All Posts Tagged With: "University of Calgary"
Time for UCalgary to leave students be
The Pridgen brothers won their case, but it’s not over yet
The University of Calgary has decided to appeal an Alberta judge’s ruling not because they disagree with it, but because they want to know how close to the line they can go in the future without the courts stepping in again.
At stake is students’ right to free speech regarding their experiences on a university campus.
The case in question surrounds a Facebook page created by brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen that heavily criticized a professor they both had for a survey law course. Aruna Mitra, the professor, complained to the university after finding these comments online and the university found the brothers guilty of non-academic misconduct, were place on probation and threatened with expulsion if they did not apologize to Mitra.
Typically the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has not applied to universities because they are not government institutions. While they are publically funded, for the most part, universities are deemed legally autonomous, as they are not part of the government infrastructure — i.e. judicial, legislative and executive branches.
But these two students successfully sued the university after a second appeal to the board of governors was denied. Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf’s rulings states: “Students should not be prevented from expressing critical opinions regarding the subject matter or quality of the teaching they are receiving.”
The difference at the University of Calgary, the judge ruled, is that the university was punishing students to try and force desirable behaviour, a job typically performed by government, but universities are allowed to do by legislation. Because these punishments were being carried out in a manner that would normally be dealt with by a government body, the Charter applies.
Interestingly, the University of Calgary has no issue with the ruling and has no intention to pursue further legal action against the Pridgen brothers.
University spokesperson James Stevenson told the Canadian University Press, “This is not about fighting the Pridgens. This is about us trying to seek clarity.”
He said that case law is “all over the map” when it comes to how the Charter applies to universities and the University of Calgary is “seeking clarification as to what aspects the charter plays in day-to-day operations.”
But in doing so, they’re further dragging the Pridgens through hell.
The University of Calgary is right in seeking clarification on what could be a tense legal issue in its future. But at this point the Pridgens should be allowed to continue on with their lives, content that their case was well argued, and well won.
The Charter right to insult your prof
Landmark ruling involving Facebook criticism confirms university actions are government actions
How universities deal with their students may never be the same after an Alberta judge ruled that at least some of their policies and actions can be subject to Charter review. The case involved a challenge from twin brothers, Keith and Steven Pridgen, who were reprimanded in 2008 under the University of Calgary’s student code of conduct for creating a Facebook group that the university says was defamatory towards Aruna Mitra, a former law instructor in the interdisciplinary department of communication and culture.
The students, who were placed on six months probation, took the case to Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench in the spring, arguing that the university violated their Charter right to free expression. On Wednesday, Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf agreed with that assertion. “I cannot accept that expression in the form of criticism of one’s professor must be restricted in order to accomplish the objective of maintaining an appropriate learning environment,” she wrote in her 39 page ruling.
At the Judicial review university lawyer, Kevin Barr reiterated U of C’s position that the comments were defamatory. “It is simply outrageous to suggest that the publication of defamatory statements by a student, directed at a professor over the Internet, does not amount to non-academic misconduct by any standard,” he said.
The Facebook group titled “I no longer fear Hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra,” contained comments from at least 10 other students, one of whom compared Mitra to a shoe. Another comment said that Mitra “got lazy and gave everybody a 65.” Yet another alleged the instructor said that the Magna Carta was signed in 1700 when it was signed in 1215. After Mitra, who had discovered the Facebook page, informed the dean, the brothers were placed on probation. The university lifted the requirement that the students write an apology letter after they refused to do so.
What is precedent setting in the judgement is that Strekaf ruled that the U of C’s actions regarding discipline constitute government action, and, are therefore subject to Charter review. Universities have long held that their actions cannot attract Charter scrutiny because they are autonomous entities with their own decision making bodies. A 1990 Supreme Court case, involving a challenge to the University of Guelph’s mandatory retirement policy ruled that university decisions are not government decisions.
While Strekaf did not dispute that earlier judgment, at least when dealing with university staff, she added that because educating students constitutes a core government directed mandate, as outlined in Alberta’s Post-Secondary Learning Act, that policies related to dealing with students beyond day-to-day operations are subject to Charter scrutiny. While the U of C argued that its disciplinary policies were a part of independent contracts between students and the university, Strekaf argued that such policies cannot be clearly separated from the mandate of educating students.
