August 19, 2002

Physical Plant has recently undergone a reorganization in an effort to be more efficient and improve customer service. With input from customer feedback sessions, focus groups and department staff, the reorganization allows the department to focus on priority service areas and improve overall service levels. One fundamental change is that custodial services are now separate from maintenance services. The campus is divided into five custodial areas: Arts, East, Residence, South, and West. Service teams assigned to each area will exclusively address custodial needs, which include: the cleaning of classrooms, offices, hallways, washrooms, and labs; moving furniture and equipment within buildings; and set-ups for special occasions. A night shift has been formally introduced and will play a pivotal role in addressing customer service requests and needs. Facilities maintenance issues are now overseen by a newly created maintenance team which administers a wide variety of specialized functions such as locksmithing, electrical, carpentry, painting and maintaining service contracts for elevators and fire alarms.

August 19, 2002

It's only a matter of weeks until you'll see them. Slowly circling, driving up and down each and every lane, looking for a parking spot. Perhaps you'll be one of them. Perhaps it's time to consider other options. Parking & Transit Services is hoping you will. The newest addition to Parking & Transit Services is the ACT (Alternative Commuting and Transportation) Office. Co-ordinators Jen Dawson and Daryl Bender will work with commuters to get people to McMaster on a daily basis by means other than the "single occupant vehicle."

August 15, 2002

Tim van Boxtel has learned a lot this summer. The third-year engineering physics student was one of more than 80 students presenting summer research posters in the lobby of the Information Technology Institute Thursday. "Never have I learned so much in one summer," he says. His confidence level has increased as a result of the program that provides research-oriented summer jobs for first- and second-year students. "You gain so much confidence and it's great to be among people who do the research every day," says the summer student in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). Van Boxtel worked on chemical vapor deposition with Peter Mascher, professor and William Sinclair chair in optoelectronics, engineering physics. Students in the UROP, Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) and students in science and engineering, presented their summer-long research projects in poster format at the symposium.

August 14, 2002

McMaster's Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) is burgeoning beyond the borders of campus. Just months after celebrating its first birthday, the MMRI, one of the largest university manufacturing research institutes in Canada, is expanding into the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) facility on Sandhill Drive in Ancaster. "The expansion into the Ancaster facility is because of some growth that has happened and because of some great opportunities," says Andy Hrymak, director of the MMRI. Four recent successes partly attribute to the growth. Since the institute took up three labs in the John Hodgins Engineering building in May 2001, faculty members in the institute have received three New Opportunities Fund distributed by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, with additional funds from the Ontario Innovation Trust and industrial in-kind support. The awards went to Philip Koshy, assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering ($844,000), Mukesh Jain, associate professor, MMRI ($989,000) and Michael Thompson, assistant professor, Chemical Engineering ($341,335). MMRI also was recently awarded a $4.3-million CFI grant in micro manufacturing with Mo Elbestawi, dean of engineering, as principal investigator. "With these four new projects we needed more space," says Hrymak. The space will also open opportunities to work with industrial partners, he says. "The kind of research we're doing at the manufacturing end, especially in the development of products and improvements of processes, required us to have equipment that was similar to what industry had. One of the key requirements was that we needed space and facilities to house this equipment so that we could tackle more complex projects." Obtaining the Ancaster location, which has 5,000-square-feet of shop floor space and about 9,000-square-feet of office space, is a win-win situation, he says. "McMaster is able to use the Ancaster facility for activities that support academic and research objectives within the Faculty of Engineering and at the same time it gives us ready access to shop floor and office space so that we can get up and running quickly with these new CFI projects."

August 14, 2002

More than 100 incoming McMaster University students will have a chance to learn first hand what it means to be a student leader at the University during the Horizons conference Aug. 16 to 18. The McMaster Students Union (MSU) organized the conference to give incoming students exposure to the leadership opportunities and issues facing students before they arrive at McMaster. "As student leaders we are always looking for new ways to involve first-year students in decision-making and to increase their participation in student leadership opportunities on campus," says Adam Spence, MSU vice-president education. "Horizons offers students interested in becoming student leaders a chance to be exposed to the many opportunities and issues that otherwise may have taken them a year or two to discover."

