VEZINA: A new way of paying for disasters Alex Vezina, a professor of disaster and emergency management at York University, was featured in the Toronto Sun June 27.
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Tom Lee reminds Lassonde graduands to ‘stay thoughtful’
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The Lassonde School of Engineering Spring Convocation on June 22 was commenced by honorary doctor of laws recipient, Chair of the Corporate Advisory Council at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Heads Association, and Adjunct Professor Tom Lee, who expressed pride for the graduands and their institution for shaping a more humanitarian engineering ethos.
Welcomed to the stage by Lassonde Dean Jane Goodyer, Lee was praised for his ingenuity and unwavering sense of ethics. “Today, we not only celebrate Dr. Lee’s accomplishments, but also the values he embodies, the same ones Lassonde holds very dear: entrepreneurship, the pursuit of new ideas, academic freedom, and a passionate desire to create a better world,” Goodyer said.
Honorary degree recipient Tom Lee and Chancellor Kathleen Taylor
Having arrived in Canada in 1971, Lee’s family of six lived in a small, two-bedroom apartment and established roots just minutes away from the heart of York University’s Keele Campus.
“I’m a Downsview guy,” Lee explained as he reflected on what the community surrounding the Keele Campus means to him. “And it feels so good to be home again. And my roots in this neighbourhood makes this day much more special.”
Lee built a notable career after receiving his doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo, eventually being inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering and being named the Walter Booth Chair in Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship at McMaster University. A continuous thread throughout his many accomplishments is the passion Lee says his peers admired in him at various institutions, a trait which was inspired in him by Pierre Lassonde, whose legacy Lee sees carried on in Lassonde’s graduands.
Paying homage to Steve Jobs, Lee iterated on a famous quote from the late Apple founder’s own address at a Stanford University convocation.
“’Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’ These words in so many ways capture the spirit of our digital age … We celebrated those who took decisive action, often without concern for immediate consequences. We’ll deal with that later. ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish,’” Lee remarked. “Today though, I want to suggest that we consider adding one more. Stay thoughtful. Stay hungry, stay foolish, stay thoughtful.
“About 10 years ago, I first met Pierre Lassonde and many of the founding leadership of the Lassonde school and they introduced me to a provocative new perspective on engineering education, and they called it renaissance engineering. I’m glad to see that these words and sentiments persist today here because renaissance engineering also had a lasting impact on me,” he continued. “It suggested that engineering could be a foundation for all sorts of creative and ambitious endeavours, and that the needs of people and communities need to directly connect to what you learn in class.”
Tom Lee
Lee suggested that for many decades an ask-questions-later approach to engineering had given rise to some of the most impressive feats of human inventiveness but had simultaneously driven crises and disasters.
“Nuclear energy, pesticides, plastics, pain medications, refined fossil fuels and internal combustion engines are all examples of engineered technologies that had a great start … but now represent enormous planet-level challenges,” he said.
On the other hand, Lee also expressed his hope that the next generation of thoughtful engineers – to which the Lassonde graduands now belonged – would be best equipped to handle both yesterday’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
“Things are changing, and you have a lot to do with it. More and more. I find your increased awareness of societal and global challenges and your loud and critical voice on the mistakes of people my age, to be welcome and essential to remaining optimistic about tomorrow.
“Today, I hope you celebrate like never before. Maybe even get a little foolish. Go nuts. You deserve it,” Lee concluded. “And tomorrow, you’ll begin building a wonderfully interesting and rewarding career, whatever that may be for you. And I hope that once in a while you will pause and think of something wonderfully thoughtful to do as well, whatever that may be for you.”
Schulich research shows bias that favours male entrepreneurs
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New research by Schulich School of Business Associate Professor Ivona Hideg shows that women-led startups are evaluated less favourably than men-led startups because of “benevolent sexism” – a form of bias that undermines gender equity by giving greater advantages to men.
Ivona Hideg
The findings are contained in an article published recently in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. The article, titled “Benevolent Sexism and the Gender Gap in Startup Evaluation,” was co-authored by Hideg, the Ann Brown Chair in Organization Studies at Schulich, together with Nhu Nguyen, a PhD student in organizational behaviour at the Desautels Faculty of Management; Yuval Engel, associate professor of entrepreneurship at the Amsterdam Business School; and Frédéric Godart, associate professor of organizational behaviour at INSEAD.
According to the researchers, benevolent sexism undermines gender equity in startup evaluations by boosting men’s outcomes without directly harming women’s outcomes.
