Imagine how you would feel if you woke up from a nap to find nine unexpected, uniformed people in your bedroom searching through your personal belongings. This is the challenge posed by Katherine McFadden, a scenario that closely resembles the experience of her daughter—a first-year student at Durham College in Oshawa—in the last week of September.

The student returned from school to find police officers, a fire marshal, and a building inspector searching her personal possessions. A locksmith had picked the locks to her rental home to gain access. Her roommate was awakened from a nap when the officials entered her bedroom to search.

McFadden’s daughter is only one of many students who had their houses raided by police and city bylaw officers in September. The city of Oshawa gained search warrants to enter 17 houses being rented by students to confiscate leases and rental agreements. At least 10 houses were searched.

Students were given no notice of the searches and houses were entered whether or not the students were at home. One student said officers searched his home for three hours, overturning his mattress and going through all of his roommates personal papers to try to find a lease agreement.

“I understand how frustrating it must be for nearby neighbours to have so many students living in the area,” McFadden wrote in her letter to the editor, “but surely the city of Oshawa can find a different way of combating this problem without intimidating and frightening young adults by picking the lock and entering without notice.”

David Selby, of the Durham Regional Police communications unit, neither confirmed nor denied that officers were involved in the raids. “I don’t know if I would classify them as raids,” he said. “I know we were part of the team that was working with the college and the city to reduce the number of public complaints about noise and vandalism and alcoholic issues. In terms of the actual events where people went into homes, that I don’t have that information.”

Although the city did not return phone calls from Maclean’s, local news reports quoted Mayor John Gray as saying the warrants were obtained as part of an investigation into alleged fire and building code violations. “This is absolutely not targeting students,” he told the Durham Region News.

But not everyone sees it that way. The University of Ontario Institute of Technology student newspaper published an editorial entitled, “Officials are in denial in regards to students complaints of discrimination.” The article points out that the crack down on housing bylaws is only happening in one neighbourhood of Oshawa: the rental area surrounding Durham College and UOIT campuses. The area has also been the target of a blitz to enforce noise bylaws and parking infractions, according to the editorial.

The zoning of the area surrounding campus only permits single-family detached dwellings. However, many students rent in the neighbourhood. Some students have posted their lease agreement on the outside of their door to prevent officers from entering their house in the event of further raids.

“It’s systematic discrimination against students,” one student told the Durham Region News. “We have exactly the same rights to live here as anyone else, but you don’t see the police knocking on the door of a family that has lived here for three or four years.”

Some students are concerned that the investigation will lead to evictions. One student, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “They’re not going to stop until they have the students out of here. If they think the houses are illegal, eventually they are going to have the landlords kick us out.”

In a recent interview with Maclean’s, Ronald Bordessa, president of UOIT, spoke in general about the off-campus housing situation. “The worst is over,” he said, referring to tensions between students and residents. He noted recent efforts to curtail absent landlords from purchasing homes and renting to as many students as possible.

But the student president representing students at Durham, UOIT, and Trent University’s Oshawa campus disagrees. Fraser McArthur said, “The worst is not over. The city is still working to classify rental houses near the campus as rooming houses.” If the houses are labelled “rooming houses,” the city will be able to evict the students.

McArthur says that the city has agreed not to evict students during the academic year. But that does little to comfort students who are afraid of further raids. “The city is being short-sighted,” he said. “You need young people in a community to be successful. If they continue to discriminate against students, they run the risk of chasing away their future.”

Jen Hassum, Ontario chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, is concerned that the City of Oshawa could be setting a precedent that could affect students across the province. Many cities with universities have tensions between students living in the community and residents. “These raids were directed against students,” she said. “Students aren’t criminals.”

It travels faster than the speed limit on any Canadian highway, can drive coast-to-coast without stopping for gas, often gets mistaken for a UFO, and does all of this on less power than it takes to operate a toaster. It is the University of Waterloo’s solar-powered car, the Midnight Sun IX, a vehicle that can move at speeds of up to 115 km/h, from dawn until a few hours after dusk. Right now, this latest version is crated up and being transported to Australia, where later this fall it will compete in the World Solar Challenge, a biannual 3,000-km race across the outback, and the premier competition of its kind. And while the solar car is an engineering wonder, what may be even more impressive is that the project is entirely powered by student volunteers.

From the person hoisting the vehicle to the mechanic under the hood, from the business management team squeezing CEO hands for donations to the project manager, each and every one is a Waterloo student. And they aren’t even doing it for an academic credit: this isn’t a course, it’s a club. The only faculty member involved is the faculty adviser, and he just "makes sure that we aren’t breaking any policies, or doing something unsafe," says Jessica Whitney, a 2007 civil engineering graduate and the business manager for Midnight Sun IX.

