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westernnews.ca
PM 41195534
April 16, 2015 / Vol. 51 No. 14
Senate
debate
on tap
BY JASON WINDERS
WESTERN PRESIDENT AMIT Chakma continues to push
forward on his announced 100-Day Plan, even as the university
Senate prepares to debate a motion of non-confidence in his
leadership on Friday.
The president has spent the better part of his post-Senate
meeting week launching his announced campus engagement
plan. The President’s Office said Chakma’s schedule has been
cleared of most external meetings “to remain available for internal
opportunities.”
On Monday, the president spoke to the Science Faculty Council,
where he heard concerns over a range of issues, including rising
tuition and fees, matching fundraising to university priorities,
reduced staff support as it relates to research, contract faculty
teaching loads and the challenges facing graduate students and
postdoctoral scholars in launching their careers. On Wednesday,
Chakma met with the University of Western Ontario Faculty
Association (UWOFA) executive team to discuss its concerns, and
then with department chairs and Senators from Social Science, in
separate events.
Next week, the president will launch the first of his town hall-style
meetings in Engineering.
“I’m grateful for the invitations extended to me, thus far, by the
faculties to engage directly with them, and I’m looking forward
to meeting with other faculties and campus groups in the near
future,” Chakma said Tuesday. “Monday morning’s meeting with
the Faculty Council in Science was a good start and very insightful.
I was impressed by the thoughtfulness people expressed through
their comments and questions. They highlighted for me the variety
and complexity of their concerns.
“As I continue to meet with more faculty, staff and students
across campus, I anticipate some key issues will emerge that we
will address in the first phase of the plan.”
On Tuesday, the UWOFA Board of Directors issued a statement
calling on campus to use the events of the last two weeks as “an
opportunity to create a better university.”
“We have always maintained that our concern is not with the
money, or even with one person, but with the serious underlying
problems that the double payment has brought to light,” the open
letter stated. “The president admits he has been disconnected
from the Western community and concedes that we need to
improve Western’s model of collegial governance. We agree.
He hopes to reconnect via a ‘100-day listening project.’ UWOFA
believes we need far more than town hall meetings. Our members
need concrete, tangible action.”
SENATE DEBATE // CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
INSIDE TODAY
ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
Western’s newspaper of record since 1972
Commentary on the non-confidence debate, Pages 4-5
Chakma apologizes, sets engagement plan for next 100 days, Page 6
Complete text of president’s remarks to Senate, Page 7
Meet the Senate, Page 9
2
Western News
| April 16, 2015
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Coming Events
APRIL 16-22
#
16 // THURSDAY
22 // WEDNESDAY
THE SCIENCE OF BEING HUMAN
It’s All Under Control. Faculty members from Psychology share insights
and research. Peter Hoaken, Control:
Its Role in Crime and Corrections.
7 p.m. Stevenson Hunt Room,
Central Library.
WESTERN READS
Join us for one or two of our April
book club discussions – Dear Life by
Alice Munro.
The Book Store at Western. RSVP Pam
Kenward: [email protected].
12 p.m. UCC, Lower Level.
Community Gallery, Museum London.
RSVP: alumni.westernu.ca/learn/western-reads.
7 p.m. 421 Ridout St. N.
17 // FRIDAY
ANATOMY AND
CELL BIOLOGY SEMINAR
Mauricio Rodriguez, PhD candidate,
Western. The Role of ALDH1A1,
CD44, and Other Stem Cell Related
Factors in the Metastatic Activity of
ALHDhiCD44+ Breast Cancer Cells.
12:30 p.m. MSB 282.
20 // MONDAY
ARABIC CONVERSATION GROUP
4:30 p.m. UC 203.
PHYSIOLOGY AND
PHARMACOLOGY SEMINAR
David Spafford, University
of Waterloo.
4 p.m. MSB 282.
21 // TUESDAY
GERMAN CONVERSATION
GROUP
1:30 p.m. UC 207.
LET’S TALK ABOUT EDUCATION
SPEAKER SERIES
Kathy Hibbert, Faculty of Education,
discusses her experience in developing disaster medicine curriculum in
Fukushima, Japan.
7 p.m. FEB 1139.
BIOMEDICAL IMAGING
RESEARCH CENTRE AND
ENGINEERING IN MEDICINE
AND BIOLOGY SOCIETY
SEMINAR
Robert L. Galloway, Biomedical Engineering, Neurosurgery & Surgery,
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Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.
Now What? Validation and Commercialization of Therapeutic Devices.
5:30 p.m. LHSC-UH Auditorium A.
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Build your confidence in public speaking.
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Contact Donna Moore, dmoore@
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12 p.m. UCC 147B.
VISITING SPEAKER
IN CHEMISTRY
R. Graham Cooks, Purdue University,
West Lafayette, Ind. Medical Diagnostics, Organic Synthesis and Materials
Fabrication using Mass Spectrometry.
1:30 p.m. CB 115.
@westernuniversity
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LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
La Tertulia. Anyone wishing to speak
Spanish and meet people from different Spanish-speaking countries is
welcome.
4:30 p.m. UC 205.
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2:30 UC 117.
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2015-01-27 3:33 PM
Western News
| April 16, 2015
3
Killam Prize 2015
Poetry ‘makes things happen’ for Bentley
“It’s about the human
spirit and imagination.
It’s about the capacity
for human empathy.
It’s about things
that are absolutely
essential to our
humanity, and that’s
why the arts and
humanities strike me
as being centrally
important.”
- David Bentley
English and Writing Studies professor
EYE ON THE PRIZE
B Y A D E L A TA L B O T
DECADES LATER, DAVID Bentley
looks at it as one of the best decisions
he’s ever made. As a second-year university student, the Western professor
decided to switch the focus of his
study – from Physics to English.
“My father, when I told him, after
thinking for a long time, said, ‘That’s
what it’s all about.’ And I feel comforted by those words, in that what we
study is ultimately what it’s all about,”
said Bentley, who, since 1976, has
taught English at Western.
“It’s about the human spirit and
imagination. It’s about the capacity
for human empathy. It’s about things
that are absolutely essential to our
humanity, and that’s why the arts and
humanities strike me as being centrally important,” he noted.
This week, Bentley’s distinguished
career as a researcher in the arts was
recognized with a Killam Prize, presented by the Canadian Council of
the Arts. Bentley is among only five
Canadian researchers, who will receive
$100,000 each, in recognition of their
exceptional career achievements in
humanities, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, health sciences
and interdisciplinary studies.
Bentley becomes only the fifth Killam Prize winner at Western, and the
most recent winner since Economics professor John Whalley won in
2012. Other Western winners include
Engineering professors Alan Davenport (1993) and Maurice Bergiougnou
(1999) and Robarts Research Institute
founder Henry Barnett (1988).
The Killam Prize presentation ceremony will be held May 12 at Rideau
Hall.
“It was so astonishing to me, so
wonderful,” Bentley said of learning
he had been named a recipient of the
prize. “Quite frankly, a month later, I’m
still in shock. I’m just deeply honoured
by it – it means the world to me.”
Reflecting on a career at Western
that has spanned nearly four decades,
Bentley praised a supportive environment that allowed him, without reservation or impediment, to pursue his
interests and love of teaching.
“At every turn in my career, I’ve
had the opportunity to teach and do
research,” he said.
“And that balance between teaching and research is critical, a fundamental foundation of the modern
university,” continued Bentley, whose
main areas include Victorian and
Canadian literature. He is best known
for his foundational work in Canadian
literature and for the Canadian Poetry
Project.
“We are researchers who teach.
We don’t just teach out of textbooks;
we don’t just teach what other people
have discovered and other people’s
ideas. We teach what we have discovered and we teach our ideas to
our own students. This seems to me
to be critically important in Canada.
STEVE ANDERSON // SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
English and Writing Studies professor David Bentley is the recipient of the Killam Prize, presented by the
Canadian Council of the Arts, in recognition of his outstanding career achievements.
Otherwise, we are going to be importing textbooks, and importing ideas
from outside Canada. To my mind, the
combination of research and teaching the material we uncover is critically important, and it’s what Western
offered me.”
Over the years, Bentley has been
on the receiving end of numerous
awards for teaching and research,
The Canada Council Killam Program, inaugurated with lifetime and testamentary gifts by Dorothy J. Killam in memory of her husband Izaak
Walton Killam, includes the Killam Prizes and Killam Research Fellowships.
The Killam Prize, presented by the Canadian Council of the Arts, recognizes Canadian researchers for their exceptional career achievements in
humanities, engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, health sciences and interdisciplinary studies.
Bentley becomes only the fifth Killam Prize winner at Western, and the most recent winner since Economics professor John Whalley won
in 2012. Other Western winners include Engineering professors Alan Davenport (1993) and Maurice Bergiougnou (1999) and Robarts
Research Institute founder Henry Barnett (1988).
including the 3M National Teaching
Fellowship and the Premier’s Discovery Award for the Arts & Humanities,
of which he is particularly proud.
While Modern poet W. H. Auden
is known for asserting, ‘poetry makes
nothing happen,’ Bentley begs to differ. Poetry brings about change and
affect, and is just as important in study
as anything else.
“In Canada, people may not be
aware of it, but it was a stanza of
poetry in a Canadian boat song that
led to the creation of the Cape Breton
Highlands National Park. So, poetry
makes things happen,” he said.
“John McRae’s In Flanders Fields
transformed the poppy, transformed
it from being an emblem of sleep to
being an emblem of remembrance,
and, in a sense, created ‘Poppy Day,’
Remembrance Day as we now understand it,” he added.
“Poetry makes things happen in
our daily lives – when people read a
poem, are moved by a poem, they
are made at home, as I felt when I first
started reading Canadian poetry at
age 15. And I know from records in the
19th century, that poetry made settlers feel at home in Canada, people
who were terrified by the silence in
the woods were comforted reading
a poem.”
Other 2015 winners include Vijay K.
Bhargava, University of British Columbia; Victoria Kaspi, McGill University;
Donald Savoie, Université de Moncton; and Lorne Tyrrell, University of
Alberta.
Western News
| April 16, 2015
Commentary
// Join the president in the
journey forward
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published on Nov. 16, 1972
replacing the UWO Times
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Nov. 16, 1972
I keep coming back to the same 15 words.
“I will acknowledge my limitations and my mistakes so that I may learn from them.”
These words – simple, yet potent – come from the
Ivey Pledge, a recitation every Ivey Business School
graduate takes to remind them about their role and
responsibility in their future careers and personal
lives. And, while they hold special meaning for Ivey
graduates, I cannot help reflecting on their value
to the current leadership conversation on campus.
