All Posts Tagged With: "Wilfrid Laurier University"

Aboriginals report racism and discomfort but also support

Ntawnis Elyse Piapot works for APTN

New journalism school graduate Frank Molley, of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation in Quebec, recalls a humiliating experience while studying at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B.

“There were two Native journalists in the class [and] one of them did a story about a Native woman who was beaten up,” he says. When someone explained that the Native woman had been called a squaw, some students in the back of the class started laughing. He walked out.

He was also offended when a professor told him First Nation stories weren’t “newsy” enough.

Another time, he asked peers to help cover a story about the Assembly of First Nation Chiefs in New Brunswick’s plan to address poverty. No one showed up, he says, “as breaking and important as it was.” Molley says he felt ostracized, but he hasn’t given up on his chosen profession.

Despite challenges like accessibility and racism, Indigenous students are graduating and working as journalists. Exactly how many is unknown, but mediaINDIGENA.com, an online magazine, recently counted more than 60 working Indigenous journalists in Canada.

Continue reading Indigenous students meet challenges of journalism school

What students are talking about today (April 2nd)

Shane Gandee of Buckwild (MTV)

1. The star of the MTV reality show Buckwild has died. Shane Gandee and two men, also dead, were last seen leaving a local bar in the rural town of Sissonville, West Virginia. They told bar patrons they were going to drive their truck off-road, a sport known as “muddin’” among the country-loving college-aged kids followed by MTVs cameras. The gossip site TMZ reports that carbon monoxide poisoning is being explored as a possible cause of death and that Gandee’s truck’s exhaust pipe may have been blocked by mud.

2. Twenty people, including some students, were displaced by a fire that destroyed two townhouses and damaged a third near York University on Monday, reports CBC News. York administration offered those affected by the fire temporary shelter.

Continue reading Buckwild star’s death, fire near York & OPIRG at Carleton

Five things students are talking about today (February 27th)

An arts major? Probably. (Ethan M. Long/Flickr)

1. Research from the University of Guelph has shown that university arts majors and those in similar college programs are generally slower to pay off student loans than business, health and engineering students, even when starting salaries are controlled for. Sociologist David Walters, one of the researchers behind the study, said it’s unclear why, though his theories include “lack of numeracy” and less “life-planning skills” among arts types. I’d lean toward the life-planning skills—they did choose arts degrees, after all. And considering how critical of capitalism the arts tend to be, they’re probably more resentful about having to pay them back and more likely to want to stick it to the man by paying as slowly as possible. It makes sense. In Quebec it’s arts students who encouraged everyone to skip school and demand free tuition. (Disclaimer: I have an arts degree.)

2. A Ryersonian editorial gives two thumbs up to Tim Hudak’s plan to invest more in degrees that lead to jobs. The Ontario Progressive Conservative leader’s Path to Prosperity White Paper suggests financial aid be based on students’ choices of programs. “Decisions about who should receive loans,” it reads, “should involve assessments of future employability and reward good academic behaviour.” Naturally this led to a backlash from those in fields where degrees don’t (directly) lead to jobs, including from Professor Pettigrew. The Ryersonian says agriculture, fashion, family studies, theatre, philosophy, anthropology, archeology and political science should get less money while science, technology, engineering and math should get more.

Continue reading Arts grads vs. student loans, Tim Hudak & a porn accident

Bacon shortage. Study-space shortage. The #1 poker school.

Feist (Jason Persse/Flickr)

1. In a Yale University study, 127 scientists were given information on supposed recent graduates applying for laboratory jobs. A  fake applicant named John tended to be viewed as more competent than a fake applicant named Jennifer, despite identical qualifications. The conclusion is that women will find it harder to get science jobs than men. The anti-female bias wasn’t limited to male professors; women were just as biased.

2. Feist, the only nominee to have been on Sesame Street, sung at the Grammys and been in an Apple commercial, took home the $30,000 Polaris Music Prize last night for her album Metals. Feist gave a humble speech and toasted fellow nominees Cold Specks and Grimes. Ironically, the Polaris Prize is supposed to be a counterweight to sales-focused Juno’s, where Feist tends to clean up (she has eight).

