| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 25 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
LIGHT AND HEAT: President Lorna Marsden and Chair of the Board of Governors Charles Hantho test the University's new cogeneration facility, during a recent tour of the plant.
A new, environmentally-sound cogeneration facility at York University is bringing light and heat to the second largest physical plant in the City of Toronto and saving the University millions of dollars in the process.
York has the largest physical plant in the new Toronto, next to the University of Toronto, and supplies heating and cooling for buildings totaling approximately
6-million square feet.
By switching energy consumption from relatively expensive electricity to clean-burning natural gas, the new cogeneration facility is projected to achieve a general reduction in annual energy costs (for electricity, heating and cooling) of approximately 20 per cent in the first year.
The annual cost savings promise to pay off the project loan of approximately $7-million within five years. Thereafter, the estimated savings will continue to be $1.7-million per annum.
At the heart of the facility is a gas-fueled turbine. It drives a generator that can produce five megawatts of electricity and is able to supply almost one-third of York's peak electricity requirements in summer. The York plant uses less than half the fuel energy that Ontario Hydro's thermal, coal-fired plants must use to produce five megawatts.
The hot exhaust from the turbine is recovered to produce steam. The steam travels through the existing, underground distribution system to heat the campus in winter and generate hot water. The resulting steam production is approximately one-third of the University's peak steam demand in winter and matches the summer load.
The facility is so efficient that even the excess thermal energy from the exhaust gases is put to use. It preheats the water used by the boilers to produce steam. "You're drawing out as much heat as you can before it goes up the stacks," explains Khursh Irani, York's director of facilities management, who oversaw the tendering process and installation of the facility.
The burners are state of the art technology and reduce the emission of nitrogen oxide by 90 per cent, as compared to normal, natural gas-fired burners. The natural gas fuel produces less CO2 as a greenhouse gas than Ontario Hydro's coal-fired plants, and a high-efficiency, heat recovery steam generator also helps reduce the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere.
The unit provides for self-sufficiency and partially insulates the University from future increases in electricity rates.
Thirteen operating engineers keep the cogeneration facility humming under the direction of Superintendant Rob Mooy and Supervisor John Cerniuk.
The facility's performance "is at least equivalent to what we were expecting," says Peter Struk, assistant vice-president (facilities and business operations). "It has been trouble free."
Irani agrees. Since the beginning of November 1997 when it went into operation, York's new cogeneration facility "has been purring like a kitten," he says.
York's Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) has been chosen to administer a youth internship project that will provide recent Canadian university graduates with valuable work experience and knowledge of international issues affecting the Americas, International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi announced on March 6.
The $225,000 Youth International Internship Program will provide 15 young Canadians from across the country with training and experience in the hemisphere's main political forum, the Organization of American States. Most of the interns will be placed in a variety of departments at the OAS headquarters in Washington, with a small number posted at other OAS offices in Uruguay, Brazil and Costa Rica.
"This program is an ideal way for young Canadians to learn more about the international political, environmental, economic and social issues affecting our hemisphere," said CERLAC's director, Professor Ricardo Grinspun. "CERLAC's two decades of work at the forefront of research and education in this area means that we are well equipped to administer this internship program."
The program will last six months with a pre-internship training program and a post-internship debriefing, each two weeks long, to be organized by CERLAC and held at York. CERLAC will also administer the recruitment and selection of interns with the final selection to be approved by the OAS.
"Canada views Latin America as a priority for further economic, political and social links," said Marchi. "Through this project we can offer young Canadians the opportunity to become familiar with issues of the Americas. This initiative is particularly important as, for the first time, Canada prepares to host the OAS General Assembly in the year 2000."
During his speech, Marchi made a presentation to Grinspun and President Lorna Marsden. Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy also announced the program in his closing, keynote address at the Organization of American States Washington Conference of the Americas.
CERLAC is an interdisciplinary research unit at York University that, over the past 20 years, has led in the training of Canadian scholars on issues concerning Latin America and the Caribbean. CERLAC's educational, research and community activities are concerned with the economic development, political and social organization, and cultural contributions of Latin America and the Caribbean. The Centre works to build academic and cultural links between these regions and Canada, and to inform researchers, policy advisors and the public about these regions.
York's Schulich School of Business has been presented with one of five Scotiabank-AUCC Awards for Excellence in Internationalization. The Schulich School was the award-winner in the category of curriculum change "changing the curricula to incorporate an international perspective."
Launched last year, the awards recognize the achievements of Canadian universities in bringing a global perspective to their campuses. The recipients were honoured at a special ceremony in Ottawa on March 10 and received a modest cash prize and a plaque.
Since establishing an international MBA program in 1989, the Schulich School of Business has graduated 204 people, all working in Canada or abroad. The program consists of 11 months of business courses at York, eight months abroad on a study and work placement, and four months at York doing a seminar and elective courses.
Students gain the skills they need to "think globally." They become strong management generalists and specialize in a major global trading region.
Through this MBA, the school has developed linkages with 45 countries, including exchanges with foreign management schools, internships at international companies, executive training programs and research initiatives.
To create its international program, the Schulich School of Business had to expand its study abroad opportunities, build a network of companies for international internships, develop a teaching corps of faculty with international business expertise, and rely on University professors whose specialities are in such non-business areas as sociology, culture and languages. In the process, the entire school faculty, students and curricula became internationalized.
