Within a week of this new school year, fellow Muslim friends and I had already experienced a couple instances of Islamophobia.

The Queen’s Centre Project is currently 40 million dollars over budget and behind schedule.

It came as no shock to most political observers when, acting on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Governor General dissolved parliament and declared a Federal Election for October 14.

Queen’s University encourages within its students an understanding of, and commitment to, good citizenship. The purpose of the student Code of Conduct is to acknowledge the academic and social responsibilities associated with student membership at Queen’s University.

After more than a year of preparation, Queen’s has a new Code of Non-Academic Conduct. The final version drops some of the shoddier clauses of earlier drafts— students are no longer forced to inform on their fellow classmates, for example—but problems remain.

The evening before I was sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of court I e-mailed David McDonald, the head of the department of global development studies, to let him know I expected that I would be unable to finish my winter courses.

Stéphane Dion’s recently released carbon tax proposal has brought the climate change debate roaring back to Parliament Hill and has even triggered widespread public discussion.

That budget cuts in the University represent a major threat to academic quality is a truth so obvious it barely needs to be stated.

During the last 67 years we have known many of the Queen’s principals and we consider Robert C. Wallace, David Smith and now Karen Hitchcock to be among the greatest.

Queen’s is undergoing an extraordinary phase of physical transformation on campus. Consequently, we have all experienced considerable disruption to our normal campus experience—through the noise, difficulties of navigating between buildings, shortage of car parks, and short-term elimination of some facilities. It has been a difficult winter but I’m grateful for the tremendous patience everyone has exhibited.

In February during Black History Month, the “Engaging Africa” initiative brought Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, the Head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois, to speak at Queen’s.
Also the 2008-09 president of the African Studies Association (ASA)—the largest association of its kind—Zeleza delivered a lecture titled, “The Pasts and Futures of African Studies.” In this lecture, Zeleza outlined many of the dominant schools of thought, both past and present, relating to, and arising from, Africa, and addressed hopes and concerns about the continuance of this academic endeavour.

On May 15, Israel will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Palestinians around the world will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba or the “Catastrophe.” Among other things, Al-Nakba marks the forced expulsion and destitution of 750,000 Palestinians from their indigenous homeland and the destruction of 418 villages in 1948. Its aftermath effectively decimated Palestinian identity, culture and life.