Vijay Agnew

Professor Vijay Agnew has been awarded the Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America for her book, Resisting Discrimination: Women from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and the Women's Movement in Canada (1996). Based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America offers annual awards for the best scholarship on the subject of intolerance on this continent.

"As an immigrant myself and as a non-white woman, I have always been interested in the issues that women like myself face," Agnew, an associate professor of social science at York, told the Gazette recently. Agnew came to Canada in 1970 and earned her master's degree at the University of Waterloo and PhD at the University of Toronto. Her third scholarly book, In Search of a Safe Place: Abused Women and Culturally Sensitive Service, recently was published by University of Toronto Press.

Immigrant women who are newcomers to Canada and who do not speak English or are in the process of learning the language "experience a great deal of difficulty," she said. Those who are abused by their husbands are beset by grave problems. "They are discriminated against, and not just by the dominant society.

"My goal is to show that women are actively engaged in resisting these discriminations and getting on with their lives." Often they accomplish this through participation in immigrant women's organizations, which are usually organized by middle-class women.

"I study organizations of women," said Agnew, "and my goal in studying these organizations is because not much is known about them. I'm the only one who is focussing on them. In that sense, my work is unique."

Agnew herself is volunteer president of the federally-funded Working Skills Centre in Toronto, which teaches immigrant women marketable skills for entry-level positions. Computer training, accounting and English as a second language are among the courses offered.

Marginalized in the larger society and in the mainstream women's movement, immigrant women are also outsiders in many women's shelters, where racially sensitive and linguistically appropriate counselling is generally unavailable.

In the case of organizations formed by visible minority women, however, language barriers and cultural understanding are no longer an issue, Agnew said, "but there may still be problems with feminist counsellors, who may believe that, because spousal abuse stems from a power relationship, the woman should leave the family home.

"Sometimes counsellors go counter to what women themselves want, but most are sensitive to the fact that the women usually do not want to break up the family and are looking for a different solution." An immigrant woman who is abused by her husband and exposes the situation may be isolated from her cultural community and discriminated against, Agnew said.

"Counsellors try to work it out for the woman and help resolve the situation for her. In extreme cases, where a woman's life is threatened, clearly she must leave the home. But if she is not willing to leave, it depends on what she wants to do.

"In essence, the counsellor can only support the woman. A major problem for immigrant women is that they don't know the laws here, so the counsellor may give her information as to what her rights are, or may offer to go with her to a lawyer to lay charges," said Agnew.

"In some cases, counsellors become a substitute family for the isolated woman, become friends with her."

Funding cutbacks in the 1990s have led to many organizations closing down and less support for immigrant women, Agnew noted.

Where once government agencies were thought by feminists to be interested in reconciling a woman to her abusive environment, now the distinction between government and feminist agencies has become blurred, she said. "Shelters have become institutionalized. Rather than providing an alternative to the system, they are part of it."

Professor Irving Abella

Professor Irving Abella was recently appointed to the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, the first permanent Chair of its kind at a Canadian university. During his tenure, the Chair will be housed in the Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of History.

Prof. Abella will deliver the inaugural lecture for the Chair, titled "Canadian Jewry: Past, Present and Future," on Monday evening, Sept. 14 at 7:45 p.m. in Vari Hall A.

Abella is the author or co-author of six books including None is Too Many, which was awarded the National Jewish Book Award in the United States, the Sir John A. Macdonald Book Prize for the best history book published in Canada and the Joseph Tanenbaum Literary Award. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada (1993), and awarded the Order of Canada (1994), and he has served as National President of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Following are Canadian graduate students who have applied to undertake doctoral studies at York and who are winners in the 1998 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada national competititon for Doctoral Fellowships. The award is worth $16,620 per year for up to four years of study at the PhD level.

John Cameron, political science; Jean-Paul Vanderlinden, urbanisme, aménagement régional et études environnementales; Sophie McCall, modern languages and literature; Peter Andree, urban and regional environmental studies; Marielle Aylen, fine arts; Christiaan Beyers, political science; Gregory Cameron, philosophy; Margaret Chan, fine arts; Patrick Connor, history; Nancy Cook, sociology; Sandra Cunning, psychology; Timothy Donais, political science; Bernardo Garcia, sociology; Deepika Grover, political science; Adam Harmes, political science; Marnin Heisel, psychology; Jennine Hurl, history; Ioulia Ioffe, financial economics; Samuel Knafo, sciences politiques; Tara Latkoczky, history; Susan Levesque, interdisciplinary studies; Alexander Link, modern languages and literature; Jacquelyne Luce, anthropology; Stanley Miles, economics; Roberta Morris, philosophy; Steven Murphy, management, business, administrative studies; Karen Pearlston, law; Jessica Ringrose, sociology; Olga Lucia Constanza, law; Lorne Sugar, psychology; Denise Tayler, philosophy; Lisa Vettese, psychology; Duff Waring, philosophy; Remi Warner, anthropology; Deborah Whatley, sociology; Caura Wood, anthropology; Alan Zuege, political science; Sean Carney, modern languages and literature; W. Jason Potts, modern languages and literature; Susan Frohlick, anthropology; Adriana Premat, social anthropology; James Williams, sociology.

In all, 43 of the 599 SSHRC fellowships went to students intending to study at York. A total of 2,948 applicants took part in this year's competition, and the award holders were selected by committees of expert researchers in the various disciplines.

York's Theatre Department was one of five programs worldwide to be invited to participate in the International Student Theatre Festival, June 26 to July 4, under the auspices of the Freie Universität Berlin.

