By: Donna Nadeem
On Jan. 22, Arig al Shaibah, the associate vice-president (Equity and Inclusion) with the McMaster equity and inclusion office, held an event in the Mills Library Connections Centre centered around McMaster’s “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Framework and Strategy.”
During her term, al Shaibah plans to engage with local and historically underrepresented and marginalized communities to understand and learn about their challenges.
She hopes this awareness will enable her to build strong ideas and strategies to advance the equity and inclusion goals at McMaster.
The event begin with al Shaibah’s presentation on McMaster’s EDI framework and strategy.
McMaster’s EDI framework is broken down into four pillars: institutional commitment and capacity, educational content and context, interactional capabilities and climate and compositional diversity and community engagement.
The first pillar aims to “mobilize McMaster’s commitment and capacity to advance inclusive excellence by establishing and resourcing structures, systems, policies and processes that facilitate equity, diversity and inclusion leadership, governance and accountability.”
The second pillar seeks to strengthen academic programs, practices and scholarships to ensure they “demonstrate relevance… to diverse local, regional, national and global communities.”
The third pillar focuses on improving the McMaster community’s ability to foster a culture of inclusion and an environment where members feel “a sense of dignity and belonging.”
The fourth pillar aims to engage marginalized communities on campus, enhance employment equity, and improve student access and success amongst historically underrepresented students and community members.
“Not everyone here feels included, so even among our diverse [community population], some of us may feel included and others not, in part because of inequities that exist,” said al Shaibah.
Al Shaibah explained an action plan that would help facilitate the development of the EDI plan.
Some of the points included developing goals across the institution and faculties and integrating the EDI into academic programs and self-reported student experiences, strengthening complaint resolution from harassment and discrimination complaints and increasing training for McMaster community members and committees.
Throughout the presentation, al Shaibah spoke in abstract terms, not outlining specific initiatives that the university will undertake take to improve student access and success amongst marginalized students and training for McMaster community members.
After the presentation, the floor was open for students to express concerns and feedback.
Students asked for more clarity about McMaster’s plans to meet the objectives stipulated in the EDI.
Even after students pressed further, Shaibah still failed to clarify what in particular she would do to work to combat the problems she raised.
One student expressed concern over the fact that his friend who is of Indigenous descent was not able to obtain a Teaching Assistant position for an Indigenous course while a student who was not of Indigenous heritage successfully secured the position.
Al Shaibah responded that if the candidates’ qualifications were equal, the Indigenous students’ application should have been prioritized.
Students also asked about whether other universities have implemented this EDI framework and whether it has been successful for them.
Al Shaibah said that some schools have explored strategies similar to this, but have not pursued an ‘across the board’ strategy that applied to faculties across the entire institution.
In addition, students asked how they could get involved with the implementation of the strategy.
According to Al Shaibah, McMaster students can promote the EDI framework through clubs and the McMaster Students Union. Students can also contact McMaster’s equity and inclusion office at [email protected].
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By: Elizabeth DiEmanuele
The Student Success Centre is pleased to launch the Undergrad Peer Tutoring Network (UPTN), a new network for students to access affordable, quality student tutors, both in-person and online. The platform is powered by TutorOcean, a relatively new start-up company that was selected in partnership with the McMaster Engineering Society. Differing from other academic services available, this network is a chance to connect with another student who successfully completed the course; tutors must have received an A- to provide services.
“Through the Student Life Enhancement Fund, all McMaster undergraduate students who access the network receive a subsidy for the first seven sessions, meaning they only pay $9 per hour,” says Jenna Storey, Academic Skills Program Coordinator for the Student Success Centre. “Tutors are available from all Faculties and an important part of this service.”
Gina Robinson, Director of the Student Success Centre, adds, “Providing quality and affordable tutoring is an important objective of this initiative. Finding sustainable funding for subsidy will need to be part the plan moving forward.”
Understanding that there are a number of gatekeeping courses (mandatory courses for students to complete their degree), the Student Success Centre continues to work with Faculties to ensure that these courses are available on the network. The Student Success Centre has also incorporated measures to ensure that tutors are well-prepared, offering a number of different sessions for tutors to become “McMaster Certified.”
As Jenna shares, “Students are encouraged to find a tutor who has a ‘McMaster Certified’ badge on their profile, indicating they have completed the tutor training session in accordance with best practices. This training focuses on running an effective session, ethical standards, and communication skills.”
The Undergrad Writing Centre continues to be another support available for students, and can be used at any stage of the writing process. All Writing Tutors have undergone training through the Student Success Centre, which has been externally recognized by the College Reading and Learning Association (CLRA).
Students can book up to ten appointments per semester for free. This semester, new drop-in writing support is also available Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The Undergrad Writing Centre is located in the Learning Commons on the second floor of Mills Library.
Jill McMillan, Academic Skills Program Coordinator of the Student Success Centre, shares, “Writing remains is a key academic and life skill requirement. We are thrilled to have received certification recognition that demonstrates the quality of this peer based service. Students are supported in meeting their writing potential.”
Students looking for quick study tips and other academic support can connect with Academic Coaches, located in the SSC Lounge as well as in the Learning Commons on the second floor of Mills Library every Monday-Friday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Learn more about the Undergrad Peer Tutoring Network here.
Learn more about the Undergrad Writing Centre here.
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Located on the fifth floor of Mills Library, the McMaster Institute for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching and Learning has just completed a renovation project for its offices.
Accessed by the rear-facing elevator doors and separated from the rest of the library, MIIETL feels tucked away, relatively undisturbed. But the renovations have really modernized the look and feel of the office space, and will allow MIIETL to better accommodate a potential increase in traffic from the McMaster population.
Formerly known as the Centre for Leadership in Learning, MIIETL is responsible for online initiatives at McMaster University, whether it's Avenue to Learn or a number of new blended online learning courses. But with a full-time staff of over 30 and numerous other part-time students and researchers, that's only a small part of what they do, explained Teaching and Learning Director Arshad Ahmad.
"In simple language, we help teachers to improve," he said. "We are partners with faculty, with staff, with students; whoever is in the business of teaching and learning and wants to improve, we're there to support them."
"Our business is helping people, to improve teaching, but also collecting evidence and doing research on teaching - in partnership," he emphasized.
With more of MIIETL's work being directed towards research on effective teaching and learning, the goal is for the redesign to allow more space for new students and researchers who will be working in collaboration with the institute. However, the renovations haven't expanded out of the occupied area; rather, it's given the offices a level of privacy that wasn't afforded by the cubicle-like walls before. In addition, sound that used to bleed from the inner classroom has now been minimized, and it can now accommodate up to 100 students.
Kris Knorr, the Research Coordinator at MIIETL, was principally involved with the summer renovations and commented that they looked at both open and closed designs, before ultimately deciding on a more private space.
Said Knorr, "it was part of [Ahmad's] vision to help alleviate [the noise and privacy issue] and help to create some new space for the growing capacity of MIIETL, and for the new work that we were going to be endeavoring with.
The growing collaboration with students is a sentiment that was echoed by both Knorr and Ahmad.
Knorr explained, "It's important for us to make sure that we have student partnership and a student voice in the work that we do."
With the renovation completed on time for its Sept. 1 deadline, MIIETL is planning on unveiling its new office space in time for November.
Something was unmistakably amiss on Oct. 1 when walking through the outdoor Mills Plaza. The Chinese Cultural Festival, hosted by McMaster’s Confucius Institute, was in full swing, full in this case meaning a single, subtle tent and a modest display of staff.
Compared to last year, when the festival encompassed the entire MUSC Atrium in an ostentatious display of cultural pride, song, dance and prizes, it was an unfamiliar offering from the usually grandiose faculty.
Dr. Angela Sheng, Associate Professor of Art History and Director Chair of the Confucius Institute, explained the reasoning behind this massive shift in festivities. “I want [the festival] to be in the open, to attract student attention and I would like it to be driven by grassroots needs,” said Sheng.
The festival, scheduled to run from Oct. 1 to 3, encompassed many aspects, such as martial arts demonstrations, student presentations and a myriad of film screenings on Thursday, still seemed oddly cut down, sporting an almost subtle profile with few students stopping their daily activities to check out the event.
The Institute, recently scrutinized for its allegedly controversial hiring and training practices overseas for prospective teachers according to a Globe and Mail investigative report, seems to be in the process of restructuring its outward appearance to appeal to a larger student body.
“The Confucius Institute is synchronous with humanities and with President Deane’s Forward With Integrity message, and we want to highlight student endeavours and give them a platform to express their work,” said Sheng.
The festival itself, while smaller in scale, promoted a single, unified message. It highlighted spirituality as a means to promote overall well-being, as well as stressing the importance of values shared between heritage students and students without a Chinese background at McMaster.
Looking forward in the year, Sheng has further plans to engage the student body in Chinese culture. “We have the upcoming Distinguished Speaker Series to look forward to. On October 30 an archeologist is going to speak about the first emperor of China. Later in November a linguist will come and speak about the phonetic system [of Mandarin].”
The Institute’s current plans do not end at festivities alone, as it is currently engaged in a proposal to found a new Chinese business course.
“It would be a language course that focuses on business language, and business etiquette and know-how that is different in China,” said Sheng.
The proposal has been submitted to the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Humanities and if passed will move on to review by the Senate’s Undergraduate Planning Committee this fall.
“I’d like to know what students would like [to know about China]. These projects have to be initiated by students and then they can be incorporated into next year’s budget proposal,” said Sheng on how students could get involved in the faculty.
The Confucius Institute will continue to run events throughout the year, but it remains to be seen if future showings by the organization will be equally toned down.
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The past 20 to 25 years in advertising history have seen some of the most popular trademark slogans. Many such popular advertisements of the past few decades originated in Canada through the work of Pirate Toronto, who donated an archive of over 50,000 radio and television advertisements to McMaster University’s Libraries.
The donated collection is “the single largest archive that we’ve recieved yet,” said Wade Wyckoff, Associate University Librarian for Collections. The archive consists of over 700 boxes and includes material from iconic brands such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, as well as preperatory materials from commercials like Becel’s “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” series. It also features celebrities such as Leslie Nelson, Bob Newhart, Ellen DeGeneres, John Cleese and Jay-Z.
The collection contains some “behind the scenes work,” of famous advertisements, said Wyckoff.
“The biggest reason we wanted to donate it, was that we wanted it to be used as a teaching tool and be preserved,” said Pirate Toronto co-founder Terry O’Reilly, who explained that he and his colleagues wanted to put their work toward the betterment of the next advertising generation.
“I would have killed to have something like this available when I was in university,” said O’Reilly.
Pirate Toronto was founded in 1990 and has since, undertaken numerous “milestone projects,” said O’Reilly, such as the first cell phone commercials in the late 80s as well as election campaigns and some of the first commercials that began addressing the AIDS epidemic which was silenced for sometime before public awareness on this issue surfaced in the mainstream media, he explained.
The donation of the archive to McMaster was put in place in 2011, after which, the University’s libraries have been working on organizing the archive for use by students and faculty. The collection is now ready for use, and is located on the lower level of Mills Library in the Division of Archives and Research Collections, explained Wyckoff. The first installment of the donation consisted of 50,000 radio and television commercials, followed by an additional 25,000, noted O’Reilly. The collection contains television and radio advertisements from 1990 to 2007, but also includes some of O’Reilly’s earlier work dating as early as 1982.
The archive has been received with enthusiasm from McMaster faculty looking to integrate the resource into course work.
“This is exactly the kind of thing we need to be doing in our department,” said Communication Studies and Multimedia professor, Philip Savage. “It’s a lovely sort of communications crossover resource,” he said.
While housing the enormous database of advertising history, McMaster students now have access to final commercials from the pivotal time period, as well as all of the component parts that comprise a final television or radio advertisement, including but not limited to original and edited scripts, auditions as well as all files and correspondence between those involved in the development of each commercial.
Upon his decision to donate the company’s historical collection, O’Reilly contacted numerous universities across the country. He was met with immense enthusiasm, but had three criteria for the donation: the university would have to express a strong desire for the collection, provide an explanation of how the archive would be used and a large enough space to house the collection. McMaster was able to demonstrate fulfillment of all three criteria.
“McMaster had a deep desire for the archive,” said O’Reilly, explaining that the University was clear in their goals to put these archives toward studies in Business, Psychology, Communication Studies and Multimedia, as well as English, among others.
The collection will allow students in a range of faculties and disciplines to “follow the development of commercials… and study how media and advertising has evolved,” said Wyckoff.
A next step for the archive is the digitalizing of the donation through an online project on behalf of The Canadian Advertising Museum, to build a web-based archive of the Canadian advertising industry.
“We wanted to preserve the works, rather than allow it to be lost in the sands of time,” said O’Reilly.
A formal reception was held at McMaster’s Ron Joyce Centre on Feb. 15, to celebrate the inauguration of the collection, where O’Reilly and his fellow colleagues discussed their thrilling experience creating what would become one of the greatest masterpieces in Canadian media history.