She also stated that the students’ actions on Facebook constitute a part of the learning process. “The commentary may assist future students in course selection as well as provide feedback to existing students and perhaps reassurance that one is not alone in finding that they are having difficulty appreciating instruction in a particular course,” Strekaf wrote. Update: Though she did allow that some of the comments made on the page by the Pridgens may have “reflected a lack of maturity.”
The Calgary Herald quoted the students’ lawyer who was clearly excited. “Henceforth, the university should be a little slow to say the charter doesn’t apply to them,” he said.
The case could have implications for protest groups that have been denied access to university space, including a U of C pro-life club that has in the past been charged with trespassing for holding demonstrations on campus.
Alberta needs more family doctors
U of C might have the solution
The University of Calgary has found a way to bring more family doctors into Alberta.
According to an article from the Calgary Herald, Alberta needs hundreds of family physicians in both urban and rural areas. With an estimated 200,000 Calgarians without a family doctor, the city needs at least 150 new doctors, along with another 150 rural doctors.
It’s sort of a doctor shortage within a doctor shortage: we need more doctors, but we especially need more family physicians.
In the past, there weren’t nearly enough family doctors coming out of the U of C. In 2007, the department of family medicine accounted for 18 per cent of the school’s total graduating class, much lower than the national average of 33 per cent. At the time, the U of C held the second-lowest rate in the country. “The only school that had fewer students choosing family medicine was McGill (University in Montreal),” said Cathy MacLean, the head of family medicine at the U of C, in an interview with the Herald. MacLean said it was an alarming situation, considering the fact that the U of C’s medical school was founded to train more family doctors.
Fortunately, things are changing. This year, 24 per cent of the U of C’s medical graduates are on the way to becoming family physicians.
The article from the Herald describes some of the changes that lead to this turnaround. Dr. John Keegan was hired as undergraduate director of family medicine to promote and oversee the program, and the clerkship for family medicine was increased to six weeks (it was originally four). The department hopes this extended hands-on experience will translate into an increased interest in family medicine, as students gain more exposure to the field. Additionally, the department increased the number of family doctor teachers.
Despite the extra family doctors on the way, there’s still room for improvement. “We have a large number of people in the Calgary area without family physicians,” Dr. Valerie Congdon, AHS’s acting head of family medicine and the head of rural medicine for the Calgary zone, told the Herald.
The U of C is on the right track, but officials want even more students to choose family medicine. They hope that by 2013, half of all graduating medical students will become family doctors.
More med school news:
McGill eliminates MCAT requirements
UCalgary pro-life group reinstated
Campus Pro Life still in dispute over trespassing notice
A University of Calgary pro-life group that displays images of aborted fetuses and compares abortion to the Holocaust will retain its official student group status. The student union had revoked the group’s standing, but a review board has overturned that decision.
The group, Campus Pro Life Club is still in a dispute with the university administration over a trespassing notice. Since 2006, the group has been accused of trespassing at least four times for failing to comply with an order to turn their controversial images inward. One of those cases resulted in legal action, but the Crown stayed charges against six group members in November due to lack of evidence. However, in May, U of C officials found 10 Campus Pro Life members guilty under non-academic conduct provisions, over the failure to turn their signs inward. The Group is currently appealing the decision, and is being represented in the process by the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
The group has pledged to continue with its Genocide Awareness Project. “We’re planning to continue as normally as we have in the past couple of years with various activities, and we’ll put the Genocide Awareness Project in the fall,” group president Alanna Campbell told Canwest. Another member, Peter Csillag indicated that Campus Pro Life, in its bid to overturn the university`s decision to find it guilty of misconduct, is prepared to challenge the U of C in court. “We’ll fight this internally and if we need to — to the Court of Queen’s Bench it goes,” he said.
The university has not yet agreed to consider an appeal. “A review board is going to meet at a later date to see if there is grounds for an appeal,” spokesman Grady Semmens said.
-Photo by January152010
Facebook criticism lands UCalgary in court
Students placed on probation for criticizing a professor on Facebook are asking a judge to review the case
Twin brothers, both students at the University of Calgary, were in court Friday asking a Court of Queen’s Bench judge to affirm their right to publicly criticize a professor. Keith and Steven Pridgen were reprimanded in 2008 under the University of Calgary’s student code of conduct for creating a Facebook group that the university says was defamatory towards Aruna Mitra, a former law instructor in the interdisciplinary department of communication and culture.
