only places available to shop are big corporate stores on campus then
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.
o “…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.)
o 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?
• Student Centre
o 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 clubs that favour specific ethnicities and
disfavours others – is that social equity? does our university’s social
environment promote social equity?
o A student centre that provides no healthy choices. 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?
o 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 food?
o It is interesting to note that there is no McDonald’s or Burger King on campus
even though they are one of the biggest fast food restaurants in North
America. What might be the reason for that?
o Loading/ Unloading Dock – environmental sustainability?
• Vari Hall
o Is vari hall a corporate space or a space built for students
- In this day and century our post secondary institutions are increasingly getting
involved with the private sector. Why is there so much involvement of the private
sector in our academic 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 meant to provide post secondary education and its goal is to
promote a healthy learning environment with good academic interests rather than
a corporate or business / profitable interest.
- 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 ).
- 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, the schulich building – school of
business, …etc. Is this university a learning space or a corporate space?
- Vari Hall for example has had a moment in history where students once
misunderstood this space as a place for students and protested there but soon
realized that this act was not allowed there. Police were called in to arrest
students… Vari Hall, which was created as a space for students isn’t actually for
students but for corporations to advertise their products.
- 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.
• 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 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.