Several columns ago, I considered the difficulties a number of students seem to be experiencing, and noted that, when I discuss their situation with my colleagues, they have identified many of the same issues with their own students. The two most marked features of stress some of my students displayRead More

Motel art Artist Onni Nordman (profiled in the Spectator in October 2016) has a new exhibit at the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design and I can’t wait to see it. (Full disclosure: I had a sneak peek back in March when I interviewed his partner, Paula Muise, for thisRead More

Monday’s announcement about new capital projects at three Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) campuses got me to wondering about the status of the feasibility study into moving the NSCC Marconi Campus to Downtown Sydney. In case you missed the announcement, the three projects — worth an estimated $24 million —Read More

Over the last few decades, universities — or, at least, many university administrators, working in tandem with ministries of education —  have increasingly embraced the idea that the role of the university is to prepare students for jobs that already exist in the marketplace. This has left many traditional universityRead More

I have recently read two interesting descriptions of libraries. One is from Michelle Wilson, the executive director of the Sydney Downtown Development Association (formerly the Sydney Waterfront District), who sees the proposed new central library as a “quality product” that can enhance Sydney’s “brand.” In a letter to the editorRead More

I have been trying to determine how, exactly, we decided to locate the new CBRM central library on the Sydney waterfront and as best I can figure, it happened like this:   Architectural & Facility Planning In June 2011, the Cape Breton Regional Library (CBRL) Board initiated a study toRead More

I have been thinking a lot about John Rawls’ theory of justice, in part because I am working with a fourth-year student on her honor’s thesis, but also because I’ve been watching the college admissions scandal unfolding in the United States (a scandal I find at once fascinating and appalling).Read More

I‘m not even going to pretend that I pay serious attention to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is held annually in Davos, Switzerland and which attracts thousands of the world’s rich and famous — including political, business and cultural leaders — to the tiny ski resort to carry outRead More

On the Waterfront (Not) The Sydney Waterfront District Association has changed its name back to the Sydney Downtown Development Association after experimenting with a rebranding for the past few years. (Cape Breton Post) I find this really funny because I’m the kind of person who finds rebranding failures funny. I’mRead More

The Spectator’s Ethicist, Rachel Haliburton, provides convincing — and sometimes counter-intuitive — arguments as to why making the rich pay their fair share of taxes benefits us all.(Read Reason #1 and Reason #2)   As faithful readers of the Ethicist column in the Cape Breton Spectator will know, for theRead More