The group titled “I no longer fear Hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra,” contained comments from at least 10 other students, one of whom compared Mitra to a shoe. Another comment said that Mitra “got lazy and gave everybody a 65.” Yet another alleged the instructor said that the Magna Carta was signed in 1700 when it was signed in 1215.
After Mitra, who had discovered the Facebook page, informed the dean, the brothers were placed on six-months probation. The university lifted the requirement that the students write an apology letter after they refused to do so.
The brothers are viewing the case as a fight for their constitutional right to free expression. “I’m happy to fight for what I believe in is right,” Pridgen (Keith) was quoted as saying by the CBC. In asking the court to review their case, Pridgen said he wants to ensure no other students find themselves in a similar situation. “The injustice that was done to us, first in having to bear with this specific professor in the class . . . all the way through to having to bear with the different issues all the way along, the appeals process, the denials, the delays . . . for that to not be forced onto another student, that’s what I think would be right is the solution.”
The Pridgen’s lawyer argued on Friday that while the university believes the Facebook group was defamatory the Pridgen’s should have been given the opportunity to demonstrate that the comments on the site were justifiable under the truth and fair-comment defenses permitted in defamation cases. However, because the students were only reprimanded with probation, the university said that there was no obligation that an appeal be heard.
Getting into med school just got a little harder
Fewer med school seats = fewer doctors
Thinking about applying to med school in Canada? Your chances just got a little worse. This fall, fewer spots will be open to medical students at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Last month, there was talk about possibly losing 50 spots out of the planned 190 at uAlberta’s med school and 40 out of the 180 at uCalgary.
Canada needs more doctors, and losing med school spots won’t exactly help the situation. However, due to budget cuts, uCalgary and uAlberta might not have a choice. Rithesh Ram, a second-year med student and president of the Calgary Medical Students’ Association, along with 100 other med students, signed a petition asking for more provincial funding. “We have a decreased physician workforce as it is. And it will continue to worsen. It’s a national problem, but it’s even worse in Alberta,” Ram said in an interview with the Calgary Herald.
According to an article from the Edmonton Journal, Advanced Education and Technology Minister Doug Horner said the universities wouldn’t be allowed to cut seats without his permission. “In order for them to pull back on the number of positions we’ve already paid for, they’d have to get our approval,” he said, claiming that it’s “premature” to talk about cutting seats.
A month later, things are looking a little better. With additional funding from the province, fewer seats will be cut from both schools, with uAlberta accepting 167 students compared to last September’s 188, and uCalgary accepting 170 compared to last year’s 180. “So we’re not quite what we were last year, but we’re pretty close,” said Dr. Tom Feasby, dean of uCalgary’s faculty of medicine, in the Calgary Herald.
Of course, it’s still a step in the wrong direction. Cutting 31 med school seats means 31 less future doctors.
So you failed your exams, now what?
Understanding academic probation, what it means and what to do about it
As exams wrap up across the country, most students are looking forward to patio nights and a stress-free summer. But some students are dreading their final grades after a not-so-perfect year.
A failed class, a flunked exam, or a mediocre grade-point average are outcomes no student wants to have come May. But what are the actual consequences of an ‘F’ on your transcript? Or missing required credits to move on to your next year or to graduate?
While most students may have heard of “academic probation,” not everyone knows what it entails. The first thing to remember is failing a class doesn’t mean you need to pack up your textbooks and join the circus, and getting put on academic probation won’t necessarily cripple you academically, if you seek help.
“The whole point of academic standings is to identify students who are at risk and then make them aware of the services that are available in obtaining better academic grades,” University of Calgary’s associate vice-provost (enrolment) and registrar David Johnston said. “When we admit a student, we want them to graduate.”
Academic probation is just one of many possible academic standings a full-time student can be assigned at the end of the year. In many cases the bad outweighs the good. At most schools, the only desired outcome is “In Good Standing,” which means you’re in the clear. There are varying degrees of unsatisfactory standings that come with conditions for the following school year, ranging from meeting benchmark grade-point averages, to withdrawing for a year.
In addition to “In Good Standing,” most universities include “Academic Probation” and “Failed” as the three possible standings. And the conditions of these standings are typically outlined in the university’s academic rules and regulations. Students receive notice of their standing in the summer, after grades are calculated through a mailed letter or an online transcript.
