People don’t typically think of the non-profit sector as big business but that’s exactly what it is, says Prof. Brenda Gainer, director of the Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program at the Schulich School of Business at York University, wrote the National Post Aug. 21. “It’s huge.” She’s not kidding.
And yet Schulich is the only business school in Canada offering an MBA in non-profit management. “It’s surprising to me,” says Gainer, who belongs to the US-based Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, an organization made up of directors of non-profit programs. “Even in the US, there are very few MBAs in non-profit management.”
“Social enterprise and corporate social responsibility are two different approaches to the same phenomenon,” Gainer says. “It’s sexy right now to see social change and issues addressed through business means. It’s much more in keeping with the ideology of business schools.”
Schulich is unique among business schools in its focus on the non-profit sector. It started its first non-profit program in 1983 and launched its Nonprofit Management MBA in 1993.
While there has been growth in non-degree programs for leaders in the sector, largely from community colleges, Gainer sees a need for the business schools to step up and develop management programs that are easier to access. “How can we make an MBA degree in non-profit management more accessible to people?” Gainer asks. “That’s the next 10 years of my career. The demand is there. We need education at all levels.”
Lawyers moving fast to be ‘players’ in propane blast lawsuits
They’re lawyers. But they want to be “players,” wrote the Toronto Star Aug. 21. And that explains why so many class-action litigators have filed lawsuits over the Sunrise Propane explosion – even before the cause is known and the cleanup is complete. The faster lawyers file a statement of claim, the better their chances of remaining part of the case when all of the lawsuits are consolidated into a single class-action consortium of lawyers.
“If you haven’t filed, you’re not a player,” said Garry Watson, a Toronto lawyer and professor in York’s Osgoode Hall Law School. “The main reason why there’s this rush of activity is to lead to the establishment of a consortium and for people to be selected to be part of the consortium,” said Watson.
Not your typical jock
A blocked kick in a Canadian Football League game Aug. 8 fell into the arms of third-year player and former York Lion Ricky Foley, who took the ball 30 yards for his first career touchdown on special teams, wrote The Vancouver Sun Aug. 21, in a story about BC Lions teammate Tad Crawford.
“At first, a lot of guys on this team didn’t know how to take Tad. At first, they didn’t know how to take me,” says Foley, a farm boy from southern Ontario who went to York University initially on a track scholarship. “If you come from a little bit different background, some of the guys can be a little harsh. But Tad has fit in really well. He’s a good dude and he makes plays. Everybody can see that.”
A relaxed Braid’s off to Brazil
Hamilton-born jazz pianist David Braid will soon have another feather in his cap, wrote the Hamilton Spectator Aug. 21. Come September, his David Braid Sextet will be the first Canadian group to play the Jazz Festival Brasil. Yet, for this all-expenses-paid Brazilian tour, half of the band will be subs. Reedman Mike Murley has commitments at York University where he is an instructor in the Music Department, Faculty of Fine Arts.