Monthly Archives: March 2007

Pamela Wallin Named University of Guelph Chancellor



News Release below:

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

Transmitted by CNW Group on : March 6, 2007 20:59
Pamela Wallin Named University of Guelph Chancellor
	    GUELPH, ON, March 6 /CNW/ - Pamela Wallin, one of the country's most
accomplished and esteemed journalists, diplomats and entrepreneurs, has been
named the next chancellor of the University of Guelph. She will be installed
during a ceremony in June.
"Pamela is an outstanding role model who has demonstrated the highest
levels of integrity and passion both in her career and in her volunteer
service," says U of G president Alastair Summerlee.
"Her reputation will bring additional lustre to the University through
her public stature and demeanour. She has demonstrated a commitment to public
service and has been recognized by educational and cultural organizations
throughout North America for her knowledge and expertise."
As chancellor, Wallin will preside at convocations, confer all university
degrees and act as an ambassador to graduates. She will also serve as the
University's senior volunteer and represent its interests to local, provincial
and federal governments.
"The University of Guelph has deservedly earned a reputation for quality
and excellence and I am thrilled, and truly honoured, to become Chancellor,"
Wallin said.
"By doing so, I have the great good fortune to join a long and
distinguished list of Canadians who have served University of Guelph, its
students and the larger, greater purpose of education. It is a privilege and a
responsibility that I take very seriously."
Wallin will become the seventh person and the second woman to hold the
position since the University's founding in 1964. Lincoln Alexander, who has
been chancellor for an unprecedented 15 years has been named University
Chancellor Emeritus and will continue to serve the University of Guelph in
ceremonial roles including participating in some public events and
convocations.
Wallin's career has spanned more than 30 years and several continents,
including numerous positions at CBC and CTV. She is currently the senior
adviser to the president of the Americas Society and the Council of the
Americas in New York. She recently completed a four-year term as consul
general of Canada in New York, having been appointed to the prestigious
position in 2002. She also serves on the boards of many Canadian corporations,
including CTVglobemedia.
Wallin holds an honours degree in psychology and political science from
the University of Regina. She has received 13 honorary degrees, including an
honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Guelph in 2006. She has
also written three books, including Since You Asked, a best-selling memoir.
Guelph's former chancellors and their years of service are: Edmund Bovey,
past president of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1989-1990; William Stewart,
former Ontario minister of agriculture, 1983-1989; Pauline McGibbon, former
Ontario lieutenant-governor, 1977-1983; Emmet Hall, former chief justice of
Saskatchewan and the Court of Appeal, 1971 - 1977; and George Drew, former
mayor of Guelph, Ontario premier and Canada high commissioner to the United
Kingdom, 1965-1971.

UMSU Elections Results



A source was very kind to me tonight.  They took a picture of the UMSU results from the UMSU door and emailed it to me.
I do not have time to put them into a nice chart or anything (essay witting in progress), so here they are in their JPEG glory:

Some interesting observations can be made from all of this.  Students were not willing to part with money (No to EWB and Ice-PIRG) for new ideas that are unproven.  Of course, EWB is not new or unproven but is more unfamiliar.  They were, however, willing to invest more in UMREG which already have a proven track record.    The LGBTT candidate did not get over 50%.  There are more observations to be made but I have an essay to write.  Feel free to add in the comments your thoughts.

Omnibus Post – SFSS, USSU, The Toban, AMS, UMSPAR, Buildingon.ca, UVSS, YFS CRO connected to CFS (notice a pattern), CFS Day of Anger and UManitoba Engineering Referendum Updates



I have decided to do a “Omnibus Post” to get a lot of information posted at once.  I have been swamped with information and need to save time by posting it all at once.  (Two Essays are Due This Week)

Simon Fraser:

The SFSS Forum passed a motion calling a referendum on questions related to their relationship with the CFS.  The following information is available on this courtesy of being uploaded by Clay Moray:
1. Submission from CFS-BC
2. Submission from Forum Working Group (Overview)
3. Submission from Forum Working Group (Long unabridged version)
4. Submission from Forum Working Group (summary list of peak articles)
5. Submission from Forum Working Group (incomplete history of SFSS-CFS relations/incidents)

The questions are listed this week in the Simon Fraser Newspaper, The Peak:

Do you agree that the Simon Fraser Student Society should do the following:
i. Cease to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students- British Columbia Component, as well as cease to be a member of the Canadian Federation of Students- Services;
ii. Cease collecting student fees for the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students – British Columbia Component (at present $7.50 per full-time student per semester; $3.72 per part-time student per semester: $23.50 for a full time year; $11.16 for a part-time year; for a total of $435,204.72 for 2006);
iii. Instead, collect $7.50 per full-time student per semester and $3.72 per part-time student per semester, and put said fees towards improving student services such as departmental student unions, club infrastructure, online student services, affordable student housing, staffing at satellite campuses, a publicly-accessible indexed archive of SFSS documents, and lobbying the government for SFU student interests.

Should be interesting to see how this turns out.  Expect plenty of good debate in The Peak over the next couple of weeks.
There is a facebook group here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2246933779.  There is a discussion occurring on the wall of the group that involves SFU students including Vanessa Kelly who was a member of the impeached G7 directors (just an footnote).

USask SU Restrictions on Media During Election Period

The USSU election rules are available online.  The Candidates Meeting is tomorrow.  Brad’s blog was “blanked” today.  I take this as a sign that he is running.  On of the rules of the election is on March 21st and 22nd, the general voting days:

There shall be no advertising on behalf of a candidate, no photograph of a candidate, no article about or written by a candidate, nor any reference to a candidate seeking election appearing in any media published on voting day(s). The exception is material, approved by the EB, to be posted by polling stations.

This restriction will apply to The Sheaf if they publish on their normal day.  However, I suspect they will be holding the presses until the results are known.  This could apply to other campus publications.  The Elections Committee should made a clear exception for newspapers and the such.

Last Week’s Manitoban

There were plenty of good articles in last week’s Manitoban which I was unable to post about because of time.  I am impressed at how much they were able to achieve in covering the UMSU election considering that all positions were acclaimed except one. Here they are:

  • CRO Connected to UMSU Execs – an article about Caitlin Brown, UMSU CRO, and her extensive CFS connections.  (Noticing a pattern anyone?)  A sidenote, a week later, a CFS friendly UMSU Councillor called for the resignation of the reporter that wrote this article.
  • Engineering Students Considering Raising Tuition – an article about the Engineers considering having a referendum.  (They are having said referendum right now)
  • UMSU CRO should resign - Editorial calling for the resignation of the CRO and a new un-bias CRO to be hired.  The ending was very poetic:

However, I have no delusions that any of this will happen. My ramblings, I suspect, will likely be little more than wasted ink, as my inbox fills with angry letters from UMSU supporters and others shrug and mutter “What do you expect?” For UMSU’s part, a process that was undeniably fair and democratic could remove doubt that elections, contested or not, are more than coronations.

  • Gary Sran vs. random students - An original way of covering an “Yes/No” race.  The ‘Toban asked questions and instead of the normal candidate vs candidate format, they used random students.  Definitely informative and entertaining.
  • UMSU elections - Question and Answer with all the candidates.  (A side note, I am very impressed with the candidate who will be representing students with disabilities) The ‘Toban could not reach one of the candidates so they wrote:

The candidate for women’s community representative is Robin Dourn, who also held the position last year. She could not be reached for contact. However, if asked what the most important issue facing U of M students is, we are fairly confident she would say “tuition.”

This Week’s Manitoban

The Toban came out this week and to nobody’s surprise, the letters section was calling for blood. 

  • Letters to the editor - Two letters calling for the Editor-in-Chief to resign.  One of them, written by a member of UMSU Council, also calls for Tessa Vanderhart (the Copy Editor) to resign for her coverage of CFS related topics.  Two letters on the Engineering Referendum including one written by Darryl Draeger who is currently the Chair of UMSU Council.  I know a past chair that considers this to be grounds for his resignation or removal.  The UMSU Chair is supposed to be above politics.  (A side note, the same thing recently happened at USSU where the Chair wrote into The Sheaf expressing an opinion on how they thought the Executive there was great. I paraphrase.)  At least the last letter (on Afghanistan) does not involve student politics.
  • EDITORIAL – It is up to Engineering students to decide - a well written editorial on the current Engineering Referendum at UManitoba.  I was very impressed with the following paragraph on UMSU
    ‘s interference in the race (as first reported here), which states very clearly why this should be a concern to those in against the referendum:

This is not the first time UMSU has been criticized for interfering in a non-UMSU referendum. In 2001 complaints were raised that UMSU was unduly interfering in the Graduate Students’ Association plebiscite to join CFS. Or more to the point, UMSU is behaving now in much the same way as it did when Stephen Fletcher was president. This should be worrisome for UMSU execs as the Fletcher years, rife with accusations of running UMSU as a dictatorship, are still used as a benchmark by which to claim how progressive UMSU has become.

