The Science Students’ Council is a proud supporter of the Ronald McDonald House of Southwestern Ontario. The Ronald McDonald House provides a home for out-of-town families of seriously ill or injured children who are in London receiving medical treatment for their child.

The Ronald McDonald House is currently in need of weekend volunteers for the following shifts: Saturdays and Sundays from 9am-1pm, 1-4pm, 4-6pm, and 6-9pm

In addition, they are looking to recruit volunteers interested in hosting Saturday movie nights this summer. Movies will run from 6:30pm to approximately 8:30pm. Volunteers are required to supervise families watching the movies and to serve popcorn, etc.

Lastly, a unique opportunity for science students – The Ronald McDonald House is looking for 1-2 volunteers to host “Science Hour” for children staying at the house during the summer. The day and time is flexible with your schedule, but would need to be consistent each week.

All volunteers require a Police Check and TB test, if you have had one done in the last year – a copy of that is just fine. All volunteers are required to complete a volunteer interview and one time orientation session.

The Ronald McDonald House of Southwestern Ontario is located at 740 Baseline Road East (behind Victoria Hospital) and is accessible via the 6 Richmond LTC route

Applications can be found here

Email [email protected] for more information!

This year we had a tremendous volume of applicants, making the selection process very competitive to be a commissioner on the SSC. We thank all those who applied and encourage everyone to continue to be involved! Applications for committees will be available in September at westernssc.ca. Congratulations to the following who will be your SSC commissioners next year:

Simrat Sodhi – Sci Wiki
Anthony Wong – Photographer
Caitlin Newnham – Current Editor in Chief
Melanie Chin – Communications-at-large
Gord Locke -Awards
Desmond Swamy + Basmah El-Aloul – Charity
Sahil Sharma – Outreach
Sujen Saravanabavan – Student Services
Lauren Ouellette – Secretary
Divy Kochar + Marcus Pieterman -Science Games
Dilani Logan – Student Events-at-large
Erika Frey – Internal Affairs Officer
Filipe D’Souza – Orientation

We are now accepting applications for Commissioner positions on the 2013/14 Science Students’ Council. Please fill out the application which can be found under documents and and then applications/awards. Applications must be submitted by Saturday March 23rd at 3:30 pm to the SSC office (108 NS). If the door is closed just slip it under. The following are the different commissioner positions that exist on council.

Awards Commissioner

Communications Commissioner-At-Large

Deputy Administrator

Internet Commissioner

Outreach Commissioner

Science Games Commissioner x 2

Secretary

Student Events Commissioner-At-Large

Student Services Commissioner

The Current Editor-in-Chief

SciWiki Commissioner (NEW)

Charity Commissioner x 2

Photographer Commissioner (NEW)

Please note that the Homecoming Commissioner Position on SSC no longer exists.

If you have any questions please contact [email protected]

USC Annual General Meeting 2: Science Councillor Report

AGM 2 was this past Saturday, March 16th.

This meeting included:

1. Passing 3 outstanding motions from AGM 1.
2. Ratification of 2013/14 council.
3. Speeches from your outgoing and incoming USC Presidents.
4. Debates and Elections of your USC VP candidates (Finance, Communications, Student Events)
5. Dissolution of 2012/13 council.
6. Appointment of 2013/14 Auditors.

One of the key outstanding motions from AGM 1 that was passed at AGM 2 concerned the process of reviewing the budget. In light of AGM 1 meeting that extended until 4 AM, it was discussed that this process must be improved in the future and AGM 1 will commence at an earlier time, so students have the opportunity to attend.

Spencer Brown, a fourth year Engineering student, was elected for the position of VP Finance. Jasmine Irwin, a fourth year MIT student, won the post of VP Communications. Finally, elected to the position of VP Student Events was Adam Smith.

Love,

Your USC Councillors 

USC Annual General Meeting 1: Science Councillor report

AGM 1 was this past Wednesday March 13th.

This meeting included:
1. Passing the 2013-2014 Budget.
2. Passing a service review sub-committee
3. Not passing a USC student fee freeze (20 against, 17 for, 6 obstained)

The budget for next year includes a $2 student fee increase that was suggested in order to maintain adequate USC service levels. There was a lot of debate regarding the issue, and it mainly circled around the point of whether these fees were being used efficiently or not.

Though the budget for the upcoming fiscal year did indeed pass, it provoked a further discussion in regards to a potential fee freeze for three years starting the year after next year. This was heavily debated and narrowly defeated; instead, the result was the passing of a motion to implement a service review sub-committee, ensuring future efficiency in the utilization of student funds.

Sincerely,

Your USC Councillors

From Left to Right:

Austin MacDonald: VP Finance
Steven Robillard: VP Communications
Meghan Bhatia: President
Spencer Jones: VP Student Events
Kate Dillon: VP Academic

Congratulations to the new Executive and on behalf of the old Executive we wish you the best of luck.

Billy Silverstein and the Science Students’ Council are proud to announce the 2013 information session on ITR. There will be both faculty and students there to answer your questions. Whether you are a first year or a third year we have you covered! There will also be free food in the form of Wave Platters. So come out learn about ITR and save some money on food!

