>Stair stepping for a cancer cureStep It Up for the Cure, a 24-hour stair climbing marathon, will have individuals and teams running up and down Molson Stadium on Sept 9 at 12 p.m. in order to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.

One Canadian dies of cancer every four minutes, so the challenge to each participant is to raise $240 by running one set of stairs every four minutes.

Event organizer Dan Fischer came up with the event with a friend whose father died of cancer. “We all used to run stadiums together a lot and after he died we decided to use it as a way to raise awareness and research money,” Fisher said.

Enrolled individuals range in age from five to 85 and people from all over Canada are coming to climb. Most volunteers and participants are involved with McGill but there are many high school and CEGEP students participating as well.

The goal for this event in 2006 was to raise $60,000 for the Cancer Research Society in three cities, but it had to be altered due stadium shortages. “We were going to take it to Ottawa and Vancouver as well, but the stadiums fell through so I don’t know if we’ll be able to make goal just in Montreal,” Fischer said, ” but we’re hoping to branch out more next year.”

– Kate SpirgenAnyone interested in helping to raise funds and awareness for cancer may register online at http://www.stepupforthecure.com/stepup.htm.

Elevator Grinds to a HaltSixteen freshman had their partying interrupted Tuesday night when the elevator they had piled into to take them to the top of Gardner Hall ground to a halt between the fifth and sixth floors. According to Leigh Bryant, a floor fellow at Gardner, the students then had to wait in the cramped quarters of the elevator car for 45 minutes while a technician was summoned to lower it to the basement, where they were let out. None of the students were seriously hurt during the ordeal, though one fainted and broke her nose, requiring the attention of paramedics.

Rumours flew through the residences about the incident, which involved 13 residents of neighbouring McConnell Hall, one Douglas resident and two from Gardner. The Tribune initially received reports that an overloaded elevator had fallen in its shaft, but according to Bryant the initial reports were exaggerations.

Gardner’s elevator was out of service over the weekend, and large signs were posted reminding residents of the system’s weight limit.

“We were really glad it [was] not a big deal,” Bryant said.

-James Gotowiec

Many things probably come to mind when one hears the word ‘Frosh.’ Debauchery, drunken antics on lower field, or perhaps an opportunity to take advantage of unsuspecting freshmen. This year’s SSMU Frosh attempted to change some of the images surrounding Frosh Week and change the focus of the event.

“We wanted to get back to having Frosh be about the school,” said SSMU Frosh coordinator and six year frosh veteran Alex Kipz. “This year we just gave it our best shot and tried to put together the classics – it’s all about the school.”

Kipz acknowledged that Frosh planners had a new set of problems this year due to last year’s controversy.

“Our biggest obstacle [this year] was showing the bureaucracy and press that there are a million good aspects,” he said.

From the athletic inspired red and white T-shirts to McGill inspired events, this year’s frosh was about promoting school spirit and integrity.

“We have to prove that we are responsible people. Yes we party hard, but we plan our events well and that’s that,” said SSMU Vice President Communications and Events Gill Prendergast.

This year’s Frosh sported a diverse set of activities. The three biggest events were the whitewater rafting expedition, which is a Frosh staple, the return of the residence barbeque on Forbes Field, and a Sam Roberts concert on the final day.

“I think that the popularity of the rafting shows a lot about McGill character,” said Kipz. “It shows that McGill students want to get off the campus and see what there is outside the campus and outside the city.”

The barbeque on Forbes Field was once a standard McGill Frosh activity, but hasn’t been held in nine years. In the past it has appeared on the David Letterman show, and by bringing it back, the Frosh staff hoped to bring back some of that excitement.

“I’m looking forward to that the most,” said Kipz. “It’s going to be a beautiful thing to see.”

The Sam Roberts concert was possibly the most anticipated of the two days. The band ended its tour at McGill and Ticketmaster was involved to sell tickets.

“That concert is pretty much the only reason I decided to do Frosh,” said Amanda Schneider, U0 Psychology.

To keep participants from being overwhelmed, they were allowed to pick and chose the events they would attend.

“If you make too rich a schedule they feel forced to do stuff,” said Kipz. “Here they have an option – it’s up to you and that’s what the school is about.”

Frosh registration was $65 and included all the events, food and of course the infamous beer tent. Boréale was re-signed for the beer contract this year after a successful partnership last year. The company provided the beer tent, and set it up like a proper running bar.

“In the past we’ve had problems with beer being half foam or too warm, but Boréale has been really amazing,” said one O-Staff member.

One hundred kegs were bought for the planned 2,000 participants plus staff. Whatever was not consumed at Frosh will be sold at other SSMU events like 4 Floors.After the hazing controversy last year there was intense scrutiny on Frosh events, which meant the organizers had to do some things differently.