The other award winners and their categories are: the University of British Columbia for international student participation, McGill University for university-private sector partnerships, the University of Regina for faculty contributions to internationalization, and St. Mary's University and the universities involved in the Canadian University Study Abroad Program (Queen's, Toronto, Dalhousie and Western) for "new ways to maximize limited resources to support internationalization efforts on campus."
An independent panel of distinguished individuals from Canada and abroad, chaired by Dr. George Pederson, former president of the University of Western Ontario, judged the submissions.
Scotiabank has provided $180,000 to fund the awards program for three years (1997-1999).
York University invites applications and nominations for the position of University Registrar. York is Canada's third largest university, with some 44,000 full and part-time students in 10 faculties enrolled in over 100 majors and more than 4000 different courses. The University is situated on two campuses, a large campus in the northern end of metropolitan Toronto and a smaller, bilingual campus in the heart of the city.
Reporting to the Vice-President (Enrolment and Student Services), this senior management position will, along with the Director of Admissions and the Director of Student Financial Services, be responsible for academic student services at the University. You will provide strategic leadership in planning, organizing and directing all areas of the Registrar's office, at both the policy and operational levels. Your portfolio comprises the following: student enrolment/voice response, student information services, academic records, including advanced standing, degree audit and transcripts, grade reporting and exam scheduling.
You are a proactive and creative individual with a successful record of promoting cooperation and an ability to be innovative, forward looking and willing to take risks to bring about change and improve service delivery.
You bring to this challenging mandate several years of senior management experience, including strategic and financial planning/management, preferably in a university environment, a solid understanding of information technologies, a proven track record of successfully prioritizing, managing and implementing large projects, and an ability to direct the operations of a large unit with a current staff complement of 65.
You are a team builder with a consultative and participatory management style, with a capacity for decisive action and the ability to build, motivate, coach and lead a team. You are an excellent communicator with good persuasive and negotiating skills, have an empathy with student, faculty and staff concerns, and an ability to work effectively with various University constituencies and a diverse population.
This appointment is effective July 1, 1998.
We offer a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits and access to superb education and recreational facilities. Please send your resume in confidence, by April 6, 1998, to Dr. Deborah Hobson, Vice-President, Enrolment and Student Services, Room N905, Ross Building, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3. FAX (416) 736-5990.
The organizers of the recent Teaching Brecht roundtable at York were (left to right) Pia Kleber (University of Toronto), Volker Granow (York), and Jürgen Heizmann (University of Montreal). The event was held on the occasion of Bertolt Brecht's 100th birthday.
Headline was misleading
The title of the article in the Feb. 25 issue of the Gazette on research conducted by the Institute for Social Research on ethno-racial origin and faculty support distorts the research findings. The title, "Students' ethno-racial origin and perception of faculty support are related, study of York's Institute for Social Research finds," suggests a stronger link between ethno-racial origin and the extent to which students feel that they can rely on faculty support than can be sustained by the research. In reality, there are no differences among students who are Black, of European origin, of Chinese background, or of "other non-European origin." The only difference that stands out is the one between students of European and South Asian origin with the former perceiving more support from faculty than the latter.
J. Paul Grayson,
Director, Institute for Social Research/Professor of Sociology
UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE: Beverly McMullen brings both childhood and adult perspectives to her photographs of Glendon Hall, such as this one.
The Glendon Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by Beverly McMullen, March 26-April 9.
McMullen has a unique attachment and connection to Glendon Hall, as her grandfather, James Rose Mackintosh, was the estate botanist for Edward and Pheme Wood for over 30 years. Her grandparents and her mother, Jean, lived in the quaint Gate Cottage and McMullen has fond memories of her many visits to Glendon as a young child. She mostly recalls the beauty of the landscape, a testament to her grandfather, who was responsible for all the gardens, trees, flora and fauna on the extensive grounds. James, or "Mac," as he was known to friends, was also an Audubon Society and nature photographer who instilled a love for the environment, plants and animals in all those around him.
In the early '50s, Mac published a short book, illustrated by Roger Tory Peterson, on planting gardens to attract nesting birds. In it he documented a list of 56 nesting species that he had seen during more than two decades as botanist at Glendon.
Arriving at Glendon with her parents in 1931, Jean Mackintosh McMullen (Beverly's mother) still remembers the warm friendships she developed with others on the estate. Edward Wood, ever the gentleman, would ensure that she got a lift to school on winter days in his chauffeured car. Jean counted as her close friend Wendy Gilchrest (Flynn), the Woods' youngest granddaughter, who lived with her mother in their "Chedington" home at Glendon. Unlike European estates, where servants would be barred from the gardens and manorial facilities, all of the Glendon staff and their families were encouraged to think of the entire grounds and gardens as their home, along with the Woods.
McMullen has upheld the Mackintosh photographic and nature-loving legacy, having recently returned from working with two National Geographic Society photographers in the United States. Through a Garden Gate and Beyond will feature over 30 contemporary images of Glendon Hall and the grounds, taken during the summer of 1997 when McMullen re-visited her grandparents' former home, a part of what is now Glendon College. Her experience returning to Glendon brought back her recollection of the original setting, which included "high cedars lining the road...the vegetable garden...the beautiful teahouses...the greenhouse...[and] the giant urns overflowing with bountiful flowers." Many of the formal landscape features and the architecture of the Woods' estate remain and, through this exhibition, McMullen hopes to share her personal vision and memories with the University and the neighbouring community.
