| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 34 | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE: Chancellor Avie Bennett (centre) is congratulated by Board of Governors Chair Charles Hantho and President Lorna Marsden, following his installation.
Following is the address delivered by York's new Chancellor, Avie Bennett, at his installation on Friday, May 29.
I am delighted to be with you this afternoon and deeply grateful for the honour you have extended to me by your invitation to become your Chancellor.
I am particularly pleased because of the ties that I have to York through my family and associates, many of whom are here today. Four of my children and my wife all spent time at York, and I have discovered that eight of my colleagues at McClelland & Stewart have had the benefit of a York education.
This doesn't surprise me at all, because I am aware of the emphasis this University has traditionally placed on the importance of a liberal arts education, an emphasis I wholeheartedly applaud.
It may surprise you that I, a life-long, card-carrying, businessman, would stand before you and make that remark. You came here this afternoon, no doubt, expecting that someone who has spent his life counting beans in the real estate and book publishing businesses, would be singing that old familiar tune about how universities are training grounds for the big real corporate world. The one that says that any course that doesn't prepare a student for his or her career is a frill. The one that says that your job is to teach your students how to use a computer and send them out to be productive.
Well, I don't buy that. Neither do I buy the thinking of those in government who say that departments with names like Classics or Philosophy should be shut down because they are useless in the corporate world. The problem with those who think this way is that they understand training, but not education.
Education isn't about the career path. It's about the other paths we can choose to take, and I believe that your job as educators is to show us the way down those other paths.
I hope that the University of which I am proud to be Chancellor will continue to play that role. Let us buck the trend. Let us continue to encourage students to slow down and take a few years off the race to the workplace. Let us encourage them to explore, to take courses they might never have taken, just to see what they are like. Let us applaud their discoveries. Let us give them a safe place in which they can fail, if that's what they must do, but let us encourage them to keep trying.
We could, if we wanted, even let them in on the heresy that education happens outside the classroom, too. That was certainly true of my education, much of which consisted of cutting classes to go to the library and lose myself in novels. That this irresponsible behaviour led to a life-long interest in fine writing that has ended up being job related is purely coincidental.
So, I would encourage students to hang around more in the library, in the coffee shop, yes, even in the bars. Part of education is the lively debate that is inevitable when young people gather to discuss ideas and even argue about them, with that wonderful certainty and passion that we all had when we were their age.
The university is the safe place where exploration and discovery can happen. It is the place where the student can forget for the moment that he is a future computer programmer or she is a future lawyer and think about him- or herself as, simply, a future citizen. A future theatre-goer or hockey mum, a future book-reader or good neighbour, a future community activist or loving care-giver. The students at York are going to be living with themselves as people for a long time, and we should be doing our best to make sure that these people are as well-rounded and as widely experienced as possible.
It is people that the corporate training ground education model forgets, and that's the central mistake. People are not just employees. Even before I got into publishing, I understood that without creativity, life is incomplete. Without theatre, music, painting, fine writing or ballet which is one of my particular passions, along with baseball the world would be a dull and joyless place.
But it's more than that, even. When I was cutting classes and reading novels, they were written primarily by British and American authors, who were primarily white and male. Now we as Canadians can find ourselves in our literature, in all our variety of background and outlook. We can learn about each other and ourselves through the writing of Margaret Atwood, Rohinton Mistry, Anne Michaels, Dionne Brand or this University's Shyam Selvadurai, Nino Ricci and Michael Ondaatje. Through writers like these we can celebrate our wonderful diversity and understand fully what it is to be a Canadian.
These writers weren't created in a job factory. Rather they were inspired by their surroundings as they were educated in life. These writers not only enrich our lives, they stand as symbols of the importance of exploration, of discovery, of creativity and the nurturing of talent, all roles the University can and must play.
Now, I realize that it costs a lot of money for the University to play these roles. However, it is money that must be found. From the government, of course, the private sector, too and, of course, from the students, as well. But no student, I repeat NO student, should have access to a university education denied because of financial need.
And no student should face life after graduation so burdened by debt that he or she does not face the future with the unbridled sense of optimism that living in this country should engender.
It is our challenge to ensure that our graduates leave York sharing our enthusiasm for this wonderful institution.
For the university, after all, is the place where we learn the most important thing of all, which is the love of learning itself, a love that never leaves us.
It is in this spirit that I look forward to learning about you and the University that is in your hands.
I hope we can find ways to help each other make this University a place of wonder and challenge for all who enter it.
Thank you.
Thomas J. Bata
York University will present successful international entrepreneur and businessman Thomas J. Bata with an honorary degree at the spring 1998 convocation of the Schulich School of Business on Friday, June 12, commencing at 10 a.m.
A companion of the Order of Canada, Thomas J. Bata has worked tirelessly to promote the economic development of former Central and East European countries, such as the Czech Republic. At the same time, he has championed the need for corporate Canada to realize the wealth of opportunities that exist in an increasingly globalized world.
A founding member and past director of the Young President's Organization, Bata was born in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), and educated in England and Switzerland. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Economics, Prague and the Technical Faculty, University of Brno, Czech Republic. Following World War II, he emigrated to Canada at the age of 25 and created Bata Limited, a new global organization, after the footwear and trading enterprises founded in Zlin, Czechoslovakia by his father, Tomas Bata, in 1894, were nationalized by the Communist government.
Bata has been a key figure in the globalization of the Schulich School of Business since the late 1980s. He was a founder of the school's East/West Enterprise Exchange program (E/WEE) and today sits on its board. He is also the founding Chair of Schulich's International Advisory Council, whose activities include overseeing the school's International MBA (IMBA) program, and he has provided internships for the IMBA on an annual basis. The E/WEE and the IMBA have earned Scotiabank-AUCC Awards for Excellence in Internationalization, in 1997 and 1998 respectively. Bata was a co-founder of the Schulich School's "Electronic Trade Mission," an initiative that brings Canadian and foreign companies face to face, using technology instead of travel.
Among his many international advisory appointments have been the following: expert advisor to the United Nations Commission on Transnational Organizations (1986-1988), chairman of the Commission on Multinational Enterprises, chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, member of the World Bank's Private Sector Development Research Advisory Group, and member of the International Trade Advisory Committee to the Government of Canada.
Thomas J. Bata is honorary chairman of Bata Limited. Annually, Bata produces about 170 million pairs of shoes, boots, sandals and athletic footware, and sells about 270 million pairs of footware, through companies in more than 60 countries.
The year 2000 problem or "millennium bug" is a situation that will seriously impact many companies. With fewer than 600 days before the calendar rolls over, the urgency for preparation and action escalates.
Fortunately, at York, the matter appears to be well in hand, thanks to the University's Y2K Project Teams. That's a good thing because the issue "is all-encompassing for most areas of the University," as Marion Stehouwer, one of the two Y2K project managers, notes.
The Year 2000 problem spans the entire technology industry. It results directly from the global practice of using two digits instead of four to designate the calendar year (DD/MM/YY). Back when data storage was much more expensive, computer programmers used the two-digit notation to save storage space. Left uncorrected, the chaos will start when the calendar changes from 1999 (represented as 99) to 2000. The date field will show the last two digits (00), leading the computer to think that it's 1900 all over again.
Year 2000 problems can affect any system that has a microprocessor, including embedded systems that control the operation of equipment, machinery or plant facilities. Mainframes, client/server platforms, personal computers, research databases, security systems, elevators, heating and ventilating systems, photo-copiers, access controls and parking gates indeed, anything equipped with an electronic clock all are at risk.
The University's decision to move from a mainframe environment to a distributed computing environment has in many cases reduced the seriousness of potential Y2K problems at York. "We don't want anyone to panic about this," Stehouwer says. "In some sense, the University is better off (than other workplaces), because we don't have to spend time on legacy systems like the mainframe, and we can focus all of our attention on the rest of what the project entails."
The project workforce is comprised of two teams that are working closely together, one focused on administrative issues, and the other dedicated to the academic side of the equation. They share information, methods, staff resources and software tools as they undertake a coordinated and cooperative approach. Administrative support person Steve Pottle is playing the all-important role of coordinating the myriad details.
