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Science & Technology

Donderi begins four-part lecture on psychology of UFO phenomenon

by Matt Essert on

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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.

“First, [I want to show] that UFOs are so technically capable that national security is completely compromised and is dependent on their restraint,” said Donderi. “Second, that [UFOs] embody a technology far beyond our modern scientific knowledge, and third, that they are extraterrestrial vehicles.”

According to Donderi, UFO’s are often brushed off as non-science because they are surrounded by a great deal of scepticism and disbelief. Donderi attributes this doubt to Leon Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.

“[Festinger’s theory] explains that people tend to deprecate information that contradicts their beliefs. And in the case of UFOs, the extraterrestrial hypothesis at least contradicts a lot of beliefs,” he said. “As a result, it becomes extremely uncomfortable to acknowledge it. The people most likely to reject it … are, for the large, part natural scientists, because they don’t understand it.”

Donderi’s talks are part of the Freaky Fridays lectures, which solicit McGill scientists to discuss popular misconceptions of science fiction and clarify the factual science behind the myths. After each presentation, there is an audience question-and-answer period followed by a popular film matched to the subject material.

Ingrid Birker, the science outreach coordinator and Freaky Fridays organizer, explained that the lecture series has been popular over the past few years, tackling topics ranging from werewolves and sea monsters to melting glaciers and extreme weather. Birker said that Bruno Tremblay, a McGill professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, did a presentation last year on melting glaciers which the audience found so interesting that Tremblay was barely able to get past his first power-point slide without handling 45 minutes of questions.

During the question-and-answer period following Donderi’s lecture, it appeared that some of the attendees felt that there were holes in his argument that needed clarification. However, Donderi assured his sceptics that these questions would be answered in the remaining three lectures.

Natacia Tamburello, a McGill alumna, said she that found the lecture interesting, but is waiting for more information from the future lectures.

“All [Donderi] really did was set the stage for later lectures,” said Tamburello. “[Concerning my belief in UFOs,] I’m not on either side of the fence.”

Tristan Brand, another McGill alumnus, was also intrigued by the lecture and thought that Donderi’s approach for conveying his information was a good one.

“I don’t see this as much about trying to convince us of anything as it is about saying this is how this information is handled,” said Brand. “That to me is more interesting because if I came here to have somebody convince me that a UFO existed, I don’t think I’d be sitting here watching a presentation about it that would change my mind, one way or the other.”

The 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers followed Donderi’s presentation. Donderi’s remaining three lectures will take place on January 29, February 12 and February 26, all at 5 p.m. in the Redpath Museum auditorium with free admission. The upcoming topics and their corresponding movies are, respectively, “UFO abductions” followed by Communion, “Close Encounters” followed by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and “Science, Philosophy and UFOs” followed by Contact.

Student Life

More students take LSATs, GRE

by Molly Gomolin on

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Reluctant to head straight into the current lacklustre job market, an increasing number of American students are taking the tests required to pursue post graduate degrees.

According to the Educational Testing Service, 19 per cent more Americans took the Graduate Record Examination in 2009 than in 2008. And 20 per cent more Americans took the Law School Admissions Test in October 2009 than in the same month a year before.

According to Wendy Margolis, the director of communications at the Law School Admissions Council, more people took the LSATs in December as well.

“We’re definitely up,” she said. “What we think is more people are considering going to graduate school because there are a limited number of jobs available.”

The Law School Admissions Council also recorded a five per cent increase in applications in 2009 to law schools approved by the American Bar Association compared to the previous year.

The downside of this surge in applications to law school and other graduate programs is the increasing competition.

“When more people apply, it becomes more competitive to get in,” Margolis said. “The number of seats within law schools does not change much.”

McGill’s highly competitive faculty of law appears to be an exception to this trend, however. Claire Hausler, the students affairs coordinator of undergraduate admissions to the faculty, said applications have been declining since 2007.

According to Hausler, however, the decline in applications has more to do with the faculty’s increasingly stringent admission requirements than the poor state of the economy. The faculty, for instance, recently stopped accepting French Baccalaureate students from outside the province. Due to this increased selectively, Hausler said, potential applicants “might look to a different faculty or university.”