Let me say right off: President Amit Chakma has
made mistakes as the leader of the university. He
knows this fact better than any ally or opponent
could ever claim to defend or decry.
Last week, he stood before the university Senate
and apologized for those mistakes.
For the president and his family, I am sure this
was a difficult and uncomfortable moment, but
also exactly the right thing to do. He did what great
leaders do – he acknowledged his limitations and
mistakes so he may learn from them.
I am not here to re-litigate his confessed transgressions. Rather, I want to talk about how the institution has the potential to be stronger now.
In this moment, the university can find great
opportunity.
Imagine, an organization at this time of mutual
reflection able to emerge stronger, more united and
more focused on what needs to be done to live up
to its full potential. I see just that opportunity here
today. And so does the president.
At that same meeting last week, President
Chakma opened up a larger conversation, one
about how the university needs to create its future,
fueled by lessons of the recent past. The president
set down an aggressive campaign to recommit to
the campus. This is exactly how you want a leader to
respond. It reminds me of the many ‘learn and grow’
lessons I have experienced in my career.
But President Chakma – or any leader, for that
matter – cannot move forward alone. Great leaders need active, engaged partners. Not lemmings,
mind you, as nobody is being asked to strap on
blinders to obscure obvious disagreements – quite
the opposite, in fact. Partners are expected to be
aware, open and honest about issues, just as leaders
are to be receptive and honest in return.
Strong organizations – be they corporate boards,
elected bodies or universities – operate at their best
when they embrace a vibrant, creative opposition.
Leaders should not fear being questioned, in fact,
they should embrace the challenge.
President Chakma has promised to do just that.
Now is the time for members of the university
community to pull together.
President Chakma has listened and learned during the crisis. The whole university has the potential
to be strengthened, if only they begin pulling in the
same direction, listening to one another and acting
in the collegial manner that is the long standing
culture of Western.
We have seen the president acknowledge his
limitations and mistakes so that he may learn from
them. The rest of the university should join him in
that journey. Western will be stronger as a result.
CAROL STEPHENSON
FORMER DEAN OF
THE IVEY BUSINESS SCHOOL
// Nothing personal,
but it’s time to go
Dear President Chakma,
At Friday’s Senate meeting, you repeatedly
addressed us as ‘friends.’
We are not your friends.
Friend is a special word we save for each of
those who share our values, who support us in difficult times, who communicate openly and without
reserve. Friends learn together through shared
experiences. Each year of a friendship offers opportunities for renewal and growth.
The two of us grew up together in Vancouver. We
ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
4
attended the same high school, where the talents of
a few good teachers fostered our intellectual ambition. The undergraduate training we received at the
University of British Columbia prepared us well for
graduate programs in the United States. We were
re-united at Western in the mid-1990s, where we
began our careers, full of hope and expectation.
The erosion of the university, as we understood
it, began before we arrived here and it will continue
after we retire. The forces contributing to that erosion are larger than any one Board of Governors or
university administration. But each university has
choices, even in straitened circumstances, and we
can say, with the wisdom of 20 years at Western,
the choices you and your administration have made
over the course of the past five years have worsened
the crisis for all of us.
“There is not enough time for all that needs to be
done,” you told us.
As faculty, we know this hard truth better, perhaps, than you do. Increased class sizes, cuts in
research funding, administrative bean-counting
that wastes valuable hours of our time – we have all
been doing more with less for the past decade. Our
priorities have been to buffer students against the
corrosive effects of cutbacks; to maintain research
records that allow us a seat at the table of international scholarship; to serve our departments and the
larger Western community.
What were your priorities when you signed a contract that paid you $967,000 in one year?
The outrage that greeted the news of your compensation package was, you said, “a wake-up call.”
The metaphor of the alarm clock is an apt one; it
suggests you have been asleep for a while. We
have not been asleep. We have been kept awake
by the tragedy that is unfolding in the 21st century
university: the dearth of opportunities it affords
newly minted PhDs, its treatment of adjunct faculty
and staff, its reduction of the humanist mission to a
commercial model of ‘efficiencies.’
You have a 100-Day Plan in mind to address the
crisis of the past two weeks, but we can assure you
100 days will not get you past the start gate.
You say you “love this place,” but you are a relative newcomer to Western, and your love has yet
to deepen into a meaningful engagement with its
object. For the first time since we arrived at Western,
our president, provost and vice-president (research)
all come from outside the institution. This matters
because you and your team have no experience
with, have not seen the evolving challenges in, and
are not connected organically to any academic unit
on this campus. Coming from elsewhere, it is not
easy for you to connect with our core academic
activities – doing so would require a special effort,
if you value them. It would take more than your
attendance at a few town hall meetings to change
this simple fact – you don’t know us.
Last Friday you asked us to “set aside emotion,”
even as you asked for our forgiveness, pledging
your “heart and soul” that you will honour the university’s core values in the days ahead. We pledge
our hearts and souls to our students and colleagues
every day, and our passion for our work is what
drives this university’s achievements. As one of our
Senators said, the messages we’ve received from
your administration have been relentlessly negative.
That your team thinks it necessary to look for ways
to ‘incentivize’ faculty has contributed to the breakdown of relations between you and the institution
you claim to love.
None of us would have completed doctorates
if we were motivated by anything other than our
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of or receive endorsement from Western News or Western University.
| April 16, 2015
Western News
attachment to our research and its inherent satisfactions. We
strive for excellence not because our employer threatens to withdraw funding from us if we don’t, but because it is so much more
rewarding than mediocrity. Our language is not the language of
carrots and sticks.
We hoped you would take the opportunity afforded you by
Friday’s Senate meeting to identify the roots of this crisis and not
just its surface manifestation. We also hoped you would bring to
Senate some concrete proposals to reform administrative practices. Hearing none, we encourage Senate to pass a motion of
non-confidence in you this week.
In making this recommendation, we set aside emotion. It’s not
personal, President Chakma. We expect you to step down in the
interests of sending a clear message to the senior administrative
team.
It’s not personal, because you are not our friend.
Sincerely,
ALISON CONWAY, ENGLISH AND
WRITING STUDIES PROFESSOR
KIM CLARK, ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR
// Stand up, speak out and
support the president
As I have watched the controversy surrounding Western
President Amit Chakma’s pay play out, I am disappointed – and
becoming embarrassed and angered – with the treatment of our
president by a disgruntled minority.
President Chakma deserves to be spared the fate of serving
as a lightning rod for the dissatisfaction that exists among some
toward the Ontario postsecondary education system.
To be quite honest, Western is fortunate to have Amit on the
terms it has.
This university has world-class ambitions, many of them initiated
by President Chakma. To be world class, we must attract – and
retain – world-class talent. And to attract world-class talent, we
must provide world-class compensation.
A number of precedents were in existence when President
Chakma’s contract was put together. This was not some strange
connotation, some clandestine secret deal, as it is being made out
to be. This was a high-level negotiation for a high-profile position
that would play an important role at Western, across Canada and
around the world.
I have had conversations with a number of university leaders.
To each, I expressed my support for the institution, its vision and,
most importantly, its president.
I call on likeminded Western faculty, staff and students - and
especially on likeminded alumni, donors and friends - to stand up,
speak out and get behind this president at a time when he needs
to know his friends and supporters far outweigh a vocal minority.
JACK COWIN
BA’64, LLD’00
// Looking forward to the conversation
Dear Dr. Chakma,
Thank you for your public apology for accepting payment in lieu
of administrative leave, and also for the repayment to Western.
We know you have done this with the best interests of the university in mind. That said, your negotiated contract is not the real
problem, but a symptom of the real problems – an out-of-touch
senior leadership and a misguided financial model.
You said you are open to all ideas. The Executive Committee
of the University of Western Ontario Staff Association (UWOSA),
on behalf of its members, appreciates this opportunity to address
some of the points you made in your recent address to Senate.
You said the issues are not only about your pay, but also about
the way Western has been run under your leadership.
The issue is not isolated to you alone. It is the current model,
based on a business, rather than a publically tax-funded higher
education institution. Over the past several years, faculties and
service units across campus have been forced to tighten budgets by 3 per cent. Department heads are forced to decrease
staff through retirement incentives, leave staff positions vacant,
redistribute workload to remaining staff and lay off. Contract staff
and faculty outside of bargaining agreements are hired to fill the
gaps. Education programs are compelled to increase student
enrolment.
The costs of a quality education and the ‘best student experience’ have taken a toll on the staff, faculty and students – all to
increase profits. The Board of Governors, and the absent chancellor, were put in place to check the finances, but their misallocation
of public monies has thrown this entire university out of balance.
You have said the issues raised in regards to your contract have
“brought into stark reality that the Board, Senate and our broader
campus community do not have a shared understanding of the
most constructive ways to conduct the business of the academy.”
You are right. We agree there is not a shared understanding.
The broader campus community largely has an opposing view
of how to operate a publically funded institution of higher education. Run this publically funded university as a publically funded
university, not like a privately funded university or, worse, as a
private corporation.
You said we must identify the real problems that keep the Board
and Senate in silos and “we must find real solutions for breaking
down those walls, while preserving the unique role each plays in
guiding our institution.”
The Senate is transparent; the Board is opaque. Perhaps the
Board could learn from Senate and its proceedings be transparent. The Board’s indifference to your contract forces us to ask,
Why? Did Board members misunderstand the wording of your
negotiated contract? Why was it approved as written?
You have said the spotlight on your salary and administrative
leave “has also started a critical conversation about how universities attract and retain leadership talent, and the broader fiscal
realities facing higher education in our province,” which is why
you have endorsed the independent and impartial review of your
contract.
Our issue is not about recruitment and retention of senior
leadership.
Our issue is about a broken operational model, based on a
business model. Our issue is the treatment of people (staff and
faculty) as overhead, rather than the intellectual resources that
support the university’s overall mission. Our issue is the treatment
of students as easy revenue streams, instead of future provincial
and national leaders. Our issue is wasting more money to conduct
an independent review of a contract that was legally bound as
written.
Perhaps it would be more beneficial to conduct an independent and impartial review of the university’s current operational
budget and current allocations?
You have expressed how difficult the last two weeks have been
for you and your family.
As staff, we can appreciate how hard the criticism must have
been and are genuinely sorry to hear about the personal attacks.
In light of this, we ask you and the Board to appreciate the current difficulties of our staff members and their families who were
recently laid off due to budget reductions. We ask you to appreciate the increased stress of staff, who are anxious their current positions will be eliminated. We ask you to understand how difficult it
is for staff to produce quality service to faculty and students with
increased workloads due to staff reductions.
We appreciate you are pledging to dedicate your attention
to internal matters. We appreciate you are going to consult with
the broader campus community. We look forward to seeing a
concrete version of this plan, as well as a report on your findings.