"Although we're two teams, there's some overlap, "says Andrea Della-Rossa, project manager of the Administrative Team, "but it's key to having a comprehensive approach in determining where the risks reside."
The members of the Y2K Project-Administrative Team, and their respective Y2K responsibilities are: Andrea Della-Rossa, project manager; Grace Chan, management information; Renata Faverin, VP-Administration, President's Office, University Secretariat, University Counsel, Athletics & Recreation; Bob Goldman, Registrar's Office; Mike Morris, Finance; Steve Pottle, administrative support resources; Valerie Peticca, University Advancement; Mary Scheepers, Enrolment and Student Services; Allan Smith, Facilities & Business Operations; Luis Strauch, Safety, Security & Parking Services, Lynda Vecchiarelli, Human Resources; Bruce Shuman, SIS; Drew Winters, Admissions & Recruitment.
The Y2K Project-Academic Working Group consists of: Marion Stehouwer, project manager; Ian Lumb, Pure & Applied Science; Ulya Yigit, Computer Science; Bob Thompson, Library Computing Services; Mohit Sahni, ATSG; George Seravalle, Student Affairs.
Currently, Della-Rossa's group is identifying the business resources that support the various business functions for the administrative side of the University. Each team member is completing an inventory assessment of equipment, software and electronic links with external vendors and service providers to get a high-level view of the potential size and nature of Y2K compliance issues.
The data will be used to assess and prioritize the risk levels for each resource if found not to be Y2K compliant. It will also help to identify the resources where Y2K compliance is currently unknown and where additional steps need to be taken to confirm compliance.
As an example, Della-Rossa identifies the payroll system as an area for examination. "It becomes an issue if people don't receive their paycheques on time because Y2K compliance was never addressed."
Della-Rossa points to external vendors as another area of assessment. "We'll have to make best efforts to find out what our vendors are doing to address Y2K compliance in their organizations and determine what the impacts are for York if a vendor's Y2K problem becomes a problem for the University." Anyone that is buying products and services should obtain assurances from the vendor that the items are Y2K compliant.
For the academic side, much of the same process is in place, says Stehouwer, "We need to inventory all systems and software, paying close attention to in-house developed programs; assess, test and develop correction plans." The project working group is reviewing hardware and software most commonly used at York. "We've been testing various Y2K assessment and correction tools," says Stehouwer, "and the results are, and will continue to be updated on our Y2K web page, along with other relevant information."
To access York's Y2K web page, go to http://www.ccs. yorku.ca/general/year2000. You can contact either of the project managers via the FAQ page on the site, or email them: marions@ yorku.ca and dellara@yorku.ca. "We want everyone to know what's going on," says Stehouwer. "We're happy to get questions."
Internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and ethnomusicologist and jazz historian Howard Spring have become adjunct professors in the graduate Ethnomusicality & Musicality program of the Department of Music.
Sainte-Marie, who holds an MA in philosophy and a PhD in fine arts, is heralded as a technological innovator and pedagogue. Her current Cradleboard project continues her lifelong championing of the causes of Native communities.
Sainte-Marie's distinguished performance and compositional skills, and her deep knowledge of First Nations and Métis cultural issues, make her a valued informal advisor for students doing research on contemporary aboriginal music cultures. Her 15 albums to date, produced between 1964 (It's My Way) and 1995 (Up Where We Belong), display a remarkable array of styles and collaborations.
Spring obtained his PhD at the University of Illinois and has a full-time appointment at the University of Guelph. In his doctoral dissertation, "Changes in Jazz Performance and Arranging in New York, 1929-1932," and articles published in American Music and Jazzforschung, Spring's research integrates dance and music analysis.
Listed below are the times and locations of the York University Spring 1998 Convocation ceremonies, along with the array of eminent persons who are the candidates chosen to receive honorary degrees from the University, and the recipients of the Distinguished Research Professorship, the University-Wide Teaching Awards and the Seymour Schulich Awards for Teaching Excellence.
1 -- Glendon College - Saturday, June 6, 2:30 p.m.
Honorary Graduand: Jacques Bensimon, D. Litt.
2 -- Winters College (Arts), Fine Arts, Graduate Studies - Monday, June 8, 1998, 2:30 p.m
Honorary Graduands: Niv Fichman, Barbara Willis Sweete, Lawrence Mark Weinstein and Sheena Margaret Macdonald of Rhombus Media, D. Litt.
Distinguished Research Professorship: Leo V. Panitch
University-Wide Teaching Award (Senior, Full-time): Jurij W. Darewych
3 -- Faculty of Education - Tuesday, June 9, 10 a.m.
B. Ed. Concurrent, B. Ed. Consecutive by District: (Halton, York Region)
Honorary Graduand: Florence Adelette Tabobondung, LL. D.
4 -- Faculty of Education - Tuesday, June 9, 2:30 p.m.
B. Ed. Consecutive by District: (Durham, Bainbridge, Yvonne)
B. Ed. (In-Service), M. Ed.
5 -- Vanier College (Arts) - Wednesday, June 10, 10 a.m.
Honorary Graduand: Alice Elizabeth Kane, D. Litt.
University-Wide Teaching Award (Teaching Assistant): Sherry J. Rowley
Reception: Vanier College Dining Hall.
6 -- Founders/McLaughlin Colleges (Arts) - Wednesday, June 10, 2:30 p.m.
Honorary Graduand: Louise Bennett-Coverley, D. Litt.
University-Wide Teaching Award (Senior, Full-time): John B. Ridpath
University-Wide Teaching Award (Full-time): Susan A. Dimock
University-Wide Teaching Award (Part-time): Andrea J. O'Reilly
Receptions: Founders College: Founders College Dining Hall; McLaughlin College: Winters College Dining Hall.
7 -- Calumet College (Arts) - Thursday, June 11, 10 a.m.
Honorary Graduand: Leonard V. Johnson, LL. D.
Reception: Rm. 100, Calumet College.
8 -- Norman Bethune College (Arts), Pure and Applied Science, Environmental Studies - Thursday, June 11, 2:30 p.m.
Honorary Graduand: Kenneth E. Iverson, D. Sc.
Reception: Norman Bethune Dining Hall.
9 -- Schulich School of Business - Friday, June 12, 10 a.m.
Honorary Graduand: Thomas J. Bata
Seymour Schulich Award for Teaching Excellence:
BBA 1st Place: Richard LeBlanc, BBA 2nd Place: Farrokh Zandi; MBA 1st Place: Asaf Zohar,
MBA 2nd Place: Scott Anderson
Reception: Terrace between Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business.
10 -- Osgoode Hall Law School - Friday, June 12, 2:30 p.m.
Reception: The Terrace between Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business.
11 -- Stong College - Saturday, June 13, 10 a.m.
Honorary Graduand: Abigail G. Hoffman, LL. D.
Reception: Stong College Dining Hall.
12 -- Atkinson College - Saturday, June 13, 2:30 p.m.
Honorary Graduand: John Robert Colombo, D. Litt.
Reception: Atkinson College Dining Hall.
The ceremonies on the Keele campus are being held at the Convocation Tent Site, east of the Centre for Film and Theatre (CFT), with faculty robing and marshalling in Room 130A, CFT. There is no alternative facility for inclement weather.
CHECK THAT CHEQUE: (left to righ), Glendon College Principal Dyane Adam, LLIR President Raymond Whaley and University President Lorna Marsden with $25,000 gift to Friends of Glendon.
Living and Learning in Retirement (LLIR), an organization that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, has contributed $25,000 to Friends of Glendon. The gift will be used to establish the LLIR 25th Anniversary Service Bursary, and will be matched by the Government of Ontario, resulting in a total contribution of $50,000 to Friends of Glendon.
Raymond Whaley, LLIR president, presented a giant cheque, representing the generous gift, to University President Lorna Marsden at the organization's 25th Anniversary Luncheon at Glendon College on May 5.
The LLIR board, "as members of the Glendon community," also has undertaken to fund significant upgrading of the audio-visual facilities in one of the Glendon classrooms regularly used for presentation of LLIR courses, at a cost of $5,709, Whaley announced.
