Ancestors of The Heretic
Many students taking Queering Ethics with Dr. Azaransky are sifting through archival material in the Burke Library. I was assigned UTS Journals and other Union publications from the 1970s and 80s, also known as series 10D, box 4, folders 1-7. Once I had finished taking an initial look through years of the Union produced mailed newsletter that is the UTS Journal, I came upon a folder filled with loose many colored pages. At the top of the page read THE PARAKEET, I1, February 20, 1974. On one future edition beside it was a reworking of the Union logo doodled to include the phrase “YOU DESERVE A BREAK TODAY” as an edit to the traditional Latin.
I had come upon on the first iteration of this specific student run, independent news and information sharing source. I had come upon an ancestor to The Heretic.
The entirety of the first page of this first edition was dedicated to The Parakeet’s Statement of Purpose which reads as such:
Many members of the Union community are aware of, and feel frustrated by, the lack of clear and systematic communication about the issues and events which face us. Students in particular often feel cut off from what is happening, and find themselves learning about it only through chance conversation, the grapevine, and so on. This situation clearly engenders a plethora of rumors as well as large gaps in the information to which people have access.
Furthermore, there is no written forum for airing opinions and concerns before the whole community. Instead petitions are mounted with no clear end, speeches are made before the Assembly, or lengthy letters are circulated among a portion of the community. These means are not facilitating real substantive dialogue (and hence decision-making); and the last two do not reach most students at all.
In an attempt to clear the air, to publish information, and to disseminate opinions and concerns openly, we are organizing a community newsletter. It will be an organ of the Assembly and will be concerned with community events and issues. We hope to provide some news coverage and also a platform for people to express their views publicly. We have no program of our own except this.
Although we see ourselves as basically serving the needs of the student community, we shall distribute the newsletter to the community at large. We would like most emphatically to solicit material from all parts of the community. If we are to succeed as an open forum we need you to send us your thoughts and words, in the form of both news and personal opinion articles.
Caroline Usher
Paul Bernabeo
With the advancement of technology one would assume many hardships about broad dissemination of information have been fixed altogether. Though at Union we can feel this message of being cut off or distanced from crucial information just as viscerally today. It would be about as common to say a Union student has read through all of the loose emails sent regarding events from different individuals and departments as they have read all of their assigned reading for class.
Since the time of this publication, students now have the opportunity to occupy seats at committee meetings covering a range of topics from the budget, to hiring, to campus safety. However, it has been overheard on many occasions that many of these committees decide to meet over break or during the summer which, intentionally or not, takes the student voice out of that room, and prevents the relay back to the broader community. One way to gain some in-the-know clout is to attend Student Senate meetings, something open to all yet mostly attended by caucus and committee chairs. As it stands there is not a clear uniform way of communicating big topics from Senate meetings to the general public aside from a flow through the caucus co-chairs into their respective groups, by reading through the meeting minutes, or posting to Fraughtbook, er Facebook.
God bless The Student Digest, so reliable. This resource serves a great function to get the word out about important events, put things in your calendar and get quick reference to the upcoming week at Union. Plus, the Student Digest posts job listings, resources for spiritual care, linking to affinity groups, and event details to all those happenings at Union sitting somewhere in our inbox. The newsletter is for for students, alumni, and other members of the larger UTS community.
It was asked at a recent Student Senate meeting what the differences were between The Student Digest and The Heretic. Simply, the Heretic wants to bring the Union community together in a way that we might better understand one another, or the things that we think matter and want to share. This goes beyond logistical information and gets into the heart and mind of each student who shares a piece. In this way we might learn about one another, pass on wisdom from year to year, and sharing ongoing work from a class, caucus, or the broadness of life. Within the three categories of Community News, Opinions, and Arts there is a breadth of opportunity for students to submit. We have and will continue to join Caroline and Paul’s call for student voices banding together, to form a living aid to this liminal time we find ourselves in at Union.