Year-in-Review

September 2001

Passengers stranded during September 11, 2001

Memorial's St. John's campus hosted 500 passengers whose flights were diverted as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Faculty, staff and students came together to provide these passengers with the assistance they needed during their five days living in the Thomson Centre.

Launching the Recreation Complex

The Board of Regents approved the creation of the Memorial University Recreation Complex (MURC), an entity that now operates all the recreation facilities on the St. John's campus. The centrepiece of the complex is the new $13 million Field House, which features walking and running tracks, multi-purpose courts and seating for 2,000 spectators.

Change in grading system

Memorial officially instituted a 4-point grade point system to replace the previous 3-point system. The changes were made following recommendations from the Senate. The 4-point system is the most standardized model in North America and now makes Memorial's achievements more comparable across institutions. Another important change to the grading system is that there will be a more precise representation of the course achievement on the students' transcript. The end- of-semester grades are now submitted in integers rather than rounded to the nearest five.

New director appointed

Robert Shea was appointed director of the new Department of Career Development and Experiential Learning. In this position, he will be responsible for the leadership of the Centre of Career Development, Co-operative Education Services Centre and Volunteer Services. He is a recipient of numerous national and regional awards for his work in student services, including the Governor General of Canada's Caring Canadian Award for outstanding community services and the St. John's Citizen of the Year Award. Mr. Shea is the president of the Student Affairs and Services Association, a national association representing over 400 student services professionals in Canada, and chair of ContactPoint, a national online resource for career development professionals.

MUN grad student tops in continent

Ayman Mahfouz, a post-doctoral fellow with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, won a very prestigious engineering award. His paper, On-Line Prediction of the Hydrodynamic Parameters in the Coupled Heave and Pitch Motion Equations for Underwater Robotic Vehicles Using Measured Responses at Sea, was selected a co-winner of the annual PhD student paper award presented by the Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Memorial launches oil and gas lecture series

In September 2001, Memorial launched the Oil and Gas Development Partnership Lecture Series. The inaugural lecture was delivered in the Engineering lecture theatre by Tom Zimmerman, manager of Schlumberger Oilfield Services' Technology Centre in Houston Texas. The series hosted a leading expert from the oil and gas field once a month from September to May, with a break in December. The lecture series was intended to be an information session for the general public, faculty, students and industry partners, and a chance to exchange ideas.