L.R. Wilson Hall opened last week, complete with state-of-the-art features ranging from active learning classrooms, to lounge space, to students highly trained in the arts of Microsoft PowerPoint and group discussions.

Just before classes were scheduled to begin, the Faculty of Humanities sent an email to upper year students advertising a job opportunity. The job? Working as a “Student Partner” with a professor in the ALCs for a first-year Humanities course. According to the email, “the student partner will help prepare for and facilitate in-class activities,” for four to five hours a week, a task perhaps, a TA could perform. Or, dare I say it: a prof?

The issue of technology use in the classroom is not a new one. The start of every semester brings with it a series of angry tweets and Facebook posts about instructors banning online note-taking or refusing to accept digitally submitted assignments. At a school that prides itself on its forward-thinking as much as McMaster, it’s farcical that the instructors who are eager to use the new spaces in the Wilson building are so reluctant to embrace the tech features that make the building stand out from the other lecture halls on campus. Why did the university bother spending tens of millions of dollars on L.R. Wilson Hall if faculty are shying away from its most coveted features?

Ultimately, the gesture of the job comes across as disrespectful. It seems as though professors do not see the need to meet students where they are or expand their own skills and breathe new life into their teaching material. Furthermore, it can be interpreted that instructors do not feel that their course’s content is relevant or important enough to be updated to make adequate use of the ALCs.

The integration of upper year mentors is a great idea in a class designed to introduce first years to Humanities-focused inquiry and show that university is not an inherently “scary” experience. However asking those mentors to “prepare and facilitate” technology-based activities goes far beyond that. Add to that the fact that these students are performing tasks similar to those of a TA for about half the hourly earnings (undergrad TAs earn about $23 per hour while these facilitator roles pay $12.75) and this job “opportunity” becomes yet another slap in the face to young adults trying to develop a diverse skill set.

Over the course of a semester, these jobs will pay a total of around $637. This does not even cover the cost of a three-unit Humanities course, and is less than two months’ worth of rent.

If the Faculty of Humanities is truly proud of L.R. Wilson Hall and its classrooms’ potential to impart inspiring knowledge, its professors need to get with the times and get their hands dirty with the touch screens at their fingertips.

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By: Bina Patel

Allison Rutland is arguably one of McMaster’s most notable alumni. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities in 2002 with a concentration in Multimedia and Fine Arts. She now works for one of the world’s most renowned animation studios, Pixar. Just a few weeks ago the talented alumna won an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation in A Feature Production at the University of California for her work in Inside Out.  

Rutland considered pursuing a career in animation early on but she did not give it much thought, especially while attending high school. She recounted, “I was interested in it when I was younger but then in high school I thought I would be an environmental scientist, and then ended up going to McMaster for Art.”

She credited McMaster for establishing a theoretical perspective of art, and noted two professors in particular. “Judy was the painting professor and Hugh was the life drawing [professor] — they were really good, I really enjoyed them,” Rutland said.

The move from McMaster to Pixar Animation Studios was a gradual process. After her undergraduate education, Rutland applied to Sheridan College for computer animation. And after working on film and television in Toronto and London for a few years, she decided to apply to Pixar in California, something she says friends helped her accomplish. “I had friends who were at Pixar three years before me and it kind of made me want to apply here. They helped me submit a reel.”

Rutland says working on animated films requires a range of skills. Animators are assigned various shots by the leads, followed by a shot briefing. “You get a series of shots and you animate what’s in those shots. Sometimes there might be several characters and sometimes there might be one character. It’s not a definite thing,” she explained. Rutland and her team have worked on some high profile movies, including Brave, Toy Story 3 and Monsters University. She says that Sully remains one of her favourite projects. “I had a fun time on Monsters University. I ended up getting a lot of Sully shots and kind of got to know that character well because I got so many shots with him. It was really fun.”

