January 9, 2008
Dr. Roseann Runte, former president of Old Dominion University in Virginia, has been announced as the new president of Carleton University. Runte will be the first woman to hold this position. She is also a poet with a PhD in French, and a dual Canada-US citizen. She has held several senior posts at Canadian universities before her most recent position in Virginia, which began in 2001.
The University of Windsor has received a $5 million investment from the Ontario government towards a new Institute for Diagnostic Imaging Research. The new institute will focus on developing products to take to market. The global market for the work of the institute is estimated at more than $20 billion.
The opening of the University of Guelph's new gambling research lab, the first such lab in Ontario, received coverage in almost every major national news source yesterday. The facility will research gambling behaviour, such as how casino environments and the design of gaming machines affect people's willingness to put money at risk. The lab features a 360-degree panoscope, which allows visitors to take a virtual walk-through of 17 different Las Vegas casinos.
Ryerson University's team of MBA and MMSc students won first place in the Queen's Cup, an annual National MBA "games." Queen's School of Business took second place, and Concordia's John Molson School of Business came in third. Ryerson's program, just two years old, has sent students to the games twice.
Only hours after the school's student union called on faculty to accept the administrations' most recent offer, faculty at St. Thomas University voted to go on strike. The student union has said they feel the faculty are "confiscating" their education. At this point, the winter term at STU has been delayed until January 14.
Canada's Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada have announced $7.5 million in funding for a national research project on globalization, migration and diversity. The Metropolis project will ensure that regional research centres based in Halifax/Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver continue their work for another 5 years. Each centre includes researchers from universities, governments, NGOs and the private sector.
British Columbia has launched a new pilot student loan program to attract students into early childhood education and to draw ECE-trained employees back into the child-care sector. The program will offer up to $2,500 towards outstanding BC student loans of new graduates. Students who graduated in 2007 or plan to graduate in 2008 will be eligible for up to $1,250 of loan assistance for their first two years of employment in the child-care sector.
Simon Fraser University is the only post-secondary institution included in a national ranking of Canada's top 10 family friendly employers, as compiled by
Today's Parent. The university is credited with topping up parental leave benefits, and providing on-site daycare and summer day programs for kids.
Podcasts, blogs and online video are overshadowing the traditional viewbook, campus tour and college fair in the age of wired students. Some are calling it "College Admissions 2.0." A study released last fall found that colleges and universities are adopting new media strategies such as podcasts, blogs and social networks faster than Fortune 500 companies. "It's not about staying ahead of students, it's about keeping up with them, but without seeming desperate to be hip."
A new survey finds that 97% of full-time students between the ages of 18 and 24 own a cell phone. Laptops were the second most owned personal electronics, held by 79% of respondents. 30% of respondents owned both a laptop and a desktop computer. 73% owned a media player and 14% owned a PDA. The study also found that most students spend up to 5 hours daily on the Internet, and email was reported as the most popular and preferred communication tool for school related use.
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