15-year old admitted to U of A
Marcela Louie, 15, is set to attend the University of Alberta next fall. With an IQ of 145 by age seven, she was above 99.9 per cent of other children of the same age. Louie is on track to graduate from Grade 12 this summer, after which she will go on to join U of A’s faculty of sciences.
It is only in rare cases that such a young student is admitted. “On average, maybe one student each year that arrives at the U of A is 15 years of age,” explained registrar Lisa Collins. She added that they even once admitted an 11-year old. Despite her age, Louie feels prepared and highly anticipates her transition into university. “I’m all gung-ho about it,” she said.
With files from The Gateway
Mayor sues U of W student newspaper
Mayor of Winnipeg, Sam Katz, has filed a lawsuit against the University of Winnipeg’s student newspaper, The Uniter, for defamation. A columnist in The Uniter dubbed Katz the “local political blunder” of 2013 and allegedly implied the mayor was linked to criminal activity. Katz’s lawyer, Robert Tapper, said that the allegations of criminal behaviour are clearly crossing a legal line.
The mayor is suing the author of the article, the publisher (Mouseland Press Inc), and the university. Editor, Nicholas Friesen, maintained that The Uniter “stand[s] by our writers.”
The University of Winnipeg denied any connection to the paper and stated in a press release that the university’s involvement in the suit is “erroneous” because it “exercises no control whatsoever over The Uniter’s actions, editorial content, reporters or editorial board.”
With files from Winnipeg Sun
U of T housing map a “stalker’s dream”
On Feb. 13, U of T’s Faculty of Law took down a map that showed current students’ approximate addresses after students rebelled against what they considered to be a violation of their privacy.
Krista Nerland, a law student, said in a tumblr post, “The data we gave you about our addresses wasn’t for this purpose, and making the data anonymous only goes so far in such a small community.”
In another comment, Aurora Cee, a law student, called the map a “stalker’s dream.”
Benjamin Alarie, associate professor & associate dean of the first year program, attempted to alleviate student concerns by saying that any direct pinpointing of students’ addresses was coincidental, having been generated from a list of postal codes.
With files from The Varsity
Mt. Allison strike ends after three weeks
Mt. Allison students returned to classes on Feb. 17 following a three week long strike during which faculty and librarians demanded a new collective agreement. According to faculty, pensions and benefits were central to the dispute.
The university announced a return to class the week prior, which caused confusion as the faculty association said they had not agreed to end the strike. In the end, the return to classes was announced just after midnight on Sunday, Feb. 16 following 14 hours of negotiations facilitated by a provincially-appointed mediator.
Despite concerns about a revised academic calendar, the registrar’s office insisted that they would preserve reading week.
With files from The Argosy
