All Posts Tagged With: "university of alberta"
Canada’s best teachers: Scott North
This 3M winner has a unique talent for attracting students to oncology
In 1986, to recognize the importance of university teaching, the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and 3M Canada created the 3M National Teaching Fellowships. Ten university faculty members are recognized each year for their educational leadership and exceptional contributions to teaching. Here we continue our series profiling all 10 of the 2011 3M Teaching Award winners, with a look at Scott North, an oncology professor at the University of Alberta.
One of the worst mistakes a professor can make is “overteaching the topic,” says University of Alberta oncology professor Scott North. Many professors “teach to a level of detail that is much above what the average person needs to know and in so doing . . . they turn [students] off.” The critical skill for teachers is to know when “less is more.”
North favours comparing his own approach to a tree. “There are branches which are concepts and there are leaves which are detailed information.” The same way trees shed and renew their leaves every year, details are always in flux. “The branches, or concepts, remain present,” he says. “Teach the student the fundamentals and you will provide them the tools to find out the details.”
Recalling that during medical school he wasn’t particularly interested in oncology—only choosing his specialization during his residency—North takes great care to emphasize to his students that he is not trying to turn them all into oncologists. He points out that nearly everyone has been affected by cancer, and that his goal is to help students become well-rounded doctors with a firm understanding of how to “work with cancer patients in a way that improves the doctor/patient relationship.”
While it might be fashionable for educators today to dismiss the lecture format as outdated, North recognizes that lectures are “still useful teaching vehicles” that “are efficient when trying to get information across to a large number of learners.” At the same time he does his best to pepper his lectures with humour and anecdotes.
Practical teaching methods also feature heavily in North’s classrooms. He brings in patients to discuss their illnesses, and regularly enlists actors so that medical students can practice diagnosing patients, hone their bedside manner, and learn how to deliver bad news. As he teaches students during the pre-clinical part of their degree, such experience is invaluable.
“This helps to introduce skills and topics that might be either emotionally difficult or uncomfortable to students so they can experience it and learn before having to do it on real patients,” he says.
Shaun Loewen, a radiation oncology resident, who took a course with North in 2004, says his classic undersell of oncology as a career, North’s skills as a lecturer, and his desire to fully prepare students to enter clinical training are what led him to become an oncologist himself: “I view my experiences in Professor North’s oncology course as the seminal event that pointed me towards a career in oncology.”
Canada’s best teachers: Billy Strean
This 3M winner emphasizes ‘full-body engagement’
In 1986, to recognize the importance of university teaching, the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and 3M Canada created the 3M National Teaching Fellowships. Ten university faculty members are recognized each year for their educational leadership and exceptional contributions to teaching. Here we continue our series profiling all 10 of the 2011 3M Teaching Award winners, with a look at Billy Strean, a physical education professor at the University of Alberta.
If you ask Billy Strean what he teaches, there’s a good chance he will simply say “students.” The University of Alberta physical education professor takes great care to learn as much about his students as he can, typically learning all their names after only a couple of classes. “I find the students more interesting than ‘content’ and I find the process of engaging with the students to be the heart of the learning enterprise,” he says.
At the centre of that enterprise is what Strean calls “exhilarated learning.” The approach features three pegs. The first is “human connection” where Strean spends time getting to know his students and encouraging them to get to know each other.
The second is what he calls “full-body engagement,” or “the synergy of thinking, feeling, and acting.” Here he emphasizes the “mood of the classroom” by playing music, using humour, and employing experiential and group activities. To illustrate flow theory, for example, students may be asked to juggle in class.
Third, Strean “connects content to context.” What matters is not only that students learn the material, but that they understand why it is important. “When the focus is too heavily on the content, a pitfall is trying to ‘cover the material’ at the expense of uncovering meaning and building understanding,” he says.
Strean’s suitability for the classroom is unmistakable. Unlike most university professors, he earned a teaching certificate along with his bachelor of arts, and he has been coaching basketball, soccer, and a variety of other sports since he was 16. His doctorate is in sport and exercise psychology.
Strean’s enthusiasm for teaching combined with a charming personality, infectious smile and magnetic presence leaves his students more than a little taken with him. Shelby Stollery who took a third-year class with Strean called, “Structure and Strategy of Games” describes what she calls a “ridiculous enthusiasm.” He frequently opens classes with a dance, a joke, or by blasting baroque music.
“One day we played ‘historical basketball’ and started off by playing the original game with the original rules from the 1800’s,” she says. “We didn’t even realize how much we were learning because we were having too much fun.”
Another student refers to “the awesomeness that is ‘The Strean,’” while yet another calls him an “amazing human being.”
High praise, but it all stems from Strean’s simple student-centred philosophy: “People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.”
Mice infestation plagues UAlberta
Mice spotted in Tory Building by graduate students and staff
As if coming back from reading week wasn’t bad enough: students and staff at the University of Alberta now have to contend with one of the worst mice infestations on campus in recent history.
According to campus paper The Gateway, graduate students and staff have witnessed mice eating left-over food and have found waste left behind by the critters in the offices of the Tory Building. Ray Dumouchel, Associate Director of Building and Grounds Service, told The Gateway that the infestation is the worst he’s seen at the U of A:
“It’s not just in Tory; it’s an issue that’s happening not just here on campus but across the city [ ... ],” Dumouchel said, though he said he couldn’t explain why the mice population was so much larger this year than in the past. “We’re trying to control it throughout the campus, but it is something that, talking to our pest control company that does all the work here, is a large problem across the city.”
