by Cathy Carlyle

Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) faces difficult trade-offs in how it promotes development in Third World countries. Where should it operate on a spectrum that spans traditional research granting to academics on one extreme, to partnering with private business in Canada on the other? Is there a way to combine multiple approaches?

"That's what I am here today at York, trying to find out," said Scott Tiffin of the IDRC when he spoke at a Brown Bag Research Seminar in September. "I need more input from Canadians, as taxpayers and stakeholders. I am based in Montevideo [Uruguay], so chances like this for feedback from people like you on what the stance of this agency should be, are very important."

The IDRC's mandate is to finance research in Third World countries that will promote development and, in a secondary way wherever possible, promote Canadian strategic advantage in line with federal foreign policy. All of this must be accomplished with a decreasing annual budget and staff. This year IDRC officers based in Montevideo and Ottawa focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean will operate with a research budget of about $10 million US. Tiffin referred to the funding as, "a financial pinprick in the region, where overall outside development funding is about $6.3 billion US, direct foreign investment $38 billion US and the Gross Regional Product $1.8 trillion US."

He mused about in what way the agency could have the maximum impact on the 25 countries in his jurisdiction with its relatively small budget. "Most taxpayers don't even know we exist, even those at the university level," he said. "However, we know we have something to offer Third World countries. Some of the areas in which we are involved are generating and diffusing knowledge about libraries, technological systems and networks. We finance key thinkers to keep the voice of rationality alive under military regimes during difficult times. And we work to set up partnerships - what we might call seed investments. For instance, we helped Dalhousie get involved with a marine research project in Rio de la Plata, which then put them in a position to continue independently on some projects involving the transfer of badly-needed geophysical surveying technology. If this next phase goes ahead, both Canadians and Uruguayans will come out winners."

Tiffin explained that the agency works with multiple stakeholders, from the private as well as the public sector in the developing countries and in Canada. It aims to create systems within Third World countries that help the stakeholders work better. "It is a difficult and costly thing to do, and our resources can be stretched pretty thin. Where do we focus? How do we focus? Should we focus? There are a lot of competing pressures on us."

Other dilemmas faced by the IDRC are the variables from which it must choose in order to run programs. Tiffin posed these questions: should the agency's funds be placed in promoting equity or growth; backing winners or losers; acting as intellectual leader or efficient facilitator; donating money or investing it in Third World countries; and should it be highlighting Canada's agenda or those of the Third World countries?

"We also ask ourselves, should we be responsive like boy scouts, or proactive like gringos? The first way, we get pulled in all directions, and in the second way, we can appear not to be listening. And should we be independent or linked to business? These choices aren't easy. These are questions to which we will never get clear and simple answers. Our stakeholders must have input on a periodic basis, and you as academics and taxpayers are one group of stakeholders."

The IDRC has 430 employees worldwide with an annual budget of $130 million Cdn. It is examining ways to form partnerships with a wide range of public agencies, in a manner consistent with its basic mandate, such as Parks Canada, Industry Canada, Environment Canada and the National Research Council. It has a working relationship with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), World Bank, International American Development Bank and various United Nations agencies.

Lorna R. Marsden, president and vice-chancellor of York University, held a luncheon to honour the recipients of Prestigious Entrance Scholarships on Sept. 16 at the Faculty Club. Both faculty and students had a wonderful afternoon, as you can tell by the smiles on their faces.

By Nishat Karim

York University bestows the honorary position of University Professor to a few unique and dedicated individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the University by teaching and/or service. The University has presented 20 Universtiy Professorships to date.

Professor Sandra Pyke

An activist, builder, mentor, University citizen - currently in her second term as Chair of the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts, Sandra Pyke was awarded the title of University Professor at York University's Spring Convocation 1999.

In 1966 Pyke joined the Psychology Department in the Faculty of Arts and immediately began working in the Counselling and Development Centre, later becoming Chair for two years. Her leadership exemplified the Centre's commitment to helping students fulfill their personal and academic potential by providing programs from personal psychiatric counselling, to assistance for students with learning disabilities.

She also served as advisor to the president on the status of women at York, championing the concerns of women faculty, staff and students. As Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, she brought enormous energy and dedication, pushing and inspiring York's graduate programs to maintain and enhance academic quality. Her highest priority was the student - improving the educational experience of graduate students and seeking greater financial assistance for them. Pyke worked tirelessly to address concerns about the status of women graduate students and, with
others, brought forward the Graduate Program in Women's Studies, a Canadian first.

