All Posts Tagged With: "uSask"
Sask. funds 150 new campus child care spaces
Capacity at USask will double
Some Saskatchewan students with children will be getting much-needed extra support.
The Saskatchewan Party government announced Monday that more than 150 new child care spots will be funded on university and college campuses. This is especially welcome news at the U of S, which currently has space for only 111 children between its two centres and has sometimes had waiting lists of up to 3 years, according to The Sheaf newspaper.
Approximately 110 will be added at the University of Saskatchewan, doubling its capacity. Another 16 new spaces will benefit students of the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies (SIIT) and those attending regional colleges in Punnichy can look forward to a new 30 spaces.
“Our government wants to ensure that our post-secondary students are supported in their studies,” Advanced Education, Employment and Immigration Minister Rob Norris said in a statement released Monday. “These new spaces provide greater opportunity for our students. They will allow more students with children to focus on their studies and, subsequently, succeed in their careers and stay in Saskatchewan.”
Richard Florizone, U of S vice-president of Finance and Resources, said the new development will help the university attract and retain students, faculty and staff, and will also help make the U of S more accessible for Aboriginal students.
MP running for USask riding claims Planned Parenthood funding axed
Student reps worked to fight against Brad Trost’s anti-abortion petition in the past
Though no plans to halt federal funding to the organization have been officially announced, Trost thanked those at the Saskatchewan ProLife Association’s annual convention last Saturday for helping with petitions and said they played a huge role in halting the group’s funding from the Conservative government, according to CBC News.
“Let me just tell you, I cannot tell you specifically how we used it, but those petitions were very, very useful and they were part of what we used to defund Planned Parenthood because it has been an absolute disgrace that that organization and several others like it have been receiving one penny of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars,” Trost told the crowd.
This isn’t the first time the MP has voiced his disapproval of the organization. Trost circulated a petition in 2009 asking the federal government to stop funding the IPPF. The petition accused the group of promoting “the establishment of abortion as an international human right, and lobbies aggressively to impose permissive abortion laws on developing nations,” according to The Sheaf.
This was countered by a petition organized by the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union (USSU) in support of the group, after student representatives caught word of his initiative.
“The IPPF is directly affiliated with Saskatoon Sexual Health, which helps train the staff of the USSU…. The university does tons of work abroad and IPPF helps with that. These are issues that directly affect students and can have both a positive or negative impact depending on whether this goes through,” Warren Kirkland, then-USSU president, told The Sheaf.
Since Trost’s speech, the Conservative Party has tried to distance themselves from his remarks. Dimitri Soudas, spokesperson for Stephen Harper, told reporters Trost was a “backbench MP who, without question, isn’t aware of the way that our program works” at an emergency press conference Thursday morning.
However, the party has yet to confirm or deny if the IPPF will receive its federal funding. The organization has been waiting for over a year to hear whether or not the Canadian International Development Agency will approve their request for an $18 million grant.
USask faculty members criticize university governance
Letter to Advanced Education Minister calls for changes to Board of Governors
This follows controversy surrounding the appointments of the dean of law and head of the school of environment and sustainability, after the recommendations of volunteer search committees for the positions were overlooked by the Board of Governors.
The professors are asking for several changes to the University of Saskatchewan Act, including making all Board of Governors meetings open to the public and requiring board members to have public service experience as well as university teaching or administrative experience.
One of the professors who signed the letter explained the faculty members were motivated by what they felt was a lack of transparency from senior university officials on major decisions affecting the university.
“So much of the decisions, in fact all of the decisions, simply go on behind closed doors. We request more transparency,” engineering professor Todd Pugsley told the StarPhoenix.
The letter was also signed by professors Robert Gander, Len Findlay, Howard Woodhouse, Linda McMullen as well as the chair of university council, which oversees all academic affairs at the U of S, Claire Card.
U of S president Peter MacKinnon said the authors of the letter had “no understanding” of university governance, and that limiting board members to those with public sector or university experience would mean the board would lose out on many qualified people.
“Even worse, the writers of the letter want a board of insiders. . . . On what basis do they claim that only insiders should serve on the board? On what basis do they claim that only insiders should pass judgment on the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars, some of them on themselves?,” MacKinnon told the StarPhoenix.
Norris said that the demand for legislative changes was “a bit of an unusual request”, since these matters are usually dealt with internally.
“But that being said, we are referring it to ministry officials and I’m asking them to follow-up with university stakeholders,” Norris said.
Students petition to save USask language program
Cuts slated to reduce course offerings, increase class sizes
Some students at the University of Saskatchewan are hoping that a petition signed by nearly 2,000 people may prevent major cuts to the university’s language program.