At a school like Calgary’s, when a student’s grade-point average is less than 1.70, the equivalent of a C-, students are put on a probationary period. This is typical of most schools, though the grade-point average threshold varies.
“The purpose, of course, of the first warning is to get them on track academically,” Johnston said. He said it’s normal for first-year students to come into university unprepared for the heavy course-load and higher academic standards than they are accustomed. First-year students, he said, are the largest group his school sees placed on academic probation.
Since grades are dealt with at the faculty level, it’s not clear exactly how many students each year are put on academic probation at each school.
It’s often just a matter of showing students their current learning styles aren’t working, associate dean of the faculty of science at the University of British Columbia Paul Harrison said. “Universities are pretty selective of who they invite in,” he said. “Students deep down have the skills if they apply themselves. Unfortunately some of them don’t.”
He said students also usually come out of high school with limited exposure to their chosen program or knowledge of the university’s expectations for them.
Manager of the Student Academic Success Centre at Carleton University, Kathleen Semanyk said besides academics, there could be any number of circumstances that prevent students from meeting program requirements. “We hear everything from ‘We’ve had a serious illness in my family,’ ‘I’ve lost a loved one,’ ‘I had to find a second job,’” Semanyk said. “It’s really common for students to think they’ve hit the end of the academic road.”
Johnston said, what also tends to happen is students may find their chosen program is not as well suited for them as they had hoped. “It’s aptitude and interest,” Johnston said. “If you don’t have an interest it’s hard to apply yourself.” Just the same, students may find their skill set doesn’t match what their program asks of them.
Pro-lifers charged with “non-academic misconduct”
UCalgary Students could face expulsion for refusing to amend anti-abortion display
The University of Calgary has taken another staggering step in their messy dealings with Campus Pro-Life.
According to the Calgary Herald, seven students have now been charged with non-academic misconduct for refusing to turn their provocative anti-abortion signs inward during an April 8 display. The students could face expulsion.
The same incident resulted in trespassing charges last year, but the Crown Prosecutor’s Office stayed the charges in November.
Alas, just another push for selective free speech from a pseudo-private institution.
Pro-life students accused of trespassing
UCalgary club issued notice after refusing to turn anti-abortion signs inward
“Kids, we’ve told you once, we’ve told you a thousands (read: three) times before, we don’t want to see those dirty pictures.”
Well, at least they’re consistent.
The University of Calgary has accused 10 students of trespassing and, the students say, has threatened them with sanctions for non-academic misconduct, after they refused to turn their provocative anti-abortion display inward. The club’s Genocide Awareness Project boasts signs comparing abortion to the Holocaust and displays graphic photos of aborted fetuses.
This is the fourth time the university has issued trespassing notices to the group. The latest charges were stayed in November.
Campus Pro-Life treasurer Alana Campbell questioned the university’s decision to defend the right to speak of Ann Coulter, the right-wing pundit who visited the university a few weeks ago, but is trying to stifle their controversial display.
“It is most curious that U of C threatened us with arrest when they spoke so glowingly in defense of an American speaker — she’s not even a student,” Campbell said in a release.
“We’re gonna use that ‘safe campus’ line again. No one really knows what it means, but it works.”
In a statement obtained by the Calgary Herald, the university defended its actions towards the pro-life group.
“The university has advised members of the Campus Pro-Life Group that, given their unwillingness to compromise on their provocative signage, they are not welcome on campus for protests,” the statement read.
“The paramount issues for the university are the needs to uphold its legal right to manage activities on campus, and to ensure the safety and security for the thousands of students, staff, faculty and community members on campus each day.”
“That means turn your signs in so no one can see them, totally defeating the purpose of what you’re doing. Don’t make us tell you again. Because we will. Punks.”
NSERC bars scientist from receiving grants
Star engineer accused of plagiarism and misusing research funding
A freedom of information request by Canwest has revealed that the federal Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) has “indefinitely” barred a University of Calgary engineer from receiving grants. The NSERC ban stems from allegations of a misuse of grant money and plagiarism. Although the documents obtained by Canwest were blacked out in places, and NSERC has not revealed who the researcher is, the news organization has discovered that the allegations pertain to University of Calgary engineering professor Daniel Kwok.
