Daily News

Posted on Feb. 7: Teaching assistants collective agreement ratified

McMaster's teaching assistants and the University have ratified a new collective agreement. The Board of Governors' executive committee ratified the terms of a renewal collective agreement for the teaching assistants (TAs) earlier today. This follows the vote held by Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3906 Unit 1 (CUPE) during the last two days that endorsed the new agreement by an 85 per cent margin. "Teaching assistants play an important role both as employees and students at McMaster," said President Peter George. "They help us provide a quality educational experience. As a university, we have been working hard to develop a constructive negotiation process as part of our efforts to continually improve the working environment of McMaster employees. Throughout these negotiations both teams were focused on reaching an agreement that met the needs of everyone concerned."

Posted on Feb. 7: Student Walk Home Attendant Team hosts two-week awareness campaign

For 11 years, McMaster's Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT) has been walking people home after dark. To raise the profile of this McMaster Students Union service, SWHAT is hosting its annual Awareness Week Jan. 31 to Feb. 13. A booth will be set up in the McMaster University Student Center Marketplace today (Feb. 7) and Feb. 11. SWHAT is run entirely by students and made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers. Each SWHAT team is composed of one male and one female volunteer who both wear easily identifiable jackets and carry with them a flashlight and two-way radio. To request a walk home between 5:30 p.m. and 1 a.m., seven days a week, contact the SWHAT office at ext. 27500.

Posted on Feb. 7: Students elect new MSU president

Neville Boney will be next year's president of the McMaster Students Union. Boney won a close race on the six ballot of preferential voting with a total of 1,607 votes. Boney is the current vice-president administration with the McMaster Students Union. He has a degree in kinesiology and has finished his first year of a second degree in French. Preferential voting allows voters to rank the candidates. A candidate wins when they have 50 per cent plus one vote. If that percentage is not reached in the first ballot, the ballots from the candidate with the lowest number of number one votes are redistributed to the other candidates according to the second place votes. This continues until a candidate reaches the 50 per cent plus one mark.

Posted on Feb. 6: Esteemed professor explores differences between the male and female brain

Although men and women are one species, the neural systems underlying cognition are different between them, says this year's Alexander Graham Bell lecturer. So, asks Sanda Witelson, do women and men think and act the same way? The professor of psychiatry and behaviourial neurosciences and Albert Einstein/Irvine Zucker Chair in Neuroscience, will explore this at the 25th annual Alexander Graham Bell Lecture. The free public lecture takes place Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. in the Health Sciences Centre, Rm. 1A1. Witelson, who joined McMaster's Department of Psychiatry in 1969, is internationally recognized for her contributions to the elucidation of the neurobiological underpinnings of cognition, such as language, intelligence and visuo-spatial perception; the basis of hemispheric functional specialization a major aspect of human brain organization; the etiology of childhood reading problems; and mechanisms in sexual differentiation of the brain between men and women. Presented by the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, the Alexander Graham Bell Lecture offers outstanding speakers on a topic in information and emerging technologies that is of interest to both the members of the University community and the general public.

Posted on Feb. 5: Lion Dance marks Chinese New Year

Giant, colourful lions danced through the McMaster University Student Centre today to mark the Chinese Lunar New Year. McMaster's Chinese Students' Association, one of the largest and oldest student organizations on campus, celebrated the New Year with a traditional Lion Dance. As part of this tradition, McMaster President Peter George, McMaster Students Union president Evan Mackintosh and Luke Chan, executive director of the Office of International Affairs, dotted the lions' eyes prior to the dance to awaken the lions' spirits. The celebration features games and foods of the Chinese New Year and for the first time in the 36-year-old association's history, the traditional Lion Dance. The celebration takes place in the MUSC Marketplace from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.