August 12, 2002

McMaster welcomed thousands of future students and their families with open arms on Friday. "Students and their families were given a warm welcome to campus," says Gina Robinson, director of student services. "It was very positive and really well-attended." Students, their parents, families and friends visited campus to get an insider's look at what the University has to offer. It was an opportunity to tour campus, residences, libraries, participate in information sessions, and for some, stay overnight in one of the residences. "The purpose of the day was to orient students to the campus and all of the various services available to them," Robinson says. "It's intended to be a fun and relaxing day for all." There was a lot of interest in the new university student centre, she adds. For the first time this year, all booths were set up in the atrium of the McMaster University Student Centre. "Every time I walked into the atrium it was packed," says Robinson. Welcome Day benefits both students and their parents, she says. "For students it provides them with answers to their questions and assures them that the necessary supports are there." It also allows parents to ask questions, adds Phil Wood, associate vice-president of student affairs. "Parents had an opportunity to see the campus and see where their children are going and see the classrooms, residences and libraries," he says. "It also allowed them to get information about security, safety, health and risk management." Normandy Savelli, who stood outside of Gilmour Hall on Friday to answer questions and assist with directions, was impressed by the turnout. "It was a very successful day," says the administrative assistant in student affairs. "Everyone was really upbeat and enjoying themselves."

August 9, 2002

The innovations of science and engineering summer students will be on display in the lobby of the Information Technology Building Thursday. More than 80 students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) and students in science and engineering, will present their summer-long efforts in poster format at a symposium from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Students who have learned from and worked on research-oriented endeavors during the summer will participate in the poster presentation. Originally planned to exhibit the projects of the 34 engineering students in the UROP, the poster presentation now incorporates BIMR summer students. "John Preston (associate professor of engineering) asked if the summer students working in the BIMR could participate," says Anne Markey, manager of Engineering Career Services and the UROP program, "From there, the poster presentation rapidly expanded." While participation was a must for UROP students, other students had a choice and an overwhelming majority chose to create a poster and be on hand to discuss their contributions to ongoing research, Markey says.

August 9, 2002

Sessional lecturers and music instructors have approved a new collective agreement with the University. The three-year contract was ratified Wednesday by members of CUPE local 3906, Unit 2. The Board of Governors had approved the terms in late July. "Both the University and the union should be proud of the effort that went into the negotiations and the successful outcome," says Fred A. Hall, chair of the University's bargaining team. "Lecturers and instructors are an important part of the McMaster community. We worked hard together to reach a balance between their issues of concern and McMaster's need for a fiscally responsible settlement that provides stability for the University." "We are glad that negotiations have concluded successfully," says Philippa Carter, a member of the CUPE 3906 bargaining team. "We believe that the new contract finally begins to address several significant issues that have always been of concern to the union and we are pleased that the University's team was able to make some movement in these areas. We recommended the tentative agreement to our members and a considerable majority voted in favour of accepting the proposed contract."

August 7, 2002

Making the leap from high school to university can be challenging. To help ease the transition, Student Affairs has planned a day of activities for new students and their families. Friday, Aug. 9, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., all first-year students and their families are invited to Welcome Day at the McMaster campus to start orienting themselves with their new home. The day will include tours, information sessions, opportunities to talk with staff from various student services, displays by a number of student clubs, a barbecue lunch, and the option of staying overnight in one of the residences.

August 7, 2002

McMaster chemist Gary Schrobilgen has long been recognized as a world leader in main-group fluorine chemistry. In June he received two awards that attest to his continued leadership in this area. The Canadian Society for Chemistry awarded him the 2002 Alcan Award and the 2002 Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry at its annual meeting in June. Significantly, the Vancouver event marked the first time a Canadian researcher has won both awards in the same year. The Alcan Award is presented to a scientist residing in Canada who has made a distinguished contributions in the fields of inorganic chemistry or electrochemistry. The Award for Pure or Applied Inorganic Chemistry is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to industrial or academic inorganic chemistry, within the five calendar years preceding the year of nomination. Schrobilgen conducts fundamental research in inorganic fluorine chemistry and the polyatomic anions of the main-group elements. His research is important in helping us to better understand the structure and chemical bonding in so-called hypervalent molecules and main-group ring, cage and cluster species. He also conducts research in two areas of radiochemistry and on the noble gases krypton and xenon. Many of his compounds are now examples in textbooks.

