Accountant creates RPG entirely in Excel spreadsheet

We’ve all heard the jokes about how some role-playing games (RPGs) require you to spend hours poring through spreadsheets to be successful. But what if the spreadsheet was the RPG? Cary Walkin, an accountant and MBA candidate at York’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto, has come to the salvation of bored office workers all around the world by coding a full-fledged RPG entirely in Microsoft Excel, reported The Escapist March 26. The game has more than 2,000 enemies, 1,000 items, boss encounters and a full story with four different endings. Read full story.

Finding the right fit: How to choose the EMBA program that’s right for you
Knowing exactly when to go back to school to upgrade his skills wasn’t exactly an easy choice for Michael Gardiner (EMBA’11). Both the time commitment as well as the financial considerations require having discussions with employers as well as family members. That’s why Su-Lan Tenn really digs deep when she interviews EMBA candidates. As the director of the Kellogg-Schulich EMBA program at York University, Ms. Tenn strongly believes the program is not independent of a student’s life and strives to identify as early as the interview stage all the factors that bring students to this specific point in their careers. “I personally need to identify why they are here,” she says in the Financial Post March 26. “That process allows me to cater the program’s benefits to them.” Read full story.

York University’s whistleblower policy wouldn’t have stopped past alleged fraud: experts
York University’s whistleblower policy, which didn’t exist during an alleged major fraud a few years ago, is weak and wouldn’t be much help in curbing serious wrongdoing on campus then or today, experts say in the Toronto Star March 25….But Janice Walls, a York adviser and deputy spokesperson, said the University developed the policy so it would be clear in writing that employees have an obligation to come forward in a timely way and disclose evidence of wrongdoing. Furthermore, she said the policy identifies a number of York people so they don’t have to disclose to someone in a position of authority in their work area. Read full story.