All Posts Tagged With: "University of New Brunswick"
Pettigrew: the military shouldn’t train on campus
The argument against a Canadian Officers Training Corps
Photo by The United States Army
Last week, another prominent Canadian restated the proposal that Canada should bring back The Canadian Officers Training Corps, a campus-based program that was discontinued in 1968, but championed in a recent film by Robert Roy.
Lee Windsor, Deputy Director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society at the University of New Brunswick, supports a program whereby undergraduates register as cadets and get military training on campus while pursuing their studies, after which they may or may not choose to sign up in the reserves or the regular forces.
The new proposal has been widely reported, but not widely endorsed. We should keep it that way.
Continue reading Pettigrew: the military shouldn’t train on campus
Where the rich kids go
Guess which universities get the least student financial aid
From Queen's Players "I go to Queen's!"
You know the stereotype that Queen’s University attracts rich kids? The one played up in this recent viral video in which a student jokes: “I don’t know what financial aid is, but Queen’s has it.”
Well, if the number of students receiving financial assistance is any indication, it’s very likely true.
Queen’s University has the lowest number of students receiving Ontario Student Assistance in the province: only 29.6 per cent of students.
Contrast that to Nipissing University in the relatively poorer north of Ontario, where twice as many—59.6 per cent—get loans. It’s almost as high at Trent University—59.3 per cent.
UNB Saint John to test hundreds for Tuberculosis
Student tests positive
Up to 300 students and five faculty members at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John will be tested for Tuberculosis (TB) after a classmate tested positive for the airborne disease.
Public health officials notified the university on Monday morning that a student had tested positive for the infection, reports the Telegraph-Journal. The university notified the public Tuesday.
Kevin Bonner, director of student services, told the paper that skin tests will be available in the university’s gymnasium on Friday. Results are often available in just a few days.
Health Canada reports that TB, although serious, is not very contagious. “A person usually has to have frequent exposure to someone with active TB,” says its website. “For example, spending several hours a day with a person with active TB could put you at risk of infection.”
There are approximately 1,600 new cases of TB reported in Canada every year. Health Canada says it usually attacks the lungs, but can also impact the lymph nodes, kidneys, urinary tract and bones. It is easily cured with antibiotics, but still kills almost two million people worldwide each year.
How parental income can kill your student loans
Parents are expected to pay. But what if they can’t or won’t?
Photo by kenteegardin on Flickr
University of New Brunswick student Ben Whitney has a $5,000 hole in his budget this year thanks to the re-introduction of the parental contribution requirement for student loan funding in that province. He was loaned $8,000 last year, before the change. This year, the third-year student got just $3,000 because of what his parents—a middle manager and a secretary—took home last year from work. The 20-year-old’s parents are expected to make-up the difference. It’s money that Whitney says his parents don’t have this year.
But the issue of parental contributions, which he’s taken up with verve, means a lot more to him than sudden penury. “It’s also a matter of principle,” says Whitney. “As an adult, I shouldn’t have to depend on my parents until I’m 22,” he says. “It’s also a matter of pride to have to call my parents and ask, can you send me $20 so I can buy a bottle of shampoo?” he says. But he can’t afford such luxuries otherwise, even with a part-time job.
Continue reading How parental income can kill your student loans
That’s ‘professor’ uptight to you
Website offers profs group therapy
Photo by Laura Mills
June Madeley is annoyed with the increasingly rude demands she gets from students at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. Ten years ago, it was common for them to see her during office hours when they had a question. “Now there’s an expectation that we’ll answer their emails immediately and meet them whenever there’s a good time for them.” And as surely as the leaves pile up on campus each October, the communications professor knows her inbox will soon fill with complaints about mid-terms scheduled for the week after the Thanksgiving holiday. “There are a lot of people who feel they can’t make the exam because of travel arrangements,” she says. “And others who think it’s unfair that they have to study that weekend.”
