HALIFAX, NS — Dalhousie students are likely to have noticed a new element introduced into recent lectures; paid sponsorships.
After seeing the business-savvy decision by Netflix to offer a lower costing subscription with commercials, the Dalhousie Board of Governors realized that the same could be done with tuition. Now students have the opportunity to pay the current rate for tuition with ads or pay an increased amount for ad-free lectures. Responses to this decision have been varied, as have the sponsors who have contributed money to the university.
Leo Godfrey, a sustainability professor, was puzzled by the sudden requirement to include sponsor transitions in some of his lectures. “How am I supposed to seamlessly move from how public transportation has been debilitated by automobile industry lobbying to an ad for the 2023 Ford F-150?” he asked.
Meanwhile, Margaret Woodly, a sociology professor, has enjoyed using her sponsor in her lectures. She explained that “It’s really easy, President Deep Saini’s podcast ‘Deep Dive’ relates to every single facet of discussion we’ve had in class — every single one. Now that season three is coming up I’m going to have a whole new resource for teaching. Whatsup divers— am I right?”
Other students have been dealing with more intrusive ads than those for Deep Dive. Several architecture students have dedicated their final projects to investigating where in the roof Terry Crews keeps falling from to advertise for Old Spice. Marketing students have begun muttering the Squarespace ad read in their sleep. One professor was reportedly kicked out of class after giving tone-deaf ad readings about Swiffer Wet Jet and the KitchenAid Stand-Mixer to a Gender and Women’s Studies class. Additionally, first-year classes across campus were left baffled after hearing an ad paid for by Halifax Council, advertising a “Fine Pizza Joint, located on Quinpool Road — open much later than 11pm”.
The program has been very popular with advertisers, to the point that Marlboro is reportedly lobbying for the Canadian Government to grant an exception to cigarette advertising laws so they can do mid-lecture ads at King’s.
Nord VPN was originally interested in the opportunity Dal presented, but declined after realizing the Dalhousie campus lacks functioning wi-fi.
Article By Samuel MacDonald, Published November 11, 2022