The rent already being charged at the U of C is surprisingly high to Austrian foreign exchange student Bernhard Mueller, who says his $540 monthly bill is double what it would be back home.

“I would say it’s very expensive,” the 24-year-old chemistry student said. “I looked at moving away from campus but it’s hard to organize.”

Mount Royal University students will see a rise of three per cent for on-campus living, which already ranges between $625-675, said students’ association President Kaylene McTavish.

“Three per cent isn’t unreasonable, but at the same time student loans for housing only about $440 for a living allowance,” she said. “It’s not near enough for what we are paying, especially in Calgary.”

Details

• SAIT student president Steven Hildebrand said he was not aware of any hikes to on-campus rents at the polytechnic.
• According Mount Royal University student president Kaylene McTavish, one issue faced is that residence is not at capacity, so students end paying more to cover operating costs for empty townhouses and apartments.

(Source: metronews.ca)

The University of Calgary and the Students’ Union will now allow full-time spring and summer students access to the Calgary Transit upass.

Originally, the plan was to implement the summer upass prior to the spring semester in 2011, but a timing discrepancy between the su, the University’s Board of Governors and Calgary Transit prevented the launch of the program.

In June of 2011, vice-president external Matt McMillan was quoted as saying that “the go-ahead was given to make it available for summer students this year. Unfortunately it did not go to the Board of Governors in the fee approval and it did not go into the fee schedule.”

Eligibility requirements for the spring and summer upass are similar to the requirements for the fall/winter upass and students must be registered in two or more classes in the spring semester, or in two or more courses in the summer semester. According to the university, the upass will be valid from May 1 to Aug. 31, 2012, and the $110 upass fee will be included as part of student fees gives students full access to Calgary Transit for both semesters.

The $110 dollar fee is consistent with the fall and winter upass, and the fee is compulsory.

(Source: thegauntlet.ca)

Enrolment reduction of up to 500 students also planned at the University of Calgary

Calgary’s two universities are pushing up the price of tuition.

Officials say costs are rising and government support isn’t keeping up.

At Mount Royal, enrolment will remain the same, but tuition is going up about $7.30 a course.

Currently, the post-secondary school is turning away students but it’s willing to expand. First, they need more provincial cash.

“Our enrolment is matched to grant funding we receive,” said Duane Anderson, acting vice-president of administrative services.

The University of Calgary approved a budget plan that puts the school in the black, the school’s board of governors also agreed to a 1.45 per cent increase in tuition on Tuesday.

There is also a plan to trim enrolment by 300 to 500 students, U of C officials confirmed Wednesday.

But in a written statement the university stressed that it is balancing the 2012-13 budget “through contingency and efficiencies, not through cutting student enrolment.”

“The university’s goal in reducing student numbers is to more carefully manage student enrolment to match the funding provided by government,” the statement says… Read More

In the high-octane world of oil-patch philanthropy, the entrepreneurs who built Calgary’s ARC Resources Ltd. (ARX-T24.04-0.02-0.08%) have operated much like the company they created – quietly active, with a disdain for grandstanding publicity.

But that low profile is being shed today as the ARC team, led by co-founder Mac Van Wielingen, make a game-changing gift to the University of Calgary – a $9.5-million donation to the university’s business school to embed ethical leadership in its curriculum, research and culture… Read More

Some students struggled to find study space during midterm season this semester. The University of Calgary and Students’ Union have tried to address student concerns, but the December exam period will test whether the study space shortages has been solved.

“There’s been a lot of talk lately about study space on campus,” said SU president Dylan Jones at the Student Legislative Council Tuesday, Nov. 8. “There have been some concerns about not having enough, there has been a Facebook page that has been dedicated to protesting until MacKimmie Tower is open.”

Third-year bioinformatics student Sartaj Hundal created the Facebook event “Open MacKimmie Library at UCalgary,” protesting the lack of study space on campus.

“There’s not enough space on the main campus to accommodate student needs,” said Hundal. “It’s not uncommon to see students on the floor with a book open in hallways.”

Hundal created the event with his friend Nikolay Todorov after searching for an hour on Oct. 19 in the Taylor Family Digital Library for study space, but gave it up as a lost cause.

The protest took place on Nov. 10 with approximately 15 people turning out for the event. Over 1,400 clicked ‘attending’ on Facebook.

“It’s been solved to an extent, but unfortunately we see a huge attitude among the students at the university that they would just rather go home and study than try and create a better campus life,” said Hundal.

Jones met with U of C provost and vice-president academic Dru Marshall in the week of Oct. 17 to share concerns students had over lack of study space.

“I wanted to check to make sure that we hadn’t lost any overall study space in the transition from MacKimmie to tfdl and in fact we’ve had a net increase,” said Marshall at slc.

She did notice that a budget cut occurred in the Libraries and Cultural Resources area, which prevented some of the furniture being installed in the tfdl. Marshall reinstated it immediately.

