On Nov. 11 students, staff and alumni filed into Convocation Hall to participate in a service to remember the fallen and current veterans. President Patrick Deane read roll-call and Chancellor Wilson delivered a commemorative speech. The service had musical accompaniment by organist Rev. Philip Gardner, bugler George A. Murga-Martinez and piper David Waterhouse.

As part of a McMaster tradition, President Deane read the Honour Roll which bears the names of the 35 McMaster graduates and undergraduates who died in World War II. Chancellor Wilson’s speech noted how soldiers in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry suffered inordinate losses at Dieppe, but how the failures of WWII contributed largely to later Canadian successes in Holland and Vimy Ridge. He concluded on a note of gratitude and honour towards all veterans and service men and women.

 

Hamilton hosts an Anti-Poverty Caucus

On Nov. 9 the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction sponsored an All-Party Anti-Poverty Caucus at the Hamilton Convention Centre. Approximately 80 members of the community attended the event.

Four McMaster students first spoke about the impact of poverty on women and the intersection with class-based issues. Another McMaster speaker, Dr. Tim O’Shea, who is well-known as the doctor who disrupted Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s funding announcement at McMaster, spoke second.

The event advertised four panelists MP Chris Charlton, Conservative MP Michael Chong, Liberal Senator Art Eggleton and Conservative Senator Don Meredith, who were meant to contribute to a broad discussion of poverty in Canada.

Provincial mental health report released

The report, based on the Focus of Mental Health Conference that was held in Toronto in May 2012, highlighted the insights into the subject areas including student experience, healthy workplaces, and stigma elimination that were addressed at the event.

The conference welcomed over 270 delegates, and was organized by Colleges Ontario, Council of Ontario Universities, the College Student Alliance, and the Ontario Undergraduate Alliance.

Mental health remains an area of focus at McMaster. In particular, services on campus are wary of the time of year; students are under additional pressure with the weight of end-of-term work and exams.

The Student Health Education Center (SHEC) is one of many organizations that offer support to students. Meagan McEwen, SHEC Outreach Coordinator, feels that there is a “need to address Mental Health during our most stressful time of the year – exams.”

Collaborating with different groups on and off campus, SHEC will host a number of “stress-buster” events, including providing dogs for stressed students to interact with, and serving hot chocolate and coffee with the support of OPIRG McMaster.

McEwen believes that, “there seem to be [fewer] opportunities for students to take a break and relax during these exam periods, while making them aware of all the different support networks students have on campus.”