Daily News

September 5, 2002

Shoppers Drug Mart today announced a $750,000 donation to McMaster University to endow a research chair in molecular medicine. Arthur Konviser, senior vice-president, corporate affairs, Shoppers Drug Mart, announced the creation of the John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular Medicine at a news conference at McMaster University. Contributions from the University and other donors bring the total funding for this chair to $2 million. The health and well being of the community has always been an integral component of the Shoppers Drug Mart philosophy. "As members of the community healthcare team, we are pleased to support a healthcare initiative of this magnitude," said Konviser. "By working together, Shoppers Drug Mart and McMaster University will make a difference in lives of others suffering from debilitating diseases. The 30 Shoppers Drug Mart stores in the Hamilton area were instrumental in helping us make this responsible contribution." McMaster University is well positioned to lead the world in the development of important biotechnology inventions. The John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular Medicine allows for the continuation of research into the development of gene-based medicines that will be used to treat acquired diseases such as cancer, inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and asthma, and infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. Jack Gauldie, chair of McMaster's Department of Pathology & Molecular Medicine, is the inaugural chair holder. Gauldie is a world-renowned expert in the field of molecular regulations of inflammation and immunity. He coined the term "gene therapeutics" to describe his innovative combination of immunology and gene therapy that is used to stimulate the immune system and fight diseases. Gauldie's team is the first in Canada to use this approach.

September 5, 2002

Hamilton's central division detectives believe two burglars caught with $60,000 worth of stolen audio-visual equipment at McMaster last Wednesday night may be part of a ring stealing high-end hardware from Ontario colleges and universities. Campus police responding to a silent alarm surprised a man on a stepladder in Kenneth Taylor Hall disconnecting a multimedia protector from the ceiling. A woman stood on the floor holding the ladder. Another man got away. Two large knapsacks on the floor contained a wide variety of tools and a couple of two-way radios. Investigating Hamilton police detectives found a car parked at the loading dock behind Kenneth Taylor Hall. Inside was the multimedia equipment stolen from the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business nearby. "(The intruders) were well prepared, had the tools and knew the value and location of the equipment," police spokesperson Sergeant Gary Ostofi said. A 25-year-old man from Varna, Ont. southeast of Goderich, and a 26-year-old woman from Stratford have been charged with breaking and entering, theft and possession of burglary tools. (The Hamilton Spectator, Aug. 30, 2002)

September 4, 2002

McMaster's Department of English offers a different sort of literary classic in its new course, Reading the Bestseller: Contemporary British Fiction. The reading list for the fourth-year seminar, which has filled its 18 or so spots for next term, includes J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and the cult smash Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. "I haven't encountered (negative) responses but I know that that's possible," says Sarah Brophy, the 29-year-old assistant professor, who is starting her first year of teaching. "But these are books that are very widely read and that have very complicated cultural consequences. "It's worth taking them seriously." Another popular course at McMaster is Modern Countercultures, a second-year course that debuted in January. It's a blend of art, literature and film. "It started off high" with 130 students enrolled, says Mary O'Connor, the English professor who will start teaching Modern Countercultures on Friday. "This year we're beginning with 140, at least, and we'll see where it goes to." The course -- which draws students from English, communications studies and comparative literature programs -- looks at the fashionable rebels who have proudly danced outside the bounds of mainstream culture. For the original story in today's Hamilton Spectator, click here. (The Hamilton Spectator, Sept. 4, 2002)

September 4, 2002

When classes resume Thursday, some students will find themselves sitting in new and newly renovated classrooms. "McMaster has worked extremely hard to prepare for the first students of the double cohort," says Karen Belaire, vice-president administration. "And it shows." In the Refectory, the dining area has been converted into a lecture hall. Renovations to this 250-seat room include flooring, lighting, electrical, audio/visual, and window treatments. Writing palettes for the seats have yet to be delivered. McMaster's largest and most heavily used classroom on campus is Room 120 in Togo Salmon Hall. "It has been completely renovated over the summer. I believe students will be pleasantly surprised when they see it," says Ken Norrie, provost and vice-president academic. Arthur Bourns Building Room 102 and Burke Sciences Building Room B135/B136 also have new seating and lighting upgrades. Three classrooms are available in the AIC Wing, an e-commerce annex constructed on the southwest corner of the Michael G. DeGroote building. This two-storey addition houses three new classrooms, labs, and office space and includes a link to the current building in the basement. The temporary classroom, located on the southeast tennis court, west of the Ivor Wynne Centre, will help accommodate much of the increased student enrolment. This facility will be ready for classes on Monday. Students with classes in this building on Thursday and Friday are instructed to go to the facility (Building T-28) where they will be provided with additional information. Some classes are being relocated and others will be cancelled.* "Construction crews were racing to put the finishing touches on it. In fact, people were working on it through the Labour Day weekend trying to get everything completed in time," says Belaire. *Note: Click here for T28 Classroom information

September 4, 2002

(Instructor names are in brackets) Thursday Sept. 5 Economics 1BB3 C01 (M. Veall): Moved to CNH-104 Sociology 1A06 C01(D. Young): Cancelled Philosophy 1A03 C01 (S. . . .

