Many McGill students have their fair share of issues with WebCT, but it looks as though they might become a thing of the past. By May of next year, McGill is planning to have replaced WebCT with a new learning management system, or LMS.

The movement to replace the Blackboard Learning system entered its early stages in 2009 as the Moving Forward Project Team began to prepare for the inevitable technological obsolescence of a system that was once the best online learning system on the market. Laura Winer, a project member and chair of the Consulting Group on Pedagogy, said this is standard practice.

“WebCT was the best, hands down, five years ago,” echoed Andrew Doyle, the Students’ Society representative on the Project Team.

As WebCT’s natural technological life cycle approaches an end, McGill has begun to shop around for a new LMS that will meet its requirements moving forward.

Under Quebec law, a public institution wishing to pay a company in exchange for its services must go through a two stage process. In the first stage, called a “request for information,” (RFI) McGill must compile a list of all of its requirements for a new myCourses platform. Based on this compilation, a group of three or four vendors who meet at least 70 per cent of the requirements will be selected. In the second stage, McGill will submit a request for proposal, or RFP. The vendor offering the best deal will then be selected.

Because the RFP process has a decision-making mechanism built-in, it’s important for McGill to spend a lot of time at the outset making sure the RFI submitted will most accurately reflect its needs. Currently in the first stage, the Project Team has been carefully conducting a user requirement investigation to ensure that the vendor selected can meet the most important of those needs.

The next LMS will need to meet higher-than-ever industry standards and is expected to fill some of WebCT’s holes. According to Sharon Roy, director of Content and Collaboration Solutions and project manager of Moving Forward, the project is focusing on the need for improvement in three areas: greater collaboration tools, open content, and an improved interface that will be more navigable.

To make sure they are covering all their bases, Moving Forward has been holding demonstration days for potential products. For the first half of each one, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., students and faculty are invited to assess how each vendor addresses their needs for a learning management system. The next half of the day is geared towards the IT team, who evaluate how easily the system can be implemented and how well it can be integrated with Banner, McGill’s student information system.

“There’s a whole back end system that students and faculty won’t see but that is important,” said Winer. “It is very important that [the product selected will] integrate with student information systems. We need to make sure that it will sustain the kind of use [the McGill community requires] … and that it won’t crash.”

Another important aspect in choosing a new system will be its ability to keep up with natural technological progress. Despite being the height of technology in its day, WebCT cannot support newer versions of Firefox.

This is also an opportunity to make myCourses more attractive and enjoyable for students. Although Doyle says he hasn’t been particularly successful in getting students to the demonstrations, some intriguing features could be on their way. Some possible additions to the LMS experience include chat rooms and whiteboards, tools such as blogs or wikis that allow for multiple authors, a calendar that integrates with third party calendars, and maybe even a grade book that tells you what you need on the final exam to get an A.

“We’re on track,” said Doyle. “But the more voices [involved], the better.” The schedule for demostration days is available online at http://blogs.mcgill.ca/mycourses.

The residents of Royal Victoria College, Upper Residence, and Douglas Hall received an unwelcome holiday gift in January, when they found that McGill Food and Dining Services had hiked their prices.

Students of Upper Residence, frustrated by what appeared to them a “lack of respect” on the part of MFDS, created “PRICED,” a workgroup designed to find solutions to the complaints of students locked into meal plans with MFDS. PRICED, led by Molson resident and First Year Council President Valentine Sergeev, stands for “Perturbed Residents Interested in Changing Expensive Dining.” Despite what its tongue-in-cheek name might suggest, Sergeev said that PRICED is less interested in changing, and more interested in understanding MFDS’s pricing decisions.

In response to the price hike, Sergeev and other PRICED members drafted a petition which demanded accountability in MFDS’s decision-making and more student input in its policies. Within 24 hours, nearly 500 residents of Molson, McConnell, and Gardner had signed it.

Despite the claims of an article in the McGill Daily, PRICED has never set out to lower food prices.  

“It’s not the fact that the prices were raised,” Sergeev said. “It’s how [MFDS] went about it.”

