York University will be closed Dec. 23, reopening Jan. 3, 2017. During this time, the Energy Management Department in Campus Services & Business Operations will reduce the heating and lighting in common areas of many administrative and academic buildings. This initiative will help the University achieve its sustainability goals by reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions during the holiday break while saving the University thousands of dollars in energy costs.
York community members are reminded to turn off lights and unplug equipment before leaving for the holiday break.By shutting down computers, turning off lights, unplugging small office equipment, and kitchen appliances as well as personal electronics, you will be contributing to York’s energy and cost savings initiative.
This simple gesture can yield tremendous results, given that staff and faculty operate more than 8,000 computers, and together the Keele and Glendon campuses have more than 140,000 internal lights.
The ability to shut down certain electrical devices will vary depending on departmental requirements. If you have questions, contact your area’s information technology personnel or office manager.
Ceremony formally invests Robert Cox into the Order of Canada
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Robert W. Cox, professor emeritus of Political Science and Social and Political Thought at York University, was formally invested into the Order of Canada on Nov. 25.
Robert Cox with Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
In a moving private ceremony in Waterloo, Ontario, on behalf of His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, presented the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada to Cox.
At the ceremony, Dowdeswell made the following statement:
“Robert Cox’s critical approach to international relations inspired a generation of academics to imagine alternatives to the status quo. A long-time professor at York University, he profoundly extended the scope of political science’s examination of the contemporary world order. Through tireless independence of
mind, he challenged accepted conceptions of history by arguing that human behaviour is a product of ideas as much as of material factors. His influential writings have consistently emphasized the importance of understanding the cultural beliefs of others, thereby creating a space for self-reflection and tolerance between cultures.”
Cox was a professor of Political Science at York University from 1977 to 1992, and was appointed a member of the Order of Canada on Nov. 20, 2014, for his contributions to the field of international relations as one of Canada’s foremost scholars in the area of political economy.
A graduate of McGill University, Cox is cited as one of the seven intellectual founders of International Political Economy (IPE), and a leading thinker of the British School of IPE, along with noted British scholar Susan Strange.
Cox worked at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, starting in 1947, where he eventually became director of the ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies. He served in this role from 1965 to 1971. Cox left the ILO, and took up a faculty position at Columbia University in New York City. He returned to Canada, and joined the faculty at York University in 1977.
Cox co-authored The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-making in International Organization (1973) with Harold K. Jacobson. He is the author of Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (1987), The Executive Head: An Essay on Leadership in International Organization (1969), Labour and the Multinationals (1976), Social Forces, States, and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory (1981), Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations (1983), The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals and Civilization (2002), and Universal Foreigner: The Individual and the World (2013).
Story prepared by Gregory T. Chin, associate professor of Political Science, York University
AVP Development Wade Hall to leave York University for post at CAMH Foundation
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The following message to the University community is from York Vice-President Advancement Jeff O’Hagan:
Wade Hall
It is with mixed feelings that I announce that Assistant Vice-President, Development, Wade Hall will be leaving York University to take on the role of Vice-President, Campaign at the CAMH Foundation.
Wade began his service at York in 2009 by leading the Development team at the York University Foundation. He played an important role in the final months of the York to the Power of 50 Campaign as it achieved a then unprecedented $207 million result. Wade went on to play a leading role in the creation of the Division of Advancement, which combined team members from the Foundation, Alumni Engagement, and Advancement Services groups. Since the Division’s creation in 2011, Wade has helped shape and mold the Development team, working closely with me, the Faculties, and colleagues all across campus to collectively double annual fundraising results at York.
Wade has also played an important leadership role in the launch and achievements to date of Impact: The Campaign for York University, which has a goal of raising $500 million and doubling the number of alumni engaged in the lives of York’s students and the communities the University serves.