…

In the end, the decision affects engineering students alone and should be left up to them alone. It is the quality of their education and the weight of their degrees at stake. The politically opportunistic should butt out.

UBC AMS President Gets New Office Divider

On a lighter note, the Black Hand has done it again.  They have a habit of welcoming new AMS Presidents by building new office dividers.  This year Darren Peets put some pictures on Facebook:

from the outside:

UMSPAR President Quoted in The Eyeopener

In an article on the poor food service company Aramark in The Eyeopener entitled “Aramark Blows”, Matt of UMSPAR is quoted:

 

“Jesus, recounting this really makes me hate these fucks all over again,” said Matt Soprovich, President of the University of Manitoba Student Food Advisory and Recommendation Association (UMSPAR), a group he created last March to protest Aramark. “From my perspective, at the town hall Aramark simply put a bunch of their greasy business suits on display.”
At the University of Manitoba, discontent with Aramark food services led to a series of town hall meetings. One meeting ended when a student approached the microphone with a green banana and calmly asked the audience to identify the colour of the fruit. According to The Manitoban student newspaper, he then ran up on stage and tried to force Aramark Canada vice-president and general manager Michael Oschefski to eat it.
When unsuccessful, he threw the banana at the executive.

Matt, buddy, love what you are doing but …. the message is lost in the language.  Of course, I understand the frustration and I am one to talk all the way from the comfort of Ontario living off-campus.  Matt you are doing great work.  Do not forget that.

The Eyeopener took the story further:

The Ryerson community and the Eyeopener have had their own set of adventures with the food giant.
Earlier this year, the Eyeopener reported that Ryerson athletics had hoped to host pizza parties for fans through Aramark, but backtracked after a $300 quote. The story reported Ryerson’s catering services require a minimum billing equal to 20 people, regardless if you’re a group of 10, three or even one. However, that isn’t true according to Silvana Babikian, an Aramark employee in charge of catering at Ryerson and Jennifer Marriott, head of Food Services at Ryerson.
“A minimum order doesn’t necessarily exist,” said Marriott. “They are put in there as guidelines but if they can’t adhere to that dollar amount, they can speak to the catering manager and they can work something out.”
With the change of tune, the Eye staff decided to test it out. “So you’d say, bring a group of three or four people coffee and donuts?” we asked.
“Coffee and donuts for three? That very rarely happens.” replied Marriott.
“But you can do it.”
“Yes-?”
“Then we would like 2 coffees and a tea, and three donuts and a peanut butter cookie, delivered to the second floor of the Student Campus Centre.”
After the cost of food and the price for the labour to prepare and deliver our order, Babikian said we’d be charged $19.87 in total, and our food would arrive within 30 to 40 minutes. About 25 minutes later, java and goodies were hand delivered to our door — meaning we saved the walk through snow and subzero temperatures — for about the same price each as a Starbucks latte.

I love this.  Nice job making them eat what they say!  I am impressed.  I wonder if I could arrange the same delivery for our next production night at The Silhouette?  I got a good chuckle from this story. 

Buildingon.ca Exposed as Being Buildingon.UMSU.ca

Titus Gregory over at StudentUnion.ca reports that the Building On Slate’s website is actually hosted on the UMSU site, which itself is on the CFS server.  I can say that I am surprised by this.  This is new.  Previously, candidates for UMSU office were required to have their own web hosting arrangements.  A change like this should have been approved by UMSU Council.

The CRO made a ruling on this:

1. As in previous UMSU elections and referenda, all candidates & referendum campaign sides are offered web hosting on the UMSU server.
Campaigns are required to include the domain name registration costs on their budgets. The UMSU By-laws do not restrict UMSU from providing services to campaigns or referendum campaign sides, provided they are offered equally to all, and in fact specifically restricts candidates to using UMSU services for certain campaign materials, such as photocopying at the UMSU Digital Copying Centre.