An inventory of study spaces was taken to monitor how frequently the space was being used. In the usage counts, the results showed that of the 140 reopened spaces in MacKimmie Block, the maximum usage at any time was 30 students. The counts also showed that there were fewer students using the other libraries on campus… Read More

Before the Alberta Court of Appeal Wednesday, the University of Calgary’s lawyer argued that the institution must have autonomy in disciplining students for non-academic misconduct and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms should not apply. “It is clear and self-evident that discipline is an internal function of the university,” the lawyer said in attempting to overturn a lower-court decision that found uCalgary infringed the freedom of expression of twin brothers when it sanctioned them for criticizing their professor on Facebook. The twins’ lawyer said his clients had a legitimate basis for complaints against their professor — they claimed she “misrepresented her qualifications” when she took over the course and when she gave harsh grades — and that they should be protected by the charter. Calgary Herald (Academicagroup)

The University of Calgary released its new strategic direction Wednesday with a vision to become one of Canada’s top 5 research universities by the institution’s 50th anniversary in 2016. uCalgary is currently eighth in Canada for research funding, but president Elizabeth Cannon says the criteria she wants the institution to live up to go beyond attracting funding by looking at what the outcomes of its research are. Developed through Project Next, the strategic direction, titled Eyes High, outlines 3 foundational commitments: sharpen focus on research and scholarship; enrich the quality and breadth of learning; and fully integrate the university with the community. The document also articulates 8 core values shared by the institutional community: curiosity; support; collaboration; communication; sustainability; globalization; balance; and excellence. uCalgary News | Eyes High | Calgary Herald (Academicagroup)

As students start their first week of classes, the University of Calgary says it’s trying to change the norms around drinking after a young Calgary student died of alcohol poisoning in Nova Scotia.

Jonathan Andrews, 19, a Western Canada High School graduate, died last week only days after arriving at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. He was rushed to hospital in Halifax in critical condition after he was found unconscious and could not be saved…

…The rare death of a university student from binge drinking has brought heightened attention to the issue.

Debbie Bruckner, acting associate vice-provost for student services at the University, said campus officials are trying to change the norms around university drinking.

“It’s important to embed the message in other kinds of programs or activities. If we were to create a program that said, ‘How to drink responsibly,’ I don’t think anybody would come,” said Bruckner, also director of the Wellness Centre.

“Young people might have the intention to celebrate, but they don’t actually have the intention of ‘let’s spend tomorrow night being irresponsible and celebrating.’

“For that reason, we want to embed messages around responsibility and understanding consequences.”

On Monday, engineering students participated in their traditional frosh week march to the business school. Dressed in costumes, they paraded to the rival business school to taunt them.

It’s a way to build community and have fun, said co-ordinator Michael DeSantis, who noted binge drinking is not tolerated at the event.

In fact, there was security present and drinks were confiscated. To parents worried about their children, DeSantis said people need to be responsible…Read More

The University of Calgary will conduct a review and strike a committee to address a gender gap in faculty wages at the institution after a new Statistics Canada report shows male professors at uCalgary made on average $20,168 more than their female counterparts this year — the highest gender pay gap among the 29 institutions featured in the report. The executive director of the university’s faculty association says a joint liaison committee will be formed, likely in the next few months, to develop the process of conducting “next steps” toward a salary equity analysis. The old collective agreement had called for the formation of such a committee, to be comprised of faculty association members and the board of governors. “If the results determine there is inequity…the salaries will be adjusted as a result of this process,” the executive director says. Calgary Herald (Academicagroup)

from the breaking-out-of-the-stranglehold dept

We’ve written a bunch about Canadian copyright collecting society Access Copyright, which gets universities to pay up for a license to cover people photocopying educational material. The organization doesn’t really distribute very much of its money to content creators and yet it’s been seeking a massive 1,300% increase in fees — and Access Copyright claims that even if professors just link to copyrighted content, they have to clear that through Access Copyright.

Not everyone believes that’s the case. The University of Calgary has said that the new fees are way too high, and it will no longer use Access Copyright at all. Instead, it will seek to clear any copyrights directly, when needed, or otherwise encourage professors to link to material online that students can use. It will be interesting to see if Access Copyright challenges the university for doing so. How much do you want to bet that Access Copyright will now be snooping around, looking for a professor who fails to properly clear a photocopy somewhere.

Update: Looks like York University is about to do the same thing.

A students’ group that is trying to get young people fired up about voting in the federal election next month held a rally at the University of Calgary on Wednesday.

The so-called ‘vote mob’ drew about 60 people to the south lawn of the MacEwan Student Centre over the noon hour.

“This is the most important election that Canada’s ever had. And youth need to vote in it,” said Paul Hamnett, one of the event’s organizers…

(Source: cbc.ca)