September 3, 2002

They're back. Thousands of them, dressed in bright colours and full of spirit. New and returning students arrived on campus over the weekend, ready for another school year. Before classes begin Thursday, a number of activities have been organized for Welcome Week 2002. The annual week of events is a collaboration of resources between the McMaster Students Union (MSU), student faculty societies, other student groups/clubs, residences, the Department of Student Affairs and the Society of Off-Campus Students (SOCS).

August 30, 2002

New research by McMaster University researchers suggests that a learned compensatory response can trigger "drug tolerance," a physiological process central to addiction. Drug tolerance makes people need more and more drug to get the same effect, whether pain relief or a "high." Its newly discovered psychological aspect -- in which a drug-predictive cue primes the body to react "as if" the drug effect is imminent -- might be used to treat addiction more effectively. In short, if drug tolerance can be learned, there's a chance it can be unlearned, reducing or eliminating the tolerance-related cravings and other withdrawal symptoms can lead addicts to relapse. Research by McMaster psychology professor Shepard Siegel, graduate student Marta Sokolowska, and McMaster alumnus Joseph Kim (now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco) demonstrated that there is a powerful "internal cue" process that stimulates the body to react to the effect of a drug. The research results were recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. "The effect of a drug depends not only on our response to the drug, but also our response to stimuli that in the past have been paired with the drug. We've known this for a long time in terms of external stimuli, such as where and when a drug is taken, but now it's also clear that internal stimuli also play an important role," says Siegel. Current drug addiction treatment programs often include a component that tries to remove the effects of the external cues (so-called "cue exposure treatments"), but they ignore the importance of internal cues.

August 29, 2002

This weekend, approximately 3,000 bodies will descend upon campus armed with suitcases, boxes and crates. It's move-in weekend, and that means heavy traffic and jammed parking lots. "The new school term is less than a week away, and like all departments, Housing and Conference Services is busy preparing for the beginning of another exciting year," says Cathie Miller, director of Housing and Conference Services. "We are gearing up to welcome the class of 2006' as well as returning students who will be moving into University residences over the Labour Day weekend."

August 28, 2002

In September 2001,University was initially overwhelming for the first-year student who came from small-town Ontario. David Kennedy could sense that. "She was terrified," said the residence life community advisor (CA). "I knew she was feeling lonely and I kept talking to her and asking her how everything was going." Finally, on her third day in residence, she broke down. She talked to Kennedy about how she missed home and how university was overwhelming. While reassuring and counseling her, Kennedy recalled the training sessions he underwent to prepare for such situations. The fourth-year honours economics student is in training again this week, to learn how to be an effective CA. He and more than 100 other CA's and residence program assistants (RPA's) are involved in a two-week training session to prepare for the first-year students they will mentor and advise in McMaster's 10 residences throughout the school year ahead. "The CA's and RPA's have a really significant impact on students' experiences and that is why we have such an intensive training," says Danielle Stayzer, residence life co-ordinator "They are role models and first-year students really look up to them." Students are also getting younger, and issues that CA's and RPA's deal with are changing, Stayzer adds. "Students have been getting younger over the last couple of years so we have been refining our training to meet the changing needs," she says. "We train staff on getting to know each individual on the floor and finding out what the specific needs are of each student. If they find out a large number of the students on their floor are younger they will plan activities to best accommodate them." Residence life staff are expected to organize non-alcoholic activities, something that students seem to be getting used to. "There is an increased focus on academics for students," Stayzer says. "I think it's because university has become more competitive."

August 27, 2002

McMaster's Anti-Violence Network (AVN) hopes a visual art show will help people express their feelings one year after Sept. 11. "Art, being a universal medium, was chosen as a means to allow people to express their feelings, in this case around issues of religious and racial difference, and how lack of respect impacts on these differences," says Pat Young, administrative co-ordinator in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies and a member of the AVN. McMaster's diversity is reflected in the artwork by McMaster students, faculty and staff, says Young. "Encouraging, or fostering, respect for one another, despite our many differences, is a good way to eliminate many of the tensions that arise between people of many diverse beliefs and races. Our hope is that the diversity of our campus will be reflected in the artwork collected." The art show is connected to a Sept. 14 conference sponsored by AVN, entitled "One Year After September 11th--What Have We Learned?" The day-long conference, in the McMaster University Student Centre, will feature guest speakers and a panel discussion. The art show arose from discussions after the events of Sept. 11, says Young. "We were made aware of concerns in various ethnic communities following violence in the community at large, and members of various ethnic groups on campus also expressed concerns about their safety." This led to an event last spring entitled "Fostering Respect". The event brought together representatives from various religious faiths to speak on misconceptions about their beliefs. "We believe that education is one positive step that we can offer to expose misconceptions and to increase respect for religious traditions," Young says. AVN has put out a call for entries for the juried art exhibition. Entries must be original works of art created by the artist and must be available for purchase. The exhibition is open to all two- and three-dimensional works of art, except electronic video performances. There is a limit of one entry per person. Judging will take place the first week of September and the selected works will be on display from Sept. 13 to 15 in the New Space, Togo Salmon Hall, Room 114. Entries must be submitted by Aug. 28. in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, TSH 726 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The reception and award presentation for the exhibition takes place Sept. 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. in TSH 114. For more information contact Pat Young at youngpm@mcmaster.ca or ext. 23112.

