Are Universities and Colleges Failing Society?

We have a child who is old enough to be looking at college for the fall of 2022.

I’ve mentioned before about how universities and colleges in Canada have either had inadequate or inappropriate responses to Covid.

Not until we toured a couple of campuses did I come to fully understand the depth to which our colleges are failing students … and society in general.

When asking about food that’s available, I get the standard ‘there’s a Tim’s around the corner and we even have a Starbucks now …’

EVERY single food supplier that I saw had products that came from the back of a SYSCO truck or some other mass producer of food-like products. Everything is packaged and processed. There are VERY FEW dietary considerations such as vegetarian/vegan, gluten-free or keto. Meat and carbs rule the day.

Plastic and other waste is ubiquitous. Very little is made from recycled materials. There are limited signs that campuses go out of the way to create a conscious approach to solving problems related to the environment or the climate crisis.

Practices haven’t changed in years, demonstrating that administrators are ‘stuck’ in processes that are not necessarily the most functional or advanced when it comes to repairing our globe and they certainly don’t exhibit progressive thought when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint.

Programs themselves are siloed. My son is interested in electrical engineering and possibly getting into various aspects associated with renewables and alternative energies. ALL colleges we’ve been to don’t have renewable technician training at their main campus. These vitally important programs are split away from main campuses, pushing students to think that they’ll be exiled from student life if they choose to do something legimately valuable for our planet.

It’s no wonder there’s a shortage of qualified applicants for renewables and other climate-crisis programs that will help our planet.

It’s no wonder that students come out of college being somewhat oblivious to the needs of our society, simply because colleges have become meat-factories in all senses of the word.

We need to take colleges to task and pressure them to look at ways that they are delivering food, educational programs and social constructs if we’re ever going to save this planet.