But when Madeley gets frustrated, she doesn’t fire off a snotty email to the student. She logs on to “That’s ‘Professor’ Uptight to You, Johnny,” a Facebook group with 297 members, all of them teaching at universities and colleges. The members-only site is a place where university educators can vent in the form of steaming emails they wish they could write to their students but can’t because that would be, well, rude. Madeley, who says she hasn’t posted yet, enjoys reading the rants from her colleagues. The site is run by Khrystyne Keane, a Connecticut-based editor for a non-profit group, who took over its administration as a favour to a professor friend. The logo—a unicorn standing under a rainbow—is a jab at students, some of whom feel they are every bit as special as the fabled one-horned horse and the multicoloured arc.
The posts are all written to anonymous Janeys and Johnnies, but they share one trait: carefully crafted sarcasm. “Dear Johnny, I suspect that if you had spent as much time and effort on your last assignment as you did on the long flaming email you just sent me, this whole ‘conversation’ would never have happened,” reads one. “Dear Janey, I want to assure you that we didn’t do anything important in class. We just stared out the window for three hours in silence,” reads another.
Nothing riles a professor more than asking about material covered in a skipped lecture. But Joey O’Kane, a vice-president of the University of New Brunswick Student Union, thinks it’s no big deal. He also thinks it’s reasonable to expect email responses from profs within 24 hours, preferably 12. “Professors have a pretty good gig,” he says. “You put in some office hours, you teach for a few hours and then you end up with a decent paycheque, so taking 10 minutes out of your day to respond to a few emails . . . I don’t think that’s asking too much.”
Kevin Maness, another Facebook member from Eastern University in Pennsylvania, recalls a student who emailed him a couple of weeks after the last semester ended and asked if there was anything he could do to increase his grade because he had been “too busy” playing basketball. Incredulous, Maness wanted to shoot off a caustic retort. Long before he had even heard about That’s “Professor” Uptight, someone else had addressed the same complaint with a post that read: “Dear Johnny, Just tell me the grade you want and I’ll change it in the book, because it doesn’t really matter anyway.” After joining the group last month, Maness has found it to be “great group therapy.”
When Maness attended the University of Pennsylvania in the early ’90s, he accepted that professors would challenge him. In return for doing the coursework, he was rewarded with the grade he had earned. Now, if he hands out a C-minus “it’s almost like a complete shock to them.”
So why the attitude? In their book Lowering Higher Education: The Rise of Corporate Universities and the Fall of Liberal Education, University of Western Ontario sociologists James Côté and Anton Allahar say it started when higher education became purely a financial exchange. Funding pressures forced universities to accept as many students as possible, even those who weren’t suited to academics, says Côté. That crowds lecture halls with students who shouldn’t be there.
At the very least, one educator feels students should learn to mind their manners. At the University of Minnesota, law professor Michele Goodwin added “civility” to her course requirements this September. “Failure to follow this guideline will affect your final grade,” she wrote in the class syllabus, explaining that emails should include the basic salutation “Dear Professor Goodwin” and not “Hey Prof.”
She even assigned practice email as homework. “It’s a bit awkward for professors to think, wow, this is actually my job now?” says Goodwin, who blogs for industry publication The Chronicle of Higher Education, “but it’s necessary.” If the new rules don’t work out, at least she has a place to commiserate. The professor can always join That’s “Professor” Uptight to You, Johnny.
Editor’s Note: I wrote this story for the print edition of Maclean’s. As both Profs. Maness and Magatha have pointed out in the comments section, it should have included more nuance. For one, I should have made it more clear that every single professor I spoke to for this piece exuded passion for teaching. Indeed, research shows that North American professors work on average around 55 hours per week and many of those hours are dedicated to helping students learn beyond the classroom—something they get little credit for. The profs. also made it clear that there are many students who don’t fit the stereotype of entitled. I agree. While it’s a challenge to decide what to include in the space allotted, I should have done a better job. I also want to note that there was a factual error in this story that was introduced in the editing process. Maness did not read a complaint “months earlier” from another professor who sarcastically offered to change a student’s grade. That was merely what he said he might have written had he know about the page at the time.
Is your water fountain safe?
Fredericton schools find unacceptable levels of lead
Even as universities across the country are banning bottled water, alarms are going off about the safety of the water coming out of drinking fountains at some Canadian campuses.
The student newspaper at St. Thomas University is reporting that eight drinking fountains at the small university are being shut down because of high levels of lead detected in the fountains. University officials were uncertain as to the exact source of the contamination, and vowed to replace the fountains with newer models equipped with filters to make the water safe.
