board report president april 2012

7/28/2019 Board Report President April 2012

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Presidents Report to

McMaster Universitys Board of GovernorsApril 26, 2012

Since last December the President's written Reports to the Board have sought to establish aframework for strategic discussion about the mandate and function of the university. The focushas been on topics identified in Forward With Integrity (FWI), my letter to the McMastercommunity and the subject of our Fall Board of Governors retreat. In this April meeting we arecontinuing the project in two ways. First, in place of my oral report, Susan Denburg will beproviding Board members with a description of the process by which the McMaster communityhas been mobilized to engage in far-reaching discussions intended to advance Forward WithIntegrity and to translate the values and recommendations of that letter into real change on ourcampus. We are about to see the release of position papers from four task forces established atthe start of January on Community Engagement, Student Experience, Research and

Internationalization, after which the FWI Advisory group will be identifying priorities for action.

Underlying this entire process has been the conviction that as we lay out our future as aninstitution we must concentrate not on defending the status quo, but on achieving our goals aseducators and researchers. Indeed, the task forces were asked to take nothing for grantedexcept of course the certainty that material resources will in the future be at least as constrainedas they are at present. Having accepted that reality, which is largely beyond our control, we needto give critical and careful attention to all elements of the university enterprise over which wecan exert an influence.

Nowhere is there more scope and potential than in the educational process itself: in what we

choose to do with the learning experience in our courses, in how we imagine a "course of study",in how we construct the opportunity for learning, and even where we choose to have thatlearning occur. Implicit in all of this is that "teaching" needs to be read as a very broad and openconcept, capable of taking many formssome perhaps unlikely to be easily recognized assuchbut always focused clearly on the student and the realization of the student's potential.

Here in Ontario in the wake of the Drummond report, the context for this reappraisal andreorientation is complex. On the one hand there is a gratifying upsurge in discussion ofpedagogical issues, of curriculum reform, and of exemplary practices in teaching and learningall of which speaks to Drummonds stress on the need for high quality in postsecondaryeducation. On the other is a push on the part of Government towards heightened productivity and

efficiencyalso, more obviously, a key element in Drummond.

One rather odd confluence of these two tendencies is the value-for-money audit that has beenundertaken by the Auditor General of Ontario focused on teaching assessment in the Province'suniversitiesa potentially interesting exercise, but disconcerting in that it is being conductedlargely without guidance and effective support from educators. Any broad engagement with theimportance of the quality of the learning experience is nevertheless to be applauded, and how


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best to wring maximum educational value from the resources available is nothing less than ourcentral challenge as a university.

At this meeting, Dr. P. K. Rangachari, one of McMasters most innovative teachers and a 3MFellow, will provide Board members with insight into the possibilities opened up by a radically

critical approach to teaching and learning.

Teaching and Learning

$700,000 gift to provide greater accessibility to library, enhance learning for businessstudents

McMaster has received a $700,000 gift from TD Bank Group to help students with disabilitiesbetter access the full services of the University libraries and to create a dynamic learning spacefor business students at its newest campus, the Ron Joyce Centre.

Part of the gift will help fund a staff position - named the TD Coordinator for LibraryAccessibility Services - to offer support services in research, to help manage the hardware andsoftware students with disabilities use to help access information, and to provide study andconsultation rooms that use adaptive technology, among other functions.

The second component of the gift is the TD Learning Commons, which is located on the firstfloor of the Ron Joyce Centre in Burlington. There, students from the DeGroote School ofBusiness' MBA and executive education programs have full access to an open, airy space thatenhances their academic experience.

Business students win Next Top Ad Exec

Kailee Jamieson and Ryan Moran, both students in the DeGroote School of Business, won thisyears Canadas Next Top Ad Exec competition. The pair developed a marketing strategy forChevrolets new model, the Spark, and will each be awarded a car for winning the contest.

Jamieson and Moran beat 190 teams from 31 business schools. It is the second straight year thatMcMaster has won Canadas Next Top Ad Exec.

National recognition for nursing professor

Jenn Salfi, an assistant professor with the School of Nursing, has received the 2012 Dr. JohnGilbert Interprofessional Education Mentorship Award from the National Health SciencesStudents' Association. The honour recognizes a mentor in interprofessional education for the2011-2012 year and acknowledges the encouragement, support, insight and enthusiasm providedto students that has been instrumental in their success. Interprofessional education refers to thepractice of multiple students from varying areas of health care learning together during theirprofessional training.


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CommunityMcMaster Downtown Health Campus moves ahead

The Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) and the University have solved the

challenge of finding swing space for the Board's headquarters so the McMaster DowntownHealth Campus project can proceed at the Board's current location at Main and Bay Streets.HWDSB will temporarily relocate its offices to three nearby locations in the downtown core.McMaster's Downtown Health Campus will see 54,000 patient visits a year, provide physiciansto 15,000 residents currently without a family doctor, serve 4,000 students and be home to 450McMaster employees.

McMaster celebrates 125 years

The University will kick off its 125th anniversary celebrations this month with the burying of atime capsule on Founders Day, April 23. The capsule is in honour of the classes of 2010, 2011

and 2012, and will be buried at a garden party celebrating the planned construction of a gardenfunded by the senior class gift.