The staff works rigorously on these films and, according to Rutland, animators always feel their comfort zone is being pushed. “It’s one of those jobs where you’re always learning. You kind of have to approach it almost as a student every time and you’re always going to come across something that’s really difficult,” she said. “I like that aspect of it because I always challenge myself to learn and get better.”

Of the 120 animators at Pixar there are roughly 25 women, a ratio Rutland explained has affected the way some characters are created. Brave for instance was a female heavy film and therefore required for a high level of femininity in its characters. “When there’s a female character, you kind of end up getting the women to animate them cause they can bring a certain amount of femininity that maybe the men wouldn’t know about. All my shots were Merida, she was the only character I animated with them,” she explained.

Rutland is thankful for all the small steps that led her transition from an undergraduate at McMaster to an animator at Pixar. “It’s a really great job, I love it. I feel very lucky to have gotten in at this time to be where I am.”

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McMaster’s ability to provide students with Chinese language and culture courses took a significant blow last summer.

Following the university’s decision to separate from the Confucius Institute last February, the Faculty of Humanities is attempting to provide students with at least a modicum of its former offerings, having relied on this foreign partnership since 2008 to provide students with a variety of courses for those who wanted to learn about China or learn its language.

The acting Dean of Humanities, Ken Cruikshank, defends the school’s decision to separate.

“Disconnecting ourselves from the Confucius Institute was an important step we had to take – the university as a whole had to take – in order to address a human rights complaint,” said Cruikshank.

A glance at the Undergraduate course timetable yields a slew of “Not Offered” statuses, bringing last year’s total of 11 courses down to a single offering, an introductory Mandarin class.

“The number of Chinese courses that are being offered this year are obviously less than last year, but actually the number of students affected by that is not that high. Last year there were 49 students taking introductory Chinese; this current year there are 44 students [in the course.]”

The Faculty of Humanities is now responsible for offering and maintaining the course, which does not come without a cost.

“My ability to offer the course is, obviously I have to find the money myself now. The Confucius Institute provided a way of offering these courses; someone else was helping to pay for them,” said Cruikshank.

In light of the faculty offering a beginner’s language course this year, there is no assurance that this program will be offered in future years. “We will try as best we can to continue to mount the course but I can’t guarantee every year. But there is certainly a continued commitment and it will continue to be a course we offer.”

“We are currently not exploring international partnerships such as we had through the Confucius Institute. I think that way there is a lesson to be learned from the work that we did,” said Cruikshank. “It seemed initially to be a very promising avenue and certainly a number of universities continue to have Confucius Institutes but we suspect they are going to have the same problems.”

A movement called “Bringing an End to Facultyphobia,” initially spawned by reactions to a Silhouette Opinions article condemning Kipling Pranks as discriminatory, quickly picked up momentum in preparation for an inter-faculty event on April 3.

But the event was not to be.

Zachary Strong, Engineering student and Facebook event creator, explained how health and safety problems prevented the actual event from occurring. He hopes for a physical, planned event during the week of April 8.

“It looks like the event is going to remain nebulous. It may not happen the way we envisioned it, but the level of discussion is there, so it’s something I’m looking forward to.”

Issue has been taken with the description of faculty stereotyping as a type of phobia. David Campbell, MSU VP (Administration), felt that “phobia is a bit overstated, simply because I think it compares it with homophobia and racial issues which go a lot deeper and have a lot of context to them.” Strong admits that this may not be the ideal word to describe the actions and behavior he has experienced or heard about second-hand.

The initial Facebook event referenced ending “Engphobia,” but it was later renamed “Facultyphobia” in order to include the wide body of students who may feel discriminated against or mistreated on the basis of their faculty.

Strong reiterated that he was intent on reaching out to other faculties, and dismissed the idea that this was an Engineering-specific phenomenon or that Engineering students would be a majority of the participants in the “End Facultyphobia” event.