Over the past 15 years, LLIR members have contributed more than $140,000 to the Friends of Glendon fund. When matching government grants are added, this has resulted in about $164,000 that has been available to assist needy students.
Living and Learning in Retirement is an ongoing, continuing education project initiated in 1973 by a group of North Toronto seniors and funded over the years through federal government New Horizons grants, Gulf Oil and Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities grants, registration fees and investments.
Since its inception, LLIR has given 168 courses, consisting of some 2,000 lectures, at Glendon College. "A few of these courses have been repeats of exceptionally popular themes, but most of each year's courses are uniquely designed and uniquely presented," Whaley reminded the luncheon guests. "Our courses are very popular, and we have more applicants for some courses than we can accommodate."
Professor Michiel Horn for many years has served as the program's academic consultant. In that capacity he is responsible for selecting the Living and Learning in Retirement course directors; they in turn determine the course contents and select the lecturers.
DISTINGUISHED PARTICIPANTS: (left to right), Dr. Frene Ginwala, speaker, National Assembly of South Africa; Judge Navi Pillay, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; Prof. Anne Bayevsky, director, Centre for Refugee Studies; Dennis McNamara, director, Division of International Protection, UNHCR; Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, director, Human Development Report Office, UNDP.
The Centre for Refugee Studies at York combined with the Open Society Institute and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to sponsor a Human Rights and Forced Displacement conference, May 7-9 at the University.
Papers presented at the conference examined a number of topics, including:
* Further promotion and encouragement of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The UN Commission on Human Rights first considered the issue of internal displacement in 1992. Since then, the international community has made appreciable progress in its response to this global crisis. Nonetheless, internal displacement continues to constitute one of the greatest and most pressing challenges facing the international community.
* The development of international standards to protect internally displaced persons. In April 1998, the first such standards, developed by a team of international lawyers under the direction of the representative of the UN Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, were introduced into the UN Commission on Human Rights.
* The impact of gender on the protection of women who are displaced, whether internally or as refugees. The Beijing Platform for Action emphasizes that wars of aggression, armed conflicts, civil wars and terrorism continue to plague many parts of the world and "grave violations of the human rights of women occur, particularly in armed conflict, and include murder, torture, systematic rape, forced pregnancy and forced abortion, in particular under policies of ethnic cleansing."
* Land and resource access rights and forced displacements of people. Deficient land and resource access rights are at the heart of much of the forced movements of people in Africa and elsewhere. A vigorous pursuit of "democracy in the countryside" may be critical to sustainable, natural resource management and human livelihoods and, in turn, to minimizing the levels of forced movements of people generated by ecological and economic factors and by state planners.
* Human rights and forced displacement: converging standards. Three bodies of public international law those relating to human rights, refugees and humanitarian rules in warfare have begun to converge around the issue of forced displacement.
* The future: Articulating responsibilities to identify and bring to justice perpetrators of serious human rights violations and international crimes. Refugee and other forms of forced displacement do not happen by chance. Nor are they the result of anonymous and abstract historical forces. They occur because certain individuals decide to violate the rights of others, to put the lives of those people at risk and to make it impossible for them to remain safely in their homes. The displacement of civilians has become a direct objective of political and military decision makers in certain parts of the globe. Massacres and mass expulsions will continue to take place for as long as the perpetrators believe they can escape from justice and punishment."
* The future of refugee protection. There are approximately 50-million forcibly displaced persons around the world today. States have utilized a variety of measures to evade responsibilities concerning refugee protection, including high seas interception and summary return programs, accelerated status-determination procedures, restrictions on access to asylum for those who have transited through third countries, and administrative detention of asylum seekers.
* Forced displacement: the relevance of international humanitarian law. Were human rights law and humanitarian law fully applied, most forced displacements could be prevented, and the numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons would be substantially lower. The problem in present conflicts is not so much a lack of rules as a lack of effective implementation.
* Monitoring and reporting: a search for new advocacy strategies. It is becoming increasingly important to examine which institutional actors should be involved in monitoring and reporting state compliance with refugee protection standards, and what their unique roles and interrelationships should be at a time when both the international human rights and refugee law regimes need to be used to expand the scope for refugee protection.
* Solutions: human rights verification and accountability. Any set of solutions to facilitating the return of displaced persons should aim at helping them return to the areas they fled. Before they return, there must be an effort to create conditions that are not only safe but also desirable to the displaced persons.
* A new role for human rights organizations in refugee protection? As the international refugee protection regime faces some of the most serious challenges since its inception, the need for a supportive, collaborative and proactive partnership between human rights and humanitarian organizations is greater today than ever.
* Human rights standards: a paradigm for refugee protection? Human rights standards are inextricably linked to all parts of the refugee experience and are of central importance to the core mandate of UNHCR. Though this observation should be self-evident, in the nearly 50 years since the 1951 Refugee Convention emerged as the pre-eminent instrument of refugee protection, refugee policies and practices of many states world-wide continue to be divorced from objective human rights standards.
The 48 distinguished participants at the international conference included: Natalia Ablova, director, Kyrgyz-American Bureau on Human Rights and Rule of Law; Anne Bayefsky, director, Centre for Refugee Studies; Cynthia Burns, senior regional training officer, UNHCR, Southern African Region; Roberta Cohen, co-director, Brookings Institution Project on Internal Displacement; Jane Connors, chief, Women's Rights Unit, United Nations; Francisco Cox, Chilean lawyer and advisor to the executive director, Inter-American Institute of Human Rights; David H.M. Cumming, Southern Africa Regional Program Office, World Wildlife Fund; Francis Deng, acting chair, the African Leadership Forum; Michelle Falardeau-Ramsay, chief commissioner, Canadian Human Rights Commission; Joan Fitzpatrick, Faculty of Law, University of Washington; Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, director, Human Development Report Office, U N Development Program; Frene Ginwala, speaker, National Assembly of South Africa; Arthur C. Helton, director, Forced Migration Projects, Open Society Institute; Marguerite Houze, deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. State Department; Andrew Jones, special assistant to the president, CARE USA; Jim Kunder, senior Fellow, Fund for Peace, Washington, D.C.; Jean-Philippe Lavoyer, deputy head, Legal Division, International Committee of the Red Cross; Princeton Lyman, assistant secretary, U.S. Department of State; Gianni Magazzeni, coordinator, technical cooperation, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Dennis McNamara, director, Division of International Protection, UNHCR; Leanne MacMillan, refugee program coordinator, Amnesty International; Juan E. Méndez, executive director, Inter-American Institute on Human Rights; Bo Viktor Nylund, humanitarian principles officer, UNICEF; Navanethem Pillay, judge, International Tribunal for Rwanda; Rachael Reilly, refugee policy director, Human Rights Watch; Martin Scheinin, Human Rights Committee, Åbo Akedemi University, Finland; and Richard Towle, senior human rights liaison officer, UNHCR, Geneva.
Scotiabank, Canada's most international bank with operations in 53 countries, is endowing a new Professorship in International Business at York's Schulich School of Business. The school is Canada's most international business school with strategic alliances in 45 countries worldwide.
The new Professorship will enrich Schulich's international courses, research and outreach activities. It was announced May 6 after a reception for International MBA (IMBA) students who had just returned from compulsory global work assignments. This year, 44 interns worked in 12 different languages in 19 countries around the world.
Scotiabank will endow the Professorship and will provide in-kind support to the international internship program, in the process bringing the bank's support of the school's international initiatives to $1-million.
This year, Scotiabank has already hosted two IMBA interns. One of them, 29-year-old Matthew Stewart, just returned from an eight-month stint working in Spanish in Santiago, Chile for Scotiabank partner Banco Sud Americano. His activities ranged from analysing the impact of the Asian crisis on companies in northern Chile's Free Trade Zone to preparing promotional material on Scotiabank's strategy in Latin America for public distribution during Team Canada's recent visit to the country. Stewart shared the benefits of his Chilean internship with members of the Schulich School of Business International Advisory Council at a meeting following the reception.