Mark McNutt, the manager of public relations for the ETS, which administers the GRE, described “incredible growth” in the number of test-takers over the past year. Much of the increase, he said, has been driven by the decision of many business schools – including five Canadian ones – to accept the GRE in lieu of other graduate examinations.

This trend is indicative of the growing desire of business schools around the world to diversify their applicant pools and student bodies, opening the door to more kinds of students.

While earning graduate degrees will not necessarily help students find jobs, data from Statistics Canada suggests that workers with graduate degrees are more employable and make significantly more money in their careers.

“Having a job is very important in any economy – now more than ever,” McNutt said. “As landing that perfect job becomes increasingly challenging, students need to position themselves for success in the job marketplace. Having that graduate or professional degree, like an MBA, gives them that competitive advantage. So it’s not surprising that GRE volumes continue to grow.”

Opinion

PIÑATA DIPLOMACY: That evaluation you requested

by Ricky Kreitner on

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You may recall many professors, in the last days of the fall semester, prostrating themselves before Canada Goose-clad undergraduates, begging shamelessly for feedback – any feedback – via Minerva-submitted course evaluations. A philosophy professor offered to bring in cookies of indisputable quality should at least 60 per cent of students submit evaluations. Another professor, a political theorist, devoted half of the semester’s penultimate class to figuring out why we’re so “apathetic.”

Coincidentally, early December was also when I received a batch of emails from Amazon.com inquiring as to the extent of my satisfaction with books I’d recently ordered for the holidays. No cookies were being offered.

During all the time she devoted to the issue, the political theory professor never acknowledged my raised arm, nor my desperate squirms intended to attract her attention. Had I been called on, here’s what I would have said:

“I have a few questions of my own, Professor: why is the undergraduate suddenly the measure of all things? By which credentials am I competent to assess how well you, a political philosopher, taught this course on political philosophy? Lastly, why is my satisfaction or dissatisfaction the proper metric by which to assess the quality of the education I’ve received?

“Instead of trusting me to know a good professor when I see one, the university should rather ask students what their ideal professor would be like, and hire people with absolutely none of those characteristics. That’s the university I want.

“This willingness to trust us as judges of professorial competence represents a serious abdication of what is originally the university’s responsibility. If nothing else, it perpetuates the myth that we are actually full-time students who are invested in the quality of our education.

“McGill obviously doesn’t get that the university has nothing to do with what it currently means to ‘go to university’ or ‘be in university.’ The institution is almost completely absent from the equation. You, Professor, are utterly negligible.”

A quick break in my imaginary monologue, if you will, to note what Cleve Higgins, apparently an alumnus of QPIRG-McGill, wrote in these pages last week: “Although academics are obviously an essential part of a university education, it’s important to recognize that you can often learn much more by engaging with issues outside the classroom.”

Under the cloak of night this has become the unspoken consensus among students today, even among those unaffiliated with QPIRG or its politics. This is revealed every time someone casually – almost reflexively – complains about the difficulty of his or her current workload. Nobody pretends we’re here to receive the 18th best education in the world. Schoolwork is itself the distraction. Apparently the professors have not yet heard that education is dead.

Anyway, back to my political theory class:

“Perhaps apathy really is the problem, but it’s a deeper and more fundamental apathy than anyone yet realizes. The student today faces an existential question: why am I here? Rarely is this question asked explicitly, because the answer is so obvious: McGill exists to manufacture McGill alumni. That’s why we’re here. It is to students of this mindset that the university has surrendered the authority to judge what it means to get an education.

“You might respond to this by arguing that McGill is not senseless enough to actually use these evaluations in deciding matters of real importance. But you just finished promising the class that they are seriously used, particularly regarding tenure decisions. That was precisely your selling point for why we should submit evaluations. Either they aren’t used and you just lied to us, or they are used and your employer gauges how well you do your job by the satisfaction of your students. Which is pathetic.

“You asked for a performance evaluation, professor, so here it is: your desperation to know what I think about you diminishes the respect I should have for you as both a teacher and an elder. Now I know that all along you were only catering to my petty whims, my preferences for ironic detachment, and the frequent employment of multimedia.

