0:08 Good morning Ryersonians. I'm Lindsay Rochcowan 0:10 and I'm Spencer Turcotte. This is the report for November 9. We're bringing you the top stories of the week. 0:17 This week on the show we're talking about how much students should tip at restaurants, Ryerson's failing grade and free speech, and the flaws of faculty course surveys. 0:26 Plus, I have an exclusive interview with a Ryersonian reporter. She's here to tell us about her frustrating experience trying to get in contact with the Faculty Association. 0:36 Students may have to dig a little deeper in their wallets if they wish to dine out. Restaurants in the GTA are prompting tips up to 30%. It's a high price to pay for students. Some restaurants now present a default tip option on top of tax, Frederic Dumoche, is the director of hospitality and tourism at Ryerson. He says the default type option can be deceiving. The total cost of a bill includes both the price of the meal and the tax. Dumoche says This isn't fair because it increases the cost of the tip. 1:08 What I found sometimes and which I found incorrect on the part of some of the restaurant operators is that the tip calculates the whole amount tax included. And I'm not willing to pay a tip on the tax. A study done by the American Economic Association says that tips are increasing because of the default tip option. 1:31 Ryerson often hands grades out to students, but recently the school received a grade of its own. And it wasn't a good one. Ryerson in the RSU flunked the report cards on free speech. The grade was given to public universities by a national organization. Ryerson received a C grade for its policies encouraging free speech, and an F for practices. The RSU filled both categories. Michael Kennedy co authored the index that measures the grades. He says aiming to free a university of controversy is not a realistic goal. 2:02 As a university, they need to be holding free expression and academic freedom to a much higher degree of importance than they do things like creating a welcoming environment or positive space. Because at the end of the day, the university isn't always going to be a comfortable space for people because it's the place where we debate very controversial, high profile issues, of which people have a variety of different viewpoints. 2:29 This statement comes months after Ryerson canceled a panel including U of T Professor Jordan Peterson. He's well known for refusing to use a student's preferred pronouns. 2:39 Faculty surveys at Ryerson seem to be the best way to get students voices heard. But what happens when it becomes a gateway to sexist language? Many faculty surveys unfairly target women and people of color. A contract lecturer from British Columbia says she gets criticized for being too nice. She also gets criticized for being not nice enough. Studies show women are at a disadvantage when being surveyed by students. 3:03 I'm here with ryer sonian reporter Julia Lloyd, who has been covering this issue for the past two weeks. She's a third year journalism student who covers social issues. One of her recent stories got published in j source. So to start Julia, can you briefly explain what research on the surveys have shown? 3:19 And so a lot of the research that we found, showed that the surveys, the results of the surveys are a lot more harsh on women and profs of color. And it also shows how female profs are a lot more judged on their appearances and what they're wearing and male profs aren't. 3:39 Right. So I also understand you've been having a tough time kind of getting someone from the faculty course association to speak about this. Do you have any idea why this might be? 3:48 I'm not entirely sure why they haven't gotten to us. We have been contacting them for the last week, we have called 30 times we've gone to their office. So far, what I think it is, is there is a current grievance with the faculty. And so I'm not sure if they can speak upon that grievance. 4:08 So going off that if nobody from the association gets back to how does that kind of change the narrative of the story? 4:15 Well, it kinda shows that this topic is very serious, and that they don't want to say anything wrong, that could change the story or could make the association look bad. So it kind of just shuts the whole situation down and makes it more quiet. And I think it'll show that when that they don't comment that the issue is a lot more important than it seems to be. Hmm. 4:41 Well, yeah, it'll definitely be interesting to see if there's any plans in place to adjust how faculty members are assessed. But I mean, obviously unless someone gets back to you, I guess time will tell. 4:51 That's it for today. This is Lindsay Rochcowan 4:53 and I'm Spencer Turcotte, you've been listening to the right report. Tune in next week as we bring you Ryerson's top stories.