Instead, PRICED’s petition says the group seeks to be a channel of communication through which residents can express their discontent with “the decision of MFDS to increase food prices mid-year without prior notice or explanation to students” and “the general refusal of MFDS to communicate with the student body and its representatives regarding the food services it provides.”  

PRICED was particularly annoyed when MFDS failed to acknowledge or explain its price-hike policy until the third week of January. Sergeev suggested that had some residents not noticed a higher than usual number on the cafeteria’s cash register while checking out, many would likely never have known about MFDS’s newest policy.

Sergeev stressed the importance of mutual respect between MFDS and residents who, he claimed, were “genuinely upset” with MFDS’s “lack of openness towards the students.”

In the near future, Sergeev said, PRICED hopes to see “more financial information published on the [MFDS] website,” in order to understand MFDS’ costs for certain food items, like a $3.50 energy drink or a $6.50 hot meal.

PRICED has met with the executives of MFDS twice since the petition surfaced last week. Sergeev recognized the efforts made by MFDS to address students’ concerns and claims the meetings have been constructive.

Mathieu Laperle, the director of Food and Hospitality Services, acknowledged that MFDS had failed to notify residents of the price increase. Oliver de Volpi, executive chef, agreed with Laperle.

“We regret the way we implemented the food hike,” de Vopli said. “But we do not regret the food hike.”

In the face of rising raw food prices over the past year and a half,  de Volpi claimed that MFDS — which had previously refrained from increasing food prices — was merely “bringing [its] costs in line with what they should be.”

 “The goal [of MFDS] is not to make profit, but to generate enough money to pay our expenses,” said Laperle. At the same time, Laperle added that MFDS wanted to “upgrade [its] locations and services on campus and in dining halls.”

Improvement is, of course, expensive. As a self-financed department with no financial ties to McGill University, MFDS is burdened with a mortgage from its 2009 renovation of Royal Victoria College’s cafeteria.

Regardless, Laperle, de Volpi, and Monique Lauzon, MFDS’s marketing and quality counsellor, stressed that MFDS has, and will continue to, prioritize the concerns of the student body.

“We are very responsive to students’ feedback and we do not take their comments lightly,” Lauzon said. “Students have a voice through various channels of communication that are already in place.”

According to Laperle, MFDS receives and responds to approximately 100 emails from students each month. In the same time frame, MFDS receives around 100 visits in its main office in Royal Victoria College from residents with questions, concerns, and constructive comments about the meal plan.  

Further, in April 2009, MFDS created the Food and Dining Advisory Committee, or FADAC, as a forum for residents, student government officials, and executive members of the MFDS to discuss students’ concerns with food and dining on campus.

In response to PRICED’s request for a detailed breakdown of the cost of food items offered in residence, de Volpi said that he “would have no problem with that.”

Both MFDS and PRICED have the same goals in mind: mutual respect and increased communication. After all, noted Sergeev, “We need to work with MFDS to make things better for us. Only with open-mindedness and communication can we make progress.”

The executives of MFDS agreed. “We want students to know we are listening,” Laperle said. “Are we perfect? No. Could we improve? Of course.” 

  The protests that have engulfed Egypt came to McGill’s downtown campus on Monday in the form of a midday demonstration by Amnesty International. While this is the first physical manifestation of the turmoil at McGill, the issue has been worrying for many students since protests first began nearly two weeks ago.  

“The trigger has been some kind of dissatisfaction with the economy,” said Imad Mansour, a McGill political science professor, about the source of the unrest in Egypt. He was quick to add, however, that despite the claims of many news reports, the protests are about more than the price of bread.

“Part of the frustration is with the whole package of policies … the lack of representation, the lack of transparency, corruption, inefficiency, economic decline,” he said.

The policies are those of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power for over 30 years. Under Mubarak, Mansour said, Egypt has been wracked by corruption and inefficiency—”a case of bureaucracy gone wild.”

While these issues may have pushed protesters to take to the streets in Egypt, many blame Mubarak directly and see his immediate expulsion from the country as the only way to solve its problems.

“We’re standing here every day until Mubarak leaves; we’ve been standing here every day since [January 25],” said Mohamed Zoeid, a protester outside the Egyptian Consulate on de la Gauchetiere Street in Montreal. “We don’t trust this guy—he’s been fooling us for 30 years. Enough is enough.”

