University of Winnipeg (U of W) President and Civilitas honorary board member, Lloyd Axworthy held a press conference on September 9th to announce updates and changes at the University this year. One of the more notable updates was the enrollment; the University shattered the 10,000-student mark for the first time this year.
In the first week of the U of W 2011 fall semester, preliminary enrollment was 10,003 undergrad and grad students, up 3.6 per cent from the 2010/2011 academic year. "We all feel there's a real surge going on in Winnipeg now," said Mr. Axworthy on Friday.
One thing that surely spurred the enrollment jump at U of W is the huge growth in attracting aboriginal students. U of W has 970 self-identified aboriginal students, up 24 per cent from last year, bringing aboriginal enrollment at the downtown campus to 12 per cent of the student population. That's one of the highest proportions of the student body at any Canadian university.
Other changes Axworthy announced were campus and community renewal projects, new degree programs in human rights and disability studies and other community learning initiatives.
A few hours after the press conference, the University celebrated one of it's well-known non-academic traditions, the 40th Anniversary of the Great Rock Climb. The competition features teams of three who race down Wesley Hall’s front lawn and scale the 25-ton granite "Rock of Remembrance" in the fastest time possible. The record for getting to the top of the rock in front of the campus is 9.8 seconds which was set in 1979. The climb takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
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FOR the past five months, President Bashar Assad has engaged in a vengeful suppression of those Syrians demonstrating for the right to participate in Syria's transition to democracy. The president has, from time to time, offered promises of reform, but he has failed to follow through. The escalating violence of the past few weeks against his own people, with more recent events in Latakia that much more concerning, has left hundreds dead and heightened the need for more decisive and bold moves by the international community.
Unfortunately, the statement earlier this month by the United Nations Security Council condemning Assad's actions was a weakly worded outcome of months of deliberation and discussion while the Syrian people paid the price. The statement is so much less desirable than a resolution because it is not backed by any definitive action. It holds no party to account and, as we have seen since, has held no influence on Assad's reactionary violence against his own people.
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The University of Winnipeg, headed by Civilitas honorary board member Lloyd Axworthy, is set to capture close to one million dollars of Canadian federal funds for research in the humanities this year.
Awarded through the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the monies will go towards research and student scholarships.
"This funding is most welcome and reflects the exceptional talents of our faculty, researchers and graduate students," said U of W president Lloyd Axworthy. "UWinnipeg is renowned for its excellence in liberal arts, sciences, business and education teaching and research, and this support is recognition of that fact."
Close to $800,000 has been earmarked for faculty research but students have also netted more than $200,000 in scholarships.
Some of the largest grants will go towards research in women’s and gender studies, history and education.
Civilitas honorary board member Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winnipeg and Stuart Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) signed a memorandum of understanding that will see their organizations work jointly to fulfill their common goals of promoting human rights education and encouraging people to take action for human rights.
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The University of Winnipeg recently unveiled the $1 Garnet Kyle scholarship, which was created by a $500,000 donation from the Garnet Kyle estate and was matched by the university.
University president and Civilitas honorary board member Lloyd Axworthy said a scholarship of this size is rare. “This will be in effect one of the largest scholarships given by the university,” he said. “Once it fully ramps up you could have four students (at the university at once).”
The scholarship will be given to someone whose grade 12 average is 90 per cent or higher. Graduate students must have an undergraduate grade point average of 4.00 or higher. Preference will be given to a Roseau Valley School student. If no student qualifies it will go to a Border Land School Division or Hanover School Division student.
Roseau Valley School principal Jason Mateychuk said this gives the school an amazing opportunity to level the playing field financially. “Personally I know of gifted students with top level marks who simply couldn't move on to post secondary education due to financial limitations,” he said. “I think this scholarship may give hope to students to increase their engagement in school and improve achievement.”
Professors at the University of Winnipeg have ratified a new collective agreement. The university president and Civilitas honorary board member Lloyd Axworthy said he is very pleased with the outcome of the process. “This collective agreement is both fair and fiscally responsible, and will ensure we are able to recruit and retain top-quality faculty, and addresses many important administrative issues for our faculty,” further clarified Axworthy.
The deal includes a 5.41 per cent salary increase and other benefits over three years, increased pension contributions and other improvements. The pact is retroactive to April 2010 and will expire at the end of March in 2013.
The University of Winnipeg Faculty Association had originally been seeking 8.4 per cent while the university countered with 3.7 per cent. Negotiations came down to the last minute before a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. on Thursday. The faculty association represents 350 professors, librarians, coaches and athletic therapists at the university.
Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian Foreign Minister (1996-2000), has been elected International President of the World Federalist Movement – Institute for Global Policy (WFM). Headquartered in New York, the WFM is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) that has consultative status with the United Nations. Axworthy succeeds another Canadian, former Senator Lois Wilson, who had replaced the actor and humanitarian Sir Peter Ustinov upon his death in 2004.
The World Federalist Movement was created in 1947 by those concerned that the structure of the new United Nations was too similar to the League of Nations which had failed to prevent World War II. Both organizations are loosely structured as associations of sovereign nation-states, with few autonomous powers.
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