| VOLUME 28, NUMBER 16 | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1998 | ISSN 1199-5246 |
OLD BEFORE THEIR TIME: (left to right) Rebecca Gilroy, Eleanor Waldman, Maria Gourgiots, Tracey DeFrancesco, Rossana Brunetti, Daniela Poggio and Chiara Rao prepare to experience the world as their elders do.
"A fish does not know water until it discovers air," reads a plaque just outside the doors leading to the Student Centre.
Marshall McLuhan's pensée perfectly describes the practical value of the learning experience provided to students in Professor Rachel Schlesinger's "Aging and Caregiving" class. Late last semester, Schlesinger's students had the opportunity to participate in Through Other Eyes, a workshop implemented by the Ontario Community Support Association in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Health.
Much like McLuhan's fish, the students' perspective of their everyday relationship to their natural habitat was enhanced when, briefly, they were removed from it and allowed to experience life as the elderly and the physically disabled do.
The two-hour, Through Other Eyes workshop, facilitated by Lynelle Hamilton, enables participants to better understand the special needs and challenges faced by seniors and people with disabilities. By freighting participants with a variety of gear that impairs their senses and hampers their movements, it allows them to experience first-hand the effects of aging. It is remarkably effective.
After Schlesinger's students were outfitted with weights on their legs, earplugs, water-wings on their elbows to mimic arthritis, and goggles which impaired their eyesight, they were dispatched to various facilities at the Keele campus to accomplish a list of tasks tasks, which students admitted in the discussion period following, they could not complete.
Students were also surprised to discover how quickly they became tired, how easily they were frustrated, and how others avoided them by either moving away or looking elsewhere.
"Losing my eyesight was the worst. I started getting really depressed," commented student Eleanor Waldman.
Through Other Eyes was not an isolated experience for Schlesinger's students, but provided them with a deeper understanding of the issues that affect the seniors they work with in their year-long placements, as well as the older members of their own families.
"I know how my grandmother feels now," stated Chiara Rao in the supportive post-discussion group.
The workshop concluded with students identifying changes necessary for accommodating seniors and people with disabilities at the University, such as constructing wider turnstiles, doors that open more slowly, and signs with larger print.
York has secured $1-million from the Royal Bank to support a Professorship in Nonprofit Management and Leadership.
"As the issues facing the nonprofit sector become more complex and intertwined with wider social and economic challenges, the need for advanced management education and leadership development in the sector is clearly increasing," says Professor Brenda Gainer, the first holder of the new Royal Bank Professorship in Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the Schulich School of Business.
"Change is occurring in our society at a dizzying speed," Gainer says. "The demands on the nonprofit sector to respond to immense social change while facing a radically altered funding environment highlight the importance of developing managers and leaders who have both a deep understanding of community needs and strong business skills," adds Gainer, who came to York in 1991 after working for such non-profit organizations as the Canadian Opera Company.
Gainer, who specializes in nonprofit marketing, said she applauds the Royal Bank's investment in education in this increasingly important sector.
"The Royal Bank has long been recognized as the leader in charitable giving in Canada. This support of our program shows that the bank is also a leader in recognizing the critical role of building management and leadership capacity in the charitable sector. This investment will contribute to the ability of nonprofit organizations to respond to the challenge of building the communities in which Canadians want to live and work in the future."
President Lorna Marsden said she appreciates the bank's generosity and anticipates that this support will help bring fresh insights and understanding to the nonprofit sector and the communities it serves.
Through the bank's $1-million investment, the Professorship will concentrate on developing innovative teaching materials for advanced management and leadership education both at York and in other nonprofit programs across Canada; researching such contemporary issues as organizational accountability, diversity, new governance models and inter-sectoral partnerships; and disseminating knowledge widely in the sector through co-operative activities, such as workshops, round tables, conferences and collaborative applied research projects.
George Gaffney, Royal Bank executive vice-president and general manager of the bank's Metro Toronto division, notes that the merits and needs of the program are compelling.
"We believe that the Schulich School of Business has the faculty resources, the research capability, the administrative support, the educational philosophy and the track record to respond to the growing need for more education in this field," he says.
In Canada, almost one in five paid jobs is in a nonprofit organization, more than in manufacturing or retail, and almost three times as many as in the financial services industry.