Many government officials in the U.S. and Canada have issued statements condemning the violence and calling for Mubarak’s resignation, political change, or both.   

Inside the consulate, the Consul General of Egypt, Amin Meleika, said the protestors were a strong political force who had had a clear effect on the government.   

“Now that the state has accepted all demands [of the protesters], it wants to use the next six to seven months to organize the transition, so as not to leave a power vacuum,” he said.

Meleika said he was “optimistic” about the safety of Egyptian McGill students and their families, and that “things are getting better and quieter.”

“The demonstrations, except for a few incidents … have been rather peaceful,” he said. “I’m optimistic because I see there is a movement in the right direction.”

In defence of Mubarak, Meleika said the president had deployed the Army only for the safety of his citizens, not to inhibit demonstrations.  

On whether Mubarak will attempt to play a strong role in Egypt after he steps down next September, Meleika speculated that “the President has made a very clear commitment that he is not running again … and that he himself would just like to end his term and set the transition.”  

Meleika further defended Mubarak’s domestic policy, foreign policy, and sensitivity to his constituency.  

“I think definitely he will be remembered in a positive sense,” Meleika said.

Justin Trudeau, MP for Montreal’s Papineau riding, synthesized the views and concerns of both protesters and the government.  

“We’re beginning to see movements throughout the Middle East … that are saying, ‘Enough is enough, enough of these hierarchical regimes,'” he said. “[But] at the same time, I want to caution against being naive.”  

The installation of an extremist or authoritarian regime after Mubarak wouldn’t be much of an improvement, Trudeau continued.

“It’s going to take a while, and Canada should be playing ball in promoting that type of openness and stability that would lead to [a democracy],” he said.  

“We hope to draw attention to the fact that the freedom to assembly and expression is an inalienable right,” said Amir Nijhawan, the organizer of yesterday’s Amnesty International protest and a McGill political science student. “The protests [in Egypt] originated out of dissatisfaction with the political system, rooted in corruption and abuse. In the interests of protecting and promoting rights, the voice of the Egyptian people must be represented.”

Robert Smith

The first annual Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Research Event brought together bright minds from different departments on Wednesday to showcase some of the research done by undergraduates in the past year.

Using various multimedia, students were asked to creatively present their research in a series of five-minute presentations. Every department in the faculty was represented at the event.

According to Dean of Arts Christopher Manfredi, the event was part of a coalition that “consists of four partners: the Faculty of Arts, the Arts Internship Office, the Provost Office, and the individual professors who provide the research opportunities.”

Aside from providing a platform to showcase research, the Arts Undergraduate Research Internship Awards also provide funding through grants with the hope of fostering research as part of the academic experience.  

“[Research] is going on, but we haven’t done a nice job showcasing it,” said Associate Dean of Arts Suzanne Morton, a history professor and one of the event’s organizers. “Science already does it; the tradition of working in a lab is stronger than in Arts, where it is more individualistic.”

At its core, “research is really simple — all you need is a good idea and you try to work it out,” said Dirk Schlimm, a McGill philosophy professor.

Schlimm laid down his take on the steps to effective research.  

“Getting an idea is also easy,” he said. “Just fill your mind with stuff and ideas will eventually pop out. Recognizing a good idea is hard; you need experience and professors will usually fill this role. Finally, working an idea out is harder, as it requires motivation, time, stamina, and knowledge of where to go with it.”

It appears as though the undergraduate researchers listened to Schlimm’s advice, and, according to some, the results were hugely successful.  

“It blows me away how smart and articulate our students are,” Morton said. “The professors are just gushing.”

One of the student researchers was Karine Fonda, U1 Honours international development studies, who did her research on the “Health Insurance Access Database,” which examined health policies in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for different population groups.

Fonda described her research as both challenging and rewarding.  

“There is a lot of reading and selecting the right information, answering questions and asking more questions and trying to present everything in a coherent manner,” she said. “At the same time, I can apply some of my academic background. It improved my research experience as well as helped me explore other areas such as law and translations. For once, I can dive deep into the topic and I can see a pattern developing in a country.”  

