St. Jerome’s University’s new vice-president and academic dean is lined up to take over July 1, but he isn’t really new to the Catholic liberal arts college at the University of Waterloo. James S. Frank attended St. Jerome’s High School as a teenager, was a member of the St. Jerome’s University Catholic Community for 36 years, was married to his wife Jackie by one of his priest-professors while studying at St. Jerome’s and helped initiate the children’s Sunday school program when his own kids were attending church at the university in the 1980s.
U.S. and Canadian students rally behind Carleton pro-life group
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA (CCN)—National pro-life student associations in the United States and Canada have thrown their support behind Carleton Lifeline, a pro-life group facing discrimination on the Carleton University campus in Ottawa.
Carleton University’s pro-life club was told earlier this week that it must become pro-choice if it wants to receive student union funding and recognition on campus (read full story).
Students for Life of America (SFLA) and National Campus Life Network (NCLN) launched StandWithCarleton.com as a sign of solidarity with the Lifeline, which has been decertified by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA). That means the pro-life club has lost access to funds from compulsory student dues as well as the recognition that allows them to use public spaces on campus for meetings and publicity.
Carleton pro-life group told to become pro-choice to receive funding
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA - Carleton University’s pro-life club must become pro-choice if it wants to receive student union funding and recognition on campus.The Carleton Student Union Association (CUSA) revoked the club status of Carleton LifeLine and said it must change a clause in its constitution which violates CUSA's anti-discrimination policy supporting “a woman’s right to choose” in order to be recertified.
LONDON, Ont. - For those who are worried about just how Catholic Ontario’s Catholic teachers really are, fourth-year King’s University College students Kasia Surowaniec and Nicole Denomy ought to ease any anxieties.Surwaniec and Denomy are already in their third year of preparations to become Catholic teachers — and they haven’t even been to teachers’ college yet. Since their second year at university the students have been enrolled in Kings’ new Catholic Studies for Teachers program and should be among the first four graduates to complete the program this spring.
Brescia re-brand shows femininity, strength go hand-in-hand
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic Register
Her mind is as sharp as her heels. Lead the pack or follow the boys. Some ceilings were meant to be broken. These are some of the slogans of Brescia University College’s bold new advertising campaign that started in September to increase declining enrolment, said registrar Marianne Simm.“This year, we have the highest enrolment ever and we think part of that is due to work we started last year with our re-branding,” said Simm.
After seeing a trend of declining enrolment, particularly from Ontario high school students, the London, Ont.-based women’s college kicked off a re-branding process in January 2009. This included a consultation of faculty, students, alumni, guidance counsellors and parents on the benefits of attending Brescia. Through this, four attributes describing the campus were identified, which the campaign now focuses on: student-centred, empowering, invigorating and compassionate.
Controversial pro-life presentation goes ahead at Carleton University
By Deborah Gyapong, Canadian Catholic News
OTTAWA - Undaunted by the Oct. 4 arrest of five students for attempting to set up a graphic photo display comparing abortion to genocide, the Carleton University pro-life club sponsored a similar presentation Oct. 18.Carleton Lifeline, the pro-life club, brought in Jose Ruba of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform to lay out the arguments for the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which features graphic pictures from various genocides alongside those of fetuses dismembered by abortion.
Ottawa - Five students who attempted to put up a graphic anti-abortion display on the campus of Carleton University Oct. 4 were handcuffed and arrested by Ottawa police.The students were detained for a short time and issued tickets for “failing to leave the premises when directed” and for “engaging in activity prohibited on the premises,” said Craig Stewart, 24, a fourth-year Carleton student who was among those arrested.
The tickets carry fines totalling $130. “We’re going to contest them,” said Stewart.
Sen. Kinsella's contributions to Catholic education recognized
By Vanessa Santilli-Raimondo, The Catholic Register
On Oct. 1, St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont., will be honouring Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate, for his leadership in Catholic education at its 10th annual Feast of St. Jerome. “I’m quite honoured and thrilled,” said Kinsella. “I don’t know why they chose me. There’s so many more deserving people.”
But Nadine Collins, university advancement officer at St. Jerome’s, which is federated with the University of Waterloo, found plenty of reasons for Kinsella to be honoured.
Michael Duggan has been appointed the first CWL Chair for Catholic Studies at St. Mary’s University College in Calgary. This is the first endowed chair of its kind in Western Canada and is funded by the Catholic Women’s League. The permanent, senior academic position was established to encourage the advancement of Catholic education through exemplary teaching and research.
St. Mary’s is a Catholic, student-focused liberal arts and science teaching institute.
As hints of back-to-school begin to drift into academic consciousness, professors and administrators at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont., are still in labour negotiations.The SJU Academic Staff Association was certified as a union by the Ontario Labour Relations Board April 24. The professors said they needed the legal protection of a labour contract in light of changes in how the Catholic college at the University of Waterloo is governed.
“Negotiations are underway, but proceeding slowly,” staff association president David Seljak told The Catholic Register in an e-mail.
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The latest enrolment numbers indicate good times for university level Catholic education, but that doesn’t mean Catholic colleges don’t face long-established challenges, said David Sylvester.There are no separate statistics for the Catholic institutions, but the liberal arts and humanities numbers are a good indication of where Catholic colleges stand, said Sylvester, president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Canada.
University enrolment grew 3.7 per cent last year to 1.1-million university students across the country.
Bruno, Sask. - Nestled in the prairie community of Bruno, the St. Therese School of Faith and Mission, which offers a nine-month Catholic formation program for adults, is proving to be one of the first fruits of the new evangelization as it brings its students into a deep relationship with God.Sylvie Quiring, a recent alumnus of St. Therese, said the school’s unique programming, with a strong emphasis on both personal sanctity and the duties of the apostolate as an outflow of this, has been an experience of total love and acceptance.
University of Victoria pro-life group wins partial victory in battle with student union
By Luc Rinaldi, The Catholic Register
Youth Protecting Youth, the student pro-life organization at the University of Victoria, has regained its status as an official school club after being denied funding and recognition for the past two years.The club filed a petition to the British Columbia Supreme Court against the University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS), which had withheld the club’s grants, on May 3. In the petition, it requested its club status and funding be reinstated and that the Students’ Society declare the previous actions of denying it the same rights as other clubs illegal. The UVSS had been retaining grants to Youth Protecting Youth that all university clubs are entitled to on the grounds that the club violated the school’s regulations against harassment.
TORONTO - Sr. Helen Prejean, the American nun renowned for her opposition to the death penalty and for accompanying those about to die in their final steps, captivated a Toronto audience April 20 with the story of her continuing journey. Prejean’s first experience spiritually accompanying a convicted killer, Patrick Sonnier, was chronicled in a book and made into the 1995 feature film Dead Man Walking.