“I don’t want to be treated as your equal or your customer. I’m your subordinate, and I came here to be treated as such. Stop worrying about my satisfaction, have a little confidence, be an adult.”

Student Life

Society of Automotive Engineers set to debut cars at auto show

by MORGAN ABRAHAM on

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It was a sunny September day as students from the McGill Society of Automotive Engineers team brought their racing vehicles to OAP. These students represented four of McGill’s design teams that produced four types of vehicles: the electric snowmobile, the performance racing vehicle, the hybrid car, and the Baja All-Terrain Vehicle. One of these Students, Will Kerley, a U3 mechanical engineering student on the racing design team recalled a girl gasping in surprise.

“McGill builds cars. What?”

Although many students are unfamiliar with these teams, McGill’s SAE teams have performed exceptionally in SAE contests across the globe. Each team, representing various top engineering universities, are student-run groups that design innovative prototype vehicles, such as those that race down speedways at up to 100 kilometres an hour, or endure long distances on a limited fuel supply.

The McGill SAE teams, which consist of over 60 students, began their most recent triumph this weekend when all four teams were invited to present their vehicles at the Montreal International Auto Show taking place from January 15 to January 24 at Palais des Congrès. McGill’s teams have seen an upward swing over the past five years as they continue to improve in competitions. The hybrid racing team earned first place in 2007 and 2008, while the electric snowmobile team transformed an existing gas-powered snowmobile into an electric-powered snowmobile that has been used at skiing championships at Whistler and in France, and will be presented at this winter’s Olympics.

Kerley and Adam Laidlaw, a U2 mechanical engineering student who participated in the hybrid design team, have spent most of their McGill careers participating on SAE teams and have enjoyed the society’s continuous progress. Both teams have triumphed. manufacturing and designing their vehicles.

“It’s the best thing I’m doing here at McGill. I’d be really put off if it was all just about class,” said Laidlaw.

Both Kerley and Laidlaw cited the exercise of hands-on skills rarely practiced before entering the workforce as one of the most important things that they have learned on the SAE teams. They have also had opportunities to work with a wide variety of engineers and meet experts in the auto industry to design vehicles that race across the world.

Teams must design vehicles, raise funds, construct their vehicles, and finally test them. The vehicles alone cost over $20,000 and although McGill provides significant funding, students must show ingenuity and locate Montreal companies to sponsor their project. They then must learn how to operate complicated equipment, design parts for their vehicles, and use computer software to analyze the vehicle’s performance.

“It’s really nice to see new people coming in and the cars coming together,” said Kerley.

Throughout the design process, teams must test their vehicle’s performance and fix any problems they find. One major disadvantage McGill faces, however, is the Montreal winter. Since the city’s snow often lasts until April, the design teams only have a limited amount of time to drive their vehicle and test it on the road each Spring. This is especially difficult for the McGill Baja team, which must endure very strenuous conditions such as climbing boulders and dealing with five foot drops.

Kerley and Laidlaw explained that each team faces unique challenges, however. The McGill racing team, which got first place in fuel economy and fourteenth place overall out of over 120 schools Formula SAE East competition in Detroit last year, faced dealing with a broken shaft during the race. Last year, the hybrid car’s engine overheated, causing the exhaust pipe to melt and drain the battery completely. However, the car lurched on and managed to complete the 22 km race and earn fourth place.

All teams are well underway in designing this year’s vehicles. The performance racing team is using last year’s design and modifying it, hoping to improve its performance by changing the suspension and engine.

The hybrid team, working on last year’s model as well, hopes to retake first place at the New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire this May. The Baja team is also far along in their design, having completed their fame.

Kerley is confident that McGill’s teams, with their great track record, will do better in future years.

“People will come to fear [us] and I feel that day will come,” he said.

