After a McMaster University Senate meeting on Jan. 8th, Life Sciences and Arts & Science students will have more options to look forward to.
The Senate approved the establishment of an Honours Life Science Program Co-op and the creation of a Combined Honours Arts & Sciences and Music Program. In December, the plans were approved by the University Planning Committee, but ratified by the Senate Jan. 8.
Each of these programs will be included in the 2014-2015 Undergraduate Calendar.
In its report to the Senate, the Undergraduate Council said that Life Science Students are interested.
“Interest from Life Science students in a cooperative education option has been extremely high. Labour market research indicated that the life sciences sector continues to grow,” the report stated.
The Life Sciences Co-op Program will accept between 20 and 25 students in its first year, but expand to hold up to 35 students by 2016.
Students will be able to enter the program after Level II Honours Life Sciences with a minimum cumulative average of 6.0. But because of the small size of the program, acceptance will be very competitive, and the average CA of admitted students will likely be much higher.
The co-op program will be a five-year program, including two eight-month work terms.
The new combined honours program will be jointly developed with the School of the Arts and the Faculty of Arts and Science.
Students will apply to combine during their first year, and must pass a music audition and complete Arts & Science I with at least a 6.0 cumulative average, including an average of at least 7.0 in Music 1CC3 and Music 1EO6.
Ken Seville
The Silhouette
Next week, you, members of the Senate Executive Committee will make a decision on whether to ratify the results of the recent University Planning and Budget Committee election. With under four per cent of eligible voters casting their ballot, you have to make a choice between ratifying the results and welcoming a warm body for quorum, or choosing to run another election in which a democratically significant percentage of students clearly select a representative.
This decision will be very revealing as to how the Senate views student representation. To accept a result of four per cent turnout indicates that the Senate believes it takes no special skill to be an effective representative for the over 20,000 undergraduate students.
I argue that this belief is incorrect. This position requires the candidate to integrate the diverse interests of undergraduates and apply them when considering major decisions that affect all university stakeholders, including deliberating on a nearly one billion dollar budget. Does that sound like a job that just anyone can do effectively? As previously stated, this decision will be very revealing.
As for possible solutions, I believe that running the university-wide elections concurrently with the MSU presidential election in February will increase undergraduate participation to a similar level of approximately 20-25 per cent of eligible voters. In a two-pronged attack on voter apathy, McMaster University should share in the responsibility, along with student organizations, student leaders, and students themselves (the electorate) of raising awareness of the positions to which student leaders are elected and the decisions made by those in said positions.
If university-wide decision-making bodies want true representation and not just a warm body, we must reject minimum participation in elections and actively foster an environment cheap viagra for sale online where an informed electorate makes democratically significant choices for their representatives.
After the springtime primary election period left vacancies on the Senate and University Planning Committee, a secondary round of elections is now underway. Up for representation are the undergraduate and graduate Social Sciences Senate positions, a graduate DeGroote School of Business Senate seat, and an undergraduate student (any faculty) seat for UPC.
McMaster’s Senate, Board of Governors and University Planning Committee are governing bodies that make critical decisions for the academic and financial future of the institution. They are largely comprised of faculty members but all have student seats – seats that are arguably too-frequently left unoccupied given their importance.
“Senate is where all the decisions are ultimately made about your education,” Tamara Bates of the University Secretariat’s office (which facilitates these bodies) said. “That’s where the decisions about new academic programs, changes to academic programs, what is approved and where all the policies are upheld. Senate also approves whether you graduate or not,” she continued.
While Senate actions have the most obvious impact on students, the BoG is critical for its complete trust of McMaster’s finances, while UPC works as a joint Senate-BoG committee for significant long-term big-picture planning.
Despite only one undergraduate and one graduate representative per faculty (Arts & Science only has observer status), electoral rounds are not always successful at getting students in seats; hence, the current autumn secondary election.
“Going back in the records, there will be one or two years where some faculties aren’t represented because no one steps forward,” Bates said. The spring of 2011 was one particularly bad example: half of the eight open seats remained vacant post-election, and two of the four seats that were actually filled were won by acclamation (there was only one eligible candidate).
Student interest in elections “seems to go up and down,” said Bates, despite the Secretariat’s outreach. The call for nominations is advertised in The Silhouette, in the Daily News, on the Secretariat’s website, as a banner on Avenue to Learn, and as a mass email notice to students.