"My introduction to international banking could not have been more complete. It was a tremendous experience from a personal and professional point of view. I was able to meet the challenge of adapting to a new culture while benefiting from my work experience with a well-resourced Canadian company in an international setting," said Stewart.
Scotiabank Chairman and CEO Peter Godsoe said Schulich's dedication to building a truly global business school is in step with Scotiabank's longstanding commitment to internationalization.
"Scotiabank is pleased to continue its commitment to international business education through this gift to the Schulich School of Business at York University. Canadian businesses must view the entire world as one marketplace, and to truly understand how best to operate in that marketplace, businesses must invest and partner with Canada's finest educational institutions," said Godsoe.
"The Scotiabank Professorship in International Business will help ensure that opportunities in this ever expanding and increasingly essential area of study are identified, analysed and understood," he added.
Dezsö Horváth, dean of the Schulich School of Business, said that internationalization is necessary for Canadian competitiveness and, by extension, for maintaining the high standard of living we enjoy.
"I am pleased that Scotiabank, which is so highly regarded for its own global outreach, has chosen to support Schulich's efforts to prepare its business graduates for an increasingly internationalized world," he said.
Scotiabank and Schulich share a history of support for internationalization. Earlier this year, the school was presented with its second consecutive, national Scotiabank/Association of Universities and Colleges Award for Excellence in Internationalization. It won the 1998 award for its International IMBA program, the first of its kind in Canada.
The Schulich School of Business is home to Canada's largest graduate management program for business. Since being established in 1965, more than 13,000 students have graduated from its undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs. The Schulich School has embraced globalization in the fullest sense, establishing strategic alliances with universities and corporations in the world's major trading regions, pioneering new areas of international business specialization, and encouraging multiculturalism and understanding across countries, cultures and time zones.
With C$211 billion in assets and more than 41,000 employees, Scotiabank is one of North America's largest financial services companies. It is also Canada's most international financial institution, with 1,747 branches and offices in more than 50 countries on five continents.
A three-year research project entitled "International Development Ethics and Population Displacement: The Nature and Extent of Canada's Obligations in Developing Countries" has received a SSHRC Strategic Grant in Applied Ethics valued at $236,980.
The principal investigator is Prof. Peter Penz, Faculty of Environmental Studies, and the co-investigators are Prof. Wesley Cragg, Schulich School of Business and Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts; Prof. Luin Goldring, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts; Prof. Pablo Idahosa, Social Science, Faculty of Arts; and Prof. Peter Vandergeest, Sociology, Faculty of Arts.
The project application states, in part: "This project is to review and propose ethical criteria for the participation in Third-World development by Canadian organizations, with reference to the impact on population displacement. The policy areas addressed consist primarily of (a) development policies and practices and (b) international economic, development-assistance and environmental activities."
Professor Penz is also the principal investigator for a two-year partnership project being undertaken with the Centre for the Study of Regional Development at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. The project, entitled "Economic Policy, Population Displacement and Development Ethics," has been awarded a Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Partnership Program Grant of $134,425.
The Canadian co-investigators are Shubhra Gururani, Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, and Jay Drydyk, Philosophy, Carleton University.
The April 29, 1998 issue of the Gazette presented incorrect information about the two grants.
Emeritus Professor of French Melvin Zimmerman
PORTRAIT OF A MUSE: (right), Charles Baudelaire's sketch of Jeanne Duval.
A conference held on an island in the Indian Ocean in April may have a major impact on rehabilitating the literary status and significance of Jeanne Duval, the first muse and companion of 19th Century poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), says Melvin Zimmerman, emeritus professor of French and senior scholar at York.
Zimmerman, whose publications include Visions de Monde: Baudelaire et Cie. (1991), was one of seven invited participants at "Baudelaire et Jeanne: un rencontre littéraire," held April 17-24 on Réunion, a sister island of Mauritius, as part of the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery on French territory in April 1848.
Réunion was chosen as the site of the conference because of the significant impact on Baudelaire's writing of his 40-day stay on Réunion and Mauritius at the age of 20, and because the tempestuous, 15-year liaison of the author of Les Fleurs du Mal with Duval, a mulatto actress, is thought to have been prompted by his brief but eye-opening experience of life in the tropics.
In June 1841, Baudelaire's stepfather, General Jacques Aupick, sent him on a sea voyage to Calcutta, but the young man refused to go further than Réunion, so the ship's captain arranged for a planter family to provide Baudelaire with hospitality until he could find a ship to take him home.
"Little is known about those 40-odd days in the islands," Zimmerman says, "except that Baudelaire wrote a traditional sonnet to the lady of the house, an homage, and he witnessed the whipping of a slave woman. There is nothing else, except that, 14 years later in 1855, in one of his renowned art criticisms, Baudelaire begins with a theory of aesthetics, in which he says that someone nurtured in Western culture ... who then experiences the culture of the tropics, where the trees are huge, the flowers are monstrous and the people move with a different rhythm, will never be the same again, but will carry in his spirit and senses a very rich, hybrid culture."
It is easy to deduce, says Zimmerman, that, were it not for Baudelaire's experience, however brief, of life in the tropics, he would probably have paid scant attention to the black actress, Jeanne Duval. "He saw Jeanne Duval as a rich mine of poetic experience, which he exploited in many poems that hearken back to that Edenic experience."
Baudelaire had three muses, says Zimmerman, but the others, affluent courtesan Apollonie Sabatier and actress Marie Daubrun, "were secondary in terms of his life and poetry." Nevertheless, they have been the subject of books and many articles, "all glorifying and sentimentalizing their relationships with Baudelaire," Zimmerman says. The writer's passionate liaison with Duval, for its part, "has been studied by hundreds of critics, the majority of whom have proceeded from a disdainful, bourgeois perspective."
"Critics traditionally have not understood Jeanne Duval's importance, and have used a series of racist and bourgeois stereotypes," Zimmerman continues. "The contrast between the critics' treatment of the white women in Baudelaire's life and poetry, and of Jeanne, is flagrant and can only be ascribed to her underclass status and to racism.
"So abominable were the abuses of these critics, who didn't know anything about Jeanne Duval the meanness, the hatred was in itself a phenomenon that needed explanation," says Zimmerman. Hence the conference, organized by prolific French Creole playwright Emmanuel Genvrin specifically to rehabilitate Duval. Genvrin "saw an opportunity to evoke a page in Charles Baudelaire's biography which is almost blank because of Baudelaire's discretion about personal and family matters."
Information about Duval's background is scant. "Because she was Creole, we don't know where she came from, though her mother might have been from Haiti," Zimmerman says. "Speculation is rife."
What is indisputable is that, upon his return from the islands, Baudelaire returned to Paris and, while waiting for his inheritance, plunged back into the bohemian life of the Left Bank that his step-father had hoped to wean him from. Whereupon, says Zimmerman, "he goes to the theatre, sees a black woman in the role of a servant, pursues her, sweeps her off her feet and begins the long, stormy relationship with Jeanne Duval. It was the closest he came to marriage."
Baudelaire's poems inspired by Jeanne Duval "were so violent, they shocked the bourgeoisie," Zimmerman says. "He wishes for her death because he cannot bear his enslavement. He likens her to a bottle and he a drunkard, and to a chain on his leg and he a prisoner in a chain-gang. But there are also poems of deep devotion and tenderness, so we have the whole gamut of an all-too human relationship," Zimmerman says.
"This is what upset his bourgeois contemporaries and those who came later, but this is what endears Baudelaire's poetry to those liberated from bourgeois prejudices."
The presenters at the "Baudelaire et Jeanne" conference discussed a number of aspects of the relationship between the poet and Duval, Zimmerman says, and all were agreed as to her importance in Baudelaire's life and work. The conference attracted attention from the Parisian press, including Le Monde, whose correspondent "wrote a very good report, getting to the essence of our efforts," says Zimmerman, and the conference proceedings will be published.
As for whether Jeanne Duval now will get her due from the French critics, Zimmerman says, "I expect some good will come of this in future Baudelaire criticism; however, I have no doubt that the same old stereotype will again raise its ugly and stupid head. In his farewell poem to Jeanne, the poet perhaps predicted her triumph over 'Les stupides mortels qui t'ont jugée amère...'"
