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UW's award is in the category of "Curriculum Change: Integrating an International Dimension in the Academic Curricula." It recognizes UW's International Trade Specialization of the honours arts applied studies co-op program, says Peter Woolstencroft, associate dean of arts (special programs). Co-winner in the category was Ecole de Technologie Superieure of Montréal.
Woolstencroft says creation of the UW program in 1988 responded to a need for more awareness and education in international trade and was in keeping with UW's commitment to providing specialized education in traditional and emerging disciplines of the arts. Concerns about education in this area were raised by the former Premier's Council of Ontario and the Metropolitan Toronto Board of Trade. The board then asked UW to consider offering such a program.
The program includes required courses in economics, languages and quantitative methods. There are four work terms in the field, with the last two normally outside Canada. Students have been placed in Asia and Europe, the United States, Chile and Peru. Funding from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, the Max Bell Foundation and an anonymous UW alumnus contributed to the launching of Asian language programs and the trade program's development.
"Canada's universities are becoming more international on all fronts," says Robert Giroux, AUCC's president. "The internationalization of our campuses benefits students, who receive a broader education and whose job prospects increase, as well as the private sector, which depends on universities to prepare tomorrow's employees for the economic global reality."
The topic for Paris, author of five books and winner of numerous writing awards, is "Before the Expulsion: The Jews of Spain Until 1492". Her most recent work, The End of Days: A Story of Tolerance, Tyranny and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1995), won the 1996 National Jewish Book Award for history and was the subject of a two-part documentary series on CBC radio.
Tomorrow's lecture begins at 8 p.m. in Needles Hall room 3001.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to introduce and promote the Engineering faculty at the University of Waterloo. You will be assigned a high school student who is interested in engineering, and it is your assignment to show them what daily life is really like. They will accompany you to your classes and labs, covertly evaluating our faculty to see if it meets their needs. These are the next class of engineers, your potential fellow students, and you are to assist them as needed. They will ask you questions, and seek out your advice. You will of course be equipped with the proper resources and assisted by the PMF (Possible Mission Force) directors, and activities to educate your charges have been arranged for the afternoon. This is your chance to pay back those who told you what you needed to know when you were evaluating the faculty. This message will self-destruct in five seconds.Yep, it's Shadow Days in engineering today and tomorrow, as high school students are paired up with interested undergraduates and tag along to classes and other activities. There will also be seminars on admissions, the co-op process, each engineering program, and other parts of engineering life (such as student projects like Midnight Sun or Concrete Toboggan, the Engineering Society, and exchanges).
Your ringed colleague was correct in pointing out the myth that the iron rings are not made from the failed material of any bridge. It does however provide a graphic example of what the rings are intended to represent -- a reminder that the world at large counts on the fruits of our labour. Since the majority of the populace doesn't have the training to judge for themselves what is or is not safe (and no, I'm not advocating a world of engineers, sensible and logical as that may be, it would be awfully boring!) we have to do it for them, and if we do it wrong, people could be injured or killed. The Tacoma Narrows bridge fell because the prevailing scientific thought did not include the wind as a dynamic or powerful enough force to concern ourselves with. The concrete driving surface was caught by the wind, eventually being ripped to pieces.This (finally) brings me to the point of my perspective on the iron ring myth, the steel did not fail the users of the bridge, the concrete did, why then, would the reminder be made from the steel which held?
As an endnote, I am by no means an authority on the subject, this is merely my opinion on a decades old myth, a myth with simple and poignant enough appeal that it will likely live as long as engineers wear their iron rings with the pride and humility they are intended to inspire.
Other events today and tomorrow include a "Wellness Fair", all day in the Student Life Centre. The film "Go with the Flo" will be shown at 3 p.m. in the SLC room 2102. The film "Rape: A Crime of War", and a discussion of women's plight in Bosnia, happen at 7:00 tonight in the SLC multi-purpose room. Tomorrow, there's a discussion led by Anti-Racist Action in the multi-purpose room at 4:30, and a discussion of women and prison at 7 p.m., same place.
A display of art by students, organized by Nancy O'Neil of the Student Life Centre staff, can be seen in the SLC all day today.
Jack Pasternak of the biology department will talk about the implications of the much-publicized cloning of an adult sheep under the title "Cloning Dolly: Is This a Brave New World?" His talk starts at 11:30 in Physics room 145.
An information meeting about graduate work in mathematics will start at 3:30 in Math and Computer room 5158. ("Why undertake a graduate program? How do you know if you are suited for graduate work? What financial assistance is available?") All students are welcome.
Gordon Agnew, of electrical and computer engineering, will speak at 5:30 p.m. (Davis Centre room 1302) on "Applications of Public Key Cryptography". His talk is sponsored by the local section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Judith Miller of Renison College will give the next in the Bede Lecture series at Renison, tonight at 7:30. Her topic: "Revisiting the Morality Plays".
CAR
Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
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