20 Tips for first-year students: #10- Stay fit on campus at Mount Allison University

Tenth on our list of 20 video tips for incoming Mount Allison University students is how to stay fit and healthy on campus. Fourth-year environmental studies student Avery Wheeler discusses Mount Allison’s athletic facilities and why you should use them to avoid the dreaded and “very real” freshman 15.

There is a focus on staying healthy at Mount Allison and the school offers among the best fitness and recreation facilities I’ve seen. From the Athletic Centre (indoor swimming pool, weight room, and gymnasium, the aforementioned intramural and club sports, and the fitness centre (which I use regularly) there is ample opportunity to burn off all the food from meal hall you will inevitably overindulge in.

There are also various dance societies (whose instructors will teach beginners) as well as aerobics, yoga, meditation, and martial arts groups. The newly refurbished pool is a great place to de-stress and burn off steam around exam-time.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University

Mount Allison University Video Playlist for New Students

If you read this blog regularly you no doubt are familiar with Mount Allison's newest video series: 20 Tips for first-year students. Below is a convenient player that has all of the videos to date. There are 9 posted so far and 11 to come with 1 posted every weekday morning until the first full day of orientation on September 2nd. If you have a reaction, positive, negative, or neutral please share it in the comments below or, if you have a YouTube account, on the video page itself. Enjoy.

Atlantic International Studies Organization at Mount Allison University

As we're moving closer to September I'd like to include a mention feature from the Mount Allison University website regarding the Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS). Because ATLIS is such an important and longstanding group on campus the school agreed to feature a story about the group on the main page. Due to my (relatively minor) role in the group this year and with the IR program at large, I was able to connect with the outgoing Journal Editor Rebecca Ann Dixon, incoming President Alex Dalton, and faculty advisor (and International Relations Program Head) Dave Thomas about publication and about the organization as a whole. After interviews and editing this was the result. I think it gives a good idea of what the group does and its importance on campus. I would strongly encourage you to learn more by visiting their website (which I help maintain) at http://atlismta.org.

Mount Allison students launch ninth annual ATLIS journal
2011-06-29 10:40:13

The Atlantic International Studies Organization (ATLIS), a student-run organization based out of Mount Allison University, recently published its ninth annual academic journal. Entitled “Alternative Solutions for a Sustainable Future,” the publication features academic papers written and peer-reviewed by undergraduate students from across the Atlantic region. The journal is the only exclusively undergraduate academic journal of its kind in Atlantic Canada.

ATLIS was founded with the purpose of fostering informed undergraduate participation in international issues through holding a yearly academic conference and producing an academic journal. With the support of the Mount Allison’s international relations (IR) program and the Centre for International Studies, ATLIS welcomes students from across the region each year to participate in a conference, featuring experts on international issues, and submit papers for the journal.

2010-11 ATLIS journal editor and honours IR student Rebecca Ann Dixon credits a high level of student involvement on campus for the group’s lengthy success. “ATLIS is unique because it is a forum for students to share and discuss their academic work and interests outside the classroom. The conference and journal are entirely student-driven. Having this support and enthusiasm behind the projects makes ATLIS a success year after year.”

Dixon sees ATLIS as an extension of the work she does in the classroom. “I think it is important to encourage students to learn from their peers and to showcase the diversity of topics and disciplines that are part of international studies and ATLIS certainly does both.”

Dr. Dave Thomas, Mount Allison international relations professor and faculty advisor for ATLIS agrees. “ATLIS is important for students interested in IR because it provides them with an opportunity to formally present a research paper, contribute to the ATLIS journal, or simply attend the conference and learn a great deal from others. In particular, it provides undergraduate students with a unique opportunity to go through the peer review process and publish a piece of academic work.”

Dixon adds, “With the journal specifically, I am always excited to see the number of people who volunteer to be peer reviewers — it is a quiet but essential role and an easy way for many students to be a part of ATLIS. Almost everyone who reads or reviews an article for ATLIS comments that they learned a lot about the topic and about writing techniques.”

Alex Dalton, the group’s President for this upcoming year is looking forward to carrying on the success of ATLIS. This year’s conference and journal theme is ‘Revolution: Reforming Structures and Rethinking Perspectives.’ She says this year’s theme reflects the change and instability seen around the world.

“While the title may immediately bring to mind the ongoing events in the Middle East and North Africa that is not the only focus. We strive to have a global perspective and welcome presentations on various topics related to the idea of drastic change, from the war on drugs to the global struggle against political repression and from economic to social upheaval.”

