It’s hard to imagine the idea of going to a lecture outside of your scheduled classes as fun. You’ve sat through your classes already and that couch or special chair is calling you at home: why would you think to come back for another round? This week took me to two different lectures that weren’t exactly my cup of tea subject wise, but it taught me something about the university experience as a whole.
Thirst for knowledge doesn’t stop when your timetable does.
Ryerson played host to two different speeches this past week whose subject varied greatly; on Wednesday LIB 72 housed a discussion on Thinking Instruments and Magnetism in Artistic Production, while the next day Eric Palin Hall played host to a lecture titled “Modeling Discrete Event Systems with Petri Net: A Hands-On Approach with GPenSIM”. As a journalism student, even the names of these sessions intimidated me a little bit, but attending them opened my eyes to what students are taking out of the Ryerson experience when they have the opportunity to learn a little bit more.
Both these sessions were attended by large amounts of students and faculty alike. Neither was being graded on their attendance or performance; they were there because they were interested in where their industries were headed or concepts that aren’t immediately available for teaching during normal class time. Their thirst for knowledge leads them to these lectures, which both allowed them to listen to and question the material that was being presented. This lead to further discussion and debate, which ultimately can be considered the whole purpose of the events, which is getting students to genuinely care about the careers they’ve invested their time and money into, and producing the workers that will change the industry in the future.
Lectures such as these aren’t limited by faculty, so students with interests outside of the area of their major may find solace that the University is offering opportunities to expand their horizons for little or no cost. Listings for these lectures can be found on various faculty websites, or at Ryerson’s events calendar.
