CAMPUS NOTES

Blood drive comes to York this week

If you are considering giving the gift of life through a blood donation, Canadian Blood Services will be on campus from noon to 4pm, Monday to Thursday, and from 9:30am-1:30pm, Friday. The clinic will take place in Central Square, Ross Building.

In 2005, York students, faculty and staff donated 742 units of blood. This mean 2,226 people benefited from campus blood drives. Donations are used to treat patients in area hospitals, particularly cancer patients who use an average of 8 units of blood products each week during their treatment. Currently, only 3.5 per cent of eligible Canadians donate blood.

For more information on how to become a donor or to schedule another opportunity to donate during one of many clinics throughout the community, visit www.bloodservices.ca or call 1-888-2-DONATE.

Canadian Blood Services is hosted by Health Education & Promotion, located within the Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development.

Applications open Wednesday for would-be residence dons

All undergraduate colleges and residences on the Keele campus (Bethune, Calumet, Founders, McLaughlin, Stong, Vanier, Winters and Pond Road) are now accepting applications for 2006-2007 donships. These positions are open to York graduate and senior undergraduate students (both domestic and visa) in good standing. Information and application forms are available on the Web at www.yorku.ca/scld/donship.

Interested applicants can learn more from York’s Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development which is holding an information session on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 5:30pm, in the Underground.

The deadline for applications is Feb. 10, 2006 by 4:30pm.

Check your Convocation to-do list for to ensure a smooth graduation

Students who are ready to graduate this year should keep in mind the following advice that will help the process go as smoothly as possible:

1. Remember to apply to graduate by the deadline on Tuesday, Jan. 31. For more information about application procedures, visit the graduation checklist located on the Convocation Web site.
2. If you have already applied, you can check your graduation status online by going to the My Online Services Web site and logging on through Passport York, then click on the "Verify my June 2006 graduation status" link.
3. While logged on, remember to check your official name to make sure that it is correct by clicking on the "Verify my Official Name" link. That is the name which will be printed on your diploma.
4. Finally, make sure that you have no outstanding debts to the University, including library and parking fines. Your diploma will be held back if your debts remain unpaid.

For more information about convocation dates and other ceremony information visit the Convocation Web site.

University-Wide Teaching Award nominations open

The University-Wide Teaching Awards honour those who, through innovation and commitment, have significantly enhanced the quality of learning for York students. Four awards are offered each year in the following categories:

• Full-time faculty with 10 or more years’ teaching experience
• Full-time faculty (tenured, tenure-stream, CLA) with less than 10 years’ experience
• Contract and adjunct faculty
• Teaching assistants

The purpose of these awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching. Recipients of the awards, selected by the Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning (SCOTL), have their names engraved on the University-Wide Teaching Award plaques in Vari Hall and are recognized at convocation ceremonies. Nominations should be submitted to the University Secretariat, N926 Ross Bldg., by Jan. 31.

Further information and nomination forms can be found at the Awards Web page.

Microsoft issues security update

Microsoft Corp. has released a security advisory regarding a vulnerability in the graphics rendering engine of the Windows operating system. This means that many graphics files (pictures, charts within other applications or on their own, JPEGS, GIFS, etc.) opened on computers using Windows could be a problem.

MacOS and Linux/UNIX computers are not affected.

Microsoft has released a security update to address this problem which is available using the software update feature. The security update is available by clicking here.

• Keep your anti-virus definitions up-to-date on your home computer.
• Do not visit Web sites that are unknown to you.
• E-mail attachments from unknown sources should never be opened.
• Do not download graphic material using peer-to-peer (P2P) applications, such as Kaaza, Torrent etc.

York’s Information Security will continue to monitor the situation and will release updates if more information becomes available.

Questions or concerns should be directed to the Computing & Network Services helpdesk in the Computing Commons, William Small Centre, ext. 55800 or e-mail helpdesk@yorku.ca.