Top Ten
December 21, 2015
McGill, uToronto researchers receive over $5 M for malaria, tuberculosis research
Researchers from McGill University and the University of Toronto have received a financial contribution from Merck Canada Inc and an additional $5 M from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funds will be used to develop new and improved treatments for tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases. “By taking advantage of complementary expertise, the University of Toronto and McGill University have a wonderful opportunity to play a leadership role on the global stage” said Aled Edwards, Director of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and Professor at the University of Toronto. McGill | uToronto
Sheridan receives $1 M donation from Cisco Canada
Sheridan College has received just over $1 M worth of technology from Cisco Canada as part of the latter’s Technology Legacy Plan. Sheridan will use the technology in its Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT) to advance education, applied research, and digital innovation. “This Legacy gift provides SIRT with a platform for the next stage of research innovation in digital film production,” said Cisco Canada President Bernadette Wightman. Sheridan President Jeff Zabudsky added that “the Cisco technology will expand our research potential. It will also grow SIRT’s technology platform, […] helping this dynamic sector to work together more effectively.” Sheridan
Arbitrator awards UNBC Faculty Association 10% raise in school’s first collective agreement
An arbitrator has awarded a 10% wage increase to the University of Northern British Columbia Faculty Association as part of a new five-year agreement. This is the first collective agreement that UNBC and the Faculty Association have negotiated. According to a press release from UNBC, affected members of the Faculty Union will also be eligible to receive the Economic Stability Dividend that is available to other public sector employees in BC. The university has stated that the school is “committed to working more closely with the Faculty Association to build strong relationships that will allow the parties to address areas of concern prior to the next round of negotiations.” UNBC | Prince George Citizen (10% Raise) | Prince George Citizen (Five-Year Contract)
Philanthropist, Queen’s principal create rare book collection
Queen’s University has announced that Canadian philanthropist Seymour Schulich and the school’s Principal Daniel Woolf have partnered to create a rare book collection within Queen’s Library. The new Schulich-Woolf Rare Book Collection will be home to 400 volumes from the two donors’ personal collections, with Schulich contributing an additional $1 M to Queen’s Library for the project. Speaking of their “shared interest in rare books,” Woolf said, “I am pleased Mr Schulich entrusted Queen’s with his material, and I am excited that we are working together to build a collection that will enrich the teaching and learning experience at Queen’s.” Queen’s
UniversityHub ranks Canada's ten best university libraries
After surveying more than 1,000 students, UniversityHub has compiled its list of Canada’s ten best university libraries. Queen’s University’s Stauffer Library came out on top, with special recognition for its 1923 Reading Room, dubbed the “Harry Potter Room” by many students. Next on the list was McGill University, with special mention going to the Birks Reading Room in the Birks Building. Third place went to UBC, with special mention to the Law Library at Allard Hall, the campus’s newest and most modern study space. Huffington Post
UoGuelph’s Ontario Veterinary College receives $1 M to support new surgical suite
The Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) at the University of Guelph has received a $1 M donation. Given by Lindy Barrow, the funds will be used to create the Lindy Barrow Minimally Invasive Procedures Suite, reportedly the first such facility at any Canadian veterinary teaching hospital. The technology in the suite helps reduce the need for major surgery, resulting in less pain for animals and faster recovery times. “This generous gift will allow us to take techniques that have become the standard of care to the next level,” said OVC Dean Jeff Wichtel. “It helps us raise the bar of teaching and knowledge in veterinary medicine to help pets live better, healthier lives.” UoGuelph
Incoming Brock President will look to GTA, service learning to address future challenges
Brock University’s newly appointed president may face significant concerns about enrolment and finances as Ontario reviews its current university funding formula, writes Simona Chiose for the Globe and Mail. Wendy Cukier of Ryerson University is set to begin her role as president at Brock in September 2016, and as Chiose notes, one of her early challenges will be to raise Brock’s profile among potential students from the Greater Toronto area. As Cukier says, “There are huge opportunities to build the brand, to build the reputation, to build the linkages to the GTA. … A lot of people see Niagara as much farther from Toronto than it actually is.” Cukier has also highlighted Brock’s success in service learning and well-rounded program offerings as potential differentiators for the school moving forward. Globe and Mail
Great Plains partners with health region for continuing care program
Great Plains College has partnered with the Cypress Health Region to increase opportunities for students to receive Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) programming in the Swift Current, SK region. The health region is recruiting across the province to meet anticipated demand for a new long-term care facility in the city. While the college has in the past delivered part-time CCA programs brokered with Saskatchewan Polytechnic, the new agreement will see a full-time CCA program offered from March to July 2016. “This is a perfect example of how college programming can meet industry need—we were asked to respond quickly and were able to do just that,” said Great Plains President David Keast. Great Plains
There is no “PC crisis” in US student activism, writes Rolling Stone
Critics who have claimed that US student activists pose a threat to freedom of speech need to consider the ways in which their criticism directly supports the status quo, writes Angus Johnston for Rolling Stone. In the past year, he writes, countless writers have characterized student activists as hypersensitive complainers who cannot abide opinions contrary to their own. But Johnston argues that “unacknowledged here is the obvious: That students have very little direct power on the contemporary American campus. Administrators have lots of power. Trustees have lots of power. Faculty have quite a bit. But students have very little. And so a call to resolve campus disagreements by reasoned debate is a call to allow the people who have been setting the rules to continue to set the rules.” Rolling Stone
American PSE makes inequality worse, not better
There is mounting evidence to show that PSE is making America a more unequal country, writes Jon Marcus for the Hechinger Report. The author cites the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education in noting that students from high-income families are eight times as likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree by the age of 24 compared to students from low-income families. Figures like these, and the cultural forces producing them, lead Marcus to conclude that despite its reputation as a social leveler, “higher education has instead become more segregated than ever by wealth and race as state funding has fallen and colleges and universities—and even states and the federal government—are shifting financial aid from lower-income to higher-income students.” Hechinger Report