The allegations pertain to 2005 or before, when Kwok was working at the University of Alberta. The specialist in interfacial phenomenon has received more than $1.7 million in grant money from NSERC since 1998, with more than half being awarded after he moved to Calgary. According to Canwest, the documents they obtained from NSERC do not go into detail regarding the plagiarism allegation, but they do tell of grant money being spent on items “inconsistent” with Kwok’s research activities. Kwok says the allegations are “unfair.”
The federal government documents indicate that while Kwok was working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, he spent close to $150,000 on purchases that seemed “inconsistent” with his research grant proposals, including computers, monitors, printers, a smartphone, an iPod, AMG aluminum wheels and chrome exhaust pipes for a car and home entertainment gear worth $17,624.63. His purchases include two televisions — a 50-inch and a 42-inch, complete with wall mount — and a stereo system with a digital receiver, speakers and a subwoofer.
Then, in 2005, Kwok walked away from the University of Alberta amid scientific and financial misconduct investigations and took a new job at the University of Calgary, which was not told of the controversy at his previous posting.
The University of Calgary hired Kwok as an associate professor and arranged for him to receive a $500,000 Canada Research Chair under a federal program meant for “exceptional emerging researchers.” The university set him up in a state-of-the-art lab, and Kwok resumed teaching — and receiving more research grants.
Then NSERC officials, four years after the investigations into Kwok’s conduct began, took the most drastic sanction at their disposal. In September 2009, they cut off all Kwok’s grants “indefinitely,” accusing him of “plagiarism” and “misuse of funds” in 2005 or before.
UCalgary could lose $80 million in research funding
University scrambles to clean up its handling of federal research grants.
Sloppy management of federal research grant funding has seen the University of Calgary put on notice to clean up its practices by the end of March, or risk losing more than $80 million a year. In February, a report from the federal granting councils concluded that the way the university has administered research funding is “unsatisfactory,” and said that “immediate action” is needed.
The report was conducted by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. The councils were following up on a 2006 investigation, and found that many of the recommendations from that report had not been implemented. Any decision as to University of Calgary’s funding eligibility would also affect grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Update: The report is in still in draft form, and is therefore confidential. However the University has a distributed a summary of the councils recommendations, available here.
The granting councils are concerned over a failure to ensure that expense claims such as for travel and graduate student salaries meet the requirements to be funded through federal research grants. There is also concern that costs not directly associated with research, like office supplies, are being expensed through the councils.
Although the granting councils have not actually threatened to pull funding, the university administration is warning faculty that loss of research money is a distinct possibility. “Unfortunately, the situation has become so serious we now run the immediate risk of having our eligibility for NSERC/SSHRC/CIHR funding suspended or withdrawn,” read a widely distributed memo from the administration.
UCalgary seeking 47% tuition increase
Students set to protest
The University of Calgary is planning to increase tuition fees by as much as 47 per cent in some professional programs. Although tuition in Alberta is indexed to the consumer price index, the province is allowing an exception this year for selected programs. As reported by the Calgary Herald:
At least four core faculties — engineering, business, law and medicine — are targeted for the hikes, although masters programs for education and business administration are also being scrutinized and none of U of C’s professional programs is necessarily off the table, officials said.
Medicine students, for example, face a $4,000 “market modifier” increase. Added to the 1.5 per cent hike allowed each year, fees would jump by 27.8 per cent to $18,600, from $14,384 the year before.
The figures are only preliminary and are being used for discussion purposes on campus before they’re sent to the province for approval, said Colleen Turner, vice-president of external relations.
Meanwhile the students’ union has planned a “Day of Action” for Tuesday in protest of the tuition fee increase.
The return of ‘voluntary’ retirement
The academic labour market never gets any breathing room
It wasn’t that long ago when the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada was predicting that we would need tens of thousands of extra PhD graduates. It was reasoned that growing demand for university combined with a mass exodus of baby boomer professors, would create a glut in the academic labour market. The message to government was fund more grad school spaces. The message to students was, forget about all that negative talk of spending five years in a doctorate program only to wind up in temporary sessional appointments. Now is the time to get that PhD.