The researchers initially hypothesized that the more evaluators endorse benevolent sexism – perceiving women as gentle and fragile – the less they would perceive startups founded by women as viable. Counter to their hypothesis, the researchers didn’t find any effect of benevolent sexism on the evaluation of women-led startups. However, the more evaluators endorsed benevolent sexism, the more positively they evaluated men-led startups. In other words, benevolent sexism was advantaging evaluations of men’s startups while seemingly not affecting evaluations of women’s startups.
“We know that hostile sexist attitudes that link entrepreneurial savvy and competence with men but not women can harm women,” says Hideg. “But what’s revealing about these findings is that benevolent sexism can be just as counter productive. Benevolent sexism involves seemingly positive attitudes toward women, seeing them as warm, moral, refined, yet fragile and in need of protection from men. This type of sexism is socially acceptable and rarely seen as problematic.”
Kristen Andrews
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Kristin Andrews
Kristin Andrews, York Research Chair in Philosophy of Animal Minds, joined experts on CBC Radio’s Ideas for a discussion exploring the question, “Is human intelligence overrated?”
York U in the news: treating mental illness, Toronto’s new mayor and more
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Study abroad offers unparalleled experiential education opportunity
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Professor Thomas Klassen led students to Seoul for his course South Korea: The Politics of Youth and Old Age, which saw them tour universities, museums, the Canadian embassy, palaces, temples, the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and demonstrated the uniqueness of experiences provided by York University.
York students visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace dressed in traditional hanbok, from left: Oshini Gamage, Diana Shytakova, Jedd Kenedy, Sarah Persaud and Parmeen Khaira
Offered amongst an array of courses organized yearly by the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) for the newly relaunched summer abroad program, South Korea: The Politics of Youth and Old Age (GLBL 3581) led students through the streets of Seoul as they navigated the political debates of the day, sparked by the friction between competing generations in South Korea – a young country with an aging population.
Common across this year’s summer abroad courses, the global political studies course began with a period of intensive study at York’s Keele Campus, where – in this case – students learned an overview of Korean history, culture and the topography of the current political landscape. The class departed for Seoul in May, where they attended seminars at Yonsei University and Chung-Ang University alongside local students; visited exhibits at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, the Seoul Museum of History, the National Museum of Korea and the Seodaemun Prison History Hall; and met with policy experts in one of the world’s most politically fraught regions.
Central to York’s University Academic Plan is the “goal of providing every student with an experiential learning opportunity, regardless of program,” which inspired Klassen to arrange a personalized briefing from staff at the Canadian Embassy. There, the students asked diplomats questions pertaining to everything from Canada-Korea relations to how to join Canada’s foreign service.
York University and Chung-Ang University students visiting the Korean House cultural centre
Rouslan Kats, head of the Political, Economic & Public Affairs Office at the Embassy of Canada in South Korea, said following the visit, “It was such a pleasure hosting you and the students at the Embassy.
“Fantastic to see so much interest for Korea and the work we do here,” Kats added. “The future of Canada-Korea relations is in excellent hands.”
For the students, one element of the trip stood out as the climactic event – a full-day trip to the DMZ separating North and South Korea, where they would enter the iconic blue negotiating building that straddles the border.
While in the northern part of the building the students officially stood on North Korean territory, an accomplishment claimed by an exceedingly small number of people. Visiting one of the most heavily armed borders in the world offered an opportunity for the class to experience the impact of the division of the Korean peninsula.
Klassen and students looking out onto the DMZ and North Korea
“It was an extraordinary experience… my classmates and I were able to learn about Korean history, politics and culture firsthand,” said Jedd Kennedy, a student who took part in the course. Classmate Oshini Gamage added, “This course will be one of my fondest memories of my undergraduate university education.”
A testament to the breadth of opportunities the course offered, students selected a fascinating range of topics for their individual field research. Topics included the politics of kimchi; the controversial legacy of South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee; the mix of art and politics in the Comfort Woman Statue Memorial and the role of the standardized national university entrance exam.
The students returned to Canada in June with a collection of unique memories and a broader, heightened understanding of the careers across the globe to which their educations could lead.
Highlighting the enthusiasm and willingness of the students to engage with a new culture, Klassen said, “they were wonderful ambassadors not only for York University, but for Canada, with all those we met in Korea. I am so impressed with the amazing group of young people for taking every opportunity to learn and explore their environment.”
Ruth Lor Malloy reveals immense power of ordinary people
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In a speech to graduands at the June 21 Spring Convocation ceremony, author, civil rights activist and recipient of York University’s honorary doctorate of laws, Ruth Lor Malloy emphasized that greatness is not inherent in certain people, rather, it is born from acts of kindness anyone can perform.
Malloy was introduced by Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Dean J.J. McMurtry, who showed his gratitude for her work by paraphrasing her own words. “’We may not be able to change the world, but we can brighten our own corners.’ Thank you so much, Ruth Lor Malloy, for brightening ours,” he said.
Malloy’s message to the new grads detailed how today’s political and social landscapes are in some ways both brighter and darker than when she first took up the mantle of civil rights activism.
Born into a family of Chinese restaurant owners in the small town of Brockville, Ont., Malloy had not even completed grade school by the time she had developed an acute awareness of racism and its ramifications. Her mother, a Canadian by birth, was unable to vote due to her Chinese heritage and the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, which also barred immigrants from China entering Canada until its repeal in 1947 – this was just one example of the systemic discrimination her family faced that compounded their ostracization from the community.
Still, Malloy knew that she needed to expand her understanding of racism and all of its manifestations. Later, during her time at university in Toronto, she “discovered that being shunned and subjected to derogatory namecalling was nothing compared to what some of [her] classmates had experienced.
“I met Jewish students who had barely escaped the Holocaust,” she said. “I dated a Canadian-born man who had been imprisoned as a child in western Canada because his parents were born in Japan.”
Searching for a calling, as many undergrad students do, Malloy leapt at opportunities to oppose the discrimination, both political and social, that had deeply troubled her throughout her adolescence. Among these efforts was her organization of a delegation in Ottawa that fought, and defeated, a regulation preventing Chinese Canadians from bringing grandparents to Canada – a right already afforded to other immigrant Canadians.
“After we fought for and achieved family reunification, I realized that ordinary people like me could successfully petition our government for such changes. It was exciting … and encouraging,” Malloy said.
Interim Vice-President Equity, People and Culture Alice Pitt, Ruth Lor Malloy and Chancellor Kathleen Taylor
Following graduation, she travelled through the U.S. and Mexico, planting fig trees to create economic opportunity for the Otomi Indigenous people and testing the service of segregated diners in Washington D.C. following the city’s enactment of anti-discrimination laws. That “was the year before Rosa Park’s historic stand in Alabama,” Malloy explained.
Developing a flourishing writing career throughout her work as an activist, eventually Malloy’s work took her overseas, where she’d learn about her cultural roots and the politics of 1970s China; about the social rift between Hong Kong and Japanese students, spurred by the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong that had recently ended; and about India’s Hijra people, a community typically composed of Hindus “who were born male but prefer to be female.”
“We encouraged one group of Hijras to tell us their story – their painful castration, their dreams and their relationship with their goddess. They wanted education, jobs and respect,” Malloy recounted. “As a result, Indian newspapers and magazines, reaching millions of readers, started publishing positive stories about them … I like to think we also influenced government practices. Official Indian documents, such as passport applications, now include a ‘transgender’ option.
“The problems you face today are existential and more critical than those of my era. Holding us back still is indifference and the lack of respect for others who are different from us,” she continued. “My generation made some progress, but we also saddled you with many issues to resolve. You have more skills and knowledge than my generation had, and I hope you will use them wisely.”
Highlighting the tangible influences of activism, journalism and individual creative expression – while acknowledging the novel anxieties in academia caused by artificial intelligence (AI) – Malloy beseeched the LA&PS grads to use their gifts to better the lives of others. “I hope you will not give your innate curiosity and your ability to think and create to artificial intelligence.
“My book Brightening My Corner: a Memoir of Dreams Fulfilledwas recently published. Writing it without the help of a bot helped me evaluate what I did with my life in time to make a change and I hope you will also look at your lives too,” she concluded. “Have you really been respecting others and trying to alleviate their suffering? I believe that if we take down one stone from the walls of indifference and hatred that separate us, and someone else takes down another stone, someday, that wall will be gone. The torch is now yours.”
Jaason Geerts
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Jaason Geerts, Schulich ExecEd instructor and director of research and leadership development at the Canadian College of Health Leaders, shared “The 5 Questions Bad People Leaders Never ask Themselves” for TEDxYouth
York U in the news: a push for Indigenous education, Titanic disaster and more
President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients honoured Professor Kathy Bischoping of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Professor Steve Gennaro of LA&PS, Professor Andrea Kalmin of LA&PS, Daphene Solis of the Lassonde School of Engineering and Farwa Sajadi of the Faculty of Science were featured in Education News Canada June 23.
