Daily News

Posted on Jan. 28: Tentative agreement reached for new teaching assistants’ contract

The University and CUPE Local 3906, Unit #1 have reached a tentative agreement on a new collective agreement. Details of the contract won't be released until both sides have an opportunity to ratify the agreement. The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3906 Unit #1 and the University negotiating teams have been in negotiations on a new collective agreement since September and met Jan. 24 and 27 in conciliation talks. Members of the Teaching Assistant bargaining unit may access information about union ratification on CUPE's Web site at www.cupe3906.org or by emailing cupe3906@mcmaster.ca.

Posted on Feb. 25: Students learn aging experience first hand

It's a safe bet most of the 300-odd students taking professor Christopher Justice's first-year gerontology course have only an academic understanding of what it's like to grow old. Bringing the aging experience home to McMaster students in a more meaningful way is the purpose of a program that sees about 16 local seniors serve as regular seminar leaders for his course, Aging and Society. Offered for about 14 years, the popular program brings in a slate of volunteers through weekly seminars that engage students in discussions about issues involving older people including stereotypes and images of aging, public policy, gender and aging, death and dying, and religion and spirituality. "The general idea is that the senior class assistants are able to relay their own experience of aging, challenge students to think from different perspectives," says Justice. "A lot of students say, 'I took gerontology as an elective but my experience with Mrs. So-and-So made me deeply interested in the experience of aging.'" About 16 senior class assistants (SCAs) attend each seminar in pairs to discuss topics chosen with Justice. The sessions are led by students rather than by the professor. "I've never sat in on one," he says. "It would wreck the process." The SCAs occasionally address the entire class during lectures on such topics as aging stereotypes and also volunteer as interview subjects for senior undergraduates doing thesis projects in the department. Early this year, for example, a student suggested a project on seniors' acceptance of and adaptations to technology that might form a research topic involving the group.

Posted on Jan. 27: Home is where the heart is for McMaster engineers

McMaster engineering faculty and alumni are helping make north Hamilton a better place to live. The Threshold School of Building is a new venture that provides practical house building education to the general public. By having some of the instruction take place in the context of affordable and sustainable housing in north Hamilton, they are helping improve Hamilton's housing situation, says Bob Hudspith, president of the group and associate professor of mechanical engineering. "As people gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to participate in the design, construction and maintenance of their own homes they are in a better position to contribute to a more sustainable community," says Hudspith. "The affordable housing projects that form one component of the education will address a growing need in Hamilton." With a $29,000 grant from the Young Fund to do some development work and a $75,000 pilot grant from the Hamilton Community Foundation, the group launched its year-long pilot project in August 2002. The start-up grants are enabling the group of engineers, designers, carpenters and teachers to open the school, provide courses, and do an affordable housing project. In addition to meeting with local agencies such as Mission Services of Hamilton, The Good Shepherd Centre, Welcome Inn, and Habitat for Humanity, four of our members visited Minneapolis to study The Project for Pride in Living. This school opened its doors to students this month. McMaster faculty and alumni involved in the school include political science professor Barbara Carroll, who serves as vice-president; engineering alumni Josh Abush, Graham Lobban and Kurt Frost; arts and science and humanities alumnus Andrew Copp, and psychology alumnus Jack Santa Barbara. For more information or to register for a course, visit the Threshold Web site at www.thresholdschool.ca

Posted on Jan. 27: Opening doors to a bright future

It will be a building for students and new ideas. Construction has begun on McMaster's Centre for Learning and Discovery, the University's 300,000 square-foot, five-storey expansion to the north side of the McMaster Health Sciences Centre. It will be completed in the summer of 2004. The new facility will provide much needed space for teaching, learning and research and will address a number of critical needs for the University and its affiliates. The first floor will include six classrooms and five lecture theatres for classes from across all faculties. One theatre, with 600 seats, will be the largest seating space on campus. Altogether, the first floor will seat more than 1,800 students and will help McMaster address the needs created by Ontario's "double cohort". The second floor will be connected to the McMaster University Medical Centre and used by Hamilton Health Sciences for patient care wards. Plans are still being finalized, but the hospital may use the space for intensive care facilities. The third floor has been dedicated to the needs of the Faculty of Health Sciences for classrooms, tutorial rooms, postgraduate offices and laboratories. A rounds room will have state-of-the-art teleconferencing facilities, allowing students at hospitals across the city or throughout the province to join in discussions as if they were sitting in the room. The fourth and most of the fifth floors will showcase the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Health, which includes the Centre for Gene Therapeutics and is a prototype for the University's new revolution in health sciences education and research. The two floors will contain a variety of offices, wet laboratories and a biotechnology incubator.

Posted on Jan. 24: McMaster mini-medical school for armchair MDs

You can become a medical student, just for one night. Actually, you can become a medical student for seven nights in a new program for the public being offered at McMaster University. On seven consecutive Wednesdays, beginning March 5, faculty members will give public seminars similar to those given the medical students, using the world-renowned McMaster approach of problem-based learning. The concept of a mini-medical school for the public was developed in the U.S. and recent programs at McGill and University of Toronto have been sold-out events. At McMaster, the mini-medical school is being organized by a group of five third-year medical students. Each evening will have two separate sessions on a common theme. The seminars will explore the scientific basis of topical medical issues followed by a question and answer session. The topics will include heart and lung disease, infectious diseases, aging and arthritis, genetics, cancer, depression, Canadian health care, and international health. For example, one class on March 5, cracking the DNA code, explains what DNA is, how we can decode the information it contains, and learn how scientists and physicians use the genetic information to track down inherited traits, investigate illnesses, and even solve crimes. Organizer Janine Davies says the group hopes the program will forge an important link between the medical school and the community. Medical students are exposed to vast amounts of scientific information. "We want people to experience the thrill of cutting edge research and understand how it applies to a medical problem," says Janine. The group plans to use the proceeds for a scholarship recognizing student research or community service. Dean and vice-president, Health Sciences, John Kelton, fully supports the new student initiative. "It's a wonderful opportunity for the community to study under some of McMaster's finest educators and researchers, and then apply what they've learned in a problem based-learning approach." "At a time when third year students are extremely busy with clerkship training and residency interviews, it's a credit to their commitment to the community and life-long learning, that they want to share their educational experience with others." Classes will run 7 to 9 p.m. in the Ewart Angus Centre, Room 1A1, of the McMaster University Medical Centre. The cost is $125, or $75 for seniors, students and low-income earners. Registration is available through the Mini-Med School Web site or by calling 905-525-9140, ext. 22671.