In 1996 Pyke received the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Canadian Psychology as a Profession, proving that her exceptional contributions extend beyond York University, to the discipline of psychology across Canada.

By Cathy Carlyle

Robert Hodgson with friends,
at Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, on Canada Day 1999

If York's Robert Hodgson (graduate student in geography) were an artist depicting his immediate surroundings, he would cover his canvasses with what may appear to be scenes bordering on the surreal.

Interviewed this past August from his quarters at Repulse Bay on Cornwallis Island, Nunavut, approximately 4,300 km northwest of Toronto, Hodgson described the area like this: "Think of a gravel pit with no trees - in fact, no vegetation at all over 10 cm tall - and mostly barren rock. Add the most amazing and unhindered view of the horizon, a lot of wind and fog, some cool hairy goats called muskox and there you have it."

Hodgson's trip to the Arctic, where he conducted his research, was 13 hours long and took him through Edmonton and Yellowknife. He finally landed on a gravel runway in Repulse Bay on a 737 equipped for the High Arctic landscape. He greeted the fresh Arctic air after exiting a one-room airport. "The temperature here is usually no more than 10 degrees in July, with little rain, and even the occasional blizzard," he said cheerfully, "but if it ever reaches 15 degrees, the sun feels so intense in the blue sky all you want to do is take an outdoor tundra nap."

But Hodgson's time in the north was not for sleeping. This winner of the $10,000 1999-2000 James W. Bourque Studentship in Northern Studies was there to gather more material on the desert environment of the Canadian High-Arctic islands. His project was chosen from over 100 applications from across Canada in a competition sponsored by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and administered by the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (ACUNS). Entitled "Ecohydrology of a Polar Desert Wetland: biophysical dynamics and evolution", the study was from the perspective that water directly or indirectly, in this desert environment, provides a suitable habitat for plant development.

Hodgson talked about his work by telephone from his Arctic aerie, receiving phone signals that are sent to Repulse Bay via satellite, then relayed through wires to his quarters in a one-storey meal building about 10 km away. "If it weren't for the Northern Student Training Program, which provides funds for travel and accommodation and is administered by ACUNS, I just couldn't be here doing this work," he said.

"And thank goodness for the Polar Continental Shelf Project," added this 25-year-old student who, while away from his family, still had some of the comforts of home at the government-run station. "It's a fantastic scientific base with three cooks on staff, airplanes, helicopters, hot showers and just about all a guy could want in the Actic. PCSP services just about all the scientific research, foreign and domestic, in the Canadian Arctic, so we get to meet scientists from many different fields of research, most of whom enthusiastically lend support and advice. Planes bring in supplies weekly, so we get well-fed with fresh food. We help out here with washing dishes, helping the mechanics, picking up people at the airport...so they cook whatever we like. It's great!"

In his day-to-day research, Hodgson faces the windy outdoors in what sounds like an oxymoron: polar desert wetlands. An area that receives less than 120 mm of precipitation a year is a desert region, he explained. In the High Arctic, not much snow falls over the nine-month winter and only some of the permafrost melts in the brief summer. What little water there is pools in topographic depressions or at the base of hills and forms wet patches with "lush" vegetation - hense the desert wetlands classification.

"There has been a belief that the physical environment lays an unchanging foundation for plants to colonize by way of a succession of stages. But I anticipate that this is not entirely the case in the polar desert wetlands. Plants in these conditions change the physical environment by trapping and altering the movement of water, and changing the thermal regime of the ground," he said. "Under the right conditions ice can accumulate under vegetation patches, gradually causing the ground to rise as it swells due to the amount of ice beneath it. Over time the ground constantly changes shape and water flowpaths saturate new areas of land where the cycle may start again."

He added that the exact species of algae and plants that live there and play a role in the physical-biological interaction are not well understood. "And the hydrological and other physical processes that cause the ecosystem to continue changing haven't been linked directly to species' composition and diversity. That is what I am studying. I think it's essential for us to have an understanding of the physical process of interactions with plants and, later, animals if we are to become aware of the impacts of change on our environment."