The Spring 2011 Journal is available on the ATLIS web site here. The 2011-12 ATLIS conference will be held January 13-15, 2012 on the Mount Allison University campus. To learn more about ATLIS of if you would like to get involved please visit http://atlismta.org/, contact ATLIS@mta.ca, or follow them on Twitter (@ATLIS).

The Argosy, Mount Allison University's Independent Student Newspaper releases archived issues (PDFs) from 2009-2010

As Online Editor of the Argosy, Mount Allison University's Independent Student Newspaper (since 1875) my job has been, among other things, to help migrate the website to it's new platform (with a lot of technical assistance from outgoing IT Manager and incoming Vice-President Finance & Operation for the SAC Patrick Losier) and prepare the new site for this year.

In addition to looking forward with the new website, we also had to look back to ensure we weren't losing anything in the transfer. Unfortunately, due to some incredibly frustrating technical issues stemming from the fact that the Wordpress installation and the new OpenPublish installation are incompatible there is no technical way in which to transfer all of last year's individual articles from Wordpress and appear correctly on the new site.

However, after a somewhat laborious process of finding and splicing together dozens of documents I've done one better: we now have the original pdfs of two years (2009-2011) of the Argosy available online. As until this upcoming year, the vast majority of students consumed the Argosy only in its paper format so the PDFs are the most familiar way for people to navigate all of the stories.

Below are the 2009-2010 issues on Scribd. They're also now on the Argosy website as well. If you visit the Argosy site you'll notice it has a much cleaner appearance and it's much easier to find what you're looking for. Starting this year the Argosy will also be actively engaging with all members of the Mount Allison community via social media to showcase important stories and solicit input for the Online Only section of the website which will feature your written, photographic, and video submissions. I'll be providing more details in the weeks to come. For now, enjoy some archived issues of the Argosy:

Shinerama at Mount Allison University

I just wanted to make a small mention of a really important cause at Mount Allison: Shinerama. It's an effort that raises money for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, a nonprofit organization that funds scientific research, treatment & patient services, and education and public awareness of Cystic Fibrosis (CF), the most common fatal genetic disease affecting Canadian children and young adults.

Shinerama is the college and University arm of Cystic Fibrosis Canada which last year contributed $1 million to total revenues for the organization.

For a number of years, Mount Allison has been recognized nationally for it's involvement in Shinerama. Currently, Mount Allison teams make up five of the top 10 teams nationally.

Consider Mount Allison's (≈) 2250 undergrads to Dalhousie's (≈) 12,000 and all five teams surpass them. That's really impressive and due to all of the hard work that Beth Whitfield and the rest of the Shinerama team have done already over the summer in fund-raising efforts around the area.

If you want to get involved in helping an organization that improves the quality of life for patients and strives to find a cure for CF you should get involved with this group. For more information contact Shinerama Chair Beth Whitfield at shinerama@mta.ca or in the SAC office in the Student Centre. You can also like the group on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, or visit their website for more information. Here's a video from the group talking about their work:



From Cystic Fibrosis Canada:

Cystic fibrosis causes a build-up of thick mucus
in the lungs leading to severe respiratory
problems. Meanwhile, mucus and protein build-
up in the digestive tract results in extreme
difficulty in digesting and absorbing adequate
nutrients from food.
The effects of cystic fibrosis are most
devastating in the lungs. Ultimately, most CF
deaths are due to lung disease.
It is estimated that one in every 3,600
children born in Canada has cystic fibrosis.
Approximately 3,800 Canadian children,
adolescents, and adults with cystic fibrosis
attend specialized CF clinics.

20 Tips for first-year students: #9- Find a Quiet Place to Study at Mount Allison University

In the 9^th video in our 20-part tip series, fourth-year honours psychology student and Orientation Chair Aleka Maclellan discusses where she goes to find a quiet place to study. 

Personally, I have always favoured the 2nd floor of the library because it’s generally quiet and it’s where people go when they really need to get work done, so the atmosphere is fairly serious, especially around exam time. There’s also, as Aleka mentions, empty classrooms (especially Avard Dixon) that can be used by students after class. 

For non-music students, if you want to get away from everything and really get down to work, there’s the music library in the Music Conservatory. It’s always quiet there and it’s a spot almost nobody outside of the music program knows exists. Some other people are able to be productive at Bridge Street Café, but for me it’s too loud and busy, but could work with casual group work or meetings. If you are doing group work, there are lounges in each residence that are really good for this purpose. Wherever you choose to study, try to stay focused on your work, and not on Facebook.

Geoff Campbell
Communications Assistant
Mount Allison University