McMullen has chosen to donate a portion of the sale of her works to the Bruce Bryden Rose Garden Fund, in order to re-introduce water-lilies to the garden's reflecting pond. Through this donation, she hopes to "bring back a part of [Glendon's first] era" for future generations to enjoy. The Bruce Bryden Fund was established in 1992 in honour of the late Bruce Bryden, chair of York's Board of Governors and founding president of the Alumni Association. All monies raised by this endeavour will be used to enhance and conserve the Rose Garden adjacent to Glendon Hall.
Members of the York community are invited to attend the exhibition's opening reception on Thursday, March 26, 4 - 7 p.m. in the foyer of Glendon Hall. The artist will be present to discuss her memories of Glendon Hall and her photographs. Any donations offered in connection with the reception will benefit the student financial assistance fund, the Friends of Glendon.
For further information, please contact the Glendon Gallery at: (416) 487-6721
Following is a synopsis of the Feb. 26 meeting of the York University Senate.
At that meeting, the Senate:
* was asked for suggestions for nominees for the next chancellor of the University;
* was informed that an advisory council of the York University Development Corporation is to be established and was asked to elect three Senate members to serve on the council;
* approved the proposal to have a voting, ex-officio seat on the Senate Committee on Curriculum and Academic Standards for a member to be named by the Council of College Masters;
* learned that a sub-committee has been struck to review Senate Policy #008, the Senate Policy on Academic Implications of Disruptions or Cessations of University Business Due to Labour Disputes or Other Causes, with a view towards revising the policy as necessary;
* was briefed on the Glendon College Discussion Paper and the ongoing consultations;
* approved the proposal that students in the Faculty of Arts be permitted to pursue a linked honours double major in a free-standing interdisciplinary program and a linked double major program;
* approved the proposal for a change of degree designation from Master of Fine Arts to Master of Arts for students in the critical/historical studies stream;
* approved the addition of a new Fitness/Epidemiology Stream in the MSc Program in Kinesiology and Health Science and the degree requirements for this stream;
* approved a series of changes to the degree requirements within the Graduate Program in Psychology;
* was informed of the following new student awards:
Jewish Studies Award
Magnum Copy Centres Award
Cassels, Brock and Blackwell Prize in Civil Procedures I
Honorable Willard Estey Teaching Fellowships in Legal Research and Writing
Honorable Willard Estey Graduate Fellowships in Law
Stevenson Scholar in African Studies
Schulich Exchange Bursary
MBA Full-Time Bursary
MBA Part-Time Bursary
IMBA Entrance Award
IMBA Full-Time Bursary
IMBA Internship Bursary
Dr. Allen T. Lambert Scholars Award
Robert L. Colson Family Award.
For further information on any of the above items, please contact the University Secretariat.
Professor Robert Wallace will occupy the Robarts Chair in Canadian Studies for the 1998-1999 academic year, Daniel Drache, the centre's director, has announced.
A professor of English at Glendon College, Robert (Bob) Wallace is one of York's best-known scholars. His national reputation as a theatre critic grew during the 1980s when he edited Canadian Theatre Review and began speaking regularly on CBC radio about theatre and the arts.
He was drama editor for Coach House Press from 1981 until 1995 and edited more than 20 volumes of Canadian plays, many of which are staples of the contemporary theatrical repertoire.
As Robarts Chair, Wallace will be based at the Robarts Centre at the Keele campus. He will research and elaborate issues that he discussed in his book, Producing Marginality: Theatre and Criticism in Canada (1990).
This work will inform a series of events entitled, "Theatrical Trans/ Formations," which Wallace will organize at York under the auspices of the Robarts Centre. The series will provide opportunities for students and faculty to interact with people working in Canadian theatre, and will culminate in Prof. Wallace's Robarts Lecture, to be delivered during the second half of his term.
"The executive committee was gratified by the number of very strong nominations that it received for the Robarts Chair," Drache says. "Prof. Wallace's occupancy of the Chair will highlight the ways in which Canadian theatre helps to increase awareness and understanding of Canada's diverse and distinctive cultures."
The Dance Department's annual Festival of New Choreography, featuring more than two dozen original works by students, faculty and visiting artists, opened Monday, March 16 for a week-long run.
The Festival's artistic director, choreographer and dance professor, Holly Small, has programed an exciting array of solo and ensemble pieces, spanning many different dance styles and showcasing the Dance Department's outstanding young performers.
A rich spectrum of works, many featuring original scores by York music students, spotlights the creativity of the department's gifted, up-and-coming choreographers. Aimée Dawn Robinson's mysterious dance ritual, Revenante, is performed to a haunting composition by Nicholas Williams, using steel drums and a scrap metal sound sculpture. In One Man Band, choreographer and composer Monica Dottor presents a quintet of dancers wheeling and careening through a series of risky formations to the sound of multiple percussion instruments, tuba and accordion.
Romina Barbieri's Psycho Barbie, an offbeat solo about a Barbie doll who's tired of having her arms twisted off, is set to a score composed by Justin Hiscox and performed by an ensemble of music students. Laughing Water, a meditative work for five women and an assortment of water buckets choreographed by Amy Wood, features an original sound score by Joel Silver.
