It’s mid-February. The good news is that there are only as few as 4 to 6 weeks of grey and cold weather to left to endure. Some get through it by taking omega-3s and vitamin D, others by jetting off to an all inclusive resort and pretending there is nothing to do during reading week, while others spend the Family Day long weekend complaining about the weather with their closest relations. [Read more…]

Birds have friends in the Department of Economics. Over the spring-summer term, the department made good on the friendship by making the patio at Max Gluskin House better for birds.

The recent retrofit saw bird safe markers installed on the lounge windows. Essentially giant stickers applied to the outside surface of the glass, the markers are a grid formation of dots. This treatment pattern breaks up reflections on the glass and makes the windows visible to birds so they can avoid collisions. The product itself is called Feather Friendly. The markers are on the windows that look out onto the patio and all along the courtyard side of the glass corridor that connects the two wings of the building. Completed in two phases, contractors did the work during May and July.

While no one knows exactly how many feathered friends have been lost over the years, bird deaths due to window collisions were a reality at the Department of Economics and the situation was not unique to the University of Toronto.

“There has never been a consistent survey performed on campus, so I can’t accurately comment on the scale of the problem,” said Carly Davenport, co-creator of BirdSafe UofT, a volunteer effort that records bird collisions at the university. “Since BirdSafe UofT was created in 2022, we have documented over 80 collisions, but bear in mind, that is from four volunteers going out a few times a week and making incidental reports, so, again, there is not sufficient coverage to make an accurate comment on the scale of the problem.”

In February 2022 bird collisions prompted one graduate student, Vanya Georgieva, to raise her concerns with Chair Ettore Damiano and Robert MacMillian, Associate Chair of Graduate Studies.

“One way to make our building more bird-friendly is to place small markers (stickers) in a 2-inch grid,” Georgieva wrote in her email to Professors Damiano and MacMillian. She went on to reference the best practices outlined by the City of Toronto to prevent bird collisions.

The staff team immediately assembled, took the information, and went to work on finding out more.

After department management made the decision to go with the grid pattern of dots, Property Manager Saurabh Mallik reached out to the bird protection organization Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP). A FLAP representative recommended Feather Friendly as a proven measure to reduce and even curb bird deaths. BirdSafe UofT is FLAP’s program on the St. George Campus.

If the solution was so easy for the team to find, why did it take more than a year between Georgieva’s email, and departmental agreement, to realize the retrofit? Money. As chair, Professor Damiano had to find almost $16,000 in the departmental budget to fund the  markers. This pushed completion of the project to 2023.

“Bird deaths had upset me too,” Damiano said. “Once we knew something could be done, we had to do it!”

The cost can be a barrier to further retrofits across campus. As a result, the Max Gluskin House courtyard is a rare example of reimagined, bird-friendly spaces at the university.

“The retrofit of Max Gluskin House is one of the few partial bird-friendly glass building retrofits on campus. Others off the top of my head are the Faculty Club patio and the Galbraith bridge,” BirdSafe UofT’s Davenport said. “The cost for labour and machinery required to install Feather Friendly bird-friendly window treatments can be substantial, depending on the logistics of the building. The product, however, is reasonably inexpensive compared to other glazing films used for UV or energy efficiency.  The cost of retrofits is something that needs to be budgeted for.”

While there remains much more to do to make the St. George Campus safer for birds, the retrofit at Max Gluskin House is a step in the right direction.

“I was looking for a way to have a positive environmental impact in my own community,” Georgieva said “Now, when I go through the courtyard, I’m reminded that I’ve contributed to a cause. It just goes to show that if you want to see a change, it doesn’t hurt to ask.”

 

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It’s time for Econ to team up to beat breast cancer. The Department of Economics is now recruiting faculty, staff, and PhD students to join our team for the Run for the Cure on Sunday, October 1. Be sure to click on the Join this Team link to ensure you are running with the department.

Breast cancer is a stressful reality for many families. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. Every year, 220 men in Canada are diagnosed with breast cancer too. There’s no question that breast cancer is a beast. Increasingly though, it is a beast we’re taming rather than fearing. The Canadian Cancer Society-CIBC Run for the Cure is one positive action survivors, their allies, and supporters can take. Monies raised by runners are used to fund research, new treatments, and educational outreach.

Nazanin Khazra, Assistant Professor of Economics, personally benefited from breast cancer research and outreach efforts.

“I was about to start my first year of my Ph.D. program when I received a breast cancer awareness email with instructions about how to do a self-checkup,” she remembered. “I followed the instructions and discovered a breast tumor. An email saved my life. This experience reinforced my belief in the power of awareness and early detection in saving lives.”

Last year, Khazra organized the Department of Economics run team for the first time and she’s making it a tradition with the help of the undergraduate program’s Johnny Tong and Jacklyn Rabinovich and the endorsement of Chair Ettore Damiano.

“This year, I’m thrilled to see our department come together once again to organize this event,” Khazra said. “It’s not just about my personal journey; it’s about the incredible culture of support we share in our department.”

Last year, 39 members of the department participated in the run and more made donations in support of the team raising more than $5000. This year, the organizing team’s goal to raise $5000 in donations and to convince half the department to take part.

To make things interesting, because Run for the Cure is a national event, the Department of Economics is issuing friendly challenges to other economics departments at Canadian universities from coast-to-coast via Twitter. Feel free to join in, call on your colleagues from Newfoundland to BC to participate and make #EconTwitter a pink and positive place with the hashtag #EconForTheCure.

Registration and race packet pick up start at 8:30 the morning of the race at Nathan Phillip Square on Queen Street West. Team photos will be taken at 10:30. After the run, optional activities for participants continue until 12:30.

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