So we’ve posted top 10 sports, A&E and overall stories for the year. Now it’s time for us to decide. Our Front Office — made of three full-time paid employees including the Editor-in-Chief — chose the best articles of the year and awarded them at an annual Gazette gala. Below you’ll find all the articles selected. Excellence in Hard News “Midterms prompt policy discussion” by Shreya Tekriwal, Oct. 29 While final exams give accommodation for students writing three tests within a 24-hour period, midterm season isn’t so easy. Students with crammed midterm schedules were dead in the water without help from Western. Shreya investigated the situation and provided a concise hard news recap to snatch the award. Excellence in Colour News “Slacktivism catching on” — Stuart A. Thompson, Dec. 9 A business in the US started asking Internet users to donate moments of their time to make a big difference. [...]

Local artists were celebrated at the fifth annual Jack Richardson Music Awards last Sunday. The awards show, named after famous producer and former Fanshawe College instructor Jack Richardson, included performances from a variety genres including traditional folk to contemporary rock. Among the winners was Hall of Fame inductee Amabile Choirs, which celebrated 25 years of performing this year. The choir was founded in 1985 and includes approximately 300 choristers from age eight to adult. Also awarded was EMAC Recording Studios. The 30-year-old studio’s recent accomplishments include the Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan’s latest album and voice work with actor Christopher Plummer for the Pixar movie Up. The full list of winners: Blues/R & B – Chris Murphy Band Country – Chris Hart Bluegrass – The Dixie Flyers Traditional Folk/Roots – Olenka and the Autumn Lovers World Music – The Alfredo Caxaj Latin Ensemble Contemporary Singer/Songwriter – Allison Brown Rock – The Joys Metal – (tie) The [...]

Every semester, we take a look at unique hits to the website and see which articles registered the most. Below you’ll find our list for the second semester. You can also see the top posts from first semester. 10. Coulter’s campus visit stirs controversy An obvious hot-button issue, it’s no surprise that this first story about Coulter’s appearance graced the 10 top list. We also got a number of letters and comments about it. Read it here. 9. Editor mouths off on Meals for 3 Our USC election coverage was unprecedented this year and it really found its feet online. This column about Marshall Goldfarb’s impossible $3 meal idea was written by Senior Editor Michael Hayes. He ripped on Goldfarb for the idea and the “feasibility report,” which apparently proved that you could break even by selling 1,000 meals every week. CLTs don’t see that kind of movement and it’s the [...]

It was 2 a.m. at Allyn and Betty Taylor Library when third-year medical science student Arjun Chandra was kicked out with dozens of other students. They were forced to study at home or in the University Community Centre. Unsatisfied with the closing time, Chandra and other students started campaigning to create Western’s first 24-hour library. Their efforts ended in victory today when Western announced D.B. Weldon Library will remain open for 24 hours this exam season. From April 9 to 29, Weldon’s extended hours will be from 2 a.m. until 9 a.m. It’s the first time main campus will have a 24-hour library. The resolution came after months of discussion between students and librarians. A petition to extend library hours was started last year by Chandra and Fabio Magistri, a second-year science student. Months later, they finally had an answer about the Taylor library. The answer was no. But that [...]

There was a time when student newspapers represented the student voice. Flip through old Gazette issues and you’ll find irreverent reporters squawking freely about the day’s news and student life. The Gazette of years past was quintessentially student — its youthfulness and excitement oozed through the pages, evident in the headlines, cutlines, photos and stories. Its writers and readers seemed to have a lot of fun revealing student life in witty and sometimes flippant ways. Today, the Gazette is a single scoop of vanilla soft serve. Its writing is guarded. Editors wince at humour, worried about who they might offend. Study groups, focus groups and scandals created a magnifying glass of scrutiny. The Gazette was stifled and muzzled into a paper that is more proper, prim and wary. Its days of representing the young, edgy student voice are slipping away. Personally, I can deal with it. Students shape the Gazette more [...]

Behind all the St. Patrick’s Day festivities on Wednesday was a sordid mix of crime and mischief around Western. Campus Community Police Services were occupied with the expected liquor offenses and underage drinking charges. But the list of crimes was much longer: One student put his fist through a glass fire cabinet in Saugeen–Maitland Hall. He was charged with underage alcohol consumption. At 9:30 p.m., an individual was arrested on University Drive for assault with a weapon. The fight began consensually between two individuals and escalated until a knife was displayed and threats were made. The individual with the knife was arrested. Three laptops were stolen from residences. Four students dressed in green were found on the roof of the Stevenson-Lawson building. They were apprehended and warned. “I don’t know how they get up there,” Elgin Austen, director of Campus Police, said. At 2:00 a.m., a drunk driver was arrested [...]

After 20 years on the air, tvWestern.ca will be turned off after a unanimous vote on Mar. 10. The University Students’ Council agreed to extinguish the station when they passed the budget, ending its student fee collection. No councillors or members of tvWestern.ca lodged a protest. The station has aired campus-related programs made by students since 1993. In recent years, the station has been criticized for lack of student involvement and interest. In 2008, a USC survey reported 83 per cent of students never watched the videos. “We were hearing from the majority of students that either they didn’t know what tvWestern was, or they never watched it, or they had no interest in watching it,” Sacha Kumar, USC vice-president finance, said. “As far as relevance to students, it was scoring very low in our opinion.” This year, the station offered some more popular programming, such as the talk show [...]

