Montreal City Weblog

Kate 23:29 on 2021-01-25 Permalink Reply  

• david1000 00:33 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  I mean, I get what you’re saying, but evicting people for speculative reasons (they live in a student residence and therefore must be put into the street, or they’ll get covid) is pretty iffy, no?

• walkerp 07:13 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  I’m surprised they were let in in the first place. Don’t they all have to vacate at the end of the year?

• jeather 09:58 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  I think the ones who were evicted were evicted for having/attending illegal parties.

• dwgs 10:21 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  The only reason residences were opened was to bring in revenue. Only 1st years can stay in residence and there are no in person undergrad classes so why the hell would you spend tens of thousands of dollars to send your kid to live in rez this year? A friend who works in rez tells me that the kids who were supposed to self isolate at the beginning of the year, after holidays etc largely did not do so (shockingly, 18 year olds show poor judgement). I am assuming that at least some of the kids banished until Feb. 1 must be positive so why are they being sent out into the community instead of being locked in their rooms? The street outside of RVC is packed with media trucks this morning and McGill hates hates hates negative publicity. Wouldn’t be surprised if one or two heads roll over this.

• Kate 11:06 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  Thanks for the report from the ground, dwgs.

• Alison Cummins 13:00 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  For many people, an important part of the university experience is leaving home and learning to function independently. Or leaving home and giving your parents some peace. I know that I only survived being sixteen by knowing that after graduation I would never have to sleep under the same roof as my father again. He himself experienced something similar, spending his college summers hitchhiking across the US because he couldn’t go home.

  That was was within the range of normal age-appropriate needing to leave home. I know someone who was literally sent to live at boarding school so that his father wouldn’t murder him. I know several women who were subjected to ongoing sexual assault by their fathers. I know other people who were sent away so they wouldn’t have to watch a parent die of cancer. So just staying in the parental home is not an option for all young adults. If they had budgeted for moving out as part of the university transition anyway it’s a way of doing it that looks and feels normal.

  Plus, young adults are not at high personal risk from covid. My-sister-the-doctor states that in her province, nobody under 30 has ever been hospitalized for covid. In her opinion, leaving home and partying in a hot zone could even be a good way to develop immunity from covid away from older people at higher risk.

  While there is still direct risk to young people the greatest risk is of young people acting as vectors. As a person in her fifties I assume all young people exhale covid all the time. I know young people whose parents require them to get tested before visiting the family home, for instance at winter break.

  It’s not insane. It’s just really tedious. Students don’t get to meet their classmates unless they happen to be in residence together and discover it by accident. McGill seems to be handling remote learning exceptionally badly. I have been told that intro classes with 200 students have message groups set up for interaction which are essentially a giant text message where you attempt to chat with 199 other participants identified only by phone number.

  I understand why McGill hasn’t set up Facebook groups for them, and I understand why an intro to physics student wouldn’t feel empowered to create one or want to moderate one. But there is good forum software out there and I don’t understand why they don’t deploy it and train TAs to act as monitors.

• Kate 16:55 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  Alison, I take your point about some students needing to get away from their families, but I was simply surprised that McGill would be operating residences when no in-person classes were being held.

• Alison Cummins 20:15 on 2021-01-26 Permalink

  Kate,

  Agreed! I was responding to dwgs.

  Apparently they’re open but at half-capacity and strictly policed. (? I’m very short on details.) A young person of my acquaintance was dying of solitude in a McGill dorm and found freedom with a roomie and an Airbnb.

• dwgs 12:01 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Alison, you make excellent points about reasons kids would want to escape, I can definitely relate to a few of those. However, the vast majority of these kids don’t fall into those circumstances and my point was simply that if you don’t absolutely have to then this particular time is a terrible one to send the kid away. Unless you look at it like the chicken pox parties that people used to have for their kids. Covid camp if you will. Residences are only half full but they’re not being strictly policed. At least they weren’t before this.

• Alison Cummins 13:13 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  dwgs, the vast majority of young adults aren’t being sent away to protect them from being murdered by a parent, correct.

  But leaving home is something that happens pretty consistently around this age. I don’t think this is random. I think most young adults need to, and I think many families will be miserable if the young adults are prevented from leaving.

  If your family is one where all generations can live harmoniously in the same house indefinitely while being their best selves, great. I know those families exist.

  I think *not* being one of those families is also normal. It’s *not* insane for a young adult to need to try their wings. People make the best decisions they can with the choices available to them. If someone is making an effort to help a young person develop independence under difficult circumstances, I don’t see why we need to assume they are insane.

• dwgs 15:46 on 2021-01-27 Permalink

  Yes but Covid. Why send the kid this year when they can’t even experience frosh, actual classes, meeting profs in person etc etc etc? Why not keep them at home for first year since they’ll be doing all their coursework online anyway? It’s not like they’re getting the real Mtl experience spending all their time in their room. That way they can come for second year and get the real deal.
  I was pushed out of the nest at 17 and am in the process of pushing an 18 year old out but we’re holding off until late summer when hopefully things are more stable.

• Alison Cummins 03:53 on 2021-01-28 Permalink

  I left at 16 and it wasn’t a minute too soon.

  You’re right, they won’t have the benefits of meeting professors and fellow students in person. It’s a HUGE loss.

  Still, they get the benefits of making their own decisions, unsupervised, for months at a time. If they’re not in a dorm with a meal plan they get to learn all about running a household, budgeting for groceries and what happens when you don’t do the dishes.

  This is also HUGE. It’s too bad they can’t get both, but if the family can afford it and the young adult would benefit, it’s not insane.

  Each family will weigh costs and benefits individually. A reasonably happy and responsible young adult spending another year in the family home is not insane. Putting off university entirely until it can be experienced in the flesh is not insane. And neither is hustling a young adult out ASAP to start figuring out the whole adulting thing with support. Everyone’s a little different.