Daily News

January 22, 2004

McMaster students are hosting a Charity Ball and Mac Idol singing competition this month in an effort to ward off the winter blues. Mac Idol . . .

January 21, 2004

The McMaster University Chinese Students' Association (CSA) held its second annual Chinese New Year exhibition in the McMaster University Student Centre Wednesday. Last year's exhibition was a great success and allowed the McMaster community to get a taste of Chinese culture while celebrating the Chinese New Year. This year marks McMaster CSA's 37th year of serving the McMaster Chinese community as well as promoting the Chinese culture to students, faculty and staff across campus. For the Year of the Monkey, CSA once again presented an exhibition to the McMaster community, showcasing some traditional Chinese New Year food, games and martial arts performances as well as the colourful lion dance. This year's guests of honour included McMaster University President Peter George and professor Luke Chan, associate vice president, Office of International Affairs. They performed the traditional eye dotting ceremony to awaken the spirits of the lions before the start of the lion dance. The McMaster CSA is a non-profit organization that acts as a medium to promoting and conserving the Chinese culture in Canadian society. McMaster CSA was established in 1967. It now has more than 500 active members with one of the larger club memberships on campus.

January 21, 2004

The planning committee for the new Athletics and Recreation Sport Multi-plex is inviting interested members of the McMaster community to apply for positions on the . . .

January 20, 2004

Taxpayers have been asked to help McMaster University lure students into its family medicine residency program for a second straight year. If approved by council, . . .

January 20, 2004

The Joint Job Evaluation Steering Committee (JJESC), established by McMaster University and the McMaster University Staff Association (MUSA), has been working on the development of a new job evaluation tool for positions in the MUSA bargaining unit. The implementation of the new system is scheduled for June 16, 2005. Development of the tool has progressed to the pilot test phase. The JJESC has selected about 40 jobs from within the bargaining unit that will be evaluated in this pilot test. Jobs were selected to ensure the pilot includes a representative sample of the types of jobs found in the bargaining unit. Over the next two weeks, employees in the selected jobs and their supervisors will be contacted regarding their participation and involvement in the pilot study and will be provided with the materials necessary to participate in this study.

January 19, 2004

The future of our Canadian past will be the focus of a new professorship in Canadian history created at McMaster University. Canadian business executive Lynton Ronald (Red) Wilson has donated $1 million - $200,000 a year over the next five years - to establish the L. R. Wilson Professor in Canadian History in McMaster's Faculty of Humanities. The University will contribute $250,000 - $50,000 a year for five years  to support the gift. Wilson, a distinguished McMaster alumnus with a bachelor's degree in economics, is a founding co-chairman of the Historica Foundation of Canada. The foundation's mandate is to provide Canadians with a deeper understanding of their history and its importance in shaping the future. Wilson, who also holds a master of arts degree in economics from Cornell University, is hailed as a keen supporter of the study of Canadian history and believer in the value of a broad liberal arts education. "Understanding our past is a bridge to a better future," Wilson said today at a ceremony announcing his generous donation. "The study and teaching of Canadian history deserves much greater emphasis in all of our educational institutions and McMaster is well-equipped to lead the way. As a country comprising people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, a broad appreciation of our history is an essential foundation on which to build a shared understanding, so that we can continue to encourage reasonable loyalty and foster responsible citizenship." The L. R. Wilson Professor in Canadian History will be a renowned historian who will have a research specialization in Canadian historical studies and will teach undergraduate and graduate students. The professor will have a mandate to work with an interdisciplinary advisory board to develop history seminars, annual conferences, lectureships and an annual juried book competition to name the best book on Canadian history.

