Media Release

For Immediate Release

January 19,2010

SAINT MARY'S THIS WEEK

Campus Kudos, Media Mentions and Coming Events

• The Ethics team from the Sobey School of Business (Liz Mathews and Liam Murphy) finished second in the final round of the national Inter-Collegiate Business Competition held earlier this month in Kingston, Ontario. Unfortunately neither the Policy team, nor the Debating team made it to the top three spots. The entire 15 person team finished in the top six.. Twenty-eight schools competed in the preliminary round.

• Saint Mary’s students Erin Garner, Fadi Al Qassar and Kyle McGivery were the winners of the recent “Say it, Show it, Be Part of it” video competition sponsored by CIDA and the International  Activities Office. The trio won an all expenses paid trip to The Gambia during reading break to do some participatory action research on climate change in developing countries. They will be working with Dr. Cathy Conrad and Dr Jason Grek Martin in the Department of Geography. The vireo can be viewed on SMUTube.

• Saint Mary's Huskies hockey players Chris Morrison and Marc Rancourt were honoured during a brief ceremony prior to the Jan.15 game. Morrison was singled out for claiming one of the Top Eight CIS Academic All-Canadian spots, and Rancourt was recognized as the 2009 Sullivan Award Winner for the CIS Hockey Player of the Year, CIS BLG Nominee and for recently surpassing the 200 career point mark.

• ·        We note with sadness this week the passings of Dr. A Garnet Brown, a business leader, a provincial Cabinet minister and a friend of Saint Mary’s. Among his many honours he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Commerce (honoris causa) by Saint Mary's University for his dedication to his business interests, his political achievements and his community service. His family has asked that memorial donations may be made to St. Agnes Church, Victorian Order of Nurses in Garnet's name, and/or Saint Mary's University.

• Three members of the Saint Mary’s Philosophy Department were signatories to the recent open letter sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper objecting to the prorogation of Parliament. The letter was written by Daniel Weinstock at U of Montreal. http://www.noprorogation-nonprorogation.ca/

MEDIA MENTIONS

The decision by former NHler Mike Danton to enroll at Saint Mary’s while on full parole received international attention. On the electronic media side locally, monitoring noted 51 television stories and 36 radio spots. There were also 200 print stories. There were more than 500 mentions on the web, including 300 from the United States. The story also made it into the media in Germany, Bulgaria, China and India.

There was still room for the work of our professors and students to be highlighted in the media on other topics. They are listed below.

January 12, 2010

The Halifax Herald

N.S. Hopes to Lure Students

Laura Saar, a second-year commerce student at Saint Mary’s University from Dryden, Ont. Spoke about the new promotional campaign created jointly by the province and provincial university to target recruits in Ontario

January 13, 2010

Information Morning

Kevin Kelloway, research chair in Occupational Health Psychology appeared on the show to talk about suggestions the province has not done enough to assure safety in the workplace.

January 13, 2010

Maritime Morning

Saint Mary’s Criminology Professor Stephen Schneider appeared on Andrew Krystral’s open line talk show to discuss the arrival of the Bacchus biker gang in Nova Scotia

January 15, 2010

Live At Five

Actor Anthony Sherwood was interviewed about his local projects and his scheduled appearance at Saint Mary’s as keynote speaker for a Black History month Film Festival on Feb. 8th.

January 14, 2010

The Chronicle Herald

Woman fears for family in quake zone
Marie-Helene Beaubouef, a Saint Mary’s International Development graduate Masters student  told the paper she fears for the lives of relatives who live in a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood devastated by an earthquake Tuesday in Haiti. She moved from Haiti 30 years ago. After leaving Saint Mary’s she stayed in Halifax and founded Salutary Angels, a non-governmental organization in Halifax that helps pregnant women in rural Haiti.

Note: She is collecting donations through her website for earthquake relief. www.salutaryangels.org

January 16, 2010

Ottawa Citizen

Mocking religion in the service of freedom and civility http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/ahead+make+religion/2447171/story.html

Philosophy professor Mark Mercer had an editorial appear focused on freedom of speech and the idea that it is okay to make fun of religion.

EVENTS

January 20

Students for Development:Stories from the Field Loyola 281 4 PM

Saint Mary’s students share their internship experiences with governmental organizations in Ghana and Vietnam.

January 21

The early History of Saint Mary’s, Nova Scotia Museum, 7 PM

Peter McGuigan discusses his work looking at the university’s early years.

January 22

Sixth Annual Sobey Leadership Forum  Scotiabank Theatre 8 AM – 3 PM

Speakers include: Annette Verschuren, president Home Depot Canada Richard Homburg, Chairman Homburg Invest Inc. Bill McEwan, President, Sobeys Inc. Robert Orr, President, Ocean Nutrition Canada

For more information: http://www.smu.ca/academic/sobey/programs/mba/leadership

January 28

Uncovering power and Passion in the Public Service Scotiabank Theatre 5 PM

Monique Collette, President of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, will share stories from her one person taskforce looking at practical approaches to improving the environment in the workplace.

January 29

International Week kicks off . This year’s theme is Food Security: From Feast to Famine. Events for the week include presentations by Dr. Tony Charles, author/journalist  Alana Mitchell and featured speaker activist  author and Raj Patel. For more information:

http://internationalcentre.smu.ca/int-week.html

February 8

Visons, Memories and Realities: Screening Black Civil Rights, Theatre Auditorium,McNally Main, 7 PM

Actor- activist Anthony Sherwood kicks off a four day Black History Month Film series that runs through Feb. 11.

The other films in the series include Traces of Trade, Africville: Can’t Stop Now and A’Mandela. The events are open to the public at start each evening at 7 PM

Do you have an item you’d like to see in Saint Mary’s This Week? Email it to Steve Proctor at steve.proctor@smu.ca

-30-