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: L.L. Bean, it’s good for your heart

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In her recent article Die “Hipster” Die Zoe Daniels claims that the word hipster has “become a comfortable crutch for those lazy judges who see a single pair of plastic- framed glasses as an unbridgeable ideological gap” for various groups including those “L.L. Bean clad hikers.” L.L. Bean is a wonderful place that provides high-quality products at reasonable prices, products that can be used long after the last pair of skinny jeans have been dumped into the Salvation Army bin, and will surely still be going strong on that beautiful day when plaid can once again be worn with pride. In 25 years – when people no longer ask what your tattoo means, but rather when your laser removal surgery is scheduled for – L.L. Bean will still honour their lifetime warranty on that backpack even though you bought it in the fourth grade. It is for these reasons, Ms Daniels, that I ask that next time you wish to criticize society, please, leave L.L. Bean out of it. It has done nothing wrong.

– Alexander SolowayU3, mechanical engineering

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Not AMUSEd

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In last week’s editorial, you stated that AMUSE – The Association of McGill University Support Employees – left some students “in the dark” by failing to adequately contact all potential voters. Out of respect for the newly accredited members of the bargaining unit and the supporters who spent countless hours contacting the eligible voters, I feel it is necessary to correct some blatantly incorrect facts you stated about the voting procedure.

The list of eligible voters was created by McGill – not AMUSE – and was supposed to consist of all non-academic casual employees who were working both at the time of the application to the Labour Board by AMUSE – April 2009 – and the start of the vote period itself – September 2009. Although all non-academic casual workers are part of the bargainning unit, only those who met this requirement were eligible voters. This is standard procedure and legal precedent, meant to prevent anti-union mass hirings by the employer.

Again as codified in law, it is the Labour Board who mails the voting ballots to ALL eligible voters to the address provided by McGill. AMUSE has NOTHING to do with the logistics of the vote.

With a copy of the voters’ list, AMUSE was able to send an informational flyer and voting reminder to every address on the list. AMUSE supporters also contacted most of the voters by telephone to inform them of the vote. Many voters were contacted more than once. All voters were also informed by email.

The email address you reference hasn’t been used for more to a year – as its acronym should tell you, it was from an earlier attempt at the same union-drive when only undergraduates were being targeted. As the campaign shifted, so did the nature of the organization.

To not do everything within our power to get out word on the vote would have been a poor strategic choice on our part: winning accreditation requires an absolute majority of all eligible voters to vote in favour. Every non-vote – i.e., every person who was not aware of the vote – counted against us. We agree it is absolutely vital to contact every last member of the new bargaining unit, but we must wait on McGill to provide us such a list before we can begin to do it.

I hope this helps to clarify things. AMUSE is currently in the process of structuring itself and we need bargaining unit members to get involved! If anyone has any time or if they have any questions, they should be encouraged to send us an email at [email protected].

– Veronique AllardPSAC-AMUSE Campaign Lead Organizer

Letters to the Editor, Opinion

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Brendan is simple-minded

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Brendan Steven’s column “Right Minded: Defending Prorogation” is a good example of the limited nature of Steven’s political opinions. His blind reverence for everything the Harper government does is demonstrative of the same sort of extremeness that he attempts to delegitimize in his column. The way Steven describes the “grassroots” opposition to prorogation seems to assume that such a position is exclusively held in the domain of Facebook. Steven describes examples of the very extreme opposition to Harper in the anti-prorogue Facebook group, highlighting some of the most innane anti-Harper positions (that he is a kitten killer, for example). By addressing only extreme and irrelevant opposition to Harper’s prorogation of the government, Steven doesn’t do the issue justice. It is a fundamental problem that Harper found it appropriate to suspend parliament as he found it convenient; it is demonstrative of the kind of politics he is prone to: settling on convenient absence rather than thoughtful political action. Rather, Steven deemphasizes the problem, reminding us that the prorogue will last “only two months.” Furthermore, Steven attacks the notion of political activism made easier by Facebook. Does this not reflect a healthy democracy? Our opinions can be broadcast more easily than ever, and their weight is strong enough to be detected by traditional media, as Steven has mentioned. Sure, this makes it easier for irrelevant and extreme comments to mindlessly be published, but can’t we apply the same criticism to many newspaper columns that use the same degree of extremism, thinly veiled in academic rhetoric and neat typeface?

