NSAC E-Bulletin

Please forward your submissions to the NSAC E-Bulletin to the newsdesk at (news@nsac.ca). for inclusion in the next edition, which run on Monday and Thursday of each week. Remember you can post notices anytime on the NSAC Forums at http://nsac.ca/forums

Gardening and Agricultural Tools to Restore Sierra Leone

Carolyn van Gurp (Peaceful Schools International) and Dr. Thomas Turay (Coady Institute) spent three weeks in one of the most war-affected regions of Sierra Leone to investigate possibilities for linkages and peace work. At 12:00 pm on Friday, July 13, in room 257 of Cox Institute at NSAC, Carolyn van Gurp will be speaking about life on the ground and what civil society is doing to ensure a peaceful future. All are invited to attend. Please bring any gardening or agricultural tools that you wish to donate. For more information, contact Ralph Martin at rmartin@nsac.ca or Carolyn van Gurp at cvangurp@chebucto.ns.ca.

Click here to view the poster.

GroupWise 7 Training

A government-wide project is underway to upgrade the Provincial Government GroupWise e-mail system to version 7 by the end of July. Hands-on training sessions have been added to LearnNet (http://learnnet.gov.ns.ca/) in the following areas:

Dates and Locations:
July 4th - Bridgewater (99 High Street)
July 10th - Truro (NSAC)
July 12th - Halifax (Founder's Square)
July 17th - Sydney (295 Charlotte Street)
August 22nd - Halifax (To be announced)
August 23rd - Halifax (To be announced)
September 11th - Halifax (Founder's Square)
September 19th - Truro (NSAC)

All sessions run from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm and the cost is $30.00 per person (includes Instruction Manual).

More sessions will be added for Sydney and Bridgewater.

You can register and view course objectives on LearnNet (http://learnnet.gov.ns.ca/) under Courses/Registration, Resources CSU - IT Calendar. If you cannot see the Resources CSU - IT Calendar please check the Common Calendar.

If you have any questions, please contact Billie Ann McDonald at (902) 424-0861 or at mcdonaba@gov.ns.ca.

International Students Working On Campus

The requirements for international students (graduate or undergraduate) to work on campus are very easy and straight forward.

Requirements:
- student must have a current and valid study permit
- student must be enrolled full time at NSAC

All employees including international students must have a Social Insurance Number (SIN) in order to work and receive a pay cheque. Normally international students do not require a SIN to study in Canada. To apply for a SIN card, the student should take their letter of employment from the on campus employer along with their valid study permit and passport to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office at 60 Lorne Street in Truro. It is best for the student to call 893-0016 and make an appointment. The student will complete the application online and receive their 900 series SIN that day. The card will be sent in the mail. There is no charge for this service. Students should have their SIN before commencing work.

For more information visit: http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/cs/sin/0200/0200_010.shtml.

As an additional note the letter of employment should:
-be on official NSAC letterhead
-state the hours and wages
-state the expectations and duties of the position
-state the start and end dates, if any
-be signed by a person with budgetary authority at the NSAC

For more information contact Mark Mason at mmason@nsac.ca.

NSAC President Seeks Partnerships in the United Arab Emirates

Dr. Philip Hicks, NSAC President, has recently returned from a 15 day business trip to the United Arab Emirates. Dr. Hicks visited over half a dozen universities and colleges in areas including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain seeking partnerships that may involve research collaborations, contracts relating to environmental development and graduate student mobility. “In Bahrain, there are several opportunities of great interest to NSAC faculty,” says Dr. Hicks. “One in particular involves the creation of a science and technology park in the south of that island country.” Dr. Hicks also discovered that the pace of life and dynamism in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is truly phenomenal. “Dubai has one-quarter of the world’s construction cranes at work at the present time,” he says. “They’re more than halfway through building the world’s tallest office complex.” Over the next few months, Dr. Hicks plans to follow up on many of the meetings that he had with educational institutions in the United Arab Emirates.

Caption: Dr. Hicks speaks with Eric McGaw, the Communications Specialist of the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai, United Arab Emirates about their various development projects in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Webserver Upgrade

The NSAC webserver will be unavailable Friday, June 29 at 9:00 am for approximately 10-20 minutes for an important system upgrade. The NSAC, OACC, AgriTECH Park, Atlantic BioVenture Centre and AskVic.ca pages will be unreachable for the duration of the upgrade. If you have any concerns please contact Mike Pauley at mpauley@nsac.ca.

Media Resource Guide

As you may be aware, the NSAC Public Relations office recently developed a Media Resource Guide. This guide is a searchable database of experts at NSAC who have agreed to provide informed commentary and context on current events to various media.

The database is as complete as I can make it at this time for those who have agreed to participate. Please take a few moments to review your profile. The database will be searchable by name or area of expertise. It is important that you list broad topic areas of a general nature as well as more descriptive words to describe your area of expertise. For example, if your expertise is in crops you should specify which crops you specialize in, such as wheat, soybeans and so on.

The guide can be accessed at http://nsac.ca/news/pr/resource_guide/.

Please search for your own area of expertise and see what comes up. If you would like to make changes to your profile, please submit them to my attention at srogers@nsac.ca.

Thank you,

Stephanie Rogers

Tables to Give Away

IT Services has approximately 35 computer workstation tables to surplus. Anyone needing a table or tables, please contact Debbi Levy Kay (902) 893-5430. The tables will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

The workstation tables are in room 20 of Cox Institute and will need to be removed as soon as possible.

GroupWise Web Access Outage

There are important changes being made to the GroupWise e-mail system on Thursday, June 28 and Friday, June 29. The GroupWise webclient will be unavailable during that time.

On-campus e-mail and that delivered to the BlackBerries should be unaffected.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause but the security of remote e-mail will be enhanced as a result of the changes.

Open House 2007

There will be an Open House 2007 planning meeting on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 beginning at 10:00 am in the C.A. Douglas Room. It is very important that we have all areas of campus represented at this meeting. For more information please contact Stephanie Rogers at (902) 893-7247.