It is not very novel to point out that, in light of the past year-and-a-half, this scenario seems like a sad joke. Students are indeed piling into grad programs, but largely as a relief from a brutal job market. As financial trouble appears to be dialing down in other sectors, problems continue unabated in the higher education sector. Universities have been making changes in response to economic realities that will ensure that a tight academic labour market will remain the norm long after the overall job market recovers.
As one illustration, the Modern Language Association recently reported that there has been a 51 per cent decline in available English positions over the past two years.
Many institutions have said that they will leave open positions unfilled, which can be accomplished by relying on sessional instructors and eliminating small classes, while they wait to see what their respective provincial governments do with respect to funding.
Some universities are picking fights with faculty unions. And unions are having none of it. At Queen’s, the administration requested that faculty take a two per cent pay cut, which was rejected by a vote of 89 per cent earlier this month. Last week, the Lakehead Faculty Association protested administration imposed furlough days, stating in a release: “Employees should not be made to suffer because administrators are unable to manage university finances.”
Unfortunately, this unwillingness to make concessions may lead to even more drastic measures. Forget pay cuts and furlough days, the days of “voluntary” retirement have already returned. Only a couple of weeks after the faculty union at the University of Alberta agreed to discuss the possibility of unpaid days off, the administration announced that it will be offering voluntary retirement packages, the Edmonton Journal reported on boxing day. The U of A has not ruled out outright layoffs, as have happened at other schools.
For example, the British Columbia Institute of Technology has announced that it will layoff five per cent of its staff in the coming year. Layoffs have been announced at the University of Calgary, and Guelph to name a couple others. We should expect much more carnage in the spring as universities finalize their 2010-2011 budgets. While it is easy to blame the economy, or the government, universities while crying cash poor over the past decade have, apparently, not taken many steps to prepare for downturns.
Though voluntary retirement may seem more humane than outright layoffs, it signals much deeper financial troubles than a simple trimming of the labour budget. Begging people to give up their jobs is never a good sign.
The voluntary retirement package was a common theme of the 1990s that, combined with leaving positions unfilled, led to a 10 per cent reduction in the total number of faculty across the country. It took years for the academic labour market to recover. The hiring spree across campuses during the early and mid 2000s was largely a move to reinstate positions lost during this period. The AUCC thought that this trend would continue well into the next decade. That’s just not going to happen.
This is compounded by the fact that, when given the choice, baby boomers simply won’t retire at the rate we have expected them to. It hardly bears mentioning that one of the great ironies of the recession is that while it has encouraged students to recede into PhD programs, it has also ensured that they might not have anywhere to go when they finish.
U Calgary gets funding from BlackBerry’s RIM for GPS
Team will try to enhance satellite signal reception in hard-to-reach places, like buildings
Ontario-based technology giant Research in Motion (TSX:RIM) is putting up more than $300,000 to allow a team from the University of Calgary to explore how to improve the performance of wireless global positioning systems.
The team, from the university’s Schulich School of Engineering, will investigate ways to enhance the performance of GPS systems in environments where it’s tough to get satellite signals, including inside buildings.
Gerard Lachapelle, the university’s Canada research chair in wireless location, says wireless technology is becoming more widespread and such navigational features will become more common in the future.
The three-year $1.3 million project will also be cost-shared by the federal and Alberta governments.
Research In Motion is the technology firm behind the popular BlackBerry wireless device.
- The Canadian Press
UCalgary to cut 200 jobs by the fall
Most lost jobs expected to be in operations, trades, advisory and technical positions
According to The Calgary Herald, University of Calgary has announced it might have to cut up to 200 job by September.
In an internal memo circulated Tuesday, school president Harvey Weingarten says the university needs to trim its budget by at least three per cent in all units and faculties in light of a $14.3-million shortfall. By law, the university is not allowed to run a deficit.
Weingarten says the cuts have primarily been caused by poor market performance caused by the economic downturn, which has adversely affected return on endowment funds that support various programs, plus the school’s pension fund. The endowment fund is down by $40.4 million, since hitting a last year’s high of $411 million.
“A significant portion of the university budget, approximately 60 per cent, pays for the salaries and benefits of our employees,” wrote Weingarten. “Given this reality, there is simply no possibility of ensuring that a balanced budget, once achieved, is sustainable unless we reduce our number of support and academic staff.”
