Archive for May, 2009
Ontario adds to post-secondary spending spree
Universities and colleges that didn’t get any provincial-federal funding will get $95 from the province
A $1.5-billion, weeklong series of federal-provincial funding announcements for Ontario colleges and universities has been topped up with another $95 million from the province.
Ontario is creating a $55-million capital program over two years to help the seven post-secondary institutions that did not get any of the joint federal-provincial funding.
The province will also give colleges and universities another $40 million to upgrade student facilities.
The $1.5 billion in federal-provincial money will fund 49 projects at the province’s 56 university and college campuses.
- The Canadian Press
Does this count as summer school?
I never knew that hair could talk
Last weekend I did something for the first time in my life. Ever. I went to a hair salon.
Yes, my sister made me do it.
According to my sister, my old haircut said “super nerd who doesn’t care about his appearance.” I didn’t know that a hair cut could say something that specific about a person. Actually, I didn’t know hair could talk. But for the record, my hair was lying. I do care about my appearance.
Sort of. Sometimes.
But last Saturday, after spending three intense hours up close and personal, observing the secret sub-culture of a professional hair salon, I think I should get an advanced credit in anthropology. Or at least some sociology course.
For instance, I learned that there’s actually a difference between barbers and hair dressers. Before my trip to the hair salon, I figured that barbers were just the Old West version of hair dressers. I mean, both of them cut hair. I didn’t think there was much room for difference.
But apparently, the difference between barbers and hair dressers is sort of like the difference between one-ply and two-ply toilet paper. Barbers are a more basic version of hair dressers.
And those gigantic, ceiling-mounted high-tech hair dryer thingies that look like they’re from some lame science fiction movie? They actually exist.
When I first showed up at the hair salon, Vinny, the hair dresser, handed me a booklet. A booklet that contained little pieces of hair. At first, I was horrified. I had to stop myself from emitting a high pitched scream and dropping it to the floor. I was holding a little scrapbook of voodoo dolls.
Once my heart rate returned to normal, I had to force myself to think happy thoughts. Never mind voodoo dolls. It was like being handed a saltshaker filled with toenail clippings. I now have a new nightmare: that booklet, spilling into my bowl of breakfast cereal. Millions of hairs. All different colours. All over the place. Airborne.
After my sister finished her conference with Vinny, with me pretending not to listen as they discussed my washed-out skin tones, helmet hair, and lack of any texture (people have, uh, texture?) it was decided.
Of course, no one thought I needed to know what was going to happen next.
Next I had my hair washed. Leaning back in a chair, my scalp being washed by a complete stranger, has to be the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt in my life. Until five minutes later, when Vinny wrapped a small, airtight plastic cap around my skull, complete with a vinyl cape.
Hair expert Vinny Nguyen, of Beauty Hair Creations in Kitchener, transforms Scott Dobson-Mitchell
The surface of the cap was covered in millions of little holes. When I noticed that the hairdresser was wielding a mini pickaxe, I didn’t make the connection right away.
And then I figured it out. The hairdresser was going to pierce through the cap (which was vacuum-sealed to my scalp), and then somehow pull a strand of hair through one of those tiny holes.
“This might hurt a little,” Vinny warned me. And then she jumped, gaining as much leverage as possible, and brain fluid squirted across the hair salon.
When my sister had highlights put in her hair, Vinny neatly wrapped little pieces of tinfoil all over her head and used a paintbrush. Had I inadvertently broken some social code of hair salons, and was being punished?
When I regained consciousness and tuned in to my sister’s and Vinny’s conversation, I suddenly realized that every second word was, “blah blah blah.” Apparently my sister couldn’t live without “blah blah blah.” She used “blah blah blah” every morning. And although “blah, blah, blah is fairly expensive, it’s really worth it.”
I finally figured out that “blah blah blah” wasn’t some sort of code word. It’s actually a short, round, purple bottle. Filled with hair stuff. And apparently it costs a lot.
Never mind anthropology or sociology. The whole thing was a learning experience in linguistics. After listening to my sister and Vinny, I could probably fake my way through hair salon dialogue for at least three minutes. Heck, five minutes, if I was allowed to fill every sentence with “blah blah blah.”
When I first caught a glimpse of my hair in a mirror, I thought something had gone horribly wrong. I’m used to a solid helmet of brown hair. Now I had bright yellow stripes all over my head. Or more like chunks. Yeah, chunks. Suddenly I understood how people can have texture in their hair.
I thought my sister was just messing with me when she said to the hairdresser, “Wow, great! That looks perfect!”
