Daily News

posted on Feb. 20: Senate approves new programs, software quality research laboratory

The following items are highlights from the Feb. 14 Senate meeting: The Senate Executive Committee is considering a request for a task force to establish an environmental policy. Fourth-year students Michael Law and Kate Parizeau presented a proposal requesting a steering committee be set up to develop a policy. They asked that any proposed policy also be linked to curriculum focused on environmental studies. The classroom hotline has received 60 complaints to date, provost and vice-president academic Harvey Weingarten reported. There are 10 complaints that remain unresolved and they involve problems with clocks showing the incorrect time or rooms that are reported to be too cold, he said. Senate approved a proposal to establish a Communication Studies program in the Faculty of Humanities. The program will be offered in collaboration with the Faculty of Social Sciences and will offer four streams: language and discourse, cultural studies, performance studies and mass communications. "This program takes a step towards creating the intellectual and pedagogical expertise needed on campus around communication," said Daniel Woolf, humanities dean, in a report to Senate. The Department of Computing & Software Engineering will be home to a new McMaster Software Quality Research Laboratory (SQRL).

posted on Feb. 16: McMaster receives almost $1 million from Ontario for increasing enrolment

McMaster is receiving almost $1 million from the provincial government's Accessibility Fund because it increased access to high-quality post-secondary programs during the past year. McMaster's portion of the $16.5 million Accessibility Fund is $.97 million. When the fund was announced in March 2000, the University anticipated receiving about $1 million for enrolment growth. Eight other universities are sharing money from the fund, said Brenda Elliott, minister of intergovernmental affairs on behalf of Dianne Cunningham, minister of training, colleges and universities. In order to receive money from this fund universities were required to increase or match their fall 1999 first-year admissions in fall 2000.

posted on Feb. 16: McMaster takes home United Way community award

McMaster University is the first educational organization in the region to receive the United Way's Gallery of Distinction Award. The award is presented annually by the United Way of Burlington, Hamilton-Wentworth to an organization that has demonstrated long-term support for the United Way. Since the launch of its first campus campaign for the United Way in 1983, McMaster has contributed $2.3 million to the United Way. The award comes during a milestone year for the University's United Way campaign. For the first time since 1995, the University met and exceeded its campaign goal of $165,000. To date, a total of $171,000 has been raised.