January 4, 2001

Dean of science Peter Sutherland will serve a second five-year term. His reappointment, for the period July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2006, was approved by the Board of Governors in December. The recommendation of the ad hoc selection committee for the dean concluded that the needs of the Faculty are being well served by Sutherland. A professor of physics & astronomy, Sutherland has his research interests in the modelling of physical processes in pulsars and supernovae, as well as in the numerical codes for radiative transfer models and dynamics. Sutherland taught at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania before joining McMaster as an assistant professor in 1976. He became a full professor in 1982 and served as chair of the physics department from 1987-1991. He has served on numerous university committees. For other highlights of the Dec. 15 Board meeting:

January 4, 2001

The Centre for Peace Studies is offering a course on the study of war this term. The three-unit credit course in peace studies, which may . . .

January 4, 2001

Classrooms without chalk or erasers. Lecture halls with broken seats or projectors. Rooms without light or heat. According to a memo distributed to all McMaster instructors in December by Harvey Weingarten, provost and vice-president academic and Karen Belaire, vice-president administration, these and similar problems have become an all-too-familiar frustration for teaching faculty and lecturers. "It appears that instructors are unsure who to contact to address these problems," Weingarten says. "In some cases where individuals are contacted, instructors get little action. This is unacceptable." The solution is the creation of a classroom hotline: ext. 23072. Beginning Jan. 3, instructors should call this hotline to report any problems with their classrooms, Weingarten says.

January 3, 2001

The Office of the Registrar has set the dates for make-up examinations for students approved for special examination arrangements due to the cancellation and rescheduling of Dec. 11 (7:30 p.m.) and Dec. 12 exams. Students approved for special examination arrangements will have a make-up exam for the course either Jan. 18, 19 or 20. All exams will take place in ABB-B163 (the new testing centre). A specific schedule of exams and dates will be posted on the Office of the Registrar's Notices section at registrar.mcmaster.ca/internal on Jan. 12.

January 2, 2001

The new University Centre is now officially the McMaster University Student Centre. The Board of Governors approved the naming of the facility at its Dec. 14 meeting. The Student Representative Assembly of the McMaster Students Union voted in favour of the name at its Nov. 26 meeting after considering a shortlist of three names. Initially, 45 names were nominated by 72 submitters.

January 2, 2001

Beginning this month, the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics is offering beginner courses in both Chinese and Catalan. Gabriele Erasmi, chair of modern languages . . .

January 1, 2001

The following is a citation by McMaster President Peter George on Adam Spence, 2003 Honour M Award recipient. An honours social sciences student, Adam is . . .

January 1, 2001

The following is a citation by McMaster President Peter George on 2003 Honour M Award recipient Joanna Ranieri. Joanna, the benchmark for the Honour M's . . .

December 22, 2000

The month of December is notable for containing four religious observances. For Muslims observing Ramadan, it is a month-long period of self-reflecting and fasting. For Christians celebrating Christmas and for Jews celebrating Hanukkah, it's a time for remembering an important historical event. For persons of African origin, Kwanzaa is a harvest celebration. Photo: This Winter Night sketch by Ashlee Calder is one of 14 sketches arranged in the window of the Health Sciences Bookstore (Mediashop.com) in the Ewart Angus Centre. The artwork was a joint project of Bookstore buyer Marlene Monster and Cheryl Petkoff, a child life specialist with the McMaster Children's Hospital. Monster wanted to decorate the bookstore for the festive season and spoke with child life specialist Cheryl Petkoff about the idea. Petkoff arranged for the chalk and black construction paper drawings by several young patients.

December 22, 2000

Happy Holidays! The Daily News wishes all of its readers the very best of the holiday season. We will return on Jan. 2, 2001. Classes at McMaster begin on Jan. 3.

December 21, 2000

SHARC-Net, the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computer Network, will receive more than $8 million from the Ontario government, Jim Wilson, minister of energy, science and . . .

