Monthly Archives: December 2011

Lessons learned: Housing at NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCLA and UC-Irvine

Posted on December 27, 2011 by

Last June, I and a few other UBC Governors and senior staff visited NYU, Columbia, Harvard, UCLA, and UC-Irvine. Just like UBC, these universities are located in areas where housing prices are prohibitive. And just like them, UBC is in … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The problem with developing a “Housing Action Plan” for UBC (II) – Cash Flow

Posted on December 23, 2011 by

The UBC administration is quite aware of how critical the issue of housing is to the future of the university and is committed to addressing it. The President said as much in his latest town hall meeting, and the Board … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A weekend of obituaries

Posted on December 22, 2011 by

In an ironic twist of fate, Christopher Hitchens, Vaclav Havel and the “official version” of the Iraq war ended on the same weekend. A most intense propagandistic time, which must have been a field day for students of journalism everywhere. … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The problem with developing a “Housing Action Plan” for UBC (I) – Attitudes

Posted on December 19, 2011 by

Many hurdles face the prospect of a sound “Housing Action Plan” for UBC, not the least of which being personal attitudes shaped by Vancouver’s real estate subculture, the variable academic standards within the university, the ethical issues of eligibility and … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors, UBC Housing Action Plan | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Telling a Gaussian distribution curve from a Faustian one

Posted on December 16, 2011 by

“Thank you so much for this opportunity for a non-mathematician to be part of the BIRS community”, wrote Alice Major. It doesn’t happen often that an illiterate mathematician gets an email from a Poet Laureate. Major was writing about her … Continue reading →

Posted in Banff International Research Station | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Firing a President for all the wrong reasons

Posted on December 13, 2011 by

I kid you not! The president of the University of Oregon, Richard Lariviere, was recently fired because he wanted to use non-state funds to provide badly needed salary increases to retain and recruit faculty at his university. Robert Berdahl, a veteran of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 1 Comment

Unethical science or just another gold rush?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by

When did my chain-smoking leftist Italian friend move to Saudi Arabia? I wondered. I had just received his recent preprint, in which he cites King Saud University  (KSU) as his affiliation.  The answer to my query was even more colorful than … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments

The two main threats to good governance: “Yes people” and sound leadership

Posted on December 7, 2011 by

Institutions require strong governance the most whenever they are stuck with mediocre or abusive leadership. On the other hand, institutions that are going through an era of sound leadership have a tendency to drop their guard, ignore, and eventually weaken … Continue reading →

Posted in Board of Governors | 1 Comment

Is NSERC’s matchmaking effort leading to too many free one-night stands?

Posted on December 6, 2011 by

In order to fulfill its new self-imposed mandate as a pro-active matchmaker between academic researchers and industrial outlets, NSERC introduced three years ago a program that essentially picks up the entire tab for a “first date”, albeit blind or not, between … Continue reading →

Posted in R&D Policy | 5 Comments