Baiting stations have been set up in the lower floors of the Tory Building, and while offices in the building are typically only cleaned once every two weeks, Dumouchel said that if mice are spotted, the office will be cleaned daily till the mice are gone. He is also asking students and staff to keep their offices tidy and crumb-free, requesting that all food be kept sealed for the time being.
UBC tone deaf over concussed hockey player
After Liambas hit, university hockey gets national attention for all the wrong reasons
Friday night at a local hockey game, two players got into a fight. One was bloodied up, while the other one walks away smiling.
Pretty simple right? Probably happens dozens of times every night across this country. Probably has for decades.
Except the game was a university match between UBC and Alberta. The Alberta player who was bloodied up was also concussed, courtesy of his head hitting the ice. And the UBC player doling out the punishment was Mike Liambas, best known for being kicked out of the Ontario Hockey League after a bodycheck that fractured the skull of Kitchener’s Ben Fanelli (the video is not for the faint of heart).
And now, university hockey gets national headlines, for all the wrong reasons.
I wasn’t at the game, but from talking to people who were, it seems that Liambas didn’t do anything more vicious then what you would normally see in a fight (take that for what you will). And Liambas, despite his reputation, is a smart kid (an honours student in high school), who was looking forward to going to school, playing hockey, and moving on from a moment that made him a national symbol for violence in hockey.
“After everything I’ve been through, the best route for my life right now is for some mental stability and just settling it down for a bit,” he told The Ubyssey last year. “I’m getting my school done and paid for and I’m still playing hockey. I’ll be able to work on the offensive side of my game, instead of worrying about fighting.”
Now, he’s being called a “bad-boy” in the Toronto Sun, someone who “couldn’t control his base urges” by respected junior hockey writer Neate Sager, and generally derided coast to coast. Again.
But for his faults, Liambas shouldn’t be the story here. Alberta captain Eric Hunter is the one with the concussion.
“I have a kid [Hunter] in business, an honour’s student and an academic all-Canadian,” his head coach said to The Globe and Mail after the game. “What happens with him going to school? With his exams? Hockey is hockey. These guys are preparing for academic life. What if he has to sit out the semester?”
To date, UBC has been silent, outside of head coach Milan Dragicevic. He defended Liambas, arguing that Hunter speared him first, and that while he doesn’t condone his actions, “right or wrong, quick decisions are made on the ice and sometimes they are not the right decisions. Maybe Michael Liambas has to control his emotions a little bit more on the ice but, as a person, you’re not going to find a more outstanding individual.”
I’m sorry, but here’s a player who once gave an opponent a fractured skull, has now concussed an opponent to national attention, and the only acknowledgment of wrong-doing is first blaming the other guy for starting it, before saying “Liambas has to control his emotions a little bit more on the ice.”
If that’s only response anyone from from the university is going to make, it’s tone deaf to the seriousness of concussions. We’re having a national conversation about headshots, UBC has been placed into it, whether they like it or not. This isn’t 1990, or 2005, or even 2010.
It’s 2011, where on the first day of the year Sidney Crosby got hit in the head and hit the ice hard, a few days later he hit the ice again, and since then hasn’t played.
It’s 2011, where former Pro Bowl defensive back Dave Duerson can shoot himself in the head, write a suicide note that reads “PLEASE, SEE THAT MY BRAIN IS GIVEN TO THE NFL’S BRAIN BANK,” and everyone understands that neurologists will see if the effects of repeated concussions caused him to lose mental acumen.
We’re now at the point the only defense against soft-pedaling the impact that concussions can have on the body is ignorance. A decade’s worth of studies have shown that there is no greater risk to an athlete’s long-term health then whether his head gets smashed around. As the Globe’s Stephen Brunt puts it:
Apologies to those bored by the concussion conversation, but there’s the troubling truth once again. Blow out a knee and someone will try to repair it, someone will lay out a timetable of healing and rehab and therapy and provide a pretty solid answer as to when you might be back at full strength and the chances that you might be just like new again.
Injure your brain and there’s none of the above, and the answer to that last part is sometimes never.
I understand that when you coach a team your support for players is unconditional. And I know that, by all accounts, Liambas did not attempt to seriously injure. But I hope that Dragicevic does not speak for UBC, or university hockey coaches in general, when it comes to soft-pedaling concussions and fighting. The risks our best and brightest face are too serious to dismiss in that way.
UPDATE: Well, that didn’t take long for the other shoe to drop, as Liambas has decided to leave UBC. From the Vancouver Sun…
Controversial forward Michael Liambas, who has a history of violence on the ice, has left the UBC Thunderbirds hockey program after just one season. Liambas, 22, was involved in another incident last Friday against the Alberta Golden Bears in which he injured Bears captain Eric Hunter in an altercation…
“Michael has decided to leave UBC and pursue professional hockey,” Dragicevic confirmed Wednesday, offering no further comment.
Alberta freezes student assistance, operating grants
CAUS says budget does not improve access to university
While post secondary education in Alberta may have faired better with this year’s provincial budget than in 2010, some student representatives are still concerned that the funding allocated is not enough to make up for last year’s drastic cuts.