Mère des souvenirs, maîtresse des maîtresses,
O toi, tous mes plaisirs! ô toi, tous mes devoirs!
Tu te rappelleras la beauté des caresses,
La douceur du foyer et le charme des soirs,
Mère des souvenirs, maîtresse des maîtresses!
Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon,
Et les soirs au balcon, voilés de vapeurs roses.
Que ton sein m'était doux! Que ton cœur m'était bon!
Nous avons dit souvent d'impérissables choses
Les soirs illuminés par l'ardeur du charbon.
Que les soleils sont beaux dans les chaudes soirées!
Que l'espace est profond! Que le cœur est puissant!
En me penchant vers toi, reine des adorées,
Je croyais respirer le parfum de ton sang.
Que les soleils sont beaux dans les chaudes soirées!
La nuit s'épaississait ainsi qu'une cloison,
Et mes yeux dans le noir devinaient tes prunelles,
Et je buvais ton souffle, ô douceur! ô poison!
Et tes pieds s'endormaient dans mes mains fraternelles.
La nuit s'épaississait ainsi qu'une cloison.
Je sais l'art d'évoquer les minutes heureuses,
Et revis mon passé blottie dans tes genoux.
Car à quoi bon chercher tes beautés langoureuses
Ailleurs qu'en ton cher corps et qu'en ton cœur si doux?
Je sais l'art d'évoquer les minutes heureuses!
Ces serments, ces parfums, ces baisers infinis,
Renaîtront-ils d'un gouffre interdit à nos sondes,
Comme montent au ciel les soleils rajeunis
Après s'être lavés au fond des mers profondes?
O serments! ô parfums! ô baisers infinis!
Irving Abella
Professors Irving Abella and Martin Lockshin, who are both associated with York's Centre for Jewish Studies, are the winners of the 1998 Canadian Jewish Book Awards.
Prof. Abella's award is in the biography category and is for Growing Up Jewish. The book, which he co-edited with Rosalie Sharp and Edwin Goodman, is published by McClelland and Stewart.
Prof. Lockshin has been awarded the Penina Rubinoff Memorial Award for Biblical Scholarship for his book, Rashbam's Commentary on Exodus: An Annotated Translation, published by Scholars Press. This is the second of three volumes devoted to Rashbam's Commentaries on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament Bible. The first volume, Rashbam's Commentary on Genesis, was published nine years ago. This spring, Prof. Lockshin was awarded an SSHRC grant that will allow him to complete the research and writing of volume three, Rashbam's Commentary on Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
Professor Michael Brown, director of the Centre for Jewish Studies, says he is "delighted that the community continues to recognize the significant scholarly contributions of York's faculty members. Our Centre for Jewish Studies faculty have won awards for their teaching and publications and have achieved national and international recognition."
Prof. Abella and his wife, Justice Rosalie Abella, have agreed to be the guest readers at the Canadian Jewish Book Awards ceremony, June 10, 7:30 p.m. in the Leah Posluns Theatre, 4588 Bathurst Street.
Lee Lorch
Micken College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati presented York Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar Lee Lorch with its Distinguished Alumni Award at a special awards dinner on May 7.
Professor Lorch, a world-renowned leader in hard analysis, earned his MA and PhD in mathematics at Micken in 1936 and 1941, respectively. He has made contributions to the theory of trigonometric series, summability theory and special functions, and his many publications in top journals span decades.
Prof. Lorch also is known for his contributions to the education of minorities and for his courageous actions in support of civil rights in the United States. His first full-time academic position was at City College of New York in 1946. He was dropped several years later without explanation after he and his wife participated in an attempt to desegregate an apartment complex in New York. Persisting in this effort also cost him his next job at Penn State, in 1950.
When the United States Supreme Court ruled against school segregation in 1954, Lorch was chair of the mathematics department at Fisk University. He attempted to enrol his daughter in a black school, the school nearest their home. Thereupon, he was summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and, subsequently, was dropped from the Fisk faculty by the university's board of governors, over the opposition of his colleagues.
In 1955, Lorch moved to Arkansas to take a position at Philander-Smith College in Little Rock. Continued participation in civil rights activities made the family unwelcome there, as well. By 1959, Lorch was blacklisted at U.S. schools. The family moved to Canada where Lorch taught at the University of Alberta from 1959 through 1968. He became a York professor in 1968.
Prof. Lorch has been awarded honorary degrees by York University, City University of New York and Fisk University. In 1976, he received a special award from Howard University for his contributions to civil rights and to the education of black mathematicians. He received a similar award from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1990. Lorch is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Following is a list of 53 York faculty members and librarians, who were invited to attend a May 13 luncheon in the Faculty Club, hosted by President Lorna Marsden, to celebrate their having attained the quarter-century mark as colleagues at the University.
Romana Bahry, Languages, Literatures & Linguistics;
Jean-Claude Bouhénic, Mathematics, Glendon;
Douglas Buck, Theatre;
Wayne Cannon, Physics & Astronomy;
David Chambers, Kinesiology & Health Science;
Ronald Cohen, Psychology, Glendon;
Wade Cook, Schulich School of Business;
Barrie Coukell, Biology;
David Davies, Political Science;
Robert Deutsch, Psychology, Atkinson;
David Dimick, Schulich School of Business;
Barbara Dodge, Visual Arts;
Daniel Drache, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies;
William (Ray) Ellenwood, English, Atkinson;
José Escobar, Hispanic Studies, Glendon;
Stephen Fleming, Office of the Master, Atkinson;
Arthur Forer, Biology;
Thomas Greenwald, Centre for Academic Writing;
Roger Heeler, Marketing, Schulich School of Business;
Deborah Heller, Humanities;
Karel Hruska, Mathematics & Statistics;
John Katz, Film & Video;
Margaret Eirene Landon, Bibliographic Services, Scott Library;
Fred Lazar, Economics
Maynard Maidman, History;
John McConnell, Earth & Atmospheric Science;
Patricia Murray, Kinesiology & Health Science;
Donald Newgren, Visual Arts;
Selma Odom, Dance;
Jordan Paper, Humanities;
Joan Wick Pelletier, Mathematics & Statistics;
David Pequegnat, Theatre;
Alfred Pietrowski, Mathematics & Statistics;
David Reid, Psychology;
Marianne Rogers, Law Library, Osgoode Hall;
Nicholas Rogers, History;
Lawrence Rosen, Schulich School of Business;
Brent Rutherford, Faculty of Environmental Studies;
Trichy Sankaran, Music;
Anatol Schlosser, Theatre;
Michael Semak, Visual Arts;
Ann B. Shteir, Humanities;
Marie-France Silver, French Studies, Glendon;
Douglas Smylie, Earth & Atmospheric Science;
Keith (Casey) Sokol, Music;
Claude Tatilon, French Studies, Glendon;
Thomas Vari, Computer Science & Mathematics, Atkinson;
Gerald Vise, Social Science;
Mark Webber, Humanities, Canadian Centre for German
& European Studies;
Fredric Weizmann, Psychology;
Gerda Wekerle, Faculty of Environmental Studies;
Robert Witmer, Music;
Carole Yawney, Sociology, Atkinson.
FOUR STARS: (left to right) Beatrice Endler, Norman Endler, D. Martin Regan, and Marian Regan)
York's Department of Psychology held a champagne reception and dinner recently, in honour of Distinguished Research Professors Norman Endler and D. Martin Regan. This past year, both York professors were awarded Royal Society of Canada medals for their outstanding scholarship. Not to be outdone by this august body, the psychology department presented its own medals to Endler and Regan, each enscribed, "A golden star of Psychology 1998."
In his tribute to Endler, Dean of Arts George Fallis said, "Norm's scholarly contributions to the science of psychology are truly imposing they are striking in their scope, impact and sustained nature. His curiosity and expertise are far ranging. While many of his peers are content to reside within the boundaries of one of the traditional areas of psychology, his conceptual and methodological contributions span most of the conventional divisions in psychology, including social psychology, personality psychology, clinical psychology and developmental psychology. ...
