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westernnews.ca
PM 41195534
May 7, 2015 / Vol. 51 No. 16
By the
numbers
Board OK’s budget; university
eyes support for faculties amid
challenging fiscal environment
BY JASON WINDERS
Join members of
the Rotman Institute
of Philosophy today
as they offer up
their BIG IDEAS on
the questions you’ll
be facing tomorrow
– and beyond.
SPECIAL SECTION
PAGES 9-16
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
Western’s newspaper of record since 1972
SCHULICH SCHOOL OF Medicine & Dentistry Dean Dr. Michael
Strong spoke of a university of “haves and have-nots” a month
ago, providing budget critics their most influential voice on the
subject to date.
“What I am hearing from my faculty members is we have a broken system,” Strong said during the university Senate debate on
an ultimately failed motion of non-confidence in Western President
Amit Chakma. “We have a university that is polarizing itself. We
have a university that is moving into haves and have-nots. We have
a university that is moving to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and non-STEM.
“The core values of what we appreciate, what we love about this
university need to be addressed.”
That sentiment has not gone unnoticed by university budget
planners, stressed Western Provost and Vice-President (Academic)
Janice Deakin, as the university has taken unprecedented strides
in its latest budget to buoy struggling faculties in choppy budget
waters.
On April 23, Western’s Board of Governors approved the 201516 University Budget – representing the first year of a new four-year
budget cycle.
The budget projects total revenue for the university at roughly
$693 million (an increase of 1.6 per cent). Total expenditures
amount to nearly the same, leaving a surplus of little more than
$260,000. An operating reserve of almost $34 million is projected
over the next four years – although that dwindles to $6 million by
the end of the four-year cycle.
Deakin stressed 64 per cent of operating dollars go to Western’s
11 faculties. The average across Ontario is 57.9 per cent. For nonresearch, non-instructional expenditures, Western spends 28.5
per cent of overall expenditures. The provincial average is 35.5
per cent.
“Our mission is to drive our resources into the faculties, so they
can deploy in the best way possible to educate students,” she said.
Despite that, all parties admit numerous factors are straining
some faculties.
In the last five years, the government has funded growth in
students and access. Simply stated, the number of students you
attract equates to the number of dollars you get. At Western, that
has been good for business, as student intake has increased over
the last four years from 4,250 to 5,100.
That, along with other factors, contributed to an 8 per cent
annual growth in revenue for a decade.
But that is starting to slide.
Government grants coming into Western are predicted to
plummet by $1.7 million this year alone. In the following fiscal year,
BY THE NUMBERS // CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
BY THE NUMBERS
The Office of the Provost has established a 2015-16 University Budget page,
including copies of operating and capital budgets from this and previous
years, budget presentations and supporting documents. Visit provost.uwo.ca/
budget2015/.
2
Western News
| May 7, 2015
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MAY 7
MCINTOSH GALLERY
Join the launch of Maurice Stubbs:
Intuitive Painter, the first major book
about London, Ont., artist Maurice
Stubbs.
2-4 p.m. McIntosh Gallery.
MAY 12
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Brendan Gough, Leeds Beckett University, U.K. Is masculinity changing?
Evidence from qualitative research on
men’s appearance-related practices.
RSVP to Tina Beynen at tbeynen@
uwo.ca.
1:30 p.m. FEB 1139.
MAY 13
SPRING PERSPECTIVES ON
TEACHING CONFERENCE
Mathew L. Ouellett, Wayne State University. Realizing the University of the
Future: An Institution-wide Approach
to Pedagogical Change. Visit uwo.ca/
tsc.
9 a.m.-4 p.m. SSC 2050.
TOASTMASTER’S CAMPUS
COMMUNICATORS
Build your confidence in public speaking. Visit 9119.toastmastersclubs.org/.
Contact Donna Moore at dmoore@
uwo.ca or 85159.
12-1 p.m. UCC 147B.
THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN
LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
La Tertulia. Anyone wishing to speak
Spanish and meet people from different Spanish-speaking countries is welcome. Email [email protected].
4:30 p.m. UC 205.
MAY 14
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MAY 20
TOASTMASTER’S CAMPUS
COMMUNICATORS
Build your confidence in public speaking. Visit 9119.toastmastersclubs.org/.
Contact Donna Moore at dmoore@
uwo.ca or 85159.
12-1 p.m. UCC 147B.
THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN
LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
La Tertulia. Anyone wishing to speak
Spanish and meet people from different Spanish-speaking countries is welcomed. Email [email protected].
4:30 p.m. UC 205.
Have an event?
Let us know.
E-mail: [email protected]
UNTIES: FIRST ELEARNING
UNCONFERENCE
The theme of the unconference is
Communities and Collaborations.
Open to all faculty, staff and graduate
students. Register at: ties-at-western.
com/.
9 a.m.-1 p.m. UCC 56.
MAY 18
VICTORIA DAY
University offices will be closed.
710 Adelaide Street N., just south of Oxford St.
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
Fusion Sushi,
and now
featuring
fresh
Osysters &
Izakaya Bar.
Visit our newly renovated
second level that offers
Japanese night life in
Downtown London.
See our 1/2 price coupon in
the Western Student Guide.
607 Richmond Street
(at Central) dine in & take out
519.642.2558
Western News
| May 7, 2015
3
On Campus
Board throws support behind
president, chair plans for future
BY JASON WINDERS
WESTERN’S BOARD OF
Governors backed the future-focused
plans of both President Amit Chakma
and Board Chair Chirag Shah at the
Board’s regular meeting April 23. In
unanimous votes, Board members
approved two separate motions, each
reading:
• That the Board of Governors
expresses its full support for the
president’s leadership in consulting
with the university community on a
range of important issues; and
• That the Board of Governors
expresses its full support for
the Board Chair’s leadership in
calling for a review of a range of
governance processes, including
improved communication with the
larger community.
“We are pleased with the
president’s outreach as he is meeting
with faculties, as well as some key,
interested parties. We have already
seen some results yielded from
that,” Shah said following the Board
meeting. “The Board has also,
internally, taken on a project to take
a harder look at our governance, our
transparency and our communications
channels. We are looking at some
opportunities for change, as we go
forward.
“We are going to be stronger
for this. We are going to be more
responsive to our community for this.”
No Board members offered
thoughts on the controversy in open
session. However, Shah described
the behind-closed-doors debate as
“a very open dialogue on what has
transpired, what we need to learn
from that and how do we respond and
change for the better for Western.”
He continued, “I think this whole
exercise will allow us to be stronger
as an institution. There are many
positives to come out of this.”
The Board had been silent on
the presidential compensation
controversy since April 1, when it
announced an “independent and
impartial review of the university’s
presidential compensation practices,”
led by Stephen T. Goudge, former
Justice of the Court of Appeal of
Ontario. Only Board members Jim
Knowles and Matthew Wilson have
spoken publicly, and that was in their
roles as Board representatives to the
university Senate.
On April 17, university Senate
members voted down separate
motions of non-confidence in Shah
and Chakma at a specially called
meeting. Senators voted 30-49, with
five abstentions, against a motion of
non-confidence in the president, and
20-46, with 21 abstentions, against a
motion of non-confidence in Shah.
Knowles and Wilson rose to defend
Shah during the debate of nonconfidence.
Shah had been silent on the issue
until April 23 out of “respect for the
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS FILE PHOTO
Western’s Board of Governors Chair Chirag Shah stressed he and his Board colleagues have heard the “clear message from across campus” that
people are looking for more interaction with the Board, as well as changes to how it operates. “We’re willing to listen to that,” he said.
Senate process.”
“The Board and Senate are distinct
entities,” he stressed. “Senate was
going through a deliberation and,
I think, my speaking out, prior to
engaging Justice Goudge and
interfering in the process Senate was
going through, would have been
inappropriate. It would have marred
the independence of what Senate was
going through.”
Although, Shah continued, his
silence did not mean he was deaf to
the debate.
“I have heard the clear message
from across campus that they are
looking for some opportunities for
better interactivity and change in how
the Board operates,” he said. “And
we’re willing to listen to that.”
What exactly those opportunities
might be, Shah would not say. He
shied away from questions related to
Goudge’s review, while renewing the
Board’s commitment to the eventual
findings.
“We are committed to
i m p l e m e n t i n g ( G o u d g e ’s )
recommendations. We continue to
stand by the fact we believe the Board
in 2008-9 negotiated, in good faith, a
competitive package for our president
in line with his peer institutions. There
are, clearly, opportunities for us
to improve. And that’s what we’re
looking for as the result of this review.
“Success here is the institution
being stronger. I look at our
connectivity; I look at the opportunity
for our Board to improve its processes.
All of these things amount to a great
deal of success for this institution. If we
can leave it stronger than the way we
found it, we have achieved success.”
Recruited by Western’s Alumni
Association, Shah, BSc’89, joined
the Board in 2010. He has chaired
its Property and Finance Committee
and served as vice-chair in 2013. He
became chair in January 2014.
“I, personally, value Western quite
a bit. I really care for this institution.
I would not give my time, effort
and capital to the institution if
I wasn’t passionate about it,” said
Shah, London market leader for
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “I have
taken a lot of benefit from my learning
years at Western. For me, it is a labour
of love.
“But this has been an interesting
exercise as a volunteer. I came to this
board to try and give back to this
community. We all share the best
interests of this university at heart;
we all try to make the best decisions
for Western. I look at this as a
passionate, engaged community. I
am encouraged to see that passion
does manifest itself in a broad-based
dialogue.”
On April 10, Chakma stood before
the university Senate and apologized
for his role in recent events. “I stand
before you profoundly humbled by –
and deeply sorry for – the events of the
past two weeks,” he said. “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.”
Shah, however, took no personal
responsibility, and he spoke more
broadly of the Board’s roles and
responsibilities.
“We try to maintain full transparency
in our decision-making,” Shah said.
“This process has brought to light
that we are not as transparent as we
need to be.”
H e c o n t i n u e d , “ We h a v e
committed, as a group, to look at
our processes as a result of this. I
am very happy to have received
the full support from the Board of
Governors with respect to the range of
governance processes I want to take
a look at – including our improved
communications plan and our plan
going forward with the president.”
“I have heard the
clear message from
across campus that
they are looking for
some opportunities
for better interactivity
and change in how the
Board operates. And
we’re willing to listen
to that.”
- Chirag Shah
4
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Editor’s Letter
Western News (ISSNO3168654), a publication of Western University’s Department
of Communications and
Public Affairs, is published
every Thursday throughout
the school year and operates
under a reduced schedule
during December, May, June,
July and August.
An award-winning weekly
newspaper and electronic
news service, Western News
serves as the university’s
newspaper of record. The
publication traces its roots
to The University of Western
Ontario Newsletter, a onepage leaflet-style publication
which debuted on Sept. 23,
1965. The first issue of the
Western News, under founding editor Alan Johnston, was
published on Nov. 16, 1972
replacing the UWO Times
and Western Times. Today,
Western News continues to
provide timely news, information and a forum for discussion of postsecondary issues
in the campus and broader
community.
WE STERN NEWS
WesternNews.ca
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Telephone 519 661-2045
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Jason Winders
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We hope you will read it and
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– L.T. Moore,
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Nov. 16, 1972
FOLLOW
@ We s t e r n E d i t o r
Real change only comes from an
engaged, participating community
JASON WINDERS
Western News Editor
H
e laughed a bit when I suggested it.
When I first interviewed
Chirag Shah in January 2014,
we spoke of his journey from Western
Science student to Alumni Association volunteer to Board of Governors
member to, eventually, chair of that
governing body. At the time, one of
his goals was for a broader understanding of how the Board works.
“It is a much more complex piece
than people give it credit for,” Shah
said. “I am amazed at the quality of
the volunteers we have sitting on the
Board, the effort expended by some
outstanding individuals, the rigour
that goes into the critical decisions on
behalf of the university. That would be
eye-opening for some people.”
Despite those facts, he admitted
the Board is a bit of a mystery to the
university community.
At that point, I suggested the mystery, perhaps, was tied to the bulk of
Board discussions taking place behind
closed doors, unlike, say, the university
Senate. Then I suggested a broader
approach to open session discussions
would clear the Board’s role in many
minds.