Theatre @ York, the department's resident production company, remounted its Canadian premiere production of Nicky Silver's black comedy, Raised in Captivity, for two performances at the prestigious Theater am Halleschen Ufer in the old city centre of Berlin. The same production opened the company's 1997 fall season.

Directed by Shaw Festival veteran Paul Lampert, who has just completed his MFA degree in York's Graduate Theatre Program, Raised in Captivity featured a cast of five talented performers drawn from York's graduate and undergraduate acting ensembles. The production was entirely designed and produced by fourth-year students.

According to Ron Singer, director of the graduate program, this set York's production apart from other shows that auditioned for the festival.

"Many schools hire professionals to deal with the production and design elements of their shows," Singer says. "Ours was the only production in which all sets, costumes and lighting were designed and executed by students."

Singer was invited to give a talk on York's theatre program as part of the festival proceedings and director Lampert took part in a public discussion about Theatre @ York's production of Raised in Captivity.

The International Student Theatre Festival was hosted by the Freie Universität Berlin in celebration of its 50th anniversary and the 75th anniversary of the founding of the first theatre department in the world at Berlin University. In addition to the York production, the festival playbill included productions by New York's Columbia University; P.A.R.T.S. Theatre School, Brussels; Universidade de São Paulo; and Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen, Germany.

One of Canada's pre-eminent theatre schools, York's Theatre Department offers a combination of in-depth academic studies with rigorous practical training in all aspects of theatre. Each year, Theatre @ York mounts an ambitious season of classical and contemporary plays.

Students are directly involved in every aspect of production, from design and dramaturgy to directing and acting. Over the past 30 years, the program has trained some of country's finest stage performers, designers, directors, playwrights and producers.

York's Retirement Planning Centre has struck a committee to conduct a strategic planning review. With an increasing client base, the RPCentre sees the need to step back from the day-to-day operation to provide direction for its future. The RPCentre welcomes comments from the York community on the needs of pre-retirees and retirees and how best the RPCentre can serve these needs. Please make your comments to Karen Gray (kgray@yorku.ca, or ext.77277) by September 21.

REMOVING BARRIERS: Federal government workplace-equity experts Mustapha Chowdhury and Joy Rawlins (second and fourth from left) joined Gill Teiman, special assistant to the President (equity), and President Lorna Marsden recently to discuss York's Employment Equity Work Plan.

In 1994, a year after the federal government undertook the first-ever audit of York's Employment Equity Work Plan, the University earned a Vision Award of Merit. The handsome bronze award statuette, sculpted by Native artist David M. General, now stands proudly atop a cabinet in Gill Teiman's office in Central Square.

Teiman, who is special assistant to the President (equity), explains that, under the Federal Contractors Program, organizations conducting more than $200,000 worth of business with the federal government are required to develop, and act on, a plan to remove barriers to the full participation in employment of four designated groups in the workplace: Aboriginal people, persons with disabilities, visible minorities and women; and, where necessary, to increase their representation.

The program does not apply to NSERC or SSHRC research grants, Teiman notes.

In finding York in full compliance with all of the requirements of the Contractors Program, and in presenting it with an award, the federal government was not suggesting that the University has achieved employment equity, the program director noted in 1993. "All organizations have a long way to go, and the [York] plan is indicative that a process and a methodology for change is in place." The key, the director said, is the follow-up review of how well an organization has complied with its implementation plan. "The real test will be how York supports and monitors its progress toward employment equity."

In December 1997, Teiman's office submitted a report to the government and, this summer, representatives of the federal government, in the persons of Mustapha Chowdhury and Joy Rawlins, returned to York for the follow-up review. They consulted with senior administrators, union representatives and people who can speak to the issues of the four designated groups, Teiman says.

Since 1993, the University's focus has been on maintaining a record of equity initiatives in the workplace. As part of the participatory process, joint committees had been established with every union and employee group to look at York's employment systems. They examined how the University recruits and selects staff; and at how people have access to training and promotion. They considered the rights of all groups protected by human rights legislation. Representatives of each of the four equity groups also have been actively involved in the process.

Results of an equity survey conducted by several joint committees were mixed, Teiman says. One area that was positive for many respondents in some employee groups was training. On the other hand, anything related to employment mobility fostered more negative responses, she says.

The responses of racial minorities and women to the status of employment equity at York were less positive than those of other groups, says Teiman.

In a year-and-a-half, the University will have to survey the entire work force because current information is so out of date, Teiman says. Information is collected when people are hired, but employees frequently acquire disabilities after they're on the job, "so we're missing people all the time," she says. "Arthritis, for example, can develop later in life and it can be totally disabling."

Work needs to be done in a number of areas, Teiman says. As one example, to date, the YUFA affirmative action program has applied to women alone. JCOAA (the Joint Committee on the Administration of the Agreement) "is working towards including other equity groups."

Teiman commends Osgoode Hall Law School for its recent efforts to remedy the equity imbalance. "Osgoode has made very good progress over the last two years," she says, noting the prominent wording in the law school's job postings that identifies its wish "to increase the diversity of the current faculty by recruiting Aboriginal persons, members of visible minorities and persons with disabilities."

Canadian universities would benefit from having formalized codes of ethics in place, in the considered opinion of Wesley Cragg, Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics at the Schulich School of Business.

In a paper entitled, Ethics and the Academy: Lessons from Business Ethics and the Private Sector, Prof. Cragg argues that, just as the issue of accountability is at the heart of the growing interest in contemporary business ethics, a demand for accountability is at the centre of the public debate about the values, traditions and practices of the contemporary university.

The emerging discipline of applied ethics could provide universities with one practical way of meeting the challenge of accountability, as it relates both to research and to teaching, he writes.

