Daily News

September 13, 2000

The McMaster Celebrity 2000-01 Concerts series, organized by the School of Art, Drama & Music, features a wide range of soloists, instruments and musical styles. From bagpipes, piano and cello, to early music, Celtic and jazz -- the series covers the full musical spectrum. The September concert, however, is notable for showcasing the three areas of study within the school. A Song of Lilith (Sept. 29) tells the legend of Adam's first wife through art, narrative and music. Written by Canadian author Joy Kogawa, who will deliver the narrative, the production features actor Moira Wylie, with musicians Erika Raum (violin), Clare Scholtz (English horn), Julie Baumgartel (violin), Kathleen Kajioka (viola) and Kristine Bogyo (cello). "We're really excited about this production," says Rose Riopelle, admininistrative co-ordinator for the school. "It's playing at some important venues across Canada, so we're pleased it's coming to McMaster."

September 12, 2000

Nominations for teaching and non-teaching staff vacancies on the University Planning Committee closed on Friday Sept. 8. No additional nominations were received, so the nominees . . .

September 12, 2000

The Michael G. DeGroote School of Business has formally entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow (IIM-L) to promote graduate students and faculty exchanges and collaborative research between the two institutions. Naresh Agarwal, professor of human resources and PhD program co-ordinator, was instrumental in initiating this relationship with IIM-L and represented McMaster University at the signing of the MOU earlier this summer. Agarwal emphasized the need for students as well as faculty to get international exposure for familiarization with current global as well as transnational perspectives. The agreement marks the foray of McMaster University into India."Our goal is to become global and internationalize the prospectus and curriculum of both institutions" Agarwal. He added that a key strength of IIM-L is their management development and outreach program, while the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business is strong in research and innovation. Describing the partnership as the beginning of a relationship between equals, Agarwal said IIM-L was the preferred institute because of its excellent growth rate. "The kind of set up they have established over the last 15 years is indicative of the immense potential of the institute," he added.

September 12, 2000

The Career Planning and Employment Centre today launches McMaster's first annual Virtual Career Fair (VCF)and the all new Career Links Program. Students are invited to visit the tent located in front of the Burke Science Building for a host of exciting events with tons of free giveaways. Starting at 9:30 a.m. computer stations will be available where you can view the VCF. At 10:30 a.m. try out the Twister Game for prizes game, a speakers corner and tons of free giveaways! Starting at 11:45 a.m. the VCF, followed by Career Links, will be launched inside the tent by a number of local dignitaries. The Survivor Series commences at 1 p.m. Come out and cheer on your student faculty president, the MSU president or the Maroons president as they compete in a series of crazy activities that will test their ability, agility and sensibility! Be part of the tribal council that votes two people off after each event!

September 11, 2000

Each September, the University experiences an influx of new faces. These include first-year undergraduates and new graduate students and faculty members. Eventually, most of them will find their way to one of the campus libraries and will need assistance to use one of the many print or electronic search aids. McMaster's libraries - Mills Memorial, H.G. Thode Library of Science & Engineering, and the Innis Business Library - offer an instruction program which includes tours and hands-on training in the use of electronic resources. At Mills, librarians conduct 45-minute sessions in a specially equipped electronic classroom where up to 30 students learn about the libraries and their services, and practice using the online catalogue and other electronic tools. Sessions can also be tailored to particular courses and professors are encouraged to arrange library instruction for their classes. To view Library instruction sessions and times,

September 11, 2000

In the opening week of varsity action the football and baseball teams picked up right were they left off last season. In front of a . . .

September 8, 2000

A new seminar series developed specifically for University chairs and directors and administrative co-ordinators begins today. About 40 people, many of them new to their positions, are expected to attend the first seminar, which will provide an orientation to academic administration. The goal of this seminar series is to increase even further the quality of administration across academic departments and programs, says University provost and vice-president academic Harvey Weingarten. These seminars will provide a forum for effective, easy and efficient bilateral communication between the academic administrators in the departments and schools and at more senior levels. They will also provide the opportunity for focused training on matters and processes that are important to administration of the academy. The series will help to ensure that departments and schools have the skills and knowledge to operate in an administrative environment that has become increasingly complex and regulated. Department chairs, directors and administrators will also be better equipped to deal with staff and faculty recruitment and management issues, says Weingarten. "These seminars should help address some of the concerns raised by employees in the Reacon survey."

September 5, 2000

Police officers on bicycles and in patrol cars will spend more time in West Hamilton this week. Although the number of complaints about noisy parties has decreased over the past few years, Regional Police and city noise by-law officers are working together with McMaster to try to ensure students understand that the community expects a certain level of behaviour. "Most students are great," says chief noise control officer Frank Westaway. "But there are times that parties get too big and when you throw in alcohol there are plenty of potential problems." One common misunderstanding students often have is that noisy parties or playing a stereo outside is okay if it's in the middle of the day. Westaway says it's a common myth that noise is fine until 11 p.m. It isn't. "The noise bylaw is in effect 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Everyone who lives in the house can be charged if there's too much noise. My message to students is be part of the solution, not part of the problem."

