| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 22 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
Pension and Benefits staff Margaret Crowe (left) and Sonjia Bailey congratulate retiree Wajan Jonathan.
Marguerite Karn and Professor John Warkentin share a smile.
Mary Grayhurst and the Retirement Planning Centre's Karen Gray.
"I am told that people who leave here come back in six months looking 10 years younger," President Lorna Marsden quipped, as she began her remarks to a gathering of York University retirees and well-wishers in attendance at a reception for retirees on Friday, Feb. 6.
"This is a wonderful university, as I am beginning to discover and you are the people who have made it that way," the President said.
She commended the retirees for their years of dedication to the University and said that remarkable achievements of the kind associated with York do not happen "when people come in at 9 and leave at 5.
"York University has been built on the values the founders put in place," she said.
"Next year we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the University, on March 6, 1959," President Marsden noted. Thereafter, one significant anniversary will follow after another, she said, citing the anniversaries of the move to the Glendon campus from the University of Toronto and the completion of the first buildings at the Keele campus.
"The great task now is to help people understand what an extraordinary university this is," Marsden said, pointing to "the immense creativity to be found here" and the University's "new organizational form."
"One of the great projects now is refining the mission and the words we use, so that they are understood by the rest of the world."
At a time when international exchanges grow more and more popular, "We are extremely lucky to have this campus, just seven minutes from the airport," said Marsden. She predicted that the University's proximity to the airport will become even more important in the next century.
The President concluded her remarks by proposing a toast to the retirees: "To your long and continued involvement with York University."
The following faculty and staff retired from the University in 1997: Joseph Aggassi, Mary-Lou Ashton, Elmo Bertani, Mary Brown, Douglas Buck, Rupert Campbell, Gilda Campolucci, Mike Canzona, Frank Coady, Josey Cortese, Frank Cosentino, James Cox, John Dewhirst, Lino Di'iulio, J.A. Doran, Veronica Duncan, Yilmaz Evren, Ann Gibbens, Nancy Good, Mary Grayhurst, Elizabeth Gross, Phyllis Hagan, Dorothy Herberg, Wajan Jonathan, Marguerite Karn, Mario Lobianco, Patricia MacBain, Sarah MacDonald, Guisippina Malfatti, Maria Massa, Norman Mcleod, Shirley Mills, Betty Nuttal, Antonio Rismondo, Louise Rockman, Mr. Sabatini, Hedy Sakai, Richard Tursman, Albert Wells.
"Contacts with professors especially informal ones are important for students to do well with their classes and to cope with the university environment," states Paul Grayson, director of York's Institute for Social Research (ISR). Yet the recent findings of the institute's on-going study of students' experiences while at the University suggest that only a bare majority feel that they receive this critical support.
In particular, findings reveal that the level of faculty support perceived by students varies in relation to the student's ethno-racial origin.
The study found that white students are most likely to believe that faculty are supportive. South-Asian students are the least likely.
The findings are based on information collected on a cohort of 761 York students who entered York in 1994. At the end of the 1995, 1996 and 1997 school years, a similar sample of randomly selected students completed surveys. The sample used is representative of York students who first enrolled in 1994 and were still enrolled in 1997, in terms of a number of characteristics including gender, ethno-racial origin and income.
The specific statement used to measure faculty support was: "If I have a problem, I know there is at least one faculty member to whom I can turn for help." After identifying their ethno-origin based on a list used in the Canadian Census, students responded to the statement on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
The study is part of an initiative the ISR began in 1992 to study the expectations of students entering York, their experiences over the course of their studies, and the outcomes of their University experience. The intent of the project is to identify the processes at York that contribute to student success.
Some of the project's other main findings are:
* the "chilly climate" thesis (that faculty members are less supportive of women students than of men students) is not substantiated for female students of any ethno-racial origin. On the contrary, the climate is actually "warmer" for female students than for males.
* Faculties as a whole vary greatly in their "climates." The Schulich School of Business and the Faculty of Environmental Studies are the least "warm" for students. The Faculty of Fine Arts and Glendon College are the "warmest."
Grayson hopes that these findings will raise the level of awareness of faculty members to the importance of developing relationships with their students.
A critical roadblock to meeting this goal is teaching to large class sizes in which faculty can't even meet all their students, let alone develop relationships with them.
It would be logical to assume, then, that tutorial leaders could take on this supportive role in students' lives. Grayson is hesitant to agree. "Students report a high level of aggravation with tutorials where marking standards may vary greatly between different instructors," he points out. "Students also receive less out-of-class time with T.A.s than they do with professors."
Tutorials led by inexperienced tutorial leaders should not be introduced in first year, Grayson believes. "Tutorial leaders teaching first year courses should be at the advanced PhD level."
The results of the Institute's research on students are taken seriously by the University. Information generated through the ISR's First Year Experience study was used in the deliberations of the Task Force on The First Year Experience, and was one of the bases for restructuring the first year program and introducing compulsory General Education courses, which focus equally on course material and on skills that will help students get through the entire University experience.
Another benefit to ISR studies, says Grayson, "is that we now have a better informed group of people making decisions. York knows more about its students than any other Canadian university and most American ones." This assessment is made through the institute's and Grayson's numerous contacts with other universities.
The 30 reports generated in five years have let York know that:
* Whereas female students (at least in Arts and Science) enter York with higher marks than males, by the end of first year gender-based differences disappear.
* Despite the fact that slightly less than half of students support labour unions in general, a small majority of students say that if the opportunity arose they would willingly join a union at a place of work. The strongest predictor of students' support for unions is parental support for trade unions.
