Team MBT continued to “make it happen” this past weekend when they announced the council members who will staff next year’s AMS. The AMS council consists of five commissioners and three directors who operate different aspects of the AMS’s student services. James Macmillan, AMS president-elect, said hiring council members was challenging.
Eight long years without daughters or wife, years inside the impenetrable walls of Abu Salim prison in Libya, are finally over for a Queen’s graduate who was incarcerated for allegedly sympathizing with a group that promoted Libyan democratic reform. Through those seemingly endless years, Ali Sadegh Elhouni would have had no idea that one man thousands of kilometres away—a man tied to him only through their alma mater—was lobbying night and day for his release
In a long-awaited tuition framework announcement, the provincial government unveiled plans on Wednesday for Ontario university and college tuition following a two-year freeze. The government announced a 4.5 per cent cap per year on first-year tuition increases for Arts and Science students, a four per cent cap on tuition increases for upper-year Arts and Science students, an eight per cent cap per year on tuition increases for first-year professional school students, and a four per cent increase for upper year professional students per year.

Controlling arms

March 10, 2006
Chants of “Hitchcock! Hitchcock! Hitchcock!” filled The Grad Club on Monday evening, as Principal Karen Hitchcock sat down, placed her right elbow on the table and prepared to arm wrestle Golden Words editor Jon Thompson, MA ’06. “When I arrived at Queen’s, the first interview I had was with Golden Words,” Hitchcock said. “It’s now my turn to get even.”

JRHC acclaims prez

March 3, 2006
The results are in for the Jean Royce Hall Council (JRHC) elections. All candidates running have been acclaimed. Elections for 2006-07 positions were held Feb. 1 and 2. Harkness International Hall, Jean Royce Hall and the Graduate Residence are the three residence buildings that make up JRHC. The JRHC executive consists of one president, with a council of three house presidents. Because all candidates running for office were unopposed, each needed a vote of confidence to be elected.
If supporters of the Miss G_ Project get their way, Ontario high school students could see a new addition to their academic options as soon as September 2007. The project was started in February 2005 by a group of students at Huron University College, an affiliate of the University of Western Ontario. It was named after a woman called Miss G_ who in the 1860s and 1870s became a top student above and beyond both her male and female counterparts.
Student leaders favouring the current system of identification only by student number on final examination booklets made their presence known at yesterday’s University Senate meeting, where a motion was put forward to require students to write their names on examination papers. The motion to suspend the Identification of Students on Final Examinations policy was brought forward by Diane Beauchemin, a faculty senator for Arts and Science and a professor in the chemistry department.
If the design presented at the Union Street Project meeting yesterday night is any indication, the future of The Grad Club remains secure. At the meeting, project director Jeanne Ma introduced the design team from Ottawa-based architects Corush, Sunderland, and Wright.
A settlement has been reached in the decade-long Travel CUTS lawsuit between the plaintiffs including the AMS and the Canadian Federation of Student-Services (CFS-S). The settlement will see the ownership of the Canadian Universities Travel Service (Travel CUTS), a travel agency geared toward low-budget and student travel, divided between a newly-formed non-profit corporation and its current owners, the CFS-S.
The Committee for the Safe and Legal Use of Public and Private Space voted yesterday to recommend the provision of surveillance cameras and bright lighting on Aberdeen Street for the duration of Homecoming Weekend 2006. Floyd Patterson, councillor for Sydenham Ward and chair of the committee, said the cameras would be controlled by a person who would have the ability to zoom in on situations and the presence of cameras would be highly publicized.

Stevens takes SGPS

March 3, 2006
Last night, Andrew Stevens, a first year PhD student in sociology, was announced as the Society of Graduate and Professional Students (SGPS) president-elect. Stevens is the first SGPS president in three years to be elected, as the past three presidents ran uncontested. Outgoing SGPS President Dave Thomas said the increase in candidates running this year reflects recent changes within SGPS.
The facts surrounding Louis Plamondon’s resignation as campus activities commissioner are so conflicting, even the commission’s website doesn’t seem to have its story straight. Plamondon resigned from his post on Feb. 9, but the commission’s website says he is still in charge. The website also says the ice rink on Leonard Field—a lightning rod for the conflicting events surrounding Plamondon’s departure—is “open all winter.”
The recipient of the first-ever AMS Golden Cockroach Award has accused the AMS of presenting a “one-sided diatribe” to media about his landlord practices. Kingston landlord Phil Lam, who was awarded the gold cockroach-shaped trophy at a ceremony Feb. 9 but did not attend to receive it, has responded to what he called a “derogatory” prize with a lengthy letter sent to the AMS and other media sources, including the Journal and the Kingston Whig-Standard.

QUAKC hosts anti-Coke speakers

February 17, 2006
With walls covered with posters reading “Ice Cold Killer Coke Can’t Hide Its Crimes in Colombia,” about 40 students and community members gathered in a classroom in Dunning Hall last night to hear a presentation organized by Queen’s University Against Killer Coke (QUAKC). QUAKC partially funded the presentation with some of the $2,000 the group received from the University’s Cold Beverage Exclusivity Fund, as well as funding received from anti-Coke groups at McMaster University, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa.
In 2003, the Toronto-born Jon Elmer spent four months in Jenin, in the West Bank, and six months in the Gaza Strip from June to December 2005. He was there as a freelance journalist, doing print, radio and photography, which has appeared in a range of publications including the Journal for Palestine Studies, The Progressive and The New Standard. He said the experience really allowed him to see the situation “on the ground” in the occupied territories.
Kennedy and Trevisan will face the challenge this summer of moving the newspaper operation out of the Journal House at 272 Earl St., which will be demolished to make way for the Queen’s Centre. While the Journal’s final home will be in the new student centre’s Media Centre, the newspaper will move into 190 University Ave. in the 10 or more years interim.
Three and a half years after controversy initially arose over the sale of tiny, plastic “homie” figurines, the dispenser in the P&CC that sold them has been removed. The toys, which are models of people of a variety of ethnicities wearing urban clothing, were removed early last week due to a customer complaint, said P&CC head manager Andrew Lampard.
Strong opinions and lively dialogue ensued on Wednesday night in a meeting held between the city, the University and the AMS regarding the possibility of an alternative Homecoming event next year. Contrary to an article published in yesterday’s Kingston Whig-Standard, AMS Municipal Affairs Commissioner Naomi Lutes said the Committee for the Safe and Legal Use of Public and Private Space hasn’t yet decided against hosting an event that would be an alternative to the unsanctioned Aberdeen Street party next year.
Theft. Impeachment. Election irregularities. Silk flowers. Over the past four years, it’s words like these that have brought the Main Campus Residents’ Council (MCRC) up on the campus radar. For a student government whose mandate is to make the first-year experience a highlight of a student’s university career, the organization has had its share of lowlights.
Bike lanes are just one solution survey respondents see for the Union and University Street intersections. Seventy-seven per cent of the 1,535 respondents said they want to see bike lanes on University Avenue. Last September, the University worked in partnership with the City of Kingston to undertake a safety audit of University Avenue and Union Street. The purpose of the audit was to address safety concerns of the two campus thoroughfares.
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