This time, it is the University Administration that is getting the flak.

The Administration decided to remove the crosses from the University Coat of Arms and replace them with books.

Canwest’s canada.com has the coverage. …

Over at a soapbox of twigs, there is a post today about IGA’s customer loyality program and their shameful attempts to guilt people into joining it.
As part of the post, the author compares to Simon Fraser in philosophy towards charity.  The author points out a really good thing that one of the SFU VPs does:

It is, however, interesting to note the disparity in perceived intention between IGA and Simon Fraser University itself. One of the Vice-Presidents of the University sent out an e-mail before Christmas that noted this:

Simon Fraser University, while not a giant multinational corporation, is run on a business model. They’re conscious about budgets, expenses, and revenues. And yet, they still manage to find a way to donate to the Food Bank. Nowhere in the rest of the e-mail does this VP note that this is contingent on people signing up to an alumni programme, or paying tuition on time. It’s a no-strings-attached thing.

I found this to be very interesting.  I was really bothered by the MSU sending out hundreds of full-colour custom designed Christmas Cards with the pictures of the MSU Executive! 

Now, this money the MSU wasted on self-promotion of the Executive (btw it was a good card, just a waste of money on a good card) could have gone to the Student Food Bank.  Actually, I think I will put forth a motion at Student General Assembly on this.  Student money should be well spend.

It was blatant self-promotion by them going into the Presidential Election Cycle using Students Union resources.  It will easily be in the hundreds of dollars.  Of course, students will never know if the current clique continues to hold power.  They have not presented any financial updates with actually financial figures on the current state of the MSU. …

A very interesting angle on the story.  I thought this was making a statement:

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I have reactivated the commenting and trackback systems on my blog. You no longer require an Typekey Account to comment on my blog. I encourage you, however, to get an account as it will allow for the instant publication of your comments on my blog.
I will be returning to full blogging late Tuesday or somepoint on Wednesday.
Damn, it has only been three minutes and the spam problem is right back!
Spammers, I think I will run on a campaign of a pre-emptive strike against them! …

The City of Hamilton announced tonight that Hamilton buses will operated on New Years Eve to let people celebrate.
I have been told by good source that the City Manager himself was involved.  I was also told that a “bigwig” from City Hall was up at the HSR Garage (outside of the City by the airport) today yelling at the HSR manager who made this so-called “scheduling oversight” as they are now calling it.  Some ”oversight”, you know this thing called New Years only happens once a year so who knows what to expect from it.  I am not buying the whole it only falls on Sunday once every seven years argument either.  BTW, not to be too picky but it happens every six years (and rarely it takes 10 years to repeat) !  The ATU was not an obstacle whatsoever.  Many in Hamilton’s entertainment sector were extremely concerned about the potential for drunk drivers to bring liability upon them and some even went so far as to threaten a class-action suit against the city in the event of any lawsuits against them.  
Many people I know have already made plans to celebrate in Toronto, take the last GO Train out of Union and get back to West Hamilton by GO Bus instead of getting stuck in Downtown Hamilton as the city originally was setting up to happen here.   

The City of Hamilton has the following statement:

HSR extends Sunday hours for New Year’s Eve – Free transit service for all riders from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Hamilton , ON – December 28, 2006 – The Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) will be extending its Sunday service hours for New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2006.

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Completion of the $34-million medical school has been delayed a year, until September 2009. The project remains on budget but is $4 million short after Waterloo regional council capped its contribution.

The medical building has a concept but not an approved design and is not yet under construction.

“The planning process just takes time,” Van Nierop said. “It was an aggressive schedule in the first place.”

As planned, 15 medical students will still start their studies next fall at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Source: THERECORD.COM | INSIDER | New campus behind schedule …

I know, I am supposed to be on vacation but… 
I have to repost this in it entirety with a little bit of bolding to point out a few things that are very similar to the Actions of the MSU Executive. 

Representative Democracy 101

If I were an instructor in Political Science, I would want to teach a practical course: Representative Democracy. It would seem to me that the first lesson in representative democracy ought to be one with two sides – one for the representatives, and one for the represented. The lesson plan would be simple, summarised with just sentences.

The lesson for the representatives: listen to your constituents, and listen well – represent their wishes, concerns, and desires.

The lesson for the represented: Don’t let your representatives not represent you.

Why is this important? We only have to look so far as the SFSS (Simon Fraser Student Society) to understand that answer. This summer, some (seven) of the Directors of the SFSS decided to entirely ignore the first part of the lesson in representative democracies: the importance of listening to constituents. Seven directors violated bylaws and collective agreement language and outraged students. While this is not necessarily a unique event, what they did when students started to speak up against their actions certainly was.

When the students – members of the Society – began to speak up and ask questions, these seven directors began holding secret meetings. They started to try and discredit the members. They ignored them. They obfuscated and frustrated. They wronged – they did not listen.