The ministry of Advanced Education and Technology saw a 1.2 per cent increase to its operational support budget, which covers basic operational funding for Alberta post secondary education. However, funding for student assistance programs and operating grants to universities and colleges have been held at 2010 levels.
The budget also saw payouts from the Access to the Future Fund, an endowment created in 2005 to match private donations to post secondary institutions, suspended for two years, leaving $700 worth of donations left in limbo, according to the Edmonton Journal.
While spending for some programs in the Advanced Education and Technology ministry saw a slight increase, overall the department’s budget, totaled at $3 billion for 2011–12, saw a 9.6 per cent, or $320 million, decrease from last year. This was due to lower capital grants with projects such as the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Trades and Technology Complex nearing completion.
Last year’s budget saw universities scrambling to cover their costs, with provincial funding to the University of Alberta and University of Calgary lowered by $27 million and $7.8 million respectively.
Hardave Birk, chair of the Council of Alberta University Students (CAUS), said he is worried that last year’s funding cuts, including $54 million from grants and bursaries for students, were not restored this year. He says this will result in heavier debt loads for some students and make it “tougher and tougher for students to access post secondary education.”
“This was definitely a step forward from what happened last year, but no where near far enough,” he said. Birk explained that ultimately, the CAUS would like to see the funding that was cut from post secondary education last year fully renewed “and would like the government to even go further.”
“At the end of the day, we want the government to increase access, and we want more people going into post secondary education in Alberta.”
Kim Capstick, spokesperson for the Alberta Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology, said that overall, the ministry was pleased to see a slight increase to their program expenses “considering the fiscal times.”
She pointed out that the province is still feeling the effects of the economic recession, and that the levels of funding CAUS is calling for is simply unavailable. “If there were more money available, we’d love to put more money into some of these programs, but the fact of the matter is, there isn’t more money available,” she said.
UAlberta speaks out on grading dispute
Under no circumstances are grades changed ‘arbitrarily,’ says dean of science
University of Alberta dean of science Gregory Taylor recently issued a response to Gateway editor Jonn Kmech’s editorial on the grading dispute between the university and math professor Mikhail Kovalyov.
It should be recalled that Kovalyov was asked to resign after informing his students that their grades were lowered by administrators without his support. The changes made by administrators in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences resulted in the class average for the professor’s first year course to drop from 2.16 to 1.79, while the university’s grading policy suggests an average of 2.62 for courses at the same level.
In his editorial, Kmech argued that, “While it’s currently the department’s prerogative to approve the final grades, if they can lower the marks by bulk like this, there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all.”
Science dean Taylor responds that Kmech’s editorial suggests that administrators change instructor’s grades at random to fit a grading curve, which Taylor argues, “is simply not the case.”
“There is no policy that requires a quota of As, Bs, Cs, and so on in a course or across sections of a course,” Taylor states.
However, as noted in our original story, the explanation given by faculty services officer David McNeilly for altering the grades, was that Kovalyov awarded too many B grades and “failed to include any grades of C-, D+, or D,” which clearly suggests a grading curve.
The university’s grading policy posted on its website also outlines suggested distributions of grades for undergraduate courses. Although professors are not expected to follow the distribution “exactly,” guidelines suggest that in a first year class, six per cent of students will fail, nine per cent will receive a B and four per cent will be awarded an A+.
Judging by evidence presented in the Kovalyov case and the university’s grading policy itself, Taylor’s argument that a grading curve does not exist at the U of A is not a very strong one.
Will university webmail ever die?
Despite drop in usage, email remains most reliable way for universities to keep in touch with students
If the university webmail at my school, the University of Manitoba, is any reflection of how inconvenient university webmail can be for students, it may not paint a very good picture. It frequently goes down, students don’t often check it, and seems very rudimentary compared to the sophisticated messaging systems most students are used to.
This may not be the case for students at the University of Alberta in the near future, where the university’s webmail is set to switch to Google Apps by the end of January. The switch follows a yearlong negotiation between the internet giant and the U of A to ensure Google’s operating system was compatible with the university’s. Along with an updated email service, students will also have access to the extras that Google Apps offers, including the use of Google Docs, the ability to share calendars, and will even be able to make phone calls with their university email service.
“What I’m hoping is that we can use this as an opportunity to get faculty, staff, and students using next generation tools,” U of A associate vice president (information and technology) Jonathan Schaeffer told U of A student newspaper The Gateway.
While the switch has the potential to save the U of A money and cut down on maintenance work for IT staff, it may also help the university keep up with increasingly tech savvy students, with whom email may not even be the best way to keep in touch with anymore. According to Inside Higher Education, several technologists are questioning the continued use of institutional email systems when students are communicating less and less via e-mail and making increasing use of more informal messaging systems such as Facebook and text messaging.
However, email is still unlikely to disappear as universities’ preferred mode of communication with students, as it still remains a better medium for more formal messages to students from instructors and administrators. Ed Garay, assistant director for academic computing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, explained that the brevity of texting and instant messaging might not be effective for communicating detailed messages to students, such as notices from financial aid, student affairs or health officials. He also pointed out that universities still need a system that is able to archive these messages in a reliable and secure way.
Cameron Evans, a top technology officer at Microsoft, also told Inside Higher Education that the slew of ways now used by students to communicate “does not hammer in a death nail for email,” explaining that for higher education, “email continues to be the most reliable and persistent form of communication for the work of the academy.”