The non-confidence vote of UWOSA members demonstrates
we are deeply concerned about Western’s senior leadership and
how it is managing this university. We are dedicated to changing
Western for the better. We support the university’s mission and
ask that you, the Board and senior leadership team, demonstrate
the same support by investing in students, teaching, research and
scholarship and staff and faculty.
You have promised to hear us. We look forward to that conversation.
Thank you again for your apology. We hope to hear a Board of
Governors apology soon.
UWOSA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
// Alumni Association pledges
support of president, chair
The Western University Alumni Association represents more
than 270,000 members worldwide. As a voting representative on
the university Senate, along with my colleagues, I have had an
opportunity to consult with the Alumni Board regarding its views
on the matters that have been occupying the news in this paper
and others.
Given our commitment to ensure a positive public image for
our university, alumni have a special interest in the recent events
regarding Dr. Amit Chakma’s compensation.
We are a major stakeholder community in this venerable and
significant institution. The Western Alumni Association Board of
Directors, elected representatives of a significant component of
the Western family, fully supports both President Chakma and
Board of Governors Chair Chirag Shah.
We respect the president for his decision and thank him for
his continuing contributions in support of the implementation of
our institution’s Strategic Plan. Under his leadership, Western has
gained important momentum in key areas integral to the university’s success. The Alumni Association will continue to support him
and look forward to working collaboratively with him in the future.
We applaud the proposed external review process, and have
confidence the Board and President Chakma will abide by its
recommendations.
JOHN EBERHARD
WESTERN UNIVERSITY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of or receive endorsement from Western News or Western University.
5
// Avoid rash decisions;
work toward solutions
There is no doubt a mistake was made by the Board of Governors when they agreed to award double pay to President Amit
Chakma. It was also a mistake to accept this payment, as Dr.
Chakma admitted in an emotional speech during last Friday’s
Senate meeting.
The discussion has now moved on to how the campus community will respond to this situation.
We seem to be entrenched in a culture of intolerance to error;
we read each week of a call for resignation of a leader in government or business. The unfortunate truth is humans make mistakes
and, until we are governed by thinking machines (see Schwarzenegger et al.), our leaders will make errors.
The ability to admit to mistakes, and then take action to prevent
recurrence, is an essential component of leadership. If we create a culture of blame and vindication, we prevent leaders from
admitting mistakes, which delays the process of implementing
constructive change.
The current situation has ignited a storm of controversy that
involves numerous pre-existing concerns, mostly related to the
cumulative negative impact of budget reductions and the lack of
stakeholder input during decision making. Friday’s special Senate
meeting will be one of the most important in years.
Dr. Chakma has admitted to a serious error in judgment and
asked for our help in moving forward with a more engaged leadership style. I hope we, as a community, will avoid rash decisions
and take advantage of this opportunity to work toward constructive solutions.
DAVID HOLDSWORTH
SURGERY AND MEDICAL BIOPHYSICS PROFESSOR
// Open dialogue can now lead
to positive change
The current controversy regarding Western President Amit
Chakma has the potential to be destabilizing to the university.
However, it also presents us with an opportunity for open dialogue
with a leader who has publicly committed to listen.
President Chakma has acknowledged that internal affairs
must become a priority. He has made several apologies, and has
pledged to engage with students, staff and faculty across campus
in order to hear about our concerns and priorities.
It isn’t clear to us what more we could ask from a leader in this
situation.
A Senate vote of non-confidence in our leadership at this time
would work at direct cross-purposes to our collective goals as a
university well into the future.
We have the right – the duty – to engage and question our leaders. They, in turn, have a duty to listen and respond. Let’s use this
opportunity to foster productive discussion that will move Western
forward, and not to squander all the progress we have made.
Now that an open dialogue has begun, we should make the
most of this opportunity to achieve positive change for Western.
MARK DALEY
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
COMPUTER SCIENCE
RAM VALLURI
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
PROFESSOR EMERITUS
JESSE ZHU,
DISTINGUISHED
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR
CHEMICAL AND
BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PROFESSOR
SUBRATA CHAKRABARTY,
PROFESSOR AND
CHAIR, DEPARTMENT
OF PATHOLOGY AND
LABORATORY MEDICINE
JANE RYLETT
PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
PHYSIOLOGY &
PHARMACOLOGY
HORIA HANGAN
CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING PROFESSOR
KEM ROGERS
ANATOMY & CELL BIOLOGY
PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
SHANTANU BASU
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
PROFESSOR AND CHAIR
BERTHA GARCIA
SCHULICH SCHOOL
OF MEDICINE &
DENTISTRY VICE-DEAN
BLAINE CHRONIK
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
AND MEDICAL
BIOPHYSICS PROFESSOR
DOUG JONES, VICE DEAN,
SCHULICH SCHOOL OF
MEDICINE & DENTISTRY
BRYAN NEFF, ASSOCIATE
DEAN, FACULTY OF SCIENCE
RAJNI PATEL, DISTINGUISHED
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL
& COMPUTER ENGINEERING
SHIVA SINGH
BIOLOGY PROFESSOR
PETER BROWN
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY
PROFESSOR
GLEN BELFRY
KINESIOLOGY PROFESSOR
TREVOR BIRMINGHAM
PHYSICAL THERAPY
PROFESSOR
CHARLES CHUNBAO XU
CHEMICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL
ENGINEERING PROFESSOR
6
Western News
| April 16, 2015
On Campus
Chakma apologizes, sets down his
engagement plan for next 100 days
BY JASON WINDERS
CALLING THE WAVE of criticism he
has faced in recent weeks “a wake-up
call,” Western President Amit Chakma
apologized to university Senate last Friday and outlined his plan for broader
engagement between his administration and the larger campus community.
“I stand before you profoundly
humbled by – and deeply sorry for
– the events of the past two weeks,”
Chakma told a packed BMO Financial
Group Auditorium in the Richard Ivey
Building. “I am grateful for this opportunity to express my deepest regrets
and most sincere apologies to you for
the disruption the issue of my compensation has caused for our community.
“I ask for your forgiveness.”
The president promised to dedicate
his attention “to internal matters within
our academy that will help me begin
the process of regaining your trust.”
He outlined a 100-Day Plan, promising widespread engagement, including faculty-by-faculty town halls, direct
consultation with faculty, more regular
engagement with staff and employee
leadership groups, as well as more
connections with students and alumni.
“I have heard your concerns. I take
them very seriously. And the intensity of
that concern is itself proof that I made
a mistake. For this I am profoundly
sorry. Again, I ask for your forgiveness,”
Chakma concluded. “When I was
installed as President in 2009, I pledged
to give my heart and soul and devote
all my energy to the service of Western. Today, I renew the same pledge to
you, to give my heart and soul and to
devote all my energy to work with you
to advance our common goals.
“It is my sincerest hope that
together we can continue our work,
make our voices heard and change
PHOTOS BY PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
Western – and, indeed, the world – for
the better.”
A pointed, uncomfortable, emotional and, yes, occasionally rambling
question-and-answer session from
Senators followed the president’s
prepared remarks. The session was
light on questions and heavy on statements. Most of the discussion did not
remain focused on pay, but touched
on larger issues of Chakma’s leadership and the university’s governance.
The pay was, as Senator and Anthropology professor Andrew Nelson
described it, “the match that has gone
into the bucket of gasoline.”
Six Senators or Senate observers
spoke; only one asked a direct question of the president.
Alison Hearn, University of Western
Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA)
president, asked one of the few
remaining unanswered questions following the president’s remarks: “Thank
you for your apology; I think we are all
happy to hear it. I have just one question, why did it take you this long?”
Chakma’s process to this moment
was, as he described it, “a very human
one.”
“I was inundated with so much
information, so much reflection, I
needed to absorb all of those and
internalize them. The decision I made
– to refund the money – was a quick
one. Then I was looking for the opportunity to face Senate and offer you my
apology in front of you.”
The president consulted with the
Board of Governors, deans, as well as
other colleagues, in advance of the
Senate meeting. But when it came to
the Senate – “the body that represents
the academic heart of the university” –
Chakma said he felt his public apology
should come before them first.
“My family needed to reflect on our
priorities,” he continued in response
to Hearn. “It just took me time to think
this through and seek advice. When
you are in a crisis mode, inundated
with so much criticism that you were
not expecting, what do you do? You
are at a loss.
“That was how my mind was working and the venue I chose to offer my
apology.”
Alumni Association President John
Eberhard, BA’66, LLB’69, offered the
Alumni Association’s full support to
the president and his vision, as well as
to the Board of Governors.
Eberhard personally called on the
Senate to withdraw a motion for a
special meeting to discuss a nonconfidence vote in the president, and
give Chakma time to implement the
change he promised. If the president
did not follow through, then, and only
then, Eberhard said, the motion could
be returned.
Last week, 22 Senate members filed
a request for a special university Senate meeting addressing a single issue,
“That the Senate of the University
of Western Ontario has lost confidence in President Amit Chakma.”
That meeting has been scheduled for
1:30 p.m. Friday in the Richard Ivey
Building, Room 1100.
“I do not regard recent events
regarding the salary issue to be cause
for a proposed motion of non-confidence,” Eberhard said. “Certainly,
the optics were terrible, but the result
of a pre-bargaining process in a very
competitive employment marketplace
between the two parties is understandable. The president took the high road,
did the honourable thing and repudiated that part of the employment
arrangement that has led to the angst
we hear in this room today.”
Prior to the meeting, dozens of
protesters made their way from Main
Campus and held a short rally on the
steps of the Richard Ivey Building,
prior to making their way into the
meeting. With signs reading ‘Change
Is Coming,’ ‘We Need Transparency,’ ‘PhD: Paying Huge Debt’ and
‘By Any Means Necessary,’ speakers,
including the University of Western
Ontario Staff Association (UWOSA)
and UWOFA presidents, called for a
re-working of the university’s administration practices.
The protest continued inside the
room. As Chakma started to deliver
his prepared remarks, some attendees in the gallery turned their backs
and stayed that way throughout prepared his remarks.
“I have let my friends down,”
Chakma said following the close of
the questions-and-answer session.
“I am going to reach out to you. You
are my friends. I am pretty sure you
are going to tell me what needs to be
done. … I need your help.”
Paul Mayne contributed to this
report.
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Western News
| April 16, 2015
7
On Campus
President’s Senate remarks, April 10
Last Friday, Western President Amit Chakma addressed
the university Senate regarding his contract and how he
plans to “begin the process of regaining your trust.” Here
is the complete text of his remarks.