– Daniel Rotsztain

McGill, News

A conversation with Stuart Cobbett, Board of Governors chairman

by Steven Hoffer on

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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.C.L. in 1972, and has since served the McGill community as both a lecturer in the Faculty of Law and president of the McGill Alumni Association, among other responsibilities. The Tribune spoke with Cobbett about becoming chairman.

Can you describe the history of your involvement with McGill and how you’ve come to this accomplishment?

It goes back many years to the late ’80s. At the time, I was working not as a lawyer but in the film and television business. I was asked to get involved with something called the Board of Visitors for the Faculty of Arts, which is like an advisory body for the Faculty of Arts, and I was chair of that board for a few years. At about the same time I was asked to sit on the editorial advisory board of the McGill News. So that’s kind of what started my formal relationship with McGill. Way before that I had taught at the law school, from ’76 to ’85 … And then I went to England in the mid- 1990s, and when I was there they asked me to take over the chairmanship of the McGill Alumni Association in the U.K., which I did. When I came back in 2000, they asked me to get involved with the Alumni Association here, and I became president of that and then subsequently ended up going on the Board a few years ago.

Where does the Board stand on Bills 38 and 44 at this point?

We’re not too sure where we stand at the moment. There were hearings before the National Assembly committee back in November and December, but we haven’t heard anything back from that, so we’re just waiting. We hear that they are trying to make amendments but we don’t know that for sure. We just don’t think [the bills are] necessary. The problem is that each of the Quebec universities is individual, so to try to have one overarching piece of legislation that applies to all the universities is almost, by definition, impossible. Each university is governed differently. Each university is at a different stage in terms of the development of governance processes, and in terms of giving the government the tools that they need to have oversight of the universities, we think they already have the tools. It’s much more from the point of view that we just think this legislation is wrong. The students seem to agree with us, and the various faculty and staff associations seem to agree with us, but at the moment we’re all in a wait-and-see mode.

What did Rabinovich do well, and what would you change?

Robert did a lot of things well. One of his main accomplishments was the revamping of the board, and reducing the numbers of the board. Seven or eight years ago you would have 50 or 60 people at the Board of Governors meetings, and that’s just too big a group to have any sort of effective discussion. So when Munroe-Blum became principal and when Rabinovich became chair, they embarked on a review and revision of the board. The result has been that McGill is at the forefront of governance structures certainly among Quebec universities, and I would say possibly even Canadian universities.

Any specific goals you would like to see the Board of Governors achieve looking ahead to your term?

There are a number of things on the radar we are focussing on – diversifying the sources of funding is one. We are very dependent on government and we will always be very dependent on government, but it will be nice to find other areas of support for the university. We’d also like to focus on students. When the principal several years ago had the Task Force on Student Life and Learning, we are not putting many of those recommendations into effect – for example, the student centre going into the basement of McLennan Library. Sustainability is important as well. There’s a big commitment to the campus being ecologically and environmentally defensible. … It’s something to which the board is committed. We’ve had a number of presentations on it from [Associate Vice-Principal University Services] Jim Nicell. There are always things we’re doing and trying to bring in.

Any final thoughts?

McGill has done a good job at remaining focussed on its mission. We are a particular university; we are a public university but we are containing our growth. As the principal reminds us frequently we are becoming a medium-sized university compared to others, particularly in Canada. We continue to maintain a spectacularly good position in the world; McGill has a great reputation, deservedly so, so what we have to do is make sure we keep it and improve it. We have a wonderful student body, a super faculty and staff; the whole thing is just in good shape.

News

Queer McGill executives resign

by Tori Crawford on

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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. The executives cited both personal and academic reasons for resigning.

“It seems like [the executives who resigned] were doing what was best for them, and they needed to do what they needed to do,” said Parker Villalpando, Queer McGill co-administrator, adding that the resignations did not cause any major setbacks for the group.

“It wasn’t really good timing since we had our retreat the first weekend of the semester, which took a lot of planning. But that was pulled off perfectly, so there weren’t a lot of problems,” he said. “Luckily some of [the resignations] happened right before finals, so there wasn’t that much going on with the organization at that time other than planning for the retreat and preparing for our General Assembly.”