The McMaster Engineering Society issued a statement on their Facebook account announcing that they had chosen to distance themselves from the End Facultyphobia movement, despite recognizing and appreciating the need to break down faculty stigmas.

“We feel it has grown out of hand and is turning out to be quite the opposite of the initial intentions to shed a positive light on our University and its faculties. We absolutely love the idea of a University wide event that fosters the growth and relationships between students. We don’t, however, think this is the proper venue or time to do so,” said the statement.

Campbell explained that while he appreciated the importance of starting inter-faculty dialogue, he believed there has been a continued decrease in faculty tension in the last few years.

Both Campbell and Strong specifically pinpointed Welcome Week as the primary vehicle for building and breaking down faculty stereotypes.

“From the planning perspective, it was a specific topic of discussion during training for faculty reps. Planners specifically discussed how cheers degrading a faculty help no one,” said Campbell.

But Strong has asserted that there is an absence of one forum for all faculties to report incidents of stereotyping. Part of his goal is for students to complete an online survey to share their experiences. The results of this survey will be compiled and sent to faculty societies and the Student Success Centre.

When asked if he felt airing these stereotypes could do more harm then good, perpetuating and introducing new stereotypes, Strong argued that, “Ultimately, the alternative is isolation, and that doesn't really help either, so there is a risk. But would we be any better off if everyone just stayed away and did their own thing? I would say no.”

Once a year, students take the time to pay tribute to those people who make their education possible: their professors. After the recent announcement of this year’s MSU Teaching Awards, and the ceremony on March 14, the Silhouette sat down with some of the award winners to get their take on what it means to get recognized by their students.

Dr. Felicia Vulcu is not your typical professor. Hailing from Romania, Vulcu spent her high school years in Edmonton and was pointed to McMaster by her guidance counselor. After completing her undergraduate degree, Master’s, and PhD all at Mac, in 2008 she ended up with a job in the same department that had trained her. As an assistant professor and undergraduate advisor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Vulcu is focused on the learning experience, making her a perfect recipient for the Pedagogical Innovation Award.

What exactly do you do here at McMaster?

I do a lot of things in the program, but mainly I was hired to run the teaching labs. We are very research intensive, so we have a full-year second year lab — that’s the one I won the award for. The idea behind it was to introduce students to research but really sneak in techniques, instead of just giving them techniques. [We have them] do many different things – some inquiry, some presentation. I try to minimize their stress, especially with assessments. That’s my goal in life. For me it’s not to get students to learn, because I think everybody learns. It’s to get them to understand the research process, and then see if they like it, because if they like it, they should stick with it.

How did you end up in your current job?

I had no plan on getting here. I know people sometimes sculpt, but I bumped through life. I didn’t know what to do in my undergrad. I liked the research concept, and when I went in, I loved it. Then I matured and I saw who I was as a person, what I wanted out of my own personal life—I wanted to be happy, and I wanted to have a social job, where I interact with people. I saw that the researcher job…didn’t fit my personality. I applied to every job known to man, and I just bumped into this. You can say it was luck—it was dumb luck. But once I got in it, I absolutely loved it.

What does this award mean to you?

It was not something that I set out to do—I just enjoy teaching. Getting this was very humbling for me, so I just felt warm all over. When the students give me something like this, it means that they really are responding to me. But it’s not just me doing this—we make a huge effort in our department to be innovative to get students to just see how passionate we are about research. It was huge for us—everyone in the department is happy that this program is being recognized. You can’t be innovative on your own.

Joe Argentino always knew that music was his calling. And now, as an Assistant Professor in Music Theory in the School of the Arts, he lives that dream and teaches music skills, as well as and music history for non-music majors. First coming to McMaster to fill a position for a professor on sabbatical, he has found a home at Mac over the past four years. As the teaching award winner for the Faculty of Humanities, and a nominee for last year’s awards, it’s clear that students like having him here.

What exactly do you do here at McMaster?

