It was another outstanding year at the Alumni and Friends Golf Tournament, held Monday, August 13, at Essex Golf and Country Club. The event had a full field of golfers and many more joined for dinner and prizes.

Over the last three years, the funds generated by this event have joined gifts from individuals and the government’s Ontario Trust Fund to create the Alumni Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship now has an endowment that has grown to a total of more than $120,000, and this year will support two deserving students, said Susan Lester, director of Alumni Affairs.

“Our thanks goes out to all the companies and individuals who supported the tournament and special thanks to our lead sponsor, Windsor Family Credit Union,” she said.

The University Bookstore is open for business at its Odette Building location and will remain so through September, says marketing manager Martin Deck.

“I’ve been hearing questions from students and faculty and want to make sure everyone knows it’s business as usual for us,” says Deck.

Renovations to the space it occupies will not begin until well into fall semester. Until then, the store will continue to offer customers its full line of wares, from textbooks and courseware materials to computer electronics and accessories, school supplies, Lancer and UWindsor themed clothing and gifts, and general reading books and magazines.

“Just like always, we will be here for sales, returns and exchanges,” Deck says. “Our customers can still count on us.”

The University announced in June that the Bookstore’s current home will be turned over to the Odette School of Business for classrooms, meeting rooms, study and gathering spaces. The $3-million construction project will not begin before mid-October.

A summer camp program serving youth in east Scarborough—blocks from the site of a July 16 shooting that killed two and injured many times that—has the potential to save lives, says an associate professor of social work at the University of Windsor.

The DAREarts summer camp works with youths aged 9 to 19 years from schools in high-priority neighbourhoods, empowering them to make better life choices.

These sorts of programs have proven effective, says Robin Wright, who conducted the National Arts and Youth Demonstration Project (NAYDP) to assess the value of arts and culture in enriching the lives of at-risk youth. The study implemented after-school art programs with youth 9 to 15 years of age in low-income, multiculural and Aboriginal sites located Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg as well as the rural Ontario town of Tillsonburg.

The results from her study, compared with controls from the National Longitudinal Study on Children and Youth, indicated that “as a result of participating in a bi-weekly 90-minute arts program for nine consecutive months, these youth experienced an increase in confidence, interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills and the ability to connect to adults and positive role models, and a significant decrease in emotional problems,” Dr. Wright says.

The demonstration project differed in several important ways from most arts programs, says Wright, including the fact that the programming and transportation were offered free of charge, and that organizers worked hard to ensure instructors were caring individuals as well as skilled artists and educators.

“We could teach them research skills and organizational skills, but we couldn’t teach them dedication to children,” she says. “In order to keep these kids out of more difficult circumstances, we had to build a focus not only on their skill development, but on pro-social relationships with adults and younger children.”
She has just concluded a follow-up survey of the participants five years after the project’s end. She says the results point to an increase in pro-social behaviours like problem-solving and conflict resolution and decreased emotional problems like depression and anxiety.

“What we have been able to demonstrate is that this can act as a prevention model,” Wright says. “Now that we have evidence that these programs work, what are we going to do about it?”
She hopes to see support for larger-scale programs across the country.
“This approach cannot solve all the problems of the world; we need a multi-pronged approach,” she says. “This type of program, targeted at the greatest need, can help at-risk children build their aspirations for the future.”
And that, Wright says, offers benefits for everyone: “We’re meeting our obligations as a society when we address the needs of those who do not have access to these resources.”

The original demonstration project was funded by the Samuel & Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation; the Department of Justice’s National Crime Prevention Strategy; the Department of Canadian Heritage; the Ontario Ministry of Culture; the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and supported by the Canadian Initiative on Social Statistics—a joint initiative of Statistics Canada, SSHRC and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Wright invites anyone interested in further information to contact her at rwright@uwindsor.ca.

Season tickets for Lancer football are now on available for purchase. Tickets for all four regular season home games are $50 for seats in the gold sections and $40 for the blue sections.

Head coach Joe D’Amore’s squad will open the 2012 campaign on Monday, September 3, when its hosts the Ottawa Gee-Gees for the Labour Day Classic. Kick-off is at 1 p.m.

Here is the remainder of the team’s schedule:

• September 8, Guelph Gryphons at 7 p.m.
• September 15, Varsity Blues at Toronto
• September 22, Mustangs at Western
• September 29, York Lions at 7 p.m.
• October 6, Queen’s Gaels at 7 p.m.
• October 13, Marauders at McMaster
• October 20, Warriors at Waterloo

Find more information, including ticket details, at goLancers.ca.

Walking the streets of downtown Hamilton proved educational for a student in the UWindsor master’s of social work for working professionals program.