August 6, 2002

The weather has co-operated and work on construction projects around campus has flourished. Nearly every building has been, will be, or is being renovated in some way. Work such as ventilation system upgrades, wiring, lighting, plumbing, painting, and new doorways or partitions have not been included in this survey. For a complete update, please visit the physical plant Web site and click on the Alerts or the Construction sections.

August 5, 2002

Genetics research has come a long way in Canada. In fact, the progress has been so fast the government has created a new Ontario Advisory Committee on Genetics to guide them on existing and new genetic services. And they've appointed McMaster's Ronald Carter to lead the way. "Genetics used to be a small niche of medicine," says the professor of pathology & molecular medicine at McMaster. "The laboratory technology was both esoteric and poorly developed, and the opportunities for effective cures very limited. "Obviously, things have changed rapidly." There is growing need for a genetics advisory committee, says Carter, the committee's key adviser. "Particularly with the advent of the Human Genome Project and the flood of developments in diagnosis and therapy," he says. "Part of this awareness stems from the anticipated price tag for these developments, but there is also a genuine concern that we need to be good at this and make sure we are doing the right thing." The need also arises from the advent of legal and political issues typified by disputes over gene patents, the ethics of predictive testing and the moral dilemmas posed by medically assisted reproduction and stem cell technologies, he says. "There is recognition that expert advice is needed to ensure that we can critically appraise the costs, benefits, risks, ethics, access, providers and administration of genetic services in Ontario," he says. "The committee will ensure there is a mandate covering all aspects of the provision of genetic services including evaluating outcomes, surveying new technologies and providing advice to the province." Carter is an expert in the field of medical genetics. The current president of the Canadian College of Medical Geneticists, became a fellow of the College in 1991, and was also a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics in 1993. He has also been involved in a variety of research programs including gene therapy and diagnostic laboratory genetics research. Carter was appointed to Chedoke-McMaster Hospital (now Hamilton Health Sciences) in 1990, and directed the Regional Cytogenetics Laboratory in Hamilton from 1991 to 1999. He is currently head of Cancer Genetics for the Regional Genetics Service of South Central Ontario/Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program, and a consultant in pathology for the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre, Cancer Care Ontario. [End of Story]

July 31, 2002

McMaster is the first university in Canada to become a member of the Worker Rights Consortium, a non-profit organization which assists universities and colleges in ensuring that the factories that produce clothing and other goods bearing university names respect the basic rights of workers. More than 100 academic bodies, including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Cornell and Duke universities, are affiliated with the WRC. McMaster joined the WRC in June, making it the first University in Canada to do so. Created by college and university administrations, students and labor rights experts, the WRC's purpose is to assist in the enforcement of manufacturing codes of conduct adopted by colleges and universities. The membership illustrates McMaster's commitment to ensuring an end to worker oppression and exploitation. It also reinforces the University's belief in, and commitment to, a new policy approved in June by McMaster's senior administration. A Code of Labour Practices for University Suppliers and Licensees is aimed at ensuring McMaster apparel (T-shirts for example, sold in the Bookstore or used for summer camps) and non-apparel licensed products (such as coffee mugs) are manufactured and sold by companies with ethical labour standards and practices (most of which are based on widely accepted conventions of the United Nation's International Labour Organization.) The code is a statement of minimum standards with respect to labour practices and was developed by a McMaster ad hoc committee comprised of members of the faculty, staff and student associations, various university departments and other interested groups. The code states that "McMaster is committed to conducting its business affairs in a socially responsible and ethical manner consistent with its educational, research and service missions, and to protecting and preserving the global environment." In developing the labour practice code, the McMaster committee consulted with the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN), the Toronto-based secretariat of Canada's anti-sweatshop campaigning coalition. "McMaster has become the first university in Canada to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium. In the Canadian context, what McMaster is doing is trailblazing. It's only a first step, but an important one," says Ian Thomson of MSN.