Date: March 20th 2013 

Location: The Wave 

Time: 5:30pm to 7:30pm 

FREE FOOD! 

On Friday March 22nd, the Science Students’ Council is pleased to invite you to spend a classy evening with the Faculty of Science at this year’s Wet/Dry Formal, Candy Land at The Wave. This year promises to be bigger and louder than ever before. We have thrown out the tables and brought in the party in order to celebrate Science at Western. Doors open at 9:30 PM with hors d’oeuvres and photos, mingling, and dancing to follow with music provided by our very own Spencer Bai
rd. Dress code is formal, bright colour accents are encouraged. This is an all ages event with a cash bar and ice LUGE bar for those 19+ with valid photo ID. We hope you will join us for this grand celebration.

And yes, there will be plenty of candy.

And yes, we said there will be an ice luge.

Get your ticket ($20… so cheap!!) ASAP in one of three ways:
a) At our council office (NS 108)
b) By visiting Western Connections
c) Online at scienceformal2013.com

Don’t miss out on the biggest event of the year. Students of all faculties are welcome!

With election day fast approaching (February 12th and 13th for those of you behind the curve), there are three presidential candidates all vying to represent the science student body for the upcoming 2013-2014 year. Use this platform guide to make an informed decision on Tuesday and Wednesday at www.voteusc.ca.

Name: Meghan Bhatia
Outreach: www.votemeghan.ca
Meghan is in her 3rd year of an Hon. Specialization in Physiology

Meghan’s platform utilizes a series a smaller and focused goals that seek to improve the quality of the science student experience in many different aspects. Meghan has
divided her platform into 4 subareas. The first deals with the services available to science students, which, amongother things (check out her website www.votemeghan.ca , its pretty awesome) includes instituting a borrow service for laptop and phone chargers, a centralized lost and found area amongst the science buildings, and a Postgraduate & Professional
mentorship service.

The second refers to academia amongst the science faculty. She vows to lobby for 24 hour access to the Physics and Astronomy building and reducing academic counselling wait times. The third aspect of Meghan’s platform deals with extracurricular activities and events. This includes attempting to bring in a high profile musician to perform at an SSC event (no, she will not consider Nickelback), and organizing professional photography for all SSC related events. Again, Meghan has many additional points on her platform that were not discussed here, visit her website to see more.

The final division of her platform involves strengthening the relationship between department representatives and students, and increasing awareness of Science Council IMPACT awards.

Name: Gord Locke
Slogan: unLOCK Science’s potential
Gord has served on the SSC for three years.

If there is one thing Gord Locke is, it is upfront and honest. His platform runs on 4 simple promises he plans to keep should he be elected as next year’s SSC president. Gord’s first goal is to bring world renowned astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson (who interestingly happens to be very close friends with this year’s visitee, Bill Nye) to Western for a single or series of seminars emphasizing student interaction. Gord’s second promise involves quadrupling the amount of awards offered to science students by the Science Students’ Council. The admittedly paltry 4 awards currently offered does need a serious step up, and if elected, Gord promises to give these new awards based on distinguishment in the Western community.

Gord’s third assertation is to increase the amount and relevancy of science merchandise (aptly coined, swag) available to not only science students, but to the entire Western student body (ie. our numerous fans).

His final goal is to offer free stapling and fix the consistant problem of dysfunctional staplers in Taylor Library.

Name: Desmond Swamy
Twitter: @desswam
(UN)OFFICIAL SLOGAN: #Desforpres
Desmond is in his 4th year of a Double Major in Medical Sciences and Biology

Desmond’s platform, similar to Meghans, is subdivided into 3 categories, the 3R’s:

Research – Involves increasing transparency and accessibility of volunteer opportunities for science students, who admittedly can be clueless to the plethora of positions available to them. Desmond promises to lobby for increased funding for science research as well.

Representation – bringing the lesser known science programs (such as Earth Sciences and Physics) and their benefits, requirements and characteristics to the front of science student body attention. Desmond wishes to push the Science Students’ Council department representatives to chair their own respective sub-committees so they can have more support for their relatively unknown events.

Relationships –Desmond stressed strengthening the relationship between the SSC and Science Soph Team in order to produce more successful events such as the recently passed ‘Unleash your Inner Dark-SCIde’ first year social event. He believes this strengthened relationship will benefit many facets of the academic year, most prominently Orientation Week .

The Science Students’ Council is proud to continue with its trend of bringing high-impact speakers to the Western community.

On February 5th, 2013, the SSC will be hosting a special talk by Western’s own Dr. Adrian Owen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Owen), beginning at 6 pm in UCC56!

Dr. Owen is a Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience whose focus is communicating with people in so called ‘vegetative states.’ He has been featured on TVO, BBC, CNN, and 60 Minutes.

The SSC can’t wait for you see at what is sure to be a fascinating talk from one of Western’s best researchers! An optional donation will be accepted for the SSC’s Be Positive Campaign, in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

Seating is first come first serve, so get there on time!