I don’t know how long my piece will be up on the website, so I’ve posted it below for you to listen to. The anchor butchered the saying of my name anyway, so I’d rather not give that any more play. Enjoy!

I interviewed a number of people for this article and unfortunately I couldn’t include all of their voices. One of those voices that didn’t get included was that of photojournalist Walter Astrada who is documenting gendercide on every single continent. The film he made while in India is riveting and worth a watch.

So… here are some of those films… finally!

2. Prof Crib: Gerda Cammaer (article and photo gallery)

3. Voices: Life’s a stage in an acting family 

4. Toronto students participate in National Day of Action (originally published as part of a live blog for the Ryersonian, was picked up by Canadian University Press wire)

5. Airplanes and beer, wisdom from Terry O’Reilly 

6. Profile for McClung’s: Lisa Paulson, Ms. Mountain Rescuer  (page 10-11)

7. Reduced TTC service takes effect this week 

***

Ryerson’s School of Architecture has come up with a new way to learn about Toronto buildings and all you need is your smartphone.

You might have to take an honesty/ethics/morality/judgment test at your next job interview. How would you answer?

My beginning will be in Saint John, New Brunswick where I’ll be working as a reporter for the summer at the Telegraph-Journal. And then, we’ll see where the wind carries me. For now, I’m searching for a place to live in N.B. so if you know of anyone… hook a journo up!

Some J-School Firsts (Memories): 

-one of our first assignments in first-year reporting was to write our lab partner’s obituary

-my first experience doing ‘streeters’ (aka. getting the peoples’ voice) was with a swollen face and a foggy brain: I’d just had my wisdom teeth removed

-the rush of pride when one of my photographs (that I took with my dinky little point-and-shoot) was printed on the front-page of the Ryersonian

-one of my first paid writing gigs: a 1,000-word feature about urban games pared down to 500 words for Spacing Magazine. Grand total? $50.

-going on exchange to India… and covering a fire in Mumbai, this probably takes the cake.

I’ll leave you with a couple humorous photos that I took this semester for the Ryersonian… 

Depending on what type of food gets put into the creature's mouth (hot sauce, chocolate, yogurt, etc.), different poo designs are reflected on the wall behind it. (Otiena Ellwand)

This is a side-view of "Skitts and his Rainbow." The project was designed by Lilian Chow, a third-year image arts student at Ryerson. (Otiena Ellwand)

I’m pleased to announce that one of the articles I wrote this fall about the frequent all-nighters that Ryerson architecture students pull on a regular basis was the most read article on the Ryersonian’s website with 1600 reads and 30 comments.

When I applied to Ryerson’s Journalism School in 2007, my entrance essay was about journalism and architecture. It seems like a perfect way to wrap-up my fourth-year reporting class by writing about the subject that got me in. Please click here to read the story and check out the soundslide that I made to go along with it. There are some priceless “golden coins” (quotes) that you don’t want to miss.

Moldy coffee cup left sitting on a model in the studio. For more pics check out the soundslide! (Otiena Ellwand)

Liquid energy. Liquid awake. Liquid sleep. Vice. There's so much more where this came from. (Otiena Ellwand)

2. Downtown Toronto march tackles issues in sexual violence - Sept. 27, 2011, Ryersonian.ca

3. Time capsule found at Maple Leaf Gardens – Oct. 14, 2011, Ryersonian.ca

4. Pre-Med program to come to Ryerson? - Oct. 17, 2011, Ryersonian.ca

5. Are bison on their way back to Banff National Park? – Oct. 27, 2011, Thestar.com

6. Ryerson architecture students win bronze medal for Olympic architecture – Oct. 31, 2011, Ryersonian.ca

Elections Ontario pamphlet, 2011(Click for a close-up)

It’s not everyday that you receive a government pamphlet in the mail that has hearts, smiley faces and balloons decorating the page. But this year you probably did. Elections Ontario has been doing things a little bit differently and is hoping their correspondence will catch your attention before it ends up in the recycling bin. Embedded in the pamphlet’s lighthearted icons are important messages: ‘X’, vote, ballot, October 6.