How do climate conditions contribute to changes in these wetlands? Do warm, wet summers or cool, dry ones, accelerate these physical processes? Will the environment in the Arctic be more stable or unstable in the future? "These are the big questions," said Hodgson. "Fragile Arctic ecosystems especially will be affected by global warming. Last summer I worked on an Arctic water budet project under my supervisor, [York professor] Dr. Kathy Young. For my own project, I'm investigating these wetlands from an ecological perspective." Not alone in this work, another undergraduate thesis student, Lisa Loseto, is looking at the biophysical role of plant nutrient availability, "an exciting project in its own right."

By Susan Scott

Back in 1991, the situation was anything but black and white - it was mostly white.

The situation was this: while the community surrounding York, and most of the community within the University's walls reflected a rich multicultural mix, applicants to York's Faculty of Education teacher education programs remained predominantly caucasian.

The faculty quickly recognized this issue and took action. The response: An anti-discriminatory advisory group (ADAG) which identified four groups of people that were under-represented in the teacher education program at York - people of colour, First Nation peoples, refugees and people with disabilities. The ADAG consulted widely with and gathered input from faculty, staff, student groups, the University's Centre for Race and Ethnic Relations, the Office of Learning Disabilities and numerous outside community organizations.

Recruitment strategies to attract applicants from the identified groups included advertising in campus and local ethnic newspapers, speaking to high-school classes, and liaising with high-school guidance counsellors. York's initiative was led by Patrick Solomon, a professor in the Faculty of Education.

The objective was twofold: increase the enrolment numbers and weave into school curriculum issues of cultural and ethnic diversity.

By 1994 the Ontario Ministry of Education had realized the importance of diversity in education. It asked for proposals from universities across the province for anti-racism programs in teacher education. Solomon teamed up with colleague, Gary Bunch, to prepare the Diversity Initiative. And once York was funded for the program, Bunch initially ran it with Solomon. "He deserves a lot of credit for getting the program going," says Solomon.

The program started with 44 teacher candidates (out of a pool of 160 already enrolled in the consecutive program). Solomon explains "we wanted a small and diverse group. So we ended up with about half white students and the other half consisting of a good mix of the under-represented groups." These included Asian, African, First Nations students and students with learning disabilities.

The good news for those students upon graduation, says Solomon, was they got teaching jobs at twice the rate of students in other university teaching programs.

"Principals had heard about the program and were interested in our students," says Solomon.

The program's objective is to integrate issues of ethnic and cultural diversity into the existing class curriculum to inject "a new way of thinking" into teaching, says Solomon. For example, a course on child development would discuss cultural influence on child development. A course on communication in education, would feature a module on cross-cultural communication. In other cases, topics such as sexual orientation and economic class issues would be woven into modules.

"The ministry sets the curriculum so our program focused on ways to introduce these issues into the existing courses," he says.

Any teacher candidate is eligible for the program if already accepted into the one-year consecutive program at York in the junior/primary category (for junior kindergarten through grade six) through the Faculty of Education. The consecutive program is for students who have already received a three- or four-year degree such as a BA or BSc.

Today, the program continues and is thriving. For each of the past two years, 80 students enrolled in the program, says Solomon.

The program is actually run off-campus at six locations around Toronto in school areas with higher ethnic diversity. The main location is the Yvonne site, in the Jane Street and Finch Avenue area. The other Toronto location is run through the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Others are in Durham, Halton and York Regions. From there, teacher candidates are placed with "host" teachers (teachers who supervise and evaluate teacher candidates) for their practical training in schools with high ethnic and ethno-cultural diversity. In fact, Gary Bunch is working at the Halton site, located at Sheridan College in Oakville (he still works for York but has been seconded for the diversity project).

Solomon says the program has operated almost long enough that the first group of graduates now out working can soon qualify as host teachers to the new generation of teacher candidates in the program. School boards, he says, shy away from having less experienced teachers as hosts for teachers in training. The advantage, he says, is that the teachers in training will have a colleague who's been through the diversity training.

Once the teacher candidates are in the workforce, "they are often dubbed 'Mr. or Ms Diversity' by their principals and colleagues," says Solomon. "Because of their training at York, they are often expected to be the school leaders on anti-racism and diversity issues." In addition, he says, parents welcome them as role models for their children.