Wade has proven to be a strong leader and collaborator, and has played a key role as an advisor to me, to academic leaders across campus, and to the members of the senior leadership team in Advancement. His steady nature, his support for his colleagues in Advancement and beyond, and his personal management of numerous key donor relationships has been an integral part of our success to date. Please join me in thanking Wade for more than 7 years of contributions and dedication to York University. We wish him great success in his new role at CAMH Foundation.
Wade’s last day at York will be January 20, 2017. A search for Wade’s successor will commence immediately.
York research shows small businesses benefit more from venture capital funding over bank loans
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New research out of York University, Florida Atlantic University and the University of Hong Kong indicates that venture capital funding is better than bank loans for the growth of startup businesses.
Douglas Cumming
The study, published in the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, analyzed data on small businesses from 1995 and investigated changes in the number of small companies in all of the states in the U.S. Researchers used data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
They also looked at growth in employment and payroll at the companies they studied, and found there was a strong causal link between venture-capital investment and the growth rate of startups.
“Venture capital is extremely important for enabling entrepreneurial growth,” said researcher Douglas Cumming, professor of finance and the Ontario Research Chair at York University’s Schulich School of Business.
Cumming, along with Rebel Cole, professor and Kaye Family Endowed Chair of Finance at FAU’s College of Business, and Dan Li, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Economics and Finance, compared the venture capital data with bank loan data for each state.
Their findings show that the 15 states with highest growth in startup formation received more venture capital investment over the 15 slowest growing states, and bank loans were associated with lower growth rates.
Researchers also note a decline in small business lending from banks beginning in 2008, and say the smaller businesses appear to receive minimal help from either bank lending or venture capital.
AGYU wins major awards for exhibitions, publication design and writing
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The Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) has done it again. York University’s innovative gallery won a number of awards of excellence from the Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG). The awards, which recognize the work of public art galleries in Ontario, were announced in November during a gala reception held at Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel. In total, the OAAG presented 26 awards to 13 galleries from 11 cities in Ontario. The AGYU took home five of the prestigious awards.
The AGYU won the Public Program Award for its landmark exhibit Ring of Fire. A massive, two-year project with Trinidadian artist Marlon Griffith, Ring of Fire culminated last summer with a 300-person street procession along University Avenue from Queen’s Park to City Hall that opened the cultural program of the Parapan American Games.
As part of Ring of Fire, the gallery collaborated with a number of community organizations, including the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, Capoeira Angola, Picasso Pro, Equal Grounds, and a host of spoken word poets from the Jane-Finch, Malvern and Regent Park neighbourhoods in Toronto, as well as partners SKETCH, Art Starts, The Malvern S.P.O.T., Success Beyond Limits, COBA, and York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD).
Griffith’s monographic exhibition Symbols of Endurance, also curated by AGYU Assistant Director/Curator Emelie Chhangur, won for Best Exhibition.
Visitors to the AGYU examine the Starry Stairs exhibitThe cover of the Starry Stairs publication
Another award was given to the AGYU’s first exhibition in its Curatorial Intensive mentorship program (a partnership with York’s Department of Visual Art & Art History in AMPD), which also took home a top exhibition award. Curator Vanessa Nicholas, a PhD student at York University, received the First Exhibition in a Public Gallery Award for her AGYU-sponsored, collection-based exhibition Starry Stairs (which also travelled to the Art Gallery of Sudbury). The publication for that exhibition, designed by Brett Ramsay and published by the AGYU, won an OAAG Design Award.
Not to be outdone, AGYU Curator Philip Monk took home a prestigious OAAG Award for Excellence in Curatorial Writing in the Major Text over 5,000 words category forthe publication Is Toronto Burning? Three Years in the Making (and Unmaking) of the Toronto Art Scene, produced in 2016.
Here’s a full list of individuals who were part of the award-winning work done by the AGYU:
Exhibition of the Year, Budget under $20,000, Monographic Symbols of Endurance
Emelie Chhangur: Curator & Exhibition Designer
Suzanne Carte: Exhibition Coordinator
Michael Beynon, Carmen Schroder, Joel Cotrill, Ester Simmonds-MacAdam, Aamna Muaffar: Gallery Installation Team
Marlon Griffith: Artist
Art Gallery of York University, 2015
The jury described the exhibition as an “ambitious, boundary pushing, exciting new approach to working with artists and communities and bridging suburban and urban communities.”
