The Tribune

The McGill University Senate convened for the first time in 2010 last week to discuss pertinent issues affecting the university. Principal Heather Munroe-Blum, the senate’s chair, offered her remarks prior to the questions and motions period. Munroe-Blum first discussed McGill’s participation in an upcoming research relationship between Quebec and India.

On January 6, the University’s Board of Governors, McGill’s highest governing body, announced Montreal-based lawyer Stuart H. (Kip) Cobbett as its new chairman. Cobbett, who succeeds outgoing chair Robert Rabinovich, received his B.A. from McGill in 1969 and B.

Last month, McGill University became an official partner of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and a committed member to the foundation’s Faith and Globalization Initiative. Founded in 2008 by former British prime minister Tony Blair, the foundation seeks to cultivate respect and cooperation among the world’s major religions, as well as to work with religious groups on development projects and education programs.

After a year and a half of campaigning, the Assiciation of McGill University Support Employees, the oraganization composed of McGill’s 3,000 casual workers, has unionized and affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The campaign, which began in September 2008, started when a group of undergraduate students in the McGill work study program felt they needed a union structure to balance their working conditions with those of the represented colleagues.

The McGill Earth and Planetary Sciences Department recently received a $4.1 million donation from McGill graduate Robert Wares and his mining company, the Osisko Mining Corporation. According to geology Professor Anthony Williams-Jones, between 1995 and 2000, McGill was forced to institute a 25 per cent cut in spending due to the national deficit.

Two McGill undergraduate students received a total of $8,500 in funding for sustainability projects last week after applying for the funds at a sustainability conference in September. Amélie Marsolais-Ricard and Jonathan Glencross were among 180 Canadian university students who attended Impact!: The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership in Guelph, Ont.