McGill Reporter news

Financial support from students, administration has already launched 32 projects

“As I arrived to my first ever university lecture hall in the fall of 2007, I can’t say I was particularly concerned about my undergraduate experience.”

When Eyad Jamaleddine came to McGill as an Engineering undergrad four years ago, he wasn’t what you’d call a green warrior. Skip ahead to today, and Jamaleddine is the poster boy for ecological engineering.

A former two-time Canadian National Debating Champion while pursuing his Honours BA and MA at McGill in the 1990s, Gerald Butts knows a thing or two about the power of words.

There is a common misconception that the problem with adopting sustainable work practices is they are both expensive and inconvenient. The people at Development and Alumni Relations (DAR) would gladly tell you otherwise.

There was a time not so long ago when policy makers would respond to alarms sounded by environmental scientists, and relatively quickly at that. Think acid rain, pesticides, or chlorofluorocarbons and the ozone layer. Now think fossil fuels and climate change, and the mixed reception – and foot-dragging by our policy makers – to the findings of scientists on that subject.

Program has made remarkable progress since self-funding model adopted

Last year’s earthquake in Haiti killed nearly 1,300 teachers, leaving a massive void in educational leadership. Sharon Ravitch, a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, put together a team of researchers to launch an educational-redevelopment project aimed at helping to rebuild the country’s academic infrastructure. On Mon., Feb.

On Jan. 27, the McGill Chapter of the NGO Dreamcorps, together with the Asia Pacific Law Association of McGill, will be screening the 2009 documentary Last Train Home. A Q & A with the film's Montreal-based director, Lixin Fan, will follow the screening.

The passing of F. Peter Cundill and the opening of a new skating rink on campus lead our news briefs this week.

“La Bohème is a great opera for young singers,” Pavarotti once said. “It’s talking about students, artists, young lovers, Paris…” So it certainly seems like a natural fit for Opera McGill, whose production of the beloved Puccini work opened yesterday (Jan. 26) and runs through Sunday (Jan. 29).

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism’s genetic material in a way that does not occur under natural conditions. Learn more about the genetic modification in the Redpath’s latest Freaky Friday installment: How I learned to stop worrying and love genetic modification by Prof.

The Principal’s Task Force on Diversity, Excellence and Community Engagement is wrapping up its extensive work and consultations with a draft report that promises to become an important guidepost for the University’s administration in the years ahead.

When a celebrity gets sick, it does make you stop and think about the old adages that money can’t buy happiness, that health is more important than wealth and so on. Because cancer doesn’t discriminate, illness doesn’t choose between the rich and powerful and the ordinary and meek.

According to Amanda Unruh, Student Health Services’Health Promotion Co-ordinator, “most students get their sexual health information from their peers… and that isn’t always a good thing.”