MFA free tomorrow

Students with ID will be admitted free tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

There are two excellent shows at the moment. In the new building on the south side of Sherbrooke St., there's an exhibit of the life's work of the great modern sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Across the street, there's a delightful show of paintings by a group active in the 1890s who called themselves the Nabi.

No time to lose

Dr. Lili Kopala from Dalhousie University's Psychiatry Department will give the 1998 John Hans Low-Beer Memorial lecture today, September 24, at 7:30 p.m., in the Henry F. Hall Building Auditorium, Room 110.

Called "No Time to Lose: The Importance of Early Recognition and Treatment of Mental Illness," Kopala will speak of young people suspected of having pre-psychotic symptoms, among other topics.

The lecture is co-sponsored by AMI-Québec Alliance for the Mentally Ill and Concordia's Department of Psychology.

Grants in ethnic studies

The Concordia-UQAM Chair in Ethnic Studies will offer two grants of $500 each to graduate students toward their thesis research expenses. They will also offer two grants of $250 each to enable scholars to attend conferences.
Applications should be sent to LB-669.

Personalized records

Students can now see their personal schedule, account statement and academic record on the Web. Soon they will also be able to see the status of their loans and bursaries, change their address, see their examination schedule and see their current courses with grades and grade distribution. Students should go to www.concordia.ca, and look under "Information for Current
Students" for "Personal Student Information." For security reasons, they are required to enter their student ID, PIN (same as CARL) and their date of birth.

Fine Arts students Melissa Ryan and Carrie Argast are making a name for themselves with their interactive populist projects.

Last spring, it was hundreds of little plaster ducks displayed in the Faubourg. Now it's a weave-your-own blanket of recycled fabric, which they invited passing students to help them with last week.

They call it Blank-it Security, to remind students that an education is all very well, but they can't just cling to it for a successful future. They hope the finished blanket, mounted on big panels, can be put on permanent display.

They are pictured above, with Steve Maurice (left) and Dominic Frappier (right).

Concordia team
wins triathlon

Congratulations to the team members from Concordia, who won the fundraising triathlon, the Relais des entreprises, which was held on Île-Nôtre-Dame on September 11.

Simon Malo (swimmer and cyclist) and Hisham Elamiri (runner) completed the course in a time of 52:01. Their coach, a veteran of the Relais, was Economics Professor Eckhard Siggel.

A total of $250,000 (net) was raised for the foundations of St. Mary's and Rosemount Hospitals. About 90 teams from local companies, associations and institutions entered the popular event.

David Trokeloshvili (standing, left) is an alumnus (SGW 57) who has been teaching English in Japan now for 21 years. This was the second summer that he has brought a group of students to a five-week course at Concordia's Continuing Education Language Institute. This summer, Professor Masashi Jujimoto, chair of the English Department at Tokai University, also paid a visit here (seen in the back row). Among the students, seen taking a lunch break in the Faubourg Ste. Catherine food court, are two, Shinya Itoh and Iida Mutsura, who chose to stay at Concordia for eight months of academic study.

AHSC holds open house

The newly constituted Applied Human Sciences Department will hold an open house from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on September 23 and 24 in the downtown annex, 2145 Mackay St., and on September 23 at Loyola's Hingston Hall.

A celebration of the merger of the Departments of Leisure Studies and Applied Social Sciences will be held October 16.

Promoting young artists

Encouraged by last year's success, Maggie Greyson and Sabrina Stea are creating their second annual Fine Arts Directory and Networking Guide.

Fine Connections is a free advertising concept, with a calendar, handbook and directory of Concordia Fine Arts students and alumni.

Greyson and Stea will launch the book at a multimedia event on
October 30.

They invite young artists to submit their names and skills, dates for planned events and funding proposals by putting them in a box in the lobby
of the Visual Arts Building, as soon as possible.

Congratulations to Ann Vroom, Director of the Office of Alumni Affairs, who won the 1998 Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). It was presented in June at Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, at the CCAE's annual conference.

The CCAE brings together those who work at Canadian universities in fundraising, alumni affairs and communications/public affairs, and Vroom was the first president, in 1993-94. She is seen above with two good friends from the CCAE executive, Stuart Reid, of the University of Calgary, who was treasurer when she was president, and Chuck Bridges, of St. Mary's University, who was president last year (1997-98).

Also taking prizes at the June conference were Gabrielle Korn, who won a bronze award in the Best Alumni or Volunteer Recognition category for the Alumni Recognition Awards Banquet, and Howard Bokser, editor of the Concordia University Magazine, which took a bronze award in its category.

Seen above are Taunyane Makume, the South African director of the Concordia/UNIQWA project, and Professor Florence Stevens, who handed out thesis proposals to faculty from some of the 19 students enrolled in Concordia's Special Individualized Master's Program, but who study at the University of the North, QwaQwa branch (UNIQWA), in South Africa.

Makume, whose name means 'young lion,' met some of the Concordia faculty involved in the project at a reception organized by Arts and Science Vice-Dean Dennis Murphy's office. Makume has been in Canada for about 10 days, and said in his speech last Friday that he is very proud of the UNIQWA project. "We use this program to recruit students; it boosts the image of our university." All 19 students will be graduating in the spring of 2000.

Makume also said that if it weren't for Concordia's involvement, it would not have been possible for his young university to create links with the University of Zimbabwe, as they did last year. Director of the Centre for International Academic Co-operation, Bir Sahni, said he has had requests to replicate this project elsewhere.