What’s most exceptional is that student-run clubs like the Waterloo solar-car project are common at engineering schools across Canada. They are also wide-ranging. At the University of British Columbia, for instance, engineering students designed a car that makes Smart Cars look like gas-guzzling Hummers by comparison. Their Supermileage car can travel from Vancouver to Halifax on a gallon of gas, and was named one of the 50 top inventions of 2006 by Time magazine. On the other hand, over at the University of Alberta, the Autonomous Robotic Vehicle Project built a robot named "Ursa Minor" which, inspired by too many movies, is bent on world domination. Ursa ran for University of Alberta Student Union president this spring, but failed to win. "I am not sure this is the end of Ursa Minor — after all, it took three movies to destroy the Death Star," says Michael Janz, winner of the election. Janz expects Ursa will only improve; the U of A already has a robot that is unbeatable at checkers.

At the University of Waterloo, all the members of the solar-car project have other commitments: part-time jobs, involvement in other student groups and the like. But, as with other engineering-club teams, the car club is special: members often get together in their office just to socialize and do schoolwork together. "It is more than just a team, it is like an extended family," says Chris Jee, a fourth-year electrical engineering student who is the team’s primary electrical manager. At the heart of the camaraderie, though, is the project: members spent thousands of hours together building the club’s ninth version of a solar car. Design work started in October 2005, with more than 400 students involved over two years and a core group of 15, before the car was unveiled on Aug. 12, 2007.

The Midnight Sun IX is 1.8 m wide, five metres long, and just less than one metre high(by comparison, a Toyota Prius hybrid is 1.72 m wide, 4.5 m long, and 1.5 m high). Most of the funding for developing it came from corporate donations and in-kind gifts. The project enjoys sponsorship from over 50 businesses, university departments, foundations and individuals. Gold level sponsors Advantage Engineering Inc., American Dicing Inc., Fleet Canada Inc., and Research In Motion each contributed over $25,000. The money was welcome: building the vehicle and ancillary costs — such as transporting it to Australia — cost nearly $200,000.

Wayne Loucks, Waterloo’s associate dean for undergraduate studies in engineering, believes strongly that being part of one of the many teams offered in engineering benefits the students by bringing "more realism to the education experience." The solar car team, "along with all the student projects, are important to the environment we provide to students," he says. It’s not just the technical aspects that benefit students, but the chance to fundraise and manage the team that add to the student’s education. "In the real world, there is so much more than what can be taught in the classroom alone," Loucks says. "The deadlines involved are more real: if you do not raise the funds you need in time, your project does not move forward. With classes, if you miss a deadline, the class continues, you lose the marks but things continue to move forward. In the real world, that does not happen."

Along with gaining real-life experience, there are other perks to being involved in projects such as the solar-car club. Although the team’s work is not part of the curriculum, students do sometimes find ways to integrate aspects from the project with courses(all Waterloo engineering students are required to complete a senior design project, and some, for instance, have been known to design widgets for the team, submit them for marks, and then install them in a vehicle). And then there is Oktoberfest, a major event in Kitchener/Waterloo, where the solar-car team is one of the participants in the parade(the vehicle is street legal, and licensed and registered in Ontario, but on the road is escorted by support vehicles for visibility and safety). In fact, the car is among the main attractions, and Whitney says "one of the great things about being on the team is how excited people get when they see the car." Children especially like it, and both schools and day camp groups come to the university to see and learn about the vehicle.

Team members do not limit their education campaigns to Waterloo. In 2004, they set a world record for longest journey by a solar car by driving an earlier version of Midnight Sun 15,079 km over 41 days. That trip covered the United States and southern Canada, and was meant to educate people about the potential of alternative fuels and solar energy. Most importantly, participants had the time of their lives, visiting places such as Vancouver, San Francisco, Houston, Florida, Washington, New York City and Halifax before finally ending their journey on Parliament Hill. Their Guinness record hangs proudly in the team office. But the car was so unusual that it was often mistaken for something else. "When we drove across North America, people twice called into local radio stations to report a UFO on the highway," says Whitney.

The team races every year against other engineering clubs from across North America, and every other year in the Australian world challenge. This year, other Canadian engineering schools taking part Down Under include the University of Calgary, Queens, École Polytechnique de Montréal, the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. Waterloo’s car will arrive in Australia in four weeks. It is currently in two components, the top with the solar panels, and the bottom, which includes the driver’s cage. Members are excited about the trip. When asked about the infamous stereotype of engineering students as heavy drinkers, they said they do not consume any alcohol prior to or during the race. However, at the end they do enjoy an evening in Adelaide prior to packing up the car and returning to classes in Canada.