Weingarten says he anticipates the school will have to cut the jobs of up to 200 people by the fall and that it’s likely there will be more reductions later. He says the actual numbers will depend on many factors, such as future government grants, tuition levels, endowment performance, salary and benefit settlements.
U of C’s faculty association president Anne Stalker told the Herald that staff members are “obviously very worried” about the job cuts and the long-term affect on programs.
“It makes it a less pleasant place to work,” she said. “They also think [the university brass] haven’t been thinking ahead. They should have planned more so it didn’t take everybody by surprise.
The greatest job losses are expected to effect the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents some 4,265 university staff in operations, trades, advisory and technical positions. “Of course, we don’t like it,” says AUPE president Doug Knight.
“The university has put a lot of their shortfalls on last year’s budget. A lot of the money lost is from the worldwide financial crisis, where it was inevitable something was gonna break. Their funding shortfall is because of endowments and they really shouldn’t be relying on endowment funding.”
For more on this story, click here.
Canadian astronaut accepts degree… from space
Robert Thirsk accepts honorary doctorate of laws from U Calgary
Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk has received an honour that’s out of this world.
Connected by video link as he floated 400 kilometres above the Earth aboard the International Space Station, Thirsk accepted an honorary doctorate of laws degree from the University of Calgary.
He even donned a crimson and yellow convocation cape, but had to take it off as it repeatedly floated up in front of his face.
The astronaut answered questions from children after the degree presentation, pulling out props such as water bottles and garbage cans to explain his day-to-day life.
Thirsk, who is the first Canadian to spend six months in space, earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Calgary in 1976.
University president Harvey Weingarten says it’s a privilege to honour Thirsk while he’s at the pinnacle of his career and able to inspire so many students.
- The Canadian Press
UCalgary kicked off my list of potential grad schools
University charges students with trespassing after graphic abortion display
The University of Calgary has taken the war against politically incorrect opinions on university campuses to a whole new level.
The University is in the process of charging students with trepassing after the student set up a outdoor display containing graphic images of aborted fetuses.
The group Campus Pro-Life put up a display of the Genocide Awareness Project in a central area of the campus back in November. They did so despite being told by university administration they were not welcome to set-up the display in such a way that unsuspecting passers-by would be exposed to the images. The university also warned the students that legal consequences could follow if they defied the order. Regardless, the students set up their display with the pictures clearly visible to onlookers.
I not a supporter of the display and, frankly, find the equating of abortion to the Holocaust offensive. However, the university administration has a responsibility to tolerate student expression of such opinions. The fact that the university is seeking court convictions of these students shows a willingness to crush unpopular student expression that is unbecoming of an institution dedicated to the ideas of the academy.
The University of Calgary has been steadly climbing in reputation in the last couple of years and has done a wonderful job in creating good graduate programs that are nationally competitive. It was one of the universities I was considering if I decided to continue in political science for graduate studies. An institution that does not cherish free expression, especially when that expression is difficult to tolerate, is an institution that ultimately limits intellectual pursuits. Why would I attend an institution that limits debate?
I’m not disputing that the university has a right to ask Campus Pro-Life to display their pictures in a less intrusive way; that is an expression of an idea. However, it should not be able to use the coercive power of the state against a way of expressing an idea. The university says it doesn’t mind the expression of the idea on the campus, only the method of expression.
Universities shouldn’t allow one method of expression for ideas it agrees with and then deny that same method of expression to an idea it disapproves of.
UCalgary anti-abortion protesters charged with trespassing
Group defied university request to turn graphic images inwards; three charged
The CBC is reporting that several students who took part in a graphic anti-abortion display at the University of Calgary have been charged with trespassing.
According to the students’ lawyer, members of the University of Calgary Campus Pro-Life group have to enter a plea by the end of the month and can expect a trial later in 2009.
“The university is created by legislation, governed by legislation and receives more than 60 per cent of its funding from taxpayers,” said Canadian Constitution Foundation executive director John Carpay in a press release. “As a public institution, it does not have the right to discriminate against one group of students by censoring one viewpoint on an issue.”
President of the anti-abortion group Leah Hallman says three students have been served legal papers, and she expects three more will be served.
According to the Calgary Herald, the pro-life group and university administrators have been locked in an ongoing battle over the group’s Genocide Awareness Project display, which juxtaposes images of dead fetuses with Holocaust or Rwandan genocide victims.
