cnnâS aLI vELSHI RETURNS TO CAMPUS
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the journal Queenâs University â Since 1873
Open field
Donations
Queenâs unveils funding campaign Administration launches plan to raise $500 million for various projects by 2016 B y J ulia Vriend Assistant News Editor Queenâs is hoping to receive $1 million in donations per week following the launch of the Initiative Campaign on Saturday â the largest fundraising campaign in the Universityâs history. The campaign opened in 2006 and through alumni donations raised nearly $300 million of their $500 million goal before publicly launching the campaign last week. The donations will be going into a number of areas, ranging from infrastructure renewal to the hiring of more teaching staff. âStudents are at the centre of this campaign,â Vice Principal (Advancement), Tom Harris, said. âWeâre investing in students, and thatâs why we are going to profile and highlight students.â The committee aims to raise the rest of the $500 million by 2016, plus an additional $100 million in future estate gifts. â2003 was the last campaign and this one is twice as big,â Harris said. It was an eight-year campaign that ended in 2003 with a financial goal of $200 million but the campaign exceeded its expectations. The AMS has been asked to propose projects that they consider as campaign priorities while keeping up with the movement of the campaign, Harris said. According to the Campaignâs website, 56 per cent of donations will go towards faculties or schools, 6.4 per cent going towards Athletics and Recreation and 4 per cent towards campus-wide student assistance. The infrastructure plans
include Isabel Bader Center of the Performing Arts and The Centre of Infrastructure in Global Engineering â a 70,000 square ft. teaching and research facility, towards which $45 million will go. Harris said Queenâs needs these funds to secure resources and embark on projects they would not be able to do otherwise. The campaign began with an on-campus rally on Thursday in Grant Hall with about 200 students in attendance. Saturdayâs official launch included the unveiling of Stauffer libraryâs new benefactor Queenâs celebrates the grand opening of Nixon Field on Sept. 29 with a shutout win over See Weâre on page 4
Waterloo. See page 15 for full story.
STUDENT HOUSING
AMS, University undertake safety audit The review will look at potential unsafe factors around the student housing area B y R achel H erscovici Assistant News Editor The AMS has launched an audit to assess the safety of the housing area surrounding Queenâs. The last time a safety audit of the area was released was in 1997, said AMS Municipal Affairs Commissioner Troy Sherman. âIt started off after we had a conversation about past campus safety audits that have been done,â Sherman, ArtSci â14, said. The 1997 audit was also spear-headed by the Municipal Affairs Commission. The audit was conducted by a small number of students starting in 1995 who made nine recommendations. The recommendations included
Inside nEWS
Arts
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath chats with students.
An interview with Kingston natives Wilderling. Page 10
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Dialogue
Sports
Examining Omar Khadrâs return to Canada.
Gaels barely hang on to beat Ottawa.
Page 8
Photo by Tiffany Lam
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maintaining and fixing streetlights and asking the City to advertise the value of individuals lighting their porches, carriage ways and back yards and trim overgrown vegetation. This new initiative was part of Shermanâs goal plan passed in AMS assembly on Sept. 13. Overall, response has been very positive, he said. The first audits were started on Sept. 24 and 26. The full assessment will be completed in a series of stages that will cover the areas from Earl St. and north to Mack St., to Ontario St. on the east and Sir John A. Macdonald Blvd. on the west. Sherman said he hopes to have the final audit report completed by Campus Security, by the end of October. The auditors will look at dark spots on the streets, shadowy areas, street light bulbs that may need replacing, overgrown bushes, potential spots where new construction projects interferes with emergency response programs and more. A lot of the judgments made for the audit will be based on the common sense and the âgut feelingâ of one male and one female student -olunteer Sherman said. In addition, Campus Security will introduce the volunteers to the model for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
(CPTED) to ensure the audit is being done most effectively. CPTED aims to reduce the possibility of crime through urban planning and
development. Sherman noted that this project is a joint initiative. âItâs for peoplesâ safety See Audit on page 4
sTUDENT EXPERIENCE
Poll offers insight Class of 2012 mostly pleased with overall Queenâs University experience, survey shows B y R achel H erscovici H olly Tousignant Journal Staff
and
The latest Queenâs Exit Poll shows that most students are satisfied with their Queenâs experience, though some variations in responses exist among faculties. The Exit Poll surveyed members of the graduating students of the class of 2012 in fall 2011. It was presented to the Queenâs Board of Trustees on May 4. The surveyâs two âanchor statementsâ asked students whether they agreed that âOverall, my experience as a student at Queenâs was excellentâ and âOverall, my Queenâs education was an excellent contributor to my learning and development.â Students were given the option of responding with strongly
disagree, disagree, neutral, agree and strongly agree. In terms of overall experience, 80 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their Queenâs experience was excellent, though these percentages varied across faculties, ranging from 67 per cent in Education and Concurrent Education, to 92 per cent in Commerce. Stephen Elliott, dean of the Faculty of Education, told the Journal via email that he thinks the structure of the Bachelor of Education program could have something to do with the results. Concurrent Education students complete courses in education while they simultaneously work toward an honours degree in Arts and Science, Music or Computing, while prospective Consecutive See Exit on page 5