Other student pieces include Tara Lee's Falling Further than Alice, a clever trio for two dancers and a mischievous beam of light; Peter Scott's romantic pas de deux Indigo Moon; and streets in-audible cities, a contemporary tap dance created by Ana Francisca de la Mora Campos and Beth McGuire, performed against an arresting background of hard-edged slide projections.
Faculty contributions include a lyrical trio from With the Moon Falling from Your Eyes by Darcey Callison, and Donna Krasnow's staging of excerpts of American dance pioneer José Limón's monumental work, A Choreographic Offering, set to the music of J.S. Bach.
Other program highlights are new works by two noted Quebecois choreographers: guest professor Luc Tremblay, former artistic director of Danse Partout, and visiting artist Harold Rhéaume, winner of the 1997 Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize. Both Tremblay's powerful Kabbale and Rhéaume's sensual Fresk were created especially for the York Dance Ensemble, the Dance Department's repertory touring company, which premiered the pieces earlier this season.
The Festival of New Choreography runs in a five-part series from March 16 to 21. Showtimes are 5:30 and 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. On Saturday, March 21 the entire program runs from noon to 8:30 p.m. Performances take place in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre in the Centre for Film and Theatre at York. Admission is $5 per show. For more information, call the Dance Department Phoneline at 650-8030.
by Richard Cullen
Japan is an exceptional country. It has never been colonized or formally subjugated by Europeans. It remains Asia's most notoriously successful military power by far in modern history. It has crawled from the depths of nuclear defeat to become an economic giant in less than two generations. It possesses the World's most avowedly pacifist Constitution. Its written recorded history dates back well over a thousand years and the remarkable Japanese culture stretches even farther back. Yet it still seems strangely unsure of itself.
Social scientists studying Japan are fond of telling a story about three scholars who go to Africa to study elephants. While the French and British researchers write tomes on the sex life of elephants and the class structure of elephant society, respectively, the Japanese scientist generates a book entitled: What Elephants Think of the Japanese. This national uncertainty has, at base, a very positive side. It was the celebrated Chinese writer and commentator, Lu Xun (once a student in Japan), who coined the axiom "trust only the person who doubts." But in Japan, uncertainty and reflection seem, over this last decade, to have acted as a significant component in making Japan undisputed, World Political Dithering Champion.
One needs to keep things in perspective, however, despite the fact that the 1990s have unfolded as Japan's worst decade since the 1940s. Japan continues to be the world's second most powerful economy. Although the government is now in debt, virtually all debt is internal, that is, borrowed from the Japanese people. Moreover, with interest rates verging on zero, the cost of all this borrowing remains low. Japan also has vast overseas and internal savings, and the world's largest foreign exchange reserves. Generally, the manufacturing sector is in very sound condition. Cash is not a problem.
The internal gloom factors are significant, though. First, Japan's financial sector remains in an appalling mess. The collapse of the "bubble economy" by the early 1990s should have triggered a clean out of the financial sector shortly afterwards. The government and the ever-powerful bureaucrats contrived with the private sector to delay this reckoning. The entire financial sector has suffered, as hopeless cases have been kept on life-support through loans and bureaucratically managed "mergers." Now the big bankruptcies are starting to occur with alarming frequency. "Mrs. Watanabe," battered by more than a half a decade of revolving recession is more anxious than ever. Recent figures suggest that significant sums of money have disappeared altogether from the financial sector over the last two months, presumably to find a home under the futon. Government and semi-government debt (especially the pre-privatization national railway debt) is immense. And the costs of looking after Japan's rapidly ageing and exceptionally long-lived population will prove formidable.
The principal factor many commentators see as making this blend worse than it ought to be is Japan's style of political leadership. Japan's highly trained and super-powerful bureaucracy once shielded the nation from the excesses of the factionalized and corrupt political system. Nowadays, the bureaucracy is widely seen as (a very large) part of the problem rather than as part of the solution. Meanwhile, although the political system has begun to reform itself, it is now clear, as in Italy, that formal political structure change does not equal real political change it simply makes real political change a possibility.
As if this weren't enough, along comes the Asian financial crisis. One of the original four "mini-tigers," South Korea, is in full toxic shock. Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong have coped, but all are feeling the awful pressures. Amongst the second-generation mini-tigers, the story is more grim. Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have experienced financial trauma of exceptional severity and no immediate relief is conceivable. For Japan, already mired in domestic financial alarm, the timing could hardly have been worse. One estimate is that Japanese banks account for more than half of all foreign lending to South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. Japanese lending institutions with exposure in these hard-hit Asian neighbours must be gasping at the extent of their bad fortune.
In December of last year, the Japanese government had another stab at addressing the internal financial crisis. Corporate and short term personal tax cuts were announced, and a commitment was made to use public funds to help mend mendable institutions in the finance sector. The latter plan is said to be based, broadly, on the rescue of the United States savings and loan industry in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, the Japanese plan was characteristically short on hard detail. Meanwhile, the campaigns to place the vast Post Office-based savings system under fresh management and to wrest significant regulatory control from the Ministry of Finance appear to be as bogged down as ever.
