Archive for August, 2011
Ontario Liberals would double teacher’s college
More classroom experience needed, they say
Ontario’s governing Liberals say that if they’re re-elected on Oct. 6, they would double the length of teacher’s college programs from one to two years.
“The new two-year program would mean that student teachers would spend more time in the classroom,” the Liberals wrote a press release. “Ontario’s one-year teacher education program is one of the shortest in Canada. Other places in the world where students rank high in standardized tests — such as Japan, Singapore and Finland — have multi-year programs.” They point out that Ontario teachers graduate with only 40 days experience.
Ontario capped enrollment in teacher’s colleges in May in response to high unemployment among new teachers.
Former premier’s son gets three years in prison
Tobin guilty of impaired driving that killed friend
Jack Tobin, son of former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Tobin, has been sentenced to three years in prison and won’t be allowed to drive for seven years, reports CBC News.
Tobin pleaded guilty to the impaired driving that killed 24-year-old Alex Zolpis, who was pinned under a truck in an Ottawa parking garage on Christmas Eve. The friends had been drinking in the Byward Market before they arrived at the garage, where Tobin performed stunts in the truck.
The court heard that Tobin had three prior driving suspensions that followed multiple infractions.
10 things to ban (instead of bottled water)
These things annoy Prof. Pettigrew far more
Photo courtesy of Sergey Vladimirov on Flickr
Last week I wrote that banning bottled water from universities was environmentally sensitivity gone too far. I hinted that there were other things much worse, and if we are going to start banning things, water should be way down on our list. Just to show that I am not entirely a spoil-sport when it comes to forbidding things, I offer 10 other things that I would rather see disappear.
1. Cheap cologne. While cheap perfume for women seems to be on the decline, cheap cologne for men seems to be making a comeback. Bottom line: I don’t want to smell you. Period.
2. Asking a professor where another professor is or when another professor will be back. It’s always the same: student arrives at Professor Hallcross’s door and knocks. No answer. Knocks again. No answer. Comes to my door: “do you know where Professor Hallcross is?” No. How would I know? Do you think we professors have some kind of universal academic GPS? Do you think I have a magic map showing his footprints moving through the Hufflepuff common room?
3. Non-specific email help requests. EG: “I don’t understand the assignment you gave us. Can you explain it?” No, because I don’t know what course you are in, which assignment you mean, or what part of it you don’t understand.
4. Pretending you didn’t know plagiarism was wrong. You cheated. You got caught. At least own up to it.
5. Walking in large groups slowly down the hall. Some of us have places to be. And for that matter, don’t you have somewhere to be? The library? Class?
6. Doing homework from one class in another class. You’re missing my thoughtful comments on Oscar Wilde, and I’m distracting you from memorizing brain anatomy. Why bother?
7. Asking what you need to do to pass the course after the course is more than half over. Think back to the beginning of class and you’ll recall that I told you what to do to pass the course…
8. Asking for a higher grade so that you can keep your scholarship or get into a program you want to get into. Those scholarship and admissions committees rely on me to let them know how you’ve done. If I raise your grade to the line they have set, it defeats the purpose of the line.
9. Bird courses. If there’s no way a student can try hard and still fail, then it’s not a serious course. This is mostly the fault of professors, but hey students, don’t feed the birds! Challenge yourselves.
10. Asking your course adviser which profs are the “good” ones. I don’t know what you think a good prof is. Do you mean funny? Conscientious? Easy grader? And even if I did know what you were looking for, I don’t see other professors in the classroom. Most times I don’t know if they’re what you’re looking for. Even if I did, I’m not going to bad mouth my colleagues. Well, except one.
Once we’ve gotten rid of all these things, then you can talk to me about water.
This is how much your professors make
Professor salaries didn’t grow much last year
Photo courtesy of jeremy.wilburn on Flickr
Statistics Canada has released their annual professor salary report. Across 29 universities, average salaries for full-time teaching staff grew 2.5 per cent, from $113,148 in 2010 to $116,024 in 2011. Prices also rose 2.7 per cent for the 12 months ending in July, so it’s not much of a gain.
But women did make gains. The report shows a 1.3 per cent rise in the share of women teachers, compared to a 0.3 per cent rise the year before. Still, men account for 62.4 per cent of staff.