"Throughout his career, Norm has been a vigorous and visible critic of and commentator on the more traditional approaches to understanding individual differences in behaviour. While most were content to attribute the locus of such differences simply to the person or the situation, Norm took the more difficult path of advocating a focus on the interaction of these two forces. Norm's work on Interactionism is now a standard in the field," the dean stated.
"Norm's accomplishments are not just restricted to the psychological literature. He has held every major administrative position in the department and still agrees to fill in when others are out of town. He never rejects requests for advice from colleagues and has mentored many of the younger members of the department. His lab has been an active training ground for graduate students, many of whom have gone on to assume academic positions internationally."
Dean of Pure and Applied Science Robert Prince had equal praise for Martin Regan. Regan's work "has had a profound effect in three major areas sensory electrophysiology, psychophysics and medical and aviation neuro-ophthalmology," Prince said. "Within the area of electrophysiology, many of the standard procedures used in measuring electrical evoked potentials from the human brain were developed by Regan; and his recent 700-page book on the electrophysiology of the human brain is now the standard reference work. ...
"In 1988, he was awarded a $1.5-million (U.S.) grant to buy a neuromagnetometer, which is now installed in the Farquharson Building. This is an instrument for measuring the magnetic fields associated with local areas of neural activity in the human brain and is the only one of its kind in Canada.
"With his wife, Marian, he developed a new two-frequency technique for probing sensory systems in the human brain," Prince noted.
"Within the area of psychophysics, Regan has made several major contributions to our understanding of visual and auditory functions. One of his best-known contributions was his discovery of specialized visual mechanisms that process information about the motion of objects in space. ...
"Clearly, Professor Martin Regan is a scientist and a psychologist of outstanding eminence and distinction. It is a great privilege to have him as a colleague at York."
The invited guest speaker for the evening was Dr. Ludy Benjamin of the Department of Psychology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Benjamin's topic was From Francis Galton to the Ontario Science Centre: A Visual History of Psychology's Portrayals in Museums.
TORONTO SAVANNA: Paul Harpley, photographed as the African Savanna project was still under construction.
Paul Harpley, artist, naturalist, geographer, project manager for the Toronto Zoo and alumnus of York University's graduate program in Geography, is celebrating the opening of the new African Savanna at the Toronto Zoo. The project was based on his master's thesis completed in 1992.
Using research gleaned from zoo visitors' notions of nature and wilderness, and their attitudes and exhibit preferences, along with historical patterns of Western perceptions, Harpley developed rigorous exhibit design criteria for zoos around the world to emulate.
Essentially, he demonstrated that there is a new way of thinking about nature and the human/nature connection within Western society, reflecting the emergence of "environmental man," a world citizen who has developed a new set of social attitudes and behaviours. Zoos, he concluded, will not be able to respond appropriately to these radically changing societal perceptions without developing new skills and viewpoints. In order to remain relevant, they must begin to assist the understanding between humans and nature through their exhibits and through nature education for social change.
The Toronto Zoo took up this challenge and, in 1993, Harpley began the job of developing and managing the African Savanna project. His task was enormous. Utilizing approximately 30 acres of exhibit buildings and parkland (originally developed in 1974 to resemble an African veldt), he was to transform them into a realistic example of East African countryside, one that would provide the animals with safe, comfortable and typical savanna habitats. At the same time, the exhibit was required to allow visitors a glimpse of the land in all of its diversity by bringing them into the exhibit rather than having them look at the animals over a park fence a concept Harpley calls "landscape immersion." Finally, the savanna exhibit would have to provide an educational experience for both children and adults.
Savannas are found throughout the world and are, by definition, intermediate zones between grassland and forest. While most Canadians picture scenes from Out of Africa and The Lion King when they think of an East African savanna, there are several types of savanna in Africa. Harpley decided to attempt re-creations of five of them: thorn scrub, wet, riverine, semi-desert and the typical, grassy savanna.
But building East African savannas in southern Ontario is not an easy task. Each type is home to specific flora and fauna, and while Ontario might be able to accommodate the animals of these areas, the native African plants cannot be grown in our harsh climate. Harpley's solution was to use Canadian trees and plants that look similar to native East African plants, or can be trained to closely resemble them. Pruned and trained apple trees, for example, look remarkably like acacias.
The project team "terra-formed" the land, as well, creating a miniature version of the Great Rift Valley, watering holes, kopjes (rocky outcroppings), a hog-back ridge, hills and plains a very complex geography. At the same time, they succeeded in improving visitor amenities at the site and accessibility to the exhibits without unduly disturbing the animals. The site is easily walkable, and the visitor has the continuing sensation of being inside the exhibit and close to the animals.
To truly reflect the ambience of East Africa, and recognising the values and characteristics of the landscape, the people and the rhythm of the land, Harpley organized a cultural advisory group to assist with the re-creation. It included former East Africans now living in Canada, a variety of government organizations and NGOs from Kenya, and interested experts in the field, including York Professor of Geography Donald B. Freeman.
The advisory group made several recommendations and expanded the scope of the exhibit to include a small, working East African farm, a market square reminiscent of one that might be found in Mombasa, an outdoor restaurant (serving East African food) where visitors can lunch while overlooking the entire site, and a safari park for overnight camping and extended educational opportunities.
Prof. Freeman, who volunteered his time on the project for several years, called it "truly ambitious, with a level of detail that is remarkable.
"Zoos," he emphasized, "must develop stronger educational values to remain viable. In this exhibit, Paul has succeeded in demonstrating the relationship between rural East Africans and the animals of the savanna, showing how East Africans are working with nature to maintain their environment."
"The human/nature relationship was key to this project," Harpley agrees. "The result is an exhibit that is leading-edge today and will remain relevant 20 years from now."
The African Savanna exhibit opened at the Toronto Zoo on June 2, 1998 to very positive reviews.
What is the next challenge for Paul Harpley? A re-creation of the West African Rainforest.
PROOF POSITIVE: Muhammad Tariq Kahn hard at work with a colleague in the King Country World Conservation Corps (top) and at an awards ceremony.
When Muhammad Tariq Kahn, 25, graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Karachi, Pakistan, little did he know that five years later he would find himself in the Environmental Studies program at York University.
Khan's first inclination was to complete his MBA at Karachi, but he was detoured from this goal as he became more and more involved with his volunteer work at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN, the world's oldest international conservation organization, advises and assists governments, organizations and local communities to meet their conservation goals.
"Everyone told me I was wasting my time and that working with the environment was not practical," says Kahn, smiling, "but I believe if you can be sincere and give it your all, you can make it to the top." And indeed, Kahn's volunteer work on local environment projects with IUCN's Karachi branch led to his receiving the exciting opportunity to travel to Seattle, Washington in 1995 to be part of the King County World Conservation Corps.
"There were people from all around the world," recalls Kahn. "Fifteen were American and the other 15 from India, Philippines, Japan, Kenya, Chile, South Africa and Mexico. We all shared resources and ideas, and learned skills that we could initiate when we went back home."
For six months, Kahn and the others were involved in hands-on restoration projects, focussing on water quality enhancement, stream restoration and soil erosion improvement.
Enthusiastic about all the knowledge he had gained and the network of friends he had established, Kahn returned home and developed a proposal to initiate a similar corps in Pakistan. His proposal won support from IUCN and he received a grant from Pakistan's Ministry of Environment and Urban Affairs. In 1996, Khan eagerly returned to the King County World Conservation Corps under the Fellows Program to continue with more research.
At this point, Kahn knew that he had outstanding hands-on experience, but felt he lacked a solid grounding in the theoretical aspects of environmental studies. He decided to go to York in 1997 upon receiving the Dean's Scholarship for International Students. Only two are awarded every year.
Kahn is more than enthusiastic about York's Faculty of Environmental Studies. "It is small faculty, which allows for greater access to professors," says Kahn. "Famida Handy, the undergraduate program director and Dean Peter Victor have been extremely supportive of me."
