OAC Researchers, OVC, Provost Make Headlines
June 03, 2013 - In the News
University of Guelph research on the health benefits of "purple vegetables" continues to make news headlines. An article about research projects involving plant agriculture professor Mary Ruth McDonald, Prof. Kelly Meckling, Human Health and Nutritional Sciences, and masters student Saqibul Mannan was published Tuesday on CBC's online news page.
McDonald and Meckling did a series of live radio interviews with numerous CBC-affiliate radio stations across the country Monday as part of CBC Radio syndication. Stories also aired on the CBC news programs As It Happens and World at Six.
McDonald and Mannan were also featured in a story on phytonutrients (natural chemicals that help protect plants from germs, fungi, and other threats) and potential uses for natural health benefits that aired on CBC TV’s The National Sunday night.
McDonald is working on a project with Profs. Al Sullivan and Rong Cao to determine how purple carrots and potatoes, which are richer in antioxidants than white potatoes and orange carrots, could be useful in contributing to human health. Prof. Kelly Meckling and Mannan are conducting a research project that examines the health benefits of such foods. .
The Ontario Veterinary College was featured in a prominent story in the Toronto Star Saturday. The article looks at the advanced tools for cancer diagnosis, treatment and teaching offered through OVC’s Mona Campbell Centre for Animal Cancer and Institute for Comparative Cancer Investigation. The story also highlights other specialties of veterinary medicine offered at OVC, including cardiology, dermatology, neurology, ophthalmology and radiology and sports medicine clinics.
There are interviews with professors Paul Woods, head of OVC's oncology service, and Tony Mutsaers, a veterinary medical oncologist, as well as with pet owners and officials from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.
A video and gallery of photographs showing animals receiving treatment accompanies the story.
A column by Maureen Mancuso, provost and vice-president (academic), appears in the latest issue of University Affairs, published today. It discusses the need for critical thinking to dispel the current, harmful “default narrative” that a university education has little value.
“We must emphasize that university graduates do gain important skills, because the public dialogue is focused on skills, but we also need to start shifting that dialogue to recognizing the powerful but less-obvious benefits of liberal education,” Mancuso writes. “Critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, open-mindedness: these are the drivers of real creativity. Skill alone without critical thinking is the expertise of a computer, not of the humans who use computers to serve their minds and change the world.”
Mancuso was regular columnist for the publication this school year, writing opinion pieces about issues affecting higher education. University Affairs is published by the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada.
