May 29, 2009
The Ontario government announced Friday the creation of a $55-million Strategic Capital Infrastructure Program to help the post-secondary institutions that did not receive any of the joint federal-provincial funding. The province is also providing all schools with an additional $40 million to renew and upgrade facilities for students.
Ontario News Release |
Canadian PressIn order to cope with a multimillion-dollar deficit, the University of Windsor will increase the cost of an 8-month faculty and staff parking permit by 60%, and a student permit by 30%, a move that is drawing criticism from both professors and students. The president of the university's faculty association says there are plans to quadruple the amount that faculty are paying now for parking in 3 or 4 years. He says professors likely wouldn't have objected to incremental increases in parking permit fees, but the 60% hike is "outrageous."
uWindsor Daily News |
Windsor StarA student loan activist has lodged a formal complaint against Human Resources and Skills Development Canada over its "misleading and confusing" use of the term "grace period" as applied to student loans. Mark O'Meara of Canadastudentdebt.ca says "grace period" suggests an interest-free/no payment term. That used to be the case for student loans, but Ottawa has since changed its policy in that interest is accrued during the 6-month period students have before payments begin. O'Meara says HRSDC should use a more clear and appropriate term, such as "payment and interest deferral period."
Canadian PressA New Brunswick court has lifted an injunction that had prevented Michel-Vital Blanchard from setting foot on the Université de Moncton campus for nearly 4 decades, following an agreement reached between the former uMoncton student and the university. In the late 1960s Blanchard was a central figure in a round of protests that rocked the campus, and was a co-creator of an improvised student newspaper that irritated uMoncton administration. In 1970 the university sought an injunction to bar Blanchard from campus, arguing he hadn't registered as a student. uMoncton's president says "we thought it was important to say let's pass on to another era."
Canadian PressDue to declining enrolment in its welding and steamfitter/pipefitter programs, Red Deer College has had to lay off 11 instructors. The 2 programs have seen a drop in funding from the Alberta government because the province bases its funding for the college's trades programs on the number of apprentices enrolled. RDC's dean of trades and manufacturing hopes the welding and steamfitter/pipefitting programs will expand again within 2 years, depending on the economic situation in central Alberta.
Red Deer Advocate
75 students and staff at the University of Victoria are being notified that they may have been exposed to tuberculosis following a third uVic student being diagnosed with the illness. The most recent case is a close social contact of one of the 2 students who contracted TB
in February. The university is holding a precautionary skin-testing clinic this week, and more testing will take place in September.
Victoria Times-ColonistLast Wednesday, La Cité collégiale opened a business office in Toronto will the goal of getting a better understanding of the needs of francophones and employers in central southwestern Ontario regarding PSE, thereby allowing for greater access to college-level studies in French. Through the new business office, La Cité hopes to improve access to a variety of programs offered exclusively in French in Ontario, especially in Health, Media, Communications, Culinary Arts, and Hotel Management.
Simcoe Canada Development has an offer in on a former bible college in Peterborough with a major condition for sale being Trent University agreeing to use the property as a 331-bed student residence. The firm is pitching the facility as an alternative to the proposed private residence on Water Street, which has drawn
criticism from students, faculty, and area residents. Under one scenario, Trent could pay the firm $500,000 for the first year of a 20-year lease and net $868,500. In another, the university and its student union could pay $1,000 per student over 20 years, which would earn Trent $331,000.
Peterborough Examiner |
MyKawartha.com