•••
FELLOW SENATORS, FACULTY
colleagues, students, staff, alumni,
members of the London community,
friends:
I stand before you profoundly humbled by – and deeply sorry for – the
events of the past two weeks. And
I am grateful for this opportunity to
express my deepest regrets and most
sincere apologies to you for the disruption the issue of my compensation
has caused for our community.
I ask for your forgiveness.
When recruiting students, staff and
faculty, Western looks for leaders.
Western looks for people whose decisions and actions are guided with the
highest regard for what is in the best
interests of our institution. People who
are capable of listening, and listening
with respect.
As a member of the Western community, I must have the good sense,
humility, and courage to admit my
mistakes, to learn from them, and to
take action to move forward in a constructive way.
Recognizing the mistake I made in
accepting payment in lieu of administrative leave, I decided last week
to repay the university of my own
volition.
It was the right thing to do. I also
voluntarily agreed not to receive payment in lieu of administrative leave at
the end of my second term.
But what I have heard loud and
clear from your feedback is that the
issues are not only about the money.
The issues at hand are also about the
way the university has been run under
my leadership.
I have spent much time and energy
away from campus, focused on the
external business of the university and
not enough time engaging with, and
understanding, all that goes on within
the lecture halls, labs and offices of
this great school.
There are many competing
demands on my time and not enough
time to do all that needs to be done.
However, the last two weeks have
highlighted for me how critically
important it is to have more balance
in my role as president.
To rectify this, I will dedicate my
attention to internal matters within our
academy that will help me begin the
process of regaining your trust. I know
that trust and confidence are qualities
that must be earned, and I know, too,
that I have much work to do.
Starting Monday, I will be going
from faculty to faculty to engage in
a series of town halls to meet with
faculty, staff and students. Together,
we will have the opportunity to review
and reflect upon our priorities – a
chance for me to listen to you, and to
speak with you about your concerns
and our collective aspirations.
I will be seeking informal opportunities to benefit from the thinking
and advice of academic colleagues
from all faculties, including Faculty
Scholars, Distinguished University Professors, and other faculty members
who can provide me with the diverse
perspectives of all disciplines.
I will also take concrete steps to
engage our staff and employee group
leaders, whose work is so critical to the
success of our academic enterprise
including Campus Council to hear
their concerns and ideas.
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
I will meet more regularly with student and alumni leaders and provide
more opportunities for active discussion.
I will also increase my engagement
with the deans, a process that has
already started.
These are just some initial ideas
that together we will build on in the
next 100 days, so that we can begin
implementing them by the start of the
next academic term.
I’m open to all ideas, and I want to
hear from you.
Another message I have heard
clearly is that we need to improve
Western’s model of collegial governance.
The issues surrounding my contract
have brought into stark reality that the
Board, the Senate and our broader
campus community do not have a
shared understanding of the most
constructive ways to conduct the business of the academy.
We must identify the real problems
that keep these two important governance bodies in silos. Then, together,
we must find real solutions for breaking down those walls, while preserving
the unique role each plays in guiding
our institution.
There is much to be done.
We all know these are uncertain
and challenging times in the postsecondary education sector in Canada,
particularly here in Ontario.
We are seeing government operating grants to our universities shrink
while costs and demands on our institutions continue to rise. There is no
question that faculties and administrative support units across our campus
are doing more with less. And we
recognize the financial challenges
students face in pursuing their studies.
The spotlight on my salary and
administrative leave has also started
a critical conversation about how universities attract and retain leadership
talent, and the broader fiscal realities
facing higher education in our prov-
Western Reads
Short Stories
Join us for our April book club discussions:
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Wednesday, April 22
12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
The Book Store, Lower Level, UCC
RSVP to Pam Kenward at
[email protected]
Community Gallery, Museum London
421 Ridout St N, London
RSVP alumni.westernu.ca/learn/western-reads
alumni.westernu.ca/learn/western-reads
#purplereads
ince. It is a conversation I support and
encourage.
That’s why I endorse our Board of
Governors’ decision to conduct an
independent and impartial review of
my contract and compensation.
Despite these challenges and the
work of ahead of us, let’s not lose sight
of what we’ve achieved together in six
short years – together, we have made
great progress, but there is still much
left to do.
I wish to acknowledge all those who
have expressed their support for me
over the course of the last two weeks.
I have found much encouragement
and reason for optimism in the many
messages I’ve received from students,
staff, faculty, alumni and friends.
Fellow Senators and colleagues,
when I accepted the terms of my contract, I did not anticipate the groundswell of concern it would create. I have
heard your concerns. I take them very
seriously. And the intensity of that
concern is itself proof that I made
a mistake. For this I am profoundly
sorry. Again, I ask for your forgiveness.
When I was installed as president in
2009, I pledged to give my heart and
soul and devote all my energy to the
service of Western. Today, I renew the
same pledge to you to give my heart
and soul and to devote all my energy
to work with you to advance our common goals.
It is my sincerest hope that together
we can continue our work, make our
voices heard and change Western
and, indeed, the world, for the better.
Before I hand the floor back to the
chair for Q&A, it is critical that we
have an objective discussion of our
budget here today, separate from the
concerns around my compensation
and leadership.
It is important to consider and offer
advice on the university’s budget for
2015-16, a document produced out of
our collective planning process, one
that involves the honest, substantial
labours of colleagues in departments,
faculties and support units across
campus.
8
Western News
| April 16, 2015
SENATE DEBATE // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The UWOFA statement called for three actions:
• An independent, objective and full review of the state
of governance at Western, including the operations
of the Senate and the Board of Governors;
• An independent review of compensation practices
related to all senior administrators at Western; and
• The development of a more transparent budget
process that properly sustains all of the faculties
and frontline services to which the university has
committed itself.
Noticeably absent from the statement, however, was
any endorsement of the non-confidence question facing
the Senate or any call for the president’s resignation. The
letter simply stated that decision “remains in the hands of
the Senate.”
“UWOFA was out in front from the start on this. We
felt our members would be looking to us for a position,”
said Alison Hearn, UWOFA president. “The membership
already voted non-confidence in the president. They
showed their frustrations. But the board wanted to make
sure we are part of the conversation going forward.
“Whether the president stays or goes, these things need
to be addressed.”
On April 2, UWOFA, which represents more than 1,600
faculty members, voted 94 per cent in favour (54 per cent
of members represented) of a non-confidence resolution
concerning Chakma and Western Board of Governors
Chair Chirag Shah.
“Some people are concerned about what will happen if
he (Chakma) goes; others want him out as soon as possible.
No matter what the outcome, the most important thing
is that a full debate of the motion be had at Senate this
Friday,” Hearn said. “We all know there is so much work
to do, and so much doubt and mistrust, that we believe an
apology is good, but actions are better.”
All this positioning takes place as the university Senate
prepares to hold a special meeting to discuss its motion of
non-confidence in the president.
Senate by-laws require a special meeting be held upon
a written request from a minimum of seven Senators. Such
a request must state the business of the proposed meeting
at the time it is made. Last week, 22 Senators requested the
meeting to discuss the proposed motion: “That the Senate
of the University of Western Ontario has lost confidence in
President Amit Chakma.”
A second motion concerning the leadership of the
Board of Governors was added to the Senate agenda
Wednesday morning by the Senate’s Operations/Agenda
Committee, chaired by Health Sciences Dean Jim Weese,
who will chair the special meeting as well. That proposed
motion reads: “That the Senate of the University of Western
Ontario has lost confidence in Chair of the Board of
Governors President Chirag Shah.”
Once inside the meeting, regular parliamentary rules
apply. The motion will need to be brought to the floor and
seconded. It is then open to the same range of procedural
motions as any other motion. For example, the motion
can be amended in any number of ways (except if an
amendment would negate the “original sense” of the
motion) – a decision could be postponed to a particular
time or indefinitely, or the motion could be referred
to a committee or subgroup for further consideration,
explained Irene Birrell, Secretary of the Senate.
The meeting is open to the public, however, given it
concerns personnel decisions, a Senator could ask for a
vote to move the discussion into close session. The request
would need to be approved by the Senate, however.
The final motion requires a majority of the Senators
present and voting to vote in favour. There are currently
101 voting members of Senate; quorum is 51. As a voting
member, Chakma can cast a vote.
In the end, however, a Senate non-confidence vote is
non-binding. If approved, the results would go to the Board
of Governors for action.
Although unprecedented at Western, non-confidence
votes – or even a near non-confidence votes – in university
presidents are not unheard of among postsecondary
schools in Canada, and far more so in the United States.
In September 2013, a motion to hold a vote of nonconfidence against the president and provost of the
University of Regina failed by a single vote. In March 2011,
the Academic Senate of Nipissing University passed a
motion of non-confidence in President Lesley LovettDoust, over what the governing body described as blatant
disrespect for the senate and concerns about numerous
administrative decisions, including naming the school’s
library after former Ontario Premier Mike Harris. LovettDoust resigned less than a year later.
In the United States, the University of AlabamaBirmingham (UAB) senate passed a non-confidence motion
in its president just a few months ago over governance
style – and the fact he disbanded the university’s football
team. But UAB was far from unique, as senates questioned
confidence in presidents at the University of Illinois,
“It is naive and misguided to think a
non-confidence vote is about nothing
more than wagging your finger at the
president; there are deeper – and far
more serious – implications.”
- Iain Scott
City University of New York, Emory University, Marshall
University and New York University, in just the last year or so.
But don’t let novelty cloud the seriousness of the vote,
two deans are stressing.
“It is naive and misguided to think a non-confidence
vote is about nothing more than wagging your finger at
the president; there are deeper – and far more serious
– implications,” said Iain Scott, Law Dean and Senator.
“If the Senate wants to express its frustration at what
happened, I get it. Let’s move forward from there. We can
take the issues raised and have a broader conversation to
create a landscape for success for the future direction and
leadership of Western.
“But, as soon as we layer on the fact we have no
confidence in our leader and his team, then we are not
doing what is in the best interest of the university.”
Scott remains convinced an affirmed non-confidence
motion means the president will have a very difficult
decision to make. He doesn’t think there is a leader of any
organization who would be able to continue to lead after
losing the confidence of the body they represent, Scott
continued.
“The Senate needs to park its annoyance – and, yes,
some might call it anger – at the door. Those who think
they can vote non-confidence and all will be OK, they
simply don’t get it. I am gravely concerned by it. I am
concerned that people see it as an admonition that has no
consequences. I believe it has grave consequences.”
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry Dean and
Senator Dr. Michael Strong has “never seen anything more
challenging” in his career than the events of the last few
weeks. Like Scott, he warned Senate action will echo well
beyond campus.