For professors, much of the learning and co-operation is mutual.  

“We have excellent mutual relationship,” Schlimm said. “McGill undergrads are very motivated with diverse interests and we learn from each other’s original ideas.”

Research can also help students find where their interests lie.  

“It gives opportunity to test the field—only by doing it will you say, ‘This is really what I want to do’ or not,” Schlimm said.

This is especially relevant for undergraduate students who are still finding their passions. As part of his research study, Siddharth Mishra, U1 Honours economics, who is also majoring in international development studies, plans to travel to India this summer to examine its legal system.

 “Development is something I am interested in. It is a way to follow my interests,” Mishra said. “It will be an interesting experience and summer.”

 “Research lets you do what you love while getting paid for it,” he added.

Sophie Silkes

On January 31, over 180 students, faculty, and community members attended a talk on local food system politics, delivered by Jon Steinman, broadcaster and host of the Nelson-based, internationally broadcast radio show “Deconstructing Dinner.”

Oliver de Volpi, McGill’s executive chef, introduced Steinman and provided the crowd with mostly locally grown snacks sourced from the Macdonald Campus Farm.  

Steinman, a Nelson, B.C., resident and avid proponent of the local-food movement, spent the first half of his talk emphasizing the risks inherent in supporting industrialized, large-scale agriculture.  

“We have very little choice but to invest in the industrial food system,” he said. “Is this investment secure? When we deconstruct it, the short answer is ‘No.'”

Steinman highlighted the six “food security concerns” which  he argued should be at the forefront of our consumer awareness. He emphasized his third point, “corporate concentration,” as the most critical for our understanding. Steinman cited Cargill—which, according to their website, is an “international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial, and industrial products and services”—as an example of how monopolized and vertically integrated contemporary food systems have become.

Cargill controls 40 per cent of slaughter capacity and 17 per cent of all grain in Canada, and also holds large stakes in the canola oil, corn, sugar, ginger ale, and ice cream markets. Cargill is also one of Canada’s largest producers of plant fertilizer, natural gas, salt, and corn plastics.

Steinman built off the example of Cargill to issue his plea for awareness of the possible perils of submitting to large-scale food systems and a call for widespread, holistic interaction between the consumers and their food.

According to Steinman, the fatal flaw of food production today amounts to the fact that “there’s a lot of money in the food system. It’s just not ending up in the pockets of the farmers.”  

After spending half of his talk discussing the current way in which consumers are inadvertently perpetuating the poor conditions of mass food production, Steinman described viable alternatives to supporting industrialized agriculture.  

“We live in a food system today that is quite a monoculture,” he said, urging listeners to cultivate external food systems through community shared agricultures and community cooperatives.

“We’re talking about trying to shift from one [food system] that is deeply rooted to one that is outside of the box,” he said.

The event, co-sponsored by McGill Food and Dining Services and the McGill Office of Sustainability also functioned as an official and public introduction to MFDS’s new sustainability strategy.  

“The talk was a wonderful forum for people from UQAM, UdeM and Concordia, as well as for outside groups—Ailments d’Ici, the Montreal Permaculture Guild—who were at the talk as well,” said Sarah Archibald, a U2 student and a coordinator for the Food Systems Project.

For the third portion of the gathering, audience members heard from Jonathan Glencross, the U3  architect behind the $2.4 million endowed Sustainability Projects Fund and one of the founders of the McGill Food Systems project, Laura Rhodes, the McGill’s Food Systems administrator, and Lilith Wyatt, the Sustainability Projects coordinator.  

Rhodes unveiled MFDS’s strategic action plan towards sustainable food purchasing.  

“How can a commitment to sustainable food systems at McGill create and support a culture of sustainability at the university?” Rhodes asked the crowd.

Rhodes presented a cohesive business model that involves applied student research in the creation of long lasting partnerships with local farms and suppliers who would supply dining locations on campus while keeping the McGill community informed  about the sustainability of its own food systems.

“If the end result is a system that students and professors are excited to study, staff and administrators are enthusiastic to run, and all campus members are proud to eat from, then we have succeeded in creating a culture of sustainability at McGill,” Glencross said.