President Iacobucci acc-cen-tchu-ates the positive while student groups give thumbs down on throne speech

Tuesday’s throne speech opening Canada’s latest session of parliament drew snores from most of the country, but U of T’s acting president Frank Iacobucci and two national student organizations quickly issued press releases on the speech.

“The federal government’s commitment to building on its investments in research and innovation…is an encouraging message,” Iacobucci’s press release bubbled. “Universities are a prime source of…creativity and innovation, something we feel has been recognized by the government in its past investments and throughout this throne speech,” U of T VP Carolyn Tuohy was quoted as saying.

“Prime Minister Paul Martin failed to make mention of a key election promise,” grumbled a press release from the Canadian Federation of Students. “[D]uring a nationally-televised forum…Martin said that he wanted to allocate $8 billion to post-secondary education. We are disappointed that the Prime Minister chose not to follow through on one of his most ambitious election promises.” CFS Chair George Soule was quoted as saying “we hope this was not an empty promise to attract young voters.”

The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations wasn’t sugar-coating anything either. “This is perceptibly the worst case scenario,” they intoned darkly. “By making virtually no mention of education initiatives, the government is saying students are one sentence away from complete irrelevance,” CASA National Director James Kusie said.

-Graham F. Scott

Another day, another $10 milion in U of T research grants…

U of T was awarded a total of $9.6 million worth of research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council on Sept. 30. The cash is divided between 101 U of T professors, each of whom will receive up to $250,000 over three years to fund their research.

The SSHRC awarded a total of $33 million to Ontario universities, meaning that U of T took nearly 30 percent of the available funds.

The largest grant to a U of T researcher was to professor Ernie S. Lightman of the Faculty of Social Work, for his work on “Work, hunger and health in marginalized populations,” for which he will receive a grant of $248,334.

-GFS