October 31, 2007
Students from 48 campuses across Canada will be knocking on doors tonight with the refrain of "trick or eat" instead of "trick or treat," in support of Meal Exchange's Hallowe'en food drive. Last year, students raised over $260,000 in food, and organizers are aiming for $400,000 this year.
2,400 staff at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina walked off the job yesterday at 11am, including cafeteria and food service workers, caretakers, security officers, clerical staff, library service workers, printing staff, engineers and more. The chair of CUPE 1975 says that the workers do not want a long strike, and many are angry that a strike was required "to achieve the standard wage settlement while administrators are receiving salary increases of 11.77% at uSaskatchewan and 6% at uRegina."
McMaster University has decided to consider alternative sites in Burlington that are outside of the downtown location. The university remains committed to launching a Burlington campus, but has become aware of potential sites that would better suit the needs of the DeGroote School of Business, as well as be more accessible and open to future expansion.
The University of Toronto feels that the David Dunlop Observatory, built in 1935, is outdated and no longer useful, but is being opposed by a researcher. Scientist Tom Bolton was at the observatory when he discovered the first evidence of a black hole in 1971. Bolton still uses the facility, and says scientists from around the world travel to visit it. The university feels that a larger telescope is required and could be funded by the sale of the Dunlop facility.
The Alberta government has announced $3.4 million in funding for Lakeland College, to create 600 new spaces in trades and industrial training programs, and to fund improvements to facilities. Funding will also provide for a Sign Language Interpreter diploma program to begin in 2008.
The BC Ministry of Advanced Education has announced $2.2 million for research projects at Kwantlen University College. The funds will help build a 500-square-foot greenhouse at the school’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, and explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use of harmful pesticides.
While research spending is going up, institutions in Saskatchewan saw a significant decrease in funding in 2007. uRegina received 8.4% less research income than the year before, and uSaskatchewan also saw a decrease of 3.2%. Funding from the federal government increased by 9.8% last year, while provincial funding went down by 6.5%.
The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC) has announced a new partnership with Microsoft Canada that will "put the spotlight on IT careers and innovation." The effort will work to increase awareness among students about career opportunities in Information and Communications Technology, and to boost enrolment in related programs.
The University of British Columbia received three of seven federal Synergy Awards from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada yesterday -- more than were received by any other Canadian institution. Each award recipient will receive a $25,000 NSERC grant. uToronto, uSherbrooke, and uCalgary also won Synergy awards.
A new study finds that there are still perks to print publications: readers learn more, and retain more, from printed text as compared to online text. Breaking material into boxes, maps, charts and pictures also resulted in increased learning, in both online and print publications. When two groups were given either an online or a print version of a document, 43% of the print group answered 7 of 9 test questions correctly, while only 25% of the online group performed equally as well.
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