Billboard Defacing Reaction To Patterson Privatization Agenda
The 
people responsible for the recent defacing of Trent's new "branding" billboards have explained their actions in a letter to The Arthur (the student newspaper). They are concerned about the move to corporatize and privatize post-secondary education, and Trent University in particular. They do not agree with Patterson's apparent commitment to transform Trent into a "money maker", unchecked by good governance practices. A more accurate slogan than the one coined by Trent's rebranding media moguls would be, in their opinion, “The World Belongs to Bonnie Patterson, Apparently.”
References:
- The World Belongs to Bonnie Patterson, Apparently
Arthur - February 28, 2006 - The World Belongs To Those Who Can Afford Trent's Tuition
OurTrent - February 11, 2006
| The World Belongs to Bonnie Patterson, Apparently Arthur - February 28, 2006 Letter to Editor Dear Arthur and Trent Students, We changed the Trent billboards on Friday night of last week, and were both pleased and surprised to see people taking notice so quickly. We really hope that this action has inspired other Trent students to react against what we see as a corporatization and privatization of Trent, and of post-secondary education in Canada generally. ‘The World Belongs to Those Who Understand It’ is only a part of this trend. Trent recently awarded an honorary degree to Charlie Coffey, an RBC executive who promotes privatization, “rationalization of facilities,” and “becoming more competitive.” The highly controversial DNA Cluster, Aramark’s shoddy services and absolute monopoly, the push to sell Traill College, the Endowment Lands Master Plan – all of it points squarely at a commitment by the Patterson Administration to radically transform this school into a money maker. Well, with all due respect to Ms. Patterson, there are some of us who don’t agree. The world does not belong to anybody, and people who think they “understand” it are liable to do dangerous things. This is to say nothing of the inaccessibility of post-secondary education in Ontario, which will only increase with Premier McGuinty’s end to the two-year tuition freeze. Not only is it an offensive, elitist slogan, but it doesn’t represent Trent, or Trent students, or Trent faculty – in fact, the only thing it represents is this administration’s desire to re-brand the school. But maybe we’re just being overcritical. We do have some other suggestions for a more accurate slogan, among them “Trent University: You Can’t Put A Price on Education, But We Can”; “The World Belongs to the 13% of Canadians Who Can Afford Post-Secondary Education” or, a team favourite, “The World Belongs to Bonnie Patterson, Apparently”. We were all delighted to see that our actions sparked dialogue. We don’t plan to stop there and we hope we’ve inspired Trent students everywhere to recognize their own agency in this little process of “development.” We’d like to end with a trite little phrase about small groups of dedicated citizens, but we’re fairly sure you’re sick of corny slogans. Regards, Danger, Heracles, Sally and Met |