First Exhibition in a Public Art Gallery Starry Stairs: Alma Rumball’s Atlantis
Vanessa Nicholas: Curator, Exhibition Designer & Exhibition Coordinator
Chris Boni & Vanessa Nicholas: Gallery Installation Team
Alma Rumball, Lido Pimienta, Louise Reimer, Kendra Yee: Artists
Art Gallery of York University, 2016
The jury remarked, “Vanessa Nicholas brings together a selection of works on paper in an interesting way giving a new way to look at the artist. This is a well-considered project by an emerging curator.”
Monk’s publication Is Toronto Burning?
Curatorial Art Writing, Major Text over 5,000 words Is Toronto Burning? Three Years in the Making (and Unmaking) of the Toronto Art Scene
Philip Monk:Author
Art Gallery of York University, 2016
The jury remarked, “This text will have staying power and serve to form later conversation which will be both timely and enduring. The work is well researched and articulated, the writing clear and concise and an interesting call to action at the end.”
Public Program Award Ring of Fire
Emelie Chhangur:Curator
Art Gallery of York University, 2014-15
The jury said that Ring of Fire “engaged civic space in really important ways and its support for community participation in real and rigorous ways. This was an inspiring public program and rare in how it invested in communities on a long-term basis and the various communities it reached.”
Design Awards Art Book, Budget under $1,500 Starry Stairs Brett Ramsay: Design
Vanessa Nicholas: Text and Curator
Art Gallery of York University
The jury said the publication was “a lovely and intimate reading experience. The lovely monotone pink approach and the urgent feel it gives to the piece.”
York AMPD alumni also took home OAAG Awards, including:
Melissa Bennett (MA ’07), curator and designer of the show “are you experienced?” at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, won the OAAG award for Exhibition Installation and Design.
Srimoyee Mitra (BA ’04, MA’08), curator and co-designer of the show Wafaa Bilal: 168.01 at the Art Gallery of Windsor, won the award for Exhibition of the Year – Budget over $20,000, Monographic. The show was a partnership with the Esker Foundation (Calgary), Varley Art Gallery (Markham, Ont.) and the Confederation Centre for the Arts (Charlottetown, P.E.I.). Mitraalso won an Art Publication Award for Border Cultures, for which she served as curator, gallery project coordinator and editor. The project was a publishing partnership of the Art Gallery of Windsor with the University of Toronto and Black Dog Publishing (London, U.K.). Mitra is the curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Windsor.
Brendan Fernandes: Lost Bodies, an exhibition featuring work by York grad Brendan Fernandes (BFA ’02), won OAAG Award for Innovation in Collections-Based Exhibition.
YFile launches a new responsive format on Jan. 5, 2017
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The YFile news website is changing to a new responsive format that seamlessly adapts to a variety of mobile platforms and browsers. The new website will make its official debut on Jan. 5, 2017 when YFile returns from the holiday break.
The new YFile website will offer University community members an updated, modern look that includes a moving carousel of featured stories, highlighted events from York University’s events calendar, social media features, as well as the full list of daily news stories that will remain easily accessible for several days. The very popular Scoop section profiling the accomplishments of faculty has been given a prominent place on the new website. There’s also a monthly story archive and an improved search function.
In addition to the new website, YFile readers will receive a redesigned email newsletter that links to the latest stories on the YFile news site. The email will be sent Monday to Thursday at 7:30am to all faculty and staff who are listed in York’s Atlas directory and to students who opt to subscribe to the email. The new email has also been optimized for a range of mobile platforms and email systems.