3. Bacon fans, you may want to be sitting down for this one. “A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable,” according the National Pig Association in Britain.

Continue reading What students are talking about today (Sept. 25 edition)

An angry model, Prof. Bambaataa, Quebec football politics

From Rich Aucoin music video "It"

1. A burglar broke into Steve Jobs’ house in California and stole the late Apple co-founder’s wallet, jewelry and computers. The thief was tracked down after he turned on a stolen iPad which broadcast his location. Not too smart.

2. A recent Columbia University graduate and model in New York is suing Volvo, Hertz and the Ford Models agency for $23-million because of a photo she didn’t want used. “It looks like something you’d see in the old yellow pages directories under escort services,” said her lawyer.

3. Pop star Rich Aucoin is shooting a video on August 20 and 21 at the Halifax CBC building. It will tell the story of Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. Aucoin’s Facebook page says they’re looking for extras to play “stewardesses, California girls and a ton on background for crowd scenes.”

Continue reading What students are talking about today (Aug. 15 edition)

A Waterloo start-up provides courses on smartphones

From ClevrU

To hear Dean Pacey describe online learning is a lesson in how the Internet—despite its vastness—can actually be a very personal place. In fact, taking courses over a computer, he believes, has the potential to make education more intimate and effective than any typical class-teacher setting, which is often full of distractions.

“When I go to university and I sign up for psych 100, I’m sitting with 1,500 other students with one talking head who I can’t hear and who may or may not speak English well at the front of the room,” he says. “How is that a rich experience?”

By comparison, Pacey imagines a world in which students in any country can pick and choose the courses they’d like to take over the Internet from the best international schools, many of which are in Canada. These courses would feature video lectures, online chats and news feeds related to the content, and would be delivered in whatever language the student preferred. Even more surprising: while the course content could be viewed on a computer screen or tablet, it would be designed, first and foremost, for smartphones—making the “classroom” entirely mobile and available anytime, anywhere.

Continue reading University? There’s an app for that

One woman grabbed, another kissed by strange man

Police in two Ontario cities are looking for male suspects after separate incidents involving university-aged females that occurred on or near campuses this week.

The first happened at the University of Western Ontario at 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday. After a female left her vehicle and walked to work near the TD Waterhouse Stadium, she was grabbed from behind by an unknown male who is described as white and aged 25 to 35 with a thin build and a stud or ring in his lower lip. He was wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt under a black leather jacket and black jeans, reports the London Police Service.

The second incident involved a 21-year-old woman near the Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Waterloo campuses on Thursday around 3:30 p.m. A man unknown to the woman hugged and kissed her on the cheek before letting her go. Waterloo police told the Waterloo Record that the man is described as dark-skinned and short in height with a large belly and short dark hair. He was wearing a red sweater or jacket and jeans.

CAUT says director dismissed over objections to private involvement in academic matters

Academic freedom was violated when Ramesh Thakur was dismissed from his post as director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs, according to a report compiled by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). The Balsillie School is jointly managed by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

According to the report, Thakur, whose contract was to extend to 2013, was dismissed in the spring alledgedly because he objected to interference in academic decisions from Blackberry Entrepreneur Jim Balsillie’s private think tank, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

“Dr. Thakur was unfairly treated . . .  [and] had every right to expect support from the Presidents of UW and WLU . . . when he sounded the alarm on CIGI’s proposals,” the report, written by University of Saskatchewan English professor Len Findlay, concluded. “Insofar as his academic freedom depended on the protections of institutional autonomy, it became increasingly vulnerable to threats from the outside and complicity on the inside.”

The report further called Thakur’s dismissal “a serious lapse of judgement and loss of commitment to institutional autonomy, academic integrity, due process, and natural justice.”

A donation of $33 million to help create the School was funneled through CIGI, and faculty appointed to the Balsillie School are simultaneously appointed as CIGI chairs.

CIGI maintains that Balsillie had no role in Thakur’s dismissal.