Accountability "is not just a managerial, organizational or political concept. It is also a moral concept," Cragg argues. In the academy, accountability is closely tied to a system of academic self-regulation. Peer review, in turn, is "the rock which anchors the credibility of self-regulation." Peer review, however, is exhibiting evidence of deep fault line, writes Cragg. Noting its "deeply ethical character," he comments that peer review can become a seriously flawed instrument of evaluation, "if the ethical principles on which it rests are not widely understood and respected."

The trend toward narrow specialization in research and teaching is one of those fault lines, since this means that universities must now "depend very heavily on the self-regulated integrity of individual researchers and teachers." Peer review is also limited in reach in the contemporary university, since it normally applies only to those who are actively engaged in funded research, actively publishing, under consideration for tenure or in the job market. Lack of consensus on the part of the academy on what constitutes unacceptable infringement of academic freedom is an additional constraint on peer review as an instrument of accountability, Cragg argues.

Tenure, for its part, "simply adds to the difficulties," Cragg writes. "In theory, tenure is a practical way of guaranteeing academic freedom. There is no doubt in my mind that it continues to have an important role to play in this regard. However, once awarded, its effect in practice is to shield the performance of academics from meaningful evaluation except in the most egregious cases."

The three Canadian granting councils, NSERC, SSHRC and MRCC, have attempted to address some of these issues by developing a code entitled, "Integrity in Research and Scholarship." Among other things, it requires universities to put procedures in place for ensuring compliance on the part of grant recipients, on the threat of loss of funding. It has won wide critical support and has been incorporated into some collective agreements. However, it appears to have had little impact to date, Cragg believes. Hence, as a public accountability tool, the code is "an abject failure." Very few academics of his acquaintance, at York or other universities, are even aware of the code's existence, he says.

The universities, in turn, have failed to understand the core ethical values that ought to guide them in implementing such a code. As a result, universities have opted for post hoc responses to incompetence and unethical conduct rather than proactive evaluation and code implementation, Cragg writes. "The effect of this approach is to shift the whole responsibility for detecting and reporting fraud and misconduct onto individual members of the faculty, the staff and the student body. The result is what can be aptly described as the 'privatization of responsibility.'"

One sign of "privatization" is the implied reliance for code enforcement on whistle-blowing. Anyone with any knowledge of the history and consequences of whistle-blowing will appreciate the burden it places on the individual and the understandable inclination on the part of most people to avoid it at almost all costs, Cragg suggests. In any case, he writes, compliance and enforcement strategies are largely ineffective as a response to the demand for accountability, particularly in non-hierarchical, organizational structures typical of academic institutions.

In the area of teaching, "obstacles to genuine accountability are even more formidable than is the case for research activities," states Cragg. "For the most part, academics do not know a great deal about what is going on in their colleagues' classrooms, whether this had to do with actual course content beyond a cursory knowledge of calendar course descriptions, pedagogical methods, course objectives, or the link between courses and the teaching objectives of the academic unit they belong to.

"Circulation of information about course enrolments, grade profiles and student evaluations is little more than veneer in this regard. The same is true of research. It is not uncommon to find academics who are much better informed about the research of academics in other institutions than they are about the work of colleagues in cognate departments in their own institution. There is a real sense, that is to say, in which responsibility for teaching as well as research has become individualized and privatized.

"In that kind of environment, reviews of academic performance are bound to be extremely worrisome and tendentious. Neither is it surprising that it is a rare dean who is prepared to enter a negative evaluation of performance in an academic's file even when it is widely known that problems exist, given the appeals and interpersonal conflicts that negative decanal evaluations may well generate. More important, under the prevailing system, negative performance evaluations do little to render the contemporary university more accountable."

Cragg concludes his paper with a "thought experiment." He asks his readers to imagine a university where research applicants are required to:

* sign-off on the research ethics code instituted jointly by NSERC, SSHRC and MRCC;

* provide an analysis identifying the project's stakeholders and their stake in the research;

* develop an ethical analysis protocol, specifying how the code applies to their research project and its stakeholders, and

* commit to developing an ethics research protocol for their own research project, identifying the obligations and rights of project researchers with regard to each other and to the other project stakeholders ­ for example, research assistants, partners and research subjects ­ and then commit to renewing it on a regular basis.

He asks readers to imagine further a university in which the mission and core values of each academic unit are articulated, stakeholders and academic responsibilities clearly identified, and programs and courses linked explicitly to both.

Where this was the case, he suggests, "it would be both reasonable and non-threatening to ask colleagues to link their teaching and research over time to the unit's values and objectives and to share their goals and pedagogical strategies with their colleagues.

"In such an environment, performance evaluation would be on-going, collegial and development-oriented, and five-year, formal performance reviews much less threatening. This would be particularly true if solid support for career change was made available as a matter of course for those whose talent or enthusiasm for teaching and research was on the decline."

In Professor Cragg's hypothetical universe, all internal and external university stakeholders would have access to an ethics officer responsible for consulting on the implementation of a university statement of principles and related research and teaching codes. The ethics officer, in turn, would have direct access to the most senior levels of the administration, "to help identify potential problems and issues and sort them through in a cooperative fashion."

Properly conducted, the outcome would be greater accountability, Cragg suggests, and "the result would be better research and a much more sympathetic public, as corporations in the private sector have found when they instituted programs of this nature."

Dewitt named Chair of International Studies in Asia program

Professor David Dewitt, director of York's Centre for International and Security Studies, has accepted an appointment as Chair of the Program for International Studies in Asia (PISA).

Prof. Dewitt is a co-founder of the North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue, has been a director of the Canadian Consortium on Asia Pacific Security and chairs the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific.

