When 8,000 academics from across Canada descend upon York for the 75th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences May 27-June 3 and start wondering how to find meeting rooms, residences, ATMs, beer tents and the nearest washrooms, they won’t have any trouble figuring out whom to ask. That’s because pretty well everybody who works at York will be wearing a big red and white button on their lapels that reads “Welcome to York U”.
Right: Alexandra Holody, Congress 2006 assistant and a third-year York student, models the “Welcome to York U” button
That’s what John Lennox hopes anyway. As Congress Chair and academic convener, he anticipates lots of questions from visitors – strangers mostly – to the Keele campus. So Congress organizers have ordered 5,000 Welcome-to-YorkU buttons and plan to distribute them over the next few days to every staff and faculty member at Keele – well before Congress begins May 27.
By wearing the buttons, York staff and faculty “will create a welcoming atmosphere for the eight days of Congress,” says Lennox.
For more information about this week-long event at York, see the Congress 2006 Web site and YFile, Feb. 2.