Daily News

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."

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)