December 20, 2000

When Professor Byron Spencer pushed in his security key card to unlock the Research Data Centre at its official opening yesterday, he opened the door to a new era in social science research at McMaster. The University is now home to the first of nine Research Data Centres in the country. The centre, located in Mills Memorial Library, was built in collaboration with Statistics Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Its purpose is to provide a wealth of detailed data to social science researchers, who previously would have had to travel to Ottawa to work with similar Statistics Canada resources. "While there will be eight others to be opened under the same premise, McMaster's is the first to be fully functional," said Alan Harrison, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. "The establishment of this research data centre and the others to follow is an important step in finding ways to make Statistics Canada data available to the research community." Spencer, a professor of economics and director of the Research Institute for Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population, is director of the national pilot project to bring the centre to McMaster. "The initiative is important to allow people to have access to the master data files to do useful work," said Spencer.Above(left to right): Byron Spencer(centre director), Cindy Cook(Statistics Canada research data analyst), Mike Sheridan(assistant chief statistican for Social, Institutions and Labour Statistics)Photo: Ron Scheffler

December 19, 2000

It is now the (lunar) month of Ramadan in the year 1421. This is the number of years that have elapsed since Mohammed was forced . . .

December 18, 2000

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/fireball.jpg” caption=”M. Kirnbauer and A. Culp “]There are no Lego legacies in Margaret Kirnbauer's history. No madcap explosions masquerading as science experiments. Her . . .

December 18, 2000

The University's bargaining team has put a monetary offer before negotiators for the McMaster University Staff Association (MUSA). The offer was tabled on Thursday, Dec. 14 at the second negotiating session held this month between the two parties. For the University, the action completed a desire to have a full proposal on the table prior to the holiday break. "The bargaining team and the University's administration are aware that people work hard and need to know that their work is recognized in a fair manner," said Mark Haley, assistant vice-president, human resources and a member of the bargaining team. "The staff survey indicated that compensation was a major issue for staff and the offer we tabled recognizes this issue and addresses it in a significant manner." McMaster University Staff Association president Barry Diacon, when asked whether an offer had been tabled, remarked that the University makes offers all the time. Questioned specifically about a monetary offer, he had "no comment."

December 18, 2000

Seventeen McMaster researchers are among the first 195 recipients of the Canada Research Chairs Program. The University garnered the second highest number of recipients in the province and the third highest number in Canada during the first round of allocations. The University of Toronto was first with 39 chairs and the University of British Columbia and the University of Montreal were tied for second with 20. Prime Minister Jean Chritien announced the recipients and their areas of research in a press release issued Friday, Dec. 15. For a complete list of all recipients, go to the Office of the Prime Minister.

December 18, 2000

A new look for McMaster's honorary degree parchment and revisions to the Latin text that appears on it were approved by Senate on Dec. 13. . . .

December 15, 2000

Senate has approved two recommendations from the Faculty of Humanities changing the official name of one of its departments as well as that of the . . .

December 15, 2000

A promise is a promise, Canadian author Robert Munsch once wrote. And McMaster's bookstore, Titles, is striving to keep its promise to students. The bookstore . . .

December 14, 2000

You've got a paid plane ticket to Calgary at 10 a.m. on Dec. 17, but your Tuesday exam, cancelled due to the snowstorm, is now rescheduled for that morning. What do you do? Students who, due to irrevocable travel arrangements or religious observations, need to make alternate examination arrangements due to the rescheduling of the Dec. 11 evening and Dec 12 exams, are advised to apply in person at the registrar's office immediately. "We're aware that some students may have irrevocable travel arrangements, exam conflicts or religious obligations and there is a process in place so they may be taken care of," said Granger. "We are counting on students' co-operation to keep these to a minimum." Students who need alternate examination arrangements due to the exam changes must apply in person at the Examinations Section in the Office of the Registrar (Room 114, Gilmour Hall) immediately. Rescheduling requests could be for reasons such as conflicts with other examinations or with religious obligations. Legitimate applications will be rescheduled into the remaining exam period.