Daily News

Posted on Aug. 26: McMaster refines strategic plan

The University is about to embark on the next step of its strategic planning process. Over recent years the institution has established strong planning principles to meet the challenges the University has faced including the current double cohort issue. Commencing this fall, McMaster will start to plan for the years and requirements that follow the double cohort. The initiative will be called "Refining Directions" and will allow the University to prepare effectively for the future. "The process will enable McMaster to refine its goals and objectives in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead and it will also provide performance indicators as measures of our progress," says University President Peter George. In the mid-nineties, the McMaster community developed and implemented the original "Directions" documents to establish and communicate the institution's vision and mission and planning principles to achieve defined goals and objectives. Since then, "Directions" has undergone two additional refinements. The documents have helped to guide the University through many challenges. These include the development of new and highly successful academic programs, the expansion of research and research partnerships, and recent fundraising initiatives. A steering committee led by University provost Ken Norrie will guide the next planning process and will work closely with six working groups: research and graduate education, undergraduate education, external activities, internal community, planning/managing and branding. The collective efforts of the working groups will involve consultations with numerous audiences followed by the development of the refined plan. It is anticipated that the plan will be presented to Senate and the Board of Governors by the spring of 2003. A letter from the President containing further details on this important initiative is currently being distributed to the University community including Faculty, staff, Board of Governors, Senate and the Alumni Association Board. Communications will continue as the steering committee progresses with the project throughout the months ahead.

Posted on Aug. 23: Program opens doors for the homeless

Sixteen-year-old Aaron has not lived with his parents for three years. Now, nearly 17, he has stayed at group homes, foster homes, shelters or friends' apartments. The longest he stayed in one place was six months, and that was in rehab. On March 19, he began participating in M.A.C. Door, an innovative program that helps homeless youth leave the streets. M.A.C. (Making a Change) Door grew out of the McMaster Student Outreach Clinic (MacSOC). During the winter of 2000, the MacSOC organization of more than 120 volunteers students and faculty mainly from nursing but also medicine, midwifery and occupational therapy and physiotherapy visited three areas in downtown Hamilton on Wednesday nights delivering clothing and food to homeless people. Dyanne Semogas, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing, was one of those volunteers. Along with several people who worked with MacSOC, Semogas became interested in working with street youth. Two years later, she is the clinical director of the M.A.C. Door project. This program has two parallel, but separate, components: intervention and research.

Posted on Aug. 22: Winning essay adds up for commerce student

When the news came that she had won a prestigious undergraduate Jane Austen essay competition, Jan Mullally was shocked. "I forgot that I had even entered," she said. Competing against more than 300 English students from around the world, the third-year commerce student entered the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) competition at the advice of her teaching assistant. The bigger surprise came a few weeks later. "When I found out that I won, I was absolutely shocked. Really, the whole thing blew my mind, and then I heard it might be taken away from me." Another entrant read Mullally's essay and counted the number of words, noticing it was five words over the 2,000-word limit. JASNA asked Mullally to rewrite the essay, which she did, bringing down the number of words to 1,905. Mullally was allowed to keep the certificate and $500 US prize. While English was her minor, it played a major role in her quest toward a B.Com. degree, which she graduated with last spring. Of the 30 credits she obtained, 21 were in English. Some of her fellow business students questioned her decision to take English as a minor. But she feels there is no better fit. "I find that my analytical and communication skills are a lot better because of the English courses I have taken," she says. Improving her writing skills also helped her in her commerce classes. "You learn the things that you use in commerce that you're not taught in commerce," she says. "When you write business papers, you're really writing about the research and you're being more analytical. When you're writing a humanities paper you write with more flair and creativity."

Posted on Aug. 21: McMaster biographer on top 10 list

McMaster English professor and biographer James King's latest biography His Farley: The Life Of Farley Mowat has been placed on the top 10 hardcover fiction and non-fiction books by Maclean's magazine. Published by HarperCollins Canada, the biography is the conclusion of a trilogy with the publisher Jack McClelland at its centre. King's biography of novelist Margaret Laurence appeared in 1997 and his McClelland biography in 1999. The papers of all three of his subjects are archived at the university's library. King's biography was listed in sixth place in the ranking. Recently, Maclean's ran an excerpt from the new book. Click here to view the excerpt.

Posted on Aug. 19: Physical Plant reorganization provides one-stop shopping

Physical Plant has recently undergone a reorganization in an effort to be more efficient and improve customer service. With input from customer feedback sessions, focus groups and department staff, the reorganization allows the department to focus on priority service areas and improve overall service levels. One fundamental change is that custodial services are now separate from maintenance services. The campus is divided into five custodial areas: Arts, East, Residence, South, and West. Service teams assigned to each area will exclusively address custodial needs, which include: the cleaning of classrooms, offices, hallways, washrooms, and labs; moving furniture and equipment within buildings; and set-ups for special occasions. A night shift has been formally introduced and will play a pivotal role in addressing customer service requests and needs. Facilities maintenance issues are now overseen by a newly created maintenance team which administers a wide variety of specialized functions such as locksmithing, electrical, carpentry, painting and maintaining service contracts for elevators and fire alarms.