Osgoode wins first and third place in international student mediation tournament

From left: Osgoode JD students Bessmah Hamed, Christina Coliviras and Madeleine Brown and Visiting Professor Martha Simmons, Director of Osgoode’s Mediation Clinical Program

York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School JD students Bessmah Hamed, Christina Coliviras and Madeleine Brown won first place and third place as advocate/clients in the International Academy of Dispute Resolution (INADR) International Law Student Mediation Tournament.

From left: Osgoode JD students Bessmah Hamed, Christina Coliviras and Madeleine Brown and Visiting Professor Martha Simmons, Director of Osgoode’s Mediation Clinical Program

The international tournament was hosted by Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow from April 5 to 8.

The International Academy of Dispute Resolution has been sponsoring mediation tournaments since 2002. Participation continues to increase and last year over 50 teams took part, including law schools from the U.S., Canada, Scotland, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Singapore, India, and Zimbabwe.

The tournament provides law students with the opportunity to learn about various approaches and techniques used in mediation, as well as the opportunity to practice their mediation skills in friendly competition with other students from around the world.

The tournament consists of three rounds, followed by semi-finals and a final. Teams compete as co-mediators working on realistic scenarios, with fellow students fulfilling the lawyer/client roles. Judges are drawn from the local and international mediation community, and students often comment on the encouragement provided by these professionals’ detailed feedback.

York U’s president offers his last lecture and focuses on the importance of empathy and integrity

York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri prepares to deliver his “Last Lecture”

The Last Lecture is a longstanding tradition that gives members of the academy an opportunity to consider what matters most to them as they wind up their careers. When delivering their last lecture, faculty members are asked to convey what pieces of wisdom they would offer if it was their last opportunity to speak. They are also encouraged to talk about their legacy.

On March 23, York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri offered his last lecture to the University community. The event was part of Shoukri’s remaining months as the seventh president of York University. On June 30, he will close out a decade of distinguished service.

Faculty of Science Dean Ray Jayawardhana served as the event moderator and he set the stage for what the audience could expect from the event. Following Jayawardhana’s comments, a reflective Shoukri took to the podium and spoke about what he had learned as president, the qualities he considered to be most important to his role as president of a major university and the significance of York University’s decade of impact.

He began by joking about the existence of a photograph somewhere that showed him sporting a pair of plaid bell-bottom trousers, an image he said conveys the length of time he had been a member of the academy. From bell-bottoms to the information age, he said the dramatic change associated with rapidly emerging new technologies has meant that the role of the university in society has never been more important.

Audience members listen intently to York’s president as he delivered his “Last Lecture”

Society is inundated with information, he observed, noting that people spend almost every hour interacting with some form of smart device as they share information, images and opinions. “It is the role of education to help us interpret and give meaning to this flood of information,” he said. “In this new knowledge economy, boundaries are falling away. The university of the 21st century must change too in order to keep pace. If the knowledge economy is global, our universities must be so as well.”

Leading a university the size of York U through a time of such immediate and dramatic change and being successful has required two important attributes, said Shoukri. “These qualities are integrity and empathy. Integrity implies consistently acting on the basis of clear moral and ethical principles irrespective of the circumstances,” he said, noting that integrity can be used to address increasingly polarized views.

“Leaders with integrity can shape the future of our societies by changing the conversations we see taking place today that conflict with important principles such as equality, diversity and inclusion. Integrity leads to trust,” he said. “People listen to you if you are sincere, if you care and if you walk the talk.

“My advice to students is to remember that your career is shaped by the extent to which people trust you,” he said.

Empathy is essential to breaking down barriers, something he said he has witnessed over the course of his life. “It is an essential tool for understanding and thriving in a context of constant change.”

A lack of empathy threatens one’s achievements, he noted. It amplifies the growing polarization now underway in the world.

At the conclusion of the lecture, Shoukri answered a variety of questions from the audience

York University is uniquely positioned in the world to impart these qualities to students, Shoukri noted, whether it be through teaching, research or everyday interaction. The University’s commitment to social justice offers a strong foundation for nurturing integrity and empathy in the next generation of world leaders who will be responsible for continuing to end inequality, intolerance and hate.