“Generally speaking, the administration agencies centre their campaigns on the action required by the viewer or reader: ‘Speak up! Exercise your right! Go vote!’ Air space is cluttered, so we wanted to be distinct. ‘Here’s how voting is going to be easy for you,’” said Elizabeth Armstrong, the communications manager for Elections Ontario.

The illustration on the pamphlet mailed to every household in Ontario is a whimsical combination of cityscape and country; mixing highrises, bales of hay, tents, waterfalls, tractors, a moose and giant doughnut. It’s got a bit of a Where’s Waldo feel to it. “It’s supposed to be an amalgamation of the entire province: if Ontario were a village,” said Armstrong. There are a few blurbs of text explaining how to vote (by mail, advance polls), where you can vote (on campus, at hospitals), and that there are jobs available. The sans serif font is bubbly and clearly legible. It’s a stark contrast from previous election material. For example the pamphlet from 2007 had a giant yelling mouth replacing the ‘O’ in ‘Vote’ and a full-page spread of text. Even the Elections Ontario logo was small and difficult to read.

This year the colour palette revolves around a saturated yellow, nicknamed “democratic mango.” The training manual for election officials is a highlighter purple (no catchy nickname).

None of the people in this pamphlet are models. Design by Leo Burnett.

“Choosing a colour is major because we’re representing a non-partisan government agency. We had to be really careful not to go with a colour that was too red, too blue or too orange because that would look like we were favouring a certain party,” said David Buckspan, the group account manager at Leo Burnett, the advertising agency that created this year’s promotional material.

“One thing I like about it is that it looks citizen friendly. You don’t need a university degree to understand it. It’s casual, friendly and approachable,” said Tom Vassos, a business instructor at the University of Toronto. Despite the catchy design he doubts that it will increase the number of voters at the polls. “A re-brand will not have as much of an effect as technology and visibility on social media platforms where you can increase your reach and sometimes get a viral effect. The Town of Markham allowed online voting and it increased voter turnout by 20 to 30 per cent.”

But Armstrong says that the mail-outs are crucial in getting the message across, especially in rural  areas with zero access to the Internet. “We’ve been receiving a lot of feedback,” said Armstrong, “but my favourite call was from a person who said, ‘This is the first piece of government information I’ve actually read. I have it up on my wall.’” Now that might be a first.

Elections Ontario vote card, 2011.

Currently, students studying biology, chemistry, computer science, physics and mathematics are contained within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science (FEAS).

“It’s not a divorce, just a big faculty giving birth to a smaller one,” said the dean of FEAS, Mohamed Lachemi. “It’s about time Ryerson had its own faculty of science. It will give these programs the chance to flourish even more.”

The provost’s committee has written a report assessing the feasibility of Ryerson having a faculty of science. It was found that of the 25 largest universities in Canada, only four combined the departments of science and engineering together.
The report also suggested that under the new faculty, three offices should be formed, requiring at least nine new administrative positions to be filled.

But how will these changes benefit students and what will it cost?
Those details aren’t yet entirely clear. When asked if class sizes would be smaller, the dean said that programs will remain exactly the same, but it will allow “a stronger focus to be put on science.”

“There aren’t enough lockers so we have to share and we (science students) don’t have our own student space. I hope that the new faculty will make things better and more organized,” said Andrew Ruckstuhl, a fourth-year biology student.
The engineering and architectural science students will remain grouped as one faculty. The preliminary report showed that the department of architectural science would like to become its own faculty, possibly in partnership with urban planning and interior design. While the university supports the idea, it stated that it’s not a priority at this time.

If architecture were to become its own faculty in the future, “it does offer us autonomy within cultural issues,” said Colin Ripley, the architectural science graduate program director. “Architecture as a design discipline is a different culture than the engineering discipline. We do different work, research and disseminate in different ways. Engineers don’t understand our culture and there’s no reason they should, but it does mean that things aren’t as easy to do as they might be,” he said.

 Click on the image to see it large!