| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 32 | WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
GREENING THE CAMPUS: PhD student Richard Milgrom and Professor Barbara Rahder with FES workshop display.
More natural green space and trees, a direct subway-line to and from York, greater accessibility to the administration, more gathering spaces, and enclosed access to buildings were among the recommendations for changes to the campus advocated by the 150 respondents to a survey conducted by the Bioregional Planning Workshop in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES).
Led by Professors Greg Allen and Barbara Rahder, 25 students and five faculty members participated in the workshop, during the winter of 1997-98.
The aim of the workshop was to devise "alternatives that will make the campus plan and planning process more sensitive to its ecological and social communities, and hence more sustainable," according to the workshop report, entitled Making Space: For Community in the Bioregion.
Specific objectives included developing "greater awareness and understanding of the interface between the natural and built form on campus," re-connecting the campus with its natural history and the surrounding bioregion, promoting an optimal use of ecological and economic resources, and evaluating the current transportation system and, where appropriate, suggesting alternatives.
While York does not have the historic architecture of some other Canadian universities, it does have natural attributes that many more-urban campuses do not. These natural features are where great improvements to the Keele campus can be made, the report's authors say.
The report's recommendations include:
* Making an explicit commitment to actively include and involve Keele campus users in campus planning.
* Increasing canopy cover to ameliorate the harsh climatic conditions of the campus.
* Exploring alternative, clean energy sources that are revenue generating and appropriate to the campus, such as wind generation.
* Facilitating construction of the proposed Keele/Steeles TTC subway loop by donating free of charge any University lands needed for station entry points and commuter parking facilities.
* Replacing parking lots with parking structures and incorporating street side parking.
* Building more student housing, covered walkways and bicycle facilities, and promoting more mixed-use development to provide services that would make the campus a 'round-the-clock community.
* Creating and promoting computerized car pooling.
* Creating a constructed wetland east of campus that will capture and retain stormwater, allowing pollutants and sediments to settle out before the water is discharged into Hoover Creek.
* Redesigning parking lots to be naturally self-draining through a combination of swales and vegetation and inclined variations; and employing green technologies, such as rain-collection barrels, cisterns, vegetation, swales, porous pavement and greening of building-rooftops, to help reduce the negative impacts of stormwater.
* Undertaking an energy audit to determine the extent and focus of energy efficiencies across the campus.
* Promoting energy conservation through education programs and making individual faculties responsible for their energy costs.
* Exploring the potential for large-scale composting and the use of a methane digester on campus.
* Re-assessing York's procurement policy, in terms of packaging, toxin avoidance, the re-use and cyclable content of materials, food service contracts and material bans on specific projects.
* Expanding the size of the South Keele Woodlot on the NW corner of Keele St. and Pond Rd., viewed as a site of ecological importance because it contains one of the last remaining stands of silver maple in Southern Ontario.
* Employing students for positions, such as cleaning, grounds keeping and administration, in exchange for a reduction in tuition costs.
The report identifies several weaknesses in York's planning process and identifies three as priorities: "the lack of a clear and sustainable vision; an inherently unsustainable funding strategy, which is rooted in the selling of University lands in order to generate income; and, although users are interested in participating, they are unaware of campus planning processes and projects."
The participants in the Bioregional Planning Workshop were: Muni Ahlawat, Deborah Alexander, Rosalind Cairncross, Emily Chan, Rita Di Marcantonio, Jennifer Foster, Antonio Gomez-Palacio, Paul Heeney, Shane Holten, Annmarie Isler, Jennifer Keesmaat, Andrea Lucyk, Brenna MacKinnon, Kristine MacPhee, Lee Marsden, Marc McClean, Susan Moore, Noah Pond, James Scott, Kelly Snow, David Tomlinson, Diane van de Valk, Patrick Vanasse, Shana Wilmot and Greg Zala.
Together with Professors Allen and Rahder, Professors Michael Hough and Rob Macdonald and FES PhD student Richard Milgrom served as the workshop's associated faculty members.
Gary J. Smith
Canada's Ambassador to Indonesia, Gary J. Smith, has been appointed vice-president (university advancement) of York University, effective July 1, 1998.
Smith, a 53-year-old native of Toronto, brings to the University the experience and knowledge garnered from an eventful and distinguished 30-year diplomatic career. That career spanned several continents and included stints in Germany as deputy ambassador when the Berlin Wall came down, in Israel during the turbulent early '80s, at the Soviet desk in Ottawa during the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and in Moscow during the Cold War.
Smith, who speaks French, Russian and German, graduated in 1968 from Glendon College where he earned his Honours B.A. (Cum Laude) in Political Science. He was appointed Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia in September 1996 after spending a year as a Fellow at the Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University. Just prior to that, he served as acting assistant deputy minister, Asia and Pacific Branch, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, during which time he played a key role in organizing the first trade Team Canada Mission to China in November 1994.
Smith's career also has taken him to the United Nations in New York where he served as political advisor to the Canadian Delegation; to Brussels as a first secretary/political counsellor to the permanent delegation to NATO; and to New Delhi where he was the deputy high commissioner. He also served as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Division and as a leading member of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's Task Force on International Peace and Security in 1983/84, accompanying the then Prime Minister on the "Peace Mission" to 18 world capitals. Smith was also the chief Embassy organizer for the 1972 Canada-Soviet Professional Hockey Series, and as such accompanied the Soviet team to the Games in Canada and acted as liaison officer to Team Canada during the matches in Moscow.