The results are in for the vice presidents and communication officer rounding out the University Students’ Council board of directors. Councillors and candidates met today at the Annual General Meeting to discuss USC-related issues and host a debate between candidates. Voting was completed in two rounds for most positions. The two leaders from the first round continued to the second round until a winner was chosen. Meaghan Coker — vice president university affairs Other candidates: Sean Power, Nathan Caldwell 104 ballots cast, 0 spoiled Coker — 62 Caldwell — 37 Power — 5 Justin Mackie — vice president student events Other candidates: Marc Foster, James Prince, Andrew Beach 111 ballots cast, 0 spoiled Mackie — round one: 45, round two: 60 Beach — round one: 44, round two: 51 Foster — round one: 11 Prince — round one: 11 Scott Kerr — vice president campus issues Other candidates: Christina-Markie Mammoletti, [...]

Sacha Kumar couldn’t believe what happened at the council meeting Wednesday night. “I was shocked. I really was shocked,” the vice-president finance for the University Students’ Council recalled. Kumar stood at the podium inside council chambers on Mar. 10 to present the 2010/11 budget. He gave a brief introduction, answered a few questions, and passed two amendments. Then, without any fuss, the budget was approved. “I was surprised that it went through so quickly and so unanimously,” he said. The swift budget approval was a change from previous years, where councillors aired grievances late into the night. Last year’s VP finance, Matt Kington, faced lengthy debate and criticism from council when he presented the budget in 2009. “I remember Kington just slugging it out with people about his projections. There were things in there that people were just hammering him on,” Kumar recalled. “It was a two or three hour [...]

The City of London wants you to vote in your underwear next election. Online voting might find its way to London after the idea was presented to council Monday night. The suggestion came from councillor Nancy Branscombe after years of fluctuating voter turnout in the city. “Quite simply, cities and municipalities who are using Internet voting have far higher voter turnout and participation than we do here in London,” Branscombe wrote on her blog last week. “We cannot simply sit by and watch.” The promises of online voting are numerous, including spikes to voter turnout, cost savings and an election process that appeals to younger voters. According to councillor Harold Usher, City officials favoured the idea at council Monday night. “We didn’t have any choice but to look at it positively,” he said, noting that a number of other municipalities are using the system, including Markham and Stratford. But not everyone is [...]

Recently the Gazette closed comments for the first time on this story. The process of moderating comments is a difficult one. There’s some precedence on what to do, but the industry is somewhat divided. We’ve modeled our comment policy from slate.com, nytimes.com, and instruction from our lawyer. That said, it’s under a constant state of revision. Our guiding principle is to strive for intelligent, relevant discussion about our stories and their subject matter. Of course, this doesn’t always happen. In the story with closed comments, the discussion became extremely difficult to moderate. While we’re happy to facilitate discussion about our articles and its subject matter, our website is not intended as a sounding board for strictly political debate unrelated to the article, which is what we started seeing on that story. With such a subject matter, the discussion can quickly get out of hand. Before we closed the comments, we [...]

The University Students’ Council is projecting a $200,000 deficit and hopes to shore up its finances with a new budget tabled Wednesday. Despite collecting over $3 million in student fees last year, the organization has grown bigger and faster than these fees can support, according to Sacha Kumar, vice-president finance for the USC. “We really are spending more and more each year and our fee structure is staying the same. That’s a problem,” Kumar explained. The deficit, which could be as high as $300,000, was partly a result of poor budget planning. The projections made this time last year were all inflated, according to Kumar, with some USC-owned businesses expected to end the year more than $100,000 lower than projected. Last year, budget planners hoped USC-owned businesses would bring in enough profit to help pay for ballooning costs elsewhere in the corporation. “It came to the point where we were [...]

Nerds are getting a new nightlife thanks to King’s University College. The affiliate’s library will be open for 24-hours during the April exam season. The extended hours will run Monday to Friday from April 11 to 30. “I didn’t actually think it would happen this fast,” Pat Searle, president of the King’s University College Students’ Council, said of the decision, which was made public on Twitter yesterday. “It’s honestly been like 10 e-mails and suddenly it’s happened.” Searle said most students will use the extra hours to stay a little later or arrive a little earlier, rather than pulling all-nighters. “As for main campus students using it, we have nothing against that,” Searle said. “The doors are open. I’m excited to see students from all across campus.” Searle began working with librarians last December to launch the program after students started asking for more studying time. He clinched the deal [...]

The University Students’ Council released the full election results for the 2010/11 election. Total voter turnout was 7,679. USC President-elect Mike Tithecott beat runner-up Matthijs van Gaalen by 296 votes. Voter turnout was lower than last year, when 9,470 students showed up to the polls. The referendum to renovate the University Community Centre passed with 57 per cent of voters agreeing to the additional $25 student fee. Last year, another referendum on this issue was voted down by students with 56 per cent of the vote. USC President Candidates Votes TITHECOTT, Mike 2066 VAN GAALEN, Matthijs 1770 RUTLEDGE, Jeff 1410 GOLDFARB, Marshall 1034 HYLAND, Matt 925 PARK, Ray 474 USC Referendum Option: Votes YES 4361 NO 3266 Board of Governors at large Candidates at large: 1 electable Candidate Votes SILVER, Jon 3442 ANDRUS, Jeffrey 1239 Health Sciences, Medicine, Dentistry Senator Candidates at large: 1 electable Candidate Votes JEWELL, Candice 464 [...]