* In the short term, York graduates enter a labour market in which those from low income families and students who are black are at a disadvantage.
"This knowledge of our students is critical in the development of good policies," remarks Grayson, who obtained his BA and MA in sociology at York. (He completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Toronto.)
How well is York doing in meeting the faculty-support needs of all its students? "We don't know because we do not have comparable information from other universities," says Grayson. "But we do know, since faculty-based difference is internal and therefore substantiated, that some faculties are doing a better job than others."
MEDALIST: Ronald Kent Medal winner Angie Swartz.
Recently, University President Lorna Marsden presented Angie Swartz, administrative assistant in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Arts, with the Ronald Kent Medal. The medal is awarded periodically to recognize outstanding service to the University.
Following is the text of Swartz's remarks at the award ceremony.
"I am honoured to have been named the recipient of the Ronald Kent Medal for 1997. At this point, I would like to congratulate my fellow nominees for this award, who are also deserving of the celebrations today.
"As I stated in my address at President Marsden's inauguration ceremony, 'A community is defined as a body of people with something in common. What we have in common at York University is not only an intellectual community, but a social, moral and humanistic one.'
"When I first joined the University, it was the fall of 1970, working with Dr. Norman Endler in the Graduate Program in Psychology, on a nine-month contract. Throughout the following academic year, I was exposed to a new and exciting environment. From Dr. Endler's energy and foresight, a love of the institution was instilled in me, which drew me back as a student, parent and employee of York University.
"Upon accepting a permanent position in 1975 in Norman Bethune College, initially in the African Studies Program, then moving on to the College Course Program (formerly called College Tutorials), I entered a very different world than that of a department.
"Dr. Ioan Davies' devotion and creativity introduced me to the uniqueness of the colleges; a relationship of members (called Fellows) to colleges, a student body physically housed in the adjacent residence, the student governing body and, most important, the college tutorials.
"Not only did I form lasting relationships with people who are joining me here today, but we all were on the brink of a new adventure. We collectively put all our energy into the colleges and forged both our identity and our structure along the way a system which is still in place today, out of which evolved a personalized, first-year advising program. We were all pioneers, who shared in the learning process, but it was the strength of the people (staff, faculty and students alike), who reinforced and solidified the uniqueness and purpose of the colleges.
"In 1988, when I joined the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Arts, I learned of their mandate to create a new physical, and vibrant intellectual, community. This seemed like a natural extension in my journey at York. Leo Panitch and Michael Goldrick had a mission rather, a dream and we achieved it.
"The challenges were many, but they taught me how to be challenged and challenge in return, with the utmost of perseverance and devotion. From all of my Chairs Michael Goldrick, Leo Panitch, David Bell, Harvey Simmons and Stephen Newman I have learned the true sense of community (dedication, creativity, strength and, of course, humour). From the body of faculty (full-time, part-time and visitors), the enormous graduate student complement, and my staff, I have learned invaluable lessons in respect, tolerance and the diversity of other human beings. Relationships that continue even after people have left our immediate community, whether to return or not.
"A community, I believe, is not only what people have in common, but what individuals bring to the community. I have experienced this along my path at York University (whether it be a college, a department or a special event). Once you establish the trust, collegiality and friendship, the other components of the institution (academia, administration, etc.), are solidified upon this groundwork.
"I have been honoured to have served York University and I will continue to give back all that I can.
"In closing, I would be irresponsible if I did not express my deepest appreciation to my colleagues, Susan Currie, Marlene Quesenberry, Barb Batke, Diane Legris, Karen Ramdohr, Lissa Chiu and Anne Stretch. In addition, special thanks to my two families, the one at York (too, too many to name), and the one at home, for all their years of support, encouragement and love."
Thank you for your help with Access Awareness Event
The Access Awareness Organizing Committee would like to thank everyone who participated in making the 1998 Access Awareness Event a success. The committee would like to convey a special thank-you to the following sponsors:
ABLE-YORK, Office of the Vice President (Administration), Atkinson College Counselling Centre's Special Needs Office, Blueberry Hill, Centre for Health Studies, Centre for Human Rights and Equity, Clabby Foods, the Cock and Bull Pub, Council of Masters, Counselling and Development Centre, Educonnect Computers, the Excalibur, Office of the Vice President (External Relations), Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Environmental Studies, the Gazette, Glendon College Counselling and Career Centre, Learning Disabilities Program, the Lounge, Graduate Students Association, Office of Graduate Studies, the Great Canadian Bagel Company, Marriott, Occupational Health and Safety, Office for Persons with Disabilities, Ontario March of Dimes, Office of the President, Psychiatric Dis/abilities Program, Stong and Bethune Servery, Office of the Assistant Vice President (Student Affairs), Student Centre Corporation, Treats, the Underground, York Federation of Students, York University Bookstore.
Jennifer Snooks
Office for Persons with Disabilities
Palin is president of YFS, not YUSA
I'd like to clarify an item appearing in the article, "Muslim Students Federation working to start student food bank," in the Jan. 28 issue of the Gazette.
In it, you cite a quote from Dawn Palin, referencing her as YUSA president. Dawn Palin is in fact the president of the York Federation of Students (YFS).
YUSA, I believe, stands for York University Staff Association.
Anthony Barbisan
Presidential Commissioner
York Federation of Students
by John Court
WHEN WE WERE YOUNG: The faculty soccer team, Glendon College, 1969. Left to right, front row: Roger LeBras, Gilbert Dussuyer, Lewis Rosen, Roger Gannon, Orest Kruhlak; back row: Rick Schultz, Dick Tursman, Brian Bixley, Nollaig MacKenzie, Terry Fowler, Pierre Fortier, Michiel Horn, Irving Abella, Alain Baudot, Bob Brough.