PISA is based at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, and aims to build a community of scholars, officials, policy analysts and informed citizens, who can conduct an informed dialogue on the central issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region and participate constructively in the region's emerging regimes, such as APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum.

PISA's paramount objectives are developing a common vocabulary for analyzing international problems and reaching common understanding of those issues. Consequently, PISA emphasizes human resource development by organizing training programs and by assisting in curriculum and program development for the region's leading institutions.

PISA and its affiliated institutions in the People's Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Malaysia and Mongolia are spearheading efforts to enlist scholars, policy makers and concerned citizens eager to promote international studies and to engage Asian leaders in cooperative efforts to secure peace and economic development for the 21st century.

Christopher Innes a Killam Fellow

Distinguished Research Professor of English Christopher Innes has been awarded a prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Killam Research Fellowship. The Killam awards support scholars engaged in research projects of outstanding merit in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences, engineering and interdisciplinary studies within these fields.

Innes's current research project is a book analyzing how American stage designers influenced society and general lifestyles in the U.S. "Hollywood popularized lifestyles worldwide, but these [designers] created the things we used, like the designs of cars and the first electric kettles and the kind of wallpaper you put on your house," he told Focus on York University Research in fall 1997. "You can really track the way they influenced society."

A York professor since 1969, Innes founded and directed the graduate program in interdisciplinary studies in the 1970s. He is the author of three series of monographs and eight books about the theatre, including Modern British Drama 1890-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 1992), Avantgarde Theatre 1892-1992 (Rutledge, 1994) and The Theatre of Gordon Craig (Harwood Academic Press, 1997).

York students help coin new quarters for Royal Canadian Mint

Third year York visual arts student Melissa Agostino sits on the 13-person, Royal Canadian Mint judging committee that will select the designs for 24 new 25-cent coins that will be issued next year to commemorate the past 1,000 years. Another dozen coins will be issued in the year 2000 to represent a recording of Canada's hopes and dreams, Barry's Bay This Week reports.

The winners' initials will be struck onto the coins and each winner will receive a personalized gift.

Entry forms are being mailed across Canada and the Mint's "Create a Centsation!" website is at www.centsation.com.

Book provides strategies to prevent violence

Arresting Violence by Peter N. Ross was commissioned by the Ontario Public School Teachers' federation as a result of a series of articles Ross wrote about violence in the schools and ways in which communites might build safe havens for students, Newmarket community newspaper The Town Crier reports.

Ross has served as a teacher, principal, area superintendent and superintendent of curriculum with the York Region District Board of Education. The book launch was held at York where Ross is a special advisor to the University's dean of education, Stan Shapson, and an occasional course director in the Faculty of Education.

In his book, he explores why young people are violent and how their behavior, as bullies or in gangs, affects school life in general and victims in particular. Included with the book is a CD-ROM with more than 75 overheads for workshops and presentations.

Prof. Daphne Schiff helping develop first piloted ornithopter

Professor Daphne Schiff, Multi Disciplinary Studies, Glendon College, is working as a member of a team that is developing the first piloted ornithopter, according to Silicon Valley North. "This is an aircraft that was originally designed by Leonardo Da Vinci. It will be an historic first," Schiff told the publication.

"Last summer, the aircraft flew up to two feet and this summer, we're hoping to make it fly higher at Downsview." While Leonardo sketched the plans for the airplane, he never actually built one.

Along with her partner, Adele Fogle, Schiff runs a company called Air-O-Sols, which conducts measurements of air quality for both the public and private sectors. This spring, they worked on a study that will help advise farmers about the conditions of their crops. Schiff has also worked for the Ministry of the Environment as a member of Operation Skywatch, taking photographs of low-level pollution-sites.

Schiff's films, The Northern Wetlands, Angels in the Sky, The Ozone Story and Live to tell about it, have won a number of awards, including several from the Association for Media in Technology in Education in Canada.

Flint believes negative stress can harm children in sports

"All too often, it seems intense parents and coaches forget the basic pleasures of the activities children pursue, placing far too much emphasis on winning and performance instead of fun and learning," writes John Cudmore in Newmarket's Era-Banner.

"'When you ask children why they participate in sports, they say it's for fun," York University sports psychologist Frances Flint told Cudmore. "'Winning is not the primary reason children join sports. I'm competitive, and there's nothing wrong with winning, but it shouldn't be the only thing that matters.'"

A former competitive swimmer and coach of varsity-level sports at York, Flint is also co-ordinator of the University's sports therapy certificate program. She suggests that, even for children, there are different levels of competition, and she believes a healthy environment can be created if goals are understood by all parties.

"'It doesn't matter what league you're in, parents, coaches and the kids should sit down to determine the goals of the team at the start of the season. Sports exist to develop the athlete, not the parents or coaches of the athletes.'"

Slight lengthening of day attributable to El Niño, Cannon says

There is always a slight, seasonal change in the length of a day because of seasonal changes in winds. But, in addition, this spring, El Niño made each day on Earth last a tiny bit longer.

Since El Niño began last summer, the weather phenomenon has added o.6 milliseconds to the normal 24-hour day, according to a story in the Ottawa Citizen. An array of a couple of dozen radiotelescopes working around the world has helped scientists discover that the Earth's rotation has slowed very slightly, making a full day-night cycle last longer.

It's the first time scientists have seen weather change the way the Earth turns.

"If people had thought enough about it, it should have been expected," Prof. Wayne Cannon of York's physics and astronomy department told the Citizen. "It's not a big deal, but it's interesting these observational techniques are getting so good that we can now detect changes in the flow of the fluid portions of the Earth ­ that is, the atmosphere, oceans and the liquid core."