In summary, Japan faces an extraordinary range of financial challenges. Despite this, the United States, especially, is looking to Japan to play a crucial role in the vast Asian economic salvage operation led by the IMF and currently being built on the run. But what can Japan do and what are the constraints applying?
In the first place, although it is far from clear that the bottom of the Asian financial crisis has been reached, it is clear that, to a very significant extent, this is a crisis of confidence. True, financial practices in the affected economies have often been awful but real growth has been extraordinary in East Asia over the last several decades. Genuine infrastructure, manufacturing, educational, social and other assets are now in place that were barely dreamt of a generation ago. Moreover, they have been built, in most cases, on thrift, hard work and improved education, far more than through the use of short term debt. In other words, the fundamentals were strong and they remain so. This is what many find so exasperating about the crisis, but it also is the principal cause for reflective hope that recovery is a matter of time rather than a matter of imagination.
In spite of all its financial misery and largely due to the phenomenal thrift of the decades leading up to the 1980s, Japan retains a "Mother Hubbard" type solvency second to none. Its vast savings both internal and offshore range into trillions of U.S. dollars. And with the domestic economy still stuck in the ooze, the government can borrow locally at especially low cost. These factors strongly suggest that Japan remains in a potentially powerful position to help both itself and its benighted neighbours. What is needed is simply greater political will, according to many.
Things are somewhat more complex than this, however. One unusual and difficult to quantify restraint applying to Japan's policies towards East Asia is the unfinished business of Japan's notorious attempt to re-align economic activity in the region through the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was meant to be created in the wake of Japan's military conquests of earlier this century. Unfortunately, unlike Germany, Japan prefers to deal with that period of its history by combining political amnesia with aid packages and heavy economic involvement. The extent of the amnesia goes some way to explaining the continuing uncertainty about Japan's identity referred to earlier. The extent of the Asian financial crisis is now so great, however, that this unfinished historical business is unlikely to be a serious impediment to genuine and committed (rather than purely predatory) involvement in the recovery process.
One legacy of the Great Depression is some profound economics schooling. This benefaction cannot offer a formula to fix what has happened in East Asia in 1997, but it does define what not to do. Numbers of commentators have noted two frightful policy errors committed after the Wall Street crash of 1929: an alarming tightening of credit and a massive clamp down on international trade. Japan is in danger of failing to heed this sharp historical lesson. Despite very low interest rates, credit remains in relatively short supply in Japan. The battered banks have imposed very tough lending requirements to prevent, at all costs, any further red ink spilling from their loan books. This has been one important factor in producing so many years of low or zero growth in Japan. Meanwhile, those relying on the local depressed Japanese market are often politically influential and vehement in their opposition to opening up the Japanese economy.
Most dispassionate commentators are agreed on the broad policy goals for Japan. What is needed is an expanding and more open domestic economy fueled, amongst other things, by a healthy financial sector, lending wisely but widely. Continued lending and refinancing into East Asia plus increased trade would mutually reinforce domestic growth once the cycle begins to turn. The cash reserves to bank-roll policies to achieve these goals clearly exist. Less clear are the precise policies and programs needed to push forward, step by step. Least apparent of all is evidence of the political sagacity and will to develop, articulate, sell and implement in the teeth of fierce sectional opposition the array of separate but related policies needed.
South Korea is in far more dire straits than Japan, but it does seem rapidly to have grasped and acknowledged the horror of its own situation. President-elect Kim Dae Jung has moved swiftly to try and forge a coalition of all sectors of Korean society to tackle the very tough process of rebuilding which will dominate the years ahead. He is providing leadership, in other words. Some in Japan must be reflecting, yet again, why Japan seems unable to produce the same sort of political strength to suit the times. The desire for strong leadership is evident. The disgust with factional politics more palpable than ever. But a national preoccupation with seeking consensus and harmony underpins most social and political activity in Japan. There is a very powerful tension between what people desire, ideally, in their politicians and what they expect, at a practical level, from them.
Japan possesses the human and material resources to reshape itself and to take on a real regional leadership mantle. Change of this order requires Japan to enter a turning-point phase comparable to the Meiji Restoration and the recovery from World War Two. If it opts to avoid this challenge it likely will dither its way into yet more avoidable contraction in the domestic economy and a serious trade war. Many other tribes in the Asia-Pacific region share responsibility for dealing with the Asian financial breakdown, of course; however, none, apart from the United States, enjoys Japan's capacity to mediate the final outcome.
York graduate Richard Cullen is Visiting Fellow, Department of Professional Legal Education, Faculty of Law, City University of Hong Kong.
The Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties) invites applications and nominations for the position of Academic Director of the Centre for the Support of Teaching, a unit that provides a broad range of services to teaching and learning. This will be a three-year academic appointment commencing July 1, 1998.
The Academic Director will work with individuals, departments and administrative units at York in assessing needs, and in designing and providing programs to meet the needs in the general area of teaching and learning in higher education. In consultation with the Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties) and the Academic Advisory Board, the Academic Director will develop general policy guidelines for the CST. The Academic Director will also be responsible for motivating instructors to become involved in pedagogical training and research.