July 29, 2002

A four-member ad hoc committee has been established to review McMaster's Information Technology (IT) plan. The organizational structure that governs IT has been altered significantly in the last couple of years, says a letter from the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic to McMaster faculty, staff and students. "Perhaps the most visible change is that there are now separate groups responsible for supporting teaching, research and administrative computing activities." To ensure IT needs are met, the committee will review the organizational structure that governs IT at McMaster and its current administrative arrangements. It will review unresolved issues and broader questions as to where responsibility lies for developing a campus-wide IT plan. Committee members are Peter Sutherland, dean of science, Alan Harrison, dean of social sciences, Lilian Scime assistant vice-president administration and Michael Marrin, academic services assistant dean. The committee will consult with interested individuals and organizations and report to Ken Norrie, provost and vice-president academic, Karen Belaire, vice-president administration and Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research & international affairs by Nov. 30. The report, which will go to the University Planning Committee for discussion and possible revisions, will form the basis of a revised IT policy for McMaster.

July 29, 2002

Q: What university observes McMaster University in celebrating its past? A: The University of Toronto Q and A, a regular online feature which commemorates the University of Toronto's 175th anniversary, highlights McMaster in an excerpt from The University of Toronto: A History. The question: Q: What theological college bucked the federation trend with the University of Toronto in 1888? A: Toronto Baptist College chose independence and would later become the foundation of the new McMaster University. A portion of the excerpt... "The Toronto Baptist College, rejected federation in favour of becoming an independent arts and theological college. Its building on Bloor Street on land purchased from the University (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) had been made possible in 1881 by the generosity of the Toronto businessman William McMaster, who provided $100,000 for what became known as McMaster Hall, and an annual contribution of $14,500 a year. Although the college participated in the federation discussions, it had serious concerns about the form of federation. Later in 1887, legislation was introduced to unite the Baptist theological college with a Baptist arts college in Woodstock. The supporters of an independent Baptist university knew they could count on further support from William McMaster, and three weeks after the bill was introduced, he drew up a new will leaving virtually his entire estate to the new Baptist institution, McMaster University. He died suddenly the following spring, and the princely sum of close to $1 million came to the institution. A movement by some prominent Baptists to thwart independence and join the University of Toronto was decisively defeated by the Baptist Convention of 1888, which passed a motion that McMaster University "be organized and developed as a permanently independent school of learning, with the Lordship of Christ as the controlling principle." In 1912, the university purchased a large block of land on Avenue Road north of Eglinton, but owing to the war it did not proceed with its plans to relocate there. The question of federation would continue to be raised from time to time, and in 1930 it was finally laid to rest when McMaster University physically moved to Hamilton, Ontario." Click here to read more. Photo caption: Postcard of McMaster University on Bloor Street, date unknown. (photo: U of T)

July 29, 2002

While everyone is entitled to human rights, not everyone is educated about them. But the view that human rights at McMaster are important is clear. Especially to Jane Mulkewich. "University is a place of higher learning and there are people here from all over the world, so we should be accessible to people from all over the world," she says. "If it doesn't happen on a university campus, then where is it going to happen?" McMaster's new human rights educator wants to create an environment free from harassment and discrimination. But she can't do it alone. "Everyone needs to take responsibility to make this an equitable environment," she says. "I want to be a catalyst for change." Since starting her new position in June, Mulkewich has found others feel the same. "Everyone that I have talked to so far, all say that there is a huge need for human rights education," she says. These views were presented to her during recent focus groups with faculty organized by her office. This is important since it is faculty and staff who set the climate, she says. "We want to find out from them what things we need to do on camps to make it a more safe and equitable place." In the part-time position - 22 hours a week - Mulkewich is responsible for the development and implementation of training workshops and educational programs dealing with human rights, anti-discrimination and sexual harassment. "There are a lot of people who don't know about human rights," she says. "Racism and discrimination continues because they are unaware and they do not know about what kind of impact their actions have. People will often know when their rights have been violated but they often don't know what to do about it. They need to know what resources are available."

July 26, 2002

Canadian Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Tewksbury, Norwegian speedskating legend Johann Koss and president of the World Anti-Doping Agency Dick Pound will inspire more than 40 current and future Olympic leaders this week at McMaster. Athletes, coaches, olympic medalists, students, academics, administrators, officials and health professionals will learn the values of the Olympic Movement during the 17th Olympic Academy of Canada (OAC) workshops from July 27 to Aug. 2. "The goal of the program is that this group of aspiring and current leaders will be quite connected to promoting the Olympic movement when they return to their community," says Charlotte MacNaughton, manager of communications for the Canadian Olympic Committee and co-organizer of the event. "We want the delegates to be actively involved in the Olympic movement when they return home." The workshops also provide an opportunity for networking. "People who participate in the workshops stay connected for a long time," she says. Delegates from across Canada, ranging in age from 20 to 55, will attend the leadership development program designed for Canadians with a strong interest in the Olympic movement. They will discuss Olympic values and strategies for promoting these values across Canada, current issues facing sport and the Olympic movement. Olympic values, says MacNaughton, are fun, fairness, respect, excellence, leadership, peace and human development. "If more people lived by these values, the world would be a much better place."

