If a murder happens at St. George and Bloor, who responds to the crime, Toronto Police Services or University of Toronto’s security? Imagine how the Toronto Star would cover such a story. Most Torontonians know that intersection and don’t need any landmarks for reference. They don’t need to be told that it’s just north of the Rotman School of Management or Robarts Library….When a crime, no less the city’s first homicide of the new year, happens off and away from York University's Keele campus but is associated with York regardless, I begin to wonder if we’ve earned our abysmal reputation through the amount of crimes that happen here or through the media’s portrayal of the university, reported Excalibur Jan. 14. Read full story.
People we love: Simona Flumian
Vaughan resident and Schulich School of Business student Simona Flumian has participated in the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation’s CIBC Run for the Cure over the past two years, raising a total of $9,600, including $7,440 this year, and earning a CIBC Education Award in the process, reported YorkRegion.com Jan. 10. Read full story.
How Boeing’s non-lethal CHAMP missiles could mark ‘a new era in modern-day warfare’
With access to information about the wider world increasingly available in the public sphere, Western governments are having to become savvier about deciding if, when and how to become involved in conflicts overseas. As such, weapons like Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) might favour the peacekeeping roles Canadian forces are often involved in. Martin Shadwick, a professor at York University and a Canadian defence policy expert, said in the National Post Jan. 12: “One could envisage a scenario where we could say to the public that by using this technology, it reduces the risk of so-called collateral damage. Generally speaking, it could improve public support.” Read full story.
Anxious apocalypticism, meaningful millennialism
Environmental disaster themes are most commonly identified and the fall-out from the Mayan calendar ending in no different. It is this latter group of “secular” enthusiasts who are storing food for the apocalypse, the so-called “preppers,” that concerns the rest of this article, wrote York University geography Professor Tristan Sturm in Rabble.ca Dec. 21. Why does this group believe this arbitrary date derived from this arbitrary civilization will end the earth? Read full story.
Local musician receives Order of Canada
A former local choir conductor and York University professor received the highest civilian award in Canada for his musical work. Albert Greer was named a Member of the Order of Canada in Dec. 2012 “for his achievements as a conductor, composer and teacher helping to shape the direction of Canadian choral music,” reported the District Weekender Jan. 11. Read full story.
2012 Roundup: Curatorial high points
Canada stretched its legs in the international curatorial world in 2012. As the year began, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London was still showing director Ian Dejardin’s remarkable “Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven” that brought new audiences to and a new take on the stalwarts of Canadian art history. Katerina Atanassova, chief curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and Anna Hudson, associate professor of Canadian art and curatorial studies at York University, brought great support as knowledgeable co-curators, reported Canadian Art Dec. 25. Read full story.
York University sues former executive for “vast” fraud
A former top York University executive received about $250,000 worth of home improvements including a Jacuzzi hot tub in a widespread phoney invoice racket that he masterminded on campus, the school alleges. In a major lawsuit with supporting documents, York says former assistant vice-president of campus services and business operations Michael Markicevic used staff and construction materials from the university for work at two family homes, while the school unknowingly covered the costs through a “vast” scheme featuring scores of bogus invoices, reported the Toronto Star Dec. 23. Read full story.