Royal wins on second try to head Feds

Kevin Royal, who lost narrowly to Michelle Zakrison in the Federation of Students presidential election a year ago, defeated her solidly in last week's rematch, and will lead the Feds for the 2007-08 year, starting May 1.

Election results were announced Friday morning and showed Royal (left), a political science student, with 1,706 votes in the presidential race. Zakrison, the incumbent president, who was trying for a second term, polled 1,202, and Adam Schubert ran third with 740. There were 94 declined ballots, the Federation said. (Photo by Michael L. Davenport, courtesy of Imprint.)

Jonah Levine, also a poli sci student and Royal's running-mate on the Team Yellow ticket, was elected vice-president (education) with 1,530 votes compared to 1,257 for Stuart Hastings and 251 declined ballots for that post.

Zakrison's Team Ex ticket didn't have a candidate for VP (education). But its other two candidates were elected and will serve in the coming year with Royal and Levine. Del Pereira, a philosophy student, drew 1,610 votes compared to 1,509 for Arthur Chan, who ran on Royal's ticket. In that race there were 182 declined ballots.

Finally, Darcy Higgins of Team Ex was elected VP (internal), drawing 1,472 votes compared to 1,320 for Faraz Warsi (Royal's running-mate for that post) and 536 for independent candidate Nhu Nhat Nguyen. There were 166 declined ballots for that vice-presidency.

Candidates elected to seats on the UW senate, according to the Federation, were Jenna Van Draanen (applied health sciences), Steven Hayle (arts), Aly Sivji (mathematics), and Renjie Butalid (at-large).

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Bursting with enthusiasm for the Iron Ring ceremony, and the Iron Ring Stag to follow, final-year software engineering students left some tokens of their esteem on the second floor of the Davis Centre on Friday. "My office is filled with over 2,300 balloons," Shaz Rahaman of the electrical and computer engineering department reported, and it was hard to tell whether she was exasperated or proud.

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Profs on sabbatical January to June

Faculty members on sabbatical this year will be writing textbooks, working in laboratories in Germany and Saskatchewan, visiting communities around James Bay, giving visiting lectures, and planning new research projects. Here are some of the details, as submitted to UW’s board of governors by several of the professors whose sabbaticals started January 1, 2007.

Joseph Novak, department of philosophy: “The purpose of the sabbatical leave is to complete work on two projects. The first is a philosophy and science fiction textbook that is virtually complete and needs a publisher. The second is a translation of a Brentano text about Aristotle. The translation is complete but it stands in need of revision and supplementary documentation. The sabbatical will allow me the time to complete these.”

Wentang Kuo, pure mathematics: “I will visit the department of Mathematics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, from January to May in 2007. At Purdue University, I plan to work with Professor Shahidi and Professor Jiu-Kang Yu about our joint projects.”

James Diamond, religious studies: “I will expand the work I have done to date with respect to medieval Jewish thought by exploring the hermeneutics of esoteric writing, especially when engaged with the textual legacy of the Jewish tradition. My focus will be on how ‘marginality’ is dealt with by thinkers in the kabbalistic, rabbinic and philosophical molds.”

Mario Gauthier, chemistry: “I will use this sabbatical to catch up on work to submit manuscripts based on recently completed PhD theses for publications.”

Harriet Lyons, anthropology: “During my sabbatical I will conduct a workshop on anthropology and sexuality, research on the intellectual legacy of Victor W. Turner, and preliminary fieldwork on the implication of mass communications in Crete.”

Gladimir Baranoski, computer science: “The main purpose of this leave is to conduct collaborative research on light and organic matter interactions. This research will involve activities at Canadian and foreign institutions.”

Donald Burn, civil and environmental engineering: “During the sabbatical leave I will be based in Waterloo but will be collaborating with researchers from Environment Canada (in Victoria and Saskatoon) working on detecting the impacts of climate change through trend analysis of time series of hydrological variables. This work will focus on the identification and attribution of trends for rivers in northern Canada.”

Leonard Tsuji, environment and resource studies: “During my leave I will be making site visits to communities in the James Bay region to conduct my research and present results of various projects back to the communities. Site visits are especially important to meet not only with First Nation political leaders, but also with the community.”

Joanne Wood, psychology: “During my leave I plan to concentrate on two research programs that I have underway: emotion regulation in close relationships, and paradoxical reactions to positive events. I will analyze the large amount of data that I have collected on these topics and will write several articles to submit for publication.”

All the sabbaticals listed are six months long, ending June 30.

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Quiet campus during reading week

Contrary to what I wrote in Friday's Daily Bulletin, there are no co-op job interviews scheduled during reading week, Olaf Naese of the co-op and career services department assures me. One employer will be on campus to interview some graduating students, but that's it, he says; interviews for the spring co-op work term, interrupted by this week while students are largely away, will resume February 26. Other matters that I summarized on Friday seem to have been correct: Quest is down, the bookstore is open (but will be closed Saturday), the Columbia Icefield is closed for maintenance, and a few food services outlets remain open.

The faculty, staff and students associated with CBET, the Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology, are taking advantage of reading week to make their move: out of Needles Hall and into the Accelerator Centre building on the north campus. CBET offices, and space for students in its Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program, will be on the second floor of the building, where additional square footage will allow the program "to expand and develop," says Karen Gallant of CBET. "We expect disruption to both telephone and e-mail access for several days," she warns. Moving day is tomorrow.

The human resources department sent a brief memo to all staff and faculty members on Friday morning: "Please visit [the web site] to learn more about Registered Retirement Savings Plans for the 2006 and 2007 taxation year."

UW's joint health and safety committee held a monthly meeting in November, and the minutes of that gathering — after review at the January meeting — are now available online. They show the committee discussing such issues as icy floors, bicycles at Ron Eydt Village, online ergonomics information, communication devices in service tunnels, and safe procedures for crews working on the roof of the Columbia Icefield. The minutes also indicate that safety director Kevin Stewart "reviewed new Employee and Supervisor Safety Orientation Booklet. The document reviews the Occupational Health & Safety Act, elements of the Health, Safety and Environment Program as well as other pertinent information on the Safety Office and personal safety information. The booklet will be distributed to employees across campus." And sure enough, a copy hit my desk last week. The joint health and safety committee has its February meeting scheduled for today, starting at 1:30 p.m. in Commissary building room 112D.

Finally . . . I can confirm that one UW tradition is taking a break this year: there will be no Hagey Bonspiel. The annual event bears the name of UW's founding president, Gerry Hagey, and has been held for 26 years as a winter brightener for faculty, staff and friends. But some of the long-time organizers are weary, and busy with other things this year — the 50th anniversary, perhaps? "As a committee," writes Tony Munro of the co-op and career services department, "we came to the decision that the Hagey Bonspiel would have a hiatus for a year." Munro says plans are to "try to revitalize the committee in the coming year so that we're back on track next year." Past participants were told of the decision by e-mail, and invited to make suggestions or get involved in the organizational work.

CAR

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