Bates partly attributes student disinterest to the electronic advertising and election processes. “The fact that things can go by email and electronically is great but there’s so much that comes into your inbox that it’s also more easily forgotten about or dismissed,” she said.
“There used to be polling stations in the student centre and all across campus. So as much as electronic balloting and voting are a lot more convenient… they’re not as in your face as they could be.”
In an effort to educate interested students about what to expect, new this year will be an information session for students. “This year I’m having a mandatory session for the approved candidates, which is partly to [act as an] introduction to Senate… and [to go over] campaign rules and how to campaign and things like that,” Bates said.
Nominations opened on Monday, Sept. 16 and will close at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Interest from candidates – and voters – remains to be seen.
Re: “Apathy or lack of awareness?” by Jemma Wolfe [Published Jan. 31, 2013 in Opinions]
By Helen Ayre, McMaster University Acting University Secretary and Freedom of Information Officer
In her article “Apathy or lack of awareness?” published in the January 31, 2013 edition of The Silhouette, Student Senator Jemma Wolfe makes some very important points about the significance of the elections of undergraduate and graduate student representatives to the University’s governing bodies. As Ms Wolfe points out, student representative seats on McMaster’s Board of Governors and the Senate are instrumental in ensuring that both undergraduate and graduate students have a voice in the academic and financial governance of the University. Ms Wolfe is to be commended for her efforts to raise awareness of and interest in the various elections for student representatives on University bodies. Participation on these bodies is an important service to fellow students and to the University. I would urge all students to participate at every opportunity either by standing for election or, at the very least, by casting their vote.
However, some of the information provided in Ms. Wolfe’s article requires clarification.
Student members of the Board of Governors, Senate, and University Planning Committee serve two-year terms (or until they graduate or withdraw from the University, whichever is the shorter period). The primary (Spring) election period is held between January 15 to March 31; any vacancies that still exist in the first week in September are filled in the secondary (Fall) election period which must be completed by October 31.
There are sixteen students elected to serve on the governing bodies. Twelve student representatives serve on Senate – one undergraduate and one graduate student from each of the six Faculties: Business, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. Two students, one undergraduate and one graduate, serve on each of the Board of Governors and the University Planning Committee. The two-year terms are staggered so that roughly half of the terms end in any given year. In a typical year, then, about eight student vacancies are expected to be filled. In addition to these vacancies, occasionally student representatives graduate at the end of the first year of their terms and new members are elected to finish the final year of those terms.
During the 2011 Spring elections, there were eight student vacancies on Senate (four undergraduate and four graduate student seats), and one undergraduate student vacancy on the Board of Governors. Five seats were filled during the Spring elections. The remaining four vacancies, along with three additional seats that had become vacant over the summer (because the incumbents had graduated) were filled in the 2011 Fall elections. Students elected in those Fall elections took up their seats immediately, meaning those seats were vacant for a total of two months while Senate was in session. The 2012 Spring election successfully filled all eight vacancies for student representatives to the governing bodies, and that year there was no need for a secondary Fall election.
Eight student members of the Board and Senate will be completing their two-year terms on June 30, 2013. As a result, there are eight vacancies for student representative on the Board of Governors and the Senate to be filled in the 2013 Spring Elections. The successful candidates will take up their positions on July 1, 2013 and serve until June 30, 2015.
It is true that acclamations in elections to the University’s governing bodies are more common than we would like. However, acclamations do not always occur simply because “no one else applied.” Although we take steps to ensure that students are aware of the eligibility requirements, we sometimes receive nomination forms from students who are not eligible to run in that particular election in that year. This occasionally results in a vacancy being filled by acclamation because not enough eligible candidates come forward.
Whether the elections are held in the Spring or the Fall, it is always difficult to capture the attention of the constituents for the student elections. For this reason, the University Secretariat advertises the student vacancies on the Board of Governors, the Senate, and the University Planning Committee in several ways. The call for nominations and the slate of candidates are advertised in The Silhouette at key times during the election period. Notices are posted on the Daily News, the McMaster Update, the University Secretariat website, the University Secretariat’s bulletin board, and on Avenue to Learn throughout the election period. Notices are sent out to all the Faculty Deans, Associate Deans, Chairs of Departments and Directors of Schools, and others to assist in advertising the positions as widely as possible. Throughout the election period, notices and reminders are also sent out to the MSU and its President and to all MSU Clubs, to the GSA and its President, to MAPS, and to all the Faculty student associations with requests to post the notices in offices and circulate the election information to all students in their constituencies. And when the voter lists are set, every eligible voter receives an e-mail at their McMaster e-mail address about the election and follow-up reminders up until voting closes at the end of the last voting day.