"We need to recognize that the voluntary sector will increasingly be in the forefront of the move to build a just society," comments Julie White, executive director of the Trillium Foundation, advisory board member for the Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program and an MBA graduate of the Schulich School of Business.
"That means we need to develop leaders who can think 'outside the box,' who do not just react to new problems in old ways, but who are capable of developing and building innovative and sustainable community resources. Leadership education has a critical role to play in this process."
While public interest in the nonprofit sector and in charitable giving has grown recently, York University recognized early on back in 1983 the need for education and training in a sector whose well-being is essential to the economic and social health of communities across the country.
The University's business school has been guided since its inception by a vision of developing effective leadership in all three sectors of the economy. For 30 years, the school has differentiated itself from other management schools in Canada through its belief that there is a core platform of managerial knowledge that is equally relevant to the administration of organizations in the private, public, and "third" sectors.
Schulich offers Canada's only MBA-level degree in nonprofit management. It leads to careers in a rich variety of nonprofit organizations focusing on health care, human services, education, culture, religion or the environment. The Schulich School is the only Canadian institution with a PhD minor in nonprofit management studies.
Schulich graduates entering this sector will be able to build strong careers in general management, marketing, fundraising, human resources or financial management. In addition, many students planning to build their careers in for-profit organizations take electives in nonprofit management to prepare themselves for positions as board members of charitable organizations operating in their communities.
York scholars will be able to step up their research on how to reduce violence among children and youth, thanks to the Brazilian Carnival Ball. Organizers of the annual event have chosen the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution as the Ball's 1998 beneficiary. Proceeds from this year's Ball are projected to reach more than $1-million.
"I salute the generosity of the organizers of the 1998 Brazilian Carnival Ball, and thank them for their confidence in, and commitment to, this kind of socially relevant work, which has always been one of York University's hallmarks," says President Lorna Marsden.
York psychology professor Debra Pepler is the director of the LaMarsh Centre and an internationally recognized expert on child bullying. "The first step in reducing violence among children and youth is to understand what motivates it and what can mitigate against it," she says.
"We hope to reach the parents, teachers and children who are confronted with the problem of bullying and help them understand that there are solutions."
Pepler's research has been profiled across North America, most recently on Oprah, TVO's Studio 2, WTN's Jane Hawtin Live, CNBC's Charles Grodin Show and NBC's Dateline, and on public and private radio stations across Canada.
She recently completed a four-year study into the bullying tactics of school-age children between the ages of six and 12, videotaping them in classrooms and playgrounds. She documented bullying and aggressive behaviour in schools and evaluated an anti-bullying intervention project in selected downtown Toronto schools.
Her results showed that if school intervention strategies are to be effective, they must involve parents, teachers and principals.
Pepler's research, which earned her the Psychology Foundation of Canada's Contribution to Knowledge Award, has been so successful that the LaMarsh Centre plans to expand its program to try to temper aggression and abuse in the lives of children throughout their childhood years. Some of the activities made possible by the Brazilian Ball donation include:
* an annual conference for educators, police and social workers
* a speakers series
* a data base on violence
* intervention manuals for professionals
* development of an Internet site with practical information for professionals, parents and teenagers.
The co-chairs of this year's Brazilian Carnival Ball one of Canada's largest and most prestigious charity balls are Maureen Squibb and Suzanne and André Galipeault.
"If we are to tackle this terrible problem of violence among children, we must work to ensure that this research is well supported and sustained. We are pleased to contribute to the excellent, leading edge research that is being conducted at the LaMarsh Centre," says Squibb.
Three York alumni who have emerged as influential corporate leaders are also leading lights in support of the 1998 Brazilian Carnival Ball: John Hunkin (MBA '69), CEO of CIBC Wood Gundy; Margot Franssen (BA (Phil.) '79), president of The Body Shop Canada and one of the National Campaign's co-chairs; and Steven Hudson (BBA '81), CEO of Newcourt Credit Group.
The Ball and the funds it will raise are key components of the National Campaign for York University, which has raised $66-million towards its $100-million goal, as of Jan. 1, 1998.
