York University’s Schulich School of Business made the front page of the Times of India March 16 in a story about the possibility of foreign universities setting up shop in India after a proposed law moved one step closer to becoming a reality.
The newspaper reported that the cabinet had cleared the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill, which aims to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. Once it is cleared, some of the top foreign universities, said to be waiting in the wings, are expected to set up campuses in India, said the paper.
Under the heading, “World’s Best At Your Doorstep?”, the Times listed the Schulich School of Business (York University) as one of several North American and British schools planning to establish campuses in India should the proposed legislation become law later this year. [Schulich already offers an MBA program on a joint basis in India,]
The Times of India is the world's largest English-language daily and the most widely read English newspaper in India, with a circulation of more than 3 million.
The worst thing for top students is to bore them, says York prof
If you want to help a child with satisfactory grades bump them up to excellent ones, think beyond the actual work he or she is completing in class, suggests Stuart Shanker, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy & Psychology in York University’s Faculty of Health, who studies brain development, wrote The Globe and Mail March 22.
A high-achieving child will often fall back when puberty hits, which may have more to do with a desire to relate to peers and express independence from parents than anything else, he says. “The worst thing that can be done is to yell at him,” Shanker says. Instead of harping on your child to finish his homework or sitting down with him to do it, encourage peer learning.
Research suggests non-academic stimulation – as opposed to surfing the Net or watching TV – can have positive effects on classroom learning, Shanker says.
The key to keeping a successful student going is to constantly challenge them, Shanker says. The solution can be as simple as giving them opportunities to study their favourite subjects at an advanced level. He has noticed dramatic improvements in children who joined the school’s science club or competed in weekend math competitions. “The worst thing we can do with those kids is bore them,” he says.
Math skills must add up
Math skills and the lack of them are a perennial problem, one that shows up with a vengeance when students move on to college or university, wrote education columnist Moira MacDonald in the Toronto Sun March 22.
The York/Seneca Institute for Mathematics, Science & Technology Education’s College Mathematics Project found two years ago that a depressing 37 per cent of recent Ontario high-school graduates were either flunking or doing dismally badly in first semester college math courses – needed for programs in business, technology and health.
Kudos to the research team from York and Seneca for sticking with this project and to the Ontario government for continuing to fund them. Unfortunately, this year the project found only a slight uptick in improvement, with 35 per cent of recent Ontario high-school graduates getting better than a “D” grade in their first semester math courses.
Extreme Makeover: Media Edition
The growth of home-improvement media, aside from providing consumers with a cornucopia of advice on how to finally build that patio, has also presented some of media’s most innovative opportunities for advertisers, wrote Marketing magazine March 22.
Product integration “is very strong in this space, as well as in cooking and food, and both for the same reason,” says Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. “The consumer is insecure about their own talents and always looking for advice. What that means for advertising is, it doesn’t matter where that advice comes from, it still adds value to the user.”
According to Middleton, home-improvement “advice programming” is a good fit for advertisers because viewers are more willing to accept a specific product or brand being used in a show to achieve something they’d like to do themselves, so the integration is more seamless.
Kielburgers run a high-profile empire of do-gooding social enterprise
Today, Free the Children is a global brand – one that from its headquarters in Cabbagetown is challenging the very foundations of Canada’s charity system, wrote The Globe and Mail March 20 in a story about the charity and its two leaders, York grad Craig Kielburger (EMBA ’09) and his brother Marc [a former Glendon student].
Craig, now 27, was the youngest ever graduate of the Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA Program in the Schulich School of Business at York University, and Marc, now 33, won a Rhodes Scholarship and got a law degree at Oxford. They are members of the Order of Canada, were torchbearers in the Vancouver 2010 relay, met the Dalai Lama and have the ear of former president Bill Clinton, said the Globe.
They fill arenas with screaming teenagers almost at whim, a scene at odds with their relatively bookish vibe. They’re passionate, well-versed and hard workers – one former Free the Children staffer said she quit because she couldn’t keep up with the 18-hour days. “They were very high-energy,” she says. “A lot was expected of you.”
Murder case appeals closely watched
Lawyers and others involved in the first-degree murder case of Nadeem Jiwa are closely watching several cases before the Ontario Court of Appeal, wrote the Markham Economist & Sun March 19.
The cases before the appeals court, including the case of Adrian Roks who was convicted of murder in a 2001 Toronto arson, argue that a section of the Criminal Code violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it allows for a murder conviction in the absence of an intent to cause death or grievous bodily harm, says James Morton, an adjunct professor at York’s Osgoode Hall Law School.
Where are they now? Cathy Marjerrison excelled in sport and business
No matter how high Prescott’s Cathy Marjerrison (BBA Spec. Hons. ’85; now McIntyre) jumped in any competition, the bar always won out in the end, wrote the Brockville Recorder & Times March 20.
McIntyre used her experience and background in athletics to contribute to her success in the business world. “That was the thing about the high jump. Eventually you lose. You could go out and perform well and win, but the bar won,” said McIntyre, now the senior vice-president of Alliance Data's LoyaltyOne in Toronto. “You always lose. You just have to pick yourself up and get on with it.”
Those lessons in sport helped McIntyre graduate first in her Bachelor of Business Administration program in the Schulich School of Business at York University. At York, she competed and helped coach.
York prof helped discover new galaxies in 1995
In 1995, Marshall McCall, now chair of York’s Department of Physics & Astronomy in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, and a US astronomer announced the discovery of two new galaxies near the Milky Way, wrote The Canadian Press in its Today in History column March 22.
On air
- York Professor Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts, spoke about the inaugural year for the Oscar Peterson Scholarships, on CKLN Radio’s “The Jazz Zone” March 19.
- York University dance students Yasmin Moharrer, Vanessa Quesnel and Katie Rogers spoke about the world premiere of their new choreographies as part of Dance Innovations, on the University of Toronto’s CIUT Radio, March 20.