cnn’S aLI vELSHI RETURNS TO CAMPUS
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T u e s d ay , O c to b e r 2 , 2 0 1 2 — I s s u e 11
the journal Queen’s University — Since 1873
Open field
Donations
Queen’s unveils funding campaign Administration launches plan to raise $500 million for various projects by 2016 B y J ulia Vriend Assistant News Editor Queen’s is hoping to receive $1 million in donations per week following the launch of the Initiative Campaign on Saturday — the largest fundraising campaign in the University’s history. The campaign opened in 2006 and through alumni donations raised nearly $300 million of their $500 million goal before publicly launching the campaign last week. The donations will be going into a number of areas, ranging from infrastructure renewal to the hiring of more teaching staff. “Students are at the centre of this campaign,” Vice Principal (Advancement), Tom Harris, said. “We’re investing in students, and that’s why we are going to profile and highlight students.” The committee aims to raise the rest of the $500 million by 2016, plus an additional $100 million in future estate gifts. “2003 was the last campaign and this one is twice as big,” Harris said. It was an eight-year campaign that ended in 2003 with a financial goal of $200 million but the campaign exceeded its expectations. The AMS has been asked to propose projects that they consider as campaign priorities while keeping up with the movement of the campaign, Harris said. According to the Campaign’s website, 56 per cent of donations will go towards faculties or schools, 6.4 per cent going towards Athletics and Recreation and 4 per cent towards campus-wide student assistance. The infrastructure plans
include Isabel Bader Center of the Performing Arts and The Centre of Infrastructure in Global Engineering — a 70,000 square ft. teaching and research facility, towards which $45 million will go. Harris said Queen’s needs these funds to secure resources and embark on projects they would not be able to do otherwise. The campaign began with an on-campus rally on Thursday in Grant Hall with about 200 students in attendance. Saturday’s official launch included the unveiling of Stauffer library’s new benefactor Queen’s celebrates the grand opening of Nixon Field on Sept. 29 with a shutout win over See We’re on page 4
Waterloo. See page 15 for full story.
STUDENT HOUSING
AMS, University undertake safety audit The review will look at potential unsafe factors around the student housing area B y R achel H erscovici Assistant News Editor The AMS has launched an audit to assess the safety of the housing area surrounding Queen’s. The last time a safety audit of the area was released was in 1997, said AMS Municipal Affairs Commissioner Troy Sherman. “It started off after we had a conversation about past campus safety audits that have been done,” Sherman, ArtSci ’14, said. The 1997 audit was also spear-headed by the Municipal Affairs Commission. The audit was conducted by a small number of students starting in 1995 who made nine recommendations. The recommendations included
Inside nEWS
Arts
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath chats with students.
An interview with Kingston natives Wilderling. Page 10
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Dialogue
Sports
Examining Omar Khadr’s return to Canada.
Gaels barely hang on to beat Ottawa.
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Photo by Tiffany Lam
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maintaining and fixing streetlights and asking the City to advertise the value of individuals lighting their porches, carriage ways and back yards and trim overgrown vegetation. This new initiative was part of Sherman’s goal plan passed in AMS assembly on Sept. 13. Overall, response has been very positive, he said. The first audits were started on Sept. 24 and 26. The full assessment will be completed in a series of stages that will cover the areas from Earl St. and north to Mack St., to Ontario St. on the east and Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd. on the west. Sherman said he hopes to have the final audit report completed by Campus Security, by the end of October. The auditors will look at dark spots on the streets, shadowy areas, street light bulbs that may need replacing, overgrown bushes, potential spots where new construction projects interferes with emergency response programs and more. A lot of the judgments made for the audit will be based on the common sense and the “gut feeling” of one male and one female student -olunteer Sherman said. In addition, Campus Security will introduce the volunteers to the model for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
(CPTED) to ensure the audit is being done most effectively. CPTED aims to reduce the possibility of crime through urban planning and
development. Sherman noted that this project is a joint initiative. “It’s for peoples’ safety See Audit on page 4
sTUDENT EXPERIENCE
Poll offers insight Class of 2012 mostly pleased with overall Queen’s University experience, survey shows B y R achel H erscovici H olly Tousignant Journal Staff
and
The latest Queen’s Exit Poll shows that most students are satisfied with their Queen’s experience, though some variations in responses exist among faculties. The Exit Poll surveyed members of the graduating students of the class of 2012 in fall 2011. It was presented to the Queen’s Board of Trustees on May 4. The survey’s two “anchor statements” asked students whether they agreed that “Overall, my experience as a student at Queen’s was excellent” and “Overall, my Queen’s education was an excellent contributor to my learning and development.” Students were given the option of responding with strongly
disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree. In terms of overall experience, 80 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their Queen’s experience was excellent, though these percentages varied across faculties, ranging from 67 per cent in Education and Concurrent Education, to 92 per cent in Commerce. Stephen Elliott, dean of the Faculty of Education, told the Journal via email that he thinks the structure of the Bachelor of Education program could have something to do with the results. Concurrent Education students complete courses in education while they simultaneously work toward an honours degree in Arts and Science, Music or Computing, while prospective Consecutive See Exit on page 5