This past year, El Niño made warm water flow in the reverse of its usual direction in the tropical Pacific Ocean, scientists discovered. One result was changes in wind patterns, causing the atmosphere to move faster in a west-to-east direction.

"If there's more rotational momentum in the atmosphere there has to be less in the Earth, and vice versa," Prof. Cannon explained. Hence, the slight slowing in the Earth's rotation and the minuscule lengthening of the day.

Older women making progress, says Barbara Cameron

Prof. Barbara Cameron (political science, Atkinson), believes older female workers are at the forefront of closing the wage gender gap and are making the most of the opportunities open to them. She was commenting on figures released by Statistics Canada in April in a document entitled, Earnings of Men and Women, 1996, that show women working full-time throughout 1996 earned, on average, 73.4 cents for every dollar men earned ­ a new high. In 1967, the first year such data were collected, women earned 58 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

"For a minority of women, there has been progress," Cameron informed the Canadian HR Reporter " ­ if you measure progress by economic autonomy. For educated women like myself, we're more like the men we work with than a lot of women."

However, Cameron told the Reporter, the StatsCan figures deserve closer scrutiny. "The gains that have been made [by women] are not as great as they appear on the surface." It's important "to look at what's happening in labor markets," she said. While the 1996 figures represent a 16 per cent increase in women's earnings since 1985, men's average earnings have stagnated at 1988 levels, making women's gains less impressive in real terms than they appear.

Rein Peterson directs entrepreneurial attitudes survey

"Americans and Canadians see far more opportunity for starting businesses compared with Europeans, according to an ambitious survey that delves into entrepreneurial attitudes across five countries," the Globe and Mail reports.

Rein Peterson, director of entrepreneurial studies at York University, is in charge of the Canadian part of the project, which is being conducted on behalf of the London Business School and Babson College in Babson Park, Mass. The survey found that 48 per cent of Americans and 43 per cent of Canadians expect there will be "good opportunities for new businesses" in their communities in the next six months. That compares with just 24 per cent of respondents in Finland, 21 per cent in Britain and 16 per cent in Germany who share the optimistic view.

The project is being expanded to nine countries, and data from that survey will be available by the first quarter of 1999. Eventually, up to 50 countries may be included, Prof. Peterson said. The goal is to develop a Global Entrepreneurship and Opportunity Index to rank countries based on the relative strength of their entrepreneurial sectors.

"The most important thing about the study is that we'll get a better understanding of how the entrepreneurial sector contributes to our well-being and [economic] growth," Peterson explained.

$15,000 W.O. Mitchell prize goes to Barry Callaghan

Author, editor, poet and York English professor Barry Callaghan was awarded the $15,000 W.O. Mitchell Literary Prize in a ceremony at the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts in June.

Callaghan is the author of The Hogg Poems and Drawings (1978), The Black Queen Stories (1982), When Things Get Worst (1993) and A Kiss Is Still A Kiss (1995).

"He has encouraged and fostered Canadian literature and has also done so on a national and international level, having given numerous lectures on the subject," the jurors' citation stated. "Hundreds of writers across this country have been the recipients of his inspirational letters, his encouraging phone calls, the gift of his time and the hospitality of his home. Some have said simply he 'completely changed my life' or 'due to Callaghan alone a whole new world opened up to me.'"

The new literary prize will be given annually to a writer who has produced an outstanding body of work, has acted as a caring mentor for writers, and has published a work of fiction or had a new play produced in the three preceding years. Every third year, it will be awarded to a writer who works in French.

RNA head decries assembly-line patient-care

The re-engineering of hospitals has led to assembly-line treatment of patients and a serious erosion in traditional nursing care, Doris Grinspun, a PhD student at York and the executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told a session of the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities in June.

Patient care now is fragmented into a series of tasks ­ each assigned to a different person ­ instead of being handled with a holistic approach, Grinspun said. The result is poorer care for the patient and a nursing profession frustrated at not being able to deliver care according to their training and instincts.

It is fashionable in an ongoing period of downsizing for administrators to toss around phrases such as "products, corporate goals and business units," Grinspun told those in attendance at the session. The effect runs counter to the nurse's desire to provide care.

"Patient care is not hamburgers. Patient care is not cars or computers. It's people. If something goes wrong, it's not a hamburger that gets burned, it's a person's life."

Childhood sexual abuse discussed

Children react differently to sexual abuse, and not all abused children go on to have sexual behavior problems, York nursing professor Darlene Kordich Hall told the University of Guelph's 20th annual Guelph Conference and Training Institution on Sexuality in June.

A child who becomes aroused while being sexually abused and who lives in a violent home is more likely to display abnormal sexual behavior, Kordich Hall told conference participants.

The York professor is one of three Canadian researchers who collected extensive information on 100 children aged three to seven in a 1993-1996 study examining why children survive experiences of sexual abuse with varying rates of success, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record reports.

Children who survived the abuse and remained relatively normal in their sexual development reported not being aroused during the abuse, Kordich Hall said. These children tended to blame the perpetrator for their abuse and were most likely to respond to therapy.

The children who emerged with sexual behavior problems ­ both those who preyed on other children and those who left other children alone but still showed problems ­ were more likely to be unsure about whom to blame.

"These are the most traumatized kids," and conventional therapy often doesn't work because it's only an hour a week, Kordich Hall explained.

University education is life-long asset: Lucy Fromowitz

The solid academic foundation shaped by university is a life-long asset that's often overlooked by students scrambling to arm themselves with profitable employment skills, Director of Admissions Lucy Fromowitz informed the Toronto Sun recently.