A special 125th anniversary committee has been meeting since last year to coordinate and plananniversary celebrations. A website, mcmaster125.ca, hosts a calendar of events, weekly trivia,archival photos and more, and 125th anniversary banners and posters will soon be displayedaround campus.

Employment Crawl will introduce students to career opportunities in Hamilton

Four buses will roll out of campus at the end of April, carrying dozens of students to the

opportunities that abound in the city. The Hamilton Employment Crawl, organized byMcMaster's Student Success Centre, will shuttle participants to a number of potential employersin downtown Hamilton on April 25 and 26. Organizations will make short presentations abouttheir work, discuss potential growth within their industry and give tours of their facilities.Participants will also be given a guided tour of Hamilton and time to explore one of the city's up-and-coming neighbourhoods, including James Street North, Locke Street and Pier 4.

Marauders QB named area athlete of the year

McMaster Marauders football quarterback Kyle Quinlan was named the Golden HorseshoeAthlete of the Year. Quinlan led the Marauders to their first Vanier Cup national championshiplast season and was honoured with the Bill Sturrup Trophy at the CYO Celebrity Dinner. He beatMilwaukee Brewers pitcher John Axford and track star Christian Brennan for the athlete of theyear title.

Students recognized for being good neighbours

Fifteen students were recognized this month for their positive roles in the neighbourhoodssurrounding McMaster. The students were given Good Neighbour Awards, presented by the


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Ainslie Wood-Westdale Community Association, Hamilton Police Services, McMaster StudentsUnion and the University. The students were given award certificates during a short presentationin the Student Centre.

Research

Federal Budget supports university research

McMaster was highlighted in the recent federal budget with the announcement of $6.5 millionfor a new project to evaluate team-based approaches to health care delivery. The project willinvestigate how inter-professional collaboration can improve patient care and help to limit costincreases. The study will be centred at the new downtown Hamilton Health Campus.

$4.8M from Canada Research Chairs program

The latest round of Canada Research Chair announcements featured one advancement, tworenewals and three new chairs for McMaster.

John Brennan, formerly a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry, waspromoted to a Tier 1 CRC in Bioanalytical Chemistry and Biointerfaces, whileanthropologist Hendrik Poinar, Canada Research Chair in Paleogenetics, and psychologist MelRutherford, Canada Research Chair in Social Perceptual Development, had their Chairs renewedfor a second five-year term.

Three new Chairs were also announced: McMaster researcher and gastrointestinal diseasespecialist Dr. Elena Verdu; Aimee Nelson, an alumna recruited from the University of Waterloo

to join the department of kinesiology; and Shinya Nagasaki, a world-renowned nuclear engineer.

$3.5 million partnership to jumpstart confidence in lithium ion car batteries

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council will fund a four-year, $3.5M researchproject on improving the reliability and cost of batteries that power electric vehicles.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from McMaster, including participation from chemistry,materials science and mathematics, together with researchers from l'Universite du Quebec aMontreal, McGill University and Western University, will study the lithium ion battery. Theannouncement was made at McMaster by Burlington MP Mike Wallace.

Researcher second most read scientist in world

Salim Yusuf, a professor of cardiology and founder of the Population Health Research Instituteat Hamilton General Hospital, is the second most read and cited researcher in the world,according to ScienceWatch. Yusuf wrote 13 of the most cited papers in the ranking, and one ofhis papers written with McMasters Stuart Connolly was ranked seventh on theorganizations list of hot papers last year.


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Key to new antibiotics could be deep within isolated cave

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in one of the deepest, most isolated caves in the world couldmean good news in the battle against superbugs. McMaster's Gerry Wright, scientific director ofthe Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, and researchers from the

University of Akron, discovered that bacteria found deep within New Mexico's Lechuguilla Cavehave developed defenses against antibiotics. This could indicate the presence of previouslyunknown, naturally occurring antibiotics that doctors could use to treat infections.

New centre to focus on health of diverse populations

A research centre made possible thanks to a $1M gift from entrepreneur and philanthropist VasuChanchlani and his wife Jaya will help in the battle against common diseases affecting manydifferent cultural groups. The Chanchlani Research Centre will be led by McMaster physicianand research scientist Sonia Anand. The gift will enable a group of innovative researchers, withtalents that range from genetics to social determinants of health, to understand the causes and

consequences of common diseases that afflict diverse ethnic populations, women and the sociallydisadvantaged.

Mac researchers selected for national spinal cord team

Kinesiology experts Maureen MacDonald, Audrey Hicks and Kathleen Martin Ginis have beenselected as part of an elite team devoted to groundbreaking spinal cord research. They will join10 other scientists from across the country as part of the Canadian Institute of Health Research's"Chronic Disease Risk and Intervention Strategies Team Grant." The overall goal for the team isto improve cardiovascular health for those living with a spinal cord injury.

Fight against allergies, asthma gets big boost

The battle against allergic and immune diseases has received a $36.5 million boost from thefederal government. Over the next seven years, Judah Denburg, scientific director and chiefexecutive officer of AllerGen National Centre of Excellence and professor in the Michael G.DeGroote School of Medicine, and his team, will work to decrease the burden of allergic andimmune disease on Canadians productivity and economic growth.

board report president april 2012

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