Becoming Canadian: Memoirs of an Invisible Immigrant, Michiel Horn. University of Toronto Press, 1997.
Professor Michiel Horn's best known field of historical expertise encompasses the Great Depression. One of his earlier books, The Great Depression in the 1930s in Canada, contains my favorite anecdote on the subject, and is worth recalling as an illustration of Horn's discerning eye for detail in spotting and interpreting social phenomena.
Department store magnate John David Eaton, father of the four brothers bearing responsibility today, recalled years later that the Depression provided a windfall of luxury for those having extra money to spend. With breathtaking insensitivity, Eaton boasted that the depressed condition of wages and prices meant that "you could take your girl to a supper dance at the hotel for $10, and that included the bottle and a room for you and your friends to drink it in." I like to imagine the reaction to this indiscretion by an older, wealthier, but also more astute and reticent member of Toronto's Methodist business elite. If he heard about this, E.R. Wood (of Glendon Hall) must have winced in horror at Eaton bragging about fiddling with his inherited wealth while Rome burned.
For his own part, Michiel (pronounced "Michael" in English) Horn has taught Canadian history at Glendon College since 1968, as a full professor since the early '80s. Along the way, as he relates in Becoming Canadian, he has been a member of the Glendon faculty soccer team, chair of his department, chair of YUFA, associate principal and much else over the past three decades, locally and professionally. Like other memoirs, Horn's is less formal and rigorous than an autobiography, and consists of recollections, thoughts and feelings on a life in progress.
Because our eras did not overlap at Glendon, I am acquainted only slightly with Horn, much less than I would like. Nor did we intersect at other settings, such as Massey College (for a favoured few grad students each year at U of T), and that rare perk for even fewer Masseyites during the '60s and '70s, the annual U.S.-Canada University Fishing Derby on the Nova Scotia high seas. For myself, Horn's memories call to mind many of my own, in terms of settings, places and interests family life, schools here and abroad, York and other universities, the opera, the Toronto Blue Jays and so on.
Along with his discerning eye are Horn's critical faculties, sometimes startling frankness, and a gift for clear, compelling exposition.
Horn's prologue alerts us that these memoirs were originally intended for members of his family. My own reaction was a pervasive sense of being privy to a great deal more intimate personal and family lore than I would be inclined to share in conversation with friends, to say nothing of the pages of a book. But Horn clearly believes in the examined life, as distinct from exhibitionism or titillation. Hence, with the support of his advisors at the manuscript stage and, later, at the University of Toronto Press, he was encouraged to publish for a general readership.
This book offers little to complain about. To smooth the flow for a largely non-Dutch readership, the numerous Dutch quotations (acknowledged by the author as not necessarily precise), followed by their English translation in brackets, might better have appeared as footnotes. The publishers were likely responsible for imposing their perennially annoying habit of bunching all the illustrations together at the front of a book, rather than interspersing them alongside the text to which they relate. At one time, this could be rationalized by the use of glossy paper for photos, but this excuse disappears when the same paper stock is used throughout.
Having set the stage, Horn begins well before the beginning. A brief genealogy of his maternal and paternal forebears precedes an account of his parents' circumstances in life, and their creative coping strategies for raising six boys in pre-war and wartime Holland. Horn revisits the Canadian connection at war's end, already celebrated through his 1980 "labour of love," A Liberation Album: Canadians in the Netherlands 1944-1945. As laudatory as Horn is about the Canadian soldiers' heroism and generous warmth to Dutch civilians, he does not wear blinkers nor pull punches. We learn along the way that the Canadian troops were intense drinkers and partyers, progenitors of numerous, illegitimate Dutch children, and poor housekeepers in comparison to the German officers whom they displaced.
From post-war schooling and middle-class family life, joined by a colourful range of associates, such as the now-celebrated artist, M.C. Escher, we follow the Horns through the difficult decision to emigrate, their preparations, the voyage and their arrival in Victoria B.C. in 1952 when Michiel was age 12. Horn, Sr. settled into a government position in draughting while requalifying as an architect, as the boys came to grips with speaking Canadian English in a school system deemed a good deal less rigorous than Holland's. Thereafter, Horn worked toward full assimilation. His goal of personal fulfillment gradually assumed precedence over that of financial success, as he diverged from a career in banking and an interest in chartered accountancy to the world of academe.
There is no hint of smugness about Horn's gradual realization, as he matured, that his circumstances as an "invisible immigrant" were more favoured than those of other newcomers: "Had we come from southern or eastern Europe, from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Caribbean region, I would have faced obstacles of which I am well aware but have no personal experience. Had we been working class, I might have encountered hurdles that I, being a son of the middle class, cleared without knowing they were there."
Toward the end of Becoming Canadian, analyzing his youthful decision to assimilate into the mainstream, Horn notes that "doing so was no evidence of moral or intellectual superiority. It was often the path of least resistance. It was and is not open to everyone, however, nor should anyone feel compelled to take it."
This book achieves the purposes declared for it in the introduction: "that this memoir may prove interesting and useful to people interested in immigration, in ethnicity, and in Canada.... [and] may be of interest also to people interested in banking as it was practised in the 1950s, and in Canadian university life of the 1960s and since." This is certainly the case for those of us who have lived our own versions of the York and/or Glendon experiences especially as the future of the latter is again coming under intense scrutiny.
