New University...where should it go?

[CDL.TO]

Kinda like Ryerson? I always like that about my alma mater.

That's what Ryerson was like until 5 years ago. They decided to get a whole bunch of general arts programs as well because they can charge the same tuition but have much lower costs to deliver (no labs, no specialized equipment).

I still think they should have kept the polytechnic name and focus.

 

[kEiThZ]

I still think they should have kept the polytechnic name and focus.

I was in university when they decided to change the name and they had various votes and such. Most students and faculty felt that the 'polytechnic' aspect was preventing Ryerson from being recognized as a full-fledged university. Heck 3 years later in my 4th year, the TTC streetcar drivers still use to announce their arrival at 'Ryerson College'. However, they have largely maintained their polytechnic nature by having mostly applied and professional programs. They have very few liberal arts/science programs and even those have a lot more focus than is found at other universities.

 

[CDL.TO]

I was in university when they decided to change the name and they had various votes and such. Most students and faculty felt that the 'polytechnic' aspect was preventing Ryerson from being recognized as a full-fledged university. Heck 3 years later in my 4th year, the TTC streetcar drivers still use to announce their arrival at 'Ryerson College'. However, they have largely maintained their polytechnic nature by having mostly applied and professional programs. They have very few liberal arts/science programs and even those have a lot more focus than is found at other universities.

I guess what I'm saying is that I feel people were too shallow in their thinking. They were trying to be like anyone else rather than taking their strengths and emphasizing them. Does anyone consider MIT or Caltech to be any less than a full-fledged universities? Of course not.

As for TTC drivers, well that's not a very good judge is it? Especially since Ryerson has never in its history been named "Ryerson College". When I decided to go to Ryerson I had relatives who said "that's a university?". It takes time to change things in people's minds. It was Ryerson Polytechnic University for only 7 years.

Rather than re-naming, I think they should have gone for a re-branding while keeping the same name. Such as RyersonTech. It would have set them apart.

That said, Ryerson does still have a more applied focus than other schools and that's why I still like it. However, it's clearly less than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

 

[rdaner]

Originally posted by SteelTown on SSP.

City, Halton Region and McMaster sign agreement confirming campus in Burlington

April 02, 2009

The City of Burlington, Halton Region and McMaster University signed an official agreement today laying out the timelines and next steps for the university's historic expansion into Burlington. Mayor Cam Jackson, Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr and McMaster University President Peter George signed the agreement during a Mayor's luncheon series event in Burlington.

"The signing of the agreement today marks a defining moment in our city's development," said Jackson. "Once completed, this innovative development will ensure better access to health care for our citizens and help create a stronger economic future and jobs in our community."

McMaster's Burlington expansion includes the construction of the new Centre for Advanced Management Studies on a South Service Road site west of Appleby Line. The new campus will be home to the DeGroote School of Business MBA program and new executive offerings.

Locating the Centre for Advanced Management Studies in Burlington "dramatically increases opportunities for both local business retention and growth," said Jackson.

The plan also includes the establishment of a regional family medicine resident program and medical clinic to be located in Burlington's downtown. A future affiliation between Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital and McMaster University is also planned.

"The establishment of the McMaster family centre in Burlington will not only provide care to thousands of residents each year but also help Halton combat a pressing health care need: a shortage of family doctors n the region," said Carr. "In 2007 and 2008, 24 new family medicine graduates established practices in Halton, of which 14, or 58 per cent, were trained in Halton. This data supports the observation that residents who train in a certain jurisdiction are inclined to set up their practices in that jurisdiction."

"This agreement reinforces McMaster's commitment to delivering innovative post-secondary opportunities, and this exciting partnership enhances the university's abilities in research, teaching, and learning for both future business leaders and family physicians," said McMaster President Peter George. "The university is thankful for the vision and commitment of the City of Burlington and Halton Region for this investment that will deliver significant returns for residents."