Here is the median pay for associate professors.*
Dalhousie professor quits over parking
School has 2,000 spots for 20,000 staff, faculty and students
Photo courtesy of Kevin Krejci on Flickr
A Dalhousie University professor told CBC News that a severe parking shortage forced him to quit.
That’s how bad things have become for commuters on certain Canadian campuses.
Dan Middlemiss was in a long line on Monday to buy one of only 2,000 parking passes available to the 20,000 students, staff and faculty at the university in Halifax. But after waiting more than an hour, he quit the line in disgust and then quit his job too. Middlemiss had taught for 31 years as part of the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies. He explained his problem: “I have to get on the road around 6:30 to 7:00 to get an assured parking spot somewhere so I can get here to teach at 2:30 in the afternoon,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
The school is planning to turn one of its lots into a reserved parking area for about 200 drivers and to install 100 new bike racks there too, meaning fewer spots for regular drivers. A parking garage is also in the early stages of planning. Clearly, it can’t come soon enough for Middlemiss.
Other universities are struggling to provide more parking too. The University of Victoria is facing opposition from the municipal council in Saanich, B.C. where they want to erect a 505-stall seven-story parking garage to deal with cars that will come to its planned 2,100 seat gymnasium.
The high demand for parking spots means high costs at many schools — more than $100 per month at some. But at other schools, parking is still very affordable. To see for yourself, check out our list of the Top 10 Most (and Least) Expensive Schools to Park at in Canada.
University scholarship named for cat
$7.6-million is for cat cancer research
The University of California Davis has received a $7.6-million bequest from a dead socialite.
The gift came with stipulations. The money must go to an award that’s named after Du Bee, the donor’s cat, who who died of cancer after being treated at the School of Veterinary Medicine 10 years ago. If a discovery is made related to cat cancer, that must also be named for Du Bee.
It is one of the biggest donations ever received by the school, a representative told KSBW.
Sociology job market improves
But jobs available don’t match students’ interests
Photo courtesy of poptech on Flickr
It’s been a tumultuous few years for those graduating with sociology doctorates in North America. In 2009, the number of job listings for entry-level professors plunged by 35 per cent.
But new numbers show that listings increased 32 per cent in 2010 — a near recovery. It’s all in the American Sociological Association’s new report, Moving Toward Recovery.
It’s not all good news, however. The report also surveyed PhD candidates and found some major mismatches between their “areas of special interest” and the jobs that were available in 2010.
One of the widest gaps is in criminology (a.k.a. social control, crime, law and deviance), which made up 31 per cent of all postings on the ASA’s job site in 2010, but was only listed as an area of special interest for 18 per cent of PhD candidates whom were surveyed by the ASA.
Master’s degree on the mosh pit
Alberta student’s thesis is on social experience of moshing
Photo courtesy of tatu43 on Flickr
Gabby Riches, a Recreation and Leisure student at the University of Alberta, is writing Master’s thesis about mosh pits.
It’s a respected topic. The 25-year-old recently won an award from the Canadian Congress on Leisure Research for a mosh-related paper.
Moshing started in the early 1980s in the American hardcore punk scene, Riches told the Edmonton Journal. The name was coined after the band Bad Brains would yell “mash it up” to their audience. ”But the singer had a thick Jamaican accent, so people heard ‘mash’ as ‘mosh’,” explains Riches. She has identified two main types: the ”circle pit” and the “wall of death.”
Riches describes moshing as a social experience that’s not yet widely understood. “At first, moshing can feel intimidating, frightening, because it’s physical and aggressive,” she said. “It looks violent, but I don’t like to say that because it isn’t.” She hopes to continue her exploration of mosh pits in a PhD program at Leeds Metropolitan University in the U.K.
The mechanically challenged generation
Young people today can’t hold a hammer or screw a screw
Photo courtesy of B Rosen on Flickr
By Cynthia Reynolds
It’s hard not to laugh when Barry Smith starts telling stories about the hapless young workers he has to deal with. Smith, who runs Toronto-area roofing company RoofSmith Canada, tells of one who didn’t come to work because his cat had fleas, and another who jumped off a shed roof, even though he’d just tossed bags of nails into the garbage bin below. But the laughing tapers off when Smith, 46, talks about skills.
