Daily News

Posted on Jan. 14: Leaving the pack behind

This time Kathie Fairman aims to quit smoking for good. And she hopes to get a boost from a smoking cessation contest being run this month at McMaster as part of National Non-Smoking Week, beginning Jan. 20. About a decade ago, the clinic aide in McMaster's Campus Health Centre quit her 12-cigarette-a-day habit cold-turkey. Before that she had smoked for eight years, beginning in her late teens. She stayed off cigarettes for three years, until she says stress and trying to cope with family illnesses broke her resolve. Now she plans to try again, likely through some combination of Zyban and the anti-smoking patch. Fairman also hopes to get some motivation from a contest called Let's Make a Deal, which will begin during National Non-Smoking Week (including Weedless Wednesday on Jan. 22).

Posted on Jan. 14: Mac students help Neptune add 3 moons

Two McMaster undergraduate students have helped a team of astronomers discover three new moons around Neptune. The students (Dan Milisavljevic, a fourth-year arts and science student and Wesley Fraser, a third-year astrophysics student) worked with J. J. Kavelaars, of the National Research Council of Canada, who co-led the project with Matthew Holman of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center. The two organizations jointly announced the find yesterday. Kavelaars said the discovery, which boosts the number of Neptune's moons to 11, will help scientists unravel the mysteries of how gaseous planets, such as Neptune, are formed, and eventually help solve the puzzle of the creation of the solar system. Neptune is one of four gaseous planets, with Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Click here to read the complete story in The Hamilton Spectator.

Posted on Jan. 13: Science comes to the city

Whether they're using giant telescopes to explore the farthest reaches of the universe or miniature cameras and surgical robots to assist in delicate surgeries, McMaster University researchers are involved in exciting science. McMaster University, in partnership with The Hamilton Spectator, is sponsoring the Science in the City Lecture Series, an opportunity for the community to come out and hear what some of our fine minds are doing in engineering, science and health sciences. The genesis of this new series was the result of conversations between psychology professor Allison Sekuler and Nick Markettos, senior advisor to the Office of the Vice-President, Research & International Affairs.

Posted on Jan. 10: Teaching assistant contract negotiations go to conciliation

A provincially-appointed conciliator has been requested to help the University and the union representing teaching assistants (TAs) reach a new collective agreement. The University's bargaining team asked for a conciliator late last month because it felt a third party would help both sides reach common ground. Once a conciliator is appointed, he or she will call a meeting of the bargaining teams from the University and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3906 - Unit 1, to continue their work on reaching a new collective agreement. McMaster University President Peter George said he is confident both groups can work together to reach a collective agreement in the coming weeks. "We firmly believe in and are committed to the collective bargaining process," said President Peter George. "I have every confidence that with the aid of a conciliator the two bargaining teams will work hard to successfully negotiate a new agreement." On Wednesday, an information picket was held outside council chambers by some union members prior to a regularly scheduled Senate meeting. During the last full academic year, there were more than 1,800 TAs. At McMaster, teaching assistant duties may include running tutorials, marking, lab supervision and student consultation. The TAs' previous collective agreement expired Aug. 31, 2002 and negotiators representing both sides met 11 times between September and December 2002. Sessional lecturers, represented by Unit 2 of CUPE Local 3906, settled with the University at conciliation in early July last year. They have a three-year agreement that expires April 30, 2005.