Engineering targets Aboriginal enrolment

The faculty of Engineering is looking to increase its number of Aboriginal students through the new Aboriginal Access to Engineering Program.

Currently there are four self-identified Aboriginal students enrolled in the new program.

The program encourages Aboriginal youth and students to consider engineering as a career by promoting applications within Aboriginal communities.

A website designed for high school students provides information on engineering streams and career opportunities. The program also publishes an elementary-level workbook titled What Engineers Do to promote an early interest in science and math.

At Queen’s, the program is in the process of creating a summer job program for Aboriginal students to work with mining companies.

The faculty is looking to work with the University of Manitoba to design support programs for Aboriginal students at the universities.

— Catherine Owsik

Paintings exhibited in Amsterdam

Eight paintings donated to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre are currently part of an exhibition in Amsterdam.

One of the paintings is Head of an Old Man in a Cap by the classical Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn. It was donated to Queen’s University in 2003 by long-time Queen’s benefactors Alfred and Isabel Bader.

The exhibition opened Oct. 1 and will run until January 2012 in the Rembrandt House Museum, where Rembrandt lived and worked for 19 years.

After the exhibit, the paintings will return to Queen’s.

The Bader family has promised to bequest the remainder of their vast art collection to the University.

— Catherine Owsik

Queen’s wins free concert

Organizers of the Queen’s TD Canada Trust Pump it Up contest announced on Oct. 13 that Queen’s was one of three Canadian universities to win a free concert.

Queen’s won in the heavyweight division for large universities. Acadia University and Mohawk College also won the free concert.

B.o.B., Mother Mother and Team Canada DJs will perform at the event at Queen’s on Nov. 3. The location of the concert hasn’t yet been announced.

Two years ago, Queen’s won the contest, garnering performances from Girl Talk, K-Os and The Stills.

The Pump It Up contest called for Canadian post-secondary institutions to compete with others in their division.

The schools with the most online votes from their student populations were selected as winners.

Due to limited space at the concert, priority for tickets will be given to those who voted in the contest and customers of TD Canada Trust.

— Savoula Stylianou