“They don’t know how to handle a tool properly,” he says quietly. “They’re bright kids, but they hold a hammer at the top instead of the bottom, so it takes four swings instead of one to get a nail in. They don’t know how to read the short lines on a tape measure and they’ve never used power tools, which makes you really cautious.” He says they can’t seem to detect the patterns of the work—you rip up part of the roof, that gets thrown down, that goes into the garbage—so they just stand around. “It can get really frustrating.”
Meet McMaster’s first male midwife
Men are attracted to obstetrics, so why not midwifery?
When Otis Kryzanauskas was four years old, he didn’t want to be an astronaut, a police officer or a firefighter.
After witnessing his younger brother’s birth at home — and cutting the cord — he decided he would one day be a midwife.
Next spring, he’ll be the first male graduate of the Bachelor of Midwifery program at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Kryzanauskas, who has participated in almost 100 births already, believes that he may be the first male midwife to graduate anywhere in Canada — ever.
Why are there so few men in this fast-growing field?
Midwives provide primary care to women and their babies during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postpartum period. According to the Canadian Women’s Health Network, midwives spend an average of 20 to 30 minutes more per appointment with their patients than other medical professionals do. That could explain why demand for midwifery services is increasing. Rare two decades ago, over the course of 2010, there were 14,000 midwife-attended births in Canada.
What Jack Layton’s death means for young Canadians
Urback: I didn’t vote for Jack, but I did respect him.
Photo courtesy of Medmoiselle T on Flickr
I have never voted for the NDP. Before the May federal election, when the NDP surprised us with 30 per cent of the vote, I fleetingly considered supporting Jack Layton’s New Democrats, but couldn’t swallow his proposals for spending and tax increases. Jack seemed like a good enough guy, but for mostly fiscal reasons, I didn’t want him running the country.
As someone who never supported Jack politically, and honestly, likely would not have if he were able to run again, I still feel his death is sorrowful loss for young Canadians. Despite being in his sixties, Jack was indisputably the best of the federal leaders at connecting with the nation’s youth. He reached out to us despite our record of poor turnout at the polls. For this reason, Jack transcended party lines as a man who spoke to Canadian youths.
Jack Layton’s record with the under-30 crowd started when he was as a city councillor in Toronto. He was known to always save time for questions from young journalists during scrums and worked directly with university students on local issues that they cared passionately about, even those as seemingly insignificant as saving a couple of Victorian homes. Later, as federal leader of the NDP, Layton spoke directly to Canadian young people through venues such as Much on Demand, encouraging engagement, interaction, and faith in the political system. And then, of course, there was his final letter to Canadians, in which he penned a paragraph specifically to Canada’s youth, expressing his “belief in [their] power to change this country and the world.”
Political pandering is often a deliberate, pragmatic process, which is why so few politicians give youth the time of day. With such poor voter turnout among 18 to 25-year-old Canadians, other parties think it’s better to spend the campaign retirement home-hopping than wasting an afternoon on a university campus. But for Jack, it didn’t seem to matter.
I didn’t always agree with what Jack said, but I did always appreciate the fact that he was trying to speak to me. I’m not going to fawn, nor do the opposite and don a silly wig while making a grotesque statement about “National Necrophilia Week” like Ezra Levant. But I will say that Layton’s death means young Canadians of all stripes have lost an important federal advocate. I may not have given him my vote, but he did have my respect, and that’s because I’m pretty sure the feeling was mutual.
Of all the things to ban… bottled water?
Pettigrew: It’s only water and plastic. Let’s all take a breath.
Photo courtesy of Conor Lawless on Flickr
Another university, this time Toronto, has announced a ban on bottled water, continuing what must be the most overblown crusade since, well, the actual Crusades.
It’s hard to think of another product where the campaign against it is so out of proportion to the potential harm. Unlike smoking cigarettes — which was banned from professors’ offices when I was an undergraduate — drinking water is not unhealthy in itself. Just the reverse: it’s a vital nutrient. Moreover, unlike smoking, consuming water indoors doesn’t put anyone’s health in jeopardy.
Advocates for the water bans say that bottled water is wasteful because one can get water from taps, which is, of course, true. But if eliminating waste is the issue, why stop — or indeed start — with bottled water? Why not ban cars from campus in favour of bikes? Why not ban paper cups? Why not ban paper textbooks and force students to save paper by reading only electronic versions?
Indeed, if waste is the issue, why focus on a product so eminently recyclable? Are there universities in Canada where plastic bottles aren’t recyclable? And if the problem is that people aren’t being diligent about which bin they’re putting their empties in, the solution should be to convince people of the merits of careful recycling rather than banning a recyclable product.