According to the report, STU only looked into their fountains after recent tests at the University of New Brunswick showed unacceptable levels of lead in 18 per cent of fountains and sinks — along with others that were very close to the limits set out by Health Canada. New fountains are on order there, too, according to The Brunswickan, coming in at a total cost of roughly $100,000 dollars for twenty fountains.
Why does this matter? Long-term exposure to small amounts of lead can harm the nervous system. According to Health Canada:“Recent scientific studies on lead show that adverse health effects are occurring at lower levels of exposure to lead than previously thought.”
Concerns over water quality at school drinking fountains are not new. A US investigation in 2009 turned up lead-contaminated drinking water at schools in every American state. Some of the lead came from the school’s own well or local water supplies, while lead-soldered pipes were identified as culprits in other cases. In Canada, one study found that 27 per cent of “first draw” samples taken in Ontario schools had high levels of lead, and 9 per cent still had high levels even after the system was flushed.
How many more schools have contaminated water that is going undetected? Since STU only identified its problem after learning of the UNB case, universities across the country may need to begin more systematic monitoring of water quality. At present, Ontario is the only province that has legally mandated monitoring of school drinking water. Mandatory or not, universities should consider conducting tests of their own.
Couches burn near University of New Brunswick
In Fredericton, furniture blazes are dangerous tradition
Photo courtesy of qmnonic on Flickr
It’s a sure sign that students are back at school in Fredericton. The Fire Department has responded to three couch fires since Sunday, Platoon Capt. Jeff Mills, told the Times & Transcript newspaper.
“It’s a joke and it’s fun for someone,” said Mills. “But it’s tying up personnel that could really benefit someone else,” he added.
There was an epidemic of couch fires near Fredericton’s two new universities, the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University, in 2007, when 43 furniture fires were recorded on Graham Avenue alone. After the the city created designated days for roadside pick-up of trashed furniture, the total dropped to 17 in 2008 and nine in 2009. Including the three this frosh week, there have been six so far in 2011.
Mayor Brad Woodside offered a message for students after hearing of the fires. “This is your home away from home and live, love, laugh and enjoy,” he said, “[But] respect the community when you’re here, we’ll treat you like family, but treat this like it’s your home as well.”
Canada’s best teachers: Diana Austin
UNB English prof teaches every 50 minutes as if it is ‘the most important 50 minutes’ of her students’ lives
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. This week we continue our series profiling all 10 of the 3M Teaching Award winners, with a look at Diana Austin, an English professor at the University of New Brunswick.
When Diana Austin saw a video of herself teaching, she could not have been more embarrassed. As she lectured in front of the class, she became wildly animated. “I was horrified to see how expressive my face was,” says the University of New Brunswick English professor. “I actually apologized to my students.”
There was no need. Austin’s intensity, where “whatever emotions” she is teaching “flit right across” her face, is what draws students to her. Her apology was rebuffed by her class as unnecessary.
That enthusiasm for English literature and poetry has been charming students for years. Sean Yeomans, who graduated from UNB in 1995, says what he remembers most fondly about Austin was “her waving her intensity and passion” at the authors she taught.
Yeomans, who is CEO of Prince Edward Island video game developer, Telos, credits Austin with helping him to “harness a thought and wrestle it down.”
Once when Austin, a notoriously hard marker, awarded him a “B” on a paper, he visited her to see how he could improve. She tore “apart the entire essay from beginning to end,” Yeomans recalls. While going through that exercise with another professor, might have been excruciating, Yeomans welcomed it from Austin. “I was hungry for that kind of attention to detail and she recognized that and she was fired up,” he says.
Third-year English student Ashlee Joyce, would agree with that sentiment, describing Austin as a “coach” who is always “in your corner.”
Joyce highlights two common exercises that Austin uses to engage her students.
The first is called “designated speakers” where at the start of each class a different student gives their opinion of that week’s readings. “Dr. Austin has a way of making every student feel valued for their idea. Any interpretation is on the table for discussion,” Joyce says.
The other exercise is “rants and raves” where three times each term, students submit a couple paragraphs, via email, about either what they loved or what they hated about a particular reading assignment. Students are encouraged to be informal, and to draw comparisons between the readings and events in the world or their own lives. “She really believes in developing each individual student,” Joyce says.
