October 24, 2002 Board Relaxes Restrictions Also Resolves to Review the Code of Rights and Responsibilities

Publications Mail Agreement No.:40042804 CONCORDIA'S Vol. 27, No. 4 pr. concordia. calctr October 24, 2002 Board relaxes restrictions Also resolves to review the Code of Rights and Responsibilities BY BARBARA BLACK tinuation of the discussion from lobby were from the fire extin the regular Board meeting held guisher and pepper spray sucked n the. recommendation of Oct. 16, at which the members back into the lobby, not tear gas, Rector Frederick Lowy, were shocked by media images a-s some reports falsely claimed. 0 Concordia's Board of and security footage of the Sept. 9 After viewing the tapes on Oct. Governors has agreed to allow the incident, in which hundreds of 16, several Board members feared return of information tables for demonstrators succeeded in pre that a premature loosening of the all campus groups on the mezza venting a speech in the Hall cooling-off period could lead to nine of the Henry F. Hall Building, Building by former Israeli prime more violence. After long discus except for those related to the minister Benjamin Netanyahu. sion, the Board tabled resolutions Israeli-Palestinian issue. The The tape, shown by Vice-Rector to moderate the emergency meas lobby of the Hall Building will Michael Di Grappa in the context ures. continue to remain free of infor of a security report to the Board, However, at their special meet mation tables. clearly showed the demonstrators ing on Oct. 21, the Board resolved The vote, taken at a special breaking the windows, smashing to encourage discussion between meeting of the Board on Monday, through the barriers on the mez the administration and the stu was unanimous. Members of the zanine and emptying a fire extin dent leadership on the Israeli Board recognized the steps that guisher and hurling furniture at Palestinian issue. have been taken to lower the level police. Dr. Lowy, with the co-operation of tension on campus, and It also showed that police used of the Concordia Student Union expressed confidence that in the pepper spray only after the (CSU), has encouraged the princi near future, gradual easing of the demonstrators smashed the win pal groups involved in the Middle restrictions on Middle East debate dow and began hurling objects East debate to open a dialogue. WOMEN'S RUGBY: Sommer Christie shone for the Stingers as they won over will be possible. through the broken glass. The the Ottawa Gee-Gees 27-0 in the Quebec Student Sports Federation (QSSF) The closed session was a con- clouds that filled the Hall Building Please see Board, page 10 semifinal last Sunday. See story on page 11. Nobel Prize goes to a Concordia collaborator • in this Princeton psychology professor lauded for his influence on economic sciences BY M IRJANA V RBASKI investors, medical diagnosticians of Massachusetts General seen during anticipation or expe issue and decision-makers in many Hospital, to bridge psychology rience of other rewards, such as oncordia's Peter Shizgal, realms. The implications of this and neural science in a brain addictive drugs, pleasant tastes, CDirector of the Centre for work are being pursued here at imaging experiment. or preferred pieces of music. 2 Business ethics: Studies in Behavioural Concordia by Shizgal and his PhD Twelve volunteers were given Such findings may one day Neurobiology, rejoiced on Oct. 9, student, Bonnie Sonnenschein. $50 and then shown a sequence of enable scientists to use brain Challenges of as the Nobel Prize in Economic "My research, like some aspects spinners divided into three sec scans to measure the neural cor globalization Sciences went to a collaborator, of Kahneman's research, consists tors, each with a different mone relates of our subjective likes and Princeton's Daniel Kahneman. of trying to understand the psy- tary value. A spinning arrow dislikes. They may also help A study by Shizgal and delivered either a loss or a gain to understand impulse-control dis 5 opinion: Kahneman of the brain in the act each participant. orders, such as drug abuse and Researchers measure Opposing views of gambling bears the imprint of brain activity during The subjects' brain activity was compulsive gambling. Kahneman's groundbreaking con measured through a neuro-imag The design of the brain-imag on free trade tributions to the integration of decision~making ing process both during anticipa ing experiment reflects a long psychological research into eco tion and when they realized, or standing program of research on nomics, for which Kahneman has chological mechanisms and neu processed, the outcome of the evaluation and decision-making Mentors: Support been rewarded with the world's ral machinery involved in evalua spin. by Kahneman and his colleague, 8 most prestigious prize. tion and decision-making This novel application of the Amos Tversky, who died in 1996. for mature students Kahneman, a psychology and processes;' Shizgal said