To close, he spoke about his pride in bringing an engineering school to the University, something first envisioned in a 1963 campus plan. He expressed delight in the University’s accomplishments in sustainability and praised the diversity of the University’s community and the increasing success of its researchers.

“I believe at this point in time, we are closer than ever to achieving the University’s founding vision of academic and research excellence, local and global impact and a greater role in the Canadian higher education landscape. I have been a president who has cared deeply for this institution and the people in it and someone who recognized that York University’s distinct challenges are also our strengths, our diversity, location, size and complexity,” he said.

“When I began my term as president, I saw a university with so much potential,” he said. “Ten years later, I am excited about the direction the University is headed in and with the progress that has been made. “

He closed his last lecture by urging those present to embrace the change they will most certainly witness and to continue to ensure that York University lives up to its reputation as Canada’s most progressive university.

Click here to watch a video of the complete Last Lecture by York University’s president.

York University moving away from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office 365

Keyboard

Beginning in June 2017, York faculty and staff will begin to transition away from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office 365.

This change is the culmination of work which began in late 2015. Recognizing the broad community desire for change in email and calendaring platforms, a review of alternatives was done by a group of University academic and administrative community members. Informed by a community survey, the experience of other universities and functional assessment, the group concluded that Microsoft Office 365 was the best fit for the University’s needs.

The Office 365 platform addresses important criteria identified by the community: a broad set of features, ease of use, highly functional and reliable access from mobile devices, robust security, and greater storage (100 GB). The platform also provides the University with the potential to leverage a large number of collaborative tools that are available as part of the Office 365 suite.

The transition to MS Office 365 will be done in stages starting in June and continuing through the summer. More details about the transition timetable and other aspects of this project will be communicated on a regular basis through YFile, yu link and a website to be released shortly.

For more information, contact the implementation team at o365@yorku.ca.

LA&PS Dean Ananya Mukherjee-Reed in contention for RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards

Canadian Immigrant magazine has kicked off voting for the ninth annual RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards, identifying and celebrating the inspiring stories and achievements of Canadian immigrants from all walks of life.

Some 630 entries were submitted following the call for nominations. From the hundreds of worthy submissions, the judges determined a short list of 75 inspiring immigrants who represent a variety of diverse ethnic communities and cultures across Canada. Voting is now open to determine who among the 75 will appear on the RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant list. Canadians can now vote for their favourite candidates online at Canadian Immigrant magazine’s RBC Top 25 webpage. Voting closes May 22.

Ananya Mukherjee-Reed

On that list is Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and professor of political science at York. She has authored several books, edited collections, journal articles and her work has appeared and in popular media and in multiple languages. The theme that dominates her work is justice, particularly gender justice. Her ongoing research explores the development of democratic, sustainable forms of enterprise amongst marginalized women in India.

Mukherjee-Reed obtained her PhD in Economics and Public Policy from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles and her MA and BA in Economics from Kolkata, India. She was recently named as one the five brilliant women from academia by Canadian Immigrant magazine in their Third Annual Tribute to “Immigrant Women of Inspiration”. In 2016, she also received the “Pioneer of Change” award for Excellence in Social Impact from Skills for Change, Toronto. Mukherjee-Reed has lent her voice to many debates on key social issues through media outlets such as the CBC, Omni TV, TVO (through its flagship program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin”), the Toronto Star and many others. For her work on marginalized women in India, she has been interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, BBC Online, Radio Paris, OneWorld South Asia, The Telegraph, The Hindu and others. Recently, she has translated creative works of the first Asian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore which have been performed at the Harbourfront center, the Toronto Center for the Arts, the Royal Ontario Museum and other cultural venues.

Ahmed Hussein
Ahmed Hussein

Also nominated are York alumni Ahmed Hussein, minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship; and Adib Razavi, vice-president TAC Sports. Ajay Virmani, a member of the Board of Governors of York University, is among the top 75 nominees.

Adib Razavi
Adib Razavi

More than 45,000 Canadians voted in last year’s awards program. Among last year’s recipients were York honorary degree recipient Ignat Kaneff, and alumnae Narmin Ismail and Mina Mawani. 

