It has been one week since an earthquake measuring 7.0 in magnitude struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, devastating the country’s infrastructure and sparking a humanitarian disaster. The Red Cross has confirmed that 50,000 people are dead, while Haitian officials say the death toll could be as high as 200,000.
Author: Admin
A conversation with Stuart Cobbett, Board of Governors chairman
On January 6, the University’s Board of Governors, McGill’s highest governing body, announced Montreal-based lawyer Stuart H. (Kip) Cobbett as its new chairman. Cobbett, who succeeds outgoing chair Robert Rabinovich, received his B.A. from McGill in 1969 and B.
Queer McGill executives resign
Four new Queer McGill executives were elected on Friday evening to fill some of the vacancies left by the five executives who resigned from the organization in December and January Queer McGill’s volunteer, policy and equity, political action, and publicity co-ordinators resigned from the group, along with one of the organization’s co-administrators.
New fee: it’s complicated
In an effort to close a multimillion-dollar shortfall in the university’s budget, the McGill administration has introduced a small charge on all revenues received by the university’s self-funding units. These units, which include Students Services, Athletics, Food & Dining Services, and the residence system, operate semi-autonomously from the rest of the university, at least in a financial sense.
AUS, Caribbean Students’ Society respond to Haiti earthquake
In response to the massive earthquake that struck Haiti last week, McGill student organizations and the greater Montreal community are rapidly organizing to raise money and contribute to relief efforts. With over 100,000 Haitians currently living in Montreal, the disaster has mobilized the city’s student community.
Donderi begins four-part lecture on psychology of UFO phenomenon
Last Friday, the Redpath Museum auditorium was filled with students and faculty members attending the first of a four-part lecture series by former McGill professor Don Donderi on the psychology and science behind UFOs and aliens. During his talk, Donderi laid out his basic thoughts on alien encounters, provided scientific insight into numerous examples of documented “close encounters,” and discussed what he intends to convey over the course of the entire lecture series.
AMUSE gains accreditation
After a year and a half of campaigning, the Assiciation of McGill University Support Employees, the oraganization composed of McGill’s 3,000 casual workers, has unionized and affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The campaign, which began in September 2008, started when a group of undergraduate students in the McGill work study program felt they needed a union structure to balance their working conditions with those of the represented colleagues.
Suicide: it’s everybody’s problem
On November 18, a revision to the Criminal Code that makes it illegal to “counsel a person to commit suicide” or aid or abet them in doing so, regardless of whether they are successful, was passed unanimously in the House of Commons. The revision, which was proposed by Kitchener-Conestoga Member of Parliament Harold Albrecht, was a response to the March 2008 suicide of Nadia Kajouji, a first-year student at Carleton University who drowned herself in the Rideau River.
McGill joins Blair foundation
Last month, McGill University became an official partner of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and a committed member to the foundation’s Faith and Globalization Initiative. Founded in 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair, the foundation seeks to cultivate respect and cooperation among the world’s major religions, as well as to work with religious groups on development projects and education programs.
Talking to John F. Burns, the globetrotting foreign correspondent
On a Saturday evening several weeks ago, John F. Burns and I filed into King’s College, Cambridge, for evening services. Burns, the chief foreign correspondent for The New York Times, does not seem at first glance like a particularly religious man. The 65-year-old McGill graduate is a tall man, solidly built, with a mop of curly, light grey hair and a white beard.