"We [universities] are not just training-institutions. We educate individuals," Fromowitz told the Sun. "We are helping to produce people who think and bring new knowledge to the work force, rather than people who are equipped to do a specific task. They know how to learn and that makes them job-ready."

Society thinks "linearally," she added, often forgetting that well-rounded knowledge leads students to jobs. "Someone who majors in philosophy won't just be a philosopher, but someone who can put forth a rational argument," she said, in arguing that the several benefits of a liberal arts education are often overlooked.

"As students enter university, they understand the value of the degree. Three to four years down the line, they understand the value of the education."

A conclave of arts administrators

Three new demographic maps of Toronto developed by York urban studies professor Engin Isin indicate that arts administrators ­ government bureaucrats who deal with artists and people who operate artistic enterprises ­ tend to reside between Bathurst St. and the Don River and south of St. Clair Ave., according to the Toronto Star.

Other maps show that this area ­ with a bulge up into Moore Park and north Toronto ­ is also home to the greatest concentration of company managers, private consultants, teachers, university professors and clergymen.

"These people tend to be white and upper income," Isin told Star columnist David Lewis Stein.

"Immigrants, on the other hand, are more spread out."

Isin developed the demographic portrait of Toronto for the Rights to the City conference held at York, June 26-28.

"What we are learning contradicts the perceived wisdom that the old City of Toronto was the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Our data shows that, increasingly, the core of the old City of Toronto was dominated by the white, upper-middle-class, managerial and professional class. The true cosmopolitanism, the mixture of immigrants and visible minorities, is more concentrated in the suburbs."

WINNERS: clockwise from top left: Megan Breitkreuz, Farrah Byckalo-Khan, Megan Murphy

Three of the 20 recipients of 1998 Canada Trust Scholarships for Outstanding Community Leadership will be attending York University in the fall. Megan Breitkreuz, Farrah Byckalo-Khan and Megan Murphy were selected from over 2,600 applicants for the scholarships ­ valued at $50,000 each ­ on the basis of their outstanding community involvement and leadership. )

Following a life-threatening brain injury, Breitkreuz, a resident of Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, successfully lobbied the B.C. government for $2-million in funding to support head injury victims. She is a tireless spokesperson for the South Okanagan Head Injury Society and was chosen "Miss Kinsmen" by the B.C. Kinsmen Club.

Breitkreuz acted as a peer counsellor and tutor at Penticton Secondary School where she shared her message of perseverance and determination with other students. "I've learned you have to give people a chance in life," she says. "You shouldn't be too quick to judge other people on what they can or cannot do."

Breitkreuz is an accomplished saxophone player and an aspiring music teacher. She chose York for its innovative Faculty of Fine Arts music program, she says, and because she wanted to follow the lead of her school music teacher, Jim Knowler, a York alumnus (BFA '87).

Byckalo-Khan is a graduate of Notre Dame Roman Catholic Secondary School in Burlington, Ontario where she founded ECHO (the Environment and Community Help Organization), a group dedicated to making positive environmental change at the local level. Through ECHO, she organized an annual pumpkin drive that has diverted more than 25 tonnes of Hallowe'en jack'o'lanterns from landfill to organic composting.

Byckalo-Khan was active in her school's Student Action Network for the Environment, organizing Earth Week Wednesdays and various fundraisers, and writing information pamphlets on how to perform an environmental audit and how to compost at home. She was a member of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council and a youth delegate for the Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament.

She is enrolling in York's Faculty of Environmental Studies and hopes to pursue women's studies at York in the future.

A member of the student council executive at St. Peter's Secondary School in Peterborough, Murphy was instrumental in raising more than $32,000 for the Terry Fox Cancer Research Campaign ­ the largest amount raised by any school in Canada. She also organized a service, together with a local caterer, to deliver her school's surplus food to a nearby shelter for homeless men.

She has volunteered for the past four years at the rehabilitation unit at Peterborough's St. Joseph's Hospital and helped coordinate the local Thanksgiving food drive. "The philosophy I live by is to have compassion towards people less fortunate than me," says Murphy, who will be pursuing her studies in theatre at York.

"These young adults have demonstrated a keen sense of what it means to be model citizens," comments President Lorna Marsden. "Their selflessness and commitment to the well-being of their communities are personal qualities that should inspire us all. We are delighted and proud that they have chosen to pursue their goals and dreams at York University."

Valued at $1-million per year and recognized as the largest scholarship program of its kind, the Canada Trust Scholarships include full tuition at any Canadian college or university, $3,500 per year towards living expenses and an offer of summer employment at Canada Trust, for up to four years.

"We're in the midst of an ideological war," Maude Barlow informed her audience of educators, during a lecture entitled "Why Public Schools Are Under Attack: Globalization and the Privatization Agenda," given recently at York and sponsored by the Coalition for Inclusive Curriculum.

"Public education is under assault, not just because [the powers that be] want to save money, but because public education values each child ­ and that's a concept that's anaethema to the new economy," said the outspoken author, policy critic and self-described 'crusader for Canadian sovereignty and citizens' rights.' "This is going on in schools in all countries."

The attack on public education in Canada is part of the "deliberate Walmartization of the workforce, combined with the export of hundreds of thousands of jobs," Barlow allowed. "It is a deliberate policy of unemployment [to keep inflation down].

Business groups and organizations, such as the conservative think-tank, the Fraser Institute, have led the assault, said Barlow. "The Fraser Institute was promoting charter schools five years ago." She cited the Business Council on National Issues as another influential lobby group, and decried the membership on university boards and business schools of directors of large, powerful corporations.

