News Briefs
Chelse McKee and magally zelaya Staff
And the grants go to . . .
A project headed by U of M economics professor John Loxley was awarded a $1-million grant by the Community-University Research Alliance.
The project investigates issues related to poverty in Manitoba's inner- city and aboriginal communities.
“We want to uncover what actually works to reduce poverty. We want some solutions,” said Loxley.
The project has four major themes: justice and policing, housing neighbourhoods, employment training, and community economic development.
The funds awarded by the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) will be distributed over five years and will go to hiring students and community researchers. Further funds are also coming from the provincial and federal governments.
Loxley said everyone involved, including researchers from the University of Winnipeg, among others, are “very pleased because it comes as an affirmation of what we’ve been doing.”
Two other U of M-based projects were awarded CURA grants: U of M’s Centre on Aging and a study examining francophone and Métis diversity at St. Boniface College.
UMFA ratifies
The University of Manitoba’s Faculty Association voted 94.8 per cent in favour of ratifying the collective agreement they reached with the university’s administration in a vote held Oct. 31.
With the ratification, the new collective agreement is now a “binding contract,” according to John Danakas, director of public affairs at the U of M.
The new contract will be finalized at the next meeting of the university's Board of Governors on Nov. 20, where, as Danakas said, “the contents of the agreement are provided to the board for information.”
The new agreement replaces the one that expired March 31, 2007 and is retroactive to that date.
Eureka!
Smartpark, located on Research Road on the Fort Garry campus has recently received their first sponsor for their eureka project.
The project, which was taken over by Smartpark in January, is an incubation program for emerging businesses.
“[Incubation] brings to mind eggs or newborns, but the idea behind it is helping start up businesses,” said Lindsey Wiebe, a project c-oordinator for Smart Park. “Kind of incubating them so they can grow into full-fledged companies.”
Now PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has signed on to be the first sponsor for the project. Although Wiebe could not disclose a specified amount, PwC will contribute financially to the project and by mentoring the new businesses.
The Eureka project has one or two more spots, depending on space, left for aspiring businesses.
Online to get educationally in line
A recent Statistics Canada report has revealed that nearly 80 per cent of full-time and part-time students logged on to the Internet for their educational needs like research or online courses.
George Siemens, associate director of the Learning Technical Centre, said the large percentage of students using the Internet is something that universities need to start investigating.
“If you’re teaching online, you can actually have access to greater number of resources and even a greater level of dialogue than what you can have [with] a pure face-to-face environment.”
Meanwhile, only 26 per cent, roughly 6.4 million, of adults use the Internet for educational purposes. Of that percentage, 4.2 million of adults used the Internet to research information for project assignments and to solve academic queries.