"We are delighted to have someone of Ambassador Smith's stature join the York community. He brings to York an impressive array of experience and expertise in international, domestic, academic and governmental issues. He is strongly committed to higher education, especially international education, and has a strategic mind capable of promoting the York community through a myriad of channels," said University President Lorna Marsden. "We welcome him back to York, and look forward to the exciting and effective contribution he will make to his alma mater."
In the position of vice-president (university advancement), Smith will have the exciting challenge of creating and implementing a long-term, integrated advancement plan in support of the strategic academic objectives of the University. Reporting to the president, the vice-president is responsible for communications, development, alumni affairs and community relations. He will oversee the completion of York's first $100-million National Campaign, which has successfully secured $80-million thus far.
"I have very fond memories of my student days during York's initial decade as a university in the spirited 1960s," said Smith. "I'm honoured to have this exciting opportunity to return to my home town and alma mater as we engage the challenges of a new century and a new millennium when higher education and international exposure and discourse will assume even greater importance. I look forward to working with the entire University community to assist York assume its place as a global university in an international city," he said.
Smith is the author of several publications, including "Arms Control Across the East-West Divide" (Canada and the New Internationalism), "Arms Control and Security Building in Asia Pacific: A Canadian Perspective" (East West Centre, Hawaii), and "Multilateralism and Regional Security in Asia: the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and APEC's Geopolitical Value" (Harvard University, Centre for International Affairs.)
Smith is married to Laurielle Chabeaux. They have a 25-year-old daughter, Tatiana, and a 22-year-old son, Eric.
Robert C. (Bob) Casto, poet, respected teacher, valued colleague and beloved friend of many, passed away on April 5, 1998, after a long and courageously fought illness.
Professor Casto came to work in the English Department at York University in 1970, and remained to become one of its strongest pillars, continuing to teach until early March of this year.
He will be remembered for his dry sense of humour, and his accute and deadly accurate intelligence. He was a wonderful and much underrated poet. He was a superb teacher, both of the Romantic Period in which he traditionally took many more students than required, and in Creative Writing where he was a generous and skilled director. Bob had great rapport with his students, filling them with an infectious energy which was an inspiration to his classes for more than a quarter of a century.
He was a born teacher. I was his student in a class he gave on Romanticism during the autumn-winter sessions of 1975-76, at York. When RC stalked into the room his resemblance to Vincent Price didn't go unnoticed he dominated, even intimidated us. He made everyone snap to attention, listen. What a voice he had. He read Shelley, Blake, Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, like no one had heard them read before. After all this time, I still hear his voice ringing in my ears. I learned more about poetry from how he read it than I had from a hundred lectures on sense and intent. He read with the deepest attention to rhythm, inflection, diction, pauses he read with singular passion, some deeper personal need that he never explained. Maybe he didn't have to explain it, he was a true reader, one who made the language sing, made it memorable, its possibilities indelible.
I used to argue with him. A moody, obstreperous kid, who really thought he knew a lot about Blake, I was determined to engage him. His opinion mattered to me. We debated, disagreed, fought, grumbled and I remember withdrawing from his office, feeling wounded in my pride. I wanted RC to see I understood, too. He gave me a C+ in the first term; it was the lowest grade I'd ever received from any English teacher. Outraged, I studied, read more, reread the poems, committed some Blake and Shelley to memory, paced my den reciting those lines, went for long walks to mull over the issues of Romanticism. I came back to write a final exam that I hoped would show my commitment to literature, and a precision in thinking. I did well. And the final grade he gave me seemed earned in a special way. He wrote me a private note after term, to let me know I had indeed struck home with that exam.
Strangely, for all his theatricality, he was a shy man. Shy, I think, from great sensitivity, and an abiding sense of privacy. I doubt if one can be intelligent and sensitive in his way without being private. I once told him that I admired his method of teaching, and that I had in my own writings taken up some of his ideas, applying them. He smiled an ironic smile, and shied away, saying, simply, "Thank you."
I think writers find other complementary ages in history for themselves a literary, historical period that expresses for them an intensity and existential drama, a grounding authenticity and spiritual coherence, which contrasts with the age they actually inhabit. For me that period is the Age of the Romantics. Rebellion, the exaltation of the imagination, the triumph of expressive form over inherited styles, the rage to change, the pursuit of tenderness, the incorporation of dreams, the faith in love, sympathy for what suffers, the value of the individual RC brought all these energies to the classroom. Over time, Romanticism has become my touchstone.
I'd meant to thank him. And I did see him now and then, at York, at meetings, around town, at bookstores. He would be friendly, funny, sharp, sometimes sarcastic. I always thought I'd find that time to thank him. But there was no time left. RC would have shied away anyway.
I thank his spirit now, and wish his soul well on its journey. And let his spirit and soul know that his readings have helped to sustain others, and that his energy will be remembered.
B.W. Powe
GOOD NIGHT; and then again
good night, goodbye; for when we pass
a certain distance from the doors of men
we become less than men and when (alas)
our hearts have known
a single irremediable moment
when they wash in their own
distress and spend without comment
their last pulse nearly
on an effort so very brave
it seems our lung re-feeds its appetite
at that point, when we slip into the grave,
voices from other homes say softly, clearly
Good night again; and then again
Good night.
R.C. Casto, from A Strange and Fitful Land
About 40 people gathered in the Faculty Club recently to say grazie and obrigado to the governments of Italy and Portugal for funding lectureships at York.