A statement released on behalf of CIGI, UWaterloo and WLU dismissed the findings of the report. “The [Balsillie School of International Affairs] partners unanimously and strenuously disagree with the CAUT report’s findings and interpretation of the events. The report is based on a flawed and incomplete interpretation of the circumstances and rationale for the decision,” the statement read. “Donor influence was absolutely not an issue in the departure of the former director.”

In an interview with the Globe and Mail Thakur, who is a former Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, said he felt vindicated by the CAUT report. “Had it been clear to me that the school was a wholly owned subsidiary of CIGI, I would never have taken the job,” he said.

Governor General David Johnston was president of the University of Waterloo at the time of the incident.

Photo: Research In Motion CEO and Blackberry entrepreneur Jim Balsillie, Canadian Press

A look at five primarily undergraduate universities reveals the variety of post-secondary options across the country

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology is a relative newcomer to the post-secondary scene, but its mission was clear from the outset: to give its graduates a competitive edge. Putting an emphasis on the practical, UOIT’s focus includes business, information technology, engineering and science. Its faculty of energy systems and nuclear science offers Canada’s only honours degree in nuclear engineering. The university is also committed to innovative approaches to alternative energy sources, and offers courses in wind, solar, hydrogen, hydraulic, nuclear and geothermal energy. Currently under construction, the $28-million Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE-Global) will be a cutting-edge research, design and training centre for the automobile industry. In fact, strength in research contributed to UOIT making a strong debut in the Maclean’s rankings this year, placing 12th out of 22 Primarily Undergraduate universities.

Located in Oshawa, UOIT is growing rapidly: undergrad enrolment was 6,285 this September, a 15 per cent increase from last year.

Wilfrid Laurier University

Wilfrid Laurier’s compact main campus is in Waterloo, Ont., part of Canada’s so-called Technology Triangle. Housing 21 research centres and 10 research chairs, innovation is the norm. In spite of growth that has seen its student population double over the past 10 years, Laurier retains a strong sense of community. It tied for fourth place in the Primarily Undergraduate category in this year’s rankings, with a strong showing on the reputational survey and the number of faculty winning awards and research grants.

The School of Business and Economics has an enrolment of more than 4,500; one of the biggest drawing cards is its co-op component. Meanwhile, a liberal-arts-focused campus in Brantford, Ont., offers an interdisciplinary program in contemporary studies and a concurrent education program in partnership with Nipissing University. A social work program, at the nearby Kitchener campus, allows students to work closely with service agencies in the area. And through the Centre for Community Service-Learning, more than 1,300 students earn academic credit by working with local non-profit organizations.

University of Lethbridge

The focus at Lethbridge, in southern Alberta, is on giving students a well-rounded liberal arts education. Undergraduates are encouraged to participate in research, and the university’s modest size allows close contact with faculty. When it comes to research, the university strives to stay relevant to the region. The recently completed Alberta Water and Environmental Science Building collects an interdisciplinary team of geologists, physicists and economists under one roof, all researching water. (A second-place finish on the number of faculty winning medical-science grants helped propel Lethbridge to a rank of sixth this year among Primarily Undergraduate universities.) The faculty of education, meanwhile, offers an array of Aboriginal-centred program options.

Golf, rugby, figure skating, cheerleading and baseball will be pay-to-play

According to The Record, Wilfrid Laurier University has decided to cut funding for eight of the schol’s less-popular varsity teams.

“If they are going to chop our budget, then the team is dead,” says volunteer golf coach Mike Belanger, who says he’s put about $30,000 of his own money into the team to keep it afloat. “We’ve donated our time and money for years to keep our costs down. I just don’t think we’d be able to cover and manage the whole thing on our own.”

Earlier this year, the university’s administration asked all departments to trim spending by five per cent this year and six per cent next year as the university tries to cut its operating budget by about $25.7 million.

Although the athletic programs will still be offered in the fall, golf, men’s and women’s cross-country running, men’s and women’s rugby, figure skating, cheerleading and baseball will be pay-to-play starting in the fall.

According to the school’s athletic director Peter Baxter, those cuts will save the school about $380,000.

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