The campus is buzzing!

Mount Allison welcomes the Class of 2012!

Mount Allison University’s campus will be buzzing with the arrival of the Class of 2012! Frosh will be treated a jam-packed week of activities with an international flair.

The theme for Orientation 2008 is Mounties Fly Together. This year’s Orientation committee, led by commerce student Bryan Cromlish, is gearing up for a busy week.

Other Mount A Orientation Week Highlights (open to the public) include:

• myMTA Fair (12 – 3 p.m. August 28, University Quad) — New students and their parents can get a full picture of everything Mount Allison has to offer.

• University Commencement (7 p.m. August 28, Convocation Hall) — The official University welcoming ceremony for the Class of 2012. Students and parents are shown some of the many traditions and history of Mount Allison in beautiful Convocation Hall. Guest speakers include Mount Allison University President Dr. Robert Campbell and geography and environment professor Dr. Brad Walters.

• Shinerama (9 a.m. — 2 p.m. September 6, Sackville, Amherst, Shediac, GMA) — an annual fund raiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Mount Allison students will be out in force shining shoes and raising funds and awareness for this worthy cause. Look for them in Sackville, Amherst, Shediac, and the Greater Moncton Area on September 6 between 9 and 2 p.m.

Mount Allison’s sustainable residence, Cuthbertson House, is also offering a number of Alternative Orientation activities. Organized by student residents and Student Affairs, these activities seek to provide unique opportunities, with the commitment to reducing our environmental footprint being top of mind.

Activities include hiking to Wood Point, a swim at Silver Lake, kite making, sushi cooking lessons. A full schedule is available on the Mount Allison home page.

For more information please visit www.mta.ca/orientation

Research professor Dr. Peter Edwards to be named to the Ordre des Palmes Académiques

Congratulations to research professor Dr. Peter Edwards, who is being recognized by the French government for his contributions to education — with a decoration that dates back to the time of Napoleon.

Along with two other Maritimers, he will be named to the Ordre des Palmes Académiques at the French Consulate General in Moncton on August 28.

This civil decoration was established in 1808 by the French government to recognize the achievements and contributions of university professors to French education, research, and the support of French culture. Since 1955, the decoration has been extended to recognize educators of French language and culture around the globe.

Dr. Edwards, who taught in Mount Allison's department of modern languages and literatures for over 30 years and continues to maintain an active research program, is the first person at Mount Allison to receive this honour.

Dr. Edwards has had a long and distinguished career at Mount Allison, as both a teacher and researcher. A four-time winner of the University’s Paul Paré Award and a recipient of the Paul Paré Medal, he retired from teaching as department head of modern languages and literatures in 2007.

He has continued his extensive research program in French literature. For the last 20 years, Dr. Edwards has headed up an international group of researchers who are studying the works of the 19th century French poet Theodore de Banville. The team, with representatives from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia, published a critical edition of de Banville's complete poetry in eight volumes from 1994 to 2001. Following this accomplishment, Dr. Edwards, with Australian colleague Peter Hambly, published a two-volume set of the writer's selected literary, artistic, and music criticism in 2003. The pair have a full bibliography of de Banville’s complete works forthcoming this year and a supplement to the poetry edition in 2009. Dr. Edwards also edited a collection of the poet’s letters to his publisher in 2006 — giving academics and the public a collection of valuable resources and insight into the life of this famous French writer and poet and French literary culture of the time.

Dr. Edwards will be presented with the decoration by the French Consul General for the Acadian region (Maritimes) in Moncton on August 28.

Mount Allison Gemini Observatory

2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations, and Mount A is getting ready to celebrate in style with the installation of an observational astronomy facility on campus.

The Mount Allison Gemini Observatory was constructed this summer and is set to open this fall at the corner of Salem and York Streets, near the University’s Dunn Physical Sciences Building.

The facility is designed using two Sirius 3.5 m diameter domes with electric rotation and shutter, two Losmandy Titan mounts, and two Celestron 11 SCT telescope optical tubes. All operations are solar powered, reducing the facility’s environmental footprint significantly. Robotic functions will also be added within the first year of operation.

The Gemini Observatory was built over the summer, and assembled entirely by a group of volunteers made up of Mount Allison students, staff, and faculty members.

Already Mount A students and faculty are benefiting from this new campus resource. Liyao Li is studying how lunar craters send ejecta on long orbits, which could be hazardous to astronauts on the moon, while Chris MacLeod is examining the ‘dark side of the moon’ — using the telescopes to see brief flashes as kilogram sized meteoroids impact the moon. Rory Woods is studying how deeply meteoroids impact into cometary nuclei. Dr. Hawkes, who was awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant this spring, is examining how meteors ablate and produce light in the Earth's atmosphere.

The Mount Allison Gemini Observatory was constructed with generous funding by the Marjorie Young Bell Endowment Fund at Mount Allison, University operating funds, as well as donations from alumni, staff, and friends of the university.

Night viewing at the Mount Allison Gemini Observatory will begin in early fall, after final installation and calibration of the telescopes, at which time a public announcement will be made. Researchers look forward to welcoming students and community members to the facility for tours and stargazing.