MISCELLANY

A recent Canadian Press story reports that women are outnumbering men at Canadian universities by the largest margin ever.

Women now constitute 55.7% of the undergraduate students, up from about 50% in 1987, according to findings by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC).

Women are also enrolled in disciplines that used to be male-dominated, such as engineering, where about one-quarter of the students are women.

At the post-graduate level, women are also making significant gains.

In 1987, women represented 43.6% of masters students and 34.8% of PhD students. Now, the respective percentages are 50.7% and 42.5%.

Herb O'Heron, of AUCC, opines that societal attitudes about women largely account for the changes plus the fact that more females are graduating from high school than males.

SFU professor spearheads revival of talking cafés

The December issue of University Affairs reports that talking cafés - or salons - are all the rage in Vancouver.

A modest experiment begun last year by Yosef Wosk, director of interdisciplinary studies at Simon Fraser University, "has spread like Starbucks franchises on the West Coast," the UA story says.

Drawing on 18th century Paris salons and on 20th century ones in New York, Wosk launched the first Philosophers' Café last spring and now there are four such, with splinter groups looking for smaller, more frequent opportunities to keep talking.

The idea is to invite adults to converse, over a coffee or a drink, about a wide range of topical issues. A $10 fee covers the costs of organizing and taking over a restaurant for an evening.

UA reports SFU vice-president David Mitchell as saying that "there's a desire in the community to get together with other people - not necessarily like-minded people - to discuss ideas in a civilized environment."

The topics range from politics and extraterrestrial life to the cloning of humans.

Mitchell himself moderates discussions at one downtown restaurant; Vancouver Sun columnist Stan Persky, Professor Dale Beyerstein, of Langara College, and television producer Roman Onufrichuk moderate others.

Across North America, meanwhile, talking salons are a growing phenomenon with hundreds of groups belonging to the Neighborhood Salon Association, which was launched by Utne Reader magazine.