On Nov. 26, after being asked by the university to turn the graphic images inwards to protect those who didn’t want to see them, the group erected their display with the posters facing outwards.
In a letter to the students before the rally, the university warned that they would consider the students to be trespassing and that they would be subject to arrest, fines, suspension or expulsion if their protest went ahead as planned.
The university also put up signs warning students and staff about the “extremely graphic” poster display.
Hallman says they were aware of the possibility of legal action after they went against the university’s warning, but that the decision to charge members of their group is both surprising and disappointing.
University of Calgary – The Den
Sampling the chocolate chunk brownie was like eating the flesh of a diabetic
The Den, just downstairs from the Black Lounge—the other student union-run haunt—is in decor and atmosphere everything you’d ever want in a campus pub: a little rank (stale beer is my personal napalm in the morning!), a little dingy (cinder-block ceilings are big in Manhattan!), but it’s still cleaner than your dorm. Perfect, then, for a little booze-fuelled MIA action. And the food is some of the best, most reasonably priced stuff on campus.
The Den Reloaded, a classic half-pound burger featuring sautéed mushrooms, bacon and a good dollop of cheddar and mozzarella, tasted authentically of the grill (though the bun had wilted by the time it arrived at table and was too soggy for our liking). A spinach salad with goat cheese and strawberries benefited from that potpourri effect of rich cheese and wonderfully fresh, sweet fruit—film majors, you will find it as ephemeral as happiness in an Ingmar Bergman flick—but was too stingy on the orange balsamic vinaigrette.
The chicken Kiev, a special on this day, was an unfortunate H-bomb of herbs and multiplex butter. The innards exploded across the plate like ooze from an Alberta tailings pond. It was accompanied by hardy, green broccoli and a delightful barley risotto that was the best dish of the day.
Yet the Den did not fare well with its desserts. Mother taught us warm apple crumble should be crunchy, so lay off the microwave. New York cheesecake? Coated in a heavy treacle of fruity goo, it had the flavour and consistency of raw cookie dough. Sampling the chocolate chunk brownie, meanwhile, with its thin rivets of raspberry icing, was like eating the flesh of a diabetic. Sweet teeth stay clear!
University of Calgary – The Alberta Room
Good, honest grub that only occasionally sinks to the culinary doldrums of university eating
The Alberta Room: such a grandiloquent name may leave you—Hey, you there, going through the remand bin at Goodwill!—wondering whether this is a place whose dress code and price range were designed for tuxedoed oil barons. Not to worry. The University of Calgary’s main dining hall, in a tent-like building called, imaginatively enough, The Dining Centre, doesn’t ask you to be anything you’re not. It’s just about good, honest grub. Only occasionally does the food sink to those culinary doldrums so much associated with university dining—a perhaps necessary echo of the Stalinist concrete ennui that surrounds the diner through the windows, i.e. the U of C campus.
Well-organized, with a constellation of food stations across the floor—grill, pasta trattoria, fruit and salad bar—diners have a lot to choose from.
To start off, a gourmet Swiss mushroom burger with fries. The latter aren’t exactly Belgian frites, but the burger is a delight––ful surprise—juicy, with all kinds of fresh tomato and run-at-the-corner-of-your-mouth dill pickle. A veal-stuffed tortellini amatriciana is less successful, with a consistency of dense cake and nothing more than pinhead de––posits of veal buried within. Though bland, it’s not altogether unsatisfying once we add a zing of freshly grated Parmesan. The accompanying spinach salad, with cherry tomatoes and cucumber, is delicious.
The bowl of fish chowder doesn’t exactly exceed expectations. A viscous skin, pallid colour and the vague sense that something has died beneath the surface adds to the effect. An apple lentil curry also missed the mark: at first one’s mouth embraced those earthy curried tones; a second spoonful was less curry, all earth. Side orders of parsley boiled potatoes and veggies still tasted of the cardboard they were packed in prior to freezing.
And so what if the server doesn’t know what a kaiser is? The made-to-order deli sandwich—ham and cheese on a toasted bun—was delicious, full of crunchy-fresh bell peppers. The fruit stick was less so. On the day we visited, this dessert and others fell into the “fish chowder” category: eat it just to say you have—and, for those of us who have lived in Quebec, to recall the engineering feats pioneered by industrial pastry chefs in that province, circa 1962.
