All Posts Tagged With: "Queen’s"
Queen’s strike averted
University and workers reach tentative agreement
Photo courtesy of Julep67 on Flickr.
Queen’s University has arrived at a tentative agreement with 430 of its workers, avoiding a possible lock-out or strike.
The workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), include Queen’s maintenance and custodial staff, lab and library technicians, and residence staff. They have been without contacts since the end of June.
According to the Queen’s Journal, university administration and CUPE have been in negotiations since January, finally reaching a tentative agreement Saturday at noon. The agreement must be ratified by union members before details can be released.
“Our goal was to bargain effectively and fairly to reach a deal so our members can continue to provide the vital services that have helped build Queen’s reputation,” said Donna Carlaw, CUPE national representative, said in a release. “We have achieved this goal through perseverance and strong solidarity with our three locals and we want to thank everyone involved.”
Daniel Woolf, Queen’s University Principal, was also pleased the two sides could reach a settlement, saying, “These tentative agreements are a testament to the hard work and commitment of the negotiating teams and I want to thank everyone involved.
“The fact that the teams were willing and able to work through some significant issues speaks to a powerful, mutual commitment to the institution.”
Is this the biggest history geek ever?
Queen’s student writes exam in full armour
A video on YouTube captures the giggles of fellow students at Queen’s University when a student strode into his medieval history examination last month wearing a full suit of armour. The video, entitled Going to War by Mastadufus, has received nearly 2,000 hits. The student was met by an entertained exam proctor who quipped, “You know you lose your knighthood if you fail, right?” According to the The Kingston Herald, Medieval Studies is growing in popularity at Queen’s, as evidenced by a new minor in the subject that was approved in May.
Alcohol was a factor in two student deaths at Queen’s
The university should address “culture of drinking,” says coroner
A coroner in Kingston, Ont. has ruled that alcohol was a factor in two recent student deaths at Queen’s University — and he’s calling on the school to address the “culture of drinking” on campus. Chief coroner Roger Skinner looked at both the safety of buildings on campus and the level of drinking by students when deciding what caused two young men to plunge to their deaths. Cameron Bruce, 18, died on Sept. 14, 2010 after falling out of a university residence window. Habib Khan, 19, of Saudi Arabia, died on Dec. 2, 2010 when he crashed through a library skylight. Among the coroner’s recommendations are that student safety be removed from the jurisdiction of the student judiciary, which is part of the student government. Queen’s Principal Daniel Wolf wrote a blog post today in which he said he takes the coroner’s recommendations seriously, but did not say whether the jurisdiction for safety would change. Here’s an excerpt from the post:
“Like other universities across North America, we are wrestling with the societal issue of alcohol consumption and excessive drinking in the student-aged population. Queen’s, like other universities, encourages safe and responsible decision-making and good citizenship, and discourages under-age drinking. We expect students to adhere to our Code of Conduct and community standards in residence.”
Photo courtesy of angelocesare on Flickr.
Student falls to death at Queen’s
A second student was injured but remains in stable condition
One student has died and another injured after the two fell through a library skylight at Queen’s University’s Duncan McArthur Hall. The university identified the victim as 19 year old Habib Khan who died in hospital Thursday night. Khan is a Canadian citizen with family in Saudi Arabia. The other student who was injured has been identified as 18 year old Stephen Nagy of Mississauga, who remains in stable condition. “Our hearts and prayers are with Habib and Stephen’s families and friends,” Principal Daniel Woolf said. “This is a terrible tragedy.” The university has lowered flags in remembrance of Khan. Queen’s has not released information as to why the students were on the roof of the McArthur building.
Hoping to get into med school?
Don’t be born in Ontario
For med school hopefuls, Ontario might seem like the perfect province to live in.
There are 17 med schools in the country. Six of those are in Ontario, more than any other province. But as I recently discovered, being born in Ontario is actually a huge handicap.
Most med schools prefer applicants from their own province. It makes sense: if you train local doctors, you produce local doctors. It’s not unusual to reserve 85 percent or even 90 percent of the available seats for in-province applicants. Most med schools even have higher entrance requirements for out-of-province applicants.
Everyone likes their own brand.
Except for Ontario. Not a single med school in Ontario reserves spots for Ontario applicants.