At the group’s General Assembly last Friday, Pamela Fillion was elected as co-administrator, Carol Kwon as publicity co-ordinator, Zach Kornblum as volunteer co-ordinator, and Kevin Wyllie as policy and equity co-ordinator. The position of political action co-ordinator remains vacant.

Villalpando said he was happy with both the election turnout and results and is confident in the new executives.

“I’m definitely happy with how things went. I’m very excited to work with the new execs. They all seem to be very dedicated and excited to be there,” he said. “So I’m excited to work with them and hopefully everything will go smoothly for the rest of the semester. I’m sure everything can go as planned.”

In addition, those who attended the General Assembly voted to provide a $300 honorarium for all of last semester’s executive members, which represents a $50 increase from last year’s amount.

Opinion

BLACK & WHITE: This mortal coil

by Mahak Jain on

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Existential crises are as awkward to talk about as bowel movements. In a milieu that celebrates irony more than sincerity, any attempt to be philosophical is either going to make me resemble an overeager, emo teenager, or an indecipherable, pompous intellectual, and I’m not sure which I’ll end up sounding like in this column. And I’m not sure which I’d rather be.

My latest existential crisis took place in a movie theatre. Now, the success of any movie-going experience requires that you devote your full attention to the screen. But once in a while, my eyes drift from the aural and visual show transpiring before me. I notice how ridiculous the neighbour to my left looks with his mouth hanging open like a broken hinge. Soon enough, a small crack appears in the illusion this film has been trying to create.

But worse, sometimes this brief moment of distraction dumps me into an existential pit where I find myself cozying up to the remains of angsty poems. For me, it’s the realization that my neighbour, as silly as he looks holding popcorn between his fingertips like delicate offerings, has a whole interior world to which I don’t have access. I realize I have no idea how his circuit of optic nerves are mapping images on his mind. And I realize he has no awareness of my mind. I feel both lonely and independent and start wondering if they’re the same thing.

I have similar existential crises after films that mesmerize me, that make me think – inspired slightly by Liz Lemon – “this movie is the thang.” The way light splashes across the white, nondescript screen. The way the crescendo of music matches the rise and fall of my heartbeat. A story that fulfills fantasies, characters who feel things the way I’ve felt them. In the movie theatre, in the darkness, in the show of light and color, packaged in celluloid filigree: oneness!

But then the film ends. Friends and acquaintances gather outside the theatre and make necessary visits to the loo. Then, someone who I will either end up despising or adoring asks, “What did you think?” The words I offer in reply are flat compared to what I have just experienced, but I mean them, and I insist that I mean them, and to ensure that there has been no confusion, I bust out that prefacing wonder, “I know it’s a cliché but…”

My friend looks perplexed. He’s unable to comprehend what could have drawn such a passionate response out of my usual placidity. A familiar throb of despair brings me down. Distance emerges between me and this person who I had felt close to before the film began. I can tell he has already forgotten what it was like to sit in that theatre, the way people forget what it’s like to sit on a toilet.

And when this happens, I become aware of an existential tragedy: my inability to project onto someone else experiences that have wound themselves into the ‘essence’ of me. With that also comes the thrill of privacy and secrecy, the seductive idea that I am not entirely discoverable, and that no one will ever know the beauty I have known. So lately, I’ve been thinking about how unknowable I am to myself and how unknowable others are to me, and yet, despite this, the confusing fact that I’m still chasing desperately after understanding and intimacy.

This type of philosophical meandering only puts you on a draining search for a resolution that doesn’t exist. But maybe we’d manage our existential crises better if our discussions of philosophy hadn’t been chucked from our daily lives and left to go stale in the Humanities departments of universities. Or, in high school corridors bursting with hormonal urgency. Meanwhile, I could use a hiatus from introspection. 30 Rock, here I come.

Mahak Jain is the Tribune’s newest columnist. You can reach her at [email protected] We are still accepting applications for columnists. If you want to appear alongside Mahak every other week, send a cover letter and two sample columns to [email protected].

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