The occasion celebrated the renewal of the lectureships, as well as past contributions by the two governments. The Italian lectureship has been renewed for three years and the Portuguese lectureship for five.
Leonardo Sampoli, consul general of Italy, and Antonio Montenegro, consul general of Portugal, were on hand at the April 21 reception in the Faculty Club where they were honoured by University officials for their governments' contributions.
The holders of the lectureships, Angela Amella (Italian) and Antonio Joel (Portuguese), also were in attendance, along with University President Lorna Marsden, Vice-President (Academic Affairs) Michael Stevenson, Dean of Arts George Fallis, members of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics (DLLL) and other members of the York community.
Barry Miller, acting chair of DLLL, expressed his department's "deep appreciation" to the two consuls general and conveyed the department's delight in the continued enrichment that the lectureships will bring in the years ahead.
"These lectureships are extraordinarily valuable," commented President Marsden, "because they keep the students and faculty at York in touch with 'living language' as it evolves in Portugal and Italy. This is so important, especially in Toronto.
"The generosity of these two governments and the excellent work of Professors Amella and Joel have contributed greatly to York's ability to fulfill our commitments to the many communities that we are trying to serve."
Dean Fallis also extended his thanks. "I want to point out how important these lectureships are to the internationalization of the Faculty of Arts, in particular to our emerging emphasis in European studies," he said.
Adding to the festive ambience of the reception was a display of Canadian artwork that is held in Portuguese collections in the Toronto area.
The winner of the York Lottery draw for April was Maria Angiers, Finance Office. The winning ticket number was 1494. The ticket seller was Debbie Jamieson. Congratulations, Maria.
Claude Grimmond
Claude Grimmond, a teacher at Westview Centennial Secondary School in North York, is the recipient of the first York University Faculty of Education Alumni Association (YUFEAA) Excellence in Teaching award.
YUFEAA presented the award at a festive gala and awards dinner on Thursday, May 7 with about 200 teachers in attendance. The event celebrated the first quarter-century of York's Faculty of Education and its unique teaching program, which emphasizes practical, in-class teaching experience.
Award nominations were open to all Faculty of Education graduates who have made a significant difference to the lives of students, colleagues, schools and their community, and the call for nominations garnered an impressive list of candidates.
Grimmond, who graduated from York in 1990 with an In Service Bachelor of Education, has been teaching for 27 years. His performance inside and outside the classroom earned him top marks with the jury. "The jury found Mr. Grimmond demonstrated admirable skill, not only in his role as teacher, but also in his pro-active involvement with his school community," says Mindy Pollishuke, president of YUFEAA.
Grimmond has won the respect both of his peers and his students, who see him as a "cool teacher" and as someone who is genuinely concerned about their education and welfare.
"Claude has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of young people and their families. He is a true educator, because foremost in his mind and actions are the well-being and positive development of young people," says Westview teacher Virlie Dainty, who nominated Grimmond for the YUFEAA award.
A program team leader in Westview's Creative Arts Department, Grimmond is noted for his exemplary work and dedication in the area of conflict mediation. His achievements include:
* implementing the Positive Peer Culture program at Westview in 1981: students are taught to resolve conflict through mediation instead of in an adversarial way;
* co-producing a video, You've Got the Key, which instructs students and teachers on how to deal with racial conflict in school;
* chairing and serving on the board of directors of the Jane-Finch Legal Clinic, which helps needy students gain access to legal advice.
"People who come into this profession shouldn't do so because they're looking for a job, but because they care," says Grimmond. "I came into teaching because I genuinely believed that I could make a difference in the lives of the students."
Everything he has achieved as an educator is a result of caring about the final product, Grimmond says. "In order to be an effective and caring teacher, kids need to see you as someone who is concerned for them. You have to find a way to connect with them in order for them to learn."
He cautions new teachers that their role will require more than teaching basic curriculum. "In large cities like Toronto, with its great diversity of students, being just a subject-based teacher is not going to make it. Students today have a lot more problems," he says. "Teachers are dealing with students' diverse cultural needs, behavioural problems and poor social skills. If a classroom teacher is not given the tools to assist these students, then you end up with a disruptive learning environment."
The $1,000 cheque accompanying the award was made possible by Manulife Financial.
Twenty-five years ago, Robert Overing, the York Faculty of Education's first dean, realized that teacher candidates needed to have a forum to process what they are learning. The faculty's teacher training program was founded on the principle that teachers should be competent to teach children of all levels and backgrounds. Traditionally, student teachers were given 10 weeks of practice teaching. Dean Overing thought it would be beneficial to extend practice teaching to six months throughout the course.
Today, the teacher education programs at York are distinguished from others in Ontario by the amount of practicum experience. A teacher candidate spends approximately 100 days in a classroom setting, experiencing situations met by teachers on a daily basis, developing an understanding of how schools meet community needs and reflecting on personal experience and observations.
York offers two teacher education models, the Concurrent and the Consecutive programs, each leading to the BEd degree and a recommendation for the Ontario Teacher's Certificate.
Grimmond graduated from York with a Master in Environmental Studies degree in 1990. That same year, the University also awarded him an In Service Bachelor of Education degree.
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has awarded grants to the following 31 research projects at York University:
Howard Adelman, Philosophy, "The ethics of humanitarian intervention: The Kurds, Rwanda and Zaire," $61,000.
Vijay Agnew, Sociology, "Women activism and social change: the South Asian experience," $44,000.