The Canadian teams often have some fun with each other, which includes attaching their faculty stickers to each others’ support vehicles and engaging in friendly verbal jousting. The University of Toronto’s infamous Brute Force Committee — a secretive group of U of T engineers who love to prank other schools — is especially known for this. Their trademark act: placing BFC stickers in difficult-to-reach places. Last year, they covered the McMaster engineering lounge with stickers(and placed a Trojan Horse in front of the building). This past summer, they scaled the entrance to the student centre at Mac and put a stick
er on the clock above one of the main doorways. The BFC has also managed to get its sticker on past solar-car racers.

Solar cars and one-upmanship in pranks aside, there are many other engineering club competitions. Some of the most popular involve such things as building mini Baja racers, SAE formula racing cars, model aircraft, model cargo aircraft, autonomous search-and-rescue model aircraft, and two engineering challenges built around goofy Canadiana: the concrete toboggan and concrete canoe competitions. The challenge? Make a toboggan or canoe completely from concrete — and race it. It may seem impossible, but that’s the beauty of the challenge. Engineering teams work year-round formulating new mixtures of concrete to be lighter and more flexible.

The Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race — last year’s event was held at the University of Manitoba — brings together engineering schools from across Canada. The sleds themselves must be constructed of a metal frame, with the running surface made entirely of concrete. They must have a working braking system, a roll bar to protect the five passengers, and weigh less than 300 lb. Last year’s winner: the Université de Sherbrooke’s "Pimp My Toboggan."

Last May, the Canadian Concrete Canoe championships brought teams from nine universities and one college to Queen’s in Kingston, Ont., where they raced their patio-slab, sidewalk-grade canoes. A concrete canoe sounds like an invention that just won’t float. Still, as one engineering student put it, the same could be said of ships made of steel, "but you do not see tankers crashing to the bottom of the sea — it’s all about water displacement." This year’s Concrete Canoe champion was also the Université de Sherbrooke.

Out West, the University of Saskatchewan may be in a province known more for its wheat fields than innovative technology, but that has not stopped it from having one of the best space design teams in North America. During its 50th anniversary celebrations, NASA published a book in which it named USask’s Space Design Team one of the organizations that will have an impact on the future of space exploration.

In both 2005 and 2006, the University of Saskatchewan won the NASA-sponsored Elevator: 2010 space elevator competition. The space elevator is a solar-powered lifting vehicle that operates on a wire to lift materials skyward. It is believed that, someday, a similar system could be implemented to lift large cargoes into space at a location near the equator. USask’s team placed first in the climber competition, but just barely missed picking up the $150,000 prize money because their descent time was too slow. For the upcoming competition, the mark set by NASA is to have a climber that can move up a 120-m-long vertical ribbon at a minimum speed of two metres per second. The team will attempt to achieve this in the Utah desert in October.

Some engineering teams design their creations just for fun, without any competitions. The McMaster University Engineering Society operates a carpool team. Most people think of a carpool as a group of commuters who share a vehicle to get to work. McMaster engineering students took the word literally — to mean, put a pool in a car. The engineers have an ’80s Chevy that has had the roof and interior removed and replaced with hot tub lining. Using the heat generated by the engine and electricity derived from piston movement, they turned the car into a moving hot tub on wheels. The driver and the passengers travel in the luxury of a warm body of water and are a fixture at local football games, where they pull the car into the end zone area to enjoy the action. The team has also been known to park in reserved carpool parking spots. When questioned, they point to the tub.

All such teams have one thing in common. Through hours of hard work, whether on the road or in the shop, members often spend many sleep-deprived hours together and form an incredible bond. All the teams encourage any student to join their ranks, including non-engineering students. "I can tell you from experience," says Bruce of Waterloo, "that these will be the best moments of your university career."

Full article with charts

With a provincial election in Ontario just around the corner, now is an ideal time to lobby politicians. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the pages of The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star in their articles about the looming space crunch at Toronto universities. The presidents of the three major campuses in the GTA—the University of Toronto, York University, and Ryerson University—have all put in their two cents about what to do about the surprise surge of students expected to fill their classrooms.

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New private security measures recently enacted by the Ontario government may cost colleges and universities thousands of dollars. The legislation—designed to ensure security guards at retail stores, banks, and so on are properly trained—was not intended to apply specifically to educational institutions. However, the law will require special training for university many staff, including employees of campus bars and residences.

The new legislation was enacted in response to a coroner’s inquest into the 1999 death of Patrick Shand, who died of restraint asphyxia following a struggle at a Scarborough grocery store. The struggle involved an employee, a security guard, and an armoured car driver who were attempting to arrest Shand for shoplifting.

The inquest recommended stricter regulation of private security guards and professional standards to be enforced by the government. The Private Security and Investigative Services Act was updated to include mandatory licensing of all security personnel, mandatory training standards, and standards for uniforms, equipment, and vehicles used by security personnel.

The new act also broadened the definition of security guard to be "a person who, for hire or reward, guards or patrols for the purpose of protecting persons or property." This includes such campus jobs as bouncers at campus pubs, campus security personnel, and staff who monitor entrances at residences.

