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Professor won’t return to class

Professor Mike Mason has taken a leave of absence and will not return to his HIST 283 class this semester.

During a lecture for the History of the Third World on Oct. 26, Mason announced to the class that students had voiced concerns to the history department. These concerns, he said, were that some terms he used in class were racist and sexist — including “towelhead” and “mistress.”

Since then, Mason hasn’t taught the class. Two lectures were cancelled following his announcement.

“He will not be returning to the classroom,” chair of the history department James Carson said to the class on Nov. 9. “TAs and I know things have been scrambled and messy.”

In an email to the Journal, Carson said Mason hasn’t been fired and didn’t resign.

“He is taking a leave,” he said.

Carson said the university couldn’t comment as to whether legal action is being taken against Mason or if any allegations have been brought against the University.

For the remaining four weeks of the class, professors from various departments will take turns lecturing the history class.

Mason declined to comment to the Journal.

— Katherine Fernandez-Blance

AMS branding standards passed

An AMS policy to build a consistent marketing brand across campus is now in place.

AMS Communications Officer Amanda Judd said the Logo Guidelines and Visual Identity Standards policy will allow students to associate different aspects of the AMS with each other.

A study conducted by the marketing office between Sept. 14 and Oct. 16 showed that certain AMS services weren’t being associated with the student government as much as others, Judd, ArtSci ’11, said.

The policy sets regulations for how AMS services, commissions and committees use the AMS logo, official fonts and colours. It was passed at the Board of Directors on Oct. 3.

“It’s taking the practice that the communications and marketing offices have been doing and putting it officially in policy,” Judd said. “[The policy] is necessary to have in place because we want to make sure that this is something that continues in the future.”

She said exemptions from this policy include five publications by the Social Issues Commission and AMS media outlets such as the Journal and Queen’s TV.

In these cases the AMS has no control over editorial autonomy and as an alternative the AMS is mentioned in the publication credits or on the website.

“A lot of it is they deal with design themselves and basically express themselves,” Judd said. “It would be inappropriate for our name to be attached.”

— Catherine Owsik

Study revises prostate cancer treatment

Queen’s researchers have developed a new treatment for men diagnosed with high-risk prostate cancer.

The treatment allows men to live longer and lowers their risk of cancer-related death.

The seven-year study, led by the National Cancer Institute of Canada clinical trials group (NCIC CTG), was conducted on a random sample of 1,205 men with high-risk prostate cancer.

Half of them received hormone therapy, while the other half received a combination of hormone therapy and radiation.

In the hormone-only group, 26 per cent died of prostate cancer. This compared to 10 per cent in the combined therapy group.

“The results of the study refute the standard notion of using hormone therapy only for locally advanced prostate cancer,” said Wendy Parulekar, associate professor of oncology and a senior author of the study.

— Vincent Matak

Queen’s Red Bull team places fourth

A pair of Queen’s students finished fourth in the Red Bull Racing Can National Final on Wednesday.

Mark O’Donoghue, Sci ’12, and Chris Barnes, Sci ’14, competed as Team Better Than Everyone Else in the Canadian university contest, held in Montreal.

Contestants had to build and design remote control cars using Red Bull Energy Drink cans.

O’Donoghue said he and Barnes had a positive experience.

“There was a lot of strong competition,” O’Donoghue said. “We still feel pretty good about it, if anything it was a fun way to spend an afternoon.”

Winning would have meant competing at the Red Bull Racing Can World Final in England next week.

Team Hardwear from the University of Moncton placed first in the Canadian competition.

Red Bull covered the team’s travel and hotel expenses as well as provided the material needed for the race, including a $200 remote-control car shell and cases of Red Bull.

— Vincent Matak

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