E-mail may be a more dependable way of communicating with students than mass text messaging or the use of social networking sites, but speaking from personal experience, an outdated webmail system is not. An antiquated university email account with reoccurring problems cannot keep up with the multiple email accounts, social networking sites and smartphones that are now a part of many students’ lives. It only ends up being a nuisance for students and creates gaps in communication between professors and administrators that seem unnecessary in such a hyper connected world. That being said, it’s probably a better investment for universities to devote their time to keeping these webmail systems up to date, than trying to keep up with whatever trendy ways students are staying in touch with each other that change with every new crop of freshmen that make their way onto campus.
‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
UAlberta grades dispute ‘breaks trust in grading’
John Kmech, editor of the University of Alberta’s the Gateway, weighs in on the grading dispute between math professor Mikhail Kovalyov and the university.
It’s unclear what the department gains from failing so many students or giving the class a final average of 1.79, little higher than a C-. It could be seen as maintaining “standards,” and it’s true that students should do poorly if they aren’t pulling their weight. But what “fail” means inherently depends on the difficulty of the coursework, something that only an individual professor can judge. While it’s currently the department’s prerogative to approve the final grades, if they can lower the marks by bulk like this, there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all.
Read the the rest here.
Students speak out on UAlberta grades dispute
Mixed reactions about math prof who’s grades were lowered by department
To follow up on my earlier post on the dispute between math professor Mikhail Kovalyov and the University of Alberta, I was recently able to get in contact with some of the students who Kovalyov had emailed criticizing the math department for lowering their grades and encouraging them to appeal their marks. Those emails, it will be recalled, ultimately resulted in the university relieving Kovalyov of his teaching duties and asking for his resignation. Reactions from his students are mixed.
Rylee Machula, whose grade was lowered from a C to an F, said that while he found Kovalyov’s emails “childish,” he opposed the administration’s decision to alter the class average. “The changes should never have happened. It wasn’t their place,” he said. The geology student later launched a successful appeal, raising his final mark for the first-year math class to a D.
Yasin Isse, whose grade was lowered from a B- to a C+ appealed his grade after Kovalyov had emailed the class, but in his case the appeal was denied. “It was a long process and the university did take necessary measures to try to resolve the conflict by getting a different person to examine the situation and answer each students’ claims specifically,” he said.
Isse added that the various emails he received from both Kovalyov and administrators became confusing. “It got to the point that I did not know who was telling the truth . . ., it just took too much effort and time to digest all the material and really understand the situation,” he said. Of Kovalyov, Isse said that “it is a shame he had to leave.”
Other students were content with their final mark. “I got a B- in the class and that’s honestly no more or no less than what I feel I deserved” Jeffrey Lafleche, a student in the faculty of education, said. Lafleche said he felt “pretty cynical” about the appeal process and “figured it would be a waste of time.”
Related: ‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
Alberta prof asked to resign over grades dispute
Legal action threatened after students’ marks lowered by admin
A University of Alberta math professor is threatening legal action to reinstate his students’ grades after his department lowered them without his support. When Mikhail Kovalyov informed his students what had happened, and encouraged them to appeal their grades, he was asked to resign.
Back in May, Kovalyov received an email from an associate chair in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences informing him that grades for his first year math course had been lowered, resulting in a change in class average from 2.16 to 1.79 on a 4.0 scale. Other sections of the same course had averages that ranged from 2.13 to 2.95, according to documentation obtained by Maclean’s. The math professor says that he had already failed over 20 per cent of the class before these changes were approved.
University guidelines suggest an approximate mean average of 2.62 for first-year courses, with only six per cent of the class failing.
When faculty services officer David McNeilly, who is also responsible for reviewing final grades, first proposed the changes to Kovalyov in April, he explained in an email that the department’s proposed grades for Kovalyov’s class were “more generous than the typical exam cutoffs.” He also pointed out that in Fall 2009, the department failed 29 per cent of students in one section of the class. “In particular, we are being consistent,” McNeilly wrote.
Kovalyov responded to McNeilly that if so many extra students deserve to fail, then they should never have passed and received credit for math courses in the previous semester. “If we were consistent, all these students would have never made [it] through” the prerequisites, he wrote.
Related: Students speak out on UAlberta case
‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
A 65 page document prepared by Kovalyov for the board of governors in August, outlining the events of the dispute, includes an expanded explanation from McNeilly why the grades were lowered. In particular, Kovalyov supposedly awarded too many B grades compared to C and D grades, even if the overall class average was not excessively high.
Kovalyov says he always outlines his marking policy to students at the beginning of the term. “By doing this, they made my words to students worthy of nothing,” he wrote in an email to Maclean’s. “I am certainly one of those less respectable professors who can be told to lower their grades.”
Shortly after learning of the changes to his grades, Kovalyov emailed his students and encouraged them to appeal. “Should any one of you [choose] to complain, I will try to assist as much as I can within the law and regulations” he wrote. He also called the department’s actions “disgusting.”
Despite warnings from administrators that taking his case directly to students is “inappropriate,” Kovalyov sent two additional emails to students, in which he called the actions of the departmental administration “a crime of forgery.”
Those messages to students did not sit well with university brass and in July Kovalyov was informed by department chair Arturo Pianzola that he was being relieved of his teaching duties.
