Back Issues

The University of Waterloo announced yesterday its "very measured decision" to suspend its football program for one year, and place coaching staff on paid administrative leave, in the wake of what has been called "the biggest performance-enhancing drug scandal Canadian Interuniversity Sport has ever faced." The decision stems from the arrest of former Warriors receiver Nathan Zettler, who was charged in April for possession and trafficking of anabolic steroids. Team-wide testing of 62 players then revealed 9 'adverse analytical findings' and possible positives. "There's a larger message we need to send with this action," explained UW's athletics director. "Unfortunately," objected a player, "that example ruins some of the lives of... players who did the right thing." Players are unsure whether they can transfer to another university team before fall.  Associated Press  |  Globe and Mail  |  Allan Maki  |  TSN 

University of Calgary students Keith and Steven Pridgen are suing to overturn penalities enforced by the University regarding comments they made about a former UofC professor on Facebook. The identical twin brothers claim that the school violated their constitutional right to freedom of speech when it disciplined them for commenting on the competency of their law professor. In 2008 the brothers, along with other students, posted critical comments to a Facebook group entitled, "I no longer fear hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra." The university says the comments violated the student code of conduct, and is also holding the brothers responsible for comments posted to the page by other students. CBC News  |  Calgary Herald  |  Vancouver Sun 

Despite opposition from the Ontario Teachers' Federation and Aboriginal leaders, former Ontario premier Mike Harris received his honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Nipissing University last Saturday, with little visible protest. About 25 students and staff were gathered in silent protest. The real controversy, however, surrounded the OTF's threatened boycott of Nipissing student teachers, leading valedictorian Wallace Gillard to comment that "it's shocking that the OTF would make such a huge deal about it. It just seems like they're punishing students for politics." The OSSTF disavows OTF's proposed blacklist, and ETFO declined to clarify its stance.  National Post 

McGill University principal Heather Munroe-Blum addressed the Canadian Club of Montreal yesterday, declaring that PSE in the province "est au bord du précipice," thanks to "ineffective, indeed now perversely misaligned funding mechanisms" and the lowest per-student funding in Canada. Only 1 Quebec university has cracked the top 100 of any global rankings, or indeed the top 10 in all three Maclean's rankings. Munro-Blum reiterated McGill's commitment to raising tuition to create a self-funded MBA, and urged the province to move away from dysfunctional bureaucracy to allow each university more autonomy to excel in its own way. 

Full speech text (Bilingual PDF) 

 

Brock University has been granted a Confucius Institute, one of only 3 in Ontario. The institute will be housed in Brock's new Norman Road International Centre. The Office of Chinese Language International will provide $150,000 US in start-up funds, along with up to $100,000 US in annual project-based funding, to support initiatives offered by the institute. The main goals of Confucius Institutes are to facilitate Chinese instruction to people in different nations, enhance understanding of Chinese language and culture, and strengthen educational and cultural collaboration between China and other countries. Brock News

In anticipation of the G20 summit, being held in Toronto June 25-26, Centennial College is hosting a simulation "Shadow Summit" online and on campus on June 24. Teams of students from each school at Centennial will represent countries around the world, and debate ten issues that affect the global economy. Prizes for the best ideas include netbooks and iPods. The event will be recorded in a "Book of Voices" that will be sent to the G20 leaders, and Shadow Summit blogs are already active. HumanRacebook 

A new report released by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario finds that approximately 1,100 students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are expected to seek entry into college or university between 2009 and 2011. In order for these students to make a successful transition from secondary to postsecondary education, the report recommends hiring more specialists and staff trained to meet the needs of students with ASD, making adjustments to the learning environment to make it more accommodating to students with ASD, and providing training for staff in ASD-specific learning strategies. Ontario PSE institutions report that 400 students with ASD are currently enrolled.  HEQCO News Release  |  Full Report

According to recent reports in online and traditional media, 3 new trends are sweeping across the teen population: "vodka eyeballing", "sack tapping" and "little girl parties." Vodka eyeballing is prying one's eyelids apart and pouring vodka into one's eyeballs, to achieve rapid intoxication. Sack tapping apparently involves catching a male friend or enemy unawares with a quick punch or slap to the testicles. (Apparently a Minnesota teen required amputation of a testicle after the game went awry.)  Little girl parties are both the most disturbing and the least substantiated of the 3 trends; apparently sexual predators in Canada invite middle-school girls to parties, get them drunk and deflower them. The Slate's columnist dismisses all 3 so-called trends as urban legends.  The Slate  

According to TypePad, users who have installed the new Facebook 'like' button on their blog have experienced a 50% increase in referral traffic collectively, and have seen a 200% growth in referral traffic from Facebook in particular.  Introduced in late April, the 'like' button allows readers to share a story with their Facebook friends without ever leaving the publisher's website. Approximately, 1,500 TypePad bloggers have installed the 'like' button on their blog.  Mashable  |  BizReport 

In the wake of High School Musical, American Idol, and Glee, music videos have come to student recruitment at the likes of Yale and the University of Delaware. (Check out these and hundreds of other PSE commercials on my YouTube channel.)  If you've been wondering about the ROI of such music videos, Karine Joly provides some insight into the behind-the-scenes excitement at Delaware, the decision to close comments to block "trolls," the 41,000-odd views, and the record high campus visit numbers this year.  Since all the labour was donated, and the cost of production essentially zero, Avi Amon concludes that the video "was absolutely worth our time and money."  CollegeWebEditor blog  |  The Making of Delaware: The Musical  |  Academica Group's YouTube Channel