That’s when he laughed a bit.
To be fair, that’s the point where
most people laugh, because they see
how naive I was.
Our Board tradition does not call
for that kind of transparency. I get that
now, in a way. And yes, I understand
the sensitive, proprietary nature of
many discussions necessitates closed
doors. But there is room for more
transparency – and it would help
Board-campus community relations
tremendously.
Take the presidential compensation debate. The university Senate
held its non-confidence discussion
in open session; the Board took its
debate behind closed doors after
Shah stressed – more than once –
during the open session there would
be time for robust discussion of the
topic in closed session. Of course, no
Board member then spoke publicly
on the issue.
Every board, council and commission
I have ever covered feels safer behind
closed doors. Actions can be shrouded
in ‘we’ instead of ‘me.’ But there is a
price to pay. And that price is a misunderstanding – even mistrust – of the
process in the minds of the larger community shielded from the proceedings.
And yes, Western also takes its privacy a step or two too far. For instance,
in Board meetings, you cannot take
photos or record the proceedings as
an observer or member of the media.
There is no sound reason for that.
Despite some arcane rules like
those, no nefarious plots are being
hatched behind closed doors, as one
local daily newspaper would have you
believe. However, the Board seems to
do everything it can to make it look
that way.
The Goudge Review may eye more
openness for the Board. Even before
we see those findings, Board members
have promised to seek more openness
on their own. Either way, that would be
a great first step toward Shah’s original
goal – there’s nothing wrong here a
little additional sunshine won’t fix.
“I have heard the clear message
from across campus that they are looking for some opportunities for better
interactivity and change in how the
Board operates,” he said last week.
“And we’re willing to listen to that.”
But there is another conversation
that could broaden the understanding
of university governance: It’s time for
more people to get involved.
People don’t get involved with the
Board to be vindictive. Just like Sen-
ate or the Alumni Association, or any
number of volunteer boards and committees across the campus, Board
members are involved because they
care about – dare I say, love – this
institution. And many of these groups
are begging for participants.
And at these points, constructive
change occurs.
Change doesn’t come from snarky
tweets, catcalls from the cheap seats
or turning your back on the problem
– or the president. God knows we’ve
had plenty of that in recent weeks.
Change comes from within the system. Despite what worker revolution
fantasies some might harbour, this is
the system we use. So, to new faces
on all sides, show up to meetings, not
just the sexy ones, engage in debate
and, maybe, throw your name in the
running for open seats.
The Board knows it has a lot of work
to do to broaden our understanding
of how it works. But some of that burden is on us as well. Real change only
comes from an engaged, participating community.
GET INVOLVED
Visit the University Secretariat’s website to discover the elections process and timetable for
both the Board of Governors, uwo.ca/univsec/board/elections.html, and university Senate,
uwo.ca/univsec/senate/elections.html.
MUSTANG MEMORIES
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY
THE JOHN METRAS MUSEUM,
LOCATED IN ALUMNI HALL
Field hockey was introduced in club form at
Western in 1926 and, more or less, stayed that
way until it was granted intercollegiate status
in 1971. In the 1960s, field hockey was still
invitational, but Western’s teams were already
building a foundation for the program, as the
1965-66 team, pictured above in action, and
below in their team photo, tied with Toronto
for the invitational WIAU title.
Visit John Metras Museum at metrasmuseum.ca, on instagram and twitter for
more photos
Western News
| May 7, 2015
5
Commentary
New century requires us to embrace the unconventional
Editor’s note: This piece originally appeared in University Affairs on April 8. It
was published as the 10th – and final – installment of the magazine’s Student
Voices series, all written by the 10 Canadian postsecondary students who were
named 2014 3M National Student Fellows, awarded by the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education and 3M Canada. It is reprinted here with
permission of the author.
BY JAXSON KHAN
I WONDER WHETHER we are losing our appreciation for the liberal
arts and the generalist. Why do we
increasingly sell students on depth,
rather than encourage them to be
broad?
In a globalized, highly competitive
21st-century, the strategy of funneling students into vocational and skillbased arenas at the postsecondary
level, with limited purview, rather than
encouraging them to be creative,
capable learners across broad spaces
could be of benefit to some. But also
it could be harmful or misleading
to many, ultimately affecting their
contributions, learning, and career.
While I would never espouse one path
over another, nonetheless, in our bid
to emphasize STEM (science, tech-
nology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines, skills, and vocational
or technical knowledge, let us not
invalidate other paths – such as in the
humanities – of breadth.
So, I’d like to share my story.
Every week, I get on at least a dozen
trains. I travel
between
three cities
to complete
full-time
school, work
and run a
national
non-profit
organization.
KHAN
I doubt this is
an enviable lifestyle for many, though
it has taught, and it does teach, me a
lot about breadth vs. depth, community engagement, and being globally
minded.
My university years have been different from many students. My first
year was in England; my next two
were in London, Ont., with summers
in other countries; my fourth has been
split between a work-term at a Fortune 50 company and various cities for
school, work and community.
At university, the liberal arts were a
natural choice. This path allowed me
to enrol in a variety of courses, take
an interdisciplinary degree and have
the freedom to tackle many pursuits.
In work, I identified opportunities
that would both build on my learning
and provide a diverse array of skills.
And in my community, I sought to
engage with numerous institutions
with a variety of missions, in public and
mental health, education, entrepreneurship, and in media, to integrate
student voices into The Globe and
Mail. The common intellectual thread
was creating and demonstrating the
opportunity for young people to act
as a constituency and as stakeholders, innovators and operators, within
institutions and in their communities.
To pay for my travel, I worked,
saved money and fundraised. This
helped me study abroad, allowed
me to participate in delegations and
conferences and engage with people and institutions from around the
world. With other young Canadians,
I co-founded a non-profit, Young Diplomats of Canada, to enable other
young people to represent our country abroad. It is hard to overestimate
just how much one’s perspective shifts
due to this kind of global education
and engagement. These streams of a
broad global education, business and
community work, and developing an
intellectual thread, have all prepared
me for the challenges ahead.
Major problems for young graduates include youth unemployment,
new skill demands, and a job market
where some future jobs don’t even
exist yet. Many complex issues – such
as irreversible climate change, skyrocketing health-care costs, demographic shift, political instability and
scarcity of resources – require collaboration across sectors and creative
and multidisciplinary solutions from
individuals who can grasp an array of
sectors, fields, institutions, and skills to
solve them. Industry and government
need high-quality, talented individuals
who can be both critical and creative
and solve problems known and still
unknown.
The world is getting more complex, and the issues we face require
complex, creative, and collaborative
solutions. Saving the generalist and
embracing the unconventional might
help in solving those problems and
in preparing today’s students, not
just for the next five years, but for 20
or 30 years from now, and for their
whole lives.
A 3M National Student Fellow, Jaxson Khan is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Huron University College, studying global development
and volunteering as a program coordinator with the Public Humanities
initiative. He is the executive director
of Young Diplomats of Canada, an
Associate with Prospect Madison, and
a Global Shaper of the World Economic Forum.
Letters to the Editor
// Reporting has lived up
to ‘delicate challenge’
I want to express my admiration for the fine
manner in which you have covered the controversy over President Chakma in Western News.
Dealing with such an issue in the university’s
newspaper is a delicate challenge and I believe
you have met it with discernment and fairness,
rendering an important service to the university
community.
As a long-retired faculty member and senior
administrator, committed to Western for nearly
a half century, I have been deeply concerned
by the recent turmoil but also sensed that I
was not fully in touch with all the issues and
feelings ignited by the dismay over President
Chakma’s pay. I have reflected long and hard on
the crisis on campus, and Western News’ reportage, giving voice to the faculty disgruntlement
through extracts from Chakma’s public critics
and professors Conway and Clark’s impassioned
article (“Nothing personal, but it’s time to go,”
Western News, April 16), has greatly added to
that reflection.
At the same time, I appreciated the reporting on the president’s recognition of errors of
judgment and priorities, his contrition and his
determination to spend the rest of his mandate in a concerted effort to pursue objectives
that will continue to serve both the academic
values of the university and the means of
achieving them. He has already vigorously,
and evidently with some effectiveness, begun
the task of listening to and learning from his
constituents.
None of the goals and groups comprising
this fine institution will be well served by continued back-biting. I had the privilege of working
closely with four presidents and, whatever my
predilections for one or another, none was flawless. Though recent events have led to a more
spectacular crisis, let us not exploit it further to
the detriment of ongoing progress. We have a
leader, also with flaws, but of proven talent and
capacity, which is why he was selected in the first
place. My contact with him has been limited,
but left me with the impression of a leader with
energy and vision. Let us help re-channel that
energy and vision in ways that serve us all well. It
is time for healing.
Thank you again for your own contribution to
the process.
THOMAS N. GUINSBURG
PROFESSOR EMERITUS
// Many thanks for a system
failure of the best kind
We’re in a time of crisis and change, which is a
time to remember what works here.
I was waiting in my exam room, University
Community Centre (UCC) 53, at 1:30 on Wednesday, April 22, ready for my examination in Old
English Language and Literature. Students really
look forward to this exam and love it.
At 1:37 p.m., the Facilities Management person arrived with my exam. But he only had the
nominal role – no exams for my bereft students.
At 1:40 p.m., I called my department coordinator for exams to say I didn’t have an exam in
the room, and would call her back in 10 minutes
if the situation continued.
At 1:41 p.m., the supervisor from Facilities
Management was in my room, and calling the
Registrar’s Office.
At 1:50 p.m., Jennifer from Health Sciences
arrived with my exams, which had been mistakenly delivered to the wrong building (perhaps
because I had an exam in the Health Sciences
Building last night). She had, on her own initiative, decided to run the exams straight to me as
the correct room number was on the package. I
called my department and left a message I didn’t
need a backup set of exams after all.
At 1:52 p.m., Averil from the Registrar’s Office
arrived with a completely printed and collated
set of exams for me.
And at 1:56 p.m., the exams coordinator
from my department arrived with a completely
printed and collated set of exams for me.
So, my students, who really love this examination,
by 2 p.m. had three copies of it available to them.
To Mike from Facilities Management, to Jennifer from Health Sciences, to Averil from the
Registrar’s Office and, especially, to Anne who
retires in a week, many thanks. Sometimes when
the system doesn’t work, it works better.
JANE TOSWELL
ENGLISH AND WRITING STUDIES
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.
COMMENTARY POLICY
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6
Western News
| May 7, 2015
#gradlifewesternu
Graduate & Postdoc
Studies Students
Connect with each other & Western
by tagging #gradlifewesternu on
Twitter & Instagram
Research
Mercury buildup
in birds sounds
a warning for all
B Y PA U L M AY N E
HIGHER-THAN-NORMAL mercury levels may be wiping out the
endangered arctic ivory gull, but now
Western researchers are warning
other species – including humans –
are at risk from this deadly neurotoxin.
And we have only ourselves to blame.
Mercury levels in arctic ivory gulls
have risen almost 50 fold over the last
century, said Western biologist Brian
Branfireun. The explosion in those
toxins is the likely cause of a plummeting population of the gull, who
boasts only 400-500 breeding pairs
left in the world.
The research was recently published in Proceedings of the Royal
Society B, the Royal Society’s flagship
biological research journal.
Since the 1980s, the population of
ivory gulls in Canada has nosedived
by more than 80 per cent, with a 2004
study found the eggs of ivory gulls
have the highest concentration of
mercury of any arctic seabird, exasperating the ongoing problem.
“You could make the argument
there are plenty of birds. So, why this
bird and not another bird?” Branfireun
said. “One makes a decision that an
organism or species has an intrinsic value for just being. If we extend
the intrinsic value of the existence of
species, then the ivory gull is just as
important as a panda bear, or polar
bear, or anything else.”
The ivory gull plays an important
role in the coastal arctic ecosystem
because they are scavengers. They
are like the vultures of the high arctic.
This fact, however, is why they are
threatened right now – because of
what they eat.
As well as consuming fish, ivory
gulls scavenge blubber and meat
from marine mammal carcasses and
it’s likely the high concentrations of
mercury from these predators, which
tend to accumulate at the highest
levels, is what’s affected the gulls.