Rae Anderson, Anthropology, "Sanctuary for chronically homeless women," $55,700.
Lynn Angus, Psychology, "Micronarrative and macronarrative change in brief experiential psychotherapy: An empirical analysis," $84,000.
Deborah Britzman, Education, "Difficult knowledge in teaching and learning: A psychoanalytic inquiry," $70,000.
Sam Bucovetsky, Economics, "Increasing returns and federalism," $17,750.
Gary Butler, Humanities, "Cultural assimilation and dissimilation: The African-Caribbean narrative tradition in Toronto," $38,500.
Judith Cohen, Music, "New development in Judeo-Spanish Sephardic song reincarnations, especially in post-Quincenteriel of expulsion from Iberia events," $30,500.
Wes Cragg, Philosophy, "Ethical Codes: The regulatory norms of a global economy," $249,922.
Stephen Gill, Political Science, "Knowledge, culture and global political economy: network industries and new patterns of accumulation," $39,400.
Abbas Gnamo, Centre for International and Security Studies, "Identity politics in the Horn of Africa: Ethnonational conflicts and the challenges and prospects for peace in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia," $62,000.
Frances Henry, Anthropology, "The political legitimation of African derived religious groups in Trinidad," $33,500.
Ruth King, Languages, Literatures & Linguistics, "The sociolinguistic structure of varieties of Acadien French," $59,000.
Martin Lockshin, Humanities, "Preparation of an annotated translation of Rabbi Samuel Ben Meir's Commentary on Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy," $30,500.
Maynard Maidman, History, "Revealing ancient Mesopotamian society: Publication of texts from the Town of Nuzi," $26,155.
Steven Mason, Humanities, "The first comprehensive English-language commentary to the works of Flavius Josephus," $32,424.
Gertrude Mianda, Sociology, "Colonisation, education et rapports de genre au Congo-belge," $23,035.
Robert Muller, Psychology, "A reciprocal effects model of social support and resilience: A longitudinal study of high risk university students," $55,281.
Leo Panitch, Political Science, "State, labour and globalization," $36,550.
Linda Peake, Social Science, "A political geography of Guyana," $39,000.
Peter Penz, Environmental Studies, "International development ethics and population displacement: the nature and extent of Canada's obligations in developing countries," $236,980.
Patricia Perkins, Environmental Studies, "Feminist ecological economics: new models and policy implications," $86,000.
Valerie Preston, Geography, "Immigration and retail development: a comparison of 'Asian' malls in Canada and Australia," $20,700.
David Rennie, Psychology, "Grounded theory analysis of the experiences of cognitive therapy, return to Orthodox Judaism and counselling regarding it," $49,218.
Paul Rilstone, Economics, "New semiparametric and nonparametric methods for the analysis of duration data," $35,500.
Catriana Sandilands, Environmental Studies, "States of nature: National Parks and the cultural production of 'Canada,'" $30,000.
Sandra Schecter, Education, "Situating learning in home, school and community: an action research collaboration," $37,900.
Stuart Shanker, Philosophy, "The development of language: an interactionist perspective," $26,100.
Kathryn Taylor, Administrative Studies, "Critical Choices II: An international research and policy symposium on the ethical, legal and sociobehavioural implications of heritable breast, ovarian and colon cancer," $15,000.
Evan Thompson, Philosophy, "The consciousness of time: phenomenology and cognitive science,"$28,920.
Daniel Yon, Education, "Saint Helenian immigrants in Britain," $32,000.
Lien Chao's Beyond Silence wins 1998 Gabrielle Roy Prize in Canadian Literary Criticism
Beyond Silence: Chinese Canadian Literature in English by Lien Chao, published by TSAR in 1997, has won the 1998 Gabrielle Roy Prize in Canadian Literary Criticism (English-language).
Author Chao completed her PhD in English at York only recently. Her thesis formed the basis for her book.
Chao has been invited to receive the award, given by the Association of Canadian and Quebec Literature, at the Learneds in Ottawa on May 30.
"How interesting and how ironic since I don't even have an academic position! I think it must be the subject itself which is powerful. And that is good news for Chinese Canadian Literature and encouragement for everyone who is working on the subject," Chao comments.
Chao's PhD supervisor was Professor Arun Murkherjee.
Prof. Paul Craven's book, Labouring Lives, wins Talman Award
The Ontario Historical Society has selected Labouring Lives: Work and Workers in Nineteenth Century Ontario, edited by Paul Craven (Social Science, Arts), as the "best book on Ontario's social, economic, political or cultural history published in the past three years."
Published by the University of Toronto Press for the Ontario Historical Studies Series in 1995, Labouring Lives is a collaborative work with seven co-authors, most of whom have significant York connections. Bettina Bradbury, Paul Craven and Craig Heron are all members of the Graduate Program in History. Ian Radforth (History, Toronto), Lynn Marks (History, Victoria) and Jeremy Webber (Law, Sydney) all completed their graduate studies at York. The remaining author is Terry Crowley (History, Guelph).
The Ontario Historical Society presented its J.J. Talman Award for 1997 to Prof. Craven on May 2.
Students scramble for seats in 'blockbuster' film and video program
York's degree program in Film and Video "has proved consistently popular," Professor Scott Forsyth informed the Toronto Star for a recent feature story about the "blockbuster" program.
"We get between 400 to 500 applicants for the 60 open spots each year," Forsyth, who is department chair, informed the Star.