While at York, Kahn has worked at York International during International Development Week where he organized two film shows and post-viewing discussions. "We discussed what development meant and how one defines a developed country," says Khan. The issue is the topic of many spirited debates with professors, he says, and most likely will be the topic for his Masters paper.
Currently, Khan is involved with the Northern Star Award, an initiative of Environment Canada to establish a network of 12 environmental leaders in high schools and universities across the country. Linked through the Internet, the group inspires others to get actively involved in building healthier environments in their communities and regions.
"We are provided with lap-top computers, so we are always connected to each other and Environment Canada's regional offices. Environment Canada matches our skills and experiences with those who need our expertise."
Khan has been recognized for his efforts by the Lions Club and the Commonwealth Youth Program where he received the Asia Award for Excellence in Youth. He credits his success in life thus far to his determination and positive attitude. "If you are positive, you make others positive," he says. "Don't allow fear to build in your heart."
In the same way, a positive approach is necessary in waging the fight to save and reclaim Mother Earth from environmental degradation, says Khan.
"With nature we have to be positive. We need to think globally and act locally at the grass roots level. We can't give up."
Shira Taylor
Karen Okamoto
The Senate Committee on Admissions, Recruitment and Student Assistance has selected the recipients of prestigious awards for entering students.
John S. Proctor Entrance Scholarship
The top entering OAC student as selected from 250 applicants from across Canada, and this year's recipient of the Proctor Scholarship, is Shira Taylor. She is a graduate of Oakwood Collegiate Institute in Toronto and has been accepted into the Global Development, Peace and Justice program of the Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Taylor's academic achievements are exceptional, and those writing in support of her candidacy are glowing in their praise of her intellect, maturity, perseverance, talent and enthusiasm. Although a serious and dedicated scholar, she exudes a joy of learning that is infectious and inspiring.
Shira Taylor attained the highest grades in a range of disciplines taken in both the French and English languages, and earned numerous academic honours during her time at Oakwood. After graduation, she embarked on a self-organized trip to the Middle East and prepared a photographic portfolio that is currently on display at the Hillcrest Public Library. A member of various school athletic teams, clubs and music ensembles, she also facilitated workshops on racism and body image and participated in the work of Students and Teachers of Oakwood for Peace (STOP) and the Environment Club. She was on the Reach for the Top team and served as a coordinator of Oakwood's ESL Buddy Program.
Alumni Award of Distinction
One of the two recipients of the Alumni Award of Distinction is Karen Okamoto. A graduate of Inglenook Community High School in Toronto, Okamoto also attended William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute in North York. Her high school studies were characterized by consistently outstanding grades in a variety of challenging subjects.
A long-time resident of the community adjacent to York University, Okamoto has been accepted into the Women's Studies program of the Faculty of Arts, and the Environmental Policy and Action program of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science.
Okamoto is passionate in her pursuit of social justice and possesses an astonishing ability to galvanize and organize groups. She has appeared on the WTN network program, Girl Talk, and has organized a young women's activist group at the University of Toronto called Feminists United. She was coordinator of the environmental club at Mackenzie and participated in the work of OPIRG (the Ontario Public Interest Research Group) at U of T. Among myriad other activities and events, she organized Visionary Voices, an evening of spoken work and wisdom, for radio station CKLN.
As a sensitive and skilled mediator, Okamoto has designed and implemented workshops for the Conflict Mediation Centre of Downsview and been a camp counsellor for the York Youth Connection. It was through her work with YYC that she became aware of the exciting dynamics of the York campus and the cutting edge work carried out by various departments and offices at the University.
The Gazette will announce the recipient of the second Alumni Award of Distinction in an upcoming issue.
Three York students have landed jobs at the Weather Network, disproving the old phrase, "Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it."
Wade Sandilands, Chris Scott, and Kerry-Ann Lecky, of York's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science (EATS), in the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, all are doing something about the weather. In their jobs at the Weather Network, they analyze, interpret and communicate information about the weather to the on-air personalities who broadcast on the popular cable television station, which reaches 8-million households in Canada.
The three weather enthusiasts (one graduate and two undergraduate students) are providing "the brains" behind some of the network's on-air operation. They research a wide variety of factors and complex data before making predictions and conveying data to the on-air personalities who give the details to the television viewers. Working against tight deadlines at the live, 24-hour network, they use satellite images, radar images, temperatures and Internet information to draw up-to-date weather maps and make sense of a vast array of weather information.
Sandilands and Scott do "nowcasting" describing the weather for the next 12 to 24 hours and reporting on severe weather conditions. Lecky does "forecasting" predicting general trends in the weather over a five-day period. The on-air personalities are not meteorologists, so one of the big challenges for the York contingent is to interpret and convey the information to the announcers in a way that the average viewer can understand.
"It's great to see our students getting these types of jobs," says Keith Aldridge, chair of EATS. "What you see on television is the end product of a great deal of fundamental science that they have to do in order to make any kind of weather prediction. It's important to point out that York University is one of the few places in the country teaching the courses needed for this kind of expertise."
All three students possess impeccable weather credentials. Sandilands is a PhD candidate at York, and he teaches a course here, called Synoptic Meteorology, that is considered popular and relevant among undergraduates. He is working full-time as a meteorologist for the Weather Network.
Scott and Lecky, both fourth-year students, are working at the network for the summer, gaining valuable experience for what they hope will be eventual careers in meteorology. Scott will graduate in June and is working as a meteorologist/news briefer on weekends over the summer. Lecky will be returning to York in September to complete the last few courses she needs for her university degree.
Wade Sandilands has a background in theoretical physics with an undergraduate degree from McMaster. He did his Master's thesis at York on atmospheric chemistry modelling the effort to numerically simulate observed depletions in the antarctic ozone. Numerical simulations enable scientists to validate theoretical studies and to ensure that those theories are in tune with the data from actual observations. Sandilands' course in Synoptic Meteorology which examines a whole host of factors which simultaneously affect the weather teaches the basic science behind understanding the weather.
Sandilands' PhD dissertation will examine the "Inclusion of Interactive Chemistry in the Canadian Global Forecast Model." He says that most weather forecast models do not take any kind of atmospheric chemistry component into consideration. He believes this is a gap in the research data, an omission he hopes to address through his dissertation. By including atmospheric chemistry as a factor in forecast models, he believes scientists will have the ability to forecast, not only weather, but also atmospheric constituents like ozone.
Originally from Summerside, P.E.I., Sandilands was exposed to the science of weather from an early age. His father was a forecaster for Environment Canada when Wade was a child, and the family travelled all over the country, according to the work assignments. Sandilands had planned on a career in theoretical physics, but during his undergraduate days he learned about the comparatively large number of job opportunities in meteorology. His work experience includes a job at Ontario Hydro where he had to create detailed forecasts predicting the maximum peak times for electrical use during the day so that the facility could provide adequate power to the province.
"I think that the field of meteorology will expand greatly in the future," he says. "More private industries are getting involved in meteorology, and they want weather information and weather consultants to help them make business decisions. Meteorology-related businesses are expected to generate $200 million over the next two years."
The general public is also fascinated by the weather, Sandilands notes. "Everybody talks about the weather because it's a good common ground for starting a discussion. But beyond that, I think people really do have an interest in the weather, and what causes it. They want more details than they usually get. They want to know why we're having a certain type of weather, which is why a phenomenon like El Nino captures peoples' interest. The communication aspect is one of my favorite parts of the job at the Weather Network."
"When people hear a forecast calling for 'a mix of sun and clouds,' not too many people know what that means. People want to know 'How much sun and how much cloud?' or 'Does that mean sunny in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon?' We have to be very descriptive. A meteorologist's job is not only to analyze and interpret weather, but also to communicate to people what the forecast will mean to them. "
Asked to name his favorite place in the world for weather, Sandilands says: "Right here. You can't beat Southern Ontario's mix of humidity and rain and snow and sleet. We see a lot of extremes of weather, but never for long periods of time. People think they want to live in a place that is always 22 degrees and sunny, but after a while, you would get tired of that."