Using museum specimens, Branfireun, along with University of Saskatchewan professor Alexander Bond
and Environment Canada’s Keith
Hobson, tested the concentration of
methyl mercury in the feathers of 80
ivory gulls who lived over the last 130
years. Mercury builds up in feathers
where it is trapped and stabilized by
processes which produce keratin –
which feathers, claws and hair are
made of.
They found no evidence of a dietary
change in the ivory gulls that could
account for the huge increase in mercury. That left humans as the main
culprit.
“It went from infinitesimally small
and low concentrations to about 5
parts per million, which is quite high
for mercury,” Branfireun said.
Mercury, transported long distances from sources in North America,
Asia and India, is finding its way to the
once isolated and pristine arctic landscape, far from the original sources of
KEITH HOBSON //
SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
An adult ivory gull feeds on a seal
carcass in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.
human pollution.
Across the Northern Hemisphere,
the amount of mercury in the environment has increased due to emission to the atmosphere. It becomes a
global pollutant because mercury can
also exist as a gas, emitted through
coal, in the upper atmosphere, where
it circulates for about nine months.
Then, it circulates around the entire
hemisphere and deposits in the rain,
the snow or as dust.
“These birds are basically going
to be eliminated from the Canadian
arctic,” Branfireun said.
The situation has taken a step in
the right direction with the ratification
of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international treaty designed
to protect human health and the environment from emissions and releases
of mercury and mercury compounds.
But that only impacts the world going
forward; we are still paying dearly for
the actions of the past.
“Part of the challenge of mercury
is, once it’s into the environment, it
doesn’t break down. It stays there.
Once it’s been put into the surface
environment – the oceans or soils –
it starts grass-hopping around and
re-emitting. It is human-derived mercury, but it was deposited in the 1960s
and 1970s and is still working its way
through soil, vegetation and water.”
The question for Branfireun is: What
degree of impact are we comfortable
with?
“It’s safe to say ivory birds are not
alone,” he said. “Someone who is
relying on the land, or the ocean, to
feed their families has done nothing
to increase the amount of mercury
in their food that they’re getting. But
they are subjected to higher levels
or contaminants because of what we
do,” he said. “If the ivory gull is an
indicator of the impact of industrialization, then I think it’s a canary in a
coal mine.
“We need to recognize the impacts
we have are sometimes invisible to
our eyes, but the impacts are pretty
significant when it comes to ecosystems and how they function. We really
need to think about what is going on
and start to pay attention to it.”
Western News
| May 7, 2015
7
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
Western Biology professor Brian
Branfireun said the complete
extinction of the arctic ivory gulls
– of which there are 80 per cent
fewer today than in 1980 – may be
only decades away due to higher
levels of methyl mercury found in
the birds.
Teaching Fellows
Program Call for
Proposals 2015
In its Strategic Mandate Agreement (2012),
success and student focused teaching and
learning as part of the best student experience
by providing funding to create the Teaching
Fellows Program. The goal of the program is
to enhance teaching innovation and teaching
quality at Western by bringing together a
cohort of outstanding Teaching Fellows –
faculty members who will provide educational
leadership, perform research on teaching, and
disseminate the knowledge they acquire to the
larger university community and beyond.
The long term vision is to have one Teaching
Fellow in each of the Faculties. In 2014, five
Fellows were appointed:
Dr. Dan Belliveau – Faculty of Health Sciences
Dr. Sarah McLean – Schulich School of
Medicine and Dentistry
Dr. Peter Ferguson – Faculty of Social Science
Dr. Bethany White – Faculty of Science
Dr. George Gadanidis – Faculty of Education
(Academic) is pleased to invite applications
for a three-year teaching fellowship,
commencing Sept. 1, 2015, in the areas of:
• technology-enabled learning
• curriculum innovation and experiential
learning
• international education and global learning
• interdisciplinary learning
We are seeking up to five additional Teaching
Fellows who will be selected competitively
to work collaboratively with the Teaching
Support Centre (TSC) and their Faculties.
Since each Faculty may be represented by only
one Fellow per three-year term of the award,
faculty members from Health Sciences, the
Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry,
Social Science, Science, and Education are
ineligible to apply to this call.
• Teaching Fellows receive up to a 40%
secondment from their Department/Faculty
to the TSC for a three-year term, potentially
starting September 1, 2015. Only one
Teaching Fellowship will be awarded per
Faculty.
• Teaching Fellows will propose a research
project or teaching innovation project on
one of the fellowship themes: technologyenabled learning, curriculum innovation and
experiential learning, international education
and global learning, or interdisciplinary
learning.
Full time Western faculty members from the
following Faculties are invited to apply:
•
•
•
•
•
ARTS AND HUMANITIES
INFORMATION AND MEDIA STUDIES
DON WRIGHT FACULTY OF MUSIC
ENGINEERING
LAW
• Teaching Fellows are eligible for up to
$10,000 funding per year for three years
to conduct their scholarly project related
to teaching and to support professional
development activities within their faculties.
• Deadline for applications: June 1, 2015
For more details and application
procedures, please see Teaching Fellows
Call for Proposals at www.uwo.ca/tsc.
Questions:
Dr. Nanda Dimitrov, Teaching Support Centre
at [email protected]
Dr. Ken Meadows at [email protected]
8
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Research
Geneva scholar brings ‘star power’ to campus
B Y PA U L M AY N E
THE STARS HAVE aligned for Anahi Granada.
The University of Geneva postdoctoral scholar,
along with her husband Jorge German Rubino, a
visiting geophysicist in Geology, will call London
home for the next 18 months thanks to a $90,000
grant she received as an Advanced Mobility
Postdoc, funded through the Swiss National Science Foundation.
With the option to go anywhere in the world,
Granada chose to work with Physics and Astronomy professor Carol Jones and others in the
Faculty of Science.
“This was a great opportunity for me to go
anywhere to further my research,” said Granada,
who studies stellar rotation, which plays a relevant role in the evolution of stars. “There are
some very good groups around the world, and
one of them is here at Western. It’s not like I’m
here to do research detached from my work.
Here, there are experts in the modeling of circumstellar disks.”
A circumstellar disk is a ring-shaped accumulation of matter, composed of gas, dust, planetesimals, asteroids or collision fragments in orbit
around a star.
“I am involved in what happens when a rotating star evolves and the effects it has. I hope to
learn from their knowledge. By studying these
objects, you can learn a lot about rotation,
which is a physical property of stars that have an
impact in things such as its lifetime. Stars are like
extreme laboratories and you can learn so much
about them by studying them.”
Granada completed her undergraduate and
PhD work in her home country of Argentina
before moving to Switzerland and the University
of Geneva, following her husband who had a
position lined up at the university. Granada was
soon offered a postdoctoral position.
Coming to Western is a homecoming for her.
When she submitted her application for the grant
last August, she had Western at the top of her list.
Coincidentally, she spoke at Western a couple
weeks later, but did not know she was accepted
through the program until late December.
“I wanted to go to a place where there was a
group working on a subject I was interested in,”
said Granada, who is expecting her first child
later this fall. “It’s also an opportunity to start new
collaborations, between a Swiss institution and
here in Canada.”
Stellar rotation plays a relevant role in the
evolution of stars. Not only does it modify their
mass, angular momentum and energy content,
but it also affects their lifetimes and the final fate
of the star. Therefore, rotation leaves an imprint
on stars that impact the observed characteristics
of stellar clusters and galaxies, she added.
In London for just over a month, Granada has
been busy settling, finding a home, a family doctor and familiarizing herself with the weather.
“We hear winter is quite longer here so that will
be different for us,” she laughed. “Things are getting a lot easier. Working with Carol Jones, everyone is willing and ready to be helping me and I
hope to perhaps work on a project very soon.”
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
The sky is the limit for University of Geneva postdoctoral student Anahi Granada, who’ll call
Western’s Physics and Astronomy home for the next 18 months, part of a funded program
through the Swiss National Science Foundation.
BY THE NUMBERS // CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
government 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.
That, essentially, locks down 87
per cent of the university’s budget.
As tuition hikes were capped by the
province, and enrolment hit its maximum capacity on this campus, revenue growth slowed to 4-4.5 per cent
over the last four years. And now, the
university is eyeing only 1.9 per cent
growth in revenues in this budget.
“Herein lies the budget challenge,”
Deakin said. “We are receiving less
revenue now; the projections are we
will continue to receive less revenue.
Yet, our costs around doing business
are increasing at a rate greater than
1.9 per cent. We have a challenge on
our expenditure side because of limitations on our revenue side.”
This slowdown has impacted some
faculties far more than others.
Across Canada and North America,
the arts and social sciences are under
siege. That is manifesting itself in a
decline in the number of applications
and first-year students in areas like the
arts and humanities. Western has seen
double-digit swings in predicted students entering, versus actual numbers
in some faculties.
“People are looking for ‘professional training,’ ‘being job ready’ – this
is the language of government, this is
the language we are hearing,” Deakin
said. “As a result of some of that, we
see students voting with their feet.”
Deans have been wrestling with
the problem for some time, as they
continue to look at a number of new
revenue possibilities areas, including
developing new programs to attract
new students at graduate and under-
graduate levels.
In an effort to address these concerns at the university level, more than
$2 million was allocated to faculties in
order to “keep them whole.” Among
the allotments for 2015-16 were:
• $200,000 to Arts & Humanities to
maintain teaching capacity;
• $200,000 to Health Sciences to
accommodate enrolment/teaching pressures;
• $100,000 to Information and
Media Studies to maintain teaching capacity;
• $57,375 to Law for staffing in its
International Programs Office;
• $100,000 to the Don Wright Faculty of Music to maintain teaching
capacity;
• $800,000 to Science in support
of teaching expansion, research
opportunities and new program
development; and
• $800,000 to Social Science to
accommodate enrolment/teaching pressures and support facultywide academic initiatives, including strategic investment in the
Department of Economics.
“This is new this year. This level
of allocation is in recognition of the
pressure these faculties are facing,”
said Ruban Chelladurai, associate
vice-president (planning, budgeting
and information technology). “It was
a conscious decision. A lot of them
say it is to maintain teaching capacity,
responding to enrolment and teaching pressures as resources have gone
down. They have the faculty there;
they have to somehow keep funding
these positions. That’s what this is all
about.”
The future looks difficult, both
admitted.
“The only way our revenue trajec-
ONE-TIME ALLOCATIONS, 2015-16
The faculties and support units will receive $30.1 million in one-time funding in 2015-16.
Highlights of the approved budget included:
• Slightly less than two-thirds of one-time money ($20 million) was contained within
five projects, which is topped by $10 million for support for the long-range space
plan, which includes the new Information & Media Studies (FIMS)/Nursing Academic
Building, University College modernization, an Interdisciplinary Research Building and
the modernization of Thames Hall;
• The remainder of the Top Five were endowed chairs matching program ($7.5 million);
energy conservation initiatives ($1.5 million); university advertising initiatives
($500,000); and modernization of instructional facilities ($500,000);
• Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Health Sciences received the largest onetime slices when looking at faculties, but mainly due to targeted government funding
measures. Schulich received more than $3.7 million, including targeted government
funding for dental clinical education ($1.2 million) and MD expansion ($2.4 million).
Health Sciences received nearly $1.6 million, including targeted government funding for
clinical education ($842,000) and the nurse practitioner program ($580,000);
• Arts & Humanities, Engineering and Information and Media Studies (FIMS) received
nearly a quarter of a million dollars, leading all faculties in one-time money when
targeted government funds are not considered part of the total. Arts received $250,000
ear-marked for graduate student funding; Engineering received $245,126, including
$125,000 for creative active learning space; and FIMS received $213,000, including
$43,000 for a grant facilitator position; and
• Vice-president (research) received $1.25 million to support a number of researchrelated initiatives, including research development and commercialization of intellectual
property.
tory turns positive is by these other
revenue streams we try to develop –
professional education, professional
masters education. This is the new
normal,” Deakin said.
