CELEBRATING 20 1 0
1910
YEARS
volume CII summer issue 2
inside
the official student newspaper at the university of alberta
News Editor
The Gateway isn’t satisfied with mere hotdogs and waffles. We explore some other services that should be sold on campus. opinion, Page 6
Green and gold to red and white Eight volleyball Bears and Pandas show that they’ve got what it takes to wear the maple leaf.
monday, july 25, 2011
Computing Science layoffs aggravate graduate students Aaron Yeo
A work of cart
www.thegatewayonline.ca
Campus-wide budget cuts have led the Department of Computing Science to eliminate some valued positions, leading to a negative response from students. Every department has a go-to person for questions; Edith Drummond was the Graduate Student Advisor for the Department of Computing Science until her position was terminated last week. Her duties will now be assigned to faculty members. While department chair Mike MacGregor called the layoff an “unwelcome task,” the decision was taken even less well by students. “If you ask any student in that department, [she] was probably the one person you shouldn’t lay off,” said Dave Churchill, Vice President of the Computing Science Graduate Students’ Association. “She was basically like the lifeline to the department for studentrelated things.” When the graduate students heard the news, it spread on Facebook and many expressed their frustrations, writing that faculty aren’t competent enough in administration duties, showed concern for future students, and exclaimed “Bring back Edith!” Others praised her help in the past, and asked “Who do we go to now?” “One of the comments that hits home a lot is ‘Where will the department be
in 10 years if they continue like this?’ and the response was overwhelmingly negative,” Churchill said. All faculties and departments faced two per cent budget cuts this year, and Churchill was told that computing science was aiming at a 3.5 per cent cut. According to MacGregor, 97 per cent of the department’s budget is for salaries, and that “the only place for those budget cuts is support staff salaries.” “A 3.5 per cent budget cut is really just a euphemism for a much larger cut in services,” Churchill said. Churchill added that this isn’t the first time downsizing has affected them. Earlier this year, the department’s teaching assistant advisor was laid off and replaced by a professor, which some students saw as a conflict of interest. “I don’t want to have to go to a prof to talk about the financial distress that I’m under, and then go to a research meeting with him later. It’s uncomfortable, and not a very good professional environment, in my opinion,” Churchill said. In addition to Drummond, the department eliminated an administrative assistant position held by Iris Everitt and a vacant help desk position on Monday July 18. In an e-mail to students, MacGregor wanted to stress that the decisions were “a question of roles, not personalities.” Please see compsci Page 2
NERMEEN YOUSSEF
CRUNCH TIME A nutritious, gluten-free snack called Chickitos developed by four U of A students is getting lots of attention. See story, page 4.
Hundreds to gather for third Global Youth Assembly
Sports, Page 13
Delegates from around the world will discuss water issues and human rights at a conference in CCIS
“My Moment” not the new black
Alex Migdal
Pop culture aficionado Alex Migdal takes apart Rebecca Black’s “Friday” follow-up. A&E, Page 10
Staff Reporter
The University of Alberta is gearing up to host hundreds of youth this week who will be rallying in a global movement revolving around the theme of “Our World. Our Water.” From July 27 to 30, the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science will play host to the Global Youth Assembly, a congregation of 450 delegates between the ages of 16 and 28 looking to “ignite change” on human
rights issues. Renee Vaugeois, executive director of the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights, a nonprofit organization, has worked on the GYA since its first assembly back in 2007. She views the event as “creating a movement of youth who are challenging things, who are thinking differently, who are working collaboratively, and who are embracing human rights.” The idea for the GYA came to Vaugeois in 2006 when she attended a
youth assembly in New York run by the United Nations, which she described as a “disappointing” experience. “It was all white, middle-class Americans. There were maybe five people from Taiwan,” she said. “The programming was all older white people talking down to these kids. We all went, ‘This is so not what we’d want to do.’ ” Driven by a desire to assemble youth of diverse backgrounds together, Vaugeois initiated a proposal for an assembly in Edmonton, which
successfully launched in 2007. Thirtyfive countries were represented in the last GYA, and Vaugeois hopes to see the same number this time around. “It’s driven by different approaches,” she said. “We want to make sure that the speakers we do have are diverse. If you look at the program this year, we have indigenous speakers from around the world.” Scheduled speakers include aquatic filmmaker Fabien Cousteau and Montreal MP Justin Trudeau. Please see assembly Page 4