Knowledge of proposed cuts to the Language and Linguistics department had spread amongst students through instructors and two town hall meetings held by the College of Arts and Science, which houses the program, though the university’s budget has not been officially released, according to The Sheaf. The rumoured changes include reducing the German language program to one third year course and increasing class sizes. For example, first year Spanish courses could be pushed to hold 125 students.
One instructor explained that having 40 students in her German tutorial was overwhelming enough.
“I did not know how to incorporate every student, especially as they all have different questions about the course material,” Elena Hagemann, a tutorial leader for a third year German course, explained to the Sheaf. She also felt that a class of 125 students “would be of no use” to students.
Hearing of the changes prompted students in the department to circulate a petition to stop the cuts to their program. In three days alone, the students were able to collect 1,944 signatures on campus. Officials in the College of Arts and Science were presented with the petition at a town hall meeting last Friday.
“I’m apprehensive, but feeling a lot better than last week,” Josh Kroeker, a first year student in the department who helped draft the petition, told the Star Phoenix.
David Parkinson, U of S vice dean of humanities and fine arts, said that it was low demand for language courses that led to plans to reduce the program, and questioned whether students who signed the petition to save the courses would then register for them.
However, he told the Star Phoenix he was “inspired” by the students’ organized and well-prepared presentation, but added that reducing costs is still a reality for the college, as it is with many units on campus.
Parkinson explained that the university wants to continue teaching all the language courses currently offered, but that they may not be taught every year. Right now, the university is primarily concerned with making sure students in the program who are planning to graduate in the next year can complete all their required credits if any courses get axed.
Exam allegedly stolen at USask
Biology exam postponed after copy taken “without authorization”
In an email to students in the Biology 224 class, in which hundreds of students are enrolled, the department explained that they have “strong evidence” of a breach of security after a copy of the lab exam was taken “without authorization.” The department also said it was not sure how many copies of the exam had been circulated, if any had made it into students’ hands at all. “This is completely out of our hands and the most appropriate course of action is to cancel the lab exam,” read the email, according to The Sheaf.
The department told students it was considering either rescheduling the exam or simply excluding the final from the lab portion of the course.
Didn’t pay the fee? No grades for you!
Sask. prof threatens to withhold grades in dispute over additional course fee
Students were informed by professor Gordon Sparks that the $30 fee was mandatory to pay to use materials made available on the course’s Blackboard homepage at the beginning of the class and in their syllabus. However, most students viewed the fee in the same way as paying for an assigned textbook, and that it was not necessarily required to complete the course.
Sparks’ view apparently differed on the fee, as he wrote to students in an email that if they didn’t cough up the $30, “you will be ‘cutoff’ access to Blackboard and therefore will not get a grade in the class!”
In the past, Sparks has simply denied access to the materials on Blackboard until students had paid the fee, which allows students to use course materials from former University of New Brunswick professor Barry Bisson.
Some students felt Sparks was not justified in threatening academic repercussions for students who don’t pay. U of S student Steve Bachiu told The Sheaf that he felt the threat “seems a lot like extortion” since he’s already paid his tuition fees for the course.
“My issue, essentially, is that it’s material that I don’t want. There are a lot of other classes that I’m taking where I haven’t bought the textbook” and have still been given a grade in the class, Bachiu said.
The materials the fee covers include review exercises, quizzes and weekly assignments. According to The Sheaf, Sparks has argued that students were obliged to pay the fee because they had made use of Bisson’s intellectual property by completing the quizzes and assignments.
However, Bachiu said that he felt that instructors shouldn’t be allowed to charge access fees for tests “and that is, essentially, what’s happening.”
Bachiu has brought his concerns to University of Saskatchewan Students Union (USSU) vice-president academic affairs Kelsey Topola, who said she is planning on bringing them before the university’s teaching and learning committee, academic support committee or copyright advisory committee.
Sask student union VP says he is sticking out his term
“[ ... ] I will finish what I started because I believe in what I did”: Blair Shumlich
“I have absolutely no intention of resigning,” Shumlich told campus newspaper The Sheaf. “I was elected for a 12 month term and I will finish what I started because I believe in what I did.”
As petty as this conflict seems to be, I do find it commendable that, instead of creating busy work to fill up his time and wasting student dollars, Shumlich openly admitted that his job does not generate enough work to require a full time position, which holds an annual salary of $30 000.
“There are better ways to spend the money on students’ lives,” Shumlich told the Star Phoenix.
One thing I never thought I’d see: a student politician admitting that they didn’t do enough work for the students they purport to represent.
Sask students’ union removes external affairs position
Confusion over whether VP should resign immediately or complete his term
University of Saskatchewan students voted to eliminate the position of vice-president external affairs at a special general meeting March 3. Blair Shumlich, who currently holds the elected position, had campaigned to have it removed because he believed he didn’t have enough work to do, and that his $30,000 salary could not be justified.