“McGill wanted a lot more forms and information this year because of what happened last year,” said Prendergast. For the first time in Frosh history, all O-Staff members were actually staff, having signed legally binding contracts. Staff also had to sign a morality contract in an attempt to prevent them from engaging in any inappropriate behaviour.

Besides the boozing and good times, Frosh has always aimed to raise a sense of the SSMU community and make the incoming students feel welcome.

“We want to promote school spirit,” said Prendergast. “I feel like we’re really lacking there. That’s why we’re doing things like the rugby game and the barbeque on Forbes Field. We want to focus on supporting our own.”

Even Discover McGill got a makeover with the introduction of the Street Fest on McTavish where students could check out some of the services offered by SSMU and McGill.

Although this year was meant to be more responsible and orientation focused, there were signs last week that it may be unavoidable. TV cameras were on lower field early in the week and there was debate over putting condoms in the Frosh kits distributed to all participating students.

“We’ve been putting condoms in Frosh bags for over ten years,” said Kipz, “I don’t understand why there’s all this controversy now.”

There might be some new plans for Frosh on the horizon.

“I want to sit down with the organizers from all [Faculty Froshes] and try to get it all together,” said Prendergast. “I think it would be great if we could all organize and plan things. I don’t want to take away from the faculty froshes, but I’m thinking about combining Discover McGill and Frosh and getting a whole orientation week committee so everyone is on the same page.”

After working to send McGill student teachers to Indonesia for over a year, professor Fiona Benson was “gobsmacked” to learn that the university’s new travel directive would force the trip’s cancellation less than a month before departure.

“I was given a green light to go to Indonesia by [Faculty of Education Dean Hélène Perrault] and by the administration,” said Benson, who is also the director of the Faculty of Education’s Office of Student Teaching. “This was a project that took months to build with very good minds behind it, and it was pulled very late.”

McGill’s new travel directive prohibits student participation “in any university related activities, be they curricular or co-curricular, in countries with a level-three (avoid non-essential travel) or level-four (avoid all travel) warning.” Indonesia has a level-three travel warning, as issued by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In addition, some regions of the country currently have level-four warnings.

Eight undergraduate students were scheduled to leave for Indonesia in the third week of October. They planned to spend nine weeks as teachers in the Program for International Attachment, Global Education, and Training (PIAGET) network of schools. All expenses were going to be paid by their Indonesian hosts. The trip was cancelled shortly before the new travel restrictions were released in a memo on September 25.

Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Morton Mendelson identified the trip to Indonesia as the catalyst behind the new travel directive.

“It came to our attention that there were people who were not taking what might be considered appropriate precautions with respect to student travel, and we felt that we had to take control of the situation,” Mendelson said in an interview with the Tribune two weeks ago.

When asked earlier this week to name specific precautions that had been neglected by the planners of the trip to Indonesia, Mendelson declined to engage in “a public conversation” with Benson.

“The trip to Indonesia was cancelled because there was, and remains, a level-3 DFAIT travel warning to the country, plain and simple,” said Mendelson. “DFAIT travel warnings are not new, and McGill has heeded them in the past.”

Mendelson cited the Africa Field Study Semester reshuffling earlier this year, and the suspension of a bilateral exchange agreement with Technion-the Israel Institute of Technology-as examples of McGill heeding DFAIT warnings in the past.

According to Quebec civil law, liability waivers can be rendered invalid in the case of injury or death. Therefore, even students who sign liability waivers could theoretically sue the university if injured while on McGill-sanctioned trips abroad.

Benson maintains that proper precautions to provide for student safety were taken, and that, as adults, the students should have been allowed to determine if the risk was acceptable.

“There was nothing haphazard about this trip,” Benson said. “I went to Indonesia and visited all the schools our students would be working at, and I helped to train the [Indonesian] cooperating teachers who would work with our student teachers. I liked what I saw, and I never felt at risk.”

Kim Grenier, a U3 secondary education student scheduled to go on the trip, said that the trip fell through despite Benson’s hard work.

“Going to Indonesia in the first place was giving us an incredible opportunity to be immersed in another culture and see what their teaching techniques were,” Grenier said. “And it was an international school, so it was providing us with networking opportunities and numerous opportunities to see what the profession is like. Not being able to go … is a huge setback.”

Grenier is currently fulfilling her field work requirement working with special needs children near her home on Montreal’s South Shore. She lamented the short notice of that students were given.

“We didn’t have much time to turn around and try to find another experience that would have been like [studying in Indonesia],” Grenier said.

Benson claimed that some students had given up jobs and leases that are no longer available to them in order to go to Indonesia.

