Ontario has plans to expand the higher education system by 60,000 places through three new campuses. This is on top of the large expansion of the last decade, University Professor George Fallis, an economist in York's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, wrote in an opinion piece in the Toronto Star March 5. This expansion has been to accommodate the baby boom echo, immigration and rising participation rates. But do we need to expand even more? The answer is no, Fallis wrote. And, indeed, to expand now will weaken the existing institutions as they will soon struggle to hold their enrolments. Read full story.
The richer sex
Today, women account for nearly half of all employees in the labour force – and even outnumbered men in 2009 and 2010, reported Maclean's March 6. “It’s startling that in a lifetime we’ve seen that huge cultural change,” said Andrea O’Reilly, professor of women’s studies at York and director of the Motherhood Initiative. “This is the ‘unfinished business of feminism,’” she said. “Women are doing the majority of work at home even if she is the primary [earner]." Read full story.
Microsoft strikes back
Alan Middleton, professor of marketing in York University’s Schulich School of Business, told Maclean's March 5 that Microsoft needs to breathe some life into its staid brand in a new world dominated by mobile devices that don't run Windows software. However, he cautioned that Microsoft needs to be careful because nobody is going to mistake the company for an underdog, considering that it generated US$70 billion in revenue last year. “The danger in 2012 is they will seem like a rich has-been,” he said. Read full story.
Tech tools help North Bay woman navigate life where memories are hard to make
Hayley Cole – known in medical literature as "HC" – has what is called developmental amnesia, a term York University Faculty of Health neuroscientist Shayna Rosenbaum, who has studied her, calls a misnomer, The Canadian Press reported March 5. Rosenbaum said the things scientists are learning from studying Hayley and her fiancé "Jon" could provide answers for others with less dramatic brain deficits. Read full story.
Retired NWT judge to head Alberta health public inquiry
Osgoode grad Justice John Z. Vertes (LLB '75), a recently retired senior judge with a broad range of experience in Canada’s northern territories, will head up a public inquiry into queue-jumping in the medical system, reported the Calgary Herald March 5. Read full story.
Star cabinet minister entrusted with labour relations
A graduate of the prestigious Osgoode Hall Law School, Lisa Raitt (LLB '96) has solidified her status as a star cabinet minister for Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2011, wrote the Hill Times March 5, in a story about the top 100 influential people in government and politics. She’s been entrusted with labour relations at a time when the government plans to drastically reduce the size of the civil service. Read full story.