By Cathy Carlyle

From left, Profs. Stuerzlinger, Jenkin and Harris in front of the SGI RealityMonster

Everyone knows that there are monsters and that some inhabit caves. Even York University has one - albeit residing in a temporary home until it finds its cave. Fortunately, the monster's keepers are as benign as it is.

"We just think of it as four purple refrigerators stuck together," said Michael Jenkin, Chair of the Computer Science Department. "Now we're waiting for the special room to be built - the CAVE - so it can do its work of generating virtual reality on the walls." Jenkin, along with computer science Professor Wolfgang Stuerzlinger and Laurence Harris, professor in the departments of Psychology and Biology, all have a fondness for their new pet - the approximately $3.5 million SGI RealityMonster. The equipment and CAVE are funded by a Canada Foundation for Innovation equipment grant to the Centre for Vision Research (CVR).

It may sound like a costly toy but the large piece of equipment, with its attractive outer body and gleaming innards, is an invaluable tool for simulating reality. It has an enormous graphics capability that can conjure up scenes to make subjects almost believe they are actually living in that world. The virtual reality that the researchers are talking about is more in the field of helping prepare astronauts for the disorientation associated with zero-gravity than for frightening people. It will be an aid in developing robots that could explore dangerous areas more reliably - though Jenkin said they don't discount that virtual reality games could reap the benefits of researchers' findings. Another spin-off project that will gain greatly from the RealityMonster is the investigation of new user interfaces that can be applied in industrial and interior design, architecture and urban planning.

The new equipment eventually will be housed in the new computer science building to be completed by the Fall of 2001. Computer Science is to have a floor in which they'll have a portion set aside for the CAVE - a six-sided room where experiments on virtual reality will be conducted. This will be the first of its kind in North America. There will be projectors and mirrors at strategic spots behind the walls, casting images onto each of the six walls, including the floor and ceiling. "One of the major difficulties in building such a space is in projecting from under the floor," said Stuerzlinger. "However, to make it 'virtual reality' you need to have images everywhere that the eye would see - all around the viewer." Until the larger CAVE with projections on all the walls comes into being, researchers will be contented with one that has three or four-sides, to be constructed in the interim at the Chemistry and Computer Science Building.

In the CAVE, subjects may be strapped to a chair or they may walk around. They will have the unnerving experience of the room seeming to move all around them, thanks to the technology that will move the projected images in concert. "If we find similar results to what we did in the 'tumbling room', that would be nice," said Harris. He explained that the tumbling room in the basement of Vari Hall is where subjects were observed while they were in a room that revolved as they were held (willingly!) in a chair that tilted. Researchers took measurements of various reactions of the subjects' senses.

The CVR is an internationally-recognized inter-disciplinary research centre that investigates human perception and includes researchers from psychology, biology, computer science and kinesiology. The equipment and work benefit researchers in both pure and applied studies.

The 1999 York University Homecoming (Sept. 23-26) was nothing less than a success. There were a total of 31 events (compared to five in 1998) attended by a large number of alumni, faculty, staff and students. The stadium was packed with 2,750 loyal Yeomen fans for the annual Homecoming football game, the second largest turnout in York's history, outranked only by the opening of the stadium in 1995. Director of Alumni Affairs André Beaudry called this just the beginning. "We learned a lot this year," he said, "and we're starting to build now for Homecoming 2000. We've received some great ideas and plan to make Homecoming more visible both on campus and in the surrounding community. There are over 80,000 alumni in the GTA and we need to get the message out to them." At the same time, Beaudry and his team are working to create a Homecoming tradition for today's students so that they will enjoy returning to York annually to celebrate Homecoming. "I'd like to thank the many people who worked so hard on Homecoming 1999. The colleges, alumni chapters and Faculties got behind the events and everyone did an incredible job. It was a wonderful, rousing York weekend!" he concluded, and invited everyone back for Homecoming 2000

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the 1998 pancake breakfast this year's United Way Campaign will feature two: one at the Central Square Cafeteria and one at the Glendon Cafeteria. The breakfast, served up by Dr. Lorna Marsden and other senior administrators, kicks off this year's campaign on Thursday, Oct. 14. This event marks the official start of York's United Way campaign and organizers are encouraging you to participate and to make a donation. Breakfast will be served between 8 and 10am. All students, staff and faculty are invited.