The Brazilian Carnival Ball will be held Saturday, April 18 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Founded by Brazilian-born Anna Maria de Souza and inspired by the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the Ball has raised more than $12-million for a wide range of educational, cultural and health care institutions since its inception in Toronto in 1966.
For ticket information, please call Kathy Gayda at the Brazilian Ball office, (416) 360-6238.
The LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution was established at York in 1980. Named after the late politician, lawyer and author Judy LaMarsh, it is dedicated to encouraging research which explores the themes of violence and conflict resolution in Canadian society.
Following is a synopsis of the Nov. 27, 1997 meeting of the York University Senate. At that meeting, the Senate:
* heard greetings to new faculty members from the chair of Senate, who also reported on recent meetings of the Senate and Board of Governors' Executive Committees;
* heard remarks from the chair of the Board of Governors, Charles Hantho;
* heard remarks from Vice-President Michael H. Stevenson, who, in the absence of President Lorna Marsden, gave assurances that the Administration continues to counter misleading impressions of York's excellence fostered by the inherent biases of the Maclean's rankings;
* approved a Certificate in English/Spanish, Spanish/English Translation (Glendon College);
* approved a combined MBA/
MFA Program in Business and Fine Arts (Graduate Studies);
* approved the addition of Insolvency Law and Administrative Law as new offerings of the Part-time Evening LLM Program (Graduate Studies);
* approved a change of the name of the Graduate Diploma in Strategic Studies to the Graduate Diploma in International and Security Studies (Graduate Studies);
* approved changes in degree requirements for the Graduate Program in Biology (Graduate Studies);
* approved a Graduate Diploma in German and European Studies, Master's and Doctoral Levels (Graduate Studies);
* approved a Certificate in the Discipline of Teaching English as a Second Language (Glendon College);
* approved the principle that there will be full portability of general education courses for undergraduate students;
* approved a change in the membership of the Senate Committee on Admissions, Recruitment and Student Assistance such that the Vice-President (Enrolment and Student Services) will replace the Vice-President (Academic Affairs) as an ex officio voting member;
* heard remarks from the chair of the Academic Policy and Planning Committee, who announced that a background report on Glendon College will be issued to the community in the near future;
* approved a resolution ensuring that students who would be participating in ceremonies for the observation of Women's Remembrance Day on Friday, Dec. 5 between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. would not be subject to academic penalties and would have reasonable access to materials; if tests or examinations were scheduled during that time, the students would be offered an opportunity to take them at a later date mutually decided by the course director and the students.
For further information, please contact the University Secretariat.
by Michael Todd
When it comes to fish, Richard Hoffmann knows what he's talking about. The award-winning York history professor and avid angler has had a long-standing interest in fisheries (especially fish husbandry in medieval Europe), and in the history of fishing. Much of this knowledge and research is contained in his new, scholarly book Fisher's Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages (University of Toronto Press, 1997).
Fisher's Craft deals with the history and practice of angling in continental Europe at the end of the Middle Ages. It is based on the three oldest, surviving tracts on fishing: How to Catch Fish (Wie man fisch und vögel fahen soll) aka The Heidelberg Booklet, first printed by Jacob Köbel in Heidelberg, 1493; Tegernsee Fishing Advice, (Bavaria) ca 1500; and Dialogue between a Hunter and a Fisher (Dialogo que agora se hazia ...), Fernando Basurto, (Spain) 1539.
These tracts are the first practical, "how-to" books on how to catch fish.
Fisher's Craft supplies translations of all three texts sometimes by Hoffmann alone, sometimes with colleagues as well as detailed analysis of the texts from social, cultural and environmental perspectives. (Each volume is reproduced in the original German and Spanish with facing-page translations.)
Refrigeration did not exist and fresh meat would have been scarce in the Middle Ages. Fish offered the ideal solution to high protein requirements. Is it a coincidence that the Church had so many days when one was required to eat it? Perhaps not. In any case, Hoffmann notes that "A pious Christian had to take his or her animal protein from fish 140-160 days each year."
An important part of the book is Hoffmann's analysis of how technological advances such as printing made such books possible in the first place, and how Continental fishing traditions were conveyed from essentially oral practices into printed culture.
Hoffmann argues that these fishing tracts demonstrate a lively and complex interaction between written texts and popular culture. He pays particular attention to the manuscripts' original settings and functions, with discussions of the possible range of their readings.