She continued, “As long as access
is what is being funded, unless we
choose to move to an entering class
of six, seven, eight thousand students
– which would fundamentally change
who we are and what we can offer –
we have got to find a balance. We are
going to be in a more constrained fiscal environment for, at least, the next
five years.”
Some critics have claimed the uni-
versity’s budget model, in use since
the early 1990s, is broken. The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA), for one, recently
called for “a reformed budget model
that appropriately funds all faculties of
the university.”
Admittedly, Western’s budget
model is unique. Budget planners
define its model as a hybrid. The university constructs its budget around
historic base allocations as well as
a revenue-sharing model based on
incremental student enrolment.
“The important piece for me is, our
model deploys the highest propor-
tion of our operating budget into the
hands of the faculties – more than any
of our sister research-intensive universities in Ontario,” Deakin continued.
In Canada, all U15 universities are
currently using, or currently transitioning to, a responsibility-center
management (RCM) budget model
in which individual units are directly
responsible for the revenues and costs
generated within their operation, as
well as their shared portion of service
costs. That model, however, does not
shed all central control, as a central
pot is still required to subsidize certain
faculties that cannot exist based on its
own enrolment.
But the budget worries facing universities are more related to the overall climate, Deakin said, not any one
particular budget model.
“I don’t think the budget model is
broken,” Deakin said. “Any acceptable budget model won’t let you
spend more than you have. We can
make different choice about how we
spend our money, but we are going
to be constrained by not being able to
spend more than our revenue said.”
The budget model was reviewed
at the deans’ retreat last summer, and
will be reviewed again this summer.
“Can we adapt our model? I think
people don’t understand our model,”
Deakin said. “In the context of looking at the budget, perhaps in terms of
making it more understandable, more
sensitive to concerns, there might be
other ways we can organize without
going to a full RCM model.
“But we will discuss again if an RCM
model is best. If people feel that is more
transparent, I am fine with that. It is
complex, no matter how you do it.”
Adela Talbot contributed to this
report.
| May 7, 2015
Join members of
the Rotman Institute
of Philosophy today
as they offer up
their BIG IDEAS on
the questions you’ll
be facing tomorrow
– and beyond.
9
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
Western News
10
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Better we understand
science, better we
understand ourselves
B Y S TAT H I S P S I L L O S
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
WHEN IT COMES to big ideas, what’s bigger
than the idea of science?
Science is a human endeavour and a human
creation, pretty much like literature, drama and
football. But unlike other human creations,
the object of the study of science – the world
at large – is not a human creation. This makes
science, by and large, a process of discovery:
mapping uncharted territories.
The world of science studies does not reveal
itself directly to us. Most of its content is hidden
to our senses and is presented to us via scientific
theorizing. We come to know about the structure
of the DNA molecule, the curvature of space,
continental drift and so many other things, via
scientific theories. This fact creates a ground
fertile to philosophical reflection.
How can it be, that the world is independent
of us and knowable by us? Are there good
reasons to resist an outright skeptical stance
toward current science? Should we take theories
as more than useful instruments for prediction
and control?
The philosophical battlelines are drawn
around these and other similar questions.
Epistemic optimism – the view that science
has been on the right track and has succeeded
in disclosing to us the
structure of the world
– should be grounded
on the ability of the scientific methodologies
to extend our senses
and to track the world’s
hidden-to-the-senses
causal structure. The
history of science is
PSILLOS
hugely relevant to this
kind of project.
Here is a tough question: Are the theories
taught today in science departments of universities part of a permanent, but evolving, scientific
heritage, or are they going to be taught as chapters of history of science textbooks in a couple of
centuries from now?
You might think this question is pedantic. It
turned out it was a vital (almost existential) question for science professors and students in earlier
centuries, where subsequently abandoned theories were researched and taught.
What makes current science and scientists
epistemically privileged, vis-à-vis their past counterparts?
Current theories, we believe, are better confirmed by the empirical evidence than their
predecessors, but establishing this, as well as
showing there is substantial continuity in science while theories change, requires thorough
philosophical reflection and investigation. That’s
exactly the space in which science and philosophy meet and blend together: we call this space
‘philosophy of science.’
We are confident current science can explore
the cosmological depths of the universe, that it
can survey the microscopic particles that make
up matter and energy, that it can trace the origins
of life and evolution in the remotest past.
This is how big the idea of science is.
Big ideas need a big platform – philosophy of
science is precisely the platform for understanding science. Physics, biology, chemistry, geology,
the various social sciences offer us perspectives
on reality. They describe and explain the world
from their different points of view, employing
their own conceptual and methodological tools.
All these partial perspectives are synthesized
into a coherent (though not necessarily reductive
and hierarchical) scientific image of the world
within philosophy of science.
Philosophy has almost always been interested
in science.
Scientific knowledge and human praxis define
the two major horizons within which philosophy
moves and thrives. Perhaps, until fairly recently
in the 20th century, philosophers and scientists
worked in tandem to understand the scope and
methods of science. When modern science was
formed, back in the 17th century, philosophers
and scientists were the two sides of the same
coin. Acquiring experimental and theoretical
knowledge of the world was achieved by the
very same individuals who reflected on what it is
and what it takes to acquire such knowledge. In
the late 19th century, the post-classical scientific
image of the world, from physics to biology and
geology, was shaped up by scientists engaged
in philosophy.
Nowadays, there are voices in science which
scorn philosophy and attitudes in philosophy
which disregard science.
We, at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy,
beg to differ.
It is our conception of philosophy that it
engages science. And doubly so: engaging with
philosophical problems of science and engaging
philosophers and scientists in addressing these
problems. Science is the best way we humans
have invented to describe, understand and
transform the world. It deserves our respect.
It requires our critical appraisal – if we better
understand science, we better understand ourselves as well as the world, and we stand a better
chance to make the world a better place to live.
Stathis Psillos is the Rotman Canada Research
Chair in Philosophy of Science.
Western News
| May 7, 2015
11
Placing a proper
value on parenting
WHAT ARE THE most valuable ‘good things’
in our lives?
Such questions are abstract, the stuff of thousands of years of philosophical thinking and writing, but the answers also bear directly on some
important issues of current government policy.
For example, many people identify the goods of
parenting as among the most important sources
of pleasure and value in their lives.
Typically, people also think it is appropriate
for government to help bring about or sustain
significant goods, ones central to both the
good life and the good of the society overall.
Such justifications explain why we fund health
care and education, for
example.
But what about
becoming a parent?
If becoming a parent is a source of deep
pleasure and value,
should the government
help adults financially
with that project, if and
MCLEOD
when help is required?
Within Canada, for example, there have been
increasing calls for provincial funding of in vitro
fertilization (IVF), motivated, in part, by concerns
about the high costs of IVF and individuals
having to pay so much to become parents. In
short, many people believe it is appropriate for
governments to fund the project of becoming a
biological parent to a child.
But it is seldom noted IVF is only one among
many ways to become a parent. Indeed, it is
noteworthy that a similar narrative about adoption is conspicuously missing, even though the
costs of an adoption are often comparable to
those of IVF.
If individuals should
not have to pay large
amounts to become
parents, then why are
the costs associated
with an adoption of
lesser concern than
those of assisted reproBRENNAN
duction? Why should
the government preferentially invest taxpayer dollars in one form of
family making rather than another? Should it not
invest in both equally (or if that is not possible,
in neither)?
To answer these questions, one needs to
explore questions about the nature of parental
rights. Is the right to reproduce, for example,
a positive right that imposes obligations on
others? Does it impose duties on prospective
parents and on state actors?
Some argue people have a duty to adopt
children, rather than create new ones, and that
children have a right to be loved or parented.
Are these arguments in support of adoption
persuasive? And if they are, do they translate into
a duty on behalf of the state to make adoption
feasible for people who cannot afford the costs
associated with it?
Suppose there is a positive right to reproduce
that grounds government assistance. Should all
would-be parents have access?
Currently, there are few, if any, formal restrictions on who can access assisted reproduction in
Canada. (Quebec may soon become an exception; it has recently announced that it will ban
the use of IVF for women over the age of 42.)
By contrast, people have to demonstrate they
have both the skills and the means necessary to
parent a child well before any province will allow
them to adopt.
Finally, one should ask whether all types of
assisted reproduction and adoption might merit
government funding. The provinces already
fund minimally invasive and relatively inexpensive techniques for assisted reproduction. They
also cover most of the costs of public domestic
adoptions. In addition, the federal government
gives a small subsidy in the form of a tax credit
to families that successfully complete private
(domestic or international) adoptions.
One could certainly
ask whether this situation is fair.
For example, why
not fund IVF rather
than, or in addition to,
BOTTERELL
assisted reproductive
techniques currently funded, many of which have
a lower success rate than IVF (and pose a higher
risk of multiple pregnancies, compared to IVF
with single embryo transfer)? Moreover, if the
government were to pay for IVF, which is expensive, then shouldn’t it also offer equivalent support (funding or tax credits) to people who do
expensive private adoptions? Our government
should surely continue to fund public domestic
adoptions – that is, adoptions of children who
are wards of the state – because it has a special
obligation to these children. But would it be
justified in subsidizing private adoptions as well,
and would it be morally obligated to do so, if it
funded IVF?
These questions are ethically, politically,
legally, economically and scientifically complex.
Moral and political philosophers at the Rotman
Institute are setting out to answer them with the
help of social and medical scientists. The philosophers will consider the rights and duties of prospective parents and state actors with respect
to paying for parenthood; the social scientists
will investigate the relevant social dimensions of
adoption and assisted reproduction, such as the
extent to which the functioning of these families
depends on how they are formed; and the medical scientists will analyze the success rates and
health risks associated with different forms of
assisted reproduction.
Each of these pieces of information is relevant
to determining who should pay for parenthood
in Canada. Our objective will be to resolve this
issue and develop a model policy for the provinces to consider.
Philosophy professor Carolyn McLeod, cross
appointed to Women’s Studies and Feminist
Research, is the co-editor of Family-Making:
Contemporary Ethical Challenges. Philosophy
professor Samantha Brennan is the co-editor of
Permissible Progeny. Law professor Andrew Botterell, jointly appointed to Philosophy, is the coauthor of multiple articles on parental licensing.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
B Y C A R O LY N M C L E O D ,
SAMANTHA BRENNAN AND
ANDREW BOTTERELL
Western News
| May 7, 2015
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
12
Tiny, happy
people
faring well
B Y A N T H O N Y S K E LT O N
ARISTOTLE THINKS CHILDREN cannot fare
well because they cannot, on account of their
intellectual and moral immaturity, exhibit intellectual and moral virtues, as he understands
them. But his conclusion follows only because
he assumes the only way to fare well is to exhibit
these virtues.
Herein lies Aristotle’s mistake.
Why think there is only one way to fare well
across the human life span? It is possible, at least
at some point during childhood, children fare
well in a way that is different to adults? Aristotle
may be right that children do not fare well as
adults do. But he is wrong in saying they do not
fare well at all. Indeed, we might think the fact
his view entails that children cannot fare well is
reason to reconsider his assumptions.
But in what does children’s welfare consist?
The aim of my research has been to answer
this question by developing a theory of wellbeing for children. While most philosophers
of well-being have not taken Aristotle’s view,
few have devoted time to working out a view
of children’s well-being. Most have focused on
conceptions that seem to fit only adults.
To the extent that philosophers give any
thought to what makes a child’s life go well, they
tend to suggest it consists in surplus pleasure.
Pleasure and enjoyment do seem to be crucial
to children’s well-being. These are not, however,
the only positive affective states that matter.
To capture these, we need to appeal to a
broader psychological state. To get at this state,
it is helpful to focus on the intuitive idea that a
child’s subjective perspective – how she finds her
life’s conditions – matters to her welfare.
This seems to be important to children’s welfare.
The most plausible way to capture this idea is
to argue that faring well as a child, in part ,involves
being satisfied with one’s life, a notion broad
enough to encompass all of the positive affective
states that seem to matter to children’s well-being
– from bare contentment to exuberance.
Let’s call this happiness.
Happiness is important, in part, because it
ensures a child’s perspective, what matters to
her, from her point of view, registers in thinking
about how well she is faring. But satisfaction is
not all that matters.
