Gustave’s visit to Dawson
November 3rd, 2021
Gustave (pictured) attended Dawson for a year and a half with Susan Finch (Faculty, Psychology) in his quest to be a service dog. Some of Melanie Doyle's 401 students met Gustave before the pandemic and invited him to come back on Oct. 16 as part of their service project for the course in positive psychology.
"My group was overwhelmed by the participation and shut it down two hours early after almost 100 students had visited," Melanie said. The line-up of students waiting for some one-on-one dog therapy with Gustave was down the hallway, she reported.
SURVEYS! SURVEYS! SURVEYS!
November 3rd, 2021
Thank you to everyone who participated in this semester’s College-wide surveys!
We had a record number of employees fill out the survey regarding Dawson’s Policy on Sexual Violence and a healthy response rate for the Sustainability Office’s Transportation Survey.
Feedback from the community is crucial! For the former, survey data and responses will help develop recommendations to improve the policy. For the latter, seeing how students and employees commute to the College helps us see our common carbon footprint and take steps to decrease it.
Message from the Quality Assurance and Planning Office
Reactivating student life at Dawson
October 13th, 2021
Dawson students are very enthusiastic about participating in campus life after having gone without for the past three semesters, according to the Campus Life and Leadership team (CLL) and the Dawson Student Union (DSU).
Click Read More for the homepage news story.
Photo credit: Michelle Lee (CLL)
Trees will be planted based on your survey results
October 13th, 2021
How do you get to the campus and a few other questions are part of a short transportation survey in Omnivox. All employees and students are asked to complete it before it closes on Sunday, Oct. 17.
Your anonymous survey results will enable the College to figure the approximate distance traveled and the corresponding emissions.
In 2018, the College pledged to be carbon neutral forever. To honour this pledge, each year the College offsets our collective CO2(e) emissions by planting thousands of trees to absorb the tonnage of CO2(e) yearly.
Deadline extended to Oct. 14 at 12 p.m. to complete survey about Policy on Sexual Violence
October 13th, 2021
A record number of students have participated in the survey about Dawson's Policy on Sexual Violence: over 6,000! It is clearly a topic that is important to them.
The deadline has now been extended for employees to Thursday, Oct. 14 at 12 p.m. The hope is that more employees will complete the survey so the Policy Review Subcommittee can have good data to make recommendations to improve the Policy. To date, 509 employees have participated from the following categories:
Faculty: 310
Support Staff: 117
Professionals: 59
Managers: 23
The survey is live in Omnivox and can be found under what's new or click on Surveys and Votes under the My Omnivox Services menu.
Click Read More to go to the Omnivox sign-in page.
Learning at the Living Campus
October 13th, 2021
Last Thursday, first-year Environmental Science students in Brian Mader's General Biology I class were given the task of comparing the biodiversity of bacteria on two different surfaces. Students decided to head to the rooftop to compare the potential bacteria found in our two rooftop ponds. They compared soil samples with others on campus as well as sampled the surface of leaves. Results will be analyzed in a few weeks.
This is an example of learning outside the classroom on our Living Campus. If you would like to share your own experiences or those of your students, please write to cparsons@dawsoncollege.qc.ca
Photo credit: Brian Mader (Coordinator, Environmental Science)
Please don’t feed Dawson’s wildlife
October 13th, 2021
During the tele-teaching and tele-working period, little human activity at the College meant wildlife reclaimed our landscape.
Foxes, groundhogs, raccoons and a host of birds have been visiting. Now that we have returned, it is great to see staff and students enjoying Nature. Several well-intentioned people, both staff and Dawson neighbours, have been asked to stop feeding the birds because of unintentional consequences we would like to share with you:
- Feeding bread, muffins or other baked goods fills birds’ stomachs, but has little nutritional value and can lead to health problems for the bird. Young birds especially are affected.
- Gulls and squirrels eat most foods given by humans and then boldly take food from people sitting at tables outside when they can’t find any elsewhere. Squirrels enter backpacks for food and gulls swoop down and take open food from the tables.
- Feeding animals diminishes their foraging skills and can lead to larger litters of babies
- Wild animals can lose their natural fear of humans and become a nuisance or dangerous to humans
- Rats and mice come to eat leftover food at night. We do not want to attract these animals to the landscape. The squirrel population on campus is also high and they do significant damage to the gardens and they even chew on rubber or plastic on cars in the parking areas! We do not want to attract more!
- Peanut shells that are left throughout the landscape are a serious hazard to the members of the Dawson Community who live with severe allergies and would like to benefit from our outdoor spaces.
- Feeding wild animals is illegal in Westmount and offenders can receive a first fine of $50 and subsequent fines of $100
September 29th, 2021
As the 21st century unfolds, Dawson students and teachers have a new opportunity to continue channelling their knowledge and abilities into positive action that counters the daunting environmental, economic and social challenges of today. Dawson has been addressing sustainability challenges for years, a fact foregrounded in the 2016-2021 Strategic Plan. Notably, we recognize the significant…
September 29th, 2021
Pat Romano (Faculty, Humanities) and Kim Simard (Faculty, Cinema | Communications) are beginning to implement the next phase of their Resist Violence project, which has been shared with administrators and educators across Canada and with faculty and professionals at Dawson’s Ped Days. The Creative Collective for Change is the name of a two-year project that…
Repotting your plants and plant help
September 29th, 2021
The Sustainability Office has ordered a big delivery of four-by-five inch pots in a variety of colours so employees can repot the baby plants distributed by College managers in August as a welcome back gesture for all employees. It would be good to repot the plants so they have more space to grow. When the pots arrive, Sustainabili-team volunteers can repot your plant for you or show you how to do it yourself in the Sustainability Office in 4B.
Those of you who have plants that are struggling (brown leaves, etc), please don't throw them out before checking if our resident plant doctors can help revive them.
Contact sustainability@dawsoncollege.qc.ca for plant help or for repotting.
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Last Modified: November 3, 2021
