Archive for April, 2007
Executive Interview Series, Part I: Jeff Friedrich, AMS President
Yesterday, Wednesday the 11th, I had the pleasure of invading the presidential office to talk to our own Jeff Friedrich. The interview is 51 minutes long, but well worth it – Jeff talks about all the big issues in impressive depth. So click the link, and let Jeff’s dulcet American accent soothe you while you [...]
Justice for the Social Justice Centre.
In lieu of recent events surrounding the Social Justice Centre, one of the AMS Resource Groups, I solicited comments from some of its involved members. The following has been written by Mike Thicke, co-editor of The Knoll and an active member of the SJC. It reflects his own personal views. The Resource Groups were created [...]
Corporate Governance I: BoG
Since my time on the Board, I’ve taken an interest in governance best practices. And if not that, at least been more keenly aware of the relationships that build at Board levels, how the selection of a key few political appointees can really make a difference. To that end I was particularly intrigued by the [...]
University Boulevard
There is an interesting petition circulating around Facebook (the new place for activism, it seems). I’ve skimmed it and it made some excellent points, so here is a link:University Boulevard Petition Rationale (from the website linked): Listen to what students want! The “What’s the plan” campaign produced a really excellent review that reports the following, [...]
Ask Dr. Wieman
Later this week, our own Maayan Kreitzman will have a sit-down interview with Dr. Carl Wieman of his eponymous Science Education Initiative. (See below.) We’ve got some questions, but we thought we’d put it to our readers – what questions would you like to ask Dr. Wieman? What about his initiative, science education, philosophy, or [...]
The Future Direction of this Blog
Here’s where we take your suggestions on how to improve or make changes. Our goal is really to make the blog relevant, inclusive, and informative. Right now we feel like we’re a bit cliquey, and we’re wondering how we would go about opening ourselves up. So we’re wondering, if you could pick anything and everything [...]
"…approach the teaching of science as a science" – Carl Wieman’s schtick.
It sounds like a dream – a high profile and hugely funded project (about 200 k per year, currently) entirely dedicated to improving the academic fortunes of the masses of undergrad science students. Students that currently seem to leave their lower-level physics and chemistry courses more detached, zombie-like, and unready for what real scientific enquiry [...]
The VP Guessing Game
Towards the Old Admin Building, aka the road to power Stephen just sent this notice out to all students and presumably faculty/staff: Dear Colleagues: I am pleased to report that the search for a new Provost andVice-President (Academic) is progressing well. After a final round ofconsultations with representatives of faculty, staff and students, theSearch Committee [...]
Some Updates
1. Re: Tobacco ban on campus: the Province is suing big tobacco companies (a cost recovery lawsuit, Link). “We’ve always taken the position that because they sold and promoted their products in our market, (resulting) in damage to our citizens, that we have the right to legislate against their conduct,” said Oppal. I don’t know [...]
Oversight
So Council has approved the creation of an oversight committee and stacked it with code fiends. Fun fun. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, I don’t think it’s the best model. Why? No oversight of Council. We’re all about exec transparency, but Council is just as important in the operations of the AMS as [...]
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