A child might be happy in mindless activities
or in physical inactivity. Further, a young child’s
perspective is immature, and so what matters
to her, from her perspective, may not be all
that matters to her wellbeing.
One way to remedy
these worries is to rely
on the idea welfare consists, together with happiness, in measuring
up well to some value
standard. What does
the standard look like,
S K E LT O N
in the case of children?
My suggestion is the standard should be substantive, consisting in a range of things in which it
seems good for a child to experience happiness,
including valuable relationships, intellectual
activity and play (especially of the unstructured
variety).
This leads to the view that faring well as a
child consists in experiencing happiness in valuable relationships, intellectual activity and play.
This view meshes well with scientific research
on children’s development. In The Good Childhood report, the United Kingdom’s Children’s
Society emphasizes the importance of friends,
family, mental health and schooling to proper
development in childhood. A Harvard University
study on childhood poverty notes the salience of
robust opportunities for intellectual activity and
active relationships with adults to constructing
“a strong architecture of brain circuitry.”
My view is a hybrid, because it holds that happiness and the presence of certain goods are
individually necessary and jointly sufficient for a
child to fare well.
The view faces a number of problems.
One is it entails an experience of happiness –
passively enjoying the sunset – is not good for a
child if it is not taken in one of the goods.
A second worry is the view suggests without
happiness, intellectual activity – practicing one’s
sums correctly – does not contribute to welfare.
In my current research, I contend with such
concerns.
A third worry arises from the fact children
change a lot during childhood. There are big
differences between toddlers and pre-teens
and adolescents. This means any view of children’s welfare will have to be flexible enough
to accommodate such changes. Whether the
view gestured at above can do this remains to
be seen. It is likely the nature and weight of the
kinds of goods in which it seems good for a child
to experience happiness will have to alter, perhaps significantly, as a child develops.
Philosophers have spent little time thinking
about what makes a child’s life go well. This is
a shame.
The good news is, philosophical research
brought into contact with the relevant science
of children’s growth and development, can
remedy this situation. How well we do it matters
greatly to how we educate and raise our next
generation.
Philosophy professor Anthony Skelton is the
associate director of the Rotman Institute of
Philosophy. This summer, he will be a visiting
researcher at the Fondation Brocher in Hermance, Switzerland.
Western News
| May 7, 2015
13
Engaging in debate over
future food systems
ON AUG. 10, 1973, our food system fundamentally changed.
On that day, U.S. President Richard Nixon
signed the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973, which replaced the United
States’ long-standing policies of price supports
with new policies geared toward maximizing
production.
With unprecedented demand for farm commodities, it is important to provide expanded
production by allowing farmers the freedom to
make production decisions. The effect of the
bill is to set up a new
system of price guarantees for American farmers, Nixon said upon
signing.
The bill meant to
ensure farmers could
HILL
expand production at
a time of a worldwide
food shortage, without fear of a serious drop
in income. This policy shift was driven as much
by the Malthusian crisis of the early 1970s as by
Nixon’s desire to use food as a weapon, by the
new means for increasing production.
The long-term results of this policy shift,
however, were the development of today’s
globalized food system – a system of cheap,
highly processed foods, dependent on highly
technologized and industrialized production
techniques, controlled by large, multinational
agribusinesses.
Now, the debate about the nature and value
of our industrialized food system has resurfaced.
During the previous debate, philosophers
were completely absent. They must not be
absent from the current debate, and, thanks
to the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, they will
not be. The philosophy of food is becoming an
increasingly important voice in the discussion of
our contemporary food system and future food
policy.
Philosophers are already contributing to discussions of the ethics of food. These discussions
largely focus on the humane treatment of farm
animals and the environmental consequences
of industrialized farming. But the philosophy of
food is much broader than just that.
One issue of increasing significance is the
nature of ‘good food.’ Does food simply reduce
down to its chemical constituents? Is food more
than just a delivery system for calories and nutrients? And if so, what else is it? What is, or ought
to be, the role of terroir – rather, geography,
geology and climate – in our foods? Are hybridization and genetic manipulation adulterations
of food? Should food be as psychologically nurturing and sustaining as it is biologically nurturing and sustaining? What is ‘real’ food?
A second food-related topic of increasing
concern centres on human rights and well-being.
There is growing recognition of the fact
the cheapness of food currently rests on the
commoditization of labour and marginaliza-
tion of farmers, farmworkers and most of those
involved in the processing and distribution of
food. Many are beginning to question the value
of a food system built upon unjust and exploitive economic and labour practices. Should we
in Canada, for example, continue to support an
exploitive guest worker program through our
food purchases?
Attention is also being paid to the fair and just
distribution of foods, especially fresh and wholesome foods, within our communities. What are
the obligations we, as a society, have in making
food accessible to everyone, and for making
sure that food is good food? Concerns about the
continued (and increasing) inequality of access
to local and organic food systems across socioeconomic classes also need to be considered
and addressed.
A third topic within the philosophy of food
concerns the role food plays in human wellbeing and flourishing. Certainly, it is necessary
for sustaining life, but questions about the role it
does, or should play, in a complete, full or fulfilling human life need to be considered, too.
Can a full human life be lived without flavorful and aesthetically pleasing foods? How are
friendships and social relationships improved by
the character, quality and quantity of the food
involved in social engagements? This topic is
inseparable from the proper characterization of
good food and must be at the front and centre
of any discussion concerning the just and equitable distribution of food and food access.
Intimately related, too, is the unexplored
social dimension of food – what is the social
role of food and meals and how do the foods
themselves contribute to our social interactions?
Finally, philosophers need to be involved in
discussions concerning the purposes of agriculture policy and the regulation and government oversight of the food system. That issue
concerns the purposes of food and the food
system, as much as the importance of ensuring
a safe and adequate food supply. It was, after
all, the absence of any discussion of additional
values and goals other than safety and adequacy
that directly led to the development of today’s
industrialized food system.
The philosophy of food focuses on the values
that do, or ought to, animate our relationships
with food and our food systems. This is a reconceptualization of our relationship with food.
Rather than conceiving of it in terms of an individual’s relationship to particular items on his or
her plate, the philosophy of food approaches
the topic in terms of a community’s relationship
with a whole food system.
It is this re-conceptualization that expands
the kinds of values that must be addressed, and
fosters the move to include social values. It is by
leading the way into a richer and more extensive
discussion of food values that the philosophy of
food will contribute the future of food in the next
generation.
Benjamin Hill is a Philosophy professor who
explores the research areas of early modern
philosophy and epistemology.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
BY BENJAMIN HILL
14
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Finding the best path
to saving the world
BY GILLIAN BARKER
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
HUMAN ACTIVITY NOW disrupts many of
the global-scale systems upon which our survival
depends. People around the world are working to find the best way of understanding and
responding to this situation, but disagreement
is widespread.
The need is urgent to find a way forward that
takes proper account of the full range of relevant
knowledge and values.
A new and promising approach to understanding and managing Earth systems – what
we call the ‘geo-functions perspective’ – has
emerged over recent decades, and is now being
taken up by different groups of researchers,
activists and policy-makers. This perspective
sees Earth systems as functioning in an integrated way, and focuses on the role living organisms – including humans – play in these systems.
It highlights the importance of nonlinear interactions between processes, the distinctive kinds
of dangers and opportunities these may create
and the need to share understanding across
disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
Some scientists have marked the scale of
recent and ongoing human impact on Earthsystems’ behaviour by recognizing a new epoch
– the Anthropocene. The Holocene, the ‘modern’ epoch, is now looked back upon as the brief
period during which Earth systems remained
unusually stable in a configuration advantageous
for human life, making possible the establishment of agriculture and the kinds of human
social organization that agriculture supports.
The Anthropocene is
the new epoch of massive human disruption
of those global patterns characteristic of
the Holocene.
Scientists, as well as
environmental activists,
farmers and policyBARKER
makers, have pointed
out how important it is
to find ways to correct or improve the operation
of interconnected Earth systems. But they have
different ideas about what this means.
Two main approaches dominate the debate,
shaping how people understand both the problems and possible solutions.
One approach – the most common – treats
Earth systems mechanistically, focusing on physical and industrial processes. It sees human
activity and natural processes as fundamentally
distinct, and aims to develop ways for humans to
control the global ‘machine.’ Mainstream strategies of climate change mitigation and radical
geo-engineering plans both take this approach.
Research and planning efforts that use this
approach take for granted the values that make
economic growth and industrial development
central social aims, and seek ways of intervening
in Earth systems that will ensure these values
can continue to be satisfied. This approach has a
characteristic epistemic style – it is reductive, and
tends to foster confidence that current science
already has the key factors well in view. It does
not expect big surprises, and seeks to control
of Earth systems so as to keep surprises from
cropping up.
We agree with the numerous critics who argue
this approach is inadequate on many counts
to provide guidance through the crises of the
Anthropocene.
A different approach – increasingly visible in
public discussions – focuses on the role in Earth
systems of organisms, ecosystems and human
activity. It pays attention to the rich interconnections between biological systems and their
abiotic environments and aims to restore or
improve the integrated functioning of Earth
systems. Many ecologists and environmentalists,
and some economists, farmers, geologists and
hydrologists (among others), take this approach.
Planning and research projects using this
approach express diverse values, but tend to
seek resilient functioning rather than mechanical
control, and to question the goals of traditional
industrial development. This approach also
looks for complexity, non-linearity and interdependence. As a result, it expects a great deal of
important information yet to emerge. It expects
surprises, and recognizes the need to integrate
them into its models and plans.
The problem of how to understand and manage Earth systems is multifaceted, involving
questions about facts, values and knowledge.
The factual questions are about how globalscale systems are structured and interconnected.
The questions about values include difficult
ethical problems about justice, individual freedom and collective goods. The questions about
knowledge arise because many different kinds of
knowledge are relevant to these decisions, and
premature closure may be reached in important
debates when not all the relevant voices are
heard.
Together, this array of questions calls for contributions from many different areas of academic research, as well as from practical experts
who are often remote from academic networks,
as well as legal and policy experts, aboriginal
authorities, and diverse community stakeholders and innovators. Tackling these questions will
thus require an unusual kind of inquiry – one that
brings together researchers from a wide array of
academic disciplines as well as non-academic
experts.
Gillian Barker is a Philosophy professor who
explores the research areas of early modern
science, biology and environmental philosophy.
Western News
Moving beyond
‘trusting your gut’
BY ROBERT CORLESS
THE OUTPUT OF a computer program predicts a big storm will hit your city. You’re the
mayor and you have to decide whether or not
the computer’s prediction is to be trusted.
Another computer program says a skyscraper
will not vibrate dangerously in the prevailing
winds, if it’s built according to the specs programmed into the model. You’re the consulting
design engineer and you have to sign a legal
document attesting to this conclusion.
For perhaps a more gripping example, a
recent PhD thesis uses differential equations
and computer simulation to assess the safety of
patients taking ‘holidays’ from an onerous treat-
ment plan. The computer models say it’s safe,
but you’re the doctor, and some of your patients’
lives hang on whether you believe the computer
or not.
All of these vignettes
were made up for this
article, but each has
similarities with real
situations. Computer
simulation is a principal
tool of modern science,
engineering, economics and medicine. Lives
CORLESS
do depend on the reliability of the simulations, and more impersonally,
so does money. In many cases, the computer
Knowing
yourself –
and your
mental
state – in
new ways
B Y J A C Q U E L I N E S U L L I VA N
EACH ONE OF us will be touched
by mental illness.
According to the World Health
Organization’s (WHO) 2011 Mental
Health Atlas, more than 450 million
people worldwide suffer from neuropsychiatric disorders, - and the numbers continue to grow. For those of
us whose lives have been, or will be,
impacted by mental illness, the predominant question is:
How can the mental health of those
who are suffering be restored?
A variety of answers have been put
forward in response to this question.
In 2013, WHO identified four objectives for promoting mental health
including:
1.Better leadership and governance for mental health;
2.Development of comprehensive and integrated communitybased mental health and social
care services;
3.Implementation of strategies for
simulations are indispensable.
There is no ‘trusting your gut.’