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I have finally fixed the “Now Playing” module on my left side bar.  I messed it up a few weeks ago and could not figure out what the problem was.  Turns out the problem was that album art could not be found on the Canadian Amazon site and I have to use the United States site. …

UPDATE 28 Dec 06: The City of Hamilton is now offering Bus Service on New Years Eve!  Check out my update here.

The City of Hamilton wonders why its downtown entertainment district and core is suffering?  This could be part of the reason.  The City of Hamilton will be the largest city in Canada to offer NO New Year’s Eve Bus Service to get people home in the New Year.  That is right, at midnight on Monday January 1st, all bus service from Downtown Hamilton (and everywhere else in the city for that matter) will cease! 

If you are one of the people that have purchased a ticket for New Year’s Celebrations, you have to drive your car downtown or take a cab.  Good Luck finding parking, something that is always in short supply.  Enjoy the entertainment but do not drink any alcohol because you have to drive home.  Also, be prepared to wait over an hour for a cab if you do drink because they are going to be overwhelmed by demand.

The following nearby mid-sized cities are offering some service after midnight:

The City of London Transit is offering transit until 1am.  It is free after 8pm.
Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge are all offering free transit service until 1am.
Mississauga Transit will be offering free service from 7pm until 4am.
Burlington Transit (Burlington is the City connected to the East of Hamilton.  It is also a smaller city) will be offering service until 3am.
Oakville Transit will be offering special bus service to meet the GO Trains after midnight from Toronto. …

This is from November 30th.  According to at least one MSU Executive member, there is a large amount of student outrage about this article and that most students feel that secret votes should happen more often. 

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I am going to call bullshit on one point in the lengthy story the Canadian Press has on this:

“In view of differences of opinion on management philosophy and other issues, I have decided to resign as president of the university,” Mr. Hawkins said in a written statement.

“I remain a professor at the university and look forward to serving the university and its students in that capacity in the future.”

Here is the interesting thing with that statement, Mr. Hawkins is a Law Professor and last time I checked (2mins ago on the URegina Website), URegina does not have a Law School.  One cannot teach an empty class.  Sure he can teach some law and ethics course in say Political Science but I suspect that he is getting a parachute and will appear elsewhere in the near future.  He does have strong Manitoba connections and I could see him ending up there.   I do not have any real background on the events that have lead to this, just what the CP article states. …

I am not alone in taking a vacation, the OUSA blog, the Dalhousie SU blog, and well those are the only two that like me have posted vacation notices when it comes to blogging about student politics.  It is like crack or something to me cause I still read a lot about it and am really having a hard time withdrawing from it.  Titus Gregory of www.studentunion.ca is not helping by posting about the court decision in SFSS vs. Gregory as it is entitled, the SFSS election results, and the CFS-proxy’s appeal of those results (note: not saying the appeal is without at least some merit). 

In place of blogging on these issues, I have been commenting away on them instead.  Sorta defeats the purpose would you not say?

On a more personal note… today, for the first time since at least 2000, I ran into one of my main crushes from High School.  It was a brief run-in but it was very weird.  I mean, I have not seen this person forever yet immediately upon seeing her from a distance, everything else going on stopped.  Anyway, it was really weird.  It is just the first time that I have had this happen since High School that I run into a former crush.  You see it on Sitcoms and shows all the time but I had never believed in the whole premise.

Also, Spike TV ruled today.  Star Trek Voyager Marathon!  of which I only caught 10 minutes …

I am going to be taking a bit of a break of my blogging activities over the holiday break.  I expect to return to full blogging on January 3rd.  I am also, temporarily, disabiling comments and trackbacks.  Being near Christmas, I have been receiving hundreds of spam comments and trackbacks to my site.  It has become so bad that my email is being delayed by 2 to 3 hours from the volume alone.  My overriding goal of the break, playing Civ IV! …

CBC news is reporting on the UManitoba VLC.  It is a system that I have enjoyed using.  Mind you that I do not use it enough to really get the benefits since I am not a full-time student at UManitoba being a student here at McMaster.  Anyway, the article is online: 

University of Manitoba adopts Web 2.0 approach to learning

Last Updated: Thursday, December 14, 2006 | 6:51 PM ET

CBC News

The University of Manitoba is trying out a new approach to education that borrows from popular social networking and information sites such as MySpace and Wikipedia.

The school’s Virtual Learning Commons website lets staff and students create academic and personal profile pages they can use to share information or make new contacts.

The site, launched in September, was designed to take advantage of so-called Web 2.0 technologies commonly used to build online communities.

Source: University of Manitoba adopts Web 2.0 approach to learning …

In the middle of Saskatchewan, a blogger returns to the Blogosphere:
The Wayward Reporter is back!
I am definitely going to be watching his blog for coverage of any new USSU happening. With USSU elections around the corner, I think things are going to heat up again.
BTW, call out – anyone with any idea on potential USSU candidates, I am interested. Actually, I am very interested. I am going to call it now, this is the SU Presidential race to watch this year.
(Unless I am crazy enough to run for MSU President, then the joint MSU-University smear campaign will be very interesting) …