I was busy wondering how I could get home without another human being seeing me between Vinny’s and my place. Or more importantly, how to avoid all future human contact until my hair grows out a couple of inches and I can chop all of that ‘texture’ off.
Or most important of all: how to avoid seeing my three younger brothers ever again. Because when my new haircut speaks to my brothers, I already know what it’s going to say.
“Give Scott a punch in the gut.”
Scott Dobson-Mitchell "After"
Mac reactor gets $22m to boost isotope production
Chalk River reactor will be offline for months, despite global need for medical isotopes
The money from the federal and provincial governments will go to upgrading Mac’s nuclear reactor – with a portion going toward medical isotope production.
The Chalk River, Ont., nuclear facility produces up to half the global supply of medical isotopes used to detect cancer and heart ailments.
But a heavy-water leak shut down the 52-year-old reactor two weeks ago and the company says it will be out of action for at least three months.
The McMaster reactor is the only Canadian one outside of Chalk River capable of producing the isotopes.
The funding will also help pay for upgrades to McMaster’s Nuclear Research Building and to accommodate and support new labs and research.
- The Canadian Press
Universite de Moncton student …
Universite de Moncton student banned from campus in 1970 is finally allowed back: http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/682812
Universite de Moncton student banned from campus in 1970 is finally allowed back: http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/682812
No surprise as another report …
No surprise as another report says Canada is lagging behind the rest of the world in adoption of e-learning: http://bit.ly/186Oa3
No surprise as another report says Canada is lagging behind the rest of the world in adoption of e-learning: http://bit.ly/186Oa3
The politics of being an exec …
The politics of being an exec head means you go to announcements by all political parties or none: http://bit.ly/2LW3r
The politics of being an exec head means you go to announcements by all political parties or none: http://bit.ly/2LW3r
Choice on campus – Pepsi or Coke?
Wednesday night during my class break, I was confronted with a situation I’ve never faced at a campus before…
Coke and Pepsi machines co-existing on a campus; I think the North Koreans are going to nuke us!
(Apologies for the poor quality cellphone picture)
Metal detectors in French publ…
Metal detectors in French public schools, Sarkozy wants them: http://bit.ly/nHMWK
Metal detectors in French public schools, Sarkozy wants them: http://bit.ly/nHMWK
The three or four-year BA debate
Which is better? It looks like Canada and America are going to switch
Here’s an interesting contrast between America and Canada on the length of study for a standard Bachelor’s degree. While Canada has offered three-year degrees for decades, American universities have loyally stuck with the four-year degree.
Now, Canadian universities (facing the potential of declining enrolment due to demographics) are looking to eliminate the three-year degree in favour of keeping students around for an extra year. Meanwhile, as the U.S. government pressures universities on the high cost of PSE, American universities are looking at the three-year degree as a solution that could lower the cost of a BA degree by a year.
Governor General may want to go back to school
As we learned from the coalition government controversy, many Canadians don’t understand our parliamentary system. The GG may want to add herself to the list
Earlier this week, Governor General Michaelle Jean offended some people by eating raw seal meat. Earlier today, she upset nobody by advocating forcefully, and not for the first time, for the federal government to create a university in the Arctic.
The former gesture wasn’t controversial: she was just doing her job. When you visit the citizens of your country as the Queen’s representative and the font of constitutional authority, and those citizens invite you to dine with them, you dine. When they ask you to take part in a legal cultural activity, you take part.
But when those citizens ask you to lobby the government on their behalf, you say “hey, that’s not my job. I’m the monarch — I reign, I don’t govern.” You want governing? Talk to the people who run in elections. Talk to your MP. Talk to the government.
Unfortunately, that’s not how Madame Jean responded to understandable calls from her hosts for the creation of a university in Canada’s vast, underpopulated and undereducated North. Asked if she would continue to push this idea to elected officials, she replied, “of course.”
“Canada is at least 40 years behind,” Jean told The Canadian Press. “Canada is the only northern state that doesn’t have a university in the North. Canada is four decades behind Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United States. The United States has three universities in Alaska. There’s a university in Greenland. In northern Sweden. In the Norwegian Arctic.”
She then apparently went on to describe to the CP reporter exactly how such a university would be organized, with satellite campuses spread across the region; how it would be open to people from all across the country; how it could be funded out of royalties imposed on mining companies, and so on and so forth. Reading the CP story, one gets the sense that the reporter was at least as baffled as I am. Perhaps next week, the G-G can come to Toronto to urge city council to build more bicycle paths, or the province to buy new streetcars.
