Universities are generally seen as safe learning environments that encourage free intellectual exploration and offer numerous possibilities for students. But George Keith Young, an alumnus of Lakehead University, claims this view is horribly false.

Young recently POD (print-on-demand) published a collection of six fictional stories called Tulips U, which depict what he sees as major flaws in Canada’s universities. POD publishing allows authors to self-publish their work.

The stories, Young explained, are “explorations of the emotional geography of Canadians” in a university setting. The inspiration for these stories spawned from his experiences as a mature student, as well as the experiences of other students across Canada.

As a young adult, Young attended the University of Guelph and York University, but dropped out of both within the first month of study due to the difficulty he experienced keeping up with the required pace of learning. After a 25-year career as a printer, Young began studying at Lakehead at the age of 44, eventually completing a degree in sociology.

Young pursued his master’s degree, intending to focus his project on a group of working class women in the sociology department to determine the affect of class on their university success. According to Young, the project was deemed inappropriate and he lost his chance to earn his master’s. Now 53, he is unemployed and living in Montreal.

Young used POD publishing not only because it is an inexpensive way to make digital text available online, but also because of the realities of being accepted by a publisher.

“I find it just about impossible to get my material through to a paper publisher,” he wrote in an e-mail. (He declined to be interviewed by phone because he is morally opposed to phones and doesn’t own one.)

He attributes this difficulty to a flaw in the Canadian university system.

“This…is a consequence of far too many creative writing graduates from Canada’s universities.”

His criticisms of Canadian universities don’t stop at the excessive overproduction of creative writing grads. Abuse (both sexual and academic), hierarchical organization, and ripping off students’ money are a few more flaws that he believes exist.

Young’s stories, including “Just Another Mr. Boob” and “Resuscitation,” prominently feature the idea that universities fail to address the abuse of students in a serious manner.

“I was made aware of sexual abuse, and of educational abuse during the six years I was at university. If someone…tries to initiate a complaint, they are stopped.” (Officials at Lakehead University were unavailable for comment.)

Young sees this abuse as a mechanism for weeding out students.

“Abuse of students is a necessary norm at Canadian universities or they could not function financially because they would have too many students to teach in the upper levels.”

Young believes that instead of being mass education profit centres, universities should be centers where an elite group is educated.

“I would like to see the delusion that university is for everyone…ended.”

Though the flaws he sees in Canadian universities are numerous, Young does envision solutions to the problems, the largest being the enactment of democracy.

“[Universities] have to reflect the needs of students, and their parents, not professors and administrators only,” he said. “When all interested parties have an equal voice then perhaps learning can begin.”

Young has distributed his writing to universities across Canada in hopes to raise awareness and to provoke change.

“I want students to have access to the knowledge I have,” he wrote. “If they can get a critical awareness of what is happening to them then perhaps things might change for the better at Canadian universities.”

Published in Volume 63, Number 22 of The Uniter (March 5, 2009)