A campus group will spend this Sunday cleaning up Aberdeen Street with the hope of collecting enough empty beer cans to help build a house in Kingston.
Adam Alexander, ConEd ’08 and co-founder of the Habitat for Humanity Queen’s chapter, hopes to collect as many aluminum cans as possible this year in order to compete in Alcan’s annual aluminum can drive.

The class of Sci ’10 spent almost as much time “bringing sexy back” as they did climbing the pole at Saturday’s annual Grease Pole event, which broke for more than two hours after a male student was removed from the pit on a spinal board.
The pit was cleared nearly an hour and a half into the climb as Queen’s First Aid and medical personnel entered to treat the student, who was taken to the hospital for examination.

Jamie Miller is developing a new Masters program that will be the first of its kind in Canada. Miller, a Masters student himself, is working to create an environmental engineering program that focuses on projects in developing communities and disaster relief.
Miller, who is developing the project as part of his degree, said he hopes it will encourage students to look at engineering from a different perspective. He said the course will have a multidisciplinary curriculum.

Frances Darwin is the first person to admit that talking alone won’t solve problems.
Instead, the ArtSci ’07 student and director of the September 18 Student Symposium on Queen’s Identity hopes that by facilitating discussion about issues like campus diversity and tuition hikes, the event will push students, faculty and Kingston residents to take action and address problems in their community.

Rula Salam, a second-year English PhD student, found the war at her doorstep. On July 12, when Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers, Salam said it didn’t seem like something that would lead to anything more: Israel has conducted similar prisoner exchanges in the past.
When the news reported that the south was being heavily bombed later that day, she said it was unbelievable. The targeting soon moved much closer to home for Salam and her family when the suburbs of Beirut were bombed.

Jessica Goldberg, ConEd ’07, was studying for her final exams at Israel’s University of Haifa when Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers.
During the ensuing clash between the Israeli Defence Force and Hezbollah, the atmosphere in Israel grew tense.

Since Paul Martin’s resignation in March of this year, the Liberal party has been abuzz searching for a new leader. Throughout the summer, 10 candidates have campaigned across Canada, calling on all Liberals to support their quest for leadership.
Responding to some of those calls are members of the Queen’s University Liberal Association (QULA).
With such a large number of candidates, however, the organization is split over whom they should support.

Tenants of a building Queen’s bought for a new art center are now expecting the University to find them a new home.
The Domino Theatre and Stella Buck Centre, the two buildings that make up the J.K. Tett complex, officially became Queen’s property on July 31.
The buildings, located at 370 King St., will be converted into a performing arts centre that will provide classrooms, offices, a concert hall and other facilities for the Schools of Music and Drama and the Art Department.

Kingston’s downtown core received several environmentally friendly facelifts this past summer, and Green Scheme can be thanked for the city’s fresh new glow.
Aislinn McCarry, Green Scheme’s manager, said it’s a long-term community stewardship initiative aimed at fusing community groups and university students through a series of environmentally-friendly activities, such as tree-planting and gardening projects.
Green Scheme was launched in March as a result of a challenge raised in Principal Hitchcock’s letter to students entitled “Aberdeen: Moving Forward.”

Frosh Week 2006, festive even without traditional house parties, hasn’t been a major cause of concern to police.
Last year, 66 charges were laid against students over the Tuesday and Wednesday of Frosh Week, and the annual Main Campus Residence Council’s (MCRC) dance had to be cancelled an hour and a half early due to underage drinking.
Patrick Hoffman, MCRC VP (social) said that for the MCRC executive this year, safety was a primary concern.

In a survey about first-year orientation conducted by the Senate Orientation Activities Review Board (SOARB), 74 per cent of students who participated in 2005 orientation said they were treated equally by their leaders, compared to 64 per cent in 2004. Overall student respect for frosh leaders rose from 52 per cent to 63 per cent. From grease poles to coveralls, each University faculty boasts their own unique set of orientation traditions. Organizers say they value these traditions because of their role in promoting faculty pride.

Queen’s is among at least 22 schools to pull out of Maclean’s magazine’s university ranking issue.
“In recent years, there has been considerable concern in the University community about the methodology used by Maclean’s in their ranking of Canadian universities,” Principal Karen Hitchcock said in a statement released Aug. 23.
Eleven university presidents sent a letter to Tony Keller, Maclean’s special projects managing editor, announcing their intention to withdraw from the survey.
In the letter, sent on Aug. 14, the universities expressed reservations regarding the survey’s methodology.

The administration revealed a new ad campaign aimed to diffuse tensions and try to prevent a repeat of last year’s Homecoming, at a press conference Wednesday.
Newspaper ads and posters around campus with slogans such as “Keep Queen’s reputation out of the gutter” and “It’s not a car, it’s your degree that’s getting trashed,” reference the Queen’s Code of Conduct and potential long-term effects of an unsanctioned street party. The ads are intended to encourage students to think twice before joining in, Patrick Deane, vice-principal (academic) said.