In a letter explaining the decision, Pianzola says that the “contents” of the emails Kovalyov sent to students “disparage administration” and contain “unfounded and inappropriate,” allegations.
A formal complaint was also filed against Kovalyov by the dean of science, Gregory Taylor, as well as Pianzola, stating that Kovalyov’s actions were “unbecoming” of a senior professor. The letter accuses Kovalyov of “Undermining student confidence” in the grade appeal process and “Engaging in insubordination.” An email Kovalyov sent to an administrator where he referenced Joseph Stalin’s purges from the 1920s and 1930s was also cited in the complaint against him.
In late November, Kovalyov, who has taught at the university for more than 20 years, was offered a deal in exchange for his resignation. Under the proposed arrangement the university would continue to pay his full salary until March 2011, followed by a lump sum payout in April equivalent to 15 months pay. He turned down the offer.
Instead, Kovalyov wants phased pre-retirement where he would continue to provide partial duties until 2013 when he was originally suppose to retire. He has been consulting with the faculty association on how best to proceed.
Kovalyov said that while he finds the disciplinary actions of the university unfair, he no longer sees much of a future for himself at the U of A. “Even if this matter is settled, something else will come up,” he said.
Kovalyov’s battle with administrators over grades go back to at least 2009, when he says grade averages were lowered for two sections he taught of a first-year math course. He has also been embroiled in a similar dispute regarding a third-year course.
The university has declined comment on the case, and attempts to contact other professors in the department, as well as several of Kovalyov’s students, were not responded to.
Vice-president provost (apologies, the editors) academic Colleen Skidmore did agree to address grading policy in general terms. She explained that the grades set by instructors are unofficial until approved by the chair of the professor’s respective department. “It is the chair, or the dean, that has the responsibility for ultimately deciding what the final grade is,” she said.
Photo: Getty Images
It’s good to see Alberta universities investigating ‘liberation therapy’
Not just ivory towers, universities are doing work that will give important answers to thousands
The Alberta government’s decision to have provincial universities study the so-called “liberation therapy” for multiple sclerosisis is a good step forward for public health and a good example of the important role that universities play in the community.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government announced a similar study a couple of weeks ago.
Canada has one of the highest MS rates in the world and this treatment has attracted a lot of interest. So much in fact that New Brunswick has announced plans to fund treatments in other countries.
But there are still many unanswered questions. The treatment has not been subject to serious study and while there are many anecdotal success stories there have also been reports of serious side effects, including death.
The studies in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador are not clinical trials but they are a first step. Over the summer, expert advisers to the federal government said that clinical trials would be premature.
But Canadians are still leaving the country to receive this treatment and it’s important for people suffering from MS to have answers about it so they can make informed decisions and, if it is as successful as has been claimed, be treated in Canada. It’s also important for Canadian doctors to be aware of the side effects, in order to treat them, whether this treatment gains approval or not.
Many people, both inside and outside of academia, tend to think of universities as detached ivory towers, so it’s good to see universities doing work that has the potential to directly improve the lives of many Canadians and, at the very least, will give them piece of mind.
Better copy those textbooks while you can
UAlberta chooses not to renew Access Copyright license
The University of Alberta is the latest institution to oppose a new fee structure for licensing copyrighted works proposed by Access Copyright, the collective that licenses copying and course packs for most campuses in Canada.
The new fee structure would charge universities $45 per full time student, versus the $3.38 per student, universities currently pay. Approval of the new fee structure is pending a decision by the Copyright Board of Canada which is currently reviewing Access Copyright’s proposal.
The U of A has decided not to renew its agreement with the copyright licensing agency, which is set to lapse December 31. As a result, U of A students will no longer be able to take out and copy required textbooks for a course if it is on reserve at a U of A library. Although student union leaders at the U of A oppose the new fee structure, they say this will create a huge obstacle for students who rely on the library to save money on textbooks.
Even though the new fee is still awaiting approval, it is not surprising that the university is not waiting for an official decision before cutting ties with Access Copyright, considering the proposed fee increase stood to cost the university an extra $1 million annually. “I don’t buy things without knowing what I’m buying,” U of A provost and vice president (academic) Carl Amrhein told the Gateway.
In a press release, Amrhein explained that the decision to allow the agreement to lapse was not just an issue of cost, but also with the terms of the proposed license. “Access Copyright offered to extend the current agreement only if universities agreed to be retroactively bound by a future Copyright Board decision on not only the tariffs but also on proposed new license conditions. This is unacceptable,” Amrhein said.
The new license conditions may include the licensing of materials linked to on the Internet, additional protection for digital locks, no exclusion for fair dealing, and more extensive reporting requirements. “We are genuinely concerned about some of the potential restrictions in the proposed license that may threaten our ability to use copyrighted resources in the classroom and may impinge other existing laws, practices or rights.”
The agreement with Access Copyright allowed the university to keep reserve materials on library shelves. Once the agreement lapses, however, the university will be subject to a ruling under copyright legislation that disallows this practice. Armhein explained that the ruling states that by putting materials on reserve shelves, universities are aiding and abetting students who would take them out and photocopy them.
While authors do deserve fair compensation for their work, it’s unreasonable for Access Copyright to expect universities to pay approximately 10 times more than they were originally paying to stay with the licensing agency, and at a time when many feel such fees should be decreasing.