August 27, 2002

Provincial Health Minister Tony Clement appealed to first-year medical students at McMaster University yesterday to stay and practise in Ontario. Clement told the 140 students attending their first day of orientation that making Ontario more attractive to health professionals is his top priority. His plea comes at a time when North America-wide shortages have left doctor recruitment and retention more competitive than ever. McMaster increased enrolment by 40 per cent this year under the Health Ministry's strategy to fight the growing doctor shortage. (The Globe and Mail, Aug. 27, 2002)

August 26, 2002

The University is about to embark on the next step of its strategic planning process. Over recent years the institution has established strong planning principles to meet the challenges the University has faced including the current double cohort issue. Commencing this fall, McMaster will start to plan for the years and requirements that follow the double cohort. The initiative will be called "Refining Directions" and will allow the University to prepare effectively for the future. "The process will enable McMaster to refine its goals and objectives in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead and it will also provide performance indicators as measures of our progress," says University President Peter George. In the mid-nineties, the McMaster community developed and implemented the original "Directions" documents to establish and communicate the institution's vision and mission and planning principles to achieve defined goals and objectives. Since then, "Directions" has undergone two additional refinements. The documents have helped to guide the University through many challenges. These include the development of new and highly successful academic programs, the expansion of research and research partnerships, and recent fundraising initiatives. A steering committee led by University provost Ken Norrie will guide the next planning process and will work closely with six working groups: research and graduate education, undergraduate education, external activities, internal community, planning/managing and branding. The collective efforts of the working groups will involve consultations with numerous audiences followed by the development of the refined plan. It is anticipated that the plan will be presented to Senate and the Board of Governors by the spring of 2003. A letter from the President containing further details on this important initiative is currently being distributed to the University community including Faculty, staff, Board of Governors, Senate and the Alumni Association Board. Communications will continue as the steering committee progresses with the project throughout the months ahead.

August 23, 2002

Sixteen-year-old Aaron has not lived with his parents for three years. Now, nearly 17, he has stayed at group homes, foster homes, shelters or friends' apartments. The longest he stayed in one place was six months, and that was in rehab. On March 19, he began participating in M.A.C. Door, an innovative program that helps homeless youth leave the streets. M.A.C. (Making a Change) Door grew out of the McMaster Student Outreach Clinic (MacSOC). During the winter of 2000, the MacSOC organization of more than 120 volunteers  students and faculty mainly from nursing but also medicine, midwifery and occupational therapy and physiotherapy  visited three areas in downtown Hamilton on Wednesday nights delivering clothing and food to homeless people. Dyanne Semogas, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, was one of those volunteers. Along with several people who worked with MacSOC, Semogas became interested in working with street youth. Two years later, she is the clinical director of the M.A.C. Door project. This program has two parallel, but separate, components: intervention and research.

August 22, 2002

When the news came that she had won a prestigious undergraduate Jane Austen essay competition, Jan Mullally was shocked. "I forgot that I had even entered," she said. Competing against more than 300 English students from around the world, the third-year commerce student entered the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) competition at the advice of her teaching assistant. The bigger surprise came a few weeks later. "When I found out that I won, I was absolutely shocked. Really, the whole thing blew my mind, and then I heard it might be taken away from me." Another entrant read Mullally's essay and counted the number of words, noticing it was five words over the 2,000-word limit. JASNA asked Mullally to rewrite the essay, which she did, bringing down the number of words to 1,905. Mullally was allowed to keep the certificate and $500 US prize. While English was her minor, it played a major role in her quest toward a B.Com. degree, which she graduated with last spring. Of the 30 credits she obtained, 21 were in English. Some of her fellow business students questioned her decision to take English as a minor. But she feels there is no better fit. "I find that my analytical and communication skills are a lot better because of the English courses I have taken," she says. Improving her writing skills also helped her in her commerce classes. "You learn the things that you use in commerce that you're not taught in commerce," she says. "When you write business papers, you're really writing about the research and you're being more analytical. When you're writing a humanities paper you write with more flair and creativity."

August 20, 2002

McMaster English professor and biographer James King's latest biography His Farley: The Life Of Farley Mowat has been placed on the top 10 hardcover fiction and non-fiction books by Maclean's magazine. Published by HarperCollins Canada, the biography is the conclusion of a trilogy with the publisher Jack McClelland at its centre. King's biography of novelist Margaret Laurence appeared in 1997 and his McClelland biography in 1999. The papers of all three of his subjects are archived at the university's library. King's biography was listed in sixth place in the ranking. Recently, Maclean's ran an excerpt from the new book. Click here to view the excerpt.

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."