Ajay Virmani

The awards program draws nominations from across Canada and is supported by the title sponsor RBC Royal Bank. All 25 winners will be announced in June and will be recognized in the print and web versions of Canadian Immigrant magazine. They will each receive a commemorative plaque and $500 towards a charity of their choice provided by RBC. This year’s media partners are the Toronto StarMetroSing Tao, South Asian Focus and CBC Toronto.

York professor donates documentary collection to Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives

The Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives (CLGA), the holder of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ+ archives, will be celebrating the launch on April 23 of the Nancy Nicol Collection.

Nancy Nicol

Over many years Nicol, who is a documentary filmmaker and professor in the Department of Visual Art and Art History in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University, has interviewed activists, community leaders and human rights lawyers across Canada, and documented a rich resource of rarely seen events and demonstrations.

The collection includes the original interviews filmed by Nicol and showcases shorts and excerpts from Nicol’s award-winning documentary series From Criminality to Equality, which brings to life 40 years of the history of the lesbian and gay movement in Canada. This acquisition is part of the CLGA’s longer-term strategy to become a more active resource for the Canadian and LGBTQ+ communities and to help increase access to LGBTQ+ heritage.

The collection includes many watershed moments: the birth of gay liberation in the 1970s; the Toronto bath raids in 1978 and 1981; the struggle for human rights protection provincially and nationally; opposition to gay rights from the 1970s to the 1990s; the growth and increasing diversity of LGBT organizing; the role of the labour movement in queer rights; the Campaign for Equal Families in Ontario; the Lesbian Mothers’ Association struggle to win queer parenting rights in Quebec; key charter litigation cases and advances for relationship recognition, same-sex parenting, same-sex pensions, and same-sex marriage.

“In this body of work, I focused on documenting a period of intense change in lesbian and gay rights in Canada between 1969-2009, tracing the histories of gay liberation and struggles for human rights protection, relationship recognition, same-sex parenting rights and same-sex marriage,” said Nicol. “It is a moving history, charged with optimism and resilience in the face of prejudice and ignorance. I hope the collection will contribute to remembering and celebrating this history, and provide fertile ground for queer history students and researchers; as well as inspiration for generations to come.”

Speakers at the event include Rachel Epstein, LGBTQ parenting activist, researcher and educator and CLGA board member; Mona Greenbaum, founder and Directrice générale Coalition des familles LGBT; Tom Warner, prominent queer activist and author of Never Going Back, A history of queer activism in Canada, and Nicol. Community partners of the launch include the Centre for Feminist Research at York University, Inside-Out LGBTQ+ Film Festival, and V-Tape.

All are welcome to attend. The event begins at 4pm at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, 34 Isabella Street, Toronto.

More about the CLGA

The Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives (CLGA) is the largest independent LGBTQ+ archives in the world. With a focus on Canadian content, the CLGA acquires, preserves and provides public access to information and materials in any medium. By collecting and securing important historical records, publications, magazines, newspapers, photos, films and other paraphernalia, the CLGA cares for LGBTQ+ histories now and for generations to come.

York University’s president addresses the future of work at the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce

In the heart of London, England, York University and the Canada-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce joined forces and hosted a business luncheon to discuss innovation, automation and the future of work. Held at Pewterers’ Hall, some 80 guests met to assess how universities and large business enterprises need to embrace innovation to survive, respond to societal needs and help society adapt to an ever changing world.

Guests listen as York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri delivers his speech. Photo Credit: Jose Farina

York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and York alumna Moya Greene (JD ’78), CEO of the Royal Mail Group, offered the keynote speeches.

In his opening remarks and introduction of Greene, Shoukri acknowledged several similarities between them, including their efforts to help large, complex organizations confront and deal with change, to differentiate and build on strengths and to successfully evolve in increasingly competitive landscapes.

Above: From left, President of the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce William Swords, President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mamdouh Shoukri, CEO of the Royal Mail Group Moya Greene (JD ’78), and Dadco owner and Chairman, York alumnus and Honorary Doctor of Laws recipient Victor Phillip Dahdaleh. Photo Credit: Jose Farina

“To remain competitive in this new landscape of automation and digital disruption, governments are increasingly developing innovation policies and agendas to challenge all sectors, including academia, to contribute to knowledge mobilization and innovation in order to transform ideas into marketable products, services and business models, drive growth across all industries, and improve the lives of citizens,” said Shoukri.