Following the vote there has been confusion over whether Shumlich should resign immediately or complete his term, which ends May 1. “Nowhere in the motion did it allude or did it say that that would take place as of May 1,” University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union president Chris Stoicheff told the Sheaf. However, Shumlich says he intends to stay on until May. “I was elected to a full year term and, while I don’t think that this position was necessary, I have started things and I intend on finishing them,” he said.
Students raised concerns over Shumlich retaining his position at a Thursday student council meeting, but no motion to impeach him was proposed.
Prairies set to lead medical isotope research
University of Saskatchewan, University of Winnipeg projects hoping to produce medical isotopes receive combined $14 million from feds
Two prairie universities are set to lead the way in developing new ways to create medical isotopes that are less wasteful and friendlier to the environment. Projects at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Winnipeg that aim to create medical isotopes without producing radioactive waste that a traditional nuclear reactor usually yields received a combined $14 million from Natural Resources Canada, with $4 million going to the U of W project and $10 million to the U of S, according to the Canadian University Press. The funding was announced Jan. 24.
Medical isotopes are microscopic particles that can be injected into the body to diagnose heart diseases and treat certain types of cancer, and are also used for detailed medical imaging. A large portion of the world’s supply is produced in Canada by the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Chalk River, Ont., which is currently the country’s only facility that produces medical isotopes. When the reactor was closed in 2007 for maintenance, it resulted in an international shortage.
The reactor was again shutdown in 2009 and not able to start up again until 2010. Since these problems occurred, the National Research Council has been searching for alternative ways for medical isotopes to be produced.
David Walker, leader of the U of W project Prairie Isotope Production Enterprises (PIPE), explained that the project already has a “ready-made facility”, as it will be using a former Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) facility outside of Pinawa, Man. Walker said the team hopes to be ready to produce the medical isotopes using their method by 2012.
The U of S Canadian Light Source (CLS) Medical Isotope Project may take more time than its Manitoba counterpart to get its research off the ground, as it requires a linear accelerator to be installed, and the space set to be used for the project to be made more accessible to the research team, said the project’s lead investigator Mark de Jong.
‘utterly without substance’
USask president fights back over claims he unduly interfered in dean selection process
Top administrators at the University of Saskatchewan fired back against accusations that they dismissed the top choice of the search committee for the new dean of law at a University Council meeting on Jan. 27.
According to the StarPhoenix, members of the committee were “furious” after university president Peter MacKinnon ignored the committee’s choice and pitched his own candidate, University of Alberta law professor Sanjeev Anand, who was approved by the university’s board of governors.
At last week’s meeting, MacKinnon said he was only informed of the accusations through the StarPhoenix article, according to campus newspaper The Sheaf.
“I was under the mistaken belief that if members of the faculty association executive felt [negative towards our hiring practices], they would have communicated such to me [ ... ]” before making such a “scathing” public accusation, MacKinnon said. He also called the charge that top university administrators hold all decision making power in the university “utterly without substance”.
Brett Fairbairn, U of S university provost and vice-president academic, accused the StarPhoenix of being inaccurate, and told the council “we really should not be relying on the StarPhoenix as a source,” though he would not comment on specific inaccuracies in the Jan. 21 article.
MacKinnon explained the board of governors only makes its own decision on new appointments when the search committee can’t come to an agreement, which Fairbairn told the Sheaf was the case in the decision to appoint Anand.
Chair of the search committee Jim Germida declined to comment on the accusations and stated that MacKinnon and Fairbairn’s accounts should be accepted as fact.
USask president joins PM advisory committee
Peter MacKinnon will offer input on public service
The federal government’s nine member advisory committee on the public service will include University of Saskatchewan president Peter MacKinnon, prime minister Stephen Harper’s office announced Tuesday. Formed in 2006, the committee meets every few months to advice the prime minister and the privy council office on policies relating to the civil service. “I was invited to join it, I think, because of my background as president of an organization with 7,000 employees in the public sector and hopefully I can make a contribution,” MacKinnon told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
USask ignores search committee for Dean of Law
President submits own candidate to Board of Governors
University of Saskatchewan administrators are taking fire for ignoring a candidate for Dean of Law put forward by a search committee. President Peter MacKinnon presented his own candidate, Sanjeev Anand, a criminal law professor at the University of Calgary, to the Board of Governors for approval.
A member of the search committee who spoke anonymously to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, says committee members are furious because the search was time consuming and because the administration appears to be further centralizing decisions. “It’s a very time-consuming process,” the source said. “This is not just about a few people feeling hard done by.”
Vice-president academic Brett Fairbairn, says that it is typical for recommendations from search committees to be heeded, but that the board has the final say. “Really, it’s about using the committee as the vehicle to collect and assess information,” he said.
Campus jail break
Cow escapes from uSask vet college
See story at:
http://academicagroup.ca/top10_page