“What would Saturday morning look like? I don’t know
if anyone has thought of that,” Strong asked. “People
outside the university will not see this as an internal debate
or understand the complexity of the issues being brought
forward. They will see it only as an issue arising from the
Sunshine List. It will cast us in a difficult light, cast us as
being dysfunctional, as having set up this difficult dynamic.
The perception would be, ‘Why invest in Western right
now? They need to straighten their own shop.’
“We cannot appear, as a university, to be disorganized
and have a leadership void at this time.”
If the motion fails, Strong still expects action from the
president. He wants Senate to make its expectations clear,
that the president return to the governing body with a plan
to begin to bring the university back together as a cohesive
unit and set the groundwork for his eventual successor.
“As a university, we should be capable of putting
things into perspective and talk about what’s best for the
university,” Strong continued. “This isn’t about arguments
not being valid or invalid; this is about addressing those
underlying issues.
“The president has received the message very clearly.
The Senate has spoken. It is time to move past that now
and ask, ‘How do we move forward?’”
“Some people are concerned about what
will happen if he (Chakma) goes; others
want him out as soon as possible. No
matter what the outcome, the most
important thing is that a full debate of
the motion be had at Senate this Friday.”
- Alison Hearn
UWOFA President
IF YOU GO
The meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Richard Ivey
Building, Room 1100. Doors will open around 1:10 p.m., as a
previously scheduled Ivey event abutting the Senate start time will
delay opening of doors.
Western News
Meet the Senate
The university Senate consists of members from administration, all faculties and schools,
staff, undergraduate and graduate students, representatives of affiliated colleges and
observers. It is responsible for the academic policy of the university. Below are the
current members of the university Senate:
EXOFFICIO (20 voting members,
one non-voting)
Vacancy, Chancellor
Amit Chakma, President & ViceChancellor
Janice Deakin, Provost & VicePresident (Academic)
Gitta Kulczycki, Vice-President
(Resources & Operations)
John Capone, Vice-President
(Research)
Kelly Cole, Vice-President (External)
Linda Miller, Vice-Provost (School of
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies)
Michael Milde, Arts and Humanities
dean
Robert Kennedy, Richard Ivey School
of Business dean
Vicki Schwean, Education dean
Andy Hrymak, Engineering dean
Jim Weese, Health Sciences dean
Tom Carmichael, Information and
Media Studies (FIMS) dean
W. Iain Scott Dean, Law dean
Michael Strong, Schulich School of
Medicine& Dentistry dean
Betty Anne Younker, Don Wright
Faculty of Music dean
Charmaine Dean, Science dean
Brian Timney, Social Science dean
Catherine Steeves, Vice-Provost and
Chief Librarian
Glen Tigert, Registrar
Irene Birrell, Secretary of the Senate
(non-voting)
Volker Nolte (Kinesiology)
Dan Belliveau (Health Studies)
Mary Anne Andrusyszyn (Nursing)
FIMS
Carole Farber
Jacquie Burkell
Law
Bernd Hovius
Mysty Clapton
Schulich
George Dresser (Medicine)
Marina Salvadori (Paediatrics)
Graeme Hunter (Dentistry)
Gregory Dekaban (Microbiology and
Immunology)
Bertha Garcia (Pathology)
Music
John Cuciurean (Music Research and
Composition)
Paul Woodford (Music Education)
Science
Robert Mercer (Computer Science)
Burns Cheadle (Earth Science)
Viktor N. Staroverov (Chemistry)
Yining Huang (Chemistry)
Neil Banerjee (Earth Sciences)
Social Science
Paul-Philippe Pare (Sociology)
Jean-Francois Millaire (Anthropology)
Daniel Brou (Management and
Organizational Studies (MOS))
Julie Aitken Schermer (MOS)
Diana Mok (Geography/MOS)
ELECTED FACULTY
(46 voting members)
Arts & Humanities
John Hatch (Visual Arts)
Joel Faflak (English)
Bernd Steinbock (Classical Studies)
Jane Toswell (English and Writing
Studies)
Jacques Lamarche (French)
Ivey Business School
Mary Crossan
Derrick Neufeld
Education
Shelley Taylor
Alan Leschied
Engineering
Kamran Siddiqui (Mechanical and
Materials)
Kibret Mequanint (Chemical and
Biochemical)
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Catherine Nolan (Music)
Andrew Nelson (Anthropology)
Chris Brown (ClassicalStudies)
NadineWathen (FIMS)
Pam Bishop (Education)
Timothy Newson (Civil and
Environmental Engineering)
Karen Danylchuk (Kinesiology)
Andrew Watson (Schulich)
Carol Jones (Sciences, Dean’s Office)
Katrina Moser (Geography)
Health Sciences
Bev Leipert (Nursing)
AFFILIATED
UNIVERSITYCOLLEGES
(Nine voting)
Brescia University College
Colleen Hanycz, principal
Donna Rogers (Arts and Humanities)
Colleen O’Connor (Food and
Nutrition)
Huron University College
Stephen McClatchie, principal
Todd Townshend (Theology)
Neil Brooks (Arts and Social Science)
King’s University College
David Sylvester, principal
Claude Olivier (Social Work)
Sauro Camiletti (Economics, Business
and Mathematics)
STUDENTS (18 voting members)
UNDERGRADUATES (14)
Arts & Humanities/Music
Paul Scala (School for Advanced
Studies in Arts & Humanities)
Science
Ahmed El-Boraie (BMSc)
FIMS/Social Science
Brandon Palin (BMOS)
Andrew Fedyk (Political Science)
Business/Education/Engineering/
Law
Derrick Dodgson (Law)
Health Sciences/Schulich
Laura Crich (Health Sciences)
Brescia, Huron and King’s
Christopher Niesel (Huron)
Nate Sussman (Huron)
At Large
Liam Brown (Social Science)
Conor McGarvey (Social Science)
Nikki Pilo (Social Science/Arts &
Humanities)
Graeme Westwood (Social Science)
Richard Sookraj (FIMS)
Bryce Paxton (BMSc)
Graduate students
Thomas Sutherland (Chemistry)
Paul G. St-Pierre (FIMS)
Shannon Mischler (Psychology)
Tom McMurrough (Biochemistry)
| April 16, 2015
T. JOHN BRANTON
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER
Your investment portfolios are only
one component of your financial plan
John is a fourth generation Londoner, Western
graduate, active alumni and has provided trusted
wealth management services to Western faculty
and staff since 1984.
For a personal consultation to discuss the
benefits of independent financial advice, call
519-204-4647
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
(Two voting members)
Deborah Coward (Registrar’s Office)
Catherine Wilkins (Libraries)
GENERAL COMMUNITY
(Five voting)
Alumni Association
John Eberhard, president
Carol-Lynn Chambers
Suzanne Aziz McDonald
Elected by Senate
Jacob Malkin
Valerie Nielsen
BOARD OF GOVERNORS
(Two voting members)
Jim Knowles
Matthew Wilson
OBSERVERS (non-voting)
Kathleen Okrhulik, Academic
Colleague
Ruban Chelladurai, Associate VicePresident (Planning, Budgeting and
Information Technology)
Alan Weedon, Vice-Provost
(Academic Planning, Policy & Faculty)
John Doerksen, Vice-Provost
(Academic Programs)
Julie McMullin, Vice-Provost
(International)
Angie Mandich, Associate VicePresident (Student Experience)
Lori Gribbon, Director,
Undergraduate Recruitment and
Admissions, Office of the Registrar
Mark Blagrave, Dean, Faculty of Arts
and Humanities, Huron
Alison Hearn, President, University of
Western Ontario Faculty Association
(UWOFA)
Courtney Waugh, UWOFALibrarians/Archivists Representative
Matt Helfand, President, University
Students’ Council (USC)
Graham O’Neill, President, Master of
Business Administration Association
Kevin Godbout, President, Society of
Graduate Students (SOGS)
Jiro Inoue, President of the
Postdoctoral Association at Western
(PAW)
Procurement Services invites all
Western Faculty & Staff to our
2015 Travel Forum
Come and meet our preferred travel vendors
including our new travel management
company, FCm Travel Solutions.
Friday, April 24, 2015
10am – 2pm, Great Hall
Enter to win one of the many available prizes!
9
10
Western News
| April 16, 2015
On Campus
Senate gives budget OK with eye on uncertain future
B Y A D E L A TA L B O T
WITH A PROVINCIAL deficit at
record high levels, Western is facing
a somewhat uncertain fiscal future as
it embarks on a new four-year budget
cycle, according to a report heard by
university Senate April 10.
The provincial government has
missed its expected revenue targets,
as well as its savings targets, as outlined in the previous budget. Resultant cuts to the postsecondary sector,
and a tuition framework that limits
domestic tuition increases to 3 per
cent through 2017, means Western
doesn’t know what to expect in the
next four-year budget cycle, said Janice Deakin, provost and vice-president
(academic), who tabled the budget
to Senate.
What the university does know, she
added, is Western will have a significant reduction in grant-associated
revenue.
“Our (budget) planning is guided
by our Strategic Plan and a number
of other considerations. This budget is embarking on a new four-year
cycle. At the beginning, we have more
assumptions than we have solid information,” Deakin said.
Assumptions related to enrolments
make for tenuous predictions in revenue coming from tuition, and enrolment affects resources and revenue
sharing that goes to faculties. Planning and budgeting depends heav-
ily upon enrolment, she continued,
noting targets are still being met and
the number of undergraduate international students continues to climb
to above 10 per cent.
“But there’s a good news story:
We continue to attract very bright
students at Western. We’ve grown,
from when I first arrived, from a class of
4,350 to a class of 5,160 this fall. Enrolment planning going forward looks
at relatively modest or attenuated
growth,” she said.
From 2011 to present, there has
been a five-fold increase in enrolmentrelated funding going to faculties –
going from $7.4 million to just under
$35 million today, Deakin added.
With the BEd program switching to
a two-year model, however, Western
will lose 50 per cent of enrolment
there and will, as a result, take a hit to
its operational revenue coming from
tuition.
“This context sets the stage for the
2015-16 budget. Above all, we want
to maintain the gains we’ve made in
quality and experience in students
and education. The budget attempts
to manage our resources and deploy
them in ways that are guided by the
Strategic Plan,” she continued.
In the 2015-16 budget, the projected total revenue for the university
is roughly $693 million. Total expenditures amount to nearly the same
amount, leaving a surplus of little
more than $260,000. An operating
reserve of almost $34 million is projected over the next four years.
“In Year One, projections are more
variable. As time passes, they are
more subject to changes,” Deakin
noted.
