Daily News

posted on Jan. 29: McMaster a partner in unique network studying child and youth development

McMaster's new Centre for the Study of Disadvantage has joined with three other universities to set up the Canadian Child and Youth Development Research Network. The centre, along with centres at the University of British Columbia, University of Montreal and the University of New Brunswick, will receive $2 million over a five-year period from Human Resources Development Canada, minister Jane Stewart announced recently in Vancouver. Each centre will focus on one specific area of child development under the direction of a senior scholar working with two full-time child and youth development scholars. A main thrust of the research is determining how children can be better prepared for learning by overcoming the challenges and obstacles they face from a young age. The McMaster centre, led by Dan Offord, director of the Centre for Studies of Children at Risk, will focus on the study of child outcomes and how they are affected by the factors of disadvantage such as socioeconomic, individual, family and the neighbourhood setting.

posted on Jan. 26: Provost invites discussion at follow-up session on State of the Academy talk

Provost Harvey Weingarten will meet the McMaster community next Friday, Feb. 2 to discuss and answer questions about issues raised in his State of the Academy address presented on Wednesday. "I have been approached by more than a handful of people who attended the State of the Academy talk expressing disappointment that there was no opportunity to ask questions, or to discuss some of the issues raised during the presentation," said Weingarten. "This is very encouraging as it suggests that the presentation was sufficiently informative or entertaining to retain people's interest and attention." The question and answer session pertaining to the State of the Academy address will be in HSC-1A1 from 2:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. Weingarten will have his slides from the presentation available. "I look forward to seeing you there," said Weingarten, provost and vice-president academic. A story summarizing Weingarten's presentation from Wednesday, Jan. 24 is posted on the Daily News. The headline is "Campus must embrace change to manage growth, meet challenges". (End of story)

posted on Jan. 25: Campus must embrace change to manage growth, meet challenges

McMaster must embrace change, while recognizing the challenges now are to manage growth, not cope with downsizing, provost Harvey Weingarten says. In his fifth annual State of the Academy address given yesterday (Jan. 24), Weingarten said success in an era of growth requires different strategies and actions than in periods of downsizing like the mid-1990s when the provincial government made dramatic funding cuts to universities. Weingarten said the University needs to change for several reasons: * increased student enrolment due to the "double cohort" Class of 2003; * increased faculty retirements; * different student expectations; * competition from non-traditional education providers; and * the increased complexity of the university environment. Full-time undergraduate enrolment in 1980 was about 10,000, he said, but by 2003 it is projected to be almost 15,500. This increase in the student population will be coupled with an increase in faculty retirements: by 2011, about 250 of the 1,000 full-time faculty will reach retirement age. Weingarten said the University has been in the hire a "prof-a-week" mode for the last two years and must continue to do so to replenish the faculty complement. In 1999, 76 faculty were hired and 57 were hired last year. McMaster is conducting 107 active faculty searches now.