Jean continues to push for Arctic university
Says Canada is “at least 40 years behind” Norway, Finland, Sweden and the U.S.
CLYDE RIVER, Nunavut — Michaelle Jean has delivered a sharp criticism of Canada’s record in delivering education in the Arctic, saying it lags 40 years behind other countries when it comes to higher learning in the North.
The Governor General said she’s undeterred by the lukewarm response from Ottawa to her call for a university in the Arctic, which the government has labelled a non-priority.
Jean said she would continue pressing politicians for an institution that would better serve the Inuit and attract non-aboriginal students and teachers to the North.
Jean has stepped up her campaign for such an institution after the government responded less than enthusiastically when she first floated the idea last week.
While her meal of seal heart at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on Monday has monopolized attention down south, Jean has actually spent much of her eight-day Arctic visit advocating a university for the region.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, she said she will “of course” continue peddling the idea to elected officials.
In the meantime, she described Canada as a laggard compared with other countries with Arctic populations.
“Canada is at least 40 years behind,” Jean said. “Canada is the only northern state that doesn’t have a university in the North. Canada is four decades behind Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United States.
“The United States has three universities in Alaska. There’s a university in Greenland. In northern Sweden. In the Norwegian Arctic.”
It was her recent visit to Tromso, Norway, that inspired the Governor General to speak up. That town on the 69th parallel has become an economic hub and major supplier of skilled labour for its region.
The website for the University of Tromso notes that its creation faced stiff public resistance in the 1960s and warnings that its remote location wouldn’t attract students – fears that were all quickly proven false.
But there are limits to the parallels between Norway and Nunavut. About 150,000 people live in Tromso’s surrounding county – roughly 50 per cent more than the entire population of Canada’s enormous northern territories.
Some might also considered a university an unaffordable luxury in a region with plenty of other pressing problems.
Only 25 per cent of Nunavut children finish high school, and those who head down south to university often require extra courses to catch up.
UCalgary football player suspended for steroid use
Team’s head coach says positive drug test is a “slap in the face”
A University of Calgary Dinos football player has been suspended from competitive university athletics for two years after testing positive for steroid use.
Last March, linebacker Duncan McLean, 25, tested positive for Oxymetholone metabolites, a prohibited and very toxic anabolic steroid that has serious potential side effects according to the testing agency, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.
When informed of the test results in April, the Vernon, B.C. native waived his right to hearing and admitted to breaking the anti-doping rules followed by the Canadian Interuniversity Sport association. McLean’s football career is essentially over at the school, as he as already played for three years.
“The University of Calgary is unequivocally opposed to the use of banned substances by our student-athletes,” said Kevin Boyles, director of athletics for the university in yesterday’s press release.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy both at the UofC and in CIS,” he said. “We are fully supportive of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and hope that this unfortunate situation sends a strong message throughout the league.”
Calgary Dinos football head coach Blake Nill says he wishes it didn’t take one of his athletes to test positive for an anabolic steroid to reinforce the league’s rules .
“This is the first one in 18 years for me. It’s tough,” Nill told The Canadian Press Wednesday, just hours after McLean was officially suspended.
“Our drug-testing is one of the best there is. Eventually, you’re going to get caught. If you try to take a performance-enhancer, you’re going to get caught. You see it all the time, but it’s unfortunate it happened in my program.”
Nill says he worries about the impact McLean’s suspension will have on the reputation of his school’s football program, although he has already phoned the families of incoming recruits to assure the parents that drug use isn’t a problem in his locker room.
“It’s still a shock when it happens,” Nill said. “Coaching at the university level is like adopting the athletes. It’s like I have 100 sons, I’m the surrogate father to 100 kids … I consider this sort of a slap-in-the-face type thing. I don’t feel responsible for it, but I’m disappointed it happened.”
- with files from The Canadian Press, photo courtesy of D’Arcy Norman
Snow Globe
Have you ever wondered if there’s life outside of the classroom?
You can watch the Chaser in it…
You can watch the Chaser in its entirety online: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/#/latestepisode/chaser_09_03_01/ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
You can watch the Chaser in its entirety online: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/chaser/#/latestepisode/chaser_09_03_01/ HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Wish I had the funds to go to …
Wish I had the funds to go to Congress this year, this guy would have been interesting: http://tinyurl.com/rx4c6j.
Wish I had the funds to go to Congress this year, this guy would have been interesting: http://tinyurl.com/rx4c6j.