January 19, 2004

Health and wellness promoters are making a deal with McMaster students and employees this week. Butt out and win. As part of National Non-Smoking Week, McMaster's Campus Health is joining campuses across Ontario in the annual Leave The Pack Behind initiative that encourages both students and employees to reduce or quit smoking. Those who are successful can win cash prizes, donations from local businesses and campus bookstore coupons. "Noting that Canadian 19- to 24-year-olds have the highest smoking rate of any age group and show a preference for cigarettes labeled light and mild, this Government of Ontario and Health Canada funded initiative will attempt to motivate students and employees of McMaster to quit, reduce or not start smoking," says Jane Radix, health education co-ordinator with Student Health Services. The week-long contest will run at McMaster, Brock University, University of Guelph, University of Ottawa, Queen's University, Ryerson University, University of Toronto and University of Windsor. The Let's Make A Deal contest offers cash prizes, donations from local businesses, and campus bookstore coupons to both students and employees achieving various levels of success in reducing or quitting smoking.

January 16, 2004

McMaster's new registrar is looking forward to working with students from the time they are considering which university to attend right through to Convocation ceremonies. Louis (Lou) R. Ariano has been named McMaster registrar. Senate and the executive committee of the Board of Governors approved his appointment earlier in the week. He takes up his new post on Feb. 1. Ariano said he was attracted by the broad scope of the role of the registrar at McMaster, including student recruitment and liaison, admissions, registration and records and Convocation. "I look forward to the opportunity to work with students from the recruitment stage through to Convocation," said Ariano. "I've always thought of McMaster as an institution that is held in high esteem, not only in Ontario, but across the university system in Canada and I'm looking forward to being part of this continued success."

January 15, 2004

Twenty-five years, more than 600 teams of researchers and more than $400 million of research support - that, in a nutshell, sums up the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's investment in McMaster's research enterprise. Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president of research & international affairs, told guests at a 25th anniversary celebration that their contribution to research is far more than just numbers. "What you have contributed to advancing research over the last quarter century is enormous and, simply, cannot be summed up by the numbers. This is indeed, one of those cases, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. These parts -- your contributions -- are significant, not only to McMaster, but for the Canadian research landscape. Many of you, through your early research projects, inspired new theories, new ways of thinking and new possibilities for subsequent generations of researchers." McMaster President Peter George echoed Shoukri's comments adding that McMaster has earned its reputation as one of the country's most innovative universities largely on the strength of its research community. "McMaster's research enterprise -- indeed the Canadian research landscape -- has changed significantly over the last 25 years.

January 14, 2004

The 25th McMaster World Congress conference begins today (January 14) and runs until Friday, Jan. 16. For a quarter of a century, the Congress has been recognized globally as one of the largest and most prestigious conferences of its kind. The McMaster World Congress is unique in that academia and the corporate world are brought together in one international forum. This world-class event represents the largest and most prestigious collection of leading academic researchers and senior business executives working in the areas of intellectual capital, knowledge management, e-commerce, and corporate governance. This is the first global practitioner/academic conference of its kind to focus on the leadership and management issues surrounding corporate governance. Scheduled keynote speakers include Don Tapscott, president of New Paradigm Learning Corporation, John Evans, chair, Torstar, and vice-president of NPS/Allelix Biopharmaceuticals, Joe Chidley, editor-in-chief, Canadian Business Magazine, Michael Raynor, director, Deloitte & Touche Research, and Brian Chartier, senior officer, Subsidiary Governance, RBC Financial Group.

January 13, 2004

What does the McMaster graduate recently hired as a fashion designer in New York, the student who enjoys traveling and has been to Italy and Greece, the student who works out at the Pulse, the one who enjoys chess and the other who cheers on Manchester United with his friends have in common? A disability and a dream. Disabilities Awareness posters featuring these students are intended to remind others that although they have a disability, they are not different in their ambitions. "I may have a sleep disorder, but I still have dreams," reads one of the posters fixed to a wall in the McMaster University Student Centre. Created by the Centre for Student Development (CSD), they are part of its Disabilities Awareness campaign that runs year-round. Two sets of five posters, featuring five McMaster students with a disability, have been created with the theme "Changing Attitudes, Building Community". "I wanted the campaign this year to focus on the acceptance and inclusion of all students," says Laura Cooper, who was hired last year as CSD's disabilities awareness co-ordinator. The fourth-year honours commerce student now leads the campaign on a volunteer basis.