Many post secondary institutions have heavily criticized the proposal for its take on fundamental copyright issues and for its demands for a high rise in fees. The University of British Columbia recently chose to challenge the tariff by working towards establishing its own license database to track the rights to various works for professors and students.
Access copyright has argued that it is asking the Copyright Board to set the tariff to ensure that authors and publishers are fairly compensated for use of their works. The agency stated on its website that the proposed fee increases have been “grossly exaggerated by critics,” arguing that the new tariff represents a tiny fraction of most universities’ budgets, and that it was up to universities and colleges to decide whether or not to absorb the additional costs or pass them on to students.
“Some academics say there should be no payment at all; however professors do not work for free, and their unions are silent when pay increases they demand get passed on to students,” the agency argued.
However, law professor and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Michael Geist, has said he believes that the post secondary institutions have every right to be critical of the proposed new fee structure and licensing conditions. He pointed out that teachers and students typically rely on several alternative methods for finding course materials, which don’t involve using the license.
“For example, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network has purchased licensed access to thousands of journals for 650,000 university researchers and students. In light of that access, course-packs are being replaced by database-generated course reading lists,” Geist wrote in the Ottawa Citizen.
“Given the myriad ways teachers and students access materials that fall outside the Access Copyright license, the education community can be forgiven for asking why the collective is demanding millions more in compensation.”
Geist argued that universities should seriously consider using individually licensed works and distance themselves from the agency. He explained that individual negotiations are a “win-win” option for students, authors and teachers, because they have the potential to save money for students and ensure that authors are fully compensated for use of their works.
If the decision to stay with Access Copyright is one that is based on convenience, perhaps institutions should start to take Geist’s advice and move towards individual licensing. The new Access Copyright licensing conditions are likely to be just as cumbersome for universities and colleges, and not beneficial for students or instructors.
Frat suspended after hazing allegations
UAlberta’s DKE chapter cannot book events, use school equipment or university logo until ‘further notice’
Following allegations of extreme hazing , the University of Alberta chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity has had its status as a student group at the U of A suspended by university administration.
The suspension went into place Oct. 28 and will last “until further notice,” the U of A Dean of Students Frank Robinson announced at a press conference yesterday afternoon, according to the Gateway. “I’ve taken this action under the Code of Student Behaviour, which empowers me, as Dean, with the authority to immediately suspend a student group if I reasonably believe that the group’s activities have endangered or could potentially endanger the health, safety, and well-being of students,” Robinson said.
As a result of the suspension, the DKE chapter will no longer be able to take advantage of the privledges afforded to students groups at the U of A. As of Thursday, they will no longer be able to use university space for events and activities on campus, university equipment, or the university logo or insignia until the suspension is lifted.
However, members of the fraternity will not be penalized individually, aside from the impact on their group.
$1.3 million to stop duck deaths
Alberta judge orders Syncrude to fund research at U of A
In a landmark case that came to a conclusion last Friday, Provincial Court Judge Ken Tjosvold ruled that the University of Alberta will receive a $1.3 million donation from Syncrude Ltd, as part of their $3.3 million sentence over the deaths of 1,606 birds that had landed on a Syncrude tailings pond in 2008. The money will be used for research that will prevent similar deaths in the future,and was granted at the request of provincial and federal prosecutors.
This is clearly an effort on the part of the provincial and federal government to repair the image of the energy industry amongst students, and potential future employees, and show that it is not just about killing birds. Particularly considering the energy industry in Canada is looking at huge shortages of skilled and professional workers in the near future. Over 100, 000 new workers could be needed over the next 10 years to fill the void left by the retirement of the baby boomer generation, according to a study released by the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada in June.
The generally negative perception of the industry amongst students isn’t helping the situation, which the feds and province are obviously aware of after the province revealed improvements to its Alberta Innovation program, hoping to translate Alberta’s hefty wealth from natural resources into investments in post secondary education.
The $1.3 million is allocated to researchers who will conduct studies on avian deterrence to stop the death of birds on these tailing ponds. The current system in place uses sound cannons to ward off birds from landing on the ponds. The lead researcher in the study, U of A biological sciences professor Colleen St. Clair, explained to the Gateway the innovations her research team hopes to bring:
“Picture yourself as a duck,” St. Clair said. “You’re flying towards the tailings pond. The old system would just have these cannons firing all the time, and you would hear them from a safe distance away and they would gradually get louder, but they wouldn’t change in any perceptible way relative to your behavior.”
“This new system — if you still imagine yourself as a duck, flying towards the tailings pond — the ponds are quiet and then suddenly out of nowhere, there is this big massive blast coming from right in front of you with all the cannons synchronized. The theory is that that will be a much more effective deterrent for birds.”
While the extra cash for the U of A is definitely a positive for St. Clair and her team, it is questionable whether this money was allocated with completely benevolent intent. Considering the discovery of more dead birds on tailing ponds in the Fort McMurray area came a drop in share prices of oilsands producers, including Syncrude.
In a province so heavily reliant on the natural resources industry, this donation may be more in interest of cleaning up the image of oilsands producers than the well being of our feathered friends.
No one wins in campus hazing rituals
Would someone really want their first Google hit to reference such objectionable extra-curricular activities?
Explosive revelations regarding hazing initiatives at a University of Alberta fraternity shocked and surprised the country within hours of the story going online last Thursday. But it’s far from the first time something like this has happened, and it’s becoming a bigger problem.
Related: Wasn’t hazing a thing of the past?
