Friday, June 25, 1993

MIDNIGHT SUN: The sun hasn't shone on Waterloo's solar car team, 
Midnight Sun II, which is well back in the pack in the 1,600-kilometre 
SUNRAYCE '93 across the United States.               
                                                                                
In the fifth day of the race yesterday, the team was 33rd out of 34           
teams in the solar-powered event. Leading the pack is California State          
Polytechnic University at Pomona with the lowest cumulative elapsed             
time. The University of Michigan and George Washington University are
running second and third in the Texas-to-Minnesota trip.
The cars crossed Kansas and Missouri on Wednesday in rain and              
thunderstorms, resulting in only six cars finishing the 258-km course.          

Aside from the weather, David Swan of the 12-member UW team said           
mechanical problems have included starting the car as the race began            
Sunday in Arlington, Texas. It turned out a safety system had to be             
reset because the batteries were too fully charged. Then the team was           
off to a "flying start" as the car lurched forward to begin the 
race, which ends tomorrow in Minneapolis.                                   
                                                                                
Cloudy and rainy weather has caused many cars to exhaust their             
solar power before each day's finishing line. When that happens, the            
cars are trailered to the next day's starting position and those                
running out of solar fuel pick up penalty points. The batteries are             
recharged by the sun before they head out the next day.                         
                                                                                
UW's is among four Canadian entries in the race, which is sponsored
by the United States department of energy and General Motors, and 
managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.                                                                     
WLU CELEBRATIONS:  Wilfrid Laurier University is celebrating the 20th
anniversary of its public status and name change with a 3:15 p.m.
ground-breaking ceremony for its new science building at the corner of
King and Bricker Streets.  (This week's Gazette wrongly said the ceremony
would be taking place Thursday.)  After the sod-turning, a 32-square-foot 
anniversary cake will be served in the WLU quadrangle.  A display of WLU 
posters and historic photos is on view in the Robert Langen Gallery until 
July 5.

SOCIAL CONTRACT:  "Sectoral" talks continued in Toronto yesterday, and it
appears that the Ontario government and the management of universities are
close to signing a "sectoral framework" agreement that will leave the
details of payroll-cutting to local negotiators on each campus.  Employee
groups may decline to sign the sectoral agreement as a way of indicating
their displeasure with the whole social contract process.  At UW, staff
and faculty leaders met with top officials (and student and church college
leaders) again yesterday to continue planning for a payroll cut here that's
expected to be more than $8 million.

SUMMER EVENTS:  Chem 13 News, the newsletter published for high school
teachers by UW's chemistry department, celebrates its 25th anniversary with
a party this evening.  The department of computing services will be holding
its monthly payday luncheon at the Dragon Court restaurant today.  

Sounds of Summer, the city of Waterloo's annual music festival in and around 
Waterloo Park, may actually get sunshine for once. Events start this evening
with concerts and a street dance, and run through Sunday afternoon.

And Canada is agog today (how's "agog" as a follow-up to yesterday's
"atwitter"?) at the swearing-in of a new prime minister.

Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs
credmond@watserv1    ext. 3004