ABOUT FIFTY PEOPLE packed the McNally Arts Commons on January 11th to hear details of a funding announcement that will help showcase Nova Scotia as a premier study destination around the world. The Honourable Bernard Valcourt, Minister of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and La Francophonie, announced new financial support for EduNova, an organization whose work focuses on collaborative international recruitment activities and the identification of international projects and opportunities.
On top of $215,000 that was invested by ACOA in 2011, the Agency announced an additional $185,000 to continue to expand a project aimed at increasing Nova Scotia’s recruitment of international students.  For more information click here.

YOU CAN NOW VISIT OUR CAMPUS without actually being here. Admissions and Recruitment recently launched a virtual tour of Saint Mary's featuring information ranging from how to apply to residence life and academic programs. There are 17 stops on the tour with short video clips detailing specific buildings or programs. Visitors can take the entire tour or simply choose the subject/area they want to learn about. The tour was designed to give potential students a look at campus, but it can be used as a resource for anyone visiting campus or the community at large. Click here to go for a tour right now.

MARKETING PROFESSOR, Dr. Mei-Ling Wei, is partnering up with a specialty producer in the Halifax Farmers' Market to promote the region's finest gluten-free gourmet goods.
Dr. Wei has teamed up with Schoolhouse Bakery to develop a new line of food products using their exclusive recipes.  Over the next few months she will conduct specialized “green” research to determine what draws consumers to organic and locally produced goods.. The intent is to gauge customer perceptions and preferences prior to releasing selected meals into the marketplace.  Dr. Wei’s expertise will provide Schoolhouse with a unique opportunity to better predict the likelihood of adoption by customers once the products are on the shelf. 
Schoolhouse was awarded $15,000 via the Productivity and Innovation Voucher Fund, a program of the Nova Scotia Office of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism.  The fund allows small enterprises to acquire direct assistance from Nova Scotia universities to help develop and innovate their businesses.

SAINT MARY'S UNIVERSITY is on the cutting edge of technology, even when it comes to accepting tuition payments. The University is set to launch Interact Online, a new and easy way for students to make their payments.  As of January 1st, the University has stopped accepting credit card payments for tuition, residence, meal plans and some other fees charged to student accounts.  Instead, students will be encouraged to use Interact Online.  Both secure and efficient, Interact Online will allow students to make payments using funds directly from their bank accounts.  For more information click here.

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PROFESSOR PORTER SCOBEY and Professor Pawan Lingras from the Saint Mary's University Mathematics and Computing Science Department, are set to release a new book that'll help new web programmers better understand the basic features in creating a website.  Entitled Web Programming and Internet Technologies: An E-Commerce Approach, the textbook is slated to be released in February. Scobey says the introductory book will allow students, or professionals to see first hand the many levels and capabilities of programming for the world wide web. 

GAME ON!  It's time to register your team for the second annual Scrabble Smackdown Tournament.  The tournament is being sponsored by the Writing Centre and Scrabble© and will be held on Saturday, March, 3rd from 10:00 – 4:00 pm in the Student Centre Café.  The competition is open to all staff, students, faculty, and alumni.  Pre registration is required, as there will be a limited number of teams. The cost is $5.00 per team member. Teams could be by society or department, and specific challenges are naturally encouraged. Please make sure you register by February 27th.  To register your team, click here to download an application form from the Writing Centre's official tournament website.

THERE WILL BE much to celebrate at 1PM on January 22 when Saint Mary's newest graduates cross the stage in the recently renovated McNally Building to receive their diplomas at the University’s first January Convocation Ceremony.

The new Winter Convocation recognizes a need first expressed in 2006 by two students who required their parchments for employment purposes abroad. Since that time, the University Senate has approved a growing list of January graduates, but not until now have these Winter grads been recognized with a Convocation ceremony that highlights and recognizes their accomplishments.  For more information click here.

DON'T MISS the new art show at the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery: Six Low-Cast Maidens in Search of a Porch.  The show is an installation of sculptural forms created by Nova Scotia artist Jacqueline Riemer.  Centred on issues of embodiment and ego, Riemer imagines Caryatids who wander away from the porch of the Erechtheion, on the Acropolis at Athens, in search of a new context. The displacement of these maidens questions the place of the female body in sculpture and architecture.  The show will run until March 4TH.
Also launching at the Art Gallery is Quintet: A Conversation in Design.  The show represents recent work in jewellery design by five instructors in the Jewellery Studies department of Toronto’s George Brown College, three of whom share a history associated with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. 

 

WHILE THE FLU SEASON may already be upon us, the good news is flu vaccinations are still available at Saint Mary's.

Jane Collins, Nurse Manager at Saint Mary’s Student Health Services, says it's not too late to get your flu shot, and anyone interested should call and make an appointment.  Collins says there have already been a number of cases of influenza seen on campus and doctors are encouraging students, faculty and staff to contact Health Services before the nasty bug strikes.

The Student Health Services Centre is opened Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.

THERE HAS BEEN considerable public debate about food in the past two decades.  Many people are now opting for organically produced products or locally grown foods for either health, environmental or economic reasons.  The first in a three part series of lectures sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Ethics will focus on the ethical and philosophical issues and claims made about health, the environment and the economy. Entitled “The Elements - Ethical Uses of our Resources: Food, Oil and Water”, the public lecture will take place on January 25 at 7PM at the Scotiabank Auditorium at Dalhousie University.  Dr. R. Paul Thompson, of the University of Toronto will begin the series with his discussion on Food Ethical Issues in Agriculture.  Dr.  Rylan Higgins, Professor in the Anthropology Department at Saint Mary’s University is the Respondent.  For more information click here.

HAVE YOU HAD A BOOK PUBLISHED RECENTLY? If so, we want to know about it. Not only will we feature it in a future issue of Saint Mary's This Week, we will include it in the next issue of Maroon and White. A new column in the magazine will feature a photo of the cover jackets and details of all books written by Saint Mary's faculty, staff or alumni. Look for the first column in the May issue of the magazine.

TWENTY-TWO Saint Mary’s MBA students will be off to Edmonton January 22 to compete against teams from across Canada in the 2012 MBA Games. As members of the only team representing a business school in the Maritimes, the Saint Mary’s students will participate in a weekend of competition, camaraderie and networking that culminates in a chance to win the coveted Queen's Cup. More