"We've gone to a system where we invite the applicants to come in for a writing test. We screen a sequence from a film or show them a slide and ask them to write an analytical or a creative piece, if they feel inspired. The faculty as a whole evaluates those, as well as talking to the students about their ambitions, their passion about film and art. Only lastly do we look at their high school marks."
Enrolment in the honours BA and BFA streams stands at 230 and another 26 aspiring film-makers have been pursuing a master's degree during the 1997-98 academic year. The most recent survey of graduates indicated that 84 per cent had found work in some capacity in the film and video industry.
The BA program entails concentration on film theory, history and criticism. Fine Arts majors undertake a heavier course load in production or screenwriting.
Film and video students are not just vocationally focused, Forsyth told the Star. "This is an intellectual project, as well, and we emphasize the relationship between the analytical and creative."
Shoah statement ducks question of church's accountability: Abella
The Vatican's 14-page statement of regret for the Holocaust, entitled We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, is a welcome step forward, but the concept of the infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is still preventing the church from acknowledging the mistakes of its officials, Professor Irving Abella told the Ottawa Citizen upon the release of the statement in March.
While We Remember expresses deep regret for the errors and failures of individual Catholics during the Holocaust, it does not admit the church itself erred in its teachings on Jews. As well, it defends Pope Pius XII, who frequently is criticized for failing to speak out against the Nazis and for not doing enough to help German Jews in the years leading up to the Second World War, and Jews throughout Europe during the war.
Few scholars today defend Pius XII, said Abella, a professor of history at Glendon College and a former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. The Vatican's statement ducks the question of the responsibility of the pope, other church officials and the church itself, he said.
Dairy company puts name on Ice Gardens at Keele campus
As of May 1, the six-pad Ice Gardens at York, owned and operated by Lauridon Sports Management Inc., is the Beatrice Ice Gardens.
Beatrice Foods, which is owned by Parmalat Canada, a branch of the world's largest dairy company, based in Italy, acquired the naming rights in conjunction with a "trailblazing," $500,000, five-year commitment to women's hockey in Ontario, according to the Toronto Star.
The deal has Beatrice sponsoring the North York Aeros Senior AAA women's hockey team, the provincial champions, whose name is changing to the Beatrice Aeros. The company will also sponsor five Ontario Federation Secondary School Athletic Association-sanctioned female hockey tournaments and skills development programs in elementary and high schools.
The Ice Gardens naming rights cost the company an additional half-million dollars, according to the Star.
Women's and girls' hockey is the fastest-growing segment of the sport in North America.
Hildegard von Bingen has become academically respectable
Hildegard von Bingen, a Benedictine nun and abbess born in 1098, was a writer, composer, mystic and visionary, who has attained enormous popularity in recent times.
"I think it was kind of a New Age, post-hippie thing that got going on Hildegard, then it became more academically respectable," Professor Frances Beer, English Department, Atkinson College, told the Canadian Press news agency recently.
Hildegard of Bingen by U.S. Catholic dissident Matthew Fox and Women Writers of the Middle Ages by Peter Dronke at Cambridge University are among the books that have focused on her writings and illuminations. In this year of von Bingen's 900th birthday, symposiums are scheduled in her native Germany, leading up to her feast on Sept. 17, while similar projects have sprung up in North America, including concerts in Toronto and Washington, D.C.
Hildegard "was a very gifted, high-strung child, who was tithed to the church by her parents," said Beer, the author of Women and Mystical Experiences in the Middle Ages. "She started having visions in her infancy."
Psychologist and author Oliver Sacks has said von Bingen's visions likely resulted from migraine headaches, but not everyone agrees. "I can easily imagine the migraines were caused by her visions," Beer said.
by Patrick Phillips
Since its establishment in 1996, the Teaching Development Graduate Assistant (TDGA) program has grown to the point where it services more than 15 departments university-wide. The mission of the program is to raise consciousness about the importance of teaching, as well as to improve teaching standards. This is achieved by the appointment of a TDGA in each department (usually a senior graduate student), who is funded at the same level as a teaching assistant.
The TDGAs facilitate professional development among their colleagues by holding workshops and lectures throughout the academic year. Each TDGA is responsible for planning and mounting workshops that enable those colleagues enrolled in the University Teaching Practicum to fulfill the discipline-specific requirement. The scope of the TDGA's mission is wider than this, however, and workshops are organized on topics as diverse as: developing critical skills, homophobia and racism in the classroom, promoting discussion in the classroom, disability issues, using word-processors, marking, grading and designing tests, effective lectures and presentations, and the effect of technology on teaching strategies. In practice, the list is endless.
The efforts of the TDGAs are co-ordinated from the Centre for the Support of Teaching (CST), which provides a resource centre in the form of books and articles and videotaped material on critical pedagogy. The Centre also plans and executes T.A. Day, which is held at the beginning of September when more than 40 workshops on critical pedagogy and related topics are made available to incoming and returning graduate students. In addition, the CST offers workshops all year 'round. Some examples of workshops from this term's program include: making teaching count, effective teaching dossiers and academic cvs, and using the library and internet in teaching assignments.
Given the support that the TDGAs receive from the CST (which is run in addition to and complements the excellent teaching support provided by many departments), TDGAs can achieve effective results in their mission to promote teaching excellence and professional development. The role of the TDGA is of growing importance in an atmosphere in which the accountability of teaching practices is growing and professional development is essential in order to prepare graduate students for a job market which is increasingly competitive.