Austin would be heartened to hear her students speak that way as it illustrates almost perfectly her teaching goals. “My attitude is to teach every 50 minutes as if it is the most important 50 minutes for any of our lives because we don’t know what’s going to happen,” she says.
Honourary degrees awarded at UNB’s 225th
Spirit of Canada was the theme running through the night at celebration in Toronto
Last night at Koerner Hall in Toronto, the University of New Brunswick celebrated its 225th year by awarding five honourary degrees to outstanding Canadians. Each honouree gave an impassioned talk about his or her field of expertise. Alan MacGibbon, a business leader and the current managing partner and chief executive at Deloitte Canada, spoke about the coming economic uncertainties and the opportunity Canada has to create business models that are responsible and sustainable. Olympic athlete Clara Hughes was also honoured, and talked about the value of sport and its power to inspire.
Purdy Crawford, an esteemed lawyer and businessman, discussed Canada’s great potential to be a leading nation in the world. Carolyn Acker, the founder of Pathways to Education Canada, shared her thoughts on the possibility for education to empower and create new pathways for underprivileged people in this country. Finally, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine gave a speech about the place of reconciliation in Canada, and the goal Canadians should have to close the health and well-being gap between First Nations people and the rest of Canada.
New Brunswick came to Toronto for the evening because Ontario is home to a great number of UNB alumni and donors. The university is also seeking to create awareness about its history and offerings outside of the Atlantic provinces. The university was founded in 1785 before Canada was formed and even before the U.S. had its first President. Loyalists from south of the border carved UNB out of the wilds of New Brunswick with the goal of bringing higher education to the local population. Since then, the university has established this nation’s first engineering school, as well as a world-renowned institute of biomedical engineering, among other top-ranked programs. The university now has 13,000 students who come from 100 countries.
Happy birthday to the University of New Brunswick
Canada’s oldest English-language university celebrates its 225th year
This school year marks the 225th anniversary of the University of New Brunswick, Canada’s oldest English-language university (only Laval, founded in 1663, trumps it), currently renowned for its engineering, science, and computer programs. Eddy Campbell, UNB president and vice chancellor, says this milestone is just the right opportunity for the university to boast about its considerable accomplishments and rich legacy. “Universities in Atlantic Canada probably don’t receive the national distinction they deserve,” says Campbell. “Canadians are a modest bunch and maybe we don’t take sufficient time to celebrate our success and blow our own horn.”
So the school has planned a series of events that will do just that. First, there’s an honorary degree night at Koerner Hall in Toronto on Sept. 23 that will showcase talented alumni, including Anne Murray and Frank McKenna, as well as five Canadians that the university feels have made an enormous contribution to Canada. The honourees are Carolyn Acker (pioneer in poverty reduction), Purdy Crawford (business leader and dean emeritus of Canada’s corporate bar), Phil Fontaine (former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations), Clara Hughes (Olympic champion and philanthropist) and Alan MacGibbon (UNB alumnus, global strategist, and corporate visionary).
In October, homecoming at UNB will be bigger and splashier than usual, and the history of the university will be documented in a new book about architecture on campus. The university was founded in 1785 by Loyalists who had fled the American Revolution. (A second campus was established in Saint John, N.B., in 1964.) The Fredericton campus houses the oldest university building in the country that is still in regular use for school operations.
The university’s history is also entwined with the legacy of Max Aitken, or Lord Beaverbrook. He was the first modern day chancellor at UNB, a patron of the university, and of course, a towering historical figure who became a press baron and sat on the war cabinet of Winston Churchill. To pay homage to their great benefactor, a “Beaverbrook Celebration” will take place on campus in November.
As Campbell says, “UNB is a great university and it does not always enjoy the kind of reputation it should given its quality.” He adds: “This event is a good opportunity for us to go to Toronto, make a splash, celebrate our accomplishments, and start pointing out to people what great universities we have out here on the east coast.”
Photo: Sir Howard Douglas Hall (Old Arts Building) at the UNB Fredericton Campus; the oldest university building in Canada. Courtesy of the University of New Brunswick.