It is the ruling of the CRO that no violation of the UMSU By-laws has occurred.

UVictoria Student Society Election Supplement

I was very impressed with the UVSS Election Supplement.  It was unbiased and provided a lot of information.  This is a good guide for both student unions and the student press: http://www.uvss.uvic.ca/board/uvss_elections2007_webready.pdf

York Federation of Students CRO – Questions about CFS Connections and Potential Bias

The Excalibur reports on the YFS CRO in an article entitled: Choice of CRO hiring questioned.  Is it just me or is there a pattern starting to emerge?  Kelly Halloway was among the CFSers at the recent news conference where some signed in as members of the student media.  She did not, she signed herself in as being from the CFS and York GSA. 

UTSU Candidate Claims to Write
for the Campus Paper: The Varsity

One of the many CFSers who signed themselves into a news conference as a member of the student media is one Dave Scrivener.
He is running on the Your Team Slate for VP External of UTSU.  His opponent is Joanna Murrell of the New Deal Slate.  She makes no claims of being a student journalist.

Many questions are being asked about Scrivener based upon this action of his.  The Varsity today gives him a pardon putting the fault on the Minister in an editorial: Editorial: When not to sweat the small stuff

You can see the sign in sheet here: media sign-in sheet from event where student politicians posed as media

CFS Day of Anger

The CFS is another show of how to completely forget your point and prove yourself unable to act with the decorum of a educated person.  The CFS is holding a “Day of Anger” on March 8th to make the one year anniversary of the announcement by the Ontario Government.  They are going to hold it by the Ministry building in downtown Toronto.  They are asking their supporters to:

Join in a sustained two-minute sound-off at the Ministry at exactly 12:45 to show your anger (bring noisemakers of all kinds, including pots, pans, drums, whisltes).

Yes, cause banging pots together really makes me think “hey, tuition needs to be lower” and it is such an effective way of expressing that.  If anything, banging pots makes me think of toddlers.

UManitoba Eng Referendum:

The Engineering Referendum is now in full swing.  There are two campaign teams on each side: NO and YES.  Two of the Yes Teams have websites and one of the No Teams.

The Yes side has www.saveengineering.ca and www.heckyes.ca.  Save Engineering is very well laid out.  It also includes “word-of-mouth” graphics for downloading.  There are desktop wallpapers, MSN avatars and facebook icons.  To the left is a modified (to hide the identities of the people) screenshot of a facebook page at UManitoba on day one of campaigning.  The facebook icon is definitely an means of promoting the Yes side.  They do enjoy the advantage of being endorsed by the UMES and as such can use the logo.    They also have an video.  It is original, but does not convince me.  It is a parody of the current “Mac” vs PC Commercials.

HeckYes is much more amateur appearing.  I do not know the people behind it personally.  (I knew Katie of SaveEngineering from brief encounters during Pi Throw)  They have used Joomla! to power the site. 

I have covered the No side site: eathikes.ca and its connections to UMSU and the CFS.  The site has now been launched and it is hosted on the UManitoba space of a student not on the CFS server.  The site is redirected from the CFS server to the page it is on within UManitoba student webpage space.  The site is completely written in Flash.  This makes it look nice and allows for the multimedia experience.  I am, however, underwhelmed by their slogan on the main page:

The Referendum drew the attention of the CBC today: Debate heated as students prepare to vote in tuition referendum which resulted in a link from Post-Secondary Education Blog written by Professor Dale Kirby of Memorial University.  (Hattip for directing me to the news story)

Engineers in favour of the Yes side of the referendum pulled a prank.  They placed a large banner off the side of a major campus structure.  Daryl has the details, and pictures, on his site here: Engineering Prank.

