On Tuesday, after 565 days without a contract, faculty at the University of Saskatchewan voted 296 to 4 in favour of authorizing the union to call a strike. The union represents more than 1,000 professors, instructors, librarians and others. According to the faculty association, 70% of its members are working more than 50 hours a week. Increased retirements and resignations are cited as placing undue burden on remaining faculty. Guelph Mercury

OUAC's detailed numbers are out and UToronto once again received the highest number of first choice applications from Ontario high schoolers (11,753 first choice applicants and 43,120 total). Huron University College (at UWO) saw the largest comparative increase, with 23.5% more first choice applicants than 2006. Ryerson saw 17.5% more first choices, and Nipissing saw 15.2%. Arts programs increased 15.9% overall, and were the most popular program chosen. Science came in second and Business Administration was third. Landscape Architecture first choice applications increased by 33% (from 30 to 40), Family & Consumer Study increased by 28% (from 628 to 804), and Forestry went up 22% (from 18 to 22). OUAC Report

Ontario university applications rose an additional 5% above the projected 14,000 additional applicants, and several universities are now voicing their strategies on how they will handle the numbers without additional funding. Wilfrid Laurier says the increase will certainly hurt the quality of education. Half the schools, such as UWO and UGuelph, cannot possibly accommodate additional students and will have to be more stringent when chosing their 2007 freshmen. The Toronto Star | Globe & Mail

A year before Sheridan's Bachelor of Applied Information Sciences program releases its first class on the world, there is already committee and industry pressure to increase its capacity. With attention to preserving the high quality of the program, an additional 35 spots are slotted for the September '07 class. Similar to networking programs at colleges, enrollment is almost exclusively male and includes a long internship requirement. Mohawk College offers a Network Engineering Security Analyst program, and CDI College offers a Network and Internet Security Specialist program. The Toronto Sun

uAlberta hopes that removing math and science from the Faculty of Arts equation will open the school to more out-of-province and international students. It will also allow students who lack strength in maths to pursue a university education. (Some individual programs within the Faculty, such as Economics and Psychology, will still require the appropriate maths and sciences.) Students who later wish to transfer into other disciplines will also have to acquire the associated requirements.  The Gateway

Yesterday, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity released its 2006 list of Most Influential Women in Sport and Physical Activity. The 20 honorees are women "who have made a significant impact as athletes, administrators, advocates" etc., and 3 were identified as university professors: Marielle Ledoux of UMontreal, TA Loeffler of Memorial, and Wendy Bedingfield of Acadia. Others likely have affiliations with colleges and universities as well, but were not explicitly identified as professors. CAAWS

US community colleges, which represent 45% of the country's PSE students, are working against a less than stellar reputation. US public colleges draw more low-income, first-generation, and low academically-skilled students because of their lower tuition and higher accessibility. Programs such as CONNECT are working to forge partnerships between colleges and universities in similar areas, and to create consistent grading standards. Many are also revamping their academic and career counselling services. University Business

The Ad Council, Lumina Foundation for Education, and American Council on Education (ACE) launched their "Know How 2 Go" campaign this month, targeting students in grades 8 through 10. The goal of the ads is to educate students on the preparation needed to pursue PSE, and includes slogans such as "You can't dream your way into college," and "Diddly squat: what most kids know about preparing for college." By appealing to younger students, it is hoped the message will reach kids in time to begin preparing both financially and academically. Research has shown both that low-income and first-generation students are underrepresented at colleges and universities, and that low-income parents expect their children to take the initiative in pursuing an education. Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) | KnowHow2GO.org

Over 6.6 million student users and their ratings of more than 900,000 instructors are to formally become the resource of mtv's exclusive college network, mtvU. The RateMyProfessor website reaches around 10 million college and university students each year with services such as professor ratings, class scheduling and peer interaction. The addition of RMP will make mtvU the second most-trafficked set of general interest college-focused websites, broadcast to 750 colleges across the US. The Boston Globe | mtv News Release  

A recent study says that teens are just as materialistic and selfish as we thought, so to speak. 71% of respondents between 8 and 18 years of age said they would be happier if they had more to spend on themselves, with the 13-18 year olds showing more agreement with this statement than 8-12s. Teens are less likely to enjoy helping new students than preteens, and less likely to feel they have "a lot to be thankful for." Don't worry though, at least 84% of the respondents valued "mom" above money. Reuters Life!