MEDIA

New residence design anything but old school
ArchitectsAlliance, which designed the Computer Science Building in partnership with Busby & Associates, has completed a student residence on Pond Road that will enhance York University ’s reputation as an institution willing to build well and build green, reported Toronto-based design magazine Azure in its October issue. York 's Keele campus no longer resembles the architectural hinterland it was in its brutalist era beginnings. Partner and design architect Pat Hanson describes a recent master plan for Pond Road as York ’s attempt to give this very suburban campus a more urban streetscape. Buildings along the route are consistent in height and positioned close to the street edge and to each other.

The magazine describes the Pond Road Residence's feel-good mosaic of plate glass, tall windows that open out from the bottom, and yellow and blue glass spandrel panels that add softness and bit of depth to the building's curtain wall. All components of the curtain wall work together to create an envelope that minimizes temperature fluctuations within the building. Carpeting the roof of the five-storey volume with drought-resistant plants serves the same purpose. (The green roof also improves outdoor air quality and reduces sewer runoff.) In the ground floor common areas, the coolest-looking space has chunky upholstered seating suitable for group lounging.

The architects concede that York 's maintenance staff is less than thirlled with the design decision to paint many of the interior walls in wide vertical bands of subtly varying shades of yellow. Sure, it looks trendy, but a single colour would have been easier to touch up. However, Azure concludes, it could be argued that this smart, handsome, sustainable student residence has earned a few stripes.

Repairs on Finch will take to May
Motorists will have to wait until May before Finch Avenue at Sentinel Road is fully operational, city staff said at a community meeting hosted by the York University Development Corp., reported the North York Mirror Nov. 6. But one lane of traffic in each direction and sidewalk installment on the north side of Finch Avenue is expected to be accessible by Dec. 31, with full roadway access by May 31. A chunk of the roadway on Finch Avenue , near Sentinel Road , was washed out during the Aug. 19 rainstorm that turned many parts of the city into swimming pools.

Wireless laptops changing life for students
Teaching assistant Hanna Cho knows that all those students with laptops clattering away during lectures at York University aren't religiously taking notes, reported theToronto Star Nov. 10 in a story about wireless communication. "They have instant messenger and chat with friends in class and outside, setting up plans to meet later," says Cho, 25, a master's student in the joint Ryerson-York Communication & Culture Program. Her thesis explores the social impact of WiFi networks and how they affect civic participation and bind communities. "No one passes notes in class anymore because it's all wireless," she says. York and Ryerson, like most Ontario university and college campuses, are WiFi hotspots, meaning anyone with a laptop, handheld PDA or mobile phone can lock onto a signal and gain Internet access. "Being untethered is refreshing," says Cho. "It draws people out of rooms and into public spaces. At York , we're outside with our laptops on the grass. I don't have to be in the library or locked in my room simply because I need the Net to work."

Universities condemn hate flyers planted on campuses
Police have been called in to investigate after all three Toronto universities found hundreds of anti-Semitic pamphlets on their campuses this week, reported The Globe and Mail Nov. 5. The brochures, titled Jewish Supremacism Unmasked, were inserted into library books or sitting on library shelves at Ryerson University, York University and all three University of Toronto campuses. The pamphlets were discovered as the United Jewish Communities General Assembly prepares to hold its annual meeting in Toronto next Friday through Nov. 15. University officials quickly denounced the material, saying they believe the pamphlets have links to US-based white-supremacist organizations.

At York , where hundreds of the pamphlets were inserted into books at the Scott Library, administrators said that such virulent anti-Semitic pamphlets are not welcome. "Our University is a place of higher learning where the free and open expression of opinions is encouraged and where diversity is an asset," said Rob Tiffin, York vice-president students. "This material does nothing to promote enlightened thinking and mutual understanding. Instead, it attempts to foster prejudice and animosity toward an identifiable community."