In September 2005, allegations arose around the McGill University football team initiation activities that included threats of sodomy with a broomstick.
Again, in January 2009, reports surfaced of students at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia being beaten with tree branches, smeared with what they believed to be feces, and being forced to rub A535 on their genitals — all allegedly part of a residence initiation process.
And now, students at the U of A are coming forward with stories of what they reportedly had to endure in order to gain membership in the university’s chapter of the DKE fraternity.
Video footage obtained by The Gateway, the U of A’s campus paper, depicts sleep-deprived pledges eating their own vomit, being enclosed in a small plywood box and not being allowed to leave after the four-day event has begun.
All three instances received wide international media attention. Harsh punishments have traditionally been handed to the perpetrators, with universities making examples of them for other students thinking of doing the same.
Students at McGill were suspended and the football team lost its season. The StFX students were kicked out of residence, fined $50 each, given 50 hours of community service, ordered to take harassment counselling and banned from all student-sponsored social and sporting events, including use of the campus bar, for a year — the last of which was reversed after the students challenged the sanctions in provincial court.
While no one has been punished at the U of A yet, two investigations into the incident are underway — one by the university, the other by DKE International, the fraternity’s parent organization.
I have to wonder, with such substantial examples made of these three cases, why are students still willing to risk their reputations and possible academic expulsion or suspension, or even a criminal record, with such childish antics?
But it continues to happen, with organizers of hazing initiations across North America seemingly turning a blind eye to those who get caught. According to research completed by Hank Nuwer, an American expert on hazing, harassing initiation rituals are on the rise.
Nuwer told UNews.ca in February 2009 that there has been at least one hazing-related death per year in the United States since 1970, but the fall of 2008 saw eight.
While there have been no hazing-related deaths in Canada so far, I can’t help but think, no matter how important social status is to a person, a potential manslaughter charge is not worth the temporary feeling of power carrying out these initiations would bring. Not to mention, with the permanency of Internet archiving, would someone really want their first Google hit to reference such objectionable extra-curricular activities?
Photo: The fraternity house for Delta Kappa Epsilon, by Dan McKechnie, the Gateway
Wasn’t hazing a thing of the past?
Video shows bizarre hazing ritual at UAlberta
The story sounds like something out of a coming of age college flick: desperate to pledge, students are deprived of sleep, closed into a small, urine-soaked wooden box, and forced to eat their own vomit. All in the name of becoming part of a popular fraternity on campus.
Unfortunately, for a hand full of University of Alberta students, this was allegedly the reality of completing the four-day initiation process to the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The alleged hazing went beyond an embarrassing experience for these students. It compromised their safety and well being, and begs the question of whether or not the fraternity system needs to undergo some serious changes.
Related: No one wins in campus hazing rituals
Video footage obtained by student newspaper The Gateway, shows the grueling initiation process pledges of the Delta Kappa Epsilon went through in hopes of becoming part of the fraternity in January 2010.
One of the videos shows what one pledge was subjected to after accidently buying two small cans of beans instead of the one large can the members wanted: ”Do you have a problem following instructions? Because if you do, your life is going to become extremely difficult . . . Do you have a learning disability? Are you retarded?”
The videos progressively get more and more bizarre, according to the Gateway:
“The video also shows the pledges being told to do wall sits, being pressured into taking a bite out of a raw onion, and being pressured into eating raw eggs, to which one brother says, ‘go salmonella.’
Video footage also shows pledges attending an off-campus dinner, where they eat food that is intentionally disgusting and then smoke a cigar as quickly as possible after eating.”
An anonymous source referred to simply as “Joe” in the article explained that after doing this, some pledges get sick and vomit, and are expected to eat it to clear their plates. Joe goes on to describe another hazing method referred to as “the Hilton,” a small wooden box pledges are forced to go into several times during initiation for 15 minutes at a time, which is sometimes covered in ketchup or urinated on beforehand.
This is not first time the DKE fraternity has been in hot water. The Yale chapter of the prestigious fraternity, that lists George W. Bush as alumni, came under fire recently after fraternity pledges were heard shouting offensive obscenities at women while marching through the campus. A Youtube video surfaced just days before the Gateway story was published showing students shouting chants such as “My name is Jack, I’m a necrophiliac, I (expletive) dead women,” and “no means yes; yes means anal.” Two cases of sexual assault were also reported in late September at two separate fraternity houses at the University of Minnesota including at a Delta Kappa Epsilon house.
Since the Gateway story was originally released, the U of A has launched an investigation into the allegations, with joint investigations being conducted by the fraternity’s international headquarters and alumni group. More stories also surfaced about the alleged hazing rituals.
While the story is obviously a rare example of a fraternity gone wrong, it is kind of spooky to think that something so alarming could be going on right underneath the noses of a university community. The allegations of hazing at the DKE fraternity at the U of A have done more than just enforce a negative stereotype. As with the cases at Yale and the University of Minnesota, they have brought the whole Greek system into question.
These cases involve more than just an embarrassing prank. They involve the safety and well-being of students.
I agree with Gateway editor in chief Jonn Kmech, who stated that fraternities and sororities are not the problem here, and that the rest of the U of A fraternity and sorority system needs to speak out against these practises in an editorial published shortly after the original article. However, I think that in light of these allegations, these fraternities and sororities need to do more than just openly condemning such actions.
