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Report of Conference

September 2004

The SAFS Annual General Meeting took place on May 8, 2004 at the University of Western Ontario. Although attendance was down a bit from previous years the attendees made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in numbers, and the question and answer periods were quite lively. In addition to the business meeting (minutes to be distributed in the January, 2005 Newsletter), the day’s main events consisted of a symposium entitled ‘Limits to Academic Freedom’ with panel members Bill Fisher, Ken Hilborn, and Phil Sullivan (filling in at the last minute for John Furedy who wasn’t able to attend), and a keynote address by Jamie Cameron, a law professor at Osgoode Hall, who spoke on ‘Equality, Affirmative Action, and Faculty Hiring’.

This year we started what we hope will be a regular feature of our website, namely, posting the talks (or summaries of them) that were presented at the AGM, as well as photographs of the speakers and many of the attendees, to convey the substance and fun of the meeting. You can access the talks and photos from the either the SAFS homepage or from the annual meeting page. Simply click on the photograph of Jamie Cameron. Of the talks presented, only the one by Professor Cameron has not been posted, however, a summary is planned for the future. A letter from Bill Smyth, in this issue, characterizes part of her very well received presentation. I hope more of you will be able to join us next year. And let us know what you think of the new conference section on our homepage.