September 1, 2000

The University's Student Liaison Office is gearing up for what is expected to be one of the largest recruitment fairs ever. Based on the numbers which attended last year, the 2000 Ontario Universities' Fair, which runs from September 22 to 24 at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre, could attract over 40,000 OAC students and their parents. "Our main objective is to provide information and answer questions, with an emphasis on one-to-one personal contact," says Bonnie Crocker, liaison officer. Representatives from over 17 McMaster academic areas and service departments such as housing and student financial aid will be on hand during the three-day event. "We hope to create an interest in McMaster, especially for those students who are still undecided (about their choice of institution)." A total of over 130 McMaster faculty and staff will be helping outat the University's booth. "We really couldn't do this without them," Crocker says.

September 1, 2000

Teaching assistants (TAs) at McMaster University will gear up for a new academic year at TA Day 2000  a series of workshops that help TAs deal with undergraduate teaching issues. The position of teaching assistant can be difficult, especially when TAs are just a couple of years older than their students. Hosted by the Centre for Leadership in Learning, the one-day event begins today at 8:30 a.m. in the Burke Science Building. New and veteran teaching assistants alike will acquire skills that one would typically learn at teacher's college. Workshops will address pre-class jitters, lesson preparation, learning styles, psychology and evaluation, to name a few. Additionally, TAs will learn how to handle the more delicate teaching issues, such as plagiarism and harassment.

September 1, 2000

Welcome Week has already started and organizers have been kept busy greeting over 4,000 new undergraduates. Events, which officially began on Sunday, Sept. 3, continue . . .

August 31, 2000

McMaster's first ever cyberspace career fair is proving to be a popular idea with recruiting companies. So far more than 38 have signed up to take part in the three-week virtual event. Established by the Career Planning and Employment Centre and funded by the McMaster Students Union (MSU), the site will be active from September 11 to 29. It is intended to complement the on-campus Career Day which will be held on September 21 at the Ivor Wynne Centre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

August 31, 2000

Hi-tech training on campus will have a new place to call home this fall. The Centre for Continuing Education, Computing Information Services (CIS) and Fifth Era Knowledge Inc. have joined together to open the Information Technology Centre on the McMaster campus.

August 31, 2000

McMaster's web site and email services were back to normal after problems on Wednesday. The company that manages domain names across the country incorrectly made some changes to the University's domain name. The problem was corrected Wednesday night. The glitch meant anyone trying to access McMaster's web site from off campus couldn't get through. Email service was also disrupted. Barb Campbell, the departmental manager in Computing and Information Services (CIS) says all email messages to off-campus sites that were delayed yesterday have now been sent. Email messages that were sent to McMaster from off-campus have also been delivered.

August 30, 2000

The Executive Committee of the Board of Governors, acting on behalf of the full Board, is pleased to announce the following appointments as recommended by . . .

August 30, 2000

A newly released report from Statistics Canada shows the average Canadian tuition increase for undergraduate arts students for the upcoming academic year is 3%. Basic tuition at McMaster is up 2% over last year. The average increase in Ontario is 2.7%. McMaster's Board of Governors this past Spring approved a five-year tuition plan which calls for a 2% tuition increase in each of the next five years. The decision brings McMaster's basic tuition fee for the 2000-2001 academic year to $3,830.70, among the lowest in the province.

August 29, 2000

One-time reallocation funding for special equipment purchases will boost the availability of equipment offered by the media production services department. Director Paul Knowles says the $60,000 has been used to lease four laptop computers (as a pilot project) and to purchase three video data projectors for use in classroom presentations. In addition, the department has purchased a video data compression unit (with matching funds from the department's budget), which is used to compress VHS format to MPEG-1 video format, for in-class PowerPoint presentations or for Web-based teaching. The unit will be housed in the Learning Technology Resource Centre in the Thode Library. Providing laptops on loan is a new direction for the University, Knowles says. Previously, the University has not made funds available for laptop computers for classroom teaching. Media services often receives requests for them, but Knowles says he simply couldn't afford to purchase any from his annual budget. "This is the first time the University has provided laptops on loan to faculty."

August 29, 2000

Thirty-nine McMaster staff members will receive their certificate of completion in InfoTech Coach Level – the first of three levels in the InfoTech Leader Program. . . .

August 25, 2000

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/humanities1.jpg” caption=”L.Burnard (centre) with workshop participants”]The Faculty of Humanities recently played host to Oxford University's Lou Burnard, whose work with the Text Encoding . . .

August 25, 2000

Another McMaster Who Wants to be a Millionaire? hopeful has been revealed! John Norquay, a recent McMaster graduate, thinks it is pretty cool that at least three individuals from the University community were successful at the telephone qualification level. A trivia buff since age 10, Norquay, who is returning to McMaster to continue his education, says he tried every day until he succeeded in answering the five questions. "It's a bit embarrassing because I didn't get it until my ninth call," he laughs. At $2 per try, he still thinks it was a wise investment!