Meanwhile, government grants coming into Western are predicted to plummet by $1.7 million this year alone. An
overall revenue increase for the next
year, however, is projected at 1.6 per
cent, totaling about $10.6 million.
In the following fiscal year, grants
will account for roughly 40 per cent,
or $280 million, while tuition will contribute 47 per cent of the operating
budget, totaling about $322 million.
All other revenue sources will contribute 13 per cent, or $90 million,
Deakin said.
It’s important to note here that 64
per cent of operating dollars generally go to Western’s 11 faculties, she
added.
“Western’s expenditure related to
instruction and research runs at 64.2
per cent. In our sister institutions, the
average spending across Ontario is
57.9 per cent. As for what is spent
on non-research, non-instructional
expenditures, Western spends 28.5
per cent of overall expenditures. The
provincial average is 35.5 per cent,”
Deakin said.
Western also has $30 million slotted
for scholarships and bursaries this year
– an increase of $180,000.
Long-term space plans on campus
will account to a one-time move of
$10 million to high-priority projects,
including the renovations to the Don
Wright Faculty of Music Building, the
construction of the new Faculty of
Information and Media Studies and
Nursing building and renovations to
University College.
While there were no particular contentions raised, Senator Jane Toswell,
who teaches in the Department of
English and Writing Studies, suggested an amendment to the budget that would see $8 million moved
around to support a collective fund for
Western’s deans.
“I have dozens of emails in my
inbox telling me to vote against this
budget, and my heart tells me I should
vote against this budget, but my head
and my gut – they’re telling me not to
do that. I’ve been in a state of total
and complete disarray for the last
several days trying to figure out what
would reconcile and what I’ve come
up with is a motion to amend the
budget,” Toswell said.
“I want to propose we take $8 million out of various clutches of money
for research, and we give it to the
deans to spend. I say that because I
have been struck by how many people
have been telling me that they don’t
have any staff anymore, that their staff
are retiring and not getting replaced.”
Toswell suggested Senate dip
into the academic priorities fund, the
endowed chairs program and match-
ing funds set aside for Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario
Research Fund grants.
“It is, I admit, robbing Peter to pay
Paul – it might be something nobody
is going to want to do,” she added.
In response, Schulich School of
Medicine & Dentistry Dean Michael
Strong stood up against the amendment, noting he is both Peter and Paul
and would be at a loss on all fronts,
regardless where the money came
from. Arts & Humanities Dean Michael
Milde and Social Sciences Dean Brian
Timney also expressed sentiments
against the motion and, in the end,
the motion was defeated.
The Senate approved the budget,
which goes to the Board of Governors
on April 23.
“This context sets the
stage for the 2015-16
budget. Above all, we
want to maintain the
gains we’ve made in
quality and experience
in students and
education.”
- Janice Deakin
Provost and vice-president (academic)
Western News
Research
| April 16, 2015
Taste our fusion of fresh
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School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Stan Van Uum, a new hair analysis may shed light on up to three
years of the body’s production of the
hormone cortisol. And what that ‘time
machine’ reveals may just save the
lives of patients struggling with adrenal imbalance.
“I compare (the test) to the rings
of a tree that you can go back and
see things that have happened in the
past,” said Van Uum, who works in
the divisions of Clinical Pharmacology
and Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Cortisol, produced by the adrenal
glands, is normally released during
stressful situations and controls the
body’s use of carbohydrates, fats and
proteins. By doing so, it helps reduce
the immune system’s response to
swelling or inflammation.
Known as the ‘stress hormone,’
cortisol reveals itself during ‘fight or
flight’ moments and is responsible for
positive effects, such as quick bursts
of energy or immunity, lower sensitivity to pain, even heightened memory
functions.
Problems occur when this hormone
swings wildly one way or another and
doctors need to formulate a plan to
treat the imbalance.
“With any hormone, too much is
not good and too little is not good,”
Van Uum said.
For cortisol, low levels can cause
gastrointestinal symptoms, such as
nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weight
loss. Extremely low levels can cause
severe sickness or even death. On
the flip side, high levels can lead
to Cushing’s Disease, whose symptoms include high blood pressure,
decreased peripheral vision and
impaired immunological function.
These could require surgery.
An accurate picture of the problem,
and what role cortisol played in it, is
key to proper treatment for patients.
But until now, there was no way to
look into the symptoms’ past.
“Any test you do – blood, urine,
saliva – only tells you what’s happening now, and not what happened in
the past,” Van Uum said. “When a
patient says the symptoms started
earlier, there was never a way for us
to verify the symptoms, and if the
disease started earlier. You had to go
on their word.”
Van Uum’s test uses hair to measure cortisone levels and diagnose
patients struggling with adrenal
imbalance before they need to start
treatment.
On average, hair grows around
one centimetre a month. Therefore, a 12-centimetre strand
would provide a year’s worth of
information on cortisol levels.
Having results that go back as
far as three years – depending on
the length of the hair – will support
physicians in making a proper diagnosis, Van Uum said.
One patient Van Uum looked at
was a 19-year-old woman admitted to hospital with nausea,
11
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Meteorite Impact Events
by
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Department of Earth Sciences and
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Faculty of Science
at
3:30 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015
Physics and Astronomy Building, Room 100
Complimentary Reception to follow in the Atrium.
This lecture will be of general interest and
everyone is welcome to attend.
SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Stan Van Uum, a Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor in the
divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Endocrinology and Metabolism,
has developed a new hair analysis to help patients struggling with
adrenal imbalance.
vomiting, a urinary tract infection and
severe hypotension that necessitated
a five-day stay in the intensive care
unit (ICU). Her test showed an acute
adrenal insufficiency crisis. Aldosterone and renin levels (expected to
be low and high, respectively) were
not measured, and the patient was
prescribed hydrocortisone and fludrocortisone.
A more detailed history, using the
hair test, sug-
gested the adrenal insufficiency developed much earlier than detected. The
patient provided a hair sample (about
36 cm in length), and it showed a
decline in cortisol production started
almost three years before her admission to the ICU and coincided with
the onset of symptoms of her adrenal
insufficiency.
Should diagnosis require a patient
need treatment, such as hydrocortisone, this method could also be used
as a way to determine the effectiveness of the treatment – too much
or not enough – and whether
it should be continued or
another form of treatment sought.
NOTICE TO JOIN THE ACADEMIC PROCESSION
305th CONVOCATION - SPRING 2015
Spring Convocation takes place Tuesday, June 9 to Friday, June 12 and
Monday, June 15 to Wednesday, June 17 with ceremonies at 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Members of Faculty, Senate, the Board of Governors and Emeritus/a Professors/
Archivists/Librarians are invited to take part in the Academic Procession. Full
information on joining the academic procession (including order of ceremony,
honorary degree recipients, assembly and regalia) may be found on the
Senate Website:
uwo.ca/univsec/senate/convocation/index.html
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PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
12
Western News
| April 16, 2015
Honours
Hellmuth
Prize 2015
Western professors Shiva Singh
(Biology) and Robert Young (PolitiSPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
cal Science) have been awarded the
2015 Hellmuth Prize for Achievement
in Research. The honour recognizes
faculty members with outstanding
international reputations for their
contributions in research – one of the
defining hallmarks of a university. Two
prizes are offered annually, one in the
area broadly defined as the natural
ROBERT YOUNG, POLITICAL SCIENCE
sciences and engineering and one in
Over the course of his career, Political Science professor
Robert Young has not only made multiple field-defining achievements in Political Science, but he has also dedicated himself to
becoming one of Canada’s most prominent public intellectuals
regarding issues of secession, in the context of both Quebec
and, most recently, Scotland.
Young has also made several important contributions to policy
debates surrounding issues of free trade policy and multilevel
governance. It is the rare combination of his work on the public
stage and his continuously innovative academic research that
has distinguished his research enterprise and defined Young as
an internationally renowned political scientist.
“Robert Young has not only helped shape the field of Political
Science with his exceptional academic work, he has also vividly
the social sciences and humanities.
This year’s awards ceremony and lectures will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, in the Arts & Humanities
Building, Room 1R40. A reception will
follow at 4 p.m. in the International
and Graduate Affairs Building Atrium.
left his mark in the public sphere,” said Andrew Nelson, associate dean of research in Social Science. “His lasting legacy and
the influence his work has made, has greatly enriched and contributed to not only academia, but also the cultural and political
landscape of Canada.”
Young’s academic achievements in the field include securing
more than $3.3 million in research funding, almost unparalleled
in the field of political science in Canada. He has made exceptional use of his high level of grant funding, and a testament to
this fact is he has written 91 peer-reviewed articles and book
chapters, the majority of which have appeared in the most prestigious journals and anthologies in his field.
Young will deliver his Hellmuth Prize Lecture, Nurturing
Research, at the April 22 event.
Western News
| April 16, 2015
WESTERN NEWS FILE PHOTO
A PROUD TRADITION
SHIVA SINGH, BIOLOGY
Biology professor Shiva Singh has shown great vision and
persistence in advancing his research, using the innovative
perspectives and technological advances of the genomic era.
His research program in the area of genetics, epigenetics and
neurogenomics seeks to understand the factors involved in
complex multifactorial diseases including fetal alcohol syndrome
and schizophrenia.
Singh’s area of research is challenging given the difficulty in
identifying causal genes, mutations and mechanisms for such
diseases when the genes are many, their individual effects small
and their impact modified by environmental factors, said Charmaine Dean, dean of Science.
“His service work in the Canadian genetics community,
national granting agencies and university is commendable,” said
Dean, noting Singh established, and continues to support, one
of the strongest undergraduate genetics program in Canada.
“He has been visionary and persistent in placing his research
program ahead of his peers and laying a solid foundation. His
contributions to research and the achievements of his students
have been recognized nationally and internationally.”
Singh’s approach has been highly successful, producing more
than 200 peer-reviewed papers in top journals, generating more
than $15 million in research funds and training 122 researchers
at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels. In addition, he has supervised more than 70 undergraduate research
students in the last ten years.
Singh will deliver his lecture, Four decades in genetics ... we
have come a long way!, at the April 22 event.