January 12, 2004

Tomorrow promises to be yet another record breaking day for cold temperatures and Barna Szabados, professor of electrical and computer engineering, knows there's a good chance that homeowners will be shocked by their January hydro bill. While he has noticed that people are trying to become more energy conscious since the blackout last summer, he says in an interview with the Hamilton Spectator that, "I think people are talking about conservation more, but they're not doing anything about it." Szabados has some simple, basic, energy saving tips to offer to consumers at his January 13 Science in City lecture, Fueling Your Home for Less. Szabados, a trailblazer in the energy conservation field, will take a look at the province's current energy woes and explore solutions at the organizational level. He will also discuss how our greed for power negatively impacts the environment and will offer suggestions on how consumers might incorporate alternate energy sources such as solar and wind power. Szabados' talk takes place today (Tuesday, Jan. 13) and is free and open to the public. The lecture will be held in the Hamilton Spectator Auditorium, 44 Frid Street in Hamilton. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the lecture begins at 7 p.m. To reserve your seat e-mail sciencecity@mcmaster.ca or call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934.

January 12, 2004

The sixth-ranked McMaster men's basketball team will face defending champions and first-ranked Carleton Ravens on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 2 p.m. at McMaster's Burridge Gymnasium. . . .

January 12, 2004

The award-winning paintings of Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh have been described by art critics as "some of the most optimistic images of our multicultural world." The London born artists and twin sisters are known for their controversial and often satirical paintings which combine elements of ancient miniature paintings of India with European techniques and contemporary subjects. The McMaster Museum of Art is the only Canadian host of Past Modern, a touring exhibition of 62 paintings by the Singh Twins. The Singh Twins assert their right to define their own cultural and artistic individuality' in a way that is meaningful and true to who they perceive themselves to be -- British Asians, Sikhs, artists and twins. In their renowned painting "Diana: The Improved Version", Princess Diana is transformed into a hybrid of Britannia, the Madonna and Child, and the Hindu goddess Durga. A painting in their "SPOrTLIGHT" series depicts David Beckham with his wife, Posh Spice, and their son as a new royal family. Geoff Quilley, University of Leicester, explains that the Twins' work "is located in the interstices between satire and religious icon, and between east and west, and ironically criticizes all the processes of cultural stereotyping through the reduction of complex identities to emblems."

January 9, 2004

McMaster students from all parts of campus have the opportunity to learn first hand about the fields of palliative care and cinima viriti in a series of events geared to exploring the topic of death and dying. Professor Ellen Badone, who is affiliated with the departments of religious studies and anthropology, has brought together a leading expert on the sociology of death and bereavement, a special screening of an acclaimed film on dying and the Canadian filmmaker and staff from the hospital where the documentary was filmed. Badone has arranged for a special screening of Dying at Grace, a film produced by renowned filmmaker Allan King. The film will be shown during a regularly scheduled class of this term's Death and Dying: Comparative Views course, taught by professor Donna Seamone. The film, which drew wide acclaim when it was first shown at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, chronicles the experience of five patients dying in the palliative care unit of Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre. The screening is on Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Information Technology Building, Rm. 137. King, hospital palliative care unit staff including director Jean Jackson, chief physician Colette Hegarty and major Phyllis Bobbitt, director of pastoral care, will join Hooker Distinguished professor Tony Walter, an expert in the sociology of death, dying, bereavement, funerals and afterlife beliefs for an interactive question and answer session to enable students to discuss the film, express their opinions and gain further information.