Filed under: Student Politics, The Manitoban, UMSPAR, University of Manitoba

CFS – Media Release on Summer Jobs



 

Federal Government Forced to Restore Summer Job Cuts

Canadian Federation of Students Monday, March 05, 2007

OTTAWA–
Students won a partial victory last week when the federal government announced that it was restoring most of the funding for the Canada Summer Jobs program. Instead of the 50 percent cut announced in the fall, the government has quietly restored almost 90 percent of the budget.
“We’re happy to see Stephen Harper abandon his student job reduction strategy,” said Amanda Aziz, National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. “Summer jobs are not a luxury—they pay the bills.”
Beginning in summer 2007, the Canada Summer Jobs program will replace the Summer Career Placement program started in 1996. In fall 2006, the federal government announced a $55 million cut to the program, which could have resulted in approximately 25,000 fewer summer jobs for students. The Canadian Federation of Students immediately organized dozens of meetings with Members of Parliament and Senators to explain the program’s importance and to lobby for its restoration.
On March 1, it was announced that the budget for the new program will be $85.9 million, $11.6 million less than was spent in 2006 on summer job subsidies for mostly not-for-profit employers.
“This is only a partial victory for students and their families because the program is not fully restored. It is unacceptable for the government to cut millions of dollars from any program without even conducting a formal study or public consultation,” added Aziz.

I am glad to see this program mostly restored.  Having worked/volunteered extensively in the non-profit sector, I know how important this program is to this sector.  I do, however, believe that the Federation should have tried to be a little less partisan in their release.  I very much doubt that Harper had any kind of “student job reduction strategy” or anything similar.  These kind of statements are what turn off the media from coverage of the Federation and it ultimately distracts from the message.  The very fact that I am witting this shows that I have been distracted from the message – that the CFS claims credit for this announcement.

Source: CFS – Media

MSU to Consider Giving McMaster University $500,000 dollars with Few Strings Attached



I have been informed that John Popham, MSU President, is moving a motion to give McMaster University the sum of $500,000.  There has been no committee to recommend this handover of money, no long term planning or anything.  It is happening in 16 days.  There will be no consultation hearings at any committee and there will be no town hall for students to speak about this.  There will be no referendum either.  For someone who claimed a new found commitment to democracy, by calling a non-binding “referendum” on OUSA membership, this is no surprise.  The MSU President will not be holding General Assembly until the test ban or exam period intentionally preventing students from attending, so this will not be an opportunity for students to have a say on this.

Why is this being done?  Simple, Popham has done next to nothing all year.  He wants tons of awards of high honour.  Giving the University $500,000 buys him a legacy and a few awards.  Many student politicians seem to do this, spend student money on legacy projects they get to brag about doing, when actually not doing much.

A lot of this money is going to go into

Creation of the “MSU Plaza” in the Ronald V. Joyce Stadium:

Ronald V. Joyce Stadium will be a great bridge to the community and an outstanding venue for outdoor sports. It will offer something for everyone from university athletes, to high school students in city and regional competitions, and eager fans ready to sit back and enjoy the game.

The outdoor plaza at the north end of the stadium, across from Les Prince Hall, will be a multifunctional space. “Hardscaped” with coloured asphalt, the plaza will be lined and equipped for recreational basketball. It will also be a play area for children attending sports fitness camps. On game days, the plaza will be the spot for end zone hospitality tents. Marauder games build campus memories that last a lifetime and this space will be part of those happy times.

Of course, students will not be allowed into this space during the summer days because of the day camp.  The hospitality tents will be for VIPs, meaning that students will never be able to see a game from there.  To top that, there is the parking garage under the stadium that students are paying a large part of and will never be allowed to use.

If the MSU wants to give the University $500,000 of student money, they should at least get something in return.  How about a commitment to not make students pay for more underground parking they will never get to use?

$500,000 in sudden, unplanned spending of student money should go to a student referendum.  There should be a long student consultation.  There is a lot that $500,000 could do.  How about supporting student clubs?  Creating more student space?  Maybe having a floor in the new student services building?  There is a lot that it can do, more than buying Popham a legacy.

McMaster Board of Governors Meeting – Currently Attending



I am currently attending the McMaster Board of Governors Meeting.  I am here to report on it for a Silhouette story.

I am definitely not welcome here by the Senior Administration of the University.  However, I have to say that the President of the University does not seem to mind my being here.  Actually, he approached and welcomed me to the meeting.

I was informed by the University Secretary that I cannot bring any cameras or recorders into the meeting.  I am debating taking a picture from the student centre into the BoG meeting.  Of course, that would very much annoy the University and as such, probably not a good idea.