The Monahan Trilogy - 1: Layton's election ploy not binding, says law dean
Constitutional experts have turned thumbs down on NDP leader Jack Layton's stab at forcing the minority Liberal government to follow an opposition-imposed timetable for calling the next federal election, reported CanWest News Service in a story published Nov. 10 by the Ottawa Citizen and National Post. Layton announced he wants the three opposition parties to unite behind a motion demanding Martin call an election in early January for a February vote. "The government would be entitled to say this is not binding on us," said Patrick Monahan, dean of York ’s Osgoode Hall Law School . "We don't know what the sentiment of the House will be in January." Monahan also said the prime minister always has the upper hand in setting an election date. "The setting of an election date is really a matter for the governor general on the advice of the prime minister," Monahan said in an interview. "It's not a matter for the House. The House will vote confidence or not."

The Monahan Trilogy - 2: Why Chrétien's Gomery challenge is doomed
Jean Chrétien's court challenge of the Gomery report is a long shot and was damaged by the former prime minister's "contemptuous" behaviour during the golf ball performance in front of the judge, says the dean of York’s Osgoode Hall Law School, reported the Ottawa Citizen Nov. 4 in a CanWest News Service story. It also appeared in the National Post, Edmonton Journal, The Vancouver Sun, Windsor Star and The Daily News in Nanaimo , BC . Patrick Monahan, who strongly supported Chrétien's Clarity Act when he held the highest political office in the land, predicted that the Federal Court of Canada would be reluctant to rule that Justice John Gomery was biased against Chrétien in his ruling. "I think the threshold is very high for the court to rule that the decision maker didn't have an open mind. Judge Gomery's comments to the media were ill-advised, but they were made early on in the process," said Monahan.

However, Chrétien’s golf ball performance (right) "was inappropriate and showed a lack of respect towards the court. If you want to come now and say the judge was biased against me, you probably shouldn't behave in such a high-handed, contemptuous manner," said Monahan. He also said that the federal court would be reluctant to overturn a decision over an error in fact after the judge had sat on the case for eight months. "In the end, it doesn't strike me that this is a very strong case," said Monahan.

The Monahan Trilogy - 3: Law dean fought ban on private insurance
The Supreme Court’s controversial decision taking aim at medicare did not occur in a vacuum, began the Toronto Star’s Thomas Walkom in his Nov. 5 column about the key players. The context was a rumbling unease among Canadians about surgical waiting lists. The proximate cause was plaintiff and physician Jacques Chaoulli, an anti-medicare gadfly whose periodic attempts to battle public health insurance had, until this point, never borne fruit. But the top court’s decision this summer – which critics say could undermine the foundations of medicare and fans say was long overdue – relied on the efforts of three people well skilled in the political arts. They are the unsung heroes – or villains, if you prefer – of the Chaoulli decision. Liberal Senator Michael Kirby is the central figure. At his side are Patrick Monahan and Stanley Hartt.

Now York’s Osgoode Hall Law School dean, Monahan was one of former Ontario Liberal premier David Peterson’s top legal advisers in the ‘90s, during the so-called Meech Lake attempts to amend Canada’s Constitution. Hartt, another politically savvy lawyer, served as former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney’s chief of staff before ending up back in Toronto in the top ranks of the corporate world.

For Monahan and Hartt, wrote Walkom, Chaoulli was perfect. Quebec, like five other provinces, prohibits the sale of private insurance for services covered by medicare. The Montreal doctor wanted that ban overturned. Even better, Kirby and his Senate confreres wanted to intervene on Chaoulli’s side. And they needed a lawyer. Monahan and Hartt quickly volunteered.

Secret military trials more prevalent post-9/11, says prof
York University political science Prof. Daniel Drache said secret trials and proceedings are becoming more common in Canada following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US , reported CanWest News Service in a story published Nov. 7 in the Ottawa Citizen and Edmonton Journal. Members of the legal community are also becoming more vocal against such tactics, he added. "These are very unpopular with lawyers and judges themselves because those people are compromised in their role," Drache said. His comments followed news that the federal government and the Defence Department have gone to court to force the top military judge to take part in a court martial to which she has refused to assign a judges because it is secret.

Grade 9er checks out York
"My mom is getting her teacher's degree at York, so on Take Your Kids To Work Day [Nov. 2], I went with her to a three-hour ‘teaching math’ class," wrote Maggie Clark, a Grade 9 student from Richmond Hill, in a guest column in the Toronto Star Nov. 10. "I thought it would be really hard stuff, but it was kinda funny because all these adults were sitting at computers learning how to use Geometer's Sketch Pad and working with spreadsheets on Microsoft Excel, both of which I already know. But I've seen the homework my mom gets, so I know it's not all that easy.