The United Way campaign is looking to build on the enthusiasm and awareness of the 1998 campaign which raised $151,164 and had a participation rate of 18 per cent. The 1999 campaign has set lofty goals of $165,000 and 600 donors. "I believe that we are on the verge of awakening York University's true potential for giving," says Gillian Sewell, York's campaign coordinator. "With the motivated team of volunteers we have this year, I believe these numbers are more than achievable."

The United Way's work is fundamental to this community's health and vitality. The United Way helps to fund battered women's shelters, child development centres, seniors home care programs, family resource centres and much more. In fact the United Way of Greater Toronto funds over 200 agencies, the core funding source of many services. The money raised by the United Way campaign has become increasingly important with continued government cuts to social spending.

Giving to the United Way has never been easier and if there are certain agencies people want to donate to, the United Way can accommodate their requests. "Many people are unaware that donations can be designated to any of the United Way agencies or to any registered charity, simply by filling out the back of the pledge card," Sewell says.

The 1999 York University United Way campaign is sure to be a highlight of the Fall on campus. York prides itself on its social conscience and Sewell believes this is one measure of our support for the greater community. "I hope that the members of the York community will consider making a donation this year, even a small amount each pay period can make a big difference," says Sewell.

English Professor Frances Beer's book, Julian of Norwich: Revelations of Divine Love (Library of Medieval Women, ed. Jane Chance, 1998), offers personal details Julian edited out in the second edition with Motherhood of God.

Political science Professor Alexandra Dobrowolsky's book, The Politics of Pragmatism (Oxford University Press, 2000), illustrates how the contemporary Canadian women's movement, through its pragmatic pursuit of overlapping routes to political representation, has reshaped the ideas and practices of representation. It traces the constitutional activism of national feminist organizations for the disputes of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the early 1980s to the October 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord.

Spatial Vision in Humans and Robots (Cambridge University Press, 1993) by psychology and biology Professor Laurence Harris and computer science Professor Michael Jenkin (eds.) is a collection of papers presented at a York conference on spatial vision in humans and robots. This collection will be of special interest to biological researchers investigating how the brain solves spatial problems. It will also be of interest to researchers in robotics and computer vision systems.

Humanities Professor J.B.Rives' translation of Tacitus' *Germania* (Oxford University Press, 1999) is the most extensive account of the ancient Germans written during the Roman period, but has been relatively neglected in the scholarship of the English-speaking world: the last commentary appeared in 1938, and only a handful of studies have appeared since that time. This new commentary, together with the extensive introduction, provides a current and comprehensive guide to the relevant textual and archaeological evidence and also examines the methodological issues involved in the interpretation of this important work.

By Cathy Carlyle

From left, York students Paul Vodak and Mariangela Piccione work with artist Liz Magor and Odette studio supervisor Davis Gailitis. (Fine Arts student Sara Tesolin, who also worked on the sculpture-to-be, is missing from the photograph.)

People don't often equate working in a university fine arts department with coating tree trunks with vegetable spray, silicone and fibreglass, and with sweating in a foundry. But that is just what can happen if you're a York Fine Arts student, and it's what did happen over the summer for several students working on a major project designed by artist-in-residence Liz Magor - though the foundry work will come later. It will be the most prestigious piece ever cast at the University's foundry.

Magor doesn't shy from complex ideas and the one she proposed for York was certainly that; nor did the students translating her vision into reality retreat from the complicated procedures involved.

"My idea came at a ferry terminal in B.C. when I saw RCMP posters about a fugitive they suspected was hiding in the forest," said this Vancouverite. "I thought how counter-instinctive it was for someone to run away from people and into a forest, where a solitary human is anomalous, in the belief that it would be safer there. It's a romantic idea to think that nature is benign. That's something I would associate with romantics and children, or misanthropes and fugitives, for example."

An image came to her of part of a hollow tree, big enough for a person to hide in, and she created an art work in Vancouver based on that. For York University, at the request of the University's Art Gallery and Faculty of Fine Arts, which wanted students to use the foundry for an important sculpture, she carried the idea forward and changed the basic material to bronze. Because the work of art will be in bronze, people will be able to climb on it as well as enjoy it from a visually aesthetic sense. In this version of her hideout theme, there will be the hint of a sleeping bag showing through a hole in one of the capped ends.

