Daily News

New manager of athletics appointed

McMaster's Department of Athletics & Recreation has appointed Tim Louks as its new manager of athletics. Louks has worked for the Department of Athletics and Recreation since 1988 and has held various positions including: women's volleyball coach; co-ordinator of intramurals; co-ordinator of clubs and the director of the McMaster Sports Fitness School. Louks was a recipient of the prestigious McMaster President's Staff award in 1998 for his outstanding commitment and service to the University. Louks brings valuable experience to his new role having represented McMaster at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) and Canadian Interuniversity Sport meetings for the past four years and serving on the OUA Sport Technical Committee for the past three years. Despite his new position, Louks will continue to coach the women's volleyball team. He has coached volleyball at McMaster since 1984, spending three years coaching the men's team (1984-87) and the last eight years coaching the women's volleyball team (1988-present). In his tenure, he has twice been named the OWIAA (now OUA) coach of the year (1990-91 & 1997-98). Louks holds two degrees from McMaster University and as a student-athlete was a two-time Most Valuable Player in men's volleyball. "We are pleased that Tim will be taking on this role at McMaster," said director of athletics and recreation Therese Quigley. "Tim is an excellent leader, and wonderful ambassador of the university." Robert Hilson is manager of marketing and communications, athletics and recreation

McMaster pilots personal library for northern physicians

McMaster University has received $1 million from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to create and test an information service, McMaster Plus, for physicians in isolated areas. "McMaster Plus: Harnessing Digital Libraries for Better Health Care" will find out what medical information northern Ontario doctors need, provide them online with the best evidence-based health literature available and then test to see if and how doctors are using the service. "Rapid changes in medical knowledge have made it very difficult for physicians to keep up with breakthroughs in health care," says John Kelton, dean and vice-president of McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences. "We see McMaster Plus as the first step in gathering new medical knowledge and making it available in an easily digestible form to doctors and, in the future, to patients as well." "It used to be that northern Ontario physicians struggled most with getting up-to-date information when they were so far away from a big medical library," says Brian Haynes, chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences. "The development of digital libraries has in some ways solved this problem, but created a new challenge in sorting through the overwhelming array of information available to find what's most relevant and most reliable. "A doctor might do a literature search on arthritis and get 1,000 articles. Only a tiny fraction of this literature is high quality and relevant to clinical practice," Haynes says. "Our role at McMaster will be to help doctors find that therapeutic needle in the information haystack. We predict our new service will be an enormous time-saver and lead to better practice." "McMaster pioneered the concept of evidence-based medicine," Kelton said. "As a result, we are well-equipped to take on this project. We are very grateful to the government of Ontario for supporting this very significant innovation."

McMaster wrestler pins gold

Pam Wilson has a golden pin in the ring. The McMaster wrestler and second-year kinesiology student claimed gold in the 72-kg event at the fifth World University Wrestling Championship at the University of Alberta, pinning American Samantha Branka. She also won the bronze medal in the 72-kg event at the Canada Cup last weekend defeating Alma Izquierda of Mexico. The judo artist-turned-wrestler was drawn to the sport when she arrived at McMaster in 2000. Wilson, who competed in judo for 14 years prior to joining the McMaster's women's wrestling team (led by coach Nick Cipriano), won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) gold medal in her first year of wrestling. Wilson is also a star in the classroom. She received the 2001 Dr. Mel Hawkrigg Scholarship, awarded to a kinesiology student who has demonstrated outstanding academic, community and athletic achievement. She was also a 2000-01 Marauder Scholar and a finalist for the 2002 McMaster Female Athlete of the Year Award. Wilson qualified for the World University Championship by placing first in her weight class at the University Trials held in Alberta in January. She concluded her winter season by capturing the silver medal at the CIS Wrestling Championships. In between, she won the Ontario University Athletics gold medal in the 76-kg weight class. Wilson also captured the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association Senior Women's National Championship gold medal this past spring in the 72-kg event and was named Wrestler of the Meet. This fall she will compete at the World Championships.

Physical Plant seeks efficiencies in reorganization

The Physical Plant Department has recently undergone a reorganization in an effort to achieve efficiencies and improve customer service. With valued 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. Through the leadership of director Tony Cupido, Physical Plant provides a wide range of services including custodial, construction and building renewal, technical services, utilities, parking and transit, and operations, which includes waste removal and recycling. "Research for the Physical Plant reorganization included a series of focus groups that were held in the fall of 2001," explains Cupido. "The groups specifically reviewed custodial operations, trade operations and customer service issues within the department. They also developed valuable suggestions for improvements in each of these areas. This input was combined with that of other research conducted for the reorganization, and the outcomes identified that the priority tasks for the department are: (1) to maintain a clean campus; (2) preventative maintenance; and (3) air quality. I am pleased to report that as a result of the reorganization, Physical Plant now has specific programs focused on each of these three priority issues to serve the McMaster community most effectively." One of the primary benefits of the reorganization is that there is now one easy point of contact for any Physical Plant service instead of having to know which of six Physical Plant service teams to call as well as their respective contacts and telephone numbers. The newly reorganized department provides one-stop shopping and a more efficient response system to all of its customers.

Proactive policing at the heart of campus

Crime prevention is on Cathy O'Donnell's radar screen. McMaster's new sergeant of crime prevention, located in the new student centre, has a proactive approach to campus policing. "It is better to prevent crime than it is to respond to crime or investigate crime after the fact," she says. With a focus on crime prevention and community relations, O'Donnell will provide a number of services in her new role, including offering educational programs, seminars and safety audits. She will also be available to provide a general overview of safety on campus and will liaise with the SWHAT (Student Walk Home Assistance Team) and the EFRT(Emergency First Response Team). "We want to bring about an increased profile about being proactive on campus," says Ron Thorn, director of security. "In preventing crime, we're trying to raise our crime prevention profile on campus. The availability of the office at the student centre also meant that we could have a closer association and communication with students. "My hope is that Cathy will have the opportunity to talk to people at all different kinds of levels to get the message out there that we are trying to enhance the personal safety of people on campus," he says.