All Posts Tagged With: "Halifax"
What students are talking about today (December 11th edition)
University dean suspended, Christmas cards for criminals and more Ikea monkey
1. Your obligatory Darwin the monkey news roundup: In a little over two days since his spontaneous romp through a Toronto Ikea parking lot, the rhesus macaque monkey has achieved international celebrity, even getting the Daily Mail treatment usually reserved for footballers’ wives. Darwin is headed for a sanctuary northeast of Toronto, but the Canadian Press reports that his owner wants him back. Enough monkey business – get back to studying.
2. The University of Windsor announced Monday that education dean Clinton Beckford has been suspended “in recognition of an academic integrity breach involving plagiarism.” University of Windsor president Alan Wildeman told the Windsor Star Beckford will return as “a contributing member of the faculty,” though not as dean, but wouldn’t say how the incident came to the university’s attention. Beckford’s unpaid suspension will last until June 30, 2014.
Continue reading What students are talking about today (December 11th edition)
Halifax’s “Dawg Father” counting on the student vote
Hot dog vendor (and convict) is running for city council
Reddick (www.thedf.ca)
Students know him as The Dawg Father, PhD (professional hot dogger), and while they may not all eat from his eponymous grill at Dalhousie University, they know Jerry Anthony Reddick. The man has become a minor celebrity among students at Halifax’s universities.
This fall, The Dawg Father has cooked up something new: a plan to get elected to city council by campaigning on student issues, like the cost of education and affordable housing.
The timing seems ripe. On Saturday, for the first time in Halifax’s history, the majority of the city’s 35,000 post-secondary students will be eligible to vote in municipal elections.
While some on campus would welcome an advocate on city council, others are wary. With ten criminal convictions, The Dawg Father has a history of clashing with Halifax law enforcement, which he details on his website where he says he owes the city more than $80,000 for traffic tickets and also asserts that the “po-po” have “evil intentions” for him due to “systemic racism.”
Continue reading Halifax’s “Dawg Father” counting on the student vote
Basement speakeasies and living room cafés
Halifax graduates turn to the underground economy
David Figueroa by Sándor Fizli
By Veronica Simmonds
Jess Ross graduated from Dalhousie University in 2009, straight into one of the worst economies in a generation. Her degree in anthropology hardly made her a standout in a Halifax job market with an unemployment rate nearing 15 per cent.
“My only options were to go back to the job I didn’t want to go back to, work for a catering company, get a master’s degree, or just do something on my own. Which I guess was the moment I tapped into my entrepreneurial spirit,” she says.
She and some friends set up a farm stand on Agricola Street in Halifax’s North End neighbourhood and started selling her homemade, German-style bread. They conduct their business under the table, without concern for the legalities of zoning or taxation.
Nova Scotia police search for missing King’s student
Update: Kashmala Fida found safe in Truro
Kashmala Fida from active8halifax on YouTube
Update on July 13 at 9 a.m.: Truro Police say Fida was found in good health at a local home on Thursday evening around 5 p.m.
Kashmala Fida, 21, hasn’t been seen her since she dropped her mother off at work on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at Colchester Regional Hospital. Her mother’s car, which she had been driving, was found in the hospital parking lot.
Insp. Rob Hearn of Truro Police told Halifax’s Chronicle Herald newspaper that “there’s nothing suspicious.” Still, they would like people to call 902-895-5351 if they see the five-foot-seven, 128 pound South Asian woman.
Originally from Pakistan, Fida worked with charities such as Even Wars Have Limits, a Red Cross group dedicated to protecting victims of war. She can discussed her volunteerism in this video.
Sexually transmitted infections rise in N.S.
What’s behind the increase?
Photo by ♪ Brigitte...Meh ♫ on Flickr
Health officials in Halifax aren’t sure why they’ve seen a rise in sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and syphilis. Are people having riskier sex? Is testing catching more cases?
Chlamydia cases reported in Halifax climbed 20 per cent over the past five years and rates in the city are 30 per cent higher than the national average, CBC News reported last year.
On Wednesday, Todd Hatchette, an infectious diseases expert with Dalhousie University, told The Chronicle Herald that better testing could simply be catching more chlamydia.
Continue reading Sexually transmitted infections rise in N.S.
Halifax students make latest Wikileaks dump
Consulate chronicles ‘militant student group’ involvement in 2003 anti-war protests
It seems someone is paying attention to student protests after all.
In this case, that “someone” is the American consulate in Halifax, which chronicled a 2003 anti-war protest held by “militant student groups, church groups, and the self-styled ‘Halifax Peace Coalition.’” In a document released this past Thursday, the consulate describes three “major” anti-war demonstrations in March 2003. The demonstrations were described as nonviolent, though participants “engaged in strong anti-U.S. rhetoric and burned U.S. flags on several occasions.” The cable also notes demonstrators as chanting, banging drums, sounding air horns, and throwing bags of paint.
Come now, silly U.S. consulate! We all know that no student group in Atlantic Canada would ever participate in cheap stunts like that!
The cable concludes with the consulate’s acknowledgement that “militant student groups” and the “Halifax Peace Coalition” intend to demonstrate every Saturday, and that the consulate is in communication with the RCMP and Halifax police.
Undergrad enrolment up at Atlantic universities
Four-year slide ends, includes “remarkable” jump in international students
Universities in Atlantic Canada are reporting higher enrolment figures for the 2009-10 school year.
The Association of Atlantic Universities said Thursday its preliminary survey shows universities had a 1.5 per cent increase in undergraduate enrolment.
It says that ends a four-year decline.
The association said universities are also reporting an increase in graduate students, up by 5.4 per cent, and what it describes as a “remarkable” jump in international students, which is up by 16.5 per cent.
Colin Dodds, president of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax and chairman of the association, said the enrolment increases reflect the work schools are doing in marketing themselves.
“These positive enrolment results indicate the reputation of our universities for high quality programs and unique student experience is growing across Canada and worldwide,” he said in a news release.
He said he also believes that students and their families recognize the importance of a university education in the emerging knowledge-based economy.
- The Canadian Press
McDonough named interim president at Halifax university
Former provincial and federal NDP leader takes the reins at Mount Saint Vincent
Alexa McDonough, the former provincial and federal NDP leader, will be taking over as interim president of Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax starting in August.
McDonough will serve as the university’s president for one year while the school looks for a permanent replacement for former president Kathryn Laurin, who was recently announced as the new president of British Columbia’s Camosun College.
Janet MacMillan, chair of the university’s board of governors, told the CBC that McDonough won’t be just a figurehead.
“She’s very much going to come in and provide the leadership and the continuity,” she said. “We’re in the middle of a capital campaign, so to keep that momentum going is really important to us.”
McDonough became the first woman to lead a recognized political party in Canada when she was elected as the leader of Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1980. She held that position for 14 years, and was elected as the leader of the federal NDP in 1995, where she led until 2003. She was a Member of Parliament for Halifax until 2008.
Last month, she received an honorary degree from MSVU.