Magor will make the sleeping bag herself, soak the item in wax, make a mould of it, then cast it in silicone. "So, what is inside the tree will be soft, while the outer sculpture will be hard metal," she said. "The bronze will be like a shell or armour protecting the vulnerable centre. By using these two materials together, I advance the idea that this is an image of defence and shelter and at the same time highlight some qualities of bronze that are usually not noticed when it is used on its own."

The entire process of producing the sculpture began last year when Magor chose a large willow tree of a certain diameter. The tree was on the Pickering property of Ted Bieler, a York visual arts professor who directed the project. Davis Gailitis, Fine Arts' Odette Sculpture Studio supervisor, and York student Paul Vodak used various engineering skills to design scaffolding to wrap around the tree approximately 15 feet from the ground. They and others working on the project then were able to reach the tree trunk from 10 to 20 feet - the section chosen by Magor. Gailitis, Vodak and Fine Arts students Sara Tesolin and Mariangela Piccione consulted York's Botany Department about methods to use that would not damage the 200-year-old tree in any way.

The labourious process began when they sprayed the tree with a harmless vegetable oil so that other materials would not stay on the tree afterward. Then, using one-inch brushes, they carefully coated the particular 10-foot-high portion of the trunk in silicone. "We had to be sure that the substance went into every nook and cranny of the bark. It took four of us five days to apply three coats," said Davis. "The first coat started drizzling down the trunk like thick molasses. On subsequent coats when we added the thickening agent, it was a bit like painting with soft cream cheese."

The next stage was the application of fibreglass which helped ensure that the silicone retained its shape when removed from the tree in what otherwise would have been two large, floppy sections. It took Gailitis and the three students three days to apply five coats. The next step was the removal of the fibreglass outer jacket, poetically termed the mother mould, giving birth to the silicone mould. By this time, the silicone and all its convolutions resembled a pinkish-white tripe dress, shrink-wrapped around the tree. It was carefully separated from the trunk and placed into the mother mould.

Like a precious newborn in an incubator, the silicone-and-fibreglass baby was gingerly transported to York. Meanwhile, two students remained to return the parent willow tree and ground to their original state. Once at the University's Odette Sculpture Studio, the bronze artwork-to-be went through several other processes, one of which involved the making of a rich, chocolate-coloured wax replica from the silicone-fibreglass base and fitting it into tailor-made wooden cradles. Students propped up the inside of the "tree trunk" with lathe; painstakingly picked silicone bits from the dark wax with tweezers (as shown above); and started forming "caps" to seal the ends. The hollow bronze casting process will come at a later stage, and will involve the melting of metal in a crucible, 150 pounds at a time. The entire tree trunk could take anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds of bronze for the final sculpture.

"Because it is the students who are working on the production of my idea, the quality of the job is dependent on their ability," said Magor. "I was a bit worried about this at first, but now, seeing the perfection of this huge, wax cast, I'm confident that the production will faithfully serve my concept."

Magor's sculpture is expected to be unveiled at York sometime next May in a ceremony that will coincide with a related exhibition of her work at the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU). Magor worked under the auspices of the AGYU with Loretta Yarlow and with the Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts.

By Nishat Karim

Ross Building

If not today, then tomorrow. If not this week, then perhaps next. As a central point at York University, you just can't help but pass through the Ross Building, one of the oldest buildings on the York campus. Built in 1969, and named in the same year after York's founding President Dr. Murray G. Ross, the building continues to stand tall amongst those surrounding it.

As president of York University from 1959-1970 Dr. Ross saw his task as a unique opportunity to build an institution of higher learning free of the restrictive thinking of the past ages.

Quoted in an article entitled Gallery of Canadians from 1962, Ross remarked that "Far too many university departments have never adjusted to the modern world. They exist as beautiful monuments to a way of life that has disappeared... a responsible university must find a place in its studies for the deep and sustained problems of 20th century life."

As a teacher, author and university administrator, Dr. Ross has published several books and articles relating to education and social sciences including The New University, published in December 1961, which is a collection of speeches relating to his hopes and dreams for York University. Prior to his appointment as president of York, Ross taught at the University of Toronto (1951-1956) and was a vice president of the University from 1956-1960.

As an active member of the community, Ross was also an associate of the Advisory Committee of the Canadian Association for Adult Education; a member of the Board of Toronto Y.M.C.A; a member of the Advisory Board of the National Ballet School; and honorary director of the Canadian National Exhibition.