Making McMaster's Burlington campus a reality began years ago with a citizen's committee recommendation for Burlington to pursue a post secondary presence in the city. "The unwavering commitment of my colleagues on both City and Regional Council have made that vision todays reality," said Jackson.

http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=6058

 

[ShonTron]

South Service Road and Appleby Line. How very disappointing.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=43.372379,-79.778692&spn=0.003042,0.007457&t=h&z=17

 

[Hipster Duck]

Why is there no coordination between downtown improvement areas, transit agencies and universities who wish to expand? Have we learned nothing from placing university campuses in the sticks in the 60s?

 

[waterloowarrior]

 

[ShonTron]

I take back my earlier comment. That is a building worthy of the Toronto waterfront.

 

[kEiThZ]

I guess what I'm saying is that I feel people were too shallow in their thinking. They were trying to be like anyone else rather than taking their strengths and emphasizing them. Does anyone consider MIT or Caltech to be any less than a full-fledged universities? Of course not.

As for TTC drivers, well that's not a very good judge is it? Especially since Ryerson has never in its history been named "Ryerson College". When I decided to go to Ryerson I had relatives who said "that's a university?". It takes time to change things in people's minds. It was Ryerson Polytechnic University for only 7 years.

Rather than re-naming, I think they should have gone for a re-branding while keeping the same name. Such as RyersonTech. It would have set them apart.

That said, Ryerson does still have a more applied focus than other schools and that's why I still like it. However, it's clearly less than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

It should be noted that Ryerson is growing quite quickly and it's reputation has improved immensely. One concrete example has been the rep of its engineering programs. The default of hiring a UT Engineer has been dropped by several companies in favour of Ryerson grads. And York's failure to get their nascent engineering program accredited has failed to materialize a second competitor to Ryerson in the market for Toronto area engineering grads.

Apparently the strike at York also did Ryerson a big favour. For the first time ever, applications to Ryerson surpassed those to York. Given that U of T faculty could be next to strike and you have a unique position for Ryerson, given their lack of reliance on TAs for most programs, which makes the less susceptible to a full shut down from a TA strike.

Lastly, I don't know if you have seen the Ryerson University Master Plan:

http://www.ryerson.ca/about/masterplan/

It's truly a vision that will enhance the quality of education, campus life, and reputation of the university. After seeing that document, I must say I am a little compelled to increase my donations. However, I will be a tad sad to see Kerr Hall dismembered. Somehow though, the library building will make it through. ugghhh.

 

[ShonTron]

Please, if you're just going to post a link, tell us what that link sends us to and a synposis. As far as the link is concerned (the Star article about profs complaining about lazy, unprepared incoming undergrads), it's off-topic anyway.

 

[Whoaccio]

From The Globe:

PRESTON MANNING

From Monday's Globe and Mail

April 13, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

The most worrisome feature of Ontario's budget is its continuation of the drastic imbalance between health care and education spending. Out of $109-billion in proposed program spending, almost 40 per cent is committed to health care and only 13 per cent to education.

Why is this worrisome? Because, in a recession, the highest spending priority for provincial governments ought to be the retraining of the current work force and the education of the future work force, so Canada emerges from this recession with the most productive, competitive and highly skilled work force in the world.

This is especially important for Ontario - the province with the largest work force (more than seven million people) in the country - at a time when its work force is being most severely hit by the current economic downturn.

According to Statistics Canada, "employment in Ontario fell by 35,000 in February … pushing the unemployment rate up to 8.7 per cent ... (more than 600,000 people out of work). ... Since last October, just over half of the country's total employment losses have occurred in Ontario, well beyond the province's 39 per cent share of the total working-age population. Employment fell by 160,000 during this period, with the largest decreases in manufacturing; business, building and other support services; and construction."

As Ontario's economy contracts, should not the province be doing everything in its power to facilitate as much as 10 per cent of its work force moving from full-time and part-time employment to full-time and part-time education and training? As young people graduate from Ontario's educational and training institutions - and experience increasing difficulties in securing employment - should not the province be doing everything in its power to provide them with expanded opportunities for continued education and training leading to more productive full-time employment down the road?