As I write this, the Faculty of Graduate Studies is contacting department heads and graduate directors to canvass for the appointment of departmental TDGAs for the 1998-99 academic year. I would strongly suggest that, wherever feasible, departments embrace the opportunity to become involved in the TDGA program a program unique to York and one which other universities are beginning to emulate.
If you have any questions concerning the TDGA program or any other services that the CST offers, please do not hesitate to contact me at the CST, 111 Central Square or e-mail me at Pat@nexus.yorku.ca.
Patrick Phillips is co-ordinator of the TDGA program
NSERC
R&D Partnerships Awards
NSERC and the Conference Board of Canada offer $10,000-awards to outstanding examples of R&D partnerships in the natural sciences and engineering. There are four categories of awards: (1) the industry partner has up to 500 employees or annual sales up to $50 million; (2) the industry partner has more than 500 employees or annual sales of more than $50 million; (3) R&D ventures involving at least two industry partners; (4) an innovative model of long-standing university-industry interaction in a pre-competitive realm that has benefitted the general well-being of an industry.
Deadline: June 1
Ontario Ministry of Energy, Science, and Technology
Telecommunications Access Partnerships
This initiative is intended to encourage Ontarians to work together in innovative ways to use the information highway to its full potential. TAP is designed to assist groups of users to meet demonstrated needs for access to networks, services and applications based on the infrastructure provided by telecommunications and other carriers. TAP acts as a catalyst for the advancement of demand-driven telecommunications infrastructure networks with a real user presence. High priority will be given to projects that: (1) develop advanced network initiatives that demonstrate the potential for significant improvements in the ways of doing business in various sectors, including the broader public sector; and (2) develop leading-edge network initiatives that support or link major R&D activities. The value of awards is up to $50,000.
Deadline: June 1
International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Ecosystem Approaches
to Human Health
Up to $50,000/year for up to three years is available to support interdisciplinary research that focuses on the development of ecosystem management interventions that lead to the improvement of human health and well-being while maintaining or improving the capacity of the ecosystem to provide a desired range of other products and services.
Deadline: July 31
Corporate Higher Education Forum
Bell Canada Forum Award
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd.
Forum Award
A $5000-award is available to promising researchers carrying out collaborative industry-university research and development. Nominees shall have been engaged in carrying out collaborative industry-university research of major significance, or shall have performed a facilitator's role in organizing such research.
Deadline: June 30 (since the University is limited to a maximum of two nominations, please advise ORA of potential nominees by no later than June 5 in order to allow enough time to coordinate an internal selection process, if necessary)
Deadline Dates
June 10
Pediatric AIDS Foundation: Elizabeth Glaser Scientific Awards (letter of intent due; full application due October 1)
mid-June
Donner Canadian Foundation: Grants
June 15
Canadian Nurses Foundation: Research Grants Program
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (FAITC): Canada/ U.S./Mexico Creative Artists Program
Hong Kong Baptist University: University Fellowship Program
Lindbergh (Charles A.) Fund Inc.: Research Grants
Procter and Gamble Company: International Program for Animal Alternatives
SSHRC: Thérèse F.-Casgrain Fellowship for Research on Women and Social Change in Canada
York University (administered by ORA): York Ad Hoc Research Fund Conference Travel Grants
June 26
SSHRC: Research Development Initiatives Program
late June
Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR): Research Grants up to $20,000; Research Grants up to $60,000 (letter of intent due, full application due late September)
June 30
Ivey (Richard) Foundation: Biodiversity in Forest-Dominated Ecosystems
Shasri Indo-Canadian Institute: Indian Studies Program (Arts Fellowships, Faculty Fellowships, Postdoctoral Research Fellowships)
SSHRC: Aid to Research and Transfer Journals (General Grants, Special Initiative Grants); Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (full application due; letter of intent due January 15)
Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) Foundation: Research Funding Program
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).
York's Centre for Feminist Research, the Toronto District School Board and the York Region Board of Education hosted a Conference on Equity in the Classroom, Equity in the Curriculum at the University's Keele campus on Thursday and Friday, May 7-8.
The keynote events included presentations by film-maker and author Bonnie Sherr Klein and educator, community activist and former Ontario cabinet minister Zanana L. Akande.
The conference drew teachers and planners in primary and secondary schools, community colleges and universities, who are implementing equality and inclusiveness in the classroom and the curriculum, and brought together specialists working on a variety of equality issues, including Native, lesbian/gay, women's and labour studies, from all levels of the education system.
Twenty-one workshops provided practical suggestions for lesson plans and new curriculum development and supported initiatives promoting equity in the classroom. They explored anti-sexist and anti-racist pedagogies, examined issues of class and addressed issues of the special needs student. Workshops included:
* Let Freedom Ring: Teaching and Learning in an Inner City School Showing of a video documentary scripted by an ESL class that takes the viewer through a regular school year where students, staff, Faculty of Education students and members of the Canadian Opera Company create an insider's view of children surviving, learning and caring for one another.
* The "Back Bedroom" Syndrome: The Exclusion of Those Who Are Disabled Focused on students with disabilities and the classroom techniques teachers can develop that allow the disabled student to define his/her own needs and to be his/her own self-advocate.
* Clan, Caste and Kinship Culture Provided insight, appreciation and a new perspective on visible minority (Punjabi Sikh) cultural boundaries as they intersect and align with mainstream-Canadian cultural boundaries. The presentation focused on Eurocentric-based curricula that assume that all students share the Christian model of beliefs, values and world views.