Elections for student members of Senate and the Board of Governors will be held on Tuesday March 19 and Wednesday March 20 – Be sure to vote!
Jackie Yaffa / The Silhouette
It’s time for someone to fix the Senate. The public knows it, and the Prime Minister himself knows it. So why hasn’t it been done yet?
The idea of Senate reform is not new, and Canada finally has a prime minister willing to do something about the problem. However, what Stephen Harper plans to do is not to fix the problem, but to add changes that further his own agenda.
During the Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau controversies, the public – not the Prime Minister himself – has pinpointed the problem. The problem is the senators, not the Senate.
The Senate is an inherently logical institution. The Chamber of Sober Second Thought exists to curb the power of the sitting government. The prime minister, the person who’s supposed to make our country’s decisions, picks the senators. The senators themselves must be well-established citizens who are at least 30 years of age and may serve until they reach age 75. The basic premise of the Senate is both logical and beneficial for the country.
The problem occurs when the prime minister is incapable of choosing competent senators. And no, it is not only Stephen Harper who can’t seem to handle this task.
Prime ministers don’t seem to like the idea of limitations on the government’s power. To them, the Senate is just another democratic roadblock on the way to absolute control of Canadian policy.
So what did the prime ministers do? They took advantage of an obvious loophole and changed the Senate from the Chamber of Sober Second Thought to the upper house of Partisan Politics.
The Conservatives currently hold a majority in the Senate and in Parliament. This means that the Tories can pass almost any policy they desire. Although some may argue that this is not true for reasons such as a lack of party discipline in the Senate, it is a statement that stands true in practice. How else would Canada end up with senators like Duffy and Brazeau – both Conservative, both appointed under the recommendation of Stephen Harper?
So what does Harper plan for reform? Well, he came up with the most beneficial solution of course – or at least the most beneficial for himself. He proposes to limit the term that Senators are allowed to serve, allowing himself even more chances to appoint members to the Senate.
There are many theories about how to improve the Senate (with Harper’s being the worst of them all). Some people call for legitimate provincial representation, similar to the Upper House in the United States. This would limit the immense power of Quebec and Ontario. However, it wouldn’t promise the competency of senators.
A better suggestion is the Triple E Model for the senate: Equal, Effective and Elected. This model incorporates equal provincial representation, but more importantly it gives the electorate a vote towards senate appointments. Alberta currently elects nominees for appointment to the Senate. Unfortunately, the vote does not guarantee that the winner of the election is appointed to the Senate. The only way this could happen would be if the constitution were to be changed. However, Harper has already announced that he will not change the constitution in the name of Senate reform, despite his advocacy for improving the Senate.
Getting appointed to the Senate is like winning the Cash for Life Lottery. A Senator’s immense salary and pension, like it or not, come from tax dollars. One might expect that a Canadian government, specifically a Conservative government like Harper’s, would be more careful about how they use (or abuse) the taxpayers’ money.
It’s not time for Senate reform, it’s time for a change in senators.
At a university with an ever-growing student population, you might expect that academic distinctions would get more competitive. But a recent policy change in the DeGroote School of Business will now make it easier for more students to earn an honours degree.
At the Feb. 13 meeting of University Senate, a motion was passed to change the average requirement to enter the level three honours stream of the Bachelor of Commerce program from a 6 (67-69 per cent) to a 5 (63-66 per cent).
According to Giri Kanagaretnam, Associate Dean at DeGroote, the change is only meant to “make entry and exit requirements consistent.”
To graduate with an Honours B. Com., a cumulative average (CA) of 5 is required. A CA of 5 is also the standard for passing from Level I to Level II of the program.
Kanagaretnam was unsure as to why the averages were different in the first place, but he said the standards have remained the same since the separation of the Honours stream about 20 years ago.
“One of the biggest complaints is that we have these two programs that are the same length,” he said of the B.Com. and Honours B.Com., which are both four-year degrees.
The difference between the two, aside from the distinction itself, is the availability of electives. While Honours students have their choice of business electives, regular B.Com. students must choose from courses offered outside the department.
It is unclear as to how many students this will affect. The current Level III B.Com class has 81 students, 61 of whom passed into the Honours stream with an average of at least 6.
“We cannot promise anything until we review their grades in May,” Kanagaretnam said of the effect on current second-year students.