The successful candidate must hold a tenured faculty position at York. The successful individual will work to ensure that academic standards are sought and maintained in the service and programs offered by the Centre for the Support of Teaching. This person should be acquainted with issues in pedagogy and research, and have a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching. In addition, the individual should have sound administrative skills and be able to pursue innovative program designs in collaboration with other central agencies, such as the Instructional Technology Centre, Computing and Communications Services, and the Computer-Assisted Writing Centre.
Applications and nominations should be forwarded to Lorna Houston, Office of the Associate Vice-President (Research and Faculties), S945C Ross Building, no later than March 31, 1998. Applications/nominations should include a current curriculum vitae, two or three letters of support addressing the individual's credentials for this position, and a signed statement of the applicant's/nominee's interest in the position.
Citizenship & Immigration Canada
Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP)
ISAP supports projects that aim to improve the delivery of settlement services that assist immigrants in settling and integrating into Canadian society. This could include workshops and seminars, publications and newsletters, audio-visuals, performing and visual arts activities, research or studies, and staff training. Funds can be used towards the salaries and wages of staff who are involved with ISAP-funded activities, as well as overhead costs (e.g., supplies, printing, photocopying, postage, leasing or purchase of equipment, travel, meals and accommodation). Funding is for up to one year.
Deadline: Applications are accepted at anytime throughout the year. However, applicants should be aware that proposals are funded on a first-come-first served basis, beginning in the federal government's April 1 fiscal year.
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health Training Awards
These awards support research that focusses on ecosystem management interventions leading to the improvement of human health and well-being while simultaneously maintaining or improving the health of the ecosystem as a whole. The Training Awards are intended to encourage promising individuals within key institutions to achieve a more holistic or multi-disciplinary understanding of the interconnected concepts of environment, health and development. The Program Initiative is implementing proposals that incorporate gender/social analysis and participatory approaches. Approximately eight one-year, non-renewable awards of up to $15,000 are available.
Deadline: April 1
NATO
Science Program and Cooperations Partners Networking
Infrastructure Grant
The objective of the Science Program and Cooperation Partners is to further scientific cooperation between NATO-country and Cooperation Partner (CP) countries. A list of eligible CP countries is available from ORA. Support is primarily made, but not exclusively, to the following themes: (1) Environmental Security; (2) High Technology; (3) Science and Technology Policy; and (4) Disarmament Technologies. The Networking Infrastructure Grant is available to promote local and international collaboration through the setting up of links and networking capabilities. The grant provides assistance to CP country institutions for purchasing equipment that will improve the level and the quality of telecommunication facilities.
Deadline: April 15.
Deadline Dates
April 1
Addiction Research Foundation: Postdoctoral Training Program in Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs
Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Fellowships
Canadian Diabetes Foundation: Diabetes Educator Section Awards
Canadian Red Cross Society: Research and Development Program [full application due; letter of intent due January 31]
Centre for Jewish Studies (York University): Research Grants in Jewish Studies
Citizenship & Immigration Canada: Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP)
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation: Summer Scholarships in Epidemiology
International Development Research Centre (IDRC): Ecosystem Approaches to Human Health Training Awards
International Society for Arboriculture Research Trust: Hyland R. Johns Grant Program
Medical Research Council (MRC): Canada Singapore Exchange Program; Easter Seal Research Institute Fellowships; Foundation for Gene and Cell Therapy Fellowship; Muscular Dystrophy Association of Canada Fellowships; Research Funding Programs Group Program (letter of intent due; full application due September 15); Research Personnel Programs Fellowships; Schizophrenia Society of Canada Fellowships
Royal Society of Canada: McNeil Medal
Upjohn (W.E.) Institute for Employment Research: Grant Program (full application due; letter of intent due mid-/late January)
Whitaker Foundation: Biomedical Engineering Research Grants (preliminary applictions due; full application due May 15)
York University (administered by ORA): York Incentive Grant
April 3
Laidlaw Foundation: Performing Arts Program
April 15
Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC): Research Cooperation Program between Canada and Latin America
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): Grants for German Studies (DAAD-AICGS Grant)
Industry Canada: Science Culture Canada
National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC): NCIC Program Project Grants (letter of intent due; full proposal is due September 15)
NATO: Science Program and Cooperation Partners Networking Infrastructure Grant
NSERC: Research Partnerships Programs with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Department of National Defence (DND), National Research Council (NRC); Strategic Projects
Royal Bank of Canada: Royal Bank Award
The Office of Research Administration (ORA) would like to remind faculty members of these research opportunities with upcoming deadlines. Deadlines listed are those of the granting agencies. Applications for external sources of funding (i.e., outside York) must be submitted to ORA before forwarding them to the agencies. To assist in meeting these deadlines, it is recommended that applications be submitted to ORA one to two weeks prior to the deadline dates.
For more information, please contact ORA at -55055 in S414 Ross Building (e-mail: research@yorku.ca).
by Clara Thomas
Shirley Halevy
The York University Archives has recently received a rare item of Canadiana, donated by Hugh Anson-Cartwright in memory of Shirley Halevy, assistant director of collections and development, who died in 1994.