Jeff Baxter was assigned to study a city neighbourhood and said he was interested in testing his preconceptions of Hamilton.

“As a resident of Guelph—the city with the lowest rating on the crime severity index scale in the country—I always had the perception that Hamilton was a violent city, and so tried to explore this issue further,” he said.

What he found surprised him.

“Sure there are social problems: poverty, crime, addiction,” Baxter wrote in a piece published in the August 13 Hamilton Spectator. “But there were also many unexpected positives. The downtown is filled with character and history.”

He said that the Addressing Crime Trends In Our Neighbourhood (ACTION) policing program represents a step in the right direction. He saw patrol officers demonstrating its benefits.

“They were approachable, they were kind, they seemed quite open and transparent, and when I viewed them interacting with the residents of the downtown core it seemed pleasant and nonconfrontational,” Baxter said. “The next step is to provide the community they are policing a voice, and finally, to listen to it.”

He published his article in an attempt to draw comment from the area’s citizens.

“When my assignment was (completed), I was left wondering how the actual residents of the downtown core who interact with these officers feel about the new strategy,” he said.

Read the entire article, “ACTION program officers show a different kind of policing downtown.”

The Campus Community Police Service is seeking information in a theft that occurred August 12 in the Leddy Library. A white Macintosh laptop went missing about 2 p.m. and shortly thereafter a suspect was seen leaving the building carrying a similar computer.

More details of the incident, including a description and photographs of the male suspect, are available from the crime advisory posted on the Campus Community Police Web site. Anyone with information regarding his identity may contact Campus Community Police at 519-253-3000, ext. 1234.

A luncheon to celebrate the retirement of kinesiology professor Margery Holman will also help to endow a student award in her honour.

Dr. Holman was a member of the University of Windsor’s first class to graduate from the physical and health education program, and went on to teach in that program over a 42-year academic career that will close with her retirement at the end of August.

Colleagues in the Faculty of Human Kinetics have decided to create a fund to support an annual scholarship for a kinesiology student—the Margery Holman Legacy Award for Gender in Sport. Organizer Victoria Paraschak says it is an appropriate tribute.

“It will honour Marge’s outstanding efforts in creating a sport world that is positive and accessible to all,” she says. “Her work has extended beyond our walls to benefit sport across campus and externally from the local to the international level.”

She points to Holman’s record: serving 18 years as the first director of women’s sport at the University of Windsor; active in volleyball at the campus, local and national levels; and engaging in wide-ranging efforts to increase equity and to decrease harassment and abuse in sport.

Among Holman’s previous honours are selection as Windsor Woman of the Year, a builders award from the Windsor-Essex County Sports Persons of the Year, the University of Windsor President’s Employment Equity Award, and the Mary Lou Dietz Equity Leadership Award.

Friends and admirers will have an opportunity to contribute to the scholarship fund during a retirement party on Sunday, September 9, at the Penalty Box Too restaurant, located at 2151 Walker Road. The luncheon will run as an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. and tickets are $25, available from the human kinetics office at 519-253-3000, ext. 2429 or e-mail ddupuis@uwindsor.ca.

For more information or to make a donation, visit the “Tribute to Dr. Margery Holman” page on the kinesiology Web site.

The Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR) will offer fellowships to two UWindsor graduate students to assist professors Douglas Walton and Hans V. Hansen with a research project analyzing the argumentation in the recent Alberta provincial election.

The work involves reading, extracting and classifying arguments found in newspaper reports made during the election period, and filing the information on a Web site as well as discussion of the findings.

Successful applicants must be available for training sessions during the first week of September 2012. To apply for a CRRAR Student Fellowship for the Fall 2012 semester, students should send a copy of their CV, an account of how their background makes them suitable for this research project, and an explanation of how their research interests are connected with those of the Centre to its director, Christopher Tindale, at ctindale@uwindsor.ca.

Students and recent graduates who need help in starting or growing businesses may benefit from a program of the Centre for Enterprise and Law.

The centre’s internship and mentorship program offers expert advice and up to $5,000 in funding for local entrepreneurs ready to turn their ideas into reality.

Find details, including eligibility criteria and application requirements, on the centre’s Web site.

Almost 200 celebrants of Cecil Houston’s 10 years as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences raised more than $5,000 in his honour for the African Diaspora Youth Scholarship fund.

Guest speakers at a gala held May 9 included current students, faculty, staff and members of the broader community, recalling the accomplishments of Dr. Houston’s tenure.

“It was a wonderful evening,” said organizer Janee Stallard-Cogliati. “We would like to thank everyone who attended and those who contributed in so many ways to its success.”