Previous winners of the Hellmuth Prize for Achievement in
Research include:
1997 – Alan Davenport, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Ian
Steele, History;
1998 – William Fyfe, Earth Sciences, and Tom Lennon, Philosophy;
1999 – Michael Bancroft, Chemistry, and David Laidler, Economics;
2000 – Richard Puddephatt, Chemistry, and Regna Darnell,
Anthropology;
2001 – Michael Locke, Biology, and Tilottama Rajan, English;
2002 – Grant McFadden, Microbiology and Immunology, and Angela
Esterhammer, Modern Languages and Literatures;
2003 – Peter Norton, Chemistry, and Marilyn Randall, French
Studies;
2004 – Robert Hegele, Medicine & Biochemistry, and David Bentley,
English;
2005 – Ian Mitchell, Physics, and Richard Vernon, Political Science;
2006 – Mel Goodale, Psychology and Physiology and Pharmacology,
and Joy Parr, Faculty of Information and Media Studies;
2007 – William Fisher, Psychology, and Rajni Patel, Electrical and
Computer Engineering;
2008 – Aaron Fenster, Robarts Research Institute, Schulich, and
Patrick Mahon, Visual Arts;
2009 – Brian Feagan, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and John
Whalley, Economics;
2010 – Gregor Reid, Lawson Health Research Institute, and Heather
Laschinger, Health Sciences;
2011 – Ann Chambers, Lawson Health Research Institute, and
Michael Groden, English;
2012 – John Meyer, Psychology, and Terry Peters, Medical Imaging
and Medical Biophysics;
2013 - Paul Beamish, Ivey Business School, and Adrian Owen,
Psychology; and
2014 - Stewart Harris, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and
Charles Weijer, Arts & Humanities.
Western Finance - Year End Deadlines
The University’s year end is Thursday, April 30, 2015. All transactions occurring before year end must be dated April 30, 2015 or earlier to be
included in the 2014/2015 budget year. It is the responsibility of each department to submit its accounting records before the deadlines
listed below. The transactions received before these deadlines will be included in the 2014/2015 budget year.
www.gibbonsparkmontessori.com
710 Adelaide Street N., just south of Oxford St.
CASH RECEIPTS
TRAVEL EXPENSES/TRAVEL ADVANCES
All cheques and cash must be deposited by the central cashier on or
before Thursday April 30, 2015 in order to be processed with an April
date. All deposits made after April 30 will be May dated. In order to
accommodate year end processing, the cashier hours will be extended
as follows: April 29 & 30 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 and 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Travel costs for non-Western employees incurred prior to April 30, 2015
must be submitted no later than Friday, April 24, 2015. Employees must
use the on-line travel expense system. On-line expense reports must
be approved by the final approver by April 30, 2015 to be included in
the 2014/2015 budget year. All outstanding travel advances should be
cleared by that date. Hard copies of on-line expense reports with original
receipts attached must be forwarded to the Travel desk, SSB 6100 by
Monday, May 11, 2015.
PETTY CASH
Expenses incurred prior to April 30, 2015 must be submitted through the
central cashier no later than Friday May 1, 2015 to be processed with an
April date. It is strongly encouraged that petty cash claims be submitted
prior to April 30 where possible to ensure your claim will be processed in
the 2014/2015 budget year. The cashier will be accepting petty cash
reimbursements up to and including May 1, 2015.
PAYROLL INSTRUCTIONS
Regular and vacation pay for part-time employees and any overtime
owed to employees should be paid in April. Financial Services will
accrue payroll from April 19 to 25, 2015.
For information or a
personal tour, call
519- 660-8731 or email:
gibbonsparkmontessori
@hotmail.com
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE INVOICES
PURCHASING INSTRUCTIONS
All April dated invoices for external customers must be finalized and
printed by 3:00 p.m. on April 30, 2015.
Gibbons Park
Montessori School
The last day for submission of the physical inventory sheets is Tuesday,
May 5, 2015.
Purchase orders for goods and services received in the 2014/2015
budget year and invoiced before May 1, 2015 must be approved and
released in Mustang Market by April 30, 2015 to be processed
in the 2014/2015 budget year. Purchase orders for goods and
services shipped, received and invoiced after May 1, 2015 will
be committed against the 2015/2016 budget year.
• Unique Parkland Location
• Toddler and Preschool
• Elementary
• Daily French Classes
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• SUMMER CAMP
INTERDEPARTMENTAL CHARGES
INVENTORIES
Interdepartmental charges for goods received or services rendered before
April 30, 2015 must be dated April 30, 2015 or prior and journaled no
later than Friday, May 1, 2015. Ensure the Accounting Date on the Journal
Entry Header Panel is changed to April 30, 2015.
13
Suppliers’ invoices must be in Accounts Payable,
[email protected] or SSB 6100, no later than May
1, 2015. Invoices received after this date will be
processed in the 2015/2016 budget year.
14
Western News
| April 16, 2015
// ACADEME
PhD Lectures
Magdalena Kubow, History, The Origins of the Holocaust Reconsidered:
Contemporary Reactions to Genocide
with a Focus on The Role of the Foreign
Language Press 1926-1945, 10:30 a.m.
April 16, SSC 9420.
Regah Saremirad, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Towards Intensified Protein Refolding and Purification on Size Exlusion Chromatography:
Fundamental Studies and Mathematical
Modelling, 2 p.m. April20, SEB 3102.
Andrew Thomas Reyes, Nursing, Nursing Students’ Understanding and Enactment of Resilience: A Grounded Theory
Study, 1 p.m. HAS H4.
Xin Wang, Statistics, Online Nonparametric Estimation of Stochastic Differential Equations, 1 p.m. April 16, WSC 248.
Ryan Middleton, Philosophy, Weaving
the Statesman: the Unity of Plato’s Politicus, 9 a.m. April 20, StvH 3101.
Vladimir Nikolic, CEE, Multi-method
Modeling Framework for Support of
Integrated Water Resources Management, 8:30 a.m. April 16, SEB 2094.
Nilohit Mitra Ray, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, A Comprehensive Study Of Esterification Of Free Fatty
Acid To Biodiesel In a Simulated Moving
Bed System, 2 p.m. April 21, SEB 3102.
Wayne Robert Grey, Mathematics,
Inclusions Among Mixed-Norm $L^P$
Spaces, 1:30 p.m. April 16, MC 107.
Alexandre Scott, Applied Mathematics, Extensions of the Cross-Entropy
Method with Applications to Diffusion
Processes and Portfolio Losses, 9 a.m.
April 16, MC 204.
Sarah Elizabeth Stenabaugh, Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Design
Wind Loads for Solar Modules Mounted
Parallel to the Roof of a Low-rise Building, 9:30 a.m. April 17, BLWT 130.
Nedal Mohamed, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Experimental and
Numerical Study of Full-Scale Precast
Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete Pipes,
2:30 p.m. April 17, SEB 3109.
Baraa Al-Khazraji, Medical Biophysics,
Novel Techniques For Investigating The
Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Hemodynamics, 9 a.m. April 17, MSB 384.
Ferdinando Crapulli, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Disinfection and
advanced oxidation of highly absorbing
fluids by UV/VUV light: process modeling
and validation, 2 p.m. April 17, SEB 3102.
Martin A. Vezer, Philosophy, Aggregating Evidence in Climate Science: Consilience , Robustness and the Wisdom
of Multiple Models, 10 a.m. April 17,
StvH 2150H.
Joshua Tobias, Geography, “We are
the Land”: Researching Environmental
Repossession with Anishinaabe Elders,
1 p.m. April 17, SSC 9420.
Jillian Bracken, Music, Family Music Listening Legacies: A Case Study-based
Investigation of the Intergenerational
Transmission of Music Listenership Values
in Five Families, 10 a.m. April 20, TC 310.
Martin Huard, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Residence Time Distribution Measurements and Modelling
in a Circulating Fluidized Bed Downer
Reactor, 10:30 a.m. April 20, CMLP 60.
Patrick Swan, Physiology and Pharmacology, Mechanisms of ATF4-mediated
neuronal apoptosis, 9 a.m. April 20,
DSB 2016.
Peggy Nzomo, Library and Information Science, Multilingual Information
Access: Practices and Perceptions of
Bi/multilingual Academic Users, 9 a.m.
April 20, NCB 293.
Jiazi Liu, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Novel Physical Layer Authentication Techniques for Secure Wireless
Communications, 9 a.m. April 20, TEB 234.
Melanie Guigueno, Biology, Sex and
Seasonal Differences in Cognition and
the Brain in Brood-parasitic Brownheaded Cowbirds (Molothrus ater), 2:30
p.m. April 20, B&GS 0153.
Ali Fathi-Baghbadorani, Mathematics,
On Spectral Invariants of Dirac Operators on Noncommutative Tori and Curvature of the Determinant Line Bundle
for the Noncommutative Two Torus, 1:30
p.m. April 20, MC 108.
Colleen McGrath, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, ‘I am not disabled.
It’s my environment that makes me
disabled’: A critical ethnography of agerelated vision loss (ARVL) in older adulthood, 1:30 p.m. April 21, EC 2130.
Diego Hernando Cantor Rivera, Biomedical Engineering, Multivariate Analysis of MR Images in Temporal Lobe
Epilepsy, 2 p.m. April 21, RRI Fisher
Conference Room.
Wahab A. Khan, Pathology, Chromatin
Structure and Differential Accessibility
of Homologous Human Mitotic Metaphase Chromosomes, 1 p.m. April 22,
LHSC Aud. C.
Valentina Lago, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Application of
Mechanically Fluidized Reactors to Lignin Pyrolysis, 1 p.m. April 22, SEB 3102.
April 2015 Exam Schedule
Psychological Services
The final April exam schedule is available. Visit registrar.uwo.ca/examinations
for information.
The Student Development Centre is currently offering drop-in counselling to
help students cope with exam stress until
April 24. The drop-in appointments are
available on Monday, Wednesday and
Thursday afternoons, and Friday mornings. For more information, please call
519-661-3031 or visit WSS room 4112.
Tax Receipt Information
T2202As and T4As
T2202As (tuition tax receipts) and T4As
(scholarships, awards and bursaries tax
receipts) for the 2014 tax year are available through your Student Centre (student.uwo.ca). See registrar.uwo.ca for
information on the online tax receipt
services.
Spring Convocation
(June 9-12, 15-17)
Graduates and guests, please check convocation.uwo.ca for Convocation details.
Tickets for the June Convocation will be
available online at the end of May.
Web Registration
Web Registration for summer evening,
distance studies, summer day and intersession is now open through your Student Center (student.uwo.ca).
Writing Support Centre
Call for an appointment at 519-661-3655
or visit sdc.uwo.ca/writing to register for
presentations.
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Great Byron Mature
Resident Location!
Flannery Surette, Anthropology, Virú
and Moche Textiles on the North Coast
of Peru during the Early Intermediate
Period: Material Culture, Domestic Traditions and Elite Fashions, 12 p.m. April
22, SSC 9420.
Sanaz Sadat Golriz, Astronomy, Stellar Spectroscopy: New Methods and
Insights, 9 a.m. April 22, P&AB 100.
Anna Zuschlag, History, Green Berets
and Gay Deceivers: The New Left, The
Vietnam Draft and American Masculinity, 1:30 p.m. April 22, SSC 9420.