Condom controversy at STU
University committee to make recommendation on whether condoms can be handed out during orientation week
Condoms might be available everywhere at St. Thomas University, in Fredericton, but a plan to hand them out to first-year students during orientation initially caused confusion over whether the university had a policy that prevented it. To clear up the misunderstanding, university president Dennis Cochrane struck a committee on student health that is expected to make a recommendation within days.
Update: Condom fiasco at an end
In July, the St. Thomas Students’ Union (STUSU) was told by Residence Life that they couldn’t include condoms in Welcome Week kits, alongside t-shirts, clip boards, and information about the campus. When STUSU sought clarification from the administration, it was discovered that no such policy existed, only a long standing convention, although condoms had been handed out in some previous years. It was also suggested to STUSU and reported elsewhere that the decision stemmed from the university’s roots as a Catholic institution, but the university denies that. Although the university originated as a religious institution, it is now a secular university.
Jeffrey Carleton, STU’s director of media relations, said the request to hand out condoms during Welcome Week was denied because condoms are available elsewhere on campus, including from a residence adviser, and because students have “more important” things to worry about during their first week. “Any student who wants [a condom] can just go ask for one . . . the feeling was that [Welcome Week] just wasn’t the appropriate time,” he said.
Student president Ella Henry says while condoms are indeed readily available, students might “feel embarrassed” about approaching a residence adviser for a condom. “It was about establishing a culture where safe sex is normal,” she said. “We have to recognize that students are going to have sex . . . They aren’t going to necessarily put that off.”
Although not all student unions distribute condoms during orientation week, it is widely practiced across Canada, including at the University of New Brunswick which has a Fredericton campus that is shared with St. Thomas.
The committee advising the president is composed of ten members representing various campus constituencies including four students. The committee will also make other recommendations regarding student health and wellness.
UNB strike dodged–for now
Conciliation board appointed by government to bring an end to collective bargaining gridlock.
University of New Brunswick students were given some hope Thursday, after the province appointed a conciliation board to bring an end to a collective bargaining stalemate that has, until now, made a faculty strike seem all but a foregone conclusion.
After negotiations broke down between the university and the Association of University of New Brunswick Teachers (AUNBT) at the beginning of February, things were looking grim and the possibility of a strike loomed.
Previously, both parties had been working with a conciliation officer, a neutral representative who could make suggestions during negotiations. These talks concluded on Feb. 3 with several issues still undecided, and the parties entered into a waiting period before potentially going to a strike or a lockout.
To break the deadlock, Donald Arseneault, minister for post-secondary education in New Brunswick, announced the formation of a conciliation board to look into the remaining issues on the table between the two parties.
The formation of the board is a rare move in labour negotiations, but the appointment of the conciliation board prevents the possibility of a strike or lockout until after the board has filed its non-binding report. According to a document on the AUNBT website, this can take at least a month. AUNBT also stated that although they are surprised by the minister’s decision, they will work with the conciliation board in good faith.
In a joint press release, the administration and the union stated that “Both AUNBT and the UNB administration continue to share the goal of supporting the communities around us and of making UNB a better place to study and work.”
Both sides have agreed to a media blackout and said that “All communication with the media regarding negotiations will be by way of joint statements at this time.”
However, the Daily Gleaner reported Friday that it had obtained a faculty union “internal bargaining bulletin” that outlined AUNBT’s position. According to the Gleaner, the union says it is rejecting the university’s salary proposal that would see wages frozen for the first two years of a contract, and increase by two per cent during the final two years.
“This moves average salaries at UNB drastically downwards relative to other universities so that the average assistant professor at UNB will be earning 15 per cent less than if they were working at St. Thomas University, 12 per cent less than at Mount Allison or 35 per cent less than Queen’s University,” the internal document reads.
Jon O’Kane, president of the UNB Student Union, feels that the appointment of the conciliation board is a positive decision that will help settle the discussion.
“Negotiations are going to happen in a more thorough, rigorous way, before we get to that position of a possible strike or lockout,” he said. “Those fears . . . are there, and they’re still there, except now we know that people are still going to be at the table for sure for a little while longer.”
The UNB Student Union is not choosing a side as it does not want to interfere with deliberations. “We don’t want to use students as emotional pawns,” said O’Kane.