Horn's observations and carefully balanced assessments of his adopted land are a distinct bonus. One example: his conviction that Canada would today be far better off had it adhered more closely to European traditions of land use planning, where the public interest and long range perspectives take precedence over individual gain through an excessive weight on private property rights.
Another example, in closing. This book was written over the past 10 years and published several months before the catastrophic ice storm in Eastern Canada, so there is considerable irony, even prescience, in this comparison with Holland: [In Victoria, BC] "... almost everywhere wires hung untidily overhead from wooden poles. (In Baarn, utility wires had been buried well before the war.) When a storm hit, some of the wires would come down, leaving entire streets without electricity. This inconvenience was tolerated because the cost of burying the wires was thought to be too high. The aesthetic benefits of putting them underground seemed to interest few people."
John P.M. Court (York-Glendon alumnus, 1963) is an independent historian and archivist.
A recent awards banquet recognized the winners of a new, national case competition in business and the environment, organized by the Erivan K. Haub Program in Business and the Environment in the Schulich School of Business.
The competition, which is sponsored by Nestlé Canada, challenged graduate-level students to demonstrate their ability to incorporate an environmental perspective into business decision-making. Thirty-three teams from 17 business schools across Canada entered the competition.
"The tremendous response shows that students are eager to learn more about how they deal with the complex relationship between business and the environment, and the Schulich School of Business is pleased to give them that opportunity," said Dezsö Horváth, dean of the school.
Competitors were presented with a scenario in which Ontario Hydro was considering redeveloping a hydroelectric plant in Northern Ontario in the face of strong opposition from aboriginal groups in the area. Teams were given 36 hours to develop a response and produce a hypothetical submission to Ontario Hydro's board of directors, outlining how to proceed with the redevelopment of the complex.
A team from Wilfrid Laurier won this year's competition and took home the $1,500 prize. Laurier's business school was awarded the same amount to use in business and environment programming.
Nestlé also sponsors two awards at Schulich: the Nestlé Scholar, which recognizes the top student in a business and environment course, and a group award, which recognizes the top group project in a business and environment course.
Frank Cella, Nestlé Canada's chair and CEO, spoke at the awards banquet about the important role of education in developing an understanding of the complexity and importance of environmental problems.
by Cecil O. Humphrey
The York University Software Licence/Media Shopping Centre is the early implementation of an on-line service designed to make it easy for York's faculty and staff to purchase software and related materials from Microsoft, Lotus and Corel WordPerfect. The Website was developed jointly by York's Purchasing Department and Compucentre Toronto/Educonnect, the University's standing agreement contractor for Microsoft, Lotus and Corel WordPerfect products.
Effective immediately and until all outstanding security issues have been resolved, the Website supplies you with access to software catalogs, and the necessary forms to select software items, automatically calculates prices and taxes and supplies information required by the University's purchasing and accounting procedures.
Access method
From the York Home page, click on Administrative Services, Purchasing, Virtual Shopping Mall, and Compucentre Toronto. Until further notice, access requires that you enter a username and password. For use by all eligible participants, these have been set as follows:
user name: yorku_purchase
password: software
Purchasing options
York faculty and staff may order software using one of the following options.
Option 1. The Standing Agreement Release (see below) lets you make purchases using administrative or personal expense accounts. It also covers research grant purchases under $200 and lets you deal directly with the vendor without a purchase order from the York Purchasing Department.
Option 2. Covers purchases by Purchase Requisition. This specifically covers research grant purchases in excess of $200.
Options 3-5. Cover purchases using credit cards (Visa and Mastercard) and the future Research Card.
How it works
Having signed on and selected your purchasing option, click on About to see information about how to order. This displays details on the various purchasing options and the steps required for each.
The Website links to Compucentre's catalogs of each of the three product sites: Microsoft, Lotus and Corel WordPerfect. From a main catalog window, you click on the software product name to display more detailed information (item#, product name, price and whether the price has recently increased or decreased).
To initiate the purchase, you simply click on the add button to put items in your on-line shopping basket. As you add items to the basket, the system displays the items, prices and all applicable taxes. This page also displays specific instructions on how to complete the transaction, depending on the purchase option you have selected.
Standing Agreement Release form
If you are using option 1, you must transfer the Shopping Basket Number and Sub-Total Amount onto the Standing Agreement Release form. Complete all shaded areas of the Release form, and print a copy and fax it to Educonnect at 736-5994 or email to cst@cti.ca.
The Standing Agreement Release form serves two important functions. It saves time by enabling faculty and staff to deal directly with the vendor on the basis of agreements previously negotiated between the vendor and the University's Purchasing Department. Secondly, the Release form records important information needed to satisfy the University's accounting procedures.
Standing Agreement Release forms are distributed by request to people who have subscribed to the Purchasing Committee's List. To subscribe to this restricted list, send the message "subscribe cpc" to the email address listserv@yorku.ca.
Please note that membership in this electronic discussion group is restricted to the faculty and staff of York University and all subscription requests require approval from the Purchasing Department.
For option 2, you complete the on-line purchase requisition form, noting the mandatory fields, and click on Submit Order. Then you print a copy of the Confirmation Page and sign and fax this page to York Research Accounting at 736-5815.
For options 3-5 (purchasing by York Purchase Card, personal credit card and the future Research Card), all option 2 steps apply. Then the fax number is 416-778-1777 and the phone number is 416-778-1300, extension 150.
Once all outstanding security issues have been resolved, Purchasing will implement a completely on-line software purchasing system. Expected delivery is Fall, 1998. A similar system will be in place for Apple, Compaq, IBM and Toshiba hardware this Spring.