April 11–30: Final examination period.
April 30: Second term ends for all
faculties except Dentistry, Education,
Law and Medicine. Last day to receive
applications for graduation: Spring Convocation.
May 1: Last day to withdraw an application for graduation: Spring Convocation. Last day to receive admission
applications for Summer Day courses
from students applying for the first time
- all supporting documentation must be
submitted within seven days of this date.
May 4: Summer Evening and Spring/
Summer Distance Studies courses begin.
For more information, please visit us on
the web at studentservices.uwo.ca and
follow us on Twitter @Western_WSS.
// CAREERS
A central website displays advertisements for all vacant academic posi-
Full-Time Academic Appointments
Faculty of Social Science Department of Political Science
Tenured Associate Professor or
Probationary, Tenure-Track Assistant
Professor
Canadian Politics and/or Local
Government
Invites applications for a tenured associate professor or probationary, tenuretrack assistant professor in Canadian
Politics and/or Local Government. We
seek candidates with research expertise
that would contribute to one of our
signature research areas of Multilevel
Governance. Candidates must have a
completed PhD by the time of appointment on July 1. Closing date: May 1.
All positions are subject to budgetary
approval. Applicants should have fluent
written and oral communication skills
in English. All qualified candidates are
encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will
be given priority. Western is committed
to employment equity and welcomes
applications from all qualified women
and men, including visible minorities,
Aboriginal people and persons with
disabilities.
Welcome to your London Home
the convenience of Apartment Living!
Blossom Gate offers you varied floorplans in either our existing lowrise and highrise
buildings OR one of our newer highrise buildings - rent varies accordingly.
Rebekah Ann Lamb, English, Reading
Boredom in Tennyson, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, William Morris, and Christina
Rossetti, April 22.
Ani Amirmooradian Malhami, Education, Academic Literacies as Documenting Becoming Through Mixed Genre
Texts, 1 p.m. April 22, FEB 1010.
Undergraduate Sessional Dates
tions. The following positions are among
those advertised at uwo.ca/facultyrelations/faculty/academic_positions.html
Please review, or contact the faculty,
school or department directly.
lounge, indoor bicycle storage, keyless entry
• 2 appliances
• Individual heating & cooling system
• Coin-less laundry facilities
• Free outdoor parking
• On-site management office
• Direct bus to downtown & Western Campus
• On-site variety store
• 1/2 block to shopping centre
Fully furnished 3 bedroom
townhouse unit with private
court yard. Nicely maintained.
Non smoking - appliances plus
freezer. Finished recroom,
c/air - $1400.00 plus utilities
per month. References & credit
check required.
Call Marg Petznick, Broker
519-495-6735
Sutton Preferred
Realty Inc., Brokerage
103-625 Kipps Lane (at Adelaide St. N)
519 432-1777
Like us on facebook.com/blossomgate
THE SYMBOL OF QUALITY
// CLASSIFIED
For Rent
Elegant furnished downtown apartment, adult building overlooking Harris
Park, 2 bed, 2 bath, A/C, parking, suitable for faculty or staff. Available for
long-term starting May 1. Inquire by
email to [email protected].
Condo - 3+1 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,
finished basement, double garage,
central vac, 5 appliances, patio. Quiet,
clean, close to Western, bus route and
shopping. Fully furnished. $1,950/month
includes utilities. Contact Karen at [email protected].
// STUDENT BULLETIN
Student Central In-Person Hours
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
and Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday.
Apply to Graduate
The online application for the Spring
2015 Convocation is now open until
April 30 through your Student Centre.
The 2016 Rhodes Scholarships
Every June, the Rhodes Trust announces the launch of its global competition for the Rhodes Scholarships,
eleven of which are designated for Canadian students. The Scholarship supports postgraduate study at
Oxford University in England, and covers both university fees and a stipend for living expenses. Successful
candidates in the upcoming competition will undertake their programs of choice at Oxford in the fall of 2016.
Selection of candidates is made on the basis of extraordinary intellect, outstanding character, the capacity
and instincts for high leadership, demonstrated rigor and commitment to service and extracurricular activity,
with a focus on effecting positive change in the world.
The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies invites interested candidates to contact Paula Menzies
([email protected]) for information on how to apply. The School offers strategic support and mentorship to
applicants preparing their Rhodes scholarship portfolios well in advance of the September 15th university
application deadline. Candidates seeking the endorsement of the President must submit a competitive
application by the deadline and then complete a successful interview by members of
Western’s Rhodes Scholarships Selection Committee. The Canadian Rhodes Scholarships
program information is available at www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/canada.
Western News
Campus Digest
Western adds two new
Canada Research Chairs
PHOTOS BY PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
ALREADY RECOGNIZED AS one of the world’s top
centres for cognitive neuroscience and imaging research,
Western’s Brain & Mind Institute has added two new Canada Research Chairs. Its director, Mel Goodale, also had
his chair renewed for seven years. The chairs are among
Canada’s highest research honours.
As the new Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Cognitive
Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Penny MacDonald,
above, uses modern imaging techniques to understand
the nature and evolution of brain function in Parkinson’s
disease patients. To develop clinical practice recommendations that reliably identify patients who are at risk, she also
looks at how these deficits affect such real-world functions
as driving and navigating complex environments.
“Parkinson’s affects approximately 1 per cent of the
population over age 60 in the industrialized world, and
prevalence is increasing as life expectancy rises,” MacDonald said. “While we are familiar with tremors, slowness
and stiffness typical of the disease, we are increasingly
recognizing deficits in memory, decision-making and planning, which disproportionately affect quality of life and
compromise independence.”
MacDonald, who is also a scientist at Lawson Health
Research Institute, hopes to improve our understanding
of cognitive symptoms in Parkinson’s, while improving
diagnosis and paving the way for treatments for cognitive
dysfunction, which is often currently poorly managed.
Stephen Lomber, right, the new Tier 1 Canada Research
Chair in Brain Plasticity and Development, studies how the
brain changes following hearing loss. This change – known
as plasticity – often helps deaf individuals enhance their
ability to use their remaining senses, including sight and
touch.
“Understanding the natural limits of brain plasticity will
help us develop methods of overcoming these limitations
to promote increased brain plasticity,” Lomber said. “This
increase can lead to improved success in the use of hearing
restoration devices, such as cochlear implants.”
Hearing restoration, particularly in the aging population, is gaining even more attention as studies reveal how
hearing loss hastens cognitive decline in the aged. Having
restored hearing to hundreds of thousands of people
around the world, cochlear implants are extremely useful
for providing sound sensations to deaf individuals and for
making speech comprehension possible. Revealing the
plasticity of the cerebral cortex after cochlear implantation
will make it possible to develop therapeutic strategies to
better serve the needs of the brain, enhance the benefits of
cochlear implants and improve hearing restoration success
in children and the aged.
Lomber is also a member of Western’s National Centre
for Audiology, Canada’s premier hearing science research
centre.
In addition to the new appointments, three Western
chairholders had their CRCs renewed for another term following a full re-application process, including:
• Mel Goodale, Director of the Brain and Mind Institute, Tier 1 CRC in Visual Neuroscience;
• Amanda Moehring, Faculty of Science, Tier 2 CRC in
Functional Genomics; and
• Tilottama Rajan, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Tier 1
CRC in Literary Criticism.
NEWS AND NOTES
GamerLink, a technology startup aiming to improve
online gaming experiences, received $5,000 to grow
their idea into a reality after winning the 4th annual
Seed Your Startup event.
Hosted by Western’s business incubator Propel at
Western and LEAP Junction at Fanshawe College,
Seed Your Startup transitions entrepreneurial ideas
into formalized action plans. More than 50 business
proposals were submitted by Western and Fanshawe
College student for the competition. Five finalists were
selected to refine their idea and pitch their proposal
recently to a panel of London entrepreneurs.
Stephen Poloz, MA’79, PhD’82, Governor of Bank of
Canada, has been named to Canadian Mortgage
Professional magazine’s Hot List for 2015. This list,
compiled annually, honors 50 people who have made
waves in the mortgage industry over the last year.
Nominated by their peers, the honorees range from
small-town mortgage brokers to CEOs of international
companies.
| April 16, 2015
15
16
Western News
| April 16, 2015
An open letter from Western
benefactors, alumni and friends
We, benefactors, alumni and friends of Western, care deeply about this University.
But for weeks now, we have watched as the controversy surrounding Western
President Amit Chakma’s pay threatens to tarnish the reputation of this great
institution. We are disappointed and concerned this controversy has distracted from
Western’s focus on achieving excellence on the world stage.
Today, we respectfully ask that it stop.
A vote of non-confidence is not only unnecessary, but reckless and divisive. We ask
members of the university Senate to vote against the motions of non-confidence facing
it Friday and embrace the president’s call to move forward as a united university.
We call on like-minded faculty, staff and students – and especially on like-minded
alumni, benefactors and friends – to stand up, speak out and get behind this president
and board chair.
We have had the pleasure of seeing first-hand as President Chakma’s vision and ideas
have taken hold. But these accomplishments can only be built upon when faculty, staff,
students and alumni are working together.
We fully endorse the leadership demonstrated by President Chakma and Western’s
Board of Governors. We have the right people, for the right time.
It’s time again to reaffirm our place among the world’s best universities.
Mitchell Baran, HBA’59, LLD’11, C.M.
W. Geoff Beattie, LLB’84
Andrew Chisholm, MBA’85
Jack Cowin, BA’64, LLD’00
Sharon Cowin, BA’64
Stephen R. Coxford, LLB’77
Aubrey Dan, BMOS’85
Perry N. Dellelce, BA’85
Ann Fleming, BScN’66
Libby Fowler, BA’62, LLD’99
Richard M. Ivey, HBA’47,LLD’79, C.C.
Richard W. Ivey, HBA ‘72, LLD’13
Rosamond A. Ivey, HBA’82
Donald K. Johnson, MBA’63, LLD’07, O.C.
Arkadi Kuhlmann, HBA’71, MBA’72, LLD’10
Anthony Little, BA’63
Betsy Little, BA’76
Marg MacLean, BA’83
Kelly Meighen, BA’71, LLD’13
David McCann, BA’82, MBA’86
Pierre L. Morrissette, MBA’72, LLD’10
Dr. Cecil Rorabeck, MD’68, DSc’09, O.C.
Larry J. Rosen, LLB/MBA’82
Joseph C. Shlesinger, MBA’86
Angie Stiller
Dr. Calvin Stiller, DSc’07, O.C.
John M. Thompson, BESc’66, LLD’94, O.C.
*This ad was initiated by the signators and paid for through private funds, independent of Western University.