Tag Archives: University of Toronto

December 7, 2009 · 4:49 pm

Double Threat: Two new hockey recruits use their “twin telepathy” on the ice

September, U of T’s Varsity Blues women’s hockey team played an exhibition game against Team China at Varsity Arena, which ended in a loss of 4-3. The two teams also staged a shootout, with two Varsity players and three Team China players scoring. One of these scorers was rookie Courtney Brind’Amour-McClure. Courtney and her sister, Alie, are identical twin forwards and first-year students, both recruited by the Blues this fall.

At the age of seven, the twins from Waterdown, Ontario, found their game: they switched from soccer to hockey, and have been on the ice together ever since. Courtney and Alie now play on the same line, left and right wing respectively. Like identical twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks, their connection is an advantage. “A lot of people think we have the twin telepathy,” says Courtney. “We have a good sense of each other on the ice.”

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November 17, 2008 · 9:36 pm

Roaches run rampant in rez

Family housing has infested units despite management efforts

More than once, Susanna Sanders has woken up to find a crushed cockroach in her bed. The Master’s student lives with her husband at Student Family Housing, a two-building university residence complex on Charles Street, east of the St. George campus, that houses couples and students with children. Sanders (name changed) had never seen a roach until she moved from her small Ontario -hometown to downtown Toronto. By now, she is a veteran—in some parts of Student Family Housing, the cockroaches are pretty much in charge.

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November 11, 2008 · 9:53 pm

The invisible 40 per cent

Almost half of U of T students are caregivers. Why are the private costs not a public issue?

Three years ago, Karolina Szymanski was working, studying part-time at U of T, and caring for her father, who had terminal cancer. She was also pregnant. The morning after her father’s funeral, she went into labour. Szymanski, now 25, is a full-time student in fourth year balancing a Work-Study position and a full course load while raising her two-year-old son. Szymanski’s story may be dramatic, but as a student caregiver, she is far from unique.

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September 30, 2008 · 9:55 pm

Shining a light

Freedom of information

Rafael Eskenazi is not someone who speaks without thinking. It’s what you might expect of the director of U of T’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Office. A career civil servant, he is meticulous and dedicated, in his office well into the evening. Eskenazi is passionate, in his own way, about something called information management. While he might not be at the top of the administrative food chain, his policies say more about U of T’s attitude towards transparency and public access than any of President Naylor’s prepared speeches.

Take FIPPO’s latest opus, a lengthy document released this August. A list of non-binding practices, many are not novel to the average official. But to those outside the administration, its guidelines may seem extreme, even paranoid.

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April 7, 2008 · 5:16 am

Don’t ignore the nitty gritty

Students are protesting fee increases, but it’s the administration’s policy changes that we should really be worried about

As anyone involved in political activism can tell you, nothing derails a movement quite like a fight over tactics. U of T’s student movement is off the rails— in the face of a 20 per cent residence fee increase at New College, most students seem to be siding with President David Naylor.

While we exchange insults in the Varsity’s comment threads, important issues are getting lost. At the University Affairs Board Meeting on March 25, a group of senior administrators presented a report that could fundamentally change the way ancillary services are funded at U of T. The report articulated a “fourth objective” for residences at U of T: to bring in a profit.

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· 4:18 am

Students rally to abort ‘genocide’ demonstration

Along with the first robins, tulips and term papers, spring at U of T is marked by the arrival of anti-abortion activists. Around this time each year, U of T Students for Life and their off-campus allies break out a set of posters from the U.S. group Genocide Awareness Project and protest on campus.

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March 20, 2008 · 4:41 am

Occupation is a crime?

A student protest organized in response to New College’s 20 per cent residence fee increase took a dramatic turn at approximately 1:30 this afternoon, when roughly 35 students entered Simcoe Hall, the university’s main administrative building, and refused to leave, chanting “occupation is a crime.” Though the demonstration began as a protest of the residence fee hike, other causes quickly became involved.

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March 19, 2008 · 4:45 am

Rez fees go through the leaky roof

Students in residence at New College are nervously rebudgeting at the news that their rent will rise 20 per cent next fall. Many are organizing in opposition—the New College Residence Council and the student activists AlwaysQuestion have planned a protest for Thursday, March 20. New College is looking for a way out of a financial sinkhole dating back at least to the double cohort, but principal Rick Halpern said the fee increase was planned for years, and is not meant to fix the college’s large deficit.

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February 14, 2008 · 5:05 am

Psych’s winning streak

 Two profs, two completely different teaching styles – and UTSC psychology gets Best Lecturer finalists, two years in a row

In faded jeans, a t-shirt and hoodie, Marc Fournier doesn’t look much like a professor. But three days a week the 34-year-old holds the attention of UTSC’s largest lecture theatre, and in a few weeks he’ll be addressing a much larger audience in TVO’s Best Lecturer Competition. This is Fournier’s second time in the top 10, and he’s not alone— fellow UTSC psych prof Gerald Cupchik has also made the finals.

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January 24, 2008 · 5:03 am

Lost in transfer

Students switched to U of T – but ended up in a shifting bureaucratic hell

In his high-profile lawsuit against UTM, Adam Rogers has alleged that a mix-up over his transfer application cost his family their financial security. His case stands out, but Rogers is not alone. Approximately 1,000 undergraduates transfer to U of T each year. Some come from other universities, some from colleges. The process involves sheaves of paperwork. And for some, the transition means months of conflict with U of T’s monolithic bureaucracy.

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