Such an education-based workplace revolution will require the co-operation of businesses, unions, educational institutions and governments. In the case of management and labour, this means making worker retraining and education a much higher priority in collective bargaining agreements. But, most important, provincial governments to whom our Constitution grants primary jurisdiction over education must decide to make education and training spending an even higher priority during recessionary times than health-care spending.

Health care currently consumes about 40 per cent or more of the total budgets of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, with educational expenditures accounting for less than 15 per cent of the total budgets of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario (yes, Ontario), Saskatchewan and Alberta. Spiralling health-care spending is progressively eating up provincial budgets to the point where other vitally important social-service functions such as education and training are starved for funding. We simply cannot allow this trend to continue.

Of course, a shift in billions of dollars from health care to education and training raises an obvious question: How will we achieve and maintain high-quality health care?

The answer for Canada lies in finally biting the bullet and doing what most of the world's other industrialized countries (with the exception of the U.S.) have done, and that is establish a well-balanced two-track health-care system, providing for both public and private health-care insurance, delivery and financing.

Comparative studies by Canadian think tanks and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have shown that health-care systems offering universal health care to all citizens regardless of ability to pay (just like Canada) but with two-track (public and private) insurance, financing and delivery capacity outperform the Canadian health-care system in virtually every category of health-care outcomes.

And while there is room for legitimate debate as to what the relationship should be between public and private health-care tracks and what must be done to maintain high standards of care in both, these are the questions we should be debating - not whether private health-care insurance, delivery and financing should be permitted and encouraged.

To offer hundreds of thousands of Canadians productive educational and training opportunities as an alternative to unproductive unemployment requires provincial governments to make education and training their spending priority. To do that requires major reforms in health-care financing and spending. Will Ontario take the lead in making this necessary transition?

Its sort of a shame he used a legitimate problem to issue a flat proposal for two track health care. Never the less, I think he is right on the larger imbalance between health care and nearly everything else. Nobody is denying that healthcare is important for the economy, but as it stands more and more of our money will be funneled into chronic care for geriatric boomers. Meanwhile the people who will be expected to pay for it are being screwed on educational funding and, hence, longterm productivity.

 

[lordmandeep]

even more liberal societies like Sweden and Finland (they are nuts, imo) have a public-private health care system.


Major problem is 50% of people that go into the ER, are people who need to see a family doctor.

If one part of an ER is converted to being a walk in clinic, it would save so much trouble.


No need for someone with a cut to be treated the same with someone with to much water in their lungs.

 

[rdaner]

Stratford Institute Update

There will be 2,000 students and 200 faculty.

From Stratford Beacon Herald

Stratford at epicentre
Posted By LAURA CUDWORTH, Staff Reporter
Posted 1 hour ago


E-mail is on the verge of becoming passe. Wiki's, blogs, podcasts and Twitter are where the future is headed.

Soon your computer won't have a keyboard and video will replace type. Tom Jenkins of Open Text gave business leaders a glimpse into the future at the Business Excellence Awards last night.

The Stratford Institute will be on the cutting edge of all of it, he said.

"Stratford is going to deal with the issues of the next generation."

Software company Open Text is a billion-dollar company with 4,000 employees and is closely connected with the University of Waterloo and with the Stratford Institute.

The Internet is changing. Sites like YouTube and Facebook are where it's headed as three dimensional images take over from text-based search engines.

He told business leaders they will soon be under pressure to deal as businesses with social networking sites.

"You're going to be running your own YouTube in your business ... Stratford is going to help the world figure out how to do that," he said.

Though Shakespeare could never have fathomed the digital age, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival will also be an important partner. Experts in storytelling, light and sound among other creative pursuits will be a great commodity in a world of video rather than text, he noted.

In about six months, a no-click computer mouse will tell the computer to build information about your interests based on what you hover the mouse over on a web page.

See FUTURE, page 3

Continued After Advertisement Below

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"This is part of what Stratford gets to participate in. Anyone who creates content is going to be king in this brave new world," he said.

It's the beginning of the end of television as we know it. The BBC is now delivering information to young peoples' cell phones, he noted.

