'Woke' light assembly question on Queen's engineering exam sparks controversy

The question said students have been asked to design a 'woke' light fixture capable of 'centering diverse anti-cis-normative identities'

Students sitting for an engineering exam at Queen’s University were faced with a question asking them to design a “woke” lighting assembly, and it has raised concerns on campus.

The question, reported by the Queen’s Journal, the student newspaper at the Kingston, Ont., university, was on an engineering mechanics exam in the first-year class taught by civil engineering professor Colin MacDougall.

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A photo of the question circulated online last month and some Queen’s students reportedly only learned about it after controversial author and psychologist Jordan Peterson retweeted it.

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The question said students have been asked to design a “woke” light fixture, with LEDs that “are capable of producing a wide range of colors providing an opportunity for centering diverse anti-cis-normative identities.” The assembly, according to a quote from the fictitious organizers, asks the designers to take into account sustainable materials to reduce the environmental impact of the light assembly.

“You’re not sure what any of that means but you decide to get to work,” the question concludes.

While some students apparently found the question funny, a group on campus, EngiQueers, which advocates for queer students in the engineering faculty, has raised concerns about the question, the Queen’s Journal reported.

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“It really makes you question your place in engineering as (a) queer student,” Zoe Irwin, co-president of the club, told the student newspaper. “It makes you shrink. It makes you feel smaller.”

The group’s other co-president, Anna Wasylyk, told the Journal she had emailed MacDougall directly about her concerns.

On the Queen’s University subreddit, students discussed the exam question.

“I was so confused when this showed up on the exam…. His political rant doesn’t even help you solve the problem,” wrote one user, Tragicallycold. “Gonna be brutally honest. Couldn’t solve this problem to save my life, I left most of it blank lol.”

It is apparently not the first time MacDougall has generated controversy with his exam questions. One student on reddit said in their year, there was a Freedom Convoy-themed final exam question, and another said a question in their year mocked students with disabilities.

MacDougall did not respond to the National Post’s request for comment, nor did EngiQueers or the dean of the engineering faculty.

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Bridgewater dumps bank stocks amid turmoil in first quarter -filings

SAO PAULO — Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, sold off U.S. bank stocks in the first quarter as the industry was roiled by the collapse of three lenders, according to regulatory filings.

The firm, founded by billionaire Ray Dalio, cut its holdings to zero in five U.S. banking giants: JPMorgan & Co, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley.

It also roughly halved its exposure to Citigroup Inc, the filings showed.

The positions were revealed in quarterly securities filings known as 13-fs. While backward looking, these snapshots show what funds owned on the last day of the quarter and are one of the few ways that hedge funds and other institutional investors have to declare their positions. They may not reflect current holdings.

Global hedge funds cut their exposure to U.S. banking stocks to a near 10-year low in March and fled lending-sensitive shares amid turmoil in the industry following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Bridgewater did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

The firm also slashed its positions in smaller banks such as Bank of Hawaii Corp, Pacwest Bancorp, PNC Financial Services Group, Citizens Financial Group and Capital One Financial Corp.

At the end of December, Bridgewater’s biggest stake in banks was Bank of America, valued at $106.2 billion, followed by $92.8 million in JPMorgan.

Bridgewater was also bearish on European banks in March, after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked contagion fears across global banks, a Reuters report showed. Following SVB, Signature Bank was also placed into receivership in March, while JPMorgan bought First Republic Bank’s assets earlier this month.

(Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in Sao Paulo; Editing by Sharon Singleton)