It is the inclusion of building access staff that will be the greatest cost for universities.

Many residences have staff to check that people entering the dorms are students who live there. In most cases, they are instructed to call campus security if an individual attempts to gain unauthorized access and to avoid confrontation. Often these employees are students. However, under the new regulations these staff will be considered security staff and will be required to be trained and licensed as such.

Before approving the legislation, the government heard that it would cost as much as $900 to train and certify each student to work as building access staff. At the present time, the government has granted universities a one-year grace period before they must implement the changes required by the new law.

The inclusion of bar door staff, more commonly referred to as bouncers, is of great concern to students’ unions that operate licensed establishments. Ryan Dunn, former president of the University Students’ Council at University of Western Ontario, asked the government to consider the differences between campus environments and the typical downtown bar when making their decision.

Dunn pointed out that most college bars are only open to students and their guests. "The university environment differs from a downtown environment. Most college and campus bars are segregated. Staff are trained to monitor situations; however, they rely on campus police if something is dangerous or force is needed."

The Ontario government publicly announced that colleges cannot legally charge ancillary fees for academic or capital costs. The announcement came only days after two students launched a $200-million class action lawsuit against the provinces colleges, arguing that they have been charging the computer, laboratory, locker, and other fees illegally for years.

But the students are not letting the government off the hook. They threatened to name the government in the lawsuit as well for turning a blind eye to the fees. They also say that under-funding colleges led to college’s being forced to charge the fees.

“Ontario is ninth out of ten in government funding for colleges,” said Jesse Greener, Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, a student lobby organization that is supporting the student lawsuit. “The government has essentially employed a strategy of under-funding in which they have allowed colleges to charge hidden tuition fees with a wink and a nod.”

But not all students agree that the fees are not appropriate. The student president at Sault College told the Sault Star that the charges were fair. He said that the student government has been monitoring the fees closely and new charges are always determined in consultation with students.

Two students are launching a major class action lawsuit against a number of Ontario colleges, accusing the institutions of breaking provincial law by charging students ancillary fees. The Canadian Federation of Students(CFS)are also involved in the suit in an advocacy role.

Amanda Hassum and Dan Roffery, who are students at Conestoga College and George Brown College respectively, are suing Ontario colleges for $200 million, alleging that ancillary fees they paid were illegal. They are seeking damages for all students who have paid the fees since 2004. Hassum said that she was shocked to find out that the fees were “directly related to the capital costs of my education.”

In Ontario, it is illegal for post-secondary institutions to enforce compulsory tuition-related ancillary fees. Compulsory non-tuition fees can only be charged if approved by a student referendum.

In a press conference at provincial legislature, Hassum and Roffery argued that the government knew that the fees were being collected illegally and did nothing to stop the colleges. Their legal counsel Doug Elliot–whose firm Roy Elliott Kim O’Connor LLP won a $1-billion settlement last year for victims of the tainted-blood scandal–said that they intend to add the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to the suit in the near future.

“There is an issue of concealment here because the colleges … used deceptive names to describe these fees to try to disguise the fact that they are improper fees,“ said Elliot.

“Premier McGuinty broke his promise to students by claiming to lock the front door [by freezing tuition] while leaving the back door wide open,” said Hassum.
Jesse Greener, CFS-Ontario chairperson, said that his organization is acting in a supportive role to assist the students but are not a plaintiff in the case. “We were asked to provide some analysis and so on,” said Greener. Hassum, one of the plaintiffs, is the sister of incoming CFS-O chairperson Jen Hassum.

Student societies at more than 80 universities and colleges, with more than 500,000 students, are members of the CFS, making it Canada’s largest student lobby group. The CFS conducts research and lobbies on a national and provincial level, as well as providing services such as student discount cards, health and dental programs, and discount travel.

Ontario colleges have been accused of going around the ancillary fee regulation by imposing mandatory locker rental fees, technology fees, and laptop lease fees(without the option of purchasing the laptop at the end of the lease). Ontario colleges have collected considerable funds from these fees and if the class action suit is successful, colleges could be required to repay those fees to past and present students. Earlier this year the College Student Alliance successfully fought similar fees at Sheridan College and Sault College.

A document released by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities in July 2006 informed colleges they should not be charging fees for information technology, laboratory or library services, or mandatory leases of laptop computers. However, nothing was done to follow up.

Chris Bentley, Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, would not comment directly on matters that are soon to be before the courts.

“Ontario’s college students have been paying illegal fees for years and the Ontario government turned a blind eye,” said Roffery.

I have been practicing with a DSLR lately in order to become a better photographer. I have been taking pictures this week for The Silhouette of life on campus.

It has been a hot week so I wanted a picture of the campus ice cream stand:

People watching the Stanley Cup finals in the campus bar (I had a real hard time with lighting):

Hare in the centre of campus at about 1am: