U of T students planning a lip dub
A group of U of T students is organizing a “lip dub” to take place some time this September.
A “lip dub” is essentially a music video — subjects sing along to a musical track which is later “re-dubbed” over the shot footage. A YouTube phenomenon among universities, the “lip dub” gained popularity in 2009 when L’Université du Québec à Montréal attracted nearly 9 million viewers to their online video, set to the track of “I’ve Got a Feeling.”
The “U of T’s Lip Dub” event on Facebook currently boasts 5,951 attendees. Student organizer Matt Panday stated that the U of T Lip Dub will be tri-campus, and aims to be the largest recorded University “Lip Dub” video.
He stressed that the current student organizers are still looking to recruit and partner with other U of T clubs and students. More information will be released about the event on its Facebook event page over the summer.
–Emily Kellogg
U of T forestry schools get the axe
The future of U of T’s Faculty of Forestry has come into question, and is now being forced to consider a merger with the Department of Geography and the Centre for the Environment.
The faculty is both the country’s oldest and smallest forestry school. It aims to incorporate “ecological science, biomaterials science and engineering, as well as social and economic research.”
Money doesn’t grow on trees for the university, which hopes such subjects can be taught more cost-effectively through the Faculty of Arts and Science.
The faculty has already been teaching undergraduate forestry students for the last fifteen years.
Professors and students told The Globe and Mail that the move could “eventually kill off a training ground for thousands of conservationists and ecological experts” and ruin the benefits of a small enrollment size, both major draws for the program.
–Lauren Bursey
Study says co-workers hoard info
Distrust among employees leads to knowledge hiding, according to a study co-authored by David Zweig, a U of T assistant professor of organizational behaviour.
The research is among the first to study the nature of knowledge hiding between employees. The findings suggest three main types of knowledge hiding: playing dumb, evasive hiding, and rationalized hiding.
Although many corporations encourage knowledge sharing, many employees indirectly hide information, or play dumb, out of distrust.
“[Employees] justified their decisions in different ways, but the underlying reason they hid information was distrust of management or colleagues,” Zweig told The Globe and Mail. Distrust often drives employees to hide knowledge from their colleagues.
The research recommends managers increase employees’ perceptions of trustworthiness by emphasizing a shared identity.
–Dwayne G. White
SCSU election legitimate after all
The latest Scarborough Campus Students’ Union election results were ratified after allegations that the CRO had been following an outdated version of the election rules.
SCSU’s board of directors was about to ratify the results at their March 4 when former SCSU VP external Amir Bashir entered the meeting and claimed the election had been run on old election rules and not the latest version that was approved earlier this year.
The results were tabled as the board decided to study the supposed dilemma. But according to Guled Arale, current chair of the board, it was all a misunderstanding.
“The election policy mix-up was a confusion,” said Arale in an e-mail to The Varsity. “An executive from the previous year said in the board meeting that the policy was outdated, but when they reviewed it afterwards, they found it was just a confusion and the election was run on the correct policy.”
–Dylan C. Robertson With files from Natalie Sequeira
Dunlap Observatory drama continues
There’s no end in sight to a dispute over the David Dunlap Observatory, a property in Richmond Hill U of T sold in 2008.
The largest optical telescope in Canada, the Dunlap Observatory was opened in 1935 after the Dunlap family donated its 19th century farmstead to U of T.
The university sold the 191 acres of green space to Metrus Properties for $70 million. Corsica, a company subsidiary, plans to construct an 833-unit housing development project using roughly half the land. The observatory would remain intact and protected by the company.
Residents of Richmond Hill have opposed the development on grounds of the land’s heritage status, leading the Ontario Municipal Board to take reins over the issue in June.
The OMB is now conducting third-party mediation in an attempt to settle the issue out of court.
–Tanzeel Hakak
With files from the Toronto Star
U of T engineers help craft huge ice cream cake
To celebrate 30 years of Dairy Queen ice cream cakes, the record for the world’s biggest ice cream cake was broken with some help from U of T.
A team of six graduate students in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry were involved in the project’s planning, where they calculated the cake’s dimensions and how it could be put together.
The enormous dessert, constructed at Yonge-Dundas Square on May 10, weighed over 10 tonnes, surpassing the previous Guinness world record of 8 tonnes.
–Kimberly Shek
Name change for UTSC
Governing Council’s Academic Board discussed a motion passed by UTSC Council on March 29 regarding a name change that would remove the “at” in the campus’ formal name, University of Toronto at Scarborough, simplifying it to “University of Toronto Scarborough.”
In a letter to Provost Cheryl Misak, UTSC Principal Franco Vaccarino wrote that new name “reflects current signage and common usage for a number of years by staff, students, faculty and is viewed as best representing the campus.”
U of T’s Academic Board discussed and unanimously approved the motion on April 26, although they postponed the motion’s implementation from being effective immediately to July 1, 2011. The change was made to avoid modifying parchments already printed for June convocation ceremonies.
The motion required final confirmation from GC’s Executive Committee, which passed on May 9.
–Tony Tang
U of T starts partnership with Seneca
U of T and Seneca College have just got into a new program partnership.
Students can now earn a liberal arts college diploma and a Bachelor of Arts university degree in four years. Students who begin their studies at Seneca College can smoothly transition to university study.
The Student Success Partnership Agreement allows student to take classes at Seneca during their first two years while taking two or three courses at U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Science. Students then complete their third and fourth years at the university.
The joint program is not a new concept for U of T. UTSC offers joint programs with Centennial College, while UTM has a partnership with Sheridan College, both for practical career paths. The new partnership is the first for St. George campus.
–Regine Taduran