Sandilands, Scott, and Lecky share a passion for weather especially stormy weather. "Any good meteorologist would tell you that they prefer active weather to nice sunny weather," says Sandilands. "We like to see variety in the weather in other words, rain, winds, and thunder showers. I'd like to see a tornado come through here some time soon!"
"More severe weather is exciting," Chris Scott says. "It's incredible to watch the active weather because there is so much power that you have to just stand back and be in awe of it." Scott's favorite type of weather includes "severe thunderstorms and tornadoes."
Originally from a farm in Mitchell, Ontario, (west of Stratford), Scott grew up with a healthy respect for the weather. "Mitchell is a very agricultural area, and growing up on a farm, I quickly realized that our livelihood depended on the weather. I can vividly recall a hailstorm in 1983 that devastated our crops."
The winner of several entrance scholarships to York, Scott is also one of 30 national winners of a Governor General's Canada Scholarship in Environmental Sciences, which was presented to him at Ottawa's Rideau Hall in January by Governor-General Roméo LeBlanc. Scott is to graduate this month (June 1998) with a BSc with Combined Honours in atmospheric science (meteorology) and atmospheric chemistry. At graduation, he is to receive one of four gold medals being given out by the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, in recognition of a high degree of scholarship and an outstanding undergraduate career.
He is hoping to pursue graduate studies this fall in meteorology, probably at the University of Michigan. Scott is interested in mesoscale meteorology, which deals with storm-related weather phenomenon such as snow squalls and thunder showers. "It's an area of research that is still quite young," he says. He would like to also continue working in forecasting. "I do take some ribbing from my friends when my forecast is off, but it's a difficult science. It's very hard to answer the question, 'Is it going to rain in this exact location?' because there are so many factors at play."
Scott also prefers the weather of southwestern Ontario. "I've grown up here, so I have a good intuitive sense of what's going on," he says. "The Great Lakes create so many local effects, snow squalls in winter, thunderstorms in summer when the lakes breezes collide, that it's fascinating to watch. I find that we have a nice mix of weather here. We have interesting weather and changing seasons, but our weather is not too difficult to live with."
Kerry-Ann Lecky of Oshawa shares her peers' fascination with storms. "Sunny days are boring," she says. "Weather is much more exciting when you see what the atmosphere can do. I'm very interested in severe weather, and I'm quite involved with the weather community. "
Lecky is a storm spotter for Environment Canada. She is part of CANWARN (Canadian Weather Amateur Radio Network), which is an amateur radio organization designed to act as "the eyes and ears of Environment Canada" in times of severe weather. A ham radio operator, she spots any storms that come up in the Oshawa area. When a storm occurs, Lecky observes its characteristics, then relays those details to the main CANWARN radio operator, located at Environment Canada's weather office in Toronto. The operator then passes that information directly to the forecaster who is responsible for making a decision on what warnings and watches should be put out to the public.
Storm spotting requires staying in one place to observe a storm. On her own time, Lecky also chases storms. A storm photographer, she has amassed an impressive collection of colour photos revealing the beauty of clouds and stormy skies. Her pictures are on display outside of the EATS office on the first floor of the Petrie Building, and a Lecky photo of cumulus clouds has been published on the cover of the EATS program brochure.
Lecky has developed her own web site as an information source for other storm spotters and chasers. It can be reached at: http:/www.yucc.yorku.ca/~kerry. At 23 years of age, she estimates that she is probably one of the youngest storm spotters in Ontario. She says that she would like to observe the Great Plains of the United States, Oklahoma, Iowa and North Texas. "Storms there can be much more powerful, and they have much greater visibility, so you can see the entire storm from a great distance." She and her peers enjoyed the hit movie, Twister, she says, but they all found it unrealistic, despite the good special effects.
She is among a small number of meteorologists who are women only 10 per cent of meteorologists in North America are women, she estimates, but she expects that figure to change as more women become interested in what she finds an exciting field. "I love it," said Lecky. "When I was a teenager, I got my glider pilot license through the air cadets. Aviation relies heavily on meteorology, so my interest in weather stemmed from my interest in aviation." She hopes to work some day as a full-time weather forecaster or in the field of meteorological research.
In her job as an apprentice meteorological forecaster at the Weather Network, Lecky is responsible for forecasting the weather of Atlantic Canada, including 28 cities. The best part of the job is "seeing what you predict coming true. There are so many variables in meteorology, so when things work out the way you predicted they would, it can be very rewarding," she says.
The records of the University Women's Club of NorthYork (UWCNY), dating back to the organization's founding in 1951, have been deposited in the University's Archives & Special Collections and are available for research use in programs such as Women's Studies. The deposit was facilitated by Suzanne Dubeau, project archivist.
The records include minutes, membership lists, annual program leaflets, conference and community participation reports, briefs and submissions to governments and institutions.
The University Women's Club of North York's long association with York and a mutual interest in the educational, social and political status of women make this acquisition especially appropriate. Over the past 35 years, the club has assisted the University in many ways. Its first award was the Joan Lavender Memorial Fund scholarship, given in 1962 to a York student; and annual awards continue to flow from UWCNY's scholarship funds. A number of York graduates now belong to the club.
UWCNY marked Canada's centenary in 1967 by raising and contributing $5,000 to a Book Endowment Fund for the University library. In 1970, the club hosted the Canadian Federation of University Women triennial meeting held at Founders College, and the relationship continued to grow. "York and University Women Share Interests" was the April 1976 headline in the Gazette for a story about the club's advocacy of implementation of the Senate Task Force on the Status of Women at York University.
A UWCNY member was on the Toronto YWCA committee that recommended that the Y's library materials be transferred on loan to York, beginning what was known as the "Women's Collection." Further development of this resource by the University resulted in the establishment of the present Nellie Langford Rowell Library in 1985. In October 1996, to celebrate Persons Day, UWCNY joined with the Rowell Library in a presentation of Five Degrees of Separation.
Kent Haworth, University archivist, quotes Elio Lodolini's remark: "The very circumstance that archival documents were created for legal or administrative purposes gives them a special cultural value." This is certainly true of the UWCNY papers now deposited at the University.
Visitors to the Keele campus and students, staff, faculty and friends of the University are invited to take guided walking tours of the outdoor sculptures in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) any Wednesday from June 17 through October 15.
The guided walking tour follows a route that allows participants to see principal sculptures in the collection. These include works by influential artists of the 1960s, such as Alexander Calder, Anthony Caro and Mark Di Suvero, as well as more recent acquisitions by celebrated contemporary artists, such as Jocelyne Alloucherie, Enzo Cucchi, Brian Groombridge and Susan Schelle.
A full tour runs for approximately one hour. The condensed version is approximately 20 minutes long. An attractive booklet highlighting selected works in the collection is available as an accompaniment to the tour for a minimal charge. An optional donation of $2 per person is encouraged to help further the mandate of the AGYU.
The AGYU welcomes bookings by organizations. Tour guides will be pleased to integrate any relevant special interests into a tour. They will also tailor a tour to special physical and language needs.
Just drop by the gallery office, located at N 201 C Ross Building, at 1 p.m. to begin your tour. For more information, call (416) 736-5169.
For several months, Malcolm Ransom and I have been discussing the possibility of an educational leave for him over the next three years. As a result of these discussions, the University has agreed to this arrangement which will take effect on June 30, 1998, when he will be leaving the Secretariat.
Mal's career at York has spanned 29 years of which he has served as University Secretary for the last 25 years. In this and many other ways, he has provided excellent service to York University. On behalf of all of the presidents and Board and Senate Chairs with whom he has served, I want to express thanks to him.
His leaving coincides with planned changes to merge the Office of the Counsel and the Secretariat. Harriet Lewis will take over responsibility as University Secretary as of 1 July, 1998. She will retain her position as University Counsel.
Mal will continue to serve with the Senate on a part-time basis until the transition is completed.
During the month of June a period of transition will occur and plans will be developed for the merger and for the division of responsibilities of the Office of the Counsel and Secretariat. These plans will be developed in consultation with the Chairs of the Board and of Senate and with full consultation with the staff of these offices.
Lorna R Marsden, President
31 May, 1998