There continues to be an ongoing transfer of public assets to the private sector, said Barlow. "The late 1990s are 'a time of corporate rule' when the largest 200 transnationals have eclipsed nation states and 'Walmart is bigger than 151 countries.' Transnational corporations are using technology to go global, she stated. "Not only are they not paying taxes, they're enjoying tax-free holidays."

In the new economy, it is the role of schools to sort students and to assist in legitimizing inequality, said Barlow. "The gutting of schools is an issue of social control. Lower expectations is what this is all about. It's all part of the privatization of society. By raising high-stakes testing, they enlarge the pool of cheap labour.

"Children have higher aspirations than corporations can ever fulfill. [From the corporations' perspective], you have been generating too many young people with high expectations," Barlow told the teachers in the audience.

"We want the educational system to prepare students for democracy."

The 58 per cent increase in child poverty in Canada in the last decade dates from the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Barlow stated. "Children are coming to school starving. So when I hear [Prime Minister] Jean Chretien say everything is wonderful, I just want to punch him."

Barlow advocated the creation of a powerful citizens' movement that would embrace the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Centre for Policy Analysis, two organizations with which she is associated. "We have to go back and relearn the lessons of universality and the notion of entitlement," she said. "We have given that up without a fight and we have to take the message to the people."

In the process, she said, "we must stop thinking solely in terms of [influencing] government. The new power structure is corporations and we've got to meet them head-on.

"We must be proactive and articulate a competing, moral vision."

To All Members of the York Community:

As many of the York community will be aware, a review is being undertaken of York's public articulation of its mission and values. In accordance with the commitment in her mandate, submitted to the Board of Governors in October 1997, to "lead the University in the development and enunciation of its values, vision and goals and the establishment and implementation of comprehensive strategies to achieve these goals," President Marsden invited the Joint Executives of the Board of Governors and the Senate to re-examine York's mission and values within the current (and anticipated) demographic, social, and public policy context. The Joint Executives warmly supported this project, noting the critical importance at this time for York to be able clearly, concisely, and convincingly to articulate for ourselves, for the government, for prospective students, for the academic community, and for the wider public, our distinctive mission and values. They therefore invited a Steering Committee, comprising members of the Executives, to develop and implement a process to consider York's mission.

As a preliminary step, the Joint Executives sponsored a conference on York's mission and values, held at Glendon College on June 4 and 5, 1998. The conference involved 40 people, suggested by members of the Executives, including faculty, students, staff, alumni, Board members, and members of the wider community York serves. (A list of the participants is appended.) Participants were provided historical/contextual documents, including all existing statements of mission. The conference deliberations were guided by Mr. John Whyte, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Province of Saskatchewan and a former Dean of the Queen's University Law School, who has not only taught at York but is the father of a York alumna. Mr. Whyte encouraged participants to consider what York has been and what they would like it to be; to reflect on the environmental factors affecting York and their relationship to our mission; to identify York's values; and finally to begin to develop mission statements for the University to guide us for the next decade. This exercise revealed that, while there are differences of opinion around these issues, there is also significant consensus, and an enormous pride in and commitment to York as an institution.

Based on these discussions, and on the drafts prepared by conference participants, a sub-committee has prepared a DRAFT Mission Statement, which has been endorsed by the Steering Committee as a whole. This DRAFT Mission Statement is attached for your consideration and comment. We are aware, of course, that in order to be a meaningful and useful statement of our values and mission, it must be embraced as reflecting the views and identities of the large and diverse community which is York, and we therefore invite advice from the entire York community.

A few words about the nature of the mission statement and its relationship to other mission and planning documents are in order. First and foremost, we wish to be absolutely clear that the development of this statement is not intended to pre-empt or replace other University legislation or processes. Indeed, it is not a legislative document at all, but a statement of some working assumptions, or ideals to which we aspire, and which represent a shared vision of members of the York community. We hope it will provide a broad frame of reference for those engaged in planning at all levels of the University, within which statements of goals and strategic plans ­ the University Academic Plan (which includes a statement of our academic mission) and the Faculty and unit academic plans which flow from and into it, enrolment planning documents, financial plans, master plans for the development of university lands, etc. ­ can be developed and/or refined. But it is important to emphasize that the mission statement only embodies working assumptions and that these will be refined, tested and, if necessary, revised as York continues to grow. Second, we felt that a statement of York's mission, while reflecting values which are common to all institutions of higher learning, must also emphasize those elements which distinguish York. Finally, we concluded that the University's mission statement should be concise; other documents, such as those noted above, will of course elaborate or expand upon the statement in ways appropriate to their own missions and priorities.

We would like over the summer months to hear in particular from individual members of the York community (faculty, staff, students, alumni, members of the Board and Senate), though of course comments representing the views of committees or other groups are welcome as well. We would be interested to know, for example, whether the draft mission statement fairly and fully reflects the aspirations of members of York University for its fifth decade. Does it sufficiently embody the values common to institutions of higher education while highlighting the distinctive strengths of York? Have we missed important aspects?

Comments and suggestions will be reported to participants in the mission conference, when it reconvenes for a follow-up session in September, and will form the basis of the redrafting of the statement for consideration through the usual Senate and Board of Governors processes, including their constituencies. Ultimately, it is hoped that the revised Mission Statement will be endorsed by both of those bodies.

Please forward comments by September 18, 1998, by e-mail to mission@yorku.ca, or in writing, to the attention of the Mission Project Steering Committee, c/o University Secretariat, Room S883 Ross Building, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3.

We very much appreciate your consideration and response on this important matter, and look forward to hearing from many members of the York community.

