Daily News

October 3, 2003

Steady growth and a budding reputation for inclusiveness have brought the Gandhi Peace Festival into its eleventh year. The festival, born in 1993, has become . . .

October 3, 2003

Alumni from across the country will be returning to McMaster for Homecoming weekend tomorrow to reunite with former classmates, roommates and teammates, and to watch the McMaster Marauders kick off against the Western Mustangs. "For the Alumni Association, Homecoming is a great opportunity to bring our alumni and students together to celebrate our shared pride in McMaster," says Chris (Cal) McAlpine, president, McMaster Alumni Association. On Saturday, alumni will attend various class reunion activities in the McMaster University Student Centre, while members of the football team from '33, '43, '53, '63, '73, '83, and '93 attend a luncheon at the Phoenix in Wentworth House before heading to the big game. They'll resume the festivities at the Phoenix again for a post-game reception later in the evening. Children's programming will keep kids over four entertained while parents explore Homecoming events or take a walk around campus. "We're really looking forward to Homecoming - it's an important part of McMaster's tradition, and it's a tradition we want to build on in the years ahead," says Rod Morrison, director of Alumni Advancement.

October 3, 2003

Ontario's next premier, Dalton McGuinty, will be the first McMaster alumnus to ever hold the position of premier of the province. McGuinty, who led the . . .

October 2, 2003

McMaster University's School of the Arts' is presenting Sarah Daniels' The Gut Girls as its fall theatre production for 2003. The production will bring together . . .

October 2, 2003

The long-anticipated Road World Cycling Championships is just around the corner. Beginning Monday, Oct. 6, up to 1,000 athletes from 50 countries will cycle through . . .

October 2, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/MacServelogo.gif” caption=”Mac Serve logo”]This Saturday, social sciences and kinesiology students will open their hearts and lend a hand. Hosted by the Faculty of . . .

October 1, 2003

How to make a successful transition from high school to university is lesson one for the more than 1,000 first-year science students registered at McMaster this fall. After a successful pilot run last year, students are participating in an updated version of University Survival, an online course that introduces them to the various student services and resources on campus. The course assists students in developing a basic understanding of academic integrity, using the libraries, time management, stress management, career services, and the importance of getting to know professors. There is evidence that the lack of university survival skills has a negative impact on academic performance. "In the past we often did not realize students were struggling academically until after midterms " says Cathy Mackenzie, student advisor and University Survival's administrator. "By educating students about the resources available to them, those students who do develop difficulties will have the necessary tools to get the help they need."

October 1, 2003

Researchers at McMaster University have turned a corner in the race to develop a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). A breakthrough has come with the work by professor Jim Mahony who cloned the gene that marks an important nuclear protein of the SARS virus. A research team at McMaster then inserted the nuclear protein gene into an engineered common cold virus, or adenovirus vector, and will shortly test this in animals for the protective effects. The team, headed by Jack Gauldie, chair of the department of pathology and molecular medicine and director of the Centre for Gene Therapeutics, includes professors Frank Graham, Mary Hitt and Mahony of the department of pathology and molecular medicine, along with professor Ludvik Prevec and technologist Uma Sankar of the department of biology. Mahony's discovery was made using DNA sequence data from the SARS Vaccine Initiative (SAVI) of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, one of several laboratories the McMaster team is working with to develop a SARS vaccine based on the adenovirus vector that would act as a carrier within the body.

October 1, 2003

McMaster University students, police and the Westdale community have joined forces to operate a west end community policing centre. When area residents drop in to . . .

October 1, 2003

With a 2-1 defeat of the York Lions in game one of a doubleheader Tuesday night, the McMaster Marauder baseball team secured a second place . . .