Students’ Society Vice-President University Affairs Nadya Wilkinson said that SSMU, in conjunction with the Arts Undergraduate Society and Post-Graduate Students’ Society, is gathering information to combat the new travel directive. The administration’s revised guidelines are expected to be released by the end of October.

“As soon as the policy and the guidelines come out, then we can get loud with this,” Wilkinson said.

Both Benson and Grenier stressed that while Indonesia is not completely safe, students are exposed to some danger anywhere they study.

“I was asked if I could guarantee the safety of my students, and I said no. But I can’t guarantee their safety in Montreal [either],” said Benson. “I’m not against McGill tightening procedures, but this blanket ban and the last-minute cancellation of this project without really doing due diligence, is not a decision I’m happy with.”

On Thursday, members of the University of Toronto’s highest governing body voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a long-term policy framework that is closely modeled on research-intensive universities in the United States.

The policy document, entitled ‘”Towards 2030,” was first tabled by U of T President David Naylor. It calls for a boost to commercialized research and a significant reduction of the undergraduate population. Critics of the plan argue that the document readily accepts permanent tuition deregulation for one of Canada’s leading public institutions.

Among the 50 voting members of the Council, only one governor opposed Thursday’s motion. Jeff Peters, a representative of the Association of Part-Time Undergraduate Students, feared that the plan would especially hurt part-time degree students, and lamented the plan’s strong business focus.

“[The administration] want to deregulate tuition and they want to add more continuing education spaces,” Peters said. “They also talk a lot about corporate funding [but] they don’t mention anything about equity.”

Unlike part-time study, Peter aruges that, continuing-education programs do not issue official degrees and are able to achieve a full cost recovery from a financial point-of-view.

While the Governing Council refrained from voting on a specific action plan on Thursday, the motion formally recognized the future priorities of the university, several of which are inspired by prominent American universities. One such goal is to reduce the university’s undergraduate population from 83 per cent of total enrolment to 65 per cent by 2030. Spaces for graduate students would increase by similar margins. This plan mimics enrolment strategies at Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where undergraduate spaces make up less than 60 per cent of total student enrolment.

Thursday’s motion also called for further “commercialization of university discoveries” as well as an increase in “per-student revenues” which according to the report currently make up less than one-tenth of financial resources at private, research-intensive, American institutions, according to the report.

Ryan Matthew Campbell, a governor representing full-time students in professional degrees such as law and medicine, was among the majority of legislators who voted in favour of Thursday’s motion.

“I do think the framework document from ‘Towards 2030’ is good for both the University of Toronto [and its students]”, Campbell said. He noted that his constituents were largely ambivalent when asked about the plan. “The framework did not take a position on tuition, and it explicitly stated that the top priority for the University of Toronto is advocacy with the Province of Ontario to increase public funding for education.”

Some critics have argued that public funding can do more harm than good if resources are not spent accordingly. Under the new framework, the U of T will continue to advocate for government “investments in research, as well as growth in federally derived student aid and scholarships.” Students fear that public research funding is increasingly being used for commercial interests. Furthermore, it has been argued that simply issuing bursaries and scholarships will not help the university provide affordable education-part of its public mandate.

“On the other hand, international students [who are ineligible for many forms of financial aid] are concerned that their fees will skyrocket,” said Binish Ahmed, former vice-president university affairs for the U of T Students’ Union. Ahmed fears that the university will be looking to capitalize on the earning potential of international tuition fees.

While Thursday’s motion did not contain specific reference to tuition deregulation it did state that the university will continue to ensure that “accessibility is maintained as and when tuitions increase.” Critics of the proposal have argued that the university would rather accommodate tuition fee hikes than lobby the government to keep costs down.

Students’ Society President Kay Turner indentified a similar trend towards privatization at McGill, where greater attention has been paid to graduate student admissions, which bring lucrative research funding and greater prestige for the university.

“It has [also] been made explicitly clear by the principal and other university administrators that a shift should be made towards the deregulation of tuition and a shift [in] focus towards increased private funding,” Turner said.

McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum previously served as both a governor on the U of T’s Governing Council and as a vice-president of research and international relations. In addition, McGill and the U of T are the only Canadian members of the Association of American Universities, an invitation-only group of 62 leading North American research universities whose reports are frequently cited in the 2030 framework.

“In a very narrow sense, these changes may be good for [McGill] as an institution, in that it will have more money, more prestige, and be more of an elite university. For students and society as a whole, it will be a step backwards. Less people would be able to attend the university,” Turner said.

Indeed, for the lone member who opposed the measure at Thursday’s vote, this was a rash choice in a Governing Council where only four seats out of 50 represent undergraduate students.

“[It makes] the university even more inaccessible,” Peters said. “It is not the vision I have for U of T moving forward.”