Daily News

Posted on Jan. 20: Pilot testing of new job evaluation tool to begin

The Joint Job Evaluation Steering Committee (JJESC), established by McMaster University and the McMaster University Staff Association (MUSA), has been working on the development of a new job evaluation tool for positions in the MUSA bargaining unit. The implementation of the new system is scheduled for June 16, 2005. Development of the tool has progressed to the pilot test phase. The JJESC has selected about 40 jobs from within the bargaining unit that will be evaluated in this pilot test. Jobs were selected to ensure the pilot includes a representative sample of the types of jobs found in the bargaining unit. Over the next two weeks, employees in the selected jobs and their supervisors will be contacted regarding their participation and involvement in the pilot study and will be provided with the materials necessary to participate in this study.

Posted on Jan. 19: Canada’s past is the future of new history professorship at McMaster University

The future of our Canadian past will be the focus of a new professorship in Canadian history created at McMaster University. Canadian business executive Lynton Ronald (Red) Wilson has donated $1 million - $200,000 a year over the next five years - to establish the L. R. Wilson Professor in Canadian History in McMaster's Faculty of Humanities. The University will contribute $250,000 - $50,000 a year for five years to support the gift. Wilson, a distinguished McMaster alumnus with a bachelor's degree in economics, is a founding co-chairman of the Historica Foundation of Canada. The foundation's mandate is to provide Canadians with a deeper understanding of their history and its importance in shaping the future. Wilson, who also holds a master of arts degree in economics from Cornell University, is hailed as a keen supporter of the study of Canadian history and believer in the value of a broad liberal arts education. "Understanding our past is a bridge to a better future," Wilson said today at a ceremony announcing his generous donation. "The study and teaching of Canadian history deserves much greater emphasis in all of our educational institutions and McMaster is well-equipped to lead the way. As a country comprising people from diverse cultures and backgrounds, a broad appreciation of our history is an essential foundation on which to build a shared understanding, so that we can continue to encourage reasonable loyalty and foster responsible citizenship." The L. R. Wilson Professor in Canadian History will be a renowned historian who will have a research specialization in Canadian historical studies and will teach undergraduate and graduate students. The professor will have a mandate to work with an interdisciplinary advisory board to develop history seminars, annual conferences, lectureships and an annual juried book competition to name the best book on Canadian history.

Posted on Jan. 19: Students, employees butt out during National Non-Smoking Week

Health and wellness promoters are making a deal with McMaster students and employees this week. Butt out and win. As part of National Non-Smoking Week, McMaster's Campus Health is joining campuses across Ontario in the annual Leave The Pack Behind initiative that encourages both students and employees to reduce or quit smoking. Those who are successful can win cash prizes, donations from local businesses and campus bookstore coupons. "Noting that Canadian 19- to 24-year-olds have the highest smoking rate of any age group and show a preference for cigarettes labeled light and mild, this Government of Ontario and Health Canada funded initiative will attempt to motivate students and employees of McMaster to quit, reduce or not start smoking," says Jane Radix, health education co-ordinator with Student Health Services. The week-long contest will run at McMaster, Brock University, University of Guelph, University of Ottawa, Queen's University, Ryerson University, University of Toronto and University of Windsor. The Let's Make A Deal contest offers cash prizes, donations from local businesses, and campus bookstore coupons to both students and employees achieving various levels of success in reducing or quitting smoking.

Posted on Jan. 16: The student experience is focus for new registrar

McMaster's new registrar is looking forward to working with students from the time they are considering which university to attend right through to Convocation ceremonies. Louis (Lou) R. Ariano has been named McMaster registrar. Senate and the executive committee of the Board of Governors approved his appointment earlier in the week. He takes up his new post on Feb. 1. Ariano said he was attracted by the broad scope of the role of the registrar at McMaster, including student recruitment and liaison, admissions, registration and records and Convocation. "I look forward to the opportunity to work with students from the recruitment stage through to Convocation," said Ariano. "I've always thought of McMaster as an institution that is held in high esteem, not only in Ontario, but across the university system in Canada and I'm looking forward to being part of this continued success."

Posted on Jan. 15: McMaster and NSERC mark 25 years of research excellence

Twenty-five years, more than 600 teams of researchers and more than $400 million of research support - that, in a nutshell, sums up the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's investment in McMaster's research enterprise. Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president of research & international affairs, told guests at a 25th anniversary celebration that their contribution to research is far more than just numbers. "What you have contributed to advancing research over the last quarter century is enormous and, simply, cannot be summed up by the numbers. This is indeed, one of those cases, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. These parts -- your contributions -- are significant, not only to McMaster, but for the Canadian research landscape. Many of you, through your early research projects, inspired new theories, new ways of thinking and new possibilities for subsequent generations of researchers." McMaster President Peter George echoed Shoukri's comments adding that McMaster has earned its reputation as one of the country's most innovative universities largely on the strength of its research community. "McMaster's research enterprise -- indeed the Canadian research landscape -- has changed significantly over the last 25 years.