July 25, 2002

Always at the forefront of undergraduate education, McMaster University is leading the pack again, this time, during the summer instead of the fall or winter. The Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research (BIMR) is holding summer school for a group of exceptional undergraduate students. These 57 students, including nine from outside of McMaster, are taking part in some of the strongest research projects on campus, says John Preston, director of the BIMR. "The primary issue is training," he says. "We want students to see that they are working on problems for which the professors and the graduate students don't know the answers." From his experiences with a former theme school, Preston learned the value of combining experience with a summer position, and helping students to see their summer job as part of their academic studies. That is just the case for Rudi Phillion, studying aerospace engineering at Carleton University. "I'm hoping to use what I learn here in another job," he says. "What I'm learning complements it (my program of study) very well. I didn't want to come here and relearn material. I wanted to learn something new." This year is the pilot year for this innovative program. At the beginning of the work term, students were matched with faculty members who were studying areas students were interested in. They then spend the summer working with those professors, and graduate students, on a variety of research projects. "These are not artificial undergraduate projects," says Preston. "The students get paid, and are working on these projects, and have a supervisor who cares about the project." As well as giving students access to world-class laboratories, facilities and equipment, organizers of the summer school have provided many opportunities for students to develop their careers and to discover more about the many fields of materials research. Supplementary activities include lectures by faculty or students on current research, information sessions by representatives from various industries, tours to research or industrial sites and small student-group workshops for training in specialized techniques.

July 24, 2002

McMaster's Juliet Daniel is one of the brightest young researchers in Canada. A $150,000 grant will help her shine even brighter. The assistant professor of biology is one of 34 researchers from greater Toronto universities included in round six of the Premier's Research Excellence Award (PREA), announced minister of enterprise, opportunity and innovation Jim Flaherty. The funding -- $100,000 from the Ontario government and $50,000 from the university -- will allow Daniel to continue her investigation into new regulators of cell adhesion and tumour progression. Her findings will increase scientists' understanding of tumour metastasis and significantly contribute to the development of improved therapies for cancer patients. "We're trying to understand what causes a tumor cell to break away from the primary tumor and spread to other organs," Daniel says. "We understand how a tumor arises, but we don't understand how it progresses to that really malignant and devastating state when it spreads to other organs." Daniel's lab is looking at the major epithelial cell adhesion complex, the "E-cadherin-catenin complexs", which is defective in human tumors. "We're studying a protein that I discovered when I was a post-doc, a transcription factor named Kaiso', after the Caribbean calypso music," she says. "The focus of our lab is to elucidate the relevance of the interaction between Kaiso and one of the adhesion catenins, p120ctn," she says. "We're trying to understand Kaiso's mechanism of action and identify the genes that it regulates, to see if any of those genes are directly linked to cancer." Daniel, who joined McMaster in November 1999, will use the funding to pay for personnel, students and technicians.

July 23, 2002

McMaster has received $9.1 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to fund the operational costs of 26 research projects. Immune responses in HIV infection and AIDS, monitoring high blood pressure among older adults, and understanding the value, priorities and world views of families who raise children with chronic developmental conditions, are among 26 projects funded through CIHR's new and renewal grants program. "This CIHR funding will provide support, as well as training opportunities, in a wide spectrum of innovative, state-of-the-art medical, biomedical, and health-related research projects at McMaster and our affiliated teaching hospitals," says John Capone, associate dean of research in the Faculty of Health Sciences. "CIHR support will allow our research scientists to remain competitive and at the leading edge at the national and international levels, and potentially lead to the discovery and generation of new knowledge and products that will benefit the health and well-being of all Canadians." McMaster had one of its better showings in CIHR's latest round of funding, says Marie Townsend, research programs administrator on the Committee on Scientific Development. In total, 42.6 per cent of the projects McMaster applied for under its new and renewal grants were funded by CIHR, compared to the national average of 31 per cent, she says.