Larissa, would you at least concede that whites are a distant ethnic minority on campus? Even if we are to put aside skin colour, shouldn’t Canadian citizens be prioritized higher than foreign nationals?

This wouldn’t be a problem if the other “asian” students were also “Canadian’s”, but most of them aren’t, they are majority international students that the university exploits financially.

Can you understand the mothers position when her Canadian son has been denied a spot in university reserved for someone who isn’t even a citizen here?

Lets not even get started on the massive cheating scandal that allows asian, non-English speaking UofT students to get recycled assignments (plagiarism) from their friends within the Chinese students association.

I assume something similar happens for the many non-English speaking Koreans on campus.

The fact is UofT IS too asian, as a result of letting in too many international students.

Hello Healthy. No one can deny international students of their right to be in university. If universities want to maintain high academic reputations, their policy to admit students based on merit, not on nationality, must continue. A high academic record is the only way to get in to U of T. skin colour, athletic ability, ethnicity, etc. play no role at all. So how can you deny international students, who have the desire and the ability to excel academically, the university experience? The Asian students who are in university may have worked much harder than many white students to be in university, hence the reason those same white students have not made it in to U of T while the Asians who have worked hard, have made it. Why shouldn’t asian students receive the opportunities they deserve after their hard work? If universities were to exclude good students in favour of admitting students who are average, the reputations of those universities will deteriorate. The bottom line: give opportunities to the students who deserve them. It is not a matter of being a citizen or not being a citizen – it is a matter of being deserving or not.
Being a first-year here, I have not heard of the “scandal” you refer to. However, I assume it is not true because of the same reasons Keith has pointed out: they simply do not have the ability to do that.
I also assume that if white students were to work as hard as Asian students, they would likewise be populating U of T. However, they are not working as hard. Hence, they are not populating U of T like the Asians are. thank you for reading.

Yeah I wrote that you should use paragraphs twice, that’s my typo. But seriously, paragraphs.

“why don’t you take action for your beliefs/ take a stand against the university’s exploitation of international students since you seem to be so against it.”

Isn’t that your job?

so just a fake journalist are we?

Just to further my comment about you being a fake journalist, re-read your slogan at the top of the page under your logo.

“The voice of the University of Toronto Mississauga”, yeah it’s totally my job to speak up for the students. Shame on ME? One person who doesn’t have a publication easily accessible to the student body?

Why does my tuition partly pay for your operations if it’s my job to speak up for student issues? How dare me? How dare you for passing the buck onto your readers to conduct honest journalism.

I’d say “shame you” but I think you already have a good supply of that.

Thank you, Stefanie!:)

Yes, Larissa did write a well structured article, but well structured does not necessarily mean that it was as thought provoking as it could have been.

Now this is being said in the spirit of constructive criticism. The fact is, writing on that Maclean’s article is a large undertaking. When one of the -isms is discussed different avenues should be considered. This includes some of the directions that Healthy considered in her/his comment to the article.

There is a real problem at UofT; all of Canada for that matter. The problem is not Asian or white. The problem is older than Canada: what is CANADIAN. What the university lacks is a sense of what a CANADIAN university should represent. UofT is one of the more prestigious universities in Canada but it shows no sense of ‘Canada’ in its doctrine.

It boasts multiculturalism but then uses it to discriminate. Anyone who has applied for UofT Teacher’s College knows this well. The application asks you to name your GENDER and RACE. How are either of these significant to teaching? They aren’t. They are only there to weed out those who are minorities in the teaching world. Aka: anyone who is not white or female. This way UofT can boast that it is ensuring all races are represented in the teaching workforce. How is that right? Teaching is not a mathematical formula where non-white teachers + male teachers = better educated students.

The THEM vs. US dynamic will never be solved if we do not establish some basic rules. To be Canadian you need to know how to speak English and French. Communication is the only way that tolerance can exist.

Is it fair to require someone to be fluent in English and know some French? Is not that the same as asking for race and gender? No. This basic rule is not some theory to improve the public appearance of a university’s college. This basic rule can benefit all of Canada, setting the foundation for a shared nationality among immigrants.