Piece of Mind

The most discussed subject in university board meetings, after finance and capital projects of course, is most likely to be communication and its connection to public relations. Universities know that they are failing at it, yet they don’t seem to know what to do. I will argue here and in the next two posts that Social Media can and will reverse this situation as universities have now the potential to shape and even dominate the news circuit. Continue reading →

Last September, I received a request to referee a mathematics paper that was submitted for publication to a serious European journal.  I admit that I detest when such requests arrive, but …. the editor-in-chief is a friend that I admire very much, so I obliged. Fortunately, the job was a piece of cake. Here was my report: Continue reading →

Tony Clement tweeted the government’s opposition to the latest CRTC ruling on usage-based billing for Internet services. I may have learned about it before his Public Affairs department did. Everyone talks about Wikileaks and the role of social media in the recent changes in Tunisia and Egypt. The (neo)-Kremlin seems to be making plans to prevent a Facebook revolution. Are bureaucracies, which normally hold together governments, corporations and university administrations ready for the inevitable assault of the new media age on their fortresses? ->

Don Fraser, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto has taught and trained several generations of Canadian statisticians, and he is still at it. He also continues to contribute high-level research. He was –as recently as last summer– an invited speaker at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, attended by more than 4000 statisticians. Don has been stonewalled by NSERC’s bureaucracy and he has decided to speak out. Make sure not to miss the epilogue! Continue reading →

Nassif Ghoussoub needs your help. Every time I go into his office to tell him what he should blog about, he simply tells me to write it myself. He is obviously desperate. Let me tell you how desperate he is.

This is what we discussed the last time I visited him.
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Submitted by a UBC student who wishes to remain anonymous

How would you describe Canada’s Universities in a few words? U of T is huge, traditional, well established, and therefore academically credible. McGill’s where the party is at and located in the “coolest” city. Concordia is a lesser McGill with a lot of protesters. The University of Calgary is incredibly average, quite cold, and yet somehow important because it’s in Alberta. UVic is rabbits and drinking, as well as a safe ferry-ride away from parents of Vancouver-native students. Queens is engineers with purple jackets and guarantees a fun time. UBC is… is… hmmm…that’s a good question, what is UBC? Asian? Rain? But these are Vancouver’s stereotypes. Continue reading →

Dozens of Canadian scientists are now back home from Ottawa after a week of “grant selecting” at NSERC. Many are self-satisfied by their 5 days of empowerment (the “Ottawa power trip”?). Others are embittered by the ever-tightening bureaucratic grip on Canada’s science evaluation and granting.
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Executive search agencies, also known as headhunters, are now engaged in the recruitment of most senior administrators in Canadian universities. How important is their influence on the pool of academic leaders, and are they worth their cost?
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