September 22, 2009 Letters

QPIRG perturbed

by Arshad Khan

I disagree with your editorial regarding QPIRG’s Alternative Orientation. Your assumptions are based on some disgruntled student’s opinion and not on the spirit or the intent behind the alternative Frosh.

I also find it surprising that you have judged the alternative Frosh before it has even taken place. It is supposed to start on the 21st of September. I am glad that it did not take place before school started or at a time when all the madness of classes has just begun. By offering the alternative Frosh at this time, students will already be well aware of the goings-on in school, and they will retain the lessons learned in the alternative orientation for the year ahead.

I was once at Frosh at York University. In my experience it was the worst corporate-promoting, alcohol-binging jock-fest I had ever experienced. It left an indelible impression on me and one I would not wish on anyone else. I am very glad that QPIRG is providing an alternative.

It took me many years to negotiate my
way towards a socio-political awakening
and I wish there was an alternative when I started university in the nineties. I also do not see how this alternative to corporate gluttony of the mainstream Frosh is threatening to other clubs and social organizations at Concordia.

There can be no “middle ground” when the corporate powers are in your news, on your TV, on the internet, on the streets, in the subways, in the universities and in all walks of mainstream social life, no matter how hard QPIRG or any crazy “leftist” group tries to counterbalance them. If anything, The Link should be promoting the alternative to the mainstream instead of supporting its excesses in such a lopsided social power dynamic with corporations running the agendas of every level of government—including universities.

I for one will definitely go and check out the alternative Frosh and make up my own mind about its “meat-eschewing activism.”

—Arshad Khan,
Film Production