In addition to software purchases, Compucentre/Educonnect offers disk duplication at $1.25 per disk and CD-ROMs for $18 each. The price for on-site software installation and technical support is $45 per visit.
Training and information
The Purchasing Department is arranging training sessions for faculty and staff who intend to use the on-line shopping centre. The first session is set for Feb. 25. For details, please contact Steve Rudak at 77579 or by email: rudaks@yorku.ca.
Try it out! York Purchasing encourages you to subscribe to their Listserv (subscribe cpc) and sign on to the on-line shopping centre. Now in its early stages of development, the new Website has tremendous potential. In the near future it promises to make shopping for software and hardware very easy for York's faculty and staff.
Your comments are welcome. From within the on-line shopping centre, you can click on Feedback to send comments by email directly to the vendor.
Cecil O. Humphrey is the editor of Computing News.
Mordecai Sandberg, 1897-1973
The world premiere recording of chamber music by Jewish composer Mordecai Sandberg will be launched at the Sandberg Centennial Celebration on Sunday, March 1 at York.
The celebration commemorates the 100th anniversary of Sandberg's birth and will include the Canadian concert premiere of four of Sandberg's shorter chamber works. The concert will feature pianist Stephen Clarke, violinist Marc Sabat and singer Honey Novick, and will be introduced by Toronto scholar and conductor Charles Heller. The performance will be followed by a festive kosher reception.
Born in Romania, Sandberg (1897-1973) began his career as a physician in Jerusalem, but soon became known as a pioneering composer and champion of new music. His many compositions, inspired by the Psalms and other portions of the Hebrew Bible, are written in an evocative, personal style, with extensive use of microtones and just-intonation, that has earned him a unique place in the history of 20th century music.
Sandberg's works were performed publicly in Germany and England during the 1930s, and in New York City during the 1940s and '50s, but since that time there have been few opportunities to hear his music. The York concert and the CD to be launched at the Sandberg Centennial Celebration will give audiences the chance to rediscover the work of this distinctive composer.
The CD, entitled Mordecai Sandberg: Chamber Works, presents four chamber pieces composed in the decade from 1938 through 1948. The musicians are Adele Armin, James Wallenberg, Laura Wilcox, Richard Armin, Stephen Clarke and Marc Sabat. The album is adorned with paintings on biblical texts created by the distinguished artist, Hannah Sandberg, the composer's widow.
The recording is the collaborative work of three York music professors: It was recorded at the University by Michael Coghlan; the CD was produced by Sterling Beckwith with the support of the Pro Musica Viva Foundation; and the liner notes were written by Austin Clarkson.
The Sandberg Centennial Celebration and CD launch is co-sponsored by Winters College, York University and Jewish Music-Toronto, with support from the Sandberg Recording Fund and the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Department of Music and the Faculty of Fine Arts.
The celebration will take place on Sunday, March 1, beginning at 5 p.m., in DACARY Hall, Room 050 McLaughlin College. Admission is free. For more information, please call 55493.
Following is a synopsis of the meeting of the York University Senate on Jan. 22, 1998.
Senate was informed by President Marsden that the investigation into the Fifth Estate CBC program on Mark Nathanson had been completed and that, although no grounds exist for a legal case, strong letters of protest were sent to the program's producer and to the president of CBC to point to the shoddy and dubious nature of the journalism displayed.
Senate was informed that the City of Toronto is considering whether to change the name of the Alan Eagleson Sports Injury Clinic housed on York's campus in light of recent events surrounding Mr. Eagleson.
Senate also heard details from President Marsden on the provincial government's announcement on envelope funding for universities, including that: Changes to OSAP have reduced aid by approximately $1000 per student; universities will be eligible to deregulate tuition fees for various programs under certain conditions (neither the programs nor the conditions have been announced); for other programs not eligible for deregulated fees, tuition may be increased by 10 per cent each year for two years (with 30 per cent of the increase going into student aid). The ministry having ignored the advice given to it by York and the Council of Ontario Universities that tuition fees should not be subject to deregulation until financial aid programs are significantly bolstered, Dr. Marsden spoke with the minister and wrote a strong letter to him, protesting the government's actions. A further announcement from the government regarding specific details of this policy is expected toward the end of February.
Senate approved a number of academic standing harmony issues, including:
a) There are no longer formal undergraduate residency requirements, other than those specified for satisfaction of program major and minor requirements. The basic University residency requirement specifies that a minimum of 30 credits be taken at York.
b) Undergraduate General Education courses are fully portable for all students transferring between faculties.
c) All undergraduate certificates will be open to all undergraduate students, subject to student eligibility and course availability.
d) Grade point averages are calculated to three decimal points, rounded up to two decimal points.
e) With the exception of courses explicitly required for certification by a professional body, or other exceptions agreed to by Senate, students pass or fail a course on the basis of their final course average, without the additional requirement of having to obtain a passing grade on a final examination.
f) When a student enrols in a Summer Term course or courses which begin prior to the release of grades for a previous Winter Term in which the student was enrolled, should the student receive an "ineligible to proceed" decision, s/he will be allowed to complete the course or courses. This permission would not apply if it was learned that the student failed a course pre-requisite.
g) Unless Senate agrees to explicit exemptions, eligibility to proceed in or graduate from an undergraduate degree program will not be based on a minimum grade requirement for each major course.