The Stratford Institute will focus on computer science, creativity and marketing.

"The kids who come out of it will rule the global market."

There will be 2,000 students and 200 faculty.

Graduates will have no difficulty finding jobs. There are 250 Open Text jobs in Waterloo alone waiting to be filled.

"There are employers all over the world dying to hire these students."

Mr. Jenkins noted there are 450 companies around Waterloo because of the university there but it took about 30 years to build that relationship. The Stratford Institute will also attract cutting edge companies but more quickly because the precedent has already been set, he suggested.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

I hope they put it in the old CNR shops. It's in downtown, near the station, and it's large and vacant. A match made in heaven.

 

[rdaner]

UOİT Expansion to Downtown Oshawa

Council OKs transfer of Regent to UOIT
SABRINA BYRNES / METROLAND
Faculty of criminology will move to downtown Oshawa next fall

Oct 08, 2009 - 08:41 PM

http://www.newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/137354

By Jillian Follert

OSHAWA -- UOIT will be moving its faculty of criminology, justice and policy studies to downtown Oshawa next fall, as part of a new development on the Regent Theatre property.

At a special meeting on Thursday, council voted to transfer ownership of the beleaguered landmark to the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, bringing an end to the controversy that has plagued Glyn Laverick’s ownership.

UOIT is partnering with London Investments Corporation to acquire the theatre.

The plan will see London Investments buy the entire Regent property and transfer ownership of the theatre to UOIT. The undeveloped back lot will be used for a five-storey, 30,000 square foot building, which will be leased to the university for classroom, office and meeting space for the faculty of criminology.

UOIT President Ron Bordessa said the faculty has more than 1,000 students and is growing rapidly with about 2,000 students expected in the next few years.

He confirmed the Regent will be used for university purposes during the day and theatre uses in the evening, under the supervision of a theatre management professional.

Mr. Bordessa noted Mr. Laverick’s agreement with the City requires 100 events to be staged at the theatre per calendar year -- something that will be taken out when the agreement is transferred to the university. But, he said that doesn’t mean they intend to be lax about bringing acts to the venue.

“It will be conducted as a business, it will be managed professionally,” he said. “We want to see it used as much as possible because it will be a profit centre for us.”

As for the volume of events, Mr. Bordessa said he doesn’t know how many they will be aiming for per year, only that UOIT officials hope it will be “substantially more than 100.”

The Regent was appraised at $2.326 million last fall, but UOIT and London Investments say in a recent letter to the City, that the agreed upon purchase price is “considerably less.”

Councillors are optimistic about the new owners, but some expressed concerns about potential costs to the City, because UOIT and London Investments are asking for financial assistance.

The incoming owners want the City to close off Victoria Street between King Street and Bond Street to allow for a pedestrian walkway and “public open space” to be created, and to provide financial assistance for that work in the 2010 budget.

UOIT is also asking for a 99-year lease for 100 parking spots near the theatre, and a 99-year lease for the 150 parking spaces assigned in 2008 to accommodate UOIT’s faculty of education on Simcoe Street.

No cost estimate for the Victoria Street project will be available until after development plans are complete. Council voted to refer the matter to the 2010 budget process, which City Manager Bob Duignan stressed, does not commit the City to spend any money.

On the matter of parking, council directed City staff to investigate the request, but again, did not make any commitments.

Mr. Duignan said it is vital for the City to make parking available for downtown developments, noting council has a longstanding policy that requires it to do so.

“Without the parking, UOIT can’t justify the development,” he said. “Like any other developer, they want to know that if they invest millions in the downtown, there will be parking.”

The City has rates that apply to short term and leased parking spots in the downtown, and Mr. Duignan said UOIT will pay for its spots -- although the university may get a volume discount for leasing so many.

A City report says Mr. Laverick has made “significant progress” towards a permanent occupancy permit for the theatre, and is expected get a final sign off in mid-October, which is a condition of the purchase and sale agreement.

The sale of the Regent property is expected to close on Oct. 30.