AUNBT represents 600 academic staff. Approximately 12,000 students would be affected by a strike.
Applying knowledge
A student survey helps universities target areas for improvement.
Anne Celine Hansen, a fourth-year bachelor of management student at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, used to find herself stuck between classes killing time. “I wouldn’t really know what to do with myself,” she says. Hansen, who lives about a 20-minute walk from campus, could study at the library or sit in the cafeteria, but it was hard to connect with other people. Like many students living off-campus, she felt disconnected from the pulse of her university. “Students would take the bus up to campus, go to class and then take the bus back home,” says Hansen.
In 2006, UBC started administering the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), a U.S.-based survey that indirectly measures educational quality by analyzing what students do with their time on campus. NSSE measures a university’s performance based on five key benchmarks—including student-faculty interaction, level of academic challenge and supportive campus environment—providing data for comparison across time and between institutions. Research has shown that higher levels of engagement can lead to greater student success. UBC’s results pointed to the disengagement that Hansen and others at Okanagan were feeling, so in 2008, the school decided to correct the problem. “We wanted to make sure that our commuter students had exactly the same campus life experience as the residence students, the same level of TLC,” says Ian Cull, associate vice-president of students at the Okanagan campus.
The school set up what it calls “collegia”—on-campus lounges providing space for commuter students to sit and do homework, talk, or just watch TV. They’re staffed by senior students, called collegia assistants, who answer questions, provide information about the university and set up social events. Hansen has been working as a collegia assistant since the program started. Students “are always coming in and talking to people, meeting people,” she says. “It becomes a big group.”
The issue of student engagement is becoming increasingly important for universities, especially since NSSE arrived at 11 Canadian schools in 2004. The survey has now been conducted at 64 institutions across Canada, with 11 more universities and one college set to participate for the first time this year. And as the years of data accumulate, schools are using the insight NSSE provides to create programs tailored to improving the quality of their students’ education.
Administrators at the University of New Brunswick had little cash to spend on new programs, but they didn’t want to waste their NSSE data. So Tony Secco, UNB’s vice-president, academic, had the information broken down by faculty and distributed to the deans. Deciding to concentrate primarily on one benchmark—student-faculty interaction—they pooled ideas and came up with several low-cost ways to better connect professors with their pupils. The administration hosted student-faculty mixers, held faculty workshops on student engagement, asked professors to spend more time mentoring after class, and converted unused space on campus into common and student services rooms where faculty and students can meet. While there are no hard data yet on how well the initiatives are working, the response from students and teachers has been positive. “Engagement in any exercise is very strongly linked to the fulfillment that is sensed by the individual,” says Secco. For his part, UNB president Eddy Campbell observes: “NSSE is a good instrument for measuring that engagement. And it allows us a good look at the places where we need to do better.”
But NSSE isn’t just supposed to be used internally. Its results are meant to be shared across schools, and are most effective when broken down into faculties and student groups. Unfortunately, this isn’t an easy process. “There’s no formal mechanism for sharing information across institutions,” says Chris Conway, principal investigator for the NSSE intervention project—a group, funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, that examines NSSE’s effectiveness. He says Canada needs “a more systematic data sharing and analysis exercise” that breaks down information by school and then by faculty, making cross-institutional comparisons easy. Conway and a committee of educators from around the country are working to create a national data-sharing initiative that will do exactly that. So far, 44 universities have signed on to the project, and Conway is hoping to release preliminary results within four months.
Conway is cautious, however, not to draw conclusions prematurely, noting that although NSSE has built a good foundation of knowledge in Canada, the programs it’s helped to create are still in their infancy, and universities won’t know how effective they are without a few more years of data. “I don’t think we’re at the point now where we can say a given type of experience gives you the best bang for your buck in terms of quality improvement,” he says.
Still, Jillian Kinzie, the NSSE institute’s associate director, is optimistic, pointing out that Canadian schools are continually improving their scores and bettering their educational programs. “The thing that impresses me the most is the commitment to action,” she says. “Digging in and really spending time thinking about what these results tell us about the quality of students’ educational experiences, that’s the most important part—converting the results into some sort of action to improve the educational experience.”