* Building an Inclusive Secondary School Discussion of a year-long, pilot project conducted at Western Technical-Commercial School that involved training staff and taking students on an intensive retreat in preparation for a process in which teachers and students worked together on a school action plan. Issues raised included sexual harrassment, changing the visual environment of the school and integrating ESL students into the life of the school.
* Brundibar: Children's Opera from the Ghetto of Terezin Demonstration of how a highly integrated art project can be used by classroom teachers to address the issues of racism and intolerance in society. Participants were shown how, by putting the Holocaust at the centre of an integrated arts project, other subjects, such as language, history, technology, music, drama and visual arts, can be taught effectively.
* Circles of Wonder Demonstration of how specially developed literacy themes can invite students to adapt a more inclusive perspective of the world in which we live.
* Teaching Inclusive History Using the Grade 9/10 course, 20th Century Canadian History, as the working example, this workshop explored some practical suggestions and methodologies for making history courses inclusive.
DROPPING THE EGG: The senior physics competition required teams to drop a raw egg onto a target from an Ontario Hydro crane without breaking it. The team from King City Secondary School (far right) kept their egg intact with the help of cotton batten, water balloons and Jello.
The problem-solving skills of 400 keen young scientific minds were put to the test on April 30, when high school students came to the York campus for the 7th annual York Region Science Olympics.
A series of challenges in chemistry, biology, and physics tested the scientific problem-solving skills of students from Grade 9 to OAC from 20 high schools in York region.
There were two categories: junior and senior. Junior included Grade 9 and 10 students. Senior included Grade 11, 12 and OAC students. Competition rules allowed for a maximum of five people per team. Winning schools in the junior division included: first place: Middlefield Secondary School; second place: Thornlea Secondary School; and third place: Newmarket High School. In the senior division, winners were: first place: Thornlea Secondary School; second place: Middlefield Secondary School; and third place: Markville District High School.
"An event like this brings out the best problem-solving skills in the students," said science teacher Alan Sargeant, chief coordinator of the Olympics. "It reminds me of a scene in the movie Apollo 13 where they had to throw out the manual and start from scratch to figure out how to get the astronauts back to Earth alive. They had to focus on the 'here and now.' In the same way, this event challenges the students, and they become very keen problem solvers."
"This is a great learning experience and a fun environment," said Adam Clausner, a Grade 12 student at Thornhill Secondary School. "It's good for high school students to come to the university and check out what the University has to offer. It's a pretty fun competition."
"We also get a chance to see what kinds of students we're up against when we apply to university," added Patrick Taylor, another member of the Thornhill team.
Sargeant said the students had a great time. "They loved the fact that Ontario Hydro had a truck there for the egg drop competition."
The egg drop competition required students to devise a way to drop a raw egg from a great height, using scientific means to ensure that the egg did not break. The highest marks were given for the heaviest, most accurate and fastest-falling egg projection devices.
Students placed their eggs in boxes that were padded and weighted down, but no adhesives or metal were allowed. Boxes were hoisted to the top of the Ontario Hydro crane. Some of the students tried to cushion their eggs in boxes filled with jello, cotton batten and popcorn. Others used heavy boxes filled with bricks and textbooks, placing the egg at the top in a cylinder lined with foam rubber. Still other teams used a very lightweight box to house the egg.
Humpty Dumpty would have been impressed.
Student teams from two Toronto schools were the winners of the third annual Science Olympiad at York on Saturday, May 2. The grades-7-and-8-team from Zion Heights School, coached by Jackie Sennessey, won the elementary school division and the Lorne Park Secondary School team, coached by Paul Giannotti, captured the secondary school prize.
Now the winning teams from each division are off to the international science competition at Grand Valley State University in Michigan on Friday and Saturday, May 15 and 16.
Nine hundred elementary and high school students from across Ontario were members of the 60 teams that participated in 37 events designed to test their science savvy at the Science Olympiad.
The events tapped students' knowledge of physics, biology, chemistry, engineering and earth sciences, as well as their agility in processing and responding to communication. The young participants were required to demonstrate flexibility in conducting lab experiments, construction structures and testing their own ingenuity.
Some of this year's science challenges included:
Scrambler Students had to design and build a device that would transport an egg a distance of eight to 12 metres, as fast as possible to the finish line.
Bottle Rocket Participants designed, constructed and tested rockets made from two-litre, plastic pop bottles. The makeshift bottle-ships were required to remain aloft as long as possible.
Bungie Egg Drop From an elevated height, students dropped an egg, attached to an elastic cord, being careful not to break it.
Bridge Building Students designed, built and tested a bridge that could hold as much as 20 kg.
Wheeled Vehicle Contestants constructed and tested a vehicle that used a non-metallic elastic device as its sole means of propulsion.
The Ontario Science Olympiad is a volunteer, non-profit organization of educators and business mentors that is devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers.
"We're in the business of preparing the science and technology leaders of tomorrow and developing science literacy for all students," said tournament director Carol Pattenden, a science teacher with the Durham District Board of Education.
"The Science Olympiad has had a very positive impact on students," she adds. "A recent study conducted of students who won scholarships at an international tournament found encouraging results. More than two-thirds of the respondents cited Science Olympiad as a direct influence on their career choices. Eighty-five of these students were planning professions in math or science. Many claim that their career choices are related to individual events at the competition."