He highlighted York University’s decade of impact, addressing the changing and accelerating nature of automation, and acknowledging the important role for universities in anticipating the evolving nature of work and preparing students for future careers.

Click here to download a PDF of Shoukri’s remarks.

Moya Greene

In her speech, Greene spoke about the impact of automation on the private sector using the example of past and future evolutions of the postal service. In her role as the CEO of the Royal Mail Group, Greene said she looks to innovate through the management of the business and development of the strategy. The first non-Briton and the first woman to lead the Royal Mail, Greene was previously the president and CEO of Canada Post, where she led a successful change agenda, increasing profits and streamlining operations. Greene also worked in the Canadian federal public service over a 17-year period and has a strong track record of strategic planning, complex negotiations and relationship building in the public and private sectors.

Above: From left, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement Guy Larocque (BA ’89, MA ’97), Dadco owner and Chairman, York alumnus and Honorary Doctor of Laws recipient Victor Phillip Dahdaleh, Catherine Lavoie, Head of Recurring & Card on File Payments at Visa International Caroline Drolet (BA ’95, IMBA ’98), Vice-President Advancement Jeff O’Hagan, and Senior Trade Commissioner at the High Commission of Canada Greg Houlahan. Photo Credit: Jose Farina

York University students and alumni abroad attended the event. Among those at the event were Schulich student Roshaan Hajira, who is currently finishing her last semester of undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School, and Maddaline Bertolo, a third-year student studying at Keele University in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. Also attending were York University Vice-President Advancement Jeff O’Hagan, Dadco owner and Chairman, York alumnus and Honorary Doctor of Laws recipient Victor Phillip Dahdaleh, YOrk University Director of Principal Gifts Lisa Gleva, and the President of the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce William Swords.

York professor’s research focuses on milk safety

A device to improve milk safety and quality is being developed by Lassonde researchers.

Pouya Rezai
Pouya Rezai

Professor Pouya Rezai from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Centres of Excellence for a project that aims to develop a portable biosensor for detection of microbial pathogens in milk and dairy products. Rezai will be working in partnership with Dairy Quality Inc. on the project.

The academic and industrial team are working to bring this technology to market in 2018.

The biosensor will be able to separate different phases of a high-volume milk sample in order to enhance the sensitivity of the detection process. It will also be simple enough to be used by the farmers to evaluate the quality of their raw milk samples.

“With this technology, an off-site process that currently takes three to four days can be performed on a farm in a few hours,” says Rezai.

This technology has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of detection. It will provide farmers with the information they need to take immediate corrective action to save their animals and products.

Rezai’s research explores the development of microfluidics, mechanical systems for applications in medicine and point-of-care diagnostics, biology, environmental sciences and extreme environments. He is also the creator of the Advanced Center for μfluidics Technology and Engineering (ACμTE).

Government strategy on youth homelessness must focus on mental health, says report

Governments must focus on the mental health challenges faced by young people in Canada in order to effectively address youth homelessness, says a policy brief released April 6 by researchers and community groups.

The report by the  Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, based at York University, and A Way Home Canada, calls on federal, provincial and territorial governments to implement youth homelessness strategies that recognize marginalized and homeless youth are at higher risk of mental health challenges, poor quality of life, and suicide.   The first national study on youth homelessness found that 85 per cent of young Canadians who are homeless are experiencing a mental health crisis, 42 per cent reported at least one suicide attempt, and 35 per cent reported at least one drug overdose requiring hospitalization.

“Rather than invest in prevention and rapid re-housing, our response to youth homelessness has been to wait until young people face acute crises before we do something. It is time to change our approach,” said Stephen Gaetz, York University Professor and Director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. “This is an opportunity for the Canadian government to become an international leader in addressing youth homelessness.”

Housing policy brief posterAdverse childhood experiences such as abuse, systemic problems including barriers to accessing services, and structural issues such as racism often combine to worsen the mental health of youth experiencing homelessness. LGBTQ2S and Indigenous youth experiencing homelessness report markedly poorer mental health and face numerous barriers to accessing supports.

