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The Queen's Journal •

Ontario’s postsecondary budget stirs criticism from provincial lobby groups

Ontario released its yearly budget report on Tuesday, touting postsecondary funding and STEM projects. But advocacy groups say the funding won’t be enough for the province’s struggling universities.

The provincial government is reducing overall spending on postsecondary institutions by $425 million—from $12.6 to $12.2 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The reduction is due to the federal government’s cap on international student study permits, according to Ontario’s Chamber of Commerce (OCC).
The Queen's Journal •

‘Divest from death’: Understanding Queen’s investments in the Israel-Gaza war

The Queen’s chapter of student advocacy group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) swung a long banner over the balcony of Stauffer Library at Queen’s last week. The poster claimed Queen’s University invests $43 million in the Israeli occupation.

Pro-Palestine protests stretched through SPHR’s Israeli Apartheid Week on March 7 and 8, culminating with the Palestinian flag being raised atop Grant Hall. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the h
The Queen's Journal •

The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady. Here’s what it means for housing in Kingston

The Bank of Canada (BoC) held its policy interest rate at 5 per cent on Wednesday, a highly-anticipated move from policymakers who continue to battle elevated inflation.

“We need to give higher interest rates more time to do their work,” Governor Tiff Macklem said at the press conference.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which measures inflation by the change of price of a basket of goods, remains elevated at 2.9 per cent. CPI inflation reached a historic high in June 2022 at 8.1 per cent.

The
The Queen's Journal •

Why Insomnia Cookies chose Kingston for its second Canadian branch

The American chain Insomnia Cookies opened its second Canadian location in Kingston, a testament to the city’s awakening business atmosphere. But some experts warn the sugar rush might wear off after a while.

Since its humble inception in a dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania, Insomnia Cookies has grown exponentially, opening 265 stores over two decades. A subsidiary of Krispy Kreme (DNUT), Insomnia released its plans to expand into the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada and Mancheste
The Queen's Journal •

Once a Queen’s professor, this CEO is now recruiting some of his former students

Queen’s professor-turned-CEO Ahmad Ghahreman is scaling up his clean technology start-up Cyclic Materials while enlisting former students.

“Go tell students to study hard,” co-founder Patrick William Nee joked during a media tour, referencing how Ghahreman hired some of his best former students at Queen’s.

The Kingston-based company is the first to create a true circular supply chain for rare earth elements—the critical minerals in permanent magnets. These magnets power all sorts of products,
The Queen's Journal •

New study finds medical software has racial bias against Black patients

Black patients are less likely to receive an accurate skin disease diagnosis, even if the doctor has help from artificial intelligence.

A study on Feb. 5 found when physicians were assisted by AI in diagnosing skin disease among Black patients, the accuracy wasn’t improved because of the data the AI was trained on. AI models are improving the accuracy of skin disease diagnosis, but not for Black patients.

Medical and facial recognition softwares have shown bias against Black people for years.
The Queen's Journal •

Young adults are going out less than ever. Here’s what it means for university town bars

Local bars in Kingston have long relied on students to prop up alcohol sales. Every year has brought a wave of newly minted adults, giddy with independence and eager to test out their alcohol tolerance.

But as university-age students are drinking less alcohol and sleeping far more than previous generations, local businesses are scrambling to adapt.

Young Canadians that engage in heavy drinking—defined as consuming more than five drinks for men or four for women per night—decreased by a third b
The Queen's Journal •

Ford unwilling to raise tuition freeze as Ontario universities feel budget strain

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he isn’t looking to increase tuition for post-secondary students at a press conference on Jan. 31.

“I don’t believe this is the time to go into these students’ pockets, especially the ones that are really struggling, and ask for a tuition increase,” the Premier said.

Ontario slashed tuition by 10 per cent in 2019 and has kept fees frozen since. Ford said he plans to work with universities to support them, but called class sizes as small as six or seven students u
The Queen's Journal •

Some Queen’s professors encourage AI use. Others will give you an “F”

For the first few weeks, ChatGPT was an amusing new toy. Then someone figured out it can do more than write bad poetry. One year in, it’s dramatically heralding the end of white-collar jobs.

Most university professors didn’t know what to make of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT at first. But now, some are AI wizards.

Like Commerce Assistant Professor Evan Jo, who used ChatGPT to generate some responses for this article.

“The [AI] landscape is evolving, and so too will our approaches
The Queen's Journal •

Analysis: Queen’s University’s financial woes are a symptom of a wider issue

Queen’s University first showed signs of financial strain in March 2020, when it projected its first operating deficit in years. It has since spiraled into fiscal quagmire.

The University forecasted a $62.8 million operating deficit for the 2023-24 academic year last May, and later revised the projection to a $48 million deficit in December. To continue operating, Queen’s will dip into reserve funds, or surpluses it accumulated from previous years, according to a university FAQ page.

With pote
CNN •

Saudi Arabia’s oil production cuts have tipped its economy into reverse

Saudi Arabia’s economy has jolted into reverse, after the world’s largest crude oil exporter slashed output to prop up prices.

Saudi gross domestic product, the broadest measure of its economy, shrunk 4.5% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2023, the country’s official statistics agency said this week. That’s the largest contraction since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The slump would have been even greater if not for growth of 3.6% in non-oil activities.

The country’s vast oil sector had
CNN •

Arabic AI could help open doors for other languages

The emergence of Chat-GPT and similar platforms has created a buzz around large language model AI – artificial intelligence trained on vast sets of data from the internet to respond to text commands.

Despite growing interest in AI in the Middle East, Arabic-language models have lagged behind. But a team of academics, researchers and engineers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently unveiled a powerful tool tailored to the world’s Arabic speakers, which its creators say could pave the way for
CNN •

The UAE prepares to legalize gambling with new regulatory body

With its glitzy luxury resorts and a world-renowned horse racing industry, the United Arab Emirates soon might have a new card to play in attracting visitors — gambling.

The UAE introduced a new regulatory body to oversee commercial gaming on Monday, made up of casino and gambling experts from the United States. Gambling is currently illegal in the UAE, where some laws are based on the Quran, which forbids the practice.

The new federal body, called the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Auth
CNN •

Lebanon bans 'Barbie' movie for "promoting homosexuality''

Authorities in Lebanon moved to ban the “Barbie” movie from cinemas on Wednesday, saying it promotes homosexuality and violates the nation’s values.

Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada banned the film from cinemas after delaying its release date to late August, saying it contradicts the “moral and religious values as well as the principles of Lebanon,” state-run media reported Wednesday.

The minister said the movie also “promotes sexual deviance and transsexuality,” by Lebanese state-run media o
The Journal •

‘Wildly different experiences’: Student parents at Queen’s

When Slade Stoodley comes home after an ENGL 451 lecture on Victorian fairy tales, he likes to consult with his study buddy and three-year-old daughter, Evee.

Ever since Evee was born during Stoodley’s first-year exam period, being a student parent has been a balancing act.

“We knew right off the bat when I was going into school, that this was going to be a different dynamic from the rest of my colleagues—because I was going to be a young father,” he told The Journal in an interview.

Stoodley
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