"The first thing I noticed was that university is a hundred times bigger. York is like its own little city. Aside from dozens of different buildings that classes are held in, there are ponds and fields and apartments (residences). There are tennis courts, a swimming pool and skating rinks. If you have one class in one building and your next class is across campus, it can take you 15 minutes to walk there. And the number of students is something I'm not used to. York has almost 50,000 students!"

Making labour law fit the new economy
Harry Arthurs tells the story of a Canadian trucker who wasn't paid for the 12 hours his rig was stuck in traffic at the US border, begins a Nov. 9 feature in the Ottawa Citizen’s "Trapped & Temporary" series on the changing labour market. Is he an employee who is owed wages, or a self-employed entrepreneur who must swallow the loss? "Here I have two competing visions," says the former York president, now heading the first thorough review of Canadian labour standards in 40 years. The trucker dilemma is among a mountain of competing visions, contradictory advice and conflicting proposals that Arthurs heard during 10 months of public hearings that ended in late October. The hearings will form the basis of his report to Labour Minister Joe Fontana on Part III of the Canada Labour Code. The report is scheduled for submission in June.

In an interview, Arthurs, a lawyer and professor emeritus at York ’s Osgoode Hall Law School , said there is no consensus in Canada yet on whether self-employed and other non-standard workers of the new economy should be protected by government labour standards on hours of work, overtime, vacation pay, severance and other long-held minimum working standards. Still, Arthurs singles out a handful of values that will guide his extensive recommendations.The value he heard about most frequently from employers, he said, is "flexibility". The other values he cited are: decent, respectful and fair treatment of workers; preserving as much autonomy as possible for employers and employees to make their own arrangements; and clarity in the wording of new labour standards law.

Satisfaction higher with merit pay, study says
Universities that pay professors based on merit have more productive researchers and higher levels of student satisfaction, compared to those faculty paid based on years of service, says a new study by the C.D. Howe Institute, reported the Ottawa Citizen Nov. 9. The survey by the conservative think-tank concludes the 17 Canadian universities with seniority-based pay – among which it listed York University – should move to a salary system based on the academic performance of their faculty. The study argues the merit pay at 22 universities across the country increases productivity, improves education quality and holds professors more accountable to students. It argues that seniority-based pay, which guarantees annual salary increases for unionized professors, regardless of performance, rewards mediocrity while penalizing star faculty.

Tilley not so endurable at York
With a modest goal of earning $5,000, Alex Tilley began selling hats in 1980 to supplement the income he earned as a part-time art dealer. Twenty-five years later, outdoor wear chain Tilley Endurables Inc. brings in more than $30 million annually in sales, reported the Toronto Star Nov. 6. As an MBA student at York (he attended Atkinson College during the summer of 1967), Tilley did attempt to gain formal business knowledge, but says he "flunked out." Nonetheless, the experience was grand, the charismatic Tilley recalls. He was elected class president and had the privilege of being classmates with John Hunkin (MBA ’69, LLD ’04), the future chief executive of CIBC. The two even drove to class together.

PM ‘accessible’ at Jane-Finch stop, says poli sci student
Toronto is getting $1.9 million in federal job-training money to help prevent gun violence, one in a range of anti-crime initiatives touted by Prime Minister Paul Martin during a campaign-style stop in the Jane and Finch area Wednesday, reported the Toronto Star Nov. 10.Martin and Mayor David Miller made the announcement at the Driftwood Community Centre, in the heart of one of the city's highest crime areas. York University political science student Troy Logan, 22, said, "Seeing the PM on TV is one thing, but seeing him in Jane-Finch says he's accessible."

