During what was supposed to be a meeting to admit the new NSCAD Alumni Association executive members to office, Cameron Jantzen was removed as the president of the association. At the executive meeting held last Thursday, September 17, the association’s vice-president, Duane Jones, stepped up to be elected president. The alumni president’s removal is related […]
Education
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NSCAD Alumni Association takes a vote of non-confidence in its president
Three months after Aoife Mac Namara’s dismissal as NSCAD’s president, the art school community is still upset about why this happened. The latest frustration is at Cameron Jantzen, the NSCAD Alumni Association president. Last Tuesday, September 8, the alumni association held its annual general meeting. Although the main business of the meeting was to elect new […]
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NSCAD community wants president Aoife Mac Namara reinstated
The Friends of NSCAD group is among those unhappy with the sudden dismissal of the university’s president, Aoife Mac Namara, by its board of governors. The former president, widely described as an ally to many of the institution’s marginalized students, was fired on June 26. “The Board offered no proper justification for such extreme action, […]
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What is the biggest determinant of achievement in education?
What is the biggest determinate of a quality education? Is it teachers, or is it something far beyond the reach of teachers? What are the factors that continue to keep the achievement gap a seething sea of despair? I’ll start here and tell you that it comes down to economics, plain and simple. We may […]
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Students call for Dalhousie interim president to resign
A group of about 20 Dalhousie students protested Monday afternoon at the welcome reception for the university’s new interim president and vice-chancellor, Peter MacKinnon. In a press release, the group of students say they don’t believe MacKinnon’s appointment was made with the university’s best interests in mind. “We feel the interests of faculty and students, […]
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Sometimes a bad professor is just a bad professor
Higher learning institutions have become central to the current debate around freedom of expression. The issue arose in Nova Scotia with the controversies around Acadia psychology professor Rick Mehta and has now been reignited after Dr. Mehta’s termination last week. The university cited a number of factors, including failure to fulfill academic responsibilities, unprofessional conduct and […]
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Awkward! National school board conference comes to Nova Scotia
“The irony, a little bit, is there, for sure,” says Canadian School Boards Association president Floyd Martens. Over 200 CSBA trustees from across Canada will arrive in Halifax this week for the organization’s annual conference, only a few months after the provincial government dismantled Nova Scotia’s elected school boards. Martens says the event was planned […]
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Richard Florizone leaving Dalhousie for quantum super-position
Richard Florizone is leaving Dalhousie for a “once in a lifetime” opportunity in quantum computing. The university president’s resignation was announced Monday in a memo from the school’s Board of Governors. Board chair Lawrence Stordy writes that the news comes “with mixed emotion.” “We have benefitted greatly from his leadership and vision these past five years,” […]
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Sandy Lake Academy sidesteps questions about conversion therapy
One of Halifax’s private Christian schools doesn’t have much of an answer on whether it approves of conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth. Sandy Lake Academy in Bedford is owned and operated by the Maritime Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church—the same church that’s come under fire for bringing in two American speakers who say […]
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History lessons and white academia
“White teachers taught in residential schools, why shouldn’t white profs teach about its history?” It’s a satirical headline from Walking Eagle News, written about the recent controversy at Mount Saint Vincent University and the lack of Indigenous voices in academia. But the joke also speaks to the uneasy and ongoing tradition of white Canadians taking […]
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Transphobic slurs in the classroom
Sylvia Mayers was substituting for a class earlier this year when one of the students came up to her and called her a transphobic slur. She thinks it was meant to disrupt the class more than cause harm, and doubts the young student knew the power of the word. It didn’t make it hurt any […]
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Protest potpourri scheduled for Province House
Nova Scotians are spoiled for choice when it comes to protesting their government. In what’s practically become an annual tradition, this week hundreds of people will once again gather outside Province House demanding change and voicing their opposition to a growing portfolio of disappointments. The Nova Scotians Rise Up event—scheduled for noon on the 27—will […]