“Youth homelessness is an equity issue. All youth, regardless of their identity or poverty, deserve access to safe, affordable, and appropriate housing and health care. These are human rights, said Kaitlin Schwan, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.  “The fact that Indigenous youth across Canada disproportionately experience homelessness and poor mental health demands an urgent response from all levels of government.”

Federal and provincial governments have made significant investments in homelessness and mental health recently. The federal government announced a 10-year, $5 billion dollar investment in mental health services earlier this year and most provinces and territories have now established new mental health transfers with Ottawa. The policy brief calls on the federal government to implement a youth homelessness strategy with a special focus on mental health and wellness, and for provincial and territorial governments to implement more targeted strategies.

“With this new federal investment in mental health, communities across Canada are positioned to make real progress on this issue. The key will be ensuring services are coordinated and communities set real, measurable targets for progress,” said Melanie Redman, Executive Director of A Way Home Canada.

The policy brief outlines six recommendations for federal, provincial, and territorial governments:

  1. Develop and implement strategies to prevent and end youth homelessness, supported by targeted investments;
  2. Invest in systems integration to address the mental health needs of youth experiencing homelessness;
  3. Prioritize and invest in program models that focus on prevention and rapid exits from homelessness for youth;
  4. Adopt a youth-centered approach to addressing youth homelessness, grounded in human rights;
  5. Ensure that all strategies and program responses address the unique needs of diverse youth experiencing homelessness; and
  6. Develop a national research strategy focused on youth homelessness, and invest in knowledge development and data management, in order to advance an integrated systems response to youth homelessness.

More about the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness and A Way Home Canada

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness is a non-profit, non-partisan research institute that is committed to conducting and mobilizing research so as to contribute to real and sustainable solutions to homelessness.

A Way Home Canada is a national coalition dedicated to preventing and ending youth homelessness in Canada. We inspire and enable communities and all levels of government to organize, plan and implement strategies to address youth homelessness in a coordinated, measurable and impactful way.

York University’s president announces interim appointments

Vari Hall
Vari Hall

York President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri issues the following announcement:

I am pleased to inform the York University community that three interim appointments were recently approved by the Board of Governors Executive Committee, on behalf of the Board of Governors.

Trudy Pound-Curtis will serve as Interim Vice-President Finance and Administration, effective April 14, 2017; Professor Lisa Philipps will serve as Interim Vice-President Academic and Provost, effective May 1, 2017; and Professor Ravi de Costa will serve as Interim Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, effective July 1, 2017.

Trudy Pound-Curtis will assume the role of Interim Vice-President Finance and Administration on April 14, 2017 and will serve in this capacity until the new Vice-President Finance and Administration assumes the position. The search for this position is well advanced and it is expected that an appointment will be made in the next few weeks. Trudy joined York University as the Assistant Vice-President Finance and Chief Financial Officer in December 2002. Prior to coming to York, she served as Director of Financial Services at Memorial University. She has been a key member of the leadership team within the Vice-President Finance & Administration department and has served as Acting Vice-President over the years during times of Gary Brewer’s absence. Her responsibilities include setting strategic direction and oversight of the University’s finances, including budget planning, treasury, pension and endowment management, procurement, insurance and risk management, and research support. Trudy’s career in higher education spans nearly 30 years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Business from Saint Mary’s University and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants of Newfoundland. She has been awarded the Ken Clements Distinguished Service Award in University Administration from CAUBO (Canadian Association of University Business Officers), the Distinguished Leadership Award from the Council of Finance Officers – Universities of Ontario, and the President’s Award for Exemplary Service from Memorial University.