I teach skills classes, such as sight singing and keyboard harmony. I also teach upper level theory courses, in twentieth century analysis and history courses, and courses for non-music majors. This year it was my keyboard harmony class that nominated me. Most of them were from this 2D03 class. It’s not usually a very popular course—it’s one of those classes where students are constantly assessed. Last year I was nominated for a sight singing class, which most people don’t like because they have to sing in front of their friends and it’s a bit scary. And obviously teaching is as important to me as research; they’re neck and neck. For my research, I generally analyze music from the twentieth century, and I would consider myself an expert on the music of Schoenberg. I try to bring new approaches to the music. Sometimes this type of analysis I do can be very math heavy, and some of the work that I do takes the math away from it and makes it user friendly.

What do you hope students get out of your classes?

I generally want my students to enjoy themselves in my class. I want it to be an experience where they feel fulfilled, even just being there. Of course, I always have the goal to get through the content, but to be better thinkers, to have confidence in themselves…I try in all my classes where it’ll benefit them regardless of where they end up. I just think I try to make my classes very relaxed, so people can approach me. I use a lot of humour and try to be as encouraging as possible all the time, but at the same time…I really want people to excel and do their absolute best. People are not afraid to talk to me, ask me questions, or make mistakes in front of me.

What does this award mean to you?

To be nominated, already I’d felt like I’d won. There’s nothing better than getting that recognition from my students. Sometimes you don’t know—last year when I was nominated, I was really surprised. I had no idea my students were enjoying the class. And this year it was kind of the same thing. Sitting at the ceremony, I felt very emotional. I wasn’t expecting to feel that. Having won, being on stage—it was the absolute highlight of my career so far. I can’t remember ever having experienced a better feeling.

Something was unmistakably amiss on Oct. 1 when walking through the outdoor Mills Plaza. The Chinese Cultural Festival, hosted by McMaster’s Confucius Institute, was in full swing, full in this case meaning a single, subtle tent and a modest display of staff.

Compared to last year, when the festival encompassed the entire MUSC Atrium in an ostentatious display of cultural pride, song, dance and prizes, it was an unfamiliar offering from the usually grandiose faculty.

Dr. Angela Sheng, Associate Professor of Art History and Director Chair of the Confucius Institute, explained the reasoning behind this massive shift in festivities. “I want [the festival] to be in the open, to attract student attention and I would like it to be driven by grassroots needs,” said Sheng.

The festival, scheduled to run from Oct. 1 to 3, encompassed many aspects, such as martial arts demonstrations, student presentations and a myriad of film screenings on Thursday, still seemed oddly cut down, sporting an almost subtle profile with few students stopping their daily activities to check out the event.

The Institute, recently scrutinized for its allegedly controversial hiring and training practices overseas for prospective teachers according to a Globe and Mail investigative report, seems to be in the process of restructuring its outward appearance to appeal to a larger student body.

“The Confucius Institute is synchronous with humanities and with President Deane’s Forward With Integrity message, and we want to highlight student endeavours and give them a platform to express their work,” said Sheng.

The festival itself, while smaller in scale, promoted a single, unified message. It highlighted spirituality as a means to promote overall well-being, as well as stressing the importance of values shared between heritage students and students without a Chinese background at McMaster.

Looking forward in the year, Sheng has further plans to engage the student body in Chinese culture. “We have the upcoming Distinguished Speaker Series to look forward to. On October 30 an archeologist is going to speak about the first emperor of China. Later in November a linguist will come and speak about the phonetic system [of Mandarin].”

The Institute’s current plans do not end at festivities alone, as it is currently engaged in a proposal to found a new Chinese business course.

“It would be a language course that focuses on business language, and business etiquette and know-how that is different in China,” said Sheng.

The proposal has been submitted to the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Humanities and if passed will move on to review by the Senate’s Undergraduate Planning Committee this fall.

“I’d like to know what students would like [to know about China]. These projects have to be initiated by students and then they can be incorporated into next year’s budget proposal,” said Sheng on how students could get involved in the faculty.