September 30, 2003

When it comes to the importance of exercising one's right to vote, students and those living in subsidized housing have a similar goal, feels political science student Sam Minniti. For students, it's tuition. For tenants of residential care homes, it's social assistance. "We're really not that different," says Minniti, one of about 15 students involved in a second-year political science project that aims to get those disinclined to vote to the polls on Thursday, Oct. 2. "Even though we're different in our needs, we're both part of a population that requires our voices to be heard to ensure we're on the radar screen of the person elected." As part of "Political Science 2DD3  Participation and Elitist Politics in Canada", taught by political science professor Michael Stein, students are visiting care homes in Hamilton with three goals in mind  getting tenants registered to vote, transported to the polls and educated about democracy. "Many of them know relatively little about the political process, but they are very interested when they find out that it is the government that determines what their social assistance intake should be," says Stein.

September 30, 2003

McMaster University's School of the Arts is serving up food for the soul, not for the stomach, free of charge, throughout its 2003-2004 concert season. . . .

September 29, 2003

Developing a University technology strategy, renewing commitment to service excellence, and ensuring a secure computing environment are among the challenges facing Debbie Barrett, McMaster's new chief information officer. Barrett, who has an extensive career in information technology including IT strategy development at The University of Western Ontario, Thames Valley District School Board, and the City of Mississauga, says she's eager to work with faculty, students and staff across campus to facilitate development of McMaster's technology strategy. The timing of Barrett's appointment coincides well with the update of the University's strategic plan, Refining Directions, scheduled for release later this fall. She'll be responsible for working with the University community to identify the technology required to translate the vision into reality and achieve the goals described in the plan. Barrett says the process of crafting an IT strategy needs to be inclusive and collaborative. The vision of a student-centric, research-intensive community committed to academic and administrative excellence provides a great framework for discussion and reflection on how technology can best serve University needs. "The possibilities are truly exciting and multi-dimensional," says Barrett. "I'm absolutely delighted with the early commitment by faculty and staff to contribute to the development of the strategy and to provide advice and guidance. The wealth of talent and expertise is remarkable."

September 29, 2003

The McMaster Marauder baseball team moved a step closer to securing a second place finish, and a home playoff date, with a 6-2 defeat of . . .

September 29, 2003

McMaster Marauders defeated the University of Ottawa Gee Gees Saturday 31-0. It was the fifth straight win of the season for the third-ranked football team. . . .

September 26, 2003

Since joining McMaster's Faculty of English in 1999, Imre Szeman has been winning national recognition for his unique teaching and research style. The 35-year-old is a leading researcher on globalization's effects on culture. A founding member of cultural studies groups in both Canada and the United States, Szeman is now the director of McMaster's Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition. Most recently he was named the inaugural winner of the 2003 Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award, which provides $25,000 to a new McMaster professor (less than eight years from a PhD) to encourage creative thinking about how undergraduate students can participate in University research. Creativity isn't a problem for Szeman. He plans to use the award for a project beginning this fall called The World of News: Global Coverage of International Events  A Comparative Analysis. It will involve five undergraduate students who will analyze national newscasts from around the world to develop an understanding of how people interpret events on a local and global level. Students will be using the new global video facility funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation that will allow them to monitor news broadcasts, record them in digital form on a hard drive and output them to DVD. "As a team we will be looking at what kinds of things are not being focused on and why and how that produces a link between the local and the global," said Szeman. "Part of this research is to understand what the international landscape looks like from different national sites."

September 26, 2003

The McMaster Alumni Association is presenting two Albert Lager Lecture Series events next week. On Tuesday, Sept. 30, Mark Loeb will present The Bugs That . . .

September 26, 2003

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/reactor_opt.jpg” caption=”Nuclear Reactor”]Fifty-five of Canada's top nuclear specialists were at McMaster today to brainstorm about the technical aspects of one of the country's . . .

September 26, 2003

Thirteen emerging McMaster scholars are the first recipients of a new national graduate scholarship program. The master's students in the humanities and social sciences are . . .

September 25, 2003

McMaster University is launching a new Web site that provides down-to-earth, accessible information on mental health and psychiatric disorders at www.psychdirect.com. With one in four . . .