in an psychology of judgment and deci They described shortcuts people public affairs professor at interview. sion to mapping brain function take and the biases they have in Princeton University, N.J., is espe To better grasp the way various supports the view that common making decisions - results that 9 Building: cially prized for his work on parts of the human brain respond brain circuitry processes different challenged the basic model of Designed for human judgment and decision to the anticipation of winning types of rewards. In other words, a how individuals behave economi making under uncertainty. This money, Shizgal and Kahneman socially conditioned reward, such cally. business research is vital to understanding teamed up with Hans Breiter, as money, produced patterns of the mental processes of gamblers, Itzhak Aharon and Anders Dale, brain activity that overlaps those Please see Nobel Prize, page 8 Online seminar is centrepiece of doCtoral program Students learn to express their scholarly ideas in both English and French through the bilingual site BY C AR OL MCQUEEN course which is interactive So far, Bilodeau is pleased with Web site at least twice a week, and ent universities. "Someone at between the three universities;' the results. He is working on secre engages actively in several of the UQAM is working on raves;• said eligion PhD student John said Religion Professor Lynda cy in religious conflict, looking par discussion groups. Professor Clarke, "and he posted a Bilodeau will only see Clarke, who is one of the anima ticularly at heretics and inquisitors Leslie Orr, chair of the Religion comment about trance and ome of his classmates in tors of the 890 seminar. in medieval Languedoc (France). Department, believes that the 890 dance. I thought he might like to the compulsory 890 seminar, The "To make the collaboration His interactions with francophones course, with its Web-based inter look at some Sufi material, so I Study of Religion: Theory and more like collaboration, and also from the other universities have action, is the centrepiece of the answered in that theme. If he Practice, four or five times during to solve the problem of geograph been particularly helpful to his joint PhD program, which initial~ wants to have any more discus the year when they can all come ic distance, we rely on a Web CT research. ly consisted of Concordia and sion, he can:• together in one location. site;' she added. "It's useful to me to have native UQAM, but incorporated Laval at Overcoming language barriers However, he will interact with French speakers who are familiar the start of 2002. is another positive result of the them online several times a week, Effective and user-friendly with some of the texts help me "The joint program really opens 890 seminar. Students assimilate through a Web CT _system that "It's a virtual classroom;• out;' he said. It has also been ben up for each university a range of the appropriate religious termi enables users to post messages, explained Roger Kenner, coordina eficial to be forced to post his own different kinds of scholarship;' nology in their non-mother enter discussion groups and chat tor of research and development work and ideas on the Web site. she said, "and it enlarges the pool tongue, and learn to express their with each other. Bilodeau is one of for IITS, who designed the site to "Sometimes it's good to be and the diversity:• Orr added that scholarly ideas in both English six Concordia students in a joint make it as effective and as user forced to answer a lot of ques · the 890 seminar "gives our stu and French, which is an essential seminar, and one of 32 PhD stu friendly as possible. Each of the tions and be clear about what you dents the opportunity to see all skill within the Canadian aca dents in religion at Concordia. All universities posts their syllabus are studying. If it's all just in your kinds of different approaches and demic community. 32 are taking part in a joint PhD and reading materials in their pre head - if you're working on it all perspectives, both from their fel Orr said, "By the time students program that combines the schol ferred language, and then students by yourself - you don't really get low students as well as from their come together in person in the arship and expertise of Concordia from all three campUlles are free to a sense of what exactly people will professors in the different depart second term, we're hopeful that University, UQAM and Universite converse on the course topics, be interested in, what's going to ments:• they will have already acquired Laval in Quebec City. their own research or on a number confuse them, what you have to The Web site facilitates this certain vocabulary through their "Part of this joint venture is of thematic threads outlined in the clarify." communication between stu contact and interchanges on the that all PhD students take a joint discussion fields.

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