On the surface, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario might seem like exceptions to the rule. On it’s website, Northern says that it encourages applications from “students who are from Northern Ontario and/or students who have a strong interest in and aptitude for practicing medicine in northern urban, rural and remote communities.” Western Ontario gives special consideration to applicants from “rural/regional communities in Southwestern Ontario.”
But neither of these med schools actually reserve spots for in-province applicants. Not to mention, those “rural and remote” communities that Northern Ontario mentions could actually be anywhere across Canada.
McMaster’s policy is a bit more complicated. They don’t actually reserve med school spots for in-province applicants. Instead, they award 90 percent of interview positions for Ontario residents.
Yeah, I know. I had to read that twice, too.
It means that once you reach the interview stage, it doesn’t matter which province you’re from.
Even if McMaster offered a genuine advantage to in-province applicants, it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway. With over 4500 applicants and a success rate of 4.9 per cent in 2006/2007, getting into McMaster is like winning the med school lottery.
Queen’s cans dialogue facilitator program
Students and faculty felt the university atmosphere was “poisoned,” says committee
After outcry from students and faculty, and on recommendations made by an advisory panel, Queen’s University is cancelling its dialogue facilitator program.
In an announcement made Feb. 11, Patrick Deane, vice-president academic for the university said the Intergroup Dialogue Pilot Program in Residences will be terminated, although its six trained facilitators will complete their year’s engagement by assisting “generally” with diversity issues.
The program was introduced in response to a series of racist incidents at the school, including derogatory vandalism on university and student property and an attack on a faculty member.
It drew immediate attention from the media and in December, the university assembled an advisory panel made up of a student representative, a former political science professor, and a law school alumnus who is also a former Ontario Cabinet minister and former chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
In their final report, the group stated that while they found no evidence of unwarranted intrusion into students’ privacy in residence, the impression conveyed by the media and shared by faculty and graduates was that the program invited it.
“Many members of the university community found that this possibility made them feel very uncomfortable and that it poisoned the university atmosphere,” said the group’s report. “The adverse reaction to [the program] on campus and outside has damaged its credibility so severely that even the pilot stage should be discontinued.”
When the program was first announced, some public officials publicly supported it, although with various caveats
Barbara Hall, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission said it sounded like an “innovative tool” that could be effective if done well by well-trained people. However, she said students were going to have to feel comfortable with the initiative.
In its final conclusions, the panel said alternative means of confronting diversity issues in residences should be explored. However, the report’s final statement warns against initiating programs that appear to threaten full expression and exchange of ideas on campus, which should never be implemented at the expense of the university’s academic mission.
New York Times weighs in on Queen’s party “problem”
Former city councilor combats late-night revelry by posting photos on the Internet
The issue of noisy student partying at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. has spilled onto the pages of the New York Times in the form of a letter to the high-profile columnist “The Ethicist.”
Randy Cohen, who tackles ethical dilemmas ranging from wedding present re-gifting to kidney donation etiquette, was sent a letter by Robert May regarding the university town’s late-night parties.
According to the letter, an unnamed former Kingston city councilor tries to combat the “scourge” of rowdy students by posting photographs of them on the Internet.
“Because he takes his photographs in public places and does not identify anyone by name, he is not breaking any laws,” writes May. “However, there is much discussion on campus about the ethics of his actions. Thoughts?”
In response, Cohen says he finds it ethically troubling that the pictures were posted by a former city councilor, which hints at an official response to the rambunctious parties. Even if the person were not a former official, he says the choice to make the photos public was still unwise.
“In our youth, we all did things at parties that we would not want published in the newspaper. (If you didn’t, the parties you attended were too tepid.),” writes Cohen. He does, however, say “noise complaints should be taken seriously; loud parties can heighten tensions between town and gown.”
He suggests the former councilor/photographer take other, nonpunitive, measures to combat any disruptive partying, including encouraging the university to provide venues where loud, boisterous students will not bother neighbours.
Last week Queen’s University cancelled its popular fall homecoming celebrations for two years as the unofficial festivities grew progressively more out of control. In 2005, a car was rolled and burned. This year, nearly 140 people were arrested, almost 700 others received liquor-related fines and 23 severely intoxicated people needed to be taken to hospital.
Cohen ends his article with some advice for the university and its administration.
“Solid advanced planning can be more successful . . . than an irate reaction from a camera-happy quasi official on a Saturday night.”