They need to make a conscious effort to prevent such actions from happening again, and demonstrate to the public how they’re doing so. You can condemn an action all you want, but it doesn’t stop it happening over and over again.
The DKE International Risk Management Policy boldly states that the DKE will not condone hazing in any way, along with the acts of sexual abuse and harassment, and use of illegal drugs in their fraternities. Yet it is unclear what methods of accountability DKE has for its fraternities who don’t follow this policy. If it’s unclear in the policy itself, then it’s probably unclear to the several chapters as well what consequences will befall them if they don’t follow it, if any at all.
Can’t afford tuition? Play the stock market
UAlberta prof advises students to make investments to cover financial shortfalls
If students are strapped for cash, they should just do a little research and invest in the stock market, says University of Alberta finance professor, Amit Monga. “I personally think that the benefits of playing the stock market is that you get to really start tracking some of the key economic issues — macro-issues and micro-issues — that are affecting a municipality, city, or province,” he told The Gateway. “When you invest, have some kind of a target. What you don’t want to do is be greedy. You need to have that self-imposed discipline.” Monga also advised students to use caution when playing the markets for tuition.
The million dollar president
UAlberta buys president’s house for $930,000
University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera has had a very good year. Not only did she bag a whopping $936,000 in compensation and benefits during the 2009-10 fiscal year, but she also made a lucrative real estate deal − by selling her house to the university.
Yes, that’s right. The University of Alberta purchased Samarasekera’s home on July 1, 2009 for $930,000, according to the Edmonton Journal. The house was bought to be the official residence of the president and Samarasekera continues to live in it, although she now pays rent to the university.
A handful of other universities including the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto also own houses in which the president lives. The residences double as venues for meetings and social activities related to university business. The added bonus of housing is a perk that also comes in handy when recruiting new presidents, Brian Heidecker, chairman of the board of governors, told the Journal. “The fact that you have a very good quality home available makes recruiting infinitely easier, and it makes the transition for the president much easier if they happen to be an outsider.”
What is odd about U of A’s decision to buy the home is not only that they purchased it from the current president, but that the home is off campus. Customarily, president residences are on-campus estates that are maintained by the university and conveniently located for university functions. U of A hasn’t provided housing for presidents for decades, and one of the last presidents to make use of an official residence (Walter Johns, who was president from 1959 to 1969) didn’t like being roused from his sleep by drunk students walking through campus in the middle of the night. Since then, presidents have lived off campus.
Before the sale, Samarasekera’s home was used for some university functions, and the university paid some operating costs to her. According to Heidecker, the house worked so well for these events that the board decided it should be owned by the university. “It was to our mutual benefit that we owned the house instead of Indira.” While I’m sure that the house serves its purpose as a venue to entertain just fine, it’s seems only prudent to look for other houses that would be more appropriate, and its unclear if the board shopped around before the purchase.
The Journal also makes the valid point that the timing of the deal could be seen as unfortunate by critics. When the sale was being arranged, U of A knew of looming funding cuts that would lead to layoffs, increased fees for students and unpaid furloughs for staff.
House sale news aside, the other interesting nugget of information in the Journal report is Samarasekera’s compensation. With a base salary of $479,000, her non-cash benefits pushed her total compensation to $936,000, making her one of the highest paid university officials in Canada by a wide margin. The top paid academic in Ontario in 2009, according to data released by the Ontario government, was Amit Chakma, vice-president academic and provost at the University of Waterloo, who bagged a whopping $737,640 in compensation plus $3,505 in benefits. The second highest paid university official was William Moriarty, president and CEO of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, who was paid $605,728 in 2009.
Photo: University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera
Second-year students more likely to binge drink
U of A study to help tackle student drinking
A University of Alberta survey challenges the assumption that it is first-year students who are most unable to control their drinking. In fact, according to Deborah Eerkes, who runs the U of As disciplinary office, it is second-year students who are more likely to find themselves in trouble over their drinking habits. “When they get more comfortable, into their second year, that’s when things kind of go off the rails, or it’s a little more likely,” she told the Edmonton Journal.
The online project, launched last year, saw 520 students answer questions about their drinking. Of the participating students, 195 said they had skipped class as a result of their alcochol use, 20 reported non-consensual sex after drinking, 66 regretted an alcohol fueled sexual experience, and 11 found themselves in the hospital as a result of their drinking. After answering the questionnaire students were given a printout comparing their habits to their peers.
Although the sample size was small, other findings were consistent with previous research on student drinking. In particular, students were likely to assume that their peers drink more than they do. For example, while students were on-average consuming three drinks at home before going to a bar, they assumed the average student had four drinks.
The results of the survey will help the university to develop orientation seminars for new students, as well as inform approaches to student discipline.
Hey professor, got a quarter?
UAlberta profs lose office phones
Professors at the University of Alberta are losing their office phones as part of a plan to reduce departmental budgets by five per cent. So far, according to the Edmonton Journal, the lines have been cut in a number of liberal arts departments, including philosophy and English and film studies. Scandinavian languages professor, Chris Hale, wonders whether smoke signals and courier pigeons should be used as a substitute. “Most people, when I tell them this, they break down laughing,” he said. Professors who need a phone should be able to find one in faculty lounges and departmental offices, and tax credits are available for those who use a private cell phone. Still, profs might want to start stocking up on quarters so they can plug campus pay phones.