On the other hand, we all know many people
trust computers. Computers are right so often
at simple things we feel they must have been
programmed correctly for the important things:
national security, finance, medicine. If not, we
feel betrayed – someone, somewhere, hasn’t
done their job.
Some people know just how hard the problems being tackled are. Nonlinearity and high
dimensionality translate almost instantly into
problems we know (really know, as in the sense
of mathematical proof) are impossible to solve
in general. Not only do we not know computers
are wrong sometimes, owing to bugs, there are
promotion and prevention; and
4.Improved information systems,
evidence and research.
While each of these objectives is
equally important, the last objective
is the one I want to focus on here,
because it leaves open the question
of what kinds of improvements to
information systems, evidence and
research are relevant for promoting
mental health.
I want to make a recommendation
for one such improvement here, from
the vantage point of philosophy, which
may seem like a very small, mundane
and even obvious idea. However, I
think it is actually a big idea, which has
been around for centuries, which we
sometimes lose sight of, if we even
realized it in the first place.
It has to do with the conceptualtheoretical framework we humans use
to describe our suffering, and what
role that framework does and ought
to play in both clinical and research
settings.
One fundamental aspect of being
human is, we learn to adopt what
philosopher Daniel Dennett dubbed
“the intentional stance.” Specifically,
we come to believe human beings,
as well as some non-human animals,
have some special quality – a mind,
consciousness, awareness – that other
kinds of things, like rocks, stars and
trees lack. We describe ourselves as
having beliefs, desires, feelings and
intentions. We ascribe similar internal
states to other human beings, and
some non-human animals. We appeal
to these states to explain our own and
others’ behavior.
In the context of psychiatric care,
it is the predominant conceptualtheoretical framework clinical psychiatrists, psychologists and medical
practitioners use to understand their
patients’ experiences and diagnose
them. It is the predominant framework
patients use to explain the ways in
which they are suffering. I take it, then,
recognizing the role this conceptual-
| May 7, 2015
15
times they must be wrong because what we ask
of them is impossible.
Yet, we want to do the best we can.
We want our computer simulations to be
robust (meaning they never fail with ‘did not
converge’ or ‘data out of range’ errors), fast, and
reliable. Oh, and cheap, while we’re at a wish list.
Sometimes this is possible. Sometimes we get
to ‘choose any two.’ Sometimes we have to take
what we can get.
But when? And how do we know when our
computers have done a good job?
A simpler question is, how do we know when
our computer simulations have been (reasonably) faithful to the model we’ve built?
The new discipline of ‘uncertainty quantification’ relies on older ideas of error analysis and
statistics to begin to address these questions.
The philosophical ‘Big Idea’ is some of these
tools shed new light on old philosophical problems, too. How do we know what we know? How
do we know the truth when we see it?
This suggests investigations into what we call
‘computational epistemology,’ a study of the
knowledge yielded by computational methods
and its reliability might be very fruitful.
Distinguished University Professor Robert
Corless is cross appointed to the departments
of Applied Mathematics, Philosophy and Computer Science.
explanatory framework plays in understanding and explaining mental illness
to patients, and their loved ones, is
fundamental for promoting human
mental health. This may actually be a
fact no one would deny.
However, it is also vital for us to
understand this conceptual-explanatory framework has come under attack
by philosophers like Paul Churchland,
who claim it is antiquated and should
be eliminated in favour of a conceptual-explanatory framework that
places the mind squarely in the physical world. There are certain negative
implications of clinging to our current
conceptualexplanatory
framework
of beliefs,
desires and
feelings.
The most
notable is it
is compatS U L L I VA N
ible with
dualism – the
idea the mind and body are separate
things. Dualism, in its extreme forms,
jettisons the mind and mental disorders from the physical world, placing
them beyond the realm of scientific
understanding.
Yet, this conclusion is unpalatable.
If the mind cannot be understood
by science, and we concede medical
science is essential for restoring mental health, persons with mental illness
are beyond hope. But why shouldn’t
physical and mental ailments be
regarded as on a continuum? Is having a broken mind really so different
from having a broken leg?
Maybe we currently know more
about the causes of broken legs and
how to treat them. When it comes to
mental illness, perhaps Churchland
offers a perspective more conducive
to promoting mental health. His view
serves to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness, and insofar as it allows for the possibility that
advances in science will improve our
understanding of mental illness, and
point the way towards viable strategies for intervention, it also affords the
hope of a cure.
It is important to realize, however, while there is a growing and
widespread consensus the mind is
the physical brain, the relationship
between the two is far from clear.
Although neuroscience made great
strides during the Decade of the Brain
(1990-99) and continues to do so, it
remains an open question how the
mind, mental states and consciousness fit into the physical world.
It is thus premature to abandon one
conceptual-explanatory framework in
favour of the other.
If we now start treating broken
minds like broken legs, we may
neglect relevant psychological, social
and cultural causes of mental illnesses
and overlook potential avenues for
treating mental illness. If we devalue
the conceptual-theoretical framework
that laypeople use to understand their
own health and well being, we run the
risk of alienating them to the extent
that they will not seek treatment. Yet,
we also must make them aware of
advances in science that are relevant
to their well-being.
So, the big idea is this:
Engaging patients who suffer from
mental illness, if they are able, in a dialogue about the different, and even
opposing, conceptual-explanatory
frameworks that are relevant for them
to understand the nature of their suffering will empower them with information that is crucial to restoring their
mental health. Gaining such information is fundamental for ‘knowing thyself,’ and knowing themselves in ways
perhaps patients have not thought
about, may bring those who suffer
from mental illness one step closer
to health.
Jacqueline Sullivan is a Philosophy
professor who explores the research
areas of neuroscience, mind and science.
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Working out
ideas on fitness
BY SAMANTHA BRENNAN
AND TRACY ISAACS
WHILE THERE HAS been a lot of feminist attention
paid to the diet industry and the tyranny of increasingly
difficult-to-attain ideals of the
feminine body, feminist scholars
have done little analysis of fitness
– the fitness industry, fitness culture and the discourse and norms
surrounding fitness and sport.
Our project engages with this rich
area of feminist discussion and its
broader implications for
BRENNAN
social equality and
ethics.
Our primary goal is to make a philosophical contribution to feminist analysis of fitness
culture, with an eye to establishing a framework for a feminist philosophy of fitness.
By ‘feminist philosophy of fitness,’
we mean an approach to fitness that
is fundamentally inclusive – invoking
gender, class, race, disability, age
and sexuality. Our approach is also
intersectional, in that we recognize
many people experience oppression through multiple dimensions,
not just as, for example, a woman
or as a disabled person, a racialized person or an elderly person,
but sometimes, for example, as a disabled black woman approaching fifty.
Through this work, we aim to promote a more inclusive discourse
around fitness, challenging many of
the default assumptions of popular fitness culture – for example,
its emphasis on things such
as youth, a restrictive range of
norms for women, and a valorization of strength for men (but
thinness for women). We aim to
show how current discourse perpetuates exclusion and oppression.
Fitness is an important component
of well-being. But a more inclusive fitness culture has enormous emancipatory
potential. Studies have shown participa-
tion in physical activity is empowering. Fit, strong, athletic
women challenge our culture’s ideals of femininity. To the
extent it challenges social norms,
this research has moral and political implications for social equality.
We discuss things like fat shaming, body image, the tyranny of
dieting, the narrow aesthetic ideal
of femininity and how antithetical
it is to athleticism, the sexualization of female athletes, women
and competition, issues about
ISAACS
entitlement, inclusion and exclusion, the way expectations about achievement are gender
variable, and the harms of stereotyping. These issues
all call attention to significant impediments to women’s
flourishing.
Bringing our backgrounds as ethicists and feminist philosophers to bear on questions of fitness, we analyze the
ethical, political and social impact and meaning of popular
fitness culture and discourse.
Our work makes a scholarly contribution to a
number of different fields, including feminist
ethics, sports, ethics, women’s and gender
studies, food studies, and fat studies. We
already reach out beyond the academic
community through our popular blog,
Fit Is a Feminist Issue, established in
September 2012 (with new content
posted at least 5 days a week). The
blog reaches thousands of people
each week and is a lively community for discussion of feminist
issues in fitness.
Samantha Brennan is
a professor of Philosophy, and Tracy
Isaacs is jointly
appointed as
a proffers of
Philosophy
and Women’s Studies
and Feminist
Research.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK NEUFELD
16
Western News
| May 7, 2015
17
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Obituaries
List the stories and features you find
least useful in Western News.
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
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What stories and features would you like
to see that are currently missing from
Western News?
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
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If yes, what sort of advertisements do you
find most useful? Choose all that apply.
‰‰ Campus events (performances,
speakers, etc.)
‰‰ Campus employment opportunities
‰‰ University announcements and
initiatives
‰‰ Restaurants
‰‰ Financial services
‰‰ On-campus retail
‰‰ Off-campus retail
‰‰ Postsecondary recruitment
Have you ever placed an advertisement
with Western News?
‰‰ Yes
‰‰ No
If so, was it effective for your business?
‰‰ Yes
‰‰ No
Have you ever published a news item,
letter to the editor or opinion piece in
Western News?
‰‰ Yes
‰‰ No
Have you ever been the subject of a
Western News story?
‰‰ Yes
‰‰ No
Do you read advertisement in the print
edition of Western News?
‰‰ Yes
‰‰ No
‰‰ I do not read the print edition
What suggestions would you have for improving Western News?
Overall, what rating would you give Western News?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
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‰‰
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Fair
Poor
18
Western News
| May 7, 2015
Thinking of Western News, how closely might each of these words describe the paper’s personality?
DESCRIBES PERFECTLY
DESCRIBES SOMEWHAT
DOES NOT DESCRIBE AT ALL
Intelligent
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Opinionated
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Fun
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Successful
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Honest
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Experienced
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Creative
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Neighbourly
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Helpful
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Energetic
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Old-fashioned
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Trustworthy
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Would you agree or disagree with the following statements about Western News?
STRONGLY
AGREE
AGREE
NEITHER
AGREE NOR
DISAGREE
DISAGREE
STRONGLY
DISAGREE
Reading this paper is time well spent.
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It often addresses issues or topics I am concerned about on campus.
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It is important to me that I remember later what I have read in this newspaper.
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The number of misspelled words and punctuation mistakes bothers me.
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The stories featured on the front page are usually the ones I most want to read.
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I often critique this newspaper as I read it.
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I look at the newspaper as informative. I am gaining something by reading it.
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The newspaper itself is pretty cool.
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I trust it to tell the truth.
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I like the touch and feel of this newspaper while reading it.
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I know the paper’s layout well and where to find things.
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I find the text easy to read.
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It shows me how other people spend their days on campus.
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I feel a little out of touch when I don’t read this newspaper.
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It’s mainly for people like me.
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Other people in my office enjoy this newspaper.
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The stories include a diversity of people.
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The newspaper includes a diversity of units, faculties and departments.
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I like to read this newspaper in print.
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The number of ads makes it difficult to read.
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The ads are too similar and blend together.
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I make a special effort to read the ads.
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Advertising in this newspaper says something positive about the product or
store being advertised.
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Ads would be better if some of them were a little more over-the-top.
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Ads should include more information on specials or prices.
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I see pictures of people I recognize in the paper.
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I sometimes show a picture in the paper to someone else.
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I would be interested in reading obituaries.
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I read editorials/ columns.
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Overall, the quality of the photography is great.
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The paper can be pretty shallow.
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It can be very professional.
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I like to read this newspaper online.
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It does a good job covering things.
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I have a story from this newspaper on display in my office.
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I share links from this paper with colleagues.
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Western News
In Memoriam
Chemistry colleagues celebrate
the Pure Intelligence of a friend
BY JASON WINDERS
THE SADDEST LINE of a wonderful career is this – he never held his
academic life’s work.
Mel Usselman came to Western’s
campus in the 1960s. And never left.
Here, he earned an Honors BSc in
Chemistry in 1968, a PhD in Chemistry
in 1973 and, after flirting with a new
discipline while completing his doctoral work, an MA in History in 1975.
Afterward, he held a joint appointment between the departments of
Chemistry
and History
of Medicine & Science, until
1981, when
he joined
Chemistry
fully as an
assistant
USSELMAN
professor.