h) Proposed Definition of Undergraduate Year Level and Student Progress:
Year 1 Fewer than 24 credits
Year 2 Fewer than 54 credits
Year 3 Fewer than 84 credits
Year 4 At least 84 credits
Senate also approved the undergraduate program requirements for the School of Women's Studies, and approved a number of motions proposed by the Graduate Students' Association in relation to the Day of Action, including:
a) that the Senate of York University endorse, in principle, the objectives of students and workers across the country who, responding to the CFS call for action on Jan. 28, 1998, would be fighting for accessible, publicly funded education.
b) that the Senate join students and workers in condemning both federal and provincial cutbacks to education, health care and social services that are creating a two-tiered system of public services, and have meant a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
c) that students not be academically or otherwise penalized for failure to attend classes, practica, tutorials or labs on January 28, 1998. Students must be ensured reasonable alternative access to materials covered on that day.
d) that the Senate strongly encourage the Board of Governors to condemn federal and provincial cutbacks to education, health care and social services, and to commit itself to fighting further cuts.
Senate noted for information the new Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry.
Senate heard that the responses to the Glendon paper have been circulated and copies are available in the University Secretariat and that responses would be received until Feb. 2, 1998. Following that, APPC will prepare an options report and host a series of forums on that report.
Senate was informed that a forum had been set for Feb. 12 at noon in the Senate Chamber for a discussion on the Cooperation Agreement between York University and the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.
Senate approved the creation of the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies as a Research Centre.
For further information on any of the above items, please contact the University Secretariat.
Example of artist's 'bold and evocative' work
President Lorna Marsden will be guest of honour at a reception on Sunday, March 1 that celebrates an exhibit of art by second-year York student Amir Pichhadze at the Samuel J. Zacks Gallery in Stong College.
Pichhadze's work is described as "bold and evocative" and has been shown in jury exhibitions in Toronto and Israel, and in the Artexpo exhibitions in New York. His work has attracted significant collector and media interest in Canada and in the artist's native Israel.
Pichhadze will donate part of the proceeds from the sale of his artwork to an annual student scholarship fund at York. "We are proud to have such a gifted artist and generous student as part of the York community," says Marsden. "I applaud Amir for his artistry and his altruism."
At the reception, the artist will present Deputy Mayor of Toronto Case Ootes with an original painting for Mayor Mel Lastman on behalf of the University, to congratulate Lastman on his election as the first mayor of the new City of Toronto.
Other honoured guests will be Professor Ken Carpenter, chair of the Department of Visual Arts, and Professor Eric Willis, master of Stong College.
The reception in the Zacks Gallery will run from 3 to 5 p.m. The exhibition continues until March 13.
Natan Shaham, one of Israel's best-known novelists, will give the first of two Leonard Wolinsky Lectures, entitled Out With the Old, In With the New: Hebrew literature before and after 1948, on Sunday, March 1, 1:30 p.m. in the Vanier College study hall.
As well as novels, Shaham writes short stories and essays for adults and children. His most recent books to be published in English are The Rosendorf Quartet and This Land We Love. His awards include both the Shlonsky Prize and the Bialik Prize for Literature.
Shaham is the general manager of the Sifriat HaPoalim Publishing House and is a veteran of Israel's War of Independence.
Bezalel Narkiss, considered to be the world's foremost expert on Jewish art, will deliver the second Wolinsky Lecture, entitled A Temple in the Desert: Creating Jewish Art in Eretz Yisrael, at 3:15 p.m. in the study hall at Vanier College.
Narkiss is the Nicolas Landau Professor of Art History at the Hebrew University. He founded the Centre for Jewish Art in Jerusalem in 1979 and served as its director until 1991. He also founded Jewish Art, an annual publication that he edited from 1974 to 1986.
His visit has been arranged with the cooperation of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Friends of Hebrew University.
The Leonard Wolinsky Lectures are being given to mark the 100th anniversary of the Zionist Congress and the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. The lectures are sponsored by the Centre for Jewish Studies, the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education, in cooperation with the Toronto Board of Jewish Education.
The Wolinsky Lectures are open to the public and are free of charge.
by Clara Thomas
Margaret Laurence
Adele Wiseman
The Selected Letters of Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman, John Lennox and Ruth Panofsky, eds. University of Toronto Press, 1997.
In the spring of 1982, Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman were together at Adele's house in Toronto looking over the large cache of letters that Margaret had written to Adele since 1947; the year their friendship began. Adele's letters to Margaret had already been deposited in the Archives at York University and Adele was thinking of selling her papers to York as well, a move that Margaret was urging. At that time, they found only a half-dozen of those hundreds of letters that they wished for personal reasons to destroy, and they called me to ask if I would edit a selection of their correspondence. I could not possibly have undertaken so large an editorial task an editor's patience I do not have and they abandoned the idea of such a project. But now, with both the Laurence and Wiseman papers at York, John Lennox and Ruth Panofsky have selected and edited the correspondence with a care and understanding that would have delighted both women.
Their painstaking editorial work has perpetuated a friendship that was especially important to Laurence and Wiseman, an enduring source of emotional and professional support over four decades. Lennox and Panofsky have so successfully shaped their material into a seamless narrative drama of two voices that readers are apt to overlook or take for granted an editorial process that demanded great care and understanding of them. Their introduction, notes, and index gratifyingly and sensitively answer a wide-ranging roster of contextual and peripheral questions.
There is a very large imbalance in the correspondence: Margaret's letters to Adele begin in 1947, the year their friendship began; Adele's to Margaret only in 1962. The two women had long since discovered the depth of their empathy and the identical views they held on their destined profession as writers when, in 1949, Margaret and Jack Laurence moved from Winnipeg to England and then to Somaliland where Jack was employed by a British firm in the building of dams.