The Confucius Institute will continue to run events throughout the year, but it remains to be seen if future showings by the organization will be equally toned down.

An architect has been chosen for McMaster’s new liberal arts building, which was announced last summer following a funding commitment from the Ontario government.

Although the details will not be public until the University’s Planning and Building Committee approves the architect later this month, the Wilson Building for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences will seek to accommodate new ways of teaching.

“We were looking for an architect who had experience in designing innovative learning spaces,” said Mohamed Attalla, the University’s Assistant Vice-President (Facility Services). “It’s part of our mandate at McMaster to develop learning space standards that meet the needs of the future.”

The traditional lecture-style teaching method may not fit with that vision, he said. The new spaces will be better suited to discussion and group work, as well as the infusion of more technology into teaching

Construction will begin in May 2013, and the building is scheduled to be complete by September 2015, when the incoming class of undergraduate students will be going into their fourth year.

The Wilson Building comes in part as a response to the ageing of the arts quad, the set of buildings adjacent to the student centre where most of the offices and classrooms for the humanities and social sciences faculties are held.

Funding for the $65-million building will come from a $45.5-million provincial grant announced last summer, $10 million donated by McMaster’s chancellor Lynton (Red) Wilson and a $1-million gift from the McMaster Association of Part-time Students. The University will cover the rest.

Wilson, the building’s namesake, donated his portion in 2007, which prompted the University to seek the remaining funds.

In addition to classrooms, the building will include lounge spaces and a performance theatre.

The building will go on the current site of Wenthworth House, which is set to be demolished at the end of the school year. The Phoenix, a bar owned by the Graduate Students Association, recently closed its Wentworth House location and will reopen above Bridges Café in the Refectory building on Sept. 4. The other tenants of Wentworth House have until the end of the year to find new homes.

A team has been assembled to consult on the building’s design. The team includes the deans of Social Sciences and Humanities, four professors from the two faculties and the McMaster Students Union’s president Siobhan Stewart.

“My priorities are whatever humanities and social sciences students deem to be appropriate for the space. I think it’s about trying to find a balance between both faculties, because they have unique needs,” said Stewart.

Stewart has consulted with Alex Burnett and Lisa Bifano, who are current students and presidents of the social sciences and humanities societies, respectively. She is pushing for two additional seats for student representatives, one for each faculty society.

“As it is now, we’re in the older building with the lead problems in the water and Internet access not reaching certain lecture halls,” said Burnett. “By constructing this Wilson Building, it’s validating that we are appreciated as an academic discipline, as opposed to being those students in the arts quad. Having updated facilities in terms of Internet and capable desks that aren’t falling apart and places where professors can actually project their slides that’s not the wall is the most universal stuff.”

In choosing an architect, McMaster also looked for someone who would be sensitive to the needs of the community, said Attalla. The Wilson Building will be situated near campus’ main entrance on Sterling Street, close to neighbourhoods where students and permanent residents cohabitate.

Two new Honours B.A. programs are nearing fruition, as the University Senate approved the establishment of the Justice, Political Philosophy and Law (JPPL) and Professional Communication (BPC) majors in a meeting last month.

The new majors have already been passed through both the Undergraduate Council and the University Planning Committee in April and May, respectively.

Peter Smith, McMaster’s Associate Vice-President (Academic), is optimistic on the trajectory of this proposal, as it undergoes additional scrutiny in the near future.

“We still have to get an external review of the proposal, so two outside committees will assess it, and then it will go to the Ontario Universities Council on Quality Assurance for final review,” said Smith.

The programs’ aims are to “foster a sophisticated understanding of the law and legal institutions,” in the case of JPPL, and to “develop leaders in the practice of professional communication” in the latter.

The BPC major will be delivered as a joint initiative with Mohawk College, granting graduating students with additional certification in the form of a Mohawk Diploma in Digital Communication.