Fisher's Craft is made more interesting still by the evidence Hoffmann presents for the debunking of the long-standing myth concerning Dame Juliana Berners, supposedly an aristocratic 15th century nun. Dame Juliana is credited with writing the earliest text describing fly fishing with a feathered "angle" (i.e., a hook). Not true, says Hoffmann.
The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (published in 1496, a century-and-a-half before Izaak Walton's 1653 work, The Compleat Angler), is commonly attributed to Berners, but Hoffmann quotes various sources proving that she simply didn't exist. He questions the persistence in "flawed historical method" when it comes to English-language writers who show a dim awareness of other (earlier) texts and traditions which give evidence of fishing both for sport and pleasure, as well as subsistence.
The first tract Fisher's Craft presents is the Heidelberg Booklet of 1493, which may have been the first planned discourse on fishing from the European continent and is the oldest known printed book on the subject anywhere. It mixes knowledge of the magical, the popular and the learned, and advocates various fishing methods, including pots, explosives and even poison, along with a wide variety of baits.
Magical good-luck charms include this recipe for a salve made from the leg bones of a heron (a renowned natural "fisher"): "to catch fish in the water by hand...smear your hands and shins...with it. Thus you will experience great marvels."
At the tract's end is an amusing burlesque, wherein fish are compared to various people, so that "...a stickleback is a king. A fresh-run salmon a lord. A carp a knave. A pike a robber. A barbel a tailor. An eel a trickster. ...A crayfish a grave digger."
The tract entitled, Tegernsee Fishing Advice is a collection of popular wisdom from a large and well-run house of Benedictine monks on a lake at the edge of the Bavarian Alps. The monks abstained altogether from eating meat, Hoffmann notes. "They ate cheese and fish."
Even five centuries later, the Tegernsee text makes for interesting (even useful) reading. Take this medieval bait recipe:
"If you want to catch fish with the hook where no one can catch any, then take a yellow frog and pull its rear leg out of the joint and lay it in the open air and let it parch and dry out, and when you want to fish then lay it in urine until it swells up. After that take some warm water and put some honey in the water until it dissolves, and so that it becomes thoroughly sweet let it [the frog's leg] lie in that for a night and then take the same bait and the sweet water with a piece of moss and put them in a bait box so that the bait remains entirely damp in there and so remains good. Then place the bait on the hook and all fish will willingly bite on it in running and still waters."
Readers will be captivated by Fernando Basurto's Dialogue between a Hunter and a Fisher, the final tract in the volume, for both its wit and its wisdom. Here's a sample:
Hunter: Well look; I promise you that I will go fishing before long.
Fisher: You would already have a rod if I had an extra one.
Hunter: And if I want to learn, will you not lend me yours?
Fisher: What do you mean 'lend'? I will make you a solemn vow: I would not lend it to you even if you gave me a treasure.
Hunter: Why?
Fisher: For two reasons: One because I have not stopped fishing; the other because of the virtues of my rod.
Hunter: What virtues?
Fisher: It has a shaft which was cut from the plant and tree of Jesse and the top joint was taken from the heart of the whale which swallowed Jonah the prophet, and the hairs of the line are from the white hairs that Delilah cut from Samson when she robbed him of his strength. ... A rod ... should not be lent to anyone. Just so should knights refuse to lend the weapons which they value ... as unexpected discords frequently arise.
Hunter: My God, you hold your rod in much esteem.
Hoffmann's extensive experience and love of fly fishing, particularly, combined with an impressive amateur's-knowledge of fish habitat and biology, inform this rigorously learned book. I think it makes Fisher's Craft that much more enjoyable.
In summary, Fisher's Craft and Lettered Art is bound to delight and inform readers, whether they be anglers or not. Those who bring to it an acquaintance with fish and fishing will gain from its historical insights, and those whose interest is more historical or academic will come away with a greater appreciation of the medieval life and mind.
When he's not serving as editor of Profiles, the University's publication for alumni and friends, Michael Todd likes to while away the hours both fishing and thinking.
