"When you’re handed a Wednesday in September without your usual classes it might seem like a bonus day off, but UFV didn’t suspend regular programming for a day so that students could sleep in or go to the beach."

"You’re at university. You’re here to learn."

How incredibly condescending.

If UFV wanted this to be a successful event (and the superfluity of e-mails and blog posts encouraging, pushing, and now shaming students into attending seems to imply concerns that it won’t be), classes should not have been cancelled.

Events worked around classes, perhaps even over a week-long period, would have ensured that the majority of students would be exposed to the enormity of this issue and certainly more receptive to the breadth of knowledge being offered on Residential Schools and their lingering effects in our communities.

Instead, I have heard many students say they will abstain from the event on principle and do not believe classes should have been cancelled. This is a valid standpoint. Furthermore, since the issue of Residential Schools is taught albeit to a lesser degree at the secondary school level, some students feel that commuting to campus when there are no regular classes is a waste of their time and energy. Whatever the issue in question, this is also perfectly valid – since students pay for their time at university, missing class or in this case the Day of Learning is within their discretion.

It is downright insulting for the writer of this blog post and anyone else to assume that the sole reason for students deciding not to come to campus tomorrow is to sleep in or go to the beach. The latter statement quoted above comes across as the voice of an adult instructing a child. University students are not children; we are adults who are responsible for the use of our time and money.

I sincerely hope this will be a meaningful event for all who participate. But frankly, I don’t appreciate UFV assuming students are ignorant, irresponsible, and disrespectful – regardless of each individual’s choice whether or not to attend the Day of Learning and their reasons for doing so, I feel an apology is in order.