UNB to offer degree in First Nations governance
New Brunswick puts $1million towards aboriginal education
New Brunswick education minister Donald Arseneault announced today that the province plans to put more than $1 million towards recruiting Aboriginals into post-secondary education. According to a government release, the money will go towards implementing various Aboriginal-focused programs in the province’s higher education institutions.
The government says the University of New Brunswick:
- Will hire an Aboriginal recruiting officer to recruit and provide support to Aboriginal students.
- Will appoint an Aboriginal elder-in-residence to work with the UNB Mi’kmaq Maliseet Institute. Funding will be used to develop specialized curricula to include a First Nations perspective; to develop math, literacy, science and social science courses for pre-service teacher education programs; and to develop community literacy and math outreach programs.
- Will establish a bachelor’s degree in First Nations governance and management as an extension of the existing certificate program. It will be the first undergraduate degree of its kind in Canada.
While UNB will be home to the most comprehensive list of programs, initiatives tasked with bringing an aboriginal perspective to higher education will be implemented at the Université de Moncton, Saint Thomas University, and New Brunswick Community College. The government release also says the education department will be developing a “provincial strategy and action plan to increase participation of Aboriginal persons in post-secondary education in New Brunswick.”
New Brunswick keeps tuition freeze
Province posts largest deficit in history
New Brunswick’s $1.6-billion budget released Tuesday includes millions for post-secondary education. The province’s tuition freeze will be extended another year and new campuses for New Bunswick Community College (NBCC) will be built.
Shawn Graham’s Liberal government announced $19 million in capital funding for the Centre of Excellence for Energy and Construction in Saint John, $11.7 million for the Allied Health Centre, also in Saint John, and $22 million for the new NBCC campus in Edmundston next to the Université de Moncton. The budget also includes $3 million for the multi-trade shop at the Bathurst community college. Almost $10 million will go towards a new NBCC campus in Fredericton, which will be hosted next to the University of New Brunswick. The university is leasing the land to the province.
“We’re trying to be as student-focused as possible,” said Donald Arseneault, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour.
The government also announced that university tuition fees will be frozen for another year — the third year in a row. Arseneault said that freeze won’t come at the expense of university budgets. “We funded that tuition freeze,” he said. Extending the university tuition freeze next year will cost the government $6.1 million, he said.
He also noted that tuition at community colleges hasn’t increased in the last five years and “we are not raising tuition at the community college level this year.” University operating grants will be increased by $6 million, an increase of three per cent.
New Brunswick will post a $758 million deficit, the largest in the province’s history. Finance Minister Greg Byrne says the red ink is necessary to maintain services. From The Daily Gleaner:
The Liberals are also abandoning their one-year-old plan to return to balanced budgets by 2012 and will violate the Fiscal Responsibility and Balanced Budget Act, which requires budgets be balanced over a four-year cycle.
“This government had a difficult choice to make,” said Byrne.
He said balancing the budget in four years would require cutting $513 million out of the budget by 2012-13.
That’s the equivalent of the collective budgets for the departments of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, Transportation and Agriculture and Aquaculture for one year, said the finance minister.
“The government … made the conscious decision to return to balanced budgets over a longer period rather than commit to sweeping reductions in programs and services,” said Byrne.
With files from the Canadian Press
Despite opposition, N.B. premier gets honorary degree
More than 100 faculty signed a letter of protest opposing the honour
To polite applause from the crowd, Premier Shawn Graham accepted an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of New Brunswick on Wednesday, despite earlier opposition from more than 100 members of the faculty.
Jack Gegenberg, a professor of mathematics at UNB, called it an insult to graduating students.
“By including him in that process of awarding degrees, then it’s a slap in the face to students who had to pay too much to get an education which is being squeezed by the government,” he said.
“Students have had to struggle too hard financially and in other ways to get the kind of education that they want, and it’s certainly because of government policies that maybe they aren’t quite getting their money’s worth.”
The profs are upset that a report sponsored by Graham’s Liberal government recommended major changes to the structure of UNB and the University of Moncton.
The government backed away from the changes as a result of widespread protest.
The open letter signed by the profs states in part that “regardless of any other contributions Mr. Graham might have made to this point in his career, his actions in this respect cannot be regarded as having made an outstanding contribution to our communities, nor do they show regard for higher education in the province.”