"...The purpose of liberal education is quite simply to liberate
....If a university is to be alive
generation after generation, the institute must be in close touch with the life of the community which it serves," says Ross.

By Cathy Carlyle

The Employee Assistance Program discussed below is available to permanent and contract members of CUPE 1356, CUPE 1356-1, CPM, IUOE, IUTS and YUSA.

Ordinarily people cope well with the tribulations of life, but there comes at least one time in almost everyone's life when things seem to get out of hand.

Imagine this: For any number of reasons you are filled with anxiety and overwhelming feelings of stress. Perhaps your marriage is in trouble, your teenagers are having serious problems or you've lost a loved one. Or you may be feeling just a little down lately. You've tried all your old coping mechanisms and they didn't work this time. You feel stuck, and wonder if you can cope with life pressures.

That's when the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can help. EAP, through Family Guidance International (FGI), provides eligible York University employees and their family members with confidential, short-term counselling, and with advisory information services for personal and work-related issues. Many people forget that such assistance is available until they really need it. Even those who are aware of the free and voluntary service often are apprehensive to use it for fear that co-workers and managers will find out if they go for help.

However, confidentiality is the cornerstone of EAP. "We assure employees that confidentiality is one of our prime aims," said Margaret Gilligan, disability management coordinator at Human Resources. "First of all, the counselling is always done away from York University and a network of providers is available, meaning that often employees' appointments can take place close to home. Secondly, the counsellors are not employees of York. Thirdly, FGI counsellors ensure that York employees are not booked for a session back-to-back with another York employee. They are very sensitive to any breach of confidentiality." FGI shares no personal information with York University without an employee's written legal consent.

Counsellors offer assistance in family and marital problems, personal and emotional difficulties, grief and bereavement issues, alcohol and drug problems, and for anxiety and stress. They also provide information on child and eldercare, money management and legal issues.

"We believe that people benefit by seeking help early when life throws the inevitable curve ball, and that's where EAP forms an essential part of the York benefits program," said Gilligan. "We look upon it as one of York's disability prevention strategies. In fact, we like to think that managers and supervisors are fully aware of EAP, because they are the ones most likely to first notice when an employee is having problems. If they remind a worker that there is help in the form of the counselling service, there's a good chance that the problem can be resolved early."

Here is a sampling of frequently asked questions about EAP:

Q: Why should I use EAP instead of services convered under the medical benefits plan?

A: EAP is not offered as a replacement for the services covered under the medical benefits plan, but rather as a complement to them. EAP deals with short-term problems and provides referrals for specialized or longer-term services.

Q: Can I get help for a problem involving one of my dependents, rather than for my own personal problem?

A: Yes. But it may be more appropriate to suggest that your dependent contact EAP directly for personal assistance.

Q: My children attend school in another province. How can they use EAP?

A: If they are eligible under your medical benefit plan, they can use EAP in the area where they are attending school. Just give them the toll-free EAP number. EAP has counsellors in over 200 locations across Canada.

Q: If I have legal problems, can EAP give me legal advice?

A: Yes. EAP will advise you on how to access a lawyer who can provide legal information and advice by telephone.

Q: Will EAP provide help in resolving financial problems?

A: Yes. FGI will direct you to an appropriate agency where you can get the specialized assistance you require, at no cost to yourself or eligible family members.

Q: I suspect my child may be using drugs. Can EAP help me?

A: Yes. You should contact EAP to determine the most effective role you as the parent can assume in addressing your child's potential drug problem. EAP can also help you in coping with the stress usually associated with this type of problem.

Q: Can my manager require me to go to EAP?

A: No. It's your decision. In some instances, however, EAP may be suggested as a source of help if you decide to discuss a personal problem with a member of management. You're entirely free to accept or reject this suggestion.

Q: Who are the counsellors for this service?

A: They are trained, experienced professionals employed by, or affiliated with, our privately-contracted service provider, FGI. They are not employees of York University.

The program is accessible 24 hours every day by calling 1-800-263-1401 (English) or 1- 800-661-2186 (French). When you call, you'll be speaking to an FGI intake specialist who will ask you some general questions related to your concerns. This is done so that FGI can match you to the most appropriate counsellor. Once the match is made, your counsellor will call you to schedule your first appointment.

For more information you may call FGI directly or contact your Human Resources representative.