Singing Gilbert and Sullivan songs around the house, pipe in hand, and working against a backdrop of bookshelves lined with scholarly texts, Mortimer Herbert Appley looked every bit the academician, wrote the Boston Globe April 12, in an obituary of the former head of York University’s Psychology Department. Over the course of a half-century, his lengthy curriculum vitae balanced teaching, research and leading Clark University in Worcester, Mass., through trying times. Appley, who served as president of Clark for 10 years and held positions with the University of Massachusetts and Harvard University, died March 29. He was 90. In the early 1960s, York University in Toronto recruited Appley to form a psychology department, which he also led. (No link available.)
Alliance on homeless led by York professors
A new organization, named the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, will work with municipalities across the country to get them to implement their own 10-year plans to end homelessness, reported the Calgary Herald, April 6. The alliance’s board of directors will be chaired by Alex Himelfarb, director of the Glendon School of Public & International Affairs at York University. Professor Stephen Gaetz, of York’s Faculty of Education and director of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network will assume the role of secretary. Read full story.
Rethinking cubicle culture
“We are shifting away from being locked into a formal office structure with more and better mobile technology that is available,” said Kelly Parke, designer and program organizer at the Schulich School of Business at York University, in an interview about office design and employee creativity with The Globe and Mail April 11. “What defines an office? Mobile technology is reshaping that definition,” Park said. Read full story.
New census data shows Canadian suburbs rule
By 2011, nearly seven in 10 Canadians were living in a metropolitan area, reported The Canadian Press April 11, in a story about new census figures from Statistics Canada. But on closer examination, the census shows that it’s the suburbs that are on fire — not the downtown cores that many equate with city living. The pattern of rapid growth on the periphery holds for metropolitan areas in every part of the country. “What you’re seeing is regional cities. The scope is much larger than the metropolitans we had into the ’70s,” said Rob Fiedler, a researcher and PhD student at York University in Toronto. Read full story.