The email features all the items that have been posted in YFile since the last email went out. Stories from all sections are included in a clear and straightforward fashion, plus the newest York in the Media compilation and Featured Events. It is designed to give readers a quick and efficient update and to lead them to the YFile site where they can read the stories and explore more features.
And there’s more. On selected Fridays of every month, YFile will publish a special edition. On Friday, Jan. 6, 2017, the first of these special editions titled “Brainstorm” will be delivered by email. Brainstorm features in-depth feature stories on York U researchers and their discoveries.
More enhancements will be rolled out over the next few months.
Your comments are important to us and you can send them to yfile@yorku.ca. Be sure to include the subject line: Feedback.
Proposals for the next round of the Academic Innovation Fund are due Feb. 3
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Created in 2010, York University’s Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) has inspired change in teaching, learning and the student experience by funding innovative and sustainable projects across the University. Projects such as the highly successful YU Start program for first-year students, HealthAID, the Las Nubes Program: A semester abroad program and the University Libraries SPARK program are examples of successful AIF initiatives.
Now, organizers of the AIF are turning once again to the York University community and are issuing a call for new submissions for projects that focus on institutional priorities outlined in the University Academic Plan (2015-2020), the Strategic Mandate Agreement, and the Institutional Integrated Resource Plan.
The Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning, which oversees the AIF, has issued this new call and the total funding available is $1.5 million. The funds are open for Faculties and faculty members to develop projects that address one or more of the strategic priorities of eLearning, experiential education and internationalization for undergraduate or graduate degrees. These projects are known as Category 1 initiatives and can qualify for up to $100,000 per year. The highest priority will be given to projects that are sustainable, scalable and affordable. High priority will be given to grant requests from schools, departments or Faculties that have documented experiential education or eLearning plans.
Category 2 initiatives provide grants of up to $5,000 to support faculty members in redesigning courses to use eLearning, experiential education and/or internationalization strategies. Proposals related to eLearning should focus on incorporating blended learning, fully online learning or flipped classroom approaches. Proposals to embed experiential education approaches in a course should focus on community service learning, community-based research or course-based placements. Again, high priority will be given to grant requests from schools, departments or faculties that have documented experiential education or eLearning plans. Internationalization-focused proposals will suggest ways to bring global, international and comparative perspectives to the curriculum.
All proposals will be reviewed, approved and ranked by the office of the faculty dean before submission to the Office of the AVP Teaching and Learning. To learn more, email avptl@yorku.ca, or visit the AIF website to download the application guidelines.
Applications for AIF funding for this next cycle should be submitted electronically to the Office of the Associate Vice-President Teaching & Learning (avptl@yorku.ca) by 4pm on Friday, Feb. 3.
Make your donation to York before Dec. 31 for 2016 tax receipt
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The year is quickly coming to a close, but there’s still time to join the hundreds of faculty, staff and retirees who have already chosen to support York University with a donation in 2016.
As we prepare for the upcoming break and look forward to seeing family, friends and loved ones over the holidays, take a moment to think about supporting York and our students through a donation before the end of the year.
The Advancement Office is closed for the holidays from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, inclusive; however, there are two easy ways that you can make a donation during that time:
To ensure you receive a 2016 tax receipt for your donation, please take note of the following requirements:
Donations must be received on or before Dec. 31, 2016, with the cheque or credit card authorization dated Dec. 31, 2016 or earlier. This includes donations made online, by phone and in person
Mailed donations can be received in January 2017, but must have a valid postmark of Dec. 31, 2016 or earlier
Cheques must be made payable to York University
Note to faculty and staff receiving donations in their departments:
Please forward any gifts received in your departments to Advancement Services (located at the West Office Building on York’s Keele Campus) by end of business day on Thursday, Dec. 22, 2016 to ensure timely processing and receipting. If you are expecting a credit card donation over the closure period, please direct the donor to the online donation page.
Thank you to all of you who’ve already shown your support this year! Happy Holidays from the York University Advancement team!
