For 35 years, Dr. Jim Brophy has been involved in environmental and occupational health. He was the executive director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers in Windsor and Sarnia and has been working with Athabasca University for the past four years. He currently is tutoring Sociology 348 ? Environmental Justice Issues, and responsible… Read more »
Death and taxes, as they say, are the only sure things in life. But death just got a little less certain, thanks to trials that will put seriously wounded patients in suspended animation. It could prove to be an incredible leap forward in medicine. The only question is what if you don’t want to wake… Read more »
Dear Barb: My daughter has two children and is in her twenties. She had her children when she was young and wasn’t able to finish school. Recently Sylvia began taking courses at AU as she finally realized she needs an education. She chose AU so she would be able to spend time with her children… Read more »
Book: Overqualified Author: Joey Comeau Publisher: ECW Press ?The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form.? -Stanley J. Randall There’s something so captivating about stories told through a series of missives. Just hark back to Up the Down Staircase, an utterly engaging novel manifested in a… Read more »
Do you believe people come into our lives for a reason? And that the timing is not accidental or random? I do. I also know we can be so tightly wound, so busy, so pre-occupied we don’t notice their arrival. Or the significance of their presence. Nearly thirty years ago I sought the help of… Read more »
What’s in a name?or a word? Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? To what extent does language influence our perception, and vice versa? The answer can be found in etymology, the study of the history and origin of words. ?Language is fossil poetry,? wrote Emerson, but etymology’s more than just a… Read more »
Patrick Woodcock is a Canadian poet who employs poetry to document the suffering of humanity in war-torn countries? a kind of poetic nonfiction. (See The Voice Magazine’s review of Echo Gods and Silent Mountains: Poems, his book of poems based on his time in Iraqi Kurdistan.) Recently he took the time to answer Wanda Waterman’s… Read more »
Right before tax day and news of a new security vulnerability has taken down many public government websites. The Heartbleed vulnerability, if you haven’t heard about it, allows a snooper to hack in and view unencrypted traffic on a server That’s supposed to be encrypted. With a bit of luck, the hacker could even get… Read more »
If you wrote 50 items on your grocery list but then forgot to bring the list with you, how many items would you remember? What if you had 200 items? Or thousands? Students? study notes sometimes resemble grocery lists?bulleted lists of jotted words and phrases. Students pore over pages of such notes, willing their mind… Read more »
It’s the last weekend before taxes are due?and amidst all the tax calculations and number crunching, It’s easy to forget that April is also National Poetry month. But the two don’t have to be separate. As Thoreau wrote, ?The most distinct and beautiful statement of any truth must take at last the mathematical form.? This… Read more »
Did you pay exam invigilation fees for AU courses in 2013? If you have receipts for those fees, you can include them on your 2013 Canadian income tax return. Add the amounts from your exam invigilation receipts to the amounts from your T2202A tuition receipts and include them on your return. For the federal tax… Read more »
At Home: First Nations Education Bill Tabled CBC is reporting on the First Nations Education Bill that has been tabled by the federal government. While the bill contains some steps toward addressing First Nations’ concerns, some critics of the bill still say that it leaves ultimate power for First Nations education in the hands of… Read more »
Dear Members, You may have recently seen information on the internet speculating about the future of Athabasca University. These reports suggest that the Alberta government may broker a merger between AU and University of Alberta, and that this may result in drastic changes to the services and programs offered to students AU students. We want… Read more »