During his celebrated career, he
collected a near endless stream of
teaching accolades and hardware. He
was equally valued outside the classroom as a trusted confidant.
“He had insight into people – a
straight-forward colleague who
believed in the university, believed in
the department, believed in people,”
said Rob Lipson, a former Chemistry
chair.
“I usually went to him when I had
cheaters. That started many years
of going to him. He would give me
advice – wonderful advice,” said
Chemistry professor Kim Baines, a
former chair of the department. “He
was known as the voice of reason in
the faculty. And that’s who he was –
not just in scientific matters, but also
the way he ran his life as well.”
Usselman was an unusual blend
– part scientist, part historian. That
hybrid created confusion among a
core science faculty early on. But he
was eventually promoted to full professor in 2005. He retired in 2013.
However, throughout his career,
and his life outside it, one project
stalked him – ‘The Book.’
The Book was a biography of
19th century British scientist
William Hyde Wollaston.
Wollaston was widely
recognized during
his lifetime as
one of Britain’s leading scientific practitioners, and his death was seen by
many as a part of the end of a glorious
period of British scientific supremacy.
Unlike many of his contemporaries,
however, he had never been the subject of a contemporary biography, and
his many achievements have fallen
into obscurity.
Others tried to pen The Book, but
they failed. If it was a historian making
the effort, they didn’t know enough
science. If it was a scientist, they had
difficulty navigating the historical context.
Usselman stumbled across Wollaston while researching his master’s thesis. He was hooked almost
immediately and made plans to see
what was available on this importantbut-forgotten thinker. As Usselman
readied for a trip to Great Britain,
and his first deep research foray into
Wollaston’s papers, he stopped into
Headlines in the University Community Centre to get his hair cut.
There, he met his future wife, Trixie,
for the first time.
“We hit it off right away,” she said.
“It was one of those things; we clicked
from the first. There was a lot of Wollaston in Mel. He had the same curiosity about everything. He was all
over the map – sports to science to
politics. Like Wollaston, Mel was a bit
of a Renaissance man.”
Usselman eventually dedicated
much of his research career to The
Book – its painstaking historic exploration, the deciphering of previously
unstudied laboratory records, the recreations of chemical experiments and
discoveries, the writing, the editing.
He openly shared the process with his
colleagues.
“In the end, everyone knew about
this book because it was consuming Mel,” said Lipson, who read The
Book, chapter by chapter, over many
years, making edits and suggestions
along the way.
But life, as it does, had other plans
for The Book’s timeline.
“Mel was the perfect example of
work-life balance before we
even talked about that
kind of thing,”
Baines said.
“I took a
lot
of inspiration from him – he could be
excellent with that perfect balance.”
When children came along, Usselman put them first. He coached – a
lot – hockey, mainly, with four kids
on the ice somewhere at one time.
You also could have found him on a
baseball diamond or soccer pitch with
his kids. The man found time for it all,
Baines said.
He was also creator of the Usselman
Championship Frisbee Golf Course at
M-T Acres, where he played countless
games with his family. He cheerfully
relinquished his long-held champion
status to his children – and, once,
to his wife – as they grew older. He
envisioned and built, together with
Trixie, an oasis of harmony, a place
where he weeded his garden listening
to the Jays’ games and watched the
horses with perfect contentment as
they rolled in the grass.
“He had a great sense of perspective,” Lipson said. “He obviously was
driven to complete this book. But he
had a fantastic work-life balance. He
knew when to work and when to play.
Not everyone in academia has that
kind of important perspective.”
But The Book was always there –
slowly getting closer and closer to
completion.
And just when the end was in sight,
the end came quickly.
The first signs of cancer came in
early February. Even in that dark hour,
Trixie couldn’t help but momentarily
reflect on her husband’s obsession.
A physician by training, Wollaston
tracked his own migraines and eventually self-diagnosed his own brain
tumour, asking for an autopsy to confirm his beliefs after his death.
Usselman was similarly intrigued in
the face of his death. When the family
headed into the hospital for a fateful
meeting with the doctor, Usselman
marveled at the CT scans of his own
abdomen, including the ones showing the cancer working through his
body.
“Mel was just amazed,” Trixie said.
“He said, ‘Well, would you look at
that. Can you bring up the resolution
a bit higher? Can you see that? Isn’t
that just amazing?’ At that moment I
thought, he is out-Wollastoning Wollaston.
“He was interested in everything.
And if that meant his own body, he
was interested in that as well.”
Mel Usselman died on
March 23. He signed off
on The Book, approving its cover, just
one week before.
Pure Intelligence will be the first
book-length study of Wollaston, his
science and the environment in which
he thrived. It will be released next
month.
“He wrote lots of articles for encyclopedias, he wrote a lot of articles he
won awards for, but this was his life’s
work; this was the thing that drove
his passion the most,” Lipson said.
“He was absolutely committed to
completing this book. That’s why I
was so thrilled when he finally did
| May 7, 2015
19
Read
ALL OVER
and so devastated when he didn’t live
long enough to see it published and
reviewed so positively.”
“Life can be random and cruel
sometimes. He wasn’t the type of guy
who went looking for accolades. But,
as a friend, I want people to celebrate
his achievements and for him to know
how much we thought of him. But I
know his work will be celebrated and
read. There is some small comfort in
that.”
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
20
Western News
| May 7, 2015
On Campus
New program looks to keep Western ‘living well’
“Success is simple. We want
to see a higher percentage of
people who look forward to
their day – every day.”
- Kevin Wamsley
Health Sciences associate dean
BY JASON WINDERS
FOR KEVIN WAMSLEY, there is only one key
to ‘Living Well.’
“Success is simple,” said the Health Sciences
associate dean. “We want to see a higher percentage of people who look forward to their
day – every day.”
To do just that, the university recently launched
Living Well @ Western, a campus-wide initiative
designed to promote physical, cultural and intellectual activities to foster health and wellness
among staff, faculty and students.
A year and a half in the making, the program
grew out of a recent survey of faculty and staff,
where 81 per cent of respondents said they were
looking to be more physically active, and 59 per
cent said they were looking for new approaches
to stress management.
“We have known for some time there is an
issue with student stress; we have known for
some time there are work-life balance issues
for faculty and staff. Our study confirmed that,”
Wamsley continued. “This attempts to confront
those issues head on. This is about people having a healthy – and happy – place to work and
study.”
Launched April 22, Living Well @ Western has
developed a series of activities (many free) open
to faculty, staff and students. Organized and run
mainly by volunteers, the activities run the gamut
from yoga and gardening, cooking and cycling,
even music and comedy. The list of possibilities
is almost as limitless as the ideas of participants,
Wamsley said.
Living Well @ Western looks to harness the
energy of the events on campus – existing and
future – that promote wellness.
“This is a unique program because it not
only incorporates physical activity, but focuses
on many other aspects of wellness,” said Ann
Hutchison, Western senior human resource
advisor. “It is important to give people ideas
and opportunities to get active or de-stress
when they take a break from their work or from
studying.”
In addition to the events that have been
developed specifically for this initiative, numer-
ous other groups have added their support
to Western’s wellness movement and helped
increase the roster of activities available to everyone on campus.
“The buy-in from all areas of campus has
been tremendous. It has been a team effort and
speaks to how our campus views wellness,” said
Wamsley, who consulted nearly 50 stakeholders
from across campus in the creation of Living Well
@ Western.
He continued, “The list of activities is huge,
and we hope it unfolds over the next five years.
We want people to get out and enjoy themselves. All of these are little ways for people to
take their blood-pressure down a notch. We
want a happier, healthier Western.”
GET MOVING
Visit health.uwo.ca/living_well/ for information,
including activities schedules. Use the Contact Us
button on the left side of the page to offer comments on
or make suggestions for future activities.
Who's quarterbacking the
management of your pension
assets and retirement income?
visit
www.mitchorr.com
to learn what your colleagues
have to say about us.
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team have managed my funds very well indeed since then.
He has made consistently good recommendations, kept me
very well informed and I am completely satisfied with his
performance over the last 17 years.”
Dr Richard Butler, Professor Emeritus
Mitch Orr,
HBA, CPA, CMA, CFP
Director, Wealth Management
519-660-3230
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51
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07-Fred Negus_Ad_PENSION_v9.indd 1
2015-01-27 3:33 PM
Western News
| May 7, 2015
21
Academics
Sustainability exec connects experience to Ivey
BY JASON WINDERS
GORD LAMBERT BELIEVES
today’s graduates are owed a more
collaborative playing field, if we
expect them to solve tomorrow’s
problems.
“I see these young people who
have a passion for the environment,
a passion for their communities and
they want to make a difference. In
that regard, our universities are producing fantastic young people,”
Lambert said. “But we need to work
on our public discourse. We are
defaulting to polarizing views on a
lot of daunting challenges versus
convening as diverse interests with
diverse perspectives to try and solve
tough problems.
“For students today, they must
resist the temptation to follow that
polarizing path and be willing to move
to a collaborative model and harness
that diversity for positive outcomes.”
Lambert will have an opportunity
to help prepare tomorrow’s leaders
for that challenge, as he was recently
named Suncor Sustainability Executive-in-Residence (EIR) at the Ivey
Business School. As the former Suncor
VP-Sustainability, Lambert brings 36
years of experience in the oil and gas
sector and sustainable development
strategy to the position.
During his three-year appointment
as Sustainability Executive-in-Residence, Lambert will support both the
Ivey Energy Policy and Management
Centre and Ivey’s Centre for Building
Sustainable Value. Sponsored by the
Suncor Energy Foundation (SEF), the
role will include guest speaking in
the classroom, writing cases or white
papers, participating in panels and
conferences and being involved in
community outreach initiatives.
Lambert traces his connections to
sustainability back to the landmark
Brundtland Commission in 1983, as
well as his later direct involvement
in the Rio Earth Summit and related
events in the early 1990s.
“Those moments formalized my
curiosity in how the environment and
the economy are very much linked,”
he said.
Lambert has a strong relationship with Ivey. He is a graduate of
the school’s Executive Program, an
advisory board member for the Ivey
Energy Policy and Management Centre and Network for Business Sustainability, and has participated in Ivey
events as a guest speaker.
“We are excited about Gord Lambert’s appointment at Ivey. Not only
has he led Suncor’s sustainability
policy for the last decade, he is also
a leader in collaborations and innovations in the oil sands sector,” said Ivey
professor Tima Bansal, director of
Ivey’s Centre for Building Sustainable
Value and executive director of the
Network for Business Sustainability. “I
am confident his experiences will help
GABE RAMOS // SPECIAL TO WESTERN NEWS
Former Suncor VP-Sustainability Gord Lambert was recently named the Suncor Sustainability Executive-inResidence at Ivey Business School.
to inspire Ivey students and companies throughout Canada.”
After a 17-year career at Suncor,
Lambert recently retired from his role
as executive advisor, sustainability and
innovation. Currently, he is the presi-
dent and chief collaboration officer of
GRL Collaboration for Sustainability
Incorporated.
22
Western News
| May 7, 2015
// ACADEME
PhD Lectures
Mir Hashem Moosavi Avonleghi,
Statistics, Quantitative Techniques for
Spread Trading in Commodity Markets,
12 p.m. May 11, WSC 248.
Trista Mallory, Visual Arts, Standing
For Something Not Present: Contested
Representations in Contemporary Art,
10:30 a.m. May 11, VAC 247.
Michael Silvio Capoblanco, Kinesiology, Voices of Discontent: Avery Brundage and the IOC’s Dilemma of South
Africa’s Olympic Participation, 19561968, 9 a.m. May 19, TH 3101.
Zoe Morris, Anthropology, Reconstructing subsistence practices of southwestern Ontario Late Woodland Peoples
(A.D. 900-1600) using stable isotopic
analyses of faunal material, 1:30 p.m.
May 19, UCC 37.
Heba EbdEl Hamid AbdEl Sayed Hassan, Womens Long-Term Life Experience
After Pregnancy Termination for Fetal
Abnormality: Interpretive Phenomenological Study, 9:30 a.m. May 19, HAS H4.