From 1951 to 1957 when they moved back to Vancouver, they were on the move, first in Somaliland and then in Ghana, sometimes living in a truck on the dam construction sites. Their nomadic life was not conducive to acquiring or saving any possessions at all. Besides, Margaret was a long way from recognition or acknowledgment of the potential value of letters: in fact it was not until well into the '70s that she could contemplate without anger the possibility of any outside readership of private correspondence, and it was 1980 before she was ready to countenance the sale of her own papers to York.
Adele, on the other hand, had a strong and secure evaluation of her own professionalism from very early days. As well, she always carried with her the tangible as well as intangible evidences of her intense involvement with family and friends. Late in her life, her Toronto home was in itself a well-stocked archive of her life-long affections and connections.
Although when the Laurences left Canada, the friendship was of only a few months' duration, the two women had already recognized in each other a total commitment to their careers and, even more remarkable, a total agreement as to a novelist's goals and responsibilities. They came from vastly different backgrounds Margaret of long established, Scotch-Irish, small town Protestant descent; Adele, a first generation daughter of immigrants to the Jewish community of North Winnipeg but they were joined by a passionate belief in the social value of art and in its deeply moral basis. In a profound way, they felt themselves as writers to be soldiers in the endless human crusade against oppression, injustice and unthinking conformism to false values. Thereafter, though their lives were often lived continents apart, they could give each other total encouragement and support.
When Adele was suffering from repeated rejections of her play, Lovebound, Margaret wrote her a remarkable five-page essay on the meaning she had found in it, concluding with a summary that was a statement of their faith in the writer's task: "[to show] the ways in which people continue to damage one another, and the ways in which sometimes there can be healing; the basic importance of tradition as one's place of belonging in a specific way, and the basic unimportance of creeds and all these differences when one human is face to face in any real way with another." Similarly, when Margaret went through traumatic times of doubt in the early processes of every novel, Adele was always there with staunch support: "Everything you've done in relation to your new novel (The Fire-Dwellers) seems to me precisely right as soon as I hear about it. ... You ask if it's possible to crack up without knowing it. Not for you. You can't even not crack up without knowing you're cracking up. ... So what's happening now? Of course you must realize you're stuck. You can't go back because there's no back to go to. One way or another you're going to have to complete this novel." As Adele often said of herself, she was a natural optimist, with a bubbling sense of humour, and that was one of her major gifts to Margaret, who gradually became able to counter her built-in insecurity with saving laughter.
The Laurences' African years, which saw the birth of their two children, Jocelyn and David, were for Adele years of adventure and travel, working in London and Rome, planning and embarking on a trip to China, unfortunately aborted in Hong Kong because of visa problems, and finally, of return to Canada and a position through the '60s, teaching at Macdonald College of McGill University. In Montreal, she met and married Dmitri Stone, a marine biologist, gladly mothered his three sons and, in 1969, age 41, to her unending delight, gave birth to their daughter, Tamara. Success came much more quickly to her than to Margaret: her first novel, The Sacrifice, was acclaimed, and rightly so, when it was published in 1955. At that time, Margaret was doggedly working on fiction, both short stories and a novel, and also on the translation into English of Somali literature, both poetry and tales, a collection published as A Tree for Poverty in 1954.
The maturing of Margaret Laurence is wonderfully charted through the editors' selection of letters: she began writing to Adele as a very young and self-conscious woman, as her first letter, from her home town of Neepawa, demonstrates. She had found in Adele and her family a closeness and a cultural knowledgeability that she felt were embarrassingly lacking in her own background, a perceived inferiority that she chafed under. The African experience was not only a massive culture shock, it was also a catalyst that brought about a remarkable growth in her, personally and professionally. The young woman who went to Africa returned to Vancouver in 1957 in an irreversible process of change. Though her break with Jack Laurence did not come until late in 1962, the growing tensions of their marriage and her burgeoning independence as both woman and writer are palpable in her letters. Their decisive moment of parting came about when he read and rejected her "old lady novel," as she called The Stone Angel, and though she tried to accept his verdict as she always had, and even put the manuscript away for months, this was their breaking point. As she wrote to Adele later, his rejection was the end of her "delayed adolescence" and her excessive emotional and professional dependence on his approval.
With the publication of The Stone Angel, Margaret was well launched into immediate and lasting success and the development of the following novels of the "Manawaka cycle": A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, Bird in the House and, finally, The Diviners, which, as early as 1967 she had known intuitively would be her final novel and had so written to Adele. She and the children settled down in England near the village of Penn in Buckinghamshire, in the house she called Elmcot and was able to buy with the proceeds of the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward film "Rachel, Rachel." Though she and Jack made brave efforts to keep their marriage afloat, the letters tell their story of a gradual recognition of irreparable differences and, for Margaret, the combination of guilt and relief that she lived with for the rest of her life. They also tell the story of a loving but harassed single mother, coping with the daily imperatives of meals, illness, schooling and friends, as well as with the overwhelming need to get on with her current work. Every novel brought her agonizing doubts as she struggled to find its fitting form and every time she won. The letters record the struggles.