The department also chose to allow third-year students who fell just short of meeting the requirement of a 6 to switch into the Honours stream in Sept. 2013.
Applying the change only to incoming students was an option, but Kanagaretnam explained the rationale behind the decision, saying that “given that [the Honours degree] would be students’ first choice, why not extend that to them?”
Though the motion was passed before reading week, when the Silhouette went to press, students had yet to be notified of the change. The Academic Office at DeGroote reported that it would be alerting students to the new policy by email later in the week.
The shift in requirements will be put forward in Sept. 2013 and was described as a “minor structural change” done in preparation for changes to the B.Com. curriculum which aligns with the Forward with Integrity priorities.
In the Silhouette’s Oct. 18 issue, a news story and an editorial doubted that a fall break for 2013 would be possible.
The MSU had not yet launched its survey for gathering input on the break, and time was running out for the idea to pass through the University’s multi-tiered approval process. We argued that students union president Siobhan Stewart needed to forget surveys and quickly push forward if she hoped to get the job done. And even then, it was a long shot.
This week, we were proved wrong.
The MSU launched a survey, got a significant amount of feedback and took the information to University administrators. Undergraduate Council allowed the setting of next year’s academic calendar to be pushed to early 2013.
On Wednesday, Senate voted. There will be no classes on Thursday, Oct. 31 and Friday, Nov. 1, and there will be no tests on Saturday, Nov. 2. And the break will run again in 2014. With the exam period in December shifted forward two days and shrunk by one, no faculties will drop below their required number of teaching days.
It’s not a week. But it’s a break, just as was promised, and it was born out of a lot hard work. It’s a start, and it will help people.
Nice work, Siobhan. And to everyone else, have a happy Halloween.
Undergraduate students will be getting a three-day break next year from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. The fall break will run from a Thursday to a Saturday, allowing two weekdays off and a test ban on Saturday, Nov. 2.
The University Senate unanimously passed the motion for a break Wednesday afternoon.
Due to restrictions on the number of instructional days for certain faculties, the number of class days (62) will remain the same. The exam period has been pushed forward two days and shortened by one day, and will run Dec. 6 to 20.
MSU president Siobhan Stewart was tearful as she addressed the room before the vote. A fall break was part of her platform when she ran for president early in 2012.
“It has been my dream for over a year to have this passed,” said Stewart.
“Several times when I’ve talked to students, [I’ve found] they think things can’t change at the University, but this is an opportunity to show that it can.”
The pilot will run two academic years in a row beginning in 2013. After the trial, the University will decide whether or not to make the break permanent.
By implementing a break in the fall term, McMaster follows practices of other universities in Ontario, including U of T and Queen’s. Other universities, like Ryerson, Trent and the University of Ottawa, have fall reading weeks.
The University of Windsor had a trial reading week in 2009 and decided not to reinstate it the following year.
Jemma Wolfe / Managing Editor
In the midst of the MSU presidential election flurry, it’s easy to forget that other elections are happening on campus.
You can’t miss the campaign posters, ignore the candidates addressing crowded lecture halls or overlook the email telling you to vote.
What you probably didn’t see was the small, quarter-page advertisement in last week’s Silhouette announcing student vacancies on the Senate and the Board of Governors.
I was in my second year when, almost on a whim, I collected ten signatures and nominated myself to run for the Humanities Undergraduate Representative seat on the University Senate.
I was quietly thrilled when no one else applied, and I won my seat by acclamation.
Now, two years later, this fact no longer elates me. It disappoints me.
Throughout my entire two-year term, there was not one small period of time when all the student seats were full. Vacancies were constant in both undergraduate and graduate student positions.
Is it student apathy? Ignorance? Lack of advertising on the University Secretariat’s part? Whatever the reason, it’s sad to see such important avenues for student representation in greater University governance remaining unoccupied or won by acclamation.
There are currently eight calls for nominations on the table. Undergraduate Student Representatives on the Senate are needed from Commerce, Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences. Graduate Student Representatives are needed from Engineering, Science and Social Sciences.
One Undergraduate Student Representative (from any faculty) is needed for the Board of Governors.
Too much fuss is given to the SRA and the MSU when it comes to student politics.
The Senate and the Board of Governors have the ultimate decision-making power when it comes to academics and University finances. All proposals from the SRA that address these arenas must be approved by these larger and more powerful governing bodies.
They set your tuition. They mandate your curriculum.
They hire – and fire – your professors. They confer your degree.
And they deserve greater awareness and involvement from students.
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.