Book prize juries face bias and
the subjective nature of literature
"Literary prizes bring joy to their winners and public attention to Canadian books. But there is a dark side for writers and jurors that remains hidden behind the media hoopla and glittery dinners," wrote novelist and York humanities Prof. Susan Swan in an opinion piece published Nov. 5 in the Ottawa Citizen, three days before the Giller Prize was to be announced. "Prizes were designed with the worthy goal of rewarding good books," she wrote. "All the same, every year worthwhile novels are left off the prize lists." She asks: "Is it because Canadian jurors are nasty and stupid, confirming the darkest fantasies of suspicious authors? Or simply corrupt the way literary juries are in some other countries? Of course not, even though every literary jury has its own legitimate literary biases. These biases can include friendships with authors of the books they are judging. Navigating the judging of a friend's work depends on the character of the juror. In my experience, some jurors can be scrupulously honest while others shamelessly put their friend's work forward without acknowledging the relationship. That aside, most jurors work very hard to support their choices and all of them come with a particular literary sensibility. It's this subjectivity of taste and the breadth and depth of Canadian writing that make it impossible for any jury to pick a definitive list."

Canada's poverty rate 'strikingly high', says prof
Canada's image as a just and progressive nation continues to be tarnished by a growing disparity between rich and poor,  a conference addressing the needs of Greater Sudbury's working poor was told, reported the Sudbury Star Nov. 5. "People are stunned when they discover that we have one of the highest poverty rates in any developed country – strikingly high," said Dennis Raphael, professor in York ’s Atkiinson School of Health Policy & Management. "We have one of the lowest replacement earnings – the actual percentage of your income you receive when you get laid off," he continued. "And Canada is one of the lowest spenders among developed countries on disability supports – even lower than the US ." A number of European countries, including the Netherlands , Belgium , France and Germany , far outstrip Canada when it comes to policies that help eliminate poverty, he said.

York would house athletes if York Region hosts Games
York Region’s bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games includes a proposal to locate the athletes’ village at York University , reported The Daily News in Halifax Nov. 5. Halifax, Hamilton, Ottawa and York Region made bids last week to host the games in Canada . Glasgow , Scotland and Abuja , Nigeria , are also vying for the games. The announcement of which city will host is still two years away.

So, how do you spell Einstein?
At age 3, Chen Kupperman pointed up to a street sign outside his home in Haifa, Israel, and told his father – correctly it turned out – that it was spelled wrong. Translated from the erroneous Hebrew, the name of that street was Einstein, reported the Toronto Star Nov. 5 in a profile of the second-year York student. Unlike the famed German physicist, who was generally thought to be slow as a child, Kupperman's genius has been apparent ever since. And at age 14, when most kids are trying to master Grade 9 arithmetic, the smooth-faced cherub is sailing through number theory, calculus of several variables and Coxeter groups as a third-year mathematics major at York University. As far as York can tell, he's the youngest student on campus.

Do the math: why arithmetic shouldn’t make you cringe
Walter Whiteley believes that a decline in the hands-on, visual and geometric approaches to teaching mathematics – in the West, a trend dating back to the 1930s – has resulted in a "geometry gap", reported Toronto-based magazine The Walrus in its November issue. The York math professor suggests that if students were encouraged to "see like a mathematician," rather than simply computing numbers like one, the disease of math phobia might be cured and mathematical reasoning might become a more natural and enjoyable undertaking. Whiteley, a coordinator of math education programs at York and a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Arts, asserts that if mathematical learning were more sensible — that is, more grounded in the senses — the human experience of math would be enhanced. "The visual is central to all levels of mathematics," he said, delivering his spiel last May to a small amphitheatre of schoolteachers, a subset of the larger gathering of nearly 2,000 educators at a mathematics education conference at York University.

As an applied geometer, he works with biochemists researching the shapes of proteins and viruses. Whiteley has observed that they don’t have the mathematical background and geometric visualization skills needed to see possible solutions. Whiteley’s perspective seems to be penetrating the larger mathematical and scientific consciousness. "Right now there is enormous importance being attached to getting people in mathematics and people in biology to collaborate," he says. "Both Canadian and US granting agencies are putting big chunks of money into building such collaborations."

MBA team ranks eighth in portfolio competition
October was an ugly month for Canadian equity markets, and many of the young teams in the Financial Post's MBA Portfolio Management Competition bore the full brunt of the bearish mauling, reported the National Post Nov. 7. This contest is about producing the best return with the lowest risk. Team Schulich may have sat on cash for the first month of the competition, but they've taken to equities in a big way in November: Rather than concentrating on a few choice picks, this team has diversified among a whopping 29 different stocks.In October its eighth-place-ranked portfolio was worth $1,001,086 with a return of +0.11 per cent.