As for Adele, these were also years of crowding demands of teaching, children, family, friends and, always, writing, though she worked far more gradually and with far fewer storms of uncertainty than Margaret. Her worst times came when a manuscript was finished to her satisfaction and sent out to potential publishers. She was not amenable to editors' suggestions, as Margaret quickly became with the trio of McClelland, Knopf and Macmillan solidly behind her, and it was after, literally, years of rejections and new starts that Crackpot, her second novel, was finally published by McClelland and Stewart in 1974. During Adele's recurring times of rage and frustration, Margaret's reassurances never faltered. As far as she was concerned, Adele's writing was of international and mythic significance, while her own, she insisted, was comparably superficial. For her part, Adele considered herself "not incapable of responding to someone whose judgement I respect," but such persons were few and far between, with the result that her work was held up, seemingly endlessly. Her long play, Lovebound, was never published, though finally privately printed.
In 1973, Margaret moved back to Lakefield near Peterborough, and since Adele and Dmitri by then were living in Downsview, then Kleinburg, and finally on Rushton Road in Toronto, calls and visits often supplanted letters, though did not replace them entirely. Sometimes, guilty at the size of their phone bills, they had spells of their old-style correspondence. Sometimes too, and this was particularly true of Margaret, only the release of writing out her feelings would relieve them. This was the case during her truly agonizing ordeals at the activities of the book-banners, who struck at the very roots of her basic belief in the deep moral seriousness of her work.
In general, though, her letter writing during the last decade of her life was not decreased, but it was largely devoted to the answering of her mail. Hundreds of readers wrote to her, and to them all she replied, often at the rate of ten letters a day. Only in 1984 did she falter and accept a limitation: "Adele, I really think I have to throw out the mail. There are so many things I want to do, and I just cannot continue to spend my life running a business office. I'll answer the letters that pertain to income, and the ones I really want to do for younger writers, and that is IT." These were the years of her social activism, when she was constantly besieged for appearances and speeches in support of the many causes dear to her heart. Nuclear disarmament was the chief of these, but there were numbers of others, and all clamouring for her attention. For a writers' gathering organized by Adele in 1984, protesting the power of critics, she wrote a wisely balanced statement called The Critic on the Hearth: "We all care about writing, in all its multitudinous spoken and written forms. We care about the word. In a world where a lot of people do not care about or value the word, let us know that whatever our differences we are on the same side."
And in her last letter to Adele, just a few weeks before she died, she testified once again to the friendship that had sustained them both for so long: "Dearest Adele: Old friend, sister, colleague...."
Professor Emeritus Clara Thomas is a Canadian Studies Research Fellow. This article is slated to appear, in slightly different form, in the March issue of Books in Canada magazine.
The University Fitness Centre officially re-opened its doors on Tuesday, Jan. 27 when President Lorna Marsden cut the ceremonial ribbon.
With 8,500 York students, faculty, staff and alumni registered at the centre for the 1996-97 academic year and the numbers steadily increasing, Recreation York saw the need to expand and improve the Fitness Centre. Now approximately $20,000 has been spent on renovations and new equipment in order to expand and improve the facility. At the same time, aerobics classes have been moved to the upper gym, so that the centre can accommodate more users.
"With this expansion, York's Fitness Centre is now equal to most university centres in Ontario for space, and it will continue to provide the best equipment for its members," says Recreation Coordinator David DeMonte.
The renovations mean the centre's users can take part in an increased number of programs and services that may better meet their physical needs. Recreation York now offers 31 aerobics classes a week, at a variety of times throughout the day, as well as 20 different instructional courses, ranging from Chinese Swords to kick boxing. The customer service hours have been extended and the change rooms are being upgraded.
"The expansion of the Fitness Centre meets one of our goals that of providing a continuum of physical activity and a gender-balanced leisure program," DeMonte says.
Jacques Brel lives on, thanks to a new production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris by Vanier College Productions.
The third presentation of the company's 1997-1998 season, the engaging musical first was produced in New York's Greenwich Village in 1967. The Vanier production features 10 talented vocalists and instrumentalists and a score of captivating musical numbers, half of them in French.
All performances will be in Vanier College's new studio theatre (Room 258), which is reached most easily via the building's east entrance.
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris runs from Wednesday, March 4 through Saturday, March 7 and from Tuesday, March 10 through Saturday, March 14. The curtain rises at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 for students, $10 for general admission, Tuesday through Thursday; $10 for students, $12 for general admission, Friday and Saturday.
The production is sponsored by the Vanier College Council.
Writer Michelle Alfano will be the featured speaker March 5 in the third of the 'Five Voices' lecture series, being presented by the Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies. Alfano is a short-story writer and the author of The Last Sicilian. She will speak from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room 305 (Senior Common Room), Founders College.
Applications and nominations are invited for the position of Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts
York University is seeking a dynamic Dean to lead its Faculty of Fine Arts, one of the country's largest and best post-secondary institutions in the field.
Fine Arts at York is one of the University's flagship Faculties. Its 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students and 125 part-time and full-time faculty work in a broad range of artistic and academic endeavours within the disciplines of Dance, Film & Video, Fine Arts Cultural Studies, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts. York Fine Arts alumni and faculty constitute a major force in shaping the nation's cultural life.
Candidates for this important appointment should be accomplished artists and/or academics in their disciplines, have proven administrative and leadership abilities, and must currently hold a full-time position at York University.
The term of this appointment is five years commencing July 1, 1998
Applications* and nominations should be submitted by March 2, 1998 to:
Alys Reppert
Search Committee for the Dean of Fine Arts
Faculty of Environmental Studies
Lumbers Building, 4700 Keele Street, York University
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Tel: (416) 736-5252 ext. 33253
Fax: (416) 736-5679
Email: areppert@yorku.ca
*inclusive of: Letter of Application; current Curriculum Vitae; three letters of Reference sent under separate cover.
York University is implementing a policy of employment equity, including affirmative action for women faculty.