At its Dec. 8, 1997 meeting, the University's Board of Governors:
* observed a visual presentation which outlined the history and achievements of the York University Art Gallery and outlined the ongoing importance of the Gallery to research in the fine arts;
* welcomed Anthony Barbisan, the new student representative to the Board; reappointed continuing Board members Cliff Pilkey, William Chan, Fred Gorbet and Nalini Stewart;
* received remarks from President Marsden on the recent Chancellor's Summit and on the University's three most important issues with government: student financial aid; research funding and the tiering effect of recent proposals; and equity in general funding for universities;
* received the terms of reference for the consideration of options and a background report regarding Glendon College;
* received analysis from Vice-President Hobson regarding the recent Maclean's ranking of universities: York is first in Ontario and second in Canada in research in medicine and science in terms of grants from MRC and NSERC per eligible full-time faculty member; York would have been second in the ranking among comprehensive universities had the subjective category of "reputation" not been included in the calculation; York continues to do well on teaching quality and student services measures, but also continues to show poorly on indicators which measure financial strength;
* received remarks from the Chair, Charles Hantho, on the recent meeting between the Board Executive Committee and the Senate Executive Committee, and on his continuing discussions with the President regarding the mandates of Board committees;
* approved the University's consolidated plan for ancillary operations and capital fund management as outlined in Report on Ancillary and Capital Budgets and Planning Nov. 24, 1997;
* approved the New Science Complex together with related alterations at a cost estimate of $20-million, on the understanding that the project will be financed from the $10.3-million received from the Ministry of Education and Training for the Seneca at York project and $9.7-million from a capital loan to be paid from the University's ancillary accounts;
* noted the Report of the Human Resources Committee, in which updates were provided regarding academic complements and compensation, non-academic staff, and future negotiations.
For further information, please contact the University Secretariat at 736-5012.
There is science; then there is pseudo- or junk science. And much of the time, many of us can scarcely tell the difference. Tales abound of humans abducted by aliens, of the miraculous benefits of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP), of cell phones promoting brain cancer, of extra-terrestrial spacecraft drawing giant circles in fields of grain, and of alternative treatments for health problems far better than anything modern medicine can provide.
Nor is this surprising at a time when science largely has supplanted religion as the basis for our belief systems, suggests Glendon College psychology professor James Alcock.
"The general public in some ways puts science on a pedestal, while at the same time blaming it for many of our ills," says Alcock, who gives a course on the psychology of belief. The trouble is that too much of what we accept as scientifically based is nothing of the kind.
Alcock points to the 1970s as the time when a general fascination with the paranormal and with other junk science phenomena took hold with a vengeance, prompted by widespread, societal changes, such as family breakdown and the steep decline in church attendance. "People were searching for something to give meaning to life," he says.
So prevalent did junk science become that "a few airlines started using bio-rhythms with their pilots, based on their birthdays and, in at least one case, a judge in the U.S. was sentencing people based on their horoscopes," says Alcock.
The rise in the public's acceptance of pseudo-science has continued into the 1990s, spurred on by supermarket tabloids and their exploitative cousins in the news and entertainment media. Even the most respectable news outlets seem unable to resist reporting on the latest quack remedy or manifestation of the paranormal, and TV shows such as the "X-Files" largely owe their success to a widespread lack of scientific literacy.
Alcock says people need to be equipped to deal with the barrage of information they now receive. "I think the root problem is not the presence of nonsense in the media, but rather the lack of critical thinking-skills in people," he says. "How many think the X-files is a documentary?"
What's worse, when it comes to health care, the public "opts for the often ridiculous treatments offered by alternative medicine," says Hancock.
It's because "modern medicine is so technical and assembly-line," he says. "The problems that are most often helped by alternative medicine are problems that physicians often don't take very seriously." When people go to an alternative practitioner, their aches and pains are acknowledged, he says.
Alcock is a member of the U.S.-based Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal. "The public has a right to know," he says, and The Skeptical Inquirer, the committee's magazine, "is, in some sense, a consumer report."
While he thinks it important to discredit junk science, Alcock makes it clear that he does not consider himself a crusader and that scientists, too, make mistakes.
"We're all vulnerable to pockets of irrationality in our belief systems," he says, citing the case of a friend, "a very good scientist, who persists in taking mega-doses of Vitamin C," even though science has demonstrated that the body excretes most of it, and "too much can lead to kidney stones."