But even if I conceded that bottled water were a bad thing in itself, and even if I agreed that people were entirely incorrigible when it comes to distinguishing types of garbage, it seems unlikely that a bottled-water ban will help. While it’s nice to imagine that in the absence of bottled water, all the water drinkers will have refillable bottles with them at all times, I think it’s just as likely that those who had been drinking bottled water will bring bottled water from home, or switch to other drinks like cola and iced tea which, by the way, also come in bottles, and are less healthy than water to boot.
I’m not arguing against bringing your own refillable container if that’s your thing. Save money, reduce waste, and feel superior. And start an advertising campaign to encourage others to do likewise if you want. Point out that bottled water may be a thousand times more expensive than tap water, that municipal water supplies may actually be safer than bottled water because they are monitored more closely. Point out that a lot of bottled water is essentially just tap water anyway.
But we have crossed a line when when what seems like a good idea to some becomes a necessity for all. If you don’t like bottled water, don’t buy it. And try to convince others not to buy it.
But don’t insist that I can’t buy it either.
Guelph wins “Weed Olympics”
Not that kind of weed…
Four students from the University of Guelph have been named the “Best Student Weed Scientists in North America.” They won the gold medal at the 2011 Weed Olympics held in Knoxville, Tenn. earlier this summer, beating out 17 other schools, according to the university. Among other tests of their skills, the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) students had to identify over 100 weed species and discern an herbicide from a list of 30. Guelph was the only Canadian school to compete.
Lukács decision a blow to academic integrity: Pettigrew
Professor protested PhD of student who failed exam
Photo courtesy of steakpinball on Flickr
Gábor Lukács’s case against the University of Manitoba has been dismissed. The mathematics professor took his school to court over the awarding of a PhD to a student who had failed a required exam. The court has ruled that Lukács does not have legal standing in the case.
The ruling, which suggests that professors have few options when it comes to challenging decisions made by deans, is a setback to those fighting for academic integrity in Canada.
Lukács made national news when he challenged the U of M for awarding a PhD to a student who had failed a comprehensive exam and, it later turned out, had not completed all the required coursework. Normally, such a student would have had to leave the program, but because the student later produced documentation related to “exam anxiety” the normal requirements for the degree were waived and the student graduated — despite the concerns that had been raised.
I have been critical of the university since the news of the case broke last year, and repeatedly found their arguments in their own defence to be unconvincing. More importantly, though, the Lukács case demonstrates the extent to which professors at Canadian universities are remarkably powerless to defend the academic principles we need them to defend.
In this case, the dean made a decision to award a degree to a student who, by all accounts, including those of the university’s own spokespeople and the judge in the court case, had not met the ordinary requirements set out in the university’s regulations. No one unfamiliar with the details of the situation could object that the university had gone too far, because they didn’t know the details. Anyone who did know what was going on couldn’t say anything about it because the university considers that a violation of the student’s right to privacy.
And if a morally courageous professor complains anyway, as Lukács did, the university can invoke its confidentiality policies and suspend him without pay, in essence imposing a massive fine. If he tries to fight in court, he’s told it’s none of his business. In short, if a professor believes a degree has been unjustly awarded, there’s not much he can do about it.
All of this matters immensely because if professors can’t fight for academic integrity when they disagree with a dean or other administrator, who’s left to do it? There are still some white hats in the stables of university leadership, to be sure, but administrators are increasingly corporate-style executives whose attention tends to focus more and more heavily on things like fiscal management and branding. Students, some of whom may care, come and go over just a few years and neither see the big problems nor have time to fight the big fights.
Professors, for the most part, still care deeply about profound intellectual values. They couldn’t have come this far if they didn’t. But when administrators make academic decisions despite the judgements of the scholars closest to students, and when they can hide behind confidentiality policies and legal maneuverings, the future of academic integrity in this country does not look bright.
Britons say $14,400 tuition not worth it
More than 70 universities are charging new maximum
Only 29 per cent of British adults believe that a university education is worth £9,000 ( $14,431) a year, while 56 per cent believe that it isn’t worth that much and fifteen per cent are unsure, according to a new poll by YouGov that was reported on by Times Higher Education.