York University Board of Governors approves new Sexual Violence Policy
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The following is a special message from Vice-President Academic and Provost Rhonda Lenton and Vice-President Finance and Administration Gary Brewer to the York University community:
At a special meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 14, the York University Board of Governors approved York’s new Sexual Violence Policy. The policy confirms the University’s longstanding commitment to foster a culture where attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate sexual violence are rejected, survivors are supported, and those who are found to have committed sexual violence are held accountable. Through this new policy, York commits to working collaboratively with our community to build effective training and education programs to address sexual violence and rape culture.
This policy, through its “Commitment and Statement of Principles,” recognizes the intersectional experiences of survivors and the barriers they face. We are determined to break down those barriers wherever possible and we are committed to providing survivor-centric supports and services.
The policy is the culmination of many months of work undertaken by our Sexual Violence Policy Working Group. In the last several weeks, more than 35 consultations have been undertaken, with close to 600 members of our community participating, the vast majority of whom were our students. With candor and insights, members of our community helped to guide and shape the final document approved by the Board. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Working Group and all those members of our community who participated in this important process.
We also wish to acknowledge the leadership of the Province of Ontario for bringing sexual violence to the forefront of their agenda by requiring all post-secondary institutions to address this issue and to work collaboratively with their student communities to strengthen supports and procedures for survivors of sexual violence.
As a university community, we know that sexual violence is prevalent in society. We also recognize the important role that we and other universities and colleges can and must play in ensuring that sexual violence is understood by all members of our society as unacceptable.
The approval of York’s Sexual Violence Policy is an important milestone for our community. In January, the University will be providing the community with more information about how we intend to implement the policy along with key institutional commitments stemming from our community consultations.
Gary Brewer Vice-President Finance and Administration
Ceremony formally invests Professor Emeritus Robert Cox into the Order of Canada
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Robert Cox with Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Robert W. Cox, professor emeritus of Political Science and Social and Political Thought at York University, was formally invested into the Order of Canada on Nov. 25.
Robert Cox with Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
In a moving private ceremony in Waterloo, Ontario, on behalf of His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, Her Honour the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, presented the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada to Cox.
At the ceremony, Dowdeswell made the following statement:
“Robert Cox’s critical approach to international relations inspired a generation of academics to imagine alternatives to the status quo. A long-time professor at York University, he profoundly extended the scope of political science’s examination of the contemporary world order. Through tireless independence of mind, he challenged accepted conceptions of history by arguing that human behaviour is a product of ideas as much as of material factors. His influential writings have consistently emphasized the importance of understanding the cultural beliefs of others, thereby creating a space for self-reflection and tolerance between cultures.”
Cox was a professor of Political Science at York University from 1977 to 1992, and was appointed a member of the Order of Canada on Nov. 20, 2014, for his contributions to the field of international relations as one of Canada’s foremost scholars in the area of political economy.
A graduate of McGill University, Cox is cited as one of the seven intellectual founders of International Political Economy (IPE), and a leading thinker of the British School of IPE, along with noted British scholar Susan Strange.
Cox worked at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, starting in 1947, where he eventually became director of the ILO’s International Institute for Labour Studies. He served in this role from 1965 to 1971. Cox left the ILO, and took up a faculty position at Columbia University in New York City. He returned to Canada, and joined the faculty at York University in 1977.
Cox co-authored The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-making in International Organization (1973) with Harold K. Jacobson. He is the author of Production, Power and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History (1987), The Executive Head: An Essay on Leadership in International Organization (1969), Labour and the Multinationals (1976), Social Forces, States, and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory (1981), Gramsci, Hegemony and International Relations (1983), The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals and Civilization (2002), and Universal Foreigner: The Individual and the World (2013).
York University will be closed Dec. 23, reopening Jan. 3, 2017. During this time, the Energy Management Department in Campus Services & Business Operations will reduce the heating and lighting in common areas of many administrative and academic buildings. This initiative will help the University achieve its sustainability goals by reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions during the holiday break while saving the University thousands of dollars in energy costs.
The