Graham, who graduated from UNB 18 years ago with a degree in physical education, told the commencement crowd that he’s pleased people can challenge him.
“What I learned here at UNB was that people who challenged my opinions weren’t enemies,” he said. “Those who made me think about my views did me a favour.”
Despite controversy, N.B. premier will accept university degree
About 100 staff and faculty sign letter of protest
Premier Shawn Graham says he is humbled by the University of New Brunswick’s decision to give him an honorary degree, despite protests about the honour in the university community.
Graham says the debate around the degree is what universities are all about.
Robert Whitney, a professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, is one of the authors of a protest letter, signed by about 100 faculty and staff from the school’s Saint John and Fredericton campuses.
The letter states it would be “impossible” to forget Graham’s proposed changes to post-secondary education.
Graham’s government was forced by widespread protests to back away from changes recommended in a controversial report, including changing the UNB satellite campus in Saint John into a polytechnic institution.
Some of the recommendations would have seen major changes to the structure of the University in New Brunswick in Saint John and the University of Moncton.
- The Canadian Press
Memorial University’s loss is UNB’s gain
Campbell accepts UNB presidency a year after rejection by Newfoundland gov’t
Memorial University’s acting president has been recommended to take on the presidency at the University of New Brunswick, a year after the Newfoundland and Labrador government rejected him for Memorial’s top job.
In a message posted Tuesday on Memorial’s website, Eddy Campbell said the University of New Brunswick’s presidential search committee is unanimously supporting his candidacy for the position.
“While my belief in the strength and potential of Memorial University and our students, staff, and faculty remains as strong as ever, I am excited by this new opportunity and eager to explore it further,” Campbell wrote.
“I will be travelling to New Brunswick next week to meet with a wide variety of people within the UNB community as well as the external community. Both parties will be in a position to make a final decision following that visit.”
New Brunswick’s endorsement comes almost a year after the Newfoundland and Labrador government rejected Campbell’s application for Memorial’s presidency.
Faculty members at Memorial accused the government of violating the school’s autonomy – an allegation the provincial government denied.
Education Minister Joan Burke has not elaborated on why she rejected Campbell, except to say she did not want to “settle for anyone.”
Under provincial law, the cabinet has the authority to approve or reject an independent search committee’s selection for Memorial’s president, though approval has long been considered a formality.
In many other provinces, universities do not need the approval of their provincial governments to select incoming presidents.
Memorial has asked the government to amend that law, but Premier Danny Williams has rebuffed calls to change it.
- The Canadian Press
When students vote, they can get results
21-year old University of New Brunswick student wins councillor seat in Fredericton
A 21-year old University of New Brunswick student recently won a seat on Fredericton’s next city council, according to The Chronicle Herald.
The student won in an area with high town-gown tensions. If the situation in Fredericton is similar to other university towns, this means student voter turnout was strong enough to win the seat.
In Hamilton, my hometown, the citizens in the ward where McMaster University is located would never vote for a student, no matter his platform, because anti-student sentiment is so strong.
Not that “permanent residents” would have to mobilize to defeat a student candidate. We students do well enough defeating ourselves that we do not need any outside help.
During the 2006 municipal election, the City of Hamilton set up an on-campus polling station in the hope of increasing student voter turnout. This polling station was a complete failure with only 10 votes cast. The population of the nearby residences is over 3,000. (Note: Not all resident students were 18 years of age.)
The situation was not much better off campus. At the polling location serving the most concentrated student area, there were less than 200 ballots cast. I speculate most of those votes were non-student residents. This poll had, by far, the lowest voter turnout in the entire city.
Surprise! Ever since that election, student concerns have been ignored at Hamilton’s city council.
This will not be the case in Fredericton because a student has a vote at the table. There is a lesson here for students’ unions. A major part of lobbying is proving you can put ballots in the ballot box.
I’m sure someone will argue that it is only one vote on council and it can be ignored. However, if students can mobilize a large voting block, they can be the king-maker in a mayoral race in many communities. City councillors with their eyes on the big chair always make sure to not anger large voting blocks and are more likely to address student concerns.
Politicians in Fredericton will have to take note of student concerns and address them because, at the least, it is in their self interest.
Well done, Fredericton students.