Nicholas McGinnis, Philosophy, On
Philosophical Intuitions, 11 a.m. May 19,
StvH 3101.
Olga Lobacheva, Physics, Ion beam
modification of strontium titanate and
highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, 1 p.m.
May 19, P&AB 100.
Stephanie Atthill, Nursing, An Exploration of the Influence of Nursing Education Culture on the Integration of
Nursing Informatics Competencies Into
a Collaborative Nursing Program Curriculum, 1 p.m. May 20, HAS H4.
// CLASSIFIED
For Rent
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finished basement, double garage,
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clean, close to Western, bus route and
shopping. Fully furnished. $1,950/month
includes utilities. Contact Karen at [email protected].
www.gibbonsparkmontessori.com
2 bedroom/1 bath condo for rent
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Amenities include: one parking space,
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May 1. $1,250/month. Please call or text
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House Exchange
New grandparents from Vancouver Island, B.C., would like to house
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London, Ont. (countryside preferred)
starting mid July for 4-6 weeks. If interested, please call 250-715-0735 or email
[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.
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.
Summer Tuition Fees
If you have registered for summer courses, you can view your Online Statement
of Account via student.uwo.ca.
Student Development Centre (SDC)
The SDC is open 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday to Friday over the summer. Call 519661-3031 or drop-in to the 4th floor of
the Western Student Services Building
to make an appointment.
or a six-week half course, a first-term,
first quarter (‘Q’) course, or a full-year
half course in Intersession without academic penalty.
May 29: Last day to drop a full course or
full-year half course in Summer evening
and Spring/Summer Distance Studies
course without academic penalty.
May 31: Hong Kong Convocation.
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 positions. 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.
Full-Time Academic Appointments
Faculty of Arts & Humanities
Director, Rotman Institute of
Philosophy
Nominations and applications are invited for the position of director of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy. Nominees
and applicants must hold a tenured
appointment at Western. The director
FOR SALE
May 8: Last day to add a full course, a
first-term half course, a first-term first
quarter (‘Q’) course, and a full year halfcourse in Summer evening. Last day to
add a Spring/Summer Distance Studies
Course.
May 11: Intersession courses begin.
Trois-Pistoles courses begin.
May 12: Last day to add a full course, or
a six-week half course, a first-term first
quarter (‘Q’) course, or a full-year half
course in Intersession.
May 13: Last day to add or drop a
course at Trois-Pistoles Intersession.
May 14: Last day to drop a three-week
first-term half course in Intersession
without academic penalty.
May 15: Last day for students on
exchange or a letter of permission to submit transcripts for graduation at Spring
Convocation. Last day to drop a first-term
half course, or a first-term first quarter
(‘Q’) course in Summer Evening and
Spring/Summer Distance Studies without
academic penalty. Last day to receive
admission applications for full-time general studies for 2015-16 Fall/Winter Term
from candidates outside Canada.
May 18: Victoria Day.
May 21: Last day to drop a full course,
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.
Schulich School of Medicine &
Dentistry – Department of Psychiatry
Inviting applications for a full-time clinical academic faculty position as a child
and adolescent psychiatrist at Parkwood
Institute Mental Health Care, part of
St. Joseph’s Health Care London. Rank
and contract status will be determined
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• On-site variety store
• 1/2 block to shopping centre
Royal Mutual Fund Inc.
Gibbons Park
Montessori School
• Unique Parkland Location
• Toddler and Preschool
• Elementary
• Daily French Classes
• Extended hrs
• SUMMER CAMP
Schulich School of Medicine
& Dentistry
Department of Medicine, Division
of Geriatric Medicine
Seeking a geriatrician for a full-time clinical research academic appointment to
Western. Applicants should be certified,
or eligible for certification, in geriatrics
by the Royal College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Canada, or equivalent. Candidates must have an MD or equivalent,
and must be eligible for licensure in the
province of Ontario. MD PhD candidates are preferred. The successful candidate will receive an academic appointment at the rank of assistant professor.
Applications will be accepted until the
position is filled. Review of applications
will begin June 1. Expected start date
Sept. 1 or as negotiated.
by experience and qualifications at the
time of appointment. Candidates must
hold an MD or equivalent and be eligible for licensure in the Province of
Ontario with eligibility for certification in
psychiatry and in child and adolescent
psychiatry from the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, or
be eligible for an academic license from
the Royal College. Applications will be
accepted until the position is filled.
Review of applications will begin June
1. Expected start date is Sept. 1.
Undergraduate Sessional Dates
Are you retired or retiring soon?
Find out all your options.
For information or a
personal tour, call
519- 660-8731 or email:
gibbonsparkmontessori
@hotmail.com
appointment will be effective July 1,
for a five-year term, renewable. The
committee will commence its review
of nominations and applications after
May 8, and continue until the position
is filled.
99 Horton Street W,
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THE SYMBOL OF QUALITY
Western News
| May 7, 2015
23
Campus Digest
QS: Philosophy cracks global Top 50
BY JASON WINDERS
WESTERN PHILOSOPHERS HAVE given
the world a lot to think about over the years.
Now, they’re giving the university a reason to
celebrate.
Last week, Philosophy was named among the
Top 50 programs in the world, according to the
2015 QS World University Rankings by Subject.
In total, Western programs ranked among the
world’s elite institutions in 23 of 36 areas.
In the organization’s fifth annual subject-based
rankings, QS broke down more than 14,000
programs within 3,551 universities worldwide –
including 23 Canadian – in 36 disciplines based
on academic and employer reputation surveys
and academic citations per faculty member.
Specific rankings were released for the Top 50
institutions in every category, and then grouped
into 50-university chunks for the remainder of
the rankings.
Philosophy (No. 48) was Western’s only subject
to break the global Top 50.
“I am delighted with this new ranking. It is
yet another confirmation of the strength of the
Department of Philosophy at Western,” said
Henrik Lagerlund, Philosophy professor and
chair, as well as acting director of the Rotman
Institute of Philosophy. “The Rotman Institute
has, undoubtedly, helped the department’s
profile. The investment by Mr. Rotman and the
university has paid off. It is unfortunate Mr. Rotman is not here to share in this recognition.
“At the same time, it is important to note
the department is very broad and has many
areas of strength. It is, just to mention one other
example, one of the foremost departments in
North America in feminist philosophy.”
Also within the QS category Arts & Humanities, English Language and Literature (51-100),
History (151-200) and Modern Languages (201250) were ranked among the world’s best.
Within Engineering & Technology, Western
ranked globally in Chemical Engineering (101150), Civil and Structural Engineering (151-200),
Computer Science and Info Systems (201-250)
and Electrical Engineering (251-300).
Within Life Sciences and Medicine, Western
ranked globally in Psychology (51-100), Medicine
(101-150), Pharmacy and Pharmacology (150200) and Biological Sciences (251-300).
Within Natural Sciences, Western ranked
globally in Geography (101-150), Environmental
Science (151-200), Chemistry (201-250), Mathematics (201-250) and Physic and Astronomy
(301-350).
Within Social Sciences and Management,
Western ranked globally in Business and Management Studies (51-100), Accounting and
Finance (101-150), Sociology (101-150), Statistics
and Operational Research (101-150), Economics and Econometrics (101-150) and Education
(151-200).
Western made the Canadian Top 5 in five
subjects – Philosophy (No. 4), Business and
Management Studies (No. 4), Economics and
Econometrics (No. 4), Psychology (No. 5) and
English Language and Literature (No. 5).
NEWS AND NOTES
After a series of daily closures May 12-17,
Huron Drive on Western’s campus will
be closed to through traffic starting May
19-June 30 for construction of a new sewer
line to service the South Valley area of campus. Motorists are asked to seek alternative
routes. Access to the Huron Flats and South
Valley parking lots, as well as TD Stadium,
will be maintained at all times.
Visit the Facilities Management website,
uwo.ca/fm/, for continuing updates.
Innovative business executive Simon Cua,
who leads the largest LED lighting manufacturer in China, will receive an honorary
degree from Western at the 2015 Hong
Energy minister lauds Western conservation
Simon Cua currently serves as the managing
director of Light Engine Limited, a company
considered the global leader in advanced
light-emitting diode (LED) technologies.
Light Engine is the largest LED lighting
manufacturer in China and one of the top
10 LED lighting suppliers in the world based
on sales volume. From 2008-12, Cua was
managing director of Linkz Industries, Asia’s
largest manufacturer of networking cable.
Cua successfully completed Ivey Business
School’s Executive MBA program in Hong
Kong in 2005.
Roger Jackson
3 p.m. Tuesday, June 16
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Roger Jackson is a three-time Olympic
rower who won gold in the coxless pairs
at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo with
George Hungerford. From 1976-78, the
Western alumnus was the director of Sport
Canada, before serving as president of the
Canadian Olympic Association from 198290. As the chief executive officer of Own
the Podium, Jackson helped Canada win a
world record number of gold medals at the
2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Karen Foullong, University of Western
Ontario Staff Association (UWOSA) president, stepped down from her role to pursue
a new position in the Faculty of Social Science.
“I am excited to start this new chapter,”
Foullong said. “I began my career at Western 11 years ago in the Faculty of Social
Science, in the
History department, and it was
such a friendly
introduction to
our campus. I am
looking forward
to working in an
academic department again.”
FOULLONG
She deflected any
speculation the timing of her decision was
related to the ongoing situation surrounding
Western President Amit Chakma.
“My decision to accept the position in Social
Science was a personal one,” Foullong said.
“The recent events at Western were not a
factor, at all.”
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
Western is an energy conservation and demand management leader when it comes to the
province’s public sector institutions, said Ontario Minister of Energy Bob Chiarelli during
a campus visit last week.
“It really shows tremendous leadership in innovation,” Chiarelli said. “It’s something, I feel,
that can be replicated in other places. I had a general understanding of what I was coming
to see. But to see the level of detail, management and, quite frankly, commitment and
passion the people at the university here have for it, it’s something. It’s quite impressive.”
During the tour, Facilities Management staff demonstrated how building automation has
played a role in conservation efforts. A one-of-a-kind utility monitoring and control system,
developed at Western, manages building performance. The system has led to an average
reduction in energy demand of 2 per cent per square foot each year, and a reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions of 12 per cent since 2009.
Kong Convocation on Sunday, May 31.
Former Olympian and Canadian sports
executive Roger Jackson will also receive an
honorary degree at Western’s 305th Convocation on Tuesday, June 16. Renowned
novelist and poet Joy Kogawa was sched-
uled to receive an honorary degree at that
ceremony but is now unable to attend due
to personal reasons.
Simon Cua
Sunday, May 31
Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.)
Foullong, who first became involved in
UWOSA activities in 2006, started a new role
as faculty coordinator in the dean’s office
this month. Current UWOSA Vice-President
Boun Thai took the bargaining unit’s top
position on May 1. An appointment for the
vacant vice-president post will be held at the
Stewards Council meeting on May 20.
Notice regarding Goudge review comment
period from the University Secretariat office:
Western’s Board of Governors has appointed
Stephen Goudge, a former Ontario Court of
Appeal justice, to conduct an independent
review of Western’s presidential compensation practices and processes. Full terms of
reference for the review can be found within
the Goudge Review on President’s Compensation memorandum from April 22, uwo.ca/
univsec/pdf/board/Goudge%20Review%20
April%202015.pdf.
Goudge would welcome input from members of the university community. Comments
may be sent to him at info@stephengoudge.
com.
It would be most helpful if comments were
provided by May 29.
24
Western News
| May 7, 2015
There’s no place like Dome
PAUL MAYNE // WESTERN NEWS
Tornadoes and downbursts wreak havoc on transmission towers across Ontario. While Engineering professor Ashraf El Damatty, third from left, cannot control the weather, he can
do the next best thing – help build a better tower. Along with fellow Engineering professors Eric Savory, Horia Hangan and Girma Bitsuamlak, and numerous graduate students and
postdoctoral scholars, El Damatty is working on a research program with Hydro One to mitigate future failures of transmission line structures during extreme weather events. Earlier
this week, the group showcased its work to representatives from Hydro One with live testing at the WindEEE Dome. The $1.2-million research project is also supported by Ontario
Centres of Excellence and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.