Oxford poetry drama’s Canuck connection
UAlberta welcomes Nobel Prize-winning poet, despite accusations
Less than a month after withdrawing from a race for a prestigious position at Oxford University amid scandal, Nobel-prize-winning poet Derek Walcott has found a new (temporary) home at the University of Alberta.
The university says it’s happy to have the prominent St. Lucia-born writer as their inaugural Distinguished Professor in Residence, even as the British media storm around the professor’s role in two alleged sex scandals continues to rage.
Earlier this month, Walcott withdrew from the race to become Oxford’s next Professor of Poetry – the UK’s most prestigious academic role in poetry – after 200 academics as the school were sent anonymous packages containing photocopied pages from a book containing allegations that Walcott sexually harassed a Harvard freshman in 1981 while teaching at the school.
The book is called, “The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus.”
At the time of his resignation, Walcott said he had never commented on the claims and would not do so then. But he called the anonymous letter campaign an attempt at character assassination.
With Walcott’s withdrawal, Ruth Padel, the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, became the first woman to ever hold the Oxford post since its founding in 1708. But after the British press discovered that Padel had alerted two journalists to the accusations against Walcott, Padel resigned after only nine days, leaving the post empty.
In her resignation statement, Padel admitted that she had sent two emails notifying reporters of the claims against Walcott. But she said she was not part of the anonymous smear campaign against her fellow author.
Despite opposition, N.B. premier gets honorary degree
More than 100 faculty signed a letter of protest opposing the honour
To polite applause from the crowd, Premier Shawn Graham accepted an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of New Brunswick on Wednesday, despite earlier opposition from more than 100 members of the faculty.
Jack Gegenberg, a professor of mathematics at UNB, called it an insult to graduating students.
“By including him in that process of awarding degrees, then it’s a slap in the face to students who had to pay too much to get an education which is being squeezed by the government,” he said.
“Students have had to struggle too hard financially and in other ways to get the kind of education that they want, and it’s certainly because of government policies that maybe they aren’t quite getting their money’s worth.”
The profs are upset that a report sponsored by Graham’s Liberal government recommended major changes to the structure of UNB and the University of Moncton.
The government backed away from the changes as a result of widespread protest.
The open letter signed by the profs states in part that “regardless of any other contributions Mr. Graham might have made to this point in his career, his actions in this respect cannot be regarded as having made an outstanding contribution to our communities, nor do they show regard for higher education in the province.”
Graham, who graduated from UNB 18 years ago with a degree in physical education, told the commencement crowd that he’s pleased people can challenge him.
“What I learned here at UNB was that people who challenged my opinions weren’t enemies,” he said. “Those who made me think about my views did me a favour.”
UK lecturers vote to boycott Israeli universities
To avoid lawsuit, union leadership immediately voids vote
According to this story in the Guardian today, United Kingdom lecturers have overwhelmingly voted to boycott Israeli universities and colleges, saying that Israeli academics have been complicit in their government’s actions against Palestinians.
However, as soon as the vote passed it was declared void by the leadership of the University and College Union. Lawyers for the powerful union, which represents more than 120,000 academics, advised them to do so in order to avoid a lawsuit.
According to the Guardian, lecturers voted for a “boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign” against Israeli schools in protest against the country’s policies in the occupied territories, and also last January’s incursion into Gaza.
The vote was carried at the union’s annual congress, and was the ninth time the contentious issue has arisen at the meeting.
However, lecturers remain divided on the issue. The University of Brighton’s Tom Hickey, who put forward one of two motions, called on lecturers to “reflect on the moral and political appropriateness of collaboration with Israeli educational institutions”.
Whereas Sheffeld Hallam University’s Camilla Bassi said a boycott wouldn’t help anyone, and would be part of an “anti-Jewish movement” when what is really needed is more links between Israelis and Palestinians.
Ex-school trustee gets probation in ketchup theft
Man says authorities, trying to frame him, planted bottle near his bicycle
A former school board trustee from southern California has been sentenced to two years of informal probation for stealing a bottle of ketchup from a college dining area.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jacki Brown also ordered Steve Rocco to pay about $200 in fines and stay 100 metres away from the college.
Rocco was convicted by a jury last month of misdemeanour petty theft for stealing a bottle of ketchup from a Chapman University dining area.
The eccentric former Orange Unified School District trustee known for espousing conspiracy theories claims authorities planted the ketchup near his bicycle to make it look like a theft when he was recycling the bottle.
He says he will appeal.
- The Canadian Press