From York's beginnings, the experience and expertise of Mr. Anson-Cartwright, one of Canada's long-established and distinguished bookmen, dealers and collectors, has been a major factor in the development of York's library holdings; since 1961, when Shirley Marinelli Doughty was the first librarian hired as assistant to Douglas Lochead and Lorna Fraser, already on hand as librarians in the Wood residence at Glendon, she worked closely with Anson-Cartwright until her retirement in 1978. He has presented us with one of the few, privately-printed copies of E.J. Pratt's Rachel, an early poem set in Newfoundland, never published in Pratt's lifetime, but much sought-after as important evidence of his early promise and what was to become his lifetime major achievement, the long dramatic narrative. A native of Newfoundland, a Methodist minister's son, Pratt wrote the poem in 1917, as a recently ordained Methodist minister himself.
It is a tragic story of the growth of a boy to adulthood and his choosing a life and death at sea, against his mother's wishes, and it is the prototype of others among his Newfoundland poems. Inescapably, it brings vividly to mind Pratt's much later, and perhaps most memorable, poem, The Titanic, almost certainly somewhere in the memory of James Cameron, the Canadian responsible for the current, resoundingly successful film. Pratt regaled his friends with a reading of the 600-line Rachel, as he loved to do, but he thought little of it except as a work of apprenticeship and made little or no effort to have it published. But one of the friends who had heard him read it thought differently, took it to New York and there had a small edition privately printed. It is one of these copies, beautifully printed in a plain black binding, that we now hold in the Archives.
York is still a very "new" university and, inevitably, the dispersal of its early personnel has meant that its institutional memory is not well-developed. Those of us who were at Glendon in the early days, however, remember vividly the first library, where the bookstore is now, piled with books and daily receiving more piles. There was even a short time when an ad in the Toronto Star brought donations of some astonishing volumes (all of which, of course, had to be accepted with gratitude), regardless of their potential use or uselessness. Visiting Shirley to hear of her latest adventures in the book world quickly became one of my favourite diversions, for the library was one of the centres of the "creative frenzy," as another old-timer has called it, of York's early days.
The library's efficiency and the speedy building of a more-than-adequate collection was astounding then and continues to amaze me. We grieve the early death, after a long illness, of Shirley, one of its founding movers and shakers. With gratitude, we are proud to accept this memorial to her.
Professor Emeritus Clara Thomas is a Canadian Studies Research Fellow.
Howard Daugherty has returned to the Faculty of Environmental Sciences after three-and-a-half years on leave of absence in Central America. During this time, he was director of the Honduras Environmental Protection Fund, a $17-million (U.S.) project funded by USAID, UNDP and the Government of Honduras.
The objective of the fund was to finance environmental projects which were formulated and implemented by Honduran environmental NGOs in partnership with American NGOs, including World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, RARE Centre for Tropical Conservation, and EcoLogic Development Fund. These projects focused on protected areas planning and management, biodiversity protection, conservation of critical ecosystems, and small scale sustainable agriculture.
A major portion of this work concentrated on building the institutional capacity of local NGOs to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate projects ranging up to a total investment of $600,000 U.S. each.
Daugherty was one of three recipients in 1996 of the Blanca Jeanette Kawas Fernández National Award for "outstanding service in support of environmental protection and conservation of natural resources in Honduras." The other recipients were the Honduran minister of forestry and the attorney general for the Ministry of the Environment.
In April 1997, Daugherty received another award for his work with environmental NGOs in protecting the natural resources of the north coast of Honduras. This award was presented at the National Workshop on Protected Areas Planning and Management, held in Tela, Atlantida.
Professor Brent Rutherford also made four research trips to Honduras as a consultant to the project during this period. He designed the methodology for a comparative survey and analysis of environmental attitudes, knowledge and awareness in 1996 and 1997. Rutherford and Daugherty have presented three papers at international conferences as a result of this work.
Daugherty will also present a paper on institution capacity-building at the Conference of the International Society for Third-Sector Research in Geneva this summer.
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, (Clockwise from top left): Who is that masked man? Dean of Arts George Fallis, we're reliably informed. Reuben (Pancho Villa) Tang, director of Printing Services, and researcher Stephanie (Xena) Van Willigenburg. Jim Priestly, Facilities Planning, (left), and Professor Michael Gilbert, Philosophy. Human Resources staffers Margaret Miceli (far left) and Elizabeth Alexander dressed as riverboat queens.
The Faculty of Arts Mardi Gras, Feb. 6, was a night to remember for over 320 faculty, staff and friends of the University, who let their hair down, dressed up for carnival and had a ball.
The Hollywood Princess Banquet Centre was transformed into the New Orleans French Quarter by the imaginative set design of Toronto artist (and York alumnus) Ian Leventhal. Guests enjoyed an evening of Cajun foods complemented by fine wines from Magnotta Wineries, and dancing to the jazz stylings of Jim Galloway and his group. And that was only the beginning.
Traditionally a king and queen of Mardi Gras must be chosen. York's king for the evening was friend of the University George Cortina. The undisputed queen was Terry Goldie (English).
After dinner, President Marsden took the opportunity to present the President's Citation to event Chair Anna Cavaliere (Mathematics and Statistics) and Co-Chair Liliana Guadagnoli (French Studies) for their organization of the 1997 Wine and Dine Gala. The citation recognizes "special contributions by University staff who have enhanced the institution." Revellers agreed that the two organizers deserved equal praise for the 1998 Mardi Gras.
Even the door prizes were spectacular, including a trip to New Orleans, a limousine trip to Inniskillin Winery, a limited-edition print by well-known Canadian artist Pamela Meacher and a computer printer.