The Centre for Jewish Studies at York, together with the Chair of Quebec and Canadian Jewish Studies at Concordia University will sponsor A Heritage in Transition: A Conference on the Study of Jews in Canada on Sunday and Monday, June 7 and 8 at York. The event is being billed as the largest conference of its kind ever held on the study of Canadian Jewry.
Funded by a grant from Multiculturalism Canada, the conference is to be co-chaired by Professors Joe Levy and Irving Abella and will serve to inaugurate York's new J. Richard Shiff Chair for the study of Canadian Jewry.
In two days, over 60 papers will be presented by many of Canada's leading scholars in Canadian Jewish Studies and on almost every aspect of Jewish life in Canada. Among the topics to be discussed are: sports and culture, Holocaust survivors, Nazi war criminals, anti-Semitism, western Jewish settlements, Communists, women's organizations, art, poetry, changing gender roles, family life, volunteerism, Sephardic culture, the rescue of Syrian Jewry, religious practices, Zionism, the Jewish internet, Yiddish, synagogues, women writers, Jewish destiny, refugees, Hasidim, secularism, education, demography and history.
Speakers will be scholars from across the country and from the U.S. and Israel.
The conference keynote will be a plenary session on the status and future of Canadian Jewish Studies, featuring Professors Ramsay Cook and Irving Abella from York and Professor Deborah Dash-Moore from Vassar College. All three are eminent scholars. Prof. Dash-Moore recently co-edited Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia.
The keynote panel will be moderated by Professor Ira Robinson from Concordia and will begin at 8 p.m. on Sunday, June 7. It will be preceded at 7 p.m. by a reception, open to the community, to be hosted by the Centre for Jewish Studies.
For information, please phone the Centre at 736-5823.
The impressive collection of Canadian dance memorabilia in the University's Archives and Special Collections continues to grow. On the eve of their 30th anniversary, the Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre decided to donate their archives including programs, newsletters, photographs, funding records, and posters to the Archives, housed in the Scott Library.
The TDT records are a valuable resource, not least for students in York's Dance Department, who will be able to make use of them for original-research projects.
The TDT is one of Canada's greatest ambassadors of modern dance and is the oldest and largest company of its kind in Canada. It was founded in 1968, along with the school, by choreographers Patricia Beatty, David Earle and Peter Randazzo. The three founders have also acted as resident choreographers for the troupe. The company has produced many world-renowned dancers and choreographers, most notably its current artistic director, Christopher House.
The donation reinforces an artistic bond established years ago between the company and the University. Many dancers from the York program have gone on to the professional training program offered by the TDT school. As well, members of the York department's faculty notably, Veronica Tennant, Holly Small and Anna Blewchamp have worked with TDT.
The York Archives also house the Danny Grossman Dance Company collection.
Anyone wishing to browse either collection is welcome to do so with a York library card or by appointment.
Projects funded by the National Network on Environments and Women's Health in Spring 1998 include the following investigations to be conducted by York researchers and colleagues:
* "Gender, Work and Health," Peggy McDonough (York) and Vivienne Walters (McMaster): "Documentation of the health effects of paid and unpaid work on women and men and the mechanisms through which work conditions exert their effects."
* "The Legal Regulation and Construction of the Gendered Body and Disability in Canadian Health Law and Policy," Roxanne Mykitiuk (York), Joan Gilmour (York) and Marcia Rioux (Roeher Institute). Analysis of "the legal regulation of the gendered body from a feminist perspective in health related contexts, with a particular focus on equalities relating to disability and gender."
* "A National Survey of Canadian Attitudes and Experiences with New Reproductive and Genetic Care," Gina Feldberg et al. (York University with partners from across Canada). "A review of existing surveys of Canadian experiences with new reproductive and genetic care; consultations and focus groups to develop a new national survey; implementation of a national survey."
* "Preparation for a National Workshop on Women's Health and the New Genetics," Lorna Weir and the Working Group on Women and the New Genetics (York University with partners from across Canada).
As a part of Contact '98, the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) is presenting an exhibition by French multi-media artist Sylvie Blocher through May 31.
"For over a decade, Blocher's work has engaged the complex relations between camera technology, authority and address," according to an AGYU spokes-person.
Blocher's work has been included in many significant international exhibitions, including Féminin/ Masculin at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1995), Individualités at the Art Gallery of Ontario (1991) and the Aperto section of the 1988 Venice Biennale.
In 1993, Blocher began Living Pictures, a series of video installations that form the background to her recent project in Toronto. Living Pictures is based on questions that Blocher poses to various groups of people: professional actors, fellow artists, people met randomly on the street.
"As the intersubjective relation shifts with each group, Living Pictures appeals to the ethical dimensions implicated in representation of otherness," the AGYU spokesman suggests. "In its various segments, Living Pictures has been exhibited at several major institutions, most recently at the re-opening of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre in New York."
Last November, Blocher was artist-in-residence at Ryerson Polytechnic University where she initiated production on her most recent project: a two-channel, video installation which stems from interviews with Toronto area taxicab drivers, all recent immigrants to Canada. She films them as they drive through the city, inviting them to speak of their experiences in Canada and the places they've left, and to talk about the rules of conduct between men and women. In the installation, a second, silent video merges images of domestic or quotidian life, in the process calling attention to distinctions between public and private domains.
The AGYU screened an earlier segment of Living Pictures, L'Annonce Amoureuse (1995), in November 1997. The screening was followed by a lecture on Blocher's work given by Belgian art historian/theorist Thierry de Duve.