“It’s a long process. The hope is that these approvals will be in place and the programs will be ready for September 2013,” said Smith.

The BPC program is expected to admit only 50 students annually, and JPPL will accept no more than 60 in it’s inaugural academic year. These limits will rise in subsequent program years.

Dina Fanara

Assistant News Editor

Creating experiential educational opportunities that allow students of all disciplines to use the knowledge of their field can be difficult to come by. But Nancy Doubleday, McMaster HOPE chair in Peace and Health and professor of Philosophy, has been working to create a new field course that will begin on June 25 and continue until July 2 in Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia.

Students will have the opportunity to live and work in the small historical fishing community three hours away from Halifax, in an effort to explore the problems that large fishing companies have imposed on many such communities in Eastern Canada.

The community has faced numerous hardships since the entry of companies that use large nets in which the fish are grown. These companies use hormones and pesticides in the waters surrounding these fish, resulting in a wide spread negative impact on the surrounding aquatic environment.

The water has subsequently turned into a dead zone, meaning that no marine life is capable of growing there. Because of this, fishermen have to go out farther to find lobsters, which they fish for their livelihood

When the company proposed putting in another fishery that would be six hundred times larger than the original, the local farmers and residents fought against it. It was not long ago that this large company was charged with using illegal pesticides, and a court date is pending.

The community is currently looking into revitalizing this dead zone, as well as the entire fishing industry in the area.

When speaking of the experiential education program, Doubleday said that “it works through the threads that the community identified as important to them.”

The question that is at the base of this field course, she said, is: “How do we do engaged work . . . together and with society as a whole?”

The main focus of the course is ecological restoration of the community through a deep and holistic understanding the hopes and dreams of those who make up the past, present and future of the town. “It’s about self-advocacy and the ability to change ourselves,” said Doubleday.

Sam Colbert

Managing Editor

The online polls had just opened. Lisa Bifano, president of the Humanities Society and member of the SRA Humanities caucus, posted a 1400-word note to Facebook with her personal “analysis” of each MSU presidential candidate, offering an “inside scoop” on the race.

She ranked her choices, dedicating a paragraph to each hopeful, balancing pros and cons. The top spot went to David Campbell, with Siobhan Stewart coming second, and Alex Ramirez and Mukhtar Galan tied for third.

And when she got to fifth-ranked Chris Erl, with whom she works on the Humanities Society executive and SRA Humanities caucus, she didn’t hold anything back.

She wrote that he was “difficult to work with,” had “hidden agendas” and that she “felt manipulated and cheated” during his campaign. Some of the work he had done, she said, was “merely a step towards reaching his goal of being the next MSU Dictator.. opps [sic] I mean President.”

“It’s disappointing to see somebody in a professional capacity, like the president of the Humanities Society, somebody that I work closely with, say those kinds of things,” said Erl about the Feb. 1 note.

“I’ve had disagreements with her in the past – there are always disagreements in faculty societies, there are disagreements in the Assembly – but it’s disheartening to see somebody say those things during a presidential campaign this late into the campaign,” he said.

In her note, Bifano was careful to note that she was not part of any campaign team, and urged voters to make their own informed decisions about the candidates.

“I think students look to those who have been involved and who have worked with all the candidates for their thoughts and opinions,” said Bifano about the post. “I made sure that I remained very unbiased. By no means am I saying who to vote for; more so, these are my thoughts, here are my experiences, do with it what you will, and I made sure I said that throughout.”

“Everybody knows it’s an extremely close race,” said Erl. “I think what she said was an attempt to try to sway the individuals that she knows, individuals that hold her opinion in high regard, to put me last on the ballot so I have less of a chance of winning.”

Regardless of the election’s outcome, Erl and Bifano will be serving out their terms on both the Humanities Society and SRA until the end of the term. According to Erl, this incident will “ruin our working relationship for the next little while.”