MISSION CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

June 4-5, 1998

• John Bankes (alumnus/member, Board of Governors)
• Christy Biggs (student, Glendon College)
• James Brown (executive officer, Office of the Vice-President ­ Administration)
• Guy Burry (alumnus)
• Marshall Cohen (member, Board of Governors)
• Prof. Michael Copeland (Arts, master of Calumet College)
• Ailsa Craig (student, Arts)
• Prof. Ken Davey (Pure and Applied Science)
• Prof. Helen Doan (chair, Senate)
• Blair Dowell (student, Fine Arts)
• Prof. Maurice Elliott (vice-chair Senate)
• Prof. George Fallis (dean, Arts)
• Lucy Fromowitz (director, Admissions)
• Andre Galipeault (member, Board of Governors)
• Prof. Leslie Green (Arts/Osgoode)
• Claude Grimmond (Westview School)
• Ravi Gupta (student, Pure and Applied Science)
• Charles Hantho (chair, Board of Governors)
• Kent Haworth (archivist, York University Libraries)
• Prof. Deborah Hobson (vice-president - enrolment and student services)
• Prof. Louise Lewin (associate principal, Glendon)
• Harriet Lewis (University counsel)
• Dr. Lorna Marsden (President)
• Jacqueline McConnell (assistant to Chair, Sociology, Arts)
• Ross McMillan (student, Arts)
• Eileen Mercier (member, Board of Governors)
• Tahir Mohammed (director, Facilities Development)
• Heather Moore (student)
• Diane Naugler (graduate student)
• Prof. Michael Organ (Pure and Applied Science)
• Prof. Ron Owston (Education)
• Prof. Peter Penz (Environmental Studies)
• Emmanuele Raymundo (student)
• Prof. Chester Sadowski (Pure and Applied Science/Atkinson)
• C.J. Scott (graduate business student),
• Andrew Sherwin (alumnus)
• Prof. Penni Stewart (Arts)
• Prof. James Tenney (Fine Arts)
• Gail Vanstone (Arts)
• John Whyte (facilitator)

• Anna Campione (University Secretariat)
• Marla Chodak (Office of the Vice-President ­ Academic Affairs)
• Olivia Petrie (Office of the Vice-President ­ Academic Affairs)

YORK UNIVERSITY MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of York University is the pursuit, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge in a context of social diversity, life-long education, bilingualism, and multiculturalism.

York University has local roots and international horizons. It is committed to the advancement of learning and culture, from pure research to knowledge applied at the highest standards of professionalism, the whole range marked by a rigour and intensity of research and unsurpassed teaching. York fosters intellectual excellence, imagination, and the independence of the human spirit.

In pursuing its mission as a modern Canadian university, York is a leader in promoting the values of social justice and accessible education, and alert to innovation and collegial self-governance.

Tentanda Via.

On behalf of the Joint Executives of the Board of Governors and the Senate,

Charles Hantho
Chair, Board of Governors

Maurice Elliott
Chair, Senate

Other Members of the Steering Committee are as follows:
Mr. John Bankes, Professor Ken Davey, Professor Helen Doan, Professor Leslie Green, President Lorna Marsden, Mr. Ross McMillan.

Beverly Mascoll, a black businesswoman and second-year women's studies student at York, has been appointed a Member of the Order of Canada (C.M.) for outstanding entrepreneurship and assisting Canada's youth.

The Toronto resident will receive the honour ­ the highest distinction Canada can bestow upon an individual citizen ­ alongside former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, renowned hockey great Maurice (Rocket) Richard and musician Bryan Adams at an investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall later this year.

"I have worked in the community over the years and love what I do," says Mascoll. "To receive this recognition for doing what I love makes the honour doubly appreciated."

Mascoll, 56, founded her own beauty supply company 28 years ago and quickly transformed it from a $700 enterprise, started out of the trunk of her car, into a nationally recognized company. She has shared her success with countless others ­ volunteering her time and money to contribute to her community.

Mascoll Beauty Supply Ltd. specializes in the distribution of beauty and hair-care products for black consumers and salons. Mascoll now operates five locations throughout the Greater Toronto Area and employs more than 25 people.

"My company is filling a void and filling a niche in the market," says Mascoll, whose company introduced hair-relaxing and straightening products into Canada, making them more widely available than ever before. Her company now carries 3,000 beauty care products for every segment of the hair-care and facial-care product market.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Mascoll came to Toronto in 1955. Now enrolled at York, she is pursuing her life-long love of learning. "This is something I've always promised myself," she says.

When she is not tending to her business or submerged in her studies, Mascoll is busy helping others. "My contribution is my time," says Mascoll. "It's what I can do at the grassroots level that counts most because that is the level which is most often overlooked."

Mascoll has established a foundation in her name, offering scholarships to enable young people to reach their full potential, and is constantly raising funds for the foundation. One of the major beneficiaries of her foundation has been Camp Jumoke, a camp for children living with sickle cell anemia, a debilitating disease that frequently attacks people of Afro/ Caribbean descent.

The York University Astronomical Observatory is open for public viewing of the night sky every Wednesday evening throughout the year. Regular viewing begins at dusk, approximately 9 p.m. during August. Watch Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, as it begins its evening show as twilight ends. This very bright object can be seen in the southeast sky near the horizon by 10 p.m.; it will decorate the evening skies for the rest of the year. August's new moon will appear on Saturday August 22, making the following week a good one for both stellar and lunar observers. And here's a reminder that the biggest star party in the area, Starfest, is being held on the weekend of August 21-23 near Mount Forest. More details are available at the observatory. For more information, call the 24-hour observatory information line at 736-2100, ext. 77773.