The news comes as British students enter a school year in which more than 70 universities are charging the new maximum tuition rate of £9,000 ($14,431) a year. When the cap was raised from £3,350 ($5,376) earlier this year, Britain’s Business Secratary had predicted that schools would only choose to charge that amount “in exceptional circumstances.” That proved to be untrue.
Brits are also divided when asked how graduates will fare in the long term, with 42 per cent agreeing that they “will end up worse off in the long term, as their increased earnings will be outweighed by the cost of going to university.” Forty per cent disagree and 18 per cent are unsure.
McGill workers could strike
Union represents student affairs, lab support and housing
McGill University’s student affairs, course registration, lab support and residence management workers have voted in favour of a strike mandate, meaning a strike would now be legal. More than 1,700 workers belong to the Non-Academic Certified Association, which has been without a contract since 2010. They want pension and benefits protection, scheduling rights and a “proper wage scale,” according to their union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada. They will meet with McGill negotiators today.
Tornado prevents exam on natural disasters
Test was to take place in Goderich, Ont.
Photo courtesy of PhotoJunkie! on Flickr
Zak Ashley, a 19-year-old University of Windsor student, missed his exam on natural disasters due, ironically, to the tornado that tore through Goderich, Ont. on Sunday, reports The Windsor Star.
The resident of nearby Wingham was supposed to take the distance education environmental science exam at a United Church in Goderich on Monday, but he didn’t show up because he believed that the church had been destroyed by the storm. In fact, it was another United Church in town that was damaged. The school will allow him to write the test in the fall instead.
Guelph students offered residence in hotel
Crunch results from 10 per cent year-over-year growth
Sixty-four University of Guelph students will be staying at the Best Western hotel this year.
Residences are full because more students than usual have accepted admission offers — 10.1 per cent more than last year. The school guarantees residence to all first-year students.
Best Western will rename a wing of the hotel Brock House. Students will pay Guelph the standard double-room rate of $5,640 for the eight-month school year, reports the Guelph Mercury.
York arms security staff with batons
Lower enrollment follows violent crimes
York University will arm its security staff with handcuffs, batons and bulletproof vests. It’s an effort to make students feel safer on campus.
One unnamed source told The Toronto Star that the move is clearly being made to fight future enrollment drops that could stem from perceptions that York is unsafe after high-profile crimes on and near the Toronto campus this year. Wallace Pidgeon, an official York spokesperson, refutes this claim.*
As of August 3, 40 fewer students had confirmed enrollment at York than had one year earlier, according to the Ontario University Application Centre. That’s a 0.6 per cent drop in a year when confirmations grew by 2.0 per cent overall.
Is this what 17-year-old students are really like?
List about mindset of incoming class has a few mistakes
Photo courtesy of icanteachyouhowtodoit on Flickr
Beloit College has released its annual Mindset List. It’s supposed to provide professors with a window into the minds of their incoming class, so that they can avoid dated references.
But this year’s list, about those born in 1993, seems to show us more about what professors think the new generation is like, than what they’re actually like. I know — my younger brother is a 17-year-old first-year student. The list doesn’t reflect him or his friends very well at all.
Here are five items that show the Mindset List may be out of touch:
1. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
This seems to imply that kids these days don’t know John Hughes. In fact, the 2009 Canadian documentary Don’t You Forget About Me showed that Hughes classics — particularly Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — resonate with today’s teenagers as much as they did with the teens of 1986.
2. The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.
It may be true that few teens were bothered by the recent Canada Post strike. But British Columbian teens will likely remember the two weeks they got off when their teachers struck in 2005. Others will recall when the cast of Jersey Shore picketed to increase their salaries from $10,000 per episode.
3. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
This seems to imply that young people in Canada have used dial-up. Most of them have not. Even for those a decade older (like me), the otherworldly buzz-and-whir of modems is a distant memory.
4. Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers.
As a 26-year-old older sibling, I myself was too young to enjoy The Mickey Mouse Club. However, I am old enough to remember when the dance moves in the video “Baby One More Time” were considered too risque for a 16-year-old Britney.
5. They pressured their parents to take them to Taco Bell or Burger King to get free pogs.
How could they have? It was 1994 when Canadian newspapers reported on the milk-cap flipping craze and the subsequent banning of them in schools. The Class of 2015 would have been in diapers and without the needed motor skills in 1994. Never mind the vocabulary to bug their parents.
