This is my last editorial, nay, my last piece of writing as Editor-in-Chief. I have decided to kill myself. By that I mean I have decided to transfer to another school and get on with it. My profile will be retired to the addendum of Capilano history.
I have been with this paper for more than three years, so as a finale, please indulge me for a moment as I express my sincerest gratitude to those who have earned it. Bear with me for a few criticisms as well.
The best part of this job has been working with student writers. So first thanks goes to them. Editors are lucky, because we have the great privilege of playing mirror-mirror with the mind, and because language shows the shape of the psyche. The articles appearing on these pages are all like scrying pools into geometries of thought, and the writers, bubbling and whirling with sex, hope, and paranoia, show us all the true preoccupations of their generation, laid out as bare as bedrock. They have taught me more than my classes ever could.
Next are my professors. Roger Farr and Reg Johanson deserve a special mention. Their unflagging support for the development of writing as a craft and art form is astonishing. Their broad-minded encouragement to students developing by their own internal compass is also equally rare. They have gently but subversively challenged me to think critically about writing, society and idealism; these impressions will stay with me, but they may not register with future students due to the 4th hour cuts that occurred last year, which I must also mention.
I have nothing but disdain for the administration for making these changes, trading quantity of students for the true quality of education. These cuts have neutered the best qualities of Cap, and now the personal generosity and attention Cap was once renowned for may not persist. To recap, classes were cut by 25% two years ago by the Capilano administration without any reduction to tuition fees. The lost time was supposed to be made up through supplementary learning systems, like YouTube and Moodle, but what it really meant was that students had been screwed over and sold out on the extra hour with professors who truly aim to teach and encourage students. The admin then shamefully hid the information away from us for nearly a year.
Now, for the Capilano Students' Union. Thank you Giselle Aibens, Trevor Page and Noah Fine. Giselle has always been generous, helpful and professional; she exemplifies idealistic determination and truly believes in the potential of students organizing for students. I have appreciated her immensely.
Trevor has also been of immeasurable benefit. As the Chair of the CSU, he has embraced the democratic operating system, as flawed as it is, and has been a benevolent yet careful manipulator of the structure for positive ends. He teaches students to work with the overly bureaucratic tools we are presented, on our campus and in society at large, to our best advantage and effect.
Noah, as well, deserves a mention. He has been an engine of activity over the past few years and has pushed a stalwart agenda of humanitarianism and human rights. This agenda has always fed back to the campaigns of Mobilization Against War and Occupation, however, and he subversively works to further their ends at every opportunity, breaking rules and eschewing conventions for idealism. While his methods are highly suspect, he is often the only one advocating for these important causes, such as global indigenous rights and the Cuban embargo. I applaud his diamond-pointed focus yet criticize his sneakiness.
So without further adieu, goodbye and good luck. Get involved with your school and keep reading the Courier. More importantly, never stop grinding away at the your own feelings of apathy and overload. These ideas are a cancer. There has never been a time in history where we need everyone engaged in the stewardship of our world than now. I wish I had more eloquence in my last editorial, so mea culpa. A eulogy is emotional and difficult, especially when it is your own.
// Kevin Murray, editor-in-chief
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