A silent auction of works by York Fine Arts students was very popular and further revenue was raised through the sale of balloons, some of which contained prizes.
In total, the second annual Faculty of Arts gala raised over $10,000. With matching funds from the Ontario government, the faculty now has over $20,000 to aid Arts students in financial need.
by John Dwyer
Acclaimed Canadian novelist and humanities professor Susan Swan was the featured speaker in the Premier Lecture Series on Feb. 26. Swan's lecture on "The Burden of Adjustment or Why We Sometimes Put Up with Racist/Sexist Art" was a personal and careful examination of the difficult adjustment that readers must make if they are to extract the artistic merit in sexist works. The burden is particularly heavy for women in a patriarchal society because so much of our literature is sexist, and some of it outrageously so.
The readers of this column will be particularly interested in Swan's insightful comments on the teaching of contentious literature. "I encourage my students to create believable characters," says Swan. "One of my male students wrote using the voice of a rapist, and four of my female students walked out of the class." The burden of adjustment on the part of these students was too heavy to tolerate the piece to even attempt to discover artistic merit.
Swan has wrestled with this problem ever since. "All art requires adjustment in terms of our own identity," she says, "but it is particularly problematic when it offends us deeply as women or human beings." Stereotypical views of women or social groups are endemic in most literature, and Swan thinks that we need to explicitly explore this tension with our students.
Great teachers provide their students with informed choice, by showing them what they get in exchange for accepting this burden of adjustment. The novel American Psycho asks a lot of women readers precisely because it relentlessly and clinically catalogues violence towards women. Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Merchant of Venice are clearly "sexist and racist literature." But this does not mean that we should censor them or avoid such works in the classroom.
"We need to show our students what they get in exchange for remaining open to problematic literature," says Swan. American Psycho does provide aesthetic pleasure in its chilling description of a world where even the taking of human life is meaningless and by withholding sympathy from characters and victims, author Bret Easton Ellis provides a different and revealing perspective on human nature.
Swan often imagines Shakespeare as a student in her class. She occasionally refers to The Taming of the Shrew as "poor Bill's play" and to Shakespeare himself as "something of a curiosity." Swan encourages present students to explore the many negative characteristics of the play and the modern productions that make attempts to wrestle different conclusions from the text. "At the end of the day," however, "there's no way that you can get around Shakespeare's sexism."
Shakespeare's characters in The Taming of the Shrew, however, are fully human. "Kate's personhood is never in question," argues Swan, "she is fully human and her dilemma is clear." Moreover, the play underlines the value of self-control. Petruchio is no wife-batterer precisely because his behaviour is a performance designed to make Kate submit to a husband's love.
Shakespeare tells us that "we are much more than our social roles, which are a skillful acting job that we must play to survive." And, while this in no way deflects the valid criticism of Shakespeare's characters, such an analysis does show our students the importance of sophisticated interpretation and gives them some reasons to consider accepting the burden of adjustment.
Swan shared her own "interpretations" with the audience. She now believes that American Psycho is a much better book than when she first reviewed it for the Globe and Mail. While she sympathizes deeply with the female students who walked out of her creative writing class, she would not condone censorship of literary voice in her classroom.
"There is no question that literature is dangerous," argues Swan, "but trying to control it is like trying to control human nature." University humanities teachers have two duties, Swan suggests. One is to examine art and literature without an impulse to censorship. The other is to constantly remind your students that the burden of adjustment is more difficult for some sexes, and some social groups, than others.
John Dwyer is consultant to the Centre for the Support of Teaching.
Venez fêter avec nous la Journée internationale de la francophonie, le samedi 21 mars à Glendon de 10 h à 22 h, Collège universitaire Glendon, 2275, av. Bayview, Toronto. Entrée libre ; stationnement gratuit.
(Journée organisée par l'Association des auteures et auteurs de l'Ontario français et le Groupe de recherche en études francophones, Glendon, avec le concours du Conseil des Arts du Canada, du Conseil des arts de l'Ontario, de Radio-Canada et de la Société des écrivains de Toronto.)
* Festival de films (Acadie, Ontario, Québec, France, Tunisie), Club des professeurs, pavillon York * Galerie Glendon.
* Exposition de livres francophones * Galerie Glendon.
* Rencontres d'écrivains animées par Marie-Andrée Michaud * Café de la Terrasse * 14 h17 h.
* Cinq à sept littéraire mis en scène par Marc LeMyre et animé par Sylvie-Anne Jeanson, Hall du Manoir Glendon * 17 h19 h.
* Buffet de la francophonie gourmande, Salons du Manoir Glendon * 20 h22 h (invité d'honneur : Pierre Pelletier, président de la Fédération culturelle canadienne-française). * Participation aux frais du buffet ; 8 $ * Réservations : (416) 487-6774.
* Avec la participation de Christine Dumitriu Van Saanen, Claudette Gravel, Lucienne Lacasse-Lovsted, Pierre Léon, Alain Bernard Marchand, Arash Mohtashami-Maali, Michel Ouellette et Roseann Runte.
Applications are being accepted for the 1998-99 position of Graduate Teaching Associate in the Centre for the Support of Teaching. Applications should be postmarked by Monday, March 30, 1998. For information, call 736-5754.