January 9, 2004

The Joint Job Evaluation Steering Committee (JJESC), established by McMaster University and the McMaster University Staff Association (MUSA), has been working on the development of a new job evaluation tool for positions in the MUSA bargaining unit. The JJESC has the responsibility to establish a Joint Rating Committee (JRC) who will be trained in the use of the new job evaluation tool and responsible for evaluating jobs in preparation for the implementation of the new system on June 16, 2005. Members of the Joint Job Evaluation Steering Committee are Susan Birnie, Carmela Civitareale, John Drake, Daina Green, Heather Grigg, Marvin Gunderman, Kathy Ouellette, Gord Slater, Rosemary Viola, Nancy Vukelich. The JJESC is now seeking members for the JRC.

January 7, 2004

McMaster University student Maureen Hogan has been awarded a prestigious Rhodes scholarship. The Newfoundland native, who is a third-year medical student, received the news that she has been selected as her province's representative among the 11 Canadian Rhodes scholars for 2004. The scholarships, valued at $100,000 each, provide students from around the world the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford in England for two to three years. Maureen, 23, plans to study for her masters of science in research beginning in October 2004. Her program in the neurogenetics of mental illness will be self-directed, a way of learning she appreciated during her medical training at McMaster. "I'm excited about the opportunity to study with people from all over the world and exchange different viewpoints. I'm also looking forward to consolidating what I've learned so far, and to broaden my knowledge of mental illness."

January 7, 2004

Beginning today at 9 a.m., Naomi Amaria will experience one of the most demanding challenges of her life. The third-year women studies student is riding a stationary bike non-stop for the next 24 hours in an effort to raise awareness about women's studies. She's joined by women's studies students Jim J|tte on a stationary bike and Kim Clarke on a treadmill, who are participating in the Walk and Ride for Women event in the McMaster University Student Centre. The challenge is presented by the newly created McMaster Student's Women's Studies Society. "This is going to be one of the hardest physical challenges of my entire life," says Amaria, "but it's a physical challenge. My emotions, my dignity, my pride and my self-esteem are not on the line this time." The trio began at 9 am this morning and will continue until 9 a.m. Thursday. In the meantime, they hope others will see them and be inspired. "We hope to raise awareness at McMaster and also in the community about women's issues and the need for the women's studies program," J|tte says.

January 6, 2004

It's 4:30 a.m. and all is calm in the Emergency First Response Team (EFRT) office. With the occasional yawn, the on-call emergency responders rub their eyes in an effort to stay awake. They pass the time doing homework, playing cards or just talking about life. When they're tired, they steal to EFRT's bedroom for a nap. Then without warning, the dispatch sounds and the team is called to an emergency on campus. They have two minutes to get there. The atmosphere undergoes a quick transformation. Immediately, the three-member team begins to prepare. They put on their fully-equipped backpacks and grab their bikes, they adjust their psyche into medical responder mode, and they prime themselves for anything  it could be as simple as a slip and fall; it could be as deadly as a cardiac arrest. "It's really a nerve-racking experience to hear the tone go off in the middle of the night," admits Brenna Ammons, first-year EFRT member and bachelor of health sciences student. "You have to calm down, relax and listen to the dispatch carefully so you know where to go." When they arrive on scene, they immediately assess the situation. They've learned every call is unique.

January 5, 2004

Resolving conflict and making peace within India's local community has one non-governmental organization working with officials at home and abroad to use a secret tool that's as old as mankind  women. Rama Singh, founder and chair of Hamilton's annual Gandhi Peace Festival, is working with this year's Gandhi Peace Lecturer Acharya Ramamurti through McMaster's Centre for Peace Studies to bring attention and support to the Women's Shanti Sena (WSS), a program that educates women about their rights and responsibilities. He's visiting India in February to help with the program. "Many of India's rural women are illiterate, but that doesn't mean they're ignorant or uneducated," says Singh. "They face the issues of daily life in a village so they know what the challenges are and they have ideas about how to fix those challenges but first they need to know they can speak up."