By Abbey Kelly
Last Monday, the Ryerson Clockmakers Course Union held a virtual town hall with their faculty for students to bring up any problems or concerns they have with the program. However, the entire faculty was running out the clock on the major questions posed by students.
Alia Green, a first-year in the program, brought up how students don’t have adequate clock-making protective equipment.
“We have gloves,” Jared Peppers, the administrative head answered.
“I have a latex allergy,” Green responded.
“Ah yes. That is not an issue I have, so let’s not be keeping time. Next question,” Peppers continued on.
“Could we have more training on how to work with more modern clocks and issues?” asked Wendy Duran, a fourth-year clockmaker student. “Grandfather clocks are kinda outdated.”
“We have training,” Peppers said.
“But–”
“Problem solved,” Peppers said as he popped out his earbuds, took a lap around the room and gave himself a pat on the back.
“It’s better for the students, here at a place of learning that they pay for, to gain the knowledge of how to go forward and tackle these issues on their own”
The students continued to shout out their complaints, both vocally and in all caps in the Zoom chat, to bring awareness to issues in the clockmakers’ program.
“Now, now,” said Patricia Davis, the undergraduate program dean, as she raised her hands to 10 and two. “No need for you all to act like hedge fund managers during the GameStop Reddit squeeze.”
Students raised their virtual, physical and clock hands to protest this point but went unheard.
The faculty said they wanted to hear the issues students had. They also said they’d never do anything about these issues.
“It’s better for the students, here at a place of learning that they pay for, to gain the knowledge of how to go forward and tackle these issues on their own,” said Davis.
Davis then took out her copy of “How to Speak Like a Politician for Dummies” and appeared to check off a box.
Multiple students said they saw two faculty members playing Poptropica during the meeting.
“It’s like they couldn’t hear us,” said Duran after the town hall ended.
Other students felt the same.
“They just kept regurgitating the same things,” said Will Burmley, a second-year clockmaking student. “Like, ‘we’ve done all we can,’ as if they have done anything more than the bare minimum.”
“It was like a belt of watches,” Green added. “A complete waist of time.”
Multiple students said they saw two faculty members playing Poptropica during the meeting.
“Yeah, I did catch that,” Burmley said. “You could see in the reflection of Professor Duncan’s glasses that he couldn’t make the jump in the Greek Gods-themed world.”
When the students who attended the meeting reached out to their faculty to complain, Davis responded to the email with:
“Life is hard :/ gonna have to deal with it sometime. As much as we would like to get in gear with the current issues you are facing, you have to get in gear too. So you have to face these issues just as much as we do. If not more. Because you have more of your life to live in this society we live in. So you should deal with it now because it will help you grow.”
All clubs in conjunction with the clockmakers’ majors have released a statement siding with the students on safety and outlined the insufficiency of their training and the materials provided. In response, the faculty sent this mass email to all students in the program at 2:13 a.m. on Wednesday night.
>> We are trying :’(
>> Sent from my iPhone 12 Pro Max
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