Professor Lisa Philipps will assume the role of Interim Vice-President Academic & Provost on May 1, 2017 in order to facilitate Dr. Rhonda Lenton’s transition to the President’s Office. Further information will be forthcoming regarding the search for the next VPA and Provost, whose appointment will take effect July 1, 2018. Professor Philipps will be well known to members of the York community. A faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School, her area of scholarship is taxation law and fiscal policy. Prior to her appointment here, she held positions at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and practiced law with Blake, Cassels and Graydon. Since joining York in 1996, Professor Philipps has held a number of administrative and governance positions. Within Osgoode, she served as Assistant Dean (First Year) and as Associate Dean (Research, Graduate Studies & Institutional Relations). At the institutional level, she has served as chair of the Academic Policy, Planning and Research Committee of Senate, and from 2011 to 2014, she held the position of Associate Vice-President Research in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. As AVP, she was responsible for driving research intensification across all disciplines at York; she worked to strengthen prestigious award nominations and recognition, and championed internal research initiatives such as the undergraduate student research fair and enhanced research communications. Lisa also lends her expertise beyond York. In 2015-16, she served as Interim Dean of the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, a new law school which opened in 2013. She is the Director of Research Policy on the Board of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (SSHRC), and is an appointed member of the Provincial Judges Pension Board.

Professor Ravi de Costa will serve in the role of Interim Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) as of July 1, 2017. Professor Noël Sturgeon will complete her term as Dean on June 30, 2017, and the search for the next Dean will begin in the coming months. Professor de Costa will be well known to members of FES and the wider York community. He joined FES in 2007, having held prior faculty positions at Trent and McMaster Universities. His research interests are in the areas of globalization and Indigenous peoples. Professor de Costa has developed a broad and deep understanding of FES, having served as Associate Dean Students, Teaching & Learning; Associate Dean Research; and Graduate Program Director. In addition to responsibilities within FES, Professor de Costa has served on the Senate Executive Committee, the (former) Senate Committee on Research, the York Task Force on Sustainability Research, and the Provostial White Paper Working group on Teaching Innovation and Student Learning. He is currently a member of the Markham Campus Academic Coordinating Committee. Through these various roles, he has developed a broad and deep understanding of the Faculty and the University at large. He has initiated and overseen several key initiatives within FES that have advanced its teaching, learning and research priorities, and has also contributed to the Executive Committee of the Faculty’s Board of Governors.

On behalf of myself and the York University community, I would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to Gary Brewer, Rhonda Lenton and Noël Sturgeon for their outstanding leadership and vital contributions to advancing the strategic priorities and flourishing of the University in their various capacities.

I very much appreciate Trudy’s, Lisa’s and Ravi’s willingness to undertake these important interim leadership responsibilities, and I know that they will enjoy the support of colleagues across the University in working collaboratively to advance our academic and administrative priorities. Please join me in wishing them well as they undertake these roles.

And the NSSE Champion Cup goes to…

For the second time in a row, Schulich School of Business can claim the bragging rights as the NSSE Champion Cup winner.

NSSE, or “Nessie”, is the National Survey of Student Engagement that seeks input from first- and fourth-year York University students. Through NSSE, students are able to contribute their insight and have input into York University’s future direction. The online survey ran Feb. 6 to March 31.

NSSE Champion Cup

Organizers at York U challenged individual Faculties (except the Faculty of Education and Osgoode Hall Law School) to encourage participation in the survey. The Faculty with the highest participation rate wins the NSSE Champion Cup and bragging rights until the next survey.

President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri was present to hand out the awards and shared a few thoughts on the importance of student input.

The survey plays a crucial role in steering the University toward a “better learning environment,” he said. He also noted the importance of student opinion with respect to government priorities in post-secondary education, such as funding.

Quick facts about this year’s NSSE:

• Student response rate tabulated at 33.6 per cent (increased from 27.8 per cent in 2014)
• Overall winner of the inter-faculty contest: Schulich School of Business
• Second place: Faculty of Science
• New award: Most improvement over 2014 NSSE: Faculty of Health
• New award: Most creative campaign: School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) with their version of a cute and cuddly blue NSSIE monster walking the halls of AMPD.
• Four participating students were drawn as winners of a $500 tuition waiver: Neekens Marcelin (first-year, biomedical science); Federico Jara (first-year, film production); Carol Singh (environmental studies; fourth-year); and Manal Rahim (law and society, fourth-year, absent from the ceremony)

The online survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete, allows students in their first and final years of a four-year degree to offer their insight